An attempt at a cohesive view of the game's overall narrative

[Wind_Falcon]

The person next to Alina Seo in the photo (according to the 'People's Army, 5th Vinetan Infantry Division, Unit 12' readable she could be Anna Huang, or even Lilith Itou, Isa and Erika's mother, but it really doesn't matter who she is exactly) is most likely the person whose neural pattern was used for the new LSTR models after the original one was lost in the destruction on the ocean planet Vineta. This can be confirmed through various split-second shots in cut-scenes in which this person is framed in the exact same positions as Elster, down to sustaining an injury in her right eye and overall great likeness in appearance.

It is not a stretch to assume that this person went to look for Alina after she was transferred to the S-23 Sierpinski Production and Mining Facility on planet Leng (a further hint - in Alina's diary entries we find scattered in Sierpinski she refers to this person as Elster, or at least this is how our protagonists reads those notes in the moment...). We are reliving these moments in the game during Elster's persona degradation caused by Ariane not reading the 'Replika Known Issues: Penrose Program' note and basically doing all the things she shouldn't in terms of Elster's persona stabilization.

So when the game starts we are most likely indeed playing as Elster in an event that actually happened in the "real world" but the moment she goes outside in the snow and through the arch-monolith (a threshold marking structural shifts in the narrative), we are actually reliving her Gestalt resurfacing memories (referred to as Synchronicity in the ‘Bioresonance Technology and its Limitations’ readable, as well as the name of the first chapter which is shown right after going through the arch-monolith, in case it wasn’t obvious enough).

Now Ariane's bioresonance is further complicating things. In readables it is mentioned that strong bioresonance can greatly influence the minds of both people and Replikas and even reshape reality(!). It is also implied that FKLR units have the strongest Replika bioresonance *because they are most likely based* on "the Great Revolutionary and her daughter" ('Replika Overview: FKLR'). It should be pointed out that the note just says they only share a visual resemblance though(!). 'Falke's Diary' basically tells us that Falke's mind is being "contaminated" by seemingly Ariane's memories (and that this was triggered by being “touched, poisoned” by a “red eye”...).

From the above (and again overall great likeness in appearance between Falke units and Ariane) we could easily jump to the conclusion that Falke is based on Ariane's neural pattern and that Ariane is most likely the Great Revolutionary's daughter, but things get further complicated. After opening the butterfly box, we are presented a sequence that puts us in a house next to a radio station. This is Ariane's mother's house - Iris Yeong. She is a Radio Officer. Inside is a letter from her sister (Kamilla Yeong) which basically says to send Ariane to school in Rotfront Sector C under her guardianship (‘To Radio Officer Yeong, Station 6’). Later in Isa's memory in the school we actually see that Ariane was bullied in that school (that is her in the library, not Erika who Isa is looking for in that memory). It is noteworthy that in 'Letter from Mother' we find out that Ariane showed the picture of Alina Seo to her mother who writes that they look like twins as if they were related, but she doesn't know any Seo's in the family. So the game has made a clear connection between Alina, Ariane, her mother Iris Yeong and aunt Kamilla Yeong, and the Great Revolutionary and her daughter, but I don't think any of these named characters are the Great Revolutionary or her daughter, but the game definitely establishes some sort or familial connection between all of these characters (there is also a symbolic connection - you kill Falke and right afterwards in the Memory and Promise endings Ariane dies). Including in one more important way...

Iris Yeong is also interesting in that toward the end of the game in a readable Ariane says she had a dream on the Penrose in which her mother was listening to the radio, taking notes, with a book in her lap with a yellow hooded figure on the cover, like she remembered usually doing back in the days when she was living with her in the radio station shack. Now this of course ties the cosmic horror aspect of the game into the narrative. The King in Yellow and/or Red Eye (are these manifestations of the same entity or different ones?) seem to be influencing/hijacking/corrupting the psyches of people and Replikas with bioresonance (but potentially not only - the arch-monolith and Elster’s Synchronicity can be connected to them as well) - from the Kolibris, to Falke, to of course Ariane. From the 'Dream Diary' readable it seems that Ariane through her dreams experienced the lives of other people (and seemingly both past and future events[!]), no doubt because of both her strong bioresonance and corruption of the cosmic entities. This process seems to have started as far back as her living in her mother's radio shack days, some of the radio signals she notes down undoubtedly being a way the entities influence bioresonant people/Replikas (which is also symbolically linked though all the radio signals throughout the game, which also tells us how meaningful the name of the game actually is). This is again another link between Ariane, her mother and the Great Revolutionary and her daughter, and how strong bioresonance seem to attract the cosmic entities (or at least they are able to “work” through such beings).

All of this enables us to make sense of the game's events. Ariane, in her illness(?) induced cryopod dreaming is experiencing Elster's PoV who herself is reliving her resurfacing Gestalt memories, all this being corrupted by the eldritch entities and Ariane's bioresonance going haywire.

"A dream about dreaming".

Now it is very important to establish one fact regarding the game. The narrative of Signalis is undoubtedly influenced in the greatest degree by Silent Hill (the original game specifically). This is very important, as Silent Hill is probably the only true representative of the surrealist genre in computer gaming (itself being greatly influenced by David Lynch) - other games usually have limited influences and are not full surrealist works. When trying to understand the narrative of Signalis we have to keep in mind that surrealism intentionally confuses rational cause and effect relationships between events, often working on dream-like logic, but they are rarely (if ever really, talking about actual surrealism) just an "it was all a dream/not real" type of affairs (and often the weirdness has a concrete "real" trigger). From a literary analysis perspective it is very easy to understand why that is - the mix between real and surreal and the washed out borders between the two is what gives these works such staying power in terms of experiencing them again and again and still pondering where that line is, which event falls on which side, and finding novel things about the work - new details, connections, revelations - on repeat reading/viewing. By pigeonholing such works into either "entirely dream" or "entirely real" we are greatly diminishing the potential artistic depth they can have. We would essentially be prematurely stamping them with a "puzzled out" mark which would undoubtedly hinder us in achieving a more complex understanding of the work based on continuous examination (which is also a lot more rewarding and artistically meaningful).

The above general narrative outline permits for the various other details, connections and events of the game to fit in without causing big issues. Or rather, the specifics of the rest of the game don't greatly hurt this view of the narrative, while leaving enough room for the mentioned continuous examination and searching where the line between real and surreal is - aspects of the game remain open with the potential for novelty and things to be further figured out, while giving us a strong overall understanding of the game as a general work.

Such points worthy of consideration are many - Adler (why is he the only male character in the whole game, both shown and even just mentioned?), loops and the various dead Elsters from seemingly previous ones, the similar-but-different returning-to-the-ship sequences, the arch-monoliths and their significance both narratively and structurally, further trying to understand how the cosmic being(s?) tie into the events and exactly how and when they influence them (though here it should be noted that the above narrative view holds *even if* we assume the King in Yellow/Red Eye to be merely symbolic rather than real entities[!] - examining what exactly they represent will still remain a valid question under the above narrative assumptions and a symbolic reading of them doesn't harm the overall outline), the exact nature of Ariane’s illness before going into the cryopod (radiation or cosmic entity induced?), questions regarding the Isa we see in-game, the overt similarities (both visual and story-wise) between various combinations of pairs of characters, the symbolic connection between the Penrose and the painting/island (which is based on real world paintings depicting Avalon, King Arthur's resting place) and many more.

