*SPOLERS* The ending explained.

[k3Ck]

You're reborn as a bird. Before the end of the game we see this room...

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/522653211148912559/C272D70778BDBED7C0466CF29E9DA42CE70CC6C4/

There are 3 eggs in the nest. These are the 3 others that died, to be reborn as birds also. Towards the very end you can also see a shadow of a bird on the ground as you're flying, that is your shadow. The black screen at the end right after we the shadow could be because birds are born blind but can still hear (the ocean at the end). So it's sort of like your a blind bird waiting for food and help, like you would be if you were stranded on an island.

tl;dr you're reborn as a bird.

+Rep if you agree with my thoughts.

[freakintiger]

I like your thoughts on this, but I won't agree with you. Because this is your interpretation. Dear Esther lets you think for yourself, it doesn't tell you precisely what happens/happened. And I like it that way. I have drawn my own conclusion(s).

Still, nice thoughts.

[smokeydubbs]

You clearly see a bird shadow at the end. I don't think the entire tale is literal. But, to me, it's pretty clear the player avatar turns into bird.

I don't get what happened.

I think the narrator killed those two while drunk driving. In his drunk/medicated head after the crash, he learns all of this and manifests it as an island. The island is a metaphor of the pain hes going through. I'm assuming Ester was related to him, possibly his child, through all the 2nd person references to him/her. Then the bits about Paul Jacobson being a shepard, that throws me off.

I'm fairly confused.

[TitanClash]

Esther isn't related to him. At the end he refers to her as Esther Donnely, so she's one of the two people he worked with, and fell in love with. The other was Jacobson. Both have their full names revealed at the end.

[Borrachofunk69]

Exactly what happened, I couldn't stop weeping every time the sea gull's shadow trekked across the earth...

The story is explained throughout the monologues.

You (Man) was driving along with your wife Esther Donnelly when Paul Jacobson crashed into you. Esther was killed in the crash, Paul and the Man survived. The Man poured all his resources into understanding the how's and why's of the accident when in truth it was the loss and grief that mattered, not the circumstances. The Man walked away from the accident with a busted leg, resulting in a limp.

As his sorrow mounted, he committed suicide, after reconciling with Paul and admitting to him that it really was nobody's fault. The heart-shattering finale sequence is a re-enactment of his suicide and the bird/soul allegory absolutely gorgeous.

[smokeydubbs]

Well, some of the earlier narration I heard in my one play through, said stuff to Ester about her birth. Then later said she visited him when was in the hospital at one point. I know he refers to them both as both their first and last names throughout the story, so that's part of why I'm confused.

[Borrachofunk69]

The island with all it's markings represents his soul, tied up in sorrow. Every element and bit of the story comes through if you explore everything. The fact that he refers to his wife with her full name in the end does not mean they were "unrelated".

He tried to blame Paul for being a drunk and causing the accident but that was not the case. The Man's car had brake failure and the road was slippery, it was fatal and inevitable. Paul was successfully resuscitated by paramedics, Esther was lost. Narrator walked away with a busted leg.

[smokeydubbs]

So your saying most of the first 2 chapters are purely metaphor, aka Jacobson being a shepard, and the narrator slipping down the cliff to break his leg? As much as I agree, much of is a metaphor. But there is more to pull away from it.

[Borrachofunk69]

Yes. The entire island is a metaphor and only near the end, the Man breaks down and reveals actual facts. Even in the very beginning though, you can see the chemical types for both alcohol and the drug he mentions later on, under moonlight.

Even if the finer points are up in the air, this is about his grief and suicide over the loss of his lover and how no matter how he tried to look at it, there really was no one to blame for that horrible accident.

[chmerchor]

I wrote this in another post:

Well, after reading the mod script, its clear Esther Donelly is a different persona than the Donelly mentioned in many parts of the game. Thats because Donelly is referred as a HIM. Maybe Esther is the widow? the daugther? and the player feels guilty of causing the death of Donelly, so he "writes" letters to Esther Donelly as an apology?
So the narrator says that Donelly was first in the island, but didnt reach the mountain and died home. So i think he refers that Donelly died first, so he made the first travel to the island.
And the guilty feelings drives him to commit suicide.... so he reaches the island after Donelly....well, thats another theory

[k3Ck]

Whoever first reloaded the ending black screen, nice catch. You can indeed see two trails ("parallel vapor lines") in the sky like the kind jets leave. Interesting.

