This is a world inspired by fairy tales, and the reality is not a pretty one. Even for Compile Heart standards, this has got to be definitive proof that they can do Darker and Edgier just as well as they can sunshine and rainbows in Neptunia. WARNING: Unmarked spoilers ahead!
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Mary Skelter: Nightmares
- Red Riding Hood is incredibly dedicated to Professor Tohjima, her adoptive father. So it's no surprise that when it was found out that he might not have been the person that found her, as she had believed her whole life, she immediately starts hyperventilating over it. And then, after The Reveal, the Professor (recently revealed to actually be Snark) tells her that he has no more use for her anymore. Poor Red Riding Hood is left a bundle of conflicted emotions for the rest of the game, and honestly, who can blame her!?
Mary Skelter 2
Dear God... Where do we even BEGIN with this game?!
- Any time you hear Tears of Heaven, expect tragedy either immediately or directly related of a seemingly heart warming moment it was playing in later on.
- Hameln's entire story is that of a girl who Desperately Craves Affection, but does not truly understand what it means to be friends with anyone given her life was lived in complete isolation until meeting Otsuu's group. She tries to present herself as a Stock Shōnen Hero and manages fairly well, until she comes to the realization that the more people around her the less everyone has to lean on her specifically and panics about what her purpose in life and with the group is. It's not until she's dying that she comes to understand what it truly means to be someone's friend.
- Hansel's death hits particularly hard this time. Unlike the the first game where the only person who could mourn his death is incapable of it, he makes friends with everyone in the Hameln Liberated District and dies saving them from the Mysterious Nightmare. He has time to talk with Jack and Gretel despite his injuries, giving some small bit of hope that he might survive, but ultimately disappears as all Nightmares do when they die.
- Red Riding Hood, compared to her cheerful self in the first game, is completely broken by Professor Tohjima's death, having never learned that he was Snark nor of his intent to sacrifice her. After finally killing the Mysterious Nightmare, her hatred for it being the only thing keeping her going, she essentially commits Suicide by Tower Nightmare right after.
- To quote the Love Hurts entry for Alice on the characters page, she goes into Blood Skelter like the first game, except this time she believes that she has killed Jack instead of simply harming him. She has such a massive Freak Out that the Jail turns her into an Omnicidal Maniac Nightmare due to the grief of having killed Jack. She leaves behind a mimic with her original memories, who is completely unaware of the fact that she's a clone until she is exposed as such by Otsuu. In response to there being two Alices to protect, Nightmare Jack splits in two, one part fusing with Nightmare Alice to become the Love Nightmare. And after the Love Nightmare (and thus Nightmare Jack and Nightmare Alice) are eliminated by the Blood Team, the mimic Alice is promptly killed by the upper Tower Nightmare; her last words being that it was worth it to protect him even though he was already close to dying, and wondering if this odd feeling of happiness is fake just like her.
Mary Skelter Finale
This being the Grand Finale of the Mary Skelter franchise, emotions are sure to run high.
- Riley and Ellie's flashback reveals that as young children, their father died and their mother abandoned them. They eventually found a loving family when Rachel's parents adopted them and they became the loving big sisters of Rachel. When they got separated from their parents, the sisters tried to reunite with them, only to find they had just been murdered by Guillotine, who attacks the three girls and wounds Ellie. Guillotine offers to let all 3 live if Riley gives up one of her sisters for her master to raise. Riley, despite pleading with Guillotine to spare her sister's lives, ultimately gives in and lets Guillotine take Rachel. Guillotine then goes back on her word and attempts to kill Riley and Ellie, with the two girls barely escaping with their lives as Rachel can only cry and beg to be reunited with her sisters. Because of this, Riley no longer sees herself as worthy of being anyone's big sister
- The Massacre Pink in general. That's not even getting into how they're raised by their master. By using drugs and subjecting them to experimentation, their master made these once innocent girls into cold-blooded killers. However, after failing to kill the Blood Team one too many times, their master Yuuto Gatou forcibly fuses them into the Devouring Armada Tower Nightmare devoid of rational thought. Jack and Otsuu start to feel bad for them at this point due to their past trauma as Nightmares themselves, and even when that fails, once Guillotine calls him "brother", he kills them without a second thought, which is enough to completely enrage Jack into saying he cannot be forgiven. Being Evil Sucks indeed.
- Toh spends much of the game being an abrasive asshole to Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Kaguya, Thumbelina, and Snow White, slowly getting better about treating them like people. Eventually all six of them learn that he's Snark, though Red had instinctively picked up on that which is why she gave him that name in the first place, and none of them hold it against him due to his lack of memory of that time and improving personality. When Snark finally fully resurfaces in his mind, he's still managed to retain his growth as a person from his time as Toh and sacrifices himself to save them, leaving them all grieving when they find his corpse.
