I believe she got sucked into a blackhole after she murdered the Dream King. (since, he became a blackhole and she was right ontop of him).

This is the true ending, not everyone can get a happy ending, especially if they refuse to take it when its handed to them on a silverplatter like Audrey did.

I wish the game didn't just forget about her in the epilogue honestly. It's kinda bugging me because the things she represents are worth acknowledging and I really thought the game was going to, but it just sorta forgot about her after that point. I would've at least liked to see the bard acknowledge her in some way, or for someone to make a comment on her actions, considering what a major driving force she was in the story.

Also, they were right beside her as well, so why didn't they get sucked in?

Edit: By "things she represents" I mean the idea of pursuing a purpose to the exclusion of everything else, and the fear that you are nothing without that purpose. I didn't see her as an evil character throughout the story because I don't think being driven to obsession by these two things makes a character inherently bad. But seeing the bard of all people just 'forget' about her completely throws into question everything he previously said to her about how she doesn't need to have that purpose to matter. Now it just looks like he only did that to get what he wanted from her, and once she was no longer a problem, he just forgot about her.

Which honestly throws into question whether or not he is actually as altruistic as the story wants us to think he is.

But more importantly, that's exactly what she didn't want to happen to her. In the new world, she is just completely forgotten about. And if she could've properly carried out her duties, she would've erased the universe and it wouldn't have mattered.

If she did what the bard said was the right thing, she would've gone back to being nobody.

If you really think about it, she can't win in this situation. At most, just accepting the bard's ideas means accepting the one thing she is terrified of. It means giving everyone else a happy ending, but it wouldn't have been one for her.

So I can't say I agree with it being "handed to her on a silver platter."

I know this is super old, but I heard somebody on another site make the suggestion that since Audrey was the only one *not* seen singing the big song at the end, this put her out of tune with the rest of the world. Thus, she ended up disappearing with the old world.

but did she sing because she didn't want to, or couldn't? That would be my next question.

Originally posted by 404_Not_Found:

but did she sing because she didn't want to, or couldn't? That would be my next question.

Judging by her character, she would have absolutely refused, even knowing it meant she ceased to existence. To sing would have been to turn her back on all of her actions, including the very final one.

A while later, but... I don't see it as an accident that she's not there. If you talk to that bratty kid in Xiatian who's a big fan of hers, who goes on and on about her, pretty much everything the kid says is SUPER wrong - the kid thinks she must be a modest hero who saved the world and is now quietly settling down somewhere, just a normal person again.

The last time she was on screen, the Bard reassured her that she mattered and would continue to matter regardless of whether she was the Hero or not... and she muttered that it wasn't "enough," before jumping for the sword. I don't know how to interpret her actions there as anything except suicide, in all honesty. She intentionally destroyed the world that she was a part of, intentionally killed herself and everyone else - or at least tried to (the part where the world refused to die is a happy accident).

No way would she join in the song where the entire world for just one second harmonized in the wish, "we don't want to die." Her self worth was as bright and brittle as a lightning bolt or the edge of that sword, and she didn't want to exist as anything but The Hero anymore.

It's an old topic at this point but it seems like the most appropriate place for me to vent about this.

I agree that Audrey's fate deserved some sort of exploration. I think the reason it got ignored is that it would have soured the happy ending - the Bard was trying to reform her up to the end, and the fact she presumably chose death over accepting that is painful.

I wanted to know how a person like that could end up as the Hero. What her past was, how she ended up so emotionally unstable. Hell, I was mad that Eya choosing someone like that to be The Hero never got called out. As much as I loved the whole game prior to that, her fate or lack thereof really hurt the ending for me.

My guess with why Eya chose Audrey as the Hero is that her concern wasn't "Who would be a good hero", but just "Who is capable and willing to do the job". After all, time was running out, so Eya couldn't be too picky. I also would have liked an explanation, but I don't think that the ending suffered that much from the lack of it.

