What's the Voodoo Lady up to now? (spoilers)

[fergusdog]

Just starting a random highly speculative thread:

Now that the Vodoo Lady has what seems to be the remains of LeChuck, what does she need them for?

I don't buy into the theory that she's evil, but like most MI characters she seems to have her own agenda.

My first guess is that she might be after the Secret of MI itself - and she needs LeChuck to get there. And it's got to do something with monkeys. Someone in the forums observed that Galeb is an (ex-)monkey which I think is an excellent observation and explains why he knows so much. Does she need LeChuck to control the monkeys for something?

Anyone feel like throwing in some wild speculations?

[bobtheskutter]

It seemed odd... The coda confirmed the idea that she was behind the apparent immortality of LeChuck after all, manipulating events so Guybrush and LeChuck kept on fighting forever.

No idea why though. Just for a laugh? She must get a bit bored in her hut with nothing to do and these adventures are kind of entertaining.

If she was after the Secret of Monkey Island, she'd have it already, wouldn't she? So far her manipulations have succeeded in elevating a simple wannabe to Mitey Pirate status (hee hee) so whatever she is after, I think it has more to do with Guybrush than anyone or anything else.

[Vira]

Crazy conspiracy theories? I'm there!

1. She was trying to repent for helping LeChuck by manipulating Guybrush into defeating him for her.

2. No real reason. Just doing what she thought would be in Guybrush's best interests as well as anyone who came to her for help.

3. Power. Namely LeChuck-in-a-jar.

4. She is Guybrush's refusal to deal with reality. So by pulling their strings, she stops him from learning the truth about their world.

5. She IS the creator of Monkey Island! That's right. The secret is that it's all a videogame. oooo.

[Jazzy]

It so that they are too busy fighting each other instead of her. LeChuck and Guybrush are brothers after all, and share the same power, and had she not intervened the two of them would have joined forces, uncovered her schemes and destroyed her and her vile ways!

[GuruGuru214]

Okay, I've created my share of conspiracy theories in the five or so weeks I've been on here. Here's the mother of them all. Note that I don't necessarily believe everything I'm about to say.

The Voodoo Lady's endgame plan for the entire series has been obtaining the ultimate voodoo ingredient, essence of pirate god. In order for any of this to be possible, she needed to build up a pirate god and a hero to strike him down.

Enter ambitious and strapping pirate lad LeChuck. Now, LeChuck is smitten with Elaine and would do just about anything to impress her. So the Voodoo Lady tells him of the Secret of Monkey Island. LeChuck sets sail in search of the Secret and, as intended, perishes. However, it's been arranged that he would have access to a voodoo spell to open a rift in the crossroads. Unfortunately for the Voodoo Lady, the sponge is as of yet unobtainable, so when LeChuck escapes and retakes his body, he uses someone else's shred of life to close the Crossroads behind him (ignorant to the fact that he's going to want them open again years later). Lacking the power of love, LeChuck is a powerless animated corpse, and knowing of the true nature of Big Whoop (likely courtesy of the Voodoo Lady), realizes that the treasure is his key to a more powerful form. He and his first mate, Largo LaGrande, begin searching for information on the treasure.

Enter Horatio Torquemada Marley. He and his crew have had the (mis)fortune to acquire the map to Dinky Island and Big Whoop. LeChuck hears rumors of this and finally catches up to them at Blood Island. He cleans up the best he can (lots of deodorant) and presses Rum Rogers for information, and gets exactly what he needs. He then woos Minnie Goodsoup and steals her diamond to trade for a fast ship so he can overtake Marley's crew and take the power of the treasure for himself.

The power of Big Whoop allows his spirit to pass through to hell and gain terrible voodoo power, but in doing so it separates him from his body, which Largo takes away to safety. LeChuck returns to the land of the living as a voodoo enhanced ghost and begins his reign of terror.

Now, to turn LeChuck into the pirate god, the Voodoo Lady needed La Esponja Grande, for that she needed motivation for the hero to retrieve it in the form of the Pox, for that she needed the Cutlass of Kaflu, and for that she needed the Ultimate Insult.

