The Path/WMG

The girls all represent the Grandmother's regrets.

Growing up, she made many mistakes and misjudgments. She played with dangerous things and was hurt. She got into accidents. She was betrayed by people she trusted. Time and again she ran into trouble, and looking back on her life, she thinks "What if...?" If only she could have avoided every pitfall, if only she could go back and do things over, knowing what she knows now.

But such regrets are a normal part of life. Everyone makes mistakes, and the experiences change them, and certainly not always for the worst. This is why avoiding the wolves is considered a 'failure': they come away unharmed, but also without finding whatever they sought. To get what they desire, they have to deal with the dangers, and the fallout of their decisions.

The Girl in White represents her ideal: what she might have been had she never made any mistakes, never gotten into any trouble. Ultimately, an illusion: a complete impossibility. Something that can never be achieved. Hence, in the end even she is stained, as she accepts the fact that she cannot change her past, and accepts it for what it is... temporarily. But the cycle repeats, because she simply cannot let things lie. She still wonders from time to time, "What if...?"

(Alternately, the girls represent aspects of the unseen "Mother", while the Grandmother represents the complete isolation and loneliness a life spent avoiding taking any risks at all could very well lead to. The beautiful Girl in White is idealized innocence; the catatonic Grandmother represents a much harsher reality.)

The Wolves And The Girl In White Are The Fair Folk

All of the forest characters, GIW included, have a distinctly "elven" flavor to them, Scarlet's Wolf not the least of them. This, combined with the Mind Rape experience you have in Grandmother's house for each of them makes me believe that the wolves are fairies of the worst kind, the type that just wants to have a bit of harmless fun, and yet have no idea what "harmless" for a human means. The Girl In White is a bit more benevolent, and yet when all the reds are dead, she attacks Grandmother in the belief that it will bring them back. Then again, they come back, so...Maybe she was right.

The Red's Mother is the Original Red Riding Hood

A comment in one of the girl's Livejournals states that something 'scary' happened to the mother when she was younger and that is why she warns her children to stay on the path. Maybe she was tricked by a 'wolf' (which could either be a rather hairy man or a literal werewolf), went to her grandmother's house, found out that her grandma was killed, nearly got killed herself by the 'wolf' and was saved by a woodcutter.

• • It might explain why the wolf's form of a woodcutter was an enticing seduction to Carmen. She always heard about her mom's story of a rugged man saving her life, and she wants a hero like that herself.
  • Scarlet's livejournal has a comment from Rose about their mother "exaggerating" the dangers of the forest: "I think it's because of what happened to her in the forest when she was a little girl. That must have been such a scary experience!" Hmm...

Rose has a terminal illness

Not my theory, but a lot of her thoughts focus around 'flying' i.e dying. She wears a gown, suggesting that she doesn't go out much. People who are dying often place value in other living things, so she is a Friend to All Living Things.

Alternately, she drowned, which supports the water imagery around her.

• • Or it could be an Incredibly Lame Pun on "High". Which works, considering how separated from reality she gets in her comments.
  • I don't know about Rose, but I got the impression that Ruby is dying, possibly of an illness related to her having to wear the leg brace. I believe she says something like that she probably won't live to be an adult at one point in the game, and she seems to have a focus on death.
    • Ruby is actually one of the most straightforward girls if you don't take into account what the girls mean collectively. She met a bad guy, hooked up with him and got in a car/bike accident that cost her her leg. Note the automobile themes in her grandmother's house, and how her final flashes of imagery are pictures of her "shattered". She contemplates quickening death(via smoking) because she feels that she's screwed up her life.
  • I do tend to favor the theory that Rose is or was very ill at some point, since many of her imagery seems disoriented and strange, perhaps representing drugs (maybe medicine she was taking) or being feverish and light-headed. Perhaps she didn't drown, but had a near death experience out near the lake. She fell in and was sick with hypothermia, and may or may not have recovered later. And although I like this interpretation rather than the straightforward "killed by the Wolf" interpretation, the more I look at her story, the more I get the creeping impression that Rose put her trust in someone she shouldn't have, someone who was older and pretended to need her help...Judging by what she says about being a Friend to All Living Things, I got the impression she was attracted to the cloud-man because it looked like it was wounded. When she first sees it it looks bloody and sort of just floats there like it's in pain. Maybe she thought "oh, poor thing..." and went out to it, only to find that it was not what it seemed. Once she gets there, the cloud-man suddenly moves very rapidly around her. It no longer seems like it's in pain but is moving with a purpose, but it's too late, Rose's boat is gone...This also could be a more general idea of realizing that even nature (the storm and the misty lake) or a wounded animal can hurt you if you get too close.
    • On the page for the Cloud Wolf the creators suggest that he does not have any malicious intent, he just can't help it. "He doesn’t mean to hurt anyone, he just is. He is beautiful like a thunderstorm. You can only sit back and admire the destruction he causes." And the page has some good WMGs on it as well in the comments.

