The Path: Scarlet

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Sep 9, 2009

Filed under: Game Reviews 55 comments

Scarlet is the oldest of the girls. Her bio from the website:

Scarlet is the oldest of six. The firstborn. In a family with an invisible mother. Quite a responsibility. One that she faces with determination and a sense of duty and pride. She is 19 years of age. She should probably be enjoying what’s left of her youth. But with five younger sisters, one more unruly than the other, somebody needs to maintain order and stability.

Not that Scarlet doesn’t wish to share the burden. Or a moment of silence. A moment of quiet understanding with a soulmate. A moment of true togetherness. Her loneliness is a secret she will take to the grave. Sooner than she may expect.

You can’t?  What’s the alternative?
You can’t? What’s the alternative?
Er. Spoiler alert?

Scarlet is serious, neat, and tight-laced. Most of her interactions and comments on the world around her reflect a need for order. Her personality seems very likely to clash with Ginger and Carmen. But she also has a lot of unfulfilled needs. She’s lonely (probably for a man) burdened, overworked, and under-appreciated.

Scarlet is a personality I’ve met before and I’ve always found her impact on the people around her to be really interesting. Imagine everyone has a couple of Sims-style sliders: One is their desire for order, and the other is their initiative and ability to do work without external prompting. A Scarlet has both of those sliders near the top. Her need for neatness and organization forms an interesting pattern of behavior. (If you’re down with the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, a Scarlet is a massive SJ.) In college, she’s the roommate who keeps doing the dishes and cleaning every day when everyone else can’t be bothered. But she’ll naturally start to resent how everyone else will leave their messes for her to clean up. But the sloppier roommates might not be actually taking advantage of her. They just don’t have the same standards of cleanliness. They can go to bed at the end of the day with dirty dishes in the sink and they don’t think about doing the dishes until they start to run out. But a Scarlet can’t bear to leave something like this go. She does the dishes, and then grumbles to herself that they ALWAYS leave her to do the dishes. She feels used and unappreciated, and becomes prickly with her roommates. She thinks they’re lazy jerks. They think she’s a rude bitch.

Who do we blame for this? Scarlet really is doing their work. But they would do their own work if she let it go. (Eventually.) But it drives her crazy to do so and she can’t bear living with a mess. They would pull their own weight, but Scarlet would have to put up with living with a constant level of entropy around her. How much depends on where everyone else’s neatness slider is.

The truth is you can blame either side as you like, the real problem is that you’ve got vastly different personalities attempting to live together, and their divergent needs makes conflict inevitable. Slobs vs. Neat Freaks. One person says, “A clean house is a sign of a wasted life.” The other says, “How can you live like this?!?”

Scarlet is sometimes a difficult housemate or family member, although she makes a dynamite employee. Scarlets obviously need to be really careful when choosing a mate to avoid spending the rest of their lives either clashing or nursing silent resentment. Don’t marry a Scarlet unless you’re a bit of a Scarlet yourself. (And then there is always the chance that the two of you will have low-neatness kids. Ain’t life a stinker?)

Anyway, everyone in the family is lucky that Scarlet is running the show. Everyone except Scarlet. She obviously has very little time for herself, and she needs it.

Scarlet’s Wolf

Hello “wolf”.
Hello “wolf”.
Scarlet finds a pavilion of sorts in the woods. There is a stage with a piano, and a strange woman standing nearby. The pavilion is sunny and warm, and despite its being abandoned it seems very welcoming.

The woman is a bit of a mystery to me. At least, I assume she’s a woman. Young face, but long white hair. Female face, but no discernible breasts. Ash-colored robes, with a bright green strip around each elbow. Is her age and her gender deliberately obfuscated here? Was this a design decision, or just the result of the Burton-esque art style? (Some people have been very critical of how odd the models look, and suggest that the artist didn’t know what they were doing. But if you think of them as characters in a Tim Burton movie they look just right. Go play MSG 4 or something if you want photo-realism.)

As she approaches the pavilion, Scarlet comments that, “Art is where the nobility of humanity is expressed. I could not live without it.” (Emphasis mine.) She sits down at the piano and begins playing. Strange Lady comes over and stands beside her as if she was Scarlet’s music teacher. The curtain falls. Fade to black.

