Sorry if you've already answered this before, but do you think it's possible that Mono might have ALWAYS been a resident? This is a theory I've held for a while due to his visual differences from other children (both canon and concept art), the extent of his powers (with TTM being one of, if not THE most powerful resident in The Nowhere), and his deep connection to the world itself (being unable to resist the pull of the Transmission and clearly spending a LONG time surviving in The Nowhere). For some reason I just can't see him being another child from "reality" or The Counties, to me he's always felt distant from the other children of the franchise, even Low, a canonical counties kid who also wields teleportation abilities. I'm not sure if this theory will ever be proven or disproven, but it's not something I see regularly discussed in-depth. I'd love to know your thoughts!
Thank you for asking for my thoughts on it! I have a TON. This post will be long, be warned 😭 When DTN was announced, I thought maybe I was initially wrong to speculate that Mono was not a traditional visitor- instead, I believe DTN CONFIRMS that he isn’t one. DTN gives us all the missing pieces we needed to fully explain what is going on with Mono. Mono, the character we play as, is not a human child who went missing… but he is based on one. His human self got to grow up in The Counties, into a character that we have already been introduced to peripherally in transmedia. This is my comprehensive theory/analysis on the final parts of the puzzle that DTN hands us - one that explains the nature of Mono and the Thin Man’s existence from a lore, and narrative standpoint. I am pretty confident that this is Mono’s lore, solved. Happy LN2 anniversary!
What is a Resident?
There are many official definitions/descriptions of Residents across interviews and websites, but the most compact and clear one that I’ll use as the jumping point for this theory is this passage from the LN2 guidebook:
“The game takes place somewhere born out of people’s worst impulses and desires, where manipulation, conformity, consumption, evil and death thrive. A place where the worst from the real world are reborn as a grotesque version of themselves, continuing their descent into the darkness.”
This definition has not been retconned or altered, as post LN2 media only SPRINGS this part of Resident lore to the forefront with Otto/The Hypnotist and The Jailer/Homer Downes. The nature of Residents’ existence makes the logic for Mono’s human self straightforward. If The Thin Man is a Resident, and Residents are the worst of the real world reborn, then it must follow that The Thin Man was originally one of the worst people from the Counties.
Which came first? Mono or The Thin Man
Before continuing, I’ll address a quick counter argument: Visitors can simply be turned/age into Residents, so wouldn’t that mean that Residents don’t necessarily need to have an adult human counterpart from The Counties? This is true, but I think Mono’s case is not so cut and dry. It cannot (only) be that Mono created the Thin Man by naturally aging into him, because The Thin Man existed before the loop started. We see proof of this in the LN2 comics, where the mysterious figure in the files is The Thin Man, complete with a music cue used for the Thin Man’s presence - along with the fact that Thin Man has murdered several children outside of LN2’s timeline. Since he already existed before the loop, this rules out the explanation that Mono just created him by aging… bringing us back to the main blurb of Resident lore: The Thin Man has to have been one of the worst people in the Counties.
(As a quick little summary of the loop’s place in this theory since I know it gets debated a lot- I fully believe that Mono is in a self imposed time loop that affects himself exclusively in LN2. This theory isn’t me claiming that there is an overall loop that everyone is in on, or that there is no time loop. I simply believe that all of the evidence points to Mono and The Thin Man existing before his loop/cycle started.)
Who is he then?
Residents are grotesque versions of their former selves, according to Mervik, they are “people whose inner life has shaped their outer form.” While whispers of their humanity echo in some fleeting moments, they do not think or behave in ways that are sane or logical. “All of the residents of Little Nightmares…they don’t really have motivations, it's like the id- it’s the base instinct of people… They don’t have a goal in life that they want to achieve, it's just this urge.” (Mervik again.)
I believe that the more power a Resident holds within the Nowhere is directly linked to how much influence they had in the Counties. Every location in the Nowhere is shaped off of “a system that acts in accordance with a basic principle or concept.”, so naturally, the people chosen to maintain and reside in these areas must be those who upheld these systems when they were human. So then, what character have we been given glimpses of that strongly upholds and contributes to the population’s habit of escapism in the Counties? DTN (and a small shoutout in TSON) hand the audience a dead ringer: The host of REMs FM, the “voice of counties,” is Mono/The Thin Man’s human form.
