Game Theory: The Complete Lore of Amanda The Adventurer

This is the complete lore of Amanda the Adventurer. After 4 years, the story has finally concluded. And I have to say, I'm going to miss our horrifying little Dora wannabe. I've been writing these episodes since the very first game jam prologue came out. And it's always hard to say goodbye to something that's been a big part of my time here at Theorist, especially when that something took the internet by storm. So, loyal theorists, Let's take a trip down memory lane and look back over the rights and wrongs, the highs and the lows of theorizing about

this fascinating franchise. Here is everything you need to know about Amanda the Adventurer. Matt, take it away. >> Hi, internet. Welcome to Game Theory. I'm Matt Pat. Today, we're going to be talking about Amanda the Adventurer. Do you know which of these games that is? That's right. We need to play this game So we can make a theory. What kind of theory should we make? Uh uh uh. Let's try again. What kind of theory should we make? Say the right answer. That's right. A game theory. Oh, look at that. We're now outside your house. How

do we break in? Come on. You have to choose something. Let me in. Let me in. Let me in. Let me in. >> Hello, internet. Welcome to Game Theory. Dora the Explorer. She's cute. She's Funny. She's willing to stare at you for hours with her cold dead eyes. >> Can you say a fiesta? Fantastic. >> But what if you took the concept of Dora the Explorer and truly let it enter the dark nightmare purgatory that we know all children's programming to be? Enter Amanda the Adventurer, a short little indie title developed by designer James Pratt

as part of Dread XP's found footage jam back in April. The basic Premise is that you find some old VHS tapes of the show Amanda the Adventurer in your attic. But immediately you can tell that something here is going to be a miss. I love that the one E is backwards. >> That's how you know it's scary, Matt. >> But they fig like the rest of the E are correct. >> THIS IS THE SCARY E. >> In true Dora the Explorer fashion, Amanda wants you to click on specific Things or spell certain words, pausing an

awkwardly long amount of time for you to figure out what the correct answer is. >> Do you know where the store is? >> But be careful, cuz this ain't the Dora you grew up with. If you answer any of Amanda's questions incorrectly, she starts to get irritated. Troll her for long enough and she starts forcing you into responding with the right answers, removing all other options or just Straight up seizing control of the keyboard. Also, can we just agree that it's a bit strange we're watching VHS tapes, but we're playing them like a video game,

typing and using the mouse to click on answers. I'm just saying doesn't quite make a lot of sense. Over the course of the three tapes, Amanda and her friend Woolly the Sheep take you to a handful of different locations. The first tape focuses around getting apples from the grocery store, despite the fact That our friend Woolly seems to be allergic. >> I'm allergic to apples. >> That's okay. You should never be afraid to try something new. >> At the end, a glitchy roll of credits plays. Of course, I look through all the credits frame by

frame to see if there might be anything hiding there. Mostly, it was just parodies of real life celebrity names that make you go, "Oh, yeah, that's that's a reference." Directed by Heave Starvey as opposed to Steve Harvey. That's funny, so that's good. Lance Pimmerman. >> Well, I think it's LIKE HAN ZIMMERMAN. >> OH, GOOD ONE. YEAH. YEAH. You're Oh, music. Music by Hans Zimmerman. That's right. But outside of all the grownworthy comedy, there is actually a secret code hidden inside this thing. Text that says, "Turn the TV off now." So, like any good theorist, I

did exactly what I was told. Or at least I Tried to. I pressed every single button, but nothing would turn this thing off or break. There was just the empty sound of my clicking mouse. So, having no choice but to carry on with Amanda's adventure, we went in with episode two. Let me tell you that scary backwards Z wasn't lying. As soon as the tape begins, we see Woolly walking towards the camera, breaking the fourth wall to address us on the other end of the screen, telling us to listen cuz he doesn't have much Time.

>> Oh, you okay? We don't have much time. Whatever you do. >> A glitch then forces Woolly back into his normal position. Today's adventure has us at the butchers to get some meat for grandma, which is weird considering that grandma's a vegetarian. >> Today, we're going to get meat for grandma. But is a grandma a vegetarian? >> Once you fill in the blank and ask the butcher for meat, he brings out a large Pile of realistic looking stuff and we just stand there awkwardly watching as he cuts and Amanda slowly turns to Woolly. >> Beef,

it's what's for dinner. >> Apparently not tonight, friends. More like lamb chops. We start the third tape and our sheep friend is gone with nothing but a small pile of wool left in his place. Episode 3 is all about going home, but uh we're not escorting Amanda back to her place. Oh no, she wants into Our house. Her body begins to contort. Demonic whispers start to crescendo. We hear the distorted phrase, "Say hello." When we finally decide to let her in, we're met with a final jump scare. A monster in what appears to be a

living room. Our living room. Look at the wallpaper in the background. Now look at the wallpaper in the room where we've been watching these tapes on TV. It's an exact match. Everybody sound the Aftton alarm. Amanda, in true indie horror game Fashion, has broken out of her game in order to kill us. And then that's it. Roll credits. Like I said, it's short, sweet, full of creepy moments, perfect for an indie horror let's play. But as for theories, yeah, there's there's not so much there. It's pretty cut and dry. Just a classic monster disguised as

a kid's cartoon character wants out of this game story. Or at least that's how it was. But since the initial release of Amanda the Adventurer, there have been More and more updates to this thing. each one adding secret tapes to the game that start building out who or what exactly these characters are. The first and most obvious change when you open up any of the updates is this picture suddenly appearing on the wall. Two children playing together with their eyes scratched out. Clearly, this has been added after the fact to mean something. Now, the playful

childlike pose seems to indicate a brother and a Sister. They also have the same hair color, which if this was normal life would mean practically nothing. But in video game speak, that shorthand for these people are clearly related. Also, you notice anything familiar about the girl in the photo? Yellow shirt, blue pants. It's the exact same as another little girl we know, Amanda. Could this girl be our adventurer? Well, let's look back at the interactions between Woolly and Amanda on the tapes. On the second VHS, when Amanda and Woolly want to go and buy some

meat, they both refer to Grandma as um well, as Grandma. Calling her a familiar title seems to indicate that she's a grandma to both of them. again implying that these two might actually be related. Could it be that this brother and sister in the picture are also Woolly and Amanda? Brother and sister somehow transported into the world of the show. Certainly seems that way. Beyond the picture on the wall, the Three updates have all worked largely the same way. When you get to the butcher scene, Amanda asks you to tell the meat man what you

need. Normally, the answer is meat. But if you type the word lamb in specifically in honor of Woolly, a new tape appears on your pile. Putting this one into the VCR reveals different clues depending on which update you're playing. Update 1.1 gives you three real photos. A house, a forest trail, and a butcher shop with a load of Pigs hanging from hooks. Update 1.2 replaces the image that you find on the secret forth tape. This time it reveals the image of a real forest with a big red circle marking part of it. Seems to be

continuing the 1.1 update and the forest trail that we saw. When you see the red circle in the forest, it then prompts you for an answer. The correct word is woolly. Clearly, this is where Woolly, or should I say the boy who would become Woolly, was buried after Being butchered literally by Amanda, his own sister. Wait a minute. Nostalgic IP, creepy tapes, dead kid. Ladies and gentlemen, we just got the game theory bingo. At this point, I was just excited for update 1.3. Couldn't wait to see how it would expand upon the unfolding story. And

when it came out, I was not prepared for the roller coaster that it would take me on. In the most recent update, we're not met with realistic photos, but Instead one final adventure for Amanda and Woolly as they search for buried treasure out in the middle of the forest. Three ominous mounds loom in front of us. And Woolly is clearly not his usual self. He's distracted, almost like he's here against his will. Amanda asks you to click on the correct mound. And once you do, things take a very dark turn. >> I brought a crowbar,

a rope, and a shovel. We already used the crowbar for The door. We used the rope for and now we only have the shovel. >> Yeah. Is it normal to need a noose on your adventures there, Amanda? It's then that Woolly completely breaks character. Just like he did at the start of episode 2, proclaiming that he doesn't care what Amanda's going to do to him. He grabs the camera and talks to us directly. >> You take the tape out now and destroy them. Burn them. Whatever. Just get rid of these other tapes. Do you hear

me? You can't let anyone else watch these. >> Amanda, like a possessed child, begins to float in the background. transforming into the monster. If Woolly wasn't dead already at the butcher shop, well, he certainly is now. But his outburst does give us some valuable insight. Notice what he says. >> No, I I can't let you do this anymore. I don't care what you do to me. >> The key word here is anymore. This isn't Amanda's first rodeo. She's done this Before. But what is the this that she's doing exactly? Well, for that, we actually have

to go to the game's Ichio page. On it, we have two very obviously scratched out lines. to first curiosity takes hold and you decide to watch the tapes and let horror scratched out nostalgia take you back to a simpler time and quote again included with this box set let me out. So we have ourselves an entity in the tape that wants out and in a clever pun a horror that takes you Back. In short, it seems like a monster is coming out of the TV and is dragging victims back into the tapes, feeding souls into

the world of Amanda the Adventurer. probably the reason why all the objects and buildings and trees here have eyes because there's people trapped inside of this thing. Like Woolly said, he can't do this anymore based on the number of living objects inside of this world. Looks like the two of them have been busy for a while. The whole thing Actually reminds me a lot of the horror movie The Ring. Specifically, the American sequel The Ring 2. If you don't know, The Ring fring is all about a girl named Samara who exists inside of a cursed

