Riki X Kyousuke.
And I’m not even joking.
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Here’s a bit of discussion I’ve always wanted to start but never got around to doing so.
What really happened after Refrain? Sure, the VN seems to hint at the supposed happy ending, but I have read some opinions that think that the “bad end” was what actually happened, and the happy ending was all happening in Riki and Rin’s own dream world.
It does make sense. After all, why would Riki and Rin even be in a hospital in the bad end, if that was still part of the dream world? Any other proof that supports or contradicts this?
Basically, the ending of Little Busters really fits in the category of ‘choose your own ending’. We’re given the choice of whether it’s enough or not. If you say not enough, it’s up to you whether you interpret that as the ‘real world’ or not. The truth is yours to decide! There’s really no way to say which world is real or not. There’s key magic regardless.
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The whole world is Key Magic, of course 
But, considering the facts of the magic, is the true ending even a possibility?
(I feel kind of silly arguing about how magic is supposed to work)
Kyousuke created an artificial world out of the real world. I think anything is possible at that point.
Wait wait. Which true ending? @.@
As much as I like to think that anything is possible, I’d like to explore into the limits of the possibilities of Kyousuke’s “creation.” The way I see it, his artificial world is more like a shared dream state more than anything. And if my theory is true, then, how could Riki and Rin re-enact the post bus crash scene while still in the dream world? The bad ending also implies that a new dream world was created because of the sudden ripples that Riki himself instigated
Then again, it is also a possibility that Kyousuke himself showed the bad end as a “test” to Riki. If that were the case, then it would explain Riki hearing voices while in the hospital. Right now I see both theories as equally possible, but I can’t think of any proof that supports or contradicts either theory.
The one where everyone is saved, and they all take a van to the beach
Hmm, you guys arguing the truth of the ending?
Everything is fine, they were saved in the real world.
Who the hell is going to be such an asshole that they’d want anything else?
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Finished Refrain 2 days ago. I have no guarantees this is going to be a coherent post of any sort… but here goes.
Some shenanigans were suspected as early as Kurugaya’s route. There was some hint there that was dropped which indicated some kind of time loop device was at work and that something about this world was not quite right. Knowing the secret of the world, I still am not sure what’s going on in her route.
I think Refrain hit me really hard, because we had spent the last tens of hours of reading getting to know these characters and knowing that they were going to be taken away from me was cruel and heartbreaking. The scene at the end with Rin and Komari were especially good at this. We end the story with Rin and Riki. I don’t know if I wanted it to go any other way though. The idea that these two are the only survivors of their circle of friends, carrying the memories of their friends and the strength they gained from redoing the world over and over, is a powerful one.
And then Little Busters! in the fine tradition of the late Billy Mays, goes “But wait, there’s more!”
I’m very conflicted on the final happy ending, because I feel like it was too miraculous to undo everything literally seconds after the ending credits played. If I had to say there was a set of themes for Little Busters, one would be that we can overcome challenges together that we could not overcome alone, and we can have fun doing it. There was price to be paid or challenge to overcome together. The events are described as miraculous, as if a divine being (like Dorj) willed it into existence. The other would be that circles of friends cannot last forever and we have to say goodbye to our friends one day, maybe temporarily as in Kud and Rin’s routes or maybe we may never see them again. Of these, the second one hit me harder, and I wish the final ending committed to that theme with more confidence.
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Take a dip in the Kurugaya discussion thread. There are some interesting ideas about her route~
That scene ruined it for me a lot. I understand they needed to give Rin some development at the end, and not get too caught up focusing on Riki, but the scene just felt like it came out of nowhere. Throughout the VN, I didn’t notice that Rin and Komari were especially close at all… Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention to them, but the fact that I could miss it so easily is also a problem.
The timing of the scene was pretty strange as well. It’s like they tacked it onto the end.
Yeah, you’re not wrong. It did feel like it was disrupting the pace a bit. The Anime handled the development of Rin and Komari’s relationship a LOT better than the VN did. In the VN it just felt like “Hey, we kinda left Rin behind here. Shouldn’t we give her some conclusion?” I mean it still feels a bit like this in the Anime, but it was an improvement.
That said, Komari’s parting was really impacting.
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On the topic of the true end- I have to accept one thing about it, and that’s that it did feel very… Rushed. You could have left off that VN as it was and probably not felt like anything in particular was missing from a writing standpoint, save for a bit more closure with Riki and Rin (which would have been very nice), and the impact would have still been just as phenomenal and it would be remembered for decades to come. Little Busters are forever.
Everything else about Little Busters was so excellently crafted and planned to levels that I can’t even describe- But the true end felt very disjointed and slapped together and is easily the biggest stretch. I really, REALLY like the theory about it being a ‘final test’, because that feels exactly like the rest of the story, but the fact that there’s nothing much to read into with it, or some hint somewhere to signify that it could be the truth, kinda sucks.
Now, I’m not against the happy ending. Hell, I’ve tried theorizing ways to have the Angel Beats characters live. I just personally feel like it was hard to accept without it feeling cheesy and weird in the VN, but the rest of the story made it worth it to me and I’m not bothered by it and just accept it for what it is, and that it’s fair that someone say it’s unnecessary or a cheap way to please the reader who can’t handle that kind of ending. The anime handled it in a much better way at the cost of the fake-out.
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I dunno, I agree with you to an extent, but the fake ending was probably my favourite part of the VN. The choice you had to make at the end was such a huge deal, and really empowering.
I agree. I just think it could have been handled better (not the choice, the scene after it) and that someone feeling conflicted about it makes sense. They really weren’t pushing any boundaries with it feeling stretched out or anything. They could have made that whole true end segment a lot nicer by not relying so heavily on the fact that none of it really makes sense- Because the rest of the story was bizarre, but still was understandable and nicely described. Maybe I was just too sleepy when I read it…? That whole segment felt very oddly paced to me.
I forgot that choice was even there until it got mentioned in Skype a while back. Just a stepping stone to get to the end of the game =3=
I was always under the impression that the dream world ended, and the ending you are left with is it’s own reality. Nothing says there can’t be multiple outcomes of a VN (there already are multiple endings to the Litbus timeline anyway.)
I feel like the ending would’ve been a lot more thematically sound if Kyousuke died and Riki became the new leader of the Little Busters.
But at the same time, I’m happy with the happy ending we got.
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I have no issues with pacing, to be honest. Really my only issue now is that I don’t know what really happened. Unlike, say Clannad. We all know that Nagisa lives through the power of the light orbs even though it makes absolutely no sense, but at least we know that that is the true outcome.
But with LB, I still don’t know if the true end is the real life or if it is fantasy? Caught in a landslide no escape from reality~~~~~
(okay I’m gonna stop now)
There wasn’t really any buildup or explaination to how they were able to be born into a new world. It just kinda happened, much like the creation of the artificial world itself.
KEY MAGIC~
Hm. The world itself and it being created with the collective consciousness of all the people who care deeply for eachother actually made sense to me and was presented really nicely by Kyousuke. The recreation of the world, however, is a bit odd. You could say that Riki and Rin’s love for the Little Busters was so massive that it surpassed time and space… It’s just a bit more farfetched than the world created in the accident which has a nice driving force. (badum-tsh)
In the end I still love it all. Just keeping an open mind to people who go ‘wut’ over it. xD
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Or that they never really escaped the collective consciousness and Kyousuke reset it after finally knowing that Riki was ready…
But it’s too hard to figure out which is the truth =/
