#MONO: Child of Pale City

[end-the-transmission]

-"I think you're wonderful"-

[grim-faux]

The Thin Man: "C̵h̴i̵l̴d̶.̴ ̴E̸a̶t̸ ̴Y̶o̶u̸r̸ ̷S̵o̵u̵p̶.̶ ̵D̷o̶ ̷N̷o̶t̴ ̸P̸l̴a̴y̸ ̴I̷n̸ ̷I̴t̶.̴"

Mono: [With a bowl of Pale City alphabet soup]

Unable to wrap his mind around edible letters.

"ᵀʰᵉ ˢᵖᵉᵉᵏ."

The Thin Man: "N̷o̸.̷ ̴T̵h̸a̷t̸ ̸I̴s̸ ̴Y̷o̵u̸r̷ ̴S̶u̸p̴p̴e̸r̸.̸"

Mono: [adorable and fishing out letters]

"ˢ'ᵐᵘᶜʰ ˢᵖᵉᵉᵏ. ʸ'ˢᵉᵉˀ"

The Thin Man: "Y̴o̸u̸ ̶W̶a̸s̶t̸i̸n̴g̷ ̸A̶w̶a̵y̷ ̷T̶o̵ ̸B̸o̸n̷e̸s̶ ̴I̴s̸ ̷A̸l̵l̴ ̴I̷ ̵S̶e̴e̴.̶"

[devouraes]

[littlenightmares2]

it gets me a little irritated when people act like mono isn't supposed to be an intrinsically compassionate foil to six's character.

every moment of his character in cutscenes with six demonstrates kindness and compassion. his hand is always reaching out to offer comfort and reassurance. when they're separated, despite the fact that he's answering the tower's call, he still goes out of his way to ensure that him and six are reunited and that he is safe again instead of continuing to push forth to the pale city.

the only aggression he shows is towards entities that are hostile to himself. he does what he has to do to survive, which is something that him and six do have in common. but him smashing the bullies open or lighting the doctor on fire doesn't negate the fact that he is being portrayed as a child who is inherently more tender-hearted and trusting than the girl he's travelling with.

mono is afraid of being alone. by the time we pick up six's story again within the maw, we can see that she has become adept at being alone. they're stark opposites.

even the simple theory of shapes in character design tells us so much about the two of them. mono's shape is square. this indicates to us that he is strong, sturdy, reliable, and supportive. six's shape is triangular. triangles signify that a character is cunning, sneaky and dangerous. (sometimes it is used to indicate that a character is 'evil,' but we know all too well as a fandom that using that term to describe six is doing her a complete disservice and shows a deep misunderstanding of her character.)

all this to say that it's upsetting that people see the need to try and make mono out to be more edgy than he actually is, often just in retaliation against the misunderstandings people have about six's nature. this series is very open to interpretation, so it's fair enough if you personally believe him to have a darker side. but it's my personal belief that isn't the correct portrayal of his character and there's very little evidence of that being the case within the series.

[fae-only-reblogs]

My Little Nightmares headcanons

This is probably messy to read I apologize! Remember these headcanons are just for fun & while some of them might have roots in canon they are ONLY headcanons! ❤️

The sound of Nightmares 🎧 (TSON)

- Sisi & Otto were foster kids adopted by the same family (no biological relation)

- I don't personally think Sisi/Cici is Six but I lean of her being the RCG from VLN

- Sisi could be an entirely different character to begin with

- Noone is blonde

- Children in the Waking world are still super small just as in the games

Very Little Nightmares (VLN)

- the pretender has parents

- IF the pretender & RCG do have a time loop situation it's of the easiest to be broken

- RCG & The pretender are friends! Then eventually they'll become friends who are also girls and beyond that who knows!

- The pretender is porcelain but can still grow

- The pretender gave RCG the name Rain because children who enter the Nowhere eventually lose their memories from the Waking world.

- The pretender's parents are out on business, somewhere. Either in the pale city or some location from TSON 🎧

LN comics

- The long haired girl & the boy in green are siblings

- The hunched back girl has powers of some kind (shown off in the comics but unsure what kind of powers they are exactly)

- ⭐ refugee boy & his sister as well as the hunched back girl were born in the Nowhere (More on this in a bit)

Little Nightmares (LN)

- The Lady & Six are the same person (time loop)

- There were four previous ladies before the current one (Lady Six). But these four were different individuals filling a title rather than the same person completing a loop four different times!

- Lady 1 passed her powers to lady 2, from her to Lady 3, and I believe Lady 4 wasn't killed but sent to the flooded parts of the Maw to become the granny by Lady 5 (or the 1st version of her anyways)

- Lady 5/Adult Six & Six have been in their own time loop for quite awhile. Maybe it's because the Nowhere finds their time loop particularly entertaining or the supply of (misery/souls/meat/whatever else the Nowhere sustains itself off of) has been significantly more than what those past four ladies could provide it. Time loop = entertaining & or Time loop = efficiency.

- The Lady is close with the doctor, the teacher, the hunter, and the barber due to having their portraits hung around the Maw.

