Beginning and end and how they tie together

[pherenika]

I searched for a similar thread but I couldn't find one - if this is already being discussed somewhere let me know.

 

Playing the game again, I was blown away of how the beginning of the game tied together so greatly with the ending. When you are awakened you read about a memory of how you confront Thaos with your pressing questions, in front of a large machine.

 

In the end, you are back in front of the great machine, experiencing history all over again by confronting him with your pressing questions.

What's so wonderful is that when playing the game again, the flashbacks you see of Thaos means more than the first time you play it as you already know his story. It gives a great new dimension to the game and really encourages me to play it again to see what hints and references I might have missed the first time.

 

What are your thoughts?

[b0rsuk]

It took me a second playthrough to realize this. Because I didn't remember what the vision around biawac was. I think the story is in some places told in a confusing or awkward way, but once you get all the pieces it makes a lot of sense and is very interesting. Act 2 was confusing to me until I went to the temple. Act 3 didn't have enough surprises and new information for most part.

 

If you read books, I would recommend "Non-stop" by Brian Aldiss. It's a bit unfair to compare PoE to this, but there are some similarities. Non-stop has totally, absolutely bland characters and style, unlike PoE. It has a very interesting setting, like PoE. And it masterfully comes together in the last 1/3 of the book. Seriously, I was regretting picking this book up, and was going to finish it just for the sake of completeness. but it amazed me.

[Voss]

I searched for a similar thread but I couldn't find one - if this is already being discussed somewhere let me know.

 

Playing the game again, I was blown away of how the beginning of the game tied together so greatly with the ending. When you are awakened you read about a memory of how you confront Thaos with your pressing questions, in front of a large machine.

 

In the end, you are back in front of the great machine, experiencing history all over again by confronting him with your pressing questions.

 

What's so wonderful is that when playing the game again, the flashbacks you see of Thaos means more than the first time you play it as you already know his story. It gives a great new dimension to the game and really encourages me to play it again to see what hints and references I might have missed the first time.

 

What are your thoughts?

Mine?  They don't tie together at all.  I was happy to murder Thaos because he was a genocidal maniac and religious zealot, and the key to the most hamfisted railroad plot ever.  

The soul-question-navel-gazing drivel was a complete waste of time, and read like a first year philosophy student's first attempt at simplistic questions that most people wouldn't even bother with.  The only 'pressing question' I had was why he was so obsessed with not facing reality, and why he chose to be a murderous &@#& as his method of not coping with it. 

 

Especially since his methodology produced even more death and suffering in trying to a) create it, and b) maintain it and c) restore it after it already partially failed.  

[b0rsuk]

Haha, do you know how my conversation with Thaos went ?

 

Thaos: "How did you find me ???"

Borsukrates: "I'm not here to talk."

 

I just loved this response ! By the time I got to him, I despised him so much, and I was so angry at him. I thought there was no point in asking him anything, he would just lie and feed me religious bull****.

[Emptiness]

I got to the end and confronted Thaos in front of the big machine, and left without any real answers.  I guess you can call that trying the end together with the beginning...but not really in a good way.  I found it unsatisfying and incomplete, but then maybe that is part of the writers trying to leave room for a sequel.  I can only hope that in time the story will be brought to a more rewarding conclusion.

[Elerond]

I got to the end and confronted Thaos in front of the big machine, and left without any real answers.  I guess you can call that trying the end together with the beginning...but not really in a good way.  I found it unsatisfying and incomplete, but then maybe that is part of the writers trying to leave room for a sequel.  I can only hope that in time the story will be brought to a more rewarding conclusion.

 

Thaos explains you how he see the things and he also tells you that it is not his fault that you are incapable to understand how his vision about world and his philosophy are the only right ones. I think that his answer to all things is written to be so unsatisfactory is because writers want you to kill him and they don't want to give you any good reason not to do so. 

 

And to OP's question it quite nice how things where tied in the end. In my opinion it worked quite nicely.

[Guest]

There were a lot of things left unresolved by the end of the game. I suspect that's due, in large part, to planned sequels.

[b0rsuk]

I got to the end and confronted Thaos in front of the big machine, and left without any real answers.  I guess you can call that trying the end together with the beginning...but not really in a good way.  I found it unsatisfying and incomplete, but then maybe that is part of the writers trying to leave room for a sequel.  I can only hope that in time the story will be brought to a more rewarding conclusion.

 

See ! See ! I knew it ! More lies and religious bull****. I was right to administer this treatment to him. To add insult to the injury, I imprisoned him in an adra pillar, so the question "How did he find me?" can bug him forever. Last thing he deserved was an answer.

Edited April 24, 2015 by b0rsuk