Line #169 WMG/ThePath


1	[[WMG: The player is the wolf.]]
2	Think about it: You bought this game in the first place. Maybe you were just curious. Maybe you were drawn to the horror of a game about a bunch of little girls lost in the woods. When you started playing, you picked your first girl, and she met the wolf and died in Grandmother's house, and you knew the same thing would happen to the other girls, but you kept playing anyway.
3
4	It's a third person game, after all. You're not seeing from the girls' point of view. The camera is positioned just behind them. The player follows the girls through the forest. Chases them. Drives them toward beautiful discoveries (the flowers) and dangerous distractions. Just like the wolf in the original story.
5
6	Further: You only succeed when the girls die. When the girl in white comes up to help a girl you're following, it's almost impossible to get the girl away from her, to the point where you have to struggle with her to get away. You have to make the girls go up to the other people in the forest; the girls approach the "wolves," not the other way around. You even have to push some of the girls quite hard to get them killed (Carmen's woodsman has to be carefully seduced, for example).
7
8	[[WMG: The girls all represent the Grandmother's regrets.]]
9	Growing up, she made many mistakes and misjudgments. She played with dangerous things and was hurt. She got into accidents. She was betrayed by people she trusted. Time and again she ran into trouble, and looking back on her life, she thinks "What if...?" If only she could have avoided every pitfall, if only she could go back and do things over, knowing what she knows now.
10
11	But such regrets are a normal part of life. Everyone makes mistakes, and the experiences change them, and certainly not always for the worst. This is why avoiding the wolves is considered a 'failure': they come away unharmed, but also without finding whatever they sought. To get what they desire, they have to deal with the dangers, and the fallout of their decisions.
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13	The Girl in White represents her ideal: what she might have been had she never made any mistakes, never gotten into any trouble. Ultimately, an illusion: a complete impossibility. Something that can never be achieved. Hence, in the end even she is stained, as she accepts the fact that she cannot change her past, and accepts it for what it is... temporarily. But the cycle repeats, because she simply cannot let things lie. She ''still'' wonders from time to time, "What if...?"
14
15	(Alternately, the girls represent aspects of the unseen ''"Mother"'', while the Grandmother represents the complete isolation and loneliness a life spent avoiding taking any risks at all could very well lead to. The beautiful Girl in White is idealized innocence; the catatonic Grandmother represents a much harsher reality.)
16
17	[[WMG: The Wolves And The Girl In White Are TheFairFolk]]
18	All of the forest characters, GIW included, have a distinctly "elven" flavor to them, Scarlet's Wolf not the least of them. This, combined with the MindRape experience you have in Grandmother's house for each of them makes me believe that the wolves are fairies of the worst kind, the type that just wants to have a bit of harmless fun, [[AndCallHimGeorge and yet have no idea what "harmless" for a human means]]. The Girl In White is a bit more benevolent, and yet when all the reds are dead, she attacks Grandmother in the belief that it will bring them back. Then again, they come back, so...Maybe she was right.
19
20	[[WMG: The Red's Mother is the Original Red Riding Hood]]
21	A comment in one of the girl's Livejournals states that something 'scary' happened to the mother when she was younger and that is why she warns her children to stay on the path. Maybe ''she'' was tricked by a 'wolf' (which could either be a rather hairy man or a literal werewolf), went to ''her'' grandmother's house, found out that ''her'' grandma was killed, nearly got killed herself by the 'wolf' and was saved by a woodcutter.
22	** It might explain why the wolf's form of a woodcutter was an enticing seduction to Carmen. She always heard about her mom's story of a rugged man saving her life, and she wants a hero like that herself.
23	** Scarlet's livejournal has a comment from Rose about their mother "exaggerating" the dangers of the forest: "I think it's because of what happened to her in the forest when she was a little girl. That must have been such a scary experience!" Hmm...
24
25	[[WMG: Rose has a terminal illness]]
26	Not my theory, but a lot of her thoughts focus around 'flying' i.e dying. She wears a gown, suggesting that she doesn't go out much. People who are dying often place value in other living things, so she is a FriendToAllLivingThings.
27
28	Alternately, she drowned, which supports the water imagery around her.
29	** Or it could be an IncrediblyLamePun on [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs "High"]]. Which works, considering how separated from reality she gets in her comments.
30	** I don't know about Rose, but I got the impression that Ruby is dying, possibly of an illness related to her having to wear the leg brace. I believe she says something like that she probably won't live to be an adult at one point in the game, and she seems to have a focus on death.
31	*** Ruby is actually one of the most straightforward girls if you don't take into account what the girls mean collectively. She met a bad guy, hooked up with him and got in a car/bike accident that cost her her leg. Note the automobile themes in her grandmother's house, and how her final flashes of imagery are pictures of her "shattered". She contemplates quickening death(via smoking) because she feels that she's screwed up her life.
32	** I do tend to favor the theory that Rose is or was very ill at some point, since many of her imagery seems disoriented and strange, perhaps representing drugs (maybe medicine she was taking) or being feverish and light-headed. Perhaps she didn't drown, but had a near death experience out near the lake. She fell in and was sick with hypothermia, and may or may not have recovered later. And although I like this interpretation rather than the straightforward "killed by the Wolf" interpretation, the more I look at her story, the more I get the creeping impression that Rose put her trust in someone she shouldn't have, someone who was older and pretended to need her help...Judging by what she says about being a FriendToAllLivingThings, I got the impression she was attracted to the cloud-man because it looked like it was wounded. When she first sees it it looks bloody and sort of just floats there like it's in pain. Maybe she thought "oh, poor thing..." and went out to it, only to find that it was not what it seemed. Once she gets there, the cloud-man suddenly moves very rapidly around her. It no longer seems like it's in pain but is moving with a purpose, but it's too late, Rose's boat is gone...This also could be a more general idea of realizing that even nature (the storm and the misty lake) or a wounded animal can hurt you if you get too close.
