havent played/watched weird route but as someone who’s seen a lot of spoilers online I think it’s less “look how far into insanity we’ve pushed noelle in such a short time” and more “noelle was already at the brink and our decisions can either pull her back or push her further” as is often the case in real life
like I don’t think it’s that we can cause noelle to go from being fully stable and normal to having an anime-esque spiral into insanity and suicidality in two days. I think her chronic depression, anxiety, and the unresolved grief of losing her sister has made her very emotionally fragile. going through the weird route is just stepping on cracks that were already there—we may break her, but we didn’t weaken her.
following a normal route, you never see this. if anything, she seems to be happy and enjoying herself with her friends. her problems are all still there, but we aren’t adding onto them. she is still the same person we see in the weird route. she is still one bad dream and five freaky minutes away from doing all that.
like if someone came up to me when I was an unwell 14-year-old and convinced me they could read my mind and confirmed that my vivid nightmare about them did actually happen somehow, I’d probably do a double-suicide attempt, too. performing well academically and having a silly time with my friends be damned.
