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 | Re: Dream Terminal Thoughts | |
| Posted By: Steve Levinson | Date: 1/14/02 12:28 p.m. |
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: The M2 end screen is part of Timeline 5, I think. It comes between
The question of where the ending of M2 and Moo fit together has always been troubling to me. M2 describes a definitive future for the universe that spans thousands of years. It is presented as a continuation of the events stemming from All Roads Lead to Sol, but it seems incompatible with Ne Cede Malis and the rest of Moo. If it were part of Timeline 5, then why would it appear as the conclusion of M2? I think that there are 2 distinct possibilities here, or posslbly a hybrid of the 2. In the first, all events up to the end of M2 take place in Timeline 1, before the W'rkncacnter is unleashed. In this interpretation, all of the historical events after the end of M2 do in fact take place as an extension of Timeline 1. It is the timeline, rather than the events contained therein, that is destroyed by the W'rkncacnter, so that the events chronicaled by the ending screen of M2 actually don't become a reality. I know I'm contradicting myself - chalk this up to the concept of temporal mechanics (I've watched too much Star Trek over the years). There is a difference between time and events, but because space and time are destroyed by the W'rkncacnter, the events might as well have never occurred (including the future ones), as Timeline 1 will cease to exist. This is not to say that most of the events described in the M2 final screen wouldn't also take place in Timeline 5 - but there could be differences. The second possibility is conceptually easier to explain, but creates a lot more difficulties. This would be analogous to the Star Trek TNG episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" in which a cataclysm creates a rift in time and space, allowing an earlier starship Enterprise to be hurled into the future where, by amazing coincidence, the future Enterprise just happens to be. Removal of the earlier Enterprise C from it's time alters history, plunging the Federation into a 40 year war with the Klingons that wasn't supposed to happen. Much of the episode dealt with restoring the original timeline, returning the Enterprise C to its own time so that it could be destroyed in a battle that would utlimately prevent a larger war. The whole sequence of events that took place in this episode, as well as the 40 year war, took place outside of the definitive timeline. In a sense, they formed a time loop, beginning with the moment when the Enterprise C was thrown into the future to be found by the Enterprise D, and ending when the Enterprise C returned, effectively erasing the history of the events within the time loop - but not quite. Certain events took place within the time loop that had consequences and that became the subject of future episodes. Now, consider Moo in this context, but instead of a single time loop, there are many time loops, and rather than all beginning at a single point, they end at a single point - the moment the W'rkncacnter is unleashed. In this interpretation, it is not that Timeline 5 is the one successful one that leads to the rest of the future, but it is the original Timeline 1 that survives, with all other timelines forming loops. If the marine had never managed to find his way to timeline 5, all timelines would have ceased to exist with the release of the W'rkncacnter. It is through the actions of the marine in conjunction with the D/T entity that a way is found to contain the W'rkncacnter, but these events all occur outside of linear time. Successful completion of Timeline 5 allows Timeline 1 to proceed as if nothing happened. This would explain why it is a single Durandal who faces the closure of the universe in the final screen of Moo. Still, the marine, Durandal and Thoth seem to be aware of the existence of the multiple timelines, perhaps because they were each in their way bound by the events outside of normal time that resulted in the salvage of the universe, or perhaps because their actions in the multiple time loops had consequences that reverberated throughout time. Like I said, this is simpler to explain, but more mind-blowing. The one thing I *don't* think we can consider is the possibility that the M2 and Moo endings are consistent. One could conject that all of Moo takes place before the final screen in M2, which is therefore part of Timeline 5, but the Durandal mentioned in the final screen of M2 is a different Durandal than the Durandal/Thoth entitiy at the end of Moo. What's particularly troubling is that, at the end of the real Aye Mak Sicur, Durandal/Thoth seem to be oblivious to everything that has happened in the other timelines. To quote, "The creature, or creatures S'bhuth fears are either dormant or a myth--we've seen nothing to account for his terror." That seems inconsistent with just about everything everyone else has said. Further, if there were multiple time loops with an ultimate continuation of timeline 1, then the marine and the D/T entity should have reverted to timeline 1 the moment the W'rkncacnter was contained. Obviously, this would have been hard to accomplish in gameplay, in any case. So what do we get out of my ramblings? Clearly, Bungie intended the final screen of M2 to be real, so I don't think that this history was obliterated as in my first theory, but my second theory creates even more difficulties. Perhaps it is actually the combined D/T entity that returns to earth in a Jjaro dreadnought 10,000 years later. Or perhaps Durandal and Thoth go their separate ways after Aye Mak Sicur. There are undoubtedly things we will never know.
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| Replies: |
| Re: Dream Terminal Thoughts | Steve Levinson | 1/14/02 12:28 p.m. |
| Re: Dream Terminal Thoughts | SiliconDream =PN= | 1/14/02 3:05 p.m. |
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