The Prisoners Motives Explained 

The Prisoner is the real MVP of Outer Wilds. Without him, nobody would have ever found the Eye and the universe would have just died without a new one forming.

I remember the first time I saw the prisoner’s second torch vision, where you sail off into the sunset together, and was so confused by it. I didn’t quite understand what it was trying to say, until I said “Well let’s leave.” And then I remembered that I was dead, and the vision clicked for me. I like to think the Prisoner knew that to access the cell, you had to enter the simulation while dead, or maybe gleaned that knowledge during our vision shared to them. To me the second vision always served as an invitation, from one explorer to another, to extinguish our lamp and join the Prisoner in whatever lay beyond that last unexplored frontier.

I love the juxtaposition between the Elks and the Nomai. The Nomai traveled and risked everthing to reach the eye. They're a naturally curious species dedicated to learning about everything the universe has to offer, but it's like the universe itself was against them. Constantly being beaten down, like the warp into dark bramble, but they perservered until the final blow was dealt: the interloper. The Elks were fascinated by the eye as well, but as soon as they learned the truth, the hid from it. They tried to lock it away and run forever, but the Prisoner didn't want that. Being an explorer at heart like the Nomai, they set the eye free, if only for that brief moment. I think the gameplay reflects both species perfectly. The base game requires the player to think through their problems. The solution is rarely given to the player directly, and only a natural sense of curiosity and exploration, combined with clever thinking, can get the job done. Contrast that with EotE. Most solutions are told to the player almost directly, with the slide reels in the forbidden archives. The difficulty in EotE doesn't come from innovative puzzles, but instead from fear. There isn't a clever workaround for any one problem. Instead, you have to do what the Elks couldn't and face your fears head-on. It's the kind of storytelling through gameplay that I think makes this game beautiful

I like that when he gets his lantern and reaches out, it first looks like that he thinks you're one of his species, looking pretty mad and angry, but as soon as he sees you, he pulls his hand back, and he kind of looks confused, realizing its not one of his own, but instead, a good boi

I like how the Owlk version of the Eye symbol is subtly more organic and branch-like than the more rigid geometric symbol Nomai use.

First thing I thought during the ending is that its so funny how we show the prisoners entire species corpses rotting, like I know they had a falling out but still a bit morbid to portray that.

For my money, the Prisoner was the one who first found the Eye of the Universe through the telescope, and was also responsible for convincing the entire species to pursue it. He's the only one we ever see associated with a telescope, and his poncho matches up. I imagine his horn was cut off as punishment for misleading the civilization. Furthermore, his curiosity of the Eye would have never ended, which explains why their virtual home still had a shrine to the Eye in it , and why they'd try to free it's signal. This also explains why the other Strangers punished the Prisoner so harshly; in their eyes, his is an absolute villain. He not only brings about the destruction of their home planet, but he also attempts to bring about the end of all civilization, including their permanent virtual purgatory, by releasing the Eye's signal. Thus, they burn down his virtual home, lock him away to spend an infinite amount of time alone, and eventually even destroy the written unlock codes to his cell.

Another thing that helps with the theory that is his house burned down in the simulation, is the fact it has one untouched painting. One of the reels showed that when the owlks discover de intention of the eye, one of their skulls was on the ground and slowly cover in moss and grass, that's when they became mad. The painting has this vision, the skull cover in new life, a flower and new galaxies coming from it. It is beautiful.

