Post Video tidbits (pointed out by viewers):


The animal suit is likely a giraffe
The Soldier is wearing a German helmet (Stahlhelm) design
The hanged men could be deserters
Operation Pied Piper actually was moving kids to the english countryside not off the island (although many did leave the country)
Italy started WW1 as a Central Powers ally, remaining neutral due to the circumstances of the war (they believed A-H acted offensively) but changed sides in 1915 to fight with the Allied powers.
Many guns and equipment from WW1 were still used in WW2
SS Germans would wear tan uniforms
The wearable army helmet in the base game (not the Brodie) looks closer to an American WW2 style.

Sorry about any other history mistakes/inconsistences. I am not a historian lmao.

“And in the end, it was a war without reason”

I think the soldiers being Green and Tan, and their general appearance as a whole, is a reference to the old Army Men plastic toys that were green and tan with blurred faces and a mix of WW1-WW2-Cold War equipment.

After giving it some thought, I think the war and the soldiers as a whole represent how a child thinks a military acts, since they seem to fight everyone and everything for no particular reason without pause, because to a child, that's what an army does. It would also explain the absolutely ginormous guns, bombs and missiles we see, because a child would just see the biggest weapon as the best.

This has some interesting implications, because it could mean that the soldiers are just toys being controlled by some higher power with a goal that perhaps even it doesn't fully understand. The other, perhaps more terrifying option depending on how you look at it, is that they are all doing this for fun, which would explain all of the extreme, contradictory and nonsensical actions they seem to be taking.

With how the world as a whole feels like a child's nightmare, I wouldn't be surprised if Tarsier at the end of this pulls an "It was all a dream" cliche out of their hat, only to have the player run through Sniper Alley whilst clutching a lamb toy to reach a civilian evacuation point at the end of it.

I have a theory that in the base game when they did the ritual and sacrifice the girl it opened the portal triggering the flood but everything that was dead came back to life so it's just an endless cycle of death coming back to life. I think that's the reason why the soldiers faces are gone they died and came back so many times  they are just acting on instinct.

What if Prisoner is named after "Prisoner of war"
He could have been a oposing soldier to "soldier"
It would explain why in the begining he answers with a casual "I'll survive" , You wouldn't want to show "weakness" in front of the enemy . It would also explain the ending line "She got it coming, and so do  I"  Lot's of soldier killed unwillingly .

ALSO the boy being hungn could refer to the fact he commited Sororicide . AKA the killing of one's own sister.  The penalty during ww1 was being hanging

I think a very interesting thing that you forgot to mention are the german helmets.

In the base game, one of the hats that we're able to discover is that of a German stalhelm and Gasmask.

The soldier in the DLC also wears a German Stalhelm and a uniform overall resembling of German origin. So it's just something I wanted to mention.

It's also important to note about the Prisoner. He was clearly in some kind of concentration camp and the soldier was supposed to be some kind of Warden before eventually she helped him break out of there

Small correction as a British person. Operation Pied Piper was to move children from London and other cities to the countryside. Not off the island! But regardless, I really enjoyed this video!

Something that I don't have much immediate evidence for but feel strongly is true is Stellen's position in the war- an authority performing cleanup. Tarsier frequently uses monstrous obesity as a sign of indulgence, of status. Not a sign of being at the top, but a monster that benefits from the pain and chaos around them- the LN1 Guests and LN2 Doctor for example. Stellen is on the ground, sure, but he's not engaging with the direct conflict like the other soldiers. He busies himself with burning down empty shopping malls and residences, scouring the earth and destroying resources and shelter. A twisted form of cleanup so there's nothing left for any potential enemy to use. What really convinces me is the cigar, an indulgence absent from the suicidally distraught soldiers, and the pistol. A tiny weapon compared to the miniguns and tanks and bombs, which he only uses to shoot his own soldiers once they fall. An weapon not for combat, but for execution. Either to prevent them from reanimating or to punish their 'desertion', either fits with the images of a nasty commanding officer.