• • This theory would actually explain why in all their live journals, the girls mention that there was a sudden unexplained social gathering full of guests, family friends, and people they have never even met before. They were bringing gifts and seemed very interested in the girls well being, and no one explained just what was going on.

The girls are all terminally ill or comatose, and the forest was created by an Eldritch Abomination seeking to take their souls.

It is inescapable by ordinary means, looping infinitely in all directions, and offers those within what they (think they) most desire. Of course, if they're foolish enough to accept its offer, explicitly or subconsciously (by encountering the wolf), the forest stops wasting effort pretending to be anything other than a twisted Eldritch Abomination / Eldritch Location. It will continue doing this until it attempts to take the mind of someone with enough willpower to refuse its offer and destroy it. Maybe an Irish assassin or something.

The girls are all dead.

The game is just a way for you to guide their spirits to see how they died and find peace. The girl in white is a guiding angel, and her grandmother is God.

The girls have all been abducted by aliens.

The game is some sort of experiment the aliens are doing in order to study human behaviour.

The girls are all phases of the Grandmother's life

And they represent the mistakes she made through her life (played with animals and got hurt, explored being lesbian, hooked up with a bad boy and wound up in a car crash, ect), and the death of the girls is the gradual death of her innocence. The girl in white is her conscience, as she can lead the girls back to the path when they are too lost.

The Girl in White is the REAL Granddaughter

The sisters are really grandmother's memories, whereas the girl in white is the pure child who visits her grandmother.

• • I always got the impression that the girl in white was afraid of the grandmother. She'll lead you along the correct path, but even if you walk the whole path with her, she won't (or can't) go into the house. The only time she does is when you play as her in the epilogue, and there is no wolf in the woods, so it's safe to assume that the grandmother is her "wolf". So, um, I'm not sure what this brings to your interpretation, but I just thought I'd share.

There really isn't a "true meaning" to any of the stories, and that is actually the purpose of the game.

A quick glance at the forums - or even at just this page - illustrates how varied the opinions are when it comes to drawing conclusions about the plot and meaning; as well, a repeated refrain is "I'm so glad that the creators never come right out and give it away: I think it's much more meaningful to come up with your own meanings." Fueling speculation is the function of the game, which was meant from the beginning to function as a digital psychodrama intended solely for that purpose, and to allow the developers to sit back, relax, and enjoy the varied interpretations of a game built to have no "true" interpretation at all. Whether it's identifying the scariest House through your own personal experiences or debating the sex of Scarlet's wolf based once more on your own personal 'feeling,' it's obvious that the myriad analyses say more about the players analyzing The Path than about the game itself; like children working through a session of projective doll play, what players come up with post-game reveals more about the players than the game.

Now, why would this be the case, exactly? What purpose could it serve? Hey, who knows... ?

(... I mean brainwashing. Or Alice Human Sacrifice.)

Robin

So I've seen a lot of varying interpretations of what each chapter means, but not a whole lot of speculation on Robin's chapter. I initially didn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about Robin as on the surface it seems like a fairly straightforward interpretation of the little red riding hood plot, and that Robin was in fact killed by a wolf/werewolf. The other possibility that occurred to me was that she fell into an open grave and died while playing around the graveyard. Notice that she will play in the dirt in the open grave before she encounters the wolf, and says something about how she loves playing in dirt. In that scene she will crawl out of the grave, but suppose she fell into a very deep grave and couldn't get out again? Kind of a grim interpretation, I know.

