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Since the 1990s, the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Monkey Island series of adventure games has served as one of the baselines of the entire genre. In addition to its timeless humor and characters, though, the original game, The Secret of Monkey Island, established a seemingly unanswerable curiosity in the gaming public: what actually is the Secret?
The actual capital-S Secret was never touched upon in the original game, nor was it addressed in any subsequent game. For decades, gamers old and young have wondered about it, to the point that the mystery of the secret has become a knowing in-joke for both players and game designers. In Return to Monkey Island, though, the Secret was the focus of the story, giving us a chance to find out what it is finally. Unfortunately, the ending of the game leaves things a bit... ambiguous, to put the matter pol♑itely.
Beware Spoilers Ahead, Mateys
The Set-Up
At the tail-end of Return to Monkey Island, Guybrush Threepwood successfully finds all the golden keys to unlock the Voodoo Lady's magic vault, revealing the golden chest containing the genuine Secret of Monkey Island within. Unfortunately, LeChuck snatches the chest and runs off to Monkey Island to enact a ritual to open it up. Guybrush chases LeChuck into the fiery bowels of the monkey head, solving a gigantic stܫone 𝕴puzzle to enter the secret chamber LeChuck had stowed away into.
Within the chamber, Guybrush finds... a cheap theme park-like recreation of Melee Island, his friends and adversaries rendered nothing more than cheesy animatronics. He's greeted by Stan, who tells him the park is closing, though before Guybrush leaves, he opens the golden chest, revealing a crummy novelty t-shirt that reads, "I found the Secret of Monkey Island and all it was was this stupid t-shirt." He's then greeted by Elaine, inexplicably ahead of him, before we suddenly smash-cut to Guybrush finishing the story to his understandably-upset son.
Obviously, after sitting on the matter for over 30 years, to discover that the Secret of Monkey Island is just a t-shirt would be pretty disappointing. However, there are factors at play here that imply there is more to the Secret than just a stupid t-shirt. While there's no way to confirm the truth short of bothering Ron Gilbert, we do have some theories.
Theory 1: A Story For The Future
The Secret really was just a stupid t-shirt or some other generally useless tchotchke. This wouldn't be that far out of character for this series; after all, other big treasures like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Big Whoop or La Esponja Grande ended up being pretty underwhelming in the end. However, while the payoff stunk, Guybrush di🐠d still get something out🃏 of his wacky adventure: a story to pass down to the next generation of swashbucklers.
One of the ending dialogue choices you can choose has Guybrush explain to Boybrush that the Secret is like a story and that its true nature changes depending on who experiences what it has to offer. Elaine even adds that Guybrush has told this story previously, and every time he tells it, it gets more exaggerated. He could've gotten all the renown in the world for discovering a tangible secret, but for Guybrush, that ultimately didn't mean as much to him as the conclusion of the best adventure story he could possibly tell to anyone who listens.
Theory 2: Closure
The Secret was that there was no secret. It was just a flimsy justification for Guybrush to go through the mother of all midlife crises. Throughout the entire game, and especially during the ending, something seems subtly off about not just Guybrush's behavior, but the behaviors of those around him. His friends from Melee Island are virtually unchanged from how they were 30 years ago, while newcomers like the new Pirate Leaders are extremely hostile and dismissive of him. Elaine, in particular, always seems to be talking to Guybrush in a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:weirdly placid, polite tone. She never stops smiling, she never tells him to stop what he's doing, she just goes right along with whatever he wants to do, almost like she's just humoring him.
Given Elaine's sudden appearance at the end of the story at Stan's little mock-up of Melee, not to mention Stan's offhanded comment that everyone has been waiting for Guybrush to leave so they can close, it is entirely possible that Guybrush and Elaine were just visiting a cheap park themed after his past adventures. Guybrush is getting on in years and hasn't had any big scores lately, so perhaps he wanted to return to his roots (or a rough approximation of his roots) and live out the glory days just one last time before getting on with his life. Plus, don't even act like Stan wouldn't try to merchandise the events of the previous games if given the opportunity.
Theory 3: The Key To History
The Secret was the key to human history. During the last chat with Boybrush after Guybrush finishes telling the story, you're given a choice of several explanations for what the Secret is. All of these explanations sound generally dismissive or hand-wavey, but the interesting thing is that, after the credits roll, we get a brief scene reflecting the choice you make. If Guybrush says the Secret was a wellspring of treasure, we see Boybrush swimming in a giant pile of gold coins. If he says the real Secret was "the friends we made along the way," he's seen paling around with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:some of his friends in a boat (along with Putra and Murray, who are definitely not his friends - not true friends, anyway). It's possible that in discovering the Secret, Guybrush has obtained the ability to influence the passage of history through his storytelling.
While you could just write this off as a nugget of metafictional convenience, the sudden appearance of Stan's Melee park means there have to be magical forces at play (assuming Guybrush didn't just make that part up). Considering the magical nature of Monkey Island seen in previous games, not to mention all the ritual nonsense that went into accessing the final chamber, it would make sense for the Secret to be some manner of magical item or force. The ability to control history through stories would certainly fit the bill.
Theory 4: An Unpleasant Truth
The Secret of Monkey Island is... the Secret of Monkey Island. That is to say, the Secret isn't of Monkey Island the landmass; it's of Monkey Island the series. Consider this: what is an adventure game if not a stage, a bit of theatrical amusement for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:us, the viewers? What are its characters, if not marionettes dancing about? If you look at it that way, then could the Melee park not be that very stage, the crude animatronics of its residents those marionettes? In discovering the Secret, Guybrush may have, if only for a moment, seen his world as we see it. He may have learned the worst possible truth: that his life's work, and indeed his life itself, have been a work of fiction.
At several points throughout the story, various NPCs like the Voodoo Lady, Elaine, and Flambe tell Guybrush that he's making a mistake in pursuing the Secret - that he won't like what he finds at the end of the line. It's possible that this was some manner of metafictional defense mechanism, dropping characters where they shouldn't be to say things they shouldn't say to keep Guybrush away from the truth. This could also be why Guybrush exaggerates his story so much to Boybrush: he's been burdened with knowledge, and cannot, in good conscience, spread that burden to anyone else.
It is entirely possible that we will never know the true identity of the Secret of Monkey Island. Perhaps that's for the best, though. As Elaine says at the game's end, it's unlikely the Secret could have lived up to decades of expectations. Better to leave the matter ambiguous so it can continue to fuel wild fantasizing.