I think the secret ending shows an alternative to the cycle. The girl bore witness to her friends deaths, and judging my her reaction, she wanted to help them and took no pleasure in watching them suffer. In the normal ending, she twitches to life, these sheep reviving her and fueled by revenge. But after she saw what happened to her friends, she let go and sank into the water

The thing that strikes me most is how much the boy seems to care about his sister throughout the entire game. He rushed to pull her out of the water and sounded legitimately torn up when he said "I thought you were dead", he checks on her when she's choking, and carries her on his back when she's too weak to stand anymore. Clearly he loved her. So why did he kill her? Considering there's no way the orphans could have gotten that statue and the ritual information themselves and the presence of what seems like 5 previous sacrifices wearing a mask representing the animal they were sacrificed with, it seems like they were pawns of some kind of cult? And with the themes of war that does kind of make sense. It doesn't fully absolve them of their guilt for going along with it, but soldiers who kill on the battlefield or commit atrocities in foreign lands are usually doing it at the behest of someone with actual power behind the scenes.

I couldn’t tell if you meant the kids were actually in hell or if hell had come in to the real world but I personally think that hell has come into the real world

Something I noticed was The flock of sheep surrounding the orphans are only grazing once the kids arrive. It’s only after they get to the well do they stand up. They are complacent in the orphans’ ritual, a blind flock so  to speak. I don’t think the ritual was something the kids stumbled into, but something they were taught by a cult. The rabbit altars around the game, the cycle symbol on the tv, the full movie dedicated to the ritual, and as said the mother’s statue in the orphanage suggest this was an operation far larger than just these 4. Plus with the monsters mirroring the areas, and the Mother leading an army of mindless drones in the orphanage, I think they were a part of the cult.
It’s also important I feel when the first scene starts, the kids are surrounded by a white sky, until the girl leans over and it fades to red or dawn/dusk. And in the second scene, the sky is already red, but it seems the ritual happened at night. It leads into a more boring interruption of the well scenes. The one at the beginning is the first time they looked down the well, with the scene ending once the girl looks signifying that she’ll be sacrificed, the odd rabbit out. The one at the end is the orphans looking down the well to see the girl, what they’ve done, while the flock says it was for the greater good.
I love how deep into the rabbit hole we can go with this game. Great video

The Sheep Beast’s “birth” is one of the most disturbing scenes I’ve ever seen. Not only is the Sheep writhing it’s way out of the well and out of the Girl so visceral on its own, seeing the Sniffer crawl out of a dozen bodies doesn’t compare to how monstrous it was here, but what it means is also haunting. Afterwards the Girl can barely walk, with a patch of blood over her stomach, her innocence taken away by no fault of her own. She was assaulted. And that’s disgusting. It’s also a terrifying play on Mary, Jesus, and the antichrist. Mary had her own virgin birth of a lamb, Jesus of course. She was also rather young, but at least she could love her son, and at least the face staring back at her was human. The Girl was forced to bear a child as one herself, an uncaring monster that would devour anything in its path, Even its own “mother.” Tarsier did a fantastic job at making me sick to my stomach and breaking my heart for the poor Girl.

I'm not 100% on this. But one major concept for us Christians(and other faiths ofc) is 'substitionary atonement' where an innocent lamb 'takes' the sins of the participant onto itself. The animal dies symbolizing the destruction of sin killing us. A huge aspect in the game is the animal corruption. The big pig cannibal, the divebombing seagulls, the ...... sheep lol

I wonder if the devs are critiquing that the displacement of sin doesn't make it vanish. But it builds and builds until it comes out and consumes. and so the animals hold the corruption but it's still corruption. Nature doesn't know any better. It just carries it and it leaks back onto us.

Lots to think about! Thanks for the video.

Need a longer version, this is just to peak

19:30 when the girl peeks down the well at the beginning of the game, she might've not actually been wearing a mask at that point in time. Rather, seeing her with a mask might be something that only whoever was looking up from the well could see, like a premonition. Keep in mind that many arts depicting the girl prior to the sacrifice show her with no mask, so yeah, she might have gotten her mask from the previous sacrifices down the well, branding her the current "mother" of the loop. Actually, if you see other videos where people broke the camera to get a better look at the muddy figures, you'll notice they're all wearing dresses. Peculiar!

Oh I see now what the symbolism of the “lamb” coming out of her is. The well is like a womb and when the lamb comes out of rabbit girl it’s like a birth. The well where it grows and comes out is like a “birth”. She was sacrificed in a well surrounded by rapeseed. They were attempting to birth a ‘savior’, a lamb of God, through her, but it went terribly wrong. Evil does not bring salvation into the world, but doomed it. She “births” the lamb
. It is like a child. It is in a pool of blood and the scene makes it like she just gave birth. The well is a metaphor for a birth canal.

She is a vessel to birth it. The follow the white rabbit through wonderland/ hell.

Just something to complete this theory, it's from @Tericho
When the girl regurgitates the sheep, the puddle doesn't look like blood but something thick and black. Same with the complete ending at the bottom of the well, the humanoid masked creatures seem to be made of this black goo. Several of the monsters also leak this oil. I think that it is actual oil used for power, a fossil fuel. This is why the war started and explains the 4 seals of war conquest famine and death. The place where the game takes place is either being conquered for the oil or a rebellion. I just think this theory completes a bit more yours

Such a perfect analysis video 1000/10!!

When I was trying to find similar content about Little Nightmares, so many other creators just go over the obvious themes and plot points, then state far-flung assumptions as fact with no evidence.

You got straight to the heart of the mystery, while leaving plenty of ambiguity. It's so refreshing that you're not afraid to let certain theories contradict others, because this story isn't a puzzle that can be put together perfectly. It's strange and twisted and nonsensical, like a bad trip. That's what I love about this developer, and it seems like you do too.
Also, I really appreciate the well thought out references to other texts, super insightful.

Thankyou for your contribution 🖤🖤

Dude I miss your videos 💔 they were seriously the best

One of the bests videos I've seen about this game. Great work!! So many questions aaah!!

The “crawlers” (that’s what they’re labeled as in the level file) in the well all use the girl’s model. Some have their dresses on. Some don’t.

another quality video from Indie. Loved this video

best reanimal video out there so far

Why is this not getting a lot of views? This is really good

Wdym only 4k views this is great

Your videos are always very well made, keep it up! 👍🏾

I wonder, if they made this ritual to stop the war, or to get their parents back...
As far as I can tell, you can't definitely tell, if the war was there before, or of it started after what the children unleashed.

Also interesting is, how they got kept.
One boy was locked up in a shed, like an animal.
The other one was locked in a bird cage by a bird and the last one was used to feed the beast, like a rat is used to feed a pet snake.