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The Sounds of Nightmares episode 1 analysis: Who Works The Workers?

Move over Spooky Month, the professor's got a new hyperfixation!!!

So let's talk about Noone's friend and why I think they're RK.

We know that the Ferryman was at the Stone Giant at the time of Noone's "visit" and the Tall Woman only seems interested in keeping other adults captive. At the end of the dream one of the tall woman's chains grabs the friends legs (like RK's shackle) and she, having no reason to imprison him, would hand him to the Ferryman (Had he not been there RK would probably be put a jar from the room the Ferryman was checking.

Now onto the Workers!

I think they're anti-nomes. They're movement being like a group but also like individuals fits the spread of black mold (which would line up with their pitch black appearance). The fungus connection is made stronger by their behaviour being closer to violent nomes rather than shadow kids o glitching remains.

What is the Stone Giant?

It's a clock... In all seriousness it's a ring shaped prison with a massive clock tower in the middle of a massive snowy field. The key to understanding it's function comes from the photo in Otto's office being an astrolabe and the Tall Woman wanting "something" from inside Noone, something I believe to be a negative emotion that powers the woman's chains. The same emotion farmed from the prisoners +, likely in an effort to keep the workers working and the clock running.

My thought on Otto and Noone will come after my analysis of the bathhouse, since a lot of that will (possibly) involve theories by @queen0fm0nsterz .

The Sounds of Nightmares episode 2 analysis: The Grim and The Divine

Let's start with the best boy, Jester!

I find it interesting that Jester seems better adjusted to the Nowhere than other kids. One could try to dismiss it by saying SuperHorrorBro wrote the episode, but that can be debunked by the fact that the showrunner cowrote and approved the episode meaning that Jester's mannerisms are within the realm of possibility within the Nowhere. Jester's habit to forget the punchline along with his seemingly well adjusted demeanor imply he's been in the Nowhere for quiet a while.

On the topic of the fish boats:

I believe these may be an attempt to establish how the Maw avoids word getting out about the guests deaths, by being one of many giant sea creature shaped vessels.

I don't think there's much to discuss about the Bathers, other than the fact that I hope they NEVER offcialy appear in a visual medium.

Onto the Ferryman/Candleman!

I think he's much more powerful than we thought before, no longer just a shapeshifting freelance child hunter, now one of the main, if not only, beings to actively attempt to keep kids in the Nowhere. (Also makes me think that while SoN will focus on reinventing him, LN3 will reinvent North Wind, Mirror Man and the villain concepts from the cancelled issues)

Up next will be my general thoughts on Noone and Otto.

I think it's neither, instead, the Nowhere (LN world) is an alternate plane that kids "visit" in their sleep but can be trapped in by some entities /like the ferryman.

Ok people who listen to "the sound of nightmares" podcast I have a question for you. Concerning your interpretation :

Are you team "the LN world is just the collective surnatural nightmares and none of it happened in the real world"

Or team "the normal world is actually the LN world before it got corrupted by God know what and the collective nightmare made by Noone and other kids is an announcement/warning of what is yet to happen" ?

The Sounds of Nightmares episode 3 analysis: A Triple Bill of Memories

I can safely say I was not expecting 95% of what happened in this episode. That said, there's a fuckton of things to cover, so let's get started!

The Voices of the Lonely Mall:

So @queen0fm0nsterz made a great post showing that the chain woman from episode 1 is an inverse of the Lady, and it's pretty clear that the same thing is going on with the Mall and the Tower.

The Mall is also our first non-malicious antagonist in the series, which is doubly surprising given how inhuman it is.

I don't actually see the various PA voices that chastise the "brain" for scaring Noone as other personalities, since the Mall says "Don't leave ME" as the dream ends. I think a better description of the PA voices is false personas, possibly based on previous visitors (the way it uses their memories to lure visitors in), that the Mall has deluded itself into treating as real and separate from it by way of the PA system due to it's unbearable loneliness. I'd be astonished if we get a more tragic one-off monster in the remaining episodes.

One last thing about the Mall, it scares Noone away with it's desperation, like how Otto scares her with his desperation to know more about the Ferryman. Neither have inherently villainous motives, but hinder themselves due to their obsession with said motives.

