Ummm no the ending shows that OUR HERO IS NOT THE HERO

WE ARE THE VILLAIN

Even do one of the lines was said after a nuclear bomb exploded

@Unthinkable Termination true

it wasn't called the manhattan project because they blew up manhattan

Hit me like a train with this...

rock0052 The game is also a dark take on one's emotional attachments towards a particular character(s), both through the perspectives of Braid's main character Tim, and of the player itself. It shows how we the player will go to many great lengths to try saving the characters we love and satisfy our attachments-or more fittingly at this point, obsessions-towards them. Of course, all of which we weren't supposed to do at all; the folly of us and Tim trying to earn something both don't actually deserve in the first place. Braid shows how we personally, instead of trying to play hero and fix things ourselves, must accept the 100% bitter reality of the things we don't deserve, get rid of the petty, obsessive, burdensome, mutually destructive (hint hint) attachments to our pure precious waifus and cinnamon rolls, and move on and finally progress in life (I've always believed Chrono Cross first did this with its treatment of the main characters of Chrono Trigger). Probably the most recent example would be Nier: Automata, where after all the tragedy of the Route C playthrough and its C and D endings, we the player, are suddenly given a chance to turn things around and bring the 3 main characters back to life through Ending E: earned by turning against the developers and publishers of the game by shooting their names appearing in the entire credit roll in the form of a bullet hell sequence-much like being a cold-blooded mass shooter slaughtering everyone in the offices of the game's makers just because we wanted to change said game's tragic ending into a "happy" one-as other players who took the same journey assist us in beating the seemingly impossible odds. It truly shows in N:A how most of us players in general, just like Braid's secret ending, are willing to go far beyond the line we have crossed, to the point of blaming and dehumanizing the game's creators and openly ignoring the game's warnings about taking said path, to satisfy this obsession ("love" for the characters, and "truly" completing the game), all in the name of "positivity," and then we are also willing to "give back" to others (sacrificing our save files), thus contributing to the vicious cycle of slaughter that we were supposed to stop for starters. That we, just like Tim in Braid, have become the madman, the monster, we were supposed to stop.

@@TheNobodyNamedDubyaBee Here's a crazy scenario: Imagine where Tim now has a personal human-sized female humanoid doll which he endeared and make loved on. Where in an alternate world where Tim no longer stalks the princess after she broke up with him and he just pursues to create or buy his own female companion doll in hopes to forget that painful breakup he experienced. That doll he made is based on his unrealistic expectations on what kind of woman he loves, like a perfect woman in our dreams just like us. He loved the doll so much that he already forgot about the princess and instead move on with the human doll he endeared more. But despite of that, he doesn't seem to hate women and ranting about it, he can still become friends with other girls and townfolks as he stays with his female fantasy doll. It's just the fact that he's now scared of dating women anymore because of what he have done the last time that caused his ex to broke up with him. As time goes passed while Tim is currently in love with its fantasy doll, his personality no longer that "monstrous" as before, but rather he is now calmly soft and passive that he already changed himself and he's no longer the guy he used to be when dating his ex. He still doesn't want to date real women as the past actions still haunt him again but on a different person. He can still be friends with them as much as he like, but Tim will always love his female humanoid fantasy doll forever. What would you think of him if that really happened?

Sir, this is a Manhattan project

@@TheNobodyNamedDubyaBee I know this is a really old post, I just wanted to say, I disagree with your take on Automata. Specifically, you're ignoring the fact that the developers allowed the player to do what they did. They set up and developed a scenario where what takes place, takes place. They cannot put blame on the player for a sequence they made and forced the player to go trough. If the point was to criticize the player for being obsessed with the characters and wanting a happy ending, the creatives dedicated years of their lives to creating the characters and making them do everything the player experiences, the developers have given more of themselves towards the characters and the game than any fan ever will or ever could, nowhere is that mentioned, and nowhere is that pointed out, when, if the criticism of the player is as you say it is, they should present themselves as the biggest offenders. I'm not even claiming this means that the game doesn't wish to convey this message, I'm simply stating that, if it did, it fell flat on its face, since it was so pre-occupied criticizing the player's ego that it never stopped to examine its own.

Yes, project Manhattan, the development of the atomic bomb.

You did it, you solved the plot

How is this not the Best comment on this video!!! 10/10 Yea i'm commenting 10 years later!

Yeah, same, there's just something about it…

5 years late but doesn't that message say the same thing as the one on the top right of that screen?

@@datwolfe3512 based

??

