what gets me about the two different kinds of backrooms theories is the “that’s just a game theory/cinemasins/the creator put this here to tell us this and that” approach to the backrooms doesn’t engage with the overall themes of the work.
The backrooms is about an abusive and manipulative man who doesnt want to be better because it means changing who he is fundamentally as a person. The backrooms remembers this; it takes Clark and his fear but also his abusiveness and manifests it into what the second half of the movie is.
Pirate Clark doesn’t have that pained expression on his face and is chasing after Mary because he is the ‘real Clark’ and needs help; he’s ‘afraid’ because Clark was afraid. And he’s chasing after Mary because this entity is violent and was created from Clark’s violence. There is no “pirate clark is secretly this, real Clark is secretly that,” it is just a man who refuses to change his nature because he refuses to admit he’s wrong, even when he is actively looking his own violence, carelessness, recklessness, and manipulation in the face. And then it kills him.