However, depending on whether the creators have more ideas about the lore behind the creation of the world, how the characters came to be and stuff, I would like to see it. Not necessarily in the form of a game (especially not with the same gameplay; as fun as it was, personally I got tired of it around the last act - it was good the game ended when it did), but maybe through comics or some sort of Visual Novel. (And if we get something like this, we really need to see Miriam's epic jail break.)

I actually like Audrey as a character. I would love to see some backstory for her, but I do worry about the narrative framing her too villainous in that scenario. I sorta get the impression, from my reading of the text, that the dev specifically thinks her traits are negative or that she's in the wrong and her side can't be empathized with at all, so I'm not really sure if he'd be able to offer something more enlightening beyond trying to justify why we should dislike her or something.

And I'm not a fan of any supplementary material that only wants to convince me of why a person or POV is bad. If anyone were going to take a crack at it, I would appreciate a more nuanced approach, at least acknowledging that maybe she had a point, and was somewhat in the right. Or at least acknowledging that her motives aren't the issue as much as her methods were.

Pretty much anything that doesn't just make a "pure evil" villain would be great actually. I'm so tired of antagonists I'm just supposed to not side with.

I mean, she wanted to end the world, how much worse motives does one need to be a villain? I've just finished the game and honestly, I can hardly find any redeeming quality to Audrey, though again it might be just because she was just so against anything that wasn't her way. She threw away any chance at redeeming herself and just continued marching on to an inevitable death caused by her destroying the entire world. I think it serves her right to go completely forgotten, to suffer the one fate she feared most.

Originally posted by Sasha:

I mean, she wanted to end the world, how much worse motives does one need to be a villain? I've just finished the game and honestly, I can hardly find any redeeming quality to Audrey, though again it might be just because she was just so against anything that wasn't her way. She threw away any chance at redeeming herself and just continued marching on to an inevitable death caused by her destroying the entire world. I think it serves her right to go completely forgotten, to suffer the one fate she feared most.

Because her METHOD was doing exactly what the goddess told her to do. She's doing what the universe itself has deemed, in its own grand design, is her destiny.

her MOTIVE, meanwhile, is just to be a hero.

The bard also wants to be a hero, which makes his "everyone is special" thing come off as hypocritical.

What she wants - what her motive is - was to be exceptional. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be exceptional among others, but the bard couldn't offer her that. I'm a little bothered that we're supposed to think he's the good guy when he didn't even try to, and even though she basically told him what her motive for being the hero was in the first place, he really didn't even try to understand it from her pov either.

Originally posted by 404_Not_Found:

The bard also wants to be a hero, which makes his "everyone is special" thing come off as hypocritical.

Why would wanting to be a hero, or even the hero be hypocritical? Regardless of how many heroes there are, each one would still be special wouldn't they? Or at least that seems to be one of the Bard's messages here.

The desire to be a hero can be for different reasons and it's this intention that would make each of these heroes special in their own way.

Audrey cared about Audrey (occasionally excused through a dogmatic support of predetermination). Her interest in being the hero was all about Audrey - and the trappings associated with being the hero.

The Bard though cared about everybody (sometimes to the Bard's own detriment). The Bard's desire to be a hero wasn't about glory but instead was the means to an end: to save the world.

And so it's fitting that Audrey would fade into obscurity. The "new" world represented in the denouement appears to thankfully be free of the type of dangerous selfishness embodied in Audrey.

Originally posted by crecente:

Originally posted by 404_Not_Found:

The bard also wants to be a hero, which makes his "everyone is special" thing come off as hypocritical.

Why would wanting to be a hero, or even the hero be hypocritical? Regardless of how many heroes there are, each one would still be special wouldn't they? Or at least that seems to be one of the Bard's messages here.

The desire to be a hero can be for different reasons and it's this intention that would make each of these heroes special in their own way.