You have to look closely...

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/522653211151528860/6616016FE923A21D287E08742E5DCE982DF57992/

[rjorekit]

Exactly what happened, I couldn't stop weeping every time the sea gull's shadow trekked across the earth...

The story is explained throughout the monologues.

You (Man) was driving along with your wife Esther Donnelly when Paul Jacobson crashed into you. Esther was killed in the crash, Paul and the Man survived. The Man poured all his resources into understanding the how's and why's of the accident when in truth it was the loss and grief that mattered, not the circumstances. The Man walked away from the accident with a busted leg, resulting in a limp.

As his sorrow mounted, he committed suicide, after reconciling with Paul and admitting to him that it really was nobody's fault. The heart-shattering finale sequence is a re-enactment of his suicide and the bird/soul allegory absolutely gorgeous.


I pretty much agree, with some exceptions...

I think the narrator was injured badly in the accident and is either in a coma and is dreaming of the island, or the island is sort of a purgatory he passes through between the time of the accident and the time of his death (however long that takes to occur.)

The narration is a mixture of his memories and things he wishes he could say to Esther. He's written her these letters and wants to send them to her but doesn't know how since she's gone. In a way, the letters symbolize his desperate attempts to cling to the past.

The shipwreck is a metaphor for the car crash and his being stranded on the island as a result of the shipwreck is a metaphor for being trapped at least temporarily in this purgatory or whatever you wish to call it.

As he makes his way through the island, uncovering bits and pieces of his past, he's also coming to terms with what happened. The suicide at the end isn't his way of giving up. It's his way of accepting Esther's death and his own. As he jumps off the cliff, he's about to hit the beach but instead flies up and away, passing over the sunken remains of his letters to Esther. Essentially, in real life he allows himself to die and move on to be with her.

Things that support this are the short scene in the cave that takes place under water on a submerged section of highway with one lone hospital bed. (hers? his?) (the highway was where the accident took place) As well as all the candle-lit shrines to the car debris, photographs, and hospital equipment he comes across on the beach.

thoughts?

[HeroOfHappyland]

I think the narrator probably IS in the hospital, as rjorekit said, but I believe he's in the hospital because of his kidney stones that are mentioned at multiple points in the game. The island, filled with its metaphors, and allusions, is just a hallucination caused by the anesthesia. Perhaps there are complications during the surgery, and he dies, and flies away to be with Esther for eternity.

[Cthulhu923]

Also notice at the end just when the screen fades to black. The music fades to a dull and constant beep followed by the narrator saying "come back!". The beep could be a "flatline" of a life support machine. Is all of this happening between the car accident and the trip to the hospital? SO INTERESTING! :)

[Borrachofunk69]

You both raise very valid points and I quite agree. Hands down, Esther is pure ♥♥♥♥ing brilliance :)

[Mortarion]

You both raise very valid points and I quite agree. Hands down, Esther is pure ♥♥♥♥ing brilliance :)

Agreed. The fact that we have all pulled different meanings from it shows how much thought went into this game and what a brilliant and compelling experience it is. Amazing. :D

[k3Ck]

Also notice at the end just when the screen fades to black. The music fades to a dull and constant beep followed by the narrator saying "come back!". The beep could be a "flatline" of a life support machine. Is all of this happening between the car accident and the trip to the hospital? SO INTERESTING! :)

Ohhh nice, I somehow missed the beeps.

[nightseifer]

You see the shadow of a bird, but no reflection.
You find 3 eggs, but 4 dead gulls. Titleing this *SPOLERS* The ending explained Makes you an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It can be your thoughts, but it is not necessarily the ending. or even an accurate conclusion.

[Calanoid]

I thought he was in a coma in hospital too. He spoke early on of the blinking buoy having no other way to communicate, saying they have much in common. Of Jacobsen, dead 7 months, frozen down to the nerves, not yet begun to decompose. Of the pain flowing through him like an underground sea as he was traversing his own death throes. Of still-lifes of chemical processes breaking you down in the next room. Of having run out of places to climb, and of a final ascent.