The OTHER thing that occurred to me was that Robin's chapter is all about her dealing with the death of her mother. Judging by the things she says throughout the game, she's a very naive child with very little understanding of anything besides that she just wants to be a kid and play, although she does have some interesting insights. Most notable is what she says about death, how it's a hard thing for "a kid like me" to understand. This, coupled with the fact that her important location is a graveyard, led me to assume she knows or understands more about death than she's letting on, and that she may have experienced the death of someone very important to her. Now, this could also represent her anxiety about her grandmother dying, but I think it might have more to do with the unseen mother. If you encounter the shopping cart with Robin, there's a somewhat bizarre scene where she hops inside it and says something like "kid for sale", to paraphrase. When I first saw this scene I assumed that Robin was just playing around, but I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that this too might have something to do with her dead mother. Robin's mother died and her father is nowhere to be seen, leaving her orphaned and "sold" into foster care or sent to an orphanage. I think this chapter is all about her lack of understanding in the face of death, and her feelings of being betrayed by the loss of her mother.

Scarlet

My theory is that Scarlet's wolf represents isolation and a withdrawal from society. Scarlet's comments about life seem to be overwhelmingly negative. She resents men, she resents having to always be the responsible one, and the only thing she seems to find joy in is music and art. I think that everything eventually became too much for her and she decided to completely withdraw from the rest of the world, not unlike the artist who becomes a hermit. She retreats into her music, hence the curtain closing on her life. But everything she creates with her music she keeps to herself, because she doesn't think the outside world is worthy, hence the musical instruments floating about everywhere in the music room. Her creation has no purpose, because no one is there to enjoy it. Her obsessive desire for order becomes even worse the more she isolates herself, represented by the furniture covered sheets and the rows upon rows of jars. She becomes a lonely, bitter eccentric, and probably dies alone without having ever accomplished anything.

• • It would explain why she bares a resemblance to Emily Dickinson
  • I really like this interpretation. However, the white sheets in the grandmother's house, to me, seemed to imply a world where there was no art. Maybe all of Scarlet's responsibilities meant she had no time for music or art anymore, and she felt stifled because of it. Also, what do you make of her wolf? Some of her thoughts indicated that she longed for some kind of personal connection. She wanted to find someone who would understand her because she felt lonely, and that's what I think her wolf is meant to represent.
    • I have two ideas about her Wolf: One, her Wolf is meant to be a mentor or teacher, someone she could look up to and who could guide her along her chosen path. Two, her Wolf is meant to be someone who shared her love of music and art, someone she could fall for and who would fall for her.
  • I so agree with this interpretation. And as I always thought that grandmother's house could represent the soul or the inside of each sister, it would add up with Scarlet's house being empty, and the thousands of books and the instruments representing her wish to compensate for her emotional emptiness.
  • I interpretated that Scarlet had committed suicide somehow. "Art is where the nobility of humanity is expressed. I could not live on a world without it." In her Grandmother's house when the instruments and herself rise up there's the distinct sound of something being sharpened. Perhaps symbolic of turning herself into an artistic instrument. Maybe she had herself killed on stage or as a part of an art piece since she couldn't make any art herself.

Ginger's Wolf symbolizes her first period

Ginger is a girl who enjoys being independent and carefree. I don't agree with some representations that she wants to be a boy. But she's very adventurous, and I think she feels that "girly" stuff is too restrictive. She's 13 but she enjoys the freedom of childhood and doesn't want to grow up. Her Wolf wears a red dress and appears in a field of flowers. She pops all over the place and moves erratically. She sneaks up on Ginger. The scarecrow is there, but it doesn't scare away the birds. I think the red girl represents menstruation. The barbed wire imagery could also indicate the pain and annoying aspects of physical maturity. In the Grandmother's House, the butterflies on the walls of the room with the two beds could symbolize childhood. All of Ginger's thoughts represent her love of freedom, so she might fear the onset of puberty because she thinks maturing into a woman means a loss of freedom and the ability to have fun.

The Wolves, and what we see in the Grandmother's house after the Wolf has been encountered is a mix of memories, imagination and hallucinations.