This narrative outline does give us avenues of exploring and understanding these points. For example if the person next to Alina Seo is Lilith Itou, this might give us a hint regarding Isa, though there are details that also hinder this, like the different hair colours being one of them as well it's hard to make sense of her timeline in that case (and there are potential other explanations). The ‘Dream Diary’ (more specifically the ‘13th Night’ entry) can also suggest that Nowhere, as difficult to believe to be anything other than a nightmarish dream, might actually have a degree of actually being a real thing, though obviously parts of what we see down there while playing the game are definitely not (after all even the “real world” did actually get invaded and changed by the cult’s God in Silent Hill, and the fact that Signalis is also a horror game shouldn’t be ignored either), though again it can be read as merely a premonition of future visions/dreams.

The line between dream and reality will always be tricky to pinpoint, but the overall mechanism behind the events of the game make sense in the presented view.

[Brother PaciFist]

My opinion about the story:

It is a time loop dream alternate dimension mixed together from different memories and times. All the memories of different characters in the game universe mix together. They are connected by the bioresonance theme, the empress and ariane having the most powerful bioresonance factor in the story. Both are perhaps the same person reborn. Even the great revolutionary and her daughter. That rebirth is possible in the game universe is proven by the fabrication of the replika. Replikas being copied persona from different persons that lived before. There is even a library where the persona of dead persons are stored, mentioned in one of the notes.

There are only two exits from the dream:

-Keeping the promise, Ariane dying and her soul gets destroyed -> oblivion.
-ACHTUNG! ELSTR and Ariane dancing together forever -> all souls unite and form a new god. The red eye from the main menu watches the whole ending scene from above.

[Gentlefish]

Originally posted by 髑髏の騎士:

The person next to Alina Seo in the photo (according to the 'People's Army, 5th Vinetan Infantry Division, Unit 12' readable she could be Anna Huang, or even Lilith Itou, Isa and Erika's mother, but it really doesn't matter who she is exactly) is most likely the person whose neural pattern was used for the new LSTR models after the original one was lost in the destruction on the ocean planet Vineta. This can be confirmed through various split-second shots in cut-scenes in which this person is framed in the exact same positions as Elster, down to sustaining an injury in her right eye and overall great likeness in appearance.

Can't speak much to the rest of the post, but it's stated somewhere (I *think* in the LSTR overview pamphlet?) that newer LSTRs are actually copied from "a decommissioned unit from the Pennrose Program." I'm not sure what that changes or to what degree, but it still strikes me as an important distinction. It makes the LSTR model the only one to potentially bear latent memories from *two* prior lives.
One could imagine that our Elster(s) is actually experiencing memories of a Pennrose mission she never flew, while presently exploring Sierpinski and elsewhere, rather than the other way around- but then there's even less explanation for why she knows of Alina, or for why she simultaneously has and has not been there before, or for... everything else. Also, it seems unlikely to me that Ariane's Elster was even recovered to begin with, having died at or beyond the edge of known space and all. So she's probably not the one being reused as a neural pattern.

[Wind_Falcon]

Replika Overview: LSTR
(...) Since the original neural pattern for this unit was lost with the destruction of the central Neural Archives on Vineta, new LSTR units have been produced based on a decommissioned unit from the Penrose Program.

Replika Known Issues, Penrose Program
(...) Elster's neural pattern was a soldier of Vinetan origin, so their needs are basic. Avoid talking to the Elster unit about the war. (...)

Chronometer Adjustment
(Ariane writing about Elster) Judging from her accent, I'm sure that she is Vinetan. She pronounces "Ship" just like Isa and Eri used to. (...)

Two readables placed in a more important narrative sequence point to the person next to Alina Seo in the photo being the Gestalt whose neural pattern Elster's is based on, so the game seems to have given greater emphasis to this point. It is interesting to think how the line from the 'Overview' fits into this. Putting them side by side like this makes it seem as if the 'Overview' might be a document written to reflect new events that happened after the other two were written, which doesn't make sense considering when we find that note it should be from a memory of Alina Seo's friend looking for her in Sierpinski, so before her neural pattern was used for our Elster to be able to experience her memories at all. Though it could be the other way around - the second and third notes refer to the original neural pattern that was lost, and the new one is based on a Penrose Program decommissioned Elster (which can't be protagonist Elster since like you point out there is no way they recovered her body from the Oort cloud). This also doesn't make sense chronologically, so maybe somehow both are true at the same time (or it's an old text left from an earlier iteration of the story, unlikely but possible as well). I don't think this means Elster is being based off two different neural patterns necessarily, but it can potentially suggest that in-game we are not only experiencing Elster's person next to Alina Seo Synchronicity resurfacing memories, but actually viewing certain events that were experienced by a completely different Elster unit as well. I think some aspects of the game can more easily make sense with this view, like the different coloured crashed ships in different environments sequences and Elster finding other Elster corpses (which would mean a lot of the events are happening in the "real" world rather than in a dream, which is a can of worms in itself). The game's icon and often used symbol throughout (the triangle that can't be recreated in 3D space) does make a cool symbolic connection with this cause-effect confused Gestalt-neural pattern-Elster chain of events. Where does the story begin and where does it end?

It is also interesting to note that 'Chronometer Adjustment' implies Isa and Erika are originally from Vineta (rather than her mother having them after arriving at Rotfront), which of course cannot be just a random tidbit considering their mother was on the same infantry unit with Alina Seo (and can potentially be the person next to her in the photo).

[neo2157]

Originally posted by Gentlefish:

Originally posted by 髑髏の騎士:

The person next to Alina Seo in the photo (according to the 'People's Army, 5th Vinetan Infantry Division, Unit 12' readable she could be Anna Huang, or even Lilith Itou, Isa and Erika's mother, but it really doesn't matter who she is exactly) is most likely the person whose neural pattern was used for the new LSTR models after the original one was lost in the destruction on the ocean planet Vineta. This can be confirmed through various split-second shots in cut-scenes in which this person is framed in the exact same positions as Elster, down to sustaining an injury in her right eye and overall great likeness in appearance.

Can't speak much to the rest of the post, but it's stated somewhere (I *think* in the LSTR overview pamphlet?) that newer LSTRs are actually copied from "a decommissioned unit from the Pennrose Program." I'm not sure what that changes or to what degree, but it still strikes me as an important distinction. It makes the LSTR model the only one to potentially bear latent memories from *two* prior lives.
One could imagine that our Elster(s) is actually experiencing memories of a Pennrose mission she never flew, while presently exploring Sierpinski and elsewhere, rather than the other way around- but then there's even less explanation for why she knows of Alina, or for why she simultaneously has and has not been there before, or for... everything else. Also, it seems unlikely to me that Ariane's Elster was even recovered to begin with, having died at or beyond the edge of known space and all. So she's probably not the one being reused as a neural pattern.

In terms of making a copy of a copy in the real world doing that leads to more and more degradation, older model Elsters also had "Iconic" white armor plateing unlike the one we play as that has updated black plateing.

[dal]

I really enjoyed reading this.
I suspected that the Yeongs are imperials but could not make the connections.

*edit, so in one of the above posts, its mentioned that the bodies could not have been recovered from the penrose 512. In one of the penrose manuals, it says that the Penrose is a low cost ship built for scouting resources beyond their system. The document also implies multiple crew & ships have been made.
The multiple penrose missions could have found their ship. They may have physically crash landed on a red planet. This could also be why we see Elster (from the past before signalis begins) physically entering the ship in a memory. Possibly 1 elster made it there to recover a frozen Arinae and Elster.

Just want to add a few things because I fail at making connections and I am hoping someone smarter can connect the dots.