- Children can't permanently die & we'll just essentially respond unless 1 of 3 events occur: 1) The soul reaches a breaking point/corruption & just can't continue. 2) They get taken out by a power strong enough to perma kill them - the pretender's ability to just evaporate you completely as in VLN. 3) The Nowhere consumes them in one way or another

- The flashlight girl is the daughter of the Lady (Adoptive or biological)

- The flashlight girl's model is taller than Six & Seven's models so I think she's closer to her teenage years 13 years old

- Not many HCs on Runaway kid other than his 'name' is Seven & he's 9 years old

Little Nightmares 2 (LN2)

- Mono & the thin man are the same person (Time Loop)

- The Thin man is one individual rather than a role to be filled (like the Lady)

- The thin man is a TV show/Radio host

- Thin man & The lady still keep in contact somehow (I like the idea of messaging birds)

- The hunter is Six's adoptive parent

- Spoon girl & Lollipop kid are friends! She 100% protects him from the monster's every time

- Mono came from an orphanage that caught fire (based off the LN2 comics)

Misc

- ⭐ Non hostile adults exist in the Nowhere (Refugee boy comes from a village after all) These villages were probably formed by children who were able to grow up without becoming monsters or puppets to the Nowhere (The Lady/Thin man)

- The Nowhere probably isn't fond of anything that isn't misery so I think these villages could make deals with powerful entities or the Nowhere itself so that the entity gains something for protection (probably a child sacrifice- yeah....)

There's still more I can put here but that can come later once I've posted all my drawings I've been doing for my main blog! Thank you for reading!

[itstimetotheorize]

The forgotten child

The Little Nightmares franchise is iconic and mysterious for many things, but nothing is more mysterious and iconic than the little yellow raincoat. While it may seem like a simple piece of clothing to some, we all inevitably come to find this single little yellow raincoat has a history of its own, and with the release of The Sounds of Nightmares podcast, its story is now deeper than ever before. I and many other theorists have covered the topic of the yellow raincoat in the past ( here), but with the release of the podcast, new information is finally brought to light.

Theorists have pondered the true origins of the yellow raincoat many times before, but no matter what was talked about, things would always narrow down to two simple questions time and time again... where did it come from?.... and who was its original owner?

Before the release of the podcast, only two living children were seen wearing the raincoat, the girl in the yellow raincoat from Very Little Nightmares and Six. Six encountered the girl in the yellow raincoat back at the Nest, but after the girl's demise, it was the raincoat which survived, drifting away along with the ocean current .

As for how it could have journeyed from the ocean to the deeper parts of the Pale City... well... your guess is as good as mine, but we always theorized the yellow raincoat was brought to the shores of the Pale City where it was discovered by someone else (child or Resident), then finally taken to the deeper parts of the Pale City where Mono and Six would discover it for themselves. 

However, given Little Nightmares 2 is a prequel to Little Nightmares, there was still one more piece to the puzzle to be considered....the portrait aboard the Maw depicting a little girl wearing the yellow raincoat.

Many theories have surrounded the girl in the portrait, but based on what little we could gather at the time, I and many other theorists had theorized the girl in the portrait could potentially be the girl in the yellow raincoat from very Little Nightmares, whether or not she is still remains unknown, but regardless, we do know this, the Maw was the last known place the yellow raincoat was active within the world of the Nowhere, before the sounds of nightmares podcast finally revealed its original owner .

In chapter 6 of the sounds of nightmares, as Noone tells of her recent visit to the Nowhere, she recounts discovering the iconic yellow raincoat in a chest filled with other small clothing. As a result of Otto's reaction, it was now clear the raincoat's original owner was none other than Sisi, a girl from the Counties and Otto's big sister no less. We have long theorized the events of the Little Nightmares podcast could potentially take place before the events of the franchise, and yet despite finally concluding the origins of the yellow raincoat, new questions have now come forth....Who is Sisi? and how does she fit into the mystery of the yellow raincoat and the world of the Nowhere?

While some have theorized Sisi could be either Six or the girl in the yellow raincoat, it wasn't long before I and many other theorists realized something, something so simple we didn't think to consider it from the start. We know years ago, in the Counties, when Otto was just a boy, Sisi made the decision to accept the Ferryman's offer to stay in the Nowhere, because of this, everyone initially attempted to find a child in the Nowhere who could be Sisi...but perhaps it was never a child we were meant to look for...perhaps...it was always someone who lost themselves throughout the years in the Nowhere.

We have always theorized time within the Nowhere was abnormal, everywhere we looked, we could see the peculiar rhythm and details of the clocks within the world and how they ran through the passage of time in many different ways (more here). Leaving many children, like the teenagers Noone encountered in chp.4, to grow up in this world of nightmares just as they would have in the world they once called home...until they too would become one of the many Residents seen throughout the Nowhere....where am I going with this?...well, what if maybe...just maybe... Sisi faced the same fate.

No one knows what happened to Sisi in the Nowhere... and yet... given everything we have been provided...maybe we were always told what happened to her, through the one thing she was known to wear...the yellow raincoat. When Sisi permanently left the Counties for the Nowhere, her yellow raincoat went with her, and wherever the raincoat was last seen, a child would have had to been there along with it. Noone found the raincoat in the Sewing room she spoke of in chp 6....but there was no child in the room besides her. The raincoat was the only thing left in the chest among other clothing in need of repairs, almost as if… the raincoat was also in need of repairs. Perhaps it was no coincidence the yellow raincoat wound up in the sewing room, because maybe...just maybe...it was never abandoned in the sewing room, let alone discovered by someone else before it was left there…no… it was brought to the puppet to be repaired…by the very person who valued it before anyone else, Sisi. If what we theorized is true, then could this potentially mean the child Otto once knew Sisi to be...was no longer a child...but a woman walking amongst the Residents in the Nowhere?...maybe. But if Sisi is truly now a grown woman then...where is she?...maybe we always knew.

As stated before, The Maw was the last place we knew the raincoat was active in the world of the Nowhere, but could this mean Sisi was at some point within the Maw and left?…or was she always there. The girl in the portrait may have worn the yellow raincoat, but does this mean the girl in the portrait was Sisi?...or was the girl in the portrait simply the child who obtained the raincoat after Sisi outgrew it...where am I going with this? well...what if Sisi did board the Maw, but rather than escape it, she remained within it, not as a child...but as the Lady of the Maw we've all come to know in Little Nightmares.

