They use a lot of tricks to make you think you and the princess are "meant to be". Even something like the size of the models. The princess and you share the same size model while the knight is big and brutish.
Yeah and when you play it backwards they do it like if you play it normally the knight’s text is red but if you play it backwards its green. See What Im doing there?
@@greentea1402 you don't get It The fact of not being the hero Its not the scary things Is that you tought that you were doing the right thing AND realize you were never the hero Its not quite scary Its More disturbing that you kinda helped the bad guy
...tim... took the princess? Why? I don't get this twist? I'm reading the backlog of the story but... here it feels like there's no indication of the twist...
@@tsyumamatsuthehavenofguard32 the twist is that Tim had been the monster she'd been running from, all along. So essentially the whole game we've been not rushing to the rescue, to save the girl from monster -- we were that monster, and we were just chasing her, not realizing the truth :)
The truth is... the final level where you have to rescue the princess is actually being played *backwards.* In truth, you're just chasing after the princess like a psychopath.
Even after having experienced this game around the time of its release, I never had nor have yet again ever experienced anything like this ending. During the whole process of going through the doors of the final world, it never occurred to me that the music was playing backwards. Better yet, I wholeheartedly figured the Princess was fictional; only to be shocked as we finally got to see her. During what finally seemed like us finding and being eternally united with the Princess, I was so happy; I so wanted this to happen while still in disbelief that we finally found her. My excitement was undeniable as I reached the porch. Then... Then came that confusion of what to do once I got to the porch outside her room. However, that confusion was soon totally overcome with a total mind-fcuk as I realized I needed to play the whole stage in reverse, and the dread of realizing she's not running to me, she's running away from me set in. The music on this final stage, haunts me. I love the score, and enjoy it every time I listen to it, but it always reminds me of how shocking the reveal of this stage was. This game is an absolute masterpiece.
Kurticus GT The game is truly about male entitlement and expecting women to be things you “win” for doing things she never asked nor wanted you to. I’m honestly shocked I’ve never heard this side of it, and only “yeah turns out she was a nuke, wild” Scarily similar to dudebros going “yeah turns out she was crazy” when someone breaks up with him.... 🤔
@@DeathnoteBB So is the nuke theory not correct? People seem to have some evidence regarding that, but I didn't know about any of this while playing the game once it came out. I understood it like you do, but now I'm not quite sure what's the more correct theory.
illusion115 I mean, I can’t say I know what is more canon or anything, but imo the nuke ending is a metaphor for how willfully ignorant people (Braid, in this case) do mental backflips to justify their actions to themselves and blame the victim. Johnathon Blow even said there’s no single story in Braid thats important. That said I also personally don’t get the idea that Braid is a scientist chasing the atomic bomb, so this interpretation makes more sense to me. People also have said the explosion is because of a time paradox. But yeah I like to think it’s a metaphor for men who refuse to see themselves as the predator, and women as the victim.
I still don't get the meaning of the ending, like its still all clusterfucked to me. Can someone clearly elaborate it briefly to me? (like an "Explain Like I'm 5" style explanation)
8:16 I can totally see the theory that this is about the atom bomb. The direct quote from a creator of the atom bomb, and the princess' line about how he flirts with the death of the world.
Even the books you read before the level seems to hint this, how tim is so focused on the most likely explosive helicopter crash, and how he wants "an intense light that will embrace the world", just like the light of an atomic bomb explosion that will bring peace, ending a war, which also destroys all hope and safety of a pre nuclear world
Ok, I get it. Tim, I think that’s his name, was never looking for the princess to save her, but rather to... what was he planning? Anyways, once he found her, she noticed him and ran away. Tim then ran after her, but before he could reach her, the knight saved her. I still don’t understand the other ending though, where she blows up. Was that what Tim was planning this whole time? The point is that Tim was the bad guy and the knight was the hero... right?
Yes, the monster that's described in the books is actually Tim, OR you could view it as Tim perceiving the knight saving her as a kidnapping of sorts. The bomb ending has several meanings, all of them metaphorical and highly debated
It's really weird and vague, but the princess and the knight are metaphors. Tim is a nuclear scientist. The princess is the atomic bomb. The knight is supposedly other scientists that beat him to the punch and got recognized instead of him. The intro text of the last level strongly illustrates that Tim perceives things very differently from other people. What he perceives as beautiful and majestic, others see as terrifying and deadly. Hence why he is "flirting with the death of the world."
