The ending is sad, yes. Death or two deaths, there is no happy ending... Or is there?

You see, my biggest issue with the ending of OFF is that, if taken in a literal sense, leaves the conclusion that there is no ending. It's either an eternity on one extreme or another, and its purpose seems empty and void. There's no good choice to make, just an argumentative one.

Now, if we put this ending into my theory, it gives it a much better purpose, and, just maybe a happy ending. This also answers the question of why I see the Judge as Fate, and not just a creature of intense vernacular.

If the Judge/Fate is against the batter turning the switch to OFF, and the switch is the life support, then this means that death is not what fate had in mind. Fate wasn't ready for batter to die. Therefore, defeating the batter is saying, "You will die, but it is not this day!" (as quoted from Aragorn).

What does this mean about defeat in game? No matter what enemy you face? I feel that defeat in the game is an oxymoron for getting out of the coma in real life. There have been several accounts of people going in and out of lapses, looking to come back, but then they don't.

This could mean that the Judge defeating batter brings him out of his coma once and for all. He comes back to the real world, where his faithful wife, his child, his doctor and his executive boss wait for him to awaken. Judge saying, "Hence, nothing remains except for our regrets." could mean that he was talking of batter's mission. Judge regrets having to join batter on a quest that had no good outcome, and that wasn't intended.

But, say you went the other way, say you continued with the batter's mission. This could mean that the very thing batter believed in, Fate, has failed him as well. By defeating the Judge, the court is out of session, and therefore the plaintiff can do whatever he pleases. So, essentially, siding with the Judge and short-stopping the batter's mission is actually doing him a favor.