Fridge pages are Spoilers Off by default, so all spoilers were removed. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
- It may seem strange that in the abandoned room behind the unopenable gate, the journal is the only book that is readable, let alone not too fragile to touch; but the writer's wish was to be always understood. The wish probably ensured that their journal could be read!
- How is Siffrin able to defeat their advisor Loop despite that by that point that they should be extremely burnt out and exhausted and Loop should have the advantage? Loop hasn't fought for a very long time and very likely declined in their skills due to inactivity, with them only having their "Just Attack" skill intact... while Siffrin's been fighting in every loop for far longer than they ever did, and they gained enough experience that even when exhausted, they can still put up a fight. Even when Siffrin's body is almost shutting down from excessive Crafting and they're at their absolute lowest fighting the King, he has to resort to his Time Craft to win the battle against Siffrin.
- Of course Siffrin's first death was caused by a boulder trap. Siffrin is a Scissors-type craft user, and Scissors is weak to Rock.
- Loop telling Siffrin he's allergic to pineapples is a funny brick joke, especially once Siffrin asks how the hell they could have known about that when he's never seen it happen in the loops. But Loop is Siffrin - or rather, the Siffrin that went through the events of the prologue - so of course they would know. It's entirely feasible, if not downright certain, that Loop chose the pineapple slices in one loop.
- Siffrin starts referring to the party as "actors" during Act 5, alluding to them following a script with little deviation, yet Act 5 contains the loop that most goes off the rails. After all, what's one of the key skills for a theater actor? Improvisation.
- When you defeat the King, and he gives a speech about how this moment of triumph is the highlight of your life, every party member soundly rejects that notion... except Siffrin. Even the first time through, Siffrin merely says that there's "nothing else for me to add". He plays it off as part of a cool one-liner, but in truth he can't refute this logic because he does believe that his life will be all downhill from here. This is, from his perspective, the last moment before the party splits up and leaves Siffrin alone again.
- How did the party get past the boulder trap on the loop where Siffrin doesn't go with them? The trap is triggered when people feel safe. Without their designated trap-finder and Mirabelle's overt fear of this chamber, the party would never believe they're safe while in that room—ironically rendering the trap harmless. This is also why people in this House are told that this is the "Death Corridor" and discouraged from going into it alone; they're safe when aware and panicking about the vague traps they know about. An intruder who isn't being guided by one of the House's residents and doesn't know enough to worry about its defenses is the actual target of the trap, such as a Sadness or the King.
- Similarly, how did the party find the two keys Siffrin had to loop back in order to find? Loop actually implies this themself, the party relies on Siffrin entirely as the designated team scout which leads to them not really looking around much themselves. This is what leads to a visually impaired Siffrin having to loop back for the keys initially, he simply doesn't initially see them and the rest of the part aren't really looking much themselves. Without Siffrin, though, the party would feel that they had to be more thorough to compensate for their missing scout and three full sets of eyes would likely have less trouble noticing things like keys stuck to the topside/underside of drawers or hidden in books compared to a singular eye. This is also potentially an alternative reason as to how they made it past the boulder trap.
- It's funny when the Wizard-Loving Kid bluntly states wizards aren't real, considering Craft is an obvious analogue for magic and the party has an obvious "wizard" in Odile; but with how rigorous the methodology for Crafts are, from rituals to the research required, it's closer to a science than magic!
- Then this gets a double layer of brilliance once the player learns about the heavily-ritualistic, reality warping, belief fueled, Wish Craft, which acts as the true “magic” analogue in the game (being similar to the idea of Theurgy in our world)...which in of itself was written out of existence in any meaningful capacity since nobody can learn it anymore. Add onto the fact that Siffrin wears a pointed and wide brimmed hat and cloak that’s implied to come from the Forgotten Country, stereotypical wizard clothes, and hails from the country that invented Wish Craft…the Forgotten Country WERE wizards…and subsequently don’t really “exist” anymore due to the Ret-Gone and Laser-Guided Amnesia.
- Plays typically operate with a three-act structure, and the game accordingly marks its chapters as "acts". It might seem odd that the game extends past act 3 - but the whole plot of the game is that the play's running far too long anyway.
- Presumably the reason Loop is so adamant that Siffrin not use the Dagger to stab himself is because Loop did so in their own loops and ended up regretting it greatly. If Siffrin relents and asks about it in another loop, they explain that using the dagger would've made even his flesh feel disposable - very similar in wording to how Loop "destroyed their body" in their second wish.
