OP
OP
Hmm, that video MoonsaultSlayer posted makes a fairly compelling case that the Lady is Six in her own time loop. I will have to ponder that one some more.
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SPOILERS: The ending of Little Nightmares 2 is WILD. Let’s figure it out!
- Thread starter Neiteio
- Start date
I really think the time loop thing is a non-starter. It falls apart immediately when you think "why didn't The Thin Man just catch Mono if he knew exactly where he would be" If The Thin Man is trying to get revenge or get out of his loop, why do exactly what lead to all this happening in the first place? I just think "oh, time loop" is a cheap answer that ignores a lot of the questions the game asks
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The Thin Man wouldn't be motivated by revenge. The part of him that is still human would be trying to create a paradox that undoes the cycle, but each attempt ends in failure because Mono manages to outwit his future self. The road there can change, but the destination remains the same. It may also be the case that the Thin Man doesn't remember what happened prior to the tower -- he only remembers that Six dropped him there. With his transmission power he is able to freely travel through time and space, but he is not omnipotent - he has to find what he is searching for, which would be his former self. He would want to either keep Six away from Mono, or stop Mono from reaching Six.
if that's his goal then why not just grab Mono through the TV that Mono is sleeping in front of at the very beginning of the game? Six is rotting in a cellar, if he grabs Mono there he wins.
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Because the Thin Man hasn't found him yet. He is searching for his past self.
Fair enough, I guess I figured if the thin man can basically see through all tv transmissions then he could see through the one Mono is in front of at the start.
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We're all speculating at the end of the day. The website says the Thin Man is "searching for something" and he seems to have a unique relationship with Mono.
If we go with the time loops, a potential dramatic payoff in a third game could be if someone breaks the cycle, saving and redeeming Mono and Six. Maybe by finding a way to repel the evil force that appears to be maintaining the cycle.
my best guess at a literal interpretation of the events of LIttle Nightmares 2 is that The Thin Man is a being that helps bring unaffected people to the Tower, to transform them into monsters by leaving them trapped and warped in their past traumas (if we go with this game being a sequel, Six is trapped in a room filled with reminders of her time on The Maw and her time as a prisoner in The Hunter's Shack.) He captures Six, and Mono defeats him and rescues Six. Six, a established sociopath who inflicts pain unnecessarily on many occasions, opts to trap Mono in the Tower and the Tower assimilates him as a replacement for The Thin Man, trapping him in his childhood trauma of running from The Thin Man and making him the very evil he sought to destroy. Six escapes but even though she's free of the tower, her trauma still follows her and she isn't free of the hunger that plagues her.
OP
OP
A possible snare with this theory is that Six never exhibits her hunger until LN2's true ending where she escapes but loses more of her humanity (the glitch) followed by the loud sounds of her rumbling stomach -- the first and only time we see her "hunger" in LN2. That seems to be establishing that she has changed. And with the advertisement for the Maw nearby (a place that bills itself as an all-you-can-eat buffet), she presumably takes her hunger there. More crucially, Six never exhibits her life-stealing power in LN2. The ending of LN1 shows her with the Lady's soulsucking power, suggesting she is effectively invincible at that point.
I think it's possible that we don't notice her hunger simply because we aren't experiencing the game from her POV. She's offscreen for chunks of time on plenty of occasions, and she exhibits a taste for violence and pain that she didn't have at the start of the first game. Her behavior in this game is much closer to her behavior at the end of the first game than to the beginning of it, and it seems not unlikely that the transmission has some effect on Six being able to use her powers.
I swear to you Neiteio I saw a twitter post from the Little Nightmares account saying that as much, but now I can't find it no matter where I look! I'm not talking about the website description of her "fading" either. I feel like such a fool...
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I'm not dismissing your alternate theory. My current headcanon is the prequel and time loop, but there is certainly room for the linear sequel interpretation.
If it's a prequel/time loop, it would be nice if the third game could resolve it, maybe finding a way for Mono and Six to break the cycle (perhaps thanks to a new protag) and restore their humanity, or at least find peace.
