Even the mightiest of beasts stands no chance against the Cylinder.
For such a silly looking game, there's a lot of moments that pull on the heart strings.
As with all moments pages, Spoilers Off!
- The fate of the planet in general. It's rather heartbreaking discovering pristine new worlds as you travel across the different biomes, only to see them destroyed only moments later once the Cylinder starts rolling.
- The plight of the Trebhums. They are literally infants born in a post-apocalyptic wasteland being slowly destroyed by the Cylinder and with little more than a benevolent Hive Mind voice guiding them. It's hard to not feel bad for the poor little things.
- In the first savannah biome after the first set of towers, the players encounter a seemingly-injured Celestial Trewhaala laying atop a mountain. Upon seeing them, the mighty beast can only let out a pained roar before collapsing for good— and if the player sticks around long enough they can see the poor Trewhaala get crushed to death by the Cylinder.
- Trebhum elders have been living in shrines for many years. When spoken to, they express joy at having at least met some company before the Cylinder inevitably came, before sadly saying that they are too old and weak to keep up with the player, simply wishing them well and telling the young Trebhums to "remember them if they find hope on the other side". They then remain in the shrines and resign themselves to the Cylinder's mercy.
- Special mention goes to the cube-shaped Elder prior to the Desert biome who is clearly dying, yet urges on the Trebhums on their quest, saying that he shall rejoice in spirit when they finally succeed where he has failed.
- The voices of lamentation in the Mathematician's mind are memories from the civilizations the Cylinder has destroyed, crying out in despair and in dread that their memories, their achievements, their cultures and songs, would be forgotten.
- The disheartening sense of failure the Trebhum feel when their attempt to venture over the Cylinder proves to be All for Nothing, as while they survive, they find only inhospitable wasteland behind the Cylinder. It's clear that even with their youthful will, they're hurt.
- The third elder cave has a unique detail that makes its destruction all the more painful - the Trebhum remember what this cave did. These ruins were meant to study the crystals used by the Celestial Trewhaala, and used to be an extremely lively place, which only adds to how harrowing things have become that they are now abandoned save for the elder within.
- The music that plays inside is just as sobering
. It's a very sad, almost nostalgic-sounding music to hit home that this cave used to be bustling with life, but now only the elder remains.
- The music that plays inside is just as sobering
- The second time you venture through the Mathematician's mind, the Narrator reveals a major suprirse - he's a human, and is implied to be the mind controlling the Mathemacian. The reason all the servants of the Eternal Cylinder have human parts on them? The Cylinder already destroyed mankind and used their remains to make its servants.
- It's very clear that the narrator wants to help the Trebhum, but is too weak to do more than offer them advice while in the Trebhum's mind.
- We also learn that the Trebhum once used to communicate with many races by singing to the stars, but by the time humanity heard the song, the Cylinder was already upon them. As for the other races the Trebhum communed with? Aside from the Trewhaala, these races have all been destroyed by the Cylinder.
- The Narrator's conversation with the Trebhum is accompanied by several shadows of humans, some of whom are in poses of total despair. As the previous visit revealed, their memories are slowly being consumed by the Cylinder, and they are desperate to hold on to them.
- On the inactive Sky Palace just before the Desert, the Trebhum encounter a cube-bodied elder, now so old, tired, and heavy that his legs can no longer support him. While he's happy to have seen some other Trebhum before he passes, he admits to feeling sad that he won't be able to see the Palace fly, for the little Trebhum around him have no idea how to power it. His final request is that you at least speak to his brother in the Desert shrine and pass on the knowledge of his passing.
- Unlike most animals that get violently crushed in an instant, the Great Gaaahr's death by Cylinder is especially drawn-out and rather sad to watch, especially as it slowly and limply rolls over the Cylinder, its body clearly broken by its own sheer weight.
- In the Desert Area, one can find the corpse of a dead Great Gaaahr lying in a ditch, its eyes still wide open in terror and its dorsal sac ripped to shreds. It's unclear what exactly killed the Gaaahr, but it certainly appears to have been a painful end.
