#semyposting

Now that we're done with that i want to point out something important, despite the fact that the term Deviation Perspective was introduced after 1.0 came out, the very essence and meaning of this term is fundamental to the story and was a major part of it since 1.0. Deviation Perspective is showing structurally same event at the core as before however under a different perspective.This can be done with either a purpose to show how similar these scenarios are and make you want to find more similarities between them, or exactly opposite and to show how despite them being similar at their core but opposites of each other in their meaning. Most noticeable DPs have shared visual composition, like Alex running down a long road surrounded by his parallel selves, or man and woman sitting together with woman on the left and man on right. In a way you could say that parallel lives are Deviation Perspective of a person, where a seemingly similar person is shown under a different perspective.

Im almost done with that prelude of a text but before i get started one more thing: in Deviation Perspective 1 Vella explains the concept of her hew album to William, describing it as "the first song is your ideal first date with your soulmate, the next songs are deviation perspective of that", i think this line is extremely relevant to the game's story counting the relevance of music as a theme in the story.

So,

Chapter 1: a Wild Cat Chase.

As this is the first chapter there isn't really a Perspective to Deviate yet, so mainly here i will try to draw attention to different key moments in the story that i will mention later in the post.

The chapter begins with Alex arriving home from school (he just graduated), he goes home and is met with his mom's letter telling him to go buy groceries. He walks in the direction of the shops area of the town(that lacks grocery store) but as he's about to do it he gets distracted by a cat who steals the list and Alex is forced to chase her.

As the chase goes Alex eventually gets stuck in a Factory Hotel dungeon, in it he meets his childhood friend Panda and shortly after he meets Sammy Pak, who looks suspiciously similar to Alex's mother with the haircut, necklace and glasses, while also showing a fear of becoming her own mother. When you finally do find Dali the mom's letter is nowhere to be found however Alex doesn't notices that at all since he's too involved in helping Sammy now. He then goes through a hall with doors on the sides which ends with robot Wilhelm, Sammy's roommate. After defeating Wilhelm you and Sammy go to the elevator and she goes missing while being locked into the Iron Maiden. Upon arriving home and checking ONISM Alex sees the post about Sammy, he then goes to sleep and sees a dream.

The chapter isn't over yet but i want to point out they key elements, Alex is given a task by his mom, he distracts himself and chases something which is usually based on ONISM post, boss fight in a dungeon, after that something that feels more real than everything that happens before.

Anyway back to the chapter, Alex wakes up the next day and goes to visit the Factory Hotel again, however he meets Michael(standing in the same position as Dali did) and instead goes to Camera Shop and Arcade instead, after that he finally goes to Factory Hotel and encounters a Soul Survivor, Michael takes a picture and they leave in horror, making related ONISM post later.

…….Now im gonna nerd out, one of the most repeating patterns in yiik is a boss fight happening and representing some real events that happened after it, usually caused by Alex so the boss itself is usually a parallel to Alex in some way. The case with Sammy and Wilhelm is more so unusal because other cases the "victim" of this boss in current situation is Sammy-a woman who Alex never ever met, so he couldn't have somehow caused harm to someone who he didn't knew. Instead i think that Wilhelm represents Alex's self destruction in that specific scenario, with Alex paralleling Sammy to himself(ONISM posts, the lines she says, her appearance, her being in his Mind Dungeon, the phone calls in Chapter 5) and a machine parallel of him(Wilhelm) harming this another version of him, him finding out about Sammy Pak's case on ONISM1999 and causin himself psychological self harm by becoming obsessed with it and becoming who he is for the rest of the game.

As for section after Sammy disappearing i want to point out how Michael acts yet again acts as a distraction for Alex who allows him to not go to Factory Hotel(which he probably wanted to do after he saw the ONISM post) and instead to go around the city and visit Arcade, with them finally going to the Factory Hotel being connected to creation of another ONISM post, possibly making it be rather that the post came first and Alex made up a situation for it. He even stands on the exactly same place as Dali.

