History WMG / OFF

[[WMG: Hold on to your pants, this one's a doozy]]

The room seems to imply the three were good friends at the start, and most of Dedan's cruelty is towards the Elsens. Perhaps seeing his friend try his best to please them, only for the Elsens to reject them due to their own paranoia, and watching him descend into madness due to his best efforts getting (unintentionally) thrown back on his face, embittered him against them. Perhaps he now thinks trying to be nice to the unappreciative morons that reduced one of his only friends to a violent madbird isn't something he's gonna do, and takes his rage out on his employees.

[[WMG: There are other Elsens besides [[spoiler: the last one in Zone 2]].]]

You have to admit, it makes a lot of sense considering ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'''s Genociude/No Mercy ending. [[spoiler: Chara]] moved on to other video game worlds to destroy with the help of willing players.

You have to admit, it makes a lot of sense considering ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}''s Genociude/No Mercy ending. [[spoiler: Chara]] moved on to other video game worlds to destroy with the help of willing players.

[[WMG: The Batter is [[spoiler: The Fallen Child/Chara from ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}.]]]]

You have to admit, it makes a lot of sense considering ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'s Genociude/No Mercy ending. [[spoiler: Chara]] moved on to other video game worlds to destroy with the help of willing players.

* Via [[http://lparchive.org/OFF/Update%2043/ a goon]] from SomethingAwful. Go read it yourself. Then come back and discuss.

[[WMG: The Add-ons of [[spoiler:The Queen]] are linked to [[spoiler:The Judge, Hugo and Sugar]].]]

This is also why the only solution to winning this game is not to play it: Because the only way not to lose down that road is not to follow it.

Going from the theory that Zacharie and Sugar are Hugo's parents, and that the Batter and the Queen are just stand-ins, created by Hugo. (And that the Judge and Zacharie are in reality two sides of the same coin)
Hugo is sick, and Sugar either couldn't deal with this, or Hugo's sickness started after Sugar's problems, but Sugar is addicted to her namesake (maybe her name isn't even Sugar, but she has gone so far it might as well be). and is absent, she can't take care of Hugo.
Zacharie, faced with his son's illness and his wife's addiction, Zacharie takes more and more risks to support both of them.

The purification of the first zone symbolizes Zacharie's loss of grip on reality, as the first zone produces the things that make up the world.
The purification of the second zone symbolizes Zacharie losing his job (director of an amusement park - a place where everything should be perfect and fun; also loss of the illusion of perfection), his absence implies that he neglected his job in favour of back-alley dealings to provide for his son's medication and his wife's drugs, and also the loss of friends and family without him noticing it - Japhet taking over Valerie without the Judge realizing it, and the Batter killing Japhet/Valerie.
The purification of the third zone is the loss of the source. Sugar is made from corpses - Zacharie is literally going over corpses to fuel Sugar's addiction.
If the Batter kills Sugar, Zacharie responds with "... I suppose it's better this way", even though Zacharie and Sugar are implied to be at least close friends in the game, Zacharie should be distraught and attack the Batter, but instead he is resigned, as if he'd seen it coming.
His continued support of the Batter via items for purchase (which cost more and more, because Zacharie has only this source of income any more and still tries to support his family) might hint that even if he couldn't save his wife, he will continue trying to save his son.
The Queen, as an imagined entity, can't replace the real world / affection Hugo needs, and as such, the world she creates is incomplete and can't sustain itself in the long run.

Mortis Ghost referred to him as a hero, he was the owener of the amusement park in Zone 2, but during the game, he does not act against the person who killed two of his close friends but sell him equipment so that he can better continue on his quest to murder everything, metaphorically handing the Batter the noose to hang him with.

It's never really explicitly stated that sugar is directly made from [[spoiler: corpses]]. It's entirely possible that there is simply a very limited amount of sugar in existence, and it can't be produced conventionally fast enough to properly replenish the supply. Likewise, the fact that sugar can be extracted from [[spoiler: dead bodies]] by burning them was likely discovered accidently, considering that the spectres are implied to have begun showing up very suddenly, and its entirely possible that some of them just had inexplicable fire attacks. Enoch probably just decided to run with it, and it likely wasn't his original plan, especially considering the events of [[spoiler: The Room]], where most of the guardians are revealed to have [[spoiler: actually been rather kindhearted and friendly, and likely driven to the states of madness and rage you found them in by the sheer logistics of managing the world]].

There are no metaphors. What happens in the game is literally what happens.

During Zone 3, Zacharie notices the music box Batter found, and asks for it, saying it would mean a dear lot for him to have it. As we find out later, the music box plays Hugo's theme. Why Zacharie wants something reminiscent of Hugo isn't explained, but we have several hints. First, Zacharie, Hugo and Sugar are all confirmed to be the only humans in the game. Everyone else is a construct. Second, Zacharie follows Batter around everywhere, with Batter (supposedly) being Hugo's father, despite him being a creation of Hugo. Third, during the final zone, there's a paper (one of the calendar pieces I think?) that states Zacharie to be evil and to not listen to him. Given that the final zone is supposed to reflect Hugo, that seems to be his own feelings toward Zacharie. Hugo, too, states to hate his father for his negligence. So going by this, there does seem to be a relationship among Zacharie, Batter, and Hugo.