To illustrate my point, Here is a break down of every REMS FM appearance in DTN:
This one is the least suspect, but establishes a few important details. REMS fm considers itself to be the voice of the Counties, Myra listens to it in the mornings, and its dialogue is a little ominous in tone. “We’ll be here, in your ear, as we always have been.”
The next time the broadcast appears, we see that Myra, in order to shut out the couple in the neighboring room, tells Marion to turn the radio on. This is a direct thematic connection between REMS fm and escapism. Myra effectively shuts out unpleasant stimuli by turning to familiar entertainment that distracts from it. The lyrics of the song themselves are ominous and negative, stating that their minds are unraveled, and warmth can only be found in “the black below.” It’s these lyrics from the broadcast that push Myra deeper into her investigation of The Nowhere. It’s “like that song said”, she has to keep falling. It’s easy to be misled into thinking this is a positive development, since readers naturally want Myra to find and save Hush… but we know how the world of LN works. In reality, even though she is well intentioned, whenever Myra pushes harder into the Nowhere - it is framed as self destructive. It’s repeatedly linked to her struggles with drug use. In order to even access more details in her Ferryman memory, Myra has to do hard drugs. She’s “descending to the Nowhere” in her investigation, but she’s also descending in terms of her struggle with addiction and mental health… and words from REMS fm directly influence her to continue.
In the third issue, after she “takes the plunge” for Marion by getting high before he arrives, we find out that Myra listens to REMS fm at night as well. This radio station is a constant part of her life. Lonnie makes sure that Myra always specifies who said what on the broadcast, implying importance. There’s music, there’s a host, and there are guests. At night, the host of REMS fm openly speculates about the nature of the Counties and the Nowhere. Either he directly knows something about this link, or he has been catching on. Once again, these words are shown to encourage Myra’s beliefs about the investigation, and the reality of their world. They solidify her theory. Another detail to note for later is that Myra opens up the bunny nesting doll while talking about this peripheral unreality that surrounds them- linking the bunnies to the concept of *realities*. We will get back to this in Mono’s section.
Even though this is the first occurrence of REMS FM in DTN, I saved it for last because it’s the juiciest. When she is about to jump off the bridge, Myra recalls negative advice from the broadcast as justification for her imminent suicide. This further strengthens the link between the broadcast’s influence, and Myra (literally) descending. However, instead of mentioning that these words came from the host, Myra cites a quack. A quack is someone who pretends to be a(typically) medical professional, when they don’t truly have the skill/qualifications. For us, this would be someone like Doctor Phil. Someone who would be giving crude love advice with a medical spin on a popular broadcast, comparing love to an infection. Someone like… a celebrity doctor. A celebrity doctor we know exists in this timeline due to TSON, and a celebrity doctor that perfectly fits what we know about LN2’s Doctor.
When asked about the connection between Six, the Lady, and the mysterious paintings in LN1 - Mervik had this to say:
“If you think in terms of a dream or nightmare, maybe there’s a character in there pulled directly from your real life. But maybe there’s a character in there who just has one element of something from your real life, and that’s colored how they look there so yeah maybe you see a picture of a kid in a yellow dress or coat ... you still don’t know how that fits, in the logic of this place it could be very literal or it could be something… influenced by another. “
I believe the second part is the case with Six and the Residents of The Maw - given the fact that Mervik has also described them as strangers to Six in a LN1 blogpost. The first one, about the characters being pulled from your real life, pertains to Mono. The Residents in LN2 all connect to the “real” Mono’s life in some way, which is why he fits in and is familiar with Pale City. The human version of The Doctor, in the Counties, is directly linked to the broadcast…. connecting him to the host/Mono.
The broadcast clearly influences Myra’s mental state and her beliefs, but how does that pertain to Mono’s human self being the host?
