The scariest part of this game for me, is watching mono slowly grow into the thin man. Most of the adults throughout the series, like mentioned, are faceless. We don’t know anything about them, their intentions, or reasoning. But watching mono became the thin man is terrifying. This is the only adult we understand the reasoning behind. Knowing that someday, we might become like the parents/teachers/adults we swore never to be like our whole lives. It is the truest childhood fear out there.
That is honestly one of the things that draws me most into little nightmares. It does such an amazing job of capturing the fear of not only living in fear of monsters but living with the very real fear of becoming a monster yourself. Not only that, but it shows *how* that happens too. Throughout both games we see six and mono both go through all the little things that slowly add up to them becoming monstrous, we watch mono get betrayed and grow up bitter and angry, leading him to violence when he becomes the thin man. And we watch six as she gets hurt over and over again, learning to strike first and slowly losing her trust and compassion for anyone, leading her to similar acts of violence. In my opinion they represent different kinds of childhood traumas. Mono represents neglect, he was betrayed and alone and one of the main themes of LN2 was escapism, showing how neglect leads you to run away from reality, and lash out at the people who abandoned you. And six represents active abuse, she is constantly being attacked by everything (not that mono isn’t, but she got more of that between the two games) and as a result she learns to fear and hate everyone around her, even mono as the one person she’s shown trusting, and he ends up betraying and attacking her too. It shows her learning to emulate her attackers, and as a result taking her anger out on innocent people just like what happened to her. Anyway this was unnecessarily long but I just absolutely love the way this game encapsulates the fear of any traumatized child- the fear of becoming the very thing that you wanted to escape from.
I like your point about the traumas, it really makes a lot of sense. And the way that mono slowly starts to lose control as he enters the tv, might align with how sometimes when people bottle up traumatic events, or emotions. When this happens it usually leads to an outburst or a breakdown and just him losing control kind of reminded me of that. Also I think the way they painted six as the villain in this is very realistic. Not to say she is a villain, but people who have been abused tend to show more anger and resentment than some of the other traumas. Our society says to cares about the abuse until it turns into anger.
@@claracrossing5725 exactly!! i always think about the anger six shows in a sort of instinctual "scared feral animal" way. if something or someone hurts her once, it's safer to assume it's going to hurt her again, and it's safer to bite back than it is to forgive
@@hershelroswell holy shit youre like one of the few people ive seen so far that actually gets it. this is exactly why i cant hate six and why she resonates with me so much. she doesnt seem like a heartless person to me, just a scared child thats been taught violence. while i wasnt pushed to extremes like she was, when i was her age, i was so angry and reactive all the time. people always treated me like i was a brat, but i was just scared. theres a difference between being mean for the sake of it and being mean because youre convinced its safer to keep people far away from you.
40:13 i dont really think that Six torturing a hand as a product of boredom is any less scary because to me it just implies desensitization rather then outright sadism. It's also hard to overlook this moment given how shortly after she decides to cozy up next to an oven currently roasting the doctor alive
The best way I can personally say it is this: Mono was a human who looked at Six and saw a friend. Six was a survivor who looked at Mono and saw an ally- an ally that became a liability. It reminds me of a book trilogy known as The Hunt: The main character is so used to doing everything he can to survive that, when the time comes where he actually interacts with other humans, he realizes he knows very little about actually being human. He doesn’t even remember his own name at first.
The fact that all the character's names are what they do fits pretty well with the game showing an interpretation of the world as a child; when you're a kid, you don't know the names of most adults. It's The Doctor, The Professor, it's even just Mom and Dad. You know the adults as what role they have in your life/the world.
That’s really interesting. Here in Norway, at least when I grew up in the 90s, we called our teachers, doctors etc my their first names, so those were always named, but then others would be “nameless” in that way, like nurses or maybe dentists (? I can’t really remember for sure about dentists). But people we saw very often, like teachers, were always called by their first name. I know it’s not like that in the US, but I never thought about it in the way you described. It’s just a bit interesting
The watchful eye being the piercing surveillance of a parent should definitely have been one of the episodes, if there was one similar someone let me know!😊
For anyone who likes the themes and style of Little Nightmares, I highly recommend A Series of Unfortunate Events. I was really into ASoUE as a kid, precisely because it was the only story I had encountered that depicted adults as being sometimes deeply flawed; even the ones that aren’t malicious and had good intentions ended up being unreliable or blind to the evils the children had to face. Oh, and both have the same eye motif + secret identities + exaggerated worldbuilding
Oh, that's true! My favorite book in that series was The Reptile Room, since it introduced my favorite (non-human) character and the one guy who might've actually raised the kids well if he was allowed half a chance.
@@shadowstar8619 Reptile Room was also my favorite! Though Wide Window and Ersatz Elevator are close seconds, I liked the twists and murder mystery vibes from them.
I always find it interesting that everyone tends to side with Mono so much they put cruel and monstrous intentions onto Six while ignoring her perspective. From Six's perspective Mono unleashes a monster despite her trying to stop him. Because of him not only does she get captured and transformed but loses her shade, a part of herself she never gets back. When she has Mono hanging not only is he staring up at her but she's looking down onto his uncovered face up close for the first time. This could be the moment Six realizes that Mono and the Thin Man are one and the same and that's why she drops him. Everyone always emphasizes how Six betrays Mono without considering that from Six's perspective Mono hurt her first. Six is a survivor and Mono ultimately ends up causing her a lot of harm. All that aside I really enjoyed this video and I'm off to subscribe and watch more of your videos!
Not to mention Six has that little thing where she’ll randomly become violently hungry to the point of cannibalism. She might have thought being dropped off that ledge was a more preferable fate for Mono.
@Banana_Knight All of this! Neither kid is bad or to blame. They're literally trapped in a situation(timeloop) beyond their control that gradually turns them into monsters. As for the shade I always thought that it was a part of Six and because it can no longer reunite with her it can only watch as Six is consumed by the hunger caused by it's absence.
@@kaleenar963to be fair that happens after LN2 in the actual cannon timeline, but it is an important part of her character, and I’d imagine she was at least somewhat aware of her nature, six definitely isn’t known to be the most morally sound character ever- not to say she’s evil, she’s traumatized and trying to survive and also a child- but yeah it is notable how much she also consumes a lot the way the adults are shown to do
@@kaleenar963 That would make a lot of sense, but I don't think that's a possible reason for Six dropping him. The reason why is because her hunger only occurred right after LN2, after arriving in the Maw through the TV portal. This was shown in the extended ending of LN2 where the now separated part/essence of Six appears in front of her as she experiences the first hunger pains. This hunger only occurs in LN1 because it's a consequence of the Thin Man kidnapping Six, causing her to lose her soul and cursing her with a ravenous hunger to fill the missing piece inside, something she can never get back but tries to regardless by consuming the living.
Cush? Bro did you ask her out? If not never spend more than 30 days crushing on a girl without pulling the trigger, best advice i ever got in grade school
@@CoperliteConsumer it's actually a guy qkdjqkdja, I've been trying to make a move for 6 MONTHS, but he never had a girlfriend of boyfriend before so... I don't know 😭😭😭
What I like about Little Nightmares is that it can be interpreted a large number of ways, depending on how literally or metaphorically you want to take the events that unfold. My favorite thing about the childhood fears interpretation, specifically, is that it recontextualizes Mono's connection to the thin man...the fear abused children have as they grow up, that they'll eventually become the same type of monster who abused them. A fear that often comes true if they're not helped from the outside, which Mono, quite pointedly, was denied in the final moment.
I remember a long time ago, when I was a little kid it was lunch time, and I sat down but didn’t eat my food because I wasn’t hungry. Some lunch lady saw me and thought it would be a fantastic idea to stuff food inside my mouth without even considering that I wasn’t hungry and not to mention she scraped my tongue with the fork harshly. She was fired by the end of the day.
Why is it always the elementary school staff that's got the psychotic people in it? I had a crazy teacher that instilled a deep-seated anxiety towards any and all authoritative forces in my life. Whether good or evil, doesn't matter. I still struggle sometimes with this to this day with feelings of inferiority and frustration towards my learning disability always keeping me slightly behind. Thanks Mrs. Ridenour (I don't even know if that's how you spelled her name) We also had a gym teacher who flew off the handle and yelled at a kid, making them cry. He was fired after that
@@Kids_Scissors that's funny, when teachers snapped at my elementary they didn't get fired, they'd be forced to teach even _younger_ grades. Gotta traumatize them early! Said teacher screamed at a kid over a messy desk drawer, dumped it out onto the floor and broke the tray.
@@Kids_Scissors It was an elementary school teacher for me too! And she taught me for two years in a row 2nd and 3rd grade. She treated me fine in grade 2. But for whatever reason she went off the rails and started treating her students like shit in grade 3. Was always so uptight about grammar. Make sure not to say ain't around her, she'll berate you and make sure the whole class is a witness. And don't have hair she doesn't like, or she'll grab you by the wrist and threaten to force it back with hairclips! So weird..
It's interesting to see the thin man take children, being a classic "trustworthy" adult. Yet he preys on children. His childhood was pursued and guided by a man just like who he became. Despite seeing the effects of that behavior becoming one to perpetuate it. A lonely solitary child, in a system of abuse grows up to commit the same acts
Bullies are a normal healthy social creation. They push out divergent behaviors in adolescent groups. Without them you get things like furys and male predators developing
“Someone once told me, 'Time is a flat circle.’ Everything we've ever done or will do, we're gonna do over and over and over again. And that little boy and that little girl, they're gonna be in that room again and again and again forever." True Detective, show with references to THE KING IN YELLOW.
idk i never thought adults were perfect. My earliest memories of adults was thinking they were stupid. In pre school the teacher trying to get us to shake our butts to a dance called the "tootie ta". I was having none of that undignified nonsense.
@@Creatures_of_the_Everquarry ITS HORRID. I was very stubborn about this song. They wanted us to preform it for our parents, there were lots of songs we sung but I was alright with most of them. When the Tootie Ta came on, i calmly left the stage and sat with my parents as protest, then went back up when it was done. I may have been 4 but i had honor.
I still have trauma to this day regarding teachers and the sheer amount of emotional abuse that i experienced. The movie Matilda wasn't fiction to me. It simply reflected real life (without the magic, obv). My school seems to have been run by middle-aged and bitter ladies who were always on the verge of psychological breakdowns at any given moment. One particular incident that sticks with me is when I pissed my pants because one teacher wouldn't let me go to the bathroom until I finished colouring in a picture of jesus.
Sheesh was that a nun's school? A big part of Jesus' ministry was calling out religious leaders who abused their authority, so he definitely wouldn't be pleased with such behavior!
I had a very similar experience with a teacher where she wouldn't let me go to the bathroom until I finished our days of the week song, this was in 1st or 2nd grade
@bradleyadams5252 it was a Catholic school but not with nuns. Although most of my teachers may as well have been. Like one of them ridiculed me in front of the whole class because I couldn't tell the difference between 'which' and 'witch'- like I was 8, what do they expect?