33	*** On [[http://tale-of-tales.com/ThePath/blog/2010/03/27/the-making-of-cloud-wolf/ the page for the Cloud Wolf]] the creators suggest that he does not have any malicious intent, he just can't help it. "He doesn’t mean to hurt anyone, he just is. He is beautiful like a thunderstorm. You can only sit back and admire the destruction he causes." And the page has some good {{WMG}}s on it as well in the comments.
34	** It might be worth pointing out that cystic fibrosis, a terminal disease that often afflicts children around Rose' age, essentially results in the lungs being filled with liquid, "drowning" the patient.
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36	*** This theory would actually explain why in all their live journals, the girls mention that there was a sudden unexplained social gathering full of guests, family friends, and people they have never even met before. They were bringing gifts and seemed very interested in the girls well being, and no one explained just what was going on.
37
38	[[WMG: The girls are all terminally ill or comatose, and the forest was created by an EldritchAbomination seeking to take their souls.]]
39	It is inescapable by ordinary means, looping infinitely in all directions, and offers those within what they (think they) most desire. Of course, if they're foolish enough to accept its offer, explicitly or subconsciously (by encountering the wolf), the forest stops wasting effort pretending to be anything other than a twisted EldritchAbomination / EldritchLocation. It will continue doing this until it attempts to take the mind of someone with enough willpower to refuse its offer and destroy it. [[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes Maybe an Irish assassin or something.]]
40
41	[[WMG: The girls are all dead.]]
42	The game is just a way for you to guide their spirits to see how they died and find peace. The girl in white is a guiding angel, and her grandmother is God.
43
44	[[WMG: The girls have all been abducted by aliens.]]
45	The game is some sort of experiment the aliens are doing in order to study human behaviour.
46
47	[[WMG: The girls are all phases of the Grandmother's life]]
48	And they represent the mistakes she made through her life (played with animals and got hurt, explored being lesbian, hooked up with a bad boy and wound up in a car crash, ect), and the death of the girls is the gradual death of her innocence. The girl in white is her conscience, as she can lead the girls back to the path when they are too lost.
49	** Possibly not mistakes, but each wolf may represent a traumatic or significant event in her life that changed the person she was. It is possible to see how each girl's wolf might lead them to becoming the girl they are next:
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51	* Robin tries to play with a wild animal and is hurt/frightened when it attacks her. Though she is frightened off at first, children can be very adaptable and often grow curious about things that upset them, wanting to learn more so they can have some control. This leads to an interest in animals and nature, which leads to her becoming Rose.
52	* Rose's wolf is a little hard to interpret, but one possibility is that it represents fantasy, delusion, or delirium caused by illness. Rose appears to be flying or drowning because she loses her grip on reality (she isn't "grounded") possibly because of an illness or fever, or a willful retreat into a fantasy world. Being lost in her own mind for such a long time might lead to a push back, a desire to go out and explore the world (particularly if Rose ''was'' ill and bedridden) turning her into the tomboysih Ginger.
53	* Ginger may have had a bad experience with another girl her age. The two of them went too far, crossed a boundary that was not meant to be crossed (barbed wire) and someone got hurt. Ginger's wolf is a girl much like the girl in white, in a red dress. The color red has plenty of potential symbolism, of course, in this game and elsewhere. But two associations it has are blood and sin. Ginger, always one to push boundaries and explore, may have pressured her friend to go someplace dangerous. If her friend were hurt or killed, Ginger might see her as the girl in the red dress as an emblem of her guilt and regret. The guilt over her friend, as well as her own injuries (injuries that perhaps lead to her needing to wear a leg brace?) lead to her becoming the morbid, depressed Ruby.
54	* Ruby seems to be a fairly solitary, outcast young girl, but her wolf is another human being (also the first definitely male wolf.) Since he has the trappings of a stereotypical "bad boy," it's easy to infer that at this age, Ruby fell in with a "bad crowd" and started experimenting with smoking, drinking and her own sexuality. By the time she becomes Carmen, she's been at this sort of experimentation for a while, though by her own admission she hasn't gone farther than "teasing."
55	* Carmen, more than any of the other characters, has a strong undercurrent of sexual violence to her story. The "cautionary tale" type setting of her wolf, the symbolism in her version of grandmother's house, and other things suggest that she lost her virginity through an act of rape. The trauma of this is what leads to her becoming Scarlet.
56	* Scarlet, as is sometimes the case for victims of trauma, craves control in all aspects of her life. For her, grandmother's house is sterile with a surplus of order that brings to mind images of obsessive-compulsive-disorder. She expresses a dislike of men, as a result of her trauma, and generally wants to retreat from the world, into a solitary honing of her craft. (The piano instructor is not an actual person, simply a representative avatar of the art form that constantly beckons her to focus, practice and improve.) This retreat became a life-long pattern that inhibited her growth as a person, which is why there are no older versions of Red. Though she aged, she never grew.
57	** Adds a layer of FridgeHorror to Carmen's comment, "Scarlet acts all grown up and stuff but I know [[DarkSecret she only thinks of]] [[RapeAsDrama one thing."]]
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59	[[WMG: Continuing the above WMG: The Girl In White is the representation of the ideal life the Grandmother never had.]]
