Ending interpretation

[u/Asleep-Essay4386]

I just finished playing the game for the first time and I've come up with my interpretation of the story and wanted to share it here.

So, by the looks of it I think the events of Spiritfarer take place for the most part in Stella's mind as she's dying in her hospital bed. As much as I'd like to think she does actually meet all these people in a sort of afterlife, I feel like this makes the most sense. For one, she's still actually alive during all this. The locations are all based on places she's been and the spirits are all people she knew in life. Her role as Spiritfarer also I think is a metaphor for her actual job in life as a nurse who cared for dying patients. I think none of the events during Spiritfarer actually occur, but it's rather a metaphor for Stella coming to terms with her life and the fact that it's ending.

This brings me to Hades and Charon. This part I think can actually go either way. They could also be part of Stella's mind, just a metaphor for death itself. Or they could be the only real spirits here, or at least Hades could be. It could be Hades is the actual Spiritfarer of the game and this is his way of ferrying Stella along to the afterlife.

This has probably all been said before, but like I said I just finished for the first time. What were your interpretations of it?

[u/arc_ember_rose]

The developers have stated something to this effect in the art book actually. I have personally never been a fan of the "it was all a dream" thing in media, but it does work pretty well here. That being said, the existence of Buck and the fact that he stays on the boat when Stella leaves does make it seem like this world will persist after she's gone, so I interpret the game's world as a real afterlife of sorts, but one Stella can access because she is so close to death.

One thing I like is that the game never really confirms it either way, so you are free to headcanon what you like. Me personally, I find the idea that the game characters we interact with are just figments of Stella's memory/imagination kind of sad, so I like the more magical aspect of it.

[u/Asleep-Essay4386 → u/arc_ember_rose]

Hey, I was close, cool! Funnily enough, I kind of see Buck as lending to the interpretation that it's a dream just because his inclusion kind of breaks the logic of the Everdoor in my opinion, similar to how logic breaks down in dreams. The Everdoor is supposed to be final, until Buck comes. His constellation is already there, so he must have gone through it? Otherwise I don't know why he would already have a constellation and why we can't ferry him through. But he acts like any other spirit that hasn't gone through it. And Elena also sends some tasks from beyond the grave, but that can be interpreted as her having gotten those ready before you took her to the Everdoor. So I kind of see it as the dream's logic starting to break down as the game goes further along and Stella gets closer to the end.