That way, LN1 and LN2 would retroactively serve to set the emotional stakes, since we know the victims -- we journeyed with them -- and we would want to see them given a chance at redemption and salvation.
if I were to fanfic a LN3, it would be to change it up a bit by having be almost metroidvania and set in a giant defunt mental institution, with a hub area that lets the player go from wing to wing, each wing containing a different monster that must be avoided in order to get a key that will unlock the final ward, which contains Six trying to lock herself away from the world.
would allow for a continuation of Six's story without cheapening the last two games by explaining some of them away, and still allow the devs to tell a standalone story about mental heatlh the way LN1 tells a story about capitalism and LN2 tells a story about propaganda
would allow for a continuation of Six's story without cheapening the last two games by explaining some of them away, and still allow the devs to tell a standalone story about mental heatlh the way LN1 tells a story about capitalism and LN2 tells a story about propaganda
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It might be cliche, but a giant spooky castle in the Little Nightmares style would be amazing. Giant torture devices, various medieval monsters, etc. Basically, shrink us down and set us loose in Castle Salazar from Resident Evil 4, lol.
oh my god I swear I was actually thinking of a dumb RE4 style castle but I worried it would feel a little too ridiculous
yes do this please tarsier if youre reading this
OP
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Thinking about it more, there has to be story significance to Mono removing his mask. I suppose it could be purely to simplify the choreography of the scene where he ages into the Thin Man, but I suspect him removing the mask plays a more significant role than that. Which again makes me inclined to think that Six seeing Mono's true face up close (and a resemblance to their enemy) may have influenced her decision to drop him. I'm not sure it was pure callousness, sadism or petty revenge over the music box or prior failure to save her. Although she clearly has a dark side, so it's hard to say.
That was such an excellent scene as well, after the frenetic chase, limping up the stairs and ladder only to be faced with the Thin Man again. The framing, the resignation in Mono when he drops the mask, the looming tower in the background. It was a really a highlight of the game.
I imagine they would do a good job of either an asylum or a castle, but I also think both step away from some of the core themes of the series (though LN2 did this a bit itself).
Generally speaking Little Nightmares has focused on perversions of the ordinary; twisted similes of childhood experiences or things you might experience as a kid.
Going outrightly for an asylum or a castle might step too far away from that, though again after The Ward I think they'd do an excellent job if they chose to.
I guess it depends on whether you want to consider it quasi-canon whether you wear a different hat as Mono. There are several you can wear around Six that shows his face.
I also think Mono and the thin man don't look all that similar in the face so I doubt she realizes it's him. If it's for any reason other than her being a violent antagonist, it's as revenge for letting her get captured/setting her free. If you watch the scene where she gets taken, she reaches out to Mono for help and he just cowers and buries his head in the floor
The game is absolutely fantastic. The art direction in these games and the way it chooses to deliver its story is second only to INSIDE, and it's really close. Literally the only complaints I have are related to gameplay sections other people have mentioned already like the flashlight sequence with the room full of mannequins and the shopping cart puzzle, but as a whole this is even better than the first one.
I really love how they brought cosmic horror into the narrative. One of the most intriguing parts of the lore for me since the first one has been the Eye stuff you see everywhere, so to see what amounts to an actual explanation of what that is all about was awesome. That entity being at the center of this whole fucked-up universe works really well for me, and the implication that the Signal Tower is actually the creature itself in "disguise" is pretty chilling.
And man, I know some people have mentioned the back half isn't as good as the first but I LOVED Chapter 4. The atmosphere of the city and the Viewers themselves are extremely memorable and probably the first thing I think of when I look back on the game. That scene with a bunch of them looking out into the Tower and them jumping off one-by-one is just unbelievably well-done. The song that plays in that scene is used in different points of the narrative, and it just adds so much to those moments:
As far as theories as concerned, here are my quick takeaways:
- This game is definitely a prequel, but time in this universe is so malleable and weird that who knows what the implications of that could even be.
- Six ends up becoming the Lady eventually, somehow. Mono and the Thin Man have the same powers and ended up being the same person, much like Six and the Lady share their hunger and disregard for the people they fuck over and eat. Shit, if we're getting crazy with theories I would even say the Granny could also be a very old Six, since the Lady's greatest fear seemed to be turning into that eventually and it is implied she was the Maw's head honcho before the Lady threw her down into the basement.
