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Starving for Knowledge: A Don't Starve Analysis


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We have more questions than answers, I think, with each passing update.

I still think about Maxwell's little pity monologue at the end of adventure mode (which we know is canon) from time to time, and it makes less sense to me now.

On 12/28/2019 at 4:47 PM, Rinkusan said:

3) Maxwell is the first ever person to sit on the nightmare throne according to another live stream, meaning that the Ancient who is now the Fuelweaver has never sat on the throne

"There wasn't much here when I showed up." "Just dust. And the Void. And Them." "I've learned so much since then. I've built so much."

How much exactly is Maxwell responsible for and how does it factor into the machinations of the world that existed prior? How much even existed prior? Does Maxwell know more than he's letting on? 

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1 minute ago, NormalPinkerton said:

png.png.d3465ed1fb7b2cf2945ebc71a7c94006.png

So are the merms them or did Maxwell forget about their existence?

 

One could reasonably expect this to mean that the quotes were not all written concurrently and should not be taken as gospel. 

But personally, I think it's funnier to assume that merms were just vibing in unending expanse of the void so that's what I will be going with. Not sure about the rest of you. 

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1 hour ago, Eggceptional said:

"There wasn't much here when I showed up." "Just dust. And the Void. And Them." "I've learned so much since then. I've built so much."

1 hour ago, NormalPinkerton said:

So are the merms them or did Maxwell forget about their existence?

1 hour ago, Eggceptional said:

One could reasonably expect this to mean that the quotes were not all written concurrently and should not be taken as gospel. 

Merms existing in the constant since before Maxwell arrived is a pretty consistent bit of lore, though:image.png.51f93c296f5656258481ffd4fe35fe13.png
About the "dust and the void and them" thing, I think that's referring to the epilogue itself, not the entire constant. I think the constant was more like a base that Maxwell built off of. Merms and Pigs and birds and such got there on their own, but stuff like hounds and tallbirds were created by Maxwell, a lot like how Charlie's been plopping down more stuff into the post-RoG world (but she has more to work with ofc).

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On 2020-01-10 at 7:55 PM, Eggceptional said:

We have more questions than answers, I think, with each passing update.

I still think about Maxwell's little pity monologue at the end of adventure mode (which we know is canon) from time to time, and it makes less sense to me now.

"There wasn't much here when I showed up." "Just dust. And the Void. And Them." "I've learned so much since then. I've built so much."

How much exactly is Maxwell responsible for and how does it factor into the machinations of the world that existed prior? How much even existed prior? Does Maxwell know more than he's letting on? 

This is the one. No matter the semantic and long-stretch justifications of this Maxwell quote, it annoys me endlessly how paradoxical this one piece of information always comes off in the long run. It's the largest plot-hole I know off, and one of the most noticeable moments at which anything that came after in DS lore was starting up more and more contradictions, making less sense and even sort of ret-conning themes that was prior. Questions without answers.

Even if the mermaid examination quote probably/technically came in the same update. The way that's been handled has been, well, not really addressed at all? At least not any more proper than simply asserting once again "oh yeah they were here".


Buhhh ughhh, moan groan, whine & cry.

You know what got me invested years ago, the characters. The strange and slightly villainous personalities and their vaguely hinted involvement in all of it, the connection to maxwell, their connection to each other. Like a murder mystery or something, all about the very real relatable human nature, questioning things regarding individuals' intentions, ideologies and past actions. Man what a fantastic craft unlike anything I've experienced prior. I know I've gone on about this everyday all the time but arrows won't stop pointing back to the ancient civilizations mumbo being a culprit for all this overwhelming impersonality, lack of investment and interest. It's hard to care about the updates when you know the next thing won't be addressing the people ever again.

So, why... Klei. Just don't feel like addressing the story any more? Characters added are born in the constant, no reason, no attachment to those we are invested in, no need for questions, self-contained irrelevancy in short. Lore even skipped on Woody's origin, and for that matter, all the other origin updates in reality skipped everything about why they came into the constant anyway, the relationship between the characters. It's been dancing around the main thread and natural progression of the story. I have to wonder if the team is saving it all for better days, if they don't have the time, money and resources to come up with how to progress the story, or, well could be any reason and less flattering such like competence, confidence, interest or worst of all purposeful operant conditioning?

