Fran Bow Theory from Reddit
"I'd like to preface this by saying that I am by no means experienced in coming up with theories on my own. However, Fran Bow is a game that I really like, and I figured that for fun I might actually try and figure out what was going on. So I tried to pay as much attention to detail as possible and take notes. And what better place to share what I think than with you? I don't know if anyone out there even still thinks about this game, but if there is anyone, I'd love to hear your opinions. This isn't a complete theory in itself. Fran Bow is such a dense game in terms of lore and in terms of symbolism versus reality that I think the best way to approach decoding the game is to try and examine parts of it at a time. For this post, I thought I'd pitch one idea: could Fran be a twin? Some evidence that might support this:
1.Twin imagery in this game is everywhere. The most obvious example is Clara and Mia, the attached twins that Fran encounters, but Fran's mother and aunt are also very important to the story.
2.It is also later revealed that much of Oswald's research centers around twins. Gemini symbols in the twins' house, pictures of apparently the same twins over and over in different places, attached and separated. Different ages, different times. Multiple Frans. We see Fran's body several times (doctor's office in Chapter 1, being eaten by kamalas in Chapter 4), and also are confronted by several Ultrareality versions of Fran. The "Young Fran" we see at the end of the game.
3.This one takes more explaining. To start, when Fran wakes up chained in her bedroom in Chapter 5, she decides that to escape she needs to contact herself in "the same place, but a different time" (paraphrasing, but that's the idea).
4.Also worth mentioning that when this does happen and we see what we think is a past version of Fran, the room changes very little outside of some aesthetics being removed. Same wardrobe, same bed with chains, same door placement. So is what we think of as Fran's room actually in the asylum?
5.Next, young Fran herself. Young Fran knows who Itward and Palontras are. She talks about traveling to Ithersta, as if she has done it many times. Our Fran in the beginning of the game acts as if she has lived a normal life up until her parents were murdered. Young Fran, on the other hand, acts as if she has lived in the asylum her whole life, and has always known about the many realities. Which one is the real Fran?
6.Aunt Grace tells us at the end of the game that Lucia Dagenhart, Fran's mother, tried to hide Fran from the asylum, but they discovered her betrayal and killed Fran's parents because of it. The timeline doesn't add up here. Oswald and Grace knew that Fran was going to be born and were very much anticipating it. How could Lucia have kept Fran hidden for so long? Or, if they did find out earlier and Young Fran really is her in the asylum, then what happened to Fran's parents? And why would the game start with a completely different storyline?
With all of that in mind, here is my take. Everything we hear about Oswald is true as we hear it. He was very invested in his studies of twins. He experimented first with Lucia and Grace, and later Clara and Mia. Years and years went by. Oswald ran some sort of experiment on Lucia, hoping that she would give birth to a child with some kind of special significance or ability. When he found out that Lucia was pregnant, he was eager to begin experimentation on the child. Lucia, however, did not want to give up her child. Maybe she knew that she would have twins, or she found out after giving birth. (It was the 40's, they didn't have ultrasounds yet.) Either way, Lucia gave birth to twins, and decided to give only one of them to Oswald, while hiding the second. The girl that we think is Young Fran in Chapter 5 is actually a different person altogether. Raised in the asylum her whole life, already knowledgeable of the many realities. Our Fran, on the other hand, was raised in a loving home by her parents, until Oswald and Grace learned of her existence and came for her. The rest is explained in-game: Remor manipulates Fran into murdering her parents, and she runs into the woods, where she is finally retrieved by the asylum and reported dead in the news." (Game Theorists on Reddit