Loving all your analysis and in depth thought about Iron Lung and the lore around the film/game but I have a question! (And oh! Look at that! An ask box here! What a coincidence!)
I'm mostly curious about what you mean about the God-from-the-pinhole claiming Simon? I'm wracking my mind about the meaning of it (and like, I really like the general idea of Eldrich beings taking a shine on mortal) and I would love to read more about your thoughts and analysis about that specific matter! After all, Ellie does say "Why you?!" To Simon after he exists the Light!
I can walk you through all the evidence from the film to support this idea.
To preface, here are my resources on the God so far. Please read them, as they all tie into this concept:
Simon being utterly violated by it <- an important one
Simon after returning from the void
Simon meeting the God scene pack
The Red-Eyed God vs. The Last Tree
The God attempting to contact Simon
The Red-Eyed God sending Simon into psychosis
The God cherishing Simon <- another important one
The God's relationship with Simon and the Shadowman
The God re-molds bodies but cannot re-mold minds
The Pinhole God (of which I've been dubbing the "Red-Eyed God" since before streaming hit) is officially titled "The Eye in the Void" by the wiki and movie. It has interchangeable names; which I think most deities have, so that checks out.
So, to get to your question: Why do I think the Eye claimed Simon?
My biggest supporting piece of evidence is this storyboard scene that got cut out of the film:
Upon watching this scene, you will see numerous, suspicious things occur:
The God rips Simon out of his body and "flays" it, peering straight through him; a visual indication that the deity is pretty much completely violating his soul. In the movie itself, you'll notice Simon is naked. We see his clothes fly off in the storyboard, which means, this most likely happened at some point off screen:
It trifles through his memories (pulling up all his nightmares and making him relive all his feelings/trauma about Eden and Filament Station.) All the imagery is warped as it directly reflects his emotions on it.
There is a scene where Simon's normal eye, reflecting the Eden tree's branches, turns red, and the God's ocean viscera begins to crawl from his pupil. This is a visual indication that the God now lives in Simon, or placed some piece of itself in him. It "claimed his soul."
The scene would then appear to reveal red vines connected to Simon's stomach like an umbilical cord. This is another major indication that the God "connected itself" to Simon. He is being re-born in a metaphysical sense, making him a "son of God" type figure. It's extremely obvious with the umbilical cord what they were going for, here.
Then, the imagery morphs between Filament Station, Eden's Last tree on fire, and the big vein tree that Simon turns into at the end of the movie. The deity is showing Simon what he is to become. Not just a prophetic vision, but a promise he will live in the God's domain, taking the shape of what makes up his core: A visage of death, The Tree, and the blood he spilled. Thus: blood vines!
The deity does not hurt Simon intentionally. In fact, I think it does the gentlest thing it could have possibly done given the circumstance. We see time and time again Simon's symbols of home get etched into his vessel (see "The God attempting to contact Simon" link above), we see the God replenish Simon's air, we see him get teleported into Ava's comm range, be given his hope back (which is exactly what he wanted), and he's even given his body back after being vaporized by the Anomaly. These are all gifts. A privilege. Something unfathomable.
Simon died down there in the blood ocean and joined it. The "final fight" you see occur, between Simon hitting his knees and vomiting after the Anomaly and the ending, was gifted to Simon, because he wanted to get rid of the Eel. So, he was allowed to. He got his wish, and then the God sent him straight back to its domain when it was time.
It was all controlled by the deity the moment that crack shaped like the tree formed in the SM-13's porthole.
The reason why the Eel is yelling "WHY YOU?!" to Simon, is because they went to the Light seeking help and got spat back out as a monster, in constant agony, waiting for Ava to save them.
Meanwhile, Simon got blipped back with his full human body in-tact. I am not shocked she was probably in abject confusion and anger at the deity for "adopting" him instead of her. She got placed as a "guard dog" to his front door, and Simon got the right-hand seat, being uplifting into a deity-like figure himself.
I think that the reason why this was the case, was that Simon was a monster by human standards. He was a creature in his own right, with the kind of blood he shed in his life, and the God saw all that, and deemed him worthy. Worthy of what? Worthy of the domain of monsters.
Of course a mass murderer, someone trained to spill blood from childhood, would be chosen by the Blood God!
I hope this answers your question.
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