My personal belief is that the Young Owlk we see in the first Slide reel is the Prisoner. The child has the same colour poncho as the Prisoner and we only see one of the child's antlers. Also we know that the prisoner can remember their home as they are one of the Owlks that physically mourn, We see them place their head in their hands and cry. They were there when the eye was discovered and a child so the hope of their people as they travelled to the eye most likely affected their spirit and personality. If the Prisoner was also the child that might explain the telescope even further as the discovery of the eye would’ve been a huge event in their life and they would have been one of the first of their race to see the eye as they were present at its discovery. I also believe that part of the reason the prisoner freed the eye was due to a level of dissatisfaction with the simulation, all of the other Owlks seem perfectly comfortable to say within the simulation and to live in the lie they have created while the prisoner was not. Perhaps the prisoner's memories of their home are in some way tinted to remember the homeworld in a way that is differnet to the other Owlks, and that same feeling led to their suicide at the end of the DLC. I also feel that if my theory is the case then the prisoner's story may in some way be similar to Solanum's . They already have a connection through being the two optional members of the Quantum orchestra; it would also make sense that their stories might be similar. With them both seeing the eye as a child and coming to different conclusions about the eye to their people. For example the Nomai believed that the eye had called out to them and chosen them. As a child Solanum believed that the eye ahd tricked them, but by the time we meet her on the Quantum moon she tells us that she believes that the eye did not select her people but instead they simply found the signal, that the eye was calling out but not to the Nomai specifically. This idea is very different from Nomai as a whole. This Could Mirror the Prisoner/Child's outlook who as a child may have felt some level of awe and wonder about the eye and then as their people moved to hate it and came to believe the eye had tricked them, the prisoner came to believe that the change that the eye heralded was not necessarily bad. Great video as Usual though, I always love seeing any videos from you!

The prisoner's yelp of glee is so cool to me, because the sound of these things roaring freaked me out big time throughout the whole game. But now, seeing it come from a friend, it's suddenly so cute haha.

On the slide reel that depicts the Owlk having a vision seeing another Owlk wither and die, it also depicts a skull slowly being overgrown. The Owlk doesn't see the end of the vision. The end can be seen in the prisoners home. A painting of the overgrown skull sprouting a flower which shoots out new galaxies. Because of this I think the prisoner know the real intend of the eye

I just noticed at 0:20 the prisoner reaches out like he though it was another one of the Owlks visiting him. but stops when he realizes its not.

My version is that the first elk who found the eye and the prisoner are the same. I know that TP only has one antler, but that might have been caused by a accident. The reason why he was so dissatisfied by the others was that he originally found it. During the trip to our system, a green glow covers the Stranger in what I think is lightened travel. And on the way there, an accident happened leaving TP with one antler. When he learned of the eyes true purpose of restarting life, he either refused to believe it, or didn't care. So he made a plan to deactivate the jammer, he almost executed it perfectly and the signal was released, but someone saw him leave the simulation and followed him. He was captured and locked away, doomed to eternal life on the Sim. The only thought that kept him from blowing out the lantern knowing his body is dead is that he wondered if it was worth it. Which in this case, it was.

Something that never occurred to me before... After turning off the signal blocker, was the Prisoner planning to use one of the flying saucer ships and travel to the Eye *himself*? That could explain why the other Owlks freaked out and decided to seal him in the digital world, where he could never threaten to destroy the universe again.

one of my opinions after all of these events is; we get to know 3 different species in total. when the nomai clan discover the eye, they immediatly tell each other about it and start the effort to learn more about it. the elks do the same, one of them discover and immediatly tells the others. but this is not the case with our hearthian player character. as i was playing the base game, i would occasionally go into town and talk to town's people after learning new significant things about the solar system or the eye. but our player almost never really shares anything very significant with anyone, especially about the eye or the stranger. why does he keep these information to himself? what is his motive?

While watching this, I came up with an interesting theory - one that, if I'm right, makes the Owlks actions even more desperate seeming. If that house does actually belong to the Prisoner, it raises a fairly obvious question: why did only the Prisoner have a house to himself? All the other Owlks lived in these communal homes, but the Prisoner is the only one to have his own home. To me, this tells me that the Prisoner was someone important. That also explains why they kept the Prisoner alive in his confinement, with some relatively nice things. This is where the theory comes in: maybe, the Prisoner was actually the leader of the Owlks. They were the wisest, and most experienced of them. It would explain why they treated them with so much respect even after imprisoning them, rather than simply exiling them, or locking them up in the real world, or - god forbid - killing them. That is why only they realized that, even though what the Eye showed them was horrible, they shouldn't try to silence it. Somewhere else, I made the suggestion that maybe, rather than trying to allow the universe to end, the Prisoner was simply letting others know the Eye existed, so new explorers might find answer that the Owlks did not. Either way, it shows how desperate the other Owlks were. They were so far gone by that point, not even their own leader could convince them to let the Eye broadcast, so they locked him away. That's my theory. What do you think?

when we told the prisoner about their current state and the state of their people..... chills. large scale passages of time always get to me