We have always theorized many Residents within the Nowhere were once children themselves, and the "Lady" in particular was not necessarily a single person, but a title inherited through a vicious cycle of successors, where a new young girl would overthrow the former Lady of the Maw and obtain both the powers and title of "Lady" for themselves, until they too inevitably became corrupted and distorted by the world just as many Residents before. We have seen the Lady of Little Nightmares enough to theorize many things about her, but of all the things we have theorized, at some point, one can only look on at this strange woman living her silent and lonely life in the Maw, and realize she too was once a forgotten child of the world, as for who she was before all this, well... what if maybe...just maybe...she was always Sisi.

Not much is known about Sisi, let alone what her life was like, but never the less, she must have lived out a life of torment as these are the children the Ferryman is known to target to bring to the Nowhere(more here). If what we theorized about Sisi is true, and if she truly became the Lady of the Maw from Little Nightmares, then perhaps it was Sisi's desperation to find a place where she could finally get away from the chaos she lived through which inevitably left her trapped within the Maw, a structure which we have always theorized to be a living being of its own watching over the Lady, corrupting and pacifying her to never think about leaving, because without her, it would surely die... just like the Mall in the sounds of nightmares (more here). Of course, if the Residents taught us anything, its this...no life in the Nowhere is ever freed of torment, because this twisted world they reside in, thrives off it.

The Residents of the Nowhere are fueled by their corrupted desires/base instincts, and yet no matter how much they try, their desires can never be fulfilled, they are trapped in a constant state of need for something. Despite belonging within the Maw, and despite having lived a life where she could have everything she could ever want, the Lady was not happy with the life she lived, we have seen her look on aimlessly from a distance as the Guests arrived, we have seen her stroke her hair in her silent empty quarters, cry out over the hideous monster her reflection revealed her to be and we have seen her gently stroke the head of a baby doll as a lullaby played in the background. The Lady had everything she wanted...but not what she needed...something was always missing....or rather...someone.

Of the many portraits we have seen within the Maw, there was one portrait in particular which raised questions towards the Lady...the portrait of her standing next to a girl, the same girl we saw in another portrait wearing the yellow raincoat. We had always theorized the Lady of the Maw desired a child to stand by her side as she continued to live within the Maw, but this child was far from a daughter, she was a possession, another doll for the Lady to admire...and resent. If what we theorized about the Lady is true and if she is truly Otto's long lost Sisi, then perhaps it was the constant presence of her raincoat which hinted to her of the life she once had in the Counties with Otto, moving her to try and obtain what she no longer had...a family...even if she couldn't remember.

We have always theorized any memories the Residents had from their once human lives, were lost as the world of the Nowhere changed them, just like it did for the Sewer man in chp.5 of the sounds of nightmares, who had but a single little child's propeller hat, which we theorized once belonged to him when he was a child, but had now been tucked away, forgotten and ignored, as if it alone was the last link he had of his former life, but was now a constant reminder of both a reality he so desperately wanted to forget and a silent memory of the life he wanted to once again obtain above the sewers (more here). If the Lady had no memory of who she used to be, let alone of the life she once lived, then perhaps it was the yellow raincoat which brought back the simple desire to once again have someone by her side, leaving her willing enough to take a child for herself and not leave them in the cold prison where the rest were kept below the Maw.

However, even if the Lady decided to take a child for herself, would she have been willing to give the girl in the portrait her precious raincoat?...or did the girl find it? The Lady is not above hiding things within her quarters, so if the girl in the portrait did end up discovering the raincoat, then her actions alone would have been met with a great sense of punishment as the Lady saw her own reflection within another girl, reminding her of the person she used to be and the torment she once lived, the life she lost and the people she left behind. We've always theorized the Residents lived in a constant state of ignorance, avoiding and lashing out at any and all things which could bring their minds back to the true reality of their situation and their lives.

And so to see the Lady act the way she did when Six appeared wearing the same yellow raincoat which could have once belonged to her, and of which was later worn by the child who stood beside her in the portrait, a child who we theorized had one day abandoned her to escape, one can only imagine the sheer anger she felt to see the raincoat once again return within the hands of another child. The Lady never showed Six the mercy of turning her into a Nome like other children who faced her, no, she aimed to kill Six as she alone dared to appear within the Maw wearing a little yellow raincoat, a raincoat which never belonged to her, it belonged to someone else, the Lady herself.

If what we theorized is true, then the Lady's end would have been met with a great sense of irony as she witnessed a reflection of herself in another girl wearing her once beloved raincoat... walking towards her to end her and obtain the powers of the Lady for herself...just as she did many years ago to the former Lady of the Maw( theorized to be the Granny),

only this time...everything was different... because the child before her was different, as Six did the one thing she likely wished she could have done years ago, but no longer had the free will to do....leave the Maw.

No one knows what happened to Sisi, no one knows what her life was truly like in the Counties, no one knows what happened to her in the Nowhere, and no one knows what she thought about as she left her brother behind....the only thing which remained of her now, was the yellow raincoat she once wore, a simple piece of clothing with a long and complicated past. But regardless of who Sisi was, where she is and what became of her, one thing is certain...this raincoat is far more meaningful than what was originally believed, almost as if this single little yellow raincoat...was the start of something...something big...but now...it has also become the end of it all, the end of what exactly? well...I guess we will just have to wait and see...for now, it's all just a theory...a Little Nightmares theory.

[cynthiadasorceress]

Little Nightmares Character Analysis

!Trigger warning for generational trauma/abuse!

Spoilers for the endings of the first and second games

One thing I find interesting about the relationship between Six and the Lady is how it compares to Mono and the Thin Man's relationship.