60	After going through the mistakes, traumatic events and the loss of innocence, that each of the "girls" represents, the Grandmother is just an empty shell, tormented with shame and pain over her past. In her bedroom there is a Wolf's dummy and the picture of the girl in white. Both represent her past - the Wolf is her guilt over her past mistakes, the girl's picture is her regret for the life she might have had if she hadn't made those mistakes. Notice that in the epilogue, the girl in white doesn't comment on any objects, doesn't have a wolf and walks quickly and confidently towards the Grandmother's house (just like the girls do, if they stay on the path). She doesn't seem to have any problems or even any thoughts - that's because she has never existed. She isn't a real person, just an ideal the Grandmother is dreaming of. She cannot let go of her lost dream and regret, and so the ending of the game shows us how she has to relive the events of her life over and over. The fact that the girl's white dress is stained with red (the colour present in every girl's appearance and name) symbolizes that the ideal dream can never happen and the reality wil always stain it and make imperfect - like those "red" girls in the game.
61
62	[[WMG: The Girl in White is the REAL Granddaughter]]
63	The sisters are really grandmother's memories, whereas the girl in white is the pure child who visits her grandmother.
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65	[[WMG: The Girl in White is afarid of Grandmother]]
66	She'll lead you along the correct path, but even if you walk the whole path with her, she won't (or can't) go into the house. The only time she does is when you play as her in the epilogue, and there is no wolf in the woods, so it's safe to assume that the grandmother is her "wolf".
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68	[[WMG: There really ''isn't'' a "true meaning" to any of the stories, and ''that'' is the purpose of the game.]]
69	A quick glance at the forums - or even at just this page - illustrates how varied the opinions are when it comes to drawing conclusions about the plot and meaning; as well, a repeated refrain is "I'm so glad that the creators never come right out and give it away: I think it's much more meaningful to come up with your own meanings." Fueling speculation is the function of the game, which was meant from the beginning to function as a digital psychodrama intended solely for that purpose, and to allow the developers to sit back, relax, and enjoy the varied interpretations of a game built to have no "true" interpretation at all. Whether it's identifying the scariest House through your own personal experiences or debating the sex of Scarlet's wolf based once more on your own personal 'feeling,' it's obvious that the myriad analyses say more about the players analyzing ''The Path'' than about the game itself; like children working through a session of projective doll play, what players come up with post-game reveals more about the players than the game.
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71	Now, ''why'' would this be the case, exactly? What purpose could it serve? Hey, who knows... ?
72
73	(... [[{{Brainwashed}} brainwashing]]. Or [[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Alice Human Sacrifice]].)
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75	[[WMG: Robin]]
76	So I've seen a lot of varying interpretations of what each chapter means, but not a whole lot of speculation on Robin's chapter. I initially didn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about Robin as on the surface it seems like a fairly straightforward interpretation of the little red riding hood plot, and that Robin was in fact killed by a wolf/werewolf. The other possibility that occurred to me was that she fell into an open grave and died while playing around the graveyard. Notice that she will play in the dirt in the open grave before she encounters the wolf, and says something about how she loves playing in dirt. In that scene she will crawl out of the grave, but suppose she fell into a very deep grave and couldn't get out again?
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78	The OTHER thing that occurred to me was that Robin's chapter is all about her dealing with the death of her mother. Judging by the things she says throughout the game, she's a very naive child with very little understanding of anything besides that she just wants to be a kid and play, although she does have some interesting insights. Most notable is what she says about death, how it's a hard thing for "a kid like me" to understand. This, coupled with the fact that her important location is a graveyard, led me to assume she knows or understands more about death than she's letting on, and that she may have experienced the death of someone very important to her. Now, this could also represent her anxiety about her grandmother dying, but I think it might have more to do with the unseen mother. If you encounter the shopping cart with Robin, there's a somewhat bizarre scene where she hops inside it and says something like "kid for sale", to paraphrase. When I first saw this scene I assumed that Robin was just playing around, but I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that this too might have something to do with her dead mother. Robin's mother died and her father is nowhere to be seen, leaving her orphaned and "sold" into foster care or sent to an orphanage. I think this chapter is all about her lack of understanding in the face of death, and her feelings of being betrayed by the loss of her mother.
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80	[[WMG: Scarlet]]
81	My theory is that Scarlet's wolf represents isolation and a withdrawal from society. Scarlet's comments about life seem to be overwhelmingly negative. She resents men, she resents having to always be the responsible one, and the only thing she seems to find joy in is music and art. I think that everything eventually became too much for her and she decided to completely withdraw from the rest of the world, not unlike the artist who becomes a hermit. She retreats into her music, hence the curtain closing on her life. But everything she creates with her music she keeps to herself, because she doesn't think the outside world is worthy, hence the musical instruments floating about everywhere in the music room. Her creation has no purpose, because no one is there to enjoy it. Her obsessive desire for order becomes even worse the more she isolates herself, represented by the furniture covered sheets and the rows upon rows of jars. She becomes a lonely, bitter eccentric, and probably dies alone without having ever accomplished anything.
82	** The white sheets in the grandmother's house imply a world where there was no art. Maybe all of Scarlet's responsibilities meant she had no time for music or art anymore, and she felt stifled because of it. Also, what do you make of her wolf? Some of her thoughts indicated that she longed for some kind of personal connection. She wanted to find someone who would understand her because she felt lonely, and that's what her wolf is meant to represent.
83	**Her Wolf is meant to be a mentor or teacher, someone she could look up to and who could guide her along her chosen path.
84	** Her Wolf is meant to be someone who shared her love of music and art, someone she could fall for and who would fall for her.
85	** Grandmother's house could represent the soul or the inside of each sister, it would add up with Scarlet's house being empty, and the thousands of books and the instruments representing her wish to compensate for her emotional emptiness.