After her wolf encounter, Scarlet’s walk seems more depressed than distressed. As we travel through grandma’s house, a lot of the furniture is missing, or covered in white bedsheets.

thepath_scarlet3.jpg
She loves music, order, quiet, companionship, and time to herself. These are there things that she cannot get in her current living situation. So many people are depending on her. I mean, if she doesn’t watch over the younger girls they might end up wandering off into the woods and having something bad happen to them, right?

I imagine her life is a joyless grind. Worse, she can look all the way to the horizon and see that things aren’t going to change anytime soon.

My first thought was that she took her own life. The other possibility is that her wolf encounter was simply the final end to her childhood. The curtain fell on the part of her life that included music and free time, and she began her adult life. I don’t see Strange Music Lady as a direct threat, and I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to try to interpret this one literally.

Aftermath

As we enter grammy’s house, everything is covered is sheets.  I have nothing else to say on any other symbolism you might perceive in this image.
As we enter grammy’s house, everything is covered is sheets. I have nothing else to say on any other symbolism you might perceive in this image.
I’m not a huge fan of the suicide line of thought. The sheet-covered stuff made me think of death, and her bio is brazen in predicting a trip to the grave. But I think if we were talking about suicide we would have seen some suggestions about the manner of death. Some bathtub or noose imagery would have likely appeared somewhere. More likely the stuff covered in sheets is just symbolic of her joyless existence. She said she couldn’t live without art, and this life she’s living is pretty lacking in it. She’s alive, but she’s not really living life. She’s just existing in a sterile world without pleasure.

Assuming she’s stuck raising the girls, then she won’t be free to really live life for another ten years. On the upside, once the other girls no longer need her she’ll likely still be young enough to find a husband (which it seems she wants) and pursue her own interests. Actually, her life might level out a bit sooner. Her burden will lighten every couple of years or so as the younger girls become old enough to share responsibility and some move out.

 


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55 thoughts on “The Path: Scarlet

  1. RottweilerS says:

    Please don’t compare this inept artwork to Tim Burton. I’m not saying he’s a master or anything, but the visuals in the Path, especially the character models, are terrible.

    1. Shamus says:

      RottweilerS: “Terrible” has nothing to do with it. I did not say it was Burton calibur, I said it was that STYLE.

      Really, if we can’t compare art styles then we can’t have a conversation about art.

  2. Groboclown says:

    To me, the white sheets covering the furniture indicate an abandoned house; as I understand it, people to go on really long trips, or use a house for a season, cover their furniture with sheets to prevent dust from settling into everything.

    So, I can see this representing keeping everything so clean it’s unusable, or that she is alone in herself, or perhaps as a death sheet covering everything. I’m going to need more thought on this one.

  3. Spider Dave says:

    Contrariwise, I loved the art style of this game. A lot of it manages attractive and creepy at the same time.

    I had similar thoughts to you, Shamus; now that her parents are absent, as the oldest she’s been forced to grow up much too early. She has to act as a parent to these kids, and since she’s their sister, chances are, they wont look at her that way. I like the flashy scenes at the end, where you see her as a puppet.

    A lot of people on the internet seem to think that her teacher cut her fingers off. Dont know where that came from, but I like the metaphor of her sisters cutting her fingers off. Of course meaning that she can no longer play the piano and appreciate art the way she loves to.

    EDIT @ Groboclown
    I see the furniture as her talents, and the sheets as representative of her having to put them on hold while she looks after her sisters.

  4. Mark says:

    I think the abandonment idea fits well, especially for someone who is used to taking care of little ones. Could the empty house be an empty nest?

  5. chabuhi says:

    Is the old woman “future Scarlet” maybe? I think this is a vision of her future in which she is still alone despite the joys around her (or, at least, the things in which she should find joy). I don’t know about the suicide theory, either, but it’s pretty clearly her death (or, as you say, the death of her childhood).

  6. Vadimirin says:

    Actually, to me the white haired woman sounds like a representation of Grandma, or some generic older woman helping Scarlet. The death themes you picked up in the house would imply that the older woman died, which is also why she’s so depressed when she’s walking after the encounter. It could be the Grandmother who helped take care of her 5 siblings and is gone now, leaving only her piano lessons to remember her by. Or it could be their mother, again, leaving only piano lessons to remember her.

