So what is Aquaria really about? (thread may contain spoilers)

[Zyol]

So what is Aquaria really about and the meaning behind the game? Is it about a failed fantasy world similar to Bioshock's "Failed utopia" theme? Is it about childhood dreams (while the "Creator" is actually a child that fell from that floating city above) regarding that ocean painting from the beginning intro?

[Aristobulus]

Why don't you give us your theory, to start things off?

[Zyol]

Why don't you give us your theory, to start things off?

Well for starters, I thought the entire game is about a child's (the Creator) personal underwater fantasy dreamworld (that was originally non-existent) based on the sea drawing at the very beginning of the intro which it all failed because of his childlike mentality eventually got the best of him, Hence the game certainly does fit the "failed utopia" theme of the Bioshock games with this game being a failed fantasy world (since the very first thing it says on the very first page of the official website "An Underwater Fantasy World to Explore"). It's actually kinda creepy once you deeply think about it.

[Alphasoldier]

Well, if you watched the intro you'd see that an established "world" was suddenly hit by a meteor shower where a child (and probably only the child) was a casualty, he fell into the sea with the strange meteor (red crystal) and gave him powers.
His new given immortality, creation powers and lost family, especially his lost mother made him recreate everything.

He never really meant to build an utopia or a world, just a family.

[Zyol]

He never really meant to build an utopia or a world, just a family.

I think the Creator's behavior can be translated into the Gentry/Keeper/True Fae from Changeling: The Lost where he has a alien solipsist mindset where he has no empathy for others and thinks everything must center around him even if the inhabitants don't want to be (like he wants a family but his creations have minds of their own and destroys them because of it).

Although my main point though I think I was trying to point out or speculating that Aquria is originally supposed to be a non-existent underwater fantasy world sprout from a child's mind (much like Wonderland, Narnia, Land of Oz, etc) and how it 'failed' similar to Bioshock's failed utopia themes.

[Align]

I don't really think of media items as being "about" anything, if they're any good they usually contain too many things for any one description to do them justice.
Might just as easily say that the theme is about being alone and finding yourself in a vast new (and lethal) world.

[Alphasoldier]

I think that the waters of Aquaria were already there, but that the creator has created a lot of new life, but certainly not everything.
Reason why I'm thinking this is because the Sunken City looks a big... destroyed, meaning that he doesn't have the skill to make anything right, as seen by futile attempts to make mother. And thus the waters were already there.

And of course as seen in the intro, he fell into the water, so there already was water, to strengthen that, how else would he have powers over the sea and not the land? Certainly the rock landing in the ocean had something to do with it. Or otherwise the origin of the rock might be the reason, but we don't know a single thing about that.

[iProob]

he paints about underwater then he sees it in real life

[Alphasoldier]

Perhaps because he can see the ocean from above in his sky castle but wonders what's down there?

[Lady-Succubus]

I think Aquaria is about loss (of families, memories, etc) and coping with it. :3