To me, Mono and the Thin Man are a metaphor for generational trauma. A child (Mono) is hurt by somebody, usually a parent or guardian (Thin Man), and tries to free themself from the situation. In the case of Mono, it's him trying to get out of the Pale City. Unfortunately, despite their efforts, the child, for whatever reason, grows up to be just like the person who hurt them (Mono growing up to become the Thin Man), perpetuating the cycle of abuse.

Six and the Lady, depending on how you interpret them, can also be a metaphor for generational trauma, but now the abused (Six) breaks the cycle (leaving the Maw). It's safe to assume that in most cases, the previous Lady of the Maw will raise the next Lady to take the job of running the Maw, thus continuing the cycle of trauma and passing it down to the next generation. Though the situation is different with the current Lady and Six, it still ends with Six choosing to stray away from the path that all the others before her chose to walk down. She chose to end the cycle.

Both situations are representations of how trauma and abuse are passed down from generation to generation, but one ends with the cycle continuing on, while the other ends with somebody finally putting a stop to it all.

[purplemninja]

A depressing revelation about Six's ending

2 months ago on the LN subreddit, I made a theory post where I say how Six may have had powers all along and didn't use them until the end, similar to Mono, and this wasn't the main focus of the post but in it I also mentioned a new way to interpret Six's ending and I compared it to a scene in Avatar: The last Airbender where Iroh teaches Zuko how to redirect lightning, the important thing being that lightning is a metaphor for abuse.

A person named Skrappo made a fandom wiki blog that goes into full detail on this new way to interpret the ending of LN1 (crediting me) and I will copy and paste it here for more people to see (I'll divide it between his blog and my comment with "---------" as a border, so to avoid people being confused between his info and mine)

-----------------------------------------------------

Credit goes to PurpleMNinja for the original idea.

In an interview, Little Nightmares' "Senior Narrative Designer" Dave Mervik said that he believes that both Six and Mono got equally bleak and hopeless endings. This has confused many fans ever since LN2's release. How could Six's fate be just as bad as Mono's? Mono is trapped forever in an infinite times-loop of betrayal, torture, and depression; while Six has become extremely powerful and has escaped the Maw, taking out anyone who stood in her path. I think I have realised why he believes this.

Let's take a look at Mono's story. He is a small child who has a bag over his head to hide from the world, to try to forget that it hates him. Throughout LN2, he continues to lie to himself, pretending that the world doesn't hate him, he is constantly hiding. But when Six is taken and he is confronted by Thin Man, he has had enough. He accepts that the world he lives in hates him and accepts who he truly is, using his newfound powers to defeat Thin Man and take control of the Pale City. I think we can all agree that this is his most badass moment. But it all amounts to nothing, as he is betrayed and left to sit and rot for the rest of his life in that little room. Until he is stripped of his humanity and turned into the Signal Tower's slave.

Now let's look at Six's story. Like Mono, she is a small child who is in a world that hates her and wants her dead. Unlike Mono however, she doesn't try to pretend that it doesn't. Instead she chooses to be a survivor. Her greatest fear is death, and she will do anything to avoid it (and really, can you blame a 9-year old child for wanting to live?). However, despite living in a world that is kill or be killed, Six still tries to cling on to her childish innocence, she tries not to give in to darkness. Throughout the series, we see her doing many good things; trying to save Raincoat Girl, befriending Mono, hugging the Nomes, etc. But every time she tries to show kindness it backfires. She fails to save Raincoat Girl, she is betrayed by Mono (from her perspective), and she is forced to choose between committing cannibalism by eating a sausage or eating a little Nome like all the other ones she had befriended previously. She ultimately decided that eating the Nome was a better alternative to cannibalism (not realising that the Nome was another child). However the eating of the Nome pushed Six close to her breaking point. She has tried so hard to remain pure, to stay innocent, but every time she is given nothing but heartbreak and guilt in return. I believe that Dark Six is a representation of her inner darkness, her shadow, the animalistic sinful part of her that will do as many immoral actions as it needs (and maybe more for fun) to survive. When Six has her final hunger bout, she realises that truth. She realises that if she wants to live, she has to give in to her shadow, she has no other choice. She eats the Lady, and gives up the last bit of innocence she had left. And now, with the Lady's power, she can finally take revenge and fight back against the horrible monsters that had been treating her like an animal. She walks down the dining halls, massacres the Guests along the way, she is finally able to fight back against the world, to rise above the world. She walks up into the sunlight, finally out of the Maw... and she is met with an endless ocean. We hear a boat horn in the distance, but it is likely nothing more than the Guests' ship leaving. She has spent her whole life being ruthlessly attacked by the world around her, and now that she has finally gained the ability to fight back, it holds back... it leaves her alone. After going through living hell, being forced to do things she didn't want to, and giving up her innocence, she is met with a dead end. It has all been for nothing. She is still stranded, and all she can do is stand there, and look out into the sea, knowing that there is no way for her to escape...

This is why I think that Dave Mervik believes both endings to be equally bleak. Both characters go through so much trauma, leading up to them finally breaking and rising above the world that hates them, becoming able to fight back, and then they are both met with a dead end. In reality, Raincoat Girl and Runaway Kid had it the best. They both died and were able to escape the nightmare, but Six and Mono are forever trapped, alone and hopeless...

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TL;DR - I compare Six's ending to Zuko being taught how to redirect lightning because both characters have been most notoriously abused by the worlds they live in, and after much struggle they eventually are able to fight back, but their worlds leave them there with nothing to fight (Six gets a few guests, but that's it). Making them suffer so much and not grant them any sort of payoff when they're finally able to dish it back out. (I know how the rest of ATLA goes)

I slightly imagine the world wanted Six to either die, or suffer so much but be left stranded when she's able to fight back so that her struggles, sacrifices and losses don't end up with some sort of payoff or reward, making her go through so much to avoid death just to be met with a dead end when she manages to plow through it all. Either way, the cruel world wins.

