I'm fighting for you... Let's Discuss Ib!

Though it also said Mary was not inspired in a real person. But think about it - to paint a portrait of a person that looks so real someone might confuse it for an actual person/photo, Guertena must have put a lot of effort (aka his 'soul) into it. So maybe that's the reason why Mary is more alive than all the other paintings.
As for Fake!Garry, I always took it that Ib was hallucinating due to the loss and the fact she didn't understand Garry had died. So she sees this mirage of him and refuses to go back home without him, so she follows him.

Sometimes I think about what would happen after each ending.

Like in Together Forever, Mary and Ib live happily as sisters. If not with a sense of wrongness to it.
Or Promise Reunion, Ib and Garry will someday meet up once more and have a happy, fun time.
But what happens when Ib follows FakeGarry/FakeMom?Does she get killed? Does she get lost forever? Maybe she lives in the painting, forever by their side not having a clue as to what is happening. She could have even dreamed up that they returned to the real world, but in reality she's only wandering blindly throughout Mary's world.
...
Sometimes I wonder if I take these games too seriously.

So yeah I finally played this game. Just...wow. I apparently managed to get the best ending on my first run-through. I was mentally preparing myself for all of them to die horribly, so I was overjoyed when I got that ending. He remembered her! :D And they're totally going out for Macarons later. And my god but there's a lot of Ib fanart out there.

How old is Garry, anyways?

EDIT: According to the wiki he's 18. That's only a 9 year age difference, that's not so bad. >.>

EDIT EDIT: Correction, he's assumed to be 15-18. So I'm just going to imagine that he's 17 or so and no longer feel squicked out for shipping him with (much older) Ib. Or maybe just a one-sided crush on Ib's part.

I didn't see Garry as a lolicon, so I am a little disturbed by all the romantic shipping between him and Ib.

The game never presents Ib or Mary in a sexualized manner. I never had to censor the game during my LP. If anything, I sat back and let the adorable speak for itself. The closest the game comes to any tomantic relationship between the two is when Garry comments on Ib's fine clothes, which seems natural because Garry is into fashion (see tattered coat).

If Garry is ambiguously anything, he's ambiguously gay. But who cares about that?

I don't see Garry as a lolicon, either, but I can see Ib having a crush on him, and that's pretty adorable in and of itself. I mean, since Ib is a silent protagonist it's easy for the person playing to project their feelings onto her, and I know that 9-year-old me would've had the hugest crush on Garry if I was in that situation.

Well, him inviting her out for Macarons was rather date-esque, but I didn't see any particular romantic tension that couldn't be written off as platonic affection on Garry's part. Ib, on the other hand, 1) gave him that enormous hug when he saved her from Mary and 2) gave him her handkerchief, which is a rather romantically loaded action. So yeah, that leads me to think that Ib has a crush on Garry while he thinks of her as a little sister.

Haha, I focused on Garry because TV Tropes has him listed as a lolicon (why? I don't even...).

Yeah, I saw the macarons "date" invitation as a cheerful, brother-to-sister invitation. I saw Ib's hug as a thankful comfort hug, but you have a point. I didn't see Ib as having a crush initially, but I can see her crushing on Garry as the game progresses. It's kinda cute.

(And yes, yes, a thousand times yes! You got Promise of Reunion! You are a better gamer than I am.)

Whaaaat? Oh come on, Tvtropes. Garry is so obviously not a lolicon. He's just a really great guy. >:|

Yeah. Admittedly, I have shipping goggles on with regards to Ib and Garry's interactions, but still, I think there's something there on Ib's part. And hey, maybe they can make that Macaron outing an actual date when Ib is 16 and Garry's 24 or so (that's not so bad, I've seen worse).

I'm so so glad I got that ending. Any of the other ones would've broken my heart. But still, poor Mary. ;_; In my headcanon she's still around and Garry and Ib find some way to paint her picture again. I mean, if she was actually dead then who was posing as Ib's mom at the very end? I just want all three of them to have a happy ending.