I can't sigh deep enough. I'm the god damn fool for staying around, aren't I. I hate being weak towards strong beginnings without conclusion.

Even if any of what got me invested were ever explored again, I know it couldn't possibly be of the same rigour, could it. Lightning never strikes twice and that.

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27 minutes ago, Cosheeta said:

This is the one. No matter the semantic and long-stretch justifications of this Maxwell quote, it annoys me endlessly how paradoxical this one piece of information always comes off in the long run. It's the largest plot-hole I know off, and one of the most noticeable moments at which anything that came after in DS lore was starting up more and more contradictions, making less sense and even sort of ret-conning themes that was prior. Questions without answers.

Even if the mermaid examination quote probably/technically came in the same update. The way that's been handled has been, well, not really addressed at all? At least not any more proper than simply asserting once again "oh yeah they were here".


Buhhh ughhh, moan groan, whine & cry.

You know what got me invested years ago, the characters. The strange and slightly villainous personalities and their vaguely hinted involvement in all of it, the connection to maxwell, their connection to each other. Like a murder mystery or something, all about the very real relatable human nature, questioning things regarding individuals' intentions, ideologies and past actions. Man what a fantastic craft unlike anything I've experienced prior. I know I've gone on about this everyday all the time but arrows won't stop pointing back to the ancient civilizations mumbo being a culprit for all this overwhelming impersonality, lack of investment and interest. It's hard to care about the updates when you know the next thing won't be addressing the people ever again.

So, why... Klei. Just don't feel like addressing the story any more? Characters added are born in the constant, no reason, no attachment to those we are invested in, no need for questions, self-contained irrelevancy in short. Lore even skipped on Woody's origin, and for that matter, all the other origin updates in reality skipped everything about why they came into the constant anyway, the relationship between the characters. It's been dancing around the main thread and natural progression of the story. I have to wonder if the team is saving it all for better days, if they don't have the time, money and resources to come up with how to progress the story, or, well could be any reason and less flattering such like competence, confidence, interest or worst of all purposeful operant conditioning?

I can't sigh deep enough. I'm the god damn fool for staying around, aren't I. I hate being weak towards strong beginnings without conclusion.

Even if any of what got me invested were ever explored again, I know it couldn't possibly be of the same rigour, could it. Lightning never strikes twice and that.

The scope of this game's lore has gotten too big and the mechanics too rambunctious for me to just throw unsolved plot threads into the "ooh spooky arcane magic" bucket now. 

I march onward anyway because I don't have anything better to do.

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3 hours ago, oCrapaCreeper said:

Lots of Maxwell's original dialogue (originally written by Kevin when the original game released) doesn't line up with some of the recent lore. His speech at the end of adventure mode is one of them for sure.

To be fair even in singleplayer it didn't fully line up.

For example he says that when he entered there was nothing except dust and Them. And then through his quotes we find out that merms and ancients existed b4 he arrived.

I belive that sunset skye has a good understanding when it comes to that.

On 10.01.2020 at 9:37 PM, Sunset Skye said:

About the "dust and the void and them" thing, I think that's referring to the epilogue itself, not the entire constant

 

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6 hours ago, oCrapaCreeper said:

Lots of Maxwell's original dialogue (originally written by Kevin when the original game released) doesn't line up with some of the recent lore. His speech at the end of adventure mode is one of them for sure.

Do you happen to know where I can find information on the Don't Starve writers, including who wrote what?

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8 hours ago, Rinkusan said:

Do you happen to know where I can find information on the Don't Starve writers, including who wrote what?

Well, Kevin was the lead creator of the game back then. He wrote the quotes for the original base game characters and most "lore" was written on the spot back in the day, hence a lot of inconsistencies. 

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15 hours ago, oCrapaCreeper said:

Well, Kevin was the lead creator of the game back then. He wrote the quotes for the original base game characters and most "lore" was written on the spot back in the day, hence a lot of inconsistencies. 

Is Kevin not working on the game anymore? 

I just want to know if there's a way to track down who contributed what content to DS and DST and who the current lore mastermind is right now. It could give us some insight on which clues are definitely connected and which clues are either loosely connected, not connected at all, or possibly not canon.

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