DimDunckel

I understand some of you don't think the "secret" has been the same in Ron's mind all along development of the first two games. I instead tend to think that the "original secret" as described on the RtMI plaque and by Ron himself on his interview has been a constant, abeit never on the foreground, of both SoMI and MI2... except of course in the ending of MI2 where it came full frontal. The anachronisms in both games, the underground tunnels in MI2, the "E-ticket"... all point to that. But it's also true that enough ambiguity is left to allow for different interpretations 🙂

Ron Gilbert said what he had in mind as the secret when he developed The Secret of Monkey Island. I'm simply wondering if MI2's finale, when it came out, was deliberately conceived to reveal (or at least foreshadow) that secret or it was some "let's do something weird" sort of thing.

Well, as the thread title says, it didn't intend to debate canonicity as it plays out in the narration (if so, I would have to include RtMI on top of all that came before), but intent. That's why interviews matters. There's no doubt that, when developing the first game, the secret Gilbert had in mind was "it's all a theme park". Then the idea of referencing or revealing that secret during the game itself took a back seat. It insipired the game title, anyway 🙂 Surely, one is left to wonder if Gilbert intended MI2's ending as a deliberate "spill-out" of the secret or, else, if by that time he no longer cared and just wanted to have fun with some weird twist. I stand for the first option. In a 1990 interview about SoMI, he said:

Yes, I think that would've been an intriguing plot! 🙂 The titular secret is, as revealed by Gilbert himself in the Cressup interview, that "it was all a theme park", so in my opinion the ending of MI2 revealed exactly that, abeit with some ambiguity (Chuckie's glowing eyes). Maybe Ron planned to state that with no ambiguity at the end of the third game, would he one day make it, or maybe it was just a way to have people keep speculating (after all he outright lied when asked if the secret was about "a kid lost in a theme park" in a 1999 chat).

I agree with Thrik. I think MI2's ending was to be interpreted "literally", and was worked out as a way to hint at the (original) secret, while still allowing an "out" should the saga continue. Surely, had there been a MI3 by Gilbert in 1992, it would have been interesting to see how he would have worked his way out of that ending while still keeping the promise of revealing the secret (which was exactly what MI2's ending was about). Anyway, I'd be interested to learn about other interpretations if any of you have any.

Anyway, the topic is not about the secret, but rather how you think MI2's finale was meant to be (when MI2 came out, not now) in light of the secret...

Sorry, my mistake. It was obviously after, not before 🤣

Hi, I'm new to these forums, so I apologize if this topic has already been dealt with before. However, I wanted to share a few thoughts about Monkey Island 2's finale in the light of Ron Gilbert's revelation - in the famed Cressup interview - of the secret of Monkey Island as he coinceived it during planning of the first game: Guybrush has been in a theme park all along, imagining all of his adventures. Yes, I know Return of Monkey Island gave an "official" interpretation to that ending as Boybrush and Chuckie simply playing over Guybrush's tales of his own adventures. But that is, as confirmed by Gilbert itself, a retcon, or at least a "reframing" of the finale, in order to both introduce Guybrush's son and (al least temporarily) reinstate the 17th century pirate setting as the actual reality of the game. So let's assume that RtMI never took place. Which was, in your opinion, Gilbert's original intent for Monkey Island 2's finale? I personally think the only viable explanation is that Guybrush was really intended to be a child: he simply got lost while visiting the "Big Whoop" theme park, and his parents sent brother Chuckie to find him. In his imagination, he soon became his archenemy, ghost pirate LeChuck. The scenes taking place in the underground tunnels are actually Guybrush slowly returning to reality. There's, however, the lingering question of Chuckie's glowing eyes and Elaine still waiting for him on Dinky Island. As for that, I think Bill Tiler was right in his 2003 interview: We all know Ron Gilbert left LucasArts shortly before after MI2 was completed. He probably wasn't sure he would make a MI3 at that point, so, in my opinion, he just tried to give closure to the saga by hinting at what the "secret" is, while still leaving some "loophole" to cling on in case he'd work on a sequel and therefore need to reinstate the reality of the game's pirate setting. Or there may be more to it? I'd like to read your thoughts on that