If that's not a massive middle finger, I don't know what is.

And this new realisation on the ending of LN1 only adds to the tragedy of Six's story, which I've gone into full detail here.

And since I've probably made you very sad, here's some music I think is best when thinking about this interpretation of Six's ending:

[2n2n]

Little Nightmares....

been enjoying the games Little Nightmares 1&2! Would like to... type some thoughts about LN2. Spoilers for the Little Nightmares series!! Mono & Six's situation... it's a kind of thing I really like!

The more I dwell on the Pale City, & Mono's psyche, the more endearing it all becomes.

First of all.... basic overview and such. he is such an interesting boy. The kind I really like! Described as an 'uncommonly single-minded child. When he sets himself to a task, he rarely gives up before it's completed' believing 'the world outside hates him, and wants him to fail'.... but maybe my favorite way of phrasing him comes from a dev in an interview saying, 'So you can treat him as a shy boy, or someone who doesn't want to reveal his personality'.

at the reveal of Mono as the Thin Man & thus perpetrator of the Pale City & an endless time loop, these traits become ... menacing! He's single-minded! He doesn't give up! He believes he's hated & has to persevere! He's hiding something about himself! I love when someone being 'shy' does not necessarily come from something you can be entirely sympathetic about. I think it is sweet that Mono does not want Six to hate him, fears it, but of course, it is manipulative to obfuscate himself in order to achieve that. We don't quite know how self-aware he is of loops, however! He may only have a vague, bleary, undefined, abstract sense of 'something about me, I have to hide'. Honesty may not be a choice available for him, and the truth manifests even to himself, possibly, as nonspecific anxiety, pure imperative to be secretive.

I really like that 'Mono' is probably just a reference to 'Monophobia' or the fear of being alone ... Unlike protectiveness, or love, fear of being alone would be a relatively selfish motivation (not saying these all don't co-exist in Mono, just saying the Signal Tower likely is seeking something more selfish or toxic). I tend to imagine an entity like the Signal Tower exists to expand & feed off of & broadcast out this sort of feeling, this desperation for control, this warped perspective of a hateful & violent world, enhancing it. It likely is seeking a host as indomitable as Mono, someone who only ever increases their intensity of emotion to get what they want. The perfect endless fuel!! I think Mono has a determination in him that FEW other humans have. I think if he were more easily made hopeless, the world would be better off, HAHA. It's not his fault that he's so persistent it makes him some kinda ideal vessel, though! His heart is kind of pure, like that. It's also fearful and animal.

Lots possible, all tantalizing! Poor Mono, and also poor Six, who can't understand the kind of beguiling going on as she is befriended & rescued over & over, if Mono might not even understand it as beguiling either. It's a bit of a doomed dynamic... well, you can't have any dynamic operating on necessary secrecy, or confusion. It has to explode. She'll have to see him eventually, and Mono will have to see himself....

It's really hard to imagine what the reveal of Mono being the Thin Man feels like to Six, as she drops him (after a long, lingering gaze at his face). I don't think many really dwell on her perspective. I think it's a kind of loss, for her. It's a bone-chilling degree of betrayal, it sets everything they have endured together as... being some sort of deranged performance or puppet-show. What meaning is there in Mono 'saving' her, if everything he is 'saving' her from is something he has orchestrated? If this entire hellscape is of his design (and she cannot begin to know how consciously/willfully), if the Thin Man is Mono, what meaningful protection did he ever offer? What was this world like before Mono's psyche corrupted it? Was it even so dangerous, before?

Even at the beginning of the game, it seems Six has been doodling the Pale Man on her prison wall, haunted by unknown, vague memories. Mono helping take her to the City, isn't so kind, if he's the monster waiting for her at its heart. Probably, both of them equally seek answers, clarity... but as a reveal to endure, it is skewed against Mono's favor, as, in some sense, the one in power. One must sympathize with Six being unable to deal with or understand why any of this is happening.

Six is strung between two self-hating states of Mono-- each with contrasting views of what 'saving' or 'protecting' her means. They fight each other for the territory of protecting Six! I really liked a dev in an interview saying bluntly, 'Six doesn't need to be protected'.

I really like the idea of a savior complex essentially forcing the world to corroborate the need for saving, by making it inhospitable and violent. The Pale City was not like this before Mono.

Anyway, curiously,

Even the Thin Man does not hurt her. I often see him described as vengeful or hating (like some sort of incel lol), but I honestly do not believe this is true. I believe he is sad, and hurt, but resolute that this pain will not stop him from what he is trying to do, which is save Six from her fate, and probably, save himself from loneliness.

She's kept contained in a room, with toys & sweet music... and actually, even Six's original music box-- when first met in the Hunter's Cabin-- contains the Signal Tower/Thin Man's eye insignia, making even it feel like a gift from Mono's psyche, somehow, comforting her in every iteration of this loop. When you think of the world around them, and the Maw ahead... you can understand what the Thin Man, Mono, was trying to do. It's a deformed and disfigured world. The Signal Tower is the safest sanctum there could be. Is this the worst outcome possible, for Six? How did she really feel about it, while living it? We don't really get to know. There are some implications that Mono destroying that escapism was deeply upsetting to her. Whether the Thin Man imprisoning her, or Mono destroying that prison, is the 'worst part', we just don't know .... both seem pretty painful, and worse if they are both the same person. All of it robs her of any agency, autonomy, choice. It's Mono's will being imposed upon her, without explanation.