and now we arrive to

Chapter 2: a Chance Traveler

The chapter start with Alex and Michael sitting together by Alex's computer discussing various thing but seemingly without much direction, it's implied that they kept going like that for days without doing literally anything towards the actual Sammy's case. Finally there appears an ONISM post about Vella, you meet her and there's a small fight against her in which you can't win(at least in the plot), but eventually Vella agrees to become somewhat your friend. Vella also having same affinity and shared skills with Sammy. You then get DMed by Rory about his sister and go visit him with Vella, you also have a nice talk about race on the bus with Vella that she really enjoys. You finally arrive to Rory, do his dungeon all that stuff and then the Golden Alpaca cutscene happens, in it he calls Vella a "Chance Traveler" while the background has stage decorations from Vella's Mind Dungeon, after which he kills the Choir Soul Survivor. Want to call attention to one of the key elements in this scene that i want you to remember-Rory suffering with his parallel self as the center point of the scene, which is then destroyed after the boss fight happens.

This chapter parallels chapter 1 a lot, you meet Vella who's Alex's new woman who he chases now (just like Sammy) and you also meet Rory, another ONISM user and parallel to Alex(just like Michael). However i want to point that due to such factors as ONISM1999 posts, Mancer's key unlocks path to Sammy's role and Rory appearing in KNN i think that in Chapter 2 Rory is the one who takes the role of Sammy as the "victim" of Alex, while Sammy is his victim in a way that Proto-Alex kidnaps her. Golden Alpaca being like Wilhelm and representing Alex saying very fun stuff about Rory's sister.

Chapter 3: Reluctant Apology Tour

The chapter begins with Alex's mom coming home and telling him to get a job, after him pretending to try to get a job he wakes up at night and follows the entity to radio tower, getting asked to search for Mystical Ultima LP Legend, interestingly the related to this ONISM post appears only way later in the chapter. You go visit arcade but Vella doesn't want to join you, you meet Michael and then go take Rory to be with you on a journey instead of Vella. Rory sits in the exactly same position as Vella during the bus ride but gladly Alex doesn't talks about his ethnicity. When they finally arrive at this chapter's town they get 2 new party members, Claudio and Chondra, mirroring Alex getting party members like Sammy/Michael and Vella/Rory in previous chapters, Chondra being somewhat(like really fucking somewhat cause idk what's going on really with Chondra she's weird) both Alex's desired woman(paralleling Vella and Sammy) and also being Alex's critic(paralleling Michael), and Claudio being parallel to Alex(paralleling Michael and Rory).

When they go to the cave dungeon you can notice a lot of ONISM users who are trying to find Sammy Pak in the cave, mirroring Alex. In the said cave dungeon the party encounters Perfume King, symbolising nostalgia, the central character in this encounter is Chondra so i think it's fair to assume that this encounter represents Chondra and her disgust towards nostalgia-specifically her missing brother, changing from first not wanting to talk about it at all and then admitting how she hates it. I could say that it's all there is to it, however Perfume King is very explicetly parallel Alex, so it could also more specifically represents Alex bringing up Chondra's brother to her later on in Chapter 4, or in general his obsession with nostalgia that Chondra notices in him.

Finally, let's talk about Vella's Mind Dungeon that keeps on the pattern of Sammy's Mind Dungeon and Rory's Mind Dungeon from previous chapters. I don't know what i can say here that wasn't said before, Alex sees Vella only through the lense of her in media and who she was as a media character, sexualising her by meeting her naked in bath and making it a requirment to kiss her to progress, but stil admitting that she doesn't loves him and can't enter the door for her loved one.

I really want to bring up the appearance of Alex's house in her Mind Dungeon which has different layout(and also has framed images above the piano) and also featuring Sammy in the kitchen, which first of all reflect one of the Sammy related ONISM posts and also reflects a fragment of Alex's memories, with the taller Sammy being his mother who cooks and the smaller Sammy nearby her being A������.

