Theories and Ideas about the plot

[Ricin-A-Roni]

Warning!!! -- Does contain spoilers!

So I have been brainsotrming some theories about the plot specifically about Burden and how he is forced to "replay" the missions. I will be organizing the ideas into diffrent paragraphs, specifically going from either levels or characters. I also want to remind everyone these are just some random theories I came with and I would appreciate discussion or pointing out flaws or anything.

The Ending:
To start my theory, I'm actually gonna start at the end, when Burden sacrifices himself and gets sucked into the black hole. After he gets sucked into the black hole, the epiloge plays and shows the same desert as the desert in the mission "Legend" Burden then picks up the same cloak he had from the mission as well, leading me to believe that the black hole takes him back to the event in Legend. I also believe that Legend occured before any of the other missions in the game, demostrating that when Burden went into the black hole he went back into time, and Legend is the start of Burden's career.

Legend:
Now with this mission a lot can be speculated upon if my earlier theory was correct, then its safe to assume that the Jack in the mission is the same Jack that you play with throughout the game, that this is the first encounter with Jack and Burden and where they intially became friends. I also believe that Abraham is the main influence why Burden named himself Abraham when he infiltrated Xeno, as Jack hands Burden his dogs tags so he can pass through the security checks in the base. I also have the theory that Abraham and Burden are the same or at least have extreme similarites as they both are "burdens", as Abraham is slow and kills himself becuase he is a burden to his team, just as Burden is sometimes a burden to his own team when he is forced to kill them so he can survive, and similarliy kills himself in the very end as he is burden on the world as well.

Death:
Another important aspect is what happens when Burden dies or fails, and I belive that when he dies the same thing occurs with the black hole where he is thrown back into time back to Legend, which explains why everytime you fail you get a picture of Burden walking in the desert. For example in the final mission "Nemisis" everytime Liam kills you, you get a quick flash of the previous mission, demostarting that Burden has to make all of the hard decisions again, leading him back to the same point he was at, and thats why he felt like he fought Liam a million times but was the first time he won.

Conclusion:
So with these different theories I feel that Burden is "cursed" by the Gods to keep forever repeating the same decisions and missions, and that everytime he dies he is thrown back to the Legend mission. Now with these theories I could be wrong in every way and the devs are laughing their asses off about how wrong I am, but I would love to hear some feedback as well as any idea,theories, questions, or flaws about anything. Thanks for reading (aand sorry about any spelling or grammar)

[Mercutio]

I think your theory is well thought out and interesting. I'm not sure exactly what I think yet, otherwise I would have a better response for you.

[Белый Кот]

Yup, looks like everything works like you wrote. I will add some more about the ending (why it's still continues), who is Burden and who are Gods and why they do that to him in my opinion.

Gods, who are watching:
We are the "Gods" in the game - players who play it. Nobody else was watching all these events, there is not karma-meter or anything - there is nobody to judge us expect ourselves. After each level you send others statistics of how the level was finished, also you receive statistics of how all others did. "Gods have been watching" written in that screen is exactly what is happening - as we all watch how everyone is playing.

Ending - broken hourglass:
Burden thought, that his goal was to stop genocide on the planet, that was Gods wanted from him. And the moment he achive that, everything will be over. Actually he is not right. Playing game is not always from the very start to end. Sometimes Gods want to try a level differently, sometimes - to get some challenges done or just try game again. Also it looks like there is one Burden for all of us, he repeats game "millions" of times - much more then every single player did, but realistic number of attempts all players did. So actually Burden loop will end only when the last player stop playing and watching, not just one of us beat the game.

[Ricin-A-Roni]

@ya.bym5 That is really interesting, I never thought that we ourselves are the Gods, but that works really well and would explain why he keeps repeating the same missions, and sharin stats explains how Burden exists in thousands of diffrent "portals" which would be our computers, I never put it into a thought about it crossing the third wall, but I think it makes lots of sense, thank you for you're insight I appreciate it! (It would explain the "shifting" that the characters experiance when they die and you see them in the next level as that is the "default" but they are not their for you're game play)

[TheMerciless]

Everything seems pretty right, but I don't think that the nebula is actually sending him back in time. It kills him. Him dying triggers the looping.

[Ricin-A-Roni]

@MrSgtBurdenMan, Yeah that would make sense, I just figured the nebula is what started the whole trend (btw like the name)

[76561198140269861]

Your theory seems right, but here is one thing, maybe we all thought when we saw the epilogue: The rifle where the cloak stands is Abraham's rifle after he's dead. Which could mean the group is no longer there ( not talking if they made it or not), and so, the loop of Burden is broken, for now. Also waiting for the free DLC that will be out someday, with the plot the fans that gave money in the crowfunding campagne have decided.

Will it be what happens after Burden's decision? Mission that Burden and Jack carry together before Xenofiler? Mission inside Xenofiler to win Liam's trust? Who knows....

[Ricin-A-Roni]

@pab.rui.lor Oh, I actually had no idea about free DLC, but that is kinda exciting to see what more it could reveal.

[Quest]

So this game brings you (the player) into the game as a god. Now that is a pretty cool story!

[Neray]

Originally posted by SP00K-TP:

Everything seems pretty right, but I don't think that the nebula is actually sending him back in time. It kills him. Him dying triggers the looping.