- When Siffrin and the King kill themselves trying to remember the Forgotten country together, it can be a bit hard to hear, but there is text-noises being said, slowly, one at a time — just unheard and thus untyped on the screen because of the effect that bars knowledge being said. Similarly, when Mirabelle reflects the King's time-craft back on him to permanently freeze him in time on the last loop, the King is then able to remember and say the name of his beloved country in that moment before the effect takes place, with the same text-noise being said. Counting the beeps, the name of the Forgotten country is only a 6-letter word, and with the Sadness names being vaguely French-themed and Word of God saying that the Forgotten Country is based around the land of Guadalupe, it's implied the Country's real name was FRANCE.
- Likewise, the King remembering just at he's being frozen isn't completely out of the blue — the effect that blocks knowledge is demonstrated quite vividly to have a lethal effect on anybody who manages to power through the pain, thus ensuring that no amount of determination will allow the lost memories to be recovered. As the King is being frozen in time forever, unable to interact with anything ever again or share what he's learned, the universal laws that blocked his memories finally weakened in that moment, allowing him to recall it even as he is "dying" after a fashion. This leads to something of a Karmic Death for the King — in wanting to preserve/remember what he'd lost forever, he's finally granted it just as he's preserved himself, forever caught in the memory of his beloved country for eternity. And should it ever be possible to release him from this state, the same lethality that follows the Un-person effect would immediately strike him dead on the spot, meaning the only way the King gets to "live" with the knowledge of his country is through "dying" with it forever.
- Despite their lamenting that they could've "held on for longer" in their own timeline and figured it out, Loop can only handle six rewinds during their boss fight, before getting too exhausted to fight back. Considering they were at thousands of loops at the point they gave up and the current Siffrin broke down from Craft overuse with far less time, their chances weren't good. It's likely Loop would've exhausted themselves and fallen to Mal Du Pays instead of breaking themselves free, and without a guide to lead their party to the King quickly and run into their fight, died for real.
- Whenever something happens that would (at least in Siffrin's eyes) keep the party from sticking together, thus preventing Siffrin's wish from coming true, he loops back. This ranges from any of the party dying, to them getting upset at Siffrin. Considering he loops just from Bonnie lashing out at him during a snack break, why doesn't he loop from angering all of them in Act 5? Well, that's the loop that ultimately sees his wish come true. It doesn't start off positive, but in the end, he didn't do anything that irreversibly kept his wish from coming true.
- In addition, at this point, Siffrin sees everyone - including the party - as actors on a stage, due to his declining mental state. Thinking they'll all ultimately follow the script keeps him from believing any of his mistakes will split the group apart. With earlier incidents, he still has enough sense to recognize the consequences of these events, even if he interprets them more negatively than they actually are.
- The "(Just attack.)" Craft that Siffrin gets in Act 4 does massive damage to all enemies, but doesn't give any Jackpot points. Jackpot attacks are from the team working together, and when Siffrin uses this skill, he's just rushing in to try and cut everything down and keep moving due to his impatience, rather than coordinating with the others.
- Loop, like Siffrin, spent so many times in the loops that they saw their life as a play. The Universe turned them into a star-like being after their second Wish. What's the main character of a play called? A STAR.
- Why does Loop reject Siffrin's theory that him being the one to finish off the King will end the loops in Act 5? Because Loop, as the previous iteration of Siffrin, did just that in START AGAIN START AGAIN START AGAIN: a prologue, and it didn't work. Of course Loop would know that's not the solution!
- Siffrin's name is based on Sisyphus, and what's Sisyphus known for? Pushing a boulder for all eternity. The very same thing that causes Siffrin's first death.
- They're also forced to effectively do as their namesake did; perform a physically-arduous task pushing themself and a heavy burden (the safety of Vaugarde and Siffrin's friends) to the top of a tall hill (i.e. the House), only to be forced to the bottom and compelled to do it again with every reset. It's only when their family fully joins in the task that the metaphorical boulder doesn't roll back down.
- In RPG terms, Siffrin is a thief or rogue. However, his outfit includes a wizard hat, which is remarked upon occasionally, but it's never explained why. However, considering one party interaction shows Siffrin being self-conscious about his height, to the point of wearing high heeled boots, it could be an attempt to make himself appear taller.
- Siffrin's Craft skills are mostly named after puns, showing his playful nature. However, the last two ones he learns from leveling, "Tear You Apart" and "Rock Bottom", while still puns, also have a more violent or bitter feel to them. Considering the levels you learn them at (72 and 80 respectively), by the time you get them, you're likely far enough in the game that Siffrin's mind has started spiraling into negativity, resulting in more vitriolic emotions dictating his skill names.
- It could be said that the only reason why asking the King not to fight doesn't end with Vaugarde's doom is because of the time loops... but the party is dead-set on killing the King back in Act 2, having already done so for the next loops to enter Act 3. Even though Siffrin's party opposed the King's curse violently and won before, the latter managing to harm Bonnie really is that traumatic for Siffrin anyway.