I always somewhat question if Six's decision to drop Mono wasn't out of malice, but fear. We have no way of knowing how much she knows of the situation, or if her vision of what happened was skewed. When she was a monster, the player / Mono does torment her, and while we know we're helping her, she may not fully grasp that even afterward. What was her perception of what was going on? Did she know the boy would one day become the Tall Man, and thus, an enemy? Did she drop the boy in an attempt to prevent it somehow? I can get behind the pair not really being 'friends', but I do suspect they at least had some amount of trust for one another at some point, but Six lost it when she perceived Mono's actions as bad. She's been through a lot, and there may be core reasons for her base trust level to be strained at best for other people. Not saying that what she did was the right choice, but it seemed to complete a time loop, what happens to that if she doesn't drop him? Do things turn out worse? Better? Fun idea to ponder. Edit: More thoughts! I think that Six and Mono are in what I feel could be called a trust paradox. Mono grows up to distrust and hate Six for what she did to him, and in turn his actions as Tall Man in the past frightened Six into distrusting him in the first place. It is a doomed loop of misery between them, a hate spiral that became tangled within its own narrative. Neither of them is bad, but time distorts details for all of us. We all remember some bully or not very nice thing that troubled us when we were children, and for those of us who had friends utterly backstab us, with no reconciliation at the end, it can also become a hate spiral that we haul along with us as adults. Sometimes such hate is mutual. Sometimes we're the ones who did the back-stabbing without ever meaning to. Without communicating, without the more mature mind to comprehend, little issues become little nightmares that grow wildly out of control with age and what we choose to remember. I don't think either child is innocent, nor are they all bad. Six's reactions to things, and the way she comes off as cruel is very much a learned behavior. All those things, she knows they're dangerous. Maybe she's stuck in the same loop as Mono is. Maybe she remembers just enough to know caution. I suppose more questions and some answers await us in the Third game
im so used to seeing people treat six like a war criminal, its _so_ refreshing to see more nuanced take on her. i know first hand how trauma/abuse can really fuck you up as a child, though i was always treated like a misbehaved brat. so i appreciate that youve taken the time to try and see things from her perspective. i truly do not think she is evil. just very young and very traumatized.
Important note: Six is _not_ the only victim of the Tall Man. The Tall Man killed/ripped out the souls of/did _something_ bad to a _lot_ of other kids.
I like the point about her not understanding what was happening! It could be referenced back to the point in the video where connor explains his fear of needles with that story of the nurse and his first vaccine. He didn't understand then, and now even that he's gained the clarity to know it was helpful, it was still a traumatic experience. Put that way, it sounds very similar to what six went through with the music box.
@@somdudewillson If you notice I don't really think the thin man really wants to hurt anyone, not even Six. I think he might have always been trying to help protect people through escapism but he doesn't believe he is hurting them. We can see this when instead of torturing Six when he is able to get a hold of her he just puts her in a dream like state where she is comforted by the music box. He is in a way trying to protect her from the cruel and uncaring world they live in but making her lose herself in the process. He might not understand he is in a timeloop too since he spent so much time alone with the weird eye entity, his memories could be jumbled up and that is why he might be acting both in anger and protection towards her and the city.
I think that ending displays really well the cycle of violence that can happen through many generations of abuse. Six contributed to that cycle, whether she realizes it or not, by letting Mono go. By concedeing to her more violent tendencies, she unwittingly created one of the monsters that hunts her.
I don't think it was a matter of Six never being trustworthy so much as it is her trust in you has degraded overtime, specifically each time she learned more about you. The first time she's put on her toes, its when she sees that Mono has supernatural abilities. I think over time especially after seeing the Thin Man and then finally seeing your face, she realized that you're a "Monster," or at least fated to be one, and cut her ties then and there. Ngl I can relate to both Six and Mono: One being the optimistic, seeing the good in people, only to be abandoned, and the other, being so suspicious that even the slightest hints of being a dangerous or troublesome person overrides any value of the good, and becomes grounds for cutting them off completely.
Watching momo grow up in the chair was a very strong shock, one of my biggest fears as a child was simply growing up, I was afraid of not recognising myself one day
The concept of the Porcelain children is so... strange and alluring to me. The nowhere isn't designed to have kids, this fact is kind of mimicked in the nature of the Porcelain kids themselves
I think it indirectly illustrates the concept of an “inconsiderate” environment. It’s something I’ve noticed a lot with kids recently, in that they’re mostly are only two places they’re meant to be kept: school and home. And having no real places to actually hang out outside of those. It’s a system of systematic narcissistic behavior in adults. Like they see kids as an accessory rather than people, and they literally take the world for themselves.
@@solleehasnolife4780 This is actually a phenomenon that has been discussed more in more in recent years called "third places". Usually it's about adults or teenagers where there are no real places to exist outside of work or gome without having to pay for it. You want to meet your friends at a Café? You gotta buy coffee. You want to go out to dance? Pay the entry fee for a Club and so on. And thjs is only exacerbated when talking about kids because they don't have the money or autonomy to even go to these transactionary places. And if they do go there they are often treated as nuisances. It's the byproduct of living in a capitalism-driven world that is hostile to simple human connection.
I feel like the 'conclusion' about Six in this video only hold up if you ignore the actual rest of the ending and the prior context of the game. Six has seen Mono release the Thin Man, and potentially figured out that they are connected after seeing both of their faces. And, despite what a lot of people seem to believe, the Thin Man is _not_ just an entity trying to get back at Six. He is a full monster in his own right, killing/stealing the souls of/doing _something_ terrible to a lot of entirely unrelated kids.
I agree. Mono and Six suffered a lack of communication that led to a mutual betrayal. In the end, they couldn’t clear it up. Mono becomes a monster, Six does as well.
I personally think that the most horrible part of the games is the parts where you have to wait in hiding for the danger to pass, all you can hear is the awful mouth-breathing, groaning, and huffing, its genuinely unsettling to listen to for me
No idea if this is intentional on the game Devs part, but I played little nightmares 2 and since I died a lot (rip mono) I got the privilege to notice Six's reactions throughout the game. Up until her capture, she goes back for you. She shows concern. Add onto that the fact that every single time she catches you. Then you get to the signal tower. If you die in the wall if flesh chase, if you die she looks back, but she keeps running. It gives me the impression that something between mono and six broke, whether it be him letting the thin man out and her capture, him breaking her music box, or her knowing that he is the thin man. It was also interesting to note that while six had been turned monsterous, the room we initially see her in is pleasant. Toys, soft lighting, and her music box. She was finally safe, in a way. And that was torn from her. At the beginning of the game, and at the end. Side note: I wonder if the shadow six we see leading us to the signal tower is in anyway the same shadow six from the first game
honestly, as someone who was diagnosed with a chronic illness at a really young age, the hospital, mannequins, and doctor will always be the scariest part of the game to me. they freak me out even though i only watched playthroughs. reminds me a lot of the Bad Old Days, lol
the perspective of this game really reminds me of the movie matilda (1996) and how they shot the movie from the perspective of the child rather than wide pan shots
The section where the teacher is playing the piano is one of my favorite moments in any horror media. The way the music is gorgeous but just *off* perfectly encapsulates The School's feeling to me. Its so good.
The sadest part is that he never really left that room until he let himself out. Then his younger self ending up killing his older self, without being able to warn the younger self of his fate and that is why it keeps repeating again and again. A fate that hecan never be able to escape from.
I love little nightmares because it feels very familiar. I live in the north of england and it often feels very gray, it also has a lot of old, mildly dilapidated buildings and shadows of great beauty faded to time. I've been in rain-soaked, witch-haunted woodlands, old schools with strange doorways and layouts as well as cold grey cities where everone looks a bit miserable. I love the north and I love living here, along with the creepy, witchy faded vibe and I feel like these games really emulate that in a strangely comforting way.
I love Little Nightmares videos and this is a really good one. I do have to disagree with one point though. You mentioned only Six was not a normal child. It could be argued that none of the kids who have managed to survive the Nowhere at this point are normal. The majority of them have seen far more than any children should have, and this likely goes double for them when you take in the context of the Sounds of Nightmares podcast. To iterate, the only way you are “selected” by the Ferryman to be taken to Nowhere is if there is enough trauma and exploitation at the hands of an adult to essentially make yourself a target. We see this with Noone as she was a target of severe bullying, had her autonomy stripped from her by the media following her recovery (to the point of even selecting what she wore) and then Otto taking advantage of her. It got to the point where she felt safer with the Ferryman, despite knowing where he is taking her. So I think most of these kids, Mono and Six included, led lives that were terrible and made them feel unsafe and powerless. They’d seen much more than any normal child should, whether through neglect, exploitation, abuse or any combination of the three. I don’t think Six was being actively malicious when she dropped Mono, at least not in the way we think. Yes, there was definitely some retaliation for both leaving her behind when the building was collapsing and also hiding under the bed just before the Thin Man took her, even as she tried to reach out for him. But I think Six was scared of Mono at that point as well. He kept going into the Tvs, no matter how many times she tried to pull him out and stop him, and it led to the Thin Man being free. On top of that, he destroyed something that brought her comfort, even if it was ultimately for her own good. We should remember that Six is 9 years old and maybe there are other factors to take into account when looking at this.
My mom has had an alcohol problem for a good chunk of my life. Im 20 now but back when i was around 8 or 9 i remember her getting absolutely wasted in front of me for the first time, it wouldn't be the last. Its terrifying to learn that young that adults are flawed and that your parent, isn't who you thought they were
@@ghostrasmussen8414 she wasn't even violent or a scary drunk. But i witnessed my own mother let a habit consume her while she still managed to function day to day. She wasn't wasted 24/7, just at night, when i wanted to spend time with her She chose it over her family and wonders why i dont like to visit
This is just a headcanon of mine…one I’ve accepted from Gaming Beaver’s theory videos on these games…but I believe the reason that Six betrayed Mono is because she was at peace with her music box again, and even though it was for her own good, she couldn’t forgive Mono for destroying the music box, and with it, her peace
like she was more comfortable prioritizing blissful ignorance over the uncomfortable truth? i think that’s really interesting… maybe we’ll see that develop more in LN3
@@spookymcg something like that? I saw it more like the music box is her comfort object…but it could easily be both To quote directly from Gaming Beaver’s video “with [the music box] she can’t bare to be apart from it, and without it, is a nightmare all in itself”
@@spookymcgi saw it more as it was the only thing that brought her comfort. she displays trust when she presents it to mono. with the shattered remains of the music box, so too is her trust shattered. i know from experience, you dont get that protective over something for no reason.
@@spookymcglittle nightmares 3 is made by different Developers. The ones who made 1 & 2 said that they quote: "told the story we wanted to tell and are ready to move on". I dont think there is anything you could ad to the story we have rn. And it looks like the new devs know that, hence completely new characters and locations.
I absolutely, wholeheartedly, adore little nightmares, the second game especially. It’s probably the piece of horror media I hold dearest. I won’t go into detail because this is like- a youtube comments section, but the games really spoke to me as someone who grew up around a lot of unstable characters. And you’re 100% right, being a child in that kind of environment is like wading through a dream. Not necessarily a nightmare, though at times it was, but definitely some other space not quite flush with reality. It’s funny, whenever my brother is asked about being a kid he’ll just say “nah I don’t remember anything before I was like 16” like childhood was a dream he’d just woken up from and can’t recall. I’ve always found a lot of solace in interpreting the games as how a rough childhood “feels” to a child. Your imagination runs just as wild, but instead of being fueled by books read to you before bed or what could dad possibly be cooking that smells so good? it’s fueled by shouting, loneliness, hunger, fear. Unsurprisingly this creates a pretty grotesque world and LN illustrates that in such a beautifully horrific way. I’ll never forget the first time I finished LN2. I’m terrified, TERRIFIED, of ending up like some of the people who raised me so seeing mono become the thin man and realizing the entire game is a loop just broke me. What makes it so much worse is that mono, like any child caught in a cycle of abuse, is completely unaware of his place in it. He is but a CHILD. There’s no way he’s gonna recognize he’s following in the footsteps of a monster. He just wants to get to the end of that hall. He doesn’t know why, but he just has to. Right? God, it makes me so sad every time Also just a side note mono’s story had such an effect on me that I drew a little picture of him and kept it in my phone case (a clear one of course, I had to show off my boy) and he was there until my first semester of college. He’s chilling in a sketchbook somewhere now
i spent my whole life desperately trying to separate myself from my parents and my family as i grew because who they were as people disgusted me, even more desperately now that im eighteen and have some sort of agency, and...yeah that really got to me, too. mono and six mean a lot to me. six, in particular, because i practically _was_ her when i was her age. i talk about it more than i probably should, a lot of people really dont like her. but she and little nightmares as a whole is something i feel compelled to talk about. for a lot of people, being a child and having no control over yourself and your life isnt comforting, its beyond terrifying. more people should know what thats like.
2:25 "As a kid, you recognize that not only do these people have authority over you, but most of them also have real strength, size, and agility on you." When I was a kid, the idea that anyone had authority over me they didn't earn was laughable, and something as arbitrary as age didn't count to me. ...Which lead to a lot of punishments for disobedience. I didn't trust my parents, and I still don't. If they wanted me to follow instructions, they could have answered me when I asked "why?" Instead, they said "because I said so," the laziest thing any parent can say. I grew up not knowing the importance (if any) of what they failed to drill into my head, and only grew up averse to many things and fearful of "dominance junkies." Authority on the basis of an arbitrary title or bloodline is worthless to me. If someone wants to tell me what to do, there has to be a good reason they're in that position in the first place.
Identical to why I gave up sports once I hit highschool. As a freshman I was looked down on. But I had just as much reason to be in control as they did. They were just around longer. Fuck that.
I’d like to also point out the possibility (haven’t finished video yet, you may have touched on it) but potentially mono running down the hallway, doesn’t care what’s on the other side of the door because surely it is better than what is behind them and what they are running from.
I have a feeling that the Hunter might was not like the other adults, at least in LN2, as he gave Six shelter, a music box, and presumably food. The Hunter only acts violently when Mono rescues her.
Frrr, I do have a theory that the traps and such were set for animals, then the hunter had mistaken Six for one causing him to try shoot her (In the comics) but after ends up taking her and giving her a music box. He doesn't seem to shoot Six, there are instances where he does kill her in an attempt to kill Mono but he never is shown deliberately aiming for her.
i always wondered why he did that. like why he specifically captures _her,_ of all people. i doubt he treated her kindly, given she was supposedly locked in that room and did not hesitate to try to get out the moment she had the opportunity, but still, its odd he didnt just kill her immediately like the rest of the monsters wouldve.
I feel like maybe he had a family, once, because of the dummies in his house Maybe the reason he was holding Six captive was because he just wanted a daughter Idk man take this with a grain of salt
@@CaitEden53I like this theory, but they said somewhere on the wiki that he was hoping she would die by starvation. Can't remember if it's Canon, though, but like I said, I like your theory, and it could be true
On the topic of The Doctor: there's an achievement for choosing to NOT burn him alive. The achievements in any LN game have no description of how to get them, so it's either guesswork, trial and error, or a guide. The description of the "First Do No Harm" achievement is "It's crueler to let him live." You step into the elevator, followed by his screams and wordless pleas. The world's cruelty has rubbed off on Mono if he really decides to leave The Doctor to slowly die of dehydration, or suffocate on ash, or give himself a heart attack from fear waiting for the fire. On the topic of Six's cruelty and revenge: Her first instance of "casual" cruelty is in the school. With The Hunter, he was an active threat with no other way to escape. With one particular Bully, after saving her from the bathroom, she slowly walks up behind it, leaps onto its back, and repeatedly slams its face into the ground until its porcelain skull shatters. Mono had a weapon available, and the Bully wasn't an immediate threat. She viciously attacks and kills another child for no other reason than revenge for what has already been pretty well dealt with from Mono's (and thus, the player's) view. Six can be seen later kicking a corpse of a Viewer who has smashed their face into a TV. By that point, they aren't that much of a threat yet beyond "big scary adult", but she does it anyway. In the Signal Tower, she holds Mono only to let him fall in a final act of cruelty and revenge, after he abandoned her to The Thin Man and destroyed what he knew was her only comfort in a horrifying world; she wanted to look him in the eye one last time, so he knew she'd never forgive him and she didn't care if he rotted in this thing's gut for the rest of whatever life he had left. She never looks back. It's the same "I will watch the light/hope drain from your eyes" sentiment as a serial killer, and who's to say she isn't by the end of the series? The Pretender, one of The Bullies, (to a degree) The Doctor, Mono, The Janitor, one of The Guests, a Nome, The Lady, three more of The Guests, totaling 10 killed and one fate sealed. (I'm choosing not to count the rat she eats alive or the child who chooses to give her the last of their bread and presumably starves themself.) She and her penchant for cruelty are the catalyst for much of the horror around her.
Okay as a Six defender I want to point a couple of things out: 1: The Bullies are not children, or at least not anymore. They all will attack and kill you if they know you're not one of them so taking preemptive action is not cruelty it's sensible. 2: Most of her acts can easily be on account of frustration, not cruelty. Think about it, the bullies hurt her and overwhelmed her. Just because Mono got her out doesn't mean she feels better; its very possible taking it out herself gives her confidence again and lets her feel slightly in control. Same with the hand who's fingers she's cracking in the hospital or the viewer she's kicking. It's a small girl finally having some control back in her life. 3: Nearly all of her kills are done towards people who would and frequently do try to hurt her or put her in situations where she would be in imminent danger. -The Pretender plays with dolls made of children's skin and kills people with a touch, and Six was trying to save her friend/ally. -The Hunter as you pointed out was trying to shoot her and Mono -The Bullies kidnapped and hurt her for there own amusement -The Doctor does not do nice things to the patients in his are and wouldn't be nice to them -The Janitor puts her in a cage that takes her to the chefs where she'll end up served to the guests. -The guests themselves will grab and eat her alive if they get their hands on her. -The Lady tries to suck the life force from her/turn her into a Nome. Peace was not an option with any of these aside from if she was lucky 'A peaceful death' 4: We don't know what Six is thinking when she drops Mono. I don't think this was a misunderstanding. it absolutely was cruel. But I don't think it was planed. Mono didn't have bad intentions but the journey he lead her on went badly for her, usually as a result of his direction. He lead her into the school, he led her deep into the city where she got drenched and frozen by the rain (Its not like these kids have shelter or dry clothes to change into) She then got grabbed by the Thinman who only got let out because Mono let him out by messing with the TV's (Something you'll recall Six always tried to stop) And after all that she might have finally decided to cut her losses, that this boy isn't a friend or ally she can trust and makes the decision to drop him out of her life. 5: You didn't mention this but I feel its worth noting: Attack the Nome isn't a deliberate act, remember we as the player lose all control over Six when the hunger curse strikes and every time it does happen the scale of what she eats escalates. To conclude: I don't think Six is a psychopath, I think she's a character lashing out at people who have done her harm, a frustration that gets worse because of the nightmarish world she's trapped in. A world where she couldn't save an ally (Girl in the yellow raincoat), Was let down badly by a friend (Mono) and Finally gained some semblance of control (First games ending)
Hatred of others and acts of violence in children tend to be symptoms of extreme neglect and abuse from their caregivers, which suits the theme already present.
“It’s like growing up in a haunted house then moving out and realizing… there are ghosts everywhere” what the fuck man I was not ready for you to say something that goes THAT HARD
Stories like little nightmares and all stories like it continue even to this day to help me. Early on as a child dealing with abuse, books like Matilda told me that grown ups are wrong sometimes, and gave me hope that I could make it if I just kept pushing forward. Stories like this today remind me that I was and am never alone. Adults are fu*&king scary, even if I am one now on the outside, the scared child inside of me that learned that long ago still knows this to be true.
I have some sort of undiagnosed DID/OSDD, and part of having that is having a bunch of littles in my system, the body being a young adult. By the 3 minute mark a bunch of my littles, kids and teens, beg me to replay that intro. We huddled together at the front to listen in again. It's a well made intro, we all enjoyed it, helped us heal a bit from everything. The wording is nice and your voice is very calming. Thanks a lot, from all of us
The school sequence hit hard for me. I came from a really predatory school environment, the teachers were superficial, predatory or just cruel and mean for no reason. It was less about discipline and more about power, and the kids lashed out on each other. Being a quieter kid who was too small to fight back felt like hell, and I felt like I was more grown up than any of the adults around me.
"If you don't heal your injury you'll bleed on someone who didn't hurt you" "If you carry the same stone with you you'll throw it on another person to carry it" "Once there's a mad man in the house there'll always be a mad man in there" Some stuff I can add to the child-adult thing You know I think there's a way to help people who fear adults by reminding them that we can grow up and be a better adults this can also work with those who want to...uhhh...sewer slide yk after thinking about it if we try we can actually turn this world into a better place like seriously now if we just continue living we can fix this world it might be hard but not impossible
This retrospective is so well done!! As a fan of Little Nightmares and a person currently in an emotionally abusive household with a narcissistic mother I totally see the themes of fearing the adults around you present in LN and in my own childhood. Being neurodivergent didn't help these feelings, as it was often hard to emotionally read people then and now as an autistic person. Little Nightmares and it's themes of child abuse/trauma go hand in hand a little too well
As someone who wants to go into the field of teaching, that whole segment about ‘the school’ was haunting. All of the clips gave me absolute chills, and it’s awful to know that since there are so few teachers, so many shitty ones fall through the cracks and make the lives of children absolute hell. I really hope I’d be one of the good ones.
"But there's a bad man in everyone No matter who we are There's a rapist and a Nazi living in our tiny hearts Child pornographers and cannibals, and politicians too There's someone in your head waiting to fucking strangle you" -AJJ - People II: The Reckoning
In Six’s eyes Mono is consistently putting them in danger and Mono has proven himself to be a threat and liability, so Six is just being pragmatic and ensuring their survival. At least to my perspective.
I remember the first time I realized adults could be sad. Like really sad. While playing with my sister, a pair of seashells got knocked off a shelf and broke. My mom came to check on us, her face the worry I was very accustomed to. Then the relief I knew well when she found we were fine. Then something different happened. Her mouth turned down, her eyes scrunched up, and she began to sob. My dad was a beat behind her and immediately began to comfort her. He asked if she was ok and she silently showed him the seashells. He didn't say a word, but also took on an expression of deep sadness and held her while she cried. She kept saying "it's not a big deal" and I didn't understand. I asked if we were in trouble and my dad gently said "no baby, mom is just very sad right now." It didn't make any sense. If we hurt her by breaking her stuff, she should have been mad, right? If she was afraid for our safety, she should have been worried. What was this quiet weeping that came with no context? Why did it make me feel a deep sense of what I would learn is regret? Like I had done something wrong, but I wasn't getting in trouble for it? I learned later that those seashells were picked up on their last anniversary before they had kids. They hadn't been able to go back to the beach since they had us due to financial restraints. We weren't blamed for any of it. Things get broken. Adults get sad about it. Life goes on. But in that moment, I realized that adults are people, and they can't fix everything. And that hurting someone isn't always on purpose, and doesn't always involve physical pain.
i was on the edge of my seat waiting for you to get to the podcast and then looked at the timestamp at 50:12 and was like i dont think we’re getting there lmao. can’t wait for the next part, as a fellow tma fan little nightmares is like checking every single box on the smirke’s list of fourteen
40:13 I thought the argument justifying Six breaking the mannequin hands was because she'd seen them attack while Mono was gone and was breaking all of them in the light to make sure she'd be safe. Like, rather than a sadistic cruelty it was another case of her brutal pragmatism.
I watched a playthrough of Little Nightmares years ago and sort of dismissed it as just horrifying design for the sake of horrifying design, chase scenes for the sake of chase scenes, horror for the sake of horror without diving into anything meaningful. Because of that, I never got into it. I never played the first game, I was ambivalent to the release of the second, and altogether dismissed it as a random horror game. I am so much more interested now. The themes you've brought up make me want to go play the games so I can see all the pieces fit together, which I didn't think I would do when I started watching this an hour ago. I am very excited to see part two of your analysis.
As other people here have already stated, I don't think many actually understand Six's motives when she drops Mono. He's the Thin Man, that much is obvious, but even without that knowledge, it's clear that his decisions throughout the game have been slowly breaking her. He's dragged her through the mud, he's endangered her life on multiple occasions, he's put her through hell and back. Even if she didn't know what would happen after the fall, one thing's for certain: trusting him is too risky. She chose her life over his, and although she's not innocent herself... she's still a child. She's a scared little girl lost in a world that wants her dead. She has stared into the abyss and now it stares back, and she has no one but herself to turn to. In Six's eyes, Mono has made things worse. He betrayed her.
ive mentioned this many times before, but i feel people tend to forget six is only nine years old. im not saying that excuses her actions, but it sure explains a hell of a lot. 'cause i mean, think about it. what child, what _traumatized_ child, is going to make logical decisions when she is actively in a kill or be killed situation where shes being re-traumatized every single day? people with trust issues and unhealed trauma tend have a very hard time managing relationships and tend to self-sabotage, (speaking from experience here) and i think thats what happened with her. he hurt her, and broke her trust, so she immediately abandoned him. that way, he would never get the chance to hurt her again.
