I took that picture, looked at it as best i could in Photoshop, and found that the Stranger's "legs" are merely just the orange handle in the elevator. No question about it. Case Closed!

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Things aren't always what they seem, which means that "your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them."

How Silly! If Watson played V he gave the tablet, just as You or me. If one can suddenly find oneself in a void, there find a book, and end up on Myst a century ago. Then one can give away a tablet in a distant future. We are gifted with that experience as is "the character" Watson. We are no stranger. We are It. We all did it. To play the games with joy it must be so. No gender or age restriction to the character*. Just onself. It really isn't important, it is a game, why speculate. Just love the experience of beeing there. To be the friend conjured forth by Yeesha for her needs sake.

Frej

PS! The funniest speculation of this kind was one that examined wordings in "loosing" ends of the games. That is wordings of counterfactual events, i.e. events that never happened.

*Just disembodied footsteps among the bushes in some less well thought through sequels.

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--- in our hearts our dreams are still the same ---

Rudolfson, I am not sure I understand all of what you are saying in your post; however, Watson did not play Myst V -- IC (In Character/Cavern) Watson was the actual person who got the tablet and gave it to the Bahro. The game Myst V is just a retelling of that event.

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Nothing to see here, move along.

Sigh.

I still remember how sure I was that the resolution of Myst V was just a standard computer game ending inserted by Cyan. Things don't work that way in the real world, I said. You can't just find the Magic Loo Seat Cover Of Dinkelphwat and presto, everything's peachy. I had my own IC explanation for the quest for the tablet, and I still think it was better than Cyan's.

Ah well. We have what we have, and it's still good.

Herothar!
I think somehow zander expressed my sentiment. After all it's not Zelda! If I'm not allowed to be there personally feeling superintelligent when "I" solve a difficult puzzle... then I'd rather solve equations. All right the silly fellow that comes along and talks rot here and there sometimes gives me a pat on the head. That sort of rips me out of immersive state and I'm playing Zelda* again. But after two appearences he was muted. I turned voice of to be able to read the journals myself without the phantom voice. As a consequense the obtrusive element of MR popup was muted. Looks kind of funny but not as disturbing as having to listen to his rot.

However Frej very exited at the prospect of getting back into the Cavern
Frej does a dance

*Zelda only represents any game of a typical genre. It is not an opinion on this particular series. And remember I'm not trying to step on any toes or be obnoxious here. Just tell like it is when I do the Myst. My experience does not change because somebody invents a different storyline.

And You know it is absolute rubbish this invention of a character. In the MYST series the player is the actual person solving the riddles and rescuing atrus. The mentioning of a stranger in the journals is just a reference to this fact. If it was a character that character would have a name, but it was you, U R U in MYST as well as URU. You'd have to be daft not to see that. Also the journals serve as background to a lot of players that are unfamiliar with the previous games, books, over interpreting forums.

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--- in our hearts our dreams are still the same ---