Game Theory - Wooly SOLVES Amanda The Adventurer 2?!

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

Join Game Theory Host Tom as he solves the LORE of Amanda The Adventurer 2!

Who is Woolly in Amanda the Adventurer? This single question has plagued all of us since the very first game. Heck, we've already done two videos tearing our hair out trying to figure it out. But now, thanks to the sequel, we're going to not only end the debate of who Woollie is, but also answer the question of why Woolley is. Hello internet, welcome to Game Theory, the show that's always happy to hear from an old friend. Let's listen to all of it right now, DJ Two Shades. This is great!

Does this mean that Amanda the Adventurer and Mortuary Assistant share a universe? They're both published by DreadXP, so I suppose it's possible. Huh, I should probably look into that. But not today, because we've got to give all our attention to our demonic Dora wannabe and her brand new sequel, Amanda the Adventurer 2. Everyone has been stoked for this sequel, mainly in the hopes that it will finally give us some answers to its ever-confusing story. So far, the story appears to be that of a human girl called Rebecca and her father, Sam.

They started a live action show called Amanda the Adventurer. After some initial success, it was picked up by a company called Hamlin Entertainment, who turned it into an animated show and a living nightmare. Rebecca was forced to summon a demon entity while also having her mind forced into the show itself. She literally became Amanda. Her father, Sam, then mysteriously went missing. And Hamlin began using the show to lure kids away from their homes, putting them inside the tapes just like Amanda, never to be seen again.

Really living up to their Pied Piper naming conventions there. This is where we come in. We play as Riley and we're following leads left by our Aunt Kate, who was trying to solve the mystery of this show. In this sequel, that investigation leads us to a library alongside the mysterious masked character from the end of the first game. Now, it's up to us to do what we do best. Solve the puzzles, find all the VHS tapes, and try not to die to the Amanda demon that's lurking in the ceiling. Riley, get out of it! If we do all that, we're rewarded with an escape hatch.

in the back of the library to run away from the demonic woolly that just showed up. And that is why it's important to support your local library kids. You never know when you're gonna need a secret underground vault tunnel for demonic emergencies. But if we pay close attention to all the details leading up to this moment, we are also rewarded with one of the most important resources from any library. Knowledge. Knowledge about the true law of this game. The origins of Hamlin Entertainment, who is in control of Amanda, and what the heck is Woolley's deal?

For some reason, this guy is the biggest mystery of the entire franchise. Every theory comes back to him in some way, but no more. Let's not rack up any more late fees theorists. It's time to return to the library and see if we can finally solve the mysteries of Amanda the Adventurer. And to start with, I actually want to focus on the same character our last theory ended on, The Opossum. In the demo, this guy was a mysterious character that didn't really show up all that much, but he was clearly meant to be a reference to Dora's Swiper, as he saw as he saw a show a little bit. steals Amanda's coins so that she couldn't try to escape during the opening scene.

This made it feel like he was supposed to be important. And we ended up concluding that this opossum was likely connected back to Hamlin in some way. By stealing the coins, Amanda couldn't go on her adventure. And Hamlin don't want her escaping this new TV realm she finds herself in, especially after all the effort they went through to summon the demon entity in the first place. Now, in the full release, the opossum is back. And I was right, he's definitely important. Just not in the way I initially thought.

He keeps showing up as he did before, causing havoc and attacking both Amanda and Woolley, leading to them getting more and more annoyed. And believe me, I get it. I'd be annoyed too if someone kept bugging me, attacking me and trying to rip my eye out. Don't even think about it. This annoyance culminates in a final scene in an alleyway where suddenly the opossum's attention switches from as usual Amanda-shaped target and onto us. They attack the screen and we see a couple of subtitles appear repeating a single broken

word. Before they can get the whole word out though, Amanda and Woolley tackled them to the ground and throw them in the dumpster. As with most things in this franchise at first, it's not super clear what we're seeing play out here. But if you rewind just a little bit, there is one single hint that explains the whole thing. Throughout this play-through, we have a walkie-talkie that was given to us by our new masked friend.