- The Desert Cave elder is just as depressing as his brother - he laments over how he cowardly chose to run while his brother stayed behind, and after giving the gathered young the knowledge of how to activate the Sky Palace, admits that he is aware that he will die when the Cylinder arrives, but is fine with this as he wants to see his brother again.
- Just as the Trebhum finally manage to get the Sky Palace activated, the Mathematician emerges from the lake the palace was resting in and grabs on. Although the Trebhum manage to use one of the lenses they acquired to kill the Mathematician, the Palace is now floating just out of reach. The Trebhum are very conflicted on their victory, as while they beat the Mathematician, they lost their only way to escape doing so.
- The third journey into the Mathematician's mind has the Narrator outright begging the Trebhum to keep fighting, not wanting all the sacrifices made to fight the Cylinder end up being All for Nothing.
- Within the final Trebhum Shrine, a dead Onkifurt can be found, with its body torn open and its innards all in full view. For such a typically-annoying beast, seeing it crushed under the rubble is still rather sobering and a stark reminder that all life on the planet is doomed.
- The sight of a dead Celestial Trewhaala in the ??? biome is a big one, as unlike the last time a dead Trewhaala was seen, we now know that they were friendly to the Trebhum and might still be willing to help them.
- Even though the Trebhum don't have any friendly feelings toward the Grashtuub for eating the Trewhaala, the first one encountered can still invoke a sense of pity - it was eating a dead Trewhaala when the Cylinder rolled in, and is now trapped due to the carcass inside its torso, and eventually gets crushed by the Cylinder when it starts rolling again. And in the end, like all the creatures, the Grashtuub wasn't evil or malicious in any way, simply just an animal trying to survive in an icreasingly-hostile world.
- When the Trebhum finally acquire the Master of Song mutation and use it to commune with the Trewhaala, the response they get is one of relieved surprise. It's made clear the Trewhaala were worried that the youngest generation of Trebhum had forgotten about them and are relieved that some still remember the pact between their races.
- The final half of Chapter 4, An Alliance of Ghosts, really makes you feel for the Trewhaala.
- The Trewhaala reveal that the Trebhum were the ones who originally brought the Cylinder to this world, as the Cylinder heard the Trebhum when they sang to the cosmos. This song was also what brought the Trewhaala to the Trebhum's world, which almost resulted in them getting annihilated by the Cylinder. While they don't hold it against the Trebhum, it's still heartbreaking to learn that the devestation inflicted upon the Trewhaala is at least partially the Trebhum's fault.
- The Trewhaala request that, in exchange for helping the Trebhum reach their sky palace, the Trebhum recover three items stored within the face shaped geological formations the Cylinder created. As it turns out, these items are catalysts that allow the Trebhum to mutate so that they take on traits the Trewhaala used to possess. While the whole chapter was rather unsubtle about how badly the Cylinder had harmed the Trewhaala, it's only when you see the mutations the catalysts provide you with (which include legs) that it becomes apparent how much the Cylinder has taken from these noble creatures.
- As a Trewhaala moves to destroy the last rock formation the Trebhum need to get a catalyst from, the fully restored Mathematician comes and skewers the space whale-worm on a javelin. While the Trewhaala appears to survive this injury, the Narrator notes that the Trebhum almost lose hope at the sight.
- While the Trebhum travel through one of the Trewhaala, we learn that the Trewhaala are a dying race, and they might die out tomorrow or a hundred years in the future. While they do note a miracle could happen to restore them, the Trewhaala a note this would be a miracle, and instead offer mutations to the Trebhum so that some measure of their kind may live on.
- At the conclusion of the final battle, the Trebhum make one final voyage into the Mathematician's mind, where he finally greets them in as close to person as possible and thanks them for doing what his people could not: defeating the Cylinder in battle. Then, after letting them leave, he has the Mathematician fall back to the ground and attack the Cylinder, ending with the creature being absorbed into the Cylinder and exploding, sacrificing his body to blow a huge chunk out of the Cylinder, finally defeating it. While he still remains in the Trebhum's consciousness, he fades away for the moment as he finishes the story, content with the Trebhum's victory against the Cylinder.