VHS tape. If you watch the tape, 7 days later, the evil girl crawls out of the TV to kill you. And immediately, you can start to see a resemblance in these stories. Amanda and Samara, sisters from other misters, crawling out of TVs to kill people who watch their Show. But specifically in the sequel, one of the main characters has a dream about being pulled into the television and is then literally possessed by Samara. Later on, another character gets dragged in. Sounds awfully familiar, right? And in both The Ring and Amanda the Adventurer, our monster clearly

wants to get out, but doesn't seem to want to stay out, having to return back to the realm of the VHS every single time. That then begs the question, was Amanda always a monster, or was she and her brother the first to be dragged in by something that was already on the tapes? Honestly, it's unclear. There's not a lot to go off of, but if I were to guess, it actually has to do with this right here. These weird white circles that are on the top of the monster's head. Notice that overall the monster has

humanoid features, fingers, hips, even has Amanda's hair buns. Really, the most notable thing about the design here Are these white dots. Are they empty eyeballs? Some sort of a fungus? Maybe. But to me, knowing that this is a game where humans and monsters are entering and leaving digital worlds. They're very reminiscent of the nodes on an EEG cap. Now, longtimes know that in a former life, I studied neuroscience. And one of the labs that I worked in did experiments using these sorts of EEG caps or electroinsphilography caps. Basically, these caps are networks of Electrodes placed

at specific locations around the head, all reading electrical signals that are passing from one section of the brain to the next. No joke. In the experiment that I worked on, I could read what a person's brain was thinking before they themselves realized it. Now, obviously, I'm talking about very rudimentary signals here, but in theory, in neurological theory, I was taking a person's thoughts and I was putting them into a computer via these Electrical signals. This could be an explanation for the Amanda monster, a girl that was brought into the game using one of these sorts

of caps. And now she's trapped, eager to force others to join her inside this VHS world. Or considering that Amanda's a 3D animated character, maybe this was a situation with mocap gone arai where little white dots were placed all over the actress's face and body to capture her movement to create animation only for her to then Wind up inside of the machine. Regardless, this appears to be the moment of Woolly's death. Amanda and Woolly have lured yet another victim to the forest. Woolly can't do this anymore. He stands up to Amanda and is ultimately killed

off and buried in the woods for it. It's worth noting here that the brother in the game, Woolly, is depicted as a sheep. Up to this point, he's someone who's been too scared to stand up for what's right. He's been Sheepish. He's then followed along with Amanda's murder scheme. He's followed her like a sheep does. Finally, like a sheep, when he does try to fight, he's ultimately slaughtered. Either way, the tapes don't stop at Woolly's murder. In the second half of this newest installment, once Woolly's been dealt with by Amanda, the video then shifts to

found footage. Not just real images, but actual video of someone with a flashlight wandering through the woods. Eventually, they reach a pile of sticks that almost looks like a shrine. They place this most recent tape underneath the sticks and pull out a lighter, ready to burn it. Except then they hear the familiar whispers of demonic force. The same whispers that you hear at the end of the game once you free the monster. They wind up not burning the tape. Instead, taking it back to the truck and lying about burning it to someone else on the

phone. >> Yeah, I found the place. It was just off the highway. The tapes are all destroyed, too. >> Apparently, this thing has a hold of our protagonist. But the key detail here is this. >> Was I followed? >> No, I don't think so. Who'd be following me? >> It seems like there's someone else or a group of people out there who are trying to gather these tapes because they Understand the power the tapes hold. Swiper, no swiping those evil possessed tapes. Oh man. Throughout the video, we see a box these tapes came in with

an additional VHS that reads, "Destroy tape. Do not watch." Clearly, people know about the evil that's on these things. The last owner did well the literal least amount possible to prevent people from unleashing that evil. Seriously, a label on the box telling people not to watch. Come on, man. This Is not how you prevent a demonic uprising. So, Amanda the Adventurer, a series of tapes where a girl is drawn into a fictional world and trapped there, then who goes on to capture anyone who dares watch the cursed episodes for themselves. Her brother was partners with

her for a while, a sheepish boy who followed her lead only to be slaughtered when he got cold feet. And now, the conspiracy between mysterious groups trying to capture the Tapes and harness the power inside for themselves. I mean, that is some seriously scary kids content. Almost as scary as those Spider-Man Elsa channels. The internet fell in love with this thing, and since then, it has gone through a major glow up. Gone is the tiny living room. Gone is being stuck staring at a TV screen. And gone are all the demonic drawings on the wall.

>> I wonder if we like step further back, we'll see. Oh. Oh, WO WO. OH, THIS is so Different. Oh, they they went hard on this new update. This is great. Instead, the fulllength version of the game has us in an attic full of clever puzzles and old memorabilia that has a weird habit of appearing behind us when we finish a tape. Oh, hey, there's a cake. But the best thing to come out as part of the fulllength version of the GAME LORE. NOT ONLY ARE there a bunch more tapes to watch through, there are

secret tapes And multiple endings to find. And all of them paint a fascinating new story here. So, was my old theory right? Or is there more hiding beneath the surface? Insert the tape, press play, and adjust your tracking, my friends. It's time to begin. In this new update, we play as Riley. And uh that's about all we get to know about that character. Well, that and the fact that they just inherited this house that we're standing in from their deceased aunt, Kate. However, Kate Warns us that if we choose to investigate the attic and the

tapes that lay within, there's no going back. Alongside this notes, a conspiracy board full of post-its and newspaper clippings, which means that Kate and I, you could ship it. The main focus of the board at the beginning of the game is a letter from a woman named Joanne talking about her missing younger brother. The letter says that he used to watch the Amanda the Adventurer show a bunch as a Kid, but would end up in a translike state. Eventually, he would disappear without a trace. Joanne then asks Kate to investigate, which seems like an odd

request for your local librarian. Then again, if you look around the corkboard, you could start to see why Kate may have been the one picked for the job. We see that she was looking into the kids' school records, something a librarian might have access to. We also see a note that mentions dininesis, which is the Supernatural ability to create and manipulate energy. She says that you would see sigils if such a transfer occurred. And right next to this note is a torn piece of paper with a bunch of sigils on them. These aren't just any

symbols, either. These are alchemical symbols that refer to specific elements. Back in the day, alchemists focused on the transmutation of base metals like lead into noble metals like gold. Clearly, Aunt Kate ain't your average Librarian. Too bad she's gone now, and it's up to us to figure out what's going on with this missing kid. or should I say kids cuz it becomes very quickly apparent that this is not an isolated incident. The tape in the neighborhood shows outlines of kids on both sides of the street. Police chalk outlines that are usually reserved for dead people

lying on the pavement. If you manage to find the corrupted version of this exact tape, Amanda's sheep companion, Woolly, Asks if the friends can come back to the neighborhood. Amanda, though, she seems unfazed. Now, all of this alone doesn't prove that Amanda is somehow making a bunch of kids go missing. But I would tell you to pay close attention to the ending credits that VHS tape. After most of the tapes that we play through, we're met with a credit sequence and ending sting for the company that made the show, Hamlin Entertainment. This is the production

company that makes the Amanda The Adventurer show. But their name and their mouse logo immediately reminded me of something. Follow us to fun. So, it's like a pied piper situation. Oh, Hamlin. Hamlin. And it's a mouse. Yes. >> If you like Ash don't know what's going on, this whole thing's one big reference to the story of the Pied Piper. Basically, this fairy tale is the story of the town of Hamlin. See, there's the name right there. It's overrun by rats. And there's your logo. And so, the town hires the Pied Piper to play his magic

pipe to get rid of those rats. And he does exactly that. He plays a song that lures all the rats to him, where he then leads them down to the local river to drown themselves. However, when the town of Hamlin doesn't pay him for his services, he once again uses his pipe. But this time, he plays a song that leads all the children out of town. He marches them all over to a local cave Where they're never seen again. This story seems to match the idea that the neighborhood is now missing all of Woolly's friends.

Amanda is essentially our Pied Piper. And we actually see this firsthand through one of the games secret tapes that you can unlock. Instead of our usual CGI Amanda and Willie adventure, we actually get ourselves a home videotape of a girl named Lauren on her birthday. She's sitting there glaring at the TV Transfixed, much like we heard about in that note from Joanne at the beginning of the game. Her parents are trying to get her attention, telling her that they have her favorite ice cream ready. Mint chocolate chip, which whose favorite flavor is mint chocolate chip?

I mean, it's good, don't get me wrong, but favorite flavor. Flavor preferences aside, the parents go back up to try and convince Lauren to come down the stairs, but suddenly she's gone with the front Door of the house left wide open as they run out of the house to look for her. The last thing that we hear is Amanda from the TV saying, "I love mint chocolate chip." Somehow Amanda is able to listen through the TV, and she's somehow Lord Lauren, who's literally walked out the door and disappeared just like the children of Hamlin. As

you watch more of these secret tapes, we actually get to see a little bit more insight into Hamlin entertainment and The history of the show. In one of the tapes, we actually meet the creator of the series, Sam Coloulton. And we hear about how he started the show as a small live-action production after being inspired by his adopted daughter, Rebecca. >> Did you even imagine that would be such a big sensation? >> Honestly, Satie, no. It was a total surprise. I mean, it's scrappy at best. You know how it is when you have a big

Idea and a little budget, but really, it's all Rebecca. As soon as I met my beautiful daughter, the inspiration was there. You know, she was so young when I adopted her. And despite what she's gone through, she's always seen the world with such kindness and joy. >> You actually find a newspaper clipping on the conspiracy board in the attic during the time puzzle, which has an interview with Sam, where he says this quote, "We may not have the budget for a Big production, but I truly believe there is a soul that transcends that." Woo! >>

Keyword alert. Keyword alert. Anytime an indie horror game mentions the word soul, you know that things are going to end badly. And sadly, my suspicions were correct here. In the VHS tape, Oh no Accidents, there's a flash frame that reveals a credit for a chief neurosurgical expert, which at first glance would make you go, "Why does a Kid show Need that?" But Amanda eventually answers that exact question for us in the tape, Everything Rots. >> Sometimes I feel myself rotting, but it feels far away. >> If she can feel her own body rotting far away,

that means that Amanda has a physical body outside of the show. And who else is that going to be but the girl that played Amanda in the original liveaction production, Rebecca. I Suspect that this chief neurosurgical expert has figured out a way to put her mind, her consciousness into the series, literally becoming the soul of the show. She still does have some sort of link to her body, able to feel it rotting. But clearly that's not supposed to exist as the tape distorts anytime she thinks about it. There is good news though. While her body

may be rotting, clearly there's still a chance to save her. In the final tape, we see Amanda playing Alone on a couch drawing with crayons and asking if we can share secrets. If we say yes, the TV audio effects disappear and clear as day, she tells us, >> "I'm out there somewhere." >> Rebecca is alive. Sure, her body might slowly be atrophying and her mind might be separated from her body, but there is still time to save her. That said, we're going to have to face the evil that's up Ahead if we hope to do

it. What is that evil? Ask yourself this. Why would Sam, Rebecca's seemingly loving adopted father, do this to her? Was it just to make the show more popular? Did he need to gather more children to him like the Pied Piper? I know we talk a lot about awful father figures across the various series that we cover on the show, but I was hoping that maybe, just maybe, this one would be a little bit different. Thankfully, it is. The indie horror gods Heard my plea with this one because it turns out that Sam isn't the one

at fault here. He is no longer the one steering the ship. Yes, Amanda the Adventurer was his liveaction production, but he sold it to Hamlin Entertainment. Hamlin is a third party that actually bought out the rights to the show and turned it into an animated adventure. >> Last year, Hamlin Entertainment purchased rights to the liveaction Program starring Colton's daughter, Rebecca. As budget and production value increased, Hamlin reimagined the show as an animated series, planning to syndicate the program nationally. While this sounded like everything that Sam wanted on paper, in practice, he started to feel more

and more uncomfortable with how the production was being run. In the green tape, we actually listen to a recording session. There we hear Rebecca saying a handful of what seemed like Random phrases. >> Rebecca, that was great. Let's move on to the next one. >> Pman, >> what is this? What is she reading? Just a few simple words. Uh, this script is specifically tuned to train the technologies dynamic voice reaction. The what? I want this to stop. Sam, why don't you take a walk for a few minutes? >> The person directing claims that this is

to train the technologies dynamic voice Reactions, which is plausible, I suppose, given the rise in AI voices that we see all over the internet. However, this series, Amanda the Adventurer, is set in the early 2000s. Technology was not that advanced back then. So, Sam is right to be suspicious of it all. And then Rebecca says this. >> I don't want to do that. >> Rebecca, what's wrong? Who are you talking to? >> The man in the headphones. >> This ends the session. But listen again to those phrases that Rebecca was saying earlier. >> Fire. P.

