- Aug 23, 2023
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Pareidolia talks about Yuu though, it's right after Maya's been factory reset. He tells Akira to start behaving in the way his mother taught him to, and that if he doesn't, he really will end up like his father.Okay, speaking of tinfoil hat theories, I have a doozy for y'all to ponder:
What if Pareidolia's true identity is actually Yuu Arakawa?
This portion of DeSkel's earlier post made my mind start racing:
Combine that with the fact that my second playthrough is still fresh in my mind, and I sort of had a 'eureka' moment.
Now you might be wondering, "How in the absolute fuck did you reach this possible conclusion?"
And to that I say, let me explain.
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It started when I thought back to an earlier conversation I had with a friend. Particularly about Sana's "Ad Infinitum" event. When we see this:
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We see that Sana encounters "HOPE" during her blackout. And the entire time, you sense that something's just kinda... off about Him and His speech. It's very uncharacteristic for HOPE:
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The entire conversation "HOPE" has with Sana is framed to scare her. To drive her away from Him.
And who is it that winds up being the savior?
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I want to emphasize the 'it's all in your head' and the 'nothing is real' stuff, because it will be important to this theory later.
Now then... how does this relate in any way to Pareidolia being Yuu?
Well, take a look again at all the weird shit Sana experienced in said event:
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Seem familiar?
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Pareidolia actively changes one's perception. How things look. And causes what are essentially hallucinations.
We know that Akira has special abilities. Abilities he has yet to unchain that can actively change the world they reside in. Yasu specifically tried to teach him how to do exactly this:
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I want to pause there momentarily to emphasize Yasu's statement. "Everything you can imagine is real.". Quite the antithesis of Pareidolia's "Nothing is real. It's all in your head." comment, yeah? Let's continue:
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What Yasu is telling Akira? Is precisely what Yuu also experienced. It's what he had to go through as well.
In the middle of Yasu's teachings, she suddenly becomes possessed by something:
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You can tell it's Pareidolia possessing her due to her eyes. And the way the text seamlessly changes, something the Concerned has been known to do in the past and even in events after this.
I've done a lot of rambling, but now the time has come to get to the point. Why does any of what I've said matter?
Think about it. If Pareidolia's main gimmick is him causing hallucinations and actively changing one's perception... is it not at all possible that Yuu, a man who presumably completely unchained his mind, could do this?
Another interesting thing of note is we never even see Yuu as a character in the game until the Happy Event, "Rain King":
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When do we see "Rain King" again? In Times New Roman. During Pareidolia's reset.
We even saw Yuu in the latest update once again, in Pareidolia's season, the Springtime:
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We have no in game evidence to support what Yuu and Akira's relationship with each other was, and if they were on good or bad terms. But we do know how his mother felt about him:
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Saki didn't like Akira because he reminded her too much of Yuu after he had passed away. And as we find out in "Goodnight Moon"... we get hints that Pareidolia had been watching over Akira for years and years now:
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As Saki cried into young Akira's shoulder mourning over Yuu, who's to say that Akira wasn't thinking about him too? Who's to say he wasn't mourning in his own way by thinking of him, while at the same time, Yuu found a way to live on through his son from a different plane of existence?
This isn't to say that Akira and Yuu's relationship was a positive one, though. We get some glimpses of Yuu's earlier life, but nothing towards the end of his life. Perhaps Nozomu was always the favored son.
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This post has become too long, so here's a recap on the theory at hand:
- Yuu and Akira both have similar abilities and potential, relating to perception and manipulating the world as they see fit.
- Pareidolia's ability to cause hallucinations in people could very well be an example of what an unchained mind can accomplish once they're fully able to hone said abilities.
- Yuu as a character never appears in the game until Pareidolia's reset (Times New Roman) and once more in the midst of Pareidolia's season.
- In "Goodnight Moon", it's revealed that a figure in the corner of the room watches Akira, as Saki weeps into his shoulder mourning the loss of Yuu.
- While Yuu and Akira's relationship is currently unknown, we know that Saki didn't like him very much, especially after Yuu's death, since he reminded her of him.
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Well, there we have it! Feel free to rip this theory to shreds. Even so, I found it interesting to think about.
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Edit: another issue is that if Yuu is Pareidolia, then it would follow that Wires, HOPE and USER 4 would also be Akira's relatives (because all gods are actually just one thing that is currently apart, and in that sense all of them together would be the "Arakawa Family Entity"). Likely Yuu, Saki, Nozomu and maybe himself as USER4. Which... also doesn't make a lot of sense.
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