What is the end? Meaning? *Spoilers*

[Dolan Tromp]

I just finished the game but what exactly happened? I fought off the constant enemy for like 20 minutes, I was thinking the voices telling me to give up and that it was ok to let go were just messing with me. But I guess you're supposed to go down at some point?

And then... after that, what happened? I was kind of lost in what the ultimate resolution with Hella/her/her bf dude/ Can someone explain?

[Bullett00th]

All of this is purely my interpretation of the ending.



Basically Senua just let go.

She found the source of her fears and faced them, and only in that literally infinite battle she realized she can't win.

Throughout the game she has been put through pointless trials, fooled by illusions and attacked by ghosts of enemies from the past - all on her way to somehow save the soul of the only person who just accepted her in life and gave her a temporary shelter from her own darkness.

She couldn't bear the thought of Dillion being completely lost to her, so she made up this quest to save his soul, walking around with his head and experiencing things that only she could see. But these things existed only in her head - including the curse on her hand, the beast, Hela and Dillion's soul still being out there somewhere, waiting to be released.

So when finally she let go, Hela seemingly killed her. But Hela wasn't real - Senua herself was Hela, and she killed the part of her that wouldn't accept Dillion's death. This is metaphorically explained in the scene where Hela drops Dillion's head from the cliff and when the camera goes back we see Senua instead of Hela.

The voices are still there, the darkness is still there, but at least she's not struggling to change what happened and that helped her accept the reality of things a bit more.



This is how I understood it.

[Gamling]

http://twinfinite.net/2017/08/hellblade-ending-explained-what-happened/

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by Sukotto:

http://twinfinite.net/2017/08/hellblade-ending-explained-what-happened/

interesting, although I never thought of Hela as a vision of Senua's father, rather a personified collection of her memories and self-blaming about her mother's death

[Dolan Tromp]

Thanks guys :) That helps a lot.

[Skywatcher]

Thanks Bullett00th I think you got that totally right !

[WolfEisberg]

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

All of this is purely my interpretation of the ending.



Basically Senua just let go.

She found the source of her fears and faced them, and only in that literally infinite battle she realized she can't win.

Throughout the game she has been put through pointless trials, fooled by illusions and attacked by ghosts of enemies from the past - all on her way to somehow save the soul of the only person who just accepted her in life and gave her a temporary shelter from her own darkness.

She couldn't bear the thought of Dillion being completely lost to her, so she made up this quest to save his soul, walking around with his head and experiencing things that only she could see. But these things existed only in her head - including the curse on her hand, the beast, Hela and Dillion's soul still being out there somewhere, waiting to be released.

So when finally she let go, Hela seemingly killed her. But Hela wasn't real - Senua herself was Hela, and she killed the part of her that wouldn't accept Dillion's death. This is metaphorically explained in the scene where Hela drops Dillion's head from the cliff and when the camera goes back we see Senua instead of Hela.

The voices are still there, the darkness is still there, but at least she's not struggling to change what happened and that helped her accept the reality of things a bit more.



This is how I understood it.

I agree with this assement as well. That is what I got out of this whole story.

With that article posted above, I agree with you in that Hela was not a vision of Senua's father.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by Eisberg:

With that article posted above, I agree with you in that Hela was not a vision of Senua's father.

I got the vibe that the beast is her father, because her father kept her in the dark and blamed her for her illness.

[JackLaVaporiera]

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

Originally posted by Eisberg:

With that article posted above, I agree with you in that Hela was not a vision of Senua's father.

I got the vibe that the beast is her father, because her father kept her in the dark and blamed her for her illness.

Of course Hela is just a reconstruction of Senua's "another self" based on the lies her father told her, mixed to the legends Druth taught her and memories of her mother death, but among all the lies there was just one truth, that's Dillion's death and finally she understand how meaningless is the point in trying to rescue and set free his soul. At first she wont accept Dillion's death as a reaction, at the end of her journey she finally allows some light inside her and accepts the truth.
Senua's been brainwashed by her father for a long time since she was a child, from here her struggle to divide the lies from the truth. Dillion's death was true, her mother death was true, the darkness and nearly everything else her father told her were just lies.