>> At first, they seem to be phrases that could be used in pretty much any episode. Ba lamb for when they go to the farm. pie man for when they go to a bakery or bake some pies like they do in the first VHS tape. So what's the big deal here? Well, what if I told you that These phrases actually have a secondary meaning? All three of them, Bell, Pyman, and Balam are phonetic ways of pronouncing the names Bel, Palon, and Balam. Three king demons from the Rs Goedia. Chanting the names of demons has always

been part of summoning rituals, especially when you're talking about these sorts of things in pop culture context. And that's exactly what Hamlin's trying to do here. Why else would there be a containment specialist That's listed in the credits of the initial neighborhood video? After chanting the words, Rebecca hears the voice of a man in her headphones, one of these demon kings, all of whom are described as having a horse voice. While all of these demons are certainly different, they do share a couple of similarities. They all control large legions of lesser demons. They're all able

to inform or give the gift of knowledge. But most importantly, they All require hosts to manifest. And usually this involves children, either as sacrifices or to physically be the host. That is what Hamlin are doing here. They needed Rebecca and the other children to become hosts and sacrifices in order to summon these demon kings and gain their knowledge and power. These children would be led to the slaughter, which is why no matter what location you pick, it always leads you back to the butcher. The eyes on those meat products Aren't just a cute aesthetic choice,

my friends. Those are past victims, past children that have been led to the chopping block. However, there was one thing that stood in Hamlin's way. Rebecca's father, Sam. I would suspect after this sort of incident, he wanted to pull Rebecca from the show. Maybe even find a way to pull the rights entirely. And so, as most of these evil companies tend to do, they made him disappear. >> It's been 3 weeks since local television producer Sam Colton was reported missing, and authorities still have no leads. Sam was so happy with the idea that his show

could be a bigger success that much like the fox in the video Everything Rotss, he wasn't killed by a knife. He wasn't killed by a gun. He was instead lured in by Hamlin using sweet berries. The sweet lies that would convince him that they would turn his show into something bigger. But instead, It was all a big trap. A trap created by the very people that swore to help him. And then with Sam out of the picture, Rebecca is all alone. They can get her to sign along the dotted line and do whatever they want

with her, trapping her in the Hamlin facility, just like the lonely kitten that Amanda so desperately asks us to help. This >> kitten is alone. There is no one to help her. Will you help the lonely kitten? Won't you help the lonely kitten? >> Won't you help the lonely kitten? Won't you help the lonely kitten? >> However, unlike silly Mr. Fox, I don't think that this was the end for Sam. I suspect that he's still around, keeping a close eye on things and trying to take them down from the inside. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe

that Sam is the real identity of Woolly. Woolly spends the entirety of the game trying to keep Amanda on track when she begins to discuss topics that aren't appropriate For a kid show like Death or Rotting. Woolly is very quick to interject. He tries to get Amanda back on the good and wholesome path. >> Men can die if they don't get enough light or water or if they get a disease. >> Let's go back to our nice picnic. Amanda, nothing is rotten here. >> What do you think? Do you think that everything rots? >> Of

course not, Amanda. >> I'm not asking you. Answer my question. >> You don't have to answer that. >> This strikes me not as the actions of a fellow child, but rather of a parent. We hear a story during one of the secret tapes about how after Sam's disappearance, the show begins to change. Starts to talk about inappropriate subjects. This is not the show that Sam built, and he can see that. Voy doesn't just play the killjoy either. He's also the one that tries to help Amanda by keeping her calm. When Amanda loses control, the monster

comes out and Woolly knows it. So, when she starts to forget things or remember the bad stuff that's happened because of her, he desperately tries to make her happier. >> I think Amanda is confused. Here's a secret. It's my birthday. Maybe we can help her out. >> Sounds to me like the actions of a concerned father. He knows what Amanda is and what will happen if the monsters Let loose. So he steers Amanda and the player towards positive and happy subjects in order to keep that beast at bay. But the monster and Hamlin are fighting

back. In their visit to the farm, Woolly is constantly being silenced. Amanda tells him that sheep don't talk. And as we go through, he begins to ba uncontrollably until he becomes another mindless sheep like all the rest. Finally falling in line with Hamlin's plan. It's actually pretty Diabolical. You're wanting to turn Rebecca into Amanda, so why not test out that mind transfer ability on someone you don't mind accidentally killing if it goes wrong? Notice that it's only once Woolly becomes a true sheep that we see Amanda asking to help the poor and lonely kitten. The

kitten that represents her. Now that Sam is gone, she's truly alone, asking for someone, anyone, to help her. >> It looks like this kitten is in big Trouble. It might die before anyone can help it. Now we have a demo for the upcoming sequel where we are continuing our investigation at a local library after picking up a couple of books with funny names by Puberty. QA Puberty. No, >> I don't get the pun on that one. >> What word is Matt trying to say? >> Puberty. Puberty. >> Can you say puberty? >> Great. >> You

can find the code for the cabinet Scrolled inside them and that gives you access to the first of two tapes this demo has to offer. They operate as expected. Click on things and type in the answers. Get them wrong and Amanda gets mad and begins to manipulate the tapes. It once again feels very simple, but if we've learned anything from this franchise, it's that nothing is ever quite as it seems. There are secrets hiding throughout these tapes. Some of them are blinking you'll miss it Moments, and others are hiding in plain sight. So, grab your

library cards theorists because we've got to hit the books to figure out what's going on in Amanda the Adventurer 2. When you boot up the game, we are met with our classic CRT with Amanda's logo on the screen. Though, if you wait long enough, you'll start to see those blinking, you'll miss it moments I mentioned. The screen will begin to glitch out and occasionally reveal some new messages. Words like, "Let me out!" plastered over the screen with a hand pressed up against the screen in the top right. According to the game Steam page, this would

appear to be Amanda, who is quote doing everything to find a way to free herself. Although, notice the amount of fingers. This hand has five fingers. Throughout the demo, we are being shown Amanda's hand over and over again to count coins. Attention is being drawn to it, and it very distinctly only has four Fingers, which is appropriately creepy for a demon child, but it means it doesn't match our hand on the TV. This cannot be Amanda speaking to us, at least not literally. Instead, it's most likely meant to be showing us the real Amanda. Rebecca,

the human child whose mind was forced to live out her days inside the VHS tape. We've seen Rebecca occasionally try to break through in the past. Amanda is typically bright and cheery, but when we ask her about her Dad, Sam, it leads to glitches and resets of the tape. The real Rebecca is coming to the surface. This is just another instance of that. She is trying to reach out to us directly for help. This message is from her. And while her trying to escape isn't anything groundbreaking, knowing she's the author of these messages is important

because it's not the only message we get from this screen. If you keep waiting, something else will appear on the CRT. a Secret code. And if you've been a fan of Amanda for a while, you'll probably recognize it as the code used in the Steam demo for the first Amanda the Adventurer. In this demo, the code appeared on the fridge behind Amanda and it translated to pause. Turn on the oven now. So, by using those same symbols, we're able to decipher this new message and it reads as follows. He tried to find me. Actually, we

only knew it said he tried to me. We didn't have a symbol For the letter F, but I think we can all agree it makes sense given the context. Regardless, who is the he? She's talking about the demon. It was hard to say, but fortunately, there is another code that helps us narrow it down. On the Amanda 2 Steam page before the demo was released, there were four drawings. These are clearly made by Rebecca as they're all drawn from her perspective as Amanda. The entity is a meanie. She's trapped inside the TV with bars over

the screen. She even references us as a new friend watching her tapes. All things that Amanda/Rbecca has experienced. These are her drawings. But that's not all. If you mess with the exposure, you can find those same symbols hidden in each one. Putting them together gives you the phrase, "It will find you." These messages initially seem to be about the same thing. You tried to find me. It'll find you, too. The Steam page for Amanda 2 also hints that the demon is after us. And throughout the demo, we can hear it crawling around the ceiling. So,

it would make sense that that's what she's referring to. But two things stood out to me. one, she said, "He tried to find me. We know the demon did find Amanda. She is possessed after all." So, that seems to not line up. But the second thing is her use of pronouns. In the first message, she uses he, while the second uses it, which tells me that she's actually talking about two Separate entities here. Why else would she change how she refers to them? The it is almost certainly the demon entity. We've already established it's chasing

us in this new demo. And it's not really a guy, gal, or non-binary pal. It's a thing, a demon, a monster, an it. But then who is she talking about when she says he? Well, the only male character we are fully aware of so far is Sam, Rebecca's adopted father and the creator of Amanda the Adventurer. It would make Sense that if his daughter suddenly disappeared or he felt like his daughter was suddenly possessed by a demon, that he would go looking for the real Rebecca. It's just good fatherly behavior, which is a nice change

from our usual indie horror fathers. But Sam is also missing. And in our last theory, we concluded that Sam was actually a guinea pig for the mind transfer experiments that Hamlin Entertainment was doing, testing it on him before they Tried it out on Rebecca. This was all because we got this VHS tape showing Rebecca on her own signing a document before being taken away to a room by members of Hamlin Entertainment. We presumed this meant Sam had already gone missing, but I'm not so sure that's the case anymore. We don't know for sure when Sam

went missing. The news report doesn't give us a date. Instead, it just talks about future events being cancelled and to give Rebecca some Privacy. That would make you think that Rebecca was still around prior to Sam's disappearance. But then we got this moment from the new demo. Amanda sells one of her stuffed toys, specifically a rooster. This franchise loves its symbolism with lots of elements like the lonely kitten trapped in a cage from the first game representing Rebecca trapped in the TV by Hamlin Entertainment. During the what is family tape from the first game, we

also encounter a rooster And she asks us what it's called. If instead of rooster we type in Sam, Amanda begins to freak out. >> What did you say? The rooster is a representation of Sam, but her giving him up like this for money feels like a reflection of that moment we saw with Rebecca signing the papers. Maybe she was given promises of money or travel, things that Sam wasn't able to give her and so she was encouraged to cut him out of the picture. Or maybe it was to be Emancipated so she could make her

own decisions or so Hamlin could do whatever they wanted because Sam couldn't stop them. Either way, she's removing Sam for some kind of reward and is then led to a guarded room and likely experimented on turning her into the monster we know today. And if that happened, Sam would be trying to find her, sticking his nose where Hamlin doesn't want it. And so, they would just decide to dispose of him. But there is one part of our Original Sam theory that this game seems to be bringing up. One that has been hotly debated since the