I like your interpretation of why the Prisoner decided to extinguish their flame as it makes a lot of sense with the satisfaction that others made it to explore for the Eye. My interpretations was always that the Prisoner wanted to finally be free of the lie that is the simulation, to finally end what was effectively a hell for them. Like seriously, his whole treatment was basically solitary confinement where he’s forced to be alone in a cramp room with no way out and especially no way to leave the simulation. It was a very cruel fate for the Prisoner that we freed him of. That being said, I also believe he wasn’t the only one among his kind who had sympathies for the Eye especially given the existence of reels to show the archiving and burning of reels along with how these reels tend to be found near the eye symbols in the DLC. It’s just that the Prisoner was the only one to act against the others. This all just speculation given environmental story telling but that seems to be the theme of this entire DLC.

And even if they stayed alive, two-thirds of their compatriots were going to be dead (again) very soon anyway.

"...but if we dig deeper, I think we can come to reasonable enough conclusion..." I love you man.

When I found that reel showing an old person dying but still getting into the simulation made me really happy

Excellent video, just wanted to point out that we shouldn't necessarily assume *all* the owlks know how to bypass the security measures, so they could still be intended for other owlks. Also I feel sort of bad, but I can't help laughing at the idea that the stranger didn't intentionally extinguish his lantern, he just accidentally slipped.

The idea that the burned building in the simulation is the prisoners home makes so much sense and is so tragic! I love that theory so much! On another note, I found something interesting that you might be interested in; I couldn’t find any of the owlks instruments outside of the simulation. Seriously, not one! I’d love to hear your thoughts on why that is. Thank you for making these videos!

I feel like we're missing something important: do you think the Prisoner's plan was to get caught after releasing the signal? Or was it to just go back to the simulation and continue "life" as usual? I think the more likely scenario is that they planned to hop on one of those ships we see in the docking bay and go to the Eye themselves. I might not have just been faithful sacrifice, they might have been driven by curiosity, maybe even greed to some extent (though I'm not sure what _they_ could hope to gain from it, _we_ know that the one who enters the Eye gets to shape the next universe based on their experiences, and that might be seen as a reward by some).

Good video! I like your theories and they make sense. I think that when the prisoner released the eyes signal, he wanted someone to find the signal before it was shut off again because he probably knew that at some point the other owlks would wake up and turn the signal off. Also after a few times of going to the burnt house in the simulation, I figured it was the prisoners house because of that little eye symbol, and the telescope. Everyone probably knows and guessed this already, but that’s what I think. Keep on making good videos!

The eye would have been something the prisoner would have kept very sneakily too. Like they would have known that if the other owlks knew about their feelings towards the eye they would have been imprisoned earlier.

Prisoner first scene be like: “you dare disturb my- oh damn, didnt know you were chill like that bro”

There's something you missed in the burned building which also hints towards the Prisoner's motivations. If you look around in there you can open a panel which reveals the missing frame of the animation of the Strangers analyzing the Eye; they were so afraid of it they tried to bury it, but it seems the Prisoner kept it around.

I think your theory on the house of the prisoner is correct, because there's a picture in that house that shows a lot of galaxies coming out from the owlk skull, basically showing that even though his species would die it would bring more life to the universe, that along with everything you said in that section, I think you were pretty much on the money

I think what the prisoner is trying to say in the last vision is this. If we take the symbolism of the telescope being one of exploration then the prisoner inviting you onto it with them is them inviting you to follow them in whatever adventure comes after this one. Which would require both of you to go into the water to deload yourself from the simulation, that of course killing you.

I seem to recall also coming across a painting/picture of some kind (that I THINK was in the Prisoner's home inside the simulation) that showed an Owlk skull with a flower blooming out of it. In other words, it's possible that the Prisoner came to the conclusion that while the Eye would bring destruction, new life would bloom from it. That also explains his quote in the Ancient Glade; "Whatever happens next, I do not think it is to be feared."

Dude your channel gives me such satisfying explanations for questions I still had

Great analysis, but a video update is almost needed to make mention of the painting that can be found in the burned down house. Seeing that painting gives further insight into what the Prisoner foresaw or fantasised about when he looked upon or analysed the Eye for himself.

