Time for a gametheory confirmation bias bonanza!
Almost everyone in LATLE has obscured eyes in some form or other. And the characters who don’t — notably Renzo, window maze world Renate, and Lorenzo— have their eyes obstructed by the placement of the camera. You only ever get nose-down shots of them during dialogue, or else their head is turned so you can’t see their eyes.
This post is about LATLE characters looking at the camera. It also has spoilers in it. I wanted to start by establishing that these three characters are unable to look at the camera because that camera is always situated so as not to make eye contact with them. Of course there are story reasons for this, but that’s not what I’m talking about right now.
Here are some characters who do have the opportunity to look at the camera.
[Endgame Renzo, Old Lorelei, Maze Man, Ghost Renate, Rudi, Owl Girl]
Endgame Renzo doesn’t look at the camera. There are some moments where I think this is arguable, but since the man has no eyes, it seems logical to focus on the tilt and angle of his head to figure out what he’s “looking” at. He seems to be focused on Lorelei. This makes sense.
Old Lorelei doesn’t look at the camera. She has (laser) eyes and it’s very clear where they’re directed: up and to the left, towards Young Lorelei, and not into the camera.
Maze Man doesn’t seem to look at the camera. This one is hardest, but again I’m trying to focus on the angle of his head.
Again, this is a character with no eyes, but she’s *right up where the camera is* now. During this scene, the camera moves all around her. Left facing shots, right facing shots, forward facing shots, and two shots that look like this. Sure, there’s a perfect excuse for filling up half the screen with her face (atmosphere), but just hang on to this for a minute.
Rudi has fully animated eyes. I grabbed this clip, where he appears to be looking between Lorelei and the camera. Maybe the dog knows the player is really the one petting him? Because there’s animation involved, I just don’t know how any of this works. It could be totally random and I’m thoroughly overinterpreting this. So I think I’ll just move on.
The entire reason I wanted to make this post is because Owl Girl inarguably looks at the camera, and does so *constantly*. As a tutorial character, she is usually imparting information to the player more than to Lorelei herself, so this sort of makes logistical sense? It’s also really telling, especially in her last scene. Follow her apparent line of sight between these three lines of dialogue:
Her chin is raised when she addresses Lorelei, but not in the other two shots.
More damningly, Owl Girl staring into the camera, while allegedly talking to Lorelei, does not work. This is their height difference!
I think she knows the player is there. She’s looking at them. At the end of the game she thanks the player. Adult Renate is maybe doing this too. The other characters don’t do this. Renate knew she was fictional when she was in Renzo’s script, and she still knows. This is another reason why Renate is my favorite character. Thank you for bearing with me as I fabricated evidence to support my headcanon.
