As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
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Fridge Brilliance
- When you look at the game from a proper perspective, and remove various extra details, the game basically translates into a modernized, version of Pac-Man. Pac-Man was a game where when certain conditions were met, an inhuman creature chased down ghosts in a maze, and sent them back to their home/box to regenerate, and respawn. What happens in Identity V? An inhuman hunter chases down, and sends ghosts back to the mansion, where they start the whole thing over again.
- If one believes in the theory that the Survivors at the manor are being punished for their sins, it may seem strange that someone as kind and innocent as The Mind's Eye is there. That is until one finds out that her friend Sullivan told her to also pretend to be deaf, making her guilty of fraud.
- Alternatively, Deliberate Values Dissonance could be in play and her so called sin is being blind.
- The Lawyer has a skin called Lancelot. Why would such an unsympathetic character have a skin of such a legendary and noble knight? If you look at Hell Ember's alternate skin King Arthur, it then makes perfect sense. Lancelot, Arthur's friend, seduced and afterwards ran off with Arthur's wife Guinevere, causing the fall of King Arthur's kingdom and his death. Freddy Riley did the exact same thing to Leo Beck, so it makes perfect sense that they would have such alternate skins.
- If you notice, most of the survivors are orphans, immigrants, criminals/fugitives or simply The Friend Nobody Likes, the few famous survivors or with alive family members outside the manor are implied not to have been originally intended to be in a game. It makes sense considering the true nature of the game; an experiment like this would mostly need people that nobody cares about looking for.
- Melly and Norton's gameplay somewhat reflects their role in the lore. Both are Contain types of Survivors, but Melly is focused on running away while Norton is focused on "harassing" the hunter. Melly appears to manage to escape from Orpheus/Nightmare’s attack, while Norton seemingly dies trying to fight him.
Fridge Horror
- A common theory in the fandom is that the survivors are brought into the games in order to be punished for their past sins. If you look at the pasts of several Survivors, however, the manor owner's idea of "justice" is clearly pretty twisted.
- Murro and Emma are clearly victims of other people's sins, and apparently didn't appear to commit any crimes of their own before arriving at the manor (unless you assume Murro played a role in the Moon River Tragedy).
- Demi, José and Kevin are seemingly being punished for other people's crimes/mistakes. While there is some ambiguity in regards to Jose and Demi's actions, there is little to none for Kevin. If the games are indeed intended to punish the survivors for their past sins, then Kevin is being punished for something that was completely out of his control.
- William was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He's probably either being punished for being afraid to hand someone over for murder, or was invited to the manor, and put in danger like a lamb to the slaughter, simply because he had history with Servais.
- If Servais is telling the truth, he fits in too. His crime apparently is to have been indirectly responsible for the death of his master, when he was being distracted by a child who had snuck backstage.
- Tracy is at best being punished for an Accidental Murder. At worst, she is literally completely innocent of her father's death despite being punished for it.
- On the other hand, there is a chance that she caused a series of other explosions in order to either test the validity of the police's testimony about her father's death, or to get revenge on the people responsible for his death and/or people she believed betrayed him. If this is true, then Tracy is responsible for a large amount of property damage at best, and the loss of numerous lives at worst.
- As mentioned above, Helena's crime can literally be just her being blind at all or her reluctantly obeying the orders of someone she should have been able to trust.
- Anne, who so far has done nothing wrong besides trusting the scammers - her father and fiancee mind you - who stole her fortune.
- Emil probably got into a game going after Ada.
- Polun's Worn Clothes appear to be covered in a strange liquid. At first glance one might assume it's mud, given that the brothers literally roll around on the floor. But then you may remember the effects of being crushed and pierced by a Breaking Wheel. It's quite likely that Polun is covered in the blood of their latest victim - something that is strongly supported by their first Character Day letter.
- Judging by what can be seen in Emma's Diary, along with an optional moment in Servais's Diary and possibly Kurt's 2021 Character Day letter, the hallucinogenic drugs ingested by the Survivors may have a more adverse effect on people with already fragile mental states than they do on other Survivors. If this is the case, what does this imply for Norton, Luca, Edgar, Ganji and Emil?