I've never cried after beating a game, this was close. I honestly wish u could replay the whole game and reignite that spark for adventure this game put in me. Hopefully it isn't over just yet.........

Although everything you said about the reason why the prisonner ended it as soon as he got out, I always thought it was because he couldn't do it into his cell... I'm not sure there is a way of extinguishing the flame without water, our character certainly can't. Maybe this is even why there is water erverywhere around? He knows he can't exit the simulation because his body is dead, that there is nothing for him next, and so at the first opportunity, knowing that his mission is done, he "frees" himself. Does that make sense?

Sharp analysis, thank you!

I just thought of a new question about the DLC: because of the dying sun, the Stranger automatically leaves the Solar system. But when you remove the warp core and enter the simulation, the ending implies that a *very* long time has passed and that they don't bother hunting you anymore, etc. So how does the Stranger power itself if the sun is gone (and that every other star is dying as well)?

i finished the dlc time to binge your eoe content

I don't know if it was added in a later update, but in the prisoner's house there's a painting showing a flower shaped pretty similarly to the Eye, blooming from an Owlk skull and creating galaxies around it

This game is amazing. Soon I will make a video about it too

i like to think that the prisoner, despite knowing he and everyone he loved and knew would die one day, that the owlks couldnt stop the inevitable just because they didnt like what they saw. he understood the importance of endings.

I also like to think they were sailing into the sunrise. The start of a new day, sailing into the unknown.

For those wandering why the Prisoner just 'commit' suicide, firstly if they were alive, at best case the physical Sarcophagus would works similair to 'read-only' Bootable USB stick, each time formating Sarcophagus matching into spartan Cell interior, or in worst case risking this gets restored to original interor design, which might have been mentioned by their Jailers, Geographical features are reflected between physical world and the Simulation, with matching simulation 'access points' , also its having a transtioning loop inbetween areas themselves themselves, and i half suspect that each firepit (& Lantern) is its own independant Simulation devices, whilest the Tower / Vault works as Network ports Secondly, whilest i dont know exactly how big their avarage lifespan is, the vibe that i getting that this is counted in triple digits at least, even longer if artifically being sustained by external/invisible/unreachable lifesupport systems With the intended effect of isolating the Prisoner, with a presumable constant static picture of their homes Night sky, which i believe was unaccessible by the themselves, used as initial/sporadic/final vist of their Jailers, the Prisoner sense of time can be greatly distorted, trying inital chance of instant death on risk of losing the remaining living space

How do you manage to make snapshots from the 3rd person perspective? Or are they some pictures from the fan community / mobius concept of arts library?

Interesting thing about the burned house in the dreamworld being the Prisoner's house. In one hidden slide real (the one that shows the Starlit Cove's secret entrance), the Owlk with the tablet starts right next to the telescope in the burned down building, and then gives the tablet to another Owlk and shuts down the lights. What significance does this have if that is the prisoner's house? Is there a significance to that telescope for the Owlk to be there, seemingly contemplating something? Maybe showing regret? And second question: If the Prisoner already has his telescope in his house when he was "arrested", why didn't the Owlks just take his own telescope down the Vault, instead of creating a completely new one? What would the Owlks do with the previous telescope? Maybe they still wanted to use it, even if the house was burned down?

Was pretty great deducing the 2nd church to be his own house, makes sense! But yno, if the Eye's signal was always cloaked, then how did the Nomai recieve it? Was it really during those moments the prisoner released it (or the waves that eventually made it to the Nomaii, across the vast void)? Would that also be why it was so hard to pinpoint the Eye's location? I don't remember them struggling to recapture the eye's signal during their efforts. It was always broadcasting, but it was just it's exact location hard to find, or so I thought?

I always thought the telescope in the vault was used to send the vision with his staff to the surface when you open it slightly with chains still on.

Hey I have a theory that since the ship logs are made of the same materials as the statues found by gabbro which store information that the ship logs are able to retain the information gathered and send them back in time with the loop (and maybe even update the log based off of what you're experiencing but I'm not so sure about that one but I'd like to know your thoughts on this theory). Edit - Just now I was looking at the ship log and there is Nomai text flowing into it from the bottom sometimes ( Edit within edit - I think that happens every time there is an update in the ship log now that I think about it). This is not unlike when the Nomai text flows through the screen when the loop is reset. The text is likely Information or code/data that is being sent to the Ash Twin project in the case of the loop and statues but what if the players log is also connected to the Ash Twin project? It would explain why information is retained between loops but yet again that could be explained as just a gameplay feature so that you don't get lost with thoughts in your head. That's what I though it was up until now.

