Another thing that occurred to me is that this plot seems to be making a really big deal about the fact that we, the player, are a pretty cool person. I think almost every character so far has commented on our good nature (including ourselves, self-congratulatory twerps that we are). This Skedhu thing seems like it's being set up as some kind of cosmic karmic mirror. Maybe it'll see us, go "hey, you're pretty cool," and that'll push us over the threshold into happy ending territory, lol.

Or, probably more likely, maybe it'll just see Jaxon decide to give his heart to this perfect stranger Dungarde and resign himself to eternal ghostliness. Maybe it'll decide that was pretty nice of him and give him a second chance, or something.

My thoughts: Maybe Jaxon should get his body and his memories back. I mean, he can't really be sorry about what he did unless he actually, you know, knows what he did, right? He can live, but he has to live with the guilt. That seems fair.

And, since I believe the people writing it know about that, I agree with when they say it could probably be a fakeout. A lot of things are not settling well with me at the moment, especially concerning the Dungarde, because so far things seem to have been pretty straightfoward and simple: we sold puzzles, give him hearts, it gives us information. But the whole "lie by omission" things has not left my mind, so I'm not so keen on trusting this being.

I agree with about Skedhu being set up as some sort of karma mirror; even though I'm not an English native speaker and have been reading the plot dialogue mostly during the night (so, losing a lot of details), it has been the impression I had even back when Jaxon first explained what the word meant.

I would think that, if the Dungarde isn't actively deceiving for "evil purposes", than it might be lying by omission to test if Jaxon is really willing to sacrifice his own freedom to maybe start owning to his family's past mistakes? Maybe Dungardale is Skedhu, or maybe he is a part of Jaxon who is trapped there, maybe his memories and his other rotten feelings, trying to test if his heart is truly changed...?

Either way, the way the whole thing has been set so far makes me think that it is a test. And then, maybe the Dungarde is worried about Ian for it knows that his feelings might prevent him from letting Jaxon sacrifice himself in order to prove his change of heart?

That's probably it for my rambling... it doesn't add much to the discussion, I guess, but I needed to get it out of my chest. Also, I think it would make sense Jaxon did get his memories back in the end... if he is truly going through a route of self-improvement, he needs to be aware of his past in order to make sure to never repeat it, right? :)

A!!!!

RELIEF!!!!!!!

Also, I'm surprised there was no boss fight or anything. But then I guess not all plots end that way. I don't recall the 2013 Masquerade plot having one, but that was a long time ago and my memory of that is vague.

The current ending feels a little sudden, and I'm curious what will happen once Jaxon's awake (suddenly being back among the living in a previously long-deceased body must be weird), but so far it looks like we've got ourselves a happy ending for now. 😊

...I have to wonder if we'll get more information on what the Dungarde's deal is, though. That brief flash of its memories was pretty weird, and unless I missed it, it doesn't seem like it got any kind of explanation so far.

very thankful that my pedantic complaints about finding his heart when his body just... rotting out in the middle of nowhere was addressed lmao. also very thankful it looks like we've gotten a nice happy ending :') i would've liked to see the actual skedhu (assuming it's a singular entity) but i'll settle for fighting noflaik!

I think there's a chance we might hear a bit more about it when the plot prizes are given out (if not on the prize page or whatever leads up to it, then maybe in some of the item descriptions), so for now it's just making me wonder if I overlooked it mentioning anything else.

It's too bad there's no way to replay that segment, as far as I can tell. I'd love to see what some of the choices I ended up not picking lead to - a couple of the wrong choices I got to see were pretty amusing, like the one involving the crystal.

i stopped screencapping the choose your own adventure section after a bit, but i ran into the nest of pylots one, i got knocked unconscious running from graveyard popokos that were offended by my stale crackers and pocket cheese, and i think i may have had one more (TRY AGAIN/QUIT) ending. :B i'm... not so good at navigating the woods! hopefully that doesn't cause problems for my prizes, hah.