How is the ferrying buisiness, anyway?:

I've said it before, the Ferryman is WAY scarier in the podcast than in the comics. With the expanded knowledge about the Nowhere we get in this episode it's clear that the Ferryman is intentionally taking Noone to certain places in the Nowhere, and it would seem she's far from the first to be taken to the Mall, as it seems to dread him taking it's new patrons away, above all else, not to mention that the bathhouse water reminded Noone of the water that got her sick and the "familiar" dress from episode one possibly being like one worn by her mother.

Also noteworthy is that, unlike all other characters whose dialogue Noone quotes, which we hear from the character themselves and slightly ahead of Noone, we only hear what the Ferryman said through Noone's mouth. (I'll be discussing the implications of what he said in another post)

The old paper:

The paper Otto reads from to finish the episode seemingly implies that the human world's function is to feed into (in more ways than one) the Nowhere, again, I'll expand on this in a future post.

Hello! I come from the theory post you made about ep 3 of the podcast, I really enjoyed it!

About the Ferryman: I must absolutely agree with you. He is horrifying. His voice not being able to be heard is something that had me scratch my head a bit, I will not lie. I have been thinking about some possibilities and ultimately I have decided that the reason why his voice is not heard is because his speech is too inhuman to be comprehended/replicated in the real world, but can be understood fine in the Nowhere.

Might also explain why, whenever he's properly referred to as "The Ferryman", the recordings and tapes glitch. He cannot cross over into the other timelines physically: he can't exist somewhere outside of the Nowhere. Which is why calling him by a pseudonym, the "Candleman", is easier for Noone, maybe.

What I know for sure is that the man is ancient.

I love the idea of the ferryman being to "foreign" to the human world, it adds to how ancient he feels, like he's and integral and innate part of the Nowhere, almost like the lure of an angler fish. (On a side note, Noone's description of his voice reminded me of a fic called "His Little Nightmares" which is about how Roger started working at the Maw, because Roger describes the Bellman as sounding "like he was trying to speak while drowning in tar".)

Another theory I have is that the naturally powered kids (Mono, Pretender) are regular visitors, just from a similar, but different world, with the "function" of producing a large crop of powerful entities for the Nowhere to choose to "relocate".

I'd argue his encounter with Six actually does have the choice, just a crude version: Go with him or get torn apart.

It wouldn't surprise me if the Ferryman used his shapeshifting to convince one of Humpback's friends into going to the mirror house and then coming by to "clean up".

The brief thing with Low and Alone is interesting since my current theory is that only one will manage to escape the Nowhere, since all the promotional stuff is building up how close-knit the two are and tearing them apart would be classic LN fuckery.

I get the feeling the Ferryman's not strictly tied to the Maw, rather he just makes sure to get the kids that matter to the right places at the right ties to upkeep all the various operations needed to keep the various regions of Nowhere running. It could be argued he's a conduit for the will of the Nowhere itself.

So a post by @softichill made me realize that, by having Noone take off the pendant and escape the Mall, the Ferryman is essentially returning to his MO from the comics: He saves a kid from a (usually) non-humanoid resident before whisking them away for his own ends. Just something worth thinking about.

MASTERPOST (haven't linked it in a while :0)

Indeed! He is returning to his roots. Although I think Noone is different from all cases of him going into action before because of the nature of the other encounters. All of them are pretty different one way or another.

In the case of Six, he was chasing after someone who had already resided in the Nowhere for some time, with the specific purpose of taking her to the Maw. He did not come to her rescue, nor did he offer his hand to her: he instead pointed his finger at her chest in an accusatory way － or at least Six perceivs it that way.

It is worth noting that, unlike what happened with Noone and the pendant, the Ferryman did not wait for Six to take anything off her person.

This time it felt much more like an "I found you" moment. Like he was looking for her. It was so imperative that he took her there that he (presumably) chased after her and immobilised her to get her on the submarine.

This is the only time when a child found by the Ferryman is not given a choice on whether to follow him or not.

Or. Well. The illusion of a choice.

Which brings us to the second child taken by the Ferryman, the Refugee Boy. Considering that he might be originary of the Nowhere, since his village gave out charms to protect them against the North Wind, implying that he has always been a threat to the village, this is yet another peculiar case because it indicates that the Ferryman also looks for live, Nowhere-born children to bring to the Maw. He doesn't seem to make distinctions.

