Well, again, Sekai has been in contact with Ami for a long time now than we think, so not only did Sekai wake up on the beach, but Akira recognized her existence on the beach. It is much more likely that she was already wandering and talking to Ami since chapter 1 and only in chapter 3 did Akira recognize her existence as real. Because as we know, Sekai can talk to Ami and from what we've seen so far she can even talk to Niki, so the spirit Sekai is 100% real. paredolia was forgotten so it makes sense that others don't remember him and only his one believer remembers him.
I'm willing to say Spirit Sekai is real (as in an entity that is properly thinking for itself. Whether it's actually Sekai or something using her 'skin' is to be decided. Sekai living through her organs inside of Kaori and then spirit projecting elsewhere in the world is slightly too far for me right now)
And I'd put the Sekai that exists in the 0.44-0.45 halloween timeline a creation of that Ami. She's a bit too dumb to be Sekai and is both a yes man to that Ami, but is denying the ability to fuck 'Sensei' too like it's a self inflicted punishment for Ami until she can convince her 'Sensei' to fuck her. Akira coming into her timeline as Amifuckable is probably something that's caught her eye, and why I suspect she came to our timeline after the reset (Though that triple beach moon theory is interesting, and there's always the chance she was always like this). And on that tangent, I don't know if she did something to our Ami or if she's just possessed / reset our Ami before inserting herself.
I also like the idea of that Ami creating her perfect timeline which includes a Sekai / mom that's alive and a Akira that's willing to sleep with her because that could fit into some of the season 1 clues which could also be the entire reason of Kumon-Mi in the first place.
Thinking more on this, the "gods" known as Wires, HOPE, and Pareidolia are probably so invested in Akira because they were BORN from him. They are deeply tied to him and if they are supernatural beings manifesting from within a person's psyche, of course they are going to be obsessed with Akira. He is deeply ashamed and traumatized from his past. He has indicated many times that he WANTS to be punished and doesn't understand why he keeps getting away with the stuff he does.
I feel like the different "gods" are each facets of his personality and acting on his true desires.
To punish himself, for the things he's done and the things that have been done unto him. He deserves suffering.
To wallow in his depravity and give in to his darkest desires, for he knows he is a monster.
And even deeper, a HOPE. A desire that through all this pain and suffering, he can still find a place that he feels like he can belong.
Once again I feel parallels to the Monogatari series. For those who aren't familiar:
Reading LiL I can't help but feel like this story is Akira's own personal hell for himself in some way. A constant struggle between what he truly desires against what he feels like he deserves.
He wants to feel whole, he wants to love and all the things that were denied and stolen from him in his childhood.
He also wants penance, he wants to be punished for taking advantage of others and continuing the cycle of trauma.
He wants to feel important, special. He wants to be a protagonist of a story.
He also feels like he is worthless, he doesn't deserve the spotlight in people's lives. He's a terrible person.
The struggle between them all I feel is where Wires, Pareidolia, and HOPE come in.
The gods aren't making him do these things, not directly. He WANTS them but he's so broken he doesn't understand and his mind is constantly making up excuses and blaming his "gods" on not being able to control the twisted part of him.
It's all Akira, he's talking to different parts of himself. It's an amazing representation of multiple personalities and disassociation.
As to the constant references to games and computer scripts, it's possible Akira had involvement in those in the past and is repressing it, his delusions coming and telling him that this is all a game, a bunch of simulations, etc. We already get him waxing philosophical and spouting poetry everytime he starts to slip because we know Sekai and tutoring were a large part of his childhood, who's to say that computers and games weren't either and we just havent uncovered it yet?
Each chapter, another "god" takes control. Which means a different part of Akira takes the driver's seat. That's why the chapters have different feelings and consequences.
I feel like the story could eventually culminate in Akira slowly becoming more aquainted with these different parts of his personality, learning more and more about them and in turn himself. To the point where they start to become characters themselves and he has to somehow learn to accept them and resolve their own respective arcs perhaps on his journey to ultimately fixing himself.
And this is why it's called Lessons in Love, because it's about learning to love YOURSELF and all of your flaws.
Boom. Bam. Theory over
This (the idea that the various deities/narrators/users/spirits and possibly some of the girls are Akira’s psychological projections) has been my working theory since HOPE and Wires started pushing their way to the fore in Ch 2.
The complaints would have to be specifically about the dream / simulation existing for a purpose.
Otherwise it's just not being happy about my very rough overview about where I think things stand, and I'm in chapter 3.5 so things are bound to change with an entire chapter's worth of events to still go for. Though I'll listen to your ideas if you have any.
For convenience only, from my part, I written this text in french and translate it, with the help of google and my own knowledge, in english.
I also tried to keep thing clear enough, I hope I've done a good job doing so.
Well my vague idea of what's happening is Ami found the wishing well after losing Sekai (and Nozomu) and having Akira broken as a result (since all of the Sekai-Akira stuff did happen for real) and made a bunch wishes in efforts to make a world where she can live with her family again. She wished for a best friend (Maya), then wished for the world, then wished for Akira to be happy or something but that resulted in his and Maya's backstory. This angers Ami so she tries wishing for rivals to Maya (the Nakayamas), Maya isn't able to properly resist her since she's literally her best friend, Akira resists since he's happy, things are said in anger and both the time loop purgatory is created, and all of the memories are fucked with (Except for Maya as a punishment, she had to watch his memories be deleted which is what she saw during the scary room, and then it was threatened to happen again)
And whatever the endgame is (I think ending the purgatory world), I believe it ends with Akira and Makoto going into the wishing well to rescue a trapped Ami.
