Brütal Legend/Headscratchers

Have You Seen My Tainted Coil HQ?

• Where is the Tainted Coil HQ located before they take over Bladehenge? Because the Ironheade is initially based in Bladehenge (then in the mountain camp, then simply on the road), Lionwhyte's collaborators are inside his palace, and Drowning Doom is at the Sea of Black Tears. I am tempted to name the Temple of Ormagöden, but if it were their primary base, you'd think that they would have noticed Ophelia's intrusion faster and shaped the place at least a little more to their liking. And Doviculus just seems to pop out of nowhere throughout the game, though you'd expect him to have palace like Lionwhyte to stage the Final Battle in...
  • He did have that castle type thing that grew out of the Sea of Black Tears for the final battle.
    • The castle thing struck me as one of Doviculus' ubermagics (like the one with 9001 abominations in Lionwhyte's palace), not anything permanent... Plus, the only time it was seen, the Coil already had a permanent base (Bladehenge).
  • Presumably the Coil live deep underground like their ancestors in the viewable Legends. I won't guess where that could be, but it's not any of the places we visit in the story mode. Fan speculation was that the long highway near Bladehenge that ends in a jump to nowhere was going to lead either to DLC or the Tainted Coil section of the game, but EA rushed the game out the door after buying the license.
  • Originally there was going to be a third continent that was the homeland of the Tainted Coil, but Double Fine was forced to remove it because it would have pushed back the game's release date even more (not to mention making it even more expensive to produce).

How dare you betray the bad guys by joining us!

• This troper might be alone, but he felt it's kind of odd about how Eddie abandons Ophelia after Doviculus kills Lars. He says, and I quote, "Your mission was to spy on them, not to join them." This line of dialogue would imply that IF Ophelia was working as Doviculus's spy (Not what he meant, of course. He was talking about Eddie's mom), then she isn't anymore as she has joined them. That's how this troper saw it after the cutscene, so I didn't quite get why Eddie was so quick to label Ophelia a traitor. I mean yeah, she was allegedly a traitor once, but she wasn't anymore by that point.
  • I also felt that scene was very much a Nice Job Breaking Her, Hero moment. But I figured Eddie is not as quick-witted with his head as he is smart with his hands, and he was very emotionally distressed by Lars' death, about whom he obviously cared a great deal (in a big bro way). So he wasn't exactly thinking at the time. And Doviculus was speaking to Succoria, whose identity was unclear and the most likely candidate seemed to be Ophelia rather than the guy from the future's dead mom.
  • This is basically Eddie's What an Idiot! moment, as he not only fails to recognize Succoria as the name on his own shirt, but also doesn't make any connection between the demons and his own demon-powers that appear during stage battles. But, aside from that, the game does go out of its way to suggest that Ophelia is the traitor, with Lita's constant references to the Black Tears and Doviculus referring to Succoria twice while fondling Ophelia's dagger.
  • What doesn't make any damn sense is that Eddie never even asks about Succoria. He promises Ophelia that absolutely nothing will make him stop trusting her, then, without even attempting to get an explanation, dumps her out of the car and abandons her. This is pretty much an Idiot Plot - if nobody here was an idiot, this would have been resolved without the Drowned Ophelia sequence. Eddie doesn't even think to say anything about Succoria until the time to ask questions is pretty far past. Also nonsensical is that nobody ever questions why Eddie turns into a monster except Ophelia, who never explains her concern. This basically means that Ophelia got dumped based on the party's own mistakes (and nothing that Doviculus did, ironically - he knew damn well who Succoria was and had no idea they thought it was a different person) but Eddie gets a free pass when he's even more suspicious than Ophelia. Since both have the same record of risking their lives for the rebels, there's not really a reason to trust Eddie more than Ophelia except that the plot cannot continue without it.
    • The party does question why Eddie turned into a demon, and Ophelia answers that one of the priests over at the temple likely poisoned the blades that he was cut by. By believing that Eddie's case was accidental and him having no known background of betrayal or insanity with his family's like Ophelia does, the party probably had an easier time trusting him.
    • He does ask about Succoria...but this just makes Ophelia start acting weird. She never really explains herself, either. She could have avoided all this just by saying "Succoria was the former Big Bad, you're carrying her axe and you have her name on your shirt!"
      • • The problem is that if she did explain that, Lita--who, if you talk to before one of the battles, claims to hate demons--and the rest of the group would have likely turned against him, and the group would have further crumbled apart. This isn't mere speculation, either; if you unlock one of the bound statues, you'll learn of how Eddie's father kept his mother a secret from him, too, implying that it's information that would lead to disastrous consequences if revealed.
          • That still doesn't explain why she didn't just explain to Eddie what was going on. They had ample time alone together and Eddie was obviously considered more trustworthy than Ophelia by the rest of the Bladehenge crew, so why didn't she just tell him, apart from the drama drummed up by the fact that the plot could have been completely avoided, and let him decide what to do with the knowledge? After all, even if she didn't know that Eddie was Succoria's son, he obviously didn't realize the significance of the name, or the axe, or the shirt, so what was the point of trying to hide it from Eddie in the first place?
          • At first, she was probably just confused herself: he's wearing Succoria's merch, he can wield her axe, but he looks human and clearly doesn't know anything about what's going on. When he changed into a demon form, she probably guessed right then what he must be, but she quickly blamed the Druids; she trusted Eddie, but she didn't think Lars and Lita would if they knew the full story. At that point, she seemed to have just been hoping she'd never have to deal with it at all, or at the very least she could wait until they've won the battle and everything's okay. She started to tell Eddie the truth after they'd escaped from Doviculus, but they were both emotionally wrecked and he didn't let her get any further than saying she was trying to protect him. That was admittedly dumb on his part, but he wasn't thinking clearly, and it didn't help that help that he and Ophelia were reading the conversation in entirely different ways; she didn't even realize until near the end of the game that he thought she was Succoria, which means she didn't understand at the time why Eddie was turning on her.