In this particular occasion, he had actually made a bet with the monster who was interested in the Refugee Boy. I wonder if the deal was struck when North Wind killed the girl and the Ferryman was "not in time" to offer his help to her as well, but considering how he deviously smiles when transforming back... I have my doubts it comes from a good place.

And also, I think that the next story I'm about to touch on points to the Ferryman only pursuing single targets rather than groups.

The next time we see the Ferryman is when he arrives at the end of the Humpback Girl's tale, after she's already faced the Mirror Man and has been abandoned.

The only thing that perplexes me about this is that it doesn't seem to be happening in a dream, but the Ferryman is also stepping into the "real world". I doubt the Humpback Girl is like the Refugee Boy because the other children who were with her make fun of her for being afraid of monsters, with the underlying message that monsters do not exist.

The presence of the Mirror Man, however, would imply that the Ferryman is not the only monster who can cross the bridges between various realities. And with this in mind, I am also thinking of whether or not he can only manifest through a specific kind of mirror in the real world, which are the ones we see in the comics and would explain why they were sealed away.

Maybe the choice of not destroying them could stem from the belief that maybe someone could return through them... (thinking hard about Low and Alone.)

Anyway. Back to the man of the hour, who, rather cowardly, shows up when the action has already finished. And this time, he just... vanished with her holding his hand. Like a boogeyman, taking yet another victim away.

There was no build up to this, like for Noone, who instead sees him in her dreams becoming more and more vivivd and to whom he even speaks -- something he has never done before.

And remember: all these kid, he is not taking ALL of them to the Nowhere. His objective is to get them on the Maw. Which is where I am afraid Noone might end up in at the end of this podcast -- whichever version of it, at whichever point in time.

It has me wonder when in the timeline the podcast takes place. I have a feeling this podcast will be revealed to come first in the timeline, dating back to a time even before VLN, but we'll see.

Breaking down the new LN3 footage

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT this was really wild, we basically got a collage of everything to expect from the Necropolis and what do you mean "pre-alpha gameplay footage"? This already looks amazing! Now let's start the actual breakdown

The area on the other side of the mirror seems to be the place where we see Low and Alone get pulled into the mirror in the reveal trailer, so that'll probably the beginning of the beginning for the game.

It's interesting to note that the Necropolis seems to be completely walled off from the surrounding desert.

I might be reaching here but that fact that a crow, an animal that's only previously been associated with the North Wind, is the first living obstacle the kids encounter is very interesting.

I can't, for the life of me, tell what era or region clothes the Dwellers are supposed to be wearing so if anyone can tell me, that'd be a big help.

We've had numerous variations of the eye symbol with various meanings ascribed to each, so, again, if anyone can point out any previous instances of this particular version of the eye, please do so.

Quicksand will be a hazard in the Necropolis and more than anything I'm just astonished there wasn't a sand burrower.

The Hercules Beetles are way nastier than I thought, likely because of their disgustingly realistic buzzing, makes feel less bad that Baby already killed most of them.

The bundled bodies around the area are definitely concerning, maybe the Dwellers use to preserve corpses as "offerings" to Monster Baby.

BABY CAN TURN HER EYE BEAMS OFF! This took me completely by surprise, the implications of this are very fascinating to think about.

The kids, or specifically, Low, wake up in a room with padded walls, implying their either in the sewing room of the Seamstress from the Lonely Way (not good), or the Counties Psychiatric Institute (really not good) and on top of that, darkness closes in around them. While we're on it, Lowe wakes up in the same way the protags of previous games do when you respawn and in the same situation that they (and Noone) do too, as their caught by a resident.

One last thing, the blue to grey pulse on the logo screen feels eerily like a heartbeat, and given the top of the "main" mirror almost looks like a heart...

It's important to note that when asked in an interview "How did the world of LN get this way?" Dave Mervik responded: "It's what you get when you spend hunders/thousands [can't remember which he said] of years ignoring that question."

I think the Nowhere is a more "primal" realm, one that is majorly effected by the minds and perceptions of those in it. This is why the residents are all named after what they are and/or what they do.