Well my vague idea of what's happening is Ami found the wishing well after losing Sekai (and Nozomu) and having Akira broken as a result (since all of the Sekai-Akira stuff did happen for real) and made a bunch wishes in efforts to make a world where she can live with her family again. She wished for a best friend (Maya), then wished for the world, then wished for Akira to be happy or something but that resulted in his and Maya's backstory. This angers Ami so she tries wishing for rivals to Maya (the Nakayamas), Maya isn't able to properly resist her since she's literally her best friend, Akira resists since he's happy, things are said in anger and both the time loop purgatory is created, and all of the memories are fucked with (Except for Maya as a punishment, she had to watch his memories be deleted which is what she saw during the scary room, and then it was threatened to happen again)
And whatever the endgame is (I think ending the purgatory world), I believe it ends with Akira and Makoto going into the wishing well to rescue a trapped Ami.
It's... kinda not? It has been acknowledged, though mostly in happy events, even in the first one (which is where my personal theory that the ending of Chapter 3 happened because Maya was punished in The Room With Clocks).
And not so much a simulation, but that the world they're living isn't the world they grew up in.
Personally, as long as it doesn't interfere much with the story, I wouldn't really mind it (even if I'm not fond of it). I mean, in the end, it's just a plot device. And plot devices can be used in both bad (St. Elsewhere ending) and non-bad (Rosalind Shays) ways.
I still have quite a bit of catching up left (halfway through current CH4 or so) though, so I'm sure my thoughts will change. I'm thoroughly enjoying how the story is leaving it vague enough to allow my imagination to run wild. I mean I just found out about this just over a month ago and feel like I've been blasting through it so I guess that speaks for itself.
I still have quite a bit of catching up left (halfway through current CH4 or so) though, so I'm sure my thoughts will change. I'm thoroughly enjoying how the story is leaving it vague enough to allow my imagination to run wild. I mean I just found out about this just over a month ago and feel like I've been blasting through it so I guess that speaks for itself.
From what I remember it is said that the Yasu church that worships Hope has existed for over 100 years and from what I remember (I don't remember if it was Nao (goddess) or Ami.) but one of them says that it all started very before Akira was born, so for me having been he as the one who created the gods doesn't make much sense, or at the end of the game Akira ends up actually becoming a deity and creates them, making them become beings cosmic beings that live in time and space, then I could be wrong hahahah
Pareidolia only has one believer, after all: Akira. And when he asked the God of Save Slots who Pareidolia was, he seemed to have no clue who that even was.
You would think Akira has to constantly be around for him to keep the entities stable or in place for the ‘Akira is creating them from his mind’ theory to be true, but… does he really?
Restoring his memories of Sekai on the Beach is what ultimately allowed her to ‘reawaken’, after all. He could simply be creating these entities and allowing them to wander.
…Buuuuut, again, it’s all just speculation. We’re trying to put together a still incomplete puzzle. We simply need more pieces first before we can figure this out.
This (the idea that the various deities/narrators/users/spirits and possibly some of the girls are Akira’s psychological projections) has been my working theory since HOPE and Wires started pushing their way to the fore in Ch 2.
That's was my theory for a long time too, but I feel like Ch4 and maybe Ch3 kind of discourage that line of thinking. It's almost disconcerting reading Ch1/Ch2 again and seeing how much more pronounced the clues for this were. Like it's unimaginable in Ch4 2025 to imagine Maya facing the screen and giving Sensei a rundown on the holy trinity. Obviously, changes of seasons and changing narrators blah blah mean different focuses, but it's just so... weirdly uncompelling for me now. It's genuinely like Ch1-3 and Ch4+ Senseis are different people, which does have its fair share of allusions in the narration. Note how different Sensei's posture is in the Yasu remake of going shopping with Ami.
Well my vague idea of what's happening is Ami found the wishing well after losing Sekai (and Nozomu) and having Akira broken as a result (since all of the Sekai-Akira stuff did happen for real) and made a bunch wishes in efforts to make a world where she can live with her family again. She wished for a best friend (Maya), then wished for the world, then wished for Akira to be happy or something but that resulted in his and Maya's backstory. This angers Ami so she tries wishing for rivals to Maya (the Nakayamas), Maya isn't able to properly resist her since she's literally her best friend, Akira resists since he's happy, things are said in anger and both the time loop purgatory is created, and all of the memories are fucked with (Except for Maya as a punishment, she had to watch his memories be deleted which is what she saw during the scary room, and then it was threatened to happen again)
And whatever the endgame is (I think ending the purgatory world), I believe it ends with Akira and Makoto going into the wishing well to rescue a trapped Ami."
Consider: In that one scene in Ch3 with loli Maya, why does she say "This isn't what *I* wished for?"
Honestly though, some great ideas. Maya's friendship with Ami is one of the more mysterious aspects of the plot and Ami wishing for a best friend would explain a lot. One slight alteration could be that Maya may have been her cat and she wished for Maya to be a real girl.
I did forget about it in the moment, but I was trying to prune the post length because I haven't locked the ideas down to something more robust yet, and the ideas weren't locked down yet because my in-depth playthrough isn't done yet (CH3.5 atm)
I could even rewrite the wishes I suggested there as "Make a world that makes Akira happy" and that makes it less clunky, while giving more room for monkey paw wish interpretation.
