So I never noticed it until literally just now (I’ve replayed Endless Summer so many times I’ve lost track), but during the Andromeda Idol flashback, the MC is with Diego in a dorm room and they’re talking to him before they go out to a party. It’s MC’s idol, but it’s Diego-centric.
And Diego doesn’t EVER directly address, look at, interact with, or otherwise acknowledge the MC. He’s talking to himself, and the dialogue is ambiguous enough that I initially mistook it as him and MC talking.
Knowing what we know in book 3, that’s really great foreshadowing and I just never picked up on it. Endless Summer continues to blow my mind nearly ten years later.
@maytray2267894
If you have all eleven Embers of Hope and solve the puzzle, Vaanu explains MC’s very nature and origin. Early on in the explanation is Vaanu explaining that humans’ hearts hold immeasurable power, followed immediately by this scene depicting Diego sad and alone on the plane just before he starts to imagine something.
Now, granted, it’s never outright *stated* that Diego (unknowingly) willed the MC into existence, only implied. But given the Andromeda Idol flashback, the strong conjunction and interconnectedness between Diego and MC from the very beginning and throughout the story, and this scene right here in Vaanu’s explanation, it is heavily implied that this is what happened. Could it mean nothing? Possibly. But given how interconnected everything is in Endless Summer, I truly don’t think the writers implied it just for kicks.
Diego was such a sad, lonely guy who wanted friendship and love so badly that all of space and time warped and twisted to spawn him a living, breathing imaginary friend. Primarily for Diego’s need for a true friend, yes, but to also serve as a bridge to get him new friends, AND to get him and his new friends all where they needed to be on the island, and in life as a whole.
Diego always liked to call himself MC’s sidekick, but the exact opposite is true. Endless Summer was always Diego’s story. MC was just along for the ride.