The Nowhere is a sentient, parasitic, almost colonial organism-like dimension that needs to force itself into being perceived to sustain itself, yet in doing so, it only becomes more and more horrific. It's horrors being accepted as a status quo only further warps it, that's why it wants children, they have yet to learn a status quo, it wants them to change it, but it's own corruption sabotages that.

I was thinking about the old LN1 character bios and remembered the line about the Twins being "born to be chefs". Assuming their not native to Nowhere, this would mean they had some violent tendencies before becoming residents, like it was their destiny.

This then made think about the end of tson ep 3 where Otto says the something like "Our world isn't the only world, let alone the predominant one".

All this made me realize that the worlds other than Nowhere may have been created by it (The Nowhere is implied to be sentient in it's own right) specifically to create concepts and injustices that could be used to warp and traumatize children, turning them into visitors and then into residents.

Thoughts?

Alright so this is a great question that I think leads to a much larger discussion about how the Nowhere operates. I would like to hear what other peeps think as well.

So, starting from the Chefs. Personally I always assumed that they are part of that group of characters who are from the Nowhere because of the way their description is worded (and also their baby pictures... this one is so cute lowkey...)

--- But following your train of thought: considering what we know of the Nowhere, it seems to amplify certain characteristics of a person, usually the bad ones. Two kids who are a bit propense to get into fights in the waking world may very well become blood thirsty maniacs in the Nowhere.

Interestingly, the modification of traits does not only apply to personality but also the body -- and usually, the physical changes are in relation back to said traits. For example, the Teacher - someone who is known to be controlling - can extend her neck infinitely to look everywhere and have the ability to blink removed to make sure she's always watching. The Doctor, a perfectionist with tons of authority, is always looking down on people while also growing enormous to match his ego. So on and so forth, you can follow this reasoning for a large number of the Residents we meet.

I think other timelines derivating from the Nowhere is definitely a possibility, as we don't know much of how the universes work there.

The general theory of a multiverse irl is that no timeline has any specific weight or importance over others; they are all parallel no matter how different, with no timeline being "the real one". This is if we view the Nowhere under the lens of it being a separate dimension. In TSON, the Nowhere is kind of implied to be sucking the people most vulnerable to it right in, so perhaps the idea Otto has of it the predominant world stems from the fact that he can't explain his fascination with it... or from a real, genuine desire to somehow "return" to the original land, if that's where the other timelines originated from.

HOWEVER, I would like to offer an alternative perspective on this --- based on what I found out during my research on the Ladies. Yup we're going there again

Rather than the characters themselves, this time I'm going to refer to a symbolism that is very prominent in their lore: Buddhism. More specifically the references to the six planes of existance, and how those can be tied back to Little Nights in a loose way. As stated in this site:

" The six realms of rebirth are a schema in which beings are reborn according to the kind of life they lived. [...] The animal realm, in which inhabitants are driven by basic needs, is one of the three “lower” realms. The other two are the hell realm, a place of constant suffering and torment, and the realm of the hungry ghosts, grasping beings who are never satisfied. The three “higher” realms are the human realm [...] the demigod realm [...] and the god realm, where beings enjoy a life of pleasure. It’s important to note that some Buddhists view the realms as literally real, while others interpret them psychologically as metaphors for the emotional states of the human condition. "

(Click on the link to read the whole thing; I only highlighted the parts I think are relevant to this conversation :] )

What I believe specifically relates back to the Nowhere are the three lower realms, from which the place itself may be loosely inspired by because of how its inhabitants are described.

All of these are things we see in Little Nights from various Residents, depending on the social class and place. It is important to note that while these realms are placed in different hierarchies due to quality of life, they all cohexist together without necessarily being more important than each other as they all have the same purpose in the end.

If the worlds of Little Nights operate in a similar way, then what we're looking at is not really a case of dimension hopping, but rather a passage from a plane of existance to the next. A forced one at that, at least in the case of Noone.

Now, considering Otto's assumption, the idea of the Nowhere being a predominant realm only popped up because he was trying to wrap his head around it and how Noone felt, but to tell you the truth, it is a rather baseless assumption considering he's never been there and is only experiencing it in a very limited way. However... considering how many children from different places in time and space have experienced the Nowhere, sometimes even simultaneously, I wouldn't say that it's completely wrong to assume that the place might be the "original plane of existance".