  7. skizelo says:

    Her wolf’s Sephiroth, clearly. With knives in his knees.
    I didn’t really get much out of Scarlet because she was the second sister I played as and hadn’t yet savvied the “cutscene means there’s a wolf in this area” mechanic, so I didn’t spend much time with her.
    I’m not sure, but I seemed to have more trouble getting close to the lady in white with her, especially in comparison with Robin. So I figured there’s some symbolism there, but since I don’t really know how the LiW is programmed, I could be mistaken.

  8. Jazmeister says:

    Maybe the old woman is her. It could be her future looming.

    The white coverings could be her attempts to keep the furniture clean and boil off her existance to a quiet little clockwork of neatness and order.

    1. PhoenixLover86 says:

      I agree with you on the how the old woman is her bit, but I must disagree on the next. Notice how Scarlet said I could not live in a world without art Maybe because she had to look after her sisters,(hence meaning no time for art and music) she commited suicide because she didn’t have time for art/music?

  9. I know I keep pulling the game files card, but I remember being rather surprised and elucidated by the discoveries I made digging through the folders.

    Scarlet’s wolf is named “FeyWolf”, which does indeed suggest that the woman an unearthly, androgynous being – a sort of spirit of the arts. Additionally, there’s a sound file in there called “FeyWolf_knife.cgr” which left me a little worried about violence after all.

    I didn’t really like Carmen. You’d think that when she’s by herself, she’d loosen up a little, at least in thought if not action.

    Ben

  10. LizJ says:

    I suspect that the person with the white hair is her grandmother, and Scarlet is depressed afterward because her grandmother dies. That’s why everything in Grandma’s house is covered in sheets. Not only has Scarlet lost her music mentor, but she’s even more on her own when it comes to taking care of her family. The rest of your interpretation seems to fit.

  11. Wil K. says:

    Her wolf seems elfen to me. Not really sure what that signifies (curtain closing for good on childhood fantasies?), but that’s the vibe I get.

  12. SoldierHawk says:

    Well, I guess I had quite a different interpretation, on reading this…I’m not sure how realistic it is, not having played the game, but…to me it seems almost like Scarlett *IS* Grandma–or more accurately, becomes Grandma (sort of) in the future. Living her life alone in the cabin once she ages, the best and most rich parts of her life gone and dedicated to people and wants other than her own. I’m not implying that Scarlett IS the grandma that the others go to visit of course, or that THAT Grandma feels the same way about things that Scarlett does (maybe that Grandma LIKES living in the woods by herself), but I think to Scarlett, either literally or symbolically, its everything she is afraid she will become because of the lack of time she is allowed to spend building a life for *herself*, apart from everyone else. The bedsheets then either symbolize the death of her dreams or, more literally, the end of her real life, alone and unfulfilled.

    Gosh it depressed me just writing that. I kind of hope I’m wrong.

  13. Coyote says:

    It sounds to me (not having played the game yet) that the interpretation is Scarlett took time out for herself – and because of that, everything went to pot. Grandma died (or moved away) while Scarlett took time to enjoy herself. Thus the ever repressive feeling that Scarlett cannot ever, ever let go and do her own thing – she has to take care of everyone around her instead.

  14. SoldierHawk says:

    Coyote, that’s an excellent way of looking at this I think. It makes a lot of sense, and tied in what happened in the woods with the images at the end. After all, the wolves are all about temptation, and it seems like he point of the game is finding out what happens when the girls give in to that temptation. Like you said, for Scarlett what she wanted more than anything was time to herself, to pursue her own hobbies and likes. When she did, Grandma died.

    I think that’s even MORE depressing, really. :/ Poor Scarlett.

  15. Ergonomic Cat says:

    Ben: I assume you meant Scarlet, not Carmen. And if you know a Scarlet, you’ll note that they never can unwind. 1. If they do, it’s all gonna go to hell. and 2. they don’t know how. It’s fairly sad for them.

  16. pneuma08 says:

    In the music room in the success ending, the camera rises a bit while moving to the center of the room, before turning back towards the door (giving the player an elevated look at the door). I can see how people can take suicide from that, especially when the same room in the failure ending remains level.

