Ren'Py Lessons in Love [v0.48.0] [Selebus]

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Moonflare

Moonflare

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Aug 23, 2023
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This is a post regarding a possible hint to the identity of the narrator at "Miserably Ever After". Maya says this regarding Noriko recovering Akira's memories:
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Well, we surmise that Noriko recovering his memories was a plan orchestrated by someone, most likely Pareidolia with the help of Himawari. Then, fast-forward to chapter 4, keep in mind the "like you're an animal in a fucking zoo".
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Well, we know that the ninth god is in league with Pareidolia. On one hand we have the idea of treating him like a zoo animal, and according to Maya, that includes feeding him memories as they need him to remember something. On the other:
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Could it be that the narrator is employing the same strategy as Maya? Instead of treating Akira like a zoo animal, she's trying to have him do it by himself. Maya tried to have him recover his memories by himself and that failed. Narrator tries to have him exit auto-pilot to deal with it himself, and that fails. It's the same logic behind both decisions - and both are linked to a refusal of treating him like a zoo animal.

As to the narrator's experience with Wires, I draw a blank there. Himawari has a confimed relation to Wires insofar as she's seen with Noodles during Glued to the Sky.
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Potentially, Maya has an ever greater relation to Wires given that she can't go to the old district, she seems to recognize Wires during "Scary Room" (even if it isn't Wires, it was masquerading as him), and it could be the god she prays to during resets (unless it's NAO).

Anyway, mainly I noticed the zoo animal thing. It could point out to the narrator of "Miserably Ever After" being Maya.
 
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Fire Lord Zuko

Fire Lord Zuko

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Aug 20, 2021
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Moonflare said:
Well, we surmise that Noriko recovering his memories was a plan orchestrated by someone, most likely Pareidolia with the help of Himawari.
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Oof. Hit my reaction limit again. Too bad. I always love reading your posts.

Now correct me if I’m wrong of course, but wasn’t it Wires who restores Akira’s first memory with Niki in “Spotless Mind”? The one where Noriko brings him the box at Christmas 2?

I’m away from my computer for now so I can’t post screenshots, but I remember just before “Spotless Mind” started, you had to answer some survey questions that had to do with Reset 4, and the pink smile typically associated with the Wire God was in the background as He asked these questions.

It also makes sense for Wires to have been involved with this since, as you pointed out, Noodles the Bird was seen in the background along with Himawari observing Sensei and Maya in “Glued to the Sky”. For what other purpose would Noodles just randomly be there?

I think the Wire God is involved. At least with the regaining of that Niki memory.

But anyway, as far as Maya being the identity of the “Miserably Ever After” narrator, I could see it. The zoo animal comparison is definitely worth keeping an eye on. We’ll have to pay attention if that or something similar comes up again. Same with anything that might support the Tsubasa Narrator theory.
 
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Moonflare

Moonflare

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Aug 23, 2023
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Fire Lord Zuko said:
Oof. Hit my reaction limit again. Too bad. I always love reading your posts.

Now correct me if I’m wrong of course, but wasn’t it Wires who restores Akira’s first memory with Niki in “Spotless Mind”? The one where Noriko brings him the box at Christmas 2?

I’m away from my computer for now so I can’t post screenshots, but I remember just before “Spotless Mind” started, you had to answer some survey questions that had to do with Reset 4, and the pink smile typically associated with the Wire God was in the background as He asked these questions.

It also makes sense for Wires to have been involved with this since, as you pointed out, Noodles the Bird was seen in the background along with Himawari observing Sensei and Maya in “Glued to the Sky”. For what other purpose would Noodles just randomly be there?

I think the Wire God is involved. At least with the regaining of that Niki memory.
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Regarding the survey:
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Yeah, it definitely seems to be Wires. I'll just skip the survey though since it's exactly like you said. But it's also such a mysterious event after it, here's why:
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Then we fucking have this:
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That aside, it is Wires that restores his memories. But the overall move to have Noriko deliver him the letters, and her school falling into the abyss (which is where Pareidolia lives presumably - and from where he pretends to be Wires. I also don't know where exactly the school fell into, knowing that would be nice) is likely to be Pareidolia's scheme, as he's the only one that benefits from it. That's what I meant.

I did overlook Wires presence there though, so thanks for that. I'm very curious about his intentions, as I can barely pinpoint when it was him during the game. He restores Akira's memories, he sends Noodles to observe the aftermath, and then has Noodles again watching the Sekai restoration. What does he gain from any of this? I'd be willing to assume he's just observing in case he has to prevent the world being broken, but that he led Akira to the writer's room with Nao-chan seems to suggest some form of agenda. I just don't know.
 