original release of the game. Is Sam actually Woolly? There are a lot of interpretations out there right now and it's fair we actually don't have a lot to work with. But the main reason I ask this now is because of this moment in the demo where Amanda asks us who we'd like to go see. >> If you could visit anyone in the world, who would you go see? >> If you go ahead and write Sam, she'll respond like she did in the family tape from the first game. >> Wait, what? >> However, if you instead

say Woolly, you get a very different response. Yeah, if you could find him. >> Those are two completely opposite responses. Surely that means they can't be the same character. And that's true if Amanda doesn't know they're the same character. And I say that because Outside of this moment, the parallels between Sam and Woolly are only getting stronger. On the penultimate tape from the first game, we saw Amanda trying to do surgery on Woolly, killing him in the process on the operating table, showing that whoever Will Woolly is, he was operated on and turned into another

character, just like Rebecca was. And just like we suspect Sam to be in this new demo, Woolly is noticeably absent. He's even missing from the logo. And When we ask Amanda about him, she just teases us about whether we can find him. Woolly is missing and we aren't supposed to be able to locate him, which is awfully similar to what we know about Sam. He went missing at the hands of Hamlin and no one has been able to find him yet. During the second tape in Amanda 2, which is basically just a teaser for the

full game, we get this moment. >> There's a legend that there is a special Special toy hidden deep in these woods. >> Last time we went to the woods was in the very first demo for the game. And if you remember in that demo, we were given a Google map view of a circle marked in those woods. We were then given a typing prompt and the correct answer was woolly. Woolly is what was buried in the woods. Only in that original demo, the forest he's buried in was a real forest, not an animated show forest.

And there's only one other place we've seen a real Forest show up in this series. During the news report about Sam's disappearance, we see police officers interviewing people next to the woods. Sam went missing and is likely buried deep in those woods just like Woolly. This is why we get this moment in the final tape from the latest demo. >> It makes me think about what >> she's looking at a dead Woolly buried in a hole in the woods. But I also suspect based on the glitches, it's a moment Where we can tell her what

she's really seeing. And if we type in Sam, she'll start to make the connection. Up until now, she's not been aware of who Woolly really is. He's just a buzzkill that doesn't let her do all the twisted things she wants to do. But whenever we bring up Sam, the mask begins to fall and the real Rebecca begins to shine through, trying to remember who she really is. When she comes across Willie in that hole, something is going to Click, connecting the real life burial site of her dad to the burial site of Woolly. And that

is going to once again bring the real Rebecca to the surface. And the more we can make that happen, the better chance we are going to have of freeing her. However, while we're trying to help Amanda, it appears like we're going to be facing some opposition going forward. No, I don't mean the demonic Amanda that's in the ceiling. I'm talking about something way worse. An oposum. No, this isn't a joke. In the main demo tape, while Amanda is trying to get enough coins to visit her three places, she is attacked by an opossum who steals

her coins away. This is clearly meant to be referencing Swiper from Dora the Explorer, a fox that would try to swipe whatever important item they had on them. Sadly, we don't get to sit here and yell at our screen, "Swiper, no swiping." Instead, we just have to click On the aposum as he runs away, which makes sense, but you know, I'd have been up for a new game mechanic. I'm just saying. This might just seem like a cute little reference at first, but they show up again in the second tape to attack Amanda in the

bathroom, and Amanda says something interesting. >> How did you get Who even are you? Wait, >> that line, "Who even are you?" set off my theory alarms. It makes sense for her to wonder how a pest got into her house, But wondering who they are. The only reason she'd say that is to help clue us in that they're supposed to be someone important. Plus, the types of animal characters we see in this game do seem to matter. Woolly being a sheep shows that he's just falling in line doing what he's told by Amanda and Hamlin.

So, I started looking into a possums to see if there was anything I could learn that might help us figure out who this is. The first thing I remembered from my Biology classes was the apossums diet. And I promise I'm going somewhere with this. While they are omnivores, meaning they basically eat anything, they're known as opportunistic omnivores. Rather than hunting things, they will take whatever they happen to come across. And one thing that is known to include is carrying, otherwise known as rotting flesh, something we are very familiar with in this series. >> Sometimes I

feel myself rotting. >> Amanda's physical body is rotting away somewhere. And now suddenly there's a creature known for consuming rotten flesh clawing at Amanda. That can't be a coincidence. And it likely means whoever or whatever the apossum is, it's more likely connected to Amanda's physical body than it is her new TV persona. However, they are also known for eating non-rotting creatures, too. Most notably, despite a lot of bad press, they are considered very useful for Humans, as they also eat other pests like rodents. And when I think of rodents, I immediately think back to what

we learned in our last theory. The name Hamlin comes from the story of the Pied Piper, where the piper lures all the rats out of Hamlin Town. When the town won't pay, he then leads all the children out of the town as well. Last time we saw that Hamlin was drawing all the children away from their homes. They were the rats, and we believe they ended Up in the show like Rebecca did, just as background objects with eyes. Hamlin was consuming them for their own personal gain, just like an apossum consumes rats. The apossum is

Hamlin. either a person from Hamlin or just something put in place by Hamlin to keep Amanda on track. In the initial tape, Amanda wants us to go to the aisle of dead dolls. The aisle of dead dolls is an island located near Mexico City, and the legend goes that a man came across a dead girl in The canal. The next day, a doll floated down that same canal, so he fished it out and hung it up in the trees to ward off evil spirits. That's why Amanda asks us, >> "Do you think that really works?"

She's trying to ward off evil spirits, the demon that is controlling her. But Hamlin doesn't want her to fend off the demon that they've tried so hard to summon. Nor do they want Amanda escaping her TV prison. So, the apossum shows up And steals the coins from her hand to stop her progressing. But the connection goes even deeper when you start to look at the spiritual meaning behind the opossum. I've mentioned how the apossum is this game's version of Dora's Swiper, and we did a whole theory over on our sister channel about how Swiper is

actually an evil fox spirit living inside a computer game. And given we're dealing with demons inside of a video game, it felt kind of important to check Out those spiritual elements, too. Unlike the fox, the aposum is far less common in folktales. I could only find a handful from North and South America, and they also seem to paint the opossum as a trickster, much like their foxy counterparts. However, they are sometimes shown to be different, mainly that they are foolish and vain. There's one Native American legend called Why Osum's Tail is bare. And in it,

we learn the oposum is jealous of the raccoon Striped tail and wanted one of its own. It asked the raccoon how it got them and was told to wrap its tail in bark where it wanted the rings and then to light it on fire. Yeah, I think you can probably see where this is going. It did just that, and in doing so, it set its whole tail on fire. And the burns were so bad that the fur never grew back, leaving its bare tail. To me, this reflects exactly what we've seen from Hamlin Entertainment. They

were messing with Forces they didn't understand. and demonology. All in the attempt to make the perfect viral kid show. But their hubus caused their downfall. Much like the opposum, their plan backfired. They summoned a demon, but they couldn't control it. And now it's out in the world. And the child they put into the TV is now rebelling, too. Talking about horrible subjects and ruining the reputation of the show. Everything went up in smoke. It might even be more Literal than that, too. The apossum might actually be one of the members of Hamlin we've seen like

the businessman or one of the doctors trapped inside the show thanks to their own hubris. Now it's going to be up to us to fend off the Hamlin nosum from Amanda and help her to realize the truth in order to help her escape this prison. And that my friends is what I predict the story of Amanda the Adventurer 2 is going to be. The only question I have left is who was The raccoon in the folk tale? It was a raccoon that led the apossum to burning its own tail. Did Hamlin think it was just

too big to fail? Or was there someone else pulling the strings? Another person or show they were trying to learn from who tricked them into summoning these demons only for Hamlin to fall victim to their schemes. We play as Riley and we're following leads left by our aunt Kate, who was trying to solve the mystery of this show. In this Sequel, that investigation leads us to a library alongside the mysterious masked character from the end of the first game. Now, it's up to us to do what we do best. to solve the puzzles, find all

the VHS tapes, and try not to die to the Amanda demon that's lurking in the ceiling. >> RILEY, GET OUT OF THERE. >> If we do all that, we're rewarded with an escape hatch in the back of the library to run away from the demonic Woolly that just showed up. And that is why it's important to support your local library, kids. You never know when you're going to need a secret underground vault tunnel for demonic emergencies. But if we pay close attention to all the details leading up to this moment, we are also rewarded with

one of the most important resources from any library. Knowledge. knowledge about the true lore of this game, the origins of Hamlin Entertainment, who is In control of Amanda, and what the heck is Woolly's deal. For some reason, this guy is the biggest mystery of the entire franchise. Every theory comes back to him in some way. But no more. Let's not rack up any more late fees theorists. It's time to return to the library and see if we can finally solve the mysteries of Amanda the Adventurer. And to start with, I actually want to focus on

the same character our last theory ended on, the opossum. In the demo, this Guy was a mysterious character that didn't really show up all that much, but he was clearly meant to be a reference to Dora's swiper, as he steals Amanda's coin so that she couldn't try to escape during the opening scene. This made it feel like he was supposed to be important, and we ended up concluding that this aosum was likely connected back to Hamlin in some way. Despite stealing the coins, Amanda couldn't go on her adventure, and Hamlin don't want Her escaping this

new TV realm she finds herself in, especially after all the effort they went through to summon the demon entity in the first place. Now, in the full release, the Apossum is back, and I was right. He's definitely important, just not in the way I initially thought. He keeps showing up as he did before, causing havoc and attacking both Amanda and Woolly, leading to them getting more and more annoyed. And believe me, I get it. I'd Be annoyed too if someone kept bugging me, attacking me, and you know, trying to rip my eye out. Don't even

think about it. This annoyance culminates in a final scene in an alleyway where suddenly the apossum's attention switches from his usual Amanda shaped target and onto us. They attack the screen and we see a couple of subtitles appear, repeating a single broken word. >> Before they can get the whole word out, though, Amanda and Woolly tackle them to The ground and throw them in the dumpster. As with most things in this franchise, at first it's not super clear what we're seeing play out here. But if you rewind just a little bit, there is one single

hint that explains the whole thing. Throughout this playthrough, we have a walkietalkie that was given to us by our new masked friend. They occasionally just chime in to help drive the story forward. And one of those times is just as the apossum is going to Bother Amanda in the alleyway. >> What the hell happened in here? But just like Amanda has been able to hear us and use items that we offer her from the real world, the opossum seems to be able to hear this outside stimuli. That is what causes the opposum to switch targets.