Here's my big one:
- What if the Maw is another Eldritch creature passing off as a mega-structure, just like the Signal Tower? I assumed all the Eye symbols were part of some cult-type thing put there by the people who made the Maw, but the exact same imagery is seen in the Tower and that's because the structure is actually the monster itself taking another form; so why would this other impossible construction be any different?
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Now please make some DLC and/or that Netflix show.
I really love how they brought cosmic horror into the narrative. One of the most intriguing parts of the lore for me since the first one has been the Eye stuff you see everywhere, so to see what amounts to an actual explanation of what that is all about was awesome. That entity being at the center of this whole fucked-up universe works really well for me, and the implication that the Signal Tower is actually the creature itself in "disguise" is pretty chilling.
And man, I know some people have mentioned the back half isn't as good as the first but I LOVED Chapter 4. The atmosphere of the city and the Viewers themselves are extremely memorable and probably the first thing I think of when I look back on the game. That scene with a bunch of them looking out into the Tower and them jumping off one-by-one is just unbelievably well-done. The song that plays in that scene is used in different points of the narrative, and it just adds so much to those moments:
As far as theories as concerned, here are my quick takeaways:
- This game is definitely a prequel, but time in this universe is so malleable and weird that who knows what the implications of that could even be.
- Six ends up becoming the Lady eventually, somehow. Mono and the Thin Man have the same powers and ended up being the same person, much like Six and the Lady share their hunger and disregard for the people they fuck over and eat. Shit, if we're getting crazy with theories I would even say the Granny could also be a very old Six, since the Lady's greatest fear seemed to be turning into that eventually and it is implied she was the Maw's head honcho before the Lady threw her down into the basement.
Here's my big one:
- What if the Maw is another Eldritch creature passing off as a mega-structure, just like the Signal Tower? I assumed all the Eye symbols were part of some cult-type thing put there by the people who made the Maw, but the exact same imagery is seen in the Tower and that's because the structure is actually the monster itself taking another form; so why would this other impossible construction be any different?
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Now please make some DLC and/or that Netflix show.
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You joke but there is actually a LN show in the works by the Russo brothers and will be using stop-motion.
Oh yeah I know, it's just that they haven't said anything about it since it was announced so it's still one of those things I hope will eventually happen but I'm not really counting on. Just like that movie based on the Goon that was announced like 7 years ago and never happened.
Fully agree. I think that's the bit that I remember most clearly as this game. Not all of the chapters were particularly memorable in their setting, but that qhime chapter really nails it.
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The game is uniformly excellent, but yeah, the Pale City is especially memorable in hindsight. Tricking the Viewers to lure them away from their TVs made for some exciting moments, and that one sequence where you run from the Thin Man was harrowing. The building interiors were nicely detailed, and the atmosphere of crossing the rain-soaked rooftops among the warped and distorted buildings was amazing.
The school will probably be the stretch that most people associate with this title, tho. I just wish we had defeated the Teacher, although maybe they have DLC plans for her where she will get destroyed.
The school will probably be the stretch that most people associate with this title, tho. I just wish we had defeated the Teacher, although maybe they have DLC plans for her where she will get destroyed.
I had some problems regarding some of the gameplay sections that people mentioned but overall it's a great game and much better than the first one. I'm interested in seeing where it goes from here, hopefully we won't have to wait too long for DLC or Little Nightmares 3.
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The hospital looked boring in previews, but man that was a nicely paced section. You start with the x-ray/cremation puzzles, deal with the hands in one wing and the mannequins in the other, and then it all culminates in the Doctor, who was waaay creepier than anticipated, and the way you defeat him is super-satisfying, right up there with how you defeated the Janitor.
I was spoiled of the ending by some shithead in a chatroom, fuck that guy.
Even though I was expecting it now, it certainly did nothing to help my mood by the end of it. Can I point out this is the second time someone got screwed saving Six?
I'm certainly not a fan of having the story be THIS vague- any idea why Mono was looking to rescue Six in the first place?