Think about that - in Legend he's dressed up in an everdusk space suit, the same suit he wore in Nemesis. Another fact could be found in 2nd mission: if you confess about your past, Burden says "we were soldiers of federation". As for me it proves that they (Jack and Burden) joined everdusk some time after desert story, which proves that Burden wasn't able to be in his suit in Legend without time travelling.

In Nemesis, Burden tells about "7 years" he had to wait until this battle. Hm, only 7 years since Legend...

[Qwertion]

It has reminded me of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" a lot. Awesome thing to read, though a long one as well.

[cyberneticat]

I got the impression they went with a religious angle with the story here - "Gods" in the title and all that. At some point, Burden went through every scenario we see in the game and ended up who knows where afterwards. Now some cosmic force is essentially torturing him - over and over he has to see himself making the difficult decisions that lead to innocent deaths, the loss of the people that served under him, and the falling out with Liam with whom he'd previously been genuinely close. Each time it ends (or each time he "breaks the cycle", either by getting himself killed, sending the timeline too far off course by failing a mission, or I would argue even committing suicide at the end) he's reset back to the desert.

In many forms of Christian doctrine (and specifically in Catholicism, the doctrine the devs would have grown up with), Purgatory exists for people to go to when they are not truly evil and thus won't end up in hell yet are also not pure-hearted enough to get sent straight to heaven. After what Burden's been through, it's not hard to argue he doesn't have the sort of conscience with which you'd get into the express lane to heaven. So instead he relives over and over the most questionable section of his life, from Legis until the fight with Liam (and then, in the 'real world', potentially the death of Liam), presumably until he finally breaks down and realizes the magnitude all the wrongs he's committed. Maybe after he's had enough and finally makes peace with himself, it'll all end and he'll finally wind up at peace in heaven.

Then there's also some out-of-universe symbolism in the fact that they were specifically in a desert on Legis, and how similar that is to the fires of hell or purgatory. Plus how at ease he feels in space, or 'the heavens'.

Edit: replaying the game right now, Burden says he'll take responsibilty for whatever Liam does at the beginning of Chapter 2. Rather than going with the religious explanation, you could say ECUK instead put him in an artificial purgatory as his sentence. The game's called "Gods Will Be Watching" and ECUK's symbol has an eye in it, so it's at least reasonable speculation. Lots of stuff unanswered either way, though.

[a razor named qualia]

Here it is, have fun:

Burden (Who doesn't have a real name) is a tool, created by the gods to fix whatever the exact problem of the game is, be it the evil of the Constellar Federation or the genocide of millions, it's something that the gods want to be stopped.

Burden was created in the cold vacuum of space within his Everdusk pod (As the gods decided for his being to exist both in the Legin Anomaly, and the Assault on the Matriarch) to crash into Legin, meet up with the soldiers and live out his life.

Abraham comes from the Sergeant who dies in Legend, Burden comes from the choices he makes.

From here he lives his short, 4 or 5 year life, he deserts the Federation, joins the Everdusk and eventually goes undercover in Xenolifer.

The only person in on this whole thing kills herself around this point (Secret Agent Amber, who was in charge of Secret Paradox Item Nº LD2672H [And did Space Walk simulations with Burden]).

From here, the game begins.

In Burden's supposed first life (Though in reality every person and their save has experienced one of Burden's lives, though in the canon no one ever beat Liam) we start on Sinceios (You know what I mean), between Chapter 3 and 4, Burden retells or remembers chapters 1,2,3 and technically 5 (Since that event already happened), and go to chapter 5.

Burden's "Crash" was nothing of the sort, he died in that Nebula, only to resurrect on Legin to go through the process again, this time is called the Legin Anomaly.

They spare you the trouble of going through 1-6 again and simply put you back in the pod before you crash into the nebula.

Burden remembers all the events he did in his past lives, even if they didn't personally affect you. He even remembers every failure against Liam, or every failure at interrogating the Xenolifer science crew, and comments on it.

A key point is that there is only ONE Burden, living life over and over, Abraham and Sergeant can't interact with each other for example, since they are both the same person.

People live because the gods deem them necessary, without them Burden would likely fail every mission.

Burden has free will, he doesn't have to do any of this.

Chapter 7 ends with Burden dying in a black hole, putting on the cape and hood, and soldiering on, the title "Broken Hour Glass" could infer that the loop has been broken, and Burden can no longer revive himself, or that time itself has screwed up and the gods have given up.

Important notes:

- The Ludum Dare entry is not canon.

- The Legin Anomaly (Chapter 5) technically happens every time you fail, hence the end screen.

- Burden has a diary, I can't find it but he does.

- There is no guaranteed canon, since every event within the 5 year life of Sgt. Burden technically could or couldn't happen again next time the loop continues.

That is all you need to know about Secret Paradox Item Nº LD2672H

(And in homage HAVE AN OUTRO)

I am Secret Agent Variant.

And remember.

GODS WILL BE WATCHING

[a razor named qualia]

Sources:

Me. I have read through the comic, artbook and every shred of dialogue in every chapter, made note of it, compiled every bit of lore, external information and data I could. Ranging from trailers, to the indiegogo teaser (Which has shown quite a bit). It's gotten so bad that I can practically have visions of wandering through the desert every time I read it.

I'll copy and paste all the information here once it's complete. Don't expect it for a while though.

[Delirium Semen]

Originally posted by Variant:

- Burden has a diary, I can't find it but he does.

here's a transcription of it http://falias.tumblr.com/post/97325342891/i-made-transcriptions-of-burdens-diary-entries