Methuselah is a ghost

[J.W.P]

In episode 1 at the school of Milton his glasses are outside 

[ajb1978]

3 hours ago, J.W.P said:

In episode 1 at the school of Milton his glasses are outside 

I don't think it's significant, that glasses model shows up in a few places in the game.

Frankly I think Methesulah is a total hallucination on Will's part. Which would explain how he knows things only Will should know (the decision with Hobbs) and how he always seems to be in Will's path no matter how unlikely the location. After all, how did Methuselah get down to where he is at the end of Episode 1? There was no rope down on the Milton side, and no way to loop around to the Mystery Lake side. I dunno unless maybe he's a base jumper and did a triple lindy off a cliff, but that seems pretty unlikely.

As for why a hallucination's fire works to warm you up and can be cooked on, maybe it's a Fight Club moment where Will did everything himself and completely fabricated the entire encounter in his head as a way to cope with the stress. Some sort of dissociative fugue. As Will said at the end of Episode 2, "I've nearly died more times than I can count," and like Molly said in Episode 3, "You nearly died, that does funny things to a person." (Or something similar anyway.)

Be kinda neat if in Episode 5 Will is having a conversation with Methuselah, someone else walks in. They're like "Who are you talking to?" Will looks back, and it's just an old sweater draped over a chair, with the "omega" symbol Methuselah's shirt had.

[UpUpAway95]

I think the story is actually taking place in Will and Astrid's past, and Methuselah is "old Will" injecting  the wisdom he learned over the course of the adventure into the story.  The question in my mind is to whom is "old Will"/Methuselah telling his story?

[UpUpAway95]

2 hours ago, James Hickok said:

Same here. 

When i first played Wintermute years ago i thought the same. He just looks like Will but much older. Still a halucination tho IMO.

It's possible.  I'm looking forward to finding out in Episode 5.  I think his being "old Will" imparting the story and lessons learns to, perhaps, his grandchildren (meaning he and Astrid got back together) would be a great "happy ending" to the tale - that, in the end, they healed whoever (or whatever) Astrid's quest was and lived happily ever after on a restored GBI.  (Yeah, yeah - I'm sucker for happy, romantic endings 😀)

[MavByte]

I too am curious on what's this all about Methuselah. I personally I'm not quite sure if he's a hallucination or even Old Will..
The way he's talking is like.. he's just an old Survivor who's already given up on himself.. but injects his wisdom onto Will so that he may carry on.

While I'm very eager for Episode 5, I'm also afraid, since it's goin' to be the end. 😧
I don't want it to end! I want a 2nd installment! I want more of Will and Astrid! I need TLD2. xD

[Yimnam]

I'm not sure what exactly is he physically but symbolically he's much more interesting.
Methuselah biblically was grandfather of Noah. He was the oldest human in Bible living almost thousand years. After great flood humans were suposed to live not longer than 120 years as punishment for their sins. Great flood was pretty similar to tld apocalypse. Just nature showing humans that they are not above it.
And Omega at his shirt. Another biblical apocalypse that didn't happen yet. 
Methuselah is apocalypse that was and apocalypse that is yet to come. 
I think he's nature itself. Cycle of life and death. Extinction and survival. Or God if you prefer.

[Stuffed Plush Chainsaw]

The one thing Methusaleh definitively is is a remnant from a time the TLD story had a much more "David Lynch" kinda taste to it, and less of the "The Walking Dead" (or "The Road" if you are generous) tone that started in EP3 and got overly loud in EP4.

It goes to show how well placed Methusaleh is that over half a decade later people are still speculating about him, what he is, what's his symbolism and how he fits into the entire story. He's a really great example of how to design a mystical "meta character" for a story that lives off mystery and metaphor, and stokes the reader's / viewer's / player's curiosity. As such he's there to both provide exposition to the metaphorical layer of the story and add to the mystery at the same time.

For that it isn't really that important if he's real or not. It isn't even required for his "true nature" to be revealed to the player ever, because, in a sense, his place in the lore  made him "realer than real". Sadly we lost Methusaleh to the more mechanist turn the story took. Mathis, I'm sure, originally also wasn't planned as this very worldly bad guy, but had a very specific role to play in this up to and including EP2 very metaphorically heavy story.

I know, EP5 ain't even out yet, and I'd be happy to be shut up in awe once it's finally there, but I seriously doubt it, and I really wonder what TLD could have been had the writer stuck to his original intend. It's really sad that Wintermute, in all likelihood, forever will be one of those great projects which crumbled under the weight of its own ambition.

As to Methusaleh's actual nature: I always regarded him as "the force of inevitability", something that puts personal desaster into a geologically sized frame of reference. A hint to the fact that not just we as individuals but human civilization as a whole is a tiny spec of dust hardly noticeable in the grand sceme of things; that we have our time, that this time will inevitably end, and that despite the illusion that we matter we are but a droplet in a bucket so vast we can't even begin to cromprehend it in any other terms but mythical ones. So, yes, nature, in a sense, but spanning not just space, but time.