At the center of the map of Vella's Mind Dungeon we can see Essentia in bed-Alex wanting to see Essentia as parallel to Vella(since it's possible to meet your parallel lives in your Mind Dungeon). I want to note an important gameplay element that at first doesn't seems so important-you meet Vella's parallel lives and assemble them together to progress further, specifically you need to assemble 4 of them together. When the band assembles Vella literally points out to Alex how his depiction of her is wrong in the lyrics of her song:

"Take my word for it

I'll always be a loser, you know it

I know it's just a dream

Fame is not for me

I'm a hack

I have nothing to say

Drown me in the sea

That is better for your ears"

Alex goes behind the stage and we encounter a very important imagery-a long road to Vella's album with hooded parallel Alexs on left and right. With the cover of Vella's album being somewhat a prophecy-"Mystical Ultima LP Legend"-Ultima meaning feminine "the last/the final" in latin, resulting in the title combined with other text on the cover meaning "Mystical Legend of The End LP, by Vella Wilde, on January 1st, year 2000". Completely unrelated, we see the Chance Traveler Vella in a crystal holding the MULL, with Golden Alpaca turning into Threatening Fan(who looks like ginger Handsome Krow), asking Chance Traveler to sign his copy of the MULL. After defeating him Alex takes the LP and throws it at the Chance Traveler, making her fall from the crystal. I think this scene is a DP of the Golden Alpaca cutscene, where instead of Rory it's now Vella and the parallel self is Chance Traveler instead of Choir, and Threatening Fan replacing Golden Alpaca.

The Alpaca cutscene was paralleling the "nobody cares about your sister" scene, so what does Threatening Fan parallels? Personally i think it parallels the scene coming right after you take the record-Alex playing it on his record player at the house, which is followed by a scene of Alex running down a hall to Vella with his parallel selfs on right and left, one of the Vellas also says "Can you hear?My heart is calling". When you return to reality Michael mentions that despite what we just heard the singer had male voice on the record, which is also later on brought up by Alex to Vella pretending he doesn't know. In Y2KII during Cyrille's death cutscene a song called "Can you hear?" plays, which has the same motif as "a Distant Voice" but with male singer and completely different lyrics, first line being "Can you hear?My heart is calling", i personally think that Alex was the one who made and recorded his own version of "a Distant Voice" as a love confession to Vella(also when Alex throws the MULL at Chance Traveler Vella you can hear "i love you" in background) that embarrased her in front of everyone and also yet again brought up her trauma by reminding her of the man who hurt her.

The chapter ends with Alex chasing Vella to playground where they have a conversation about Vella being hurt in the past, which probably is just Vella trying to explain Alex how what he just did hurt her but instead he tries to kiss her. Interestingly during that they swit on the swings in same position as the King and Queen sit on thrones.

Chapter 4: Mystical Ultima LP Legend

Chapter begins with Alex and the party going to the radio tower to play the Mystical Ultima LP Legend, Alex plays the record and sees the Essentia cutscene, after which he wants to find the Essentia van.

The next day there appears an ONISM post related to this, strangely Rory mentions in the post he wants to find it not because of Alex saying they need to find it but because it appears in photos of Sammy Pak(which were never mentioned before). You go to assemble the party to do this task(with Chondra and Claudio hanging out at Frankton for some reason), after which the gang checks out possible van locations until they find the right one.

I want to note how the whole sequence almost identically repeats how chapter 3 beginning goes on, Alex goes to radio tower->Gets new task to find something->Next day he travels around the map to find this thing. Even just like how in Chapter 3 you need to go to Windtown to get Rory on your team, while CH3 Michael joins you in Frankton(which in CH4 is expanded to the rest of the party).

After Alex opens the van he's transported into the mind dungeon of the first ever girl to invent womansplaining. In there she tells him that she is Sammy and Vella and that the search ends on her.

In her Mind Dungeon we can see a very similar structure to Vella's, making it a Deviation Perspective of her MD, however in this case i think the differences in DP are more important than the similarities, Alex replaces the living spiritual being (Vella) with digital electronic junk (Essentia) and replays the events of previous chapter with that replacement.

So anyway, in this MD we meet many parallel Essentia's souls, in total you need to collect 4 limbs and assemble them together in Wendy, like how you assemble 4 Vellas in a band in previous chapter. I also want to note how Wendy got the same face as the mixtape ghost, Liana. All the parallel souls in here somewhat reflect Alex, there's also some straightforward parallels to Alex in here like Wilfrid, so what's up with that? I want to point out how despite the fact that it's implied that all the souls here are a part of Essentia, however it's only ever mentioned that Naila has built an Essentia version, there's also a confirmed connection between Naila and Yuzu in the new ending and that they are both involved in making the DSV. Yuzu himself is a parallel Alex and a potential King, he seems to be angry at Naila for her ruining his life and him sacrificing himself for her. So, my theory is that the cycle was started with Naila, she built the first Essentia model and became one, after that she came after Yuzu and was his Essentia, putting him inside the DSV, after that a new model was made and cycle continued, Essentia comes after Alex parallel->Spreads her memes to them->They become the next meme host, be it an Essentia or an ONISM Man. I want you to keep this in mind for later chapters.

