The ending and head canon (spoilers)
Finally beat the game for myself after 65 hours. There's been many theories and what not about the ending. Is it a bliss hallucination? Are you really the second coming? Was Joseph right the whole time?
Let's face facts. Ubisoft wrote a pretty **** ending to this game. I didn't have issues with the storyline until the last fifteen minutes. I don't think there was enough world building to really bring nukes into the equation. A radio broadcast that some might not even witness isn't enough to build upon the turmoil of the outer world. They keep saying "the worlds going crazy look who's in charge" but if you notice the worlds always changing and people have always said things like this no matter the time period. I ran around on foot the whole game I would have never heard about that radio message if I didn't come to this page. For me this whole "second coming" theory is out.
Did Joseph have nukes? I suppose this is probable. This would be the conclusion I came to if it wasn't for the radio broadcast. Each silo is empty you hear the intercom say that while evacuating John's bunker. He probably knew someday that authorities would come for him so he set up nukes on a detonator so he could be "right" this is likely but improbable in my opinion. I feel too many peggies no matter how crazy would question the moving and setting up of nukes. In game you can overhear peggies discuss their doubts and fears about Joe. While they're devoted they're not THAT devoted.
Let's discuss the improbability of the survival of a nuclear blast. If everything around you is catching fire BUT you then that's a pretty red flag for me. Birds, caribou and every other vehicle on the road is blowing up but yours. I get that the director of this game lived through the nuclear hysteria of the cold war but I'm not going to give into this ending or HIS fears for this ****ty attempt at a thought provoking fear mongering ending. Knowing the ins and outs of the defense industry, a nuclear attack on US soil would be hard for any country to do given the counter measures we have. So for me this completely rules out the Ubisoft ending of fearmongering stupidity.
Lastly let's discuss the bliss ending. First thing I want to point out towards the end of the fight when you need to fill Joseph full of lead it says "neutralize" on Joseph.
Neutralize - render something ineffective or useless by show of force.
A euphemistic way of saying "kill or destroy".
Who was exposed to the most amount of bliss throughout the whole game? Other than angels, and faith it would be Rook. You've been blissed by faith, tormented by Jacob and John and swam through a bliss infested river there's a million examples of when took encounters bliss throughout the game. We know that bliss can make you see things, a rabbit can turn into a bear, you can send 400 bullets into a guy and he disappears.
We know when you kill the third LT that Joe says "I'm taking all your friends and we're going to use them against you" well I'd believe that if my GFH and the characters disappeared but they didn't. But let's suspend my disbelief to give Ubi the benefit of the doubt. So me and all my GFH go to arrest Joseph and they just magically turn against me in a second? If you wanted me to believe that then they wouldn't be available after I kill the third LT.
So here's exactly how I make sense of this entire ending. All of hope county has been exposed to bliss. Some more than others. You standing right next to Joseph and those bliss barrels triggers a hallucination. The only ones present for this fight are the most exposed. You and the other cops. On your way to fight Joseph you call Whitehorse and tell him when it's going down. They intend to meet you there but are captured instead and tied up and they start seeing the bliss hallucination as well. The fight commences and you use force to snap them out of it. While you are hallucinating you still have a strong enough will power to know right from wrong. You're the most exposed and the most experienced and you're more able to overcome it. As more and more Joseph hallucinations get killed you realize that when they fall down dead they're typical peggies. You start seeing your GFH and you're feeling powerful and ready. You're full of "wrath" and once you snap your friends out of it they're on your side but not really because they're a hallucination too. The other cops notice you snapping turning into a killing machine gunning down peggies you think are Joseph until you get to the end where it says "neutralize" Joseph. You kill him in a fit of rage and black out. In your dreams you watch as nukes fall and Joseph ends up being right. Only to wake up and realize it's all over. The cult is gone and Joseph is dead.
The improbability of surviving these nukes has led me to create my own head canon. I agree with the sentiment that head canon is a cry for entitlement and delusion but this ending was so horrifically bad, poorly implemented and written I just couldn't let this beautiful journey of a game be wasted on something so trashy. The ending bits for me where so hopeful getting Nick rye to see the miracle of birth and liberating a Peggie defector really was a fun last hour of gameplay before this sloppy mess of an ending. I'm open to discussion of my head canon and welcome all to discuss theirs with me as well.
Despite if you like this ending or not it is a bit of a stretch. I do understand how an ending can completely ruin replayability but I love this game so much I'm not going to let this ending ruin it for me. Ubi can claim it's canon all they want. But it isn't to me because their canon makes no sense whatsoever.
Final thoughts: I'd be 100% okay with this ending if Ubi did something smart with this game and added a secret ending. I've mentioned this in previous posts but I wish your decisions throughout the game gave you a different ending. It should be difficult to achieve like in metro last light or silent hill but the reward should be worth it. Make it so we can graciously kill faith. At the end of the battle let us kill her in a more peaceful passing for her rather than a bunch of as50 bullets to the mouth. Let us give her that closure and freedom from her addictions and the abuse of Joseph. Let us best Jacobs mind control and let Eli survive, make it so you have to go through the last two cull the heard missions without killing anyone to make him survive. Take the beating and be locked up in John's torture room instead of the girl. Let us take the fall for her. We're strong we can handle it. Make us saying "yes" mean something more. But this game isn't that smart and were left with junk.
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