[Spoilers] Saya's True End

[Alibenrentai]

Just finished reading her route for the first time, though I did watch the OVA some time before, but I still don't get her ending. Can someone explain it to me.

[Crescens]

Since this is in a thread marked spoilers, I'm not going to try and hide anything.
I haven't gotten through to Saya's route yet. I didn't get around to playing the EX routes before now.
From what I remember from the anime though it was not properly explained, but easy enough to put together. Saya was a wandering spirit who was drawn to the world created by Kyousuke where the main story of Little Busters takes place. After the events of the route, out of kindness, Kyousuke ended up creating a little world for her to live the life that was more fulfilling so she could pass on peacefully.
Of course, I could have misremembered some things, but I was shedding a lot of manly tears at that time and it was hard to see.

[Alibenrentai]

So is she really dead at the end? I refuse to believe that ;_;. I mean it's still KEY in the end just look at how Refrain ends, everyone is supposed to be dead but though KEY magic they all end up alive again at the end. So surely there must be something for poor Saya too. For me at least it got kind of convoluted at the end with the mention of a time machine or something.

[bcruise]

Based on the discussion with Tokikaze at the end of the Replay, and the translated lyrics to Saya's Song (which are pretty direct if you assume it's coming from (S)aya's thoughts, and mostly echoes the things she was thinking before pulling the trigger while the reader is in her PoV ), it's hard for me to interpret it as anything other than her spirit finally passing on with no regrets. She got the exact ending she wanted, after being told she couldn't stay in that world. I don't think the time machine thing was anything more than Kyousuke trying to comfort Riki - what would have been the whole point of showing her asking for a bio-weapon then?

But I do think it's left a little open-ended on purpose. The anime's imagery could give you a different perception entirely.

[Crescens]

Originally posted by Alibenrentai:

So is she really dead at the end? I refuse to believe that ;_;. I mean it's still KEY in the end just look at how Refrain ends, everyone is supposed to be dead but though KEY magic they all end up alive again at the end. So surely there must be something for poor Saya too. For me at least it got kind of convoluted at the end with the mention of a time machine or something.

Key magic doesn't always work like that though. For example, the game Air did result in the death of a character. Kanon also didn't have one of the characters that started the game off as human remain human in the end.
Also they magic doesn't apply with Little Busters itself, they are not dead. They are on the edge of death, still hanging on to life. The world was originally set up by Kyousuke in order to help Riki and Rin become strong enough so that they could handle the bad things that were about to happen, but end up going far enough so that they managed to rescue everyone. In fact, the cause of death for the class wasn't supposed to be from injuries sustained by the crash itself, but from the fire that was caused by the leaking fuel.
If you played through Sasami's route too, you should know that being dead isn't required.
There is also the fact that the scope of the world is limited to whoever was part of the world. So that is why you still had Kanata's route, and why it felt disjointed from Haruka's.
The KEY magic only works when something supernatural is set up to be able to do this. For Kanon there is something set up (a wish being granted). For Clannad there is something set up (the girl in the dead world and the wishes). But the supernatural thing set up for Little Busters didn't have the ability to affect the real world.

[Alibenrentai]

Originally posted by Crescens:

But the supernatural thing set up for Little Busters didn't have the ability to affect the real world.

That's not true though since the first time Riki couldn't save them he somehow goes back in time before his birth to get rid of his narcolepsy so that he can save them without falling asleep. Unless of course him saving everyone is just a new dream world altogether.

Also then what's the meaning of the scene with Saya's father at the end and the last CG of her being with Riki, Kyouske etc. I think those 2 scenes are what got me confused.

[Crescens]

Originally posted by Alibenrentai:

That's not true though since the first time Riki couldn't save them he somehow goes back in time before his birth to get rid of his narcolepsy so that he can save them without falling asleep. Unless of course him saving everyone is just a new dream world altogether.

The issue with this line of thought is that if the supernatural things could undo time, then why didn't it just undo the whole event, or throw Masato and Kengo out instead. That is the problem with any kind of real world altering in this case.
There is another, less literal, meaning to be reborn too. It can be found in English a lot like when you state "a new me" and similar things like that. It generally means that there has been a big mental/emotional/spiritual change in that person.
You must remember that by the end of refrain, while Riki had been facing other people's hardships, he still hadn't gotten anywhere close to facing his own issues. So when he got back into the real world his narcolepsy hit. So anything after that can also be explained by him dreaming while fighting against his narcolepsy, since that was his coping mechanism when things got really bad.

Originally posted by Alibenrentai:

Also then what's the meaning of the scene with Saya's father at the end and the last CG of her being with Riki, Kyouske etc. I think those 2 scenes are what got me confused.

Yeah, I understand that. I had the same feeling when I first saw her end in the EX anime. But remember, Kyousuke could also call on memories of anyone in the world, this can be seen with Kengo. So if he has enough control to reset everything over and over, then it wouldn't be that surprising if he could just set everything to an earlier point in time to let Saya pass.

[Zeru]

I believe she actually did traveled back to her childhood and is alive in the real world.

First, Kyousuke himself told Riki that she traveled back in time. In the final scenes we can see Saya waking up realizing she's in the past, and remembering everything what happened.

Now let's fast forward to the common route. (Spoilers to Sasami route)

To get to Sasami's route the events that happen in common route actually takes place in the real world from my understanding(all the stuff that trigger the black cat event, it won't make sense for these events to happen in the fake world and actually affect Sasami's route, Riki also mentions those events with the black cat happened in the real world). During this real world common route you actually encounter Saya! Hence I believe with her memories she managed to avoid the event of the landfall.

(I copy pasted myself from another section heh...)

[mimizukari]

you have to complete saya's route twice. once after you finish kanata and sasasegawa's route. you'll get your conclusion after that, there's a lot of information. or you can comprise of what people said above, yes, she's dead. and she most likely has a dream world created for a final wish to be fulfilled before disappearing forever.

[Zathor]

I have not finish all EX routes but from what i had understand she's somewhat still alive but returned to the past from the time she was in Japan and the friend with she was playing at this time was Riki before joining the Little Busters.

[RIDLEY_1992]

Sorry for replying so late, but I'm going to leave this here for anyone else that might be curious about why Saya's route ended the way it did. I will keep it short as to not give away to much. Basically what happened was that the world that she and Riki were in was not real, it was a dream world. The scene of her as a child where she is laying on the ground passing out is where the real world and dream world split. when she kills herself in the dream world she wakes back up in the real world, back with her father and Riki (Who just so happened to be her childhood friend along with the rest of the Little Busters as she mentioned she used played ball with a group of kids), with all her memories of the dream world and with Riki still intact, her route ends with her running outside yelling Riki's name.

If you check your gallery there will be an image of Saya grown-up holding Riki's hand hanging out with the rest of the Little Busters, as she has become a Little Buster herself back in the real world.