86	** Scarlet had committed suicide somehow. "Art is where the nobility of humanity is expressed. I could not live on a world without it." In her Grandmother's house when the instruments and herself rise up there's the distinct sound of something being sharpened. Perhaps symbolic of turning herself into an artistic instrument. Maybe she had herself killed on stage or as a part of an art piece since she couldn't make any art herself.
87
88	[[WMG: Ginger's Wolf symbolizes her first period]]
89	Ginger is a girl who enjoys being independent and carefree. I don't agree with some representations that she wants to be a boy. But she's very adventurous, and I think she feels that "girly" stuff is too restrictive. She's 13 but she enjoys the freedom of childhood and doesn't want to grow up. Her Wolf wears a red dress and appears in a field of flowers. She pops all over the place and moves erratically. She sneaks up on Ginger. The scarecrow is there, but it doesn't scare away the birds. I think the red girl represents menstruation. The barbed wire imagery could also indicate the pain and annoying aspects of physical maturity. In the Grandmother's House, the butterflies on the walls of the room with the two beds could symbolize childhood. All of Ginger's thoughts represent her love of freedom, so she might fear the onset of puberty because she thinks maturing into a woman means a loss of freedom and the ability to have fun.
90	** This interpretation would make her route a big shout-out to ''Film/GingerSnaps'', which is kind of brilliant.
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92
93	[[WMG: The Wolves, and what we see in the Grandmother's house after the Wolf has been encountered is a mix of memories, imagination and hallucinations.]]
94	Each girl strays from the path, encounters their Wolf and makes it into the Grandmother's house- and passes out. What we see is what their minds produce- they're all injured and possibly sick. All of their hallucinations are influenced by their Wolves. The younger girls don't remember what really happened and what their Wolves really were so their minds create whatever seems most appropriate for a dangerous attacker- for Robin, an actual Wolf, for Rose, a giant mystical creature, and for Ginger, someone she could fall for. The older girls' Wolves are a mix of their memories and their desires- Ruby sees the boy who led her astray, which ended in her leg injury, Scarlet sees either the person she wanted to be like or the person she wanted to end up with, and Carmen sees the object of her desire. The Girl In White is the one who gets each girl back to the Path, and from there the girls manage to drag themselves into the house.
95
96	[[WMG: The Forest shapes itself to what each girl is most curious about/likes/wants.]]
97	Robin is curious about death, so she stumbles upon the graveyard. Scarlet wants to be an accomplished musician, so she finds the theater. Ruby perhaps misses childhood and finds the playground. The Wolves of the other girls are found in the places the other girls think are most appropriate for them- Rose finds hers at the lake, Carmen at a camp (and since her Wolf is a lumberjack, it makes sense) and Ginger at a field of flowers.
98	** So the forest is really [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost the Hedge]]?
99	*** ''Exactly.''
100
101	[[WMG: The forest is Franchise/TheMatrix]]
102	The wolves are all Smiths.
103
104	[[WMG: Grandmother is a wolf]]
105	Just like in the original story, the wolf disguises herself as her grandmother. And she represents living a life of ignorance and blind obedience.
106
107
108	[[WMG: Each girl's walk to grandma's house is just a near death experience]]
109	Hence why grandma's house seems to have ChaosArchitecture--endless hallways, doors that open to nonsensical rooms, and stairs leading to nowhere are all common dream/vision motifs.
110	* These scenes appear within a non-final visit, which may indicate something slightly different. But amplifying the chaotic features does indicate either a near-death experience, or being weakened by the encounter with the wolf. But my opinion is that the girl remained on the path overnight and was exhausted by the cold rain, because if you try walking back towards the city (which will take a while), the sky will brighten slightly.
111
112
113	[[WMG: Carmen is pregnant.]]
114	After examining the symbols in Carmen's chapter, this troper came to the conclusion that there were a number of symbols that suggested Carmen became accidentally pregnant. Sex and flirting is an obvious theme with Carmen's personality, and two other things came to mind. First, the symbol that seems to represent Carmen is, oddly enough, a chair. This could suggest that she may have to do a lot of sitting. The chair is seen on the character select screen and at least once in Grandmother's house sitting on a pile of mattresses. Trees and deforestation are strongly present in Grandmother's house, perhaps representing the life she had wanted to lead being cut down. Finally, when "Grandmother's room" is reached, we find a bed with a tree growing up through the middle of it. This could imply that something is growing inside her, which would likely be the consequence of pregnancy from unprotected sex.
115	* I like this interpretation. I always assumed Carmen's chapter was about losing her virginity or just a bad sexual experience in general. It could be that she became pregnant from that experience, and regretted it.
116
117
118	[[WMG: The Girl in White's appearance is modelled off Auriea Harvey, Data Director at Tale of Tales.]]
119	[[http://grandmothers-house.net/rose.html Here's]] Rose's page on the main site. Scroll down to the bottom, and there's a picture of Harvey aged 8. She's a dark skinned little girl wearing a white dress, and it may be that the creators chose to make that image the one on the page for a good reason. The caption Rose gives the picture is: "Auriea is the star! Or should that be the Goddess? She made us all in her image. And the Forest! And the House!" ; which may or may not support the previous WMG suggesting that the GIW is a celestial being.
120
121	[[WMG: The Girl in White is a Wolf.]]
122	She helps the girls back to the path! She's kind and helpful... isn't that how the original story Wolf seemed to Red? If you don't stop moving to interact, she'll lead you on a wild goose chase through the forest. She is always there when the girls approach their Wolves. Once they're all out of the way, she's off to Grandma's house. At the end of the game, there's the GIW... covered in blood... as the girls walk in, one by one.