Exactly. I worry when being nice to a little girl in a traumatic situation automatically classes you as a lolicon.

But Garry met Ib when she was nine... Them dating strikes me as a little odd.

Possibly my favorite fanart of the two of them sums up how I feel about their relationship.

You should read the Zafehouse LP. ;)

But no, really? I'm sympathetic to Mary, what with her desire to be a real girl, but attempting to murder Garry and Ib? Yeah, not gonna forgive that one so easily.

IN CASE ANYONE WAS WONDERING HOW I SPENT THE LAST FEW HOURS I SHOULD HAVE BEEN SLEEPING.

It's only downhill from here! The rest of the endings are not great. ;_;

Attachment is broken.

Nebty, I'm having trouble posting lately. Some threads BF won't let me post properly or view at all. I don't know why. Seems to be a problem connecting to the server.

I just tried to post three times and it wouldn't let me reply or attach the picture. It was a screencap from the Promise of Reunion ending.

I'm having some kind of dysfunction connecting to BF's server. It's not really letting me post on this thread no matter how many times I try. My picture was a screenshot from Promise of Reunion.

...I find it a little weird when people can see thes 'romantic' interactions on Ib's part toward Garry. It's such reaching. If anything, she's incredibly apathetic to not only Garry but everything for the most part. All of her responses are extremely underwhelming except for when she hugs Garry.

And seriously. Don't tell me that was anything but 'HOLY SHIT I THOUGHT SHE WAS ABOUT THE CUT MY BEATING HEART OUT! THANK YOU!' Because that's exactly what that hug was. Maybe with some accompanying 'Thank god you're still alive after we got seperated.'

I thought the game was actually wrote very believably as a pre-pubuerty child with a platonic friendship with a stranger on Ib's part, and Garry as a good samaritan looking after a child in danger. (While secretly being more afraid than she is. HA.)

Well, it was Gary who painted the picture but I don't care //sobs

The image won't appear in the spoiler and just looks like a smear. What am I looking at?

Hey, look! I'm alive!

What this thread needs is Garry singing "Suki tte yutte":

(the person that uploaded this has some great IB stuff)

And Garry dancing to it:


And because I can, I'm linking these 2 PH x IB crossovers from Pixiv:
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=27248244
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=27679098

Ok, now onto the discussing:
This is more a guess (headcanon or whatever you want to call it), but kouri is Guertena.
Because kouri created Mary and all the other creations, so wouldn't it make him Guertena?

Also isn't Guertena supposed to be really old?
In the game it said that he got the inspiration for "Juggling" while in the circus with his grandchild, which means that he's either really old or he got kids at a pretty young age...

I had a dream last night and at one point it suddenly cut to the cafe from Meine Liebe and Garry was there and I had to fill up his love gauge by answering Ib trivia questions.
The Lady paintings' favorite game is:
A. Ring Around the Rosie
B. Loves Me, Loves Me Not
C. Twister
You are now imagining a Lady in Red trying to play Twister.

Whelp.

I think this is kind of relevant.

I'll bet he plays that with all the other paintings.

*Swoon*

Actually, on my first playthrough, I played with a guy friend of mine. We got the forgotten portrait ending and both cried over the loss of Garry.
I see that as an accomplishment when a guy has so much feels rather than the little ol' fangirl here.

>.>

Let me guess. This describes you here?

What the hell are you talking about? Everybody knows that girls don't cry! Pffft.

<.<

:3
I won't tell. Your secret is safe with me...
Now...Let me love you~

Of Course! I was just... embarassed that my friend would cry. I'm not wiping away his tears. and I'm definitely not using the other end to wipe off mine.

If you really want to see guy feels, you need to watch Cry's Ib LP. Heck, even his NAME is Cry.

Yup! I went and saw his LP of Ib when it was mentioned earlier in the thread.
I may or may not have had feels all over again.

I still did not read any of the posts of this thread except for the opening post, but I'll have you know that I just finished playing, got the best ending and I am crying because of that.
Such a sweet game! I must have yelled like 15 times. I'm not even sure I want to see the bad ends.