Cool Succoria shirt! What do they play?

• Now that I think about, why does Eddie wear a T-shirt with Succoria's name on it? According to the last Artifact of Legend, Riggnarok never told him about his mother, which should probably include her name. Also, according to earlier Legends, Succoria never accomplished anything significant in the modern times and spent most of her remaining life in a cave, so she had little possibilities to have her name printed on non-custom T-shirts...
  • Wasn't that his dad's roadie shirt? Considering he was once Succoria's slave, it seems likely that he would have had a shirt with her name on it and wore it again proudly once they fell in love.
    • I always thought it was literally HER shirt.
      • With a build like Eddie's, you can't really wear a girl's T-shirt.
        • Maybe his mom had a similar build. She was a demon.
          • She doesn't look that large in the Legends.
          • I just figured that, as said, it's her merch, worn by Riggnarok as a disguise when he posed as one of her slaves to get close to her and then kept as a memento after she died. That'd explain why it fits Eddie so well: he has the same build as his father.
  • It's doubtful that Eddie wore the shirt without at all considering what was printed on it. Even if he found the shirt after his dad died and couldn't explain it, why wouldn't he do a quick Google search for the name? He probably assumed it was a band shirt (certainly looks like a metal band name and logo), but he's never attempted to track down the band his dad loved?
  • This might seem like a stupid thing to say, but did anyone ever notice that symbol on the shirt had letters in it? The only time we see it says Succoria is when the game changes the design's color scheme to make it obvious. Most of the time it looked simply like a cool design like a tribal tattoo. Only Doviculus knew what it actually was after all.

Was the Guardian of Metal a human created by the Titans?

• The amount of knowledge he possesses about the ancient world AND the implications of him having lived for a very very long time suggest he may have lived through the reign of the Titans, or at least the ending of it. The Legends suggest that the Titans left their secrets and knowledge behind. The Guardian of Metal supposedly knows all such information, but only grants it on those deemed worthy by himself and by proxy, the Titans. Therefore, it could be said that he was created by them and left to tell their legends to those with even basic knowledge of the Titans' secrets and therefore worthy of them. Hence, when Eddie put the hot-rod together, he alone is able to access the Motorforges.
  • This brings up another question: Where IS the place where the metal forges lead? WHO are those giants seen inhabiting the realm along with the Guardian of Metal? Titans? Or other beings entirely?
• Additionally, the Tainted Coil were said to have created the normal human race from the toenail of a titan, but the Guardian of Metal knew of events BEFORE that, including their ancient knowledge, SO it implies him possibly being a more direct descendant OR creation of the titans themselves before their ascension. This in turn would explain how he knows so much, is supposedly semi-immortal, and has access to powers and abilities that can do all sorts of different things, which he bestows on those deemed worthy.
• Another point of interest relates to the Relics that are planted all across the continent. Who created them? What for? Obvious answer would be the Titans, but really think about it. The Motorforges are all buried by the time Eddie shows up. He raises them and gains access to the Guardian of Metal's lair. The Solos monuments were rendered inactive due to no one using them in so long, the Serpent Statues were all vandalized (suspected to have been the doing of Tainted Coil), the Legend slabs were chained up and locked (once again suspected to have been done by the Tainted Coil) to hide their origins, and finally the Song Artifacts were also buried and requiring raising. The Temple of the Zaulia had also been locked up somewhat so that even among their tribe, they had somewhat forgotten about Riggnorok or at least what he looked like. ALL of this could possibly be traced back to the Guardian of Metal and his role as keeper of ancient secrets since interacting with any or ALL of the aforementioned artifacts or objects grants one access to either fire-tributes which signify the favor of the metal gods AND/OR access to some portion of ancient knowledge of the Titans.
  • Also, the Motorforges all start out buried underground. They all lead to a place deep (seemingly) underground, the song statues were also buried underground too.

Ophelia's secret kept for nothing?

• Ok, so the story builds and builds and builds to where you think Ophelia is connected to, if not actually BEING Succoria. Only to find out that it was actually Eddie who was the real one connected to Succoria via him being her and Riggnarok's son. However, what's weird is... Did Ophelia somehow KNOW Eddie was the child of Succoria? If so, how? Why didn't Ophelia tell Eddie about Succoria when he asked her about it? She claimed it was to protect him, but again what does she mean by that? DOES that mean she knew he was connected to Succoria? HOW was keeping it a secret going to protect him?

Ormagöden's "True Form"?

• There's a little inconsistency regarding the Fire Beast's appearance. In the opening it's said that he had 6 legs, which are shown. However, in the historical legends, it always shows him as only having 4 legs instead. Therefore, it makes one wonder if the version that appeared to take Eddie to the Age of Metal was his true form or not.
  • To be fair, the legends were passed through word of mouth AND through monuments with hieroglyphics. It's totally possible that some of the details were lost or changed over the years.