#off theories

off theories? in 2020?

more likely thank you’d think.

i just recently played the v.3.0 translation of it (8-ish years after i played the original translation, god) and had some big brain moments that left my partners wondering if i had finally snapped. basically spent an hour slapping the wall and rambling.  

Here’s a few I figured out:

This is pretty long and I’m not sure if anyone else has had this theory, but yeah;

Y’all know how the Game Over theme is entitled, “Stay In Your Coma”? Well then that’s where this thought came to mind: What if Hugo was the one in a coma?

The Queen’s statement on her battle against the Batter went along the lines of, “the son who brought us into this world”

And so I thought that maybe, this line just further supports that fact that Hugo was really in a coma -- that the Batter and the Queen only sprung from Hugo’s mind. And the rest of the world of OFF just followed next.

From what I think, the Queen and the Batter were made as a sort-of parental figures for Hugo. And they indeed lived up to that--yes, even the Batter. I’ll get to that later.

It was okay for awhile, but as Hugo’s health started to deteriorate in real life, the same thing went for his mind.

The Queen then created the guardians, and in turn, made the zones. And she made these in way that it would “hopefully” keep their “son” healthy. But since the Queen was just an extension of Hugo, and Hugo was just a small child, it was a pretty messed up place.

But even so, Hugo still remained sick, and got sicker.

The Queen would oftentimes leave Hugo with the Batter in hopes of finding a cure, but of course, to no avail.

This is where the Batter’s role comes into play.

He knows about the switch -- the switch for Hugo’s coma. And so does the Queen, actually. But she has grown too attached to Hugo to let him go. Sort of a sentience or separate personality here. But the Batter knew that it was the only way. The only way to help Hugo was to turn the switch off; to turn the coma OFF.

So at first he tries to act unruly towards Hugo, hoping that he would somehow switch off himself and “leave” but Hugo became too attached to the Queen himself. This is my explanation for Hugo’s dislike towards his “papa”

And that’s where the Batter’s quest for “purification” starts. The spectres were sort of the side-effects of Hugo being prolonged to such an environment.

The add-ons? You know how in The Room, there was a scene that showed how the Add-ons and Enoch, Japhet, and Dedan were connected in some way? I believe that the add-ons were kind of like the “good” that were taken from the three. Taken by who? The Batter. Why? Because he needs all the strength he can get to fight off the “impurities” in Hugo’s mind. How was he able to do that? He’s in equal planes with the Queen, he’s just as powerful as her.

The Bad Batter? Mortis Ghost himself stated that the Bad Batter was just a shift in You, the Puppeteer’s, point of view towards him. And that goes back to the Batter’s ultimate sacrifice wherein, even though he knew that Hugo, the one whom he treated like a son, would come to dislike and hate him; even though he knew that the Queen, the one whom he dearly loved as his wife, would come to hate him and fight against him; even though he knew that they would all disappear, including him, if he flicked that switch; even though everyone would see him as a monster, he still fought for what he knew was right, and what was best.

The Puppeteer? You? Your role? Well, to be honest, I think that you, the Puppeteer, was actually playing as Hugo’s own subconsciousness. Whomever you sided with would be given much more power than anyone. And that explains why the Batter was practically begging for you to stay, because he knows that if you sided with the Judge, it would be all over. He would never be able to defeat the Judge. He would never be able to flick the switch. Hugo would have never woken up.

*Clears throat* Anyway, that’s it for my OFF Theory!! There’s probably some holes here and there and the ideas are pretty scattered, but I’m actually quite satisfied with this. (And I even broke my own feels while thinking up the Batter’s parts)

Anyway, just wanted to share, thanks for reading this far!!

The slaying of the Critical Burn can be seen as an indicator that the nature of The Batter's mission is indeed wrong, and you have been misled while completing this mission.

But, has anyone else seen this as a possible mercy killing? Or even that you can't blame The Batter for destroying this burnt, since every burnt he's encountered in the zones have been malicious and attacked him on sight? Though it didn't attack, he had no choice to purify it because he had no way of knowing whether this was a trap or not.

Especially in Zone 3, where all of the employees are drugged up and aren't afraid of the ghosts or you, he may have not been wrong. Was this the destruction of a nonviolent plea for help, or self preservation and a mercy killing?

It's a very popular headcanon that the batter is Hugo's father. I don't think that absolutely true; however, I do think they are related in another way. That Hugo may be a younger version of the Batter.

Let's start in the Room. we notice that as the player progresses, the "chapters" are counting down from 5 to 0 rather than the other way around. This may imply that the player is going backwards in time.

Another thing to note is that in chapter 4, the batter meets up with the three guardians(before they became mad) and afterwards finds "Mom" where a line of dialogue reads "I made three friends today" then with each friend the add ons appear on the screen rather than the guardians. this may imply that the relationship between the child and the guardians are the same as the batter's or the queen's relationship with their add ons.

Which may also be part of the reason why the batter is able to find an add on before facing off with a guardian. 

In Chapter 2, there is the boxer comic which includes Ballman, the antagonist in the story. this may or may not be an influence in the batter's own childhood and an inspiration to the batter's choice of clothes and weapon.

Of course I could be reading too close into it.

Also you go through the chapters not as Hugo but as the batter.You don't observe or even see Hugo at any point in the Room until chapter 0. You go through these memories as the batter which may imply that you are reliving his memories. Of Course, This may be a detail overlooked by the developer, but at no point does the chapters specify who is telling the narrative. It is implied that a child is speaking most of it(with the exception of chapter 1 where the narrative goes into third person), And it may be Hugo doing the narration, but it's still odd that the batter is going through these memories as him for no reason.

Ooooooooooooh that's a good point!

as he talks about each one, one of the add-ons appears on screen

so that means the add-ons represent the guardians in some way or another

and since they're all kinda religiously themed (if you interpret it that way anyway) maybe they represent the beliefs that led the guardians down the dark paths to being assholes??? and maybe as they each join the batter, he starts gaining those beliefs and they increasingly make him more violent???

idk maybe it has more to do with which add-ons (father, son, spirit) correspond with which guardian