Ending interpretation?

[Baby]

I would like to talk with people who ended game already. (It was amazing, btw!)
Did Fran really kill her parents? If she did, she was mentally unstable, I guess? Was she living in asylum before? (I'm talking about the part with small Fran) Is kitty dead (body in coffin)? :( Why he couldn't talk anymore? Did she die in the ending? Are aunt Grace and dr Oswald dead?
And please, don't say things like "you will have to answer it yourself", my curiosity is hungry for answers :(

[Quinderella]

akidesu a écrit :

I would like to talk with people who ended game already. (It was amazing, btw!)
Did Fran really kill her parents? If she did, she was mentally unstable, I guess? Was she living in asylum before? (I'm talking about the part with small Fran) Is kitty dead (body in coffin)? :( Why he couldn't talk anymore? Did she die in the ending? Are aunt Grace and dr Oswald dead?
And please, don't say things like "you will have to answer it yourself", my curiosity is hungry for answers :(

So I'm not quiet sure but I read that the idea behind this is to think about it and make a own ending in your head, so you can decide how it ended for you.
But also in my opinion I think that she did killed her parents but didn't knew it because she was controled by the drugs she had to take. With ''drugs'' I mean the pills and stuff Aunt Grace and the Doc gave her.
Maybe they wanted to test something or they just wanted to get the parents out of their way but they had to find a way to do it without a hint. So (I'THIS IS JUST AN IDEA) they took Fran and let her, full of ♥♥♥♥, do it.
In this way they also had a better reason to hold Fran in the Assylum.

[MayaGoose]

My take on it is that Fran is dead at the end and her cat talking to her throughout the game has been a delusion. Probably due to the fact that she was lonely. I think the entire game has mostly been an illusion made up by her to try and escape from the reality od her parents being dead. Her mind makes such a messed up world and perhaps that is to replace her tramuatisation fromher parents being dead with a completely messed up and disturbing place so that she is distracted somewhat from her reality (I don't know if that made any sense... XD). My theory is that Aunt Grace killed her parents and then in the final chapter, she managed to kill her. My theory is that the entire final chapter is a final delusion that she makes up as she's dying. Then when Palontras, Mr Midnight and Itward escape at the end, that could symbolise her "escaping" from her reality. On the clipboard next to her bed in the mental hospital, it says that she has psychosis. Psychosis is a mental disorder that makes you unable to discern what's real and what isn't. I think that this mental disorder is why she imagained everything in the game. I don't know if any of this made sense, but um... yeah that's my opinion on the ending of Fran Bow and other stuff in the game.^-^.

[unknown]

Awkward_Otaku11037 a écrit :

My take on it is that Fran is dead at the end and her cat talking to her throughout the game has been a delusion. Probably due to the fact that she was lonely. I think the entire game has mostly been an illusion made up by her to try and escape from the reality od her parents being dead. Her mind makes such a messed up world and perhaps that is to replace her tramuatisation fromher parents being dead with a completely messed up and disturbing place so that she is distracted somewhat from her reality (I don't know if that made any sense... XD). My theory is that Aunt Grace killed her parents and then in the final chapter, she managed to kill her. My theory is that the entire final chapter is a final delusion that she makes up as she's dying. Then when Palontras, Mr Midnight and Itward escape at the end, that could symbolise her "escaping" from her reality. On the clipboard next to her bed in the mental hospital, it says that she has psychosis. Psychosis is a mental disorder that makes you unable to discern what's real and what isn't. I think that this mental disorder is why she imagained everything in the game. I don't know if any of this made sense, but um... yeah that's my opinion on the ending of Fran Bow and other stuff in the game.^-^.