I think this is well-conveyed in Mono's hi/hey! turning into a booming, domineering, authoritative, painful shout, menacing her from all angles, repeatedly busting open closed doors she is hidden behind, dragging an axe across the floor before her, & swinging it at her sense of comfort. You couldn't really get a more potent visualized metaphor for what Mono is doing to Six. Confusing, hurtful, scary....

Meanwhile, just before that confrontation: Six's soul walks with Mono along the streets of the Pale City while she is trapped within the tower, with a strange whimsy! She balances playfully on a raised platform next to Mono. Why? She's certainly not that whimsical inside of the Maw!!! DOES she like being trapped in the Signal Tower??? baby we really don't know, but I have to take into consideration how unusual it is for Six.

Really do not understand (or sympathize with !?!?!) a common perception that Six is 'ungrateful'... I think with her limited knowledge and view, it's all accosting & disorienting. There isn't reassurance, that anything happening to her is in earnest. I believe it is in earnest, of course, I believe Mono would like to be her hero, and save her from future pain & contortion (the Maw) (maybe the whole world)... but he's so busy fighting himself about how to do it, and of course, he can't articulate anything. We don't know how much he even has the mental capacity to....

well... *closes book* thus ends post #1 .... about Little Nightmares 2.... and in closing, I would really like Six and Mono to figure out how to kiss. I think it could shake things up out there.

[end-the-transmission]

Life has been chaotic. These two comfort my soul uvu

Hope to post doodles more often. I’ll try <3

[grim-faux]

replaying the LN games, I noted key differences that isolate Six and Mono in their tactics and behavior.

The locations such as the Maw and the Pale City dictate the strategies children have for survival. On my discord, we theorized that children aboard the Maw may have not been great at the whole survival gig, given that they've been captured and are awaiting their fate. However, based on the digital comics, children of the Pale City and urban environments - not captured - appear more adept at survival. But there's ongoing debate on these differences and the lore.

One thing I noticed about Mono and Six (which was one driving force of why Mono in TTT is so feral), is that the children have different methods for sleeping - i.e., when you wake up from a 'nightmare', or a game death.

Mono and Six together usually wake up sleeping sitting upright, curled up against a wall or sheltered by something. The implication here is either the child was too exhausted to go on, and settled down in the first place that was hospitable. Or as well, the child sleeps seated upright and feet tucked under the, to bare out the chill, as well to be primed for an escape if a threat approached them.

Whereas on the Maw, when Six awakens form nightmares, often she is sleeping on her side and curled up. She also seems to be selective about the places she nests, since she awakened at the beginning in a suitcase filled with clothing.

My discord has also discussed the status of native between Six and Mono, given the insight we are given about the third game, as with details from the second game. When Mono is left by Six, he has the chance to grow up and become the Thin Man - that is his fate and the repeating cycle he is apart of. Thus, Mono is more native or a genuine native child to Nowhere and was never in the world where Otto or Noone inhabit. Aside from the betrayal of Six, Mono was never trapped (Bully's don't count), and had always been skilled at evading detection by his enemies as well as never getting captured.

On the other, Six was taken by the Nest and detained there. We don't know how she came to be there, though concept art suggests she was more groomed and her hair trimmed - reflecting she was recently collected into the Nowhere. Though we have not been given further details of her origins, let alone how she escaped the Nest cliff. In the digital comics, we know she was pursued by the Hunter - indicating she did not do well in evading detection. She was also distracted during her escape and captured, and needed another child (Mono) to rescue her. We'll exclude the Bully's from detaining her, since they were actively hunting children and entering their territory without detection was impossible. However, she was taken by the Thin Man and left in the Tower. She was also brought aboard the Maw, maybe caught by the Ferryman as implied by the original Little Nightmare comics. And she was lured into a trap and captured by the Janitor.

This may be indication that Six - though a survivor of Nowhere and capable of inheriting the Lady's powers - she is not full native. Not to the depth that Mono was.

Even the podcast Sounds of Nightmares was ambiguous about how children arrive to the Nowhere, and even on the terms if there are native children or the status of going native. Likewise, the debate of if the adult inhabitants of Nowhere are capable of bearing their own children, or do residents come as recruitments from other worlds - not necessarily from our world, or the world Dr. Otto inhabits.

The third game may shed more light on these details, especially given that Low and Alone seem to be seasoned veterans of the Nowhere and capable of survival. One desires to escape forever, while the other yearns to explore the Spiral.

[hanaotaku95]

Alastor’s little Nightmares:

So I was scrolling through YouTube when I came across a small but very interesting video:

It’s an edit video of Alastor and the song used is “Nightmares Never End” by JT music, which is a fan song for Little Nightmares 2.

So this got me to thinking and my brain plotting: what if Alastor was a child of Nowhere that never crossed the threshold fully? I’m here to explain why this could be an interesting topic to explore and how it could fit with Alastor in a crossover fanfiction or alternate universe.

(Spoilers ahead for Little Nightmares 1, 2 and The Sounds of Nightmares. I will also be using some fan theories to help support this.)

The Nowhere is described by Noone in the Sounds of Nightmares to be a place that “is…and isn’t”, a place existing in its own realm that manifests from the nightmares of young children. But not just any child will be targeted by the Nowhere. These kids are often mistreated and taken advantage of by adults in the waking world in some way, shape or form. Thus the Nowhere will slowly and surely lure these fearful and traumatized kids into a nightmarish cycle fed by the fear and trauma they experienced within the realm itself.

