Someone with a thorough plot explanation?

[12D3V4R]

Completed it yesterday but i still have some questions. Ive googled around for plot summarization but they were not that good.

Some of the questions i have are:
- Why is Manny working there?
- How can you even sell tickets when people are entitled to specific ones depending on how they lived their life? You would basically just be handing them out, not selling them.
- What does it mean to be sprouted? You either have 4 years in the land of the dead or 4 minutes, then you can get to rest. Where do you end up after being sprouted?
- What was the whole scam about? Getting to the good customers, stealing their tickets, making them slave workers at the end of the world? (and for what, some seaweed, whats that for?)
- If they stole the real tickets, and sold the fake ones, then what use are there of the real ones?
- At the greenhouse in the end there are tons of flowers. Why would they be there, is it Hector LeMans personal graveyard? Why would he water them to keep them alive, Manny even asks the same thing.
- His little light of his, why is he gonna let it shine?

[Null]

- It's never stated. It's implied that he has sins in life that he has to work off before passing on to the next life. People in the land of the dead tend to not discuss their lives, as that's behind them. Eva states this at the beginning of the game.
- Only the Number 9 tickets are handed out to the saintly and nobody can use another's ticket. Hector's racket revolved around selling people fake tickets that they wont realize are fake until four years and tens of thousands of miles later. At the same time, people he sells them to wont be able to rat him out as these people are sent straight to Hell. The DOD is corrupt from top to bottom. It's like those PPI reclaim companies in britain; rotten to the core fleecing money off people.
- According to the writers, sprouting someone reincarnates them in the land of the living. This of course means that you're gonna have to start all over again and wait maybe another century for paradise.
- For coral, which is an animal more than a plant, and is quite valuable as seen in year 1 when Manny finds Domino's trophy. There's also the fact that it allowed Hector to amass a sizable amount of wealth by selling them to rich people who brought money with them. Even if everyone is dead, money still has its uses.
- Hector sold the real ones to people who were sinners in life. As you see in year 4, people who try to use stolen tickets get a one-way trip to Hell, and the people who have their tickets stolen are enslaved by Domino, meaning nobody will run back to El Marrow and reveal his scam.
- Flowers are not a good thing in the land of the dead, as they represent death and decay. This is akin to an evil tyrant in a fantasy novel decorating his castle with skulls. It's the macabreness of it.
- It's based on a gospel song by Harry Dixon Loes

[12D3V4R]

Thank you!
Was starting to think id get no answers.
Still a bit confused doe

Originally posted by Fz Dynelight:

-Hector's racket revolved around selling people fake tickets that they wont realize are fake until four years and tens of thousands of miles later.

and

Originally posted by Fz Dynelight:

-Hector sold the real ones to people who were sinners in life. As you see in year 4, people who try to use stolen tickets get a one-way trip to Hell

So he sold both fake tickets and real tickets? In the end it doesnt matter since you go to hell for both but still odd.

Originally posted by Fz Dynelight:

- Only the Number 9 tickets are handed out to the saintly

So when a saint comes to the land of the dead, they quickly get out there, steal the ticket and enslave them. If a sinner comes, they would try to sell them a ticket to the number 9. But werent those the customers that Manny got, and he cannot sell that cus he is not in on the scam? Also, are there other tickets, or just gear like the walking stick. Either 4 minutes with the ticket, or 4 years with some form of gear.

Also, reincarnation doesnt sound that bad. Usually people see it as a good thing so its a bit weird they try to avoid it that much.

[jinmaruuu]

Just finished playing the game, thought I'd just jump in with my thoughts... take with a grain of salt though of course

It's a bit vague, but it sounds like they don't sell the real tickets, just record in the system that the client was sold the one they deserved. Hector was keeping all the real tickets hoarded for himself.

Manny's boss, Don Copal, would direct all the best clients to Domino, and all the terrible ones (like Celso and the rude old man) to Manny. Even if Manny did somehow get a good client (like Meche, which was not intended), his computer automatically refused to recognize that they deserved one, so either way the real ticket never makes it to the rightful holder.

As for going to hell, only the ones trying to trick their way into heaven (the 9th underworld) were destined for hell. The ones who lost their tickets were simply stuck waiting at the train station forever, until Manny and co. went back for the real ones.

It's likely most regular people don't know that each "deserving" person has their very own ticket that "belongs" to them alone, and that they move. Manny only recognizes that they're counterfeit because he remembers handling them back before the DOD was corrupted. It's probably like if someone sells you a fake concert ticket, but since you've never seen the real thing, you have no idea it's fake until it's not accepted.

There are a whole bunch of other travel packages - in the intro Manny offers Celso pamphets showing a sports car, a boat, stuff like that. The other options probably make it a little faster - the Bonewagon gets Manny and Glottis to Rubacava extremely early - four years is probably the estimate based on walking (no vehicle).

People probably fear reincarnation because they would have to go back and eventually do the entire process over again. The end goal seems to be to reach the 9th underworld, which is their heaven/Nirvana I guess.

Still, as Domino says, "We found a way to make the Land of the Dead LIVABLE! Why would we want to leave?" Also it sounds like the process of being sprouted is extremely agonizing, with the roots of the flowers tearing them apart - makes a decent reason to want to avoid being sprouted.

[identifiedasbeingdisrespectful]

I thought it was implied they didn't know why they were working there or what they'd done (and possibly nothing at all since the DoD was corrupt). If you ask Domino about his past you both say you can't remember what you did to end up there.

[SpectatorBehold]

Originally posted by 12D3V4R:

- Why is Manny working there?

As others have stated, no details of this are ever stated. But... I think you just have to play the game to get a general idea of why: throughout the game, Manny doesn't hesitate to steal, cheat, lie, break/subvert the law/rules and so on and on, to accomplish his goals. And he never (or seldom) seem to realize/acknowledge that these are things you shouldn't do (beyond saying that he's very competitive as such). Thing is, he isn't malicious about it and would never lower himself to the depths Domino and Hector does. In fact, you might say it's because he's just that good (morally speaking) that he's in the situation he is at the beginning of the game: Domino and Hector are playing a much meaner game than Manny does and so he's at his wit's end and it isn't until he resorts to cheating the system that is rigged against him that he starts understanding this...

If you've read/seen Terry Pratchett's Making Money, then think of it like this: Manny is like Moist von Lipwig while Domino and Hector are Reacher Gilt :) .