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Re: Marathon Infinity's story
Posted By: Forrest of B.orgDate: 11/27/07 5:42 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Marathon Infinity's story (ukimalefu)

: http://marathon.bungie.org/story/volunteersseries.html

Please note that many of the "conclusions" in the volunteers series are Mark Levin's own personal interpretation and are not universally accepted. I've got something of a pet rivalry against his interpretation myself, being the main proponent of the competing interpretation (which, prior to Volunteers, seemed to have been the prevailing one), hence my constantly harping on this point.

In particular:

- Mark believes the player-character to be directly in control of his own time-travelling powers. I believe that Thoth is responsible for this, as the player-character always travels back in time (in Infinity) just when Thoth is uncovered. Undoubtedly it is the Jjaro technology within the player-character that makes him the agent selected for this mission, but it's not evident to me that he has voluntary control of this.

- Mark believes that Infinity ended by righting the timeline to the way things went in Marathon 2, except that the W'rkncacnter no longer existed there (since it was contained in an alternate timeline). I believe that Infinity ended in an alternate timeline, where things went similarly to Marathon 2 but different in some important ways, such as Durandal and Thoth being merged, Lh'owon's sun collapsing, and the player being set free rather than taken with Durandal on another adventure. Presumably many of the events of the M2 epilogue would still play out the same, but the timeline is still somewhat different. I can't really see how any argument could be made that the M2 timeline is somehow reestablished after everything that happens in Infinity.

But to answer your question more directly, instead of you having to wade through the whole Volunteers series (which is still a good read anyway): Marathon 2 ends in failure, with the W'rkncacnter being released and the universe in effect coming to an end. The Infinity prologue describes this nicely (though it appears from some passages that the prologue takes place at the end of yet another failed timeline besides M2 and Ne Cede Malis). On the first level of Infinity, Ne Cede Malis, you are at the end of a different timeline besides M2; in this timeline, the events of Marathon 2 didn't happen, as you note. On the spacestation you're on in that level, you find a message from a mysterious entity (who I believe to be Thoth), who sends you back in time (by my interpretation), and to an alternate timeline where you were never kidnapped by Durandal but rather became a slave of the Pfhor along with Tycho, to try to prevent this horrible catastrophe from happening.

That timeline plays out, ending in the activation of Thoth again, which means that things are going to go exactly as they did in the previous timeline, with the recall of the S'pht'Kr and the release of the W'rkncacnter; so you are sent back in time to yet another alternate timeline to try again. This happens several times over (about once per chapter), finally ending with a timeline in which Durandal is merged with Thoth, and the merged entity realizes that catastrophe can be averted by activating a Jjaro spacestation in orbit around Lh'owon (on the level Aye Mak Sicur). By collapsing Lh'owon's sun in an artificial gravity field, the W'rkncacnter's release is prevented, even as the Pfhor deploy the trih xeem in a futile effort to prevent their defeat by the S'pht'Kr. Durandal-Thoth releases you from his/their servitude, and we all live happily ever after. (Or, in Mark's interpretation, we somehow wind up back at the end of Marathon 2 after that).

The epilogue appears to be a message from Durandal from the end of the universe, as he realizes the tremendous role you play in the universe, and then perhaps is destroyed along with everything else. Or perhaps he escapes. Or perhaps, by that point, he already has escaped...

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Replies:

Marathon Infinity's storyMarathoner325 11/27/07 4:52 p.m.
     Re: Marathon Infinity's storyChojin Six 11/27/07 5:02 p.m.
           Re: Marathon Infinity's storyukimalefu 11/27/07 5:09 p.m.
                 Re: Marathon Infinity's storyForrest of B.org 11/27/07 5:42 p.m.
                       I subscribe to both of these *NM*thermoplyae 11/27/07 11:24 p.m.
     Re: Marathon Infinity's storykyjel 11/27/07 5:03 p.m.
           Re: Marathon Infinity's storyChojin Six 11/27/07 5:07 p.m.
                 Re: Marathon Infinity's storyDav Flamerock 11/27/07 7:26 p.m.
                       Re: Marathon Infinity's storythermoplyae 11/27/07 11:27 p.m.
                 Re: Marathon Infinity's storyBob-B-Q 11/28/07 3:52 a.m.
                       Re: Marathon Infinity's storyMarathoner325 11/28/07 11:14 a.m.
                             Um... Nevermind *NM*Marathoner325 11/29/07 5:31 a.m.

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