A poster elsewhere spoke of the aerial as 'Jacob's Ladder', the final ascent to heaven.

Beautiful, beautiful game.

"From this island, flight. From this grief, love."

[Ph0X_b01]

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/522653211148912559/C272D70778BDBED7C0466CF29E9DA42CE70CC6C4/

This, my friend, is a prime example of foreshadowing.

[Hermanaki]

You see the shadow of a bird, but no reflection.
You find 3 eggs, but 4 dead gulls. Titleing this *SPOLERS* The ending explained Makes you an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It can be your thoughts, but it is not necessarily the ending. or even an accurate conclusion.

maybe she was pregnant? and he is "writing" letters to the baby?

[hakry]

Whoever first reloaded the ending black screen, nice catch. You can indeed see two trails ("parallel vapor lines") in the sky like the kind jets leave. Interesting

The vapour trails are actually present right from the outset of the last section, or at least were for me. I noticed them as I was walking around on the candlelit beach, long before I reached the tower.

[Hangar34]

The vapour trails are actually present right from the outset of the last section, or at least were for me. I noticed them as I was walking around on the candlelit beach, long before I reached the tower.

Confirmed.

[toms781]

I have been reading these great interpretations and analyses and would like to render my own take. I believe that the island is Hell or at least the narrator’s own personal corner of Hell. After playing through the game and reading everyone’s interpretations I remembered a short story I once read that appeared in an anthology of ghost stories.

In the short story the narrator is the voice a person living their last day / hours leading up to suicide. They recount events and torment building to their final decision. When the act is completed there is blackness, the final paragraph of the story is the same as the first. The reader takes away that the protagonist is caught in a loop to eternally live their last moments without knowledge of the loop or escape.

While typing this I also remember a similar plot theme within the film “What Dreams May Come” wherein the mother character (in Hell) reenacts her despondency and suicide infinitely, at least until she is redeemed by the main character. (If you find Dear Esther interesting do see that film if you have not)

So basically, within Dear Esther the narrator is on an island surrounded by objects and images of his life leading to his final solution; a leap from the aerial. Inexorably we / the narrator are drawn to it. Why is the aerial so prominent? Why does the player want to see it up close? We are drawn to it. We have no other choice. Once reached the die is cast; we jump. Fade to black, where the player either restarts or quits. Our first play through is just one of an infinite playbacks of the narrators tragedy, we however gain foreknowledge and remember the act.

[Resonanse]

Agreed. The fact that we have all pulled different meanings from it shows how much thought went into this game and what a brilliant and compelling experience it is.

Or that the dialogue is so cryptic there is no true story behind it and thus no true meaning...

That and the random dialogue sections and their locations within the island will no doubt alter players ideas as to what the game 'is about'.

[crunk001]

You're reborn as a bird. Before the end of the game we see this room...

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/522653211148912559/C272D70778BDBED7C0466CF29E9DA42CE70CC6C4/

There are 3 eggs in the nest. These are the 3 others that died, to be reborn as birds also. Towards the very end you can also see a shadow of a bird on the ground as you're flying, that is your shadow. The black screen at the end right after we the shadow could be because birds are born blind but can still hear (the ocean at the end). So it's sort of like your a blind bird waiting for food and help, like you would be if you were stranded on an island.

tl;dr you're reborn as a bird.

+Rep if you agree with my thoughts.

No idea why you ask for +Rep if someone agrees with your thoughts. I cant quite believe you can take an art game like this so serious and love it on the one hand and one the next, go into a forum, share a thought and want +Rep.

This is like going into a theatre, fill your brain with wonderful new ideas and structures and afterwards you go into a brothel...

Oh man, stunning contrairy these days.

-

Anyway, what a great game - the eggs and the writings in the cabbin beneath the hill came also right into my mind once he turned to a gull. This game is just beautiful, from the beginning to its end. To me, this has more depth than any RPG I have played for a looong long while.

And to state the objective: The source engine in this quality, in combination with the fatastic lightening and the dense vegetation is 100times more beautiful than, lets say, Skyrim. Every inch, every corner is self-contained.