They occasionally just chime in to help drive the story forward. And one of those times is just as the opalkey-y-talkie. is going to bother Amanda in the alleyway. What the hell happened in here? But just like Amanda has been able to hear us and use items that we offer her from the real world, the opossum seems to be able to hear this outside stimuli. That is what causes the opossum to switch targets. They are reacting to the voice of the masked figure.

And once you get to the true ending of the game, we come to realize why. Upon playing the secret tape from our Aunt Kate, the masked character removes their mask, tells us that their name is Joanne and says that they've been looking for their younger brother, Jordan. If those names sound familiar to you, then congratulations! You've got the same amount of theory brain rot that I do. We saw these names on a note back at the very start of the very first game. A woman named Joanne was asking for Kate's help to find her brother Jordan, who went missing after watching Amanda's show. Now, think back to what we saw the opossum

character doing. They heard Joanne's voice on the walkie-talkie, stopped what they were doing, and began trying to communicate directly. Joe, Joa, Joanne. This opossum is reaching out to the voice it recognizes, his sister's voice. The opossum is the missing kid from the first game, Jordan. In the bad ending, Joanne tells us that we need to smash the tapes in order to free kids like Jordan. So, she does just that, and sure enough, a soul rises out from the broken remains. Seems we were right that these kids who were disappearing will be.

being put into the tapes to make the show feel more alive. However, the original story of the Pied Piper had 130 kids go missing. If this game is following that, which it definitely seems to be, that's a lot of tapes we gotta find and smash. So far, there's only been 17 Amanda tapes. I know fans want their favorite franchises to go on forever, but don't you think that's a little extreme? Although, that's if we're even able to get close to collecting

that full number of tapes in the first place. In the true ending, Joanne tells us that Amanda's demon is protecting these tapes, and in the bad ending, after Joanne smashes one, Amanda's demon attacks her for doing so. Naturally, I just thought this was an evil entity doing evil entity things. It's a demon after all. It was summoned by Hamlin and bound to Amanda in order to lure all of these kids and kill anyone that got in their way. But in this game, we see something interesting happen. There's a point where Woolley is telling a story to try and cheer up Amanda, and you have to open books to match the story he's presenting. However, doing so,

summons Amanda's demon from the ceiling and it kills you. The solution is actually to ignore Woolie's instructions and instead follow Amanda's drawings she's posted on the wall. Once the story is over, the demon once again tries to kill you, but Amanda calls out and stops it. No! They help me feel better. This demon isn't completely mindless, nor is it evil and working for Hamlin. It's obedient to Amanda. It follows her orders, which means that protecting the tapes isn't part of Hamlin's plan, it's part of hers.

That seems strange. We've talked a few times about how Amanda is desperately trying to get out of these tapes, so why would she not want the same for all the other kids? By destroying the tapes, aren't we helping them get the very thing that she so desperately wants for herself? It could be that she's jealous. We saw in the first game that she's terrified of being alone like the lonely kitten, so if she's stuck in these tapes, at least I guess she would have some company.

But then, I noticed that we only destroy a tape in the bad. ending. In the true ending, Joanne says that someone told her to smash the tapes in order to free her brother's soul. She then later refers to them as the psychos who burnt down Kate's house to again try and destroy the tapes. At the end of her monologue, she tells us that Hamlin needs to be taken down. Clearly, these things are connected. Hamlin are the ones who went after Kate for investigating them. They destroyed her house and they are the ones trying to destroy the tapes. Hamlin is evil. That's pretty well established at this point. So smashing these tapes and releasing their souls isn't going to help bring these kids back.

It's probably going to feed into whatever demonic ritual or plan they actually have coming up next. That's why Amanda attacks us when we destroy them. By following those instructions, we're helping the very people that caused this mess. And I would suspect, causing those kids more pain and suffering. By keeping them in the tapes, they're safe. protected by Amanda. She may even have a way to bring them back properly in the future.

