I am Stupid what was the ending about

[Naseweis]

SPOILERS.

Like.. I didn't get it.

[Innocent Panda]

Amber was a young abstract artist (all the paintings you fully paint are hers) living in an unnamed city. Jack was a young artist in the city who painted in various styles, though his best work is impressionism. They met by chance in the city. They first met due to the cat, but it was when they got caught in the rain together that actually started to develop their relationship. They spent an undefined amount of time, but likely about a year, together, during which they first met regularly at the cafe, then started spending more time together, to the point of traveling out of the city to paint together. Amber was eventually accepted to paint for a gallery in NYC and left on January 23rd after showing Jack her final work of the field of purple flowers they regularly visited.

After Amber moved to NYC she became a successful painter, found love, got married, had a son and later a grand daughter. She didn't forget Jack, but leaving him behind was something she always regretted, so she suppressed many of the memories.

After Amber moved to NYC Jack stayed in his apartment in the original city with his cat and many generations of its descendants. He only painted about Amber and their time together.

Eventually Jack died, and his paintings were found in his apartment. They were very good and his work got a gallery showing in NYC. Amber went to it with her family and all the memories she had suppressed of Jack and that year together came flooding back, nearly overwhelming her. The game is her both recovering those memories and dealing with the shock of realizing how much time and effort Jack put into painting their year together.

As an aside, when Jack dies the painting he is shown to be painting is of an elderly Amber standing with her husband and son. That isn't his painting or any painting, that is just her thoughts inserting her current life into that moment where she imagines how he died.

[thatsjesslife]

Just finished the game today in a single playthrough and came here to find an answer to the same question. I think what's really sad is that Jack actually really loved Amber but have you noticed that she keeps referring to him as "friend"? He seems like the type who keeps holding himself back from chasing his own dreams....just found it quite sad :(

[giantsquidboy]

the way jack DLC is, jack got aceppted to art school his life continued from there. when amber failed to send a letter, he knew he had to move on and wait until amber dies, then their ghosts come back to the same window to paint together again. the snow bit simbolizes amber returning and running off to direction to find that jack died. and amber in present is now old returns sees all jack paintings at the gallery and sees her, and the public all console her, then freindly family walk her out of the gallery to go back to her apartment for her final days return to jack in the afterlife. it shows that amber had dementia and forgot jack, until all her memories came flooding back

[Oberyn]

I also thought about alzheimer, i think that the old amber suffers dementia and thats why the pretty House is fiction is the past, thats why the CV never saves. Jack hid all the things in the House for her to remember, she didnt have a family with Jack but is what she finally remember, the most important part of her life

[Orsetto Lavatore]

Originally posted by SLinth:

I agree with Moss' interpretation. I too, understand that we as the player is actually the painting that was revealed at the end at the museum. Take a close look at that particular portrait painting, the watermark of the artist "Jack" was painted in black over a yellow patch. This is the yellow mark with reversed "Jack" that the player saw from inside the room. It's also why the old Jack never responded to her greetings, cause he could have never heard her, she being a painting.

The calendar never changed, she eats the same thing everyday, and her computer file keeps getting wiped out over and over again, never actually saved. This is cause in the painting, her days are being repeated in a daily loop. Whereas Jack actually got older. And after Jack collapsed, her room was barricaded by wood grain and she couldn't escape. It would indicate that her painting was boxed up, along with all other Jack's paintings to be sent to the museum.

You can also see that at the museum, the silhouette of the artist Jack is similar to that old man neighbor. And the old lady at the end is the actual, living Amber, with her husband (who is not Jack) and her children.

So this is a story about Jack's memories of unrequited love, immortalized as series of paintings.

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Thank you very much for providing this interpretation that finally made me understand the ending of the story.