Not sure if you've read the King in Yellow, but I recommend it as there are many references from the poem/shorts there.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_King_in_Yellow

ADLER
Adler says a direct line from the book. "I wear no mask." In an introduction to the short story, THE MASK, The Stranger says "I wear no mask".
THE MASK.
Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.
Stranger: Indeed?
Cassilda: Indeed it’s time. We all have laid aside disguise but you.
Stranger: I wear no mask.
Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask

^This is not the full story, but an introduction to THE MASK.

Going off of what you wrote,
I believe when Adler says he wears no mask, it may be the entity speaking, due to ADLR unit's weak resistance to bioresonance?
In the play, Camilla is terrified because the Stranger does not look human and is believed to be the emissary to the King in Yellow. When Adler says "I wear no mask. - AND I HATE EVERYTHING." this is the time-worn Adler near the end of the game, after completing the fleshy maze, before stepping into Rotfront. Adler's face is torn off, no longer resembles a human.
In the game, it seems like Adler is trying to prolong Falke's(presumed to be based off of Arianae) nightmarish reality by killing the Elsters who are trying to kill Falke/Arianae. Maybe this is why he is the only male in the game? Foreign/different? There is also another male Gestalt named Nikolai, Nguyen. [Medical Records (Archived)]

The first poem of TKiY references dim Carcosa. Carcosa is the place where a certain theology is held and believed, where murder and sacrifice and ritual is a form of worship. The poem also describes a scene much like the beach in Signalis.
There are lots of references to sacrifice and murder in signalis. Specifically surrounding Isa.
---
I believe that the Huang women (3), the Itou twins, and Yeong's are all connected somehow.

There are a few pieces of information about Imperial spies. I get the feeling that Iris and Kamilla Yeong are spies using the radio & books for communications.
In Rotfront C, the protektors were searching for any evidence of spies while trying to cover up any rumors of doing so. At the time, Kamilla and Arianae lived there. The Itou's ran a bookstore which sold illegal books. The king in Yellow was at the bookstore at somepoint. Iris' mother used the King in Yellow.
Kamilla asks Arianae to bring home books from the Itou bookstore after school. We find out that she has asked for this request more than once. She asks Arianae to make space in her schoolbag so that the books do not get wet this time. The note can be found in the home right before the FALKE fight, after opening the hole in wall at Rotfront.
The King in Yellow was found and confiscated by the Protektors. Was it because they knew it brings madness and despair to any who read it? Or because they found evidence relating to spies? It seems they did not confiscate the song of the gods or any other illegal books there. The Spy, 'SUN' could have been Auntie Kamilla. Kamilla possibly abandoned Arianae.


I believe Anna Huang is either the original neural pattern. Or was overwritten.

The reason I say she is the original pattern is because,
In the LSTR overview, it says at the end of the [Replika Overview: LSTR] document:
The new LSTR is based on a decommissioned unit from the penrose program.

The reason im saying she could have been overwritten is because, 1) She may not have survived the 8 season famine on Vineta. 2) In a document found in the pareidolia room on Rotfront,
[Bioresonance Technology and its Limitations]
3rd page "The process of duplicating a neural pattern from a Gestalt host to a Replika brain is still not fully understood.. How does Synchronicity happen? Why is the duplicate imperfect? What happens to the preexisting patterns in the receiving brain? "
4th page "Recreating a Replika purely with microprocessors and digital programming may be far out of reach" They use brains. But who's? Did they use Anna's dying brain as a base to overwrite? Or did they overwrite someone else's brain with Anna's? Is this why LSTR falls in love with Arianae who looks similar to Alina?
The LSTR's (we're possibly playing a new LSTR everytime we die and reload) we play as, are possibly based on the LSTR from the Penrose mission. The same LSTR, who was extremely destabilized with resurfaced Gestalt memories (Anna's memories) due to Arianae having not read the LSTR manual. Huh, after reading this back, I guess we are technically playing as Anna then. Since they would have rewrote the current LSTR's with Anna - but now she has new memories with Arianae & Alina when they worked at the mines...and whoever's brain they used(?)
This could also mean that the penrose ship was found and someone used Arianae's brain for the production of Falke as you mentioned.

Nobody is really trying to make connections of the 'minor' characters found in medical reports, side notes and other literature, and I feel like they are just as important in order to figure out which memories are real and who they belong to.

This information can be found in the [Interrogation Report] and in-game visual clues & gameplay.
huang, emilie - interrogated for trespassing - deceased by torture - Interrogation room - Dead Gestalt in cages - Key of LOVE found from the torture cage - Caged flesh monster which you and ISA fight.
The key of LOVE is a major memory to unlocking the Lily ending.. I believe the locations where the keys are found are of significant importance.
Key of Sacrifice found in Itou's Bookstore. Also, after Isa disintegrates, i believe its actually Isa saying, 'forgive me' Forgive her for what? The rituals she's been performing? The signalis symbol is the ritual symbol on which she cuts her arms over.

[Search Protocol]
Huang, Julia - Emilie's sister - works in the mines - Arrested on suspicion of Bioresonance.
Huang Julia was in contact with Alina Seo while working at the mine. Found in the entry: [Diary] found in A64 dorm(?) one of the dorms on 1B Sierpenski. In the Diary she mentions
that she feels everyone's fear as if it were her own.
Huang, Anna - Vineta liberation solider - Lost her right eye during the war - possibly stranded on the desolate ocean world. No other documents about her

Alina Seo, -workplace: factory - had her cosmetics box with the butterfly inlay confiscated after collapsing from exhaustion. Her bunk was searched before transfer to medical wing.
The butterfly inlay box is also what held the eternity fleshy plate, and what connects us to Iris Yeong's home where we receive the transceiver.

Elster was working with Alina in the mines. This must be after they came back from being stranded for 8 seasons on Vineta, or a mix of memories. They did come back from Vineta (maybe not Anna though) since Ariane got ahold of their picture and sent it to her mother to show their likeness.
[Arianae's Diary 3]
Written after waking up in the medical wing. "I still haven't found any trace of Elster,...it's as if she had never been here." Alina Seo was chased by a fleshy replika as she snuck out of the medical wing. This may be because Alder had the word ELSTER redacted from verbal and written communications..? That and probably Elster was selected for the Penrose Program.

ITOU's
Erika, Itou - deceased - no clue when - no documents on her being at Sierpenski(that I found) was possibly a friend to Arianae. Only document on Erika is in a medical report from Rotfront, and the top half of her face is gone. I believe this is when our Elster's gestalt memories are the most resurfaced.

Isa(Isolde), Itou - deceased - appears at Sierpenski supposedly looking for her sister Erika. Except Erika was never at Sierpenski. Possibly hates herself/ her name. The scene where Adler says "I wear no mask. AND I HATE EVERYTHING." the next scene is of Isa with her right eye bandaged as if she were stabbed. Looking at herself in the mirror, what emotion she displays, I don't know; horror/disbelief/regret/hatred? Her bandaged hand either looks burned or she's succumbing to the disease/infection/entity. She always has lacerations and fractured bones. She regrets the things she said to 'someone' possibly Erika or someone else. In the prologue we see images of Isa cutting herself overtop of a ritual symbol. This is the same symbol used for the Tarot card puzzle in Rotfront and also the symbol of the profile select screen. Remember the king in yellow, dim carcosa? Ritual, murder, sacrifice.
Elster never speaks to her. WHY? She's not real?
The kanji(?) characters that flash on screen when we are first introduced to ISA, translates to sacrifice.
Perhaps Isa read the king in yellow?



So some side tidbits
I think the Itou twins are actually not present at all, but instead a replacement representation for two other characters who Arianae has not met.