    That said, I really like Coyote’s theory of, Scarlet took some time for herself and things fell apart, and she blames herself for what happened. It could even be that she blames herself for her sisters’ wolves, and the terrible things that happened to them while she was out having fun in the forest.

    By the way, what are those things in a row on the floor, after the stairs? What possible significance could there be? Nothing’s there in the failure video.

    Some notes: differences between success and failure videos, organized in (failure; success):
    – First room: (uncovered furniture; covered furniture)
    – After stairs: (floor is clear; floor is covered in neat rows of white somethings) (there is also a creepy statue in this room that isn’t present in the success version – although it may be covered by a sheet – but I’m assuming this is an object, so I don’t know if it’s Scarlet’s, as the girls share objects, and I didn’t find that one myself)
    – Book room: (books are on the bookshelves; books are stacked on the floor, some of the stacks disappear)
    – Music room: (instruments are hung on the wall, camera is level; instruments are animate and flying about, camera raises) (this is also where the knife sound is first heard)

  17. Vladius says:

    The problem with comparing all of these girls, their wolves, etc. is that they don’t equate – we talk like some of them are killed, while some others are possibly raped, but still others just “lose their being” or “can’t make art.”

    I think that at the very least, it should be somewhat equivalent for each of the girls, or we should switch to another theory. (ie. since they all look so similar, they’re the same girl who could have taken many different “paths” throughout her life.)

    As for Scarlet, it seems that since she’s the oldest, the androgynous old lady might symbolize the inevitability of age and an eventual loss of movement and ability.

  18. Maldeus says:

    @Vladius 18: Scarlet may be the oldest, but she’s still only nineteen. Only the shallowest of girls think of themselves as becoming cripplingly old at the age of nineteen (*cough*BellaSwan*cough*). And honestly, some of the girls get killed (well, so far just Robin), some don’t. How is that not hard to believe?

    Okay, so what do the knife sounds mean? What’s with the weird claw-hand on the Fey in the images at the end? What’s with the covered sheets? The unstacked books appear to be a symbol of anarchy.

    What does it all mean?

  19. Maddy says:

    Not having played the game, but being a pseudo-Scarlet myself, perhaps the strange old lady represents not necessarily Scarlet’s actual future, but the future she imagines/fears/expects for herself. After their encounter, Scarlet realizes that her life is passing her by, and if she doesn’t take time for herself (the result of which will be chaos and devastation throughout the universe), it will be empty and desolate, like Grandma’s house.

  20. Kiwipolish says:

    People think of the “cut off her fingers” bit because of the constant “shwing shwing” noises in the ending montage, like a knife being sharpened. If you look at the ending montage images, the white haired lady has long, stiletto-like nails like Lady Deathstrike. I have no idea what this is supposed to symbolize. There’s also a lot of images which have Scarlet (in pieces or together) strung up on wires like a marionette.

    I don’t really know what to think of Scarlet’s wolf. When I saw the ending, I was reminded back of my childhood days, when I used to love drawing. They were crummy little things that I could hammer out in a minute, but no one else I knew drew so I always felt a little proud of them. I’d make little issues of comic books for my friends, featuring a spiky lizard-man who was a lawyer. It was ludicrous, but had the nostalgic quality that comes with having made them before I developed any sense of quality.

    But, of course, that doesn’t last. I got to middle school and made friends with some really great people, some of whom were fabulous artists. At first I was glad to have someone to talk shop with, but over time I began to realize just how much better they were then me. I came to realize just how crude the things I used to be proud of was, and started to think I could never, ever catch up with them. And since I never could, there was no point in even trying.

    [Now, before you might think this is just teenage angst talking, one of these friends had a summer job in highschool doing official art for Neopets trading cards. The other got hired to Disney straight out of college and has kept her job for two years. These people were really, really good.]

    Of course, in time I realized how much I regretted giving up on drawing, but by then it was too late. I didn’t have the *time* to keep pursuing that kind of thing, not like I had when I was a kid. There’s night classes and so on that I’m taking, but it’s incredibly stressful and hard to try and keep juggling them with real life. When I saw Scarlet’s house after the wolf, that’s all I could think of – how much time you lose when you grow up.