it makes a lot of sence however psychosis isn't a psychological disorder but rather a symptom of an illness as a high feaver or organ failure can cause psychosis. Fran appears to be suffering from schizophrenia due to the halucinations (Positve symptoms) and she can also be seen to exibit some of the negative symptoms too such as some of what she says seems to go a bit beyond innocent child talk and more into beign a bit disorganised usually seen in some of the ways she answers some normal questions however this is debatable. I do believe that fran didn't kill her parents mainly due to the fact that in the grave when you did them up they are not in s bunch of pieces versus the immagined version by fran where they are cut into pieces. however if she had killed her parents she would remember the bodies just as they are as she had done the killing however this could be wrong as frans parents in the graves could not be a clue but rather an artistic representation of her parents in the grave and the intact bodies could simply be a mistake. Trauma can alter memories and finding your parents dead murdered bodies could be remembered like that if you were only a child like fran. As far as the fantacy part of it i do not believe it to be true partly due to the fact that dr deern never actually reacts to them as the only thing he says is you are a monster which could be directed at dr oswald having just shot a little girl despight her attacking aunt grace. There are also some things like her finding a book about ithersta befor she visits which in reading could have inspired that dream not to mention the fact that you see a bike in 3 areas being at the house which really is outside of a well that she fell into in itwards flying machine and a crashed bike after the flying machine crash which goes to show that she has biked all the wasy to her house but interpreted it a bit differently and that big fall could habe simply been a bike reck that knocked her out. You will also notice that itwards flying machine is broken and in need ot repairs after fran wakes up from her dream. Mr. midnight is also definitly a figmint of her immaginiation as you see the cat's body inside of the grave that is supposed to be frans and later when you see mr midnight with aunt grace he doesn't talk probibly because it is a real cat that had been bought for fran by aunt grace. In the end not all of the diolog can be relied on either as you get a line from aunt grace where she refers to mr midnight as a "traitor" just like the evil fran in the ithersta dream. The hostital also looks like a broken mess and considering that dr oswald, dr deern, and aunt grace are there they probibly whould have noticed that they are in some crazy void looking place if it were real. Considering in what dr oswald sais about the experimentation and the young fran scene where she helsp fran escape i would say fran had been suffering from psychosis for a while and had been at the assylum before when she was younger and due to whats going on in the game it wouldn't be going too far to say that her parents discovered that she was being experimented on and took her out which could have led to their murder wether that be directly through aunt grace killing them or aunt grace giving fran something durring her visit that led to fran killing them. You will notice a lot about the pineal gland which durring the 1940s was believed to be the location of the soul and due to the journal written by leon who we see knows dr oswald back befor his probible death dr oswald may have taken an interest in waht leon said thinking that the pineal gland could be a bit more which led to him wanting to experiment on it. The pineal gland controles your circadian rhythm meaning it regulates your sleep and messing with it can cause a person to say sleep for 3 strait days after taking pills that trigger the gland. Mix together a young psychotic patient you have a highly suggestable patient who has sleep problems and hallucinations which to a dr that throws ethics out the windown you have a patient that will prove a theory that the pineal gland can allow you to see multiple realities all because they were asked about it/read a book about it in a highly suggestable state.

[Zitomira]

I have so many theories about this game.

One of my favourites just to think about rather non-seriously, is Fran might've died when she fell to Ithersta-- And the rest of the story was her journey to the afterlife (She went through Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell, and found redemption).

Note that the sign when she's with Itward that says both Home and Hell :) Both are true. (This could also be explained because everything she sees on the pills exists at the same time, as explained by Itward).

The whole game, I want to give her the benefit of the doubt-- I think that's the natural reaction. To see her as innocent and sweet, of just wanting to find out the truth.. And the entire game, we're also meant to be skeptical, and doubt it at the same time. What an interesting balance!

I noticed when you examine the bed inside the ant hill, she says that the ant is a man.. But, wait, no, he couldn't be.. As if she's in denial. So, who is the ant and his pig, really? It's at this section where certain things seen off the pills seem abnormal, and yet this should be the 'real world', because it's seen without the influence of pills... She killed that pig with current reality eyes, not ultra-reality.

