So.... the ending [spoiler discussion]

[MLGedie]

So yeah.... In the final chapter we just don't find out how the story ends because Guybrush just decides to tell a silly version for his son. What do we think about this?

I don't really like it. It would be one thing if we never found out what the Secret WAS, but we don't even get to find out what happens to Guybrush, Elaine, and LeChuck. Who wins? what happens to them? how to they beat him, or escape? The only thing we do know is that they survived, otherwise how else would he be telling the story to his son. Like, imagine if at the end of Pulp Fiction, instead of simply never seeing the inside of the briefcase, we don't even see what happens in the final scenes or what happens to the characters. There's just no real resolution. [/spoilers]

I am keen to hear other opinions though, what did people think?

[Kamagawa]

Just to muddy the waters...
Here's the bad ending:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jd_rcj80W8

[Xeonicus]

The whole thing rests on the concept of the unreliable narrator. At the end, we do see Elaine whisper to Guybrush about a treasure map she found.
So there is a degree of truth to their adventures. The story we see in Return to Monkey Island is an embellishment though. We can't separate fact from fiction. Even Guybrush's son balks at the ending explanation, but I think it's pretty in-character and there is a certain poetry to it.

[Ash... Haushaltswaren!]

Boy, the ending sucked.

I too got the feeling that I got a wrong ending.

If you think about it, the game spoilered the letdown a lot: Guybrush and Elaine running together through the woods, she says something like: dont get your hopes up too high about the ending, it may not be what you wanted.

Yeah, thanks.

Also the constant depressed look on the face of Guybrush was a really tough thing to swallow, sorry.

[Ash... Haushaltswaren!]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Dico:

Lol, and this is why you don’t give Ron Gilbert your money.

He did this ♥♥♥♥ with thimbleweed park and he’s done it again, everybody should have seen this coming.

The truth about the secret of monkey island was already crystal clear at the end of MI2, a lot of people wrote articles and speculations that turned out to be true even 20 years ago even if Gilbert never admitted that the theme park theory was true, but now look at what happened with this game. Pottery.

He literally fooled all of you recycling a 30 years old idea.

Gilbert is just like Hideo Kojima, both could’ve just stopped with their first games when they were really good and masterpieces, but nope…they chose to lose all their credibility and ruin their own creatures in the years after because this is how the world goes today, you’re not supposed to have good things anymore and everything has to be “LE EPIC DEEP 4TH WALL BREAKING CURRENT THING”.

♥♥♥♥ them and ♥♥♥♥ nugames, I knew that it wasn’t even worth pirating this thing, and not just for the globohomo art style.

The ♥♥♥♥♥ on Guybrush’s face is the way the developer uses to mock you, he hates his creation and he hates you.

I won’t elaborate further.

Seems fitting to me.

Also the very old and very washed up Guybrush Threepwood seems to want to tell me that I am old and a very sad fool for chasing a stupid idea like the enjoyment of this game.

Nice one!

[MAikL]

I don't understand why they changed the ending of MI2. In the end of MI2, the parents were really their parents. Now they changed the ending, like these were not their parents and actually this wasnt young guybrush but guybrush's son. THIS already at the beginning made the whole story crap. and t hen the open ending...where is lechuck? where is voodoo lady? what the ♥♥♥♥ happened`? what is it all about? its just the worst ending they could have imagined...i wish i could forget that game again =(

[kakiss4]

Diposting pertama kali oleh K. Constantine:

It's yet another cynical ending like 2, Thimbleweed and Deponia.

Jaded Gen X-ers seem incapable of writing a sincere comedy without huffing their own flatulence about "muh escapism". I had a suspicion that the OG games were endearing and 'good' despite Gilbert and not because of him. Thimbleweed having this same ending confirmed that, and Return now solidifies that Ron Gilbert was always just a jaded pseud and the original games were likely good because of the input of people like Tim Schafer. He has been so mad at people not liking this ending that he's done it for a third time, the exact same thing.

The only people who like this sort of spit-in-the-face ending are pseudo-intellectual midwits with exactly 100IQ who feel like it's "smart" to comment on escapism through a naturally escapist medium.

Have a dumb wojak meme:
https://imgur.com/QuypLmG

It is often a Team that make such Products great.
The input of everyone and often also People hindering Artists to go to far and cross some Lines that shouldn't.

