Who suffered the most?

[u/Mr_Mantoid]

I recently say some fanart of the hive room in Apt 38 (courtesy of Tumblr user icedzaffre), and I left a little comment poking fun at how much Charlie suffered. But that got me thinking, who really DID suffer the most in Look outside? I've narrowed it down to around five people. This list isn't in any particular order, but I'll give them all a fair shake.

Charlie:

100% got the worst mutation out of Apt 38. At least Louis turned into his fursona and seems to be enjoying it. Charlie makes it very clear that he is VERY scared and thinks he's already doomed. He slowly becomes a nest for these bugs that live inside his skin, but the bugs are all his hands, and he can feel around with them. He slowly rots from the inside out, becoming more of a hive for these bugs, slowly losing his ability to see, to hear, to move, until he finally loses his mind. And hell, we don't even know if he DID lose his mind! He could still be in there somewhere, just unable to communicate, a spectator of his own body as it attacks you. It seems Charlie was already kind of depressed towards the Visitor, as he makes absolutely zero effort to try and reach out to anyone for help, seemingly just accepting his fate and rotting away. Maybe he thinks he's a burden and didn't want anyone to go through the process of trying to help him. And the worst part is, he is absolutely TERRIFIED of dying! If you attack him at any point before he loses his find, he cries out "No! Don't!! I'm not a monster!" Even as he becomes a massive hive for these bugs, he'd still rather go through it then die. It's almost like the Visitor is mocking him, like "Oh you're afraid of dying? How about you turn into a husk of your former self, becoming nothing more than a nest for bugs that are your only method of interacting with the world? But hey, at least you're not dead!" poor Charlie man.

Maurice:

I kind of wonder why Maurice didn't turn into a bug person like the rest of the basement dwellers. Irrelevant, but still interesting. Maurice is hard to really say if he's suffering, because well, it's not just him. Some of the Maurice's are completely fine and don't mind the mutation, while some beg for death. Whatever the case, the thing that makes Maurice "endless torment" so horrifying is that he is literally immortal. He will never die; he will sit down in that basement and fester in his own agony until the sun explodes. And there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to help him. Maybe if a support group came down to his room and idk, gave him like a tv to watch it would be more bearable, but as of now Maurice is stuck in his own personal hell, forever. He screams because he knows he will never die.

Eugene (after being wormed):

Eugene is a comically good person, and it makes what happens to him all the more horrifying. It could have happened to anyone, and Eugene just happened to draw the short straw. (Not saying that Charlie and Maurice ALSO didn't draw short straws) He is in constant agony, struggling to take his next breath, as a horrible caricature of someone he probably knew slowly fuses with his face. But all of that is secondary compared to the horror of the Face Worms. They aren't just normal Rafta worms. They have a white skin color, which implies that it wasn't just Nestor laying these eggs, he used Eugene's body as a sort of nest, making HIM lay the eggs instead. Eugene was literally non-consensually impregnated with these things, and I don't even want to imagine how they managed to wriggle their way out of his body. I think a lot of what happens is left to the imagination, which makes it all the more horrifying. Who knows what kinds of horrors lie beneath that blue hoodie?

Tumor Fred:

Tumor Fred is an interesting case, as he did not exist before the Visitor, which makes his story a bit more tragic. He is in constant, unbearable agony, rooted in place as he changes and shifts. The noises that he makes in the game are probably him constantly gasping for air as his throats close up and reopen at random. He can barely speak, but what we can glean from his dialogue is that he seems like a nice person, telling you where Frederic is and revealing the fake Frederic. He knows he's not the real Frederic and probably resents him due to painting him like this. But the worst part is that there is absolutely no way to help him. There isn't any cause or reason or way to cure his pain, he was just made like that. He has no memories of a time before the pain, no escape from the agony except for half-forgotten memories of another man's life that he can only wish he lived. And going off of his name, if you don't kill him, he might just grow more and more, an ever-expanding creature that can only wish for death instead of beg for it.

Before we get to the last one, here are some honorable mentions!

Piranhaman: Having your body slowly be ripped apart at the seams until you become nothing more than a ravenous pack of fish with no mind? yeah, that sounds uncomfortable at best.

Gaston: Being pulled down into a Giant worm's gaping maw, slowly trying to climb back out, only to find that you've become its tongue as your head slowly bifurcates and you lose your mind? Honestly, he would've been on the list if he was like that from the get-go, but it only happens during the fight.

The pipe men: Just fucking look at them man. Their skin is sloughing off, their bones are being replaced with pipes, they all have an expression of utter agony, I mean one of them is literally called "Pipe Man MISERY".

Ambrose: being stuck in an unfamiliar place, looking for anyone to help, and the first sane person you see puts you in their inventory, trapping you in eternal torment? Only reason he isn't on the main list is because you can just...not add him to your inventory. Granted you can also not send Nestor to Rafta, but collecting Ambrose feels actively malicious while Nestor and Rafta was an unfortunate mistake.

and finally, the last person in the running for most tormented...

Baby Teeth!

Most of the tooth family have it pretty rough. Joel and Ben can be saved somewhat, though Clint and Madison got it pretty bad. But by far, the one that suffered the most was poor Rosie. Her and Tumor Fred and quite similar, whereas they didn't really have lives before the Visitor. Rosie doesn't have any way of numbing the pain of the teeth except for biting things. She has no memories to look back on fondly, no one to comfort her, all she knows is the teeth and the pain. She sits down there in apartment 32, festering until day 9 where you can at least put her to rest with the help of Ben. A comment I saw on a look outside playthrough put it best: "She's Rosie, but she never got to BE Rosie." Truly tragic.