Not to mention being in a well and a house at the same time-- But, the house was in the 'non-pill eyes', and the well was with the 'pill eyes'.. So, it seems topsy turvy-- It seems as if the well should have been seen with 'non-pill eyes', but was not.

It isn't until she's in the House of Mabuka that I started to see the darker sides of her personality more overtly.

If you spend some time examining everything in the dollhouse in her 'room', she explains how she stole something from a boy, and how she cut out the Queen from a card, and that the other Queen is "dead". Going around her room in this way, we find out just how self-centred she was prior to the tale. (Only her own interests were important.)

Also, one of the dolls that she likes to make cry, get mad at, only to make laugh again..

And the other version of herself needs to wear a straight jacket to go outside, Mr. Midnight doesn't exist (I am left to wonder if this version of Fran is just another aspect of her present personality, and not just from another timeline)

Very morbid things, that she treats casually (Which she does with seeing herself get eaten, dead animals, etc throughout the game as well.)

Also, they kept mentioning her, "waking up in darkness". That sounds like death to me, but that explanation doesn't satisfy me at all.

Then again, I think this may be because the actual explanation for everything that happened is what I fear is the most realistic, and disappointing ending of them all-- That this has been a journey of self-discovery, for the viewers to find out that she killed her own parents, and that she died, and nothing was actually solved. At least not to Fran-- Because she never accepts that she killed her parents, if she actually did, which seems like that was the entire point since the beginning. To find the truth.

I feel like it was left this way on purpose, because if they actually overtly tell us what happened, we won't like it. Because, either she did kill her parents, died while getting experimented on, hallucinated happy things, and was gone. Or, she really actually has supernatural abilities, didn't kill her parents, was saved by Itward, and went to Ithersta with Mr. Midnight. (What's up with him meowing in the house of madness? WAS that the house of madness? Wtf?)


In fact, if her needing to face the fact that she killed her parents was the moral of the story, the game even seems to go so far as to say, it doesn't actually matter WHO killed her parents, that's not the point. The point is, she chose happiness, because even though she did bad things, she's .. Not going to anymore ? uhm.. Well, if that's true, she's not taking responsibility for her actions (which she claims she does do, "no matter how icky.") but, maybe Fran is the greatest liar of them all.

The doctor said that Remor was a grand manipulator, and that Fran was holding the knife. He had no reason to lie. If Remor is not a hallucination, it's probably safe to say that Fran had no intention of killing her parents, and Remor had her under his control, and that's why it doesn't matter.

The portrait at the very end, that shows her mom and Aunt Grace.. That makes me think that maybe the doctor manipulated/controlled Grace from a young age, and that is why she acts oddly. Remor being a blinded manifestation of Fran's fear makes a kind of sense... But, it also makes a kind of sense that Remor was actually manifested by the doctor. In either case, it makes it likely that Grace might have killed her parents, and the old doctor had a hand in it.

Maybe it's because of our unreliable narrator Fran, but "Between Guilt (for her actions) and Fear(?? What is she afraid of? Remor, probably? She has only seemed to show fear with him, as well as ultrareality, where she's generally shaking in her boots-- So, maybe she is rejecting ultrareality itself?), I choose Happiness." Sounds like she could be staying in denial for her part in the responsibility, forever, and that's just fine with her.

An abrupt ending, for an abrupt death. And, if she was just a puppet, maybe that's why it's for the best.

But, to be a bit more fair, perhaps it's the essential idea that, we feel guilt and fear often in our lives, but if we know we are not guilty, and have no reason to be afraid, then we should choose happiness, as Fran does. Although, this seems a shaky explanation, as this whole game seems to be about mental illness, and it's generally well-known that it's very difficult for someone with mental illness to 'choose to be happy'. So, perhaps this was Fran's actual quest from the very beginning.

