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Ok so Fran has apparently always had issues with psychosis. Her parents sometimes have to have her committed, and they take her to Oswald Asylum because her mom and aunt participated in research with him when they were younger and knew him.
When she was little, her doctor was Leon, who in that one portrait was shown to have been a doctor at the asylum. He was also doctor to other children. The issue was, he himself became psychotic and would share his insane and complex ideas with the children who believed them and incorporated it into their own psychosis. (I get this from his journal)
Anyways eventually Leon dies or whatever and Fran is participating in an experimental treatment for her psychosis. (The new duotine) However she has a really bad reaction to it and her parents want her taken out of the experiment. Her elevated psychosis also meant she was probably going to have to be hospitalized again. This was very upsetting to Fran since she just got her new cat and hated the asylum anyways. It didn't help that she had a love/hate relationship with her parents. (Dad wasn't there, mom didn't care messages first chapter; she was locked up by them a lot and felt betrayed, even though she still loved them)
Enter psychosis, which was much worse due to pills. Remor was one of Leon's characters who she's now adopted to represent sort of the evil side of her illness that makes her do bad things, notice she basically passes out when he shows up and terrible things happen when he does. This is her psychosis, the dangerous side, taking over and "possessing" her. She goes into this psychotic state at this point, and kills her parents in their sleep with a knife from the kitchen (notice she carries a knife with her almost the entire game, which she uses to solve many problems). Then she mutilates their dead bodies, as shown in her vision end game.
She snaps out of her psychosis after a bit and has repressed what happened. She's horrified and runs away with her cat. Eventually she passes out and her cat runs away. She's found and taken back to Oswald. There she is given more experimental pills she also reacts badly to. (Notice on her chart it says she has been given many meds all canceled for negative side effects, which adds evidence to my previous theory of her being on meds before)
She manages to escape, and after finding herself in the lower floor with the really ill patients, who were lobotomized and hears other kids panicking over it she develops this paranoid delusion that the people there want her brain. When she does get out I believe she attacks the guard somehow (because Remor shows up, and that means her bad psychosis is taking over) and escapes.
Once she's lost in the woods with medication that aggravates her psychosis she slips further and further from reality until she's just crazy hallucinating everything based on her memories. (Twins weren't actually sewed together, this can be seen in the twin girls in the asylum, they were lobotomized however, but she's paranoid and imagines this) They're also witches because of the stories of witches she used to read. Mr Midnight is entirely hallucinated as well.
During her psychosis she somehow finds a bike and tries riding back home but bad psychosis takes over and makes her jump off a cliff. She nearly dies, causing her to have near death experience of the Ithersta or whatever where everything is wonderful. But decides she is not ready for death and "loves life" (this chapter has a constant theme of life-also it is titled vegetative state, as in she is half dead) so she survives. (Notice there was water under the bridge, she could have been swept ashore and then walked back up)
She then continues riding her bike back home (hallucinations with Itward occur) before crashing. She goes to her house but is locked out. She hallucinates the doctor showing up and the paranoid theory that they said she was dead. She wanders to the graveyard to visit her parents since she can't get into her house. She digs up their graves and busts them open, hallucinating her own. Somewhere during this process she is caught and brought back to the asylum once more. (Maybe the real Dr Deern shows up and she attacks him-Remor-or someone just noticed a random kid digging up graves idk)
She's really messed up now because of the stress, possible medication withdrawal, and all sorts of things. She's in hell now aka the asylum again. She's restrained because she is dangerous, her aunt tries to calm her down but she her psychosis makes her view her aunt's behavior as sinister. She trips balls, then eventually goes to her regular appointment with Dr Deern, who she hallucinates as being in an electric chair and then jabs him with a syringe with the experimental medication to "wake him up." He starts tripping.
Dr Oswald and her aunt come in. The Dr explains he's been running research on her family and on her for a while now. Her aunt tries to make her feel better about it.
The real Mr Midnight is there. I believe Aunt Grace found him and brought him as a surprise or something for Fran. (He is real here because he can no longer speak) However Fran kills the cat for being a "traitor" aka running away from her after her parents deaths. She hallucinates her aunt doing this though. Then she attacks her aunt because she thinks she killed her cat, almost killing her aunt. Oswald comes in and shoots her to protect Grace, who finally realizes how dangerous and psychotic Fran can be. (I think some of Grace knew Fran killed her parents but was in denial) Fran hallucinates that they're going to steal her brain and possibly attacks them one more time before finally going back to her "happy place" aka the same thing that happened the last time she was on death's door. But now she is ready for death and happily accepts it, rejecting reality completely now that there is nothing left there for her.
