Sweet mercy. What an incredible game. After playing Inside I've had this feeling of "gaming contentment" for a couple of days now. I remember thinking "this is why games is my hobby" just after finishing it.
Any way, after going back and finally watching the Quick Look, seeing the baby chicks by the corn field got me thinking about the different way animals behave in the game (Sorry if I'm repeating stuff you went through weeks ago. I haven't read through all of the theorizing, only the major/broad stuff):
There are two types of animal that have a distinct reaction to the boys presence; both the baby chicks and the fish swarm around him. At first I thought that was just for effect, it's a striking look. But I'm not so sure. Other animals in the game react like you expect they would. The black birds by the "safe-drop" puzzle fly away when he approaches them, rats scatter away, if he falls down one of the alleys in the city there is a startled cat running away, moments later at ground level there is a bird on a sign that flies away when the boy pulls off a plank by the door.
But the chicks and the fish swarm around the boy. The chicks in particular are really odd. It's wet, muddy, cold, and piles of rotting pig corpses everywhere. This doesn't seem like the healthiest environment for small fragile baby chicks without a sign of a mother hen caring for them. But they seem oddly energetic and full of life still. And the sound they give off sound oddly metallic and artificial. And when you think about the fish, keep in mind I'm no expert in fish, but can fish like that survive that far down, under endless layers of concrete structures? In the area where the boy get the ability to breathe under water just after drowning. Can an aquatic ecosystem to support fish that large survive without sunlight, let alone the fish?
So I wonder if the fish and the chicks are artificial, created by the "Company", and that is why they survive in otherwise unsustainable environments. They probably are an attempt at creating their own food source. Considering all the dead pigs they do seem to have a problem with producing food. If that bleak situation is because of the "Company", or they simply are reacting to it, I don't know. And their behavior; the fish and chicks swarm around the boy, just like the drone-people do eventually. Maybe their behavior is strange because it's could be inherent with being artificially made. Or they are somehow linked with the blob hivemind. They might even be directly controlled by the blob, they are the blob. Considering the implications of the alternate ending they might be swarming because they are detecting "themselves" in the boy. Like they are cheering him/themselves on. Or maybe the connection to the hivemind is weaker in the animals, but they react positively when they feel a stronger connection to the hivemind is present.
I don't think I am over analyzing this. Though the scenes with the chicks and the fish are striking, I doubt they are there simply for the sake of effect. Like, both from a narrative and technical perspective this game is polished and incredibly well thought out. I doubt any detail in the game is there by chance.
TL;DR: Maybe the baby chicks and the fish are artificially made by the "Company" in an effort to create a food source when their farms are failing. Neither seemingly should be able to survive where they are. And they swarm around the boy, just like the drone-people do, but other animals in the game just scurry away like you expect they would.
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