Didn't the ending of An Underwater Adventure... Bother anyone?

I couldn't find anyone else talking about this anywhere else on these forums. Kind of surprising actually, I thought there would've been a lot of big debating by now. So I guess I'll be the one to start discussing this. I'm talking spoilers of AUA here. They're not big or anything, but I'm not covering them, so fair warning, I guess.









AUA heavily references Within a Deep Forest, one of my most favorite freeware games I ever played (coincidentally, today should mark one year since I downloaded WaDF). But AUA is apparently a story that "suggests the ball never existed". And when you beat the game, it even mentions that there's evidence or something that points to this story possibly being "the correct one".

Well, if you played both WaDF and AUA like I have... Doesn't this bother you at all? Doesn't it bother anyone that the events and experiences of one of the biggest and best freeware games around may actually be non-canon?  It makes me pretty upset, I really don't want to accept such a thing...

Don't get me wrong! AUA is really fun and I enjoyed solving the puzzles and braving the mysterious illusions and traps of Dr. Cliche! Er... Well, most of the puzzles. Did anyone actually use logic to figure out the final bomb switch? But yeah, I really really liked it. It's just... I liked WaDF a LOT more! So the implications of AUA with regards to Nifflas games canon really rubs the wrong way!

But if this is a Knytt Story that Nifflas made, then this could be one of the few so called "partially true" adventures. So it's got me wondering... Does it really have to be one or the other? Is there really no chance for both games to have a place in canon?



From this point, I guess I'm doing some personal WMG. I was actually going to post this on TV tropes, but I decided to voice my thoughts and opinions here first and see if I could get some answers. Anyways...

Dr. Cliche can build a time machine, an underwater lab, and a bomb that either has the power to freeze the entire freaking world or become a sentient ball instead! He's a genius who worked really hard to prevent his war-torn future from ever existing!

Who's to say he's not so determined prevent the future that he would build another lab and bomb somewhere else? Or even someWHEN else! See, it's entirely possible for him!

So maybe... In terms of Dr. Cliche's lifetime continuity, the events of WaDF happened first. When the first bomb's detonation is prevented by the ball, Dr. Cliche tries again in another time and this time steps up the lab's security immensely (again, looking at you final bomb puzzle...)! This time he is stopped by Juni.

Come to think of it... How did Juni and her friend even find the lab? Could the tale of the ball had something to do with it? Well, probably not... But to solve that last puzzle would be to indicate that Juni is actually VERY smart...

AUA does also hint that this probably won't be the last time we hear from Dr. Cliche. Does that mean that he's going to try at least one more time to freeze the world?



Whew, okay, sorry if all that was a lot to read, especially the WMG . What my ranting really boils down to is this: is WaDF canon or not? As a huge lover of that game, I really want to find out once and for all!

not sure I totally understand your point, because both stories were written by Nifflas, which is as "canon" as it gets, I suppose...so if it bothers you that they're telling two different sides or something, you'll have to accept the possibility of parallel universes.

I find all questions about whether or not something is "canon" can be answered quite simply with one word: hyper-time

I don't know about you, but whenever there's a story with time travel in it, I tend to shut my brain down. You could probably go with your theory about there being multiple attempts by Dr. Cliche at freezing the world and there'd be perfect consistency (I'd wait for KnyttWaDF to come out first to be sure, though).

A note on Knytt Stories: I don't remember exactly where it was written, but it's stated somewhere KS levels are just a collection of stories, which may not be consistent with one another. I think if you should ever have to choose between AUA and WaDF for which is canon, I'd say AUA could be seen as the 'apocrypha'.

The ending didn't bother me at all because when it comes to Nifflas' games, I consider canon irrelevant. Maybe you should too! Here are some reasons to:

• Improbable cross-game cameos, like that character from WaDF showing up in one of the Saira endings, despite Saira being set in a universe much closer to our own.
• Multiple incompatible endings (including joke endings) in lots of Nifflas' games, such as Knytt Stories and Saira.
• The general implication that the games (well, mainly Knytt Stories) represent legend-style retellings rather than anything realistic, meaning inconsistencies and impossibilities only add to the fun.
• Time travel leaves the door wide open for infinite parallel universes to pop out of nowhere, anyway.
• Hyper-time.

So maybe... In terms of Dr. Cliche's lifetime continuity, the events of WaDF happened first. When the first bomb's detonation is prevented by the ball, Dr. Cliche tries again in another time and this time steps up the lab's security immensely (again, looking at you final bomb puzzle...)! This time he is stopped by Juni.

That's pretty much how I've always thought this worked.

Huh, well, when you guys put it that way with the hyper-time and legend retelling concepts... That's understandable! Nifflas games do feel like they could be enlightening stories about adventure and discovery that a parent would read to their child or something.

Worrying about canon with regards to Nifflas games is kind of silly, I know, and I probably am over-thinking this. It's just... AUA actually talked about a specific kind of canon. And the detail at the ending where it does in fact say that AUA may be the "correct version" whereas WaDF is the version "many people choose to believe"... Well, I felt a rather downhearted when I read that. I was actually really hoping that was NOT what the game would tell me in the end  . Then I could think "two stories, cool" without a second thought. But since it DID say that, I couldn't just retreat to that state of mind straight away, Y'know?

Thanks for the discussion about all this so far. It's made me feel a little better. You guys are great! 

I always thought what Nifflas said in the story was a little like all those legends of old. In the times where people didn't have pens or pencils and instead just remembered stories and told them. That way, the stories kept on changing for each single person who told the story. Perhaps there was an original story; perhaps the Doctor's name wasn't really Cliché; if what I say is the case you would never know for sure. That doesn't really help you much, I think, but I just wanted to put out the theory.