They are reacting to the voice of the masked figure. And once you get to the true ending of the game, we come to realize why. Upon playing the secret tape from our aunt Kate, the masked Character removes their mask, tells us that their name is Joanne, and says that they've been looking for their younger brother Jordan. If those names sound familiar to you, then congratulations. You've got the same amount of theory brain rot that I do. We saw these names on a note back at the very start of the very first game. A woman named

Joanne was asking for Kate's help to find her brother Jordan, who went missing after watching Amanda's show. Now, think back To what we saw the Apossum character doing. They heard Joanne's voice on the walkie-talkie, stopped what they were doing, and began trying to communicate directly. Joe, Joah, Joanne. This opossum is reaching out to the voice it recognizes, his sister's voice. The apossum is the missing kid from the first game, Jordan. In the bad ending, Joanne tells us that we need to smash the tapes in order to free kids like Jordan. So, she does just That,

and sure enough, a soul rises out from the broken remains. Seems we were right that these kids who were disappearing were being put into the tapes to make the show feel more alive. However, the original story of the Pied Piper had 130 kids go missing. If this game is following that, which it definitely seems to be, that's a lot of tapes we got to find in Smash. So far, there's only been 17 Amanda tapes. I know fans want their favorite franchises To go on forever, but you think that's a little extreme. Although that's if we're

even able to get close to collecting that full number of tapes in the first place. In the true ending, Joanne tells us that Amanda's demon is protecting these tapes. And in the bad ending, after Joanne smashes one, Amanda's demon attacks her for doing so. Naturally, I just thought this was an evil entity doing evil entity things. It's a demon, after all. It was summoned by Hamlin and Bound to Amanda in order to lure all of these kids and kill anyone that got in their way. But in this game, we see something interesting happen. There's a

point where Woolly is telling a story to try and cheer up Amanda, and you have to open books to match the story he's presenting. However, doing so summons Amanda's demon from the ceiling, and it kills you. The solution is actually to ignore Woolly's instructions and instead follow Amanda's drawings she's posted on The wall. Once the story is over, the demon once again tries to kill you, but Amanda calls out and stops it. >> No, they help me feel better. This demon isn't completely mindless, nor is it evil and working for Hamlin. It's obedient to Amanda.

It follows her orders, which means that protecting the tapes isn't part of Hamlin's plan. It's part of hers. That seems strange. We've talked a few times about how Amanda is desperately trying to get out of these Tapes. So, why would she not want the same for all the other kids? By destroying the tapes, aren't we helping them get the very thing that she so desperately wants for herself? It could be that she's jealous. We saw in the first game that she's terrified of being alone like the lonely kitten. So, if she's stuck in these tapes,

at least I guess she would have some company. But then I noticed that we only destroy a tape in the bad ending. In the true Ending, Joanne says that someone told her to smash the tapes in order to free her brother's soul. She then later refers to them as the psychos who burnt down Kate's house to again try and destroy the tapes. At the end of her monologue, she tells us that Hamlin needs to be taken down. Clearly, these things are connected. Hamlin are the ones who went after Kate for investigating them. They destroyed her

house, and they are the ones trying to Destroy the tapes. Hamlin is evil. That's pretty well established at this point. So, smashing these tapes and releasing their souls isn't going to help bring these kids back. It's probably going to feed into whatever demonic ritual or plan they actually have coming up next. That's why Amanda attacks us when we destroy them. By following those instructions, we're helping the very people that caused this mess. And I would suspect causing those Kids more pain and suffering. By keeping them in the tapes, they're safe, protected by Amanda. She may

even have a way to bring them back properly in the future. It's hard to say for sure. This series has always leaned hard into cryptic clues that can't be answered until the sequel. But what I am sure about is that as we go through however many sequels this series is going to have, we'll be slowly winning Amanda over just like we did in this story Miniame. We're going to show her that we are trying to save these kids, too. That we are on her side. And once we build that trust enough, we're going to have

a demon entity on our side to help us stop Hamlin. Maybe we'll even get a cool kaiju style battle between demon Amanda and demon Woolly. All while we just sit in the corner frantically trying to solve a puzzle made for children. What can I say? A theorist's got a theorist. But this sequel isn't done with big Reveals yet. We found the apossum, but there's one other identity that this game is trying to share with us. One that has been bothering us since the very beginning. Woolly. I know. I know. The last two theories we've done

have all been about who this flipping sheep is. I'm as annoyed about it as you are. But trust me, I do truly believe that this game has the answers we need to finally put this mystery to bed. If you're unaware, since the first game Came out, Woolly's identity has been the subject of much debate. We here at Theorist have always fallen into the camp of Woolly being Sam, Rebecca's father. In the first game, Woolly was trying to keep Amanda on track with the positive messages, stopping her from leaning too much into the dark themes like

death and rotting. >> Amanda, nothing is rotten here. >> He was always trying to cheer her up, stopping her from becoming a monster. Sometimes it even worked. >> It's my birthday. Maybe we could help her out. My friend is My friend is having a birthday. >> It felt like a father who cared deeply for his daughter, who didn't want the awful things Hamlin was doing to affect the show, in this sequel, we see him do a lot more of the same, telling stories to try and cheer her up. >> Maybe doing something will make you

feel better. How about an adventure? But While we have been theorizing in that direction, others went a different way, feeling that it's more likely that Woolly was actually a Hamlin employee working on the inside to try and keep Amanda on track and stop her from freeing herself and the other kids. A wolf in sheep's clothing, if you will. And to be honest, I can't really deny the evidence supporting this. It's actually something I've wrestled with a lot while making this theory. In this Sequel, especially, if Amanda's demon is supposed to be working against Hamlin, they

don't want it summoned, which is why Woolly has been working so hard to keep it under wraps. We also see Woolly getting really annoyed at the Oposum and his antics, proclaiming, >> "I can't handle this anymore." >> That sounds just like a disgruntled employee that didn't sign up for this level of torment. At another point during the glitchy tapes, we see a giant Woolly looming over a screaming Amanda. This comes after we hear the butcher say, Close your eyes. Count down from 10. You may kill this pinch. >> That phrase is something I'm sure we've

all heard at a doctor's office, either before a surgery or an injection, revealing to us that the butcher we've been seeing throughout the games is actually meant to represent a doctor or surgeon that turned Amanda into a monster. Now that the surgery's been a Success, she's in the tapes and under the watchful eye of Woolly. Finally, there's, you know, the giant demon Woolly that appears at the end of the game. Much like Amanda's steps in when you're ruining her plans, this one comes in after Joanne tells you about Hamlin and their plans to destroy the

tapes. The demon Woolly is here to stop her ruining the plan any further. It is on Hamlin's side. Now, you might be thinking, Tom, that doesn't sound like a Game that's trying to give us the answer. It seems like there's still justification for both options. And you loyal theorists are completely right. if it weren't for the thing this game hooked all us law hunters with back in the first game. Secret tapes in this series. By breaking sequence or by doing specific puzzles at different points, you can unlock these colorful secret tapes that don't reveal the

next episode of Amanda the Adventurer for us to Interact with, but real footage of real people that build up the backstory of this series and its characters. Exactly what we need to figure out Woolly's true identity. In a man or two, there are four tapes, most of which are pretty straightforward. The red tape shows Sam telling a story to a bunch of kids at the local library. Afterwards, a businessman in a suit asks Sam if he's got a minute, which is usually business speak for I'd like to offer you a job, Or in this case,

I'd like to buy your show, please and thank you. This is Hamlin buying out Sam's original liveaction Amanda the Adventurer to create the show that we all know and uh just know. The orange tape is a meeting between our aunt Kate and a group of people she's working with to discuss the disappearance of the kids and the use of demonic entities inside the show, tying it back to a cult from the Middle Ages. We've already established how Hamlin Entertainment was taking inspiration from the Pied Piper of Hamlin Town story, which wouldn't you know it comes

from the Middle Ages, 1284 to be exact. whatever group it was that took the kids all those years ago in the Middle Ages. This is telling us that it's that same group operating today under the guise of Hamlin Entertainment. It also tells us that Rebecca has been inside the tapes for 15 years, which might explain why Amanda can feel herself rotting. >> Sometimes I feel myself rotting. >> And then in the green tape, we can see Rebecca's body hooked up to a machine in a hospital setting, rotting away. her brain activity being monitored using an

EEG cap, just like Matt theorized about in our very first theory. But then there's the blue tape, and this is where our answers truly lie. Sam is being kept in a tiny room somewhere away from his daughter. He argues with his captor over the contract he signed while being asked To say things to Rebecca to convince her to keep going along with their plans. Rebecca, honey, I am so proud of you and and I know that our our friends are taking care of you while I'm away. >> Clearly, this is Hamlin at work here. And

when Sam refuses, they decide to lock him up. It's actually a little hard to watch. The internal conflict of wanting desperately to see her, but also not wanting to lie to her. If he doesn't Do what they say, he gets locked up and will never see the light of day again. something that we've actually seen happen to another character in this franchise. In the buildup to the sequel's release, we got a random video on Twitter from this character in a white room thanking us for our support and reading a message from Amanda. However, right at

the end, they put the note down and say this. >> Okay, I did what you asked now. Please Let me go. >> That's right. Tom's still on the Sam is Willie train. All aboard. I like trains. But I mean, come on. Two characters both being locked away somewhere, being forced to say things they don't want to say, all with the hopes of being let go. They're exactly the same. How could I not be on this train? There's also this random chicken in the background. And last time we talked about how the Rooster represents Sam. So,

for a white chicken to be here alongside Woolly, it feels like a subtle nod to his true identity. So, what about all the evidence that points towards Woolly working directly for Hamlin? You can't just ignore that. Well, don't worry theorists. You can put your pitchforks down. I'm not going to ignore anything. In fact, I actually think this evidence works together really nicely. We've just been looking at it all wrong. During the We can fix it video. Woolly is doing his usual thing, being actively negative to the situation, trying to keep Amanda on track. >> Amanda,

none of this is worth fixing. But when we have a broken butterfly before us, Willie suddenly gets a rush of compassion and wants us to show Amanda that we can fix anything, including her. >> You can't really fix everything. >> You were right, Amanda. We can fix Anything. We can fix it, right? >> We're seeing two versions of Woolly in a single tape. One that's helping Hamlin and one that wants to help Amanda. Sam wants to help his daughter, but as we saw in the blue tape, he is being coerced, forced to go along with