[FaT McMarlin]

I have several theories on Methuselah and why he there. Simplest theory is Will and Astrid are both laying in the snow after the crash. Will had a stroke while coming in to land at field 31, still active, Astrid is dead or dying. Will is dying from shock from his injuries mixed with hypothermia setting in.  Wills brain is creating a fever dream on the case and it's it's purpose. Methuselah is a made up character in place of Wills failing sanity as he dies. Everyone in Wintermute has some connection to his life back on the mainland.  Neither Will or Astrid lives beyond the first few hours after the crash. The aurora isn't real, there's no flare that shuts down electronics. Just human fragility and the minds incredible power to distract itself when the body is in emence pain and suffering.

Complex theory condensed. Methuselah is Rudiger. He's been watching the inhabitants of Great Bear slow descent into madness over the years from his gadget. Watching, waiting, taking notes. He knew the gadget had be damaged by the security chief so he waited to see what would happen as it slowly broke over time. He's able to get around different paths than we can cause we're following an old map to get to Mystery Lake. He knows multiple paths to everywhere cause he's spent 25 years hiding and traversing the island without being noticed. He's only talking to Will too watch the gadgets effects on a brand new person being exposed the first time. Seeing what the broken machine will do to him. Watch him break mentally and see what happens.

Edited January 26 by FaT McMarlin

[Stuffed Plush Chainsaw]

On 1/26/2024 at 4:05 AM, FaT McMarlin said:

I have several theories on Methuselah and why he there. Simplest theory is Will and Astrid are both laying in the snow after the crash. Will had a stroke while coming in to land at field 31, still active, Astrid is dead or dying. Will is dying from shock from his injuries mixed with hypothermia setting in.  Wills brain is creating a fever dream on the case and it's it's purpose. Methuselah is a made up character in place of Wills failing sanity as he dies. Everyone in Wintermute has some connection to his life back on the mainland.  Neither Will or Astrid lives beyond the first few hours after the crash. The aurora isn't real, there's no flare that shuts down electronics. Just human fragility and the minds incredible power to distract itself when the body is in emence pain and suffering.

I kinda like how I do not like that. Yeah, that'd be tough as nails.

[Semple Fi]

Pretty sure he’s an Angel

 

[Veskaida]

On 11/9/2023 at 1:53 PM, J.W.P said:

In episode 1 at the school of Milton his glasses are outside 

OooOO00OOoOooooO00oOooooOooo! 👻Spooky!

On 11/9/2023 at 5:50 PM, ajb1978 said:

I don't think it's significant, that glasses model shows up in a few places in the game.

I agree that I don't think the glasses in this location are significant, at least not to Methuselah. Though I do think they were pretty obviously placed here to show

Spoiler

'someone' died. But Grey Mother says as much.

 

On 11/9/2023 at 5:50 PM, ajb1978 said:

Frankly I think Methesulah is a total hallucination

An interesting theory, but I'm not really sure it holds water:

• There is no evidence that Will is every seriously injured (save his hand, right at the start of Episode 1). No suggestion or foreshadowing that Will is schizophrenic, has suffered brain damage, blunt force trauma, is high on drugs, is having a psychotic break, etc. Of anything, if this was true then the opposite of Methuselah appearing in
  Spoiler

  Episodes 1 and 2 but not 4 would make more sense, after Will after he was beat up by by Mathis.

• Methuselah doesn't appear at all in Episode 4. If this really was the case, then narratively it would have made more sense to only (and always) seen him only in Will episodes and not the Astrid episode(s); he didn't show up in Ep4, ergo I don't think this theory is very credible.
• TLD isn't a game/setting/story about the supernatural: in 10+ years of development yes we have the challenge mode "Escape the Darkwalker" and the seasonal event "Four Days of Night", but while I love both of these, I do not think either are considered 'canon'. There are lots of mysteries in TLD, but nothing concretely supernatural in all of Wintermute (or Sandbox), aside from
  Spoiler

  pure conjecture about The Demon Bear.

• Will/Methuselah don't look, act, or sound like one another. Nothing in their writing suggests one is/may be the other (no foreshadowing, etc). Different body builds, clothes, facial styles, hair styles, hair colors, Will doesn't have glasses, they have different voice actors and talk/act very differently.

If the intention of his character was to be some apparition, representation of e.g. Will's will to live (haha see what I did there?), his Silent Hill-esque guilt/repressed desire (spoiler for every Silent Hill game ever), Old Man Will's trauma/memories from the future or memories ala "Cast Away" dreaming back about 'how it all started', then I'd also be pretty disappointed with Will, Methuselah and Wintermute's story.

 

On a similar note: I would be very disappointment with Wintermute's story if e.g. "it was all a dream", "a computer simulation/experiment" ala Total Recall, The Matrix, etc, or any similar kind of "big twist" or "aha, gotcha!" ending. I'd also be disappointing if the disaster was man-made in origin, since IMO a major theme of The Long Dark is "mankind's industry/aspirations are destroyed by nature", so mankind starting off this apocalypse (aside merely being vulnerable) would go against it's core themes.

Edited July 3 by Veskaida

[J.W.P]

I agree with you, and my theory was flawed.