What Actually Was the Secret of Monkey Island Anyway?

Hey, didn't Return to Monkey Island promise to reveal the secret of Monkey Island after all this time? Err... I'm not sure it did. Here's why.
Hey! Wanna be a channel member for cheap? Have a looksy:
/ @consequencesarts
Support: withkoji.com/@Consequences
Twitter: / lasttedonearth
TikTok: / consequencesyt
Twitch: / lasttedonearth
Hit the subscribe button right here: tinyurl.com/yckpz9j6
#returntomonkeyisland #monkeyisland #thesecretofmonkeyisland

[@Goury1]

RtMI is a game about the art of storytelling. In one of the dialogue options at the end of the game, Guybrush tells his son that there isn't just one secret, because the secret changes with time and with the person who tells his/her story. I think that is the best lesson we can get from RtMi. I fully accept the final scene in the amusement park to be Ron's original secret. Gilbert himself stated in a lengthy interview that the secret is the amusement park itself, not the t-shirt. In fact, the contents of the chest changed during the game's production process. At one point, the chest had the letter from Ron and Dave inside (the one that is added at the end of your scrapbook). So the t-shirt is not important, it's the amusement park that matters. The hints that it was all happening at an amusement park were already there in the first game. It's left intentionally vague, whether or not any of Guybrush's past adventures were real at all. Who knows? Maybe Guybrush is only a flooring inspector who acted out his pirate fantasies in the amusement park? Or maybe Guybrush is a true pirate, and he just told a story with a really weird ending in order to amuse and troll his son. However, as Guybrush says to his son in the end, the secret changes with time and depends on the storyteller. The other development teams of COMI, EFMI and TOMI had their own ideas about the secret. So EFMI's secret really was the giant Monkey Robot, it just was a different story told by someone else... I fully accept the amusement park as Ron's original secret, but if there are any more Monkey Island games in the future, we might find another secret. And that's ok, because it will be someone else's story...

[@JoeMudd]

I thought the "secret" was just LeChuck's lair, but on replaying the first game I found a line of dialogue that states somebody (Herman's crew, I think?) were trying to find it LONG before LeChuck even died

[@Consequencesarts]

I think in that scenario its still the same place because originally ron had planned for the monkey head to lead to a gate to hell!

[@ShyGuyXXL]

In the first game, one Pirate says LeChuck sailed off to find the Secret of Monkey island, so the secret had nothing to do with it being LeChuck's lair. It only became his lair later. I think originally, the secret was meant to be either the secret way to reach the island in the first place, i.e. the voodoo recipe, or it was the entrance to hell under the monkey head. After the first game came out, fans didn't understand that the secret was already found, asked Lucasfilm about it, so it became a running gag.

[@renobutters]

Okay, to me, when I played the first game, the 'secret' of Monkey Island was literally 'the secret (of) Monkey Island', i.e. the fact that it was a legendary island that could only be accessed by magic. (Except for those who reached it with other means. :-P) In fact, it's seen again in RoMI part 2. It's all about making the potion again. "The secret of Monkey Island", to me, as a title, simply means "The secret that is Monkey Island". Anyway, it's just Ron playing games with us, as intended, and as should be. He never had a 'real' secret to begin with, despite his statements on his blog. The real fun is in trying to find your own favorite secret for it.

[@CanKenMakeIt]

The secret is Ron hates endings.

[@jmwilliams88]

1:21 I may be misunderstanding what you mean by "never during his travel does Guybrush speak to a so-called Secret of Monkey Island" but in the beginning at the Scumm Bar Guybrush hears about LeChuck from the one-eyed pirate who says that Lechuck "tried to impress the Governor by sailing off to find the Secret of Monkey Island but a mysterious storm came up and sank his ship, leaving no survivors." You then have the option to ask the pirate what the Secret of Monkey Island is and he replies "only Lechuck knows. He still sails the waters between here and Monkey Island. His ghost ship is an unholy terror upon the sea." Does anyone remember any other point in the game that (besides showing the lava world under the Monkey Island) that explicitly references The Secret?

[@Duckthief229]

Imagine if the secret of monkey island was the recipe of the food the cook had to make in chapter 1

[@stevensorace4441]

From what I can tell, starting with LaChuck’s revenge, Guybrush would have dialogue options with LaChuck where he’d ask him about the secret only to get a frustrated response. Similarly, there was also the LucasArts help line employee that you would call on Dinky Island that also gave the impression that there was a big reveal coming. So I think the games fallowing the first joked around with the idea but then fan and developers made it take on a life of its own.

