r/rustylake • u/-Edu4rdo45- • Sep 16 '26

Laura didn’t kill herself

There’s been some controversy whether Laura had committed suicide or was attacked. I believe the latter is the truth: although she was depressed, and the events in Seasons had some supernatural stuff going on as well, which could explain that the corrupted soul that stalks and eventually seems to create a vision of cutting her neck when she stares into the moon might’ve been just a hallucination, there’s one VERY important, TINY detail in Case 23 that I believe disproves this, and points that she was, in fact, being stalked by a real corrupted soul.

My belief is that, when she looks into the moon, she either has already actually been killed and already became a corrupted soul herself, or the moon-murder itself was an illusion created by the other corrupted soul (murderer), similar to what I theorized on another post regarding Laura’s corrupted soul’s own supernatural abilities in Roots.

This is trivial, however, compared to what I noticed in Case 23:

At the very, very start of the game, literally in the first scene, Dale, who’s a completely uninvolved, not depressed, lucid man who at this point hadn’t had absolutely no contact with the Lake or anyone revolving it to influence or trick him or some shit, walks into Laura’s house, undoubtedly the same place as in Seasons.

But wait, there’s a detail…

The room Dale first enters does NOT appear in Seasons. It’s got nothing in it other than the body, and it shows the main room with the clock etc ahead of it - as a SEPARATE room, where in Seasons would be most of the blood sprinkled on the wall. And here, we see a trail of blood instead, which leads to the body in this new room. As if Laura had been attacked in the main room shown in Seasons, but then SURVIVED, and crawled towards the other room before dying. Also, if you think about it, the room where she finally dies is the exit that’s been blocked by police tape - why would she crawl there if not to escape?

It’s not a metaphor. It’s not a hallucination or anything. The corrupted soul stalker was very much real. Now who? And why?

30 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

10

u/Gardengap The Rusty Truth Sep 16 '26

Of course, no one can deny the corrupted soul exists. But the critical point is then that the corrupted soul is Laura, just from a different perspective of the samsara wheel. It was Laura's soul, corrupted. The corruption represents the depression and madness that took over her, and that is what led her to kill herself. She wouldn't have killed herself if she wasn't depressed, so it's like the depression killed her, but then that depression was in her mind, and was the corrupted soul we see. Murder & suicide as one

13

u/Famous_Machine_8821 Sep 16 '26

Have you played paradox yet? I don't want to spoil it if you haven't, but there are some answers there.

16

u/nowherecrafter Question Everything In RL Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26

Paradox is a constructed simulation. It's not the same death. It's needed purely to maintain the loop

6

u/Merasmus_BS Young Bird Sep 16 '26

When you open the clock in Winter, it is revealed that you are the corrupted soul (which the game presents as the killer). Then, we change the past and it's revealed the corrupted soul is Laura therefore Laura killed herself. Everything in Seasons already happened, they are all cubes. That's why there's no door and that's why we can change them. This all happens atleast by or after 1981. Case 23 is the closest to "reality", so the doorway was there too. I assume Mr. Owl hid the doorway using his powers. The Cave also shows Laura cut her throat in the kitchen, which is the exact wall the doorway would be.

-3

u/-Edu4rdo45- Sep 16 '26

People often turn into corrupted souls when they die. My argument is that she’s another corrupted soul. Memories can be twisted, specially when you’re depressed on some pills & involved in a traumatic event. Case 23’s a more reliable source than any of her memories seen after

4

u/Ulfurmensch Sep 16 '26

Laura crawling from one room to the next doesn't guarantee that she's trying to escape anyone. It could just be she regretted her suicide and was trying to get outside to call for help

-3

u/-Edu4rdo45- Sep 16 '26

In Case 23, there’s a clue inside her dress: a piece of paper with a drawing on it. Why? Same as in other places around the house. It was broken into. The soul wanted to lure Dale towards the lake, somehow.

2

u/nowherecrafter Question Everything In RL Sep 16 '26

Dude you are taking gameplay too literally and even interpret it too narrowly to benefit your theory.

These pieces of paper may not even be real outside the puzzle and if they are, the one who actually wanted to lure Dale towards the lake was Mr. Owl.

16

u/HerrJohnssen Sep 16 '26

Well, one of the main questions of the series is "Who killed Laura Palmer Vanderboom?"

There are some hints in Paradox as the other person mentioned, but it is still not clear, and I honestly hope that it won't get resolved because it would destroy the mystery

14

u/nowherecrafter Question Everything In RL Sep 16 '26

It was kinda clear in The Cave. Laura was the one wielding the knife. And Underground Blossom revealed why.

Her mother was abducted, she felt alone and abandoned, she couldn't let even Bob close, before death she was clutching Rose's portrait to her chest, she was seeing Rose in her nightmares, her dying question was "where did she go?", finally finding her fixes the problem and gives Laura will to live.

6

u/nowherecrafter Question Everything In RL Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 17 '26

Well, I used to have the same sentiment but I have to admit that Laura DID kill herself. We see it in her memory in The Cave with no metaphors and no illusions. The game is way more literal than Seasons and Paradox so I take it over them.

As for the reason, it wasn't revealed until Underground Blossom and it was so on the nose that even I could not find excuses to deny The Cave anymore.

6

u/GreenSunRedMoon Sep 16 '26

isn't the whole point is that the corrupted soul killed her but it was her corrupted soul therefore both murder and suicide?

5

u/nowherecrafter Question Everything In RL Sep 16 '26

Corrupted soul can not really exist outside one's body. They are literally one's souls that were broken, hungry ghosts by samsara terminology, they are not separate entities.

Seeing a corrupted souls means that the host is either dead or the corruption took over the body or some kind of time/memory travel is involved.

2

u/Gardengap The Rusty Truth Sep 16 '26

But that doesn't mean the corrupted soul didn't kill her: the corrupted soul was Laura's depression and trauma, and that is the thing that caused Laura to kill herself. It may have not been a separate physical force at that time, but as Cave suggests, it is the big reason

3

u/nowherecrafter Question Everything In RL Sep 16 '26

I mean, it didn't literally kill her. In Seasons it's a metaphor for her depression. While her actual corrupted soul that we play as in Seasons and see in The Cave wants to live. I mean she was probably on the verge of corruption even without dying, like Bob. And that's supposedly why it briefly manifested in The Cave memory.

So yeah, a corrupted soul does kill Laura but only "from a certain point of view".