Monkey Island isn't set in present day, whichever theory you decide.
If it is a kids dream, then it still is in the past.... the carnival at the end is ANYTHING but a modern day themepark, even his parents have victorian-like clothes... so I think it's safe to say that even if it is a themepark visiting kid's dream, the vending machines and other modern-day devices are nothing more than a funny refference and meant as a joke and nothing more.
I personally hate the whole dream idea... I think it's a cheap way to make a story... an easy way out if you will.
If he is a kid, Why would guybrush see his parents as skeletons singing a song, and later on the lost-parents bench??? I know a lot of kids have grudges against their parents at some point, but this would be very very sick.
If Guybrush is actually being chased by his brother through two games, then why would Guybrush intentionally go looking for him.
And the voodoo-lady is helping guybrush, why does she intentionally send Guybrush after LeChuck if it was all a dream???
the whole Carnival-Dream-Plaything actually causes more story problems than what the current CMI causes.
so again: Please Mr Gilbert, give us the story in any form (script, cartoon,comic, movie, game)... or are you just playing with us and is the real secret of Monkey Island that there is no other story than CMI???
(actually that would perfectly fit into the whole Monkey Island story lines, hehehe)
The parents also mention "white slavers", this also shows it is not modern world.
Monkey Island isn't set in present day, whichever theory you decide.
If it is a kids dream, then it still is in the past.... the carnival at the end is ANYTHING but a modern day themepark, even his parents have victorian-like clothes... so I think it's safe to say that even if it is a themepark visiting kid's dream, the vending machines and other modern-day devices are nothing more than a funny refference and meant as a joke and nothing more.
Extracted from interviews with Ron Gilbert, this one in a interviews about Monkey Island 1: I read a lot of novels and reference books, more for the flavor of the period than for accuracy. This isn't a historically accurate game. In fact, you'll see when you play that there are a lot of anachronisms, like the vending machine at Stan's used ship yard. They're there to add humor to the game of course, but they also have a secret, deeper relevance to the story -- but I'm keeping that secret for the sequel.
And this one too: No, because Big Whoop wasn't really anything important when we started writing the game. The name alone says that. It just turned into something after the fact.
And: <Ron-G> Yes, if you really look at what's going on, you might be able to come close.
<Ron-G> There are a lot of jokes, that aren't really jokes.
<Ron-G> The problem with the Secret of Monkey Island...
<Ron-G> is that it's built up sich a mystic, that when I finally do reviel it, you're all going to go "That was dumb". :-)
In these interviews Ron denied the theory of the kid's dream.
;-)
Or maybe... You know when LeChuck was going to stab the voodoo doll, he was going to send Guybrush to an alternative dimention of eternal pain and suffering, but instead Guybrush just got sent to the next room? Maybe he did get sent to the alternative dimention, he just don't think so, and everything after the first stab is not a part of the "regular" dimention, but the dimention of suffering. Guybrush trapped in a modern age world, knowing he is a pirate, even though everyone else thinks he's just a little boy, with his evil voodoo big brother Chuckie to torture him some more when his parents aren't watching (Guybrush can tell his parents about Chuckie's voodoo powers all he wants, his parents will just think he's fantasizing). It got to be like hell for Guybrush...
If this is the case, LeChuck doesn't need to be Guybrush's brother, since the parent skeletons is just a part of the messed up alternative dimention.
I kinda like this theory. It's real close to my own theories. In any case, I refuse to believe that Guybrush is just a little kid who thought up the whole thing that is SMI and MI2. I go with the canon established by CMI, until Ron Gilbert makes his own MI3. Not every mystery from MI2 was revealed in CMI (like the statement that Guybrush and LeChuck / Chuckie are brothers), yet it all makes sense in a way. For me, at least.
Guybrush could be the only one from present time. What is his origin? He simply appears on Melee Island with the wish to become a pirate.
He could be a teenager who lost his parents and bored with his life he decided to make a trip to the Caribbean. There he finds the chance to have a life of adventures. He enters a place, maybe through a portal like Bermuda Triangle in which he gets to another age.
I don't know if after arriving Melee Island he is still concious of where he comes from. That would explain some stuff Guybrush says like: "Did pirates talk like that?" or "Never pay more than 20 bucks for a game". The portal could have been used to bring objects from present time too.
The other theory is that Guybrush was brought to a gigantic farse in which all people pretend to be pirates, but are really actors like The Truman Show.
