Making sense of the Temple of Bù

[bloodhound]

I just played through LBA2 again (and had just as much fun as 20 years ago), although I was puzzled by what I saw in the Temple of Bù. I have the following questions:

1. What deity is the temple dedicated to?
2. Why are there skeletons of Rabbibunnies and why are they animated?
3. Why do the skeletons worship Meca penguins?
4. What do the fire-spewing statues depict?
5. Why do the statues change how they spit fire depending on Twinsen's behavior?

I don't think LBA2 gives any background there, so I tried to come up with a consistent theory:

In ancient times, the civilization of Zirla visited Twinsun to build the temple. Zirlans are very religious and their deity gives them the power to animate skeletons, which they did to the Rabbibunnies who at that time were the only race on Desert Island. The Zirlans look like animals walking on two legs, like the giraffe and ant in Otringal, and also like penguins, which is why the skeletons worship Meca penguins for thinking that they animated them. The statues are the deities of Zirla. Twinsen as the heir has a force in him to which Zirlans and their deities are susceptible, so when Twinsen changes his behavior he inadvertedly forces the statues to imitate his behavior.

How have you made sense of the temple? Do you think there's a better explanation or was more of the background explained in LBA1 or in an interview with the designers?

[Neko]

Originally Posted by bloodhound

I just played through LBA2 again (and had just as much fun as 20 years ago), although I was puzzled by what I saw in the Temple of Bù. I have the following questions:

1. What deity is the temple dedicated to?
2. Why are there skeletons of Rabbibunnies and why are they animated?
3. Why do the skeletons worship Meca penguins?
4. What do the fire-spewing statues depict?
5. Why do the statues change how they spit fire depending on Twinsen's behavior?

I don't think LBA2 gives any background there, so I tried to come up with a consistent theory:

In ancient times, the civilization of Zirla visited Twinsun to build the temple. Zirlans are very religious and their deity gives them the power to animate skeletons, which they did to the Rabbibunnies who at that time were the only race on Desert Island. The Zirlans look like animals walking on two legs, like the giraffe and ant in Otringal, and also like penguins, which is why the skeletons worship Meca penguins for thinking that they animated them. The statues are the deities of Zirla. Twinsen as the heir has a force in him to which Zirlans and their deities are susceptible, so when Twinsen changes his behavior he inadvertedly forces the statues to imitate his behavior.

How have you made sense of the temple? Do you think there's a better explanation or was more of the background explained in LBA1 or in an interview with the designers?

to the deity bu I think?
Or wait, the book of bu talks about sendell and the one, so maybe bu was a prophet

[Polaris]

Why specifically Zirlans ?

[bloodhound]

Sounds very convincing that Bu was a prophet for Sendell! Then it's weird that there's no Sendell statues in a temple of Sendell, but maybe Twinsen was the first Twinsunian who got to see a Sendell, and the people who built the temple imagined the Sendell to look like the statues.

Twinsen got the magic ball from his ancestors and the statues seem to also spew magic balls. So maybe the Sendells gave the ancestors a bunch of balls to protect the planet and the ancestors decided to put some of the balls into the statues to protect the temple, but their motion sensors cause a bug in the ballistics calculation if Twinsen walks by DISCREETLY.

@Polaris: I thought about Zirlans because the temple seems out of place on both Twinsun and Zeelich, and the only other two planets mentioned (on the airport's destination table) are Zirla and Red Planet. Although if we can find a good reason for the Rabbibunnis worshipping Meca Penguins, then maybe we don't need aliens.

[Neko]

Originally Posted by bloodhound

Sounds very convincing that Bu was a prophet for Sendell! Then it's weird that there's no Sendell statues in a temple of Sendell, but maybe Twinsen was the first Twinsunian who got to see a Sendell, and the people who built the temple imagined the Sendell to look like the statues.

Twinsen got the magic ball from his ancestors and the statues seem to also spew magic balls. So maybe the Sendells gave the ancestors a bunch of balls to protect the planet and the ancestors decided to put some of the balls into the statues to protect the temple, but their motion sensors cause a bug in the ballistics calculation if Twinsen walks by DISCREETLY.

@Polaris: I thought about Zirlans because the temple seems out of place on both Twinsun and Zeelich, and the only other two planets mentioned (on the airport's destination table) are Zirla and Red Planet. Although if we can find a good reason for the Rabbibunnis worshipping Meca Penguins, then maybe we don't need aliens.

I think zeelich was shoe-horned into the story of lba2, I don't feel as if it really would have anything to do with the origin of twinsun / sendell

[bloodhound]

Originally Posted by Neko

I think zeelich was shoe-horned into the story of lba2, I don't feel as if it really would have anything to do with the origin of twinsun / sendell

What makes you think so? In LBA1 Bob Vortix the astronomer knows about the legend, and the third part was supposed to be called Genesis of the Stellar Entity, so there seems to be some relationship between Sendell, the legend and planets.

[Neko]

Originally Posted by bloodhound

What makes you think so? In LBA1 Bob Vortix the astronomer knows about the legend, and the third part was supposed to be called Genesis of the Stellar Entity, so there seems to be some relationship between Sendell, the legend and planets.

just a feeling, there was also emerald moon street in lba1

[Battler]

This thread reminds me of when I made my attempt at reconstructing how the first area looked like before being buried by the sandstorm. Though I, too, fail to properly understand that place.

