I think the ending is real, and I have proof against it.

[Lillebror Ost]

Forgive the weird, if not clickbait-y title, but I just replayed the game, and I feel the need to put out my thought.

Playing the game, the innevitable question of if it's real or not came up, and I felt oddly split, once again. There are too many hints at all of this to be in Fran's mind to ignore, yet I can't help but feel compelled to think otherwise. My first 'big conclusive proof' is Little Misfortune. Being in the same universe as Fran Bow makes no sense if it's all in Fran's mind. Especially if you consider (Little Misfortune spoilers) that Misfortne is dead from the start in LM. Might potentially just be that LM is set in a universe where this supernatural stuff is real We have a pretty hard counter-arguement too though. The warning at the start of the game specifically says that all the morbid material we see stems from Fran's own thoughts.

Feels kinda odd to take a message like that into the picture when discussing a matter like this, and might just be said to put more squeamish people at ease, but I still think it's interesting to note none the less. Another slightly more meta observation is the 3rd chapter, which is specifically called "vegetative state". This is either a genius word play, or a hint at Fran actually being in a comatose state for a short while. It's worth noting that when she wakes up, she's literally on the other side of an ravine that she otherwise wouldn't have been able to cross.

Also, after you return from Ithersta, after you enter Itward's flying machine, he says you're on your way to the 3rd reality (the human reality), despite the fact that you should already be there. This seems so weird to me, I'm now starting to grow afraid that I've missed something, and that we might not be in the 3rd reality anyway, at that point in the story.
That kinda transitions into my next point.

All the hints, that I noticed, that it's all fake. The bicycle you find after you're done with his flying machine. Very likely to be one Fran just found herself and biked her way home with. The Asylum has some hints too. Like the channel with the pine cone and the ant at that TV. Could either be an inter dimensional hint at what's to come, or an image that digs its way into Fran's subconscious, as she sees a giant ant after escaping, as well as multiple small pine cone people. We also have the sleeping pill the girl gives us. The interesting thing being its colour, being associated with the twins. Now, I can't think of any direct correlation between a sleeping pill and the twins, but the colour is too specific to ignore, I feel. We also see what presumably is the gun that is shot at the end of the game, or at least the motivation for imagining it. We also get some hints in the last chapter, when you're inside Fran's room. We see she has a comic book that she loves, depicting a classic grey alien. Tall, slender and bright. Not just bearing a slight resemblance Valokas, but are outright mentioned in one of Fran's thoughts about the comic. It's also worth mentioning that they offered to take Leon away, in his journal. Kinda like how aliens like that have a stereotype of abducting people. In the alternate Fran's room, we see not just her dress, but a straight jacket besides it. a straight jacket with three straps on the back. Straps I, personally, see on Fran's dress and think of a straight jacket. We also have her doll house. In there, we find a little pine cone man, presumably made by Fran herself. This could, again, be a mental inspiration for the sentient little pine cone men she sees. Or, if we believe it's all real, part of her special ability to access the other dimensions, perhaps just very weakly without the use of Duotine. We also have a cut-in-half queen of hearts. Something Fran cut herself, and specifically thought of as "cutting a twin off". Kind of the opposite of what Oswald allegedly did to the twins. At least, one pair of them. Oh yeah, I forgot the twins in the asylum... Could either have been the main inspiration for the conjoined twins, or just another set of twins he's experimented on.

If there are other instances of potential mental inspiration for Fran, I'd really love to hear them!

Oh, and a side note about the twins, that I don't know where might fit. In the twin's attic, there is the strained window with the scorpion. It seems out of left field, given that no other scorpions ever appear in the game, and that the zodiac they're connected to is Gemini, the twin. I believe this might be a reference to the story about the frog and scorpion, where the scorpion kills a frog as it sails on its back, killing them both needlessly. Mr. Midnight warns the helpful toad that he might scratch him while they're swimming on his back, which Fran warns is a bad idea, cause they don't know what's in the water. Maybe just a somewhat oddly-told reference, but interesting none the less.

One of my gripes about saying it's all in her head is having a hard time making sense of the the real course of actions after she escapes. She escapes the asylum, runs around the forest for a bit. I wanted to say that she might have jumped into the well that the twins were in, but if it's all fake, there's a good chance there never were any psycho twins, other than who we see at the asylum. But she ends up needing to cross a ravine, which she miraculously does. From there she finds a bike and makes her way home and is stopped by Marcel. He brings up the entire point of doubt about anything being real, saying it's all Duotine's fault. Makes sense. Doesn't make sense why we would suddenly have gotten the wrong dose then.

This kinda brings up my next point. I don't think there can be anything about Oswald being directly connected to the story if there genuinely are experiments going on with twins and Fran. From what I could gather, the research is specifically about the alternate worlds and such, with no other hints at anything else, other than maybe Oswald just wanting to test out this new drug on a subject. But why would Marcel the get fired for knowing too much?

Marcel that insists we go and dig up Fran's parents grave to see if we can find clues. Like, what the hell kinda plan is that? If anything, this is a point in favour of Fran just being insane. No matter the case, I don't actually think the cat in the coffin was Mr. Midnight. Probably just some other dead cat to give the coffin some weight or something.

Afterwards, we go to the disjointed 5th reality. The reality of darkness. The chaotic nature of this area is explained earlier in the game, with normal rules of nature having no effect there and such. That foreshadowing, or just explaining rather, I'd say is a point towards it all being real. But the general chaos of the place could also just be indicative of Fran's fractured mental state, being far worse now than it's ever been.

Another interesting find there, is the picture with Oswald, Marcel, twins, and most importantly, Leon. The writer of the journal we get from the frog. It was a bit of a revaluation to see that Leon was working with Oswald, but nothing eye opening. Could either just be Fran trying to 'put a face' on the otherwise almost faceless author, and give him some relevance to her own situation. Or it's potentially a hint at the whole thing being real.

And I think that's all my points... Ithersta seems oddly free of any real life influences, other than ant on the tv at first, which is simply a fraction of what makes up Ithersta. Make whatever conclusion you will of that, but that's pretty interesting, I feel.

And now to my conclusion... I think the whole thing is real*
*Whole thing being real as in, the supernatural elements are actually real. If they are, there's probably still reason to believe that Fran's perspective isn't 100% reliable either, but that's getting to a point of complication that I can't be made sure of.
But ultimately, I think it's all real due to being unable to make a sensible timeline of events for if it's all fake. If it's all fake, I don't see the 5th chapter happening at all. There are too few concrete things to hang onto, to make sense of what's happening with her. Could all just be in her head, but where would that leave her physically?

And my last point. If it's all fake, that probably means Fran was just psychotic... Now, I know next to nothing about 'psychotic actions', like cutting up your own parents like that unprovoked, but it seems extremely unlikely. Especially if she were to do it in a way where she traumatized herself. Not saying it isn't possible, but I just think it's unlikely.

Oh, and we're getting a Fran Bow 2, and a 6th chapter, I'm pretty sure anyway. Those were originally points against the idea that she's just psychotic, but they could actually go in and make sense of the last part of the game, in a way that helps support it. So those are interesting.

Ultimately, for real this time, I just think I'm clinging on to the supernatural parts of Fran Bow being real, for the same reason that Fran does. The magical dimensions seem more plausible to me than the more logical alternative, and in a way, I think that's pretty cool. I'd love to hear what you guys have to say though! And again, any other links between "sane" Fran and "insane" Fran are more than welcome!