In issue 1, Myra gives us this critical line, “Entering someone’s home is like entering their brain. Everything’s laid out bare.” We know from TLO, TSON, and descriptions of the Maw and its guests that The Nowhere puts similar things together. It puts people, places, and objects where they “belong.” Thus, our cast of characters in the Stone Giant are all connected by something that makes them similar… and I believe it is the influence they have on Myra’s mental state.
The Jailer is the antagonist because she is Myra’s long-time boss, and is directly opposed to her goal of making a difference in the Counties. Chief Downes is the central obstacle obstructing her investigation into Hush’s case - her pursuit of the Nowhere. Hush and Mono are the protagonists because in Myra’s brain, they are the two major forces pulling her down to Nowhere. Hush, because she feels a connection to the kid and wants to save her, and Mono, because his Counties-sona is the host of the broadcast that repeatedly influences her to sink deeper, to the black below.
A quick revised analysis of Cover 1, given this;
The nesting bunny on Mono’s side being halved demonstrates how Mono is technically two entities - one that originates from the Counties (Thin Man) and one that originates from the Nowhere (Mono). I speculated this prior to its release, but Myra describing a reality and unreality while opening a bunny nesting doll in issue 3 solidifies it. The pills inside of the bunnies also represent something that Marion has noticed about Myra, that while these two motivate her to rediscover the Nowhere … it’s not good for her. It’s destructive to her health. She’s well intentioned, but she’s descending. This isn’t the only time Mono has been given a “half” motif in connection to the Nowhere and the Counties either.
It’s a holiday render, sure, but every other character is on a side that makes sense for their lore. All of the characters who either died or remained in the Nowhere are on that side, Low escaped so he is on the Counties side, and Mono is… both.
Before I get into more direct evidence/lore talk, I’ll address an elephant in the room: If Mono is a radio host in the Counties, why is he connected to televisions in the Nowhere and not radios?
The short answer is that the Nowhere exaggerates aspects of The Counties, meaning they can change and manifest in different forms than their “originals.” As per Mervik, “this is a world that takes real experiences and twists them into unfamiliar shapes, so what they have become here is as important as what they were.” If this alone isn’t satisfying, note this cool connection in issue 2, where Lonnie directly connects the Counties’ radio to the televisions in the Nowhere.
Another neat connection here is that Mono’s name, links to a type of audio signal used on radio broadcasts. Monaural sound, typically always shortened to just “Mono.” He more specifically reminds me of a specific audio configuration known as “dual mono.” - an audio configuration featuring two entirely separate, independent signal paths for the left and right channels, from input to output. Two independent signals, that when played at once - get amplified reach.
So what is up with Mono then?
If The Thin Man is the host of the broadcast as a Resident, then Mono is essentially a supernatural clone of The Thin Man as a child. This is why prior to LN2, both are able to exist at the same time and technically be the same person, but different characters. Whether he has the memories of his human self at that age or has only ever known the Nowhere, this theory explains a lot of the factors that have made fans raise eyebrows about Mono being a Visitor who got taken to the Nowhere by the Ferryman at some point. It explains why he is intentionally designed to belong in that world, why he understands the Nowhere better than every other kid we have met so far, and why he has TV powers, connection to Thin Man, and familiarity with the Signal Tower and Pale City *before* the loop even started. His existence began in that tower. He isn’t fully a Resident, but he’s not fully a Visitor either.
This theory makes perfect sense of Mervik’s response here: He isn’t being coy or vague, it really is all of that. Mono and the Thin Man are the same person in that they are both entities that come from the same source, so Mono is always doomed to become the Thin Man eventually.
But then… would you be the same person if you were thrown into an entirely different environment during your adolescence? Or would you have different goals, feelings, and views on the world?
Thus, they are two separate characters, and Mono is the successor. A good example of this is how Mono is officially described as “a threat to these systems of escapism.” Systems that the Thin Man manages. Of course he is capable of being a threat, since it is an overall system “he” manages in the first place, but there’s a purposeful divide between the characters here. Is a “bad person” inherently bad? Was Mono just evil to begin with in the “real world?” No. That’s the tragedy. When in a different environment, Mono was a rebellious threat to the very thing his human self upheld. The Nowhere, deeply unfair child-hating lovecraftian world that it is, forces his. path to be inevitable. No matter how different Mono is from the Thin Man, no matter how much his character progresses, his future is set. He is held accountable for the actions of another version of himself. He can’t escape it. This fits perfectly with this overarching narrative thread in LN - that of the odds being severely stacked against these children, of the world hating them, and wanting them to fail.