Also, while she was turned into a monster, she was probably scared, confused, and maybe not even fully aware what had happened to her, with her only source of comfort being the music box that mono has to break to free her. Even if he was trying to help, he still hurt her in the process.
8:28 "Even the strangest and most deeply entrenched parts of this conspiracy seem content, at least for now, just to keep watching you." Me: "Where have I heard that before. Oh right The Ma- "It's very Magnus Archives coded." Also me: "LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
Magnus Archives a hundred years. A hundred years Magnus Archives, Magnus Archives forever. Every video, a hundred years, Magnus Archives, a hundred years!
The part about how doctors and nurses can so easily become bad people to kids reminds me of when I was about 5-6 and had to get several shots, both me and my brother left the room crying. And sure that might be normal, but the difference is that the nurse told us that it would hurt, no 'its just a little prick', just telling us that it would hurt, not what you say to a kid lol
Six didn’t drop Mono because she was using him to survive, the reason why she dropped him was because he destroyed her music box, her only sense of peace and comfort in the Nowhere. When Mono calls to Monster Six, she views him and recognizes him as a friend, so she exposed her music box to show him her toy. Similar to how kids show each other what they got for Christmas. But when Mono breaks it, Six becomes confused, angry, and sad that her only sense of comfort was destroyed, so she dropped Mono because he broke it. I don’t understand why so many people hate Six she’s my fav female video game character and everyone hates on her because she dropped Mono 😭
@ I love both mono and six, but she’s my fav, I don’t understand why people like hate her so much, like, if you went thru that type of stuff I think you would be kinda traumatized :/
It's more like that Six shouldn't have TRUSTED you! She's seen countless people, especially kids die. One of them she ate because her hunger was just unsatiable. She never lets herself grow close to anyone, because they will all double-cross her eventually. She's just a small kid trying to survive in some dystopia, unable to find any paradise; because like the Lost Children arc of Berserk said, "There's no such thing as a heaven to escape to. Life is a struggle but you still need to endure and learn from it."
@@somdudewillsonwell she did also eat the lady at the end of LN1- that seemed fairly voluntary, but it’s also possible that she was compelled to that for a different reason
AHHHH! The ultimate betrayal was getting to the end of this video and getting hit with a part two! 😂 I can’t wait. Little Nightmares is one of those games I’d love to play but those chase/timing games like this and Limbo so absolutely NOTHING good for my blood pressure. Great vid Connor 🎉 (Also you made it all the way through the discussion of the Pale City without once saying the word ‘Panopticon’, that’s progress)
the way you switched music at 27:00 when introducing the pale city is great. I think if you dipped into that "negative space" in your audio more often, you could really benefit from it. absolutely fantastic video.
to the intro: my mom always was a mess, my dad left because of it, other adults hated me because I was born in a different country even tho I came to mine at age 2, so for me adults were always wrong in some way, all adults were just scary and I just learned to pretend that was fine so I wouldn't be as "threatening" to them and as such they wouldn't be so mean to me
I'm writing my college dissertation at the moment and the research part (that I personally chose) is focused on a few children's literature pieces, including A Series of Unfortunate Events. I paused the video five minutes in, laid down my lunch and SPRINTED to my school notes to write down the Eye metaphor...should have gotten the hint as soon as you wrote that adults were stupid and bad lmaooo
Its always going to be impressive to me how these games just NAIL the spirit and energy of childhood fears. Not just echoing feelings from childhood but bringing them back in full force by updating the imagery and scale to hit you just the same as an adult. It really highlights how reasonable and honestly gruesome many of the things we feared as children really were. I so vividly remember being afraid of home invaders with guns, similar to the man with a gun in the woods. I remember being aware that my Mom really couldn't defend me in that situation and equally aware I wasn't supposed to think that. As a child, you're supposed to feel like your parents will keep you safe no matter what. But thats exactly why its scary realising that can't always be the case. Things like giants or monsters eating you alive, being cooked, the scary stuff you saw on TV crawling out to come get you, weird shapes in the mirror or in the dark, they're so evocative of childhood and yet when thought about in depth as an adult they're even more horrifying.
I clicked on this video thinking it had came out around the time the second game did. now I'm sitting here forced to wait for a part two... great work!!!
I wonder if Six dropped Mono out of malice or betrayal, as the video ending suggested or if she did it out of self preservation. As you stated Mono and Six were allies, not friends but there was trust, until Six saw Mono use the TV. It's not hard to see TVs and the connection to the adults monstrous behavior, so seeing Mono have such power over TVs is automatically frightening. Mono essentially forced Six into dangerous situations by dragging her places when she had proven she could take care of herself. But the world is dangerous and by herself she'd run into similar situations anyway, so might as well be together. Until the Thin Man, not only does he hurt and abuse children but he also comes after Six which by itself is not unique but she is _caught._ Her friend who led her here, unleashed this monster onto her, and showed signs of some sort of connection to this beast, ultimately got her caught. Is _that_ not betrayal? She has something stolen that she can't get back, is transformed into a monster with only one thing left that'll comfort her and then... he destroys that too. She'll never be the same even if she looks normal, and perhaps having a taste of power in the sense that she could finally defend herself as a monster only made her transformation back to a child all the more painful. And then holding his hand, on the precipice of death, she looks into his face and sees... _him_ the Thin Man who hurts children, who hurt her! I don't mean this literally either, obviously Mono _is_ the Thin Man but I doubt Six knew that. She saw similiarities and actions that both did that hurt her, thus permanently tying Mono and the Thin Man together. Mono has put his life on the line trying to do the right thing, and he looks up and sees the girl he's been traveling with, who is so desensitized to death and pain that torture is just a game. They're both horrified by what they see. Neither child was malicious or sadistic or plotting. Mono was trying to do the Right Thing in a world where morality has no place. Six was trying survive by any means necessary.
Hey that opening line about "when was the first time you saw something wrong with an adult" has sent me on a spiral about my childhood and you should feel good that your writing can do that to me
This is really why Little Nightmares and the upcoming Reanimal really are different at their core. Both rely on the horror of normal lifeforms being twisted into abominations, but Little Nightmares very obviously relies on the symbolic horror of usually-responsible adults becoming complete selfish monsters against the helpless children that they're meant to protect. Reanimal obviously isn't out yet, but we can guess that it'll be more about humanity's helplessness against nature's sheer unpredictability and capacity to rebound; a completely different theme.
I relate to little nightmares too much. I... I don't like adults, not in person anyway. They feel so alien I guess. So different, theu can't be related to us. Us, as in us children. I learned to stick with other kids and keep each other safe since I was very young. My life always felt like I was running and hiding from the bigger people, working with the other little ones, and keeping each other away from harm. Safer when no adults are there, and walking on thin glass when there are. I know that they are not only willing and capable but ready to turn on me. Just when I think they're satisfied, it turns out I messed up somewhere and am about to turn on them. It's very scary knowing they have power over me and we're supposed to protect me. They have protected me from other adults, but I'm the only one who can protect myself and the others from them.
This was my introduction to your channel and man do i love your voice, it's soothing but doesn't melt away while i'm focusing on other things and the emotions you put into your tone grabbed my attention. This was really beautiful and i can't wait for the next part but will check out your other videos in the meantime
I fear older people because of what I went through in secondary school. And from what I know, there are people that went through the same thing I did. And my heart goes out to those people, being hurt by people you're supposed trust is sadly nothing new. But the countless times it is ignored and "brushed under the rug" is absurd. And most turn to suicide, from what I've learned. And so have I. But just because most of us have failed doesn't mean we all have. Even if there's a mirco chance we can change things... *It's worth the cost*
By trying to cut a potential danger in her life Six created a enemy from what was once a friend, Mono, who alone has now become a entity who’s purpose is to bring that pain that was instilled into him, by removing a future enemy, you onto ensure yourself one, and in Little Nightmares, that is the cruel nightmare you will never escape
This is my personal opinion, but Little Nightmares is such an important game, not just for adult players but young players, too. I think it sheds light on the objectification of children, the trauma in it and how it affects their perception of the world around them, something I had to come to terms with long after my childhood This game, oddly enough, was the way i was able to really start coping, and I hope it can be a way to cope for other people of any age
The intro is the best way I’ve ever heard the fear put into words. I’m 12 as of writing this, and despite the ‚incident‘ happening 3 years ago now, I’m still terrified of adults. I met my father when I was seven, and he further cemented that idea I’d gotten from my mother; *Adults are not to be trusted.* If I’m touched I flinch, if I’m pressed I snap, if I’m in pain I hide it until it’s too late. (reason I got pneumonia) But yeah, thanks for putting it into words for me.
There’s something about the podcast that I don’t hear anyone talk about. The councillor is named Otto. There are 7 kidnapped children, the sixth is named six. The first named mono (meaning 1) but Otto is Italian for 8
The scariest part of this game for me, is watching mono slowly grow into the thin man. Most of the adults throughout the series, like mentioned, are faceless. We don’t know anything about them, their intentions, or reasoning. But watching mono became the thin man is terrifying. This is the only adult we understand the reasoning behind. Knowing that someday, we might become like the parents/teachers/adults we swore never to be like our whole lives. It is the truest childhood fear out there.
That is honestly one of the things that draws me most into little nightmares. It does such an amazing job of capturing the fear of not only living in fear of monsters but living with the very real fear of becoming a monster yourself. Not only that, but it shows *how* that happens too. Throughout both games we see six and mono both go through all the little things that slowly add up to them becoming monstrous, we watch mono get betrayed and grow up bitter and angry, leading him to violence when he becomes the thin man. And we watch six as she gets hurt over and over again, learning to strike first and slowly losing her trust and compassion for anyone, leading her to similar acts of violence.
In my opinion they represent different kinds of childhood traumas. Mono represents neglect, he was betrayed and alone and one of the main themes of LN2 was escapism, showing how neglect leads you to run away from reality, and lash out at the people who abandoned you. And six represents active abuse, she is constantly being attacked by everything (not that mono isn’t, but she got more of that between the two games) and as a result she learns to fear and hate everyone around her, even mono as the one person she’s shown trusting, and he ends up betraying and attacking her too. It shows her learning to emulate her attackers, and as a result taking her anger out on innocent people just like what happened to her.
Anyway this was unnecessarily long but I just absolutely love the way this game encapsulates the fear of any traumatized child- the fear of becoming the very thing that you wanted to escape from.
I like your point about the traumas, it really makes a lot of sense. And the way that mono slowly starts to lose control as he enters the tv, might align with how sometimes when people bottle up traumatic events, or emotions. When this happens it usually leads to an outburst or a breakdown and just him losing control kind of reminded me of that.
Also I think the way they painted six as the villain in this is very realistic. Not to say she is a villain, but people who have been abused tend to show more anger and resentment than some of the other traumas. Our society says to cares about the abuse until it turns into anger.
@@claracrossing5725 exactly!! i always think about the anger six shows in a sort of instinctual "scared feral animal" way. if something or someone hurts her once, it's safer to assume it's going to hurt her again, and it's safer to bite back than it is to forgive
@@hershelroswell holy shit youre like one of the few people ive seen so far that actually gets it. this is exactly why i cant hate six and why she resonates with me so much. she doesnt seem like a heartless person to me, just a scared child thats been taught violence. while i wasnt pushed to extremes like she was, when i was her age, i was so angry and reactive all the time. people always treated me like i was a brat, but i was just scared. theres a difference between being mean for the sake of it and being mean because youre convinced its safer to keep people far away from you.
Why are ALL the replies long I’m the only one that isn’t that long
40:13 i dont really think that Six torturing a hand as a product of boredom is any less scary because to me it just implies desensitization rather then outright sadism. It's also hard to overlook this moment given how shortly after she decides to cozy up next to an oven currently roasting the doctor alive
exactly!
