ENA Theory

[Lizrdlickr]

ENA is the devil, and the entire game takes place in hell.

The beginning is moving to the afterlife. She's crossing over to the other side and the bed is described as a one way trip. The man swimming could even be viewed as crossing the river Styx.
The first thing you see when you get there is gambling and greed. There's a definite view of the 7 cardinal sins, and can be seen by the people obsessed with money and even the one made of money.
Everyone wants to go to the purge event where they can do whatever they want and take advantage of one another and be gluttonous and eat each other up.
ENA is known by everyone and hated because she is a fallen angel. She was the one to blame, since she should be blamed for the sins of others, as Taski Maiden said, "You're the kind of person who should be blamed for the sins of others." The old saying, "The Devil is to blame", or "The Devil made me do it."
The only people who aren't greedy seem to be the faceless samurai guys who don't speak, but lead everyone to the bathroom, which is a place one would clean themselves. We could view this as repentance, as the frog man said when ENA was in the Embryo. "Are you repenting on the toilet?" ENA is trying to repent, even though her mission truly seems to be to find and kill God, who I believe is "The Boss." It could also be Solid Snake I guess. God is located in a secret and distant place, and is completely separated from hell. She also cannot die, while it seems like others can. Even the angels before the bathroom have a larger angel who is crying tears into a river of lost souls. He is different and bigger than the rest. My guess is he is the arch angel, Michael, crying for the sins of mankind.
Even a toilet could be also named, the throne. Everyone is trying to get to the throne of God, but they're scared of what they'll find, and that they'll be judged. The freezing cold at the top are the winds and buffeting of ♥♥♥♥♥ trying to stop people from getting to God. They have beautiful lower mouths because they speak pretty lying words, but their actions are evil.
The bathroom even has a confessional. You come there to repent and be forgiven. The giant eye in the sky could even be seen as the ever watching eye of God, seeing all.
One of the greatest sinners we see is that one lady at the counter for being french.
ENA is also never allowed to say the word genie, or the bathroom. Which is either church or heaven, possibly both. Shes the only one not allowed to say it correctly, which could also be a punishment for being ♥♥♥♥♥. She also occasionally freaks out and turns into an angel, which are those faceless brown and yellow things. This would make sense because she still is a "fallen angel", and occasionally slips into that form, but not for long. She stayed in that form after being forgiven, but then was promptly unforgiven. We can see that those are angels then, since they also a flying around before you get to the bathroom.

ENA is shown with bullets coming out of her hat and falling everyone on broken ground while talking to the vending machine. She has killed so many and according to the genie, cannot be forgiven. All can be forgiven except for her.
All ENA does is talk about God and mention that, "We are all children of God." She is trying to assure herself that she can be forgiven somehow. The genie even tells her that she believes her to have different intentions. The hole opening in her chest is that she's beginning to feel the sins of her past eat her away inside, or that she is struggling to be in the presence of God and his holy angels.

She wants to go to heaven, and be forgiven. I believe that's what the ballerina represents; someone happy in heaven, or the idea of heaven. The giant hippo snakes are the angels sentinels, since they cannot abide being in hell, they send these things which can be shown in the secret spot after the long jump underground. That's also why they hid the taxi drivers head, since they don't want people to go to the purge event and sin more. The lost souls who wander turn into trees which is just kinda neat I suppose. They also have eyes, such as mentioned in the book of Revelation.
The genie said the smoke that obscured everything was ENA in the first place, which gives more credence to her being ♥♥♥♥♥, since she would have been in charge of hell. She has either lost her memory or is hiding it. I believe she lost her memory because God is trying to get her to come to him, and it's his doing in the first place. He wants to forgive her, but she needs to change first, thus, these trials.
ENA went into the giant embryo to be, born again. ENA is going through the steps to repentance, and will most likely be baptized somehow in the future if I my guess is correct. Most likely by water and Fire, whether it be figurative or literal. The lost souls are just that, lost. The genie are bits of God, or fragments. They could be representative of the godhead but I'm not sure since there seems to be more than 3. There's a hidden on in the Lost Soul Village which would be 5 total, so I don't know.
There are obvious depictions of Christ with the shadow demons crucified to the walls, and one is even in the grayish purgatory saying that this is what he has to do. Specifically the one in uncanny valley is crucified and has a golden wound in his left side. This is the most jarring depiction of Christ, since it was written that he was pierced in the side by a sentinel with a spear after the Crucifixion, and legend says the spear was saved as a relic by the Catholic Church and the tip turned gold. It is most likely a reminder to these people of what they did or who they denied.
The whole town seems to be built on the face of the genie as well, as one of the secret notes says that the forehead of the genie has a familiar coin. This coin is the base of the starting area in Uncanny Valley, as you go down the stairs. The body is spread out everywhere across the place. It could be a reference to hiding themselves from the face of God, and heaving the mountains and earth heaped upon themselves to hide from his gaze. This would also even explain why ENA is said to be very persuasive and compelling. She can persuade just about anyone, and everyone still hates her for it. Everyone calls her different names and sounds different because Lucifer is known by many different names and faces. The grey area is purgatory, and the rich are there, and they have houses and real estate but there isn't any true color or actual joy there. It is lifeless like them. The ocean of blood separating them from the Boss, who is God, is the separation of heaven and hell. They are trying to get across to kill God, but ENA is only slowly remembering who she is, but she is subconsciously trying to repent and change. Three doors, 3 members of the Godhead. Horse door not sure. The first door has a strange note to it, but it's comforting, so I believe it's the Holy Ghost.
In the end, she is born again by being killed and being opened up by a being with a sword. The sword of truth and right perhaps?