Also for the [People's Army, 5th Vinetan Infantry Division, Unit 12] Picture, the signatures are all in different order from the text displayed.
But the woman on the left behind Anna & Seo is Liang, Rebecca. Liang, Rebecca's name appears at the bottom of the list, instead of at the top. I believe Itou, Lilith is the picture on the right side, behind Alina.

Liang, Rebecca is on the medical report (with her face) we receive from the computer in Rotfront off of the red floppy diskette. [Medical Database (Archived)]

For the empress rings puzzle, [The Empress' Hand] the riddle almost feels representative of Arianae's life after she signs up for the penrose mission.

At the end before going to Arianae in her cryopod, during the long cutscene, some text appears saying "I've been waiting." Then immediately after that it says "Alina Seo." Then we get a row of women, from right to left, it shows Alina Seo in her infantry uniform, Young Arianae when she had brown hair in school uniform, then they progress to the Arianae in the pod, and then finally it's Falke at the end. BUT only Alina Seo turns her head to the camera. Then the continuation of the message: "For you." then "ELSTER".
We get a row of Elsters from left to right, possibly all the elsters from the penrose missions? The very last Elster is faded and hard to see, but she has long straight hair.
Nvm, I think its Falke. It looks like she has the braided golden stars on her hair. Then we get another message "For us" "Arianae Yeoung" it shows from right to left, Alina Seo, and the rest of Arianae Yeong's stages of life and Falke at the end. But this time they all turn their head to the camera at the same time. This could possibly mean that all of them are Arianae Yeong, but only the Alina Seo identifies as Alina Seo & Arianae Yeong at the same time. Alina Seo, did write in her diary that her hair was turning white.
After that, we get pictures of the ritual symbol, new pictures which look like Vineta from the perspective of someone on the surface. A girl with brown hair wearing a white long dress, waiting on an ocean platform. Another girl with a long brown pony tail and white dress standing on the ocean's surface, looking off at the night sky. Vineta looks healthy, the buildings are intact. The next pictures show a streak of light Stretching vertically from space to the Vineta surface. Possibly the bomb. Vineta is flooded and destroyed.

Next a mushroom cloud on the ocean's surface. Purple sky & green water with no buildings left, a single figure stands in the water, staring at the cloud in the far distance. It may be Huang, Anna.

Next a brief picture of HUANG ANNA's injury to her eye. Facial scar patterns, short ponytail, infantry uniform. She is standing on the oceans surface staring off at the distance.

Next, a picture of what looks like Alina Seo or Huang Anna(they specifically highlight her head)with her back up against the wall to the right side, surrounded by her comrades all deceased. She is either injured or deceased, in a man made concrete/metal trench. The numbers 05 12(Penrose 512, Elster 512) written on giant metal caltrops to her left. It looks like she is deceased(legs & arms loose and head hunched down) with a head wound to the right side of her face.

Next picture shows, Anna Huang(short ponytail, no red ribbon) grieving in front of 6 marble tombstones arranged in a circle? with the potted lilies on top of the tombstone in front of her.

Next is the picture of Huang, Anna (healed & bandaged eye) standing to the left of Alina Seo(?) both smiling. Although the background is a destroyed Vineta and shattered moon.

Then we get more of Arianae's paintings and then some kanji(?) which translates to MEMORY.
I believe these paintings are in reference to carcosa from the king in yellow?
Perhaps Elster does not want to remember these memories. Because they are sad AF.

I have so much more, but I'm more interested to know the connections between the characters and the events before Signalis.

What do you think of the Itou twins? What purpose did they serve in this story?

[Wind_Falcon]

Many of these questions pit us head on against what I mentioned regarding surrealist works - cause and effect relationships are intentionally confused, so it is really hard to make sense one way or another regarding many of these. Besides the chronological questions, making sense of events in a plausible time frame also presents an issue. This is why my attempt was to try to outline the more overarching and least questionable (or most reinforced textually) aspects of the narrative to serve as an anchor point. I think we also have to take into account the potential developer intentions behind these various details when trying to decode all of this.

Even assuming that another Penrose mission could have found Ariane and Elster, how would they bring them back (or rather just Elster, because if they brought Ariane back that creates further problems)? From the ‘Penrose-Type Vessel Field Operations Manual’ - “Once the vessel is catapulted towards the edge of the solar system by an orbital Mass Driver, the pilot may adjust the course from the flight deck, while the Replika will take care of mechanical maintenance of the vessel”. Considering that yes in the same readable it says there have been countless previous successful missions, the game makes it seem that the distance Ariane’s ship traveled essentially is the maximum possible - towards the end her ship was breaking down completely. So a new mission has to reach them not just in operational order, but having enough juice to make it back to their solar system of origin, without using a Mass Driver to catapult them backwards (of course this brings to question to where were those other successful missions headed if they could find out what happened to them?).

Assuming that this was somehow possible and happened - what would the time frame of all of this look like? We don’t know how long a cycle is, but surely the process of Ariane reaching her end point, another Penrose ship finding them and bringing them back, and new LSTR units to be manufactured based on Ariane’s Elster neural pattern, who then go on their own potential Penrose missions would be quite significant, while the events before Ariane’s departure seem relatively bunched together, they could seemingly fit inside a timescale of several years (because we don’t see any character ageing dramatically, I guess high school to young adult being the biggest time gap). We also have to think of the logic behind the events. If Ariane’s Elster was the decommissioned LSTR whose later units have their neural pattern based on, this would mean they must have left on their mission initially before the Neural Archives were destroyed, so before the destruction of Vineta (why were there destroyed buildings in the background of Alina Seo's picture then?), and in that case Elster has to have the old neural pattern, which can’t be based on anyone other than the person next to Alina Seo… which is in the past for Ariane. It can’t be in the future because Lilith Itou served in Alina Seo and her friend’s same infantry unit, and Lilith Itou seems to be around the age of Ariane’s mother and aunt, Isa and Erika seemingly being her age (and if the school first-person sequence is to be taken at face value - Ariane attended school together with them).

Now I want to make it clear that none if this makes it impossible for the recovered Elster scenario to have happened, but we have to carefully think what that would imply for the rest of the events and weigh it against other potential options. Again, in a surrealist work seldom you can square out all of the finer details, you usually have greater success with the general narrative. So it’s safer to err on the side of the things that make the most sense together, and leaving to further think about the minor details that don’t fit aside (which is the exact opposite of what you do in non-surrealist works - you judge how good your understanding is based on how well you can incorporate and explain all details, including the seemingly minor ones).

The way the game is played and experienced by the player makes sense for multiple PoVs to be involved (like the arch-monoliths and LSTR reboot sequences signalling potential such changes in PoV), and not just Elster and the person whose neural pattern her’s is based off. In the text this titbit - “...new LSTR units have been produced based on a decommissioned unit from the Penrose Program.” - seems to be the strongest evidence to support this notion, but it is actually very hard to square it with everything else presented in the game (not just my given overview).

