I've been thinking about this for a long time, even some time before any of this was revealed. For whatever reason, I was curiously convinced throughout the whole game that it was based entirely in reality - That all this supernatural stuff was just York's( Well, I guess Zach's) psychological interpretation and overall struggles; something of a Squall's Dead sort of idea. But as the game got more and more insane about it, this would imply that York's imaginings are based less and less on reality. This sort of seems like a very pointless theory, but even accepting the bizarre tree stuff, why do Kaysen, and especially George, morph into monsters? Why does York walk out of a door, only to find himself in a courtyard without any exit? Why does lightning strike George and turn him into a tree? Why does Zach run down a legion of stairs just to wind up on the top of a tower?
We understand now that that York's badge probably says "Francis Zach Morgan", that he always had white hair, that in his own self-image, he is without the predominant scar on his face, and that perhaps people's mystification with the name "York" is actually well-warranted. We've also just got the offical conformation that these run-ins with "shadows" are not physically grounded, that they are some kind of mental interpretation/construct - This idea was what I first thought of when the prospect of the two worlds which can alter at any time, was presented. But wait! If those battles are psychological, doesn't that mean the encounter with George, and potentially Kaysen were also psychological? And what the hell does that mean for Emily's encounter with the vines and other world? Does it even make sense that those would be psychological too?
I also don't know about you guys, but when the idea of goddamn trees that sprout from your stomach was introduced, ones that proceed to turn you into a skeletal-esque corpse and turn into a full-on tree, I was thinking that this is the most ingeniously fucked up material for a nightmare. It took me until the end of the BR Endurance Run to start seeing the possibility of all these events somehow working in reality, through strange and incredibly vauge supernatural means. But like I mentioned, this doesn't actually make proper sense, with York/Zach transitioning to areas that don't seem even remotely connected together.
The Red Room and Forest Room are also now proven to be of importance. Swery says Kaysen is a construct of the Red Room, is it some kind of demonic and malevolent force, or something psychological? I don't think Swery mentioned more than it being a sort of embodiment of malice. And wait - if Kaysen was created by the Red Room, and it's all physical - He actually did transform, isn't somebody in Greenvale questioning this huge hole in the town's theatre? Agghh... That leads me back to the underground stairway system. What's Zach going to write on his FBI report about this? What are the repercussions of this whole ordeal? Does anyone else even care that monster-Kaysen and George simply exist? What does any of this mean!?
Could the story of Deadly Premonition actually be about an eccentric FBI Agent investigating a series of murders, but also simultaneously, in a careful and seemingly-undisturbed manner, dealing with his own, deeply warped psychology? Is Kaysen just a murderer, without any immortality? -- But wait, the picture at the Inn shows Kaysen at the clock tower, so he had to have been around then. Right?.. Right?
Okay, it's about time I wind this thing down. This has been an incredibly convoluted assessment of Deadly Premonition's story, focusing on details that far more likely than not, were just used as means to justify gameplay, and loosely tie everything together. Thanks for reading!
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