(spoilers) story question

[bearsboi]

so i get that this game is basically about becoming the monster u fear. but did the devs/creators ever discuss what the deeper undertone was? my first thought going thru the game was like, fat gluttonous seemingly rich people gorging themselves on quality food meanwhile six is left to her own scrounging and desparity to eat whatever little bits of food she can find. so...late stage capitalism kinda thing? or just a commentary on class inequality? i was also thinking like, this game really puts into perspective a rat/mouse's point of view. how we see them as pests or objects to be destroyed as opposed to living creatures with thoughts and feelings (maybe not as deep as a humans but thoughts and feelings regardless) also what exactly is the maw besides just a big boat and who was the lady? she seemed to be in charge of the whole operation, but she herself wasnt a massive pig. earlier in the game when u got to see the outside of the maw and all those people migrating to it, whats that all about?

[kanna]

Honestly I don't think Six fears anything, lol, but I suppose that could be a factor.

I'd say this game is about what its original title was said to have been. I don't remember the exactly but I think it was something like "Hunger" or "The Hunger," which if I'm remembering it right was obviously too on-the-nose to be kept as is. Of course the title Little Nightmares focuses specifically on the direction Six's story takes, but think about that direction a bit.

Other than falling from great heights, the dangers Six faces are first from leeches (which are trying to eat you, even if it's just by getting blood), then the lady's magic eye (doesn't eat you, but we'll come back to the nature of the Lady), then a janitor who wants to package you up to become somebody else's food, then two chefs who see that their raw meat escaped (and one of them visibly eats you if you get caught), then a whole vacation resort full of "guests" who would love to get their hands on you for a snack (despite having piles of food in front of them to theoretically "fatten them up" (although without any carbs all that meat would probably cause them to go into ketosis and lose weight, but I digress), then... the Lady.

All the while, Six gets "hungry" (not normal hunger imo, but it's still hunger) and eats things that get bigger and bigger in size until finally Six is (only covering this in case you haven't figured this out already and want to guess for yourself): consuming the souls or life force or whatever from the "guests" that were intended to be food for the Lady.

Six defeats and then, of course, devours the Lady. Many folks seem to assume Six then gets her abilities... but I would guess that at least as of the start of this game (I don't know about the prequel yet myself), she already had the potential to become like the Lady on her own someday as long as she survived long enough. (There are even some hints she could have been the lady's child or in the same family or something.)

I think eating the Lady supercharged that potential was all. So she was always a Little Nightmare (I mean why not save the other kid at the janitor's place???), but in terms of the game's main theme, the actual nightmare isn't related to size but it's about scary things that chase after and try to eat you, I think a bit of a horror-based reflection on the whole "circle of life" thing where everything must be eaten by something. Also, the idea in some cultures that eating something endows you with its "power."

Beyond this, the boat is called the Maw for goodness' sake so even that is swallowing everything up figuratively, and you've got multiple levels of beings eating less powerful beings beneath them (yes, including the rats that eat a dead Nome). The guest area is a roach motel, since they check in but never check out.

There's probably another layer to this in the prequel since I understand it might explain some things about Six that we don't yet know.

[bearsboi]

waittt that makes sense, would explain why everyone there is just getting fattened up, so someone could eat them. the lady as u say. fitting with the theme and all that. so six actually is the "little nightmare" but what about all the times shes nice to the nomes? also is that all the maw is? like a "resort" im assuming advertised to the outside world as such. where do they get all the children to make into food? and why does the janitor and the chefs all basically wear skin suits that make them look different? also i just finished the dlc and it was so sad :(

[SkibidiToiletteRizzMaster]

Did you play the sequel?

[bearsboi]

Originally posted by DeroZaza:

Did you play the sequel?

no

[kanna]

Originally posted by c.bones:

waittt that makes sense, would explain why everyone there is just getting fattened up, so someone could eat them. the lady as u say. fitting with the theme and all that. so six actually is the "little nightmare" but what about all the times shes nice to the nomes? also is that all the maw is? like a "resort" im assuming advertised to the outside world as such. where do they get all the children to make into food? and why does the janitor and the chefs all basically wear skin suits that make them look different? also i just finished the dlc and it was so sad :(

A lot of good questions there. I can only speculate at answers and I haven't played LN2 yet. (There's also a mobile game btw, but I'm not sure how much it adds to the lore.)

Personally, I actually like to think that Six genuinely likes the Nomes, but only because I've been spoiled on loosely related topic from outside this game.

Even though I was spoiled (in a place I shouldn't have been) on a some key aspects of the game, I was pleasantly surprised by the DLCs. The last one really broke my heart, too. People have been good about spoilers on Steam but elsewhere it's very risky for people who haven't seen everything, unfortunately.

(*just covering this stuff for anyone who hasn't played the DLCs)

I wasn't expecting to get as attached as I did to Runaway Kid!

And before the big infamous scene would take place, we take Nome-transformed Kid out of the lady's house and-- I have yet to see anyone comment on this in a Let's Play-- WE WERE SO CLOSE TO GETTING OUT! It was just little bit more climbing up those stairs, and maybe if the Kid was lucky and there was another boat connected, he could find a way to sneak onto the other boat? But as a Nome, you can't jump high enough anymore and now it seems the giant people don't want to eat you anymore anyway. :'(

[bearsboi]

yea...so being a nome is like either a curse or a blessing depending on how u look at it i guess. but then things turned out that way and yea...it was sad. i didnt even know a mobile game existed but it looks so cute and im gonna get it. it says the story is related to the main game so maybe itll answer some questions