Now. Reflecting on what you said at the very end, I would like to ask a question back: do you think the Nowhere is, hypothetically, only capable of bringing out the worst in people inherently? Or is it only acting this way because humanity itself is more easily conditioned to fall victim to their bad traits?

I've been recently thinking about it because of the Maw. The writer of Little Nightmares, Mr. Mervik, has stated multiple times over the years that the place has not always been the way that it is; at the same time, he also said that it was not man made, but rather created by collective hunger/desire to be fed. These two things don't make sense together unless you assume the Maw was not originally born for the Guests and the whole cannibal business, but rather from a desire of shelter. A need to be fed. Which is not inherently a bad thing -- and it would explain why the structure itself is so largely built to house so many people, and why children still feel relatively safe in it to this day.

So I find myself thinking that perhaps, the Maw degenerated overtime because the people inside of it (cough its leaders cough) did. And if this is the case for the Maw, who's to say it's not the same for other places? The Nest, for example? The School, the Hospital... etc. But. It is also true that the creatures who inhabit the Nowhere (the Ferryman, the North Wind, the Flesh...) all seem to have their own interests and destructive amusement more at heart than anything. If these creatures are what move the large of the Nowhere (which I guess they are considering the eye symbol is all over the goddman place), then the human will can't really do much.

That being said, I am wondering currently if it could be possible for the Nowhere to bring out something good from a person in the right situation. At the same time, the hopes are incredibly slim. Nonexistent, actually, but it's nice to think about hypothetics.

Dissecting the LN3 Friendship Trailer

I'm so hyped to finally have news on this game, you guys have no idea!!! That being said, let's turn the new trailer inside out to see what we can figure out.

To me this looks like the very end of the Necropolis as Low and Alone move into the second chapter which...

Judging by the greenish hue of where they end up, would be the Factory.

It also seems that the later parts of the Necropolis are going to be more of a stormy grey, which actually looks quit nice.

We see two separate furnace shots, one with a nome. If I had to guess these would be in the Factory or another area, which we'll get to later.

Here's all the confirmed Factory footage, including a better glimpse at the many-armed monster in the area, we can see a rolled up blue sleeve. The last image comes from the official LN3 website, and it seems it's either making candy statues/creatures, or grinding it's staff into the candy. I'm honestly not sure which would be wilder.

We get some good looks at the Carnival, and our first potential glimpse of the Ventriloquist. The thing of his desk looks like a walky-talky, which makes me think the Dummy also has one and will use it to

I'm putting these together because they don't seem to fir into any other area. I think this is from the same chapter as the one some people suspect will be set in The Maw, but at this point it looks more like some... bunker/clocktower/planetarium, I'm not sure.

Either way it's very interesting.

This last shot looks like it could take place at the very start of the Carnival chapter, but I'm not positive.

@queen0fm0nsterz, thoughts on some of these ideas? I'd really appreciate any feedback from my preferred LN expert.

Not to mention the pool of shoes in the maw is suppost to allude to the many shoes of dead people of the holocaust. If you look through everything in LN1-2, a lot of stuff is somewhat similer to WW2

Theres a whole video on youtube about it

Little Nightmares 2: THE DARKEST THEORY YET... by The Indie Gamer

Guys I think I figured out when Little Nightmares takes place!

If we look at what clothes the characters wear they all fall within a late 1940s-ish timeframe.

Bullies wear late 1940s school clothes.

The thin man wears clothes resembling a radio broadcaster from the 40s.

The Viewers clothing is hard to track down but does resemble clothing from the late 40s.

The televisions themselves resemble very late 1940s televisions.

six's lighter looks like a 1940s lighter.

Psych wards like the one in the hospital were used in the 40s as well.

Sure there are a couple of odd ones out like The Teacher wearing a 1910s teacher outfit and the hunter wearing a gatsby cap but none go beyond the late 1940s.

