[SPOILERS] Clarification Regarding Monika's Final Letter

[joshuabaker121]

Something which originally perplexed me about the game's conclusion was why, having apparently realised the error of her ways, Monika restored the world (minus herself) after being deleted, only to delete it again after a few minutes of a new playthrough. At first, I assumed that this was most likely down to reasons of jealousy: not wanting Sayori to get too close to the one whom she still loved (as she had been trying to prevent with all three of the other girls the whole time).

However, upon re-reading her final letter, I've come to think that she wasn't being totally selfish here, but rather wanted everyone else to avoid feeling the same pain that she had felt; to prevent them from experiencing the same "Hellish epiphany" that had driven her to do everything in her (additional) power to make you hers and only hers - even at the expense of the other club members' lives, and even their entire existences (passed-off simply as them being "not real").

What Monika did throughout the game - most notably in convincing Sayori to go through with her (ultimately "successful") suicide attempt, and then later exacerbating Yuri's obsessive personality (which similarly drove her to suicide) - would obviously have hurt the player, by seeing those about whom they cared deceased.

The line directly before Monika deletes the entire Literature Club is, "I won't let you hurt him," following what appeared to be a similar "epiphany" by Sayori (since she seemed to be aware of Monika and what she did, implying that she has some idea about the world not being fully normal; or indeed real).

Did she actually do this to prevent the player from going through an equally morbid experience again - i.e. wanting to keep you away from the pain which it would bring you, because she loves you so deeply; and, perhaps more generally, to prevent this from happening to anyone, since such an outcome is inevitable with any running the Literature Club (as even Sayori looked to have been reaching a comparable level of obsessive infatuation by the player as Monika had)?

After all, I doubt that she would've "permanently" deleted everyone without a hard-fought justification, when she did still care for them more than she was willing to explicitly state by the end (the amount which she was thinking about them in the face-to-face scene was rather excessive for something that supposedly didn't "matter", which I feel is evidence enough to support this claim).

I can't say that I whole-heartedly believe that Monika's malign envy of Sayori at the end was what drove Monika to do what she did; am I right in thinking that she really did it for everyone's benefit - not because she couldn't bear to imagine you and Sayori living happily together "forever", but to completely rule-out the invariability of the feelings of harm that would otherwise come to all four remaining club members (with extra concern for her one true love)?

If not for this interpretation, then I'll struggle to formulate another one which isn't directly refuted by ANY of the in-game evidence which comes to mind.

What's everyone else's perspective on this matter?

[joshuabaker121]

I just can't do it, can I? Give my interpretation succinctly...

And yet Yuri has the audacity to say that she rambles - HA! She can't have seen any of my stuff, then, can she? ;-D

[Tregrenos]

Sayori mentions knowing everything Monika did because she was the President now. It's important to note that if you delete Monika before starting a totally new game you get this scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Plqx5LKfsQ
When Monika resets the game and Sayori suddenly becomes aware it is only because Monika acted as a buffer to the realization. Sayori knew about the "player", she knew how to perform the same manipulations Monika did, and she knew she had some control over the truth that her world is a lie. However, without Monika to have done any of this Sayori instead panics with no way of understanding what is happening and rather quickly kills herself than face the knowledge that her life was nothing more than a short-lived sprite in a game.

It's quite possible this not only could happen to Yuri and Natsuki, but that Monika may not have been the first to face this nightmare and we never knew who the first President of the Club was with Monika possibly being the Vice President. The original design of the game could have had someone else that couldn't handle the knowledge and offed themself, leaving Monika to take their place as President.

[xae-chan]

The Quick Ending never existed before 1.1.0 and I think was added to show that Sayori (and the others) could not handle the epiphany. There is also somewhere , Monika saying SHE only has the power to write files into the script. (That could also mean is the prerogative of the president ... sly fox, she is.) I'm pretty sure that QE was a patch after DDLC's release in 2017 and the early forums were ablaze with speculations.

DDLC.ga had a list of every release but they didn't last the distance.

Also, I had a very rare first run in getting Yuri's two Ghost poems back to back. (Act One.) Read them together and see if that suggests Yuri was the first doki to experience the player.

[joshuabaker121]

Thanks for your help, both of you!

