Alright, alright, wait a second there
I've read your posts, and so far some things did click in (especially when I read about Uboa, as in "holy shit we get teleported to a world filled with monochrome water and Uboa's face is below water as well it's a girl that drowned holy shit holy shit")
And we can all agree that Aztec imagery and themes have a very strong presence in YN.
But seriously, you CAN'T be trying to explain every major occurence in YN through Aztec/South American culture/folklore. Specifically Poniko/Uboa and the chain of FACE events, they just don't match.
Poniko lives in an "enchanted castle in wonderland" of sorts, it's clearly the idolized princess that every little girl dreams about. As for Uboa, there are too many theories to count, but as far as your theory goes, there are 2 reasons why I don't think it's viable, these being:
A- You go through the ice world and the pastel lake world to reach Uboa, neither of those seem to be even distant references to any sort of underworld (and correct me if I'm wrong, because I haven't got the slightest clue as to what an Aztec underworld is supposed to look like)
B- Even though Uboa could technically be considered to exist in a sort of "paradise", as soon as you touch him/her/it you get stuck in a rather hellish location from which there's no way out
Now for FACE
I'd have to say, even while taking into account the general speculator's amazing ability to see penises everywhere in this game, the area that leads to FACE is quite blatantly a reference to rape
Even if you can't think of FACE itself as a penis (I sure have a hard time doing so), and if you don't think stabbing the zipper is a metaphor for a forced penetration that led to the loss of Mado's virginity, Kyukyu-kun is about as dead a giveaway as there could be
Now, this doesn't mean it can't fit together with your theory. As far as behind-the-scenes stuff goes, Mado could have been raped as a sort of warning to her parents, for whatever reasons might have led to them being killed later on. That being said, I'm not so sure about them being a couple of international archaeologists. If they were, there would probably be imagery from other cultures as well, not just a few Japanese legends
The part of your theory which sounded better to me was definitely the bit about the Vanished and the barracks people. I felt it fit in especially well, mostly because the Barracks are in close proximity of the Aztec pyramid which leads to the Sky Garden, which in turn has its very own vanishing creature
Anyway, I'll be following this thread closely. Your theory might very well have something to it, and for the most part it doesn't sound far-fetched at all
EDIT: Started typing when only your first 2 posts were up. I stand corrected on the Uboa/Underworld matter, but it still doesn't seem very likely
Last edited 11/01/02(Sun)20:24.