A Few Questions About the Manpigs

[ThatCrazyShaman]

There's a theory going around that Mandus is technically invincible due to being imbued with the same Compound that revives the Pig-Men - this is supported by the Iron Lung at the end being filled with the liquid, by having Mandus talk about 'blue water running' in his veins, and by the text talking about the chemical allowing for dogs and severed heads to revive (Agrippa reference?) If this is the case, then it could be that he simply can't die - the Machine is doing its best to delay him, not murder him.

Also, if we consider that the Machine is linked to Mandus and the latter's heart is powering it, then it'd be in the Machine's best interests to keep Mandus alive. The ending in which Mandus approaches his heart and electrocutes it depicts the moment in which he finally is capable of dying.

Ah, that's an interesting theory! My one question would be, though, why, in that case, does the Engineer start shouting 'kill him' near the end? Granted, he could just be saying that, knowing that it won't happen. Additionally, Mandus seemed to be quite concerned about being scalded alive when he was traveling through the steam pipes - which could just be because being scalded wouldn't be fun, even if you are biologically immortal xD.

Going slightly off-topic momentarily, I personally always got an Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe from some of the information put forth in the game about how the Engineer comes about. It occured to me at one point, also, that perhaps that half of Mandus' soul was present within him until he could obtain a corporeal form for it, which could suggest a connection between Mandus saying he skinned the professor [I have seen people say that the body in the iron lung looks as though it's been skinned] and 'the skinless one is waking' from Justine.
On the other hand, 'the skinless one is waking' could also just be a reference to the machine itself; metaphors can be pretty poetic in nature.

Meh, I'm just rambling. I haven't been lurking around the forum much since back just before the game came out, so I don't really know all what people have theorized xD