Every story told in What Remains of Edith Finch is interesting but Milton’s is one of the most due to the obvious ties to The Unfinished Swan. However, the game does not explain clearly what happens to him.
While Milton’s death is one of the most ambiguous tales in What Remains of Edith Finch, one of the developers at Giant Sparrow has shed some light on his connection to The Unfinished Swan, the studio’s first game. Edie has a castle shaped art studio built onto the Finch house and inside you can see many pieces of iconography from the studio’s other game. The black and white coloring, the yellow footprints on the floor and the ink splatters around the room are direct hints to Milton’s connection to the world inside the painting. His story is told through a small flick book. He was given a magic paintbrush and he creates a magic door that he goes through and is never seen again.
It is unlikely that he disappeared into a magic painting, since the rest of the stories are grounded in reality once you decipher them, but he probably simply disappeared one day, never to be seen again. However, Ian Dallas says that, “Milton is The King, not the protagonist, in The Unfinished Swan,” and that he considers it to be canon in the Giant Sparrow universe. Maybe, then, Milton did really draw himself into another world, never to be seen by the Finches again. His true fate is something you’ll have to decide for yourself.
For more on all the characters in What Remains of Edith Finch, be sure to stick with us at Twinfinite. You can also check out the explanation of the game’s full story and ending here.