I also want to make a point regarding the identity of Alina Seo’s friend in the picture. The game essentially begins with this switch with the pictures, which overtly marks this person (and Alina herself) as narratively important and essentially driving at least in part the plot (and definitely the more inquisitive players’ motivation) with it’s mystery. If we assume she is Lilith Itou, this creates a lot of problems that didn’t exist before. But it also makes us think of the relationships between characters and the events in a new light. The mystery person being Lilith Itou works as an exciting revelation to a mystery that creates space for further examination. On the other hand Anna Huang being the mystery identity has the exact opposite effect narratively. She doesn’t create any problems and fits in quite well. But because we have so little information about her and about the people she has a connection with (essentially her two other siblings) the mystery suddenly feels like a complete wet noodle. The importance that the story gave to this person doesn’t match the payoff we get with Anna Huang at all (unless we have missed some big aspect of the story somewhere, which would be quite the revelation at this stage). This is also where we have to think of the potential motivations of the developers. Why would they spend so much time intricately but subtly establishing so many connections between characters, putting this mystery identity seemingly near the center of the whole plot, and then give it to someone who they have barely sketched into the story? Even outside of character connections, the rest of the plot details are very intricately woven as well (like the potential examples you bring - Yeong sisters being imperial spies, rituals and sacrifices in Rotfront connected to Isa etc.), so this whole Anna Huang ordeal sticks out like a sore thumb. While I completely understand why people might gravitate towards her and away from Lilith Itou (or a potential other character), for me it just doesn’t make sense from the dev’s perspective to put so much effort into an obviously important aspect of the game and cap it off with a character with zero plot depth. It’s even worse than if it was intentionally left open and unresolved. So I can’t help but feel this is not actually what they went with.

That’s all I have time to write for now.

[Nephaelys]

I just finished my first run with the [promise] ending so I may be mistaken.

We see a memory of Falke and Adler at the portal. We also know Adler has been there several times as he got stuck on that loop (with his sealed diary as evidence).
It's also hinted that Falke shares neural patterns/resonance with both Elster and Ariane.
So Falke, maybe using Adler as an intermediate, might have been able to recover LSTR-512 neural pattern to use it as a base for new LSTR units. She's ensuring the promise is kept.

I also think that the narrative fully supports a "everything is real, everything is a dream" viewpoint, may it be explained by resonance, cosmic horror, sci-fi elements... In the end reality, memories, time and space meld together, just like the many great cultural influences (some cited directly in the game, others easily identifiable) that shape this game, all to service a simple (yet effective) tragedy about love, sacrifice and individuality.

In that sense I like the paradoxes presented here. We may play a multitude of LSTR across different times, spaces and realities, yet it's always the same LSTR. I was never a survival-horror aficionado but when a game captures and blends masterfully the atmosphere and themes of K. ♥♥♥♥, Nihei, Shirow, Lovecraft and other masters like that, I can only bow in reverence :)

[Gentlefish]

Originally posted by Strife | Pernath:

I also think that the narrative fully supports a "everything is real, everything is a dream" viewpoint, may it be explained by resonance, cosmic horror, sci-fi elements... In the end reality, memories, time and space meld together, just like the many great cultural influences (some cited directly in the game, others easily identifiable) that shape this game, all to service a simple (yet effective) tragedy about love, sacrifice and individuality.

This is related to something I wanted to bring up as well, though you more eloquently stated a more holistic idea.
I've been toying with the idea that the destructive side effects of bioresonance have already snowballed into a system-wide catastrophe that really has removed the distinction between dreaming and waking. We know that it's a very powerful force, and that users are prone to feedback loops even with proper training (Kolibri overview and known issues, Falke overview and known issues, etc.), we know there's something weird happening between the Sierpinski facility and the bioresonants/sensitives on staff (the Kolibris, Falke, Adler, arguably Alina, maybe even Isa?), and we know that Ariane is a bioresonant who was never discovered and thus never trained in the first place. Further, the medium that bioresonant individuals interact with is also described as some kind of 'song' that permeates everything, everywhere (ex. The Song of the Gods), which supports your idea that...

Originally posted by Strife | Pernath:

So Falke, maybe using Adler as an intermediate, might have been able to recover LSTR-512 neural pattern to use it as a base for new LSTR units. She's ensuring the promise is kept.

...one mind can touch another over long distances. I'm not sure I agree with this application since it seems to stretch what little we know about the making of replikas; I would think that whoever gets 'copied to' in your scenario would be overwritten by Elster and proceed to be Elster until something triggers their old memories, whereas Falke describes being gradually merged with Elster and Adler describes a false(?) memory of meeting Elster. Although, now that I re-read that, nothing really disproves your idea
Anyway, what I've been trying to lead up to is that anybody who stuck a mental ten foot pole *anywhere near* Ariane would have walked face-first into her mental breakdown- and even if she was left well enough alone, that unrestrained breakdown could have gone on to disrupt the 'song' further and further away from her location (and Sierpinski just so happens to be on Leng, closest body to the solar system's edge and thus to her). Based on the game's interest in weighing the benefits and drawbacks of being alone against those of 'becoming one', I think it could be argued that everyone is being mind-melded together by rogue bioresonance and many of them are trying to escape. This is consistent with the corruption of the notes in the lategame and Adler begging Elster not to go back to the Pennrose because "this could be our last chance" and she'll ruin everything- although I'm not sure how fulfilling the promise could make anything worse. I guess Adler thinks Elster will fail/refuse to fulfill the promise, as she apparently has before. Or maybe "everything" is Adler's attempts to restore Falke?

[Wind_Falcon]

I think it is important to first distinguish on which aspects of the game have it’s various inspirations made an impact the most on specifically. The design philosophy behind the gameplay is based on Biohazard/Resident Evil. Character designs are heavily inspired by BLAME! and even a bit by GANTZ. The low tech sci-fi reminds of Alien, while the setting, especially Serpinski with it’s medical wings and the fleshy all devouring and melding element of Nowhere invoke the System Shock games. There is a direct visual reference to Oshii Mamoru’s Ghost in the Shell adaptation in the fake-out ending (and some specific story elements might be inspired from GitS as well). But when it comes to narrative, the two biggest influences are obvious - cosmic horror, overtly established with The King in Yellow (Robert W. Chambers) and from the final credits H.P. Lovecraft (cited with the work The Festival), and of course the original Silent Hill.

I want to further emphasize how similar Signalis is to Silent Hill, not just stylistically but structurally and plot-wise as well. The story of Silent Hill revolves around Alessa, a supernaturally gifted girl who was socially ostracized and bullied, that falls into a coma through which an occultic evil God influences reality. The game begins with the protagonist (and player) searching for (a false representation of) her, and ends with her death (and rebirth). All of this presented though multiple layers of obfuscation and surrounding conspiracies. These similarities with Signalis are not random nor hidden, the developers have put them center stage. While we definitely should avoid the trap of assuming that the game is just a copy and that all the details and explanations between the two have to be the same, intertextuality is a core pillar of literary analysis that informs our understanding of a work (and in some cases you can’t make *any* sense of a work unless you know exactly what the author has been reading), and the developers have definitely implied that we should use this knowledge outside of the game itself to help us understand the events (this is why I also support people looking into The King in Yellow and other works).

Yes, Silent Hill doesn’t have loops, at least not in the same way Signalis seems to (Alessa’s soul splitting and rebirth are a somewhat similar idea), but Silent Hill doesn’t have Synchronicity for example. I think we have to be very careful to not jump to conclusions based on the loops and the endings, the same way we shouldn’t when it comes to assuming Ariane is the Great Revolutionary's daughter or that her neural pattern necessarily was used for the FKLR units. Works similar to this often times use such devices - they present an overt puzzle/mystery, give a seemingly hidden yet fairly obvious answer, than trickle down subtle hints that modify those initial assumptions into completely different views of the narrative. An example of a sci-fi author that does this very well is Gene Wolfe. And it is also very common to see readers that think they have figured everything out based on that first “red herring” type of interpretation and stop engaging (and often refuse when confronted) further with the text. The Elster corpses we see scattered throughout and especially in the more important scenes and endings (including the fake-out one) and the notion of loops or cycles brought by Adler are the most explicit potential explanation that the developers have put front and center. It’s not surprising that it’s through this lens players try to understand the game at first. It’s difficult to make sense of these without assuming to some degree at least that events are happening inside the character’s heads on repeat. But it’s actually not very easy to stick to this explanation. If that was really all (or the most important) thing that was happening - why did the devs spend so much time establishing details and connections and so subtly interweaving them throughout the events of the narrative that seem to not bring much if anything to this dream loop idea? They actually weaken, rather than strengthen it. How come the Elster/Ariane or whomever know all these details? If we take a more bird’s eye view of the game, Falke and Adler actually take a pretty tiny portion both in the various texts and in the grand scheme of things both in terms of plot real-estate and importance. Falke seems to be a symbolic representation of Ariane - a way for the game to have some aspect of her as a part of the game while also having her in the cryopod plot-wise. Adler talks of “cycles”, but from his diaries and the Kolibri’s notes it is obvious he is experiencing some sort of confusion himself, possibly Synchronicity related (which is an actual thing that takes place in the “real world”, no dream reality necessary at all) but potentially even not (more on that at the end).

