Headscratchers / Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

• If the last part of LeChuck's Revenge is All Just a Dream, then how did LeChuck get to Guybrush so quickly after he fell down the hole?
  • My guess? Guybrush was knocked out from his fall, and LeChuck put a spell on him then.
    • And then the dope finds himself on a bumper car with two balloons, floating at sea.
  • The Wordof God is that it was originally just a dream. Guybrush ran off to play Pirates and Chuckie was sent after him. The whole thing took place in Not!Disneyland, hence the Treasure of Big Whoop being an E-Ticket (Disneyland used to use a graded ticket system with E-Tickets earning access to the most popular attractions). LucasArts wasn't satisfied with this because it ruled out further sequels, so the ending was changed. Chuckie's evil/possessed look was added, along with Elaine's line about hoping Guybrush isn't the victim of a horrible Voodoo spell.
    • Ron Gilbert denies both Guybrush being just a kid and the "secret" being it all said kid's imagination. The only source that can he called "Word of God" saying the above claim is here. Leaving either conflicting Gods or one being mistaken.
  • LeChuck may have arrived during those three days Guybrush spent hanging inside the pit.
  • Guybrush went without food or water for three days dangling from a crowbar on a rope, then fell into a hole. He hit his head (for at least the third time in the course of the game), and the ending was partially real, part wild hallucination from repeated concussions.
• How did Guybrush's parents die? Or, if their skeletons are just part of LeChuck's spell, what did LeChuck want Guybrush to think? That his parents went to the lost property office, and then just sat there until they starved to death?
  • Assuming the whole game is All Just a Dream, Guybrush needed the last part of the voodoo doll to defeat his evil brother, so he simply pretended that a pair of prop skeletons were his parents. That, or LeChuck murdered them and hid their bodies there.
• How did LeChuck get the materials for the Voodoo doll in LeChuck's Revenge anyways? We never see him get the materials for it.
  • Presumably, he has the "something of the dead" from Guybrush's parents. He states that the rest of his ingredients are flawed, as his doll only teleports Guybrush to the next room, as opposed to a dimension of pain.
  • For the thread he used the pink dress, for the body he used spit, and for the dead he used his parents. As for the head... well, something probably fell off when Guybrush bumped his head against the tree. In conclusion, all three of the ingredients LeChuck didn't already have could be found on Booty Island.
• If LeChuck flew into the sky and exploded, how did Guybrush manage to find his beard? Why didn't Largo take the beard the first time he robbed Guybrush? And why didn't Guybrush use the Largo voodoo doll to get the beard back?
  • Question 1: Probably picked it up offscreen. LeChuck exploded, but likely his beard was a large piece that remained intact, and Guybrush found it, or it was brought to Elaine sometime afterwards, and Guybrush took it as a trophy.
  • Question 2: Largo didn't recognize Guybrush, and he kept the beard someplace he didn't keep his money. Largo just shook him down for cash, and didn't much care about what else he held.
  • Question 3: Guybrush got cocky when he had the upper hand. He willingly showed off the beard to Largo, who then took it. Presumably, Guybrush was a bit too stunned with the realization of what he just did. Also, I believe it was mentioned that the voodoo dolls are very short-range, and Largo rather quickly made himself scarce once he got the beard.
• Why did LeChuck make a voodoo doll of Guybrush if he was going to drop him in a pool of acid?
  • Backup plan? LeChuck does respect Guybrush as a threat, so good to have multiple contingency plans in place.
• Why didn't Elaine climb down the pit to help Guybrush, but instead just stood next to the hole, waiting for Guybrush to somehow climb back out after falling hundreds of meters, possibly into a pile of smashed rocks, and definitely into the hands of LeChuck? And how did she know LeChuck was down there anyway?
  • Her rope is too short and she doesn't want to risk getting trapped down there with no way out?
• What exactly were LeChuck and Largo doing to try to stop Guybrush from completing the map to Big Whoop? Largo somehow finds out whenever Guybrush finds a map piece, but doesn't try to capture him, presumably because of Guybrush's voodoo doll. LeChuck states that he searched every island for Guybrush, but apparently forgot to check the three islands where the map pieces are hidden. Did they ever even leave the fortress?
  • This is a Xanatos Gambit on LeChuck's part. If Guybrush doesn't get all the map pieces, he can't find Big Whoop and stop LeChuck from using it (or worse, use its power himself). If Guybrush gets all the map pieces, LeChuck just kidnaps the cartographer, knowing full well that Guybrush will come for him. Once he does, LeChuck gets both the map and Guybrush to torture as he likes, along with providing the ingredients needed for a voodoo doll. Granted, the map would still be in pieces, but LeChuck happens to have a captive cartographer who can help put it all back together. (Also, the age difference between them is never mentioned, but it's pretty well accepted that LeChuck is considerably older and presumably a far more experienced pirate than Guybrush; he may well have been able to reassemble the map himself.) If Guybrush finds the map and follows it, that's fine too; he's heading right to the Carnival of the Damned, exactly where LeChuck wants him. And if Largo manages to get a map piece before Guybrush, then Guybrush will probably come to the fortress to retrieve it, and LeChuck can imprison him. He sends Largo out to spy on Guybrush not to stop him, but to keep reporting on Guybrush's progress so LeChuck knows how close Guybrush is getting and how much time he has left to finish preparing the Carnival of the Damned and setting things up in the tunnels. The reason he doesn't tell Largo any of this is very simple: he doesn't trust him and probably doesn't want him anywhere around while he's working on the voodoo doll, just in case Largo starts getting ideas. As for why LeChuck never finds Guybrush on any of the three islands, Guybrush spends a lot of time zipping around the islands in question; it's very likely LeChuck just keeps missing him.
• Okay, so the wanted poster and its ever expanding list is mostly played up for a Rule of Funny than anything, and not something you're supposed to question, but... who the heck is going around seeing Guybrush commit all these crimes? Some of them can be explained in some form — for example, the police might have heard the chef complain about some crazy guy bothering him for "disturbing the peace" (that gets added after you hit the trash can to get his attention), but mixing drinks without a license? That's something his does inside his coat with nobody to be able to see it! He also is accused of throwing the rat into the pot, which as far as we know nobody even knew it was him that did that, or that he even did it at all. The one that I don't understand the most, though, is "reanimating dead persons within city limits," referring to bringing Rapp Scallion back to life. He does this in a cemetery inside a crypt, with absolutely nobody around to witness it. The only person in on the act (besides Rapp himself, but he dies again when you finish talking to him anyway) is the Voodoo lady, who nobody else has contact to. Is there just some guy secretly stalking Guybrush that just never bothers calling for his arrest?
  • Considering that Largo outright tells LeChuck whenever Guybrush obtains every map piece, it's clear that yes, he's stalking him. As for why he never bothers to call for his arrest, Largo has probably an even larger crime list. And surely he doesn't get near him enough to stop him because of fear of his voodoo doll.
  • Guybrush wasn't exactly careful about covering his tracks. For example, the chef was right there when Guybrush dropped the rat in the soup and probably could've pieced together that he did it. His involvement with crafting a voodoo doll of Largo was all but an open secret. Given all these crimes start occurring as soon as this particular pirate began sailing between the three islands, they were probably able to deduce that the rest of the crimes that kept occuring were also Guybrush's doing.