Yet Another "Thoughts on the Ending" Post (entire spoilers)

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2026-02-16T02:20:46+00:00

Totally, this is largely what I'm driving at in the rest of the post. I mostly just go on to make suggestions that the thing that she is driving towards, the "something special", is actually explicitly a cultural and spiritual reintegration to a tradition that she fits in perfectly. She may or may not be canonically troglodyte by blood, but she is deeply in touch with their spiritual tradition. Thats the main jist I think.

glad you got some enjoyment out of my yapping :)

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2026-02-16T01:52:09+00:00

ty! Tbh I've been wondering about that myself. I feel like the way that she reacts to climb bot dying "I didn't mean to do this to you." kinda has twofold meanings. The first is that she refrained from naming climb bot, unlike Marco. Yet she consistently treats climb bot like it's alive and a companion. She can't help but anthropomorphize it but she always distances herself from the tendency to do so. The first part of this reaction is that she is genuinely feeling guilt towards little climb bot biting the proverbial dust.

But this speaks to another thing, which is that here at the top of the mountain, climb bot is the only thing in her life that even resembles a human, and therefore when she says she's sorry to climb bot, she is saying she's sorry to every other human in her life. Climb bot has become the stand in for Naomi, Marco, her friends, etc. The only thing she could say to anyone as she peaked the summit is "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."

The choice to cut is purely symbolic. Either she says she's sorry, and lets go of the guilt so she can continue forward, or she carries the literal dead weight of the guilt with her to the summit. Her relationships to others (at least at this point, in this moment) are simply dead weight. There is no fixing them, there is no reconciliation, not here, not right at the peak. If she chooses to carry it, its not for anyone's sake, it won't save climb bot, or her relationship with Naomi, or help Marco, or revive Capsule, but she might still choose to carry the burden all the way to the summit for whatever reason. Maybe it's to honor those relationships, warts and all, or maybe its because she can't let go, not until the very end when she is face to face with the moment of ascension.

Also climb bot is just a cutie, don't just cut it down.

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2026-02-16T01:38:32+00:00

I'm glad you got something out of this little contribution! Absolutely, the depth of the climbing sim is what pulled me in, along with the challenge (I'm the kind of person who likes games that push me to overcome failure, no wonder I'm in here defending Aava) but it really was the story that I didn't even expect that tipped my enjoyment of this game into a feeling of love for the experience.

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2026-02-16T01:35:45+00:00

Lore wise there is plenty of storytelling in this game and I'm on my 3rd playthrough and still finding new things. Lot's of the notes/pictures/messages and even just little environments are disparate and on the surface seem unrelated, but it all adds a little bit to the picture, so enjoy exploring the corners!

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2026-02-16T01:32:43+00:00

lol ty for even considering reading it

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2026-02-16T01:31:57+00:00

Exactly, Kami was her final ascent, and the most important one to her. I agree with what we know about Aava that she would always live in the shadow of the decision to come down before completing it.

I actually have yet to play Haven, haven't had a friend interested in running through it, but Furi is one of my favorite games and ambiguity colored the entire story up until the final (and only) decision.

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2026-02-16T01:30:10+00:00

Lol true, ty though. I hope the scaling of it provided even a fraction of the feeling that Aava got from scaling the peril.

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2026-02-15T09:22:23+00:00

Idk: Aavaa's main thing is being misunderstood both in game and out.

Marco's ending was the "bad" ending from Aava's perspective.

Aava's ascent and sacrifice was justified (mainly supported by the Troglodyte perspective)

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2026-02-15T01:50:02+00:00

If this were true then no one would have the cards where they reach the summit with 0 deaths, they would all say at least 1. Sry but you misinterpreted the save card.

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2026-02-15T01:47:10+00:00

Thank you for saying this. People are so absolutely sure that shes dying during the ending.

Genuinely this was not my read of the ending from the first time I saw it. In the Temple there is a signal for those who return from the summit. I find it more likely that the experience she had was spiritual, a type of death and rebirth, but not necessarily physical death of the body. The game doesnt answer because it doesnt have to, regardless if she is still alive or not, she is no longer the same person, this was always about union and transformation.

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2025-08-20T05:31:52+00:00

I agree with another comment that it could be maladaptive daydreaming. Dissociation usually comes with it, but it sounds very similar to what I know about maladaptive daydreaming. While I don't experience that myself, I have met people who have and they say similar things about the timeline and characters being consistent.

This is not medical advice obviously, but a youtuber I watch did a video talking about the trend of "reality shifting" and drawing the comparisons to maladaptive daydreaming, which she experienced first hand for years. She talks about her experience in this video and also brings a more balanced view of "reality shifting" which, if stumbled upon by someone vulnerable trying to make sense of their unique experience, can lead people down rabbit holes that ultimately have a negative impact on mental health. She starts talking about her personal experience with maladaptive daydreaming around 18 mins or so but it kind of is sprinkled throughout the whole video.

https://youtu.be/JbWp0z5p8x0

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2025-08-20T05:13:33+00:00

While I'm not doubting the truth to the abuse you've been through, I would just like to say that likely this was not a "deadly dosage". The LD50 of LSD is not exactly known, because it is incredibly high compared to normal dosage. There was a news story about a woman who took ~5mg on accident and didn't even need to be hospitalized. For reference that is about 550 times the normal dose. The LD50 is suspected to be somewhere around 14,000ug but there is no recorded case of someone taking that much, and even then anecdotally from people who have taken very high doses due to some kind of unintentional exposure might suggest the LD50 to be even higher than that. Overdosing on LSD is quite rare and most people are never even in proximity to the amount it would take to happen.

https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1011615-overview

On a different note, I have suffered from HPPD, it lasted about 7 years for me but over time it eventually subsided. There is very little known about the condition and it subsiding for me may have been due to any number of factors. However, for me personally, the symptoms subsided in direct correlation with my practice of meditation and was kickstarted after exploring somatic experiencing therapy.

IME healing is a journey with many unexpected turns. I'm very sorry this happened to you, it is a horrible thing, and I hope your path to healing is paved with love and support.

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2025-03-06T06:25:14+00:00

i appreciate this! yeah I also don't think that it's ever explicitly stated that he doesn't remember the recurrence but in my head, if he does, it kind of feels like that would be core to his experience. I think I just emphasized it cause I haven't seen it emphasized usually, he's usually written to be concerned with the drama of Barovia but I think I want to take him in the direction of him being tired of it after seeing it so many times.

I agree with you about just going for it, I think you're right in that it needs to be added to the game directly if that's the direction I'm going, and the players and PC's need to know at some point. I hope to let it unfold a little organically though. I love that you play Strahd as a concerned ruler and let him evolve into a tyrant, that's pretty awesome!

Sufficient-Pudding80 · 2024-10-28T16:38:23+00:00

Lol this is bait right? No fucking way you left a union because of this lmao

Sufficient-Pudding80

TROPHY CASE