There are many details and connections which the game makes that don’t seem to fit at all into the actual narrative if dream loops was really all it came down to. Who even cares if the Yeong sisters are imperial spies, or what happened on Rotfront with Isa? Not only that - it doesn’t make sense why the big explanation to everything is front and center, yet all these smaller details at which the player has to work a lot harder to piece together mean nothing. The work/reward incentive seems to be completely backwards. And the most important one imo - why put the mystery of these pictures and the people in them and how they connect to each other in the center of seemingly almost everything if that is a detail that ultimately means nothing and doesn’t change anything when revealed?

In my opinion this approach of bringing on board mostly the Elster corpses and cycles from the game (and at face value at that[!]) and going straight to the endings and trying to explain what they mean based on just this small fraction of information, then try to retroactively conform every other aspect of the game within that explanation to be flawed. It should be the other way around - you try to make sense of the most events and details from the game, and then let that understanding inform you what the endings mean.

We also have to be careful when trying to come up with explanations to back up everything with the text. While there may be many plausible explanations that can be generated, the text can really support only a very small few. Of course, a game like this that intentionally gives contradicting information makes things very difficult, but we have to avoid making up our own explanations for things when we are confronting these contradictions.

For example I don’t think the game supports interpretations involving multiple realities. We are told that bioresonance can influence minds and shape reality, but not create new ones, and we are also introduced to the phenomenon of Synchronicity. Synchronicity is quite concrete, but while we have limited examples in readables regarding reality shaping (klimaforming is one of them) both of these seems relatively grounded sci-fi concept, you don’t need any dream-like surrealist stuff for them to work, and they can actually explain a lot of the events by themselves. The complication comes with the possible eldritch corruption of the bioresonance and the potential influence of different minds on one another (‘Song of the Gods’), but I think we have to be more specific when dealing with this, rather than “wash our hands” in a way with this detail and assume it could be anything just because it seems technically possible (we should consider questions like who’s mind is touching who’s specifically and at which point and what effect does it have exactly, etc., though I do think in certain scenes this happening makes sense, kinda like in Silent Hill Harry disappearing in the alter room - furthering the surrealism connection).

I might be wrong about this, but I also don’t think we see many in-game examples of the minds of non-bioresonant character’s being invaded/manipulated (or at the very least not the dramatically big ways like we see with select Replikas). It seems Falke’s bioresonance after being “touched/poisoned” by the “red eye” went haywire and caused the horror events on Sierpinski (transformation of the Replika’s, the fleshy Nowhere in the mines etc.) by accidentally reshaping reality.

I don’t think Falke has been making her own ESTR units, no direct textual evidence and it would bring a lot of questions regarding the timelines of multiple details and events. At the moment I’m not sold on everyone’s minds melding together quite yet as well (though again this seems to be happening at least to a certain extent).

At the moment I still think the connections between the named characters around Alina Seo and Ariane to be at the center of the narrative, and for me this is a hint that they are the most important for untangling the puzzle of the story as well. I want to present one more reading, not because I am actually convinced of it myself, but just to demonstrate how we can come up with interesting explanations when we are not being hasty with our conclusions, rather than closing the book shut after thinking we’ve figured it all out.

Regarding the corpses we see throughout the game, I think that it’s not just a random quirky detail that when examining the elevator with all the dead Elsters, our protagonist doesn’t seem to be seeing them at all. This to me seems like an actually important hint from the developers, explicitly so. But a hint to what exactly? In my first post I mentioned how it’s not a stretch to assume for the person next to Alina Seo (I will just refer to her as Gestalt-Elster here for brevity) to have gone looking for her on Sierpinski. But it actually might not have even been Gestalt-Elster, but a (series of) Replika ESTR unit(s) based on her neural pattern, who might have experienced Synchronicity and gone after Alina. This sounds far-fetched initially, but now it might make a bit more sense why Alina refers to an Elster in her diary entries, and why Adler seems to be thinking of an Elster, even though supposedly an ESTR unit never visited Sierpinski according to the Kolibri (I think) notes referencing official records. When we consider the symbolic (and not only) similarities between Alina and Ariane, a new possible explanation of the multiple different-ship scenes and the sequence where we take the armour from a dead ESTR unit arise. The flesh-consumed cryopod might actually have Alina inside it, and the corpse with the armour next to it might be the looking-for-her ESTR unit (this is the end of that original Alina search journey, again it is so similar because the game explicitly has made this symbolic connection between Alina and Ariane, though because of reality shaping bioresonance gone haywire what we see might not have to be exactly what happened either). This of course presents multiple problems, like why does the ESTR unit have the white armour which supposedly is emblematic of the old pre-Gestalt-Elster neural pattern units? If we assume that the real Gestalt-Elster actually went after Alina, that would be her corpse. This fits fine for the armor, as in the split-second images in the cut-scenes wee see her with exactly that armour on, and even fits with why Adler think he saw an ESTR unit when in reality the mine surveyor requested ESTR unit never came, he was seeing Gestalt-Elster and mistaking her for a Replika. This brings its own set of issues though (like how could protagonist Elster take a Gestalt arm and replace her own missing one using it with seemingly no issues?). If we can mange to find a way to fit in the different details, all of the above information can give an explanation of the events of the game that needs no actual same character dream loops happening in order to work. This actually helps make sense of the multiple Elster corpses lying around, the “...new LSTR units have been produced based on a decommissioned unit from the Penrose Program.” text, as well as why Adler says he feels like everything is on a loop for him and he has seen you before etc.

This is far from a clean, zero problems view, and there are certainly things that don’t get explained or even get further complicated than before (timeline of how the events of the first chapter are a Synchronicity event) as well as some non text supported leaps have to be taken, definitely. But it’s an interesting one that manages to make sense of details that otherwise don’t (and many players skip over) or simply feel superfluous to the dream-loops reading, while also being rewarding rather than reductionary.

[Nephaelys]

Originally posted by 髑髏の騎士:

[...] it actually might not have even been Gestalt-Elster, but a Replika LSTR unit based on her neural pattern, who might have experienced Synchronicity and gone after Alina. This sounds far-fetched initially, but now it might make a bit more sense why Alina refers to an Elster in her diary entries, and why Adler seems to be thinking of an Elster, even though supposedly an LSTR unit never visited Sierpinski according to the Kolibri (I think) notes referencing official records.

I don't think this is far-fetched, seemed pretty obvious to me. Imho we control LSTR-512 in two Penrose sequences (the intro and the 3000 cycles maintenance routine and celebration) and LSTR replikas through the rest of the game.
As for Serpienski, the records mention that Adler had the impression this LSTR unit was just part of the personnel of the base while there's actually no LSTR listed, so that implies she "infiltrated" the place and only Adler has memories of her being there.
In fact if by Gestalt-Lester you refer to the Vitenan soldier on the photo, I think we never actually play as her but her persona sure resurfaces. Maybe she actually was "decommisionned" during the Rotfront era and the spy-hunt, or even before that. She may never had survived Vineta and it was already a LSTR that attended training with Eri, Alina & co.

