April Ryan is not dead. I have proof. *spoilers?*

[DaWolfman]

I remember finding DF in Circuit City several months back, and it looked like a very interesting game, but I would always decide not to buy it, on account of me being a cheap bastard. It was only a month or so ago that I realized it was actually a sequel to TLJ (which I had never previously heard of). They were both offered through Steam in one relatively inexpensive package. Throw in the fact that I just was recently laid off, and I found myself with tons of time to play TLJ and DF back-to-back. I bought both and and beat the two of them in the past 3 weeks or so.

The reason I mention this is because you can made deductions about the future of the series based on small clues of past games, particularly TLJ. I assume most people here played the original many moons ago, and do not easily remember the what happened then.

You may remember that old lady who sat in her cabin, in front of the fireplace, who told stories to those who listened. She would call herself Lady Alvane (ring any bells?). At the very end of TLJ, Lady Alvane had a conversation with Crow, talking about how "their adventuring days were over." This leads us to conclude one of two things:

1. April survives, marries Kian, and becomes Lady Alvane.
2. Zoe survives, marries Kian, and becomes Lady Alvane.

I'm tempted to say April is Lady Alvane, not only because Alvane speaks with an American accent, but also because Kian and April had forged a deep connection during DF.


This being my first post and all, I just want to give a shout out to all TLJ fans, new and old. And... just in case you're wondering... yes, chances are good that I'll have a new job by the beginning of next week.

-DW

[wandrew8]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Yes indeedy, we all remember Lady Alvane from TLJ. You may not be aware of Game Designer Ragnar Tornquist's blog, but in an old post (one I can't find while the wiki is down. Anyone else?) he advised caution in identifying Lady Alvane with an old April. So we'll have to believe it when we see it.

[=KuZ=]

Come to think of it. I never really put Zoe's face on Lady Alvane... But i guess thats a new thing to point out. Welcome to the forums and enjoy your stay.

[wandrew8]

Come to think of it. I never really put Zoe's face on Lady Alvane... But i guess thats a new thing to point out.

Wrong accent.

[ravenwoods]

Lady Alvane, ain't April...she is both April and Kian's mother!

[LLlaxmep]

Lady Alvane, ain't April...she is both April and Kian's mother!

um... okay, kian i understand, explain what's the purpose of lady alvane being april mother?

[stevie]

@ravenwood: you put that into the wrong thread

@wandrew: the guys at funcom named one of the graphics (for lady alvane) in tlj "old april", so this is confusing me ...
and when lady alvane talks with crow, she tells something like she wasnt april for a such long time... together with the happenings in df that sounds for me more like: she found her real family, her real name and who she really is in the past ...

[DS15]

I'd rather not try and say who Alvane is or isn't just yet. Ragnar's secrecy has (I'm sure this is intentional to) put a lot of uncertainty over the matter. If April is Alvane, and everyone already knows why be so coy Ragnar? I dunno, I feel like it's some brilliant misdirection on his part.

[trilless]

I" This leads us to conclude one of two things:

1. April survives, marries Kian, and becomes Lady Alvane.

Everyone conveniently forgets that both April and Lady Alvane were in the room where Lady Alvane is telling the stories to the children at the same time.

If they are the same person that's one hell of a paradox.

If it's true then obviously Brian Westhouse must be the vagabond.

[wandrew8]

@wandrew: the guys at funcom named one of the graphics (for lady alvane) in tlj "old april", so this is confusing me ...
and when lady alvane talks with crow, she tells something like she wasnt april for a such long time... together with the happenings in df that sounds for me more like: she found her real family, her real name and who she really is in the past ...

Fine: MAKE me go and find the damned post... *searches furiously* Here:


"And now for something completely different: Someone pointed out to me that in the German version of The Longest Journey - and this is all serious geek-speak reserved for the TLJ players out there, by the way - Lady Alvane, the old woman who appears at the beginning and end of the story, refers to herself as "April Ryan".

Well. Since I didn't personally do the translation or, as a matter of fact, ever play the German version of the game (my German is about as good as my Spanish: not very), I cannot verify the information. But I do know that in my version of the story - the original English one (which I obviously consider canon) - the Lady Alvane never calls herself April, and the whole question of her identity was intentionally and deliberately left unanswered. Translated interpretations aside, there are only two people who know the truth. And we're not telling. Yet.

Because it'll all be revealed eventually. When we say so.

Oh, and by the way, for those of you who wonder: I believe that time-travel is often a cheap and dirty solution to a difficult problem - a deus ex machina - and while I'm not saying there isn't time-travel in the TLJ universe; if it is, it certainly won't be cheap & dirty. And Lady Alvane's encounter with April Ryan halfway through the story isn't necessarily what it appears to be. Threads are intertwined not just across worlds, but across the ages; beginnings are sometimes endings; there are places where time does not move in a straight line - where time is irrelevant - and those places are closer than we think; and yes, this is all painfully obtuse, but, hey!, it's my journal. I get to do whatever I want to do.

Without revealing any great secrets - it's way too early for that - the TLJ saga is most definitely heading towards a grand conclusion...involving, amongst other grand and epic revelations, the Truth about Lady Alvane (which the Germans aren't privy to).

But that won't happen in the next game, because the next game is just part two, so you'll have to stay patient and stick with me. There are miles to walk yet."


The best explanation I can give for the now infamous file name is that during at least one stage of conception she was understood to be April. But things can change.

Everyone conveniently forgets that both April and Lady Alvane were in the room where Lady Alvane is telling the stories to the children at the same time.

Nope: they weren't there when April turned up.

[Graogrim]

I still have this nagging little suspicion that Lady Alvane is really Benrime. Listen to her cadence and manner.

[wandrew8]

Benrime was played by Cordis Heard, while Lady Alvane was played by Helen Stenborg.

[ravenwoods]

Lady alvane being called "Old April" can be due to so many things. It can be old design thing but also can mean other things.

I believe our mothers or fathers can be old "us". Like in slang calling your father Old Man! Old April can be mother of April...we know the people in Stark are not April's real family, this is hinted in TLJ so many times.

[Barentity]

Everyone conveniently forgets that both April and Lady Alvane were in the room where Lady Alvane is telling the stories to the children at the same time.

The House of All Worlds, where Lady Alvane is, is clearly in the future, because she says that the worlds have already been reunited. So April does travel into the future through the mystery door. So long as the timeline is consistent, there are no paradoxes with a past and future version of the same person being present in the same place - i.e. so long as Lady Alvane doesn't smite April as she comes through the door, which she doesn't, then there is no paradox.

[stevie]

@wandrew ... i didnt hear that lady alvane refers herself as april and I do have the german version ^.^ it just seems like that ..

the whole thing is a bit, in german I would say something like `spongy´.. we cant say anything clearly until the sequel ...
but I think that mr tornquist wont bring up the whole kian - lady alvane thingy, when that has nothing to say, especially after the most players had the impression that lady alvane seems to be old april