123
124	[[WMG: The Girl in White ''is'' trying to help each of the girls.]]
125	However, she can only help them by either leading them back to the path, or helping them find what they are really looking for inside the forest, namely the wolf. After either taking them back to the path, or showing them where the wolf is, she quietly steps back and lets the girl decide for themselves what they'll do next, as she has no power to stop them. It is up to them to choose their path.
126
127	[[WMG: Grandmother is a retired JustForFun/TimeLord, and her house is her TARDIS]]
128	That would explain the house, right? Smaller on the outside, bigger on the inside . . .
129
130
131	[[WMG: Grandmother is a [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost True Fae]].]]
132	Continuing the above theory, the forest around her house is part of the Hedge. As fits with what we know about the Gentry, Grandmother is herself, the house (which would feel right at home in the splatbooks), and possibly the wolves as well. That she can create a straight path through the Hedge for others says a lot about her power, though typically, just following it doesn't really end well. Possibly the entire game is a SecretTestOfCharacter for some purpose. Now, this leaves the question of the girls' mother, who might be either a changeling herself and a loyalist, or possibly Grandmother's actual daughter--not supposed to be possible, but White Wolf leave a lot open to individual Storyteller decisions. As for the Girl in White--a changeling? A hobgoblin? Perhaps Grandmother's Nemesis (from ''Equinox Road'')?
133
134	[[WMG: The Girl in White died alongside Ginger, and Grandmother's house is the afterlife.]]
135	Ginger's wolf bears a strong resemblance to the Girl in White. It's possible that Ginger and the Girl in Red were friends who died after they went to visit Ginger's grandmother together, becoming lost after wandering off the path to play and subsequently falling prey to the dangers of the wilderness.
136
137	With this in mind, the whole game takes place in the afterlife, and the wolf encounters we see are stylized but overall accurate accounts of what happened to each girl:
138	* Robin attacked by a wild animal
139	* Rose drowning in a lake
140	* Ginger getting lost in the woods
141	* Ruby falling in with the wrong crowd and either being murdered or overdosing
142	* Carmen being murdered after seducing the wrong man
143	* Scarlet getting seduced and then being killed by a trusted teacher/lover/performer
144
145	By staying on the path, each girl can get to the afterlife unaware of their fate and find themselves in a safe home. By straying, they run the risk of remembering what happened, and then get to instead perceive the afterlife as a nightmarish hell. The Girl in White is a ghost who, feeling guilty over what happened and hoping to prevent Ginger and her sisters from reliving their traumas, guides them back to the path. Once all six girls have been lost to their wolves, the Girl in White decides to destroy their hells by "killing" the Grandmother, which yanks all the girls back to the start of the path so they can try again to get to the afterlife unscathed. The Grandmother in this scenario is a sort of guardian spirit for the girls' afterlife, and thus can't be permanently destroyed, so her house regenerates along with her.
146
147	[[WMG: Scarlet was secretly glad of her sisters' deaths.]]
148	This assumes that Scarlet is the last to die. She'd had to give up her musical ambitions in order to take care of her sisters. So when they died one by one, she felt relief and perhaps even joy. With them out of the way, she was free to pursue her dreams.
149
150	She then quickly gained a charming admirer (possibly her teacher) of both her music and herself. This admirer, however, became obsessive and didn't like Scarlet performing for anyone but himself, and so he took her to an abandoned concert hall as a "romantic gesture," and this was where she realized his obsession and rejected him, causing him to fly into a rage and kill her.
151
152	[[WMG: Rose is slowly becoming - or already ''is'' - TheOphelia.]]
153	Just think about it. Rose is the "innocent" Red, the kindest and gentlest of them. She's the most feminine-looking of the sisters. Her mind's always [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} in the clouds]]. And she's close to nature.
154
155	Not to mention that she meets her wolf ''in a body of water''. And presumably drowns after her Wolf encounter.
156
157	[[WMG: Scarlet had an affair with her music teacher.]]
158	Scarlet seems deeply lonely and overburdened by her responsibilities at home. In her isolation, she turned began to have passionate feelings for her music teacher, caused partly by her passion for art and music (which is why she describes lust with the metaphor of music: "long slim fingers gently caressing the keys of me".) They had an affair which quickly turned toxic, with the the teacher stifling her creativity, pulling her away from her other responsibilities. The wolf appearance is ambiguous gender wise (it has a womanly face but androgynous body, it could be a woman or feminine man) , and the name "fey wolf" could suggest that the gender of the teacher was irrelevant, it was the connection to art and fantasy that attracted her to the wolf.
159
160	[[WMG: Ginger's wolf isn't just representative of her entering puberty, it's of her realizing she is gay.]]
161	As noted above Ginger's wolf and grandmother's house seem to represent her coming to terms with growing up, but could also represent her realization about her sexuality. Not only is she very tomboyish, but her playful interactions with the wolf have elements of playful flirtation. She might have started developing feelings for a female friend about her age. At 13, she's at the age many people start realizing they have feelings for others. She feels quite scared about her new desires, as many young teenagers do, but more so as not is she scared of growing up.