Audrey cared about Audrey (occasionally excused through a dogmatic support of predetermination). Her interest in being the hero was all about Audrey - and the trappings associated with being the hero.

The Bard though cared about everybody (sometimes to the Bard's own detriment). The Bard's desire to be a hero wasn't about glory but instead was the means to an end: to save the world.

And so it's fitting that Audrey would fade into obscurity. The "new" world represented in the denouement appears to thankfully be free of the type of dangerous selfishness embodied in Audrey.

Yeah but, I don't agree with that message at all. Being selfish isn't inherently a bad thing, and the Bars is just as selfish anyway. He basically sits on his ass at the start of chapter 4 moping because HE'S not doing anything special and he feels lied to and manipulated by the angel, and it's pretty unclear in the story just how much of a manipulator that angel is anyway.

Seems like someone who preys on people's desires.

Frankly, the Bard's caring about others seemed like more of a proxy than anything else. He wanted people to know who he was, and she wanted the exact same thing. The only difference in the two of them by the end of it was that he thought he'd won and could basically dictate to someone else some ridiculous moral speech.

I'll be honest: I think Miriam would've been a better person to talk to Audrey in that instance since I see way more parallels between her and the Bard on an actual personality level anyway.

WARNING: Wall of text ahead, with some light spoilers

When I first played the game, I was almost aloof to that she was gone and that no one had said anything about it. What I'm really bugged by is that she's portrayed as a sort of antagonist. If anything, the Dream King is more of an antagonist than Audrey. The Dream King is almost the complete opposite of what he's supposed to be: hopeful, dreamy, positive, etc. — not cynical and full of despair. Had he just given The Bard the last piece of the Earthsong, this story would've ended much more peacefully, but at the expense of a good catharsis phase (something which Journey really struggled with too), among other issues.

No, throughout the game it seems like Audrey doesn't want to end the world, but she's the first to realize that the world is ending and that it needs to be put out of its misery. And that's why she became the chosen one to kill all seven overseers. Throughout her journey we witness good and bad acts from her: stunning the trolls in Delphi, killing the sea monster in the Mermaid Ruins, but also bringing people from Lumber Town (where they were essentially holed up) back to Xiatian and slaying the Overseer monsters that had been leaking out of the spirit world and terrorizing the people.

She says she "considered all the angles," and that's how it has to be. It's rather unfortunate though that she chose to kill, even to her own demise, but she's continuing the circle of life! The fairies who were created in the perfect image of their overseers became the new overseers. Meanwhile The Bard sees death as a sort of enemy: he'd rather the overseers live so that the world doesn't have to end. At the very least, he'd rather each overseer live long enough to give him their piece of the Earthsong so that he can use it to preserve the world (granted, it doesn't matter whether an overseer is alive or dead for The Bard to get the Earthsong from them). The rainbow-haired girl (Eyala) also seems to appreciate this compromise. So then why is Audrey so desperate to be The Hero to the point of not even allowing that compromise? I'm not sure, but it does seem to say a fair bit about her character: dutiful, but also full of hubris and arrogance, perhaps mixed in with a touch of egocentrism. How then can anyone see any good in her like The Bard does?

Well, for one, while The Bard is not "the chosen one," "the Hero of Legend," etc. — i.e. he has no destiny like The Hero — he still desires to be a hero and save the world. Unlike Miriam, who thinks that collecting the song pieces is enough to save the world, he seems to realize (perhaps unwittingly) that the world needs to be harmonized in other ways first so that they will respond when the Earthsong is used. He helps people out, on scales great and small, and they appreciate him, which gives him a sort of charisma — and not a shallow sort of charisma, but a genuine one. And in no way does he necessarily see himself as "above" another — that may well defeat the purpose of harmonization! If anything, he sees everyone as special and unique — even Audrey (not as The Hero, but as a person). Audrey on the other hand doesn't like to be seen as normal (whatever that should mean), and this is especially evident the moment she gets the lightning sword. The Bard (perhaps naïvely) believes that she can simply let go of all her negative traits and that they don't have to define her. Of course when duty calls, she answers to the fullest.