- In a cutscene in the Time of Reunion expansion, a few Survivors are implied to have survived their first game. Emma is not one of them. So... did her father kill her?
- Or, judging by a Freeze-Frame Bonus in the story mode, and the presence of an operating table in a secret room in the Time of Reunion expansion, does a Fate Worse than Death await any Survivors who are captured by the Hunter?
- The fact that Leo's deductions imply not only that he is to some extent aware, but also that he enjoys being a hunter only makes the idea more disturbing.
- Though a lot of the Hunters' supernatural abilities can now potentially be attributed to the hallucinations experienced by the Survivors, this doesn't account for the existence of undeniably supernatural Hunters, such as Hastur, Yidhra, and Luchino (and the confirmation of their existence in deductions and Character Day letters). What's going on in the manor may in fact be even more horrifying than Orpheus believes.
- Close observation of the diary that Orpheus inspects in the room where the Little Girl and the woman said to be her mother are said to be staying in Act 2 of the Time of Reunion event reveals that the Little Girl participated in a game with Melly Plinius/The Entomologist, along with Orpheus/The Novelist. A brief moment during the cutscene at the end of the act implies that the Little Girl may have also been part of games where Burke, Bonbon, Leo, Joker, Mary, and Hastur (along with others) were Hunters. Just how many games have this child been a part of and just how badly has the trauma she's likely endured, along with the hallucinogenic and memory-erasing drugs she has likely unknowingly been repeatedly consuming affected her mental state?
- With that being said, what was seen in the cutscene may not have been an accurate depiction of the Little Girl's experiences in the manor. Furthermore, she might not even be a little girl...
- Following the release of the Time of Reunion expansion, many have come to the conclusion that Orpheus was the mastermind behind the games. However, certain information given in Character Day letters, when contrasted with what can be learned from the Oletus Manor Investigation Report, imply that things are in fact a lot more complicated - and far more sinister - than we have been led to assume.
- Jack's first letter is written by James Whistler and addressed to Baron DeRoss. In the letter, Whistler claims that his student, who he has assigned to bring over his paintings which he will show the baron, will be tied up in unspecified personal matters for three months. Many fans came to the conclusion that the said three months that Whistler was referring to was an allusion to the nine week period, lasting from August 31 to November 9, in which the Ripper killed the "original five" (Jack the Ripper's first victims, whose murders are covered in one of Jack's deductions), as well as the period of time in which Walter Sickert, the man the game's version of the Ripper is theorised to be based on, was officially reported to have been visiting his mother and brothers in France. If this is the case, this would mean that the letter was written in 1888. However, information from the Oletus Manor Investigation Report would dictate that this letter would have taken place one year after the manor incident, in which Orpheus's parents were killed and a young Orpheus was taken away to an orphanage, and one year before the manor got a new owner. Assuming that this was intentional on the devs part, just who was James Whistler writing to?
- Leo's 2021 letter reveals that the Minerva Arms Factory was burned down in the same year that the manor incident took place. Said letter also reveals that Leo spent the following ten years being experimented on by an unspecified individual, who is heavily unlikely to have been Orpheus (though it is still unclear if these experiments are responsible for transforming Leo into a Hunter).
- Robbie's 2020 letter gives the implication that the medicine that the orphan children were fed, while confined in the White Sand Street Asylum, had very similar effects to the hallucinogenic drugs that are unwittingly fed to the Survivors during their time in the manor. Emma's deductions, likewise, imply that the events leading up to Robbie's death, which are revealed to have taken place only a few months after Kreacher's orphanage was absorbed by the Catholic Church, could have only taken place from the late 1880s to early 1890s at the latest, a period of time in which Orpheus would have presumably been far too young to have claimed the title of Baron DeRoss and become renowned as an apparent psychiatric specialist. note
- If we assume that Novelist Orpheus' age (24) is indicative of his age when the events of the Time of Reunion flashbacks took place, than the game he participated in alongside Norton, Melly and the Little Girl presumably took place in June 1899 (judging by the dates that can be glimpsed from the diary present in what is believed to be the Little Girl's room). However, when adding Emma's given age (22) to her given year of birth (1876), as well as her birthday (December 21), we can deduce that Emma's game presumably took place in July 1899 (judging by the dates in each entries of the four veterans' diaries), less than a month after the Orpheus/Norton/Melly/Little Girl game.
