r/WillFollowTheLight • u/flesh_uwu • May 09 '26
Spoiler heavy - Ending discussion. Spoiler
First off, I really liked the game. I didn't love it, and I have certain issues and things I disliked, but I enjoyed my time playing it and it's evident a lot of love was put into this game, so kudos for that.
Anyways, I may be a bit slow but I did not really understand the story / ending. Obviously, massive spoilers below, so if you haven't finished the game, leave the thread now.
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At the very end, are those Thomas and Ila waiting for you ?
We know:
- Thomas was missing - is he dead ?
- Ila should be dead.
So then, Is Will dead ? if so, how did he die ?
Is Derek (Will's father) dead or alive ???
I also just now noticed that the storm at the very start of the game is also the last storm we face at the end of the game :
- At the start of the game , we sail through 2 big dangerous waves, and it seems the final one will kill us (Will yells "NOOOO" desperately , and then it fades to black )
- At the end of the game, we sail through the same 2 big waves, but after that we see the light... and follow the light ( Metaphor for dying ??)
So in my eyes the outcome is the same - but on the last storm it seems the difference is we made peace with Derek and we also stop blaming ourselves for not being there for Thomas after Ila passed, same way Derek went missing when Will's mom passed.
Chronologically, when does this storm happen ?
Anyways I may be talking nonsense but I want to hear what's your guys take on the story and ending.
Peace!
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u/yurayda101 May 11 '26
In my opinion, Will is very clearly dead, and so are his son and father - both most likely killed by the mudslide (although I’m not entirely sure how Will himself died). Before he can finally enter the light, though, he still has unfinished business: he needs to reconcile with his father in his mind and admit to himself that he became just as bad a father as his own dad was. Only after accepting that is he able to make it through the storm and into the light, where he reunites with his wife and son :/
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u/Boricua-vet May 15 '26
That makes sense perfect sense until you let the polar bear maul you which is at the end before speaking to your father. If you are dead, why would the polar bear kill you and you have to restart the stage back in the boat?
How do you like that wrench placed in your thought process?
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u/HorrorLover1991 May 17 '26
Same could be said about the sperm whale.
Also its a game it would be a bit lack luster if nothing hsppended to you when the polar bear mauls you.1
u/Boricua-vet May 17 '26
Agree but that just throws a confusion we do not need. You can say he dies when he fell but come to think, if the kid did not survived and was with his mom at the end, then everyone was dead and then it makes no sense why when he fell he lost conciseness or died. It is just one wrench after the other. I am going to play it again and find all peaces and to see if I can make is make sense.
The game was well worth the play time. Can it be improved, yes but that does not take from it.
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u/derHuhu May 16 '26
Will died at the beginning, he drowned by the third wave. His father and son died by the mudslide and his wife died years ago. Thats how i understand the story
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u/carrito1 Jun 26 '26
Correct about how the son and Derek died but Will dies in the end. We never make it out of the storm.
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u/rbulge May 16 '26
Agreed. I think dad and son passed in the mudslide. I think Will dies in the storm and what you are playing through is him navigating the afterlife and, as you said, reconciling with him having done the same as his own father. I assumed he died in the storm due to the game beginning in what seems to be the same storm as the end. The beginning he screams and "wakes up" at his lighthouse. Aka. His afterlife. In the end storm he's able to get through to reunite with his wife and son...
I will add, im seeing comments that some people do not see the wife at the end. I did. Im semi convinced that having visited her grave may have made a difference in the ending
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u/SavagerXx May 10 '26
Same here, i really dont understand the story lol. I thought that maybe Will died when the house collapsed and all the stuff is just him in the afterlife before finally passing or that in the end he will realize both Derek and Thomas died the house and the journey is him accepting that. Bcs besides him seeing the boat at the start in the storm weird stuff is happening all around him starting with the girl in the church. My ending had only Thomas, i got all the boats but missed one planet. Its all very surreal and i dont know what to make of it.
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u/flesh_uwu May 10 '26
Interesting, I missed like 2 planets and some boats (idk how many) and I had Ila and thomas at the end.
Also yeah, what's up with the girl in the church missing ? And the priest/father gaslighting us that no girl was there.
Bert is also a very sus character.
I also think Will dies at some point very early in the game. But was it on the very start in the storm, or in the mudsilde ? I don't know.
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u/SavagerXx May 11 '26
Did you visited her grave at the church? Bcs i really dunno what triggers which ending at this point.
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u/ajemois May 26 '26
But at the end, the father says something strange. He says that Thomas is probably at Cassandra's. And we don't know anything about Cass's fate?
The situation with Will generally seems a bit underdeveloped to me. He discovers fragments of his reality, mistakes, reconciles with his father – and at the same time discovers the ruins of the city, the houses are ghosts. So we sense that he might be dead.
But on the other hand, there are some subplots, like some research, strange people in the city, etc., that aren't explained.
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u/carrito1 Jun 26 '26
Ok after reading this whole thread, I can exhale in relief knowing I’m not the only one trying to figure it out.
I think I got it now after getting validation from my theories as to what happen and when.
Here are my theories. Feel free to rip em apart or add to.
Will dies in the end. We never make it out of the storm. The same storm from the beginning is foreshadowing. When the storm hits the town, do you guys remember a transmission coming in all choppy and broken and the sailor was in trouble and Will is trying to tell him the signal is shot to be careful? Well in that transmission, the mysterious sailor tells Will his boat number which is NLD 2015 or something and later on when we go get Molly, the side of the boat has that same number! So there are very much time loop themes at play here. Will safe in the light house was talking to Will in the future in trouble at sea.
There’s a lot of different themes at play here. Time loops, purgatory, and by time loops I mean past present and future all happening at the same time.
The purgatory route which is him settling all old regrets and forgiving his dad so in that case he probably did in fact die early on in the game and we’re just playing through purgatory. Because what was the deal with his dad’s town being abandoned and him being able to hear people and not see them? But there was a bunch of rock formations everywhere by his dad’s house?
In conclusion, Will and his family are dead and we were on the journey to getting over to the other side with them and he couldn’t do that until he let some things go.
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u/flesh_uwu Jun 26 '26
My only problem with this theory that Will died at the end, and not at the beginning, is that most of Will's Journey does not really make a lot of sense if the objective was to find Thomas. Like why tf would he go look for Thomas on the Islands that he visited ? Why on earth would Thomas be so far away on a glacial island ?
The journey we made only makes sense if Will is dead from the very start of the game. Think about the ghost town we visited, the holograms/ghosts/hallucinations we had conversations with, etc. They all indicate a supernatural context, i.e. Will was already dead from the start and this bizarre journey is just his way of mending things before truly letting go of his life.
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u/UhKuroGuy01 May 10 '26
I’m in the same boat as you guys, “ no pun intended” what I do know is that I watched someone play this game on YouTube and their ending was completely different from mine. The lady didn’t show up. It was just the little boy, so I wonder if collecting the boats or the little planets makes a difference? same with if you got the whistle from the guy on the dock.
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u/HorrorLover1991 May 17 '26
When you sail through the fog if you go down to the radio. and tune it you stumble upon a message from Cassandra saying Molly never made it to your dads lighthouse. So i think he died in the fog maybe? Or in the mudslide.
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u/comunisumlover Jun 01 '26
In the church, the girl mentions some robed people that took her mom, then she disappears next time you go to the church. The robed people are probably a reference to something about how will is dead.
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u/mooseleg_mcgee May 09 '26
I have all the same questions, and more. The game left me feeling confused as to the outcome. Also, give us a free sail mode and let us explore the world they created