[@Consequencesarts]

It sounds about right, doesn't it! No doubt the theme park reveal is legit and was definitely a secret, but I don't think it really was the secret!

[@AmityvilleFan]

You find the REAL-real Secret of Monkey Island in Tales of Monkey Island.

[@dougj3528]

At the beginning of the game, they already knew LeChuck's base was on Monkey Island. Not a secret, and yes, LeChuck was searching for the secret before he died. So the secret can't be that it was his lair.

[@user-ne5qn7os2g]

I think the secret wasn’t worth it, or was some throwaway piece of junk in the box which made guybrush change the story. This is also boosted by the fact Elaine told Guybrush directly before the end that it might not be worth it

[@Consequencesarts]

That's the key to storytelling as a whole. Tell the truth but make it fascinating. In this case, Guybrush tells Boybrush it's a t-shirt because even though that's dull, it's fascinating because it leaves him with 'but why though.' Which he shows very well in his face. If it had been untold riches that would be boring because it's obvious and expected. But because it's always been t-shirts with Monkey Island, the reveal, while interesting for Boybrush isn't for the player because it's not subversive in the context of the series. Treasure? whack a t-shirt in it.

[@ruben_balea]

I'm not sure what the secret was or is, but if I can assure you that I have already been able to buy RTMI for less than $20, right now on Steam it costs €18.39 instead of €22.99, must be a Black Friday sale, it says it ends November 29. It does not include horse armor, I don't know if they will include it again when the sale ends. And Tales of Monkey Island is also half price, only €6.24, so what I saved on one I already spent on the other 😅

[@Consequencesarts]

I think the horse armor was a one off!

[@MrMethekill]

Just finished now thanks to vacation. RtMI is in my eyes a very metagame and the ending is very straightforward to me in this light. I had expected (and hoped) to see the MI3 that RG would have published, but so many situations and characters make only sense when viewed as being a stand-in for real-life events, a comment on the game and its history itself. My bet is at time of publication of MI 1, the title was a relict due to redesign. By MI 2, the ending was left deliberately ambiguous so the story could be developed either way. If there had been a set plan for the third part of the trilogy (which is different from just planning a third part with some very rough outlines), RG would not have a brainstorm with others on how to continue from MI2 ending, as stated in interviews, he would have just executed what had beenn planned 30 years before. So I interpreted the ending as a meta-commentary in the veins of death of the author theory. Giving a definite word-of-god answer would be as anticlimatic as Corina finally telling us her name. Or anyone here who was actually overjoyed learning her name?

[@HaquinusDeGothia]

If they were all connected by the tunnels then why bother with the potions? The guys at UPS(tm) knows where LeChuck's (former) hideout is and from there it's just an explosion away to Dinky and then a short hike to Monkey Island... Not much of a secret there except the banana-picker(tm). And this "well life goes on and you get older and in the end you don't amount to anything but a flooring inspector"... just NO! Ron messed up if this indeed was the ending - there are far too many loose threads. But, speaking of threads, it wouldn't surprise me if there will be a fourth game set on the region of Mire Island that reveals that Guybrush was Bobbin Threadbare or Rusty Nailbender all along and everything was just in their daydreams edited by Zak under the influence of the King... Jeeze.. now I really want a fourth game!

[@toddileelee6935]

Ron confirmed in a recent interview (After the release of Return) that none of it is real and that it was all a theme park IS the secret of Monkey Island. So case closed. There's you're answer i guess.

[@Consequencesarts]

Yeah he also says that the concept was abandoned early on in development, and it still strikes me as an odd thing to be ‘the secret’ when the whole second half of the game is trying to find lechuck’s secret lair. But as you say Ron does explicitly state in the Cressup interview that the themepark really was the secret. I’m just not convinced it was the titular secret from the game. Just my honest opinion!

[@mattasaurus12]

So not case closed

[@OMA2k]

What kind of "secret" lair can be one with a GIANT monkey head as its entrance? No matter if locked with a cotton swab key or not, if it were to really be secret, it'd be well hidden so the entrance is hard to find, instead of being easily spotted like that.