    Do I think that’s Scarlet’s wolf? Probably not. Nothing in the way they act indicates that. I’m more onboard the “grandma dies when she took free time” train right now.

  21. Thom says:

    Are you aware of the LiverJournal accounts set up for each of the girls? Scarlett’s can be found here: http://sternred.livejournal.com/

    The girls all comment on each other’s posts which have been made over a period of around a year. Worth a read, especially since it include the girls interacting which isn’t really looked at elsewhere.

    The other blogs are here:
    Cameron http://sexyred13.livejournal.com/
    Rose http://innocentred.livejournal.com/
    Robin http://kidred13.livejournal.com/
    Ruby http://gothred.livejournal.com/
    Ginger http://tomboyred.livejournal.com/

  22. Factoid says:

    Art is where the nobility of humanity is expressed. I could not live without it

    I think this is something of a double meaning. The obvious interpretation is that she’s saying she can’t live without it.

    Maybe she’s actually saying is that it’s not the expression of the nobility she can’t live without, but rather the nobility of humanity itself.

    Her resentment at having been forced into the role of mother at a young age has stripped her of her inner nobility. She’s unappreciated and overburdened.

    Perhaps the piano music (art) is her way of filling that noble void.

    In this context the interpretation of her ending might not be that she committed suicide but rather she’s teetering on the brink. She’s one loss away from ending it all.

  23. Vladius says:

    So the person who has a life to live and actual talents and no serious problems that we know of is more emo than the actual “emo” girl?

    That’s interesting, to say the least.

  24. Cuthalion says:

    @Vladius: True, but she also has no recognition and feels like a puppet. I think those things are what contribute to her emoness.

  25. Maldeus says:

    @Vladius 23: Hey, Scarlet’s had way more responsibilities thrust on her than she deserves. She’s not being emo, she’s experiencing perfectly justifiable depression. Her talents and ambitions are being squished because their mother can’t be bothered to take care of the children (it’s mentioned on the livejournals that their mother is still around, just not taking care of any of them).

    …This is usually around the time when Mari walks in and uses her omniscient knowledge of dream/literary symbolism to clear up some questions.

  26. SoldierHawk says:

    Okay, but now I have to wonder…if the mom really IS in the picture like the LJ account says…does anyone else think it might be a possibility that all/most of the responsibility is in Scarlet’s head? Maybe her mom is doing an okay job, and Scarlet is just projecting, and taking the burden onto herself.

    I kind of doubt that’s what’s actually going on here; it seems pretty clear that what she does IS actually necessary to the family. Couldn’t help wondering about it though. After all, responsibilities like the one’s she’s claiming are a good excuse to get out of a lot of things…I dunno.

  27. Dear Reader says:

    Sweet honeyed savior’s butthole, this game is ugly

  28. lilin says:

    lol I was guessing what MSG 4 stand for, I’m thinking you misstyped MGS 4, but I tried to google it, and MSG 4 returned with Metal Gear Solid heheh… so many people misstype that one it seems :D

  29. Draco says:

    Maybe the wolf is memories of her mother, perhaps a figure whose role she was forced to fill when she left.

    Perhaps of all the tales, this is the one where the absence of the mother is most important to notice.

  30. Patty says:

    INVISIBLE MOTHER BLEEP BLURP FART

  31. Avilan the Grey says:

    @Coyote: I am closest to your idea, I think. Scarlet’s being crushed by her own guilt and responsibility. It seems very much like Grandma has died, and I think Scarlet feels it’s because of her directly, because she wasn’t there, plus she now realizes she is “trapped” taking care of everything herself.

    But then again I start taking issue with the minds behind the game; why is temptation as such, and giving in to it, by default bad? Overindulgence is bad, but everyone has vices, everyone should be able to do what he heck they want some times (quite often, too). Most people do, and most people do not run across any kind of “wolf”, with fangs or without. We can’t all be Vulcans, after all.

