Nick — Wonderful to hear from you, sir! Your brother is a true rockstar through and through, eh? Thanks for the link to the Wiki. It’s going to help me for subsequent playthroughs (I had to go and buy it *again* since it’s on Steam. Support Indies 4 life!)

Just wanted to stop and say ‘wow’: the review was amazing, one of my favourites that’s come out. And as for the interpretations..well let me tell you they are some of the most considered on the net, and reading them sent shivers down my spine the whole way through. Thanks for supporting this awesome game.

Hey, the wiki’s coming along nicely- check it out:

http://lonesurvivor-thegame.wikia.com/wiki/Lone_Survivor_Wiki

Cheers : )

Actually, I’m surprised to say that I haven’t seen many of the movies on your list. I liked Collateral a lot, thought that Children of Men was kind of blah and pretentious, liked the Aviator and Apocalypse Now (non-redux, even though the Redux set sits in front of me as I type this), Alien is always good, Adaptation did nothing for me.

About Schmidt…I’d probably have to take another look at it. I think I was too young to understand it, really.

I agree with ScorpionWasp about the theme of war. There are references to bombings/war all around the place – the civilian in the car bombing is most probably Her, and if you listen to the radio, it also hints that The Bus is where it all happened.

The fruit drops are also a reference to Grave of the Fireflies, a Japanese film of the effects of war on innocent children. (I’ve confirmed this via a tweet to Jasper Byrne.)

I did think she was a lover too, but yeah… the doll probably makes more sense if it’s a sister? I’m not sure, because she sounded very adult in the ending cutscene – her telling him to move out of the city after her death and move on, etc.

On ‘mother’, it’s been suggested that You caused ‘mother’ to manifest (which killed the father figure to You), so I’m wondering about this bit… It’s honestly more than a little disturbing!

As for the Box guy, I think he’s You’s way of dealing with the grief – note that he only comes out when you eat the green pills, and after about five pills, he tells you that you should probably stop eating them (over-reliance on medication, as in depression, when the real treatment should be counselling and managing your emotions). He leads You to question him(your?)self and admit that he’s not alone, that he DOES have people to help him, and that he CAN ask for help.

I read this entirely as a metaphor for the protagonist’s journey through overcoming depression and grief at the loss of a loved one – note the emphasis on exploring outside your boundaries, little by little, and looking after yourself, and eating and sleeping well. Caring for the cat and the plant is therapeutic and helps in the ‘mental health’ points which contribute to the ending ranking – and there’s also a section which mentions “opening up” to the cat.

I agree that the Man in Blue is probably the violent/cruel side of You. (lol, shining a light on Hank contributes points to that, btw). It’s pretty evident as in the blue ending, it’s him who stays with Her (when she’s obviously dead), and it’s due to You shooting him (yourself?)

I think the real question is, who is the White-faced man?? You obviously is afraid of him and he seems to signify death… IIRC, if I talked enough to the cat, he would mention White-faced man there as well.

In our small community, I never felt like you were demanding our attention, making the conversation about you or making things awkward. And if you leaned on us for support — well fuck, that’s what friends are for. I know if I had an emotional crisis, you’re on a short list of people I’d feel comfortable talking to.

I don’t know that you’re relieving your family by shunting your crises onto the Internet. You might be depriving them of the opportunity to help.

If I found out someone I cared about had been struggling, and they didn’t come to me because they didn’t want to burden me, I’d feel like crap. You don’t have to bring it to your family for them to solve it, just let them know why you’re glued to the computer.

Excellent interpretation. I think this, too, could work, but for one exception: why would submission result in death / game over? If the thin and fat men were just random human beings, why would they kill him? Also, how would signal flares help him?

In the green ending, the white-faced man does show up a third time. An image of him is overlaid (50% transparency) with the picture of you in the bed with the mask on. Afterwards, you’re sitting outside the city with the doll. In the blue ending, you stay in denial and sit with “Her” outside the town (at night time, IIRC?). In green ending, you move on. See track titles 17 and 18 on the soundtrack.

I don’t think there is such a thing as a red ending, but there might be a third ending buried somewhere in the game. I’ve searched the ‘net and not found anything; Jasper said in the interview (again, coming soon) there were two endings, but he might be hiding things from us.

Also, just a thing on The Director: to me he represents some kind of father figure, if not the actual father. As for who white-faced man represents … ya, there I have absolutely no idea.

Well great, now I want to go watch Twin Peaks and top it off with Mulholland Drive.

That’s why I think his sister/daughter (at first I thought it was his wife, but your version makes more sense. She DOES have a doll and likes to play tag) was actually victimized by an explosion in a war.

His psych report details – almost “police-like” – how many times and where the protagonist shot (his?) “mother”. That’s why I think the gun isn’t exactly metaphorical.

The protagonist is clearly in denial about who he is, as seen in the blue ending, as well as his reactions when you examine things in a particular room in his apartment. “They’re not mine, damn it. Not mine. Not mine.” It’s also interesting to note most pages of Draco’s diary are found within his own apartment. “And they thought *I* was ill! They’re all diseased, gotta shoot all survivors in the head. And in the knee caps just for the satisfaction of seeing them squirm!”
Someone is clearly losing it here. The DANGEROUS type of “losing it”. And I think the “survivors” underestimated just how much. War ain’t no fun thing after all. There’s no functioning police around to maintain order; supplies (including stuff such as food and medicine) become a luxury; people start growing desperate. It’s not exactly a safe environment, and if a loved one were to request a firearm here, your normal sanity standards for granting the request might loosen somewhat. “He’s just grieving his sister. There, he picked her doll up and brought it to me. He’s making progress. He’s moving forward.”

Tellingly, as soon as protag gets the gun, Chie’s two guests are replaced by thin guys. “They’re all diseased” after all. And that’s how, amidst the rubble, without police to keep him in check, our protagonist Draco went on a killing spree. Dozens of thin and fat people – how many dozens depends on the player. His own mother too. In fact, the site where you fight “mother” is referred to in the radio as “where it all happened”. If memory serves, both the exploded building and the bus are very close by (the bus lending more credence to your version, the building to mine. But whereas a ruined vehicle is not out of place in a war-torn scenario, an exploded building is in a simple car accident one).

“Always at night, when they’re more docile and less numerous.” – says Draco. Notice how it’s never day in the protagonist’s world? Is he just following the psycho’s questionable advice without even fact checking? They may be attracted to a flashlight, but on the other hand bright light sends them into a panic. Contaminated people apparently become photo-phobic. You’d guess it’s worth at least a check. Unless you ARE Draco, then obviously you’re going by your own advice…

So, my guess is: this guy has been living his paranoid, violent delusion on no-man’s land, then eventually the war is over, civilization is restored, they find the freak there and realize he belongs in a mental institution. Just HOW insane he is depends on what his exact history there was like. Which he’s now reminiscing about inside his own skull in a cell, taking strong medication.

Some loose ends:

* Is there a red ending? I haven’t seen it.
* Who does the white faced man represent? He says he’ll only say anything meaningful to you on your third encounter, yet (on the blue and green ending) he only shows up twice in the game.
* How about the helpful director? The director of the mental hospital? Would he really be that sympathetic to a dangerous sociopath? He says he misses “her” too, and the pictures/chalk drawings are in his room…
* The box that the green pill man wears has an unique image (a cross) and it appears in the director’s room and in the supermarket. In the basement, there is what appears to be a torture/interrogation room with a cross. The protag is not keen on it.