It's a happy ending-- It's the ending I wanted. But, it is also a very sad one, because it's also the ending I didn't want. At the same time. And I think that's what the creators wanted to accomplish. Ultrareality at its finest-- We are the ones with the true Ultrareality sight-- We are the ones who have seen it all.

But, yeah.. I've read all of the explanations I could find, and nothing really satisfies me, or makes me feel like it ties everything together in a cohesive way. I wish I could sit down with the creators and get their point of views, talk to them about it.. I enjoyed this tale, but I feel like I'm missing something important. I have a sinking feeling it's because all possible endings exist at the same time, because of the nature of Ultrareality, so... "You're ALL right!" -_- I hope not. . But it feels a bit like it.

[baberuthless]

akidesu a écrit :

I would like to talk with people who ended game already. (It was amazing, btw!)
Did Fran really kill her parents? If she did, she was mentally unstable, I guess? Was she living in asylum before? (I'm talking about the part with small Fran) Is kitty dead (body in coffin)? :( Why he couldn't talk anymore? Did she die in the ending? Are aunt Grace and dr Oswald dead?

The game is entirely up to the player/viewer's interpretation, so I'll tell you what I personally think happened.

We know that Dr. Oswald had an obsession with twins and did twin experiments. His interest in twins is how he was connected to Fran's mom & her Aunt Grace. Dr. Oswald had plans for Fran before she was even born, and even though Fran isn't a twin herself, she comes from a twin parent and that is good enough for Oswald. I believe that Fran has been in and out of the asylum from a very young age. In the last chapter, when Fran is chained to her bed & locked in her room by Aunt Grace, she imagines/hallucinates talking to her younger self. The younger Fran is in the asylum, hinting that Fran's current stay at the hospital has not been her first stay there. If we assume that Fran stayed at the hospital when she was younger, that implies that Fran has a history of some sort of mental illness, or at least that Dr. Oswald may have been experimenting on her (or medicating her) when she was younger.

For these reasons, I actually do believe that Fran killed her parents, although I doubt she meant to do so on purpose. I'm sure that Fran did truly love her parents and that she truly thinks she didn't kill them. I think Fran had a psychotic outburst and that's what caused her to kill her parents, and that's also why she has no clear recollection of actually committing the crime. Since she doesn't remember killing her parents, she doesn't understand why she is being kept in the asylum, leading Fran to try and escape in the first chapter.

At the end of the game, Remor tries to clearly prove to Fran that she did in fact, kill her parents, but Fran is unwilling to listen and can't fathom herself doing such a thing. Some people feel that Remor actually possessed Fran and that he is to truly blame for her parent's murders. I disagree that Remor possessed Fran because Remor is, in my opinion, only a figment of Fran's mind; Remor is a hallucination so it would've been impossible. He is meant to represent darkness, evil, and despair though, so I do think that it's plausible to say that Remor represents the psychotic, killer side of Fran, which she always tries to run from...Just as she always tries to run from the truth that she killed her parents. By the end of the game, Fran is still not ready to acknowledge Remor/ her psychotic side, and holds the claim that she didn't kill her parents.

Another reason why I think Fran being a murderer is true is because of her outburst in the last scene. During almost all of the game, we see Fran as a sweet naive child, but when she attacks Aunt Grace, she jumps on top of her and starts choking her. It wasn't hard to imagine her spontaneously lashing out at her parents after seeing her choke her Aunt Grace.

As for the cat, aka Mr. Midnight, I think it's safe to say he's dead. The Mr. Midnight that Fran talks to is an auditory & visual hallucination (just like many of the other interesting characters in the game) meant to guide her/help her throughout the journey within her mind. At one point, Mr. Midnight was a real pet who existed, but he's dead now. I don't know if Fran also killed Mr. Midnight during her muder-psychosis, but it's a possibility imo.