Originally posted by 髑髏の騎士:

When we consider the symbolic (and not only) similarities between Alina and Ariane, a new possible explanation of the multiple different-ship scenes and the sequence where we take the armour from a dead LSTR unit arise. The flesh-consumed cryopod might actually have Alina inside it, and the corpse with the armour next to it might be the looking-for-her LSTR unit

It's interesting to see the dead LSTR next to the flesh mass cryopod is in the same position that our LSTR at the end in [promise]. Again we could either interpret the flesh mass as hallucinatory/corrupted interpretation or as what happens if LSTR doesn't muster the courage to keep the promise. In both cases it starts another "loop". Some could even interprete that loop also messes with time and that LSTR actually salvages the armor from her own corpse from a preceding loop, making that armor a nice point of time paradox. I wouldn't go as far, but I think it's voluntary, either as a red herring or simply as yet-another-possible-interpretation of the narrative.

But really, to clarify my point in my preceding post, I think Signalis marries Sci-Fi and Fantasy elements in a way that make a true pearl of the Fantastic genre. Fantastic is defined by an unreliable narrator and having Fantasy elements that feel out of place and could be explained rationally, leaving the audience in doubt about what actually happened and staying open to various interpretations. Hence why it's nigh-impossible to clearly write something off as a metaphor or fact.
Also for the Nihei Tsutomu inspirations I find Signalis borrowing more from Knights of Cidonia than Blame! on a thematic/conceptual level. The aesthetic side is still very Blame! and Gantz, thought, and the whole process of neurally rewriting brains to make cyborgs is of course an echo to Ghost in the Shell and other Masamune Shirow works. Also the Avalon references evoke Mamoru Oshii's pool of inspirations too.

[Wind_Falcon]

There are a lot of obvious things that are all very hard to actually fit into any timeline.
If the original Gestalt-Elster went to Sierpinski, how did they get her body back to make a neural pattern for the newer ESTR units from (for me this point seems set-in-stone at the moment), doubly so if we find her dead who-knows-where to take her armour? How many years would take and how do we explain this surely big time-skip when Gestalt-Elster has to be around the same age as Lilith Itou and Iris Yeong, making it seem as if by the time of Lilith Itou moving to Rotfront, the new LSTR units to be in production so that such a unit can go on the mission with Ariane who seems to be quite young, almost just-out-of-school age. Why is the first chapter titled Synchronicity if we are merely playing a different LSTR unit and not experiencing Gestalt-Elster's resurfacing memories? How can the corpse next to the flesh cryopod have an old LSTR unit armour if it's not Gestalt-Elster? As far as I know there is no textual evidence to suggest we are taking the armour from a previous loop of the same unit we are playing as (how would that even work exactly?). The piece of information establishing the "iconic" armour makes it seem as if any other explanation rather than Gestalt-Elster herself or an older unit to be less textually supported (and both have problems).

Like I mentioned in my original comment, the game establishes overt connections and similarities between various pairs of characters, the most important being Gestalt-Elster + Alina Seo and protagonist Elster + Ariane. And we also get the sense that as if there are two important stories that are being told at the same time - Gestalt-Elster (possibly) looking for Alina Seo at Sierpinski (story 1) and Elster and Ariane's Penrose (mis)adventure (story 2) - but the distinction between when we are presented with which story are intentionally blurred for us as players going through the game. But in a sense we don't need much more to make sense of the game. Story 1 takes place -> at some point from Gestalt-Elster's neural pattern new LSTR units are made -> such a unit goes with Ariane on story 2 -> towards the end of their journey Elster has Synchronicity flashbacks to story 1.

There are details which obviously don't fit, but this seems like a plausible beginning to end simplified summary of the most important plot beats. And you can make progress into further fitting in the rest of the events and details. On the other hand in the dream loops merged minds interpretation you can't make heads or tails on almost anything, you don't know where the story begins or ends, trying to flesh out how the details work and support this reading often makes you default to "its a crazy dream-loop, anything can happen" and throw your hands in the air because they can't be fit anywhere (and for me the more important question - why would the devs even bother intricately weaving all these details into the game if they are ultimately meaningless?).

I have found for myself that stories like this, like Silent Hill, like David Lynch films and Gene Wolfe books (which almost all incorporate unreliable narrators) are very hard for the average person to decode, because you actively have to go against the instinct you have developed to understand the more common straight A to B to C narrative style of plot sequence development. I think that is also why when people get presented with this method where the work itself is perfectly willing to feed you contradictory and even wrong information they default to "it was all a dream / X character is always lying" or similar, because in the straight A to B to C developed instinct that's the only way you can make sense of them. I have also found for myself that just because a work demands a more careful reading in order to extract the basic plot or understand the events or the motivation of the characters behind them, rarely does it mean it supports *any and all* interpretations. Some are always more valid than others, and oftentimes I think there is an actually singular correct intended view (which most people vehemently reject), though rarely 100% achievable. But I think we can get very close to.

Not absolutely everything has to conform to or imply a greater meaning all the time though. For example I think that when we unlock the butterfly box, the devs take advantage of the unreliable and surreal nature of the game to present the player with a cool scene that gives us some thematic info that can't be easily fit otherwise, at least not while maintaining the tone from the scene. I don't think the protagonist or whomever's memory we are experiencing actually went on a train on Rotfront in the past and took a keycard which they brought back with them to Sierpinski in the future. For them the keycard was simply in the box. The scene on the train - that's just for us.

I've read Knights of Sidonia but really don't find any greatly meaningful connections (then again it was a long time ago so I might just not remember the relevant details). Sidonia is a very different work compared to Nihei's other ones, which collectively have a very unique and different tone compared both to Sidonia and Signalis. From Ghost in the Shell the only main story connection imo is that in GitS you could have implanted false memories, I don't think it's other elements or themes are really used in Signalis, personally. The Avalon - Oshii further connection is a cool catch!

[RandomPlayer20221111]

Nice post!
But again I stopped reading in the middle to prevent too much of spoiler.
Better come up with my own theory before reading all contents of this post.
This is actually the beauty of old school forum discussion. We can all come up with our own theories, post them and compare. Together we may put all evidence puzzle into a more complete picture, hopefully is closer to the "real plot"......no matter if there's a real plot or not.

Just have two ideas coming across my mind......better put them down here before I forget:
1. We have Shore of Oblivion and Isle of the Dead identified in the game. For some reason I think Isle of Life is also somewhere in the game.
2. Offering. When the game starts, Chinese characters meaning "Sacrifice" flashed for a second or two. Then, in Nowhere, the Red Note stated that offerings will be needed so the dead may escape this godawful place. I think Sacrifice = Offerings. Then, if you look into the 4th Ending again......

Ariane does not seek death. She just wanna sleep after all.

[Wind_Falcon]

I finished another playthough and picked up on a few more details, and also looked a bit into what people have said regarding the Yeong - Imperial connection, so I wanted to address some things.

The medical records picture of Nikolai Nguyen seems to cement him as the Gestalt whose neural pattern was used for the ADLR units. Not only the visual resemblance (which has been used many times in the game to imply such connections) but also the fact that he is the only named male Gestalt, while Alder is the only named male Replika. Doesn't make it a 100% sure fact, but it's hard not to assume the link.