Lastly, ENA does not have a physical body, but it only a soul. We can see this because she only becomes human once she was reborn, and then her soul came out of the hole in her chest and spoke for her. Once she was told she was forgiven, she became whole, but when she was unforgiven, she lost her humanity and turned into normal ENA. She has no physical body because ♥♥♥♥♥ and his angels were cast out of heaven and did not receive a physical body. That's also why she felt so sick in a body. She's never had one before.

Any thoughts or any other theories? For religious context, I didn't want to include specific scriptures because I'm lazy. Also, no one fight about religion in the comments. I just want to try and interpret symbolism, not have a religious debate.

This is just a theory, but there is a lot of religious symbolism present and I love it. Whether I'm right or wrong, I love the characters, art, and the game in general. I'm insanely impressed with quality and all the ENA team.

[Jet Uppercut]

If you want a theory:
The opening of the game is a reference to Japan bombing China with infected fleas[en.wikipedia.org] during WW2.
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fl1ix6qd6upre1.png
A random encounter flea NPC you can find in the area.
https://youtu.be/1yqn1BGCNto?t=67
The opening area can also be overrun with bouncing fleas.

There's also a picture of the town[en.wikipedia.org] hit in the attack on the wiki page and I'd say it looks fairly similar to the one in game.

WW2 war crimes being a part of the ENA canon probably still isn't the craziest theory someone has come up with.

[iiLivingMeme]

Neat ideas. I think this is very close, but I don't know if she herself is ♥♥♥♥♥. Could be tho

[Lizrdlickr]

Oprindeligt skrevet af iiLivingMeme:

Neat ideas. I think this is very close, but I don't know if she herself is ♥♥♥♥♥. Could be tho

If anything, I think she's someone biblical in nature. Also possibly Adam, Eve, Cain or Judas.
I forgot to mention there's also no cross depicted anywhere in the game, which is surprising with how many people talk about God in it. Specifically all the graves and coffins are marked with an X. Even the tombstones are straight with an X on top, instead of the classic cross, giving further evidence that this is hell.

[starwargs]

After losing her human form and turn back into normal ENA in the bathroom, she is then able to knock on locker and reveal a prompt saying "the faraway sense of sand and dirt brush the knuckles". Can mean the impending mortality of herself and everything in the door

[chitlin gaming34]

Love this theory! And that WW2 tidbit, I'm amazed at how people can find so much stuff so quickly

[lovellama06]

i feel like the game is a continuation to the series, and i think enas wish to the great runas created the world in which dream bbq happens or at least changed things enough for ena to be considered a sinner, maybe her wish was purpose, wich gave her a job and m maybe courage, wich makes her mad, when we see ena in human form the red ghost of ena has long hair like og ena, therer are small sprites where ena goes back to her og design, this would also make perfect sence considering that ena in power of potluck has a slightly diferent design which makes me believe this was so they could give her previous form closure without disruppting the games lore, also i think the boss is ena, and i think she is in a quest to commite auto deleat, the wich assumed tthat ena was the boss and she is allso one of the few that never claims to be it, also that gurl knows a lot, anyways enas response to that was "im no longer the boss of myself" followed by a joke good enough to distract us from that hypotetical lore dump, and in the extra content we can see that gthe original dialog didnt have that line, rather it was added later.

[lovellama06]

but what do i know im just really hot and skinny

[Lizrdlickr]

I have updated the theory. She is definantly Adam AND Eve. They took the scripture, "They shall be one body and one flesh", literally. There is even a secret garden with a tree you can't get in, and references from characters like the pet guy saying that their are souls, one entity, one body. This also makes sense with all the sin, since Adam and Eve are known for having the "original sin", so they're being blamed by everyone and everyone knows them. ENA saying that we "are all children of God" fit's in the context as well along with everything else in my theory. Taski even says, "You're the kind of person who should suffer for the sins of others." That's alluding to the "original sin", or all are sinners because of the sins of Adam and Eve.
I'm also not taking any of my religious views into this account, simply stating what I think the meaning is.
And of course this also describes the duality of ENA, since she would be two persons mixed into one.

[tech_hutch]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Lizrdlickr:

I have updated the theory. She is definantly Adam AND Eve. They took the scripture, "They shall be one body and one flesh", literally. There is even a secret garden with a tree you can't get in, and references from characters like the pet guy saying that their are souls, one entity, one body. This also makes sense with all the sin, since Adam and Eve are known for having the "original sin", so they're being blamed by everyone and everyone knows them. ENA saying that we "are all children of God" fit's in the context as well along with everything else in my theory. Taski even says, "You're the kind of person who should suffer for the sins of others." That's alluding to the "original sin", or all are sinners because of the sins of Adam and Eve.
I'm also not taking any of my religious views into this account, simply stating what I think the meaning is.
And of course this also describes the duality of ENA, since she would be two persons mixed into one.

