I thought about this for a long time now.
Both Silent Hill and Kumonmi have this other world happenings.
Both "cities" are secluded and can't be left until the end.
Those who are trapped have to face their problems/sins, even those of other people.
And the list could go on i'm sure.
But it was until one of the girls mentioned that "people have spoken like yasu too, a long time ago" that that idea of Silent Hill came back.
Because it sounds like, as you also seem to get the impression, that their might be some kind of cult working in the background.
In Silent Hill some cult was directly or indirectly responsible for all the stuff that went down in the games.
Maybe in Kumonmi there's also a cult involved that has been there for a long time, that was into worshipping incest, weird deities and whatnot.
Akiras family, Saras family and even more could be descendent of said cult.
Though, this is really one of my more loose theories and only gained some weight from that sentence about Yasu lately.
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."
Not mentioned: Kaori stating that she likes lambs because all of the bad things you do can be forgiven by ritualistically slaughtering one. Probably a joke/throw-away line.
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.
Not necessarily mentioning animals, etc, but in the 'Amy' Happy Event which takes place at the Pareidolia Mall, there is a man in a cage that is disintegrating:
Possibly the "real" Akira, or maybe even Yuu, but it's not clear, and there's so much lore stuff in 'Amy' that I'm not even sure where to start with it.
Could be unrelated, but the relation to Pareidolia and a caged thing seems possibly notable.
Not necessarily mentioning animals, etc, but in the 'Amy' Happy Event which takes place at the Pareidolia Mall, there is a man in a cage that is disintegrating:
Possibly the "real" Akira, or maybe even Yuu, but it's not clear, and there's so much lore stuff in 'Amy' that I'm not even sure where to start with it.
Could be unrelated, but the relation to Pareidolia and a caged thing seems possibly notable.
Another great catch. I forgot to go over the mentions of cage, too... My last post was a little rushed, honestly.
My initial reaction is that these few instances aren't linked, I'm maybe a couple more mentions away from being totally convinced, but I can't disregard it either. It's easy to say Maya and the letter's lines are just coincidentally similar analogies, but the idea that Pareidolia or someone else wants to cage Akira or use him as some sort of puppeted / performance animal seems well supported and plausible. I'll have to rewatch Amy, I'm definitely not prepared to read into it and propose anything yet. If this caged man is linked to the letter deliberately, that lends more credence than I gave credit for.
I'd say we wait for more mentions, and possibly hope that this is gonna be a clue about Pareidolia or the 9th god going forward, but someone with more insight might be able to gleam more from what we already have and look for things I missed
Another great catch. I forgot to go over the mentions of cage, too... My last post was a little rushed, honestly.
My initial reaction is that these few instances aren't linked, I'm maybe a couple more mentions away from being totally convinced, but I can't disregard it either. It's easy to say Maya and the letter's lines are just coincidentally similar analogies, but the idea that Pareidolia or someone else wants to cage Akira or use him as some sort of puppeted / performance animal seems well supported and plausible. I'll have to rewatch Amy, I'm definitely not prepared to read into it and propose anything yet. If this caged man is linked to the letter deliberately, that lends more credence than I gave credit for.
I'd say we wait for more mentions, and possibly hope that this is gonna be a clue about Pareidolia or the 9th god going forward, but someone with more insight might be able to gleam more from what we already have and look for things I missed
Well for now Pareidolas motivations are unknown.I mean sure you can whip up a theory or 2 with some vague evidence about how Pareidola wants to use sensei to dethrone the ninth god or how Pareidola wants to cuck Ayane or smt but i dont think its that complicated.
Pareidola is a malevolent god that uses Akira as his outlet for that vitriol and hostility.I believe that Pareidola both enjoys watching Akira deprave himself and maybe he has something to gain from Akira reaching the lowest of the lows.I mean correct me if im wrong but if Pareidola *just* enjoyed tormenting Akira his dialogue would show it.No its something else(He does enjoy doing that i just mean that he needs akira to break in order for...a reason?)
Well for now Pareidolas motivations are unknown.I mean sure you can whip up a theory or 2 with some vague evidence about how Pareidola wants to use sensei to dethrone the ninth god or how Pareidola wants to cuck Ayane or smt but i dont think its that complicated.
Pareidola is a malevolent god that uses Akira as his outlet for that vitriol and hostility.I believe that Pareidola both enjoys watching Akira deprave himself and maybe he has something to gain from Akira reaching the lowest of the lows.I mean correct me if im wrong but if Pareidola *just* enjoyed tormenting Akira his dialogue would show it.No its something else(He does enjoy doing that i just mean that he needs akira to break in order for...a reason?)
Pareidolia definitely has unexplored motives and his place in the universe / amongst other users is fuzzy in my opinion. I don't have much new to say about him honestly because I think we're missing a lot, and I personally believe that the name Pareidolia itself (and some other language used to describe him) hints at us having a warped/obfuscated understanding or view of him. As for those unanswered questions and what they mean, I don't know. I'm definitely a third-rate lore master with a fourth-rate memory. The lore daddies and chads can handle that while I ramble on about Himawari and lambs, and draw them in Paint