Tim was a nuclear scientist, the princess was the atom bomb. The knight that rescued her were the other scientists who didn’t want to use the bomb. Tim was different, he wanted to use the bomb to satisfy his curiosity. This is why if he gets his hands on the princess, she blows up. Some men just want to watch the world burn. Tim is that person.
The Oppenheimer movie came out 4 months ago and that guy posted 7 months ago. The whole braid/oppenheimer connection is pretty old news at this point. In my opinion it cheapens everything because it tries so desperately to be deep and artsy instead of standing on its own as a work of art. But hey, to each their own. @@emuhvary1771
Braid is basically the Spec Ops: The Line of platformers. *Do you feel like a hero yet?* (and successfully "saving" the princess is the equivalent of Walker validating and embracing the monster he had become: *Gentlemen... welcome to Dubai.)*
I remember going through a very difficult break up around the time I finished this game and, no kidding, this game helped me to let her go instead of still obsessing over it. It was a gift given at the right time in my life. Very much appreciate everything about it. Art style, music, story. Its all up there.
This game is amazing. Paraphrasing the commenter below, I never had and since haven’t experienced anything as impressive. I beat the game at the summer camp I worked at. No internet. Just me and an older anarchist who watched me play. We discussed the game. He recognized the quote “now we are all sons of bitches”. We realized, just the two of us, what it meant. No internet. It was a month or two later that my friend in high school told me that manhattan was burning in the background. Wow. Honestly, I think this is one of the best media contributions to mankind. I wish everyone could experience it how I experienced it. I wished it were required “reading”; but alas, if it were, someone would have ruined the ending. So good. Thanks Jonathan Blow.
@Jmt1000 if grammar isn’t meant to be enforced, how do I get cheap shots against anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, and trolls on the internet who are ‘to’ stupid ‘too’ know the difference between you’re and your? I’m gonna have to respectfully disagree with her.
Yeah its quite sad that this is the reality. It can be related to real life where you try to do good to others but somehow end up causing so much harm, only to find out that only you thought your actions are good
@I am 40 The thing is, what if we’re not really the bad guy at all? Maybe the princess is a stuck up bitch and we’re the incel main character that’s just trying to politely ask her out on a date. But she runs off to her Chad knight who is like “I’ll save you from that puny beta male woman!” and she’ll say “Oh yes! My white knight! Please take me in your big strong arms and abuse me later tonight with them!”
So, my very basic interpretation of the game is that Tim is a scientist who worked on the Manhatten Project, and that the Princess represents peace. Tim thought that by pursuing nuclear weaponry, he was making peace more possible (through deterrence, I guess), bringing it within his reach. In reality, though, it only made peace less likely, forcing it away from him even as he told himself what he was doing would bring peace about. That's my best guess, at least, although the creator of the game said he couldn't put what it meant into "human words" so it's probably more complex than that.
This is so god damn genius, in the reverse mode the obstacles make it look like the princess is trying to help you escape with her from the 'evil' knight but in reality, she is trying to get you away from her.
Thank you! I just saw a similarly old video, but they reverse only for the explosion (from the secret ending), and then went “lol yeah nothing changed”. I guess they already knew about the regular ending. I just wanted to see the rewound part, so I came here.
Omg when i first played this... there not helping each other he's trying to lock her in and she's trying to escape him... so you have been playing the villain the entire game, this was worse then AC3's plot twist
What an achievement of a game and a brilliant twist at the end. another game that had a twist that caught me off guard with its choking reveal is Little Nightmares the Kid DLC.
Like i don't get how no one saw the twist of "the princess is running from you" like all the previous levels were playing in reverse, during the chase, everything else is still going reverse, i still like it since it's a good twist, however i'm just slightly surprised how some people didn't see it coming
No, I bet it was! Basically, Johnathan Snow watched Tenet -- then inverted himself to live 8 years backwards -- then inverted himself again to create Braid in the past ;) xD
If I wanted a twist that I’m the bad guy I’d watch an M. Night Shyamalan movie or play spec ops💀like i get the metaphor but still😂idk in my books like, we had good intentions, but clearly shit went sideways,but I mean, doesn’t change the fact that we can learn from our mistakes, doesn’t make us evil but human, or something,idk, or it just makes us massive fuck up,but hey at least we tried?😂