What’s the purpose of Mono’s existence/Whats up with the Thin Man:
These are directly linked so they get a conjoined section. If all of this is true, then what is the point? We know that non-traditional children exist in the lore (such as Alone or the Pretender).. but why?
I think that Mono exists to keep the Thin Man in an eternal loop of escapism (indulging in his impulse), and to make the Transmission stronger. Recall the official Resident lore - they do not have humanistic, complex motivations for their behavior the way that we would traditionally expect of villains. The thing Thin Man is looking for is Mono - but not because of a desire to save him. Mono makes the Transmission stronger. Like with dual Mono, the transmission reach extends if the two independent signals become one. The Thin Man takes kids at random because Residents do not remember their former lives or associations- Mono is the intended target. He’s needed to fulfill Thin Man’s urge. This is why, in the LN2 comics, Thin Man immediately follows Mono after he leaves the room instead of continuing to murder the kids downstairs. This is why the Signal Tower keeps “calling Mono to come back.” and finally- this is why Six’s theme is intentionally blared on the TVs whenever Mono gets near them in chapter 4. It’s all centered on getting Mono. These two entities becoming one as they do at the end of LN2, extends the reach of the Transmission. That’s his impulse. Maintain the transmission, and spread its influence as far as possible.
I won’t get too much into my analysis of the Thin Man here since this is already monstrously long and I still have around 20 things I could talk about from this point on, but I believe he is so ghostly and inanimate in comparison to other Residents because his human self did not have much of an “inner life” to pull from. He’s a puppet for the Signal Tower because REMS FM was his whole life. Negatively impacting the people of the Counties and encouraging their bad habit of escapism was the center of his reality, and so he is given a role that reflects that in the Nowhere. Mono’s existence essentially provides the Nowhere with an opportunity to give this Resident an inner life, to tempt him with escapism - the very vice his “original” self promoted. The official twitter has referred to the time loop as Mono’s escapism - Which could imply that even when they join together, Mono is so single minded that he is still fixated on his own goal. The tragedy of this is that it actually aids the Thin Man’s too, and only traps them forever. It seems as though each loop strengthens the Transmission, seeing as it has reached the Spiral in LN3’s timeline.
As always I have way more thoughts on individual parts of this theory - but I’m very confident in it. It fits the lore, the narrative of both LN2 and DTN, and makes sense of many long standing mysteries regarding the two characters. Thank you for reading! I’d like to thank/shoutout @randybutternubber for letting me bounce the concepts for this theory off of him and overall being a joy to talk to. I will leave off with some miscellaneous links to the theory/analysis that I would’ve had to awkwardly squash in if I included them earlier.
1. They were cut from the final game, but LN2 used to have radios. Including one particular creepy broadcast of a man hanging himself.
2. I briefly mentioned this, but Otto mentions REMS FM in TSON as well, describing it similarly to Myra as simply “the broadcast” to Noone. This further implies that the channel has hegemony over the radio broadcast scene in the Counties. It’s so popular that citizens don’t have to specify what channel it is, just that it is the broadcast. This shoutout also shows generally that it is a consistent detail in the Counties’ world building.
3. The official LN twitter back in 2021 (and yes, they had access to the lore,) has at one point referred to Mono’s transmission impulse as “The broadcast”
4. Whenever Mono comes out of the TVs during the “broadcast” sequences - he isn’t organic. He momentarily appears to be made of static and glitched material. He also is able to absorb souls during LN2 which I don’t see mentioned a lot.
5. In LN3, in the “past/Counties” view of the Institute - we can see one of the logos associated with the Pale City/transmission. This further implies that the “transmission” has a real world counterpart - or possibly was seeping into the Counties in Low’s timeline.