Honestly I think dying was a good ending for her. Her suffering was unreal and her brain was even more fried from all those experimental meds they had her on since she was young.
Anyway I managed to take a screenshot of the famous picture:Here is the photo itself[i.imgur.com] and here is where the photo is in the room[i.imgur.com].
The thing I noticed about what I call "Remor's Pentacle" is that, rather than just be a normal pentacle as the others seen in the game (which seem to be just neutral magic symbols used both for good magic, like the Great Wizard, and for bad magic, like the Twins) it has those strange "horns" above it (or below it, in the case of the pentagram seen during the murder of Fran's parents).
The thing is that that particular pentacle actually appears only two times in the story, once drawed in blood during the murder of Fran's parents (there are many photographies of this particular pentagram, hence why it can also be seen in Deern's office and in that Newspaper in the car, but it can also be seen in the very intro to the game) and the other time in that picture. This made me thought that this pentagram had to be related to Remor (having horns and appearing during the murder) and wonder what that symbol could mean.
Another thing I notices is that Oswald (and probably Leon too) was interesed in the study of the Pineal Gland. It is said in that document placed in that basement's box that the red Duotine is supposed to stimulate a particular gland. I suppose then that the red Duotine stimulate the Pineal Gland.
I made some quick searches on the Pineal Gland (just wikipedia, so actually you can barely call that research) and I found that:
a) The Pineal Gland is apparently shaped like a "pine cone", hence the name. Who would have thought that pine cones in the game had that much symbolism behind them.
b) The Pineal Gland was believed to be the "principal seat of the soul" by philosophers and scientists in the 16th and 17th centuries, Descartes among them.
Some more food for thought I guess.
She mentions she met Leon at one point though, when she was younger, and that's when she learned about everything. Though I suppose she could have just imagined this. Anyways I'm still stickin to my theory haha. Or maybe she never met Leon, but notice everything only gets complex when she gets Leon's journal. It could be assumed she reads it right after getting it and it influences her psychosis from that point on as well.
And before I dive into that, I just want to remember that a eleven years old child couldn't possibly slice her parents. Anyone remember the newspaper where it said they were very precise cuts? (the newspaper can be a lie from Oswald of course, since it says she is dead when se clearly isn't) Even if she was possessed or something (which I don't believe at all) she wouldn't be able to do such precise 'pieces', much less with a kitchen knife.
Also
This here.
I too think you all are taking all of this too literaly.
"How could she free herlself from the chains?" Asking anyone who ever had depression (which usually comes with schizophrenia) will bring the answer that we feel, almost literaly, chained. Especially when we have something important to do (her case was to save THE Mr Midnight that she didn't consider a traitor) but she did found the strenght on herself to 'break free' at that moment.
"How could she enter a fully closed well, and even worse, get out of there?" She is a (mentally ill) child! Do you really think that well was closed or that it was so deep like it appeared to her? I don't really doubt that it was just a big hole in the mud, honestly. (like the ship is probably just the bike, like a lot of people already said)
"How did she get past the nurse?" The nurses were all portrayed as giving less than a s*** about their jobs. I doubt they payed any attention at all to the kids. "But what about the numbered lock?" that security code was probably pinned to the wall in the doctor's room (since you have to go inside the yellow door to even get to his room, then there's no point in 'hiding' the password) and in her mind, to make it all feel like a real escape from the asylum, she made up some random code. Which was fairly easy to decode. (because I believe that she is tremendously intelligent to come up with that idea, but she still is only 11 years old, and making up something really difficult wouldn't make sense)
Someone said something about the scribblings on the wall at the asylum that said "Daddy was not there" and "Mommy did not care", that makes me think that her parents put her there when they started to notice she was mentally ill. And when they died, she blamed herself, because even if they didn't love her, she loved them like she loved Mr. Midnight.
I think this theory
fits well with what I think. I just can't agree on her killing her parents because of what I said before. I also think her mental disorder is schizophrenia and not psychosis.
Also I agree with pinkmellow about Leon being too old to be her doctor, but everything else fits just like I had theorized before comming here.
"Schizophrenia (/ˌskɪtsɵˈfrɛniə/ or /ˌskɪtsɵˈfri:niə/) is a mental disorder often characterized by abnormal social behavior and failure to recognize what is real. Common symptoms include false beliefs, unclear or confused thinking, auditory hallucinations, reduced social engagement and emotional expression, and lack of motivation."
To be honest, now that I think more about schizo, maybe what Oswald was so fascinated with that Fran had, was exactly this illness. At least the years 'kinda match'?