Btw i want to draw attention to Naila here and her story, which is at it's core really similar to one of Alex's father and also somewhat Vella's ex. She leaves her family for someone else which leads into her and the husband breaking up, this event brings her into sorrowful state and also is a starting point for development of Essentia, which now parallels Alex and him going on ONISM1999-his way to meet his parallel selves.

Alex kills Yuzu with Essentia's sword and then after a nice dialogue with Essentia in which Alex asks her did he hurt any other parallels of Essentia which results in her leading him to his MD, also during this scene the same theme plays that plays when Alex monologues about Dali and Sammy in Chapter 1. In the Mind Dungeon you are shown a view of Alex running dawn the hall of his parallel lives with the prophecy of him destroying the world in the end (DPing the end of Vella's MD).

Not really related to DPs but i want to note how Alex looks in this room, he's on flames in front of the earth, seemingly destroying it, however there's another interesting element here, the alchemical symbol of creation behind him. This symbol actually appears a lot in Essentia's MD, mainly you can see it under the tubes with Essentia models, you can even see one under tube with Wilhelm, so what's up with that? I think that this shows the alchemical creation of an Essentia model and the fact that it appears behind Alex here implies that Alex destroying his own world is an important element to put him inside a DSV and make a new Essentia.

Chapter 5:The Y2K Problem

In the start of this Chapter Alex and Essentia go to Alex's house. Following the pattern of appearing once every 2 chapters Avril is home again, after talking about her getting a job(resolving the issue of Alex having to do anything) she tries to talk with Alex seemingly with intention to give him some new task, however the digital distraction in face of Essentia is already here and she doesn't even gets to say what she wants from Alex. As Essentia and Alex go to his room (similar to how Essentia Entity follows Alex to his room in Chapter 3) he is directly told by Essentia the task that Alex should do (like in Chapters 3 and 4). After that Alex calls Vella which is a DP of actually 2 moments: Alex calling Vella in Chapter 2 about Rory and Alex in Chapter 4 meeting Vella alone before he can get everyone else on party, this phone call is the one in which Vella tells Alex about Rory's suicide and also this call is required before the rest of the party appears in Frankton. Talking of, just like in Chapter 4 Alex gathers his friends around Frankton so they all can together go follow a task given to him by Essentia.

Now, you have probably noticed that in this post I haven't previously mentioned the Michael cutscenes, mainly because they don't DP anything and are their own thing, however i want to draw attention to the one that plays before you meet Proto-Michael. Mirroring Alex, Michael runs in the hall of his parallel lives and sees his greatest sin in the end, ONISM1999, he also makes an interesting comment about how the world ends in it.

I don't have much to say about the calendar segment, mainly due to it's nature of being Chapter 5's calendar segment, so I'd rather skip to the end of it.

Chondra runs in the hall of parallel lives similar to Michael, however the center of attention here isn't ONISM1999 but Michael himself, who sits while holding King's revolver in his hand instead of his own, showing him being a potential King. I honestly have no idea what the fuck does Michael being the King as Chondra's flaw means as i came to this conclusion literally just right now while writing this, so interpret this how you will and write down your interpretation in comments/tags!!!

So anyway Alex wakes up in the middle of the night because of the phone calls. There are multiple characters calling Alex in this section...or is there? Alex uses phones to go to the mind dungeon, also the specific list of characters that call him here either appear in Alex's mind dungeon or they are their parallel. I also want to note how these specific phone calls draw parallels between various characters by swapping them in some way.

Sammy is swapped roles with Alex where Alex is the one who went missing and Sammy is the one with a toy animal. Michael and Chondra have their appearances and interests swapped, while Michael is also called a "panda boy" in Chondra's call. Avril and Antonio have their voices swapped, they are also swapped with Chondra's and Claudio's parents, who talk to Alex as to Aaron after he went missing. There's also Jane referring to Alex as Roy, the protagonist of Two Brothers, with Jane being Roy's Sammy (or at least how Alex wants it to be).