Hamlin's plan. If he doesn't do what they ask, he'll remain locked up. And who knows what awful thing could happen as a result. On the red tape, the Hamlin employee mentions that Sam has been able To build a strong connection with the kids with the stories he tells. And then in the blue tape, what is he doing? He's telling Amanda, a child, a fake story to convince her to help Hamlin. Hamlin has seen Sam's ability to engage with children. And so by essentially holding him at gunpoint, they can use him to manipulate Amanda and all

the other children that watch the show. This is why his actions have appeared so inconsistent. Sam Woolly wants to help Amanda. He wants to fix her, but he's also under strict orders to not mess anything up. This isn't a case of Woolly being Sam or someone from Hamlin. The truth is, it's both. The only question I have now is how did he end up in this situation? Was being turned into Woolly a punishment for refusing to go along with their plans in the blue tape? Or was it another stipulation of his clearly awful contract? I

don't think so. If that were the case, he'd be there Against his will and wouldn't likely be falling in line so easily, just like we saw in the blue tape and like we're seeing Amanda do. Instead, the truth is actually much sadder and much darker than any of us realized. And it all comes down to the when you're feeling bad tape. I mentioned this miniame earlier. Amanda is well feeling bad and so Woolly decides to cheer her up by telling her a story. It's a pretty by the numbers kids fantasy story. We have A brave

knight who receives a quest from a wizard to save the princess from a dragon. But Amanda isn't interested. She has a different story in mind. If you instead follow the pictures that Amanda has drawn and placed on the wall, you end up with a story about a knight and a princess who loved each other very much, but the knight suddenly abandoned the princess. She goes to the wizard to help find him, but the wizard tricks her and turns her into a dragon. At this point, You're probably starting to see the parallels. Amanda was turned into

a monster by Hamlin. So, the princess is Amanda/Rebecca. The dragon is her demon form. The wizard is Hamlin. And the knight, well, there's only one possible option left. It's Sam. Think about it. In the fake version of events, the one Hamlin wants Amanda to believe. Hamlin the wizard sent Sam or Woolly the Knight on a noble quest to save Amanda from the demon. He's there to help her to stop The demon from appearing. And so by trusting him and following his lead, Amanda will get to live happily ever after just like the princess. But that's

not the true story Amanda remembers. The true story, or at least the true story as far as she's concerned, is that Sam abandoned her. We see in the blue tapes that he's being held captive away from her, but she's a child. She's not going to understand those nuances, especially with Hamlin manipulating the tapes. Plus, we learned from the first game that Rebecca isn't Sam's biological daughter, but his adopted daughter. She's already been abandoned once before. And regardless of whether the reasons were good or bad, that feeling of being abandoned by a parental figure, it can

be really hard to shake. When he disappears for no reason, naturally, she's going to feel betrayed by the person who promised to protect her. So, she asked Hamlin for help, and they said They would. getting her to sign a contract and from there turned her into a monster. However, that isn't where Amanda's story ends. In the final section, the knight comes back to slay the dragon only to realize after he does the deed that it was the princess all along. He had killed his true love and so resolved to wander the earth alone forever. At

some point, Sam did escape from his confinement and rushed to find Rebecca. He may even have been the one Filming the footage found on the green tape from the hospital. running once he was spotted because he wasn't supposed to be there. From there though, the story implies that he does eventually encounter Amanda's demon and tries to kill it. But in doing so, he sadly kills his own daughter. Amanda's real body isn't rotting because she's lying comeomaos in a hospital bed, but because she died at her father's hand. The only part of her that remains now

is her mind Inside these tapes, and she hasn't forgiven him for what he did. When you go looking for treasure in the woods, you can dig up an unmarked grave. And inside it are a pile of Sam's clothes that he wore in one of the interview tapes. In previous theories, we've pointed out that when we saw an unmarked grave in the demo, the correct answer was Woolly. Again, connecting these two characters. But when they see these clothes, both Woolly and Amanda agree That some things are better buried, forgotten. Amanda wants to forget about her father

that he abandoned her while Woolly wants her to forget the horrible things that he did so that they can rebuild their relationship inside the game. That is why I believe Sam got turned into Woolly in the first place. I'll admit this next part is a little speculative, but bear with me. Sam killed his own daughter and was completely torn apart by it. But if he'd Seen Hamlin's experiments in the hospital, he'd know that part of her lived on. She was still alive inside the show. And so he turned himself into Hamlin, asked them to experiment

on him and turn him into a character so that he and Amanda could be together again. They agreed. Their only condition was that he stop fighting them and keep Amanda on track with their plan. Once again, he was being coerced by Hamlin, but he needed to be with his daughter again. So He accepted. He got put into the show as Woolly, and in turn, that created the demonic sheep that we see at the end of the game. That is why Sam isn't fighting nearly as hard as he was in the blue tape because he can't.

He made a deal and he has to hold up his end of the bargain if he wants to remain with his daughter. This might also explain how after Amanda kills him in the first game, Willie is suddenly able to show back up in the sequel with no real Consequence. Unlike Rebecca, Sam may not be dead. He's just hooked up to a machine and can be put back into the show so Hamlin can keep control. And each time that happens, Hamlin puts more and more pressure on Sam to keep her in line, to keep the demon

at bay so that they can destroy the tapes and fulfill their master plan. We've been given a demo for the third and final installment of this series, which means all of our questions about this franchise will be Answered when it finally releases this fall. But fear not theorists, though the full game isn't here yet, this demo has already told us exactly how this game is going to end, what Rebecca's fate truly is, and how our character Riley will be the one to finish Hamlin once and for all. Better hit rewind on that tape, my friends,

because we are diving into the past of Amanda the Adventurer. Across these games, we have been playing as Riley, who discovered this whole Hamlin Conspiracy after investigating her aunt Kate's attic. We learn more about Amanda and her fluffy companion Woolly, as well as finding a bunch of tapes about demonic entities, one of which we had the lovely opportunity of meeting face to face. In the second game, we headed to the public library only to be cornered by another demon, this time, Woollies. And then we escaped through a secret hatch to go and free the kids

that had been going missing. So, Naturally, I figured this third game would follow on right from where we left off. And at first, that does seem to be the case. Having climbed down the hatch, we are now in the sewers. But when you actually hit start, you are transported out of the sewers and a cutscene begins. >> It's me going in tonight. Seems they've up their security since my last few visits. It's a good thing though. Means we're on to something. >> During this, we see clips of the Hamlin Facility that we've seen in previous

installments. Rebecca with officials in a hospital bed, all that jazz. This man goes on to mention meeting Kate at a location for the handoff. And it's at this point that we hear the mysterious man gets spotted. and we take control to start doing the thing that we do best, snooping for that sweet, sweet lore. There's only one area we could go into, though, a small office with a meeting room. There are a few things you can Pick up and look at, including a famous painting of the Pied Piper, just in case you hadn't been theorizing

about it since the first game. But the one item that's important is a key card, which lets you into the security room. And once you're there, you see several what appear to be stasis pots. Past those is a room filled with security cameras. You insert a tape to begin downloading the data. But as you do, Amanda begins talking to us like she usually does, Asking for us to help her on a scavenger hunt. This is where the game portion we all know and love really begins. We're asked to find items like a door with three

windows, an old sock, a stray dog, and a power line. All of which in Amanda's TV world are objects with eyes on them. And all of which correspond to an image on one of the stasis chambers in THE OTHER ROOM. JACKPOT. BINGO. YATSI ALL OF THE SOUNDS. I knew we were on to something. These pods must be where Hamlin has been keeping the children that they've lured away from home. Now all trapped and plugged into the system, ready to be put into the TV show as these objects. While this is all going on, the facility

is going into lockdown. Fortunately, solving Amanda Scavenger hunt is actually the key to deactivating the alarm. Intruder alerts are getting complicated. We had pretty high security when I was at Disney, but I didn't have to watch an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to turn it off. Anyway, by matching the correct images to the correct breaker switch, we end the lockdown, the tape downloads, and the guards arrive. We slip the tape into one of the boxes and get taken down. After which, we jump 10 years into the future where Riley escapes the library and we are

left with the message, find Rebecca, find Amanda, find her. Okay, that's a pretty clear goal given to us there. And honestly, we've been kind of trying to Do that anyway. So, the real question is, who is asking us to do this? I mean, it's most likely the guy we're playing as, but who is that? Up until now, we've been playing as the unknowing Riley, but in this demo, we jump back 10 years and play as someone who clearly knows what's going on. They're going into Hamlin, collecting information, and putting the data on tapes. But notice

the tapes he uses. It's not the classic black like most of the VHS's. It's bright red like The secret tapes that we've been collecting over the last two games. And it's in these secret tapes that we have found the footage being shown at the beginning of the demo and all the other information surrounding the realworld mystery of this show. My first instinct was that this had to be one of the only men we've really seen in this series. One who would have a reason to try and take down Hamlet, the creator of Amanda the Adventurer,

Sam. In these videos, we See someone sneaking around a hospital room to look at Rebecca. And so I kind of attributed these things to Sam as he tries to figure out what's really going on and how to save his daughter. But after looking at it more, I realized it can't be Sam that we play as. Firstly, there's his voice that's got to lead to the security room. >> We have heard a lot of Sam's voice in previous installments. And even when he's speaking more solemnly, he's got a Clear low register. >> If I do this,

you'll let me see her. While this new character seems to have a slightly higher register because speaking in this quiet low register is producing a lot of vocal fry and cracking. So it doesn't appear to be the same voice. There's also the factor of previous theories we've had. Just like Rebecca is actually Amanda, we have believed that Sam is actually Woolly, which means that we can't be playing as Sam because Woolly is right there in the video we interact with. But the final clue comes down to the clips we were given during that very first

cut scene of the demo when the player is talking to Kate. The clips used during this are moments found in the secret tapes of Amanda 1 and 2. Specifically, moments that involve Rebecca and Sam, >> what is this? What is she reading? >> It's pretty tricky to film handheld footage of yourself from a third person Perspective. Believe me, I've tried. Basically, there's no physical way for this to be Sam that we're playing as. And thinking about this realistically, it's likely going to be someone that we just haven't met yet. We have encountered a few other

male sounding characters through these secret tapes, but none of them are really invested in this mystery like Kate is. There just isn't anyone at this point who fits the bill. It's like when we found out who The masked figure was in Amanda 2. It was the sister of one of the lost children. No one really expected that one name on that one sheet of paper to turn out to be a crucial story character. So, it's likely that this is going to be a similar thing. A character who hasn't really been a part of the series

and yet in a way has actually been part of it since the very beginning. The one who has been creating the secret tapes. I mean, who knows? Maybe it'll end up being Ash's favorite character. >> I'm me, DJ Two Shades. >> But for now, I guess we can just simply call him Tape Guy. But that only solves part of the mystery. Their identity, or lack thereof, doesn't exactly help us figure out what's going to happen in the next game. and all we have left is a simple puzzle like we've experienced in previous installments. However, much

like we saw in the Amanda 2 demo, I Believe they've chosen to present this specific puzzle because it has a much deeper meaning than you may initially realize. In that previous demo, we kept being shown an opossum. And so, we looked into folklore surrounding opossums and what that might symbolize to tell us about the story. So, I wondered whether the images we're being asked to search for in this demo, the ones on the stasis pods, maybe held symbolic meaning that could help give us The answers we seek. For example, one of the things we have

to look for is a stray dog. If we look into the world of interpreting dreams, and let's be honest, if you're in a comaike situation, as we see Rebecca in, it's basically just an elongated, though slightly more precarious sleep. Dogs represent loyalty. I'm sure we've all heard that a dog is man's best friend, that they always stick beside you. So, that would make a lot of sense. So, the Dog Amanda finds is not friendly. It's snarling and aggressive, which drastically changes the meaning. An aggressive dog is an omen or a sign that your loyalty has

been betrayed. By this point, we already know that Amanda, or rather Rebecca, was tricked into signing papers and becoming a part of this weird TV experiment. We also know that she feels betrayed by Sam thanks to the end of Amanda 2, where Sam is forced to tell Rebecca to do whatever Hamlin says, even The awful stuff she was put through. This dog is conveying Amanda's emotions, how she feels about these events, and confirming information we already know, which leads me to believe we're on the right track with this interpretation business. So, let's analyze some more.

