What is the meaning of the Sole Regret level in Bastion?
Excuse the old thread bump. This level has bothered me (and no doubt others) for a long time! And I think that's intentional on the authors's part. It certainly deserves the title of Most Bizarre Level in Bastion (an exceptional game, BTW, for those who may not have played it). I will discuss The Sole Regret segment in the context of the entire Jawson Bog level.
Events that follow are foreshadowed by the narrator on arrival at Jawson Bog: "You'll get lost in that bog, I told the Kid. And I won't be able to guide you back." This is our first inkling that the narrator is not omniscient. The tone of the narrative has turned foreboding. Rucks does not refer to physically guiding the Kid, but rather guiding his mind back from the fever dream that is that is to follow, brought about by the noxious gases that Rucks knows exist in the bog. While Rucks has the power of knowing and narrating what it is taking place in the physical world, he does not have the power to see what takes place within the Kid's mind.
Closely examining the level, it carefully recapitulates areas the Kid has been through before. Each area in the fever dream is a replica of a specific previous area.
However, the fever dream copy of each area is turned upside down: what was right is wrong, and what was wrong is right:
Prosper Bluff - where the Kid found Zia. However in the fever dream version of the area, Zia is a Siren (an entity in classical Greek mythology whose song lures sailors to their death). She draws the Kid further into his fever dream.
Hanging Gardens - the area where the Kid found Zulf. This time, instead of saving Zulf, the only option is to "Surrender" to Zulf (the roles have been reversed). It is also the first time we hear Zulf's voice (or indeed any voice except Rucks). This startling development surely cannot be incidental.
The Bastion itself - where this time round there were other survivors: the wilds and the beasts which inhabit them.
The Sole Regret - once again, the Kid's past experience is turned on its head, as his actions are narrated as malevolent
The Rippling Walls - now things are about to get really trippy. We go right back to the start of the story, except this time, the "whole world's all right." Is that mind-bending or what? But wait, there's more. Everything else has been building up to this:
Then the Kid fights himself. If that's not highly symbolic of something, I don't know what is.
At the very end of the sequence, there are two more key events:
The Kid "sees... what's left... undone." So far, the Kid has been unstoppable. But now, it is apparent there is so much still to be put right (yet to be done - currently undone), it is an impossible burden. Or could the Kid be reflecting on the destruction wrought by Zulf on the Bastion ("undone" in the past participle form referring to Zulf's undoing of everything achieved in the Bastion)?
As the Kid falls asleep on his bedroll at the end of the dream sequence, we see perhaps the most powerful still image that appears in the game, with the kid (pictured from behind) standing strong, with hammer, atop an engraved remnant of Caelondian architecture, surveying the endless landscape of the world, in a burst of sun. The Kid is dreaming (within a dream?) but why this image?
Discussion
There are several straight-forward ways to read this level. It's certainly about the most emotionally powerful level we have so far met in Bastion.
It is the first time we hear Zulf's voice, and he welcomes the Kid into the upside-down, inside-out world. While this may merely be the kid's fever-dream imagination running wild, the change in narrative style is so distinct, it is clearly intentional, so we must entertain the idea that this may be the first hint that Zulf is not all he appears, and Zulf himself has drawn the Kid into this insane place and literally speaks to the kid in his dream. Alternatively, the Kid is merely imagining Zulf's voice in his dream...but this would be by far the weaker narrative.
The Kid's fight with himself might be most easily interpreted as representing his own inner turmoil, as he grapples with overwhelming questions and contradictions. He is going around smashing things up, while at the same time, supposedly, saving the world. Moreover, the Kid must be under an extreme level of stress after all that has happened, with no end in sight. Who would not have nightmares about that level of responsibility?
A psychoanalytic perspective might see the dream sequence as the Kid's unconscious mind reconciling all he has been through - with the final powerful image silhouetted against a sunburst representing the Kid's eventual catharsis.
It is difficult to discern authorial intent, as opposed to a mere story byway having no particular significance. If we subscribe to the Death of the Author then it is up to us to ascribe meaning to this episode in the context of the entire Bastion narrative. However, given that the entire narrative is full of deeply allegorical and symbolic language (a worthy discussion in its own right), it is reasonable to suppose Jawson Bog is intended to mean something.
Unfortunately, as readers/players, we shall never know for sure what that something is.
It is certainly one of the more thought-provoking levels in Bastion, and worthy of discussion. If anyone is still playing Bastion, please pitch in with your thoughts!
EDIT: clarity, additional notes
The Kid passes out from the Bog's noxious gases and is hallucinating. As far as I can tell, that's all there is to it.
It's not so much an alternate timeline as a trippy fever nightmare.