Finally a game again where you just stand there, watch and enjoy the view. Especially I did in the last scene at the beach with the candles. Oh my...

Thank you for this piece of art.

PS: Was I the only one who smiled when you turned into a gull? It was kind of a relief: To make a suicide-like ending that cool and positive-emotional.

[Ian_uk]

I enjoyed the experience of Dear Esther and like most of you drew my own conclusions as to the meaning of it all. However, I came accross the following interview with the author of the story and thought it was worth posting this section below.

Taken from an interview with Robert Briscoe and Dan Pinchbeck: Interview link (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/40391/Road_to_the_IGF_Thechineserooms_Dear_Esther.php)


Interviewer:
I'm not entirely sure I fully understood the story, but I like it that way. It's quite ambiguous, like you said.

Pinchbeck:
It was deliberately written that way. That was one of the ideas we were interested in: could you have a story in a game that didn't make logical sense? A lot of games, particularly first-person ones, do this really weird thing where they are brilliant at creating worlds, and you really just go into that world. Then about three quarters of the way through the game, there's this sudden explosion of exposition, and they try to make all of the plot add up.

Everything has to make sense, and everything has to be explained. It's usually the weakest point of the game, because you just think, "I didn't need to know everything, I was quite happy not knowing why everything happened." It's really quite an artificial thing. If you look at other art forms, if you look at something like a Jackson Pollock painting, it's not important which paint dribble came first or which order you should be looking at; it's just a whole experience.

It's enough for you to just be intrigued and engaged in that experience, you don't have to have everything laid out for you. In Dear Esther, the story deliberately doesn't make sense, and within the randomized plot, a lot of things are contradictory. When I was initially writing it, one of the challenges was writing a story that doesn't add up. [It's] kind of a William Burroughs thing, I guess.

[CHARIZARD]

I feel like this is Jacob's Ladder the game.

Watch that movie, it's nearly identical in idea.

[piliwili2]

You clearly see a bird shadow at the end. I don't think the entire tale is literal. But, to me, it's pretty clear the player avatar turns into bird.

I don't get what happened.

I think the narrator killed those two while drunk driving. In his drunk/medicated head after the crash, he learns all of this and manifests it as an island. The island is a metaphor of the pain hes going through. I'm assuming Ester was related to him, possibly his child, through all the 2nd person references to him/her. Then the bits about Paul Jacobson being a shepard, that throws me off.

I'm fairly confused.


DUDE I HAD THE SAME IDEA!!!

He's full of regret because he and paul drinked together.

They died in a car crash. That's why the main character sounds so sarcastic and angry near the end: OLD PAUL WITh a drink in his hand. I think Esther is his wife or sister because it seems weird he talks that way to his child. :p

[jtcgreyfox]

noone has mentioned this but i found a wedding ring before the last section, in a small building on the face of the cliff, just on the window sill facing the water

[landomatic]

You see the shadow of a bird, but no reflection.
You find 3 eggs, but 4 dead gulls. Titleing this *SPOLERS* The ending explained Makes you an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It can be your thoughts, but it is not necessarily the ending. or even an accurate conclusion.


But, if you haven't completed your playthrough, this would be a spoiler post. In fact, revealing anything in a title, be it a movie, game, book, etc., if they haven't been completed by your audience is "spoiling" some aspect of it for them. Also, as this is an "interpretive," ambiguous game, explaining the ending could merely be describing the events as they occur, not necessarily deciphering them. It intrigues me that the title of this post forces such a reaction to call some an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ , in lieu of this type of "game" and those that may be attracted to it.

[landomatic]

maybe she was pregnant? and he is "writing" letters to the baby?

As the game is entitled Dear Esther it's likely Esther is either the narrator's child, signifigant other, or unrelated victim in the crash. Part of grief relief, as has been explained by grief counselors is often writing letters to the departed to help bring closure for the loss. As there are at least 2 ultrasound pictures in presumably the "Bothy" or 2nd house you find it seems to suggest Esther was pregnant at the time of the car crash. Also, if you die in the game and are told to "come back" (respawn) the pulsing sound you hear is a rapid heartbeat sound from a fetal doppler stethoscope, used snyomously with Ultrasound imaging.

