Unmarked spoilers follow for 5 Days A Stranger, 7 Days A Skeptic, Trilby's Notes and 6 Days A Sacrifice.
In 6 Days A Sacrifice, how come DeFoe is afraid of Trilby? John DeFoe lived in cellar, locked up. In 5 Days, they even say that he is so stunted that he cannot identify people. So why is he afraid of Trilby, if he cannot identify him?!
Trilby managed to inflict pain on him, which was a very traumatic experience. And remember, Trilby forced John back into his own body. According to the caretaker forced back into your own body, especially when it's just bones, is rather painful. And follow that up by having his body burned by a fire, while he can feel both his bones and the house burn down, and you can see why Defoe would be freaked out by Trilby's presence. John might be retarded, but he is not blind nor deaf, so it is not that much of a stretch for him to be able to identify the person who killed him all over again.
Except even if Trilby was the one to create the spell to "revive" John in his own body, wasn't it Simone who directly killed him? Also, even if John wasn't blind and deaf and could comprehend who was saying and doing what, wasn't it also Simone and Jim primarily catching his attention after revival when they indirectly channeled the other DeFoes before they killed him?
John DeFoe couldn't see either of them because they were channeling someone else's spirits at the time. From John's perspective, the only three people in the room were his father, his brother, and Trilby.
They weren't Simone and Jim at the time, they were possessed by John's father and brother, and John already hated the former. But nonetheless, he's seen Trilby actively fight the Welder when it was just people dressed up and mind-controlled: in other words, he's tried to stop Trilby, and failed. He knows he could kill his father and brother, but in his own addled mind, there's nothing he can do to stop Trilby.
Perhaps they would have worked as clone templates too, but John DeFoe never encountered them again, so we'll never know.
In 5 Days A Stranger, why does it never occur to the characters to just break a window? Just because they've all "jammed shut" doesn't mean they're unbreakable. Normally I'd forgive something like this, but it kind of bothers me when the main character is a cat burglar by profession.
They are unbreakable. On one of the days the TV mentions that the police have made multiple attempts to break in and failed. The people are trapped there by a supernatural force. Thin, but it is what it is.
Also, cat burglars don't break windows. It's what sets them apart from regular burglars.
Even so, the fact that they don't even try is kind of annoying.
In 5 Days A Stranger, you learn that the idol possesses people and that's how people are dying... except AJ dies before the idol is ever released. (It's still in the glass thing.) So how did he get killed?
For that matter, Roderick, John, and Matthew DeFoe all die... so who hides their bodies so that they're not found?
Mr. Croshaw says that Phillip was the first one to be possessed by DeFoe, and this caused him to kill AJ. It is heavily implied that the glass jar around the idol can be lifted, Trilby just refuses to do this, because he doesn't see a reason to, something a scavenger like Phillip would be more akin to do. He also openly admits that he chose gameplay over story when it comes to the whole "find the bodies" puzzle.
The end of 7 Days A Skeptic. Was there any foreshadowing or set-up at all? It was a total Ass Pull so there would be a Downer Ending. Whats worse is that a much better Downer Ending could have been made with the crew of the other starship being part of a conspiracy! At least that would have been a Sequel Hook too...
The only foreshadowing is John not knowing the "basic procedure" that he would be needed for a potential first contact situation.
The whole thing was part of Chzo's Gambit Roulette. 6DAS explains things a little more: Somerset was actually made to kill his dad by his future self who was in "demigod" form at the time, and was manipulating events to ensure the timeline. Unsurprisingly, Chzo probably used this to his advantage. In fact, 7DAS' opening was actually intentional foreshadowing, despite it being spoken by another person entirely.
Pretty much everything in the first two games was retconned starting with Notes. Originally, 7DAS's ending was the way it was because Yahtzee doesn't like happy endings.
"You know, some people complained that the ending for this game just came out of nowhere. SO WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT IF IT WASN'T FORESHADOWING?!" - Yahtzee's Author Commentary, after the "I'm on the wrong ship" speech that serves as the game's introduction
There's also the fact that the terminal in the opening sequence goes "Hello Malcolm". Basically it was a huge hint that John wasn't who he said he was. So it's not so much an asspull as Yahtzee giving players too much credit.
