So what was that plot about? [SPOILERS]

[GERONIMO]

Just finished the game and first of all, I would like to say what an incredible experienc it was. So beautiful and smooth with fantastic gaameplay mechanics. I've never played anything quite like it.

The plot was moving and for the most part made sense but there are a few things that I feel were left unexplained. Firstly, what caused Nibel to become a 'blind forrest' in the first place? It seemed the spirit tree was just calling to Ori and that somehow ♥♥♥♥♥♥ everything up. And why did that make Kuro's children die? Is the forrest tree not meant to protect all of Nibel?

Secondly, how did Gumo revive Naru? What was that light he gave him that brought him back to life? I also don't get how Naru recovered Kuro's last egg... but thats a small plot hole.

I have a couple other irks but nothing worth going into detail about. Let me know what you all thought of the plot and the game in general

[Waffle]

Well, it's assumed that the Spirit Tree and his children are all beings of light while Kuro and her children were all beings of darkness - not as a representation of good and evil so much as two differing energies that are not compatible beyond a certain level of tolerance. That's likely how Kuro and her last egg both still survived even when her other children were killed. As for why that happened, it can be assumed that the Spirit Tree was extending his light much further out than normal in his attempt to call out to Ori. Thus catching Kuro and her children unaware.

And Gumo was able to revive Naru because that light - the same light that Ori was carrying around through the Forlorn Ruins - was stated to be the Spirit Tree's light, given to the Gumon so they could build their gravity-defying structures. Considering how the Spirit Tree's light is already shown to be capable of reviving the dead (as seen with Ori in the very intro), it makes sense to see the orb working the same miracle.

As for Kuro's last egg and who recovered it, I was always assuming that was Ori. After all, Naru was pretty much left out of the loop for most of the game. Sein's the only other one who knew about it, and she's back with the Spirit Tree, leaving only Ori to go back to the nest and get the egg. (Looking at the ending scenes, there seems to be a time-skip employed between the fires being put out and the vibrant green of the forest returning to life - at which point, Ori's shown to be sitting close by the Spirit Tree and watching new spirits being born)

[GERONIMO]

that makes sense.. cheers mate, spot on

[Kampfhirn]

Nice summary you both, thanks!

[NeoLMX]

Personally, I called the Spirit Tree: "The Stupid Tree".

He created a big storm that unfortunately pushed Ori far away and lost him and then the tree got mad and destroyed the whole forest, the ancient trees and himself using all of his powers just to find back Ori. It also killed Kuro's children.
That tree is crazy. I hope he won't lose any other children in the future because next time it could be "Ori 2 and the blind solar system". :p

Next time I'll meet a tree I'll be careful. :S

[Dread Arkive]

Originally posted by neo.lmx:

Personally, I called the Spirit Tree: "The Stupid Tree".

He created a big storm that unfortunately pushed Ori far away and lost him and then the tree got mad and destroyed the whole forest, the ancient trees and himself using all of his powers just to find back Ori. It also killed Kuro's children.
That tree is crazy. I hope he won't lose any other children in the future because next time it could be "Ori 2 and the blind solar system". :p

Next time I'll meet a tree I'll be careful. :S

Well, the tree didn't cause the storm, it just happened. The only thing the light destroyed was Kuro's chicks (or possibly any other weaker creatures of "darkness" in the vicinity. It didn't know it would happen, and it amounts to the same thing as when you are out driving/walking around outside. Just how many tiny ants/insects do you think you may be crushing without realizing/intending to?

[AuldWolf]

It's symbolism. There are things in life which inevitably must hurt each other to survive, that's nature. It's an inexorable truth that can't be changed, and whilst nature has its beauty, it can also be awful. The spirit tree cared only for its children, in the end. And the owl was only trying to protect her child. Both had no choice but to harm the other to protect their own.

It used light and dark as a more obvious example as this dualism is easily understood. In this case, the dark is chased away by the light, but as the tide of dawn comes it also kills. And with most things in nature, the dawn cares little for what it kills. The only force that cared to act according to a sense of ethics were the creatures that seemed to have some semblance of sapience, which allowed them to contextually analyse and confront the primal brain and make better choices, which non-sapients can only do to varying degrees.

Now this isn't a 'human' versus 'animal' thing. I'm talking sapients. I've met destructive extroverts who do excess damage and care little for whom they harm. And yet even fruit flies have been shown to have the capacity for perspicacity, to be cautious, and to think before committing to an action. Humans are animals, too. It's just that some of us are sapient -- as such, we have to decide where the truth lies for each of us, and whether we can escape neverending cycle of pathos.

In the ending, we see a new owl being born. This is beautiful and promising, yet it's also ominous and foreboding. There's no saying that the next owl simply won't turn against the light again in order to protect their own, and what'll happen then? It'll be up to the sapients to do what tehy can to save everyone, or... everyone fights until only the strong remain. And then the strong fight until only the strongest of those remain. Finally, with not enough genetic diversity left to sustain the strongest, they too die.