I don't think Dr. Oswald & Aunt Grace are dead. Since Itward literally threw them out of the scene and I don't think Itward is a real person, they are probably alive. As for Fran, I'm not so sure. I think there's two possibilities: 1) Fran did really try to attack her Aunt, was shot, died, and went to Ithersta (Heaven) with Polantus, Itward, and her talking cat OR 2) Fran attacked her Aunt, was shot, and survived but has taken so many Duotine pills that her reality & hallucinations are entwined with one another, leading her to hallucinate herself flying off into the distance.

The only reason why I think it may be possible for Fran to still be alive is because of what the King of Ithersta told her. The King said that if one is still capable of love, then they are not dead. In the last scene, Aunt Grace throws the "fake" hallucination of Mr. Midnight (the one that can only meow) out of the room, but after Fran chokes Aunt Grace and is shot, the "regular", talking Mr. Midnight jumps back into the scene. Fran leaves with Mr. Midnight, so she is still able to love him, and therefore may be still alive. Fran's last line is, "...between guilt and fear, I choose happiness". Rather than feel guilty about what she did or be fearful of the past & future, Fran chooses happiness by escaping her problems with her hallucinations and the cat she loves.

If you ask me, I actually don't think Fran ever made it out of the asylum. Fran used her pills to help escape the asylum, so I don't actually think that happened. She literally got to the basement of the hospital because a hallucination of a clown opened up the vent leading to the basement. I'm a fan of the theory that everything at the very beginning, and very end, of the game were real. In Chapter 1 when she's in the asylum is real, but her escape is not real and never happened. Then fast forward to the last chapter, where the game ends back in the asylum...because she never actually escaped. I think Fran desperately fantasizes about leaving the hospital considering she doesn't believe she killed her parents, and therefore doesn't think she should be in the hospital because she's "innocent". A mix of her own desire to leave, her mental illness, and her medications that the doctor screwed with caused her to extensively hallucinate for majority of the game. I included her mental illness in that list because Fran can have hallucinations without the pills, in the normal world (Ex: The Ant & his beetlepig are a hallucination, but you don't need to take the pills to see him & Mr. Midnight himself is a hallucination seen without the pills as well). So yeah, I don't think she ever got out of the asylum and that most of the story was in her head.

[unknown]

one thing that really points to hallucinations is when aunt grace refers to mr midnight as a traitor just like how the "evil adult fran" in ithersta refered to him as. i do believe that mr midnight died in the forest and was burried in frans place and the cat you see aunt grace with in the final chapter is a real cat. you notice that aunt grace shows fran the cat that she probibly bought as a replacement and when fran becomes upset when it cannot speak aunt grace probibly hands it to a nurse taking it out of the room which fran interprets very differently. fran is shot and i do believe that dr deern saves fran when she is shot as you hear him say "you are a monster" fran interprets this as him talking ot itward when in reality he is talking to dr oswald. you dont get anymore diologe from any real characters after that due to fran passing out and due to the planned fran bow 2 (this might be kind of cheating but they did anounce a sequil) and they are in a hospital with nurses who could probibly save her. if fran bow 2 is a prequil though that would indicate that she died. we will not know for at least a couple of years while the devs finish up their other game then develope fran bow 2

[GallerieDuIb]

Might've been carried off in an ambulance at the end.

[karelklod]

Wow, and I thought the ending was very easy to grasp and honest about what happens with characters. That's why I was angry at the game at the end, because I would like something more vague instead of what happened. Fran saw a kind hallucination before her death or in coma, it doesn't matter since it's all over for her. Cat was talking in Fran's imagination so he stopped when Fran stopped imagining it, because she was too afraid of reality around her and couldn't ignore it at the same level as before.
I can get something wrong, I'm not the creator, especially since I played it some time ago, but my point is that wow, the game was too forward for me at the end, I was disappointed because of it. It is kinda strange that not everybody sees it that way, I should just get used to it already. The game left no questions for me unanswered.

[Golden$Dragon]

LINUXWolfyrion a écrit :

Fran Bow Is like Matrix.

