Unless he turned them into pigs (he few times mentioned that pigs were his children as well). But then again, the children who were cleaning pipes met his "gent looking and well dressed" children few times.
(09-14-2013, 03:35 AM)silentmumbler Wrote: I agree with the one before who said that Oswald was the one in the Iron Lung. However, I don't think the Iron Lung is life support. When you look inside, you can see his is networked into the Machine through his eyes, allowing him to control it and see through it. There is also a tube attached to his genitals to remove wastes, as well as multiple tubes in his mouth, which could be multi-purposed for communication, air supply, and nutrition. In addition, the body is partially submerged in Compound X, which could act as an extra method of controlling the Machine. I think he plugged himself into the Machine after sacrificing his kids, as his only purpose in life after that was the Machine.
...that explains The Chinese Room's 7 tweets on the components of the Machine!
Found a good pic of the opening shot: http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/5958...2ECE51091/
You can see the chair with the mask in it, but no body. Also the twins' positions seem to not be there. But you can see the Toy blocks.
(This post was last modified: 09-14-2013, 04:54 AM by PathOS.)
(09-14-2013, 03:43 AM)FromTheSidelines Wrote: But wasn't it the Priest and the Professor who hint that Mandus's children were killed in Mexico? They refer to a 'tragedy' that occurred there. How would either of them know about the London temple, especially considering the strong possibility it's a figment of Mandus's damaged mind?
I'm still a bit confused about this as well and a bit bummed there was never any sort of exposition on what happened at Mexico besides something vaguely supernatural(??). Assuming the kids lived at least until sometime in October, I think the "tragedy" must have been the illness that befell Mandus. We really don't know just how bad the effects of this Fever were and could have been pretty crippling. If the man in the Iron Lung really is Mandus, it might have been more than just a way for him to connect to the Machine. His body might have been failing and the Iron Lung and all that Compound X sustained him.
If Mandus is submerged in Compound X that could theoretically displace his presence like it did for the electric pigmen who were able to transport in and out of reality.
Though obviously he couldn't have been in the iron lung for long since he needed to be physically present in order to interact with Professor A.
(This post was last modified: 09-14-2013, 07:10 AM by PathOS.)
Just bringing up some posts by chineseroom in case someone missed/forgot them.
Spoiler below!
You're still light on investigating the hint text, which is Mandus really journeying deeper into his own self-knowledge. The rabbit hole goes quite a bit deeper still...
Spoiler below!
Yeah, there were originally two endings to the game. When we got close to alpha, I wasn't happy with the temple level at all and ended up actually redesigning 80-90% of it. At the same time, I looked again at the dual endings and discussed it with Thomas, Jens, Jess and the others and we decided that one really punchy ending was better and we were in danger of making weak endings for no purpose other than to having multiples.
So in these original endings, either Mandus chose to smash the hearts with debris and destroy the machine, or let a timer run down after which the Machine destroyed London. Both of those felt like a 'game' thing, not fitting strongly to the fiction, world or even characters, and I re-wrote and designed something more open to intepretation that played much more tightly to the plot and characters of the game. What does happen at the very end?
Not telling. You can figure it out, I'm sure.
Spoiler below!
Cut from an early version of the script:
"Shall I tell you the difference between a madman and a prophet, little Mandus? History. Everything else is as dull and busy as bluebottles on the lips of starveling."
Ok now what I'm starting to think is the whole game you're reliving memories of Mandus before he sat in the chair, or maybe his mind playing out a different set of events. That moment you sit in it and wait to hit the button could be when the flash back occurs. This would explain why all clocks are frozen at 12AM and everything in the world is different or changes as you walk through it and the whole game looks like a dreamy state
At the end the machine takes out his heart and that's the heart we see in mid air with all the prongs in it because those are the same prongs that are on the surgery machine at the very end. After his heart is removed he is placed in the Iron Lung submerged in compound X to keep him from the brink of death and he is kept there so he can control the machine forever
That's why the voilent shakes occur when you play the game, it isn't the machine underground (because it's almost at the fricken core of the earth) it's the machine shaking around the real mandus but your dreamy self feels it too and it appears to shake the entire world.
Just something I was thinking of over breakfast but it's likely full of holes and overlooking things. This talk about Mandus being in the Iron lung got me thinking
As far as the twins dying, did anybody notice the two smaller, heart-ripping chairs to the left and right of the one you sit in when you get your own heart ripped out? I couldn't help but assume this is where he killed the twins, as it is a temple.
Search
Member List
IRC
Help
[SPOILER] Plot Discussion Thread *Spoiler Alert*