The best way I can personally say it is this: Mono was a human who looked at Six and saw a friend. Six was a survivor who looked at Mono and saw an ally- an ally that became a liability.
It reminds me of a book trilogy known as The Hunt: The main character is so used to doing everything he can to survive that, when the time comes where he actually interacts with other humans, he realizes he knows very little about actually being human. He doesn’t even remember his own name at first.
Do you remember the name of the author? There's a lot of books called that unfortunately lmao
The fact that all the character's names are what they do fits pretty well with the game showing an interpretation of the world as a child; when you're a kid, you don't know the names of most adults. It's The Doctor, The Professor, it's even just Mom and Dad. You know the adults as what role they have in your life/the world.
That’s really interesting. Here in Norway, at least when I grew up in the 90s, we called our teachers, doctors etc my their first names, so those were always named, but then others would be “nameless” in that way, like nurses or maybe dentists (? I can’t really remember for sure about dentists). But people we saw very often, like teachers, were always called by their first name. I know it’s not like that in the US, but I never thought about it in the way you described. It’s just a bit interesting
But isnt the janitors name Roger?
“Say the word Connor”
Connor McGrath: “Magnus archives”
*children cheering*
i know my audience
Yay!! THE ARCHIVES SUCCESSFULLY MAGNUS'D
The watchful eye being the piercing surveillance of a parent should definitely have been one of the episodes, if there was one similar someone let me know!😊
@@spookymcg CEASELESS WATCHER!! TURN YOUR GAZE UPON THIS BEAUTIFUL SKELETON!!!
@@nadiapenn8480 There was one Season Five statement that was kinda similar
For anyone who likes the themes and style of Little Nightmares, I highly recommend A Series of Unfortunate Events. I was really into ASoUE as a kid, precisely because it was the only story I had encountered that depicted adults as being sometimes deeply flawed; even the ones that aren’t malicious and had good intentions ended up being unreliable or blind to the evils the children had to face.
Oh, and both have the same eye motif + secret identities + exaggerated worldbuilding
Love this comparison.
I thought LN seemed familiar!
Oh, that's true! My favorite book in that series was The Reptile Room, since it introduced my favorite (non-human) character and the one guy who might've actually raised the kids well if he was allowed half a chance.
@@shadowstar8619 Reptile Room was also my favorite! Though Wide Window and Ersatz Elevator are close seconds, I liked the twists and murder mystery vibes from them.
Literally this, just never watch the Netflix series.
I always find it interesting that everyone tends to side with Mono so much they put cruel and monstrous intentions onto Six while ignoring her perspective. From Six's perspective Mono unleashes a monster despite her trying to stop him. Because of him not only does she get captured and transformed but loses her shade, a part of herself she never gets back. When she has Mono hanging not only is he staring up at her but she's looking down onto his uncovered face up close for the first time. This could be the moment Six realizes that Mono and the Thin Man are one and the same and that's why she drops him. Everyone always emphasizes how Six betrays Mono without considering that from Six's perspective Mono hurt her first. Six is a survivor and Mono ultimately ends up causing her a lot of harm.
All that aside I really enjoyed this video and I'm off to subscribe and watch more of your videos!
Not to mention Six has that little thing where she’ll randomly become violently hungry to the point of cannibalism. She might have thought being dropped off that ledge was a more preferable fate for Mono.
@Banana_Knight All of this! Neither kid is bad or to blame. They're literally trapped in a situation(timeloop) beyond their control that gradually turns them into monsters.
As for the shade I always thought that it was a part of Six and because it can no longer reunite with her it can only watch as Six is consumed by the hunger caused by it's absence.
@@kaleenar963to be fair that happens after LN2 in the actual cannon timeline, but it is an important part of her character, and I’d imagine she was at least somewhat aware of her nature, six definitely isn’t known to be the most morally sound character ever- not to say she’s evil, she’s traumatized and trying to survive and also a child- but yeah it is notable how much she also consumes a lot the way the adults are shown to do
@@kaleenar963 that comes after she loses a part of herself
@@kaleenar963 That would make a lot of sense, but I don't think that's a possible reason for Six dropping him. The reason why is because her hunger only occurred right after LN2, after arriving in the Maw through the TV portal. This was shown in the extended ending of LN2 where the now separated part/essence of Six appears in front of her as she experiences the first hunger pains. This hunger only occurs in LN1 because it's a consequence of the Thin Man kidnapping Six, causing her to lose her soul and cursing her with a ravenous hunger to fill the missing piece inside, something she can never get back but tries to regardless by consuming the living.
Little Nightmares is def one of my favorites gamds ever, despite only playing it once on my crush's computer and it freaked me out 😭
sometimes that’s all it takes…
NASTYONA Fan Spotted!
Cush? Bro did you ask her out? If not never spend more than 30 days crushing on a girl without pulling the trigger, best advice i ever got in grade school
@@CoperliteConsumer it's actually a guy qkdjqkdja, I've been trying to make a move for 6 MONTHS, but he never had a girlfriend of boyfriend before so... I don't know 😭😭😭
I love playing gamds
The podcast in particular was the first thing that made me go
"Is EVERY grownup in this universe a piece of shit?"
that podcast was the best part of this game series.
@@yetanotherherei wish i could listen to it for the first time again, it was so beautifully disgusting
@@yetanotherhere where can I find it?
@@torad_2120 spotify and youtube
What I like about Little Nightmares is that it can be interpreted a large number of ways, depending on how literally or metaphorically you want to take the events that unfold.
My favorite thing about the childhood fears interpretation, specifically, is that it recontextualizes Mono's connection to the thin man...the fear abused children have as they grow up, that they'll eventually become the same type of monster who abused them. A fear that often comes true if they're not helped from the outside, which Mono, quite pointedly, was denied in the final moment.
W pfp
I remember a long time ago, when I was a little kid it was lunch time, and I sat down but didn’t eat my food because I wasn’t hungry. Some lunch lady saw me and thought it would be a fantastic idea to stuff food inside my mouth without even considering that I wasn’t hungry and not to mention she scraped my tongue with the fork harshly. She was fired by the end of the day.
Holy shit, that’s horrifying
Why is it always the elementary school staff that's got the psychotic people in it? I had a crazy teacher that instilled a deep-seated anxiety towards any and all authoritative forces in my life. Whether good or evil, doesn't matter. I still struggle sometimes with this to this day with feelings of inferiority and frustration towards my learning disability always keeping me slightly behind. Thanks Mrs. Ridenour (I don't even know if that's how you spelled her name)
We also had a gym teacher who flew off the handle and yelled at a kid, making them cry. He was fired after that
@@Kids_Scissors that's funny, when teachers snapped at my elementary they didn't get fired, they'd be forced to teach even _younger_ grades. Gotta traumatize them early! Said teacher screamed at a kid over a messy desk drawer, dumped it out onto the floor and broke the tray.
Glad she was fired
@@Kids_Scissors It was an elementary school teacher for me too! And she taught me for two years in a row 2nd and 3rd grade. She treated me fine in grade 2. But for whatever reason she went off the rails and started treating her students like shit in grade 3. Was always so uptight about grammar. Make sure not to say ain't around her, she'll berate you and make sure the whole class is a witness. And don't have hair she doesn't like, or she'll grab you by the wrist and threaten to force it back with hairclips! So weird..
It's interesting to see the thin man take children, being a classic "trustworthy" adult. Yet he preys on children. His childhood was pursued and guided by a man just like who he became. Despite seeing the effects of that behavior becoming one to perpetuate it.
A lonely solitary child, in a system of abuse grows up to commit the same acts
The description of bullies says no one’s to blame , no bad parents , no bad education , they are just little devils
I mean... you could argue the teacher made them that way
@@SirToaster9330 quite literally, MADE them that way.
@@SirToaster9330bullies are literally pieces of sh*t irl.
@@ivorminecraftstorymodepottery class with her must be lit
Bullies are a normal healthy social creation. They push out divergent behaviors in adolescent groups. Without them you get things like furys and male predators developing
“Someone once told me, 'Time is a flat circle.’ Everything we've ever done or will do, we're gonna do over and over and over again. And that little boy and that little girl, they're gonna be in that room again and again and again forever." True Detective, show with references to THE KING IN YELLOW.
I'm watching it now!
Good luck my friend.
* Shivers * (Even though I know for a fact thats not true.)
idk i never thought adults were perfect. My earliest memories of adults was thinking they were stupid. In pre school the teacher trying to get us to shake our butts to a dance called the "tootie ta". I was having none of that undignified nonsense.
Ugh, never heard of it, but same.
The TOOTIE TA??? 😭😭😭😭
@@Creatures_of_the_Everquarry ITS HORRID. I was very stubborn about this song. They wanted us to preform it for our parents, there were lots of songs we sung but I was alright with most of them. When the Tootie Ta came on, i calmly left the stage and sat with my parents as protest, then went back up when it was done. I may have been 4 but i had honor.
A very relatable moment indeed lol
Definitely best that if you really don't want to do it
Simply leave
Bro said undignified nonsense💀🎩
I still have trauma to this day regarding teachers and the sheer amount of emotional abuse that i experienced. The movie Matilda wasn't fiction to me. It simply reflected real life (without the magic, obv). My school seems to have been run by middle-aged and bitter ladies who were always on the verge of psychological breakdowns at any given moment. One particular incident that sticks with me is when I pissed my pants because one teacher wouldn't let me go to the bathroom until I finished colouring in a picture of jesus.
Crap, that’s just…I have no words. That was just cruel.
Sheesh was that a nun's school? A big part of Jesus' ministry was calling out religious leaders who abused their authority, so he definitely wouldn't be pleased with such behavior!
I had a very similar experience with a teacher where she wouldn't let me go to the bathroom until I finished our days of the week song, this was in 1st or 2nd grade
@bradleyadams5252 it was a Catholic school but not with nuns. Although most of my teachers may as well have been. Like one of them ridiculed me in front of the whole class because I couldn't tell the difference between 'which' and 'witch'- like I was 8, what do they expect?
@2silly4u_ yep I hear you, no doubt everyone made fun of you for the longest time afterwards.
I always somewhat question if Six's decision to drop Mono wasn't out of malice, but fear. We have no way of knowing how much she knows of the situation, or if her vision of what happened was skewed. When she was a monster, the player / Mono does torment her, and while we know we're helping her, she may not fully grasp that even afterward. What was her perception of what was going on? Did she know the boy would one day become the Tall Man, and thus, an enemy? Did she drop the boy in an attempt to prevent it somehow? I can get behind the pair not really being 'friends', but I do suspect they at least had some amount of trust for one another at some point, but Six lost it when she perceived Mono's actions as bad. She's been through a lot, and there may be core reasons for her base trust level to be strained at best for other people. Not saying that what she did was the right choice, but it seemed to complete a time loop, what happens to that if she doesn't drop him? Do things turn out worse? Better? Fun idea to ponder.
Edit: More thoughts!
I think that Six and Mono are in what I feel could be called a trust paradox. Mono grows up to distrust and hate Six for what she did to him, and in turn his actions as Tall Man in the past frightened Six into distrusting him in the first place. It is a doomed loop of misery between them, a hate spiral that became tangled within its own narrative. Neither of them is bad, but time distorts details for all of us. We all remember some bully or not very nice thing that troubled us when we were children, and for those of us who had friends utterly backstab us, with no reconciliation at the end, it can also become a hate spiral that we haul along with us as adults. Sometimes such hate is mutual. Sometimes we're the ones who did the back-stabbing without ever meaning to. Without communicating, without the more mature mind to comprehend, little issues become little nightmares that grow wildly out of control with age and what we choose to remember. I don't think either child is innocent, nor are they all bad. Six's reactions to things, and the way she comes off as cruel is very much a learned behavior. All those things, she knows they're dangerous. Maybe she's stuck in the same loop as Mono is. Maybe she remembers just enough to know caution. I suppose more questions and some answers await us in the Third game
im so used to seeing people treat six like a war criminal, its _so_ refreshing to see more nuanced take on her. i know first hand how trauma/abuse can really fuck you up as a child, though i was always treated like a misbehaved brat. so i appreciate that youve taken the time to try and see things from her perspective.
i truly do not think she is evil. just very young and very traumatized.