Blue or Red Pill - which one is reality?

Redpills are people who have chosen to face reality, while bluepills remain living in ignorance of the truth, whether by choice or because they have not had a choice.

ALL YOU SAW IS REAL! :D

My Point of View
------------------
Oswald through years of work in the Asylum has discovered Fran's World but not all of it , maybe some dimensions and he managed to travel to the shadow world where he is now and he become friends with shadows, MABUKA and Prince of Darkness.
Maybe Osward was the key for Shadows and Prince of Darkness to Enter Humans Reality.

Oswald wanted to learn more and more about the other dimensions /Ultra Realities etc not just the shadow world so he wanted to find people to experiment... At the start he started experimenting with his own daughters but Frans Mother left and got married but he had Mia and Clara to deal with them in the Asylum so he stopped harassing Frans Mother for some time...

After some years experimenting on Twins, he failed miserably and he wanted a fresh blood to experiment.

So according to Grace(his daughter) because she was babysitting Fran.
Fran was telling to her aunt stories about her dreams and stories with Mr. Itward .
So Grace knew about the abilities of Fran and told to Oswald about it , so Oswald wanted to experiment with her mind.

The only way to get Fran into Asylum was to kill the Parents......
Yes Oswald was responsible for killing Frans Parents ... now who really did it I dont care much , Grace or Remor or Oswald or shadows or they suicide or car accident..?

Anyway the story moves on...
Oswald/Grace said to the police that all the family has been killed thats why in the grave you see 3 coffins and no is not Mr. Midnight...

So the road now was free to do the experiments to Fran and discover the other realities as well.

Mr. Deen was a simple employee the ones that just do there jobs and dont ask much and whatever they see is what they beleive.
When he started investigate things about Fran they fired him but he didnt stop investigating things.

Asylum and all te world is a mixture of realities , but with the red pills and Fran's abilities you could see normal people and shadow world creatures at the time being.

Fran didnt use pills at Bugs World and at shadow world at the end because at the end Fran managed to become the MATRIX.

She managed to see all the 5 realities/dimensions with no pills and now she was ready to become the Queen/The Light of the bug country.

I dont have much time to write all about it but I hope you got my point...ALL YOU SAW IS REAL! :D

I liked your theory the most

[Golden$Dragon]

There is something so many people didn't talk about
who is León Castillo in the book?

[Dallas]

The worst type of endings.
The *we couldnt decide what we want to do with the story* ending.
So do our work for us and make something up yourself.

I dont mind endings being confusing. I dont mind them being complicated. But this one... Is a bunch of stuff thrown together without any strong links. Seems like you need to assume A LOT to have any chance of telling the story from start to finish.

[Stigma]

Dall a écrit :

The worst type of endings.
The *we couldnt decide what we want to do with the story* ending.
So do our work for us and make something up yourself.

I dont mind endings being confusing. I dont mind them being complicated. But this one... Is a bunch of stuff thrown together without any strong links. Seems like you need to assume A LOT to have any chance of telling the story from start to finish.

What do you mean it's confusing?? The ending is straight forward

[beefcakethemighty]

Finished the game a few days ago, got it in the Halloween sale - didn't know anything about this game before, I bought it because the description sounded interesting and I sometimes like to play a good adventure game.

I was basically knocked sideways by how good this game actually is - I loved every single one of the about eight hours it took me to finish it. And like many of you, I couldn't stop thinking about the game and its ending afterwards.

I didn't manage to read all the posts in this thread, but I've read the first eight or nine pages - you guys have really thought about the game and there are some good theories. But one thing struck me - am I the only one who actually believes in magic and the supernatural (at least when it comes to games) ?

Most of you talked about mental illnesses and went into some detail laying down your theories about that. Sure, it is a big topic in this game, but who are the mad ones here: young children who to some extent don't fulfill what is considered to be normal in society OR the people who conduct experiments like lobotomies on children, tell them they would give them a key for a kiss or even use a gun to shoot at a 10-year-old girl? Obvious answer to me...