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Apollo259

Apollo259

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Moonflare said:
This is a post regarding a possible hint to the identity of the narrator at "Miserably Ever After". Maya says this regarding Noriko recovering Akira's memories:
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Well, we surmise that Noriko recovering his memories was a plan orchestrated by someone, most likely Pareidolia with the help of Himawari. Then, fast-forward to chapter 4, keep in mind the "like you're an animal in a fucking zoo".
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Well, we know that the ninth god is in league with Pareidolia. On one hand we have the idea of treating him like a zoo animal, and according to Maya, that includes feeding him memories as they need him to remember something. On the other:
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Could it be that the narrator is employing the same strategy as Maya? Instead of treating Akira like a zoo animal, she's trying to have him do it by himself. Maya tried to have him recover his memories by himself and that failed. Narrator tries to have him exit auto-pilot to deal with it himself, and that fails. It's the same logic behind both decisions - and both are linked to a refusal of treating him like a zoo animal.

As to the narrator's experience with Wires, I draw a blank there. Himawari has a confimed relation to Wires insofar as she's seen with Noodles during Glued to the Sky.
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Potentially, Maya has an ever greater relation to Wires given that she can't go to the old district, she seems to recognize Wires during "Scary Room" (even if it isn't Wires, it was masquerading as him), and it could be the god she prays to during resets (unless it's NAO).

Anyway, mainly I noticed the zoo animal thing. It could point out to the narrator of "Miserably Ever After" being Maya.
Click to expand...
I still cant make up my mind on that narrator either, mainly because I think the "two of us return to form" line only seems to be used in relation to Sekai, but I'm not entirely sure if she fits very well either.
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If it was not for that line I would lean towards Himawari. But then again who are the "We" that are coming for "you". Maybe the multiple Sekai's idea has some more merit. Or maybe Ami and Sekai are somewhat more closely connected in relation to this than we might think. (Ami seems to have been talking to someone in her head when looking after Akira, It could have been Sekai. There was also the multiple Amis with Himawari in the last reset.)

Damit, how does Selebus always manage to make things seem so obvious and unclear at the same time.
 
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Antosha

Antosha

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Thatguy125Ab said:
Her lust stat says N/A so pretty sure she's a no-no zone
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Yup. Yumi isn't lewd-able... yet. Neither is her mother Yuki. According to Selebus, they'll all be. Eventually. But we're way less than half-way into the game at this point.

The characters with a lust stat currently are:
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You also get to watch Wakana and Osako get freaky a couple of times, and in the most recent update, you can fool around a bit with poor Imani. And if you're a really horrible person, you get to fuck a completely uninterested Io, who's just been telling you about the damage her mother's sexual abuse did to her, in one of the least sexy sex scenes ever.

Also, an update or so back, there's the Nodokathon, a bizarre sequence where a bunch of the girls "compete" in various sexual games. It's bizarre mostly because it's hard to believe that any of the girls involved — Makoto, Noriko, Rin, Molly, Kirin, and Sana — would trust Nodoka at all in that moment... But that's a story for another day. :)

ETA: Oh! And how could I ever forget Maya! :cry:

ETAx2: There's also some girls who have gallery scenes that are kinda sexual — Touka and Chika (who're both drunk off their asses) show Akira their tits; and — in yet another completely unsexy sex-ish scene — Nodoka blackmails Yumi into strippoing and masturbating in front of her and Akira.. And many of the "Happy" scenes feature acts that look vaguely like sex.
 
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JelF547

JelF547

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Mar 15, 2023
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Moonflare said:
Did you guys have any characters that you radically changed your opinions on during the course of the game/on replay?
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Ami. It's not like she is changed as a character, but it's about how I started accepting her despite she is a bitch
Tsuneyo. It took a lot of time to catch even a glance of understanding, but now I get her (i think)
Touka. She was comedy relief character for me and now she is a real girl
Karin. I had a higher opinion about her, but after the
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my hopes were ruined
Tsukasa. I understood how mature and lonely she is only after
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Nobodyknowsmeok

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Antosha said:
Yup. Yumi isn't lewd-able... yet. Neither is her mother Yuki. According to Selebus, they'll all be. Eventually. But we're way less than half-way into the game at this point.

The characters with a lust stat currently are:
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You also get to watch Wakana and Osako get freaky a couple of times, and in the most recent update, you can fool around a bit with poor Imani. And if you're a really horrible person, you get to fuck a completely uninterested Io, who's just been telling you about the damage her mother's sexual abuse did to her, in one of the least sexy sex scenes ever.

Also, an update or so back, there's the Nodokathon, a bizarre sequence where a bunch of the girls "compete" in various sexual games. It's bizarre mostly because it's hard to believe that any of the girls involved — Makoto, Noriko, Rin, Molly, Kirin, and Sana — would trust Nodoka at all in that moment... But that's a story for another day. :)

ETA: Oh! And how could I ever forget Maya! :cry:
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Very helpful thanks
 
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PhiloPhilo

PhiloPhilo

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I activated my 'tism and went through every line of dialogue in the game* mentioning the word "animal" in order to find more leads on the Akira-as-a-captive-animal-for-Pareidolia/others thing. And I found... Not much. I will post screenshots/thoughts on interesting findings, but these are almost certainly not correlated. If this analogy is important, we'll have to wait for more.