So, in the Quick Ending, Sayori was overwhelmed with both the realisation, and the feeling of responsibility regarding how much (or little) she should use this power?

But, why then is she willing to continue after deleting Monika much later on? Is it because Monika had essentially set an "example" to Sayori about how to exploit this example, giving her the idea of using it to spend "forever" with the player - as Monika attempted to do?

Regardless, I'm getting that Monika deleted everything so that none of the other club members would have to face the "Hellish epiphany" - so I was close in a sense, but not quite for the reasons I'd speculated...

Again, thanks!

[Tregrenos]

joshuabaker121 lähetti viestin:

So, in the Quick Ending, Sayori was overwhelmed with both the realisation, and the feeling of responsibility regarding how much (or little) she should use this power?

I don't think Sayori was concerned with "power" during the quick ending. She was too terrified to have learned the truth of her existence and suffered an existential crisis. Sayori was already dealing with a lot of problems, so this was a major tipping point for her.

joshuabaker121 lähetti viestin:

But, why then is she willing to continue after deleting Monika much later on? Is it because Monika had essentially set an "example" to Sayori about how to exploit this example, giving her the idea of using it to spend "forever" with the player - as Monika attempted to do?

Sayori "knew everything Monika did" at this point, which would include "how" she did them. It's possible Natsuki and Yuri only got along during this portion because it was Sayori who was controlling them. They were something of a test of her control because despite how Sayori seemed before she doesn't care about them because they are nothing to her now. With such success it was clear she had all the powers Monika presented before, so when she mentioned "it's just the two of us" she'd already deleted both of them and the world, immediately jumping to the room where you left off with Monika because nothing else mattered anymore.

It'd possible this volatile shift in personality could also be tied to how damaged the game had become and Monika was unsure how far Sayori would go to get what she wanted. It became really apparent, really fast that Sayori was unstable.

[joshuabaker121]

Tregrenos lähetti viestin:

joshuabaker121 lähetti viestin:

So, in the Quick Ending, Sayori was overwhelmed with both the realisation, and the feeling of responsibility regarding how much (or little) she should use this power?

I don't think Sayori was concerned with "power" during the quick ending. She was too terrified to have learned the truth of her existence and suffered an existential crisis. Sayori was already dealing with a lot of problems, so this was a major tipping point for her.

joshuabaker121 lähetti viestin:

But, why then is she willing to continue after deleting Monika much later on? Is it because Monika had essentially set an "example" to Sayori about how to exploit this example, giving her the idea of using it to spend "forever" with the player - as Monika attempted to do?

Sayori "knew everything Monika did" at this point, which would include "how" she did them. It's possible Natsuki and Yuri only got along during this portion because it was Sayori who was controlling them. They were something of a test of her control because despite how Sayori seemed before she doesn't care about them because they are nothing to her now. With such success it was clear she had all the powers Monika presented before, so when she mentioned "it's just the two of us" she'd already deleted both of them and the world, immediately jumping to the room where you left off with Monika because nothing else mattered anymore.

It'd possible this volatile shift in personality could also be tied to how damaged the game had become and Monika was unsure how far Sayori would go to get what she wanted. It became really apparent, really fast that Sayori was unstable.

Ah, that clears everything up nicely - thanks! :-)

[nooristarz]

wait so like do i just wait for the letter to go away? because i want to keep playing, and whenever i re open the game, it still has the letter. do i uninstall and reinstall the game?

[Tregrenos]

amatchia lähetti viestin:

wait so like do i just wait for the letter to go away? because i want to keep playing, and whenever i re open the game, it still has the letter. do i uninstall and reinstall the game?

Lore-wise, the game has already been deleted and there is no continuing beyond this final letter. You're supposed to uninstall and reinstall the game. In actuality, the game is still present and an alternative would be to go into your files and delete "firstrun" (folder/game/firstrun).

[nooristarz]

Tregrenos lähetti viestin:

amatchia lähetti viestin:

wait so like do i just wait for the letter to go away? because i want to keep playing, and whenever i re open the game, it still has the letter. do i uninstall and reinstall the game?

Lore-wise, the game has already been deleted and there is no continuing beyond this final letter. You're supposed to uninstall and reinstall the game. In actuality, the game is still present and an alternative would be to go into your files and delete "firstrun" (folder/game/firstrun).

aight thanks :)