Even though I was expecting it now, it certainly did nothing to help my mood by the end of it. Can I point out this is the second time someone got screwed saving Six?
I'm certainly not a fan of having the story be THIS vague- any idea why Mono was looking to rescue Six in the first place?
I think people are forgetting that these are nightmare time loops. Questioning the Thin Man's actions and motivations is pointless because the nightmare is meant to be about being stuck in the loop constantly suffering the nightmare. This loop can be tied to real world mundanity like aging or looks or something more tragic like abuse.
You can't win.
But LN2 seems to provide the idea that the nightmare is a madness placed upon the world by a cosmic being and maybe there is a way to break out of that nightmare and a third game to close the trilogy would be much appreciated.
You can't win.
But LN2 seems to provide the idea that the nightmare is a madness placed upon the world by a cosmic being and maybe there is a way to break out of that nightmare and a third game to close the trilogy would be much appreciated.
I wonder if a Little Nightmares 3 could play after the first Games ending. While i really like the Story of 2 i am so intrigued by what Six does and could do at the end of the first Game in the world at large.
I am convinced this Game is a Prequel, the secret Ending basically confirms that, Six also never had any hunger in that Game until the very end. I do wonder why she let Mono fall? I quite like the idea that she realized she would need to kill him because of her hunger and because she didn't want to she let him left for dead, but i doubt it. The only other explanation might be that she realized in the Signal Tower that Mono was the Thin Man and she thought it would be best to kill him not realzing that this is what creates the Thin Man in the first place.
I am convinced this Game is a Prequel, the secret Ending basically confirms that, Six also never had any hunger in that Game until the very end. I do wonder why she let Mono fall? I quite like the idea that she realized she would need to kill him because of her hunger and because she didn't want to she let him left for dead, but i doubt it. The only other explanation might be that she realized in the Signal Tower that Mono was the Thin Man and she thought it would be best to kill him not realzing that this is what creates the Thin Man in the first place.
You made me think of a scenario where 3 involves Six SAVING Mono, as if this choice she made was like Dr. Strange willingly giving the time stone knowing this was the outcome needed to fix things. What if saving Mono sets the cosmic horror free? What if now that she has powers after 1, she can defeat it and save Mono from his prison/nightmare?
Get this, I was trying to type "six black heaven guns" to listen to the guilty gear song.
As soon as I typed "Six" fucking YouTube's FIRST recommendation was "Six betrays Mono".
I haven't even watch a single video about the ending
As soon as I typed "Six" fucking YouTube's FIRST recommendation was "Six betrays Mono".
I haven't even watch a single video about the ending
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What the heck, this is amazing!!My son just made this tonight. He's been on a LN kick and loves watching me play.
The nightmare of becoming an adult.My son just made this tonight. He's been on a LN kick and loves watching me play.
I totally get it.
I'm not the only one to say this (OP touched on it) but I think blaming Six's betrayal on her just being "sociopathic" or "sadistic" is such a surface level read. Reminds me of people who called Joel a "villain" after TLOU1, reducing richly developed and complex characterization into the 2-dimensional binaries the game spent 20 hours breaking down.
I'm not gonna try to do my take on the whole story or how what I'm saying ties into various existing theories. I'm just gonna talk about Six in a vacuum. Six acts pretty heartlessly at times in this game and you are meant to recognize that darkness and be unnerved by it. And yet, Six is a neglected and traumatized child. Underdeveloped socially and emotionally (practically feral at times) and trying to survive in a horrifying world out to kill her and the only other living human child she knows. By positioning the cruel, childish way she acts toward people you also view as enemies as signs of "evil" nature, you are ignoring that this girl has clearly lived a life of cruelty.
She acts far more like a child than the clear-headed Mono; she plays with toys, gets curious, defers to Mono's leadership, and — on the other end of the arrested development spectrum — attacks animalistically instead of using weapons and behaves vindictively toward your fallen foes. Is this kid broken? Hell yeah. But it's not her default. She wants to have a normal childhood, she wants someone to care for her and care for them in return, she wants safety and comfort.