  32. Zaxares says:

    I’m inclined to agree with the ‘Scarlet’s Wolf is a crushing fear/panic that her entire life will be one trapped by responsibility, never able to live her own life’ theory. The house with its sheet-covered furniture and organised, yet lifeless, rooms are a symbol for her need for order and maintenance that are, nevertheless, crushing the joy and vibrance of life out of her. I admit I’m rather baffled by the possible meaning of the knives, although it’s a distinct possibility that Scarlet’s revelation turns to despair, and ultimately suicide, with knives/razors her chosen way of ending it.

    Incidentally, I’m a borderline Scarlet. And I’m going to be marrying a woman who is in no way like one. :P Fortunately, I believe I possess enough wisdom and understanding to be accepting of the way other people live.

    @Avilan the Grey: As you know, I take issue with the overall morals and lessons espoused by The Path too, but I have to admit it’s quite a fascinating canvas for generating thought and discussion about many deeper fundamentals about life.

  33. Spider Dave says:

    I’m not inclined to jump on the Grandma death bandwagon, because I haven’t seen any evidence to support that. Her on puppet strings tells me that she is being manipulated in some way.
    What if we took a completely different spin on this; what if she has a talent and she loves art, but her teacher is the one pulling the strings, asking too much of her. She really wants to listen to her teacher and practice umpteen hours everyday, but she cant because of the responsibility of looking after her sisters.
    Her wolf is her giving up her responsibility and instead pursuing a career in music. The sheets in the grandma’s house show that these things haven’t been looked after in a while, representing her responsibilities to the family. The music room at the end, with the instruments flying around shows her guilt, that she will be forever haunted by her choice.

    To sum up: She gives up her responsibility to live her own life. That more closely fits the “wolf as temptation” theme.

    1. Daniiiiii says:

      That’s a very good point of view actually! The best I’ve seen yet.

  34. pneuma08 says:

    I don’t believe that these are tales with morals attached. The tale of Scarlet seems to be a tragic one about how she is crushed between what she needs and what she wants; in all interpretations I’ve read, something must give, and she pains herself by choosing/giving in to one or the other (or opting out via suicide). I don’t see a particular evil to rectify in which to draw a moral.

  35. Maldeus says:

    I’m more familiar with Scarlet’s “love of art” vs. “dedication to duty” conflict than with any of the other girls, yet I find myself the most baffled by her. Once again, I blame Mari’s absence.

    EDIT: And in case anyone’s wondering, I already tried Google. If there’s some secret symbolism to the shrouded furniture, the floating instruments, or the Fae’s stiletto-claws, Google isn’t coughing it up.

  36. Jattenalle says:

    I’m still waiting for the “game” part of this so called game.

    Will you be writing a proper review of this game as you’ve done with others Shamus?
    I’d love to read that, *hint hint nudge nudge* know what I mean?

  37. Arquinsiel says:

    I’ve a sneaking suspicion that the following LJ, based on post content and username, is the Wolf:

    http://redsbane.livejournal.com/

  38. Thom says:

    @Arquinsiel: I thought that too, but some posts seem too transparent for the rest of the content, for example:

    “All the reds are dead. But this one’s deader than most. The wolf turned out to be a bit more than just cuddly. Hope he was worth it, Robin.”
    http://kidred13.livejournal.com/811.html

    “Rose, have you forgotten? It’s ALWAYS dark when you get to grandma’s house.

    Oh, silly me, talking to one already dead. I must be going mad.”
    http://innocentred.livejournal.com/2813.html

    redsbane also isn’t a member here (http://community.livejournal.com/the_red_path/profile) where the other 6 are, including grandmared and a couple of others who have commented on their profiles. redsbane also doesn’t have The Path specified as their website unlike the other girls.

    redsbane has however been posting very recently, with posts consisting of odd things like:

    “One by one they fall into the dark,
    Where death is all around,
    Slowly strong souls killed and ripped apart,
    They’re lost and never found,

    I cannot believe my eyes,
    All the strong lovely things have died,
    And from this spell,
    It becomes clear that Hell,
    Is on the rise…”

    Could potentially be a new development or could just be a randomer. Interesting bio:
    “I can be a threatening person under certain circumstances, but don’t worry. I’d never hurt someone who didn’t provoke it.”
    http://redsbane.livejournal.com/profile

  39. Spider Dave says:

    @Thom
    “One by one they fall into the dark,
    Where death is all around,
    Slowly strong souls killed and ripped apart,
    They're lost and never found,

    I cannot believe my eyes,
    All the strong lovely things have died,
    And from this spell,
    It becomes clear that Hell,
    Is on the rise…”

    It cant be coincidence how closely this lines up to “My Eyes” from Dr Horrible.