I don't recall where it was said, but Mortis Ghost once said eugenics as a whole inspired the idea behind OFF, and it shows. Consider the player - you - to be a "purist". And The Batter is a tool for which you can carry it out. This is reflected in the gameplay - the first Burnt Elsen you find isn't even really evil, just stressed out. Can't perform under pressure? Well, looks like someone's getting the boot - or, dare I say, the bat. And from a Doylist view, it's not hard to see how ButtCuckoolander Mortis Ghost could have dealt with that before.

There are no metaphors.

I don't recall where it was said, but Mortis Ghost once said eugenics as a whole inspired the idea behind OFF, and it shows. Consider the player - you - to be a "purist". And The Batter is a tool for which you can carry it out. This is reflected in the gameplay - the first Burnt Elsen you find isn't even really evil, just stressed out. Can't perform under pressure? Well, looks like someone's getting the boot - or, dare I say, the bat. And from a Doylist view, it's not hard to see how CloudCuckoolander Mortis Ghost could have dealt with that before.

During Zone 3, Zacharie notices the music box Batter found, and asks for it, saying it would mean a dear lot for him to have it. As we find out later, the music box plays Hugo's theme. Why Zacharie wants something reminiscent of Hugo isn't explained, but we have several hints. First, Zacharie, Hugo and Sugar are all confirmed to be the only humans in the game. Everyone else is a construct. Second, Zacharie follows Batter around everywhere, with Batter (supposedly) being Hugo's father, despite him being a creation of Hugo. Third, during the final zone, there's a paper (one of the calendar pieces I think?) that states Zacharie to be evil and to not listen to him. Given that the final zone is supposed to reflect Hugo, that seems to be his own feelings toward Zacharie. Hugo, too, states to hate his father for his negligence. So going by this, there does seem to be a relationship among Zacharie, Batter, and Hugo.

While playing the final parts of the game, it seems common thought that Hugo helped the guardians and wrote to his mother, but Hugo is still at least under 5, and in his time the guardians are already not as jovial as they once were.The queen hardly seems to care about anything, so I don't take this as out of her league, especially with her tendency to neglect Hugo, which seems evidence of wanting to forget him despite loving him. The batter on the other hand, is obviously able to do these things and has been able to for a long time before the game, probably back to when the guardians WERE nice. He looks smaller than most of the enemies in game, the queen and guardians included, but when you walk around in the final parts of the game, you play as the Batter, not Hugo, and here he looks even shorter, in comparison to the world and Dedan alike, who when you first fight the Batter is near shoulder height to. Considering most of the other creatures of power in OFF are generally rather tall, and the Batter is always a little shorter than most of them, it would seem he's still young, or at least not fully grown, while the queen is tall and adult as ever. Furthermore, in the Room's notes, it states that Zacharie and Sugar are the writers friends, and while that could easily be true for Hugo, the Batter seems much more likely a candidate considering the age differences. If any of the other in game characters knew the queen was the Batters mother, it could explain certain hostilities or uncare for the queen, although as the Judge decides in the end none of it is excuse for murder. It could also explain why the Batter starts out in the Nothingness, instead of with Eloha and Hugo-she could have sent the Batter away, to prevent the truth from continuing to spread. And the queens comment of, "Look...He has your eyes. They are full of fear.", with the common thought that the Batter has no eyes or at least very different ones from Hugo, this would imply Hugo's creation was less than consensual, or at the very least that she's used to seeing the Batter terrified, and finds he and Hugo to have similar scared faces. Soz if this seems a little all over the place, that I don' have any explanation for.

** Furthermore, remember what the Judge does at the beginning: He gives you a ticket that will send you to the first area. Only zone guardians have these tickets.

Before you run from him, Enoch states that the Elsen will be 'forever lost to the nothingness' if he disappears, implying that the nothingness is sort of a place for life after death. Maybe the Queen assigned the Batter to guard this space where the dead go, and the game starts because the Batter's wards, the spectres, escaped; he wasn't used to the way the overworld was, and its weirdness quickly drove him nutso while he was trying to rope all the spirits in.

Within the Room, Dedan mentions he's in pain from a cow bite. Assuming that the events in the Room are before the Batter's arrival in Zone 1, it looks like Dedan made his Zone's industry around slicing cows in half just to [[DisproportionateRetribution get revenge on the species]]. He's got the power to form his Zone to his whims, so why else would he make the decision?

* Jossed. Mortis Ghost has confirmed he will not be making a sequel.

* Jossed. Mortis Ghost has confirmed he will not be making a sequel.

[[WMG: Who builds an unlabeled switch that ends all of reality?]]
This is more of a question for theories to be built, but why would something build [[spoiler: a switch that has the ability to end all existence]] and leave it unguarded? Enoch had the key to the Room, and the Queen was there, but as we can assume from the Room's general layout it's [[spoiler: the entry room, a hallway, a room with a smaller room in it, a slightly shorter hallway, and then the room with the switch]]. For everyone's sake the Batter could've easily just [[spoiler: pulled the switch]], there isn't even a glass case protecting it!
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[[WMG: Zacharie will or has [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Disney/WreckItRalph gone turbo]] before. ]]