Whichever way, he is not a kid, as even Ron Gilbert told. Even if it is dumb, I want to know what the real secret is.
This MI 2 ending stuff makes me think of something like Lucas making Empire Strikes Back and rising all those questions like is Darth Vader really Luke's father? And then another person made the sequel and tried to answer questions.
Please, Ron Gilbert, give us our Return of the Pirate!
At the very end when he and Chuckie meet up with the parents they say how they were worried sick, and say something along the lines of "you never know what kind of murderers or white slavers might be hanging around a place like this"
This MI 2 ending stuff makes me think of something like Lucas making Empire Strikes Back and rising all those questions like is Darth Vader really Luke's father? And then another person made the sequel and tried to answer questions.
Please, Ron Gilbert, give us our Return of the Pirate!
I think the ending was a Empire Strikes Back tribute that went too far. Whether Ron had a plan to write his way out in a third episode we'll never know.
Then again look at Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3. World's End had the same writers as Dead Man's Chest but the resolutions made barely an sense at all (Jack Sparrow gets eaten by a giant squid....and is stranded in a dry ocean? Barbossa can be raised from the dead....because he's awesome??)
I think the ending was a Empire Strikes Back tribute that went too far. Whether Ron had a plan to write his way out in a third episode we'll never know.
Yeah, I think this too... The joke of Star Wars in the end of Monkey 2 went too far and confused the people with many strange lines of dialogue and confusing things (the brother thing, etc...).
And the fact is clear to me it's the people maybe is wrong in the track of the kid's dream because how I said before with this parts of interviews of Gilbert, he denied this theory. Will we know the secret in the future? I don't know, but I think it's very difficult that Ron would make a new Monkey Island... Maybe if he can make a new game continuing the series and the game don't contradicts very much the others... then he would can make a Monkey 6, I don't know...
I actually made a really long post in response to Chuck's. Then the forum ate it. Then I had to go to classes.
I have classes in 30 minutes and have to leave sooner than that, so I'm going to make this fairly brief.
I never mean to make a personal attack against the people who made Curse, or against their professional ability, or their effort. If you think that, then it was either an issue of my ability to communicate my own ideas, some issue of yours, or a combination of both. But really, it doesn't matter.
Chuck's post seemed to be aimed at a wider base than just me anyway. And more towards the "Gilbert Cult" of which I am not a member. I simply love LeChuck's Revenge as a game, and want to know what the writers were thinking when they made the ending that I love, and I also feel I was robbed of that in the ending of the otherwise-great Curse, and even if I did like the Curse ending it wouldn't matter in a discussion about the meaning of the LeChuck's Revenge ending.
There we go. I think that works. Crap, I'm learning two foreign languages when I barely know how to communicate in my own.
I like the theory about LeChuck sending Guybrush to an alternate dimension. Even if it's not the true story, it would be the one I'd preffer. It would mean that LeChuck saying he his Guybrush's brother would be true from his point of perspective, because he IS Guyrbrush's brother in this dimension. This would also back up Ron Gilbert's statement that "they are brothers... but they aren't". It would explain why everything in Big Whoop carnival looks similar to Guybrush's ordinary world.
I thought about this the last time I played. You know when LeChuck uses the voodoo doll on Guybrush and makes him dissapear, only to hear a "THUMP" from the room nearby? Imagine if the scene that takes place afterwards is set in the alternate dimension, and after venturing through this dimension in the fictional, non-existant Monkey 3, Guybrush would somehow finally be sent back to the same location in the ordinary dimension, resulting in a huge "THUMP" noise upon landing, thus tieing together the two events. It'd make a paradox of some sort I guess.
What I never got was on SMI the voodoo lady said you would learn things about your world best left unlearned but you never did learn anything like that and since Ron says he had planned all 3 games prior to making them, I believe that she was refering to something you would learn on the third game.
What I never got was on SMI the voodoo lady said you would learn things about your world best left unlearned but you never did learn anything like that and since Ron says he had planned all 3 games prior to making them, I believe that she was refering to something you would learn on the third game.
In Tales, Guybrush leaned the Secret of Donkey Island and, judging by his reaction, it was obviously something that would have been better left unlearned .
I would hate to think that the whole MI world that I love just turned out to be the imagination of a child. If this was going to be the case, and if it was going to be revealed in Ron Gilbert's MI3, then I am extremely glad that Gilbert left LucasArts and I'm extremely glad that Curse of Monkey Island swept everything under the carpet and continued the real MI world and not the MI world that takes place within the mind of a child.
I'll post the same thing I just said on the CMI ruined MI post:
I love MI saga, but the first time I played the LCR end I was really pissed. I was expecting a more 'epic' ending, meaningful and revelating. The story is a full crecendo full of incredible details. It's a perfect story. So the end, on the first moment, was a big dissapointment to me.
Maybe they could have kept the secret of MI hidden and all the Big Whoop affair too, but providing a better end (and still open if they wanted). The first time I played it I had the perception that this game was ended quickly with no clue on what was gonna be the end. Doubting between revealing all the stuff or keeping some info for future releases.
I'm pretty sure that a part of this end was Lucas Arts's fault. I can see Gilbert and Co. wanting to end the full story in 2 games and the company saying: 'NONONONONONONONO, this need to last almost one more game' .
You know, creativity vs business/money.
So my theory is two sided, and not exactly about the story itself.
- Side A: the ending was intended like it is, trusting to offer an accurate explanation on a 3rd release from Gilbert and Co. But it didn't happen cause they left the company.
- Side B: This was not the end of LCR as it was designed, but the company 'forced' the creators to offer some kind of opened end to keep the saga alive, just for the money. And, as long as it was not (as I suppose) as they think it should be, the felt 'obligued' to do something quick.
I would hate to think that the whole MI world that I love just turned out to be the imagination of a child. If this was going to be the case, and if it was going to be revealed in Ron Gilbert's MI3, then I am extremely glad that Gilbert left LucasArts and I'm extremely glad that Curse of Monkey Island swept everything under the carpet and continued the real MI world and not the MI world that takes place within the mind of a child.
I don't believe that it was a dream because there is too many things that contradict it.
EG: Elaine and LeChuck at the end of MI2
but I do think that something SCI FI-y was going to happen and if you think about it pirates + sci fi = original.
I'm thinking the sci fi bit would have been something like alternate dimensions, our would clashing with guybrush's world, this could very well send guybrush insane and might explain all the mordern things that are unexplainable like the grog machine.
Another way to explain the mondern things would be that there's a bunch of idoits in the carribean who live in preasent day but are oblivious to the modern world around them.
Or maybe he didn't enter Big Whoop but left it, Big Whoop might have been the MI world we know.
I do have one more theory.
Perhaps guybrush got sent to the next room becuase the next room was another dimension and LeChuck himself didn't even know that Big Whoop was the hellish dimension that LeChuck was going to send Guybrush to, and maybe LeChuck is also trapped in that dimension with Guybrush at the end.
I don't remember the whole storyline of the game so well but i'm pretty certain LeChuck never said what he knew about Big Whoop, all he wanted to do was make sure he didn't get all the map pieces and if he wanted that, then how could it be a dream, because if LeChuck is Guybrush's brother how would he know that he could keep Guybrush being over imaginative by stopping him collecting map pieces.
Another way to explain the mondern things would be that there's a bunch of idoits in the carribean who live in preasent day but are oblivious to the modern world around them.
:eek: Oh my goodness, M Night Shyamalan stole Ron's secret! (and thank god he did because it was a rubbish twist anyway)
I can't help thinking a lot of the people who apparently love monkey island the most don't actually get what was so good about the originals in the first place. MI2 was a deliberately subversive game. 'Big Whoop' doesn't matter, it was just some abstract mcguffin you spend the whole game chasing just for the sake of it. Events get increasingly surreal and absurd until finally the whole rug is pulled from beneath you at the end.
The fact that the theme park reveal was originally conceived as the ending for the first game, combined with the fact that both games are full of little hints that nothing is quite real, make me believe that ending it on that note was always the plan. The ending to MI2 is designed to keep things ambiguous and give you something to think about and debate. But no matter what Gilbert changed his story to in recent years, I don't believe he had any real intention to continue the story after the second game. I mean, what would be the point in carrying on? It ended already.
The fact that the theme park reveal was originally conceived as the ending for the first game, combined with the fact that both games are full of little hints that nothing is quite real, make me believe that ending it on that note was always the plan.
I often think this too, it especially makes the Voodoo Lady's 'you'll find things out about your world..." line in SOMI make perfect sense.
On the other hand, I can think of many reasons that Ron has another secret. For example, Craig Derrick confirmed in a recent podcast that he got Ron drunk and was told the secret and went on to discuss the possibility of making a new Monkey Island game and revealing said secret. He honestly did come across as saying that there IS an unrevealed secret and I believe him.
Although, I do agree that this COULD have been invented by Ron post MI2.
As Ron says in the commentary of MI2 (That is your problem... You want to ... justify things). Let it be ppl. All theories are not correct and various interviews from Ron Gilbert can back that up. No kids dream, no parralel worlds no nothing that is suggested here. I am certain an imminent final Monkey Island will arrise after the success of the MI2 SE and it will involve Ron and perhaps the other creators to tell the story. As far as the post Gilbert games, the games are great, unfortunately the differences in style and storyline are clearly visible but they are games that were created and we should accept them. In any case, Curse offered memorable moments as well as Escape (although the later left many fans unsatisfied).
As Ron says in the commentary of MI2 (That is your problem... You want to ... justify things). Let it be ppl. All theories are not correct and various interviews from Ron Gilbert can back that up. No kids dream, no parralel worlds no nothing that is suggested here. I am certain an imminent final Monkey Island will arrise after the success of the MI2 SE and it will involve Ron and perhaps the other creators to tell the story. As far as the post Gilbert games, the games are great, unfortunately the differences in style and storyline are clearly visible but they are games that were created and we should accept them. In any case, Curse offered memorable moments as well as Escape (although the later left many fans unsatisfied).
I compleatly agree, but do you think Ron's MI3 would have had a sad ending or is it just me?
I would hate to think that the whole MI world that I love just turned out to be the imagination of a child. If this was going to be the case, and if it was going to be revealed in Ron Gilbert's MI3, then I am extremely glad that Gilbert left LucasArts and I'm extremely glad that Curse of Monkey Island swept everything under the carpet and continued the real MI world and not the MI world that takes place within the mind of a child.
I'm not sure how they could actually make a Monkey Island 3 if it really was all Guybrush's imagination. I mean, they've left the ride now and that's it, playtime's over for that specific fantasy.
As Ron says in the commentary of MI2 (That is your problem... You want to ... justify things). Let it be ppl. All theories are not correct and various interviews from Ron Gilbert can back that up. No kids dream, no parallel worlds no nothing that is suggested here.
I think dthoupis is right. Gilbert was making a comedy game when these games weren't massive (although they were popular).
I think you've just got to look at them as gags. Why a LucasArts phone in the middle of the game? Because it's a mildly funny gag! Why give it that ludicrous ending (which I quite enjoyed)? Because it was funny, and parodies the "it was all a dream" scenario.
That's the way I read it each time I played it, anyway.
Oh man, I just realised, there's a whole new generation of gamers going to get annoyed with MI2's cryptic ending with the release of the Special Edition.
But at least they can immediately move on MI 3 for at least some kind of continuity
I think you've just got to look at them as gags. Why a LucasArts phone in the middle of the game? Because it's a mildly funny gag! Why give it that ludicrous ending (which I quite enjoyed)? Because it was funny, and parodies the "it was all a dream" scenario.
It is however worth noting that Ron, as a hint towards the true secret, has stated that some of the lines of dialog that may appear as just gags in SOMI & MI2 are not actually jokes at all. Not that this proves or disproves any theories but when he made that statement I couldn't help but think of the pirate's "Play along Guybrush, this is how people talked back then" line in SOMI.
Either way, it does make one wonder which lines of dialog he was referring to.
We are pinpointing on small details. Ron said that the secret was NOT revealed in any of the games so nothing that seems valid is the secret. Dream was revealed, is not a dream, kids play, its not a kids play e.t.c. e.t.c. I could go on and on counteranalysing each one of the theories proving to you that the secret is nothing of what we think it is. Ron Gilbert NEVER mentioned which of the hints point to the secret so we have no idea. But since you want to "play along" lets me just push your minds a little bit. "Where do babies come from" Guybrush asks... "In your case the orphanage" Lechucks' answers. So another plondering theory is that Guybrush is an orphan and adopted kid from Lechucks' parents so that is why the voodoo ingredients are.. dodgy lets say. I am not saying this is the secret but if ppl put their minds into it, they can link all sorts of simple things to what the secret may or may not be. I for once would like Ron one day to reveal it and preferably via a game. I really don't want a game which cancels Curse or Escape and if you noticed you can clearly see that Curse is NOT named Monkey Island 3 so we could have a prequel of Curse and a sequel of Lechucks' Revenge . And one more thing for your plondering minds, The first game was named the Secret Of Monkey Island which let ppl to believe that the secret was the actual location and what was hidden beneath it and it was revealed in a sense (although not the true secret). The second game was named Lechucks' Revenge... Think about the ending.... Isn't it something which shows that Lechuck actually DID get his revenge by turning Guybrush into a child in a sense?? Stop fighting about it.
We are pinpointing on small details. Ron said that the secret was NOT revealed in any of the games so nothing that seems valid is the secret. Dream was revealed, is not a dream, kids play, its not a kids play e.t.c. e.t.c. I could go on and on counteranalysing each one of the theories proving to you that the secret is nothing of what we think it is. Ron Gilbert NEVER mentioned which of the hints point to the secret so we have no idea. But since you want to "play along" lets me just push your minds a little bit. "Where do babies come from" Guybrush asks... "In your case the orphanage" Lechucks' answers. So another plondering theory is that Guybrush is an orphan and adopted kid from Lechucks' parents so that is why the voodoo ingredients are.. dodgy lets say. I am not saying this is the secret but if ppl put their minds into it, they can link all sorts of simple things to what the secret may or may not be. I for once would like Ron one day to reveal it and preferably via a game. I really don't want a game which cancels Curse or Escape and if you noticed you can clearly see that Curse is NOT named Monkey Island 3 so we could have a prequel of Curse and a sequel of Lechucks' Revenge . And one more thing for your plondering minds, The first game was named the Secret Of Monkey Island which let ppl to believe that the secret was the actual location and what was hidden beneath it and it was revealed in a sense (although not the true secret). The second game was named Lechucks' Revenge... Think about the ending.... Isn't it something which shows that Lechuck actually DID get his revenge by turning Guybrush into a child in a sense?? Stop fighting about it.
Um, I think you misread what I was saying. I never said that I thought that the secret had been revealed at the end of MI2. If I was making a point, then it was that only Ron and a select other few know the answer. All I did was forward on what Ron Gilbert himself has stated. I very purposely did not state that this was in anyway proof for supporting the 'kids imagination' theory.
My actual words regarding this were "Not that this proves or disproves any theories"! Also, in a earlier post I said "He honestly did come across as saying that there IS an unrevealed secret and I believe him". How am I plodding along with an over-active imagination in any way?
In fact, if I hadn't made it clear enough before; my opinion is that the secret has yet to be revealed (I can't make it any clearer than that).
Child's Imagination sucks because that's going the "it was all a dream" route. My teacher flunked me for that.
Agreed, telling your loving auidence that the world and characters they have followed were never real (in a fictional sense) to begin with is a sure fire way to piss off your fans.
Flunking you sounds quite harsh but then again, it is an important lesson to be learned for any writer.
NOTE: I am not specifically talking about Monkey Island here, just stories in general.
Hey, I've been for a while away from the forums and I'm surprised to read so many comments! It's great to read so many theories and opinions about this mysterious topic.
The
"all is a dream"
and
"alternate realities"
make me think about the recent ending of Lost series! And I've got the same WTF feeling about it and MI2 ending. Both will keep me puzzled for a long, long time...
You know... I have a horrible feeling that Ron is going to pull a Carley Simon and sell the secret to the highest bidder when he starts needing publicity again. Either that or the secret is 42.
You know... I have a horrible feeling that Ron is going to pull a Carley Simon and sell the secret to the highest bidder when he starts needing publicity again. Either that or the secret is 42.
Comments
The parents also mention "white slavers", this also shows it is not modern world.
Extracted from interviews with Ron Gilbert, this one in a interviews about Monkey Island 1:
I read a lot of novels and reference books, more for the flavor of the period than for accuracy. This isn't a historically accurate game. In fact, you'll see when you play that there are a lot of anachronisms, like the vending machine at Stan's used ship yard. They're there to add humor to the game of course, but they also have a secret, deeper relevance to the story -- but I'm keeping that secret for the sequel.
And this one too:
No, because Big Whoop wasn't really anything important when we started writing the game. The name alone says that. It just turned into something after the fact.
And:
<Ron-G> Yes, if you really look at what's going on, you might be able to come close.
<Ron-G> There are a lot of jokes, that aren't really jokes.
<Ron-G> The problem with the Secret of Monkey Island...
<Ron-G> is that it's built up sich a mystic, that when I finally do reviel it, you're all going to go "That was dumb". :-)
In these interviews Ron denied the theory of the kid's dream.
;-)
I kinda like this theory.
He could be a teenager who lost his parents and bored with his life he decided to make a trip to the Caribbean. There he finds the chance to have a life of adventures. He enters a place, maybe through a portal like Bermuda Triangle in which he gets to another age.
I don't know if after arriving Melee Island he is still concious of where he comes from. That would explain some stuff Guybrush says like: "Did pirates talk like that?" or "Never pay more than 20 bucks for a game". The portal could have been used to bring objects from present time too.
The other theory is that Guybrush was brought to a gigantic farse in which all people pretend to be pirates, but are really actors like The Truman Show.
Whichever way, he is not a kid, as even Ron Gilbert told. Even if it is dumb, I want to know what the real secret is.
Please, Ron Gilbert, give us our Return of the Pirate!
Sadly you're incorrect on that one. That was probably the most deliciously near the knuckle joke in the game, though.
When do they ever mention white slavers?
They're all in the matrix.
BOOM! Your minds blew up!
sorry,
What do you mean by this?
How am I incorrect?
At the very end when he and Chuckie meet up with the parents they say how they were worried sick, and say something along the lines of "you never know what kind of murderers or white slavers might be hanging around a place like this"
I think he means white slavery is still very much something that happens.
ok, but that doesnt make me wrong, it could also refer to pirate times.
Then again look at Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3. World's End had the same writers as Dead Man's Chest but the resolutions made barely an sense at all (Jack Sparrow gets eaten by a giant squid....and is stranded in a dry ocean? Barbossa can be raised from the dead....because he's awesome??)
Yeah, I think this too... The joke of Star Wars in the end of Monkey 2 went too far and confused the people with many strange lines of dialogue and confusing things (the brother thing, etc...).
And the fact is clear to me it's the people maybe is wrong in the track of the kid's dream because how I said before with this parts of interviews of Gilbert, he denied this theory. Will we know the secret in the future? I don't know, but I think it's very difficult that Ron would make a new Monkey Island... Maybe if he can make a new game continuing the series and the game don't contradicts very much the others... then he would can make a Monkey 6, I don't know...
I have classes in 30 minutes and have to leave sooner than that, so I'm going to make this fairly brief.
I never mean to make a personal attack against the people who made Curse, or against their professional ability, or their effort. If you think that, then it was either an issue of my ability to communicate my own ideas, some issue of yours, or a combination of both. But really, it doesn't matter.
Chuck's post seemed to be aimed at a wider base than just me anyway. And more towards the "Gilbert Cult" of which I am not a member. I simply love LeChuck's Revenge as a game, and want to know what the writers were thinking when they made the ending that I love, and I also feel I was robbed of that in the ending of the otherwise-great Curse, and even if I did like the Curse ending it wouldn't matter in a discussion about the meaning of the LeChuck's Revenge ending.
There we go. I think that works. Crap, I'm learning two foreign languages when I barely know how to communicate in my own.
I thought about this the last time I played. You know when LeChuck uses the voodoo doll on Guybrush and makes him dissapear, only to hear a "THUMP" from the room nearby? Imagine if the scene that takes place afterwards is set in the alternate dimension, and after venturing through this dimension in the fictional, non-existant Monkey 3, Guybrush would somehow finally be sent back to the same location in the ordinary dimension, resulting in a huge "THUMP" noise upon landing, thus tieing together the two events. It'd make a paradox of some sort I guess.
Also yes I am over-analyzing.
In Tales, Guybrush leaned the Secret of Donkey Island and, judging by his reaction, it was obviously something that would have been better left unlearned
So my theory is two sided, and not exactly about the story itself.
- Side A: the ending was intended like it is, trusting to offer an accurate explanation on a 3rd release from Gilbert and Co. But it didn't happen cause they left the company.
- Side B: This was not the end of LCR as it was designed, but the company 'forced' the creators to offer some kind of opened end to keep the saga alive, just for the money. And, as long as it was not (as I suppose) as they think it should be, the felt 'obligued' to do something quick.
Or maybe I'm completely wrong.
