I just finished inwm part 2 and here are my thoughts & theories/timeline assumptions. Also obviously spoilers!
So first off I loved it beautifully written & shot. You could tell a lot of love, effort, and time went into it, and it was amazing to see a lot of creators I love in it. The pacing was good and, I loved how they saved a lot of the heavier stuff for part 2. It was also wonderful seeing so many beloved egos making an appearance like Jim, warfstache, and Illinois even if they had smaller roles. That's all not mentioning the new egos such as dadiplier, pornstar mark, and engineer mark. Also the yancy scene was phenomenal, I love the emotions in it and I just love that the talk 'you' had with him in ahwm meant so much to him. Also the other actors even the ones with small roles like matpat and Dan avidan make the movie(? video? Whatever you would call it) much more of a captivating experience. It was everything I was hoping for and more!
The music mixing was also amazing, I loved how most of the bg music was different renditions of 'space is so cool' and the completely new song was also really good.
I really enjoyed how 'you' were always painted as the "bad guy" despite seeming just being a chaotic neutral if not a good being. The difference all depends on if you have complete control of the warp crystal.
If you do then I could see how 'you' could be painted as the "bad guy" who only cares about themself and the thrill of the adventure, despite seeming trying to fix the paradox. (It also kinda depends on if at the end you choose to 'hold on' or 'let go' but that's besides the point)
If 'you' don't have full control that's a different story though, because at the end of the day the warp crystal seemingly fussed itself with 'you' without your control, and if it is at least semi sentient or can just go off whenever (which is my guess) it could seemingly be trying to actively stop you from fixing the paradox, which in turn makes it look like your just trying to avoid fixing it despite it being out of your control.
So this is both kinda easy and kinda hard to have an explanation for but I think I have a good idea. The fact that there are multiple universes/timelines makes it easier to have explanations for things but it's harder to place what universes and when.
So for starters the main events in relation to the other stories (ie: ahwm, adwm, and wkm) so my first thoughts were that iswm and ahwm took place in the same universes which could explain why you see/hear about Yancy, Illinois, and heist mark. With 'you' just moving through different parts of the timeline, and I thought the ending kinda confirmed it. But then I started thinking, most of the story is more universes based as opposed to being more timeline bassed as ahwm seemed to be. So what I think is that in the "hold on" ending you throw the crystal into a wormhole and the crystal lands In a different universes where someone (presumably lady) finds it and (maybe?) stores it for safe keeping either disguising it as the box or maybe someone down the road finds it and turns it into the box? I'm not 100% sure. Although I'm pretty sure it's the crystal on the box that 'you' stole in ahwm given they seem to hold the same properties.
I also think that the crystal probably needs some sort of host or power source to be activated because otherwise it probably would have collapsed the universes long before mark(?) was able to find it.
Either way it being a different universes explains a lot, because while arguably there can be more than one mark ego in a universes there tends to be only one 'mane mark' (ie: heist mark, engineer mark, and date mark) so presumably there would be more than one 'you' explaining why someone Yancy or Illinois would recognize 'you'. And you could argue that "well 'you' recognize them too" but do 'you'? In situations like the old detective movie scenes 'you' presumably have no idea what's going on but 'you' just roll with it. The biggest problem with this assumption tho comes with the Yancy scene because of the part where 'you' point at him & the part where 'you' put your hand up to the glass. And I'll be honest I don't have an explanation for that but I'll think on this timeline theory more.
That's all I have it's 2:30 in the morning and I should go to bed but if you want to hear more of my theories, debate them or just general head cannons for the characters I would love to oblige you! My ask box is always open
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