Survivor And Monk Ending Head Cannon (Spoilers)

Survivor and Monk ending head cannon (Spoilers)

I understand well that, in the original ending, the one in the base game without Downpour and without having completed Gourmand, both Monk and Survivor ascend. However, I've come up with a head cannon to justify Monk's mechanic of spawning a Karma flower on death. Even though they are meant to make a new player's playthrough more manageable, they don't make the game easier outside making death less punishable.

According to the Ancients, those flowers have the power to enable one to let go of themselves for a brief moment and contact the selves in other worlds, dreams, memories or imagined worlds. To the Ancients they also became the symbol of enlightenment. As such it is pretty widespread in their architecture. However, we can see it in places where the Ancients could not interfere i.e. Rubicon and on the heads? of the guardians. Also what about it being the symbol Saint sees before waking up, as well as their part of their halo? There is plenty of proof that the meaning they carry is not just symbolic and has weight beyond just being the flower that saves players from losing Karma on death or that the Ancients used to enhance their imagination.

Having all that said, I believe that Monk ascends, while Survivor doesn't. Not just because it's a bit spicy when you think about it.

The symbolism behind the name Survivor implies someone who lives through adversity and hardship. The hardship could be interpreted as you being on most creatures' food list or the rain acting as a timer forcing you to make risky plays. However, the cycle can also be seen as a type of adversity. One that every living creature has to endure. It was the reason for the construction of the Iterators and the big problem they were designed to solve but ultimately were forced to face directly after their creators left.

Monk was a title given to the more religiously involved Ancients. Some of their work involved making preparations for rituals, conducting said rituals and making the masks, worn by everyone. It also happens to be the name of a passage, which requires the player to spend 5 cycles in a roll being vegetarian. This combined with the slugcat's weaker physique and general friendliness draws parallels to Saint. The Wheel flowers' presence and the way they are spawned on death, imply for me that Monk was predestined to ascend from the start due to their symbolic meaning when combined with theirs.