did ya get my present!! i left you a rubber ducky and some shampoo in your sink :D and a loofa but the ducky was cooler so. your sink smelled bad btw (@fireandashexe)
wait- yeah! yeah, i did, they're much appreciated. i guess.
When we intially played through the ending of Friendship Test, we kinda struggled to follow along with the epilogue. Part of it was that we didn't really get Exe's character at the time, but another part was also that we hadn't caught up on how important the theme of fiction is to the narrative.
The epilogue is the most overt when it comes to the significance of fiction within the setting, but it comes up throughout the story.
We know that the way programs understand relationships is largely based on media from different species, including fiction.
It repeatedly comes up that FriendProgram has watched, and dislikes, a lot of pieces of fiction. At one point they watch a movie with Waterbottle, who expresses offense on their behalf for how few pieces of fiction consider the experiences of lifeforms like FP.
Exe mentions that she often watches TV to distract herself even if the TV "hurts [her] too".
Knight names her intrusive thoughts after an antagonistic force from their favorite book series, and said series also helps him better understand their relationship with Knife, as it depicts a relationship not typically seen in a lot of media accessible to the labs.
While I would find it rather dismissive to describe Pixels as "fictional" within the setting, I do think it also matters that they are described as an imaginary friend, and that Dreamer's whole function within the labs is to create simulations. Not to mention the way Pixels reconnects with Dreamer is through making up a story about an adventure where they reunite. We also know Dreamer and Pixels initially bonded through adventures that Dreamer made up for her. During their reunion, both of them also talk about reality as something subjective, and conclude that wether or not Pixels is real matters less than the importance of its relationship with Dreamer.
The takeaway from all this is that fiction can help people process and understand things, but it can also reinforce harmful ideas and make people feel alienated. This sentiment culminates in act 7, the epilogue, and the dlc focusing in on FriendPrograms' and Exe's relationships to fiction specifically.
The repeated instances where its brought up that FP has watched and disliked a lot of media come together in act 7, where we learn that, after realizing FP wasn't great with a hands-on approach to friendship, Tori tried to teach them through media.
This just results in FP lashing out and corrupting and I think at this point its important to remember that the lab contains media from several different species of lifeforms. If between all these different worlds and species, there is not one example of someone who doesn't feel love and isn't evil, even within the limitless realm of fiction, then FriendProgram really and truly is alone in being the way they are.
This is revealed to us in one of FP's memories, which are being projected by Dreamer as they make their way towards Tori, with FP currently planning to kill her. Dreamer repeatedly questions FP's request for her to make them relive these memories, eventually resulting in this exchange:
It's rather twisted that FP themself reinforces the idea that their motivations are inherently evil, after outside influences, including the media Tori has shown them, kept reinforcing the idea that they are uniquely and unchangibly evil.
Later parts of the act push back against this belief, proving to FP that no, their lovelessness doesn't inherently make them evil, and there are people who will extend understanding towards them.
Now, FP's alienation doesn't just stem from their lovelessness. After all, they still go through their entire lowpoint in act 7 after reuniting with Void, who is loveless as well. The difference drawn between them in regards to this is that Void still desires friendships.
But just as things seem to end well everything is turned on its head by the one character who seems just as incapable of love and just as uniquely hard to understand as FriendProgram themself.
While FP has been shown that fiction doesn't provide an accurate portrayal of how they're supposed to be and how they'll inevitably end up, the ending of the game is really just the beginning of them unpacking these ideas, so the epilogue does still start with them attempting to wake up Waterbottle with some kind of "power of love and friendship" reenactment, which Waterbottle quickly shuts down once they regain consciousness.
I think it's interesting that while Exe's understanding of the world was similarly to FP strongly influenced by fiction, she kind of leaned in the oppsite direction of them. FP believed they were inherently evil and tried to lean into that, while Exe tried to achieve a happy ending for them and herself and making them heroes in the process.
But she knows both from her own life experiences and from stories that good things can't last for people like her and FP. So the only solution she sees is to shut down the lab and "end" the story herself to make things end on a positive note.
But she can't just rely on this understanding of things and FP eventually gets through to her, making her understand that things don't work like how they work in her movies. It isn't on her to "end" the story, FP's adventure didn't suddenly make them feel love and "fix" them, and she isn't doomed to be the "true" villain.
I think there's something very beautiful about the game choosing to have this be a narrative throughline that particularly affects two of the loveless and aplatonic characters, when this game is also probably the only piece of media that a lot of people know that represents these experiences. Friendship Test understands the impact of fiction, and by extension, its own.