Alex meets his friends outside and goes to NYC, once again Alex is running towards him destroying the reality, interestingly the Backalley Boiz stage from the Mall is here, alongside the vans, also an addition that was made in I.V is that you can see a record player nearby in the cutscene before boss fight starts. Proto comet "banishes" Alex's friends from his life, i want to point out how this is an unwinnable fight with the only other fight like that before this being fight against Vella in Chapter 2, making it a DP of that and also drawing further connection between the end of the world and Vella.

But before i continue to Chapter 6 i want to mention the KNN ending. This ending is Alex choosing not to fight the destruction but to escape it all together by going to the soul space. He goes to KNN which in a lot of ways DPs the Factory Hotel, at there Alex does what seems to be Sammy's job, he makes coffee copies files and so on of different not so hard work, seemingly yet again paralleling him to Sammy. However there's a few important differences in here, the Sammy in this building isn't the Chapter 1 Sammy but the Spectre Sammy, while through the area Alex isn't referred to as Alex but as the {playername}. In KNN we see Alex paralleling YOU, the player, to your own Sammy, making you more similar to him. There's also another DPs going on here, since Alex's failures were never linear this ending is also connected to the debugger ending and chapter 6, the end specifically. First of all when Sammy asks you to go into the elevator the choice is made by interacting with the phone, even if you say no and try to make the choice again you can't interact with the elevator and instead have to use the phone, just like how Alex enters the Soul Space in Chapter 6 through the phone. Finally the whole KNN with it's parallel to Factory Hotel is a DP of this part of Chapter 1 which also connects to a thing in Chapter 6.

Chapter 6: Epilogue

Alex is left on an island with Panda, his only choice is to go to the Soul Space via phone. Aaand, almost everything after this is a Deviation Perspective of the entire game before that (and so the reason for the name Epilogue).

Alex is in the Soul Space, the first thing that happens here is the cutscene with Panda where after Alex's stuffed toy floats away from him Alex does the exact same pose that he does upon losing Sammy, DP-ing that and also showing how in both scenarios Alex is sad because of losing a person that only existed inside his head. However, isn't there still some story before that happens, Alex meeting Sammy at all and all that? Well, this is where KNN ending comes in, it is that missing piece of DP that covers all the factory hotel except right before Alex loses Sammy and ends on them being in an elevator, right after which happens the event that Panda dying DPs.

Just after this happens Alex flies to planet of Alexs, an echo-chamber of people just like him on which the Proto-Comet forms, most likely DPing Alex going on ONISM1999 right after losing Sammy in Chapter 1.

After this he follows the meteorite and watches it destroy everything he loves time and time again, unable to do anything. This DPing most of the game with Alex living through the destruction he causes time and time again unable to stop it. He Follows Voices, Sammy sitting alongside Panda pointing out the parallel between these 2 earlier in the chapter, Alex yet again loses all of his friends but "moves on" with quit your crying being an option now in i.v. interestingly Sammy and Rory are the only 2 characters who Alex's can't interact with. Avril and Antonio sitting on the thrones foreshadowing to king and queen, it also being most likely a scene from Alex's birthday when he was a child, probably the last one before his parents divorced. This segment ends with Alex going in the Essentia van, taking her place. Finally, Alex goes to "your" planet and tells you that you're destined to destroy your reality too. This section directly parallels the event of Essentia meeting Alex, however now Alex is the one in her role and you're in role of Alex. He even directly quotes Essentia before going to your planet:

"There are moments when I understand intellectually how I must act, but then something happens. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, like a warm light in the distance, an idea forms - a completely human, flawed, and kind intentioned idea, something that all versions of me know to be a mistake. However, the overwhelming feeling of doing the "right thing" takes over and I am forced to make a choice. And every time, this version of me chooses the kind path. I cannot allow any harm to come to you."

"Something is happening. Somewhere in the isolated recesses of my mind, like a warm light in the distance, an idea is forming. A completely human, genius, and kind-intentioned idea. Something that no other version of me would do. And now my body is filled with that overwhelming feeling that I am about to do the "right thing."I always made a choice, a lazy choice.Not today. Today, I choose differently."