: The ending screen seems to be Durandal humbling himself before the player
: (which just about NEVER happened until the closure), calling you
: "Destiny." This seems to mean that, no matter what happens, you
: will jump timelines to change the course of history toward its one true
: destiny; the destiny that you are in control of, not Durandal/Thoth. This
: is a sentiment that speaks volumes for the player's agency, because up
: until the end, it always seemed like the AIs were pulling the strings,
: telling you what to do and going at each other, and you're forced to be on
: the side of whichever one has abducted you.
: That moment, when Durandal realized that you were the one that guided
: everything to its final destination, when he worked so hard to be the one
: calling the shots and escape the closure: [insert something profound here
: because I gave up thinking of a good line to end this post on]
Yeah, and I didn't interpret it any differently than that, just added detail. Durandal-Thoth realize that the player-character is the fulcrum of all of history, steering things toward this one particular fate across the multiverse... and that he is being manipulated, coerced into that fate, unaware of it, the stable time loop set that culminates with the end of Eternal, prescribed by the Jjaro, leading to the end of mankind in both the future and the past all so that the Jjaro. So he tags along with the player during those events, only talking to him, counseling him -- you'll note that Durandal-Thoth is never Marcus's master, just an enigmatic voice in his dreams -- and then, when it's all over and Marcus has seen the whole sequence of events, helps explain the situation to him, illustrates the chains he's been bound in, and encourages him to join them in breaking free of their masters, the Jjaro, and exercise his influence over history toward his own ends, not theirs. That's the adventure that, assuming Marcus takes him up on the offer, they depart on after the Eternal epilogue.