In an analysis video about Nowhere, it is theorized that the children are lacking in one or more categories of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I recommend you go and watch it (link down below), but long story short, one or more of these needs are not being met and these kids escape to this realm which seems to meet those needs, only for them to be twisted overtime.

https://youtu.be/ZiY_OH8An2c?si=ksz1YsV5_na2A1mP

In regards to Alastor, if we use the time period he grew up in (southern America in the early 1900s), who he was born to (a white father and Creolan mother) and the headcanon of an abusive father, we can paint a clear picture as to how Alastor may have been a target of Nowhere at some during his childhood years.

He would have appeared in many places in Nowhere, from the Pale City to perhaps even the Maw, being spirited away. Despite how terrifying the world was, there was something about it that kept luring him in as it had with many children before and after.

But when it came time to cross the Threshold, he refused. For one simple reason. His mother. His rock and emotional anchor in his rather tumultuous and lonely childhood. He couldn’t leave her behind, and resisted the Ferryman, closing that door behind him.

As an adult and even in his time in Hell, he cannot fully recall his experiences in Nowhere, only that he had extremely vivid nightmares as a young boy. But there is always a nagging in the back of his mind and odd visions of ever seeing eyes that bring forth memories he cannot immediately recall.

Some of my headcanons regarding who Alastor was in the Nowhere:

1) He went by Lie while in Nowhere.

2) His urge for flesh later in life came from his experiences in the Maw.

3) Lie was one of the “winners” in Nowhere (similar to Mono, Six and Low), manifesting in the ability to shadow walk. This ability would resurface after he died and went to Hell.

[littlenightmares2]

continually pointing towards the harm that six and mono inflict upon the monsters within the little nightmares universe as evidence of their moral ambiguity (or lack thereof) is an inherently flawed manner of exploring their characters and values.

killing the monsters is a means of survival. neither of them actively seek out confrontation- each one of the entities relentlessly pursue the children with the intention of harming them in some way or another. the brutality of how the children manage to dispatch the monsters doesn’t matter either.

slicing off the janitor’s arms or lighting the doctor on fire are not actions that can (or should) have morality attached to them. every interaction six and mono have with the cast of antagonists is a largely cut and dry case of ‘kill or be killed.’

we know that everything in the nowhere exists with a purpose. there is a distinct emphasis placed upon this by people who have worked on the game. (for example, “the maw exists because hunger exists, and the pale city exists because the need for escapism exists.”) each monster plays some kind of role within the maw or pale city that is critical to perpetuating the cycle that the realm encapsulates. beyond this, they are harmful, unreasonable and actively malicious. their lack of humanity and inability to be appealed to is something else the developers have confirmed.

the only way to judge six and mono as characters with any degree of fairness is by examining the interactions they have with other unfortunate children. even this perspective has to be heavily scrutinised and take into account the abnormality of their circumstances. we have to continuously reframe the picture to ensure we are empathising with the fact that their circumstances will cause their emotional reactions to be distorted by trauma.

mono met one other child during his journey- six. he reached out his hand from the very moment they first met. over and over again, he extended kindness, compassion, a gentle disposition, active concern for her, and active desire for her company.

six met mono before she set foot on the maw. from the jump, her reaction to mono’s presence appears to be one of apprehension to say the very least. she turns away from his attempt to reach out and runs ahead. while understandable, this is already very telling of the differences in their characters. trusting and open, distrustful and avoidant.

over the course of the story, we see glimpses of compassion and a desire for company begin to manifest in six too.

she opens up to the idea of working together upon realising there are things she can’t do alone. she is the one to initiate handholding when the two of them are creeping through the tall grass around the hunter. she gestures to mono to be quiet and crouch down when they’re first sneaking past him.

when mono saves her from the bullies, he approaches her. it seems he wished to help her up, or offer some kind of comfort or reassurance. six almost seems to turn away from the offer and rebuff it somewhat. again, she isn’t being faulted for this at all- she has just been through trauma. but to me, it suggests that at this point in the story, mono is still being kept at an arms’ length.

one of the most notable shifts for her character is when the thin man breaks free from the screen. mono is pressing himself against the television, and she is lingering for him in a way she never had before, to the degree that it actively endangers her to do so. she stays beside him, she reaches out to him, she desperately urges him to follow her in fleeing- and she only begins to run away at all once the danger is no longer escapable if she remains.

then, of course, we have everything that transpires with monster six, which i believe undoes all the work she has done emotionally that allowed her to trust and care for mono as closely we she did. no matter your interpretation of why she did it, what she did to mono remains the same. she knowingly and deliberately dropped him to his death, and she did not look back. nothing implies remorse in that specific moment.

when we next see her, after the events of the pale city, she is in the maw. six has no interest in helping other children. she pulls on cages with other prisoners inside to climb and access higher places. (i’m not going to confuse outright inaction with six’s purposeful choices, because we don’t know her thought process, so i won’t get into the logistics of her not waking the children in roger’s room or helping children seen caged around the maw). she can hug the nomes if we so choose, but embracing every one of them results in an achievement that stipulates “kindness will be [her] undoing.” she also ends up sinking her teeth into one to sate her hunger. another necessary act, born of survival, but to a degree it shows an empathetic disconnect for another vulnerable creature all the same.

at her core, six values survivalism, self-sufficiency, independence and pushing through trauma. mono, in direct contrast, appears to engage in a degree of dependency with her, and seeks out companionship and support where his counterpart would just as rather go it alone.

