Story ending explained [spoilers]

[Amenophys]

The story is simple:

Fred was known to be able to climb mountains at the age of 52. You can see a newspaper on a wall in the epilogue stating that exploit.

Fred died during a climbing accident. He probably felt into a crevice or similar. His body has never been found (hence the memorial).

The story is the story the kid made up in his head to imagine how his uncle could have survived, he viewed him as a genius (he was expert in quantum physics as a wall says), and imagined that in his ice tomb he survived with a mystical travel device, that he was living with happy and nice creatures in a small paradise inside the mountains... He imagined himself traveling in that world. just like his uncle did, to find him again, but, in the end, lose him forever (admit his death).

That's why you don't get to open the locker in the end, and there is no launch pad. That story never happened.

That's also why the glowing message in the final ice room before you quit your uncle is translated "Acceptance".

Other secret words, once translated say "Denial" (portal) and in caverns "Anger". These are the common steps when you are in mourning (in psychology: shock -> denial -> culpability -> anger -> sadness -> acceptance and other blablabla http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model)

[Amenophys]

I would just add that I appreciate that the developers did make ways for us to guess what the real story is, it is very unsatisfying to have real open-ends.

[Pomme]

Wow, thanks for this topic. Didn't notice all these things... This is more understandable now !

Btw, this reminds me of Dear Esther... Don't ask me why.

Anyway, thanks OP.

[Grab_001]

Interesting enough. However I'll just go with the nice fantasy setting. I am not too fond of those kinds of interpretations. That's the beauty of open ended stuff. You can pick and choose! :D I just don't like sad endings like that :C

[Pomme]

Yeah, this ending is kinda sad tho, but I personnally like the way fantasy turns in reality through a sad explanation & sad story...

Poor narrator. He misses his uncle so hard. :(

And poor uncle Fred. :(

[Shiro___]

Oh... wow... Feels.

[Amenophys]

Yup, the whole travel is a travel inside the different steps of a mourning, seen by a little 8 years old kid. That's both sad and melancolic, a poetic tale about life.

There is also a bit of social philosophy, in regards to the crystal and the way different populations handle mysteries or power, with their own culture.

[Shiro___]

And how the ones that use the power have more attractive stuff than the village people. It's really heartwarming though, but, at the end, the existance of the jump pad isn't really clear? I believe that place is covered with debris.

[Amenophys]

Well the developers did not want to easily spoil the fact the travel was a fantasy, and left us to look for the meaning of all this through the mysterious but famous psychological words. Except for one block of text near the end, which is story related, those words are really the keys to the explanation, left for us to translate.

[Null]

Can we have all of such texts listed and translated, with screenshots?

[Pomme]

I'm always ready for a translation, just give me the text to translate !

*french obviously*

[Null]

I meant the texts written in Stray language, which is what I assume this is about. :P

[Sun_S]

Stray texts?
In the ice cave with all the floating blocks, there is one with a red blanket on top. It reads:
"On the winds we sail - For the sun's eternity"
After going back through the falling blocks, you get close to one with a lot of writing when the daughter asks the dad if he was able to read the it. And he says yes, while standing in front of the stone. It reads:
"Dear Merin, I miss you so much. Also it was me who ate your flies before. I am sorry. When we meet up there one day, I will give you new ones. Love, Nami"
So, as someone else in another thread says, those ice caves must be where the frog people remember their dead.

As for the interpretation, it sounds like that's what they are going for with it all. Thanks for writing it down!
After the credits, listening to the narrator going through the house made me think it must all have been one big metaphor for the boy's coping with the death of his uncle. There was one thing he said that gave me doubts though: "I never told my mother. She would not have believed me." That sounds like it all really happened after all. On the other hand, you are right, the mountain climber article is one of the few that remain on the second walk through the house, so it is most likely relevant and I guess it just makes more sense than the colourful adventure.
Yet another thing I don't get: The narrator says that thanks to Fred, he has found a bigger adventure = parenthood. What did Fred contribute to him becoming a father?
I did notice that the narrator mentions his mother and his uncle, but not his own father. I guess Fred was the closest thing to a dad the young boy had? And his example has encouraged the narrator to want to have children of his own?

[katarnant]

I didnt realize any of this. You broke my heart :(

Such a good game.

[Catgirl Jessica]

Originally posted by Sun_S:

After the credits, listening to the narrator going through the house made me think it must all have been one big metaphor for the boy's coping with the death of his uncle. There was one thing he said that gave me doubts though: "I never told my mother. She would not have believed me." That sounds like it all really happened after all

I think she would have never believed him because she knows the truth of what happened to Fred. But in his childish mind, he thought she wouldn't have believed him because of how far-fetched the tale is. I think as he grew older, he started to realize the truth inside his heart, but part of him still wants to believe the wild adventure that his young mind created to cope with his uncle's death. That is why he tells it to his daughter as if it really happened.

Originally posted by Sun_S:

Yet another thing I don't get: The narrator says that thanks to Fred, he has found a bigger adventure = parenthood. What did Fred contribute to him becoming a father?
I did notice that the narrator mentions his mother and his uncle, but not his own father. I guess Fred was the closest thing to a dad the young boy had? And his example has encouraged the narrator to want to have children of his own?

I think his memories of Fred as an adventurer role-model who always had fascinating stories encouraged him to raise his daughter in a similar way. His new adventure = being a good father for his daughter, the way Fred was a good father-figure for him.

[Sumanji]

Great explanation, thanks for this! Totally went over my head during my first playthrough... really makes the ending super sad though :(