⚠︎︎ #yttd spoilers up to chapter 3-1A

The point of no return: why choosing logic is a bad idea (a thread)

You are not just deciding who to sacrifice.

Whether you pick logic or emotion will DRAMATICALLY impact how Sara views her allies from now on, and what her motivations will be in the finale.

The logic vs emotion dichotomy was always about Sara and what kind of character she ends up being based on the player’s decision.

This was set up long before 2-2; the earliest appearance happens within the first 10 minutes of the game:

Logic Sara wants to live. She will use her allies to their full extents in order to escape, regardless of their wishes.

Emotion Sara wants to escape with everyone. Carrying the wishes of the dead puts her at risk, but because she trusts her allies, she is less isolated.

In the first trial, Sara clearly wants to live. There are even some pretty scary implied thoughts when it’s revealed that there is only one key.

Logic - use the key, find a way to free Joe. Sara prioritizes her own safety first. Joe is important, but an afterthought.

Emotion - tell Joe to use the key. Sara is able to prioritize others’ safety because she trusts that they will prioritize hers.

At the start of the game, both Saras exist, highlighted by different characters.

Joe trusts Sara’s decisions entirely and believes she will always do right by the group.

Sou resents Sara because he is acutely aware of how easily she could mislead everyone due to their blind trust in her.

Sara has struggled with her desire to live vs her desire to escape with everyone for the entire game, but 2-2 is where that struggle becomes painfully explicit.

Save Kanna and trust in Sou’s dying wish?

Or Save Sou for a better chance of escape?

In 2-2, Sara is forced to make a decision on what she really prioritizes in this death game. Her own life, or everyone else’s lives and wishes?

So by the time you are presented with this choice in the relationship room, you find that it has already been made for you.

If you chose logic, the game doesn’t even LET Sara say she wants to escape with everyone, because that’s not true. By choosing logic, you, the player, have decided that that’s not what Sara prioritizes.

Because only one person can survive the Death Game, Logic Sara and Emotion Sara cannot coexist anymore; Sara is forced to choose one ideology over the other, and that choice was made when you decided to sacrifice Kanna or Sou.

But why is Sara wanting to survive a bad thing?

It’s not! Emotion Sara wants to survive too. The key factor here is TRUST. If we have learned anything from Sou and from the Sub-Game, it’s that YTTD is a game of trust.

The problem with Logic Sara is that she’s so panic blinded by her desire to live that she forgets about the trust she has and about trusting others.

In 1-1, every time Sara has a scary red text thought about not wanting to die, it’s often overridden by Joe and his trust in her

But Logic Sara in chapter 3 is at her limit; Joe is dead, she has just had a full on mental breakdown, Sou is out for her blood, and she’s just been told that only one person can make it out of here alive.

𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱.

THAT is why it’s a bad idea to choose logic.

When pushed to her breaking point, Logic Sara will sacrifice everyone for her survival. In the final Main Game, she will lie and no one will be the wiser.

She will become exactly what Sou was afraid she was in chapters 1 and 2: using everyone’s belief in her to manipulate them for her own benefit.

If YTTD has more than one ending, I’m willing to bet that 2-2 is the point of no return for the good end.

That being said, if you guys want to see the Logic Sara ending because of the interesting changing dynamics between the participants, that’s totally fine!

But in order for Sara and the Death Game participants to have a happy ending, emotion is the only option.

(Side note: I LOVE this btw. Seriously.

When we’re faced with such emotionally loaded decisions as 2-2, we as players tend to step back from the game world and logically weigh all the pros and cons like “oh I want to keep Sou because of the Sou/Shin interactions in the finale”

But we forget that Sara is NOT US! Her mental state is affected by the decisions that we make! And because we can’t conceive of Sara, our main character, as an enemy to the player, we often don’t think of the consequences of our actions on her!!!!!!! )