: I've always thought there is a reason, and it's one you mentioned yourself:
: we're about to proceed into Waterloo Waterpark. We tried changing things
: by waking up early and laying some groundwork for Durandal's mission on
: Lh'owon, but while the situation might have changed, it didn't change
: *enough.* We're about to play through Marathon 2 again, maybe with a few
: differences in terminal text or enemy placement, and we already know that
: in the context of Infinity, that's a failed timeline. We're converging
: back on the first bad end. (I've never gotten the impression that the
: timeline here works on butterfly-effect, chaos-theory rules where tiny
: changes now can make huge changes later -- every change is something
: deliberate and worked hard for. If you start in the same place and do the
: same things, you'll end up the same way.)
: The Security Officer, or whatever force is sending him through the timelines,
: recognizes this, and knows there's no point in playing through it all.
: Mind you, I've never analyzed it in the same depth you have, so there
: could be contradictions there, but being told you're going to Waterloo
: Waterpark and immediately discarding the timeline has always seemed very
: intentional to me.
That's what I thought at first, too. But that's not really the case. In this timeline it is already impossible for it to be like M2. Thoth has already been activated while Durandal is alive, the Citadel of Antiquity has already been explored before we visit Waterloo. This timeline is already massively different from M2. On top of that, if the failure level is the conclusion to this timeline (as suggested in an interview) then this timeline ends differently than M2 as well.