"The greatest risk for developing schizophrenia is having a first-degree relative with the disease (risk is 6.5%); more than 40% of monozygotic twins of those with schizophrenia are also affected." (And this makes me think that her mother/aunt and mia/clara also had schizo)
And to end it all let's not forget that schizo has 'subtypes'.
One little nitpick here: Psychosis is not itself a mental illness or diagnosis. Schizophrenia is and one of its main symptoms is psychosis. There is a possible diagnosis of "Psychosis NOS", or "Psychosis Not-Otherwise-Specified", but that's kind of a placeholder until more symptoms prompt a change. I know that back in the 1930's (when the story takes place), schizophrenia was a recognized illness, but I'm not sure if maybe at that time they used the term psychosis differently. That is, I know it had at least a similar definition, but they may have used it as an actual diagnosis separate from the various illnesses in which it is or can be a feature (bipolar disorder/manic depression, schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia... though there may be more).
But I admit that it does look like schizophrenia.
That Fran's parents were killed in a very strange, unnatural, possibly supernatural way is obvious: the newspapers are pretty real and they talk about it, the Asylum lied about having found Fran's body frozen to death in the woods but the journalists and the police saw the way that Fran's parents were killed. And even if we assume that Oswald somehow controlled the press (and I see no indication of it, if anything the need to lie to the press is indication that Oswald had no control over it) why would he had to add more lies about these weird "perfect" slices?
I'd also want want to add that, while seeing the story too literally might be wrong, throwing out of the window most of what actually happens in the game as "just a psychosis" makes the story itself feel quite pointless in the end, at least in my opinion. Sure, some moments and events have hidden meanings behind them, like the "freeing from chains" moment, but I don't see why the hidden meaning should invalidate the existence of the actual event happening in the game.
And, honestly, your points aren't really all that convincing: yes, closed wells exist and wells are usually pretty deep, what's strange with closed wells being deep? Also, it makes quite sense that the Asylum opted to close that well considering how it used to be their dumping ground for failed experiments. You don't want people to stumble upon that stuff. ;)
And I just don't believe that a Nurse who was just told whether she saw Fran or not would have simply ignored her walking by thirty seconds later, she would have taken Fran and sent her back to her room. You're extrapolating too much from the nurses' apparent apathy.
And of course many things remain unexplained like Fran getting out of Deern's office or she knowing about Deern's childhood problems.
Just my thoughts on this though.
That was at the start of Chapter 5, wasn't it? That "Other Fran" however didn't seem younger than "our Fran", I understood it that she was just the Fran from another dimension that was visited by Leon (whether as doctor or while he was travelling through dimensions, assuming he did of course, I don't know).
And even the theory that Fran imagined Ithersta only after reading Leon's book doesn't add up: Leon talks about the Luciferns in his book, and Fran saw the Luciferns too before she finds the book. And the Shadows, and the Valokas too. Either she and Leon had the exact same hallucinations while having no contact with each others and at decades from each others or...
Yeah but she doesn't have names for the things she sees. Shadows? That's pretty vague and a very common hallucination is shadow people. She doesn't start using the word "kamalas" and all those other specific terms until after she gets Leon's journal.
Also to the people talking about schizophrenia and psychosis before, I was just referring to her episodes as psychotic episodes because that's what they were lol. She probably does have schizophrenia, but schizophrenia itself is a psychotic disorder marked by persistent symptoms of psychosis. Didn't mean to get the terminology mixed up or anything.
I still think she could have easily cut up her parents if they were already dead and she killed them in their sleep. My OTHER theory though is that the asylum really was a horrible place that ran very inhuman experiments and they killed the parents and tried to frame it on some kind of cult or something (pentagram) and then somehow convinced Fran she was involved? Who knows.
I just don't believe the fantasy element is real, because of its bases in Alice and Wonderland, Pan's Labyrinth, etc where the fantasy places were not real. Also you can see many many references to things she experienced in real life in the fantasy worlds.
It seems clear to me that Fran couldn't have been influenced by Leon's book in her supposed hallucinations, at least not all of them, and both Fran and Leon seemed to see some same things doing the same stuff.
But I don't think the game deals with demonic possession at all, that's my point. Maybe they want some people to take conclusions like mine and some people to think about supernatural stuff, but I don't think that demonic possession is the topic.
About slicing they perfectly: a doctor could have done it, or simply someone who was thaught about cutting bones.
