THEORY: Why Did Mono Become The Thin Man In Little Nightmares II?
Just in case you didn’t know, Little Nightmares remains one of the most-loved puzzle-platform and survival-horror games. It revolved around a little girl named Six, wearing an iconic yellow raincoat. She journeyed through the Maw, trying to satisfy her insatiable hunger. Tarsier Studios recently released a prequel, Little Nightmares II. Players control the protagonist Mono, a young boy with impressive teleportation abilities. Unlike Six, Mono seems to be a very caring and compassionate character as he risks his own life on multiple occasions to save her.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
Mono wears a paper bag over his head. According to Bandai Namco’s website, the mask serves as a way to hide his identity. Aside from that, it also offers short-lived respite from the world which seemingly hates him. He doesn’t seem to be a shy boy. However, he looks and quite possibly feels lonely. In the digital comic, Mono sits alone on a branch of a tree when he sees the Hunter captures Six. He also sees a mysterious antagonist snatch up the children around him one-by-one.
We can presume that throughout their journey together, Mono saves Six over and over again to fill that void of loneliness. Six seems to be his last hope of not being alone. Of course, we can’t always have good things as Six betrays him at the end. While escaping the Signal Tower, Mono drops behind Six. She grabs his hand to prevent him from falling. However, in a cruel turn of events, she let Mono fall into the dark chasm underneath.
Why Did Mono Become The Thin Man In Little Nightmares II?
Mono wakes up in the middle of a gelatinous mass of flesh and eyes and he sits on a chair, alone. He sits there and waits for several years until he grows to become the Thin Man. Questions continue to arise as to why he became the antagonist of his own story. Here are only a few of the theories:
Mono is controlled by the Signal Tower.
The Signal Tower emits a pervasive Transmission that manipulates and distorts everybody and everything within its reach. This includes every monster that Mono and Six had to face just to escape the Pale City… and even, the Maw. After falling into the abyss, the Signal Tower manipulates Mono to sit on the chair. It also made him waste several years of his life alone until a younger Mono can take his place all over again. That may be the reason why we can see two of them at the same time. The Thin Man became a glitch, a mere shadow of a real person. He follows the orders of the Signal Tower as it fully possessed his being.
Mono has no other choice.
There was no means of escape and Mono has no other choice than to sit on the chair that the Signal Tower had presented to him. If you really think about it, many people imprisoned abide by the rules and conform just to avoid facing something worse. Aside from that, he could also be heartbroken by the betrayal that his only hope, Six, had done to him. He had given up and accepted his doomed fate to be alone for eternity. He becomes self-destructive and accepts his fate. That may be the reason why he, as The Thin Man, kidnapped Six. He could have done this for revenge and maybe from the remnants of the memory of her betrayal when he was younger.
Mono grows up.
The concept art book gives us several sketches of the timeline of how Mono transitions into the Thin Man. He would seem to look a little lost and misplaced at the beginning. However, as time passes by, he starts smiling and grinning. This suggests that he understood that he belongs to the place that he is imprisoned in right now – the Signal Tower. He seems to have lost his mind and accepted his dark reality. It could also be because he had lost his sense of self.
In the end, Mono and Six are similar in a way – trapped in the world that they initially wanted to escape. Maybe that’s why the world of Little Nightmares remains littered with nooses and references to suicide. Because, whatever these characters do, they never succeed.