    “Listen close to everybody’s heart
    And hear that breaking sound
    Hopes and dreams are shattering apart
    And crashing to the ground

    I cannot believe my eyes
    How the world’s filled with filth and lies
    But it’s plain to see
    Evil inside of me
    Is on the rise”

  40. André says:

    Strange, I never thought the wolf actually had white hair. I always assumed she was wearing an old-fashioned wig, the kind that was worn during the Renaissance era and was made from horse hair (similar to the kind that’s still being worn, I think, by judges in parts of the British Commonwealth). With the wig and the gown she’s wearing, I instantly associated her with Johann Sebastian Bach as depicted in that well-known painting of him (it’s at the top of his entry on Wikipedia if you don’t know it).

    In conjunction with Scarlet’s views on art (she mentions at one point that art’s purpose is to turn chaos into order), I thought the wolf was the emaciated spirit of ‘classical’ music/art. Thus, even in her pursuit of music, which should be a distraction for her, she can’t let go of her serious and grown-up nature. The tragedy of Scarlet, in my eyes, is that she has never been a child to begin with.

  41. Avilan the Grey says:

    @Zaxares:

    Oh I agree, it is an interesting, although (to me) very incomprehensible subject; I guess I am drawn to it like a moth to a flame. I just can’t understand the underlying motivations, at all.

    As for the rest of the post (#38 and down): Oh I am sure it’s the wolf. And it also definitely makes it clear that the girls are truly dead dead, not just metaphorically dead. So this means the player have definitely, on purpose, brought the girls to their death. (Why did that sound like a broken record?)

  42. Maldeus says:

    That Dr. Horrible near-quote implies more of a troll than a wolf, don’t you think? After all, there are six wolves…And even if we do assume that Redsbane, who does not link to the Path’s website and is not apart of the same group as the girls and grandma red and who did not start posting until some time after game’s release and the end of all the other livejournal updates and who has made no livejournal entries of his own, if we assume that in spite of all that he really is the wolf, then there’s still the possibility that he could be speaking metaphorically.

    EDIT: Also, on Robin’s he says “All the reds are dead, but this one’s deader than most.” If he isn’t speaking metaphorically, how can Robin be more dead than the rest? Isn’t deadness kind of an either-or situation (maybe the other reds are only mostly dead?)?

    Revenge of the Edit: ALSO he seems to agree with the people on this site that claim that Robin really, actually died, and he started posting soon after Shamus started his reviews. And you’re oddly certain about the validity of Redsbane’s identity, Avilan (dun dun DUN!). Then again, the dev made a post here as well, so there is a teeny, tiny ghost of a chance that they’ve decided to throw some new content on the livejournals to humor us. I really, really doubt it though.

  43. Avilan the Grey says:

    @Maldeus: I am not a wolf. A Raven, perhaps but not a wolf… :P Anyway, you are right, but the whol “deader than most” passage might also imply that the wolf did kill that one personally, on site, so to speak and gloats about it, while the rest did not actually die-die until they reached the end of the journey, aka grandmas house.

  44. Maldeus says:

    I still disagree with the basic premise of the Redsbane being the Wolf. I still say he’s a troll. A troll with a sense of style I can appreciate, but a troll nonetheless. But, assuming he is the Wolf for the sake of argument…

    Grandma’s house post-wolfing does not appear to exist in the same level of reality as the rest of the world. It’s dreamlike and thus almost certain to be metaphorical. I really doubt the girls actually walked through an eerie/horrific warping of their grandma’s house long enough to reach the deathtrap at the end when they could turn around and run away instead, especially since half of them are evidently uninjured upon arrival.

  45. Rodyle says:

    I personally think that the covered furniture and her depressed mood suggest that she has realized that time has passed her by. While she was stuck in in her role as a surrogate mother, she grew older without noticing it. In the end, she’d missed out on what could’ve been the best years of her life.

