The Maw in Little Nightmares Explained

The Maw in Little Nightmares is a mysterious and monstrous place. No one really knows its true purpose, but in this video I attempt to explain what the Maw is, what it represents, it's possible inspirations and more!

#LittleNightmares #LittleNightmaresTheory

My name is Tericho!

On this channel I explain, explore and expand upon the darkest worlds in video games!

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[Tericho]

Today's words of the day are "more/maw" and "essentially".

Got some exciting things happening on the channel soon! Patreon will be launched in the next week or so (hopefully), I will be continuing my playthrough of Lost in Random and also it looks like we might actually be getting some DLC for Little Nightmares 2!

Thank you for the continued support. It genuinely means a lot.

[monroerobbins]

Plus, one way the Maw makes sense that the rest of the world doesn’t: it isn’t warped. The building aren’t bending, the people aren’t just killing themselves or wasting way, the people on the Maw work with purpose. In the pale city, the buildings are bending, the people’s faces are warped and asynchronous, it’s all chaos and discord. The Maw makes sense because it isn’t touched by the signal tower.

[RussGussDoodles]

The way I thought of the Maw being “the only place that makes sense” is that is has a purpose and a structure. The children and fish are gathered for meat, the chefs cook the meat, the guests eat the meat, and the lady takes their life force to run the maw until someone overthrows her. Other locations like the school and hospital. Why teach children that can’t grow up and why help patients that just end up sitting in the dark all day. Comparatively the Maw makes more sense.

[PotatoPatatoVonSpudsworth]

*It's heavily implied that the children were not always used for food.*

Throughout the game we see infrastructure within the Maw clearly designed for beings of small size, from levers to ladders. Since the flooded parts of the Maw appear to have once been living quarters, I theorize that the children were once raised to work as maintenance crew and helpers for the ship's staff, likely after being transformed into Nomes. (We see Six performing such tasks in the game's concept art.)

The man in charge of the children's training and care was the tall fellow we see hanging near the start of the game, who couldn't live with the new "let's just eat them" policy enacted by the Lady after she removed her sisters.

This explains why the Maw is in such disrepair, and why its remaining staff are stretched so thin. The Janitor now has to do all the maintenance himself AND look after the children. The Twin Chefs have grown ill as they work non-stop to prepare every meal and clean every dish themselves. The Granny (who I theorize used to be the manager of the living quarters) now lives forgotten in the flooded underbelly, her entire section of the ship abandoned with nobody to maintain it. The Nomes now wander aimlessly through old maintenance passages, having forgotten their purpose.

[lalakitty_xo]

I have a really morbid theory that guests know they are going to die, and the Maw provides them a ritualistic, hedonistic way out. In the second game, you see people jumping from buildings, and everyone else suffering, so maybe the rich can afford a good death, while the poor have to take themselves out in more miserable way.

[kathrindietz]

I always thought the maw is a living being. The guests are the food all the rooms are like organs and six is like a parasite. That's maybe why there aren't as many people as there used to be, because the maw is getting older.

[youtub]

I feel like it's described as the only place that makes sense, because of how simple life is there for the guests. They eat. They sleep. They do it again. There's no drama, no responsibilities, and no worries about the post- apocalyptic world outside.

[RequiemPoete]

Considering the amount of gluttony consuming the guests, I'm not sure the Lady has to cast a spell on them. They may willingly sign away their life if you promise them enough food to finally satiate them to the point they aren't hungry.

[aleksandertroszczynski]

Every time I think I know everything there is to know about little nightmares these mysteries come out and I'm back to square one, good on you for managing to put it all together 😅

[monovailable]

The water leaking from the entrance of the Maw makes it look like it's drooling

[elvisjuric]

I actually noticed the mouth of the maw looks like, one of the chefs masks mouth

[robertcain]

The Maw won't die because it continually replaces the Lady. Six is the next one. There have been 5 others before, including the Lady that Six kills. That's why she's called six. I still don't think the children are consumed by the Guests. I feel they are reserved for the Lady who needs their life force to stay young (also why there are so many Nomes in the Maw). Love your theories Tericho!!!

[DEADEYESSS]

I’m usually scared of big things (don’t even think about jokes you could make out of that) like huge ships or planes and the maw is one of them and it just adds to the experience. So damn cool it reminds me of the game “inside”

[Nazo-kage]

When it comes to the thin woman. I think her hunger is more than just power-hungry.
Remember the kid after consuming her gains this power to consume the life force of everybody that comes near her.
I think that was basically how the system worked.
She drew The guests in
The guests ate and ate until they were tired.
When they went to sleep their life force would be taken from them and they die,
Feeding her and then the body is chopped up to feed everybody else.

And with that and the eye creature that is The source of the signal Tower. I basically assumed that little nightmares is basically Love craft horror.
There’s really no happy ending. Only survival and the attempt to keep your sanity.

[cordonazo]

So if the maw "makes sense" because if it follows the rules does that mean the pale city is "chaotic" because it doesn't?

[saraagnor]

Maybe the hunger comes from leaving the signal. Because as we see six gets her hunger from leaving. No one in the city shows signs of hunger, but maybe if you leave you get hungry because a part of you belong to the signal. So without the signal you miss something.

This can also explain why the maw is the only place that makes sense. You can escape the world, but it comes with one price. The hunger, so the circle of food have to continue in the maw to keep them safe. It also looks like they all got exposed to the tv at one point because they wear masks. Idk 😆

[Civilunit]

I don't think the Maw dies once the lady is defeated, an interesting thing is that six inherits a power that consumes not the flesh but the darkness as it were from the guests, pulling it into six and this causes the lights and the maw itself to react.
I would say greed is the overall theme of the maw or desire. Those that arrive on the maw already seem to be gross and fat to begin with yet the maw draws them in and for the most part I think the lady is an extension of this, she is obsessed with image yet her own image is a lie which is why there are very few mirrors about. Just like the area where the guests stay, the image of a fancy restaurant is also a lie and it might be true that the lady draws them their with that lie but when Six inherits the power from the lady it isn't the same. Six is hungry for something and at the very beginning of the game it alludes that six used to belong to a family but is now by herself. Six's loneliness eats at them and in the end it isn't the flesh that satisfies her but perhaps their souls.
Obviously the intent and history are not told directly to the player but the Maw itself has a power of it's own. Transforming others within itself, turning people into stone/nomes/monsters and while it might be a giant machine its hard to tell if it even requires supervision anymore as most of its inner workings appear unattended. There is certainly a power there that is pulling at the strings of others, consuming the guests, and bolstering the dark nature within others. But whatever it is the Maw is a predator even of itself and self maintaining.

[kevinhixson]

Those nets that scrape the sea floor are also used for collecting coal.

[cassandraafton]

I was trying to find the meaning of the Maw like months, but you explained it better than anyone today in just 11 minutes... You are pretty smart Tericho, keep up your amazing work!🖤

[fontunetheteller]

I always got the impression that the maw was taken over, and was once a more normal and less evil place.