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**There are major spoilers below, so I recommend skipping all of this if you have not finished the game.
I'm sure most of us noticed silouettes of The Girl darting just out of sight throughout the subway. Notably, these two at the start aren't terribly difficult to spot: (I hope you'll excuse the terrible quality of the screenshots)
http://imgur.com/YjpouRR
http://imgur.com/1QEUuN2
Another interesting sighting I found by accident. After turning on the power generator, but before turning on the lights in the room to the right of the tape deck, you can see her if you go back to the save point and then continue once more:
http://imgur.com/CuUfjOz
This most exciting thing I had missed on my first two playthroughs, and once more only found now by chance. I was walking around the dark room to the right of the tape deck before I had gotten the red labeled cassette, and I noticed that there was an object blocking MM from moving roughly in the middle of the room. I continued on until I flipped the light switch, and this is what flashes for a split second before the cassette appears:
http://imgur.com/xqcOOys
That I believe is the shadow of The Girl hanging from a noose. A picture for comparison:
http://imgur.com/5R75FuY
Quite startling on its own, but I have one more picture. I had been looking at the Hidden hag holds the key graffiti for a while before the last pic, and that lead me to this comparison:
http://imgur.com/bBzNvaQ
Going further than that, the lyrics to the red labeled tape are as follows: "Giggle, snort snort, can you see where she hides? If you guess wrong, you'll be the one who *gasp* dies."
I'm guessing that this tape is referencing the "Don't leave me" maze later in the game, which is mainly red in colorization. "Can you see where she hides? If you guess wrong, you'll be the one who dies." She hides in different part of the corridors, and if you run into her, you get a game over.
Tl;dr, my theory is that The Girl is the Hidden Hag.
*Edit- I'm convinced Hidden Hag Holds The Key or maybe just Hidden Hag is an anagram for something, but the only halfway coherent one I've found is "Hanged Hid" for Hidden Hag. Creepily enough, you can spell "She Died Alone" if you ignore 8 letters. This is probably the line where I'm just looking way too far into it, but it's just a thought.
The last interaction with her is quite informative. We learn two important things:
1. She has killed before and likely was manipulated into doing so, possibly in a similar situation to the Marshmellow Monk. During the conversation with her, she says (something along these lines) "I didn't mean to kill unjustly, I just thought... I thought he...It doesn't matter, I suppose."
She's killed unjustly and she knows it, just like MM. She references a "he" using language that, while vague, implies "he" tricked her in someway.
2. She had a close relationship with the boy who was murdered in the red field. In that same interaction, she says "He was someone precious to me." What exactly are the implications here? I'm not sure right now, but I'm guessing that it is a major point.
I'm also convinced at this point that The Girl/Hidden Hag and The Ghastly Girl in Yellow are two wholely seperate characters, or at least they are presented to be. Knowing as little as we do though, it is certainly possible thatthey are indeed one and the same.
I'm going to be playing through the game some more, and I'll hopefully soon have a somewhat solid theory about Ghastly. I also intend to post a more encompassing interpretation of the game as a whole, once I can assemble my thoughts into something resembling coherence. 'Till then, I just want to give a giant and sincere thanks to the developer for creating such an engrossing experience. I'm enjoying every minute of it.
Though some of these I have discussed in ( I think ) my video covering endings 6 and *sigh* 7.
1. (from your findings) Marshmellow Monk was cursed by the Hidden Hag. If we assume that the cassette tapes told the story of the Hidden Hag and how she "kills" people, and that the hidden hag is indeed the girl which the Marshmellow Monk once lived with; the girl must have first cursed the Marshmellow Monk, but may have found a use for MM's murderous instincts.
(from your findings) In ending "5" she refers to a "Mama", where sacrifices needed to be made to bring her back to life. If we step back a bit and think of what sort of being requires sacrifices to be brought into the mortal realm, we would realise that it's definitely something not nice if said person is really an individual capable of cursing anyone whom trespasses your little cottage.
(discussed in video, and expanded by yours) This would mean that in ending "6", it is not MM going through a physical change, but MM going through a realisation of what he's done. I'd like to think that Judith Manor are his memories, and that him/her staying in and progressing through the maze is him/her making sense of everything that has happened, and that at the very end he/she is struck with a sudden realisation of his/her wrong-doings. He/she cannot "shut off" what he/she was seeing in the conveyor belt because he/she was literally seeing everything he/she did in a different light, and at the very end he/she saw him/herself as what he/she is: a monster (potentially even more warped due to the "curse")
I also have theories and thoughts on the significance of Simon and Valerie, though I could be de-railing this topic too much. (Skipping the host because we may have enough discussions on him already)
Now that we have confirmation that there are hidden scenes in this game, I am currently trying to search for these like an excited ferret.
Would you be interested in having some of your findings put into a video? We'd be a knock-off "Game Theory" XD
I also like your thoughts about ending 6. Though that one comes off a sort of secret ending, I always thought it had more significanse to the story overall than we would be lead to believe.
I would be thrilled if you used my observations. I've been working on a video of my own, but it's proven difficult as I don't actually own a computer powerful enough to make a video of worthwhile quality, but I've been using a friends when I can. I have a couple more thoughts we could discuss if you would like.