Day 10 of reminding Lore that his videos make my day

Did anyone else find a rather beautiful painting of the reborn universe (greenery and flowers growing out of an owlk skull with galaxies in the background, like little lights) in the prisoner’s burnt out home? It’s unusual since the vision was seen by the elder and not the prisoner according to the reels. Is it possible the prisoner somehow managed to get the vision / imagined it and realised the end is not to be feared as it is really rebirth of another world?

Hey think you could make a video on how Dark Bramble works? Like how do the like Dark Bramble portal things expand to be bigger on the inside like Feldspar says? Or maybe what Dark Bramble was before the seed engulfed it?

My interpretation of the prisoner’s final vision is this: while yes we don’t specifically show anything regarding the ash twin project or the supernova, I imagine the prisoner assumed the worst that too much time has passed and that you the player are either dead or about to die, and as such they leave that vision to say “We’re explorers, and we’ve got the prime opportunity to greet a new frontier, so let’s walk into the light and greet a new day… and thank you.. friend.”

side note: i noticed that there was only one elder owlk, and no youth. how long do these creatures live? also side note: we dont have confirmation that time passes the same in the dream state, one could assume based on personal experience that the owlks were in there for what felt like double the time.... or a fraction, who knows. in the end, i felt satisfied and at the same time i felt sorrow. kinda like that final howl

As I already said somewhere else, this is the problem with visual storytelling - you can tell WHAT has happened, but can only guess at WHY has it happened.

I think the prisoner, after some time to ponder and reflect, saw what the eye was really trying to say. That while their time would come to an end, there would be new life that would spring up, life that through the thoughts and feelings and energy they devoted to discovery and bravery and science, would be nurtured into the new generation of explorers and scientists. He understood that what they saw was not only the eventual end, but a new beginning.

How did you undo the last lock without killing yourself?? I've always wanted to see the inside of the prisoners "coffin" mainly just out of curiosity, but i just gave up because I thought there was no way

i'm sure the "vision" you show the prisoner doesn't change regardless, but technically i think it should change -depending on what you've discovered so far in that playthrough/save file. Like if you started a new game and went to the prisoner, you wouldn't know the things you know about our solar system.

I really hope the developers do a little more to establish what the motives for the Prisoner were, as I know with my playthru when I met them I was half expecting to be bashed on the head by their artifact. All these Owlks that I thought would be friendly were actually confusingly mean and upset, and in their culture they thought this one individual was worth the effort of isolating in so many ways. It came off to me that they were the scariest of the scary, like a final boss. Then they want to read our mind and… it kills itself? There is still so much we don’t know about the Owlks motives in general; what scares them and why? We know the eye scared them, and the prisoner, but then why also did they develop a cloaking device for their ship that only effectively works against objects in the inner solar system? Was there something pre-Noami in system that they were hiding from? Were the Owlks concerned that the Prisoner had an accomplice or followers? Could the Owlks be considered Xenophobic, and if so why?

In the vision it was shown that if elks will touch the eye everything will die including the person who touched it. There is one frame that shows a skull of the toucher overgrown with grass. In the prisoner's house there is a painting of the same frame but with a flower growing from the skull and small galaxies seemingly flying from the flower. So it's obvious that prisoner thought that vision is only partial. Elk have seen that everything will die if somebody touches the eye, prisoner thought that everything will die and be reborn. The question is, does touching the eye really destroys everything and remekes it? If so, then it's only ethical to touch it when all the galaxies are dying. So, like, exectly what happened in the game. That's massive luck that elks found the eye and restricted the signal, that prisoner let the signal out just a bit, that nomai missed the warp, that their ash twin project failed, that they found just enough info and that they left enough resource and set up time loop system just for main character to swoop in and do the thing in the best possible moment. Also, it's very lucky that eye remakes the universe based on the one thing that persists through the time loop - memories.