Enter Ozzie Mandrill. H.T. Marley was one of the few remaining pirates who knew the secrets of the Ultimate Insult but would never assemble it. And the Insult appealed to Ozzie Mandrill's ambitions, but he had no knowledge of voodoo. So the Voodoo Lady organized a boat race off the coast of Australia and positioned one of her agents (similar to Morgan) as Marley's first mate, Rum Rogers having retired to Phatt Island. The first mate arranged for Marley's drunken encounter with Mandrill, possibly even steered the conversation as to ensure that the subject of the Ultimate Insult was brought up. LeChuck, intent on disposing of Marley's Dinky Island crew, approaches Mandrill and persuades him to dispose of Marley. Ozzie drives Marley into the whirlpool and sets off to build power in Australia and master the insult in order to prepare to tear the Caribbean apart in order to discover the Ultimate Insult recipe.

Now, the Voodoo Lady knows that Marley will be instrumental in her plans later on, so rather than kill him to cover her tracks on the Ultimate Insult issue, she chooses to hide him on Monkey Island. Her agent waits until the ship is in the whirlpool and then activates the spell to take the Sea Monkey to Monkey Island. The spell draws the ship out of the whirlpool and to the island. The first mate forges a journal suggesting that finding Monkey Island was their original goal and that the first mate's name was Herman Toothrot. He then takes Marley to the beach and whacks him with an accordion, creating the hermit Herman Toothrot. Then, under compulsion of the Voodoo Lady, he hangs himself in order to cover her tracks further.

Enter Guybrush Threepwood, the would-be pirate chosen by fate to play the role of the hero in the Voodoo Lady's plans. His timing for arriving at Melee Island is in perfect timing with LeChuck's attempt to force Elaine's marriage. She needs LeChuck in a physical form, so she assists him in reaching Monkey Island and learning of root beer's effect on ghosts so he can destroy LeChuck and set in motion the events leading to Largo's re-emergence and obtaining of LeChuck's beard. She stations herself near Woodtick in order to provide Guybrush with the voodoo doll , knowing that Guybrush loves to brag and would bring up having killed Lechuck, leading to Largo taking the beard. LeChuck is reunited with his body.

Needing Guybrush out of the way so LeChuck can create the voodoo cannonball and turn himself into a demon, the Voodoo Lady instructs him to search for Big Whoop, knowing that LeChuck would be guarding it and would imprison Guybrush. With perfect timing, Guybrush escapes the carnival, causing LeChuck to drop his cannon ball and become a demon. Then Guybrush screws everything up and turns Elaine into a statue. This doesn't work with the Voodoo Lady's plans because she needs Elaine alive to bring Guybrush back from death and to strike the killing blow to LeChuck from the living side. So she assists Guybrush in uncursing Elaine. Unfortunately, LeChuck got involved and ended up buried under ice.

Reenter Ozzie Mandrill. Ready to search for the secrets of the Ultimate Insult, he frees LeChuck and begins taking over the Caribbean in order to aid his search. Guybrush becomes involved and unwittingly does the Voodoo Lady's bidding by finding Marley's copy of the Ultimate Insult recipe and constructing one. He's taken to Monkey Island and restores Marley's memory, learning how to complete the Ultimate Insult and defeat Ozzie. LeChuck survives the ordeal and begins looking to open the Crossroads by means of the monkeys of Montevideo.

The Voodoo Lady sees her chance to create a pirate god in the reopening of the Crossroads and instructs Guybrush, now in possession of the Ultimate Insult recipe, to create the Cursed Cutlass of Kaflu. He does as instructed and the Cutlass does exactly what the Voodoo Lady intended by releasing the Pox and giving Guybrush reason to seek out the last ingredient for the pirate god, La Esponja Grande. Guybrush performs marvelously, retrieving the sponge and bringing it to full size.

Then LeChuck kills him and the Voodoo Lady loses her hero pawn. With LeChuck's power on the rise and no hero to strike him down, the Voodoo Lady sees her plans falling apart and goes into hiding, lest it all come back on her. However, when Guybrush finds LeChuck's old spell and opens the Crossroads at the exact moment of LeChuck's failure, she sees her opportunity come back and contacts the hero. He returns to his body and shrinks the sponge, allowing for LeChuck to be defeated, and the Voodoo Lady's plan comes to fruition when her new agent, Morgan LeFlay, captures his essence in a jar and delivers it to her.

There you go, the entire series wrapped around the thread of the Voodoo Lady's agenda and two of the biggest plot holes in the series closed up.

Too bad I don't believe a word of it.

[BeeKay84]

I can't believe I read through this whole thing. But I did.