Now let's answer the question of what happened to Audrey. Wandersong pokes at many a game that has a "Hero" that kills rather than saves. Her ending is hers alone (unless you skip ahead by singing overseer songs before getting them properly). All the game's achievements are hers alone. This is a tale that could be told through two viewpoints, with two different paths of emotion. One ends with the "it all falls apart" trope with little to no emotional variation elsewhere, and the other follows a traditional monomyth. We only see the latter, told through the viewpoint of The Bard. His story continues on where Audrey's ends. Simple as that (and also the fact that The Hero was closer to the "black hole" than Miriam and The Bard).

And as for why no one mentions her in the end, I suspect the main reason for this is that it's not that she was important (to some), but that she wasn't relevant to the ending. Who knows, maybe her tales (both good and bad) will be passed down from generation to generation over time, but we won't ever know it because The Bard's tale has ended for us. She's not forgotten (think back to Juan in Act 5 if you doubt this)!

Meanwhile, I'm not exactly pleased with those questioning The Bard's altruism. Yes, he wants to be a hero (without a capital H), but he wants to be a real hero — one who saves rather than kills. He doesn't require any special recognition or a destiny, even though it helps. He already has a quest: to learn the Earthsong to stop the world from ending.

And hey, who knows? Maybe the new rules are that there are two heroes to be chosen when the world is ending: one to kill the overseers and perpetuate the circle of life, and one to gather the Earthsong and harmonize the world so that it survives.

Anyway, this is just my take on the whole affair.

Originally posted by Stanley427:

WARNING: Wall of text ahead, with some light spoilers

When I first played the game, I was almost aloof to that she was gone and that no one had said anything about it. What I'm really bugged by is that she's portrayed as a sort of antagonist. If anything, the Dream King is more of an antagonist than Audrey. The Dream King is almost the complete opposite of what he's supposed to be: hopeful, dreamy, positive, etc. — not cynical and full of despair. Had he just given The Bard the last piece of the Earthsong, this story would've ended much more peacefully, but at the expense of a good catharsis phase (something which Journey really struggled with too), among other issues.

No, throughout the game it seems like Audrey doesn't want to end the world, but she's the first to realize that the world is ending and that it needs to be put out of its misery. And that's why she became the chosen one to kill all seven overseers. Throughout her journey we witness good and bad acts from her: stunning the trolls in Delphi, killing the sea monster in the Mermaid Ruins, but also bringing people from Lumber Town (where they were essentially holed up) back to Xiatian and slaying the Overseer monsters that had been leaking out of the spirit world and terrorizing the people.

She says she "considered all the angles," and that's how it has to be. It's rather unfortunate though that she chose to kill, even to her own demise, but she's continuing the circle of life! The fairies who were created in the perfect image of their overseers became the new overseers. Meanwhile The Bard sees death as a sort of enemy: he'd rather the overseers live so that the world doesn't have to end. At the very least, he'd rather each overseer live long enough to give him their piece of the Earthsong so that he can use it to preserve the world (granted, it doesn't matter whether an overseer is alive or dead for The Bard to get the Earthsong from them). The rainbow-haired girl (Eyala) also seems to appreciate this compromise. So then why is Audrey so desperate to be The Hero to the point of not even allowing that compromise? I'm not sure, but it does seem to say a fair bit about her character: dutiful, but also full of hubris and arrogance, perhaps mixed in with a touch of egocentrism. How then can anyone see any good in her like The Bard does?