Another item we have to look for is an old sock. Now, you might think a single old sock can't possibly have psychological interpretations to it. Right? Wrong. A single old sock, Interestingly enough, can represent unresolved issues in life. Wearing only one sock means something's not quite right. It feels unnatural, huh? Maybe I should let Matt know. Although, it's not like I see him around the office anymore to tell him. But regardless, this once again points to Rebecca's emotions. Rebecca has unresolved issues. The big one being she's trapped inside these tapes and has not been able

to escape. But that's not all we get from this Sock. >> Here it is. Smelly old sock. >> And believe it or not, the smelliness carries its own meaning. It represents neglected self-care. The sock is being left to decay. Amanda has told us before about how she's rotting away somewhere. >> Sometimes I feel myself rotting, but it feels far away. >> Her body is being neglected, and her dilemma is trying to get back to her body to free herself. It's unresolved, And she needs to resolve it so that she can feel complete once again. Yeah,

turns out you can learn a lot about a person through a sock. And to really hammer in the trapped, helpless analogy, she sends us to look for a power line. The one in the TV show is broken, sparking all over the floor. And as you probably figured out by now, this absolutely means something. A tangled or broken power line can represent blockages, unresolved issues, or Feelings of being restricted or held back. Something we've already mentioned for the other items. Broken power lines can also represent powerlessness and frustration. Again, things we definitely know Amanda is feeling.

Then there's the first object we're asked to look for, >> a door with three windows. Now, the literal definition of a door with three windows doesn't have a lot of meaning in dreams or any spiritual context, but doors and windows in and of themselves Do. And it has to do with looking into someone's soul. I'm sure you've all heard the phrase, "Eyes are the windows to the soul." But here, there are three windows. Two next to each other and one at the top in the middle, which in most media is a way of depicting the

third eye. A third eye represents someone's ability to perceive beyond their reality, their realm, their current dimension. In a way, that's what we've been seeing Amanda doing in the game. Even though she's in the TV show, she can see and manipulate the environment outside of the TV. When we complete a task, an item appears. If we upset her, she sends her demon counterpart to kill us. The door with three windows represents Rebecca's soul and its ability to communicate with us in the real world. But what's the point of all this? I mean, we know most

of this already. What we want to figure out is how to save her. Well, I hate to be the Bearer of bad news, but it might already be too late. While looking at the interpretation of power lines, I noticed something odd about how Amanda refers to them. >> Do you see a sparking snake around here? >> I get that she's a kid, but this is meant to be an educational show. So, why call it something that it's not, unless she's deliberately trying to communicate a hidden message? After doing some internet soouththing, I discovered that Sparking

snake is another name for the fiery serpent found in Slavic folklore. A serpent that, surprise, surprise, shoots out sparks when flying. In the story, the serpent would seduce women and trick them. Normally was something they greatly desired, only for the gift to turn into horse manure by mourning, becoming ultimately worthless. This deception would also result in the women experiencing things like severe weight loss, hallucinations, and eventually Death from withering or rotting away. Now, as I've mentioned, the idea of rotting in this franchise is nothing new. Amanda's been telling us she's been rotting since the very

first installment. Heck, even the apple in the logo has slowly begun to rot with each new game, with this third one being completely decayed. She was tempted with something by Hamlin, becoming famous money, whatever it was to get her to sign the contract. And it wasn't long After that Rebecca realized what she was promised was worthless. But even still, as she said, it always felt far away, like it was happening slowly, like it was something we might be able to stop. But remember the dog I mentioned earlier, that one representing loyalty? Well, that isn't the

only interpretation there is. One of the cultures we looked at during the second game's demo was Mesoamerican cultures due to the reference of the island of dead dolls. The legend of a girl who drowned in a nearby canal and began to haunt the island. Saying it again now, I really should have seen it at the time, but now with this demo, it's painfully obvious. In Mesoamerican cultures, Zolos, the American hairless dog, would be sacrificed along with the deceased to act as a guide for the departed. It's also worth noting that Amanda actively avoids choosing other

objects available to her like the tree or the flower, Things that represent growth, revival, and health. Because that is the opposite of what she is feeling. She is telling us it's more than just being betrayed. It's more than just rotting away metaphorically in a hospital bed somewhere. She's telling us that Rebecca is dead. She had been rotting away, but this has been going on for more than 15 years at this point. And now it's too late. Her physical body is gone and all that is left is her soul within these Tapes. That doesn't mean the

mission we've been given is completely pointless, though. Last time, after destroying the tapes in the bad ending, the monster kills Joanne. And we realize that Amanda and her monster have actually been trying to help the missing children's souls. Rebecca wants us to save them and finally escape the nightmare that she is lost in. While we might not be able to save her, these other missing children are in the stasis Chambers trapped in the show. There is still a chance to rescue them. Like the painting of the pied piper in the meeting room, we are about

to enter the dark cave that the children were lured to. And it's going to be down to Riley to put an end to this and save everyone else from the clutches of Hamlin. Despite what looking back feels like a lot of information, we still have a number of mysteries left unanswered. Where is Amanda? What happened to Sam? How are these monsters created? What's Hamlin's real plan? And of course, who the heck is Woolly really? That last one has been the topic of debate across most of our videos and across the entire fandom. But today, I

say no more. Because at the start of this third game, we're in the sewers, having just narrowly escaped the sheep monsters jaws. Here we find a secret entrance into Hamlin's secret facility and the answers to everything we've ever Wondered about this weird kids show. and the cult behind all of it. So, grab your trusty map one last time, theorists. We're going to need it as we explore these hallowed halls and solve the mystery of Amanda the Adventurer. As you might expect, Amanda 3 plays out very similarly to all the others so far. You use VHS

tapes to interact with Amanda and Woolly and use items found around the room to solve puzzles. Just like last time, Wy is being strangely Adversarial, trying to keep Amanda on track with the quote unquote correct story and focused on him rather than, you know, actually helping her to remember her past. But by doing just that, we unlock more areas, including the chamber from the demo containing stasis chambers and a delightfully culty church altar complete with pentagram. After doing enough of Amanda's tasks, the door inside the church opens up, revealing one last stasis chamber. The One

with Amanda inside. Finally, we let her out, only for the woolly monster to arrive, leading to Amanda's monster fighting it off. See guys, I knew there'd be a Kaiju battle. They fly off the edge of the platform into the abyss, and Amanda says, "Now I'll never be whole." This is obviously the bad ending of the game. It's not particularly satisfying. Plus, we didn't unlock any secrets to get it. That being said, even with just a normal playthrough, a number Of mysteries can finally be answered. Firstly, the kids being lorded away by Amanda to Hamlin are

absolutely being plugged into the show as background characters like we predicted several theories ago. There's a moment where Woolly's monster is coming to attack us. But before reaching us, he ends up in the same room as the stasis pods that we saw in the demo. It seemed pretty clear that these were the kids that were being stored so that their minds could be Uploaded into the show. You can even see their decomposing body parts floating inside of them. But while watching the tapes, it becomes abundantly clear. Amanda's new apossum friend, Chicken Scratch, or as we

know him, the little boy Jordan, who went missing in the first game, at one point approaches the screen, and his eyes glaze over. At the same time, so do all the eyes of the background objects. As we turn around, we see Woolly's monster is destroying The room, leaving the whole show to feel more lifeless and empty, allowing things to stay on track, just as Woolly wanted. Another thing that's been clarified is us, the player. We've been playing as Riley, whose aunt gave us her house, told us to go into the attic and play a tape

of an old TV show. But she warned us if we do, we can't go back. Naturally, we did watch it. And that's what started us on this whole adventure. But why did we do it? And why did we Stick with it despite the very obvious threats? It's a classic indie horror question, and normally the answer is so the game can happen. But in this case, I think we've actually been given a deeper reason. Once you resolve the beach tape, Amanda retells the story of when she went to the beach with her adoptive father, Sam. This

idea repeats across all of the tapes with her and Sam going and doing various things. However, there's one noticeable difference about The beach tape. Sam isn't the only person she mentions. She also mentions another little girl, her best friend that she used to play with. This is the first and only time this other girl comes up, which stood out as odd to me. Why introduce another character to this story? Why couldn't it just have been her and Sam playing at the beach? Unless this character is supposed to mean something? I believe the reason it matters

is because that little girl is Us, Riley. In this game, we see that Rebecca disappeared in 2003. Now, it's 2023, according to the radio playing the 2023 President's Day broadcast. 20 years have passed, and we can see that when Amanda gets out of the pod, she definitely looks and sounds older. If she's been missing for 20 years, then this other little girl would wonder what happened to her friend. It would also explain why Aunt Kate was so involved to begin with. She was connected to the Library where the show originally started. She would know Sam

and therefore Rebecca. This could even be how Rebecca and Riley met. So when Sam and Rebecca went missing, Aunt Kate wanted to know why. And therefore, after she mysteriously disappeared, so did Riley. That's why we know what Amanda is thinking. We follow her lead, her stories, her memories, because we remember her from back then. And it's why we're determined to find her. But as I've stated, that's what we get from just a normal playthrough. We still have to get the good ending. And to do that, we need to find the colorful secret tapes that Amanda

is well known for at this point. And oh boy, do these things flip everything on its head. Especially the first secret tape you can get, the red tape. In it, we are watching security footage of the Hamlin facility being reviewed due to a security breach. No, not you. Sam Colton has escaped from His room and makes his way into Rebecca's room, the room that we have seen her in previously with all of the wires connected to her. However, as he does this, there are aggressive tremors and Sam crawls out of the room followed by Amanda's

monster. We've known for a long time that Hamlin is dealing with the demonic in some way with the mentioning of demonic names from Rebecca. Per >> and the references to demonic messaging within the Amanda show. >> The last 20 weeks of this kid show, there have been over 40 mentions of these entities. >> This game does seem to lean into that with the altar and pentagram within the facility. But what's interesting here is how they refer to this monster. What we've been referring to as Amanda's demon, they refer to as the cult anomaly. As in

