(in how they’re the same and how they’re different)
cult is in a situation where lily is going to be taken away from him, but slowly realizes that he can’t accept that → hanako knows nene’s going to die in a year, but slowly realizes that he can’t accept that.
in here, lily being taken away from cult is virtually her death; even the church is planning to kill her off in the end, making it an inevitable time limit.
they at first try to push themselves forcefully apart; better to hurt myself than hurt her. let lily and nene go to a 'perfect' world (the outside, with her family / a world where she lives, perfectly) , leaving them behind...
... but it doesn’t work. lily and nene would not accept a world without them.
cult rejected lily’s idea of running away together before making his attempt to die, but nene was the one who offered to run away first instead. still, hanako rejects that by letting the severance happen →
so both make the final choice in stepping up and becoming antagonists to save their loved one.
they have the SAME FACE KMS
in doing this, they share a theme of memory erasure → in one, it works, and in one, it doesn’t; but that makes the difference.
note how the memory erasure sign in tbhk is pointing a gun to the head, which ties in to the many stories of of death & amnesia, as well as losing oneself’s identity; in tbhk, losing memories is death, and death means losing memories -> they're interconnected. look at the alterations arc, look at mitsuba
lily couldn’t stop what cult had done, but nene rejected hanako’s actions of trying to erase her memories; much like she rejects her imminent death.
in dmld, cult’s method + memory erasure works. however, in dmld, cult values lily’s life, so he’d likely been putting that off for a while until the final staw, which makes us wonder... does hanako have a method like that? is keeping nene alive and untainted worth having her gone? and is that method related to turning nene into a supernatural?
in the end, cult and lily live with imperfection...
... and hanako & nene continue searching for their ideal, perfect future.