The bad end was poignant, and it's what settled my love for Garry.

Okay, so I've caught up with this thread and listened to all those beautiful songs on youtube that you guys linked, looping, and why
why am i still crying why

why

I shall now venture into the seas of Cry's LP because why not?

shameless double post, but fuck it

okay why
okay
okay why did i do this again?
cry needs a hug can i hug him?

NOW THAT YOU'RE WITH ME I NO LONGER COWER IN SILENCE
HIDING
I'M FIGHTING FOR YOU

i'm fighting for yoooouuuuuuu

sniff

It's okay, friend.
Think of happy things.
Have happy Cry feels.
Watch this.

And any other Cry Wastes Time videos.
JuSt DoN't ThInK aBoUt ThE fEeLs

You know, I've been thinking about Garry... no not that way

Garry comes off his ambiguously gay (or bisexual), but now I wonder if it's just because he likes fashion and speaks effeminately. He hits the stereotypes for what we imagine is a gay man, even though he never admits this during the game (and why would he? All that matters is his platonic, brother-like relationship with Ib).

So I wonder, is it a bit presumptuous to say that Garry is gay simply because he is not traditionally manly? Does it not even matter? Especially since sexual identity only makes up a part of your identity, does Garry's sexual orientation even matter?

I never thought that his sexual orientation matter, really. Especially because his relationship with Ib is mainly a big brother/little sister one.
But! Maybe the creator made him effeminate on purpose, so people would assume he's gay and wouldn't ship those two together?

I don't think it matters what orientation Garry has, because he's still Garry no matter what, the big bro.
The inside that counts and all that.
That's..probably clumsily worded.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Kouri give them the age difference in a attempt to discourage shipping?

Personally, I always assume every attractive fictional male I see is gay until proven otherwise, feminine or not. Even if it IS proven otherwise. I mean, fuck, I even ship Barney with Ted and Barney is probably the "manliest, straightest" guy I've ever seen.

Seriously though, the effeminate male => gay assumption is incredibly, incredibly insulting and it's because of certain cultures' ingrained heteronormativity which assumes that if you're male, you MUST like females and if you're female, you MUST like males, so if you're similar to a female, you must like males, right? Stupid. And you know what? In Japanese gay culture, it's the overtly masculine beefcakes who are considered stereotypically gay, whereas the metrosexual bishies are considered really attractive to females (and I assume that's the way it is in Western culture too - there are women who like muscle men, sure, but overwhelmingly the image of the buff, muscle-bulging game protagonist is more a power fantasy for males than it is a sexual fantasy for females - see romance novel covers where the stereotypical male lead is long-haired, metrosexual-ish, well-built but not hulky, and generally more on the beautiful/well-groomed side than the barbaric OOOH LOOK AT MY MUSCLES I'M SO MANLY AND BUFF AND MASCULINE AND STRAIGHT OOOOOHHH side).

Not to assume anything about authorial intent, but I imagine that part of the reason that he has feminine, gentle speech patterns is more to make him seem like a non-threatening male companion to Ib, rather than to imply anything about his sexuality. Which of course is another problem because society associates masculinity more strongly with potential aggression and abuse, whereas females are generally assumed to be safe to be around kids because we're all naturally motherly and caring and nice, riiiiight? It's a problem on both ends, really.

Maaan there are not likes enough for that post.

(That's not an invitation to like this as extra likes for that. Don't like this because it's just me going "me too!" to more show my support of that post.)

... Are you using reverse psychology on us?

Not at all! I mean, come on, I've been here for maybe a week and I already have 430 likes over 88 posts and 238 trophy points like how even you people. I really don't need likes.

I'm liking both posts just to spite you.
Accept our likes, dammit!

I think it's a carry-over from the original Japanese, honestly- according to a friend of mine (who actually speaks Japanese and was willing to play the game) he speaks in a manner that isn't distinctly 'feminine' but is really common amongst gay Japanese men? As for why in the English version, I really don't know. I don't take it as anything more than he has a way of speech that's sort of unusual.