Monroe

## Monroe Finch

Monroe is the son of the king (Milton Finch) and an unnamed woman. Though he does not appear in *What Remains of Edith Finch*, he is the protagonist of *The Unfinished Swan*, which does show what happens to Milton once he escapes the house.

## Appearance

Monroe is a short boy with short blond hair. He wears a white collared shirt with a black tie and white shorts. Throughout the game he is pictured barefoot. Due to the fact he is drawn in the story, his eye color and skin color is unknown.

## Personality

Little is known about Monroe prior to the events of the game. He also does not speak much, leaving his personality mostly ambiguous. However, he seems to be a determined and curious child as he goes throughout the game chasing the unfinished swan and exploring the empty areas of the world. He also seems to have been fairly attached to his mother as the game describes he “felt pretty unfinished himself” after her death. The story mentions that Monroe has a fear of heights that he had nearly forgotten once in an attempt to catch the swan. It also appears that Monroe is not talented at swimming, as the player is instantly respawned back to land with the sounds of Monroe coughing if he falls into deep water.

## *The Unfinished Swan*

Monroe lived with his mother before the events of the game. However, after her death, he was sent to live in an orphanage. She left him with over 300 unfinished paintings, but the orphanage allowed him to keep only one. He chose to keep the unfinished swan as it was his mother’s favorite. On his first night at the orphanage, Monroe woke to find that the swan had disappeared from the painting and a door he didn’t see before. He walked through the door with only his mother’s silver paintbrush.

Monroe walks into a world of all white and must use his paintbrush to spatter his way around the area. He follows the footprints of the swan left behind in order to find the direction he needs to go. He walks around a statue garden, finding many creatures, including a monster that consumes a frog as larger than Monroe. As he makes his way to the watchtower, Monroe learns about the arrogant king who had built the garden years before. Outside of the watchtower, Monroe finds painted shadows due to the complaints from the King’s subjects. He also finds the art room of the King with many paintings and models, including a model of the statue garden. Monroe also finds a large unfinished labyrinth surrounding a castle in it’s center. He also finds a large hot air balloon with the swan inside. As he begins to make his way through the labyrinth, he finds a doorway that instantly teleports him to the top of the castle. Here he learns the King had promised to come back to the castle, but he never did. As Monroe climbs into the hot air balloon, the swan flies away. He follows the swan and feels better than he ever had in weeks. He even forgets his fear of heights, until he reached for the swan and fell out of the hot air balloon.

Monroe lands into the river of the empty city. He quickly gets out of the water to find the laziest giant who had ever lived. While trying to wake the giant, Monroe spots a floating ship in the distance and decides to travel towards it. As he traverses throughout the empty city, Monroe continues to chase the swan. He also learns about the complaints of the King’s subjects and how the King responded to them. In the process, he also reawakens vines that had been contained. As Monroe enters the palace, he finds that the subjects had been watering the vines when the King was not looking. Outside of the palace is the seawall, where it is revealed the King hated the sea due to an unfinished sandcastle that was washed away in his childhood. The King then vowed to make a kingdom that would last forever. Monroe also finds a telescope overlooking a large structure of the King on an isolated island. When he looks through it, he finds a window where the King and a hippo are seen inside. On his way to the bell tower, the story of the vines progresses as the King created a creature to get rid of the vines. However, the monster had grown to be uncontrollable, making the King scared for the first time in his life. The King then forced the creature into the water with the help of his pet hippo. Monroe then makes his way to the floating ship and chases the swan. He then begins to believe he is being led somewhere. However, when night falls and the ship gets stuck in a forest, Monroe jumps out and continues into the night.

Monroe travels through a spider-infested forest, once again following the footprints of the swan. He floats down a river, finding an unfinished house at its end. It is then revealed the King had grown tired of creating perfect kingdoms and instead wanted a family, and created a house. The King did not have much luck with people, so he painted one. He then found he had painted a “female version of himself” and fell in love. Monroe then finds a blueprint world where he is able to fix the unfinished parts of the house in order to get through it. Throughout the house, the story describes how the King made endless gifts for the Queen, but she was never interested in them, save for the first little silver paintbrush he gave her. She began to paint, but she never finished a single painting. Meanwhile, the King became so busy with creating rooms for the Queen, five months had passed before he realized she was pregnant. However, the Queen left the night she was to give birth with no explanation. The only things she took with her was her silver paintbrush and a painting of an unfinished. The depictions of the Queen throughout the house reveal that the Queen is Monroe’s mother. As Monroe arrives at the King’s monument, he learns the King did not paint for nine years. Until the King the king started to paint the scale model for his monument that would last for the ages. However, he did not even finish the over one hundred foot model before the King’s powers began to fail. The King then went to sleep, stuck in an unfinished dream. As water began to rise above the monument, Monroe climbed to the entrance, sealed as the water submerged the statue.

Monroe stood in the room with the King and his hippo, trying to think of something to say, but the King woke up. The King became excited to see Monroe as he had a dream about him. The King then began to describe his dream. It began in the room of his childhood home on the night he left, walking through the same door. He entered the statue garden, finding it completely ruined. As his statue warned him about someone ruining his garden, he began to investigate. He dreamed about the things he left unfinished, the vines that overtook the kingdom, and the people who once filled the halls. Then, he was alone again. The longer he dreamed, the more he felt his own death arising. His dream led him to his own funeral, with the only attendee being Monroe. As the king progressed, he watched his creations be destroyed and knew when he woke up it would be all gone. They would be painted over by someone new, like how he painted over the creations before him. The King realized he had fun painting everything and passed on his paintbrush to Monroe. The King then showed him a door leading him home, with the swan leading him out.

Before Monroe went to sleep that night, he decided to finish the painting of the swan in honor of his mother.

## Trivia

* As it was confirmed the King is the same character as Milton Finch, this makes Monroe one of the last surviving members of the Finch Family.
* The game states the King did not paint for nine years after the Queen left, making Monroe at least nine years old.

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