- With that being said, if we instead assume that Novelist Orpheus' age is indicative of his age when he "faked his death" after participating in an earlier game held in the manor, and the age present on his medical record from the Oletus Manor Investigation Report (30) was his actual age during the Time of Reunion, then the game he participated in alongside Norton, Melly and the Little Girl may have actually taken place in June 1905.
- The idea of Helena being the Sole Survivor of her game takes a dark turn when her third letter implies that she was manipulated into becoming a hunter.
- A number of people have theorised that the third digit in the character's serial numbers on their experiment files represent the order in which they arrived at the manor (as evidenced by Emily - who the diaries make clear was the last of the veteran survivors to arrive at the manor - being listed as 4-0-4). Now remember that by the time that Eli introduced himself to the other people in the manor, three people (Luchino, Demi and Eli himself) were all present in the manor, with Demi being noted to have arrived at the manor some time after Eli. You'd assume that either Demi or Luchino would be listed as 6-?-2, 6-?-3, or perhaps 6-?-4 if another guest in the manor was keeping their distance from the others like Fiona was implied to do during her time in the manor. Except, come Martha's Character Day, we now know that Fiona and Martha were respectively 6-1-3 and 6-1-4... meaning that one of the survivors who was present in the manor with Eli before their arrival may not be a test subject (or at least a test subject of the same nature) in the experiment. The fact that Luchino is known to have become a hunter, and was implied to have already been present in the manor by the time that Eli arrived would seem to imply that he's the odd one out. Does this potentially mean that he's 6-?-0? Or, given the implications presented in both Demi and Jose's second letters, is our dear barmaid not as trustworthy as we have long believed her to be?
- Given what we learn from Murro's experiment file about his fate in Step 9, it's possible that Luchino could have entered the game during Step 5 of the experiments, and was either the only one who survived or simply chose to stick around at the manor. Which, if correct, would make Demi 6-1-2, the experiment subject who was... killed in an unfortunate accident. Oh no.
- Luchino's Experiment File has since provided clarification; Luchino was listed as 6-1-4 in the initial iteration of Group 6, and was the only test subject in said group to not mysteriously disappear. It is presumed that he was then reassigned to a replacement Group 6, which Eli and Demi ended up being a part of. Given that what is detailed in Luchino's Experiment File matches up fairly well with what is detailed in Fiona's Experiment file - as well as her second letter - it can be concurred that Demi was not in fact the 6-1-2 who died in an unfortunate accident. She may have, however, been involved in some sort of tragedy involving her and Martha... Unless we are to assume that the researchers gave Luchino a new serial number.
- Demi's Experiment File confirms that she was 6-?-3, which would also seem to imply that Luchino was given the new serial number of 6-1-2 for the replacement Group 6.
- Certain wording in a few experiment files imply that observations and recorded data made during experiments at the manor may have inspired later experiments. Emily's experiment file takes note of the way that guilt present in test subjects can affect the results of the experiment. And lo and behold, who happens to be present in Step 5 of the experiment in an apparent attempt to further test this observation? Patricia's experiment file, meanwhile, draws attention to the fact that Patricia's actions during her game were the result of her attempting to gain assistance and/or protection from some form of higher power. The person responsible for writing the files concludes Patricia's files by indicating that they intend to further explore the possibility of communicating with supernatural forces. Now, remember, who are three survivors, present in Step 6 of the experiment, that are known to possess some form of connection to the supernatural...
- Given that it's revealed in Hastur's 2021 letter that the cult in Lakeside Village performed human sacrifice and are implied to have burned Uncle Eugene, Aunt Majorie and Volcker Bergland alive for being "blasphemous", it seems like Margaretha's life would have gone to hell even if she didn't run off to the circus and that Sergi was the lesser of the two evils.