My personal headcanon from all this is that the little nightmares universe takes place around 1948-1949

Guys Gals Non-binary pals Mono had T.V powers He can go through the T.Vs and he became the Thin Man Now In the trailer We see Alone fall into a mirror And their face is covered Now hear me out on this What if Alone is The Mirror Monster?

tell me more about this "mono isnt a human" theory thats really interesting

Thanks for asking! A few people have asked for my thoughts on Mono’s identity, and because I will take any opportunity to ramble about Little Nightmares, I wrote up my (hopefully intelligible) interpretation of Mono, and why I think he was always a Resident of The Nowhere, instead of a kidnapped human child like most of the LN kids. This theory is super connected to a few other ones I have, so I’ll rattle descriptions of them at the start for context. Also this post is insanely long I’m sorry

The Nowhere

The Nowhere is its own world that real children get kidnapped to, it feeds off of humanity and kinda functions like your local mall. A weird amount of emphasis is put on jobs in The Nowhere, Residents are often referred to solely by their job titles (The Janitor, The Doctor, The Teacher, etc. etc.)

Besides having a job in The Nowhere, a Resident's proximity to humanity seems to give them a higher status as well. In a LN1 interview, it was said that ALL residents wear masks (as opposed to just the Twin Chefs); we even see in LN2 that The Doctor makes and presumably sells these masks. A humanoid appearance is something that most Residents want. The more humanoid a Resident looks, the more powerful they are perceived to be (not always, because of The Ferryman, but he’s just chill like that.)

Kids and valuable teens/adults (like the circus performers and Otto from the podcast) feed The Nowhere kinda like how animals feed humans. Some Residents are given jobs to maintain this system. Some jobs require more power than others however, typically these are the jobs that require a Resident to keep control over an entire area, which leads me to…

The Cycle

The head honcho Residents like The Thin Man and The Lady are more humanoid and more powerful than the others, this is because they are handpicked and raised from birth to inherit these forms that are passed down over time. This one is super important to most of my points about Mono, so I’m going to spend some time defending it.

The Lady (prior to the Six stuff) had 4 predecessors, each represented by a different mask/hat that you can collect in VLN; This means that The Nowhere (at the time of the first loop in LN2) is on its 5th cycle. The Thin Man is also a mantle that is passed down, we see the previous one interact with Mono before Mono has even entered a time loop in the LN2 comics. This Thin Man, when datamined, notably wears a different hat than Mono’s iteration.

Furthermore, when asked if Thinny Lad is a mantle that is passed on or Mono in a timeloop in an interview, the devs had this to say:

The Pretender (VLN) is a good example of what I think Mono is supposed to be, and what the child forms of the 5th cycle Residents were. The Pretender is a humanoid child with supernatural powers and a strong sense of loneliness. She has her own mansion and Resident servants. The Pretender is the heir to a currently unknown position. She has a portrait of her and five past iterations on her wall, followed by another one of her and her two Resident parents. The Pretender is native to The Nowhere.

But… who is the boss of all the Residents? Who assigns these jobs? Who creates the natural Residents and brings others into The Nowhere?

The Eye

(you could argue its the ferryman but i think he works under the eye too. employee of the year)

I think most fans agree on this one so I won't spend too long on it, but basically I think the Eye is the unseen overall antagonist of Little Nightmares, overseeing everything and everyone in The Nowhere all the time. The Eye feeds off of misery and has a fate planned for everyone, it is not happy when anything throws a wrench into these plans. I don’t think we are meant to know The Eye’s motives, not yet at least, but if I had to guess; they have something to do with an extremely misguided and angry feeling of loneliness, as that is a prevalent theme in an insane amount of Residents. This finally brings me to Mono.

Mono’s Familiarity with The Nowhere

Mono is very familiar with Pale City, he is much more aware of his own fate, abilities, and world than he’s given credit for.

In the door/boat cutscene, Mono watches every TV in the water until it exits the frame. This early in the game, Mono already has an inherent connection to TVs.

Before Pale City comes into frame for both Six and the player, Mono is already standing, he is familiar enough with the route to Pale City that he knows they arrived without even having a clear view of their destination. This is because Mono has been to Pale City before, in the sixth episode of the LN2 comics:

In this comic, Mono met (and wasn't killed by) The Thin Man shown earlier. So to list off the amount of things Mono was already familiar with at the start of LN2: His connection to TVs, his connection to The Thin Man, and how to navigate Pale City. Mono having a lot of experience living in The Nowhere is demonstrated somewhere even more prominent too:

Kickass Character Design

Six’s character design intentionally makes her not fit in with her environment. While the color scheme of The Nowhere and its residents is mostly bland, monochrome, and washed out (sans the lighting), her jacket is highlighter yellow. This represents that Six does not belong in The Nowhere, she’s from the human world.

