Closer76

Yeah, I had thought about that whole Westhouse showing up a few days later thing. But, it might be reconciled if he said hello to Benrime and said he needed something from the basement before they talked. It's not a great explanation, probably pretty bad. The key is to collect all the incidents with the prophet, Brian, and that Dark One that didn't recognise April and piece together what information we have. 1. The Prophet goes to the Inn and somehow goes unnoticed by Benrime, even though he opens up the door to the cellar. 2. Brian appears a day or two after the Prophet incident and appears in good health and age. I forgot, but I guess someone said that April remarks on how young he still looks. 3. Brian went into the portal in 1933, is supposedly "the last hope" according to some Monk's, and meets the undreaming. 4. Brian "reappears" in Arcadia about 300 years later, and while a drunkard, appears to be an honest, good person. He says this is a result of him being "unstuck" in time. 5. The Dark One ship captain doesn't recognize April when he should. The other Dark One says that something might have "blinded" him. 6. Brian remarks with "evil intrigue" at Zoe's power. Also, the White Dragon has a strange reaction to him. 7. The White Dragon seemed to recognize her assailant before the attack. The problem is reconciling all of this data into a cohesive, probable story. Here's my theory. 1. Brian Westhouse was invaded by the Undreaming and taken control, but the Undreaming lay dormant. He was stuck in time until the Undreaming saw it's opportunity for its evil desires, so it "kicked" Westhouse out of statis he was in, and into Arcadia. Lieing dormant once again, it allowed Westhouse to live as he wished to, gaining trust and reputation in Arcadia. Now the Undreaming is taking control of Westhouse much more than before, but he remembers none of it, an unwilling, unknowing accomplice. Westhouse is the Prophet, and attacks the Dragons (this would work well with his journeys across the globe) and is behind the plot to destroy dreams. In this tale, Westhouse is merely a tool. The problems here, as you stated Moo, is that Benrime, while not noticing the cloaked man, reacted to him as if she hadn't seen him for years. This can be solved by a hypothesis: the Undreaming can cloud people's thoughts, and not allow them to recognize truth as it is. This would allow the Prophet/Westhouse to walk into the Inn, and cloud Benrime's thoughts making her forget that she had seen Westhouse, that he was even there. This would also account for the Dark One and the White Dragon, who's thoughts had been clouded by the Undreaming. This makes sense since the Undreaming must be some supernatural force that deals with thoughts, so clouding others thoughts might be a tool it has. Just as it clouds Westhouse's mind so he never realizes it is there. It is killing the Dragons because they, like the Jedi for the Emperor, are the only real force that stands between it and what it wants. What does it want? Dreams. It hates dreams. By definition, it is the Undreaming, and any dream that occurs in the world drives it mad with jealousy and hatred. We have seen that the Undreaming has a good potential for extending livespans, so my theory is it also exists in or controls Peats. Sure machines are necessary, at least for looks, but it is really the Undreaming that is controlling Peats and creating the scherme for dreams. Thus upon Peats death, the Undreaming leaves its control of him, and takes over Reza. I think the Undreaming can only control 2 people at a time, one in each world, and this would explain the whole remark from Zoe that Reza is not really Reza. That's my theory, please point out missed points or holes, and I'll try to fill them. PS- I love you quote, Moosferatu! Psychonatus rule! That's my favorite level in the whole game!

I just finished Dreamfall yesterday, and I admit that the ending can be frustrating at first, if it is taken "out of context". Now let me explain what I mean. What the author is going for here is formulating a sort of play or trilogy. For any of you who have seen Shakespeare, then you know that at the end of the second Act, everything has gone to Heck, and it may look like nothing is recoverable. It is the darkest moment of the play, when the protagonist has seemed to lose and the antagonist has seemed to win. Thus the ending, seen in this light, is perfect. You're supposed to ruminate on what is occuring and egarly await the conclusion, or final act. So I have quickly come to terms with the ending and seen in this light like it. However, I do feel there are some concerns or criticisms that I would like to verse. Zoe's character isvery well flushed out, and April's is pretty good too, but Kian's character just does not have enough time dedicated to him. There needed to be at least one more scene with him, perhaps with Na'ane on the way to the swamp where he can tlk with her and start to contemplate his place in the world and the Azadi. His character arc is a good arc, but goes so quickly that one has to go on faith alone to believe that his change makes sense. There needed to be more time with him, probably 2 scenes at least, and I would have liked 1 more scene with April if possible for more character advancement. The other problems I had with the game was it was too short, overall. It took me about 14 hours to play, and I tried to talk to everyone about everything. There needed to be more meat, (and potatoes) there. I think some more puzzles which are a little more complex, some more items and some more complex item combining would have been nice. One thing adventure games have done in the past few years is allow you to fully 3D examine an object and find clues and such from the object by closer examination. This would have been nice. Also, while I don't have any real problem with the combat, per se, the camera should fix it self behind you when in combat. The camera is so annoying to get where you want it that it can be pretty detrimental in combat. No before I shut up, I also have a few story observations. One that I don't think has been brought up is that the Innkeeper Benrime never saw that cloaked man come into the inn. This leaves 3 possiblities. He can make himself invisible. Unlikely since you see him, but maybe April has a special ability. The second option is that Benrime is in on the conspiracy, but this seems pretty unlikely, since she is helping rebels against the Azadi. The third an final option is that the Robed man was someone she knew, and when he took off his hood she didn't have a second thought. I suppose a fourth option is in the conspiracy option, the prophet is trying to bring down the Azadi secretly, but this seems unlikely. Through this, I think the best conclusion is that it is Brian Westhouse since she wouldn't have noticed him as an evil cloaked figure, and thus answered April in the negative to this question. However, if it is Brian, then I believe that he doesn't realize that the undreaming is inside him, and it lies dormant until it wishes to take him over. He probably doesn't remember anything that occurs during that time. The two holes in this theory is that the prophet doesn't look like he has a beard, and when Brian says "interesting" in response to Zoe's power. This can be reconciled with the fact that maybe the undreaming was controlling him at that point. Just thought I'd throw it out there.