The creation of the Man in Red was actually independent of Chzo's goals.
Not completely. The Man in Red basically undoes everything the Tall Man does to sabotage his own replacement, including causing the final Trilby clone to accidentally detonate the bomb that creates the Bridge after the Tall Man disarmed it.
One wonders why the tall man doesn't want to be replaced. I mean, chzo has inflicted such torturous pain on him that he actually got bored of it. Let me repeat that, the God of pain got bored of inflicting suffering on this poor chap. And yet he still sucks a bit of pain out of him every time they meet up. Whatever is at the bottom of that hole seems pretty tame by comparison.
The special edition answers that by having the passages of the fourth, discarded book, titled 'Book of the New Prince.' Basically Chzo was pissed off at Tall man for not becoming the bridge himself, instead making John DeFoe the bridge. It also goes to the point that the Tall Man is extremely arrogant. And thirdly he actively sabotaged Chzo's plans to create the new Prince, which pissed it off. And the director's commentary implies that for the Tall Man the pit leads to Oblivion.
The Expedition seems to imply that the Tall Man was given something even worse for his betrayal when he was dropped down that shaft. It makes the other stuff lok pretty tame.
Nah, that was when he was becoming the Tall Man - he goes mute.
Also, Dr. Somerset asked Captain Chahal a few questions about his own job description early on. While it's easy to dismiss that as an excuse for As You Know exposition from the captain, the author commentary again helpfully points out that Dr. Somerset not knowing basic details about his own job (such as that a licensed psychiatrist is required for all potential first contact scenarios) is indeed significant.
At the very start of 7 Days, when Somerset logs into his computer and we aren't still introduced to him and the other characters, the computer calls him Malcolm.
So what you're saying is "Yes, if you paid any more than the slightest bit of attention, it did." I played it in a bunch of really short sessions and forgot bits of it. I think the only whole part I beat in one play was teleporting John DeFoe. I'll have to add replaying it to my gargantuan list of things to do.
The foreshadowing was still too subtle to be picked up on, and the ending added nothing to the game until the sequels, which weren't planned until Ben started working on Notes.
Basically, the ending originally was nothing more than a Cruel Twist Ending: "Monster dead, but wait! No happy ending for you, protagonist!". When Yahtzee decided to link it all together, it became part of Chzo's Gambit Roulette.
This troper personally thought that the ending was a brilliant Tomato Surprise which was (very) subtly foreshadowed by Somerset's abilities as a psychiatrist being constantly doubted and brought into question by the crew, which he is never able to thoroughly defend.
7 Days A Skeptic takes place in 8 days, with the justification that it is nonetheless 7 days because the first day didn't count, despite the fact this not-day still holds great importance and relevance in the day-span because it is the day the crew found John Defoe's body. 6 Days A Sacrifice takes place in 5 days with the justification it too is 6 days, but this missing day should not count as it's a day not even in Theo's lifespan since it is far in the future. Why?
Because you're missing the rest of the title. In the last day of 7 Days, Somerset is no longer a skeptic; the missing day counts because that day happens as part of an eternal Time Loop that causes Theo's transformation to begin with; in other words, in that sixth day, Theo is still a stranger to Chzo, and can't properly know him until the events of the Man in Red's machinations align the right way.
What is up with the escape pods in 7DAS? Only one crew member can access each of them, and they take several hours to prepare for launch. Who would design pods that wouldn't save anyone if the ship suffered a sudden emergency?
Joke Answer: the ship was designed by the US government. Real Answer: The ship seems particularly badly designed, really. Seriously, there's no backup to move through the ship if the elevator breaks? The only communication relay is inside the captain's cabin, which can't be accessed from the outside?
Not to mention the complete lack of safety on the safety pod doors. "Press here and a door opens into space if the pod is missing"? It comes with the genre, really. Supernatural monsters must have killed Captain Murphy, and defensive design never developed.
You can ask about this the following day, and your captor will explain that they blocked the docking clamp sensor so that the ship would think the pods were still there. Why do that part is unclear, since the only thing it changes is increasing the risk of losing valuable body parts to space.
Ben also openly admits that he tends to choose gameplay over story structure.
This is lampshaded by Adam, who comments that the ship is built under the assumption that nothing will break. It was a disaster waiting to happen.