Well, for one, while The Bard is not "the chosen one," "the Hero of Legend," etc. — i.e. he has no destiny like The Hero — he still desires to be a hero and save the world. Unlike Miriam, who thinks that collecting the song pieces is enough to save the world, he seems to realize (perhaps unwittingly) that the world needs to be harmonized in other ways first so that they will respond when the Earthsong is used. He helps people out, on scales great and small, and they appreciate him, which gives him a sort of charisma — and not a shallow sort of charisma, but a genuine one. And in no way does he necessarily see himself as "above" another — that may well defeat the purpose of harmonization! If anything, he sees everyone as special and unique — even Audrey (not as The Hero, but as a person). Audrey on the other hand doesn't like to be seen as normal (whatever that should mean), and this is especially evident the moment she gets the lightning sword. The Bard (perhaps naïvely) believes that she can simply let go of all her negative traits and that they don't have to define her. Of course when duty calls, she answers to the fullest.

Now let's answer the question of what happened to Audrey. Wandersong pokes at many a game that has a "Hero" that kills rather than saves. Her ending is hers alone (unless you skip ahead by singing overseer songs before getting them properly). All the game's achievements are hers alone. This is a tale that could be told through two viewpoints, with two different paths of emotion. One ends with the "it all falls apart" trope with little to no emotional variation elsewhere, and the other follows a traditional monomyth. We only see the latter, told through the viewpoint of The Bard. His story continues on where Audrey's ends. Simple as that (and also the fact that The Hero was closer to the "black hole" than Miriam and The Bard).

And as for why no one mentions her in the end, I suspect the main reason for this is that it's not that she was important (to some), but that she wasn't relevant to the ending. Who knows, maybe her tales (both good and bad) will be passed down from generation to generation over time, but we won't ever know it because The Bard's tale has ended for us. She's not forgotten (think back to Juan in Act 5 if you doubt this)!

Meanwhile, I'm not exactly pleased with those questioning The Bard's altruism. Yes, he wants to be a hero (without a capital H), but he wants to be a real hero — one who saves rather than kills. He doesn't require any special recognition or a destiny, even though it helps. He already has a quest: to learn the Earthsong to stop the world from ending.

And hey, who knows? Maybe the new rules are that there are two heroes to be chosen when the world is ending: one to kill the overseers and perpetuate the circle of life, and one to gather the Earthsong and harmonize the world so that it survives.

Anyway, this is just my take on the whole affair.

Yeah, I also see good traits in her tbh, and her good traits getting no recognition are what bothers me primarily. It says way too many things about the framing of ego as a net negative, as well as reeking kinda of that drawn-out and tired counter-culture nonsense of how everyone is actually not special but that means everyone is anyway.

And honestly, if you want that, just watch Mob Psycho. It does a way better job of it anyway.

Also, and maybe this is just me but, an "altruistic" person is a really hard sell in a story that is otherwise trying to be subversive. Because it wants to subvert other things, I can't help but look at the entire text as a whole through that lens, and it ends up reflecting pretty negatively on the Bard when the universe he exists in doesn't wholesale subscribe to the wholesome storybook character he thinks he is.

But especially in the final boss fight, he does not look altruistic. He looks like a desperate fast-talker who's stalling and trying one last-ditch effort to convince her not to kill the Dream King. That context doesn't make it sound like anything but sniveling pleading for his own life, and it was that point that made me go from liking to disliking him because of how poorly it was framed.

I'm pretty sure that the actual intent was that you're supposed to see the Bard as some kind of paragon, but to me, he just ended up looking like a farce, with the only character playing lancer to his lead being erased from the narrative. The resolution is completely unsatisfying and he really didn't grow as a character beyond how his jealousy of her motivated him.

This comes from someone who disliked Audrey up until act 7 when her time spent in the caves resonated with me. I thought the story was going to actually go somewhere with her.

And it just kinda muddies the message in general. The story is at first about perseverance and not giving up, which is fine. The Bard's foil is the Dream King. But then his foil becomes Audrey. What does she say about his character though? What do they say about each other?

Apparently just that humility and pacifism are the correct answer and anything else is wrong. No room for ideological deconstruction here! Even though we already humanized the opposition and made them relatable! Not gonna capitalize on that at all.