For Example, i think the same about Hideaki Anno and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Never underastimate the Persons surrounding an Creator or being above, they have their Influence.

Same counts in other Jobs ;)

[Sparhawk]

bad writer, bad ending, bad game. Ron just wanted to stomp all over the other games and it shows. Retcon this, go back to Tales and continue off what they built there.

[kakiss4]

Diposting pertama kali oleh mo54:

I I do not know what they were expecting to get from this game.The meaning of life?.

I think this is currently a Problem of many Creators.
With Stuff like this, it is better to keep Mysteries and Secrets in the Dark, it is never a good Idea to take the Wonder of such Things away, you can only do wrong and never live up to the Expactions.

It is often very boring, when they ground bigger Evil or super natural divine Stuff.
Just let it be a Mystery ;)

[MLGedie]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Yistaan:

I thought

the subplot about Guybrush doing increasingly shady and destructive things to get to the Secret would get some payoff later, like him becoming the new LeChuck or something. But other than a conversation with Elaine on Monkey Island towards the end, it has no real payoff.

Also did anyone find out what happened to Voodoo Lady at the end? After LeChuck trashed her place she's never seen again. Did they really mean to leave that hanging? Are we to assume LeChuck finally killed her?

I was also disappointed, and frankly, really surprised, that we never saw a payoff for Guybrush's shady behavior. I mean, it was set up and all with Elaine visiting everyone Guybrush had wronged and learning what he was doing. And he even stole from her, his own wife!

I was expecting a scene where Elaine dresses him down for letting his obsession with the Secret go too far. If they had done that, maybe they could have had an ending where Guybrush deliberately chooses to quite chasing after the secret, and THATS why he doesnt have an ending to give to his son. That would be, yknow, an actual character arc for Guybrush. He learns to give up obsessions before they start to hurt people.

The endinh we got, well, what does Guybrush learn? or Elaine? or his son for that matter?

[Mögbär]

Diposting pertama kali oleh MAikL:

I don't understand why they changed the ending of MI2.

They didn't change anything. They just made the tutorial scene very similar to the ending of MI2 in order to make you wonder what's going on, but it is not the same scene. It happens several years later and doesn't change anything about what happened in the past.

The ending of this one is not only disatisfying because it just ends the story abruptly right before its conclusion with a very weak excuse for doing so, but also because none of it was worked towards during the game. The story slightly hints at a few themes, but never really follows up on anything and the ending really seems like they decided they didn't like the actual ending and cut it off at last moment, then put up a "Sorry, closed for maintenance" sign instead. I simply have a hard time grasping the fact that this is what they pulled this series out of its grave for.

The letter you unlock is kind of telling, though. There was no great idea for a sequel that needed to be made real. They simply had a bit of a midlife crisis and the fan audience to pay for their metaphorical motorcycle/ear piercing.

[shura.1]

I loved the ending, is the same of the second monkey island.
I'ts all a fake, it's an adventure for the purpose of having fun, the secret it's not important what's important is the "journey" not the "destination".

And after all these yeats we are reviving the journey, it was fun. Thank you Ron and thank you to all the team.

[Helmet Hair]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Super Jon:

I think the ending revolves around 2 points:

1) Often in life things don’t live up to expectations / the more hyped-up something is the less chance it will meet your expectations.

2) The end game is whatever you choose it to be, quite literally in the game given the multiple possible end scenes. Seems people are complaining about the ending they chose for themselves!

Yeah, good message. Life sucks, and there is nothing you can do about it. Thanks for playing, sucka!

[Mögbär]

You could deliver all these alleged messages with an actual ending you built up to instead of simply stopping to tell the story and letting not liking a game's ending be some sort of lesson about how you don't always get what you want,

Because that's a pretty stupid way to teach a lesson. What's next? Release a broken, half finished and overall bad game and when people complain, you say it was supposed to be a game about disappointment, so it should win GOTY for being disappointing?

[Sephirex]

But you did learn the actual secret. It's that Monkey Island is an Inception style universe of recursive theme parks inside theme parks. It's theme parks all the way down, baby.

[Ombligo]

I don't know if anyone mentioned the true ending where you get the key but DON'T open the chest. Guybrush brings out the key from his jacket in the final scene. There's also a letter in the scrapbook about the development of the games, though I'm not sure if that's always there after finishing.