“pig famine is spreading across the land” thats what i see

I’ve been laying out my thoughts on a separate document, so this will be long.
While the soldiers are insanely trigger happy on the ground, larger strategies and doctrines such as paratroopers and bombing runs suggest there are two general sides here: a defensive one holding Wartown and an offensive one diving into it.
The orphans, as well as the ritual, are all native to the island. The cardboard cutout of a child soldier in the mall suggests that whatever caused the war started far away from the city, since that’s not something important to set up while under attack. The island seemed to be a massive industrial hub in the war, with stockpiles of giant weapons scattered across it. I think the island forces are playing defense, and whoever else is on the attack. The woodland areas seem to be a part of the Island Nation, as there are depots on the coast and supply routes running through the main road of the orphanage. Anyone from here would serve in the Island Nation army.
The orphanage and the larger Reanimal cult around it seems to be a third faction not aligned to either side. Most of the reanimated creatures stay on the starboard side of the carrier, which includes the old city. The Mother is the only exception, with Sand City extending from the orphanage to the Wartown subway and by proxy anywhere the army isn’t. Whether she represents the cult itself or just a warlord in power after the starboard side was evacuated is unclear. Either way, the cult can’t be trusted by either side of the war. Orders to shoot on-sight are given on the main road and all the rest of the orphans being killed off, the Boy and Hood even with formal execution. Soldier also covers up the white rabbit symbols with propaganda posters, posters which the Siblings often take back down. The Island Nation was clearly shocked by the animal mutations and dedicated research to them, not something you’d do to a friend.
The Boy, the Girl, and the Soldier all received some degree of military training. Knowing how to fire a gun with accuracy of any kind isn’t easy, let alone driving a tank or motorcycle, knowing how to open a parachute, knowing when to duck and cover, keeping hold of their weapons through their journey, and so on. The Soldier clearly knows what to do while the Prisoner is far less aware by comparison.
Speaking of, the Prisoner bears a striking resemblance to the orphaned Hood. Both would rather their friends leave without them while they still can, both obviously wear hoods over their heads with the same holes poked through them to breathe, and both are associated with the Sniffer, with Hood being trapped by him and the Prisoner sharing his ability to crawl through the boomers. Hood was originally executed by firing squad before her reanimation and the Prisoner is implied to have died from frostbite, both of which would be by military police. And while both are also less prepared to fight than their peers, they’ve both killed before, with Hood carrying the knife for the ritual and the Prisoner snapping the rabbit’s neck.
But that raises the question, prisoner to who? Again, the orders by the Island Nation army are to kill any children on sight, so why would the Prisoner and Lemon ever be held captive? It’s likely they are also orphans, not only through the many similarities with Hood but also their kinship with animals and their occult nature. Lemon in particular has a moment with the War Horse that echoes what the Siblings have done before, and is also a ghost with the only other one we know being the bus driver of the orphanage. The Prisoner also can crawl through bodies, something the Sniffer has done before, but something the cult might have done. Although the craziest part is their freezing, which we’ve never seen before. The flood from the well is the only thing that comes close, and that is again the cult’s doing.
This would lead to their capture early in the war by what I’m thinking are the Paratroopers, as they are less trigger happy than the Island Nation. The two prisoners were given cells overseas, where the Soldier would’ve met them. She is the most outspoken opponent of the cult, showing concern for the Prisoner and again covering up white rabbit symbols. She could very well be a fugitive, as she’s wearing a unique German uniform which didn’t come with a parachute on the plane. Regardless, the Soldier is now well connected to the Prisoner

I think you're right with the circle representing betrayal, and it'd make sense to tie the kids to the white circle if that's the case since they betrayed the sister. Hood's diamond could likely be just a turned square since she's also guilty of murder, being the one to actually cut the sister. Based off the sound effects in the barn scene, it sounds like the girl is hit with the crowbar due to a metallicy sound, so it's likely the brother is the one to have knocked her out. He was also the one to drag her, so him and hood would likely be deemed more guilty than the other two since they actively beat and slashed the girl. Bucket was just holding the dead rabbit and Bandages was likely either watching or helping hold her still since he's empty handed.

5:51 Italy was an allied power during ww1! they fought against austria-hungary directly in hopes of annexing land that's today part of croatia and bosnia. nerding out of the way, i love the video and theories :)

Also the soldier in the Soldier and Prisoner dlc is wearing a German helmet and her uniform almost looks like a Hitler youth uniform or something similar.

Don’t tell the frosty 1 to find all the historical inaccuracies 😭🙏

Aint nothing sunny on sunny island

I think the soldiers with the circles painted on their torso resemble target practice dummies (but you know actual dead bodies). The sand bags placed behind them could serve as a bullet trap. Also this is a room where you have to shoot at one of the bodies to get a key.

12:54 my assumption was that the soldiers were hung as deserters

The game its self has a lot
“Lords of the Flies and “Big Brother elements” to the game  

Mostly lords of flies because the kids sacrificing other kids.

Also regarding technology while the war technology is from ww1-ww2 era the technology in the game is mostly modern technology like computers, the MRI scan, and the cars look like there’d from the 80s-90s

I think the brown/tan sniper we see in the actual game represents the sturmabteilung (the SA for short) from WW2. Although the timing makes no sense, the uniform does. They were also nicknamed the “brown stormtroopers”

to add to the hung prisoners with circles on their clothing. Notice how those circles are drawn mostly on the victims' left sides and that the boy uses a nearby rifle to shoot the prisoner with key? In both World Wars formal firing squads used to execute prisoners were given an area to aim for. Marked by a small piece of brightly coloured cloth or paper or simply a painted target directly over the condemned prisoner's heart to give the squad a precise focal point to shoot at. I think these prisoners were originally shot, but when things started going sideways when it came to the dead not staying dead the executioners hung them instead. Since it's not seen what brings the dead back maybe stopping them from breathing is enough to keep them down? The drowned corpses are able to reanimate because water has oxygen in it? Anyway, I just think the circles on the prisoners might just be visual storytelling. They shot them first, they came back, so they hung them up instead.