Wanted to add some thoughts on Noriko's bizarre journey.
1. Assuming Nao in the lucid dream being the same wizard Nao we know is straightforward and very likely to be correct, but I can't cast away the feeling that Nao in DEN OF THE MOLERAT isn't exactly the same Nao that held hands with Noriko moments ago.
- This isn't the first time Nao got sent to paranormal locations, but during those two incidents she appeared to be a conscious but confused bystander who got involved not out of her own volition. This time the Nao in DEN OF THE MOLERAT is tasked by Maya as Noriko's guide. Being "a part of it" fits how mysterious Nao is, but also is in fact very unprecedent.
- Nao in DEN OF THE MOLERAT is rendered without eyes, her most defining feature.
- Tsuneyo's friend in light purple cap can be spotted immediately prior to the loading screen. He's placed there in the scene on purpose and I can't help thinking whether he has something to do with any part of it.
2. Why can Noriko enter such a place? DEN OF THE MOLERAT is a replica of Heaven, and the idea of Heaven is reinvented by Yasu shortly before as "just another name for another plane". More importantly, one doesn't enter this specific plane on accident, and one has to believe in it for it to exist as well.
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The "believe in it" part I think is a cute throwback to Noriko's personality, believing things like some other timeline or some other world, though this can hardly be a proof and I am bringing this up out of romantic whim.
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Regardless, there is a desire that empowers Noriko to find this plane, and that desire is not aligned with amiokay or whoever is behind amiokay, with the former promptly kicking her out. So what recent desire does Noriko have that pertains to "making wishes come true"? The desire not to understand what happened to Maya, but to know.
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Thus a certain force in power (Nao, Maya, purple cap guy, or Noriko herself, or anyone suspicious honestly) separates Noriko from where and when she means to be and sends her to the bottom of everything, where what's probably become of Prime Maya after 6th reset lies before Noriko to let her know that something did happen to Maya, and let her keep this memory, but not let her understand any of it.
3. I am a little concerned about what's written on the blackboard.
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First two are classic LiL BS, but the last one is "-ingle twin". What is that? If I zoom hard enough it looks like "
single twin", but what twin anyway?
There is currently no twin in the game and if we're not talking about mattress sizes, I can't helping relating this to the fact that both Maya and amiokay are there in the room at the same time. Blending this with other foreboding things like "Have you found it yet? The paradox?" by amiokay, the constant theme of needing to distinguish amiokay from Maya in multiple happy events, "maybe she was never meant to be here at all" by Pareidolia, and then heavy doses of unruly imagination gives me headache.
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(I wrote last two almost like fan fictions so don't bother looking for supporting proof because there aint any lol)
4. Some random things that lead to nowhere:
- I am a little upset that Noriko didn't comment on Nao's eye colors. Of all the girls out there Noriko should be the few ones that would be able to draw some interesting thoughts about Nao's eyes, but she didn't.
- Nao's favorite animal is probably not something real to us if Noriko never heard of it (unless Nao speaks in nomenclature or it's just an extremely random animal, and Noriko is not Nodoka-level smart), at least not frog or chicken perhaps. With her nightmarish drawing, it'd be hilarious if her favorite animal is fucking wilford blackhole hands.
