>>1022
Oh don't worry about the tl;dr. Get ready for this shit son (or daughter)!
>1) I feel like she could have originally died a lot of different ways depending on how you interpret the things you find in her dreams.
Um, that doesn't work out too well for me. If what you said is what kikiyama was thinking, then there was one way she died and this would be apparent throughout the entire game.
>If I'm not mistaken, the knife is one of the first effects you can find. That could make it significant. Remember how you have to stab a wall to meet Kyukyu-kun? He smiles and rubs a staircase railing. He could be a version of the man who leered down at her from her apartment staircase and eventually stabbed her with a kitchen knife. Remember that this section of her dreams is really important because it's the only time she bolts awake out of sheer terror.
There is no order to get the effects.
It's unknown if she really wakes up out of sheer terror. One can assume this is the case because the other times she woke up it wasn't as dramatic this scene, but that leaves another question, if the knife effects is for that, why doesn't she get it at KyuKyu as opposed to the Dark World and why doe she use it? You can't get to KyuKyu any other way, and yet this would probably be one of the most important scenes she must see if she is sorting out her traumas to move on to the afterlife.
>Another possibility is the car crash scene you find early in the game. That mangled corpse might be her father.
Then why isn't that traumatic which causes her to awaken in fear? In KyuKyu's case she is assumed to resent that memory to the point of waking in terror, but now she can see a car crash which killed her and her father just fine?
>Or, even more, remember that kid you find sleeping in an igloo? That kid might be Madotsuki herself. She might have frozen to death out in some blizzard in the middle of nowhere.
Again, same case as the one above.
>Or what about the time you find Madotsuki stuffed in a closet? That's pretty self-explanatory.
...? I can only think of isolation and oppression when I see that, but I can't see how that factors in on her death.
Let me ask you something... Madotsuki's Ghost: what is it? If this theory is true, then Madotsuki IS the ghost. What does that make the ghost you see in the red maze? That doesn't quite follow.
>2)The effects all symbolize either painful memories she can't let go of, or nice memories she doesn't want to let go of.
No problem here, but there's something bothering me which I'll explain in 4.
>3 + 3.5) The game is an exploration of her mind. Dreams are a convenient way to explore symbols that may nor may not reflect her past life. She constantly dreams and sleeps because otherwise she might realize just how tiny and limited her apartment is. She might wonder if there's still a world outside. And if she continues down that train of thought, she will realize she's no longer alive and living in a dream world constructed on her memories. Collecting all of the effects and leaving them behind means that she has sorted through all her memories and traumas and realized she doesn't need them anymore. Once she knows she doesn't need those things she realizes that she is dead and she needs to leave purgatory. Then the staircase pops up. How else could you explain its sudden appearance? It appeared because the room wasn't real.
It's an exploration of her mind yes, and dreams are a good way for that yeah, but again, why this as opposed to her just being in a ghost world and the game called moving on or letting go? You say it's because she doesn't know she's dead at first, but to wonder if there is still a world outside means you're assuming she already knows she's dead. It's not even as if the door is locked or anything. Now she comes to the realization only because she doesn't go out? See how that doesn't follow? The sorting out her traumas thing I agree, but that begs the question: You're saying as if she depends on them, but if some effects are bad, like the knife being related to KyuKyu and her death, why does she want to keep them in the first place? Now as for the staircase, that is the number one thing that supports you, but that doesn't prove altogether the room she is in doesn't exist.
>4. The sound she made when she hit the ground wasn't pleasant, true. Why would it sound pleasant? She's leaving the comfortable little shell she made for herself. She's doing something really scary. But then, once that's over with, a bloodstain in the shape of a keyhole appears. Pretty music starts playing and red jellyfish appear. Red jellyfish are symbols of the afterlife, judging from how they helped you find the car crash corpse.
You're saying the dream world is comfortable for her, while she also wants to hold on to the effects, (some of which are bad) while saying she wants to sort out her traumas move on, and doesn't know she's dead until she starts to wonder if there is a world outside of her apartment, and the only way for her to even question if there is a world outside is if we assume she knows she's dead already and knows there's nothing out there. Am I correct so far?
Now as for the ending with the keyhole and music and the monks I disagree on all that. The keyhole I disagree because there are bloodstains similar to it in the dream world, which can be seen as foreshadowing to the ending, but don't really have anything to do with keyholes. What do the keyholes symbolize? There is no evidence that shows she is locked in the room, and a headshaking doesn't count as strong enough evidence, imo. Stronger evidence would be if she made that little "Dame, Muri" noise which shows she is blocked in the dream world or can't do something. Now if you mean she was locked in her own dream world, then wouldn't this mean she didn't like the dream world and your comment on how she doesn't want to leave originally is wrong? What then does the keyhole mean?
The music, I don't find it quite happy at all. Maybe bittersweet, but not happy. I can't really argue against this with you.
The buddhist monks I agree somewhat, but I don't it as a thing symboling moving on to the afterlife as I do going to the afterlife from the living world.
>5. The Toringen symbolize the parts of herself that are reluctant to change and want to stay in Purgatory because deep down, she fears change. A fearful slice of her subconscious doesn't want change, doesn't want to attain self-awareness because it's so difficult and so scary. I explained in the 1 why she wakes up after Kyukyu-kun.
What evidence shows she fears change? Self-awareness I already delved into.
Adiotionally, Can you also tell me what Masada, the White Desert, Mars and the Monosisters have to do with her sorting out the traumas? They seem important to Mado, but this theory pretty much shuns them all out, as they don't really yield any effects for you to drop or anything.
So far, I'm not convinced on this, but I'm sure I got something wrong, so if you think so, tell me.
In return, here's a pic I think wasn't upped here yet.