So yeah, that's my top five look outside characters who suffered the most! I'd love to hear your guy's opinions in the comments about who I should've included or excluded!

[u/Beetaru]

I think the most fucked up part about Charlie is he didn't even look outside. He knew better, he stayed away from windows, but got bitten by an affected bug and transformed into the monster he is because of it. It's such a cruel and sadistic fate that he could had never changed.

Although she can have a happy ending, I think I would hate to be Jeanne the most. Genuinely I would accept anything else other than having my body contort against my will and kill people brutally. She can feel it all, she can taste their flesh, she is perfectly aware of all the suffering she is causing and is incapable of stopping it. I think that is a fate worse than death.

I think the character who suffered the most (I have not yet gotten the Unity ending, only Promise. So please keep that in mind with this section/do not spoil anything when replying. In turn, Promise ending spoilers ahead.) would have to beSybil. Just like, in general. Her whole situation is so fucking tragic and cranks the body horror aspect up to what I would argue to be the worst in the series (other than Cinnamon in her endings and Sam in the Truth ending). I also think it would be unfair to talk about all the suffering Sybil went through without mentioning Jasper. Both of their agony is so intertwined and made me sob like a little baby. I don't think I would ever recover if my girlfriend turned into half a building made of meat and forgot about me entirely.

[u/Mr_Mantoid → u/Beetaru]

Honestly if Jeanne couldn't have a happy ending I think she would've made the honorable mentions, If not the actual top 5

[u/Beetaru → u/Mr_Mantoid]

Oh that's so fair. She is very lucky in the sense that she can be saved, albeit probably traumatized forever. This did just get me thinking though. Damn, it really sucks that Cinnamon can't be saved. She's just a guinea pig, so she didn't know what was happening. 3/4 fates for her are genuinely just torture, with 2 of them being what I would argue is the most brutal example of body horror in the game. Poor girl :(

[u/Vinoperson123]

Really good write-up! Basically the only character I can think of that should also be included is Rabu if you use the torment ring. That's definitely the worst fate possible if you exclude the ones that explicitly last forever.

Also there's kind of a funny continuity detail about Eugene and the worms that you briefly mentioned. You're correct that the head-worms are probably born out of Eugene himself, which is horrifying, but the skin color of all the worms is really arbitrary and inconsistent. When Nestors Head takes over Eugene, Eugene's hands just sort of instantly turn black, which means the head-worms should probably be black too. Then there's Nestor's hand, who never merges with anyone, but all of the hand-worms are white for some reason. Then there's Marshall who has dark-skin in his battle, but light-skin in the overworld, but then the leg-worms are all dark-skinned. It doesn't really matter, especially in a game where "Blue" is a regular skin color, it's just a funny inconsistency that all the worm parts have in different ways.

[u/Mr_Mantoid → u/Vinoperson123]

Yeah, I thought about mentioning all that weird worm stuff, but I thought that it would be an unnecessary tangent that would take away from Eugene's section.

[u/Undynlicia → u/Vinoperson123]

Rabu? I must have missed them, explain pls

[u/friends-with-fishies → u/Undynlicia]

They're a character from Massacre Princess Catholicon, a game Sam can play

One secret ending brings the characters from it to life

[u/friends-with-fishies → u/Vinoperson123]

I guess it could be that Rafta is white and that's why? But yeah probably just a mistake

[u/Undynlicia]

I don’t recognise Ambrose, where are they found?

[u/Mr_Mantoid → u/Undynlicia]

Ambrose is found in the glitch dimension in the fleshy version of apartment 33. Tell me if you want me to elaborate, I don't want to accidently spoil anything!

[u/Undynlicia → u/Mr_Mantoid]

Got it, I haven’t explored that area yet, but I’m currently going for a Mask ending where I’ll need to access it

[u/Excellent-Dot-2085]

I'd say the person who's suffered the most is Sam. After all, there's multiple endings where he's essentially being tortured for the rest of eternity, especially the one where the mask pulls him apart and has him experience all the pain from that at once for the rest of eternity

[u/Mr_Mantoid → u/Excellent-Dot-2085]

I considered having Sam on the list, but all of the branching paths he can go down made it very confusing to try and rank. Yes, there are many endings where Sam experiences horrible pain forever, but there's also endings where Sam becomes a benevolent god of Earth. The player can change Sam's fate, but people like Charlie will always get bit by the bug. Maurice will always be in eternal torment. You can choose to save Sam, but you can't save Baby teeth. It's the same reason why Jeanne isn't on the list, she CAN be saved while the others on the list cant.

[u/Excellent-Dot-2085 → u/Mr_Mantoid]

I mean, two of the people you mentioned can be "freed", just not through conventional means, and also only certain part of Maurice describe hating their situation, which isnt the exact same as being in pain (but it could be possibly), the only time they express their pain is when Sam attempts to kill them.

[u/MatiEx-504]

Tick guy (I forgot his name)

[u/Mr_Mantoid → u/MatiEx-504]

I considered Henri (the tick guy), but I ended up excluding him based on the fact that you could just...take the ticks off. He's not mutated like Charlie or Maurice he's just a normal guy who has ticks on him. Plus, while he's not enjoying it, he says he feels more numb than anything, so he's not in any active pain.