Just one moment - it doesnt matter how brief or not the single was released, only that it was and it will travel in the Universe until somebody receive it (and it not decayed too much)

I'd like to hear your thoughts about why the owlks are hostile and blow out your lantern. If I saw somebody new after hundreds of thousands of years I would be very curious. It also doesn't make sense for it to be a security thing because we can go right back in. If it was for security, they should be taken our lantern so we couldn't deload and interrogated us, especially because we could do more damage to them outside by extinguishing their lanterns (hypothetically). It could be to protect their libraries but again, we could extinguish their lanterns and then go in and access the libraries. Thoughts?

Nice theory!

The Lore Explorer missed the crucial painting in the "prisioners house" in the dream world

I would like to add that I think it likely that the prisoner extinguished their lamp when they did because they simply weren't able to before - I have seen nothing in the simulation vault that they could use for that. And in the real world vault, they had no way of leaving; whether they just fall asleep or die, with the fire and artifact with them they would be ushered into the simulation either way.

Is it possible to unlock the vault without killing yourself ? How do you get past the 2 alarm guards otherwise..

By the way, even though the ringed planet is visible to the naked eye... why wouldn't the prisoner would like to have a closer look on it? Our Moon is visible to the naked eye, still I love looking at it with a telescope. :D I guess looking at the ringed planet's cloud bands could be awesome! Or at least surely better than doing nothing :D Anyway awesome video, keep it up! :)

I think the purpose of the window planet was that he wished to seek the eye, but they forced him to watch the planet with the rest of them as a punishment.

I wonder if the Prisoner was the one who initially discovered the Eye. Or, if the one who discovered it acted as a mentor figure to the prisoner.

I think in this world, the universe needs a conscious observer at the eye in order to "reset" properly (or at least maintain versions of prior consciousnesses), since it seems the memories of the observer influence what may exist in the new universe. The owlks blocking the signal is an attempt to prevent anyone from finding the eye and doing so. The owlks seemed very "at one with nature" until they found out that observing the eye would lead to their deaths, even though death is a very natural part of the universe. Feeling betrayed by what they worshipped and sacrificed for, they attempted to remove themselves from the natural cycle, but effectively deprived the universe of a proper "reset" in the process. Maybe a conscious observer is necessary for the the "reset" to occur at all, since you need to jump into the eye and exhaust the limitless possibilities at the end sequence. The prisoner felt ashamed for this action and attempted to set things right by allowing the signal out and hoping someone would find it to continue the natural cycle. I think this is why the prisoner was hesitant in the end to be remembered, since remembering them might bring along the same dilemma in the next universe, knowing it may be possible for their kind (or version of) to succeed at keeping the eye hidden from an observer, and breaking the natural cycle.

how do we know they are called owlk? Where is this in the game? I must've missed it

Is it possible that the person who discovered the signal is the prisoner?

what do the gamefiles call the Owlks? i'm curious what Mobius calls this species.

I love how the Owlks took one look at the absolute crapshow that is the Hearthian galaxy that instead of exploring it and maybe making a new home, they just make a simulation of their original planet. I probably would too, given how horrible the Hearthian galaxy is.

Spoilers : I'm a bit late, but in 12:35, how can we wake up after opening the safe? Don't you have to die to remove one of the three seals?

what if the eye represents the knowledge that your story will end and many things will grow from the corpse of your universe? it's the acceptance and embracing of the end of all that you have known so that something else can grow in its place. it is the time that will pass after you are long gone, the universe that will sprout from the fertilizer of ours. thats why it scared the owlks so much, thats why they clung to their simulation so tightly.

Could the prisoner be the one who originally saw the eye? That’s the only other time we saw a telescope.

My theory was that the Prisoner saw the eye as a natural phenomenon like any planet or star in the galaxy and admired it's potential to destroy and renew. there are many dangerous things in the world and the galaxy, what's one more natural beautiful thing, and why should it be caged and imprisoned because someone came to the wrong conclusion and came to fear its true capabilities.

the way i see it, the prisoner understood the importance of the eye, that its function would be *necessary* one day. the owlks clearly understood that one day the universe would end, as they planned 300,000 years in advance for the supernova of the sun, to likely in the hopes that their simulation would be able to run for eternity after the rest of the universe had died off. they *knew* that by silencing the eye, they'd be denying all future life the right to exist. of course, i can't blame em for bein afraid of what the eye could do, it'd mean the end of their species, but deciding to seal away the eye till the heat death of the universe was 100% selfish of them to do. the prisoner understood that they can't choose when they're story ends and the next one begins, and that deciding that for all other life in the universe wasn't right. in the time they spent in the simulation, so many species must've come and gone, while they had been living the same life day-in and day-out. it wasn't good to stagnate like that, and there was no reason to force that stagnation on the universe

Here before the bots show up, No I'm not a bot.

