Monkey Island 2 ending (may contain spoilers)
 

I've always wondered:

What exactly was the meaning of MI 2's dénouement (ending)? As soon as I encountered it, I was left stone cold. What the heck did it signify, and how did MI 3 fit in? Enlighten me, fellow adventurers.

I edited the title of your post to warn those who haven't played the game not to read this thread. And since I haven't played it, I will now make myself scarce. :D

Lol, cool, cool.

The closest you'll get to an answer is a line from Elaine about whether Guybrush may have fallen prey to a curse. Beyond that, you'd have had to wait for MI3 to come out - Gilbert's, not COMI. Of course, that never happened.

In the series chronology as written by the later games, it was all a big trick by LeChuck - the Carnival of the Damned he was using to build his pirate army. Of course, by then LeChuck was a buffoon, so it didn't matter.

Although I have all the games, I haven't played them for about a year, so the endings are a bit musty. I'm still confused. :(

Wait, what exactly happens at the end of MI2 again? You're in this underground passage right; then, Le Chuck appears, or something...?

You beat LeChuck, he asks Guybrush to take off his mask, and is revealed to be his little brother Chuckie. Then the adults come in and escort them out into the Big Whoop theme park, which is a redressed version of Booty Island.

It ties in with the original theme park premise of the series, but little beyond that.

There wasn't supposed to be a part 3. It was just a dream of a little boy, that's what I heard anyway.

Doesn't quite tally with the zappy-lightning eyes, and the shots of Elaine after Guybrush disappears. Gilbert has said that he'd have liked to have done a third.

There is always the possibility that Gilbert never intended to make a third game, and his claims to the contrary are an elaborate joke at the expense of his fans.

True. And there may not even be a 'secret' anyway. It's possibile that Gilbert made the ending as confusing as possible simply to get players talking about the game (at which he succeeded admirably: 14 years on and we're still going on about it...)

I gave you 1 and 2 and you havent played it? Boooooooooooooooooooooooo :devil: Top 3 game ever.

That's unbelievable. :crazy:

Haven't been on a houseboat lately. :)

Seriously though, I started playing it on my way to E3, and then got kinda busy reporting stuff and everything, and then never picked it up again.

I'll get to it, though. :P Hopefully before someone spoils the ending for me. :shifty:

*ducks out of thread again*

If iI recall correctly, this article is a pretty good analysis of monkey island 2's ending and the series as a whole. Its just one guy's opinion but its still pretty intereting.

Where? I don't a page.

This sticky thread provides this link.

EDIT: Found another one.

It would matter if someone spoiled the ending. It's not that I don't like it, but it's not exactly a huge climax either.

I didn't find it confusing at all.

All of Guybrush's silly adventures were in the imagination of a child.

CMI just had to come up with a way to justify a sequel so it continued as it did.

I kinda thought that after playing EMI the secret of monkey island was that it was a big robot whatsit. No?

Right. CoMI said that the secret was that there was a portal to Hell (the portal being the Big Whoop Guybrush was searching for in MI2) on Monkey Island. EfMI indeed said that giant monkey robot was the REAL secret. If there's ever a MI5, it will probably make up a REALLY real secret.

Okay, instead of making a new thread, I'll just use this.

Anyone ever played Chrono Cross? Two worlds, somewhat related. What if there were two worlds in the Monkey Island universe as well? I mean, we've all discussed the "dream" ending or the "curse" ending (explained in CMI). But have anyone actually considere there being two worlds?

Big Whoop was a portal to another world. The Voodoo lady said so. Now consider, all her predictions have been fairly exaggerated. Word play, see? Big Whoop? As in, not really that big a deal? This portal may have been to a modern day parallell dimension. In Chrono Cross, we see how characters that are alive in one dimension, may have died at an early age in the other. The event that triggered the death happened in both worlds, but there were two alternative outcomes.

Now, let's look at Monkey Island 2. Guybrush's parents apparently died a long time ago in the MI dimension. When LeChuck and Guybrush enters the portal, the parents are alive, and LeChuck and Guybrush are brothers and children. You know, like a mirrored reality. Brothers usually love each other right? Well, in the MI dimension, they obviously hate each other. They're also grown up. In the other dimension, they are children. Also, keep in mind that Ron Gilbert both denied and confirmed they were brothers. "Yes they are brothers, but they're not really brothers". Makes sense? I think it does.

The magic coming from child LeChuck's (or Chuckie's) head may hint us that LeChuck might have found a way to exploit this discovery. After all, the Voodoo lady warned us about letting LeChuck finding it first. The fact that we got a screen that showed us Elaine wondering what's taking Guybrush so long - could be a hint that there are actually two worlds.

Now, maybe in the end, LeChuck was supposed to get his revenge. After all, it WAS called LeChuck's Revenge, and where else does this happen? Star Wars. Empire Strikes Back. The second movie of the original trilogy. The empire gets their revenge in the second part, LeChuck gets his revenge in the second part. First movie ended somewhat conclusively, first game ended somewhat conclusively. Third movie was the grand finale... third game would perhaps be the grand finale.

EDIT: as a final note, I also think I've read an interview with Ron where he says that the MI3 explanation is pretty close to what he had in mind... I think this explanation is rather close to what CMI tells us.