1) Far more often, the girls are likened to animals rather than Akira. Most of the time this is in the form of 'slaughtered' animals, with Akira or whoever else being a vulture or scavenging bird. Other references that came up multiple times include humans being like cornered animals in certain situations. Clueless, scared.
2) The term 'lamb' is something I've brought up before, and appears more often in relation to Akira. I have not gone over all of those lines yet, (thankfully there are a lot less, unfortunately I believe they will need more examination to create any kind of theory beyond just basic symbolism,) but I'd be willing to do so to chuck my thoughts out there and have others chime in. The symbol of a lamb as a sacrifice seems to be more important and pervasive. This one instance from the desk of the ninth god referring to Akira as more of a caged animal might illuminate the 9th god's, pareidolia's, or whoever else's feelings about Akira and how they plan to use him — and may actually be more telling, because it's the only time the analogy is made, which could help identify narrators/entities later on. I think Maya's line is probably just a throwaway line, honestly, and not foreshadowing/related to this line from the 9th god, but that's just my hunch as of now.
3) The term Zoo doesn't come up anywhere else, either, besides "petting zoo."
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Again, not much to go on yet. There may or may not end up being much to this analogy long-term. Animal(s) usually refers to the girls being sexed or used, or anyone who's lost, frightened, etc. And again, I think there's more to go over concerning the symbology of lambs, if anyone's interested, but that might take more time and is a different topic.

*I may have missed some or a lot of things. I also didn't go over the vast majority of cases that weren't relevant and/or were just examples of point #1.
**Removed a section I misread/misinterpreted, saved for later discussion. Thanks to Aramaug for context & correction
 
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aramaug

aramaug

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Apollo259 said:
I still cant make up my mind on that narrator either, mainly because I think the "two of us return to form" line only seems to be used in relation to Sekai, but I'm not entirely sure if she fits very well either.
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If it was not for that line I would lean towards Himawari. But then again who are the "We" that are coming for "you". Maybe the multiple Sekai's idea has some more merit. Or maybe Ami and Sekai are somewhat more closely connected in relation to this than we might think. (Ami seems to have been talking to someone in her head when looking after Akira, It could have been Sekai. There was also the multiple Amis with Himawari in the last reset.)

Damit, how does Selebus always manage to make things seem so obvious and unclear at the same time.
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It's definitely Sekai talking in "The Clod and the Pebble". It's interesting that she talks about Ami's mother and the possible return to form only in the third person. I guess this supports one theory that I'm currently partial to, which is that outside of memories/happy events, we've only seen one Sekai, but it's a fake one created by Pareidolia. So the "return to form" would be for the real Sekai, who is also the moon that SeKaori claims is never coming back in "Il Cervo".

The "we" that are coming to help Sensei are probably the same ones who sent the gift of Nao-chan, and thus are somehow related to USER4 (I think Moonflare was the one who pointed this out to me).
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I think there's also a connection to USER4 in "Not the Nightingale", because the fourfold repetition of "return to form" evokes the talk of a "fourth form" in "All for You". I wrote about this in a previous post, in which I also argued that Maya is the narrator of "Miserably Ever After" (though I also originally thought it was Himawari).
aramaug said:
I love the idea of The Caretaker pointing to a Caring God, and that Ami is somehow connected. The stuff about "on the way to twenty-four" is a great catch, I don't see what it could mean except TERMINAL 24, which means Ami either somehow knows about a coming "mega reset" or maybe even has the ability to cause it herself.

When I thought about (some version) of Ami being involved in USER4, I wondered if it could have something to do with the mysterious "return to form," and I found something that I'm kicking myself for not noticing earlier:
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Ami uses the phrase "return to form" four times. In "All For You" the narrator uses the specific term "fourth form" to refer to the emergence of a new God, who with all of the four symbolism is presumably USER4.
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So I think "the two of US return to form" refers to two people/entities combining to form USER4. Since it's a return to form, I would think that USER4 was once whole, but was split into halves. Ami refers to (probably) herself as half of a whole:
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In the context here, the "whole" is her mom, which could have unsettling implications for the nature of a reformed USER4.

If one of the halves is (some version of) Ami, who is the other? The narrator of "Miserably Ever After" also uses the phrase, so I assume that narrator is either Ami or the other half of US. This might sound crazy, but I have a theory for who it is:
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I'd like to add one more reason (another shout-out to Moonflare here) for thinking Maya narrates "Miserably Ever After", in that the event starts by showing Maya's goodbye letter, followed closely by the narrator saying "signed - the one who drowned in [the wishing well]". I think it's likely that Maya Prime drowned in the well when she "died".
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And yes, I do still somewhat believe in the idea that somehow USER4=Ami+Maya, though I have waffled a bit that it might be USER4=Real Sekai+Maya.
 
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4.10 star(s) 324 Votes