12:34 How can you wake up? Aren't you supposed to die to reach the prisoner?

Yessss

Anyone else think about the prisoner any time people say we should stop research in AI? I'd much rather humanity create a race of AI that replaces them, than halt exploration just to stay comfortable.

New vid!!

This might be a bit of a reach, but I think the motivations for the Prisoner were religious. He could've belonged to a short faction of owlk people that were still devoted to the eye despite the fear of so many of their own had for it, and saw death as a normal thing everything had to one day come to terms with it. After becoming depressed with the bland virtual reality composed of idyllic memories of a world long-dead, he went to do what his religion told him would be best: Free the signal and let existence takes its way. As punishment, not only was he loaded permanently into the simulation, but was built in an encasement strong enough to resist being extinguished long after the rest had done so, and given no method to extinguish that flame in the virtual prison.

I think Owlks were right to do what they did, they saw the vision and they truly believed the Eye could destroy the entire universe, they did not know the real truth

the prisioner was an eye fanatic

Here my theory.. I thought Why would eh want his whole species to die. It's not like he knew there would be anew universe and he did know he whole universe would die. Imagine some marvel villain is trying to destroy the whole unviserse by getting to some place int he solar system. Can be seen as not much different to the owlks. He was kind of dooming his whole species for no reason. I'm guessing tis because living in the exact same place place thousands of years seems like a sad pointless life. Eventually they'd hate it. Maybe he realized he did not want to be immortal and woke up so he could end the simulation and die and do his species a favor because ebeing immortal even if yoy live like a king would get terrible before long especially living in the same place. Maybe he wanted to interact with the eye and see the enlightenment they were looking for and the rhthyms of the eye just nudged him towards it. The beauty and awe oft he eye. Idk. Bone fo the owlks look happy. Thw simulation just gives melancholy and sad memories

I can't help but thing that the prisoner's actions were in vain. Since the signal is blocked and the Prisoner decides to unblock it, not that much time goes by, which means that the Nomai would have heard it anyways. The signal has been playing since the beginning of the Universe, a couple of months or years wouldn't have made much of a difference. The Nomai were already developed and exploring the universe so its most probable that the signal they heard was the original signal, not the unblocked one that only lasted for a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, I also think that the prisoner was irresponsible. The owl thought the eye would destroy the universe and clearly the prisoner disagreed but he also doesn't seem to have evidence of the contrary, so he is basically betting the existence of the universe on what appears to be nothing more than a hunch. And at the time he took that decision, the universe wasn't dying so it wasn't a matter of "there's nothing to lose" as it is the player's case.

i felt so bad for the prisoner, but i was glad i freed him.

Wait how are we ever supposed to see the prisoner's corpse in the real world? Don't you have to die to free him in the first place? (you can't be alive or else the bell pillar things guarding the 3rd seal will wake you up)

I never realized the prisoner... killed himself.😢

Fun Fact: You can meet and speak with the Prisinor in the Eye of the Universe. Where he explains that trying to avoid the inevitable is wrong and he turned off the jammer hoping someone else would find and help the Eye of the Universe fulfill its wishes. He thought his kind hiding away in fear is a cowardly way to live and apologizes for their kind basically ruining everything.

how did you get 300,000 years?

12:27 WAIT HOW ARE YOU NOT DEAD HOW DO I DO THIS? :0

Reel world :troll:

i just wanna know why the prisoner gotta reach out to you and open his bigass mouth when you meet him why you gotta be like that man

Why do people use" they " to call the prisoner, instead of" it"?

'warship' ahhhhhhhhh its worship not warship

Can’t believe the Strangers built an entire simulated world, where they could make anything they wanted possible, and they didn’t do anything cool like giving themselves the ability to fly or something. Biggest plothole in Outer Wilds.