No; I think, this being a fantasy horror game, that Fran really has got special powers, she is some kind of seer and can cross the borders between different dimensions. Of course, by this she deviates from the norm, which in turn is considered to be madness by normal people. Just because we can't see things doesn't mean that they are not there.

Considering Fran herself: I think that she really is a nice and lovable little girl, maybe a bit too childish for her 10 years of age. I don't believe that she's mad, she's just special, but being in an asylum for some time can make anybody insane, I recon. She might be in deep shock because of what she had to see concerning her parents, so that's why her reactions to certain things like dead babies are somewhat unsuitable. But she is always polite to everybody and uses sentences like "I hope you're happy" a lot, so she really cares about other beings, and this also applies to animals and toys, showing her childish side.

I also found it worth mentioning that she knows the names of all the other children in the asylum, which shows that she cares about them. What was this sweet phrase? "Annie likes to drink her milk like a cat" - just adorable. I'm a father of three myself and a teacher to boot, so I really like children, maybe this is why I was so gripped by this game.

Sometimes she has to be rude or use violence, but she doesn't like doing those things and only does them out of love, in most cases for her cat, the only thing she has really left in life. Did you notice that she's shocked or afraid every single time when she enters the other reality using the pills? A mad person wouldn't be shocked in my opinion.

Concerning Fran imagining her whole journey: that would have been quite a feat to make this all up! Furthermore, why did she make up all those riddles and puzzles then, she could have had it far easier if she had wanted to. That's not really convincing to me...and would she really have been able to think up something like the chemistry puzzle in the airship? Not very likely.

So, in a nutshell, accepting that there is something magical and supernatural about the world of Fran Bow makes the whole story, including the ending, more believable. Of course Fran doesn't die in the end, she is recued by her magical friends and carried off to safety. Is it so hard to suspend your disbelieve for a game to allow such an ending to happen? :-)

This said, Mr. Midnight not being able to talk in the end also puzzles me...maybe it's really not him but a different tomcat, but why is her there then in the end when Itward arrives? Hoping for a sequel...

[unknown]

beefcakethemighty a écrit :

you know many curlture around the world today and many historically looked at illnesses such as schizophrenia as people who have special powers and have one foot in the spirit world and would be religious shawmen. there definitly could be a fantacy part of this, paired with a mental illness side. For example mr midnight as you have stated. he cannot talk in the end, yet the experimentation could have been on a mentally ill patient being fram as a way to access this world as remeber the elon's journal (his name might not be elon its hard to remeber i played it soo long ago) who knew dr oswald and who better to experiment to access this other world than a mentally ill litttle girl who lost her parents.

Itward and mr midnight could be figments of her psychosis as you notice things about them such as mr midnight cannot meow and a dead cat is in frans grave and itward's flying machine crash is a red bicycle that you see earlier in the game at the house with the twins. yet ithersta is very complex and while i argue that she got all of this from reading that journal as she revieves it right befor ithersta, yet at the same time ithersta is very complex and might be a fantacy part of the game as even the drs do refer to the other realities and the experiements seem to be an attempt to reach those other realities which might be in itself a 3rd theory which is both mental illness and fantacy are involved

[Silverbane]

I think it's a little of all of the above. She was crazy. I think Aunt Grace murdered the parents. Her conversation with the Doctor in the beginning doesn't mesh with the end. Moreover, I think she died when she fell off the cliff. You saw her all broken and deformed only briefly but Oswald then got her body and quickly extracted her brain. The rest of everything is the effects of the duotine on her mind and the great experiment. The very end is her consciousness escaping Oswald and passing on to a higher mental state beyond.

Assuming that the entire last scene is a delusion note that the gunshot would is the same as the wound in the deformed body she finds earlier.