Why is the Hag/girl guide Marshmellow? Isn't Marshy trying to find his reality if not what else and how does it tie to the Hag helping/hurting him?
About the hag, she seems to have had a past with the protagonist and has probably either killed herself or was killed by the protagonist. I think the host is using her to torment and observe the protagonist.
And once you see from that perspective. You'll question the intentions of everyone, and see the Host as a good guy instead.
Remember that the hag cursed anyone that came to her abode, that may also include Marshmallow Monk, but she has actually found a use for our protagonist. So who's not to say that the entire game was the Hag trying to test Marshmallow Monk's usefulness/loyalty to her?
Re: the host. Don't you guys think it a little strange that the host and MM hang at the same time ? Or a little coincidental that pretty much every big character in the game is hanged ? And how guilt was implied but not contextually evident immediately ? Or the fact that MM acknowledges from the very first departure across a bridge, or up or down a stairway (perception toyed with) that they're more than one person ? This isn't merely begging the question, as it is confirmed through his own monologue in response to attempting to return to the door you "escape" into .
Here's what I believe, and my proposed explanation regarding Ghastly.
MM, The Girl, The Host, Ghastly are ALL the same person
They can be viewed as distinct because the realm they are in is something more akin to the subconscious mind , which was in fact NOT so much of an escape as a forced imposition, through losing vision. Literal visual loss, from losing the eyes. . Repeatedly the protagonist is told to close your eyes, but people don't outwardly seem to question why. Maybe the fanbase presumes it's because if you close your eyes, something bad would happen, but the supposed decent and emersion in that strange place was never really freedom, was it ? Often it is alluded to, especially by the host, that closing the eyes would reveal something . He made a remark about seeing shapes when our eyes are closed, maybe something like sensory deprivation...
Deprivation is a theme, isn't it? It is very pervasive as well. Something always seems to be missing, or substituted through superimposed imagery (such as the fine art perception part and the puns on vision (i.e. are you sure you aren't SEEING things?- The Host)... So, if the protagonist were to close their eyes, what do you think would happen? Though normally in symbolism, closing your eyes is the same thing as attempting to ignore the truth, if already one is submerged in delusion, or false perception , what would closing your eyes entail? What is so feared that the seemingly fearless protagonist would rather go through hell than open their eyes to, as shown in the factory ending ? Why is it emphasized by The Host in cynicism that people fear the past more than a future that in actuality may be far more terrifying than what they could currently conceive? Is conception where terror would lie ?
I think not.
In fact, I don't think the protagonist is running literally . I don't think the protagonist is seeing . I literally don't think he can, because in this environment of darkness and opaque presence, eyes wide open in darkness or closed *would* somehow make a difference .
What would you do if you found out you couldn't close your eyes even if you wanted to ?
What would you do if you found out you couldn't open them somehow, despite never closing them ?
What if despite all of this, you were very much alive ?
You can see without eyes, but what you see is obscured by the mind's eye . When the mind isn't in the eye of the beholder, and the beholden occupy another distinct role , who is to judge, who is to see? Who is to know? What is to distinguish in the absence of perceptual awareness ? The future is the past , as you progress, and somehow, it is already known .
You know you are running in circles . You know this and it does not impact you. Really, nothing impacts you . You can not move forward to feel the impact of what you have not experienced if you are cut off from novel stimuli . Perception is crippled without sensation and is known very well to drive a person into the depths of disoriented insanity in the field of psychology. Look up sensory deprivation and suddenly things seem to fall together.
And perceptual deprivation gives rise to something known in psychology as the Ganzfeld Effect.
Perception will connect dots. There is no conscious choice over what we perceive, only the freedom to choose how we perceive it. That is a freedom only stripped from us with brain death, or damage where pretty much the only part remaining in tact is the brain stem. We can live with only the brainstem. We can live without senses. What DO we live, without senses ?
If you're in a backwards existence where experiencing what IS implies lack of awareness while dictating that perception is mutually deceptive and truthfully telling in equal measure, where are you? With eyes open only to the mind , what is there to fear in closing them?
Truth.
Inescapable truth through confronting what reality is outside of the delusion you exist in . When we see no light, we create it when there is none. So if the protagonist closes their eyes, the only thing that may change is knowing whether or not such a feat is possible. If you can't close your eyes because you have no eyes to close, if your sight is gone despite seeing, because your seeing is in the absence of sense-perception, then the most terrifying thing to learn is what truly constitutes the whole reality of your situation, and to consciously be aware of your lack of freedom . Going nowhere, or in circles, is fine so long as we aren't aware that we don't have the option to do otherwise. Volition is an interesting thing. Pandora's box exploits hope at the mercy of the desperate, and desperation and hope are ignored at a glance . Yet this is not a whole individual . And to withstand what is, disassociation is necessary when reality is inescapable , despite fate being undeterminable .
Speaking of which, these thoughts are stirring my intuition to remind me of other connections, and my own puzzles are resurfacing to draw from, so I'll most likely have more theory to contribute as well. The formatting though, pls nerf.