Important note: Six is _not_ the only victim of the Tall Man. The Tall Man killed/ripped out the souls of/did _something_ bad to a _lot_ of other kids.
I like to think she just had a bad gript that was all
I like the point about her not understanding what was happening! It could be referenced back to the point in the video where connor explains his fear of needles with that story of the nurse and his first vaccine. He didn't understand then, and now even that he's gained the clarity to know it was helpful, it was still a traumatic experience. Put that way, it sounds very similar to what six went through with the music box.
@@somdudewillson If you notice I don't really think the thin man really wants to hurt anyone, not even Six. I think he might have always been trying to help protect people through escapism but he doesn't believe he is hurting them. We can see this when instead of torturing Six when he is able to get a hold of her he just puts her in a dream like state where she is comforted by the music box. He is in a way trying to protect her from the cruel and uncaring world they live in but making her lose herself in the process. He might not understand he is in a timeloop too since he spent so much time alone with the weird eye entity, his memories could be jumbled up and that is why he might be acting both in anger and protection towards her and the city.
I think that ending displays really well the cycle of violence that can happen through many generations of abuse. Six contributed to that cycle, whether she realizes it or not, by letting Mono go. By concedeing to her more violent tendencies, she unwittingly created one of the monsters that hunts her.
I don't think it was a matter of Six never being trustworthy so much as it is her trust in you has degraded overtime, specifically each time she learned more about you. The first time she's put on her toes, its when she sees that Mono has supernatural abilities.
I think over time especially after seeing the Thin Man and then finally seeing your face, she realized that you're a "Monster," or at least fated to be one, and cut her ties then and there.
Ngl I can relate to both Six and Mono: One being the optimistic, seeing the good in people, only to be abandoned, and the other, being so suspicious that even the slightest hints of being a dangerous or troublesome person overrides any value of the good, and becomes grounds for cutting them off completely.
Watching momo grow up in the chair was a very strong shock, one of my biggest fears as a child was simply growing up, I was afraid of not recognising myself one day
The concept of the Porcelain children is so... strange and alluring to me. The nowhere isn't designed to have kids, this fact is kind of mimicked in the nature of the Porcelain kids themselves
I think it indirectly illustrates the concept of an “inconsiderate” environment. It’s something I’ve noticed a lot with kids recently, in that they’re mostly are only two places they’re meant to be kept: school and home. And having no real places to actually hang out outside of those.
It’s a system of systematic narcissistic behavior in adults. Like they see kids as an accessory rather than people, and they literally take the world for themselves.
@@solleehasnolife4780 This is actually a phenomenon that has been discussed more in more in recent years called "third places". Usually it's about adults or teenagers where there are no real places to exist outside of work or gome without having to pay for it. You want to meet your friends at a Café? You gotta buy coffee. You want to go out to dance? Pay the entry fee for a Club and so on. And thjs is only exacerbated when talking about kids because they don't have the money or autonomy to even go to these transactionary places. And if they do go there they are often treated as nuisances. It's the byproduct of living in a capitalism-driven world that is hostile to simple human connection.
I feel like the 'conclusion' about Six in this video only hold up if you ignore the actual rest of the ending and the prior context of the game. Six has seen Mono release the Thin Man, and potentially figured out that they are connected after seeing both of their faces. And, despite what a lot of people seem to believe, the Thin Man is _not_ just an entity trying to get back at Six. He is a full monster in his own right, killing/stealing the souls of/doing _something_ terrible to a lot of entirely unrelated kids.
I agree. Mono and Six suffered a lack of communication that led to a mutual betrayal. In the end, they couldn’t clear it up. Mono becomes a monster, Six does as well.
We dont know what happened to the kids and where they were taken as far as we can tell mono was brainwashed
I'm pretty sure the reason Six dropped Mono at the end of the game was because she finally saw his face and realised he was the Thin Man
I personally think that the most horrible part of the games is the parts where you have to wait in hiding for the danger to pass, all you can hear is the awful mouth-breathing, groaning, and huffing, its genuinely unsettling to listen to for me
No idea if this is intentional on the game Devs part, but I played little nightmares 2 and since I died a lot (rip mono) I got the privilege to notice Six's reactions throughout the game. Up until her capture, she goes back for you. She shows concern. Add onto that the fact that every single time she catches you. Then you get to the signal tower. If you die in the wall if flesh chase, if you die she looks back, but she keeps running. It gives me the impression that something between mono and six broke, whether it be him letting the thin man out and her capture, him breaking her music box, or her knowing that he is the thin man.
It was also interesting to note that while six had been turned monsterous, the room we initially see her in is pleasant. Toys, soft lighting, and her music box. She was finally safe, in a way. And that was torn from her. At the beginning of the game, and at the end.
Side note: I wonder if the shadow six we see leading us to the signal tower is in anyway the same shadow six from the first game
Bro posts this RIGHT as my Little Nightmares hyperfixation boots up again
You and me both, my friend…
honestly, as someone who was diagnosed with a chronic illness at a really young age, the hospital, mannequins, and doctor will always be the scariest part of the game to me. they freak me out even though i only watched playthroughs. reminds me a lot of the Bad Old Days, lol
the perspective of this game really reminds me of the movie matilda (1996) and how they shot the movie from the perspective of the child rather than wide pan shots
The section where the teacher is playing the piano is one of my favorite moments in any horror media. The way the music is gorgeous but just *off* perfectly encapsulates The School's feeling to me. Its so good.
The sadest part is that he never really left that room until he let himself out. Then his younger self ending up killing his older self, without being able to warn the younger self of his fate and that is why it keeps repeating again and again. A fate that hecan never be able to escape from.
I love little nightmares because it feels very familiar. I live in the north of england and it often feels very gray, it also has a lot of old, mildly dilapidated buildings and shadows of great beauty faded to time. I've been in rain-soaked, witch-haunted woodlands, old schools with strange doorways and layouts as well as cold grey cities where everone looks a bit miserable. I love the north and I love living here, along with the creepy, witchy faded vibe and I feel like these games really emulate that in a strangely comforting way.
I am also from the north of england and I could not posaibly disagree more. This is definitely not my experience or opinion of the north lol
i live in the north too lol accurate, but i see it as more like faded out watercolours.. but that's me XD
I love Little Nightmares videos and this is a really good one.
I do have to disagree with one point though. You mentioned only Six was not a normal child. It could be argued that none of the kids who have managed to survive the Nowhere at this point are normal. The majority of them have seen far more than any children should have, and this likely goes double for them when you take in the context of the Sounds of Nightmares podcast.
To iterate, the only way you are “selected” by the Ferryman to be taken to Nowhere is if there is enough trauma and exploitation at the hands of an adult to essentially make yourself a target. We see this with Noone as she was a target of severe bullying, had her autonomy stripped from her by the media following her recovery (to the point of even selecting what she wore) and then Otto taking advantage of her. It got to the point where she felt safer with the Ferryman, despite knowing where he is taking her.
So I think most of these kids, Mono and Six included, led lives that were terrible and made them feel unsafe and powerless. They’d seen much more than any normal child should, whether through neglect, exploitation, abuse or any combination of the three.
I don’t think Six was being actively malicious when she dropped Mono, at least not in the way we think. Yes, there was definitely some retaliation for both leaving her behind when the building was collapsing and also hiding under the bed just before the Thin Man took her, even as she tried to reach out for him.
But I think Six was scared of Mono at that point as well. He kept going into the Tvs, no matter how many times she tried to pull him out and stop him, and it led to the Thin Man being free. On top of that, he destroyed something that brought her comfort, even if it was ultimately for her own good.
We should remember that Six is 9 years old and maybe there are other factors to take into account when looking at this.
My mom has had an alcohol problem for a good chunk of my life.
Im 20 now but back when i was around 8 or 9 i remember her getting absolutely wasted in front of me for the first time, it wouldn't be the last.
Its terrifying to learn that young that adults are flawed and that your parent, isn't who you thought they were
I dont realy know what else to say other then i relate, my dad was and continues to be an alcoholic.
@@ghostrasmussen8414 she wasn't even violent or a scary drunk. But i witnessed my own mother let a habit consume her while she still managed to function day to day.
She wasn't wasted 24/7, just at night, when i wanted to spend time with her
She chose it over her family and wonders why i dont like to visit
This is just a headcanon of mine…one I’ve accepted from Gaming Beaver’s theory videos on these games…but I believe the reason that Six betrayed Mono is because she was at peace with her music box again, and even though it was for her own good, she couldn’t forgive Mono for destroying the music box, and with it, her peace
like she was more comfortable prioritizing blissful ignorance over the uncomfortable truth? i think that’s really interesting… maybe we’ll see that develop more in LN3
@@spookymcg something like that? I saw it more like the music box is her comfort object…but it could easily be both
To quote directly from Gaming Beaver’s video “with [the music box] she can’t bare to be apart from it, and without it, is a nightmare all in itself”
@@spookymcgi saw it more as it was the only thing that brought her comfort. she displays trust when she presents it to mono. with the shattered remains of the music box, so too is her trust shattered. i know from experience, you dont get that protective over something for no reason.
@@spookymcglittle nightmares 3 is made by different Developers.
The ones who made 1 & 2 said that they quote: "told the story we wanted to tell and are ready to move on".
I dont think there is anything you could ad to the story we have rn.
And it looks like the new devs know that, hence completely new characters and locations.
@@frog6384 yeah, I’ll doubt we’ll see much or anything from the first few games (especially Six) in LN3…but it’d be cool if we did
I absolutely, wholeheartedly, adore little nightmares, the second game especially. It’s probably the piece of horror media I hold dearest. I won’t go into detail because this is like- a youtube comments section, but the games really spoke to me as someone who grew up around a lot of unstable characters. And you’re 100% right, being a child in that kind of environment is like wading through a dream. Not necessarily a nightmare, though at times it was, but definitely some other space not quite flush with reality. It’s funny, whenever my brother is asked about being a kid he’ll just say “nah I don’t remember anything before I was like 16” like childhood was a dream he’d just woken up from and can’t recall.
I’ve always found a lot of solace in interpreting the games as how a rough childhood “feels” to a child. Your imagination runs just as wild, but instead of being fueled by books read to you before bed or what could dad possibly be cooking that smells so good? it’s fueled by shouting, loneliness, hunger, fear. Unsurprisingly this creates a pretty grotesque world and LN illustrates that in such a beautifully horrific way. I’ll never forget the first time I finished LN2. I’m terrified, TERRIFIED, of ending up like some of the people who raised me so seeing mono become the thin man and realizing the entire game is a loop just broke me. What makes it so much worse is that mono, like any child caught in a cycle of abuse, is completely unaware of his place in it. He is but a CHILD. There’s no way he’s gonna recognize he’s following in the footsteps of a monster. He just wants to get to the end of that hall. He doesn’t know why, but he just has to. Right?
God, it makes me so sad every time
Also just a side note mono’s story had such an effect on me that I drew a little picture of him and kept it in my phone case (a clear one of course, I had to show off my boy) and he was there until my first semester of college. He’s chilling in a sketchbook somewhere now
i spent my whole life desperately trying to separate myself from my parents and my family as i grew because who they were as people disgusted me, even more desperately now that im eighteen and have some sort of agency, and...yeah that really got to me, too. mono and six mean a lot to me. six, in particular, because i practically _was_ her when i was her age. i talk about it more than i probably should, a lot of people really dont like her. but she and little nightmares as a whole is something i feel compelled to talk about. for a lot of people, being a child and having no control over yourself and your life isnt comforting, its beyond terrifying. more people should know what thats like.
2:25 "As a kid, you recognize that not only do these people have authority over you, but most of them also have real strength, size, and agility on you."
When I was a kid, the idea that anyone had authority over me they didn't earn was laughable, and something as arbitrary as age didn't count to me.
...Which lead to a lot of punishments for disobedience. I didn't trust my parents, and I still don't.