It's also further lampshaded by the Straw Vulcan, who comments about writing up a list of complaints.
In 6 Days, why does the Tall Man kill all the Trilbies and disarm the bomb? Does he know Chzo's plan and try to stop it? If so, why doesn't he just kill Theo?
Yes, he does know of the plan. However Theo is being watched by Chzo so the Tall Man can't directly kill Theo without really pissing Chzo off. He has to be stealthy about his every action. Take notice for example that TM kills Trilbies in a relatively painless fashion - by snapping their necks, all to avoid Chzo's notice, because it senses pain. Also note how quickly he vanishes when Theo appears in the basement. Word of God states that since Chzo was watching Theo all the time he didn't want to be spotted doing anything risky. He basically spent his nights going around killing all the Trilby clones, which is why the hallway keeps going back and forth from normal to dark so quickly; the death and creation of Trilby clones is affecting DeFoe's influence over the complex.
In the special edition commentary Yahtzee said the reason why he just snapped their necks was because he couldn't be arsed to do more animation.
Okay, John DeFoe murders his father and brother before dying from his injuries. So who buries the bodies and bricks up the door to the cellar, if the father and son were thought to have disappeared and John's existence was never even referred to outside of Roderick's diary? Maybe the next DeFoe in line wanted to cover the whole thing up, but the bathroom can't have looked like that in that time period, so John's body should have been found when the floor was retiled.
It's ghost magic.
It's possible that the tiles were installed on top of the original flooring. It sounds dumb, but it happens, especially when renovators are looking to save time and money by building on what's already there instead of tearing out the entire floor to replace it. Considering Trilby didn't find any valuables in the safe, it's possible that the current owners of the house just didn't have the cash.
So the arc number/date is 287, for July 28th, when all of the Tall Man's actions throughout history have happened, including the death of the DeFoes. One problem - In 5 Days A Stranger, the diary entries both say JUNE 28th. Oops.
Yahtzee later admitted this error: he did some research for several historical background details, but "not enough on my own game". He concluded that is should be considered a Retcon. At least, he could have released a small update of 5DAS with the date corrected to 28/7...
Trilby's Notes retcons the date to July 28th. Similarly, 6 Days A Sacrifice retcons the final date of 7 Days A Skeptic to the same date (instead of being Barry's birthday).
Where did John DeFoe get a welding mask in the early 1800's? It's a rather identifiable part of his character, yet seems so out of place when you think about it.
You can see the three parts of the Welder's costume in the kitchen during Matthew's flashback in Trilby's Notes, each with their own description. The mask was a memento of the gardener's mining days.
At the end of 7 Days A Skeptic, what was the hand that came out of the box that John DeFoe was found in? It looked like John was perhaps Not Quite Dead, but it was later established that he was, in fact, Killed Off for Real. It was also established that the box had been emptied of its contents.
6 Days A Sacrifice seems to imply that it is Theo who is crawling out of the coffin. But then again, it is also very unclear whether it just is Theo's imagination or not.
Yahtzee has admitted in the Special Edition commentary that half of what happens in that game doesn't make sense and is only there to be creepy or for gameplay reasons. The hand at the end falls in the former category, as does Serena's appearance in the same room as her own dismembered corpse and the splattering of blood outside the ship where there is no gravity.
What on earth was the point of the healing water in Trilby's Notes? Yahtzee set it up as if it was going to be some massive plot point, but it was never even explained how it had its healing properties.
It's supposed to be an "oh shit" moment. You've been relying on the pills to stay sane and avoid the whispering, and then suddenly they don't work anymore.
The water exists in the Ethereal Realm. It is clearly imbued with healing magick or something. Not everything in the Ethereal Realm is evil or under Chzo's influence, as show by The Expedition.
How did The Tall Man, a Druid named Cabadath from before the common era, know how to disarm a bomb?
After the Tall Man was summoned by Lenkmann in Trilby's Notes, he stayed in the realm of technology for the full 200 years between Notes and 6 Days. During those two centuries he's played an active role in the Order of the Blessed Agonies, Mr. Gariott and the cult's top brass all report to him. He must have learned (and likely helped with) the whole plan for the duration of his stay, and he probably observed what everyone's been doing and how they did it. Of course that doesn't explain how a Celtic Druid knew how to play a harpsichord during Jack Frehorn's flashback.
