Transistor – The Ending Open Thread

By Tim Lanning on

About Tim Lanning

Tim founded GeeklyInc with Michael DiMauro way back in 2013 when they realized they had two podcasts and needed a place to stick them. Since then, Geekly has grown and taken off in ways Tim could have never imagined.

 

Transistor 3

I just beat Transistor and I want to create a safe place for folks to chat about this wonderful little gem. So here is the thing – if you have not beaten Transistor yet, well, 1) it is very good and 2) get on out of here because after this paragraphs the proverbial spoiler gloves are coming off!

Spoilers!

OK, I literally just watched the end credits of Transistor. I haven’t jumped into the new game plus mode yet, but I am planning to do it. As a small point of clarification, I finished Transistor about ten minutes ago so I have not had the appropriate time to process (GET IT) what happened.

First, here is my initial take on what happened throughout the story. Red is sought after by the Camerata just like all the other artisans and artists of Cloudbank. I don’t necessarily think she was special except for her power to control folks with her voice. Not magically or anything, sort of like how seeing Joe Biden’s smiling face just makes my day better. So, maybe magic… anyways. That fella saves her and she loses her voice and a bit of her memory. I don’t know how she loses her voice. I don’t really know why they were trying to stab her with the Transistor. My assumption was that they stabbed lots of folks with it.

Somehow Red’s boyfriend (Do they ever say his name? I think it was in a list on one of the terminals) sacrifices himself and is now the Transistor. The story unfolds with Red and T running around Cloudbank trying to figure out what is going on with the dang Process and the Camerata. Finally, they confront Royce and…fight him next to a barn, then Red fixes some of Cloudbank and kills herself with the Transistor. It appears that she lives happily ever after with her BF.

Transistor 2

Alright, let’s try to figure out what happened. The Process seems like some sort of computer virus come to life that is attempting to make the world into a white techno hellscape. It is suggested that the Camerata either created them or found them and lost control. Sybil was taken over and the cat man and the older fella killed themselves out of guilt. Royce mentions that he isn’t entirely sure what the Transistor is, but that he found it around the site of the cradle. He may have also created it using math and science or some such. It seems to be a great weapon of change, which is why they were capturing the movers and shakers of Cloudbank and absorbing their traits into the Transistor. Not sure.

Red places the Transistor back into the cradle which teleports her and Royce to that farm. They both have their own Transistors and they fight to a very Highlander-esque ending. Red then returns to Cloudbank and after bringing parts of it back decides to live within the Transistor with her BF. I think that when she kills herself she is choosing to live with him at the farm, aka inside the Transistor. It seems like so many people died during the Process outbreak that she would rather not be alone in Cloudbank.

 Transistor 4

The big questions in my mind are what is the Transistor? What is the Cradle? And what happens in the “real world” while Red and co. live out their cyber lives within the Transistor? Now, I could be entirely wrong. Maybe I missed something somewhere that spelled things out more clearly or I didn’t give enough attention to an early event. Regardless, these are my thoughts on what happened.

Do you agree with my thought process (I DID IT AGAIN)? What are your takes on the ending? Will Red live happily ever after? Let us know in the comments!

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