*+. the witch’s den .+*

[ID: Mono (right) discovering Six’s (left) grotesque, nightmare form. They are in a large room with dim, pink lighting, littered with piles of childlike objects and toys, some of them visibly floating in the background.]

Six’s eventual betrayal came as a blow to the hearts of many fans of the franchise, but what I love about the game is, the more you think about it and the more you look back at the details, the more it makes sense. Six prioritizes her own survival over anything else. This is evident in the first game as well — she eats a gnome handing her an actual sausage to eat after it notices she is dying of hunger. (Whether this was due to pure wickedness or knowing she’d never be satiated is up to interpretation, but it makes an impactful statement towards her character nonetheless.)

In every chase scene in the second game, especially the final one, she’s always ahead of Mono to some degree. She really only needed him to get this far, and once she’s sure of what she wanted and when she can drop him off, she did.

[ID: Six’s betrayal.]

Literally.

Again, whether or not Six was aware of the time loop is unclear, but in my personal interpretations she is either a), aware of the time loop and proceeds to betray mono over and over again to preserve her timeline or b), unaware of the loop and is another slave of the timeline in this universe. At this point, it seems like it doesn’t matter that the Thin Man knows about the loop, because from whichever angle you look at it, he will never be able to save himself.

In any case, even when Six isn’t considered the focus protagonist for the majority of LNII, it all circles back to her and her actions. The Thin Man trying to stop her from dropping Mono and completing the time loop is an attempt to prevent turning him into a monster, but this is futile. We as the players only assumed him as such in every point of interaction before the game’s end. The Thin Man, and hence, Mono, is never successful. After all, can you really win in a world that was never really yours to begin with?

[ID: The Thin Man, sitting in his chair, forced to wait in his own solitude.]

I could yak about the lore about this game all day, but I think that pretty much sums up my answer to this question. I wish I was more active in the fandom when it was still very much alive because I’d love to talk about this franchise more! (preferably excluding the third one — I’d consider it more of a standalone game tbh) I could make a whole other analysis on the environment development in itself if anyone requests for it. The Time Loop Theory is, as the e name suggests, simply a popular fan theory, so if anyone has any alternative opinions of the games ending, I’d love to hear them!

TLDR: I think LNII’s lore and world building is very powerful, especially in combination with the first game, and it’s still one of my favorites till date. As an aspiring game developer myself, it holds as a lot of inspiration for me and how I want to visually impact my audience someday.

Also, go listen to the soundtracks! They’re very good :3

LNI

LNII