​@@Katetaniclechona estas descartadisima

The first one in particular.

@@renatoramos8834 yeah its almost like the dev doesn't want us to get it

And yes i beat it

+Savtheripper I got the same impression. The princess runs into the arms of the knight in the shining armor because Tim hurt her. Still whether the knight is genuinely saving her or taking advantage of her emotional turmoil is uncertain.

It’s a fucking red hairing, the princess is a bomb

+MrAgorar that is exactly what it is, if you dont have 8 stars at the end and don't manage to grab her, you actually see the entire sequence backwards again, where the Princess is fleeing from Tim, once again proving Tim being obsessed with the Princess, not them being in love

+Capi Etheriel i love how at the end of the game we find it normal to try something... for a couple of hours :)) like what's time for me anyways, fuck it. let's see if the cloud moves. i think the game did it's job spot on, making us go from whining & bitching over nothing (first level) to casually dedicating hours to a cloud ^.^

in case anyone's reading this and doesn't know: no, that cloud does not actually move, so don't actually waste time waiting for it

@@badmanjones179 Thanks you very much.

***** Or so you think. It has never actually been confirmed by Jonathan Blow, nor has any of the other theories and speculations. Personally I believe the game's very plot is chaos and confusion, and that's why Blow designed the game with small references assosiated with actual events, such as the Manhatten project. If this theory is correct then this game is obscenely evil and clever, because man can never not know. But you do not know that this game is based on the Manhatten project, you're convinced it is... Which is not the same thing.

+cksonja I don't think the princess is the atomic bomb, I think she's supposed to be Nature. In learning about the princess, i.e. discovering science, man (represented by Tim) created the atom bomb. Man's relationship with nature (and therefore in the game Tim's relationship with the princess) was never the same again after that, and there was no rewinding time to before that event. I don't think that's all the plot is about, but that's definitely in there and is probably the single biggest theme running through the game. That's my interpretation anyway.

@@kristianbrandt3012 Hi Kristian, I know im 5 years late but I wanted to point out to you that at 4:00 it says "now we are all sons of bitches" which is a quote from Kenneth Bainbridge who directed the testing of the manhatten project. To me it seems that there are too many direct references to real life for the game to not be about the bomb mainly that the game is set in manhatten. if you are still active please get back to me as I am still very confused on the ending of the game. thanks a bunch!

@@ripace554 yeah it's some fruit of knowledge original sin garden of eden crap

Get 7 seven stars, then they will be green.

+epicbob57 or do that level in one forward run, without rewinding. make no mistakes and only go forward to reach the same conclusion=to get to the princess.

@@TamataruKo i did and i ended up at start without being able to jump the first obstacle (unlocked by the knight') so..

Because there is no knight just some scientists, and a bomb

Neither of these interpretations are particularly satisfying, or take into account everything the game has to offer.

@@h3xon797 Nothing explains what it means by the castle Tim is building at the end

​@@NuclearDuckie02if we go by the whole a bomb interpretation then the castle could possibly mean "Operation Castle" and the A-Bomb was the first stone to build it

+sonic meerkat maybe he's the one who sets her off

possibly. honestly i've forgotten about the theory after all this time, might have to look into it again.

it's been a while since your comment. i answered because I just finished the game and I was super hyped about its meaning

The same creator of this game already made a 3D game " The Witness ". It's a masterpiece just like Braid.

Hugh McNeil That's Princess Andromeda...

+Goon Father (primedclutch) "We are all sons of bitches now" was a line from the Trinity Tests at the conclusion of the Manhatten project. The Princess is the Atomic Bomb and Tim is the US Military, desperate to uncover it's world destroying power. All that "Explosive" language (and the sound of a bomb going off when he finally reaches the princess) are the hints.

Try to remember that when this game came out Indie games weren't taken that seriously and messages within games weren't really debated that much. This, for its time and at the time, was definitely a game-changer. Sure maybe nowadays it seems pretentious and up its own ass (I feel this same way towards Neon Genesis Evangelion), but it definitely is worthy of discussion on a philosophical level.

@@VGHistory1 Oh for sure, I definitely see how it was revolutionary at the time. It wasn't until the 2010's when indie games started touching on abstract/philosophical themes more frequently (Limbo, Journey, etc). It's definitely worth discussing, I just have no interest in the discussions because of the way it was executed. To abruptly shift the perception of the story from what you assume is a troubled relationship to actually being about the Manhattan project is just heavy handed in my eyes.