Purplephoenix

ENDING SPOILERS Just finished my first (arguably intense, but not deliberately rushed) playthrough. Absolutely loved it overall, but I'm unsure of how to feel about that ending. Might need to process it a bit more. At the same time though, I get it. The Secret is whatever we, as the fans, think it is. It's the memories and joy it brought us and it's meant to be left open to our imaginations. My read is that the entire series was real, and the Guybrush we see in the framing device was an older version embellishing for his son. If you think about it alongside the concepts introduced in Escape, it makes more sense, as the old ways were already crumbling. It makes sense for his kids to be growing up in a world where Pirates have become a folk tale, a novelty. Now they've settled down he can play "pirates" in a themed theme park with Elaine and his son, and whilst his tales are accurate for the most part he likes to mess with the endings in the cringeworthy way that only a Dad can. In the end, it's down to our interpretation and that's how I'm seeing it. I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts though.