So Six's betrayal in the end could be based on a number of things, depending on your theory — getting a good look at him without his mask/hat, having some monstrous change within her, whatever — but she did not make that choice just because she was salty about him hiding under the bed. He clearly spent the rest of the game trying to save her and got this far. Even if Six didn't have empathy (which I don't agree with), even psychopaths don't discard people they believe are useful. Maybe their trust would be fractured but she wouldn't suddenly be cool fighting alone.
I think they wanted to communicate three things about her character in order for the betrayal moment to land:
1. Six, whatever her reasons, has the capacity to behave cruelly. She has at least the capacity to let someone fall.
2. Six has the capacity to care for and trust in others. She has at least the capacity to risk her life catching a falling friend.
3. Six wrestles with a deep fear that can overwrite either of the above.
She recoils in fear after saving him from the TV the last time, perhaps sensing a difference in him with the release of the Tall Man. She was afraid of the world and found comfort through the music box in her little cell. Mono challenged that, essentially saying "we can be each other's comfort", and she took his hand. She started to fear Mono and, after being captured, retreated to the comfort of her fantasy: the music box and a sealed room. When Mono arrives in her fantasy room, his presence threatening to once again tear her from safety and comfort, she recoils much like she did in their first encounter. But when Mono calls to her the first time in this state, she presents the music box to him. She wants the safety of her locked room, the comfort of her music box, and the companionship of her only friend. Most of all, she wants those things for him too.
THIS LITTLE GIRL IS NOT "EVIL".
And even if her choice at the end was an act of intentional malice (depending on your theory), it is not the result of an inherently evil nature.
imo lol
I'm not gonna try to do my take on the whole story or how what I'm saying ties into various existing theories. I'm just gonna talk about Six in a vacuum. Six acts pretty heartlessly at times in this game and you are meant to recognize that darkness and be unnerved by it. And yet, Six is a neglected and traumatized child. Underdeveloped socially and emotionally (practically feral at times) and trying to survive in a horrifying world out to kill her and the only other living human child she knows. By positioning the cruel, childish way she acts toward people you also view as enemies as signs of "evil" nature, you are ignoring that this girl has clearly lived a life of cruelty.
She acts far more like a child than the clear-headed Mono; she plays with toys, gets curious, defers to Mono's leadership, and — on the other end of the arrested development spectrum — attacks animalistically instead of using weapons and behaves vindictively toward your fallen foes. Is this kid broken? Hell yeah. But it's not her default. She wants to have a normal childhood, she wants someone to care for her and care for them in return, she wants safety and comfort.
So Six's betrayal in the end could be based on a number of things, depending on your theory — getting a good look at him without his mask/hat, having some monstrous change within her, whatever — but she did not make that choice just because she was salty about him hiding under the bed. He clearly spent the rest of the game trying to save her and got this far. Even if Six didn't have empathy (which I don't agree with), even psychopaths don't discard people they believe are useful. Maybe their trust would be fractured but she wouldn't suddenly be cool fighting alone.
I think they wanted to communicate three things about her character in order for the betrayal moment to land:
1. Six, whatever her reasons, has the capacity to behave cruelly. She has at least the capacity to let someone fall.
2. Six has the capacity to care for and trust in others. She has at least the capacity to risk her life catching a falling friend.
3. Six wrestles with a deep fear that can overwrite either of the above.
She recoils in fear after saving him from the TV the last time, perhaps sensing a difference in him with the release of the Tall Man. She was afraid of the world and found comfort through the music box in her little cell. Mono challenged that, essentially saying "we can be each other's comfort", and she took his hand. She started to fear Mono and, after being captured, retreated to the comfort of her fantasy: the music box and a sealed room. When Mono arrives in her fantasy room, his presence threatening to once again tear her from safety and comfort, she recoils much like she did in their first encounter. But when Mono calls to her the first time in this state, she presents the music box to him. She wants the safety of her locked room, the comfort of her music box, and the companionship of her only friend. Most of all, she wants those things for him too.
THIS LITTLE GIRL IS NOT "EVIL".
And even if her choice at the end was an act of intentional malice (depending on your theory), it is not the result of an inherently evil nature.
imo lol
