Where did the idea that Nancy doesn't age come from?
As for her achievements in Eternum... I'm not sure that's worth addressing in detail, so I'll only say that she took over the WRE by punching one sad pathetic man who only had power because people let him. That's it. And she is smart, dedicated enough that she probably studied military strategy in her spare time once she was in charge, and—this part is important—this is a fantasy story in which multiple people who all happen to know one another to one degree or another form one of the most powerful groups in Eternum, with one of them having 100% compatibility and incredible powers he got by existing.
She does not "work for the Founder". And the "super important guy (who) is getting in to her lab every week", she doesn't have anything to do with him other than that she orchestrates a plan to hack into the guy's laptop to steal vital information. That seems like something someone conspiring with the Founder would do?
There is zero possibility one of the heroes turns out to be a villain. Wild speculation is one thing. Theories which would require Cari to be abducted and replaced by an evil replica in order to become reality are another.
THANK YOU. Some people really don't have any media literacy at all. "Why is this character in this adventure story surprisingly competent right off that bat? That's suspicious." Because that's how the narrative goes. Would it really be more satisfying if Nancy was totally useless and just existed to be eye candy and check the MILF box? Absolutely not. We got that in Cari's last game, with the maternal figure who was totally unengaged from the main plot, and it made her feel like an afterthought. Nancy is way better.
It's a pretty common theory (that I also believe in) that there's some sort of timeloop shenanigans going on in the story. Plus time in Kredon seems weird; the weather is bizarre and Annie mentions that hair grows really quickly in Kredon. I sometimes wonder whether Kredon isn't just an Eternum server and the whole cast are NPCs. I think the MC himself is clearly brainwashed in some capacity, he's got suppressed memories and keeps repeating "I hardly ever dream in the first place" every time he has a dream.
I think the timeloop (if it exists) erases memories but not emotions, so they get reinforced each loop.
- In the sex scene with Nancy in the elevator she says she's wanted to have sex with the MC since she saw him in the park, which is a little odd.
- In the blowjob scene with Dalia in the Cove she mentions the MC's cum tastes exactly as she imagined, which is also a little odd.
- In the latest update if you romance Calypso the MC will mention that kissing her felt like something that was meant to happen.
- The MC knows stuff about the love interests he should have no way of knowing (favourite foods, movies, etc), Dalia even calls him out about knowing her favourite movie is the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
On the original point about Calypso outliving everyone, I guess the easiest answer would just be to say that everyone aren't humans, but are instead human looking "eldari" like the ones she said were in the story about Queen Anima.
Now this is actually quite an interesting point regarding the time loop theory. I was relatively unconvinced of it in the past, believing instead that all of this
has happened before but to different people in different universes, but playing through the game again and especially with some of the additions in 0.9 I'm starting to come around to it. I wonder if that has anything to do with Luna's powers? Pretty easy to see the future if it's a future that's happened before, when you think about it, and since Orion seems to be the only one who could make changes that would explain why she doesn't get any visions with him.
I haven't really considered that people beside Orion will keep emotions/memories from previous iterations. If the dev was decided this to part of the outline from as early as 0.1, and has incorporated it, this is amazing planning on their side.
Everyone being eldari don't sound like interesting reveal to me, the same for Kredon being server thou that one's mostly due to Idriel mentioning that she can't help Orion outside of Eternum. It would be interesting if there is something special for the city, there was even a few hints about it, but i am not sure if it will be something major. I can imagine it being the point of least resistance / point of overlap between realms, leading to the Ulysses headquarter being located there for actual reasons. Possibly The Founder was the one that reached out to William, using the sociopath that didn't care about other people, in order to bring people from Earth in Eternum for his own reasons. William already know that there is more going on with Eternum, so him being the reason the implants were manufactured and spread around Earth will be interesting possibility. Possibly due to this overlap Alex being "half elf" is one of the myriad of weird anomalies in the region, such as the unique butterflies or the chaotic weather.
Part of me consider the ending of the game will be "Orion had kids with everyone and settled in remote location / small town in order to raise them". Possibly this would be somehow tied with "Eternum being actual realm rather than JUST afterlife leading to Orion and the Girls moving in there on their personal paradise". I am also interesting how Calypso's wander lust will meet it's end, or if the epilogue will consist of her hanging out with Orion until all the girls die and then exploring different servers/words in Eternum with him. Possibly having the girls continue as ghost in Eternum once their physical bodies expire.
On further note about the Ulysses headquarter, our talk at the interview showed something like "lightning going out was" was apparently something that never happens. I wrote the idea for the implant and the headquarter above, but it will be interesting of the player that died at the end of 0.9 are due to direct result of Luna pulling the plug. It's most likely The Syndicate pulling strings to accelerate things that were already going to happens. Still the idea that this somehow lead to the players being killed, is interesting if unlikely.
I'd feel
really bad for Luna if the huge amount of deaths was technically her fault for shutting off the power. That would be absolutely tragic.
I agree with all your arguments, but that brings us back to square one—this whole discussion started because Caribdis said that the 0.10 cliffhanger would destroy us. That's why I started thinking about betrayal and potential agents of the Founder.
The reason why this talk started was Caribdis cryptic message. It's hard not to consider the developer's opinion as sufficient evidence in the case of a game they are releasing.
I think the point people are making is that you're reaching. The dev saying the next update's cliffhanger will be brutal isn't really useful as evidence for otherwise baseless claims. Like, a few people speculated that a bunch of the girls will get killed and trapped in Eternum as NPCs, but that wouldn't really fit this story too well either. Just because next episode will supposedly have a huge emotional cliffhanger doesn't mean jumping to conclusions.
I could see one of the girls betraying us against their will, if we want to explore that theory in more rational ways. To stick with your example of Nancy, for example, let's say Ulysses captures Penny and Dalia and threatens to kill them unless Nancy leads Orion into a trap for whatever reason. She would probably do it, reluctantly, because she knows that there's a better chance of Orion getting out of the trap than of her somehow saving her daughters while refusing. But she wouldn't just betray him - she'd do her best to signal to him somehow that everything is not okay. And that, to me, undercuts the emotional trauma that Cari is foreshadowing.
I do think we're likely to see one or more of the girls threatened, or brutally killed within the game; not something with permanent consequences, but something that, to the audience and to Orion, would be jarring and visually traumatic. It maybe it'll be something about Calypso's kingdom, who knows? It's even possible Cari is trolling us, but I do think we should consider it as though he's not.
But this isn't the kind of game where we're going to see major death or betrayal for the love interests. There are plenty of grittier games out there where that stuff happens, but Eternum just isn't one of them. It would be a huge tonal shift given how close we are to the end, with little chance of fixing things satisfactorily before the finale. None of the girls have given us reason to suspect them as a double agent, and surely if they were trying to get to us because of Calypso they would've had ample opportunities to betray us by now. It just wouldn't fit the story that's being told.
