so the ending is kinda not good

[Foxxy vjeol]

preamble: I'm not saying that I hate the game, I love it, it's my personal GOTY, I'm not telling anyone to hate it cause I have nitpicks with it, it's just that this specific aspect bothered me to such a degree that I lost sleep over it and I now need to expel it from my mind by writing about it, you don't have to agree with me

so anyway, Neon white's a game about presumed 'sinners' grappling not with redemption but absolution; letting go of the horrible terrible feelings that poisoned them in their last moments of life so that they may pass on into their next, free of negative taint.
It's not so much about being free of sin but simply being free of the evil feelings that twist your actions into sin

this climaxes in the final act with White writing Green into the book of life in an act of 'forgiveness' allowing himself to be written into the book of life himself, or him writing Green into the book of death, and White presumably winding up in there himself because he failed to forgive him

I kinda really hate this plot point.
not specifically the fact that White forgives green (though I think that should have been more about him moving on from the issues and trauma green left him with rather than his feelings about green), him moving on from green makes complete sense and is a fine conclusion to his character arc.
I'm just more bothered by this being stuck into this whole mechanical idea of judging folks.
like it just doesn't work

IF you're of a mind to follow the rules and not question anything, it doesn't make sense cause according to what you've been told, green should be going into the book of death, irrespective of white's feelings because he is still incredibly poisoned by his own feelings and doesn't 'deserve' absolution, Violet doesn't either given that her final moments were her trying to kill someone for their betrayal and practically cursing them in death, which is kind of a repetition of white and green's whole issue

but if you're of a mind to question the idea that this system even makes sense, that god doesn't automatically deserve to be the ultimate authority on who does and doesn't pass into the here after, it REALLY doesn't make sense cause if anything, the whole game kinda shows that the base concept of 'judging people' and whether or not they 'deserve' something in death is just incredibly flawed
The believers are ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up because they believe they deserve paradise whilst others do not and that they think that simplistic binary should be enforced, but it's also pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up to assert that folks can be judged on whether or not they're worthy of absolution within the context of this plot because if anything, the game kinda basically demonstrates that even in death, presumably evil people CAN find absolution given the time and patience, cause that's basically what textually happens with the whole cast, so like, if that's the case, why bother with judging people? why not do away with that whole nonsense and just offer them the same opportunity to seek their absolution in death that the main cast ha, and then let everyone pass on in peace.

on a purely emotional level, I just really hate this plot point because it poisons the end of white's otherwise pretty good character arc.
him being judged as worthy or not just utterly strips away any the meaning that might have been found in him deliberately moving on from green, it stops being about his personal growth and fortitude and makes it about whether he was a good little follower, and I just kinda ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate that as a reduction of his character, feelings and trauma

[Meows272]

For violet she makes peace and stuff if you give all the gifts (well the game shows it once you get all gifts and finish insight)

I think the overall system was so bad and wierd is because god was dormant so he couldn’t enforce the normal rules or heaven

And emotionally white is looking into his past and seeing that he became like green after he lost everyone, and green in death was heavily twisted by the mechanical halo

(not trying to change your opinion just trying to give you more stuff to think about)

[Foxxy vjeol]

Originally posted by Meows272:

For violet she makes peace and stuff if you give all the gifts (well the game shows it once you get all gifts and finish insight)

I think the overall system was so bad and wierd is because god was dormant so he couldn’t enforce the normal rules or heaven

And emotionally white is looking into his past and seeing that he became like green after he lost everyone, and green in death was heavily twisted by the mechanical halo

(not trying to change your opinion just trying to give you more stuff to think about)

Going off memory, she only really makes peace with white, not Green
and I'm not ignorant about white and green's character arcs, the fact that they kind of get invalidated by this is part of what annoys me about this; I specifically said that in my post

I'm only talking about judgement and deciding who should and shouldn't be punished being enforced during the ending, not during the game with the believers; my issue is god returning that status quo, instead of re-evaluating whether or not that is how things should be handled

like, my base issue is that after a whole plot where judgement is kinda shown to be a flawed idea, it feels schisty to end the game going back to judgement just with God's rules instead of the believers

[Blue Candle]

When I got to this point I did it from a purely logical perspective. I took the book of life to write down Green's name and I made the correct assumption that White will write down everyone else's name as well into the book to "cheat" God and save his friends. If I took the book of death I would not have this opportunity to save my friend and plays into the themes of damning people you care about for pity revenge. Either choice Green would be null and not be dangerous, just one causes suffering not only for Green but for my friends as well.

The second part of my logic is that God is going to make things right anyway, be it erasing or rejudging what I myself just wrote into the book. If Green really should go into the book of death its going to happen anyway. By saving my friends hopefully God will give me a favor by not removing their names from the book for you know, saving God and heaven. If the names do stay Green isn't my problem anymore anyway and I don't have to deal with him.

Basically the way I see the ending its about if you are willing to just walk away and not cause people you love pain for pity revenge, much like what Green did and not about actual forgiveness.

[Foxxy vjeol]

Originally posted by Blue Candle:

When I got to this point I did it from a purely logical perspective. I took the book of life to write down Green's name and I made the correct assumption that White will write down everyone else's name as well into the book to "cheat" God and save his friends. If I took the book of death I would not have this opportunity to save my friend and plays into the themes of damning people you care about for pity revenge. Either choice Green would be null and not be dangerous, just one causes suffering not only for Green but for my friends as well.

The second part of my logic is that God is going to make things right anyway, be it erasing or rejudging what I myself just wrote into the book. If Green really should go into the book of death its going to happen anyway. By saving my friends hopefully God will give me a favor by not removing their names from the book for you know, saving God and heaven. If the names do stay Green isn't my problem anymore anyway and I don't have to deal with him.

Basically the way I see the ending its about if you are willing to just walk away and not cause people you love pain for pity revenge, much like what Green did and not about actual forgiveness.

This logic nonsense you're going on about is very specifically what I don't like about the ending

I don't hate the story, on the contrary, I think it's very good, I enjoy the character arcs and the emotional conflict between green, white, blue and red and the emphasis on moving on from past grievances, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it's the right thing for you emotionally speaking.
but then having this whole aspect of judgement strips away the emotional core of that story in favour of thinking 'logically' about how to be a good lil enacter of gods will, it takes away all the nuance of what white is struggling with and turns it back into the whole black and white good/bad bs that the believers think makes em special
I think adding that extra cosmic weight to the decision ultimately kills all the tension in White's relationship with Green, it's stupid

To be super clear cause I don't think you get my issue here; I'm not pissed about not being able to figure out which was the *right* decision, what the story thinks about that is pretty obvious, and it honestly wasn't something that required me to be big brain 'logical' about it like you, I'm pissed about how there being a clear *right* decision because of this extra nonsense introduced by the arbitrary value of god's judgement alters the tension of the story and the meaning that can be drawn from White, Red, Violet and Green's intentions and actions within the last few chapters.
It ultimately makes it a weaker story

[Jouchebag]

There's a part in the ending where Mikey and God are talking and Mikey says something like "What do you mean? You're God. You knew this is how it would turn out..." and then God responds in the language we can't understand which I believe is the part where God is saying something like "I didn't know. They still have free will." Which is also symbolized by the choice given between books at the end.

So what I think you're assuming is that God's judgment has anything to do with any of this game's core narrative when I don't believe it does. God couldn't stop the Believers, so he's clearly not omnipotent in the way folks always want to make Him out to be. God didn't pull White out of the Glass Ocean, Red did. God is thankful for White for choosing forgiveness because otherwise the cycle would have continued and God would still be hiding from the Believers.