Each girl strays from the path, encounters their Wolf and makes it into the Grandmother's house- and passes out. What we see is what their minds produce- they're all injured and possibly sick. All of their hallucinations are influenced by their Wolves. The younger girls don't remember what really happened and what their Wolves really were so their minds create whatever seems most appropriate for a dangerous attacker- for Robin, an actual Wolf, for Rose, a giant mystical creature, and for Ginger, someone she could fall for. The older girls' Wolves are a mix of their memories and their desires- Ruby sees the boy who led her astray, which ended in her leg injury, Scarlet sees either the person she wanted to be like or the person she wanted to end up with, and Carmen sees the object of her desire. The Girl In White is the one who gets each girl back to the Path, and from there the girls manage to drag themselves into the house.

The Forest shapes itself to what each girl is most curious about/likes/wants.

Robin is curious about death, so she stumbles upon the graveyard. Scarlet wants to be an accomplished musician, so she finds the theater. Ruby perhaps misses childhood and finds the playground. The Wolves of the other girls are found in the places the other girls think are most appropriate for them- Rose finds hers at the lake, Carmen at a camp (and since her Wolf is a lumberjack, it makes sense) and Ginger at a field of flowers.

• • So the forest is really the Hedge?

The forest is The Matrix

And the wolves are all Smiths.

Grandmother is a wolf

Just like in the original story, the wolf disguises herself as her grandmother. And she represents living a life of ignorance and blind obedience.

Each girl's walk to grandma's house is just a near death experience

Hence why grandma's house seems to have Chaos Architecture--endless hallways, doors that open to nonsensical rooms, and stairs leading to nowhere are all common dream/vision motifs.

• These scenes appear within a non-final visit, which may indicate something slightly different. But amplifying the chaotic features does indicate either a near-death experience, or being weakened by the encounter with the wolf. But my opinion is that the girl remained on the path overnight and was exhausted by the cold rain, because if you try walking back towards the city (which will take a while), the sky will brighten slightly.

Carmen is pregnant.

After examining the symbols in Carmen's chapter, this troper came to the conclusion that there were a number of symbols that suggested Carmen became accidentally pregnant. Sex and flirting is an obvious theme with Carmen's personality, and two other things came to mind. First, the symbol that seems to represent Carmen is, oddly enough, a chair. This could suggest that she may have to do a lot of sitting. The chair is seen on the character select screen and at least once in Grandmother's house sitting on a pile of mattresses. Trees and deforestation are strongly present in Grandmother's house, perhaps representing the life she had wanted to lead being cut down. Finally, when "Grandmother's room" is reached, we find a bed with a tree growing up through the middle of it. This could imply that something is growing inside her, which would likely be the consequence of pregnancy from unprotected sex.

• I like this interpretation. I always assumed Carmen's chapter was about losing her virginity or just a bad sexual experience in general. It could be that she became pregnant from that experience, and regretted it.

The Girl in White's appearance is modelled off Auriea Harvey, Data Director at Tale of Tales.

Here's Rose's page on the main site. Scroll down to the bottom, and there's a picture of Harvey aged 8. She's a dark skinned little girl wearing a white dress, and it may be that the creators chose to make that image the one on the page for a good reason. The caption Rose gives the picture is: "Auriea is the star! Or should that be the Goddess? She made us all in her image. And the Forest! And the House!" ; which may or may not support the previous WMG suggesting that the GIW is a celestial being.

The Girl in White is a Wolf.

I know what you're going to say. She helps the girls back to the path! She's kind and helpful... isn't that how the original story Wolf seemed to Red? If you don't stop moving to interact, she'll lead you on a wild goose chase through the forest. I've actually had her lead me -to- a wolf once or twice. Even if she doesn't, she is always there when the girls approach their Wolves. Once they're all out of the way, she's off to Grandma's house. At the end of the game, there's the GIW... covered in blood... as the girls walk in, one by one.

The Girl in White is trying to help each of the girls.

However, she can only help them by either leading them back to the path, or helping them find what they are really looking for inside the forest, namely the wolf. After either taking them back to the path, or showing them where the wolf is, she quietly steps back and lets the girl decide for themselves what they'll do next, as she has no power to actually stop them. It is up to them to choose their path.

Grandmother is a retired Time Lord, and her house is her TARDIS

That would explain the house, right? Smaller on the outside, bigger on the inside . . .