![the vanishing of ethan carter gate puzzle hint the vanishing of ethan carter gate puzzle hint](https://res.cloudinary.com/lmn/image/upload/fl_lossy,q_80/f_auto/v1/gameskinny/d7b8063b7be47e3fe8b348fd96cffab9.png)
Is it representation of Ethan dying? Possibly. In the story the beast with the fangs is not portrayed in a way that makes him seem like a bully, he is actually the one being intimidated by the trees and the lights. Another way to see it is that the “chasing of the light” is a reference to Ethan himself. While Ethan is daydreaming about escaping this world into space Travis comes to tease his brother.
![the vanishing of ethan carter gate puzzle hint the vanishing of ethan carter gate puzzle hint](https://res.cloudinary.com/lmn/image/upload/fl_lossy,q_80/f_auto/v1/gameskinny/7824dfd98690bd35a97b53579e65aa36.png)
One way to look at this is seeing Ethan’s brother as the beast with the fangs chasing the light. We then get back to reality and find a old worn out, vandalised magazine.
![the vanishing of ethan carter gate puzzle hint the vanishing of ethan carter gate puzzle hint](https://gamersdecrypted.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/778335332.jpg)
At least he gets to leave this goddamn place.” After finding the note we hear another voice over, a conversation between Ethan and his brother Travis. In many ways I think this is the strangest of the stories. It’s a story about a fanged beast chasing after lights in the forest. We discover this story in the very strange and surreal space ship sequence of the game. The various shifts between dreamworld and reality where we see both bones and empty bottles littering the ground seem to represent Edwin’s drinking problem and his guilt over the death of his wife. The place in the forest seems to have been his drinking spot that Ethan had found. Either way Ethan’s story now seems to be about his granddad who was an alcoholic and who drank in secret. Gayle’s husband Edwin Carter told the investigators that he fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand and that was what caused the fire yet according to Ethan’s story his granddad Edwin was in the forest at the time. The interpretation here is fairly straight forward when we then find a half burnt piece of a newspaper article describing a fire that caused a home to burn down. The world switches back to reality and we can see that this specific part of the forest is littered not with bones but with bottles. “But Gramp – – I wrote something for you.” “Ethan, I told you – – you can’t be here!” “When he returns to the village” the story continues, “he found all of the villagers’ bones. One cool fall night someone sets fire to the forest and the man escapes it by “covering himself in sap”, but the fire spreads to the village. It’s about an old man who drinks sap alone. Next to a tree we find a story written by Ethan to his granddad. The ground is covered with skulls and bones here. When we find all the traps the world switches into a grey dreamworld. This story is revealed in the forest outside the tunnel where the game starts. This said I can reveal straight away that I am of the belief that Ethan does die and the camera flying away at the end of the last cut scene is meant to represent his soul. The ending of this game could be interpreted in many ways I think. Looking closer at Paul Prospero’s name we can see references to literature such as Shakespeare’s The Tempest and The Masque of the Red Death about man’s futile attempts to stave off death. There are clues like this scattered all through the game.
![the vanishing of ethan carter gate puzzle hint the vanishing of ethan carter gate puzzle hint](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ed9504c98d97f82c3b3a814c155be3c1.png)
I think this is intended to indicate how long it took for Ethan to inevitably suffocate from smoke inhalation. After they show the father and mother trying to get buckets of water to put the fire out they show Ethan one last time. Finally in the last cut scene when Ethan lays down in the bed after the house starts on fire the clock reads 7:00. The first clock you see at the train station and another clock in the pumping station. On one side it was 7:00 and the other side was 7:04. It pointed out that all the clocks throughout the game had two different time s. I did a bit of research online to see if anyone else had found this strange and I discovered a forum post on the subject. Or to the beginning? One thing that I found strange at the time of playing this game was the focus on the time of the clock when Ethan was seemingly suffocating at the very end. Trust me, unless you’ve actually played through it completely then the below theories won’t just be spoilers, it will be boring since you’ll have no idea what I’m talking about! INSTEAD OF READING THIS ANALYSIS JUST GO TO THE REVIEW I MADE: