Spoiler Plot Discussion Thread *Spoiler Alert*

**grrrz** · 09-13-2013, 02:13 PM

(09-13-2013, 10:09 AM)Rytkonen Wrote:
(09-13-2013, 09:51 AM)Kotch Wrote: Idk what this disappearing everyone is talking about is. Everything stayed the same for me as far as I could tell.

Sorry, I should have provided a link to a video. Here is one disappearance in the centrifuge level (video should start from 20m59s position). http://youtu.be/DfChK55MHck?t=20m59s
In that video you can see the door disappearing and also the hallway on the left if you watch the video few seconds more.

There are many others especially in that level. For example next to the actual centrifuge is that table in the corner. In the opposite wall there is a door (or should be), that disappeared when I was playing. In this same video I already linked, the door is not there (look at the right side of wall opposite of the desk down the stairs):
http://youtu.be/DfChK55MHck?t=3m52s

In some other video I watched it was there for some time at least.

Each time you notice a pig mask, it just appeared, and it means probably something changed in the level, or a door just closed.
I was sure of it at the first place you mention, you take a corridor that loops back to the place you came from (there's steam so you can't the catwalk), when you come back out of it, both doors dissapear (and the steam is gone). It's made obvious at the end (you clearly get teleported, then a bunch of pig mask drop).
Not sure how it is to be taken.

**Alardem** · 09-13-2013, 02:47 PM

The level design changes in order to make you question Mandus' grasp on reality - one can also claim that the Machine itself is behind the shifting architecture. It's likely to be massive enough to encompass the entire London underground.

**jacksepticeye** · 09-13-2013, 03:32 PM

(09-13-2013, 02:47 PM)Alardem Wrote: The level design changes in order to make you question Mandus' grasp on reality - one can also claim that the Machine itself is behind the shifting architecture. It's likely to be massive enough to encompass the entire London underground.

So the changing is his head or his alternate personality playing tricks on him? But why? doesn't it want him to go to the machine and turn it on again? why create obstacles and barriers making it take longer?

**rotten** · 09-13-2013, 03:33 PM

Alright, guys, some screenshots to think about:
Err, whose heart is that?

Spoiler below!

Here's a Pigman who is standing (or sitting?) with Oswald's children. Possible hint that you do play as a Pigman?

Spoiler below!

After all, it appears to me that the machine was fed on the lifeforce of his children (because they are connected to it with "arterial wires", as we see in the end) and what Oswald did by pressing the button is connecting himself to the machine, and not just killing himself. Although how does that stops the machine I do not understand.

About the Iron Lung:

Spoiler below!

**Corbent** · 09-13-2013, 03:45 PM

I think the changing enviroment and later the teleportations are memory lapses or blackouts, possibly caused by his sanity quickly degrading with all he has been through. In the case of teleportations I interpret it as suddenly finding yourself somewhere and not remembering how you got there. Maybe in a similar way as to how you wake up in your bed.

My take on it is that during heavy stress Mandus' memory starts to fail heavily. Maybe, before the game starts, he was deeply scared, desperate sabotaging the machine (in a diary passage it is said that it seems that the saboteur was in a hurry) and in his desperation he started to have similar symptoms until he finally "teleports" to his bed and the game begins.

**frictionalfan** · 09-13-2013, 04:47 PM

(09-13-2013, 03:45 PM)Corbent Wrote: I think the changing enviroment and later the teleportations are memory lapses or blackouts, possibly caused by his sanity quickly degrading with all he has been through. In the case of teleportations I interpret it as suddenly finding yourself somewhere and not remembering how you got there. Maybe in a similar way as to how you wake up in your bed.

My take on it is that during heavy stress Mandus' memory starts to fail heavily. Maybe, before the game starts, he was deeply scared, desperate sabotaging the machine (in a diary passage it is said that it seems that the saboteur was in a hurry) and in his desperation he started to have similar symptoms until he finally "teleports" to his bed and the game begins.

That would make sense since the whole game deals with memory loss

**Integria** · 09-13-2013, 04:57 PM

Might just be me, but I am increasingly of the belief that the machine does not exist at all. The several references to an 'air loom' - a machine that James Tilly Matthews believed to exist for nefarious purposes of tormenting him. James Tilly Matthews is considered the first case of paranoid schizophrenia.

Is it possible that the machine in this case is simply the mind, the memories of a deeply disturbed man?

The changing paths in the game as we enter deeper into the machine makes a tad more sense to me this way. As we unravel our memories, things are not as they might initially have seemed.

All the impenetrable barriers (Whilst the fuse is blown, the motor cannot be spun, and the gates will remain an impenetrable barrier to progress.)? Memories blocked away to shield a fragile mind.

I'm pretty sure this isn't the right accessment of the story, but some of it might be. It seems quite likely that our main character is suffering from some sort of paranoid schizophrenia, perhaps even MPD.

I'm mostly confounded by trying to figure out just how much of the game should be subjected to a litteral interpretation. Our narrator is inherently unreliable, and the physical viability of the constructs in the game given the timeframe seem... off.

**jacksepticeye** · 09-13-2013, 05:07 PM

(09-13-2013, 03:45 PM)Corbent Wrote: I think the changing enviroment and later the teleportations are memory lapses or blackouts, possibly caused by his sanity quickly degrading with all he has been through. In the case of teleportations I interpret it as suddenly finding yourself somewhere and not remembering how you got there. Maybe in a similar way as to how you wake up in your bed.

My take on it is that during heavy stress Mandus' memory starts to fail heavily. Maybe, before the game starts, he was deeply scared, desperate sabotaging the machine (in a diary passage it is said that it seems that the saboteur was in a hurry) and in his desperation he started to have similar symptoms until he finally "teleports" to his bed and the game begins.

Best explanation I've gotten so far

**Kotch** · 09-13-2013, 05:17 PM

Can we also talk about the intro?

I'm very thrown off by the fact that you hear a voice say "Daddy, Daddy. Please don't kill me." But it's not his kids. It sounds like an older guy.

Anyone have thoughts on that?

**grrrz** · 09-13-2013, 05:48 PM

(09-13-2013, 05:17 PM)Kotch Wrote: Can we also talk about the intro?

I'm very thrown off by the fact that you hear a voice say "Daddy, Daddy. Please don't kill me." But it's not his kids. It sounds like an older guy.

Anyone have thoughts on that?

Best explanation I can come up with is it's "the machine" speaking, as his other "evil" self, begging for mercy, when the first sabotage occurs (or maybe after the end). Also may be one of the pigs (but it's his voice I think).