If they wanted me to follow instructions, they could have answered me when I asked "why?" Instead, they said "because I said so," the laziest thing any parent can say.
I grew up not knowing the importance (if any) of what they failed to drill into my head, and only grew up averse to many things and fearful of "dominance junkies."
Authority on the basis of an arbitrary title or bloodline is worthless to me. If someone wants to tell me what to do, there has to be a good reason they're in that position in the first place.
Identical to why I gave up sports once I hit highschool. As a freshman I was looked down on. But I had just as much reason to be in control as they did. They were just around longer. Fuck that.
I’d like to also point out the possibility (haven’t finished video yet, you may have touched on it) but potentially mono running down the hallway, doesn’t care what’s on the other side of the door because surely it is better than what is behind them and what they are running from.
When you mentioned consumption it kinda surprised me you didn’t mention the main theme/inspiration of the games. Gluttony.
I have a feeling that the Hunter might was not like the other adults, at least in LN2, as he gave Six shelter, a music box, and presumably food. The Hunter only acts violently when Mono rescues her.
Frrr, I do have a theory that the traps and such were set for animals, then the hunter had mistaken Six for one causing him to try shoot her (In the comics) but after ends up taking her and giving her a music box. He doesn't seem to shoot Six, there are instances where he does kill her in an attempt to kill Mono but he never is shown deliberately aiming for her.
i always wondered why he did that. like why he specifically captures _her,_ of all people. i doubt he treated her kindly, given she was supposedly locked in that room and did not hesitate to try to get out the moment she had the opportunity, but still, its odd he didnt just kill her immediately like the rest of the monsters wouldve.
I feel like maybe he had a family, once, because of the dummies in his house
Maybe the reason he was holding Six captive was because he just wanted a daughter
Idk man take this with a grain of salt
@@CaitEden53I like this theory, but they said somewhere on the wiki that he was hoping she would die by starvation. Can't remember if it's Canon, though, but like I said, I like your theory, and it could be true
@@Leilaro1324 ✨ Guess we’ll never know ✨/silly
On the topic of The Doctor: there's an achievement for choosing to NOT burn him alive. The achievements in any LN game have no description of how to get them, so it's either guesswork, trial and error, or a guide. The description of the "First Do No Harm" achievement is "It's crueler to let him live." You step into the elevator, followed by his screams and wordless pleas. The world's cruelty has rubbed off on Mono if he really decides to leave The Doctor to slowly die of dehydration, or suffocate on ash, or give himself a heart attack from fear waiting for the fire.
On the topic of Six's cruelty and revenge: Her first instance of "casual" cruelty is in the school. With The Hunter, he was an active threat with no other way to escape. With one particular Bully, after saving her from the bathroom, she slowly walks up behind it, leaps onto its back, and repeatedly slams its face into the ground until its porcelain skull shatters. Mono had a weapon available, and the Bully wasn't an immediate threat. She viciously attacks and kills another child for no other reason than revenge for what has already been pretty well dealt with from Mono's (and thus, the player's) view. Six can be seen later kicking a corpse of a Viewer who has smashed their face into a TV. By that point, they aren't that much of a threat yet beyond "big scary adult", but she does it anyway. In the Signal Tower, she holds Mono only to let him fall in a final act of cruelty and revenge, after he abandoned her to The Thin Man and destroyed what he knew was her only comfort in a horrifying world; she wanted to look him in the eye one last time, so he knew she'd never forgive him and she didn't care if he rotted in this thing's gut for the rest of whatever life he had left. She never looks back. It's the same "I will watch the light/hope drain from your eyes" sentiment as a serial killer, and who's to say she isn't by the end of the series? The Pretender, one of The Bullies, (to a degree) The Doctor, Mono, The Janitor, one of The Guests, a Nome, The Lady, three more of The Guests, totaling 10 killed and one fate sealed. (I'm choosing not to count the rat she eats alive or the child who chooses to give her the last of their bread and presumably starves themself.) She and her penchant for cruelty are the catalyst for much of the horror around her.
Okay as a Six defender I want to point a couple of things out:
1: The Bullies are not children, or at least not anymore. They all will attack and kill you if they know you're not one of them so taking preemptive action is not cruelty it's sensible.
2: Most of her acts can easily be on account of frustration, not cruelty. Think about it, the bullies hurt her and overwhelmed her. Just because Mono got her out doesn't mean she feels better; its very possible taking it out herself gives her confidence again and lets her feel slightly in control. Same with the hand who's fingers she's cracking in the hospital or the viewer she's kicking. It's a small girl finally having some control back in her life.
3: Nearly all of her kills are done towards people who would and frequently do try to hurt her or put her in situations where she would be in imminent danger.
-The Pretender plays with dolls made of children's skin and kills people with a touch, and Six was trying to save her friend/ally.
-The Hunter as you pointed out was trying to shoot her and Mono
-The Bullies kidnapped and hurt her for there own amusement
-The Doctor does not do nice things to the patients in his are and wouldn't be nice to them
-The Janitor puts her in a cage that takes her to the chefs where she'll end up served to the guests.
-The guests themselves will grab and eat her alive if they get their hands on her.
-The Lady tries to suck the life force from her/turn her into a Nome.
Peace was not an option with any of these aside from if she was lucky 'A peaceful death'
4: We don't know what Six is thinking when she drops Mono. I don't think this was a misunderstanding. it absolutely was cruel. But I don't think it was planed. Mono didn't have bad intentions but the journey he lead her on went badly for her, usually as a result of his direction. He lead her into the school, he led her deep into the city where she got drenched and frozen by the rain (Its not like these kids have shelter or dry clothes to change into) She then got grabbed by the Thinman who only got let out because Mono let him out by messing with the TV's (Something you'll recall Six always tried to stop) And after all that she might have finally decided to cut her losses, that this boy isn't a friend or ally she can trust and makes the decision to drop him out of her life.
5: You didn't mention this but I feel its worth noting: Attack the Nome isn't a deliberate act, remember we as the player lose all control over Six when the hunger curse strikes and every time it does happen the scale of what she eats escalates.
To conclude: I don't think Six is a psychopath, I think she's a character lashing out at people who have done her harm, a frustration that gets worse because of the nightmarish world she's trapped in. A world where she couldn't save an ally (Girl in the yellow raincoat), Was let down badly by a friend (Mono) and Finally gained some semblance of control (First games ending)
Hatred of others and acts of violence in children tend to be symptoms of extreme neglect and abuse from their caregivers, which suits the theme already present.
"These little shitheads are the ABSOLUTE WORST" got me
49:20 i call this scene The Timeout Chair.
“It’s like growing up in a haunted house then moving out and realizing… there are ghosts everywhere” what the fuck man I was not ready for you to say something that goes THAT HARD
Stories like little nightmares and all stories like it continue even to this day to help me. Early on as a child dealing with abuse, books like Matilda told me that grown ups are wrong sometimes, and gave me hope that I could make it if I just kept pushing forward. Stories like this today remind me that I was and am never alone. Adults are fu*&king scary, even if I am one now on the outside, the scared child inside of me that learned that long ago still knows this to be true.
I have some sort of undiagnosed DID/OSDD, and part of having that is having a bunch of littles in my system, the body being a young adult. By the 3 minute mark a bunch of my littles, kids and teens, beg me to replay that intro. We huddled together at the front to listen in again. It's a well made intro, we all enjoyed it, helped us heal a bit from everything. The wording is nice and your voice is very calming. Thanks a lot, from all of us
The school sequence hit hard for me. I came from a really predatory school environment, the teachers were superficial, predatory or just cruel and mean for no reason. It was less about discipline and more about power, and the kids lashed out on each other. Being a quieter kid who was too small to fight back felt like hell, and I felt like I was more grown up than any of the adults around me.
"If you don't heal your injury you'll bleed on someone who didn't hurt you"
"If you carry the same stone with you you'll throw it on another person to carry it"
"Once there's a mad man in the house there'll always be a mad man in there"
Some stuff I can add to the child-adult thing
You know I think there's a way to help people who fear adults by reminding them that we can grow up and be a better adults this can also work with those who want to...uhhh...sewer slide yk after thinking about it if we try we can actually turn this world into a better place like seriously now if we just continue living we can fix this world it might be hard but not impossible
This retrospective is so well done!! As a fan of Little Nightmares and a person currently in an emotionally abusive household with a narcissistic mother I totally see the themes of fearing the adults around you present in LN and in my own childhood. Being neurodivergent didn't help these feelings, as it was often hard to emotionally read people then and now as an autistic person. Little Nightmares and it's themes of child abuse/trauma go hand in hand a little too well
"Also she eats a lady" is the funniest line I've seen someone have to use to defend their observations
I like how all eloquence goes out the window when you get to the Bullies.
They’re just a bunch of little bastards
As someone who wants to go into the field of teaching, that whole segment about ‘the school’ was haunting. All of the clips gave me absolute chills, and it’s awful to know that since there are so few teachers, so many shitty ones fall through the cracks and make the lives of children absolute hell. I really hope I’d be one of the good ones.
This is the best possible thing that has happened to me ever, my favorite video essay-ist with my favorite horror game. All is well in life
_>When you have a falling out with a childhood friend, _*_but you still reminisce about it 40 years later_*
"But there's a bad man in everyone
No matter who we are
There's a rapist and a Nazi living in our tiny hearts
Child pornographers and cannibals, and politicians too
There's someone in your head waiting to fucking strangle you"
-AJJ - People II: The Reckoning
Good Lord I love AJJ
I love how politicians are listed among those 😂
Speak for yourself my man
Everyone may be capable of doing wrong, but there's always a choice.
As someone who had traumatic childhood experiences with all of those, I hope not x.x
In Six’s eyes Mono is consistently putting them in danger and Mono has proven himself to be a threat and liability, so Six is just being pragmatic and ensuring their survival. At least to my perspective.
I remember the first time I realized adults could be sad. Like really sad.
While playing with my sister, a pair of seashells got knocked off a shelf and broke. My mom came to check on us, her face the worry I was very accustomed to. Then the relief I knew well when she found we were fine. Then something different happened. Her mouth turned down, her eyes scrunched up, and she began to sob. My dad was a beat behind her and immediately began to comfort her. He asked if she was ok and she silently showed him the seashells. He didn't say a word, but also took on an expression of deep sadness and held her while she cried. She kept saying "it's not a big deal" and I didn't understand.
I asked if we were in trouble and my dad gently said "no baby, mom is just very sad right now."
It didn't make any sense. If we hurt her by breaking her stuff, she should have been mad, right? If she was afraid for our safety, she should have been worried. What was this quiet weeping that came with no context? Why did it make me feel a deep sense of what I would learn is regret? Like I had done something wrong, but I wasn't getting in trouble for it?
I learned later that those seashells were picked up on their last anniversary before they had kids. They hadn't been able to go back to the beach since they had us due to financial restraints. We weren't blamed for any of it. Things get broken. Adults get sad about it. Life goes on. But in that moment, I realized that adults are people, and they can't fix everything. And that hurting someone isn't always on purpose, and doesn't always involve physical pain.
god i just watched Slimecicle's playthrough of Little Nightmares 2 and was wishing for exactly this video, thank you Connor!!!
I LOVE SLI-
i was on the edge of my seat waiting for you to get to the podcast and then looked at the timestamp at 50:12 and was like i dont think we’re getting there lmao. can’t wait for the next part, as a fellow tma fan little nightmares is like checking every single box on the smirke’s list of fourteen
40:13 I thought the argument justifying Six breaking the mannequin hands was because she'd seen them attack while Mono was gone and was breaking all of them in the light to make sure she'd be safe. Like, rather than a sadistic cruelty it was another case of her brutal pragmatism.
I watched a playthrough of Little Nightmares years ago and sort of dismissed it as just horrifying design for the sake of horrifying design, chase scenes for the sake of chase scenes, horror for the sake of horror without diving into anything meaningful. Because of that, I never got into it. I never played the first game, I was ambivalent to the release of the second, and altogether dismissed it as a random horror game.
I am so much more interested now. The themes you've brought up make me want to go play the games so I can see all the pieces fit together, which I didn't think I would do when I started watching this an hour ago. I am very excited to see part two of your analysis.
