Shadow of Memories/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

** Actually, no. Ending D is paradoxial, in that if Homunculus were simply sealed up into the stone again, he would never have been free to do the things he did in 1980 and 2001, and the [[Stable Time Loop]] ''isn't'' one. (Note that Homunculus is ''not'' sealed again in ending E, however.)

*** To further this confusion, while D cannot be a [[Stable Time Loop]] resolution to the game because of Homunculus's lack of opportunity for involvement, neither can any other ending, for similar reasons: In the others, ''Hugo'' is prevented from completing the loop. As he is sixteen at the time of his attempts on Eike's life, and it is revealed that his much older self is the one that finally finished a time machine to follow Eike with, Hugo needed to stick to his goal and live to that older age, so that his older self would actually ''finish making'' that time machine to hand to him, to start(?) this whole mess in the first place.

'''-''' And in the EX endings, either ''Homunculus'' is [[Never the Selves Shall Meet|taken out of the equation]] before he can get Eike to release him from the stone, and therefore the whole thing never happened, or<br />

'''-''' Helena is cured, which means Dr. Wagner doesn't have a reason to become mournful and obsess on his studies, which would have turned to creating a life (Homunculus) and ultimately lead to his disappearance... and again, this means Hugo has no reason to hunt down poor Eike. }}

* I think what some people may be missing is that Homunculus is a Djin, a godlike creature. While it's never explicitly stated, I think Homunculus' existence is constant in every timeline/universe (much like how the Elder God in [[Legacy of Kain]] knows what's going on even when encountered centuries before he meets Raziel). So even if in the ''D'' timeline Wagner resealed him, Homunculus still exists in a freed state in another. It's probable that he was merely trying to prevent an abosolute termination of his existence. The EX ending has him either never being freed because Wagner used the stone and thus never sought to create human life with it, or is used by Eike to wipe him from existence via a paradox (which Homunculus explained totally removes the person in question from existence entirely). While this still raises some questions (how come Hugo's paradox in the one ending didn't just reset events to start, and so on), but it does at least give a possible reasoning for every ending to have some connection (but not be linked, as I stand by the idea that each is an independent result in seperate timelines). Two other theories I have had have been that when Wagner sealed Homunculus, the spell backfired and seperated the stone from Homunculus (which is why he's weakened and slightly confused when Eike stumbles upon him in the past). Or, he never did get resealed, he teleported, and the stone is always seperated him from (kind of like the gem that houses the Djin from Wishmaster, they're connected, but seperate at the same time).

* Any and all talk of "ABC" and "DE" timelines on this page makes no sense to this particular troper, especially the thought that Eike is Dr. Wagner's descendant in the "ABC timeline". Two conflicting points exist on this supposed timeline, both stated by [[Unreliable Narrator|Homunculus]]. First, he switched Dana and Margarete in case Hugo tried to play the stranded-ancestor card; second, Dr. Wagner's spirit can't be summoned because he isn't dead yet... in 2001. Of course, it's entirely possible that both are true and Dr. Wagner is wandering the world still as Eike's [[Identical Grandson|identical ancestor]], but that entirely eradicates the very plausible theory that Homunculus is able to bring Eike back to life in certain situations because Dr. Wagner traded his soul for youth (though it is just a theory). It's also possible that even Homunculus isn't sure if Eike is Dr. Wagner or a remarkably similar descendant, which would also make both statements make sense. Not to mention the EX Endings...