As a Headscratchers subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- Why is Promise of Reunion considered the best ending? By remembering each other, they'd have to remember all of the horrific things that they experienced in the Gallery together. It would undoubtedly have some kind of negative impact on their mental health, especially for someone as young as Ib. Since they get out safely but never remember the Gallery in the ending Memory's Crannies, it would probably be the ending to lead to them to truly living happily ever after.
- Because that's the point of Fire-Forged Friends. It's the best ending because Garry and Ib are kind of weirdo loners who, without going into the Gallery and having to rely on each other, would probably have never met and had a reason to become friends in the first place. They might have fewer scary memories, but they would be as lonely as they ever were.
- Plus, from a meta-standpoint, the concept of going through so much and then just having it completely wiped from your memory is pretty creepy, and probably turns a lot of people away from the Memory's Crannies ending.
- The ending also focuses more on the fact that they're happy they escaped and still managed to be friends at the end of it, too, so the idea that they're going to spend the rest of their lives traumatized by the gallery is an unlikely one.
- Mary's portrait looks very different from other Guertena's works, which tend to be abstract and minimalistic (I'm not an art expert, I'm not really sure which art movement Guertena's works resemble the most). The point is that Mary's portrait looks much more traditional, detailed and realistic than most of Guertena's paintings. Why is that?
- Artists tend to experiment in many, many different styles. Mary might have been Guertena's attempt at doing something traditional.
- The Ladies and Juggling are also painted in a more traditional style (despite Juggling being a moving painting), so Mary isn't the only painting like this in the museum.
- There's also the idea that Mary's desire to become a real girl stems from Guertena attempting to make her more realistic than anything else in the gallery. He almost succeeded but she comes off as creepy due to her appearance sporting bright, unnatural colors.
- But wait. If Mary and the Ladies are painted in a similar style, yet the Ladies have a more natural-looking color scheme (save for maybe the eyes, but Ib has eyes that color as well, so they're at least plausible eye colors), then why wouldn't they be trying to get out of the gallery instead of Mary?
- Because Guertena paid particular attention to detail on Mary. Mary's painting is that of a complete human being, while the Ladies are depicted waist down and are always crawling like they only have that when coming to life. Also, the Ladies are not something that Guertena would have wanted as much as Mary because they represent women who married him for his money.
That being said however, in "A Painting's Demise", Mary refers to the Lady in Red as her older sister, which probably implies that they are Guertena's prototypes or experimentations in that style before Mary was created.
- Artists tend to experiment in many, many different styles. Mary might have been Guertena's attempt at doing something traditional.
- Concerning the same character, in "A Portrait's Demise" ending, if you go to the room with the books in the Violet Area and try to read the entry about Mary's portrait, the words just blur together incomprehensibly. This was appropriately creepy, but I'm just not sure what to make of this. Mary does know that she's a portrait, doesn't she?
- Maybe it means she was crying while she read her own portrait description and so couldn't see the words.
- (OP here) vgperson, the game's translator, has noticed this, too, and made up a semi-theory
about this (spoiler alert, naturally).
- In "Together Forever" why does Marry throw out the lighter if Ib happens to have it on her? She should've had nothing to fear considering she is a real girl now. Or is she?
- Alternatively if Marry even in "Together Forever" remains somehow tied to her frame/canvas in the otherworld, shouldn't she be worried about its integrity? What if next time somebody stumbled into the otherworld and burnt the canvas just for the kicks of it? Would Marry just burn into ashes in broad daylight in plain view of bystanding people? What's worse is that not only she can't do a thing about it, since she's unable to return. She'd have no idea. One moment she could be having the crowning moment of her lifetime and the other she'd be meeting a painful fiery demise without the slightest hint of a reason.
- If the Fabricated World was created by Guertena imparting his spirit into his artwork, does that mean all passionate people who work in some creative medium have their own version of this world? Are they all as horrifying as Guertena's? Is the kind of thing that happened to Ib and Garry, happening to people all the time without anybody knowing?
- Not necessarily. We don't know if Guertena might have had this ability for a reason other than just his passion, like a Deal with the Devil or naturally-born powers. It's also possible that while all artists create "their own worlds" like Guertena, they might not all be as malicious as his works. Guertena himself was a troubled person, judging by his paintings.
- Why were Ib and Garry the only ones transported to the Cursed Gallery? The only thing (that I can think of) hinting toward an answer is the quote by the "Embodiment of Spirit" sculpture: "It can only bloom in wholesome bodies." Does this mean that only Ib and Garry had what the gallery considered "wholesome bodies"?
- Perhaps they were the only ones to examine the large painting, then wander around until other creepy things started happening, and follow the instruction given by the blue ink.
- Why does the game make you use up that one vase after you meet Mary, just so you can have a conversation? Why couldn't the mere sight of the vase trigger Garry to ask Mary about her rose? It'd be nice to have it to fall back on, even if I don't end up needing it.
- Well, Mary did crash into Ib when they met not a few minutes before- for all Garry knows, that might have made them both lose some petals, and while he may know how many Ib has, he wouldn't know how many Mary has at all. So, just to be on the safe side, he makes sure they all have full health.
- I don't know much about fountain pens, but why would there be a rule in the gallery explicitly forbidding them?
- Fountain pens have an internal reservoir of indelible water-based ink. The design of the pen and the low viscosity of the ink mean that they can easily spill or leak, which could spell disaster for any work of art. (By contrast, ball-point pens usually have high-viscosity oil-based ink, which dries quickly and doesn't blot, making it less likely to leak badly enough to transfer to a work of art.)
- Mary would come to wield a palette knife as a weapon by the late game, using it in an attempt to murder Ib before she can burn her painting by the climax. However, a palette knife is a blunt knife, typically with a flexible steel blade, used to mix and/or apply paint. How is Mary able to stab and inflict damage on her surroundings using a blunt knife? Chances are it might be an old palette knife (palette knives usually become sharpened with prolonged use with abrasive pigments), but if I recall correctly, it's just a "palette knife" with no indication of age.
- META: What exactly is it that Kouri didn't like about the Green version and its "sacrifice" ending, that they insisted on taking it down? They've shown that they're not above Ib being offed in gruesome fashion in other endings, so where is the problem?
- The fan game was taken down because it was made without permission, and Kouri specifically requested it not be distributed. As for why Kouri didn't like the "Sacrifice" ending specifically, unless he addresses this question directly, we can only speculate - presumably, it has to do with fans getting confused as to which version is official.
