Little Nightmares: Is the little nightmare from great fears a metaphor for more frightening truths? So at first when I play Little Nightmares, I always wonder what role do the kids we meet along the way in the game? They seem to be well cared for, I see them sleeping in beds and with toys around. Later, everyone knew, those children were raised to make food for the customers on the ship The Maw.
I was particularly impressed with the sequence when protagonist Six went out to see the ocean and the true nature of The Maw. That was the moment when all my feelings burst with answers to the questions from the beginning of the game.
Also, in the kitchen segment we saw a lot of fish in the pantry, so of course baby meat isn’t the only thing served to The Maw diners. Not to mention the children who look thin and sick, how can it be a delicious ingredient. Maybe they were forced to do labor until exhausted, before being locked in crib, fattened and then turned into a dish on the table.
Neither The Lady nor the child shows up in the game. But in her private room the player will find a lovely picture of a little girl hanging there. And the woman always wears a mask. The Lady proved to be a beautician but her weakness was the mirror, it is easy to see that every mirror in her room was smashed.
This inevitably reminds me of the classic story of Snow White and the Queen. The mother is so obsessed with beauty and becomes so jealous of her own little daughter that she wants her to disappear from this world. In Little Nightmares, maybe that jealousy is not only beauty but also power?
One of Six’s side missions in the game is to smash statues and free a certain soul, which could be the power of the sealed Six, or to weaken The Lady. In the end, after defeating The Lady, Six had devoured that person, taking away all of the power to control The Maw.
What we see is really a journey of freedom. Or is it inherently a struggle for power and its worthy position? Is The Lady Five, and now it’s Six’s turn to wait for Seven to appear?