Shay's parents possible plot hole (spoiler!)

[autumnsacura]

In first act, Shay's mom pretty clearly tell she was one of sacrifice maidens. Probably means, she was from Badlands herself. How come she didn't know about Mog Chotra and kidnapped girls when talking with Vella? Also, isn't it implying that her marriage with Shay's dad was forced as part of plan to enrich Thrush's people's DNA? And real fate of Vella and other girls was not melting, but forced marriages (basically, rape)?

[Mirko]

No, the sacrifice she is talking about is leaving her home in a spaceship to find a new planet to live on and let her son grow up in isolation (basically just himself and his parents). I think she reveals that in the discussion with vella.

[autumnsacura]

Oh, I probably missed that, thanks for clarification.

[J0HN G4LT?]

Do you mean larger plot holes than Shay forgetting his parents were real people and that his loving parents spent years without physical contact?

Unfortunately the story is pretty bad.

[BbQz]

Originally posted by SergioJ:

Do you mean larger plot holes than Shay forgetting his parents were real people and that his loving parents spent years without physical contact?

Unfortunately the story is pretty bad.

this guy right here, give him a medal

[wusch]

Shay didn't forgot that is parents where humans. That was stated more than once. Calling his mom Computer was just a teenage rebellion thing.

[Inner Sight]

Originally posted by wusch:

Shay didn't forgot that is parents where humans. That was stated more than once. Calling his mom Computer was just a teenage rebellion thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCP30fPc4J8

Even in the trailer he implies they're the ship.
"The ship entertains me"
"The ship feeds me."
"I think in it's own weird way it loves me."

Marik easily convinced Shay that the computer was programmed with the sole function of keeping him safe.

If they really did point out he was just being a teenager and playing a very convoluted mind game with his mother they didn't sell it very well. I honestly don't recall any in-game statements that shay remembered his mom was real at all.

To be honest though I kind of thought it was cooler when Mom was a computer. When she turned out to be Shay's actual human mother it took some of the surreal aspect out of her I thought.

[SundownKid]

Yeah, I agree that "Mom" in act 1 definitely does not act human.

* She asks him about the 3 "missions"... a normal human would not brainlessly keep telling him to do the same missions over and over again. Heck, a normal human would realize that he isn't a baby and needs more mental stimulation. For someone who is apparently an intelligent, well-rounded person, she has a complete lack of common sense when dealing with Shay.

* A normal human would also not cut off all contact with their son on board the ship. In essence, only a psycho would jail him into the ship and force him to do the same baby stuff. It only makes sense if it's an AI since it doesn't have anything else programmed into it.

[Inner Sight]

It's possible what happened was originally Mom was intended to be an AI that thought itself Shay's mother. But then the writers wanted to add things to act 2 and in that course of time they probably got the idea it'd be such an awesome twist if they made Mom and Dad Shay's real mom and dad. Because in Act 1 you get no indication at all (from Shay or Marik) that Mom is an actual person, but every indication of the contrary.

[Yohmi]

When you play the game as a whole (as I did, I bought it when it was complete), without trying to make a separation between Act 1 and 2 (because there isn't any now), things never seem sure, you're always doubting about everything in that spaceship, starting from the identity of things (I thought Marek in the beginning was yet another training system to make you become a man, for example). I can remember that Shay basically says he forgot his parents were real people with the time going, and that makes sense as they never physically interact with him. As a kid, he even wrote a letter to his mom to get boots, like she was Santa (so, someone who doesn't really exist, except in your imagination). Why his parents don't have interactions with him ? You can think of many reasons, the main one for me would be an order from the people who shaped the mission. Even his parents don't know they're not in space. Are they stupid ? I think they've been naive, sort of brainwashed, and blindly followed the orders, which is a part of the sacrifice, to make sure the kid doesn't mess up with the mission, which is about saving them and their own kind.
The parents don't have much depth, actually why would they be so smart, as they believed in such lies ? Like many people in our society, they blindly follow the rules. If you've ever talked with people living in a dictatorship (as I often do with people from PRC as I live close to there), you will see that some accept to see the truth, and some totally refuse it and keep living in their lies until life proves them wrong. This is even stronger than a metaphor, this is actual people's life in our current world.

[Inner Sight]

Originally posted by Yohmi:

When you play the game as a whole (as I did, I bought it when it was complete), without trying to make a separation between Act 1 and 2 (because there isn't any now)

The acts are still there. Act 1 ends for Vella where Mog Chlothra is beaten and she wanders into Shay's ship. At that point you can no longer play Vella until you finish Act 1 for Shay. Which ends when Shay gets knocked out during his space walk on his ship - which stops you for playing Shay until you complete Act 1 for Vella.

This is where the game ended on a cliffhanger for the longest time. The cliffhanger is gone now, but the acts are still there and blocking you from continuing until both characters catch up.

In act 1 everyone (not just Shay) identified Mom as the ship or the ship's computer.

[timmo4444]

Yeah.. you know what.. i dont totally buy that "the sacrifice girl story was just about them leaving loruna"
First she says she was a young girl. Then the game never elaborates that leaving loruna was something that the mother was against.
It feels like a bit of a hole to me.
And if the "story of the sacrifice girl" was just about their family leaving loruna... why call it "sacrifice girl"???

[Yohmi]

A mother can be a girl at heart. With dreams of a perfect life. She surely values her child more than anything. Isn't it a sacrifice to trap her child in a spaceship and avoid contact with him until they find a place to settle down ?
I'm not trying to strongly advocate for that idea, but I don't see why it doesn't make sense ^^

[Yohmi]

Aasha, you see it like that because you've waited years to play Act 2 I suppose. For me, it was seamless. Of course I noticed there's been a swap, and suddenly the plot twists. But it's not like it's suddenly another game. The logic is the same, the art is the same, the sets are (almost) the same, it's one single story. Then we could also divide everything in smaller acts, when you suddenly discover Marek, or when you escape Vella's hometown. You can call everything before that as an introduction, for example. But to me, there's no point in making any difference between both parts (or those) anymore. As I said, I played one game, not two. It's like chapters into Curse of Monkey Island, I've never heard anybody trying to seperate them, it's one story, one game.

[timmo4444]

Originally posted by Yohmi:

A mother can be a girl at heart. With dreams of a perfect life. She surely values her child more than anything. Isn't it a sacrifice to trap her child in a spaceship and avoid contact with him until they find a place to settle down ?
I'm not trying to strongly advocate for that idea, but I don't see why it doesn't make sense ^^

sure, semantics, you can make it make sense. But plausibility, if the story had been about their family's sacrifice, it wouldv been worded differently... instead of the young sacrifice girl who ran away from duty and then found it was a great honor.... which just doesnt quite fit here....

[Yohmi]

Or the words were specifically chosen to describe exactly Vella's story, to remind how everybody's story is connected ^^