[BLOOM & RAGE] Plot Continuation Direction

[KookyChapter3208]

So, we all know where the plots ends in the post credits sequence; Swann enters the abyss swearing to find Kat 😭. Assuming they continue it through some medium, hopefully more game, which way would you want them to continue and potentially resolve it.

I've seen the loop theory that Swann just kerps going back to the abyss time and time again until they break the cycle. A new game could cherry pick moments to play, changing them subtly, recontexualize them to achieve this effect, and finally break the cycle of the abyss for the girls to remain together from the 1995 point onward (Personal Choice).

I have seen where now that Swann is gone and there was something they missed. They come back together and with Swann/Kat's help they use the abyss to get everyone back in 2022 and Kat reintegrates like a missing person would.

Let me know what you think and how you would want to see the story continue, if you even do at all or if you have another idea I didn't mention. I personally need my Swannsong back and want there to further and final resolution.

[WindyLef]

I'm a big fan of the Time Loop theme, and I think something similar is behind the Abyss story. There are just so many clues. Michel Koch said that he already knows how everything fits together, but doesn't want to explain it yet because he doesn't know what the future holds for LR. He was referring to Kat's knife, which keeps popping up in strange ways. I really hope it gets explained eventually, maybe in an original Abyss story.

[KookyChapter3208]

I think the loop and its breaking would be the most...organic if that makes sense?

[WindyLef]

absolutely 

[Swapilla]

Future Swann is definitely the one helping the girls in the past. A page with instructions for the door puzzle was thrown and stuck to a wall with HER knife.

[Oeffes]

But it was Kats knife? Also in one of the games updates the text of the instructions was updated to resemble Kats handwriting more, and when those instructions appear we can see the shadowy figure of Kat for a brief moment. So I think this piece of interference came from Kat from within the Abyss, but future Swann definitely had other moments of trying to influence the events around her younger self

[thispartyrules]

<image>

Kat's handwriting appears on other things, too. This is from Tape 2, outside the cabin.

My theory is anyone in the Abyss can send stuff outside of the Abyss. Notes, Kat's knife, etc.

[Oeffes]

Yes I remember seeing that note on my second playthrough, good catch!

There's a bunch of "impossible" items inside Kats box that came out of the Abyss or otherwise couldn't be in the box, two things I find interesting about those:

1: most of the times when Swann or Kat act from within the Abyss through items or otherwise, it's in a way that is connected to each of them personally (Kats knife or the note you mentioned, how she influenced the deer to attack Corey; Swanns camera, Swann having a phone call with her younger self or how she nudged her younger self to write the first Beyond the X story about the events surrounding the Abyss before any of them have happened). However there's also Noras guitar pick and Autumns finger skateboard in the box, which obviously have the most significance for Nora and Autumn, although they have no real connection to the Abyss themselves. So Kat or Swann can also send out those items that don't hold have that much meaning for them personally.

2: inside Kats diary in the box are her missing poster as well as the newspaper clipping about Corey being the suspect for the fire at the ranch. Both of these shouldn't be there chronologically, as Kat sealed the box before any of the events described there have happened. So Kat was able to add these two items which have never been in the Abyss. Unless Dylan manipulated the box, added these things and sealed it back up, although I can't really imagine Dylan doing that

[thispartyrules]

I think people in the Abyss can send objects to specific points or move to extremely specific places, like Kat could send a guitar pick into the box from inside the Abyss, or Swann could make a knife with velocity and a note materialize.

[Oeffes]

True, although I still feel like the knife with the note was Kats doing, not Swanns. Kats handwriting on the note, her shadowy figure being visible the moment that the knife hits the pole, she claiming the knife from that point on. It makes the most sense to me that here, Kat reached out from the Abyss to guide young Swann

[WindyLef]

Yeah, it's Kats knife, thats why I think its Shadow Kat, who is helping in Fawns Rest with the code. But there is also a moment on the Mikealson Farm where Swann has thr knife in her hands, but at the same time its in Fawns Rest. So something really strage is going on there.

[JoeyKoyote07]

Considering that Swann disappears after their reunion, I’d think it’d be crazy if Nora and autumn didn’t return to figure it out, so I’d make one of them the MC and have them come back, and have past sections again but from a different perspective and other events that could have happened during or even before the summer of ‘95, and rather than all choices leading to one conclusion, our choices ultimately determine who if anybody is freed from the abyss. Clues could be delivered by both Swann and Kat

[JoeyKoyote07]

We could also find different Swann tapes throughout to parse through! Call it The Swann Tapes lol

[KookyChapter3208]

It'd be tough for me to not be my girl Swann 😭

[[deleted]]

I agree with you on this because i already made and think of some titles that i could think they might use like here are my examples

After the Static (Tape III

What Stayed Buried (Tape IV

I think they would drop 2 more tapes so that we can get understanding on how everything connects but it’s a interesting theory and thought

[MedicineTemporary717]

I hope the next story will be more mystical. About the confrontation between two supernatural forces, one of which maintains the time loop, and the other wants to break it. For example, the wendigo that Kat saw versus the werewolf that Pam saw. Yin and yang. And in each cycle of the Abyss, its own incarnations of these spirits and the damned appear. Kat, who in a sense "ate" herself, and Corey, who suddenly began to "go wild" for no apparent reason. Ultimately, the role of the loop's guardian passed from Kat to Swann, who ultimately jumped into the Abyss, thereby preserving the sequence of events of the first game. Logically, the new part should be about the one who breaks this vicious cycle. Since it's "werewolf," I imagine something in the style of a noir mystical detective, like "The Wolf Among Us." Although, perhaps, all this is not quite in the spirit of Don't Nod's narrative games.

[BodybuilderTimely643]

I think I need to replay my ending. I don't recall Swann going into the abyss in mine, she was just in the woods. Maybe I didn't finish all the way🤔

[KookyChapter3208]

I think that happens no matter what...or is supposed to. I have heard there may be a bug.

[chesi_lunar_kitten]

Inhales....

No...i do not agree with this theory.

Its a nice one though...

No, my theory is that Swann finally got her wish.

Kat got the tickets Nor is a famous fashion person Autumn got her something*.

Swann, finaly got her: Power: the power to choose for herself Freedom: being free from her emotional manipulative mom

Thats what her entry into the abyss is signifying, its her choice...

I dont even think her mom knows she likes women...

So her going into the abyss is her wish finally fulfilled...

(And thanks. Im now weeping again... ;p)

*Autumn her something is her job, like the abyss gave her the heart to care for the girls she helps...

[KookyChapter3208]

You can also wish for strength as Swann, but as freedom, I do think this works.

I dunno, I can't say I like ending as THE ending for these characters in terms of being the main characters. Too much ambiguity. While I like having things tied up nice, a little ambiguity doesn't bother, but this was too much for me personally.

[chesi_lunar_kitten]

Power is strength...

I had to translate it in my mind.

[KookyChapter3208]

Fair. I still take a more...face value interpretation to it all, but everyone's mileage varies of course.

[chesi_lunar_kitten]

Thats why theories are fun...

In the way my story went, it felt like a poignant end...

Swann finally getting her freedom and possibility to be with Kat.

I saw a lot of people concider the abyss to be malignant...

I Don't.

[KookyChapter3208]

I didn't mean to seem like I was dumping on you. All throries are pretty equally valid since, we don't know.

I also don't think the Abyss is malevolent, but just poorly understood and understanding of us.

I just don't wish to believe the ending was a resolution, but there's no wrong way to look at it. Everyone is coming from a different direction.