It wasn't the Tall Man, actually. It was Wilbur, who was semi-possessed by him. He could easily have known how to play it.
He's Chzo's minion, so Chzo might be able to give him the knowledge the same way he gave him the power to teleport.
In 7 Days, why does everyone keep putting up with the engineer's lame excuses instead of at least asking him to see why the engines aren't working? Why didn't they immediately remove the captain from the mast? After the captain attacks the first mate and you've stunned him, why doesn't anyone try to put him in the brig or get either of them to the infirmary? Whose (white) hand and torso do you have when you spot Serena? Lastly, what sinister mystery lies within the ladies' unopenable cabin?
Basically it's because it's a horror game; if the characters actually used some logic it would lose much of its scaryness. As for why nobody tries to lock the captain's corpse in the brig, I take it it's because they don't know how long he'll stay stunned for and don't want to risk him waking up while they're right next to him. Besides, considering the genre, for all they knew he could actually teleport around the ship.
An interesting point: It is possible to stun Zombie Barry in such a manner that you can thus trap him behind the laser barrier in the brig! Not that he stays in, mind, either because of teleportation or gameplay purposes. Whether you can do this to the Welder or not is still unknown.
This is a sort of question that will never get an answer, but why do we see Serena walking around like a zombie after we find her corpse in the ducts, and then never see her again?
It is because because Zombie Serena isn't entirely Serena. William was already busy producing host bodies for John DeFoe to possess at this point, so Zombie Serena is most likely John DeFoe possessing a sewn-together Barry/Serena.
That doesn't make any sense, since you're already holding a fair-skinned severed hand in your inventory, Barry was black, and Zombie Serena clearly has both hands.
According to Yahtzee's commentary he threw in scenes like that to screw with the player because they wouldn't make sense. He suggests she might be a ghost.
Malcolm isn't exactly the most mentally stable person. It's not much of a stretch to say he was hallucinating.
You know, there are a LOT of people saying that Chzo was pulling off a Gambit Roulette throughout the entire series, but what they are forgetting is that Chzo had a fourth book that was never translated by Frehorn, as he dismissed it as garbage. It states that Chzo intended to get a New Prince, but because it was never translated and released publicly, the Order of the Blessed Agonies believed all that nonsense about Chzo coming into the Realm of Technology. This means that the entire plan was entirely unintentional.
That his followers don't know doesn't mean Czho didn't plan it. After all, for his plan to get a New Prince, only the first three books are really needed. It's also stated that Chzo is not omnipotent in Real of Technology, so he needed to first wait for the Bridgekeeper and then Bridge to appear. More like plans with Xanatos Speed Chess, since he can only take a peek once a year. Of course, to him time is non-linear...
In the airlock puzzle in 7 Days, how the hell does John pull the lever in when he's holding on to the OTHER lever? You don't even see him do it. It just sorta happens...
The 7DAS SE commentary says that the idea was that John kicked the lever, but Yahtzee goofed up and made the gap too large.
At which point does the Tall Man become aware of Chzo's plan to replace him? The series implies he's been in the Realm of Technology since Trilby's Notes and thus for the last 200 years, but his 'sabotage' is ridiculously last-minute and could've been much better pulled off in the longer run, for example if he DIDN'T pick up Trilby's blood-stained waistcoat at the end of Notes.
Disregard. OP here. Self-answered in 6DAS commentary and I'm putting it here for reference. Tall Man was aware since Notes, but has to pretend to work along with Chzo and Theo DaCabe's appearance was one of the few times when Chzo's gaze isn't focused on the Tall Man and thus he can go off sabotaging the plan.
But it still doesn't make sense; Chzo couldn't possibly have his gaze focused on the Tall Man during all that time because the Tall Man was entirely in the Realm of Technology, and Chzo can is only capable of looking there once a year. The Tall Man would still have 364 days free from Chzo's gaze.
He probably didn't want to take the risk that Chzo might notice that something was not the way it was supposed to be when it came time for the convergence event. Hence why he only starts acting when Theo is around; because he's certain Chzo is only paying attention to Theo and might miss anything that Tall Man was doing.