With this information to ride off of, Mono’s design becomes interesting. Mono’s design is a beige button up, tan trench-coat, and tan pants: A monochrome, muted outfit that fits in perfectly with the aesthetic of The Nowhere. Mono’s outfit including a key ring and a useful color scheme for camouflage further implies familiarity and experience with the way The Nowhere works. If Six’s simple, bright design represents her not belonging there, Mono’s muted, practical design represents the fact that he does.

His Mask

We actually know why Mono wears his mask, we have a direct answer:

You can interpret this as a representation of Mono being shy or insecure or a combination of multiple things, but I think it’s mainly meant to represent, as the description states: Mono hiding from The Nowhere, Mono running away from his fate. The Eye wants Mono to grow up and be the next Thin Man, but he doesn’t want to. Mono’s mask represents his fear, his refusal to use his Thin Man powers, his refusal to do anything that connects him to the world that hates him and wants him to fail; he wants to hide from that world, his future, and the reality of what he is. But ….

(straight up a post of Mono running from his fate)

Unexplained Powers

Mono’s OP reveal was the moment that shook me the most when I first watched my sister play the game; I’ve honestly always been shocked at how little it’s talked about in the community. To me, it was a reveal that told us we Did Not REALLY know much about the character we had been playing the entire time, and that was exciting.

When Mono fights the Thin Man and contorts the structure of Pale City, it is with ease. This is not his first time doing any of this, his body language does not match that of someone who just discovered/unlocked a new ability, him busting out the moves is framed more like a choice that he decided on just before removing his mask. The Thin Man boss battle is easy on purpose; because it's not too hard for Mono in universe, all he does after is wipe off his head nonchalantly and then he proceeds to warp reality. The ominous boss theme that plays during this fight isn’t even for the Thin Man, its MONO’S boss music. The Thin Man is the one who helps control The Signal Tower’s influence, Mono is the one interfering with it, he is the “Signal Interference.” The theme continues even after he’s defeated The Thin Man, further hammering in that it is his.

Mono has his own ominously powerful boss theme and the abilities of one of the most powerful Residents at his disposal; he is not a normal kid.

Mono even shares a power with the established Resident heir that we already know; The Pretender.

When The Pretender sees RCG eavesdropping on her crying, she yells so loud that it physically hurts RCG, causing the screen to glitch. I don’t think this is just a visual effect to show how loud it is to the player; I think this is an in universe ability. You know where else we see a powerful child amplify their voice on purpose to harm an enemy with a screen glitch/distortion effect? Mono in Chapter 5.

Mono and the fifth Thin Man

I think that Mono ran away from wherever it is he’s supposed to be, (probably the Signal Tower) and The Eye/ Thin Man want him back; this is why Mono is not killed by The Thin Man in the comic, just pursued by him

Loneliness

I don’t think I even really need to dissect how loneliness relates to Mono’s character, but he’s not the only character who deals with it. A huge recurrent theme with Residents is loneliness; the sense that they need something, they are missing something. The Lady has a bunch of dolls, The Janitor has.. a bunch of dolls in his own way. The Hunter too. The Pretender runs off to cry when her human doll friend gets messed up at her dinner party. The Resident we meet in Chapter 3 of the podcast is the most direct example so far of intense loneliness in a Resident, and not so coincidentally, it has a ton of parallels to Mono.

Narrative

For the rest of this post, I’m going to focus on how I think this theory fits into the story; because I think factoring in the cutscenes and storytelling beats is important when putting together something’s lore.

A little chatter about Mono

Mono is often characterized as a shy little boy who plays the straight man to Six’s feral goblin who loves eating rats, which is a whole other can of worms, but with this characterization I feel like some fun and interesting parts of his character are neglected, such as: The fact that Mono is an ominous little weirdo. His attempt at trying to save and comfort someone is to hack down her door with an ax with no warning, then proceed to chase her through the house she’s been trapped in; Mono is not too familiar with human interaction. Mono isn’t really a dashing hero who tries to save every kid he comes across either. In the comics, Mono finds an area that is away from the monster killing all the kids, but it’s not like he tells the other kids or tries to bring them with him or anything. I don’t think that this means he is a toxic manipulative character or anything because he is. 9 or 10 years old. I think if anything, this is a trait that experienced characters in The Nowhere have: RCG and Mono both know that indifference is the way to survive in The Nowhere, good deeds usually get you killed. It’s the way things are. I think overall Mono is a well meaning boy who just talks and acts ominously, because that’s what he is used to; he’s an eldritch overpowered being who lives in hell if it had a 1940s aesthetic.