Also, as the game is the Steam Engine, I found in the console that your savegame files are entitled "Paul." So, is it possible that you're Paul Jakobsen, writing to whomever you may have caused the loss for? At one point a different older man's voice narrates carrying paul on his back as well.

[m4fioso]

what if most of it isnt really a metaphor, what if his wife died and he got a job in the sea to forget about it, meanwhile the boat crashed in an island, with time he started to write letters to his wife to try and be closer to her, the loneliness started to make him crazy and depressed and we play as his last time alive, he starts to see people, maybe his crew mate or an old friend or even some other survivor that ended his life before, the bird at the end is a symbol of freedom, finally he was free from that lonely island.
i didnt finish the game yet by my own so i am probably missing many things :P

[m4fioso]

oh and i realized he talks about the number 21 sometimes, from what i know 21 is the number of tragedy, maybe it helps some of you to solve this a little more

[schwepterbrowse]

You clearly see a bird shadow at the end. I don't think the entire tale is literal. But, to me, it's pretty clear the player avatar turns into bird.

I don't get what happened.

I think the narrator killed those two while drunk driving. In his drunk/medicated head after the crash, he learns all of this and manifests it as an island. The island is a metaphor of the pain hes going through. I'm assuming Ester was related to him, possibly his child, through all the 2nd person references to him/her. Then the bits about Paul Jacobson being a shepard, that throws me off.

I'm fairly confused.

DUDE I HAD THE SAME IDEA!!!

He's full of regret because he and paul drinked together.

They died in a car crash. That's why the main character sounds so sarcastic and angry near the end: OLD PAUL WITh a drink in his hand. I think Esther is his wife or sister because it seems weird he talks that way to his child. :p


I thought the same thing too. The narrator also mentioned his "addiction" is "the cheap fermentation of yeast", so he could well have been an alcoholic.

[SanchoKobe]

So I played it through a second time. If I'm reading this right, the narrator and Paul were in one car on their way home from something in Exeter, where they had both been drinking, and they collided with Esther's car. Esther was killed upon impact (possibly along with her unborn child). Paul nearly died at the scene, but he was revived. He did, however, suffer a closed head injury which left him with brain damage (the "dented bonnet").

But that wouldn't explain how the narrator and Esther knew each other. It seems like all three of them were acquaintances, and it's very likely that Esther was his wife or child. At one point he mentions how he chose to have her cremated rather than buried, because her body was so horribly mangled by the crash. That wouldn't be his decision to make unless he were her husband or father.

I think Esther was the narrator's daughter, and she and Paul were either married, or engaged to be married. In the end, when he refers to them as Esther Donnelly and Paul Jakobson, it's a reference to the anthropologist Donnelly coming to the island to find the hermit Jakobson, so Esther and Paul must have had a relationship with each other. Maybe they were heading back from Paul's bachelor party?

I don't understand the significance of the number twenty-one, though (it took 21 minutes for the medics to arrive at the crash scene, it took 21 zaps from a defibrillator to restart Paul's heart, the narrator made 21 paper boats out of his letters to Esther, which he then filled with her ashes). My best guess is that Esther was 21 years old, and it's his guilt over being responsible for her death at such a young age.

I don't think the island is a metaphor for anything. The player is an actual person on the actual island. The proof of this is when you enter the caves. You fall in the hole, landing with a very audible thud. You can hear yourself breathing heavily as you come to, and you see your broken flashlight on the ground where you fell. Whether or not the player is the narrator is another story.

I wonder if the person you are playing as is Paul. Left crippled and alone by the accident, you decide to end your life the same way the narrator did, so you retrace his steps.

[schwepterbrowse]

I was just listening to the Dear Esther soundtrack and there are 4 variations of the 'Remember' track: 'Remember (Donnelly)', 'Remember (Paul)', 'Remember (Jakobson)' and 'Remember (Esther)'.

If Esther is Esther Donnelly and Paul is Paul Jakobson, why would the names have separate and differing tracks?

[jimctierney]

...He did, however, suffer a closed head injury which left him with brain damage (the "dented bonnet")....


"bonnet" is an English term for the hood of a car.