162
163	[[WMG: Scarlet's Wolf represented carelessness]]
164	I have to admit this theory isn't mine - I just saw it on the internet and thought it so brilliant I just had to share it here. Judging by her description on the website, her monologues and the way she interacts with her sisters on livejournal, it is very obvious that Scarlet's life is defined by duty. Being the oldest of many sisters who may not have always had a mother to take care of them, Scarlet always had to be the responsible one, and while she never faltered in her duties, it is clear that at least on some level she isn't fully satisfied with her role. Hers is a life of one menial chore after another, watching her sisters playing and having fun while she stays behind to do the laundry and clean the house - but what she really wanted was to create art. To make music. In the game, too, Scarlet has an obligation: she was told to head over to grandma's to bring her food (and perhaps, by extension, help her around some). Now, we know that the Wolves all represent temptations, but in Scarlet's case, that temptation might not have been a man or an exciting experience of some sort: it was the temptation of letting go. Of sitting down, just for a little, little while, for a quiet few hours of well deserved time for herself, doing the things ''she'' likes. So she plays music on the piano and has a great time for the first time in so long, not realizing that time has passed... and by the time she makes it to grandma's, the house looks like somebody's died in it. It's been picked clean and the furniture are covered like the place is about to be sold. ''Scarlet ignored her duties, preferring, instead, to selfishly enjoy herself - and it cost her dearly''. Grandma ''needed'' Scarlet to take care of her. Maybe she needed a medicine she couldn't reach for herself. Maybe she had a stroke or a heart attack and no one was around to provide assistance. Each of the girls learns a lesson about growing up from her Wolf: Scarlet's lesson is that being grown up means that you have to accept your duties, and that the consequences of ignoring them can be grim indeed.
165
166	[[WMG: The game is told from the Grandmother’s perspective as she lies on her deathbed and looks back on the memories of her youth.]]
167	There are several details to take into account here. For starters, there is evidence to suggest that the girls are the same person at different stages of their youth. For example, the youngest sister, Robin, is able to encounter the abandoned theatre, and when approaching the piano, remarks that she would like to play for an audience. The eldest sister, Scarlet, is a music aficionado and expresses regret at not being able to pursue her dreams of playing the piano. Ginger and Ruby, the third youngest and third eldest, respectively, both graffiti the same building, one with a smiley face, the other with a frowny face, and the two faces side by side are used to represent the theatre when playing as the girl in the white dress. Ruby and Rose both allude to the topic of animal conservation, with Rose remarking that she always dresses as an endangered species for halloween, and Ruby remarking that the dead bird is another oil victim. The path itself is the path of the grandmother’s life, and the girl in white represents a physical manifestation of her conscience, always leading her back to the safe path and away from danger. Staying on the safe path without exploring the woods leads to an uneventful life; safe, but boring. Exploring the woods and collecting the items leads to having memories to look back on from that point in her life, and whether the wolf is encountered determines whether those memories are viewed in a positive or negative light. And the memories themselves tell us yet more about what she experienced during that part of her life. We can also gather a few details, which will be explored in the following paragraph, that suggest the grandmother grew up in the midwestern United States, likely in or near a city like Chicago or Detroit, and that she was likely brought up on some form of the Christian faith. Starting from the youngest stage of her life and aging up, we have the grandmother as a 9-year-old, represented by Robin. At this stage, she’s an energetic and upbeat young child who just wants to play and have fun. She was likely warned to be wary of wolves, but upon seeing a picture of a wolf, assumed that it was just a big dog and that it would behave like one. While visiting a cemetery and paying her respects to a deceased relative (the prayer that she recites and the cross-shape of the headstone both support the notion that she and her family were practicing Christians), she encountered a real wolf and, believing in her naivete that it was just a big dog, she attempted to ride on its back. The wolf, resenting this unwelcome violation of its person, immediately retaliated and injured her in the process. Robin’s prone position is likely the position in which she was on the ground when passersby finally got the wolf away from her. Her memory rooms include the crib in which she slept as a baby or toddler, as well as one of her early birthday parties, from as young as three. The grandmother’s bed tilting into an open grave after encountering the wolf likely is her memory of landing on the ground next to one such open grave as the wolf was on top of her in the cemetery. This brush with death lead to her having a much healthier respect for wild animals, which brings us to the grandmother at age 11, represented by Rose. During this phase she is no longer the upbeat and energetic child and has become more reserved, now caring for a pet rabbit, as she is less intimidated by a comparatively harmless herbivore than she would be with a dog. Though no longer the type to leap before looking like Robin was, she still nonetheless has an innocent curiosity and now wishes to know the sensation of flight. In particular, she found herself enjoying spending time at a lake nearby her home, where heavy fog would typically gather; the combination of fog and wind giving her the sensation that she was flying through the clouds, and this in turn manifests in the form of her wolf. During a storm one evening, she rowed out into the middle of the lake, wanting to experience the wind and simulate the sensation of flight, but did not realize how bad the storm was, as a tornado touched down on the lake and caused the boat she was riding to capsize, almost drowning her in the process. That a tornado was involved is supported by the grandmother’s bedroom furniture spinning through the air and shrouded in mist, and further supports the notion that she lived in the midwestern United States, where such storms are common at certain times of the year. The prone position in which Rose awakens outside the Grandmother’s house is likely how she was found after she made her way back to the shore of the lake. Another two years pass and we see the grandmother at age 13, represented by Ginger. At this point, she has shed her innocence and is going through a tomboy phase, getting in touch with her wild side and having fun committing minor mischief, possibly as a means of coping with her previous traumas. She also seems to enjoy coming up with play stories as much as she did when she was 9, as evidenced by the army men under her bed in one of the memory rooms. While playing, she makes the acquaintance of another young girl, though what we see in the game is not what said girl actually looked like. Ginger’s wolf is two fold; it is a combination of a friend that proved to not have her best interests