If anything, I took Ori as making a case for Cosmopolitanism. The owl and the tree need to learn to live together, to co-exist without hurting each other. How many cycles it'll take before the sapients can teach them that, though, is unknown. I'd like to think happy, optimistic thoughts, that perhaps Ori ensured that that was the last cycle. But who knows?

Humanity, like most animals, has been going through this cycle for a long, long time, now. Largely thanks to how the animals outnumber the sapients by magnitudes of power. And if we can't learn to co-exist with each other and the other animals, then we're on a quick road to extinction ourselves. What the tree did was a near genocide event, essentially, which is something that we've tried to do in the past.

So that's what I took it as. The incompatible have to figure out how to be compatible or they fight, and fight, and people die on both sides; the struggle continues, one side gets the upper hand, then the other. Paths, but not neverending. We can do better than that. I hope Ori can, too.

[Hoshikudaki]

Looks like most of your questions were covered.

Regarding the Blind Forest, I believe Sein is also known as the eyes of the spirit tree, thus when Kuro attacked in vengeance and ripping Sein out of the tree, the Forest as is now blind as the Spirit Tree had lost its eyes.

[NeoLMX]

Originally posted by Dread Arkive:

Originally posted by neo.lmx:

Personally, I called the Spirit Tree: "The Stupid Tree".

He created a big storm that unfortunately pushed Ori far away and lost him and then the tree got mad and destroyed the whole forest, the ancient trees and himself using all of his powers just to find back Ori. It also killed Kuro's children.
That tree is crazy. I hope he won't lose any other children in the future because next time it could be "Ori 2 and the blind solar system". :p

Next time I'll meet a tree I'll be careful. :S

Well, the tree didn't cause the storm, it just happened. The only thing the light destroyed was Kuro's chicks (or possibly any other weaker creatures of "darkness" in the vicinity. It didn't know it would happen, and it amounts to the same thing as when you are out driving/walking around outside. Just how many tiny ants/insects do you think you may be crushing without realizing/intending to?

For the storm I was not sure if it was natural or something like a ritual from the tree. It was not clear when he told us the story.

For the destruction of everything I even think it's more due to Kuro than the tree. ^^
In the introduction he flew toward the tree so it's probably him who took the blue orb and broke the harmony, to save his last egg from the light.

But my plot was more funny like this with the crazy tree. :p


For the end are we sure it's Ori we see ? Do you think he could be revived by the tree ? Or, did he really need to be revived ?
I guess oris don't live forever, maybe their life doesn't last very long (2 or 3 seasons and they die in winter). They're probably not meant to live a long life but more to protect and help the forest and then they die and their souls become party of the forest itself.
Oris seem like the Pokémon Celebi, they are the guardians of the forest. I'm sure it was the developers' inspiration. ^^

[ElokoMs]

Where is Kuro's mate, the father of the baby owls? Or is she self-fertilizing?

[AuldWolf]

Her mate may have been killed by the light of the tree. She's seen the death of her kind at the tendrils of it before, we can see that from her initial reaction to seeing the light stretching out toward her children. The last casualty might have been her mate in protection of the children. It'd certainly explain why she's so bitter, and despite that, at the end she still saved the day.

[Zeigy]

All this talk about genocide and cosmopolitanism and light and dark energies, this is simply a legal matter. The Spirit Tree was negligent when it spread its light out farther than usual and caused the deaths of three citizens. Kuro, therefore, must sue the Spirit Tree for damages.

[serker31]

Originally posted by neo.lmx:

I guess oris don't live forever, maybe their life doesn't last very long (2 or 3 seasons and they die in winter). They're probably not meant to live a long life but more to protect and help the forest and then they die and their souls become party of the forest itself.
Oris seem like the Pokémon Celebi, they are the guardians of the forest. I'm sure it was the developers' inspiration. ^^

"Their lights will return to me, as Spirit Tree once said". Remember? I think that spirits don't quite die, they become small spirit trees we meet in game. Sein says something about each spirit which turned into spirit tree. Many died because of Kuro's deed, but not all of them. Whether spirits can dissipate into nothing on death and what exactly can lead to their death - remains unknown. Honestly, this whole case reminds me of Card's Speaker of the Dead.

[!?!]

Here's what happens:

Ori falls away from tree because ???, gets adopted by naru.
Tree calls for ori with lightshow who sees this but doesn't react because ???, naru then hides ori from the trees calling because ???.
Meanwhile, lightshow kills kuros children who cower in full cover but not the fully exposed kuro because ???.
Kuro promptly buggers off to steal trees child murdering light which doesn't kill kuro even at close range because ??? and commits systematic, calculated genocide over a long period of time, wiping out an entire race.
We are meant to sympathize with kuro.
Also, kuro can do all this and no one can stop her because ???, kuro lives next to tree who can kill children because ???.