It's hard to say for sure this series has always leaned hard into cryptic clues that can't be answered until the sequel. But what I am sure about is that as we go through however many sequels this series is going to have,

we'll be slowly winning Amanda over, just like we did in this story mini-game. We're going to show her that we are trying to save these kids too, that we are on her side. And once we build that trust enough, we're going to have a demon entity on our side to help us stop Hamlin.

Maybe we'll even get a cool kaiju-style battle between Demon Amanda and Demon Woolly, all while we just sit in the corner, frantically trying to solve a puzzle made for children. What can I say? A theorist's got a theorist. But this sequel isn't done with big reveals yet. We've found the opossum, but there's one other identity that this game is trying to share with us. One that has been bothering us since the very beginning. Woolley. I know, I know.

The last two theories we've done have all been about who this flipping sheep is. as annoyed about it as you are. But trust me, I do truly believe that this game has the answers we need to finally put this mystery to bed. If you're unaware, since the first game came out, Willie's identity has been the subject of much debate. We here at Theorist have always fallen into the camp of Willie being Sam, Rebecca's father. In the first game, Willie was trying to keep Amanda on track with the positive messages, stopping her from leaning too much into the dark themes like death and rotting. Amanda, nothing is rotten here. He was always trying to cheer her up, stopping her from becoming a monster. Sometimes it even worked.

It's my birthday. Maybe we can help her out. My friend is having a birthday! It felt like a father who cared deeply for his daughter, who didn't want the awful things Hamlin was doing to affect the show. In this sequel, we see him do a lot more of the same, telling stories to try and cheer her up. Maybe doing something will make you feel better. How about an adventure? But while we have been theorizing in that direction, others went,

a different way, feeling that it's more likely that Woolley was actually a Hamlin employee working on the inside to try and keep Amanda on track and stop her from freeing herself and the other kids, a wolf in sheep's clothing, if you will. And to be honest, I can't really deny the evidence supporting this. It's actually something I've wrestled with a lot while making this theory. In this sequel especially, if Amanda's demon is supposed to be working against Hamlin, they don't want it summoned, which is why Woolley has been working so hard to keep it under wraps. We also see Woolly getting really annoyed at the opossum and his antics, proclaiming, I can't handle this anymore. That sounds just like a disgruntled employee that didn't sign up for this

level of torment. At another point, during the glitchy tapes, we see a giant woolly looming over a screaming Amanda. This comes after we hear the butcher say, that phrase is something I'm sure we've all heard at a doctor's office, either before a surgery or an injection, revealing to us that the butcher we've been seeing throughout the games is actually meant to represent a doctor or surgeon that turned Amanda into a monster. Now that the surgery's been a success, she's in the tapes and under the watchful eye of Woolley. Finally, there's, you know, the giant demon Woolley that appears at the end of the game. Much like Amanda's steps in when you're ruining her plans, this one comes in after Joanne tells

you about Hamlin and their plans to destroy the tapes. The demon Woolley is here to stop her ruining the plan any further. It is on Hamlin's side. Now, you might be thinking, Tom, that doesn't sound like a game that's trying to give us the answer. It seems like there's still justification for both options. And you, loyal theorist, are completely right. If it weren't for the thing, this game hooked all us law hunters with back in the first game, secret tapes. In this series, by breaking sequence or by doing specific puzzles at different points, you can unlock these colourful secret tapes that don't reveal the next episode of Amanda the adventurer for us to interact with, but real footage of real people that build up the backstory

story of this series and its characters. Exactly what we need to figure out Woolley's true identity. In Amanda 2, there are four tapes, most of which are pretty straightforward. The red tape shows Sam telling a story to a bunch of kids at the local library. Afterwards, a businessman in a suit asks Sam if he's got a minute. Which is usually business speak for, I'd like to offer you a job. Or in this case, I'd like to buy your show, please and thank you. This is Hamlin buying out Sam's original live action Amanda the Adventurer.

to create the show that we all know and, uh, just know. The Orange Tape is a meeting between our Aunt Kate and a group of people she's working with to discuss the disappearance of the kids and the use of demonic entities inside the show, tying it back to a cult from the Middle Ages. We've already established how Hamlin Entertainment was taking inspiration from the Pied Piper of Hamlin Town story, which, wouldn't you know it, comes from the Middle Ages. 1284, to be exact. Whatever group it was that took the kids all those years ago in the Middle Ages,