Originally Posted by Neko

I think zeelich was shoe-horned into the story of lba2, I don't feel as if it really would have anything to do with the origin of twinsun / sendell

But the prophecy of Zeelich predicted that planet would be saved after the coming of Twinsen. FunFrock just hid that part inside his statue.

[Neko]

Originally Posted by Battler

This thread reminds me of when I made my attempt at reconstructing how the first area looked like before being buried by the sandstorm. Though I, too, fail to properly understand that place.


But the prophecy of Zeelich predicted that planet would be saved after the coming of Twinsen. FunFrock just hid that part inside his statue.

hard to explain, but I find the existance of zeelich very relevant for lba2, but not for the whole history of Twinsun.

Like, it feels like the story of lba 2 was thought out after lba1 was already made. So to say the temple of bu is influenced by something from zeelich would feel a bit weird, but it's just my feeling.

ofcourse it is part of the story now, since 1997, but I don't think there was any contact before between the planets

[bloodhound]

Originally Posted by Battler

This thread reminds me of when I made my attempt at reconstructing how the first area looked like before being buried by the sandstorm. Though I, too, fail to properly understand that place.

Cool project! Keep it going with the Asian-style temple design, with a Kung-fu master Prophet Bu in it ;-)
By the way, that you had to post it in the wrong forum for exposure reminds me of how difficult it seems to be to design a forum UI where that problem doesn't occur. My school's forum is even worse in that it has a prominent "Top 10" section, so that the top 10 posts get hundreds of replies and other posts often zero.

Originally Posted by Neko

hard to explain, but I find the existance of zeelich very relevant for lba2, but not for the whole history of Twinsun.

Like, it feels like the story of lba 2 was thought out after lba1 was already made. So to say the temple of bu is influenced by something from zeelich would feel a bit weird, but it's just my feeling.

ofcourse it is part of the story now, since 1997, but I don't think there was any contact before between the planets

I also don't think they had the sequel story thought out when they made LBA1. Otherwise why would they miss the fun opportunity for a sequel tease!

[Neko]

Originally Posted by bloodhound

Cool project! Keep it going with the Asian-style temple design, with a Kung-fu master Prophet Bu in it ;-)
By the way, that you had to post it in the wrong forum for exposure reminds me of how difficult it seems to be to design a forum UI where that problem doesn't occur. My school's forum is even worse in that it has a prominent "Top 10" section, so that the top 10 posts get hundreds of replies and other posts often zero.



I also don't think they had the sequel story thought out when they made LBA1. Otherwise why would they miss the fun opportunity for a sequel tease!

otoh, they did have a emerald moon street

[bloodhound]

Oh right, that doesn't look like a coincidence, given how well-hidden that street is!

[Polaris]

[Battler]

The more I think of the Temple of Bù, the less it makes sense. I've yet to hear of any sort of real-life place of worship that has all these traps set.

[Jareth]

Well, traps may have been set at some later point in the history when the temple had to be abandoned for some reason. Maybe the sandstorm was predicted and the temple had to be secured from thieves so that when the temple emerges again it will be intact for the next generation of believers to just continue the worship. The sandstorm could have been a repeating thing every few hundred or thousand years. Think of the eclipse in Chronicles Of Riddick: Pitch Black.
I know it's really just the ongoing theme with pop culture where basically all abandoned temples, tombs, shrines etc have to be booby trapped from basement to the roof because "entertainment", but it's still fun to guess the stuff that wasn't actually thought out in the development of the game

[Neko]

i absolutely thought it was herecy, how they treated the temple in lba2. in lba1 it is soo mysterious and sort of...deity-like. in lba2 it's an amusement park.

great writing, one of few the things the story of lba2 has going for it, that and the fact you go into outer space and have 3d, literarily breaking dimensions from lba 1.

to just take the most dangerous, mysterious, sacred places of lba1, and then making it an amusement park is saying: hang on buddy, we're going way beyond what you thought was possible

[bloodhound]

Good point! To be fair though the temple is still very mysterious in LBA2, especially later on with the secret esmer base. I find the desert island inhabitants in general a bit weird. Not only do they make an amusement park out of a sacred site, but also when after an alien invasion there's suddenly walking garbage cans everywhere, everybody just continues their daily routines as normal.

[SpaceGuitarist]

Originally Posted by Neko

i absolutely thought it was herecy, how they treated the temple in lba2. in lba1 it is soo mysterious and sort of...deity-like. in lba2 it's an amusement park.

I like it. Especially having played LBA2 first, it didnt dawn any suspicion on what it was until you explored it and discovered very strange, unusual, weird things going on there...

[Polaris]

*insert deep quote about how capitalism turned religion into a product of consumerism*

[bloodhound]

I have a new theory now What if not only the Twinsen statues in the temple were from initial concept art, but the entire temple was how the game was envisioned in the beginning? Then Twinsun was a Rabbibunny planet and instead of spheros there was a species that looks like the fire-spewing statues in the temple. But in the end, maybe also to save polygons, they remade them into spheros and introduced more quetches.