Tameless Traverse: The one last plot hole

[Brickman]

Now that I think about it, I'm sort of confused about why everybody or anybody went to the Tameless Traverse. Isabelle certainly didn't, as she was in Longreach the whole time, yet the keepers and Batiste's party thought she had and, more importantly, the people across the Maw talked as though they had seen her but let her get captured--they referred to how they tried to harbor her but would've been better off killing her, as did the last Keeper. For that matter, why did Batiste not know where she was in the first place? Shala was there when the party announced to the entire town that they were taking her to Longreach, yet he doesn't know until they tell him in chapter 7.

This part's sort of confusing. What, exactly, happened here?

[Nillo]

That girl wasn't Isabelle, it was one of the others of that bloodline. You never get to see her because the Keeper just killed her when the party arrives.

[Mark Pay]

Hmmm, I can see how this could be interpreted. Perhaps I need to make a small edit to the opening dialogue.
As Nillo says, it's an entirely different person from the same bloodline who is never named, never given any backstory, and killed by the last Keeper.

Batiste doesn't go after Isabelle until they fail in the Traverse because even he can't break into Longreach and capture her until the army is distracted. ( They don't tell him at the end of the Chapter, he already knows )

Chapter 7 is probably the loosest in terms of plot. There's a lot of background events, motivations and history that aren't explicitly explained. The exact nature of the Enclave and Mama Saga went through a lot of changes from the first drafts, and predeterminism is just a sticky theme to try and play with.

[Brickman]

Actually, having replayed the beginning of the game and watching Shala's dialogue, I almost have to suspect that she secretly did not want Batiste to succeed. Aside from the fact that she did, in reality, know exactly where they'd taken Isabelle, she explicitly warned the party to tell absolutely noone where they'd taken her. Maybe she doubted her leader's wisdom? She was the one who raised doubts and concerns in the cutscene right before he enters the World Eye (I'm not about to replay a boss fight just to check which one was concerned about leaving Isabelle behind, though).

One other Isabelle-related tidbit at the start of my second run: Ardal warned Isabelle and Elai that the Rakari were dangerous and they should never go near them. Clearly, he knew exactly what was going on, since he knew the Rakari would try and kill them.

Edit: And for that matter, I don't think it's a coincidence that that robot in the Auder Mausoleum woke up when our particular group of strangers wandered through.

[TwiTerror]

[Brickman]

And if you believe that, I bet you also believe that it's just a coincidence the kids were so close to the World Eye. I think someone was making a power grab.
(OK not really, but it's fun to conjecture)

[TwiTerror]

Well you must also understand that originally it wasn't just kids who were part of this bloodline - it was a very widespread group leading back to the Amaran researcher, including adults. It probably was a coincidence, or just a nice way to make sure the story could go back to a place we'd been before

Who knows!

[FurryRage]

Mark knows ;p
(or so I hope, it would be scary if he doesn't)