BaronGrackle

Among the great adventure game dialogue puzzles: standing before the court of Manaan, charged with murdering their ancient mythical beast and destroying their economy/safety. Answering them, and walking away without punishment. Some of my favorite Star Wars characters of all time are from KOTOR2, and all of them are subversions: Kreia, G0-T0, and Hanharr.

The video I linked got to the topic eventually, referring to MI2 things like the library. Youtuber Scarfulhu reviewed MI2 and briefly touched on the three islands as government satires. Scabb is an anarchy where people are free... but a single bully takes over really easily. Booty is a democracy with lots of consumer goods... but everyone is fixated on partying and ignorant of danger. Phatt is a fascism with access to information (library)... but the leader benefits above everyone and openly works with LeChuck against you.

I'm going to link a brand new "What is the Secret" video that seems put together pretty well. The author is very aware that his video is going to be dated almost immediately, as RMI is coming Monday to wash all theories away. I'm enjoying it as a tribute and final romp to the exciting mentality we've experienced in the MI fanbase for decades. We'll probably keep arguing about the nature of the Secret(s) in the future, but the dynamics of that discussion are going to be shifted when Monday arrives. EDIT: Sort of a tangent: a lot of people mention anachronisms in MI1 and MI2 that point to the amusement park. What I rarely hear about, are the MI1 anachronisms that point to Mêlée Town being a modernish town - a suburban community. - Election poster (akin to the town mayor) - PTA (Parent Teachers Association) - The city's Chamber of Commerce - A clear division between the main city and the surrounding county, the latter of which has... - A traveling circus in town - A used car dealership... err, used ships - A run-down old tourist trap area, Hook Isle, which has gone out of business (- And later on Monkey Island itself, a series of bickering notes posted between local residents. I've seen a reddit thread compare it to notes left in an apartment complex. Also references to tourism being disrupted after LeChuck moved in - there goes the neighborhood!) One could argue that before MI2, the Mêlée Island of MI1 checked more boxes for "tourist town" than for "theme park". That includes the Three Trials and t-shirts as tourist activities. EDIT EDIT: Oh, he actually does talk about the "small town" stuff. I should finish it...

He had a half-eaten corn dog. That was probably the egg ingredient.

Has anyone listed the Scrapbook contents shown so far? It looks like... I think it's reasonable to guess that

That was me! Experiment B was the pepperoni rum, yes. Experiment A was the Phlegm and Tonic: https://monkeyisland.fandom.com/wiki/Pirate_Potables I didn't use jiggers; I used smaller amounts. I used Diet Coke for phenylalanine. I used Mountain Dew for Yellow Dye #5. I think I had a bit of candy for Green Dye #3 (I couldn't find results for Green Dye #2). I substituted cheese sauce for paste, because CMI taught us that melted nacho cheese is a substitute for tar. The drink tasted terrible (Guybrush agrees!) But it didn't make my spit thicker. When I mentioned this on the discord, someone correctly guessed that I didn't stir the Blue Whale with a hook... that's probably what went wrong. I need to figure out what's in a Caribbean Body Slam. All that talk about pepperoni is giving me a meat-and-drink craving...

You know, I think I'm going to reminisce by looking through the manuals for the first two games... SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!!!! 🤯 Yes, the MI1 manual hints you toward sneaking in the kitchen and going to the dock to mess with the seagull. I guarantee I read it when I was younger. If modern Let's Players are having a harder time with the seagull puzzle than we all did, it might be related to this. SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!!!! 🤯 Pick up Sign; get a Shovel. I distinctly remember reading this puzzle solution, because it's the sort of puzzle I would have probably missed for a while if the manual hadn't told me.

Don't think of it as bait! Think of it as clicking on every dialogue option with the Voodoo Lady in Curse. I'll read your stuff later tonight; thanks for it!

You could sail this puppy away TODAY, for just 8400 pieces of eight. How does that sound to you?

If not Luke's characterization, then what were the most interesting things of TLJ for you? I'm guessing the idea of Kylo as the primary villain is one.

But Rian says that at the end of TLJ, Luke has turned back into a legend and doesn't have the same mentality he had at the start of TLJ. Aren't Luke's lines and actions in TROS indicative of that?

She has dialogue when you don't have a sword, and dialogue when you've trained but haven't won three fights, but my personal favorite from her is when you have a sword but haven't trained!

We'll see if it beats The Cave. That's the top dog essay fodder right now, in my opinion. 😛 But people actually HAVE delved into Secret of Monkey Island with essay quality, of course.

I think you're exactly on point. It was Dave's twitter comment about "a technicality" that made me theorize we'd do Trials again, but reading the Mojo interview has changed my mind. And yet, I hadn't considered your thought on it maybe affecting the ending! Wouldn't it be fantastic if Guybrush coincidentally and subtly completed the Trials again (eg. fought Carla for reasons, found treasure on Mêlée because he needed money, met up with Elaine who had the Idol just because), and nobody in the game commented on it. I imagine things like... a combination of finding your crew in Secret (or Curse or Escape), plus choosing your group in Maniac Mansion. Imagine recruiting three MM-like characters for your crew. Jeff is easy to recruit, you just ask him... but he can't get you to Monkey Island. The other potential recruits unlock a different puzzle path Guybrush could use to get there... Bernard has the most satisfying solution, but he's the hardest to recruit. And then, as you reach Monkey Island, you're rewarded with unique dialogues (or altered ending) based on which puzzle-routes and hoe many puzzle-routes you solved to get there.

I wonder if multiple endings is like five different Secrets of Monkey Island... or five major situations like Guybrush and Elaine breaking up or renewing their love... or five different places Stan can land after the explosion.