Well, it's a very good approach at wrapping it all up. Unfortunately, I couldn't help but find some inconsistencies (is that the right word?), especially considering what has been said in CMI. When LeChuck arrived at Blood Island and found Marley's crew, he wasn't a ghost/zombie/demon/whatever yet. He only became a ghost, according to CMI, when he passed through the gates of Big Whoop.

It's really hard to fit everything in, I give you that.

Personally, I think the very end of RotPG intends that the Voodoo Lady is already preparing LeChuck's next "resurrection".

[Davies]

The Voodoo Lady is Guybrush and LeChuck's mother in real life (modern day) and maybe Elaine is her daughter too. The mother is giving the kids roles to play in a game of make-believe to keep them occupied and happy. The Voodoo Lady is just a role that Guybrush's mother is playing.

[GuruGuru214]

Originally Posted by BeeKay84

I can't believe I read through this whole thing. But I did.

Well, it's a very good approach at wrapping it all up. Unfortunately, I couldn't help but find some inconsistencies (is that the right word?), especially considering what has been said in CMI. When LeChuck arrived at Blood Island and found Marley's crew, he wasn't a ghost/zombie/demon/whatever yet. He only became a ghost, according to CMI, when he passed through the gates of Big Whoop.

It's really hard to fit everything in, I give you that.

Personally, I think the very end of RotPG intends that the Voodoo Lady is already preparing LeChuck's next "resurrection".

I can't believe I wrote the whole thing. Like I said, I don't believe most of it, I'm just good at coming up with crackpot theories and supporting them. The whole "LeChuck was dead on Blood Island and just did a really good job of covering it and pretending to be alive" thing was my best explanation as to how LeChuck could've gone to both the Crossroads and hell by saying that he escaped from one so he could go to the other. Otherwise we've got Curse retconning Secret and Tales retconning Curse to go back to Secret's version of events.

Originally Posted by Davies

The Voodoo lady is Guybrush and LeChuck's mother in real life (modern day) and maybe Elaine is her daughter too. The mother is giving the kids roles to play in a game of make-believe to keep them occupied and happy.

Does that mean that LeChuck is hot for his sister? Eww, incest.

[Falanca]

I have to congratulate you. You used all the major plot points in the games and everything MAKES sense. It's really a shame it won't go like that.

[GuruGuru214]

Eh, I'd be disappointed if it did go like that. Also, my brain is freaking crazy when it comes to retaining and assembling useless details. But only the useless ones. You'd be surprised how hard of a time I have getting decent history grades.

Also, I wrote all that while falling asleep. There was one point where I was out and my hands were on the keyboard, so there was a section where the theory trailed off into ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss sssssssssssssssssssssssss

[Davies]

Um, Princess Leia kissed her brother is ESB might I remind you I partially based my theory on the fact Ron Gilbert stated that Elaine should never have hooked up with Guybrush in CMI because she sees Guybrush as "more of a younger brother". Besides, my theory did state "MAYBE Elaine is their sister".

[GuruGuru214]

Oh, I was only kidding. Besides, the Star Wars thing doesn't work because Leia didn't know Luke was her brother and if LeChuck and Elaine are really children role playing, then they would know if they were related in real life.

[Davies]

Well, the real life kid playing LeChuck is one sick puppy, or maybe a morally dubious cousin (I've known people who've snogged their cousins as kids for real... ewww)!

[GuruGuru214]

I'll do you one better, I knew a person who screwed her cousin. We haven't spoken since she told me the story.

[Falanca]

Originally Posted by GuruGuru214

I'll do you one better, I knew a person who screwed her cousin. We haven't spoken since she told me the story.

Cute.

[Davies]

Originally Posted by Falanca

Cute.

Absolutely, that's the sweetest story I've ever heard. I may weep openly

[GuruGuru214]

I weeped, but not because it was cute.

[CaptKevinKID]

Amazingly long post, who know's, we will see

[Giovanni]

Speaking of the Voodoo Lady, has anyone of you noticed that in the final scene, on her desk, apart from the tarots cards, there are also a voodoo doll and Guybrush's LEFT HAND? What do you think it could mean?

[BeeKay84]

Originally Posted by Giovanni

Speaking of the Voodoo Lady, has anyone of you noticed that in the final scene, on her desk, apart from the tarots cards, there are also a voodoo doll and Guybrush's LEFT HAND? What do you think it could mean?

That Guybrush has two left hands now...?

Seriously, though, it was kinda weird, yet I didn't find it surprising. Don't know why...