[@tonymontana822]

Anyone think there will ever be a next Monkey Island game ? I really don't think so ... If ever there is one , i hope i'm alive to play it

[@CaminoAir]

If 'LeChuck's Revenge' had instead been titled "The Search Continues For The Secret Of Monkey Island", then I would have expecting some pay-off at some point in the series. To me the games have always just been wacky adventures with some meta elements. I never expected the series to make any real consistent sense. Being set in an amusement park doesn't make anything less real, since nothing was ever realistic about the game world or characters. Trying to make the series more meaningful didn't have any impact for me for this exact same reason. The games never had any meaning, beyond sheer enjoyment.

[@RaidenHeaven]

The Lair as the Secret makes no sense with LeChuck looking at it. Pfff... Return of Monkey Island is like those images, the more you look the worse it gets.

[@ravenb3048]

I like the idea that the Secret of Monkey Island is that it's a portal to Hell (as suggested by the initial idea for the thrid game Ron Gilbert had) but it could be a multitude of things. For all we know, there's actually multiple Monkey Islands or the island itself has multiple secrets.

[@Consequencesarts]

I did have a theory that one of the secrets could be that there’s multiple giant monkey heads on monkey island! The one from secret/return, the rollercoaster one from curse, and the silly robot one in Escape!

[@RaidenHeaven]

Secret of Monkey Island was very very down played. When people spoke about Big Whoop it was a BIG DEAL for them, but for the Secret of Monkey Island everyone was "it's just a shirt" or "It's nothing. Why are you so upset to find it?". I honestly I don't like the ending the whole "Go outside and touch Grass" has been done before and with all the "political things" going on even the Grass is "toxic". Even BIG WHOOP was a suggestion of being the portal to the Real World, something "Beautiful and Horrible" as people in game talk about. The Secret of Monkey Island in Return on Monkey Island is like modern art "made by people who want to destroy art by putting less and less effort and get away with it". Yes I'm pissed about the ending this pseudo twist because they can't think of an ending, There is NO Ending. The character don't react at what happened in the game. In Monkey Island 2 we saw Elaine's reaction and LeChuck's. But in Return what we got? CUT! It's just a story, the end "OH WASN'T IT SO BEAUTIFUL THOUGH?!". No... we saw it coming... you kept YELLING through at the game, from start to the end, about the ending being NOTHING! You pulled a Star Wars Squeals on us! Also... The Secret of Monkey Island is NOT about the Island! Think about it for a Second! It wasn't a Secret OF! It WAS a Secret ON! Rent ENDED!

[@fwhagads]

Thank You!!!! I'm in the same ballpark & I get all the philosophical meanings of the "ending", but it doesn't feel like an ending to me/us, the player, but to the original creators. And as much as I appreciated that, an actual climax would have been nice! I can go through the philosophical shit from Easter Eggs & secret endings. Still, at least as far as the main game(again, for us the players) is concerned, I want an actual climax, even if it wasn't as satisfying(as Elaine already warned us beforehand). again, thank you, my Pirate brother!

[@gardox3215]

I think he tried to replicate the mi2 ending but 1º that was the final battle and mixed previously hinted things and theme park things and 2º there's a conclusion: guybrush won. What's left to the player is the context: its just kids playing? its an illusion?. Return is like if when the rope cuts guybrush just fell to the final scene. I don't have issue with the whole thing being a park (in an interview he said that was the secret all along) but it being out of the blue and disconnected from the rest of the game (That scene could've work on any of the other 5 games) is what hurts the ending more imo. Mcguffins are meant to advance the story and not be relevant (ex. big whoop) but then at the climax he ditches the story to center on the mcguffin. "the friends we made along the way" "your mom was right" "there isnt any one answer" only works when at the end of the story theres another satisfaction (like the villan being defeated in mi1), right now feels like cope cause theres not a proper resolution (Doesnt help the last dialogues are written the cheesiest way possible and the message slapped on your face). And the option to take a literal interpretation doesnt make sense cause both parts are irreconcilable. In the same interview he said he wanted to make the ending open to interpretation (like david lynch movies). Problem is the plot was wrote in a straight up manner, there's no clue whatsoever about things being untrue or exaggerated until he introduces it in the last scene. What's worse its that, intentionally or not, the park scene is made in a way that also reminds you that is a videogame opening the interpretetion to "Well, its just a game, you already had fun, doesnt matter if we conclude here" A shame cause is a good game until the last puzzle, not the best MI but a fine entry, thats why so many people like it despite where the story leads to.