in mind, and also serves as a foil to the girl in white. If the girl in white is tantamount to the angel on the grandmother’s shoulder, then the girl in red is likewise the devil on the other shoulder, which again fits the grandmother’s Christian upbringing. While playing in the woods, she trespassed on property that wasn’t safe, choosing to go against her better judgement, and possibly egged on by another child. In the process, she climbed a fence topped with barbed wire, but lost her footing and cut herself on the wire, as supported by the barbed wire in the grandmother’s bedroom, before falling to the ground and landing in the position in which we see her outside the grandmother’s house. The flashes of the other girl’s face may be her former friend laughing at her misfortune. Next we cut to the grandmother at 15, thoroughly disillusioned with childhood fantasy and going through a goth phase, with an affinity for poetry, as represented by Ruby. The memories unlocked by Ruby represent her experiences in High School, represented by the row of lockers and the gymnasium with the logo of the Wolves sports team. The leg brace is likely a holdover from her previous injury at age 13, as the wire may have cut deep enough to sever some muscles and tendons, and she is likely regularly engaging in physical therapy as her leg hasn’t fully recovered from the injuries sustained therefrom. She returns to the building she had previously graffiti’d with a smiley face and now adds a frowny face beside it, showing the juxtaposition of her current outlook on like versus that which she used to have. While visiting a playground that she used to frequent as a child, she makes the acquaintance of an older boy, likely either an upper classman or otherwise a former student of the same school. He offers her a cigarette, which she accepts and begins to smoke, as she is of the impression that doing so will make her seem more mature. He invites her to go for a ride in his car, though it is unclear which of them is behind the wheel, and they go for a joyride. However, the car loses control before spinning out and crashing. The grandmother’s bedroom, spinning on a turntable with a wall going through the bed, likely represents the sensation of the car spinning out before the crash, and the tire marks in the gymnasium further suggest that this happened, as does the birdcage crashing to the floor instead of lowering as it normally would. The impact ejected her from the car, and the position in which Ruby is lying outside of the grandmother’s house is how she landed. The next phase of her life is when she comes out of her shell and becomes flirtatious at age 17, represented by Carmen. Despite the trauma of the accident, she finds that she liked the attention that the older boy gave her, and so she begins seeking similar attention from young men, as it gives her a sense of power and control that she hasn’t felt before. She makes the acquaintance of a middle-aged woodsman and, noticing that he has beer with him, flirts with him to get him to share. However, he takes advantage of her inebriated state and sexually assaults her. The painted X visible everywhere in the grandmother’s house is likely what she saw on the trees all around her while being assaulted, with the saw blades hinting at the pain and trauma of the experience. The tree growing from the grandmother’s bed is fairly self-explanatory in its symbolism. The prone position in which she lies outside the grandmother’s house is likely how he left her after he was finished. This in turn leads to the final phase of her youth at age 19, represented by Scarlet, who expresses an open dislike of men in general, likely a result of her previous assault. At this age, she has developed a marked enjoyment of music, and finds herself at an age where she has to choose between her desires and her responsibilities. One of her memory rooms is the interior of a music store, with various instruments on display. Her wolf is likely a combination of her inspiration, Wolfgaang Amadeus Mozart, and her piano instructor. The imagery in the grandmother’s bedroom suggests that the instructor had unreasonably high standards, and the claws on his hands may indicate that he was verbally or perhaps even physically abusive toward her, striking her to the ground when she made one too many mistakes, leading to the position in which she lies outside the grandmother’s house. And so, the grandmother looks back on her youth, comforted in death only by the memories of the life that she used to have. This just leaves the playthrough with the girl in white. As previously mentioned, during each of the other six girls’ playthroughs, the girl in white represents the grandmother’s conscience, however in the final playthrough as the girl herself, she is in fact the real granddaughter, as pointed out by another troper. The version of the woods and the path that she traverses is the actual path through the woods that her grandmother would frequent in her youth and is real instead of just being a manifestation of memory. This is supported by the fact that in all six of the other girls’ playthroughs, leaving the path results in the girl being lost in the woods, unable to return without guidance from the girl in white, and with the locations therein appearing in different combinations and areas depending on which girl is being played, whereas the path can always be found while playing as the girl in white, in a fixed location, with all of the other locations that were meaningful to the grandmother present around it. Upon entering the grandmother’s home, we see all six of the grandmother’s traumatic experiences before finally arriving at her bedside. The granddaughter is listening to the grandmother recounting her life experiences, previously having been told the positive versions of each story, now learns of the true events of those days as the grandmother lays dying, and the blood on her dress at the end is her disillusionment and the loss of her innocent naivete as the grandmother’s stories follow her home, just as happened to the grandmother before her. And that the whole thing can be done again after the girls have been brought home simply indicates that the cycle repeats with each passing generation.
168
169	[[WMG: Each sister's Wolf encounter is a cautionary tale from Grandma.]]
170	Grandma is telling each sister a story with a lesson regarding things they will encounter in life.
171
172	* Robin is very lucky in that she hasn't had to deal with anything too dangerous, but because of that, she possesses a naïve type of bravery that comes with being young. Grandma teaches her that there are some things in life she needs to be cautious about, as otherwise there could be a very permanent consequence (namely, death).
173	* Rose may be dealing with something long-term and difficult (such as neurodivergence, chronic illness, etc.), and to cope, she invests all of her energy into her hobbies and creating fantasy stories. Grandma teaches her that while having ways to cope with her condition are good, it is still important to be able to separate fantasy and reality, as it may get to a point where she can't tell which is which.
174	* Ginger is a tomboy who, at thirteen, is feeling pressure from others to start conforming to more traditionally feminine interests. Grandma teaches her that even if it feels like everyone else is judging you, it's still possible to get through life being true to yourself. Furthermore, if you refuse to develop wisdom that comes with age, it's more likely that people you think are your friends can take advantage of you.