something that wasn't Expected. Amanda didn't summon a demon that they wanted, but they lost control of. This isn't part of their demonic ambitions. This is something they never anticipated. In this tape, they theorize that seeing Sam caused a quote neuroscychic surge that caused the anomaly to come into existence. This is Amanda's creation. It does look demonic, and that could very well be because of the demonic and cult influence Rebecca has been subjected to at the facility. But essentially, this thing has been born from Rebecca's imagination. We also get a little more information on this thing

from a toy called Blabo the Clown, the creepy cousin to our beloved Blabbot who was ripped away from us far too soon. >> I LOVE YOU. >> OH NO. >> GIVE ME another chance. >> No, >> we are going to have a chance to life Together. Please do not for a good >> I will never I'll never forget Blabbot. >> Throughout the game we get codes to help us on our journey, usually to help solve a puzzle, but occasionally we get a code that we can punch into Blabo and he'll give us some interesting secret

information. One of which focuses on the Colton anomaly. >> Often these episodes are frequently lethal, precursed by a perceived threat to any recording containing the animated Amanda character. In Amanda 2, it became pretty obvious that the cult anomaly was protecting the tapes, killing Joanne when she destroyed one in the bad ending. But what's fascinating is why. In previous theories, we theorized that it was the souls of the children abducted who were in the tapes, and that she was trying to protect them from suffering a similar fate to her. Obviously, in this game, we've talked about

how the kids were in the stasis Pots, not in the tapes. So, what is the soul-like substance we're seeing come out of the tapes that the anomaly is trying to protect? Well, in the bad ending, when both the Colton Anomaly and Woolly's Anomaly fall off the platform, Rebecca says, "I'll never be whole." And in the good ending, we actually receive one final tape that Rebecca then breaks, releasing more of this soul substance, and we watch it along with the anomaly go into Rebecca. So, we can conclude That these souls inside the tapes are actually part

of Rebecca herself. her soul split amongst the various versions of Amanda that we've seen, each one containing part of her memories separated from one another, waiting for us to come along and put her back together. So, why is the anomaly trying to stop the tapes being destroyed then? If Rebecca needs to be whole again, isn't destroying the tapes exactly what she wants? I was wondering about this For a bit, and I believe the answer simply comes down to timing. At the end of the day, this anomaly is trying to protect Rebecca. The Blabbo message goes

on to say that they believe destroying the tapes weakens the connections it has to Amanda. And in another tape, we see a Hamlin representative asking the public to give them the tape so that they can destroy them. They want to remove the monster so Rebecca can once again be kept under control and they can continue With their plan. The anomaly, which was conjured by Rebecca's mind as a way to protect her, doesn't want Hamlin to do that, and so attacks anyone that attempts to do so. However, by the end of the game, Hamlin is gone.

They've left this facility and we are here to take Rebecca to safety. Once Rebecca is whole, Hamlin isn't there to control her. She's safe. And so, the anomaly allows Rebecca to destroy the final tape and become whole again. That isn't the End of what these tapes offer us, though, as there's one more detail from the red tape that finally helps us settle the biggest question we've had about this franchise once and for all. Who is Woolly? From Woolly's trying to keep Amanda calm to Woolly's grave in the woods being filled with familiar human clothes to

him being coerced into giving press conferences on Twitter. It felt like the game was pushing us towards Woolly actually being Sam Coloulton, Rebecca's father. Now in the show, thanks to Hamlin. Even in this game, when Amanda is remembering her true past involving a taller man, her father Sam, Willie keeps insisting that it's actually him she remembers. almost like a father trying to reach out to his daughter, telling her he's right in front of her. But then we have the red tape. And after the Colton anomaly jumps into the ceiling, this happens. >> Respondents confirmed SC96's

injuries Were fatal. >> Sam is dead, meaning he cannot be Woolly. Ah, well, you win some, you lose some. I guess now I get to join Matt in the hall of incorrect theories alongside phone guys, purple guy. So, if Sam is out of the picture, then who the heck is our annoying fluffy boy? Who is this character that eluded us since the beginning? The answer is lying in plain sight in this new game. Using another secret code, we get an update on the Cult anomaly from Blabo. But this one mentions a name. >> M Stewardship

continues to have an overall common. >> Mootman. Mootman. Where have I heard that name before? Oh yeah, it was on the monitor in the control room. Marcus Mootman is named to be part of the replication process for bioexperiment 0823. The screen refers to the experiment as Shepherd, which another secret Blabo soundbite tells us is the Name of the Woolly Anomaly, a created version of the Colton Anomaly, but this time under their control. >> Report on Project Shepherd. We are pleased to report that our attempts to recreate a stable, trainable facimile of the Colton anomaly may

be turning a meaningful corner. >> Woolly, much like Amanda, is tied to this anomaly. And when he crashes out at the end of the game, that summons Shepherd to come and stop us from Messing everything up. But finally, we get to meet Marcus in the last secret tape. It's fine. He's just some dude, but he does show willingness to follow orders, whatever the cost, which is exactly what they need from a person who is responsible for controlling Amanda. Marcus is woolly. Now, credit where credit is due. Fellow creator Mozilla actually figured this out months ago

thanks to the first game's end credits in it. There's a hexadeimal code when You look at Woolly's Birthday Singers. If you translate that and then use a Caesar cipher, you get the name Marcus. Not that we'd have been able to do much with it because Marcus wasn't mentioned at all in Amanda 2. But I digress. Marzilla, great job. And with that, a lot of big mysteries from this franchise are completely wrapped up. A true first here on the channel. But we're not done quite yet because there's one anomaliesized mystery that's yet to be Resolved. the

why. What was the purpose of all of this? We discovered that Hamilton Entertainment is absolutely a cult. So why did they need to lure all the children? What was their ultimate goal? Well, in the hallways before you enter the altar room, you can see there are three different paintings. Each of these paintings are real historic paintings and they each tell a story. The first one is called On the Horizon, the Angel of Certitude and In the Somber Heaven, a questioning regard. Yeah, it's a bit of a long title, but the original one's in French, and

I am not trying to pronounce that. Not after the Pokémon episode. Anyway, this is a painting from 1882, and the symbolism behind it was about existential uncertainty and the search for meaning in the universe. The moon with the eye represents the universe, showing it's not just us gazing out with questions. The universe has its own questions for us. At the Time this painting was made, scientific advances began challenging faith. This painting reflects that tension between scientific observation and spiritual assurance and how people were beginning to waver in their faith. Makes sense for a cult, right?

They are often outsiders to the rest of the world because they quote unquote know the truth while the rest of the world falls for the quote unquote lies of science and other faiths. The second painting, the one With the weird chicken skeleton that bears some resemblance to the anomalies, is the temptation of St. Anthony. This painting is one of a series and it shows St. Anthony, an Egyptian monk who spent years in the desert confronting many demonic spirits. It's a story of resisting the earthly temptations and desires offered by demons, which is weird when we

know that Hamlin is in the demon business. So, why hang up a painting that is a cautionary tale Against them? Well, similar to the previous painting, because the demons and temptations they're referring to aren't the demons they're worshiping, but the false deities the rest of the world is worshiping. And that seems to be the case when you look at the third painting. This one is called the cult of the demon. It highlights people who partake in idolatrous worship engaging in rituals. Typically, this was to deter people from that way of life. But for Hamlin, it's

literally telling us what they believe. Unwavering faith and avoiding the lies and temptations of the world. But what does this have to do with capturing children? Thankfully, there's an audio message on repeat that fills in the gaps. Who among us has not been told that in the beginning there was light, pure truth, and that this was the original gift of God? That over the millennia we have tarnished this gift by introducing darkness and concealment. This, my brothers, my sisters, is alive. >> Okay, so how I was interpreting those paintings was absolutely on the right track.

Cool. Now, I really would love to show you the whole thing because it's actually pretty good, but it's just so long. So, let me instead give you the cliff notes. This preacher refers to the great nil, essentially the nothingness before creation as the true origins of everything. But the world uses light to hide that truth. He claims children are The closest thing to that great nil, as they've yet to be tainted by these fake truths. But because their imaginations are limitless, they can help us all to return to the darkness from which we came. This

might sound just like your typical indie horror jargon, but it stood out to me because it's actually very similar to a Swedish Luciferian cult known as the Temple of the Black Light. Similarly, they believe the universe is an artificial construct and That our true origins and ultimate reality are primordial chaos, darkness, and the void of nothingness. That organized religions of any kind are all corrupt and deceiving, only there to hide the true nature of our reality and prevent us from being able to perceive spirits. And while this was a Luciferian cult, as in they worshiped

Lucifer, Satan himself, some were also known to worship demons from the Arsgoisha, a book with a list of demonic entities who Embody the ideas of darkness, chaos, and the destruction of the cosmic order. That's why we hear Amanda calling on the names of demons from the Arsgoisha in the first game. >> Pman, >> she is being guided to the spiritual reality Hamlin is after. and using her pure imagination as a child to perceive these spirits and maybe bring them into reality. Even their company name ties back to all of this. You see, before the Time

of the Pied Piper, the prevailing religion in the real city of Hamlin was Germanic paganism. But due to Christianity taking over the region around that time, most of the pagan rituals and practices were made illegal. One theory is that the Pied Piper was a Germanic pagan. And when he stole the children, he took them to a hillside to take part in a pagan celebration, the summer solstice. Bringing the children back to their original religion. With The power of Rebecca's imagination, Hamlin can now lure more children, show them the way, plug them into the show, and

eventually combine their powers to bring everyone back to the truth, the nothingness that started it all. How exactly that works is a little unclear, but while I was trying to figure it out, I realized that ambiguity is for a reason. This game could have gone into explicit detail about these plans and how the TV could bring us back to Nothingness. But by leaving it blank, by not explaining every mystery, it forces us to think more deeply about the entire franchise. And while I was doing that, I was reminded of conversations I'd had with my brother

about his kids and the shows they watch. She keeps telling me about the amount of shows like Coco Melon, content with no substance designed to steal kids attention, their focus, their imagination. There are plenty of studies around how iPads and Highly stimulated shows can affect kids ability to play and use their imaginations. Kids are being metaphorically pulled into these shows, unable to look away, throwing tantrums when it's turned off. Their imaginations are being absorbed by these shows, these businesses. slop that returns their minds to nothingness rather than teaching the messages of knowledge and morality. Hamlin

being an evil cult is obviously an overexaggeration, but the Point still remains. The truth and light that they fight against is what we should be encouraging in our kids. As we see right at the end of the game's credits, Rebecca was always encouraged by her father Sam in her imagination and shown good moral character. Because of that, Rebecca's pure imagination became so powerful, Hamlin's plan backfired. While she was able to essentially summon or create some kind of demon-like entity, it's there to protect her and Kids like her, not to help Hamlin bring around their return

to nothingness. And now it's up to us to do the same. But hey, that's just a theory, a game theory. Thanks for watching. >> World premiere on Game Theory. This is the complete law of secret of the mimic.