We've recently re-opened this discussion in FCAW and a few other places, so I wanted to open it up here to anyone still familiar with the story. The discussion so far: [quote] Silentone2: I think you all know what part of Infinity I'm referring to. I've heard that story is told from the perspective of the SO. Who's the girlfriend? Is it Durandal, or is Durandal just the knife? Sardonic: I do believe that the story of the knife is told from the perspective of the SO. I tend to think of it as a re-occurring dream he is experiencing as he switches from timeline to timeline during Infinity. But is the dream merely his own personal guilt and self-conscious? Or are the Jjaro manipulating / guiding him through his dreams? My personal impression is that the symbols in the dream (knife, black suited men, sanitation workers, gum, etc.) are not symbols for specific characters in the Marathon universe, but symbolize more subtle ideas and emotions of the SO. One's first impulse is to associate Durandal with the knife because of Durandal's mythical heritage. But from what I can see, the relationship between Durandal and the SO is not very similar to the relationship between the knife and the dream story's protagonist. For the bulk of the Marathon series, Durandal uses the SO. Yet the knife is an inanimate object that the dream story's protagonist uses. So the roles of control and submission seem reversed. That said I can give some credence to viewing the knife as a symbol for Durandal. Perhaps the "huge guy" holding the knife at the beginning of the dream is symbolic of Bernard Strauss. He gives the knife to the protagonist, talks about "durability", then disappears from the story. In a similar way, Strauss was the caretaker of Durandal before Durandal met the SO, was captured by the Pfhor, and killed before the SO met him. Also Strauss knew about the cyborgs being on the Marathon, so he would be one of the people qualified to talk to the SO about "durability". There are two prevailing themes overarching the whole dream story of the knife. The first is "durability". The second is "justification" or the question of whether the ends justify the means. These two themes are at the core of the inner conflict the SO experiences during the entire Marathon series. The idea of durability symbolizes the fact that he is a cyborg and has survived so many hopeless, near death experiences (after all, "only you could survive the fall"). The idea of justification symbolizes the conflict in the SO that he either killed or failed to prevent the deaths of so many humans, S'pht, Pfhor, etc. In living up to his potential as the ultimate super soldier, he has piled a mountain of corpses at his feet. With that in mind, I think that every character in the story who talks about "durability" is symbolic of the same character or idea. The girlfriend is only one of the many different visions that preach "durability". I can't be sure whether the entity constantly preaching "durability" into the SO's mind is his Jjaro implants, his own cyborg instinct to kill and survive, or the Jjaro trying to manipulate him. Perhaps part of the reason that all of the dream levels are prefaced by "Electric Sheep" levels is that the SO's cyborg instinct to kill and survive are constantly in conflict with his human memories and regrets about killing thousands for what he thinks may be the wrong reasons. The section at the end of "Eat the Path" about the playground fights at school is also interesting because it is eerily similar to the Gheritt White Term from Marathon 1, Never Burn Money, which I've argued is symbolic of Strauss' manipulation of Durandal and Durandal's eventual passage from Anger into Jealousy. Dissecting the knife dream story is one of the things I've wanted to do for a while, but never had time to get around to it. Nice topic Silent. Silentone2: [url=http://pfhorums.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=36854]I posted the same question to the P'fhorums, and here's what they've said so far.[/url] Independent of what they said, I'm a little more convinced that the knife [I]is[/I] supposed to be Durandal after remembering this: Somewhere in the Rage Chapter: [quote]The door opens up, and the bicycle falls over. One of these suited guys is standing in the doorway, impassive and immobile. I'm not scared until I see that the hallway behind him is filled with his clones. I turn over the handle of the knife, and give it [b]a bit of a nasty grin...[/b] [/quote] Marathon 1 Manual: [quote]Durandal chuckles again, "Ah, lucky you. I've found a new distraction. I am going to play with the Alien virtual parasites. I'll look you up when you arrive..." [b]You can almost imagine the face of a wicked computer with its eyes wide and its lips folding out in a grotesque smile.[/b] A smile which reminds you of something from your past, but you can't remember exactly what it is.[/quote] Keep in mind the history of the weapon from which Durandal takes his name, and it makes too much sense for me to ignore right now. Pulling from what the P'fhorums posted, I like the idea that the Girl Friend is Leela. A lot like Leela, she's almost tangential to the story, and talks about durability a lot, the same way Leela talks about Durandal. I have a feeling now that the durability narrative is describing the trilogy via metaphor, but I'll need some time to draw more specific analogies. [url=http://marathon.bungie.org/story/midemo/midemoindex.html]I also found this while snooping around. It's irrelevant but awesome, and I totally didn't notice all the similarities in Ne Cede Malis to Arrival.[/url] And as for the suited man and his "clones," there are a few possibilities. While that could refer to basically any enemy or faction in the game, the only time we specifically hear about clones in the trilogy is when we hear about the "clones" that were made of Tycho. I'll have to read more to see if this makes sense.[/quote]