Worth noting that her name is ENA. Eve ‘n Adam?

[MoonLitMeadow]

Oprindeligt skrevet af lovellama06:

i feel like the game is a continuation to the series, and i think enas wish to the great runas created the world in which dream bbq happens or at least changed things enough for ena to be considered a sinner, maybe her wish was purpose, wich gave her a job and m maybe courage, wich makes her mad, when we see ena in human form the red ghost of ena has long hair like og ena, therer are small sprites where ena goes back to her og design, this would also make perfect sence considering that ena in power of potluck has a slightly diferent design which makes me believe this was so they could give her previous form closure without disruppting the games lore, also i think the boss is ena, and i think she is in a quest to commite auto deleat, the wich assumed tthat ena was the boss and she is allso one of the few that never claims to be it, also that gurl knows a lot, anyways enas response to that was "im no longer the boss of myself" followed by a joke good enough to distract us from that hypotetical lore dump, and in the extra content we can see that gthe original dialog didnt have that line, rather it was added later.

in the gut maze you can see another version of the red ena with a hippo priest(?) playing with something colorful so maybe she really is looking for another version of herself

[Rohan_Furries]

A bit unrelated but I have this theory that the Lonely Door we enter is being overthrown.

There is the taxi driver itself who got his heads stolen, then a line of dialogue saying about how "the buildings doesn't want to be erased" or something, related to the creatures eating them in game, then there is the Bunrako (the purge event mustache dude) who seem different in the posts splattered in the bus stations, with the bottom missing (the posters shows him with orange pants and a belt)
what happened to the original one?

and more importantly, in the lake route (when you fail to cross the bridge) the Genie Theodora looks broken.

like if you take cues it seems the place is breaking itself apart, and that bad actors are just screwing up with everything.

if you piece things together it really seems there was something very messed up that happened in the lonely door, something simillar to an... anarchist revolution? don't quote me on that i am not a good english speaker lol

[MoonLitMeadow]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Jet Uppercut:

If you want a theory:
The opening of the game is a reference to Japan bombing China with infected fleas[en.wikipedia.org] during WW2.
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fl1ix6qd6upre1.png
A random encounter flea NPC you can find in the area.
https://youtu.be/1yqn1BGCNto?t=67
The opening area can also be overrun with bouncing fleas.

There's also a picture of the town[en.wikipedia.org] hit in the attack on the wiki page and I'd say it looks fairly similar to the one in game.

WW2 war crimes being a part of the ENA canon probably still isn't the craziest theory someone has come up with.

the ena with a hole in her chest has a war general hat so that tracks
edit: both versions do but it becomes more apparent

[Hand-zo]

One interesting thought on this theory,

If Ena is ♥♥♥♥♥, that tracks with the way ♥♥♥♥♥ is often depicted as androgynous or particularly beautiful/feminine.

[Vi-El]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Hand-zo:

One interesting thought on this theory,

If Ena is ♥♥♥♥♥, that tracks with the way ♥♥♥♥♥ is often depicted as androgynous or particularly beautiful/feminine.

It doesnt however track with the "Father of Lies" title. Which is also one of the Devils titles in the Christian Faith.

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To OP:

While I certainly believe that there are a lot of things tying it to a biblical/faith related tone and story, I think ENA being the Devil is a stretch.

My issue with the main part of the theory is primarily that if ENA was the Devil, the way she behaves makes no sense. She would not be going around helping people, she would try to deceive them. Yet with ENA, especially the earlier incarnation which according to others is not the same one, (another issue with the theory as there are multiple ENAs), it more so seems like she missunderstands or misinterprets reality.

The next problem are the mood swings or "split personality". The Devil is a whole being. Not one to play up being different. Instead the devil often tries to manipulate and deceive. Even to the point of showing up as a being so unassuming that you just dont care it even exists. But it being there still makes you consider to sin.

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I think and I wont mention it directly as it would spoil things if anyone curious ends up seeing this thread, it is far more likely that this is Purgatory and ENA is somehow connected to the events that connect the Great Runas to Dream BBQ. And I dont mean the obvious one, the fact being that the Great Runas is a Genie.

"Rude Entities like you, get punished for the sins of others"

Getting to the Great Runas and asking for a wish to be fulfilled on its own is good enough. But Moony and Ena made a bet. The first to reach the Great Runas would pay the debt of the other person. Enas Debt was paid. Moonys Debt remained. And then "Aspire for the Punishment of the Moon".

I feel that sentence in the Quotationmarks above (the Rude Entities one I mean) also says a whole damn lot about what is going on here.

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All in All I do believe something biblical is going on here 100%. But the Devil? I dont know yet. But Chapter 2 will come out eventually. Surely we wont need to wait as long as we have for Silksong, right guys? RIGHT?