  46. lekodama says:

    Hey,

    thanks a lot for all these interpretations, it’s very helpful to read all of this.

    Here is mine :

    This wolf was for me the most surprising, who’s that elf ?

    And what is “the path” ?
    Well, maybe the path is just the way grown-up people want you to live your life, it’s like conformism. Grown-up want kids responsible, serious… And to leave the path means disobeying to the grown-up, try your own path

    and Art can be seen as a alternative path, smtg anticonformist, not serious, and maybe Scarlet for she’s a kid has always wanted to study music. but with all of her responsabilities, she never had time, or maybe it was forbidden by the mother, who knows…

    And maybe meeting her wolf, Scarlet lives something fantastic, experimenting music and art.

    After that, she understand that it would have been wonderful to live as an artist, and that today it’s too late, time has gone…
    she will never experiment again, the rest of her life will seem sad, grey and empty, she is goin to live eternal regrets…

    Do know, a lot of maybe, but why not ?

    Please tell me if you think I’m completly wrong

  47. eamonn says:

    actualy, i was playing as ruby and i found a bathtub in the woods, when i aproched it it came up with an image of scarlet, so maybe she DOES comit suicide

  48. pitipoisson says:

    I was just thinking that her wolf might be her mother or grand mother , the pale face and the long blond hair look a lot like the grand mother .

    Maybe her parent’s were a bit too much on her shoulders , expenting a lot of the older sister , she just couldn’t bear it anymore .

    It could be also her parents absence that is dictating her way of life , her way of “playing piano”, the last thing which helped her to escape her world of order was not working anymore , and that’s why the curtain drop on her final play.

    (sorry if my english is really bad :D )

  49. PhoenixUltima says:

    Holy shit! Scarlet’s wolf is Kreia!

  50. Daniiiiii says:

    I think that these endings and the wolf are being taken too symbolically. They may just need to be taken literally. One by one the six girls and sent off to their grandmothers house and are tempted by what is in the forest. Each of them venture out and find lots of different objects that trigger different memories about them. But as their mother instructed them to stay on the path because the forest is dangerous, they didn’t and met with wolves.

    Robins wolf was a literal wolf that she wasn’t threatened by but because she was off guard it got her anyway.

    Roses wolf was a misty object over water, which she probably leaned over to get a better look and fell in OR the floating ghost thing killed her.

    Gingers wolf was a close replica of the girl in white, which is someone that ginger trusted and a good person. She was playing with her when she turned because she was evil all along and probably pushed her into some barb wire or stranged her with it. Or maybe even they got separated somehow and ginger tried to crawl through the barb wire to get to her but got caught and stranged with it.

    Rubys wolf was also somebody that she trusted and wanted to impress but he was dangerous the whole time and ended up killing her (I highly doubt he raped her though because there were no signs of attempted rape in the scene or in grandmas house).

    Carmen’s wolf was again somebody she trusted and might have even loved. She wanted to show her love for him but he didn’t like her that way and he may have gotten so annoyed with her flirting that he killed her.

    Scarlett’s wolf was somebody she wanted to impress by showing how mature she was with playing the piano. She always looked dodgy to me having the young face and long white hair like and old woman. She lured scarlet in by pretending to be mature and nice and got her in a comfortable spot them turned on her.

    Also when all of the girls are dead you get to be the girl in white to bring them all back. I think thatched girl in white has magic powers and uses them to get the girls back but in return for helping the girls she has befriended she must give her own life, hence the blood on her dress.

    This is just my first and simplest interpretation of the games storyline without thinking too hard into it.

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  52. alicia says:

    Scarlet is probably one of the more intresting sisters to me. She constently rants about people who are not up to her standard and thilth. But then she says how everyone hides behind a mask. I noticed that the theater her wolf waits for her at has a more tasteful feeling then the other places. And her wolf waits patiently to see what she will do unlike the others who seem to have their own agenda’s. (cutting down trees, being annoying and teleporting around) He, the wolf (the fan website claims the girl in red is the only female wolf) has a more soft and mild-mannered side to him. Had he come running over to scarlet trying to grab her like some of the other wolves, scarlet would have run or ignored him. Being soft is the only way to win over a lonely heart.

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