I don't believe that it was a dream because there is too many things that contradict it.
EG: Elaine and LeChuck at the end of MI2
but I do think that something SCI FI-y was going to happen and if you think about it pirates + sci fi = original.
I'm thinking the sci fi bit would have been something like alternate dimensions, our would clashing with guybrush's world, this could very well send guybrush insane and might explain all the mordern things that are unexplainable like the grog machine.
Another way to explain the mondern things would be that there's a bunch of idoits in the carribean who live in preasent day but are oblivious to the modern world around them.
Or maybe he didn't enter Big Whoop but left it, Big Whoop might have been the MI world we know.
I do have one more theory.
Perhaps guybrush got sent to the next room becuase the next room was another dimension and LeChuck himself didn't even know that Big Whoop was the hellish dimension that LeChuck was going to send Guybrush to, and maybe LeChuck is also trapped in that dimension with Guybrush at the end.
I don't remember the whole storyline of the game so well but i'm pretty certain LeChuck never said what he knew about Big Whoop, all he wanted to do was make sure he didn't get all the map pieces and if he wanted that, then how could it be a dream, because if LeChuck is Guybrush's brother how would he know that he could keep Guybrush being over imaginative by stopping him collecting map pieces.
Caught ya!
:eek: Oh my goodness, M Night Shyamalan stole Ron's secret! (and thank god he did because it was a rubbish twist anyway)
The fact that the theme park reveal was originally conceived as the ending for the first game, combined with the fact that both games are full of little hints that nothing is quite real, make me believe that ending it on that note was always the plan. The ending to MI2 is designed to keep things ambiguous and give you something to think about and debate. But no matter what Gilbert changed his story to in recent years, I don't believe he had any real intention to continue the story after the second game. I mean, what would be the point in carrying on? It ended already.
I often think this too, it especially makes the Voodoo Lady's 'you'll find things out about your world..." line in SOMI make perfect sense.
On the other hand, I can think of many reasons that Ron has another secret. For example, Craig Derrick confirmed in a recent podcast that he got Ron drunk and was told the secret and went on to discuss the possibility of making a new Monkey Island game and revealing said secret. He honestly did come across as saying that there IS an unrevealed secret and I believe him.
Although, I do agree that this COULD have been invented by Ron post MI2.
I compleatly agree, but do you think Ron's MI3 would have had a sad ending or is it just me?
I'm not sure how they could actually make a Monkey Island 3 if it really was all Guybrush's imagination. I mean, they've left the ride now and that's it, playtime's over for that specific fantasy.
I think dthoupis is right. Gilbert was making a comedy game when these games weren't massive (although they were popular).
I think you've just got to look at them as gags. Why a LucasArts phone in the middle of the game? Because it's a mildly funny gag! Why give it that ludicrous ending (which I quite enjoyed)? Because it was funny, and parodies the "it was all a dream" scenario.
That's the way I read it each time I played it, anyway.
But at least they can immediately move on MI 3 for at least some kind of continuity
It is however worth noting that Ron, as a hint towards the true secret, has stated that some of the lines of dialog that may appear as just gags in SOMI & MI2 are not actually jokes at all. Not that this proves or disproves any theories but when he made that statement I couldn't help but think of the pirate's "Play along Guybrush, this is how people talked back then" line in SOMI.
Either way, it does make one wonder which lines of dialog he was referring to.
Um, I think you misread what I was saying. I never said that I thought that the secret had been revealed at the end of MI2. If I was making a point, then it was that only Ron and a select other few know the answer. All I did was forward on what Ron Gilbert himself has stated. I very purposely did not state that this was in anyway proof for supporting the 'kids imagination' theory.
My actual words regarding this were "Not that this proves or disproves any theories"! Also, in a earlier post I said "He honestly did come across as saying that there IS an unrevealed secret and I believe him". How am I plodding along with an over-active imagination in any way?
In fact, if I hadn't made it clear enough before; my opinion is that the secret has yet to be revealed (I can't make it any clearer than that).
Agreed, telling your loving auidence that the world and characters they have followed were never real (in a fictional sense) to begin with is a sure fire way to piss off your fans.
Flunking you sounds quite harsh but then again, it is an important lesson to be learned for any writer.
NOTE: I am not specifically talking about Monkey Island here, just stories in general.
The
The secret is 4, 8,15,16,23 and 42!