[dailylittlenightmares]

FAQ:

how do you move the camera? answered here!

how do you swap the characters? with this mod!

tags masterpost under cut

games

little nightmares | little nightmares DLC | little nightmares 2 | little nightmares 3 | very little nightmares

chapters

little nightmares

the prison | the lair | the kitchen | the guest area | the lady’s quarters

DLC

the depths | the hideaway | the residence

little nightmares 2

the wilderness | the school | the hospital | the pale city | the signal tower

characters

six | mono | runaway kid

the nomes | the child prisoners | glitching remains | the shadow kids

the janitor | the granny | the chefs | the guests | the lady

the hunter | the teacher | the doctor | the patients | the viewers | the thin man | monster six

other

ask | request | gifs | video

skin swap | out of bounds | hat | mask | picture

[miroslava-ln]

What if you can get into the world of a Little nightmare?

I want to tell a story that my best friend told me. According to him, it was 6-7 years ago, when he was still a child. (that is, there was still no LN2 and "Sounds of nightmares"). So, according to him, it was like this: he was walking down the street of a city that looked like a Pale city. He reached the turn and noticed a very tall monster in front of him (my friend calls him Null), and there were smaller monsters next to him, similar to dogs (and he calls them "jaws") "Jaws" noticed him and chased after my friend. He ran forward down the street, reached the house and began to climb the iron stairs. "Jaws" tried to break the ladder. My friend almost climbed, but the ladder broke. Fortunately, someone standing on the roof grabbed my friend's hand.... But... Just like in the situation with Mono and Six, this man let go of my friend's hand and he fell. Jaws pounced on my friend and started "tearing him apart", but my friend did not feel it. After a couple of seconds, the "Jaws" left my friend alone. Soon Null came up to my friend, took him by the hand. After that, my friend already woke up in the house. That's the whole story. After that, my friend never got into that world again, but he remembered it all very clearly and even made a cosplay on Null. (Istria, of course, does not sound so good, it would be better if my friend told you about it himself, but he is shy :_^))

[itstimetotheorize]

The Mall's cruel fate, an unneeded existence

How odd. The fleshy mass Noone encountered in ch.3 is similar to the flesh walls we saw in the Tower, and yet...its existence was different.

The flesh in the Mall tried to give Noone whatever she desired. By reading her mind, it knew of the things she had and the things she always wanted, and yet…none of it satisfied her…because she could feel herself lose interest in it all. Noone had become disconnected from the things she used to love as a child, inevitably leading her to a very sad, yet very real realization...she was growing up, not necessarily in the sense of age, but in the sense that she had matured. The things she saw, the things she faced and the things she did to survive another day, both in her home and in that place of nightmares she was in, had finally begun to take its toll. And had it not been for this realization of maturity, Noone might have lost herself completely in all the wonders the flesh offered her. When the flesh attempted to find some sort of connection to her by pointing out the pendant it gave her, it was desperate to find any way of showing her it could give her a life where she could have everything, but it was precisely its desperation which drove so many other children away, it was careless, unlike the flesh we saw in the Black Tower.

Unlike the Mall, the Black Tower resided in a place where it not only thrived, but was also in control. It was surrounded by various Residents as it consumed and decayed everything. The children(Mono and Six) were held inside it, deep in its spell, infected with escapism and surrounded by what reflected their desires. And while we have always theorized Mono wanted nothing more than a friend, resulting in him being left in a bare and empty room, it offered Six a room which not only contained the music box which soothed her, but everything a child like her would want, such as the toys she saw around the Pale city. Unlike the Mall, the Tower was able to accomplish the one thing the Mall struggled to do…trap someone.

The flesh in the Black Tower was cunning, it hid itself perfectly while still watching Mono and Six through the televisions we saw all around the Pale city, planning its steps carefully and waiting for the right opportunity to re-obtain the host which wielded the power to help it continue to thrive, Mono.

And yet... when Noone encounters the flesh in the Mall, she describes it as being in a place surrounded by complete silence, there was nothing and no one around it, nor inside it, it was terribly lonely and she in turn could feel it. When she came along, it was desperate to keep her... but the Ferryman wouldn't allow it to keep her....but why?

Noone said the Ferryman/Candleman wanted her to open up to the "place" she was in...and yet...as she ran from the flesh, he pointed to the pendant around her neck, the one thing she was willing to take from it, as if telling her to rid herself of any and all connections to the flesh which now aimed to keep her by force. The Ferryman/Candleman wanted her to open herself up to the place she was in, but not to the Mall she had entered. As the flesh cried out, “don’t take her, not this one to”, we learn Noone was not the first child the Ferryman/Candleman had taken away from the flesh...but why couldn't it keep them? unless...what if maybe...just maybe....it was not fit to keep one. When Noone first entered the Mall, it tried to maintain appearances, but all around, Noone could see errors upon errors. The shops had nothing to display, the doors were gone, the movie in the theater, which she used to love, was out of order and unappealing to watch, and when it attempted to speak throughout the Mall, she could hear it slip, allowing its desperation to get the better of it.

Many theorists and I have theorized there were always other living structures throughout the world like the Maw and the Black Tower, but we have only ever seen what had become of those which succeeded in dominating wherever it was they took root...but…what if this was not the case for all the others?, what if…there were some who failed? If the Mall is truly a living structure similar to the Tower and the Maw, and if it has truly been restricted from keeping any child which could take the role of its host, then...what if maybe...just maybe...this was its punishment for failing to live up to its existence.

Without a host, the Mall would have no way to thrive, and with no one and nothing around it...would it have simply been left to die? Warped by pain, growing weaker and weaker as time went on to the point it could barely maintain itself and appear as the mall Noone expected it to be?....maybe. We've always theorized powerful structures like the Maw and the Tower were extensions of the eye entity, and so long as places such as this continued to live and thrive, the entity would as well....but if smaller...more insignificant places proved to be worthless to it, then...what good would it do it if they continued to exist. The Mall needed someone...but it couldn't even have "No one"... but hey...its just a theory...a Little Nightmares theory.