This is telling us that it's that same group operating today under the guise of Hamlin Entertainment. It also tells us that Rebecca has been inside the tapes for 15 years, which might explain why Amanda can feel herself rotting. And then in the green tape, we can see Rebecca's body hooked up to a machine in a hospital setting, rotting away. Her brain activity being monitored using an EEG cap, just like Matt theorised about in our very first theory. But then there's the blue tape, and this is where our answers truly lie. Sam is being kept in a tiny room somewhere away from his daughter. He argues with his captor over the contract he signed,

while being asked to say things to Rebecca to convince her to keep going along with their plans. Rebecca, honey, I am so proud of you. And I know that our friends are taking care of you while I'm away. Clearly, this is Hamlin at work here. And when Sam refuses, they decide to lock him up. It's actually a little hard to watch. The internal conflict of wanting desperately to see her, but also not wanting to lie to her.

If he doesn't do what they say, he gets locked up and will never see the light of day again. Something that we've actually seen happen to another character in this franchise. In the build-up to the sequel's release, we got a random video on Twitter from this character in a white room, thanking us for our support and reading a message from Amanda. However, right at the end, They put the note down and say this.

Okay, I did what you asked now. Please, let me go. That's right. Tom, still on the Sam-Is-Willy train. All about! I like trains. But, I mean, come on. Two characters both being locked away somewhere, being forced to say things they don't want to say, all with the hopes of being let go, they're exactly the same. How could I not be on this train?

There's also this random chicken in the background, and last time we talked about how the rooster represents Sam. So for a white chicken to be here alongside Woolley, it feels like a subtle nod to his true identity. So what about all the evidence that points towards Woolley working directly for Hamlin? You can't just ignore that. Well, don't worry, theorists, you can put your pitchforks down. I'm not going to ignore anything.

In fact, I actually think this evidence works together really nicely. We've just been looking at it all wrong. During the We Can Fix It video, Woolly is doing his usual thing being actively negative to the situation, trying to keep Amanda on track. Amanda, none of this is worth fixing. But when we have a broken butterfly before us, Willie suddenly gets a rush of compassion and wants us to show Amanda that we can fix anything, including her. Right, Amanda, we can fix anything. We can fix it, right? We're seeing two versions of Woolley in a single tape, one that's helping Hamlin and one that wants to

help Amanda. Sam wants to help his daughter. But as we saw in the blue tape, he is being coerced. Forced to go along with Hamlin's plan. If he doesn't do what they ask, he'll remain locked up. And who knows what awful thing could happen as a result. On the red tape, the Hamlin employee mentions that Sam has been able to build a strong connection with the kids with the stories he tells. And then in the blue tape, what is he doing? He's telling Amanda, a child, a fake story, to convince her to help Hamlin. Hamlin has seen Sam's ability to help. Hamlin has seen Sam's ability to to engage with children and so by essentially holding him at gunpoint, they can use him to manipulate Amanda and all the other children that watch the show. This is why his actions have appeared so

inconsistent. Sam, Woolley, wants to help Amanda, he wants to fix her, but he's also under strict orders to not mess anything up. This isn't a case of Woolley being Sam or someone from Hamlin. The truth is, it's both. The only question I have now is, how did he end up in this situation. Was being turned into Woolley a punishment for refusing to go along with their plans in the blue tape? Or was it another stipulation of his clearly awful contract? I don't think so. If that were the case, he'd be there against his will and wouldn't likely be falling in line so easily, just like we saw in the blue tape and like we're seeing Amanda do. Instead, the truth is actually much sadder and much darker than any of us realized. And it all comes down to the when you're feeling bad tape. I mentioned

this minigame earlier. Amanda is, well, feeling bad. And so, Woolly decides to cheer her up by telling her a story. It's a pretty by the numbers kids' fantasy story. We have a brave knight who receives a quest from a wizard to save the princess from a dragon. But Amanda isn't interested. She has a different story in mind. If you instead follow the pictures that Amanda has drawn and placed on the wall, you end up with a story about a knight and a princess who loved each other very much,

but the knight suddenly abandoned the princess. She goes to the wizard to help find him, but the wizard tricks her and turns her into a dragon. At this point, you're probably starting to see the parallels. Amanda was turned into a monster by Hamlin, so the princess is Amanda slash Rebecca, the dragon is her demon form, the wizard is Hamlin, and the knight, well, there's only one possible option left. It's Sam.

