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	Re: The end
	Posted By: Tursas	Date: 7/6/01 6:16 p.m.
	In Response To: Re: The end (William Spencer) : I took 'em as a look into your character's mind during the game. I look at it : this way: he's died, been reassembled and reprogrammed as a cyborg, been : teleported up and down the Core - ALWAYS into combat situations (never : into something peaceful and pleasant), and (by that point in the series) : has an alien implant that allows him to or is causing him to travel : through time and space. He has NOT been having a fun time over the course : of the game - hence the images of constantly running and being hounded by : shadowy, mysterious figures in an ever-more complex maze. The only way out : is to turn and fight, to draw that knife, but that just leads him deeper : into the maze. I'm glad somebody has finally put forward an idea on this topic. I was going to comment on this topic, but didn't know where to begin. : In fact, the "dream" levels may not literally be dreams. It seemed : to me that the Jjaro device was being operated by him subconsciously - : when events go too far in a direction, he tries to escape and the device : picks up on that and teleports him into another timeline. The dreams may : be really strange alternate universes that he's been transported to - : reflecting his own inner turmoils - which is why he can die within them, : and why they look like really twisted versions of the landscapes he's seen : within the game. Personally, I think of the electric sheep levels as wormholes in timespace. They're a tunnel that has forks that can be traversed in the same way that the marine travels; by walking, jumping, etc. They all lead to dream levels. I find it interesting, though, that one can go backwards by taking previously traversed paths, but cannot skip levels (at least, I couldn't, not without cheating) to go forward. Thus I'm led to believe that the paths are controlled somehow (whether by the players mind or otherwise, I don't know). The dream levels themselves (Where are monsters in dreams, Whatever You Please, etc) may just be a form of adapting to regular timespace from the jumps in timespace, but they also pose an interesting puzzle in that they also include choices to make. Thus, they possess qualities similar to the electric sheep levels, but seem to also have a foot in the realm of reality (eg, they have terminals that aren't written by whatisname in the electric sheep levels). Maybe we could look at the electic sheep and dream levels as one would look at a tree that has been cut down at the trunk. The tree branches upwards. The initial branching is the electric sheep level(s) and the progressive forking of each branch are the separate dream levels. The trunk of the tree, where it is cut, may be described by the first electric sheep terminal as, "the crushing center," the place where the universe ends and perhaps where the marine focuses the surrounding energy to either go back in time or create a new universe almost identical to the last, save for the differences that are evident when he comes out of the dream sequences (thus, the dream levels). Is electric sheep the end? : Not sure what "durability" means, though. From the '5' terminal on Eat the Path, "Am I surprised when the sanitation guy teaching that day turned his narrow slanted eyes in my direction and says what I've been hearing from the stars for years it seems, 'durability'. He mentions discipline and art, discipline is that which lets us practice our art. Durability of our abilities and disipline of our skills. We must need learn how to reproduce what we do and how we do it. He explains that the artist is more free to act when discipline has taught him his skills and limitations." I take this to mean that 'durability' refers simply to the long-lastingness of the marine's skill of warping through time; the ability to continue to change reality. It poses an interesting metaphor to ourselves as normal human beings and our ability to change things through our actions. I take it to mean that the marine had to learn discipline through trial and error, and thus learn to be more effective at doing what he does. It isn't until he's learnt discipline that he is able to do what he wants to do -- save the universe from the W'rkncacnter. Thus perhaps we are not able to skip forward through levels because we are still learning to master the ability. Lots of this has probably already been said by lots of people. I'm sorry if I've stepped on anyone else's toes.

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Replies:

	The end	The Question Mark	7/3/01 5:00 p.m.
	Re: The end	Locucious	7/3/01 5:54 p.m.
	Re: The end	Alexander S7range	7/4/01 5:30 a.m.
	Re: The end	Alexander S7range	7/4/01 5:31 a.m.
	Re: The end	Aben Zin	7/6/01 9:02 a.m.
	Re: The end	William Spencer	7/6/01 9:03 a.m.
	Re: The end	Tursas	7/6/01 6:16 p.m.
	Thoughts on timelessness, the marine...	Locucious	7/6/01 6:58 p.m.
	Re: Thoughts on timelessness, the marine...	Alexander S7range	7/7/01 6:57 a.m.
	Where are monsters in dreams?	Rincewind MoG	7/7/01 7:45 a.m.
	Re: Where are monsters in dreams?	Some guy	7/10/01 7:46 p.m.
	Re: Where are monsters in dreams?	Aben Zin	7/11/01 7:38 a.m.

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