I'm not exactly throwing out the window what happens in the game, if I sounded like that (I'm reading what I wrote before and I sounded really conceited, s***!) I'm sorry. Sometimes I fail so hard to express myself in english. But comming back, I'm not throwing out the window, I just think they add to that teory. They are more like metaphors, not things to be ignored but things to be seen in a different light.
I never said closed wells dont exist though! I said I don't think Fran ever got to a well (and I do know they are also deep) because ok let's say the demonic powers made her open it and made her survive the fall (because if she entered a well at all, she felt, there is no denying), why didn't it make her survive the gunshot too? The demon (I'm supposing you are talking about Remor) leave her because his job was done? But his job wasn't to make her commit suicide instead of being killed? (also I don't think a demonic possession would make you survive a fall that huge or a gunshot but just adding this) Also I never ever thought the twins where inside the well. While I think the idea of a well where they disposed of dead children is an interesting one, I also think Clara and Mia are still inside the asylum. In all honesty I think they are those twins you see in the room where Itward is written on the glass. If you look at them even without the pills you will see that they don't look alive at all.
Again I never said the nurse SAW her. My opinion is that they hate so much their job they prefer to do something else while at it. (we all know people who, for example, play patience instead of doing their job) Like you know, the dead nurse knitting. For me she represents the nurses of the asylum who don't give a flying s*** about the patients. (I remember another nurse reading a newspaper and not even looking to Fran while talking to her)
There is a 'sane' explanation for almost everything, like the grate being open because really who cares about anything inside that hospital anyway. About Derrn's problems though is something that I can't 'explain' at all and IS one of the biggest mysteries to me, but I can stretch a little and say she read things in his office. He could very well have a diary. But if she did, why they didn't show it in the game? To make it look more like she had some kind of power? Because it didn't happen at all? I don't have a solid explanation for this one.
I have to disagree STRONGLY. You need specific tools for that and a huge ammount of strenght.
I mean, maybe there's even more to the lore hidden from our eyes? Has anyone tried to decipher and read the Itherstian books? Or maybe there's some sort of anagrams hidden in ritual words?
Idk actually, I'm surely need to rerun the game and explore one more time all the places available.
I can certainly agree that many things in the game can and should be seen as metaphors, that is obvious, what I was trying to say (perhaps I too wasn't very clear while expressing myself) is that the presence of metaphorical and symbolical things and events in the game doesn't necessarily mean that a literal interpretation of what's happening can't also be correct (and by reading your comment I think you didn't even want to make this point anyway). Some events can be metaphorical and to some degrees real at the same time in my opinion. Anyway, I think I understand what you were trying to say there now: the game shouldn't be read just as a supernatural tale but also as a metaphor for mental illness and other things, which is something I can certainly agree with.
In any case I think that you might have misunderstood the role that "demonic" possession would play in the game even by going with a literal explanation: Remor's possession only happens a few times in the game, and can be noticed by the fact that the possessed has bleeding eyes (that's something that the ending explains: Dr. Deern starts to bleed from the eyes and Palontras or Itward explain that it is Remor's possession causing this). It happens when Fran supposedly kill her parents (hence the bleeding eyes right from the intro) and also when Remor destroys the bridge in the woods to make Fran fall (which makes me actually think that, if we were to choose a less literal interpretation, we could interpret that part as Fran trying to jump from the cliff, as she's supposedly under the influence of Remor, the one who's trying to make Fran kill herself).
Fran's supposed power, always assuming a more or less literal interpretation of the story, doesn't come from demonic possession but from the pills, that gradually give her the ability to see and interact with different realities, that is what allows her to open an entrance into the well and do all the things she is seen doing, and obviously the ability to see and interacts with things isn't going to protect you from bullets. How did she survive the fall into the well? Well, either the well was deep enough to not allow her to climb out but not deep enough to actually harm her or, by following an even more literal interpretation of things, she never actually fell into the well because she first entered the Twins' house through the stairs and then she would end up in the well by using the pills.
And actually I think that the idea that Clara and Mia were into the well is reinforced by Deern's dialogue: he openly talks about two twins called Clara and Mia that were attached to each others by Oswald and then were thrown into a well when they died some time later. The two girls that Fran see in the Asylum's basement might be an indication of Oswald continued experiments with twins (and a foreshadowing of both Clara & Mia and Itward's role with them).
And about the nurse, I think that even if she was absolutely not caring about anything it would have been pretty hard to not spot Fran, even just by accident, walking very close to door, place a key and then go away. Yes, the nurse are clearly pathologically unable to give a pug, it's not impossible that the nurse just failed to spot Fran being a meter or two from her because she was just that inattentive, however in my opinion this is stretching it a bit. Just my opinion.