This detail would imply that a lot of the Replikas use neural patterns from people that were on Vineta. This kinda begs the question - how long ago were the events on Vineta, Rotfront and Siepinski in relation to Ariane's Penrose mission departure exactly? The various Replika Overview files seem to suggest a lot of time to have passed since the Replika's were first made (as well as the note that mentions that Bioresonance has made other technological progress stagnant). Yet we know Lilith Itou served on Vineta, and that Ariane is the same age as her daughters. So it also seems impossible for that much time to have passed between these events, at least certainly not multiple decades.

The game has gone out of it's way to always obscure Erika Itou's image, but in some cases certain parts of her face are visible. I can't help but feel the game expects the player to piece these fragments and come to some sort of conclusion based on possibly who Erika has a similar appearance to. I haven't been able to come up with anything just yet, but these two pictures seem to be the most relevant - medical record[i.imgur.com] and alter[i.imgur.com].

There is also one more interesting wrinkle when thinking about this - in the school sequence Isa is looking for Erika, but instead seemingly finds Ariane bullied in the library... We see an Isa who is mirroring our journey looking for Alina (who has an established symbolic with Ariane) while looking for Erika, and she expressly states when we meet her at Rotfront B1 that she think Erika abandoned her because she was weak... Weak, like not jumping in to protect her from bullies? But wasn't that Ariane?

Regarding the Yeong - Imperial connection. All three of the Yeong family seem fond of old Imperial serials that have been banned, and it's confirmed in the final first person room sequence in the game that Ariane read those serials as well. That much seems certain. It's more difficult to see further connections without running into problems though. In my first post I outlined how there is a clear connection between Alina, Ariane, her mother Iris Yeong and aunt Kamilla Yeong, and the Great Revolutionary and her daughter. Assuming a direct Imperial connection seem both difficult and redundant. If the Yeongs are somehow connected the the Empress, how come they are also connected to the Great Revolutionary, which seem to be the leaders of opposing factions in a war? If the spy on Rotfront referred as Sun is Kamilla, how come we never see any textual evidence of her abandoning Ariane? I've seen some people also assume that the spy brought to their side Lilith Itou, which seems further implausible. Lilith served in the same infantry unit as Alina on Vineta, on the Nation's side, and the Empire bombed that planet extremely brutally (the Key of Sacrifice mentions how that bomb eradicated a third of the life in the ocean on the planet). Without concrete facts to the opposite (which I might have just missed), it's very hard to see how Lilith would switch sides.

And the most important thing for me - if the Yeongs have familial connection to the Empress and/or are Imperial spies, how does that tie back to the rest of the game? The Empress as family connection seems both impossible (unless we assume the Great Revolutionary is also part of that family, for which we have zero direct evidence) and redundant, since there's plenty of other details that work without problem together explaining Ariane's bioresonance and link to Falke. The Yeongs as Imperial spies seem to be completely irrelevant to the rest of the game. At least I don't see how that information makes us look differently on anything, or what if anything it brings to the table.

[RandomPlayer20221111]

There is also one more interesting wrinkle when thinking about this - in the school sequence Isa is looking for Erika, but instead seemingly finds Ariane bullied in the library... We see an Isa who is mirroring our journey looking for Alina (who has an established symbolic with Ariane) while looking for Erika, and she expressly states when we meet her at Rotfront B1 that she think Erika abandoned her because she was weak... Weak, like not jumping in to protect her from bullies? But wasn't that Ariane?

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I personally think the game intentionally make this part difficult.
If we record the cutscenes and look at them carefully, the red lines (in German probably) suggested that "After all it was my sister who came to rescue". Rescue who? Ariane probably, in classroom 512. According to Ariane's teacher (probably a Replika), Ariane seemingly befriended both Isa and Erika so this part should be OK.

As for Erika, I guess the "girl in the mirror with her right eye hurt" appeared after ELDAR "has his mask removed" cutscene could be a possibility. Not only because of the similarity, but also the weird hand randomly moving like suffering from seizure. This is quite similar to the 鵺 (Nue, monster appearing in Japanese folklore or legend) seemingly attacking Isa in Nowhere.

As for the time factor, I think time is to a certain degree convoluted inside our play-through (i.e. probably in Ariane's Bioresonance dimension). My current understanding is that the 5th Division Unit 12 was like ages ago or a decade ago. For example, assuming that Lilith is the human origin of LSTR (LSTR is of Vineta origin) and the neural pattern extraction was completed many many years ago. After the Neural Archive on Vineta was destroyed, a decommissioned LSTR was used as template instead. In other words, Lilith Itou and Alina Seo = ages ago or a decade ago, while Arinae and Isa and Erika = Ariane's era before Penrose 512 launched. Ariane's mother pointed out that "the photo was probably shot on Vineta". Yet, probably Ariane never visited Vineta. I am also studying this part......you know the Bioreasonance setting, we cannot rule out the possibility that people might be making friends with those lived and died ages ago by tapping into the hive mind or probing memories of others.

Finally, the Rot-Front medical is actually a good source of hints. Fong Roswita is probably the human origin of Kolibri Units. Notice the 3 red icons on her forehead, which is shared by Kolibri Units and Falke Units (i.e. the Bioresonance units). The same icons could also be seen on the cover of the book "Song of the Gods". These could be the recognition marks of identified and under control Bioresonant. And, both Roswita and Ariane have red eyes...

[Wind_Falcon]

I think you are too quick to jump to conclusions.

There is no evidence in-game that there is any time related manipulation (key word) happening. What the game has established instead that can explain the jumbled events is Synchronicity. Meaning people reliving actual past events experienced by a different person.

The only potential time related bit of info is the Dream Diary, but it is established that only Ariane sees other people's lives as dream visions. Not anyone else. And also she doesn't manipulate time itself. While one might argue based on the 'Song of the Gods' and 'Falke's diary' readables that she is somehow projecting her past memories (Rotfront), you can't explain why in those past memories you uncover info Ariane herself didn't know (but can be easily explained if Gestalt-Eslter went to Rotfront first before going to Siepinski to look for Alina, or maybe even after?).

I think it's hard to established we are ever in an "Ariane bioresonance dimension". Again, the game hasn't established different dimensions. It has established reliving memories, and strong bioresonance being able to change actual reality (but not "make friends with those who lived and died ages ago"[!]). The only one in the story that really needs to have Ariane memories in them is Falke, and there is plenty of evidence to suggest this without it also being true that other people are experiencing Ariane memories.

I think what people assume to be time manipulation or different dimension are just effect of people being confused by resurfacing memories due to Synchronocity (again, correct me if I am wrong, but outside of Ariane's Dream Diary, I don't think we have ever seen another Gestalt having memory/Synchronicity-like related troubles). The problem for me is establishing which character has which memories resurfacing when and why based on the presented details. Not hand waving it away with bioresonance (we have very *very* strict info establishing what it can do in the setting).

Regarding the time frame - the neural pattern used for LSTR units has to have come from a Gestalt that had already gone to look for Alina on Sierpiski. This is the hard piece of info to fit into all of this (together with the "...new LSTR units have been produced based on a decommissioned unit from the Penrose Program" one). The first chapter being titled Synchronicity basically established that for a fact imo. I would assume that as the events are presented now, after the disbanding of the infantry unit on Vineta, Lilith Itou went to Rotfront, while Alina Seo went to Sierpiski, so the two sequences that we see play out at these two locations in the game seem to have happened in actual reality in close succession, if not simultaneously, because Ariane seems to go on the Penrose mission relatively shortly after (I think her timeline is high school -> some years of mandatory military service -> Penrose, which to me seems possible even in less than a decade after the events on Vineta, or like 15 years max).