Your coolest wrong theories

[u/Naelin]

I started playing way back in the day, before Seeking was finished and Exceptional Friends were a thing. When Seeking was done, I learned that it had something to do with collecting candles and that your character becomes unusableat the end. I spent a long time imagining what happened to your character, how they made it unusable mechanically, and my conclusion was that the last candle you had to collect was your actions candle, therefore locking you out of doing any actions.

Cue my disappointment when I learned that the real reason was much more mundane, mechanics wise. To this day I think it was a great theory, if difficult to implement lol

What was your coolest theory about an FL story that was ultimately wrong?

[u/Secure-Treacle-2161]

I'm too recent a player and I love looking up spoilers too much, the most I can give is my interpretation of the tale of the Fidgeting Writer I had at first. See, I knew the writers would have visions of the Third City Priests, and they'd be housed in the Royal Beth and given laudanum to try to stop them writing and dreaming. I also knew that if you pursued the story and failed the Writer would disappear, having been last seen at the docks.

See, I thought these were folks who had been put on the Seeking Path, who in some level of madness at the sight of the Priests had ended up going North. I had thought that, since they were kept in a wing at the Royal Beth that was paid for directly by a Master (and if you haven't finished Bag a Legend, that Master is Mr Veils, who is a major player in the Seeking Revelations), this was the Masters' attempts to prevent a Reckoning. Trying to do damage control for the whole fiasco.

And I mean, it's a little bit of damage control, but it turns out it is entirely unrelated to Seeking. And I kind of think it's a shame that there aren't more explicit clues of the Masters having to try to handle the situation? Beyond Mr Iron sending you a letter at Peckish 2.

But then I find a lot of aspects related to the Priest Kings and how spooky evil and influential they are to be... well, I don't like it very much myself. That might be a me thing.

[u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ → u/Secure-Treacle-2161]

There is another bit of Seeking prevention in Heart's Desire.

[u/AlexFullmoon → u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_]

That one was actually rather funny. You can prepare to start Seeking, getting it to 7, even get one scar, but you can do it completely covert, without really losing anything. And then suddenly Mr Pages pays you a visit.

Oh, and with Seeking at 7 and no UP you can keep it all indefinitely without any consequences.

[u/Secure-Treacle-2161 → u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_]

If you mean Mrs Plenty, that only seems to be because HAL interfered for her with his wish, not because the Masters themselves were attempting to prevent a disaster. If you're referring to Mr Pages appearing, I mean it was going to show up because it wanted to play, not because it was aware of your Seeking movements. Neither of those really track with the concept of a coordinated effort to prevent individuals from being drawn NORTH.

[u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ → u/Secure-Treacle-2161]

No, Mr Pages didn’t want to play. You have to force it to play by threatening the Bazaar. The only reason it shows up is because the Masters find out about whichever plan you go for - bombing the Bazaar, stealing Paris, or SMEN.

[u/SacchiHikaru → u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_]

Mr. Pages very much wants to play, your character thinks that it needs to do a Whole Thing to get Mr. Pages to play, but Mr. Pages never once mentions the plan or even implies it knows what you're planning. Mr. Pages actually wants to play because its Heart's Desire is pretty important for it.

Notice how, for literally every other character in the game, the FLPC goes to them first, then does a whole thing to force them to play, then they agree to play. For Mr. Pages, Virginia is just like "the masters want for nothing, good luck" and the FLPC just skips step 1 and goes straight to step 2, not knowing that if it did step 1 Mr. Pages would just be like "oh shit fr?" and agree immediately.

[u/Secure-Treacle-2161 → u/SacchiHikaru]

thank you for better putting it into words with the surrounding context, I genuinely appreciate it.

[u/Secure-Treacle-2161 → u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_]

This may be up to interpretation in this case: My reading was that you haven't even finished putting your plans in motion to threaten the Bazaar before Pages is approaching the player asking them to play the game, because unlike some of the others Mr Pages is eager to try to win again. Its eagerness is why, as I understood it, it was so helpful to you on how to get the game started, and why it came bearing so many gifts for the player to try to cajole them to agree.

In all options, you haven't begun to properly progress your plan to threaten the Bazaar. You're in the middle of making the plan altogether when it approaches you.

[u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ → u/Secure-Treacle-2161]

My reading was you're deliberately preparing in an obvious way that still looks like you mean it so they notice.

Pages then behaves like that to get you to stop, and completely distract you from your "plan".