Lack of light upsets the "balance of elements". Or something. I dunno.
"Enemies" now everywhere because of that. I guess.
Enemies are ??? and were previously living ??? which is how they were no danger before but are now.
Naru and ori then die in the intro, ori gets revived because ???, game happens, ori made friends with gumo, saves water element, wind element, gumo revives naru which is possible because ???, saves fire element.
Entire forest now burns because ???, kuro kills ori (?) but nest in danger from fire, kuro grabs light and returns it to tree, sudden lightexplosion can now kill kuro because ???, light puts out all the fire because ??? does not kill kuros child in nest because stil in egg I guess.
Kuro sacrifices self, happy end.
We are meant to believe kuro wasn't so bad after all.

Despite reviving being a plotpoint, kuro, whom we are meant to believe was an okay dude afte all remains dead because ???, kuros children remain dead because ???, kuro went on killing spree instead of demanding plothole from tree to revive children because ???.
Plothole would work on kuros children, naru flees from light, possibly because of same light weakness, can still be revived.
Ori either dead or gives 0 ♥♥♥♥♥ about naru, don't see them together.

Tree narrates the entire game as if passing along first hand knowledge despite being quasi-dead for the duration of the game because ???.

Any questions?

[Raskolnikov]

Originally posted by chris:

Here's what happens:

Ori falls away from tree because ???, gets adopted by naru.
Tree calls for ori with lightshow who sees this but doesn't react because ???, naru then hides ori from the trees calling because ???.
Meanwhile, lightshow kills kuros children who cower in full cover but not the fully exposed kuro because ???.
Kuro promptly buggers off to steal trees child murdering light which doesn't kill kuro even at close range because ??? and commits systematic, calculated genocide over a long period of time, wiping out an entire race.
We are meant to sympathize with kuro.
Also, kuro can do all this and no one can stop her because ???, kuro lives next to tree who can kill children because ???.

Lack of light upsets the "balance of elements". Or something. I dunno.
"Enemies" now everywhere because of that. I guess.
Enemies are ??? and were previously living ??? which is how they were no danger before but are now.
Naru and ori then die in the intro, ori gets revived because ???, game happens, ori made friends with gumo, saves water element, wind element, gumo revives naru which is possible because ???, saves fire element.
Entire forest now burns because ???, kuro kills ori (?) but nest in danger from fire, kuro grabs light and returns it to tree, sudden lightexplosion can now kill kuro because ???, light puts out all the fire because ??? does not kill kuros child in nest because stil in egg I guess.
Kuro sacrifices self, happy end.
We are meant to believe kuro wasn't so bad after all.

Despite reviving being a plotpoint, kuro, whom we are meant to believe was an okay dude afte all remains dead because ???, kuros children remain dead because ???, kuro went on killing spree instead of demanding plothole from tree to revive children because ???.
Plothole would work on kuros children, naru flees from light, possibly because of same light weakness, can still be revived.
Ori either dead or gives 0 ♥♥♥♥♥ about naru, don't see them together.

Tree narrates the entire game as if passing along first hand knowledge despite being quasi-dead for the duration of the game because ???.

Any questions?

Ori falls away from the because of the great storm, and gets adopted by naru. when Ori saw the Spirit Tree calling for him, he watched, and was preparing to go (he dropped the fruit) but if you'll notice, there is a storm coming, and Naru hides Ori to protect him from the storm. and the reason Kuro was not killed by the light is because she is full grown. It does not effect kuro even at close range because, NEWS FLASH! she is a mother ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ full grown demon owl-thing. nobody can stop Kuro because, again, its a giant demon owl. not even Ori, throughout the whole course of the game killed her. even when you dislodge the giant boulders that smash her, all that does is distract her, letting you get across. Enemies are just simply hostile creatures of the forest. even in our human woods, there are still things that attack (wolves, bears, etc...) Ori is revived because, as Sein said, "He must have used the last of his strength to save you..." I could go on and on about how anyone with common sense could answer all these questions, but i will leave the rest for you to ponder.

[Stormspark]

Originally posted by Dread Arkive:

Originally posted by neo.lmx:

Personally, I called the Spirit Tree: "The Stupid Tree".

He created a big storm that unfortunately pushed Ori far away and lost him and then the tree got mad and destroyed the whole forest, the ancient trees and himself using all of his powers just to find back Ori. It also killed Kuro's children.
That tree is crazy. I hope he won't lose any other children in the future because next time it could be "Ori 2 and the blind solar system". :p

Next time I'll meet a tree I'll be careful. :S

Well, the tree didn't cause the storm, it just happened. The only thing the light destroyed was Kuro's chicks (or possibly any other weaker creatures of "darkness" in the vicinity. It didn't know it would happen, and it amounts to the same thing as when you are out driving/walking around outside. Just how many tiny ants/insects do you think you may be crushing without realizing/intending to?

This. The tree didn't create the storm. The storm just happened naturally. The tree also was not aware the owls even existed. And even if it had seen them flying around, it had no way to know that its light was harmful to them.

On the other hand, the owls didn't know that the tree's light was harmful either, or they wouldn't have built their nest where they did. Basically, the tree had never turned its light up so bright in the past (it did so to try to find Ori who was far out of range). The levels of light from the tree in the past were probably tolerable to the owls.

This is what makes the story so tragic...because there really wasn't a villian at all. Everyone involved was only trying to protect their respective families.