I think that Mono doesn’t start the game a sweet perfect little boy whose ending is sad because he gets betrayed, that’s not a character arc. I think Mono starts off relatively morally gray out of necessity, mostly helping Six out because it was kinda his fault she got captured. He develops into someone who is willing to fight his fate, fight the Nowhere and stop resorting to the escapism his mask provides, only to get crushed to rock bottom in spite of his growth. After all, the villain of Little Nightmares is The Nowhere itself.

How this creates character conflict in the plot

Anytime Mono goes into a weird TV trance, Six is horrified. Her body language tenses and she moves away from him. Six has seen first hand that even the kids like her in The Nowhere cannot always be trusted or relied on (RCG shutting the door on her). Some kids like the Pretender aren't even normal kids, they have powers they use to kill people. The one person Six is starting to trust, and he’s showing signs of possessing supernatural powers? Terrifying. Mono notices these reactions, they give him more cause to hide what he truly is from her. Residents scare and disgust Six, he doesn’t want to lose the only person he has.

This conflict leads me to another point; you know those moments of Six being sadistic and angry towards Residents? How an ominous music cue plays when she kills the bully and breaks the mannequin’s fingers? Earlier in the game, when Six first catches Mono, his part of Togetherness II plays briefly to show his feelings in that moment, which implies that the music cues we hear when a story beat happens are Mono’s reactions. I don’t think these scary music cues are because Mono is scared of Six being creepy, Mono himself likes to beat up Residents. I think that Mono is scared in these moments when he sees the extent of Six’s hatred towards Residents, because even though he doesn’t like them either… Imagine how she’d react if she knew about him.

It is only the Thin Man fight when Mono is finally pushed to the point of using his powers, because in the plan to get Mono to the Signal Tower: The Thin Man took Six as bait. Six was constantly pulling Mono out of his TV trances, Six was supposed to die back at The Nest, Six has been a problem for the Eye since the start and now it’s time to kill two birds with one stone, to sentence Six to her new fate and to crush Mono’s spirit so hard that he finally resigns to his.

The drop is its whole own debate, but whatever you think about it, I think at least one factor in Six’s decision is that from her perspective: Mono has revealed himself to be an entity she cannot trust, he didn't tell her either; he's been hiding it this entire time. Why didn’t he use this power to help them all the previous times they were in danger? What are his motives? What IS he? This, mixed with other factors, causes the drop. (a lot of manipulation on the part of The Nowhere is involved too imo but this isn't a Drop analysis)

Mono is crushed, he loses Six and any true feeling of empowerment that he had before. Rather than The Eye trapping him in the Signal Tower and forcibly transforming him into a resident, I think Mono actually accepts his fate because hes just. That depressed. He actually ages pretty normally for most of the sequence (except for being straight up like 12 feet tall, the podcast confirmed that Residents are just super super big as opposed to the kids being really small, bros got Resident genes) This sequence from the art book leads me to think that Mono knows what the hat entails, Mono chooses to run the Signal Tower like The Lady runs The Maw. The chair sequence is not actually him sitting in a chair for that long, I think it just represents his resignation more than anything.

BUT! Mono is an “uncommonly single minded boy,” who also has control over time, i.e. Mono Thin Man slowing down time in his chase just to fuck with you or the clock sounds in The End of The Hall. Whether you think he goes back for revenge or to stop the downfall of everything, he goes back in time. I think it's on purpose, I think every TV in the background of the first scene implies that Mono has gone back to this point in time over and over again, failing repeatedly, leaving a new TV behind and forgetting the past attempt each time.

This could all be wrong, maybe Mono is just a really badass 4th grader from the human realm who got his abilities like Six, just off screen. But one thing I love about LN is all of the different, creative and interesting interpretations of the fans. So here’s mine regarding Mono lore. Sorry this was so long and I write posts weirdly it is 4 AM. I hope you enjoyed