The ship's doctor from 7 Days is implied to be Simone's descendant, but one assumes that if Simone had any kids at the time of 5 Days, she'd have mentioned it, and she's clearly living alone at the time of her death in Notes. So how does that work?
He could be descended from a sibling or other close relative. Or it could simply be that she had been involved in a relationship, had a kid and perhaps suffered a divorce as she descends into alcoholism, with the husband being granted custody.
Why, in 6 Days, do the gaggle of clones all wear the same outfit? I understand the meta reason, as it's obviously the same sprite from Notes, but... still.
John DeFoe is scared shitless of Trilby, so to get the most out of it they make him look as close to Trilby as they can. If they gave him a different set of clothing and a mask it's possible Defoe may not have realised it was him and killed him like he normally to intruders.
Then why don't they have him in the grey pinstripe suit he wore when he actually fought John?
Because none of the Order know what he was wearing when he fought John, and based it off he was wearing when one of their agents encounter him.
Fridge Logic, literally: When you open the fridge in 5 Days, there's nothing there and Trilby says "Evidently no one cares if I starve in this place." So... how did they eat?
Yahtzee handwaves this in the SE commentary, stating that the others in the house had eaten all the food there was, and Trilby's too much of a gentleman to complain.
A less literal example is pointed out in the Special Edition commentary for the game: Where did everyone sleep when the two bedrooms don't get unlocked until Trilby arrives?
In the commentary on the Special Edition of 6 Days, Yahtzee claims that, while it's improbable that Theo could do most of what he does in his severely injured condition, it's necessary to the plot that he do so because Theo is undergoing the three Blessed Agonies, foreshadowing his eventual ascension to the position of the New Prince. All well and good, but nowhere in any of the games is it implied that he has to go through the Agonies in any particular order. Why couldn't Theo have simply been injured late in the game to avoid the issue entirely? Agreed, most of the game would have to be retooled in one way or another to make that happen, but just letting the problem stand seems lazy, especially since Yahtzee apparently felt strongly enough about it to have the characters themselves comment on it.
Simple in-universe reason: the guy who pushed Theo down the elevator didn't know what he would be and only wanted to get rid of him. He didn't expect Theo to survive. So he goes through the Agony of the Body first. The Agony of the Soul was kind of screwed up, as Yahtzee agreed. he originally planned Theo to be raped. Also, half of the puzzles rely on on the fact that Theo can't do a jack without help.
I'm bugged by just how random Theo's ability and inability to do things can be, somewhat so especially on Yahtzee's explanation over the whole rape scene. One minute he can't move and relies on giving gestures to Trilby or Harty to do things for him, the next minute he's walking and he's tasked to do things here and there for Harty among other people (which I'm not even going to bother ask why a doctor lacks so much care in a heavily-crippled man, who earlier couldn't even move beyond hand-gestures, to do things like distract an armed guard fully aware Theo is bad news or go on fetch quests throughout the compound). When playing I felt similar opinions on the sex scene as Quovak when it came to the sex scene. Yahtzee explained that he understood sex was painful in Theo's condition but justified it saying that Janine is the instigator because she's on topnote The exact quote, as seen in the link, is "So you agree that having sex would be painful if you were that heavily injured, but you still call it 'taking advantage'? I thought it was fairly clear that Janine was the instigator. She's on top, look. I considered making it seem closer to a sexual assault than anything consensual but that weirded me out even more.". It seems Janine is paranoid and unstable when it comes to irrational fears of being anywhere outside her room and later fearing Trilby (for reasons made more understandable later on), so Theo holding her hand to guide her anywhere out of her safebox implied that Theo was the dominant one between them and Janine was on top was because, as much as sex in general would be unbelievably painful for someone in Theo's condition, if they had to have sex it would be more painful and unbelievably awkward for cripple-man to be "on top" than the mentally-screwed-but-otherwise-physically-healthy girl he's screwing with.
Few things: one, Theo isn't unable to move except hand gestures, he's staying silent so as not to piss Trilby off, and obviously he has to do things as the protagonist of a point-and-click game. As to the sex scene, Janine is the dominant one. She only loses her nerve outside the bunk room, which is where the sex takes place, and she instigates it herself. She's insane, sure, but Theo's rapidly becoming just as crazy and is in far less of a position to be seeking sex at all; he goes through with it because it's what she wants as a means of trying to scrabble at something she can feel herself losing, not because he's taking advantage of a vulnerable ingenue.
