Well as I've said my two canon endings are suicide and secret plus giving the body to Johnny. Those are the endings I think deliver on the game's thesis. But the one that stands out as *betraying* what the game is trying to do, to me, is the Nomad ending.I agree that the game could be about how you choose to live, but in what way is the sun epilogue further representing this, or the natural extension of that narrative? I also agree that it could be that V becomes a legend without intending to, but thats not really the crux of the problem.
lets say the game ends with the choice of well or bridge in mikoshi, maybe a short scene with V/Johnny getting up. Helped up by Panam, or getting up on their own, or going under the knife with arasaka. Would the game/story be any worse?
maybe the devil ending needs the epilogue narratively, but the others?
that's the thing, doesn't seem like the epilogue adds anything to those stories, or enhances the game.
which might be fine, epilogues are often about another story, or wrapping up threads outside the main conflict, or a final statement but here, they don't seem to be making players more engaged in another story, they definitely aren't wrapping up much, generally leaving questions, and only the devil ending makes a statement the narrative didnt already achieve before that.
Regarding the sun, the point to me is that V had rather try and die than sit back doing nothing at all.
Ultimately the first two (and to a lesser extent the Sun ending) deliver a message to me of what is the point of existence and what does it mean to have a soul: to be true to yourself and to understand and appreciate the fundamentally transient gift of existence. The others, to greater or lesser degrees, do not.
(Sorry for multiple edits a bad habit of mine!)
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