As other people here have already stated, I don't think many actually understand Six's motives when she drops Mono. He's the Thin Man, that much is obvious, but even without that knowledge, it's clear that his decisions throughout the game have been slowly breaking her. He's dragged her through the mud, he's endangered her life on multiple occasions, he's put her through hell and back. Even if she didn't know what would happen after the fall, one thing's for certain: trusting him is too risky. She chose her life over his, and although she's not innocent herself... she's still a child. She's a scared little girl lost in a world that wants her dead. She has stared into the abyss and now it stares back, and she has no one but herself to turn to. In Six's eyes, Mono has made things worse. He betrayed her.
ive mentioned this many times before, but i feel people tend to forget six is only nine years old. im not saying that excuses her actions, but it sure explains a hell of a lot. 'cause i mean, think about it. what child, what _traumatized_ child, is going to make logical decisions when she is actively in a kill or be killed situation where shes being re-traumatized every single day? people with trust issues and unhealed trauma tend have a very hard time managing relationships and tend to self-sabotage, (speaking from experience here) and i think thats what happened with her. he hurt her, and broke her trust, so she immediately abandoned him. that way, he would never get the chance to hurt her again.
Someone once pointed out that technically, Six could of left at any time. But I suppose there was little places to go.
Also, while she was turned into a monster, she was probably scared, confused, and maybe not even fully aware what had happened to her, with her only source of comfort being the music box that mono has to break to free her. Even if he was trying to help, he still hurt her in the process.
8:28
"Even the strangest and most deeply entrenched parts of this conspiracy seem content, at least for now, just to keep watching you."
Me: "Where have I heard that before. Oh right The Ma-
"It's very Magnus Archives coded."
Also me: "LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
Magnus Archives a hundred years. A hundred years Magnus Archives, Magnus Archives forever. Every video, a hundred years, Magnus Archives, a hundred years!
The part about how doctors and nurses can so easily become bad people to kids reminds me of when I was about 5-6 and had to get several shots, both me and my brother left the room crying. And sure that might be normal, but the difference is that the nurse told us that it would hurt, no 'its just a little prick', just telling us that it would hurt, not what you say to a kid lol
Six didn’t drop Mono because she was using him to survive, the reason why she dropped him was because he destroyed her music box, her only sense of peace and comfort in the Nowhere. When Mono calls to Monster Six, she views him and recognizes him as a friend, so she exposed her music box to show him her toy. Similar to how kids show each other what they got for Christmas. But when Mono breaks it, Six becomes confused, angry, and sad that her only sense of comfort was destroyed, so she dropped Mono because he broke it. I don’t understand why so many people hate Six she’s my fav female video game character and everyone hates on her because she dropped Mono 😭
THANK YOU. So many fans miss this part of the game! I'm so glad someone finally brought it up!
@ I love both mono and six, but she’s my fav, I don’t understand why people like hate her so much, like, if you went thru that type of stuff I think you would be kinda traumatized :/
44:07 oooh what music is that?!? It’s a nice vibe, would work well with some of the stuff I’ve been writing!
It's more like that Six shouldn't have TRUSTED you! She's seen countless people, especially kids die. One of them she ate because her hunger was just unsatiable. She never lets herself grow close to anyone, because they will all double-cross her eventually. She's just a small kid trying to survive in some dystopia, unable to find any paradise; because like the Lost Children arc of Berserk said, "There's no such thing as a heaven to escape to. Life is a struggle but you still need to endure and learn from it."
What do u mean she ate a kid? Cause if your talking about runaway kid she didn’t know he was human at one point
@@Shroom516 It still a sadistic thing to do. RK/The Gnome was offering her food and she literally went, "no, YOU"
@@phantomleaves It wasn't exactly a particularly conscious decision, as far as the context communicates.
@@somdudewillson thats true, it could be like Mono and the TVs
@@somdudewillsonwell she did also eat the lady at the end of LN1- that seemed fairly voluntary, but it’s also possible that she was compelled to that for a different reason
There is no bigger fear than being betrayed by the very thing that created you and not having the power to stop it.
AHHHH! The ultimate betrayal was getting to the end of this video and getting hit with a part two! 😂 I can’t wait. Little Nightmares is one of those games I’d love to play but those chase/timing games like this and Limbo so absolutely NOTHING good for my blood pressure. Great vid Connor 🎉
(Also you made it all the way through the discussion of the Pale City without once saying the word ‘Panopticon’, that’s progress)
little nightmares will always be my favourite video game series
8:35 i forgot i found this channel through your TMA videos so i just choked and went "WILD TMA REFERENCE IN 2024????" love that
the way you switched music at 27:00 when introducing the pale city is great. I think if you dipped into that "negative space" in your audio more often, you could really benefit from it. absolutely fantastic video.
to the intro: my mom always was a mess, my dad left because of it, other adults hated me because I was born in a different country even tho I came to mine at age 2, so for me adults were always wrong in some way, all adults were just scary and I just learned to pretend that was fine so I wouldn't be as "threatening" to them and as such they wouldn't be so mean to me
I'm writing my college dissertation at the moment and the research part (that I personally chose) is focused on a few children's literature pieces, including A Series of Unfortunate Events. I paused the video five minutes in, laid down my lunch and SPRINTED to my school notes to write down the Eye metaphor...should have gotten the hint as soon as you wrote that adults were stupid and bad lmaooo
I can’t believe I trusted you to finish the video the way Mono trusted Six 😤
haha *drops you into a pit*
Its always going to be impressive to me how these games just NAIL the spirit and energy of childhood fears. Not just echoing feelings from childhood but bringing them back in full force by updating the imagery and scale to hit you just the same as an adult. It really highlights how reasonable and honestly gruesome many of the things we feared as children really were. I so vividly remember being afraid of home invaders with guns, similar to the man with a gun in the woods. I remember being aware that my Mom really couldn't defend me in that situation and equally aware I wasn't supposed to think that. As a child, you're supposed to feel like your parents will keep you safe no matter what. But thats exactly why its scary realising that can't always be the case. Things like giants or monsters eating you alive, being cooked, the scary stuff you saw on TV crawling out to come get you, weird shapes in the mirror or in the dark, they're so evocative of childhood and yet when thought about in depth as an adult they're even more horrifying.
I clicked on this video thinking it had came out around the time the second game did. now I'm sitting here forced to wait for a part two... great work!!!
It seems like Six actually enters a door to The Maw at the end, it looks like those doors
I wonder if Six dropped Mono out of malice or betrayal, as the video ending suggested or if she did it out of self preservation.
As you stated Mono and Six were allies, not friends but there was trust, until Six saw Mono use the TV. It's not hard to see TVs and the connection to the adults monstrous behavior, so seeing Mono have such power over TVs is automatically frightening. Mono essentially forced Six into dangerous situations by dragging her places when she had proven she could take care of herself. But the world is dangerous and by herself she'd run into similar situations anyway, so might as well be together. Until the Thin Man, not only does he hurt and abuse children but he also comes after Six which by itself is not unique but she is _caught._ Her friend who led her here, unleashed this monster onto her, and showed signs of some sort of connection to this beast, ultimately got her caught. Is _that_ not betrayal? She has something stolen that she can't get back, is transformed into a monster with only one thing left that'll comfort her and then... he destroys that too. She'll never be the same even if she looks normal, and perhaps having a taste of power in the sense that she could finally defend herself as a monster only made her transformation back to a child all the more painful.
And then holding his hand, on the precipice of death, she looks into his face and sees... _him_ the Thin Man who hurts children, who hurt her! I don't mean this literally either, obviously Mono _is_ the Thin Man but I doubt Six knew that. She saw similiarities and actions that both did that hurt her, thus permanently tying Mono and the Thin Man together. Mono has put his life on the line trying to do the right thing, and he looks up and sees the girl he's been traveling with, who is so desensitized to death and pain that torture is just a game. They're both horrified by what they see.
Neither child was malicious or sadistic or plotting. Mono was trying to do the Right Thing in a world where morality has no place. Six was trying survive by any means necessary.
Hey that opening line about "when was the first time you saw something wrong with an adult" has sent me on a spiral about my childhood and you should feel good that your writing can do that to me
This is really why Little Nightmares and the upcoming Reanimal really are different at their core. Both rely on the horror of normal lifeforms being twisted into abominations, but Little Nightmares very obviously relies on the symbolic horror of usually-responsible adults becoming complete selfish monsters against the helpless children that they're meant to protect. Reanimal obviously isn't out yet, but we can guess that it'll be more about humanity's helplessness against nature's sheer unpredictability and capacity to rebound; a completely different theme.
I relate to little nightmares too much. I... I don't like adults, not in person anyway. They feel so alien I guess. So different, theu can't be related to us. Us, as in us children. I learned to stick with other kids and keep each other safe since I was very young. My life always felt like I was running and hiding from the bigger people, working with the other little ones, and keeping each other away from harm. Safer when no adults are there, and walking on thin glass when there are. I know that they are not only willing and capable but ready to turn on me. Just when I think they're satisfied, it turns out I messed up somewhere and am about to turn on them. It's very scary knowing they have power over me and we're supposed to protect me. They have protected me from other adults, but I'm the only one who can protect myself and the others from them.
This was my introduction to your channel and man do i love your voice, it's soothing but doesn't melt away while i'm focusing on other things and the emotions you put into your tone grabbed my attention. This was really beautiful and i can't wait for the next part but will check out your other videos in the meantime
27:28 Yo, this is actually a pretty good idea for a story by itself.
never has a game brought me more stress and terror in my life. i am beyond excited for 3
Thank you UA-cam recommendations!!!!
I fear older people because of what I went through in secondary school.
And from what I know, there are people that went through the same thing I did.
And my heart goes out to those people, being hurt by people you're supposed trust is sadly nothing new.
But the countless times it is ignored and "brushed under the rug" is absurd.
And most turn to suicide, from what I've learned.
And so have I.
But just because most of us have failed doesn't mean we all have.
Even if there's a mirco chance we can change things...
*It's worth the cost*
36:00 "I'm sorry, that was dumb." NOOO, I love it!
26:51 not the call of the CSA!
By trying to cut a potential danger in her life Six created a enemy from what was once a friend, Mono, who alone has now become a entity who’s purpose is to bring that pain that was instilled into him, by removing a future enemy, you onto ensure yourself one, and in Little Nightmares, that is the cruel nightmare you will never escape
This is my personal opinion, but Little Nightmares is such an important game, not just for adult players but young players, too.
I think it sheds light on the objectification of children, the trauma in it and how it affects their perception of the world around them, something I had to come to terms with long after my childhood
This game, oddly enough, was the way i was able to really start coping, and I hope it can be a way to cope for other people of any age
I was always so uncomfortable with this game, and I couldn't put a finger on why until I was living on my own.
48:10 i always get jumpscared when i hear my singing monsters soundfronts in other game soundtracks. rooba what are you doing in little nightmares!?
Why did I never think about the deeper meanings of the Little Nightmares world?
I never actually sat down and thought about the dynamic between adults and the main characters in little nightmares, I really enjoyed this!!!
The intro is the best way I’ve ever heard the fear put into words. I’m 12 as of writing this, and despite the ‚incident‘ happening 3 years ago now, I’m still terrified of adults. I met my father when I was seven, and he further cemented that idea I’d gotten from my mother; *Adults are not to be trusted.* If I’m touched I flinch, if I’m pressed I snap, if I’m in pain I hide it until it’s too late. (reason I got pneumonia)
But yeah, thanks for putting it into words for me.
"as a kid you have less power but also a lower expectation for self control" oh huh new thing that was wrong with my upbringing discovered...
Amazing video! Had no idea there was a third one coming out and can't wait!
Thank you! I’m really excited for it!
literally just found this channel,
i can already see this video blowing up so congrats
Even as an adult myself, adults are fucking scary.
There’s something about the podcast that I don’t hear anyone talk about. The councillor is named Otto. There are 7 kidnapped children, the sixth is named six. The first named mono (meaning 1) but Otto is Italian for 8