The Agony of the Soul isn't screwed-up. It is the death of Janine.
The New Prince is a mummy in a leather apron and welding mask because Theo was covered in bandages due to his injuries and was wearing the Welder's outfit. How come the Tall Man wears a fairly modern trenchcoat when all Cabadath wore was druid robes?
He probably saw the fashion of the realm of technology one day and liked it enough to copy it. Time is non-linear when it comes to Chzo, which is why he wore the same thing since when the tree was cut down.
It would also be that because the old one had the mind and will of his former self, the costume was something like his personal choice.
It may have been a gift from one of his followers. The Tall Man apparently showed himself to various people over the course of his long and horrifying life. Maybe one of them thought he'd be appeased by A Hot Topic gift card?
According to Word of God the sex scene in 6 Days A Sacrifice is meant to be awkward as it's not true love, just two isolated, near-hysterical people using it as a form of stress release. All right, I can see that. However, if that's all it is without a deeper emotional connection, how does losing Janine count as Agony of the Soul?
Theo really did love Janine, but they still had uncomfortable, messed-up sex because they were terrified. One doesn't exclude the other.
Canning describes the Agony of the Soul as being about "destroying someone or something the subject loved utterly, relies upon emotionally." With Theo and Janine the implication was more likely to be down to the latter part than the former - they've both been trapped in the complex together and with her gone, Theo loses his only connection to the outside world. Even if he didn't love her, being left entirely alone with the complex going to hell more than it started out would have a pretty heavy emotional impact. Keep in mind, at that point, Janine and Theo are the only living humans in the complex. The Trilby clones have little emotional affect beyond what is needed for their purpose; everyone else is dead, alien, evil, or worse. Once Janine is gone, Theo is Alone with the Psycho, only the psycho in question is literally everywhere, everyone, and everything around him.
If Chzo is able to see all of time and the Tall Man knows it (it's in the 3 books) then why does Tall Man even bother with screw with it? It doesn't matter what he does, the Tall Man isn't going to be able to do anything Chzo doesn't want him to. In fact, why does Chzo select the Tall Man as his Prince in the first place if he knows he's going to screw it over? My head hurts...
The Tall Man can do whatever he wants; Chzo can't actually stop him from acting if he doesn't see the actions the Tall Man takes. He can see all of time, but he can only look in on the real world/Realm of Technology once a year, and presumably has more things to pay attention to than Tall Man. Chzo probably knew all along that the Tall Man would betray him because he saw it happen, but since he'd be getting a New Prince out of the deal anyway, he didn't care, and never really did. That's really the most tragic part of the Tall Man's story: he's only disloyal because he's so loyal he doesn't want to be relieved of his duties.... which proves he's arrogant enough to think that he knows how to serve Chzo better than Chzo does. Chzo never cared about him because he always knew Cabadath would never change, which is what lead the Tall Man to struggle so hard to gain his affection. It's a vicious circle.
Just what does the stair sequence in 6 Days mean? Is it implying that Malcolm was the real killer in 7 Days? If so, that doesn't make sense. There is no way Malcolm could have killed Serena or Angela because he was either outside the ship or locked up when they died.
It's showing that Malcolm was possessed by DeFoe/The Welder the entire time, he's an Unreliable Narrator.
While the stairs sequence pretty much indicates that Malcolm did kill the Mephistopheles crew and that things didn't happen exactly the way 7 Days showed us, I wonder if it could also indicate that the entire crew except Malcolm was possessed by DeFoe instead (and thus he killed them to defend himself). After all, the sequence show each of them as The Welder (if Malcolm was the one who was possessed, why would DeFoe be killing himself?). More importantly, if Malcolm was possessed by DeFoe, why would he destroy the wooden idol containing DeFoe's soul? While Malcolm may be an Unreliable Narrator in general, 6 Days shows that he really did destroy the wooden idol.
seems to imply that the Tall Man was given something even worse for his betrayal when he was dropped down that shaft. It makes the other stuff lok pretty tame.