Think about it. In the fake version of events, the one Hamlin wants Amanda to believe, Hamlin, the wizard, sent Sam or Woolley the Knight on a noble quest to save Amanda from the demon. He's there to help her, to stop the demon from appearing. And so by trusting him and following his lead, Amanda will get to live happily ever after just like the princess. But that's not the true story Amanda remembers. The true story, or at least the true story as far as she's concerned, is that Sam abandoned her. We see in the blue tapes that he's being held captive away from her, but she's a child.

She's not going to understand those nuances, especially with Hamlin manipulating the tapes. Plus, we learnt from the first game that Rebecca isn't Sam's biological daughter, but his adopted daughter. She's already been abandoned once before, and regardless of whether the reasons were good or bad, that feeling of being abandoned by a parental figure, it can be really hard to shake. When he disappears for no reason, naturally she's going to feel betrayed by the person who promised to protect her. So, she asked Hamlin for help, and they said they would, getting her to sign a contract and from there turned her into a monster. However, that isn't where Amanda's story ends. In the final section, the knight comes back to slay the dragon.

only to realise after he does the deed that it was the princess all along. He had killed his true love and so resolved to wander the earth alone forever. At some point, Sam did escape from his confinement and rushed to find Rebecca. He may even have been the one filming the footage found on the green tape from the hospital, running once he was spotted because he wasn't supposed to be there. From there, though, the story implies that he does eventually encounter Amanda's demon and tries to kill it. But in doing so, he sadly kills his own daughter. Amanda's real body isn't rotting because she's lying comatose in a hospital bed,

but because she died at her father's hand. The only part of her that remains now is her mind inside these tapes, and she hasn't forgiven him for what he did. When you go looking for treasure in the woods, you can dig up an unmarked grave, and inside it are a pile of Sam's clothes that he wore in one of the interview tapes. In previous theories, we've pointed out that when we saw an unmarked grave, in the demo, the correct answer was Woolley. Again, connecting these two characters. But when they see these clothes, both Woolley and Amanda agree that some things are better buried, forgotten. Amanda

wants to forget about her father, that he abandoned her, while Woolley wants her to forget the horrible things that he did so that they can rebuild their relationship inside the game. That is why I believe Sam got turned into Woolley in the first place. I'll admit this next part is a little speculative, but bear with me. Sam killed his own. daughter and was completely torn apart by it. But if he'd seen Hamlin's experiments in the hospital, he'd know that part of her lived on. She was still alive inside the show. And so he turned himself into Hamlin.

Ask them to experiment on him and turn him into a character so that he and Amanda could be together again. They agreed their only condition was that he stopped fighting them and keep Amanda on track with their plan. Once again, he was being coerced by Hamlin. But he needed to be with his daughter. again. So, he accepted. He got put into the show as Woolly, and in turn, that created the demonic sheep that we see at the end of the game. That is why Sam isn't fighting nearly as hard

as he was in the blue tape, because he can't. He made a deal, and he has to hold up his end of the bargain if he wants to remain with his daughter. This might also explain how after Amanda kills him in the first game, Willie is suddenly able to show back up in the sequel with no real consequence. Unlike Rebecca, Sam may not be dead. He's just, hooked up to a machine and can be put back into the show so Hamlin can keep control. And each time that happens, Hamlin puts more and more pressure on Sam to keep her in line, to keep the demon at bay so that they can destroy the tapes and fulfill their master plan. Whatever, that is.

Maybe this weird ARG someone found in the credits will give us some answers. But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory! Thanks for watching.