So it was a CD-ROM addition?! How bizarre. I'd never heard of that version adding anything.

Could it possibly be an addition of the VGA, not in the EGA? I learned about it from this video: EDIT: One more fun thing: Spiffy the Dog can be the way that Guybrush learns LeChuck's name. So you can go Spiffy -> Estevan instead of Mancomb -> Estevan for that tale.

For me, I was looking for something to put on the meat to poison it, thanks to the Pirate Leaders. Things I recommend: - Add the flower to the meat by putting them both in the pot, for a thematic line from Guybrush. - Try begging for 2 pieces of eight from random pirates, after you learn Otis needs a mint but before getting money. - Give the troll wrong things three times, then ask about it. -Try to fill the Ming vase with grog. -Try to buy a file. - Haggle for a better deal than 5000 pieces of eight and no extras. - On Monkey Island's vista, use the telescope while the art is pointed to the corner, to let the Lookout of Mêlée catch a glimpse of you. -At the end, save your game before talking to LeChuck at the wedding. ALL of these dialogue paths are gold. I'm a fan of the variant where Guybrush says he has a wife and kids (Elaine shouting "I heard that!"), and later Elaine commenting about something her husband would say. Wholesome back-and-forth?

Right! That's what I meant. After they decided to tighten canon, the stuff they wrote afterward was C-Canon. Part of the continuity. The stuff from before was S-Canon. Secondary. Maybe it fit in, but no promises? Of course, the whole thing kind of buckled under when George created the Clone Wars cartoon and decided to contradict the nature of the CIS from Episodes II and III, meaning that a T-Canon show was superceding G-Canon films because George said so... but those were the end years when he was touching more things. https://screenrant.com/clone-wars-trade-federation-retcon-lucas-idea/

Sometimes I wonder what could have been if, during that film, Rey accepted Kylo's offer on the condition that the First Order call off its pursuit of the Resistance. Then the next film would have been in a position to explore nuances between "good guys" and "bad guys" between the factions.

"If you never played the original two Monkey Island games" That's weird. To me it looked like all of MI2 was on a single page (it already shows LeChuck using the voodoo doll on Guybrush), so I kind of expected a single page dedicated to MI3, MI4, and MI5 also. Especially since we've seen the Morgan art in the trailer.

If TLJ set up sexual tension with subtlety and an unclear direction, then wasn't it an obligation for Abrams to pursue that? There's no clear instance of, "They're in love, actually" within TROS. They do kiss in last moments before death, but you could argue the meaning of that kiss was just as unclear. Kylo continued being seduced by the Light side in TROS, eventually "falling" to it. Seduction from the Light side was also explored in ROTJ with Vader (and a slew of video games and books, besides that). Perhaps having him NOT seduced by the Light would have been more original. Yes, these canon tiers. Note the N-Canon and S-Canon... these were the "wild and wooly" times that other posters have referred to. C-Canon was what you found in the novels, games, etc. during the 90s-00s. As you see, they were treated as canon unless contradicted by George himself. That's what G-Canon was... if George said something official, it trumped the rest. He rarely excercised that.

A lot of other fans agree. For me, it's something that jumps out as a decision Abrams made that completely ignored the fan haters of TLJ. In a universe without fan haters, I still see him making that decision.

What about all the bad elements that were still loyal to TLJ? The Reylo romance, the dyaad, the Force skype teleport, the Jedi texts with new information, the Holdo maneuver in the end battle? Luke renouncing the attitude he had in TLJ is consistent with that film's theme and narrative, though I've heard some fans who consider it a betrayal. You wouldn't blame TLJ hate for those TLJ-friendly elements, would you?

Blaming fans for Rise of Skywalker just doesn't hold up. You could probably point the finger to fans for 1) Rose Tico having a lesser role, 2) Rey being shown in a major training session, and 3) On-screen dialogue about the Holdo Maneuver being unreliable. Of which, I think only Rose's lessened role would be problematic. I enjoyed seeing Rey on the obstacle course as the film started. Palpatine's return? No fans asked for that. Macguffin hunts and death fakeouts? No fans asked for that. Super Force Healing, Uber Lightning, and Planetkiller Ships? No fans asked for that. Luke saying he was wrong for throwing away his lightsaber? This was already part of the thematic conclusion in TLJ; it was in sync with Rian's vision. Romance with Kylo and Rey? Reylo fans who liked TLJ wanted it; including this ignored TLJ haters. Force ghosts physically manipulating/grabbing things even more? In sync with TLJ; including it ignored TLJ haters. Kylo and Rey sharing a dyaad, and upgrading their Force viewing/teleportation power? In sync with TLJ; including it ignored TLJ haters. The battle montage scene that shows another example of the Holdo Maneuver successfully destroying an enemy ship? In sync with TLJ; including it ignored TLJ haters. The end product Rise of Skywalker is all on Abrams and Lucasfilm. It would be wrong of me to blame TLJ fans for all the weird decisions he made that stayed loyal to TLJ, just as it's wrong to blame TLJ haters for all the weird decisions that he made himself. They were never planning to use Johnson on that film. They brought in Abrams, and Abrams made a fun little space movie with lots of pew pew. He brought Palpatine back because he, the fan of pew pee and lightning zaps, wanted Palpatine back. He did what he wanted, nothing more or less. He didn't waste time pandering to minority communities of internet nerds. So if you want to find a cause for TROS's quality, please don't blame the internet fans that Abrams happily ignored. Yeah, you're describing the era of Lucas disdain. Phantom Menace was a defining moment. But even before then, "Han Shot First" was one of the early internet memes. When Disney bought it all, I was actually looking forward to showing my kids the original OT on Disney+. He got us good with that "maclunkey" edit, didn't he? 😆 But maybe someday.