175	* Ruby fell in with a bad crowd because she was desperate to find others who saw the world the same way she did, with some disastrous consequences. Grandma teaches her that while she made a mistake, there will be people who will always love her even if she thinks she's now "damaged goods."
176	* Carmen is becoming convinced that her self-worth is directly connected to her outer appearance, and the attention she gets because of it. Grandma teaches her that even if this attention may seem a little flattering now, such people rarely have your best interests at heart, and could push you to do something you're not comfortable with.
177	* Scarlet was forced to grow up too quickly, and she copes by trying to see the world in a way she believes a mature adult is supposed to see it. Grandma teaches her that while she can't change the fact that she's had to take care of all her sisters, paying attention to her real wants and needs is important too. Also, nothing in life can ever be completely perfect, despite your best efforts, but it can help make life more interesting.
178
179	Are some of these lessons harsh? Yes. Are they necessary to help find your way in the world? Also yes. After each sister encounters their particular hardship, the Girl in White retrieves each one of them and brings them back to Grandma's normal, familiar room. When the sisters are shown returning to their apartment, the Girl in White has noticeable bloodstains on her hands and dress...but they're all alive. The sisters all had to face an inevitable truth about how the world works, but they also learned that they don't have to be completely destroyed by it.
180
181	'''The following pertain to ''Series/ThePath'', the TV series:'''
182	[[WMG: Hawk is Cal's son, not Eddie's, by Sarah.]]
183	Many fan reviewers have speculated this. His mid-Season 2 haircut and outfits, plus the fact he becomes interim leader of the city center, play this up.
184
185	[[WMG: Sarah is Kodiak's daughter, not Hank's, by Gaby.]]
186	Again, this turns up in some fan reviews. They did have an affair, so it's possible.
187
188	[[WMG: The community is going to be burned to the ground.]]
189	Kodiak seems to predict this, and there's a visual of a burning house in the opening credits. If so, there go all the tapes. It'll be restored in some way since there's a prediction that Eddie will do that.
190	* [[spoiler: Damn. I called it. In fact, it was done in ''order'' to destroy the tapes. By someone whose last words included the prediction about Eddie. Although the community itself seems to have been left standing.]]
191
192	[[WMG: Hawk is going to die, perhaps during a devotional exercise, as Jason Kemp did.]]
193	Fans who speculate this point to the scene in "The Miracle" where Hawk is seen walking away in a slow, blurry fade, and later taking his Meyerist vows. At the same time, his father Eddie has a vision of a dead hawk, then in Peru finds an actual dead hawk -- Silas' pet, which apparently [[spoiler: died when he did]].
194	* That same slow blurry fade is used again as Hawk, having taken on so many of Cal's mannerisms, voice, and even his appearance, walks away from Eddie after counseling him to accept that Cal and Sarah are together now.
195
196	[[WMG: Sarah's auto assailant was Russell.]]
197	Sucking up to Cal, Mr. "I wanna help maintain law and order any way I can". Up to and including trying to murder his own sister.
198	* Jossed. It wasn't. [[spoiler:It was one of the blackmail victims. Apparently this was meant to be a subplot that got out of control so it was brought to a conclusion in episode 1 of season 3.]]
199
200	[[WMG: It will end with a flood.]]
201	In the animated intro there are images of a tornado, a house on fire, and the house being washed away by a wave. Season 1 opens with the aftermath of a tornado, Season 2 ends with [[spoiler:Richard burning himself and the records room]]. Water (particularly poisoned water)is an oft used motif on the show. Perhaps foreshadowing a water based ending.
202
203	[[WMG: Cal will be forced to resign by his own students.]]
204	Similar to [[http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com/ Enlightennext]], even students who are ''not'' on Team Eddie may confront Cal and demand he step down. He may end up disappearing as [=EnlightenNext=]'s [[http://americanguru.net/ Andrew Cohen]] did, especially if [[spoiler: his killing of Silas]] is revealed.
205
206	[[WMG: [[spoiler: Hank's death]] was dirty pool.]]
207	He believes in Eddie's leadership, Eddie had just asked him to watch over the new Meyer facility in France. Does Lilith have paranormal abilities? [[spoiler: Did she cause Hank's death?]]
208
209	[[WMG: Eddie's messianic statement [[spoiler: at Hank's funeral]] was actually Steve speaking through him.]]
210	That didn't sound like Eddie at all, and there is just a faint touch of echo on his voice at that point.
211
212	[[WMG: Lillith's followers are going to...]]
213	[[spoiler: Poison the juice cleanses. The first thing Vera did upon getting the job with the Meyerists was to sell juice 'cleanses'. (Lillith calls the apocalypse the "Cleanse".) Her objective is to make Meyerism as popular and far reaching as possible (sell as much juice as possible) then, when everyone is drinking the juice, poison it and make they Meyerists look responsible. Getting her revenge and destroying the movement forever. Sarah even makes a joke about the juice having cyanide in it. Foreshadowing much?]]
214
215	[[WMG: Eddie is severely mentally Ill, as well as genuinely psychic.]]
216	In Season 2 we see Eddies parents fighting in flashback. His mother screams that his rathe rid trying to kill her, but if you watch the scene he is clearly defending himself from her. I suggest Eddies mother suffered from psychosis. Eddie tells the doctor there was no history of mental illness in his family but we know thats not true because his brother Johnny, we know, had depression and killed himself. Eddies flashes of psychic empathy with Cal and Sarah are real, but his hallucinations bought on by drugs have more than a little psychosis in them. incidentally Ayahuasca can be a trigger for Schizophrenia in susceptible individuals.
217

Context WMG / ThePath