Okay, I know that this is just asking for a Timey-Wimey Ball, but there's a big headscratcher in Warrior Within. Let's say that there are three Princes: Prince A, who we only see as the Sandwraith, Prince B, who we play as, and Prince C, who we see when playing as the Sandwraith. Now, the headscratcher I have is this: Why did Prince A die? Couldn't he have avoided the Dahaka as Prince B did, since he would have seen that the Sandwraith was killed before he went to fight Kaileena? There's absolutely no reason why he couldn't have lived, other than making the story a bit simpler.
If Prince A hadn't died when he did and instead made Prince B (you) die, Prince B wouldn't have been able to eventually turn into the Sandwraith. It only occurs to Sandwraith-mode Prince B to jump out of the way because he saw Prince A die. Prince C dies and never gets to kill Kaileena, meaning the Sandwraith is never created, and the (hypothetical) Prince D isn't killed by Prince C trying to avoid being killed and AGHHH MY HEAD IS EXPLODING
If helps to understand that the Mask Of The Wraith is a living paradox. Since it's a get-out-of-jail free card and unconnected to the Sands of Time. Now, Prince A may have had a completely different journey than Prince B or maybe Prince A was being followed by the Sand Wraith also, ensuring an endless time loop. Who knows? I make sense of it that Prince B is THE Prince because Prince C was consumed by the Dahaka and thus erased forever. Honestly I think the realy question is; How many Dahaka's were there?
Running with the 3 Princes theory: Prince 1, as the name implies, would have been the first version to arrive on the island, the first to kill the Empress, and the first to attempt to use the mask, starting the cycle. However, this Prince never encountered a Wraith beforehand and so never witnessed the Dahaka kill it prior to the confrontation in the throne room. When he appears before Prince 2 (the Prince we play as), he may well have intended to kill him and take his place. In that case, Prince 1 was just as surprised as Prince 2 when the Dahaka appeared, and so failed to change his fate. On witnessing this encounter, Prince 2 is able to use his knowledge of what will happen to his advantage and feed Prince 3 to the Dahaka. Since Prince 3 (his past self) doesn't survive to find the mask, the mask falls off of Prince 2 and ends the Wraith cycle. If Prince 2 had failed, it's probable that there would have been as many Wraiths and Princes as needed for the Prince to get it right. Frankly, it's just as likely for Prince "2" to be Prince "200".
As an aside, all these Princes running around the island serve to fix a slight plothole about the Lion Sword supposedly being cursed. It never interferes with gameplay and yet at least two Princes die while it's in use: Prince 1 is killed while 2 is using it, and 3 dies at the point in his story when it would have been his primary weapon.
Why did the Empress attack the Prince? She says that it's her fate to die at his hands and doesn't want that, fair enough, but he only attacks her because she attacks him first. What's more, the Prince had said to Kaileena that he only sought an audience with the Empress, so there's no reason why she would think that he'd just run in and kill her.
She knew she was going to die because of him, not how it came about or why. She probably thought her nearly-nude henchchick would manage to kill him without ever having to bring him near the island.
She clearly had no idea of the concept of a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. On the other hand, what else she could do? Just sit and wait for the Prince to come and kill her without The Last Dance? Same as if the Prince himself just gave up and let Dahaka kill him.
How does the Dahaka get to the island? I know that it's shown that it can do a teleportation kind of thing, but judging by the fact that it can't teleport past water (shown when the Prince is in the time portal rooms), it would be reasonable to assume that it can't teleport past water. So how did it get to the island? Build a ship?
There may be a difference between teleporting through running water and teleporting over the sea. Maybe it's just fresh water, IDK. Plot!
It'd be a really crappy Guardian of Time if you could stop it by swimming across a pool. Maybe the portal rooms have entire water systems in the walls and the Dahaka can't get in.
I thought that Dahaka, being in the end an incredibly powerful Sand Creature, can automatically teleport to places where the "sands" or their relative artifacts are present or strong. After all, the entire island is the cradle of the Sands of Time.
I always figured that it would manifest in the vicinity of it's targets, no matter where in the world they are. This would explain how it keeps popping up throughout the island without leaving Dahaka-sized holes between buildings (other than the ones it makes while actively chasing the Prince). It might be thwarted by water, but it's not as if a person can just stay in the water forever. Given time, and clear weather, it may well have appeared on the Prince's ship and he would have had nowhere to run.This would also explain why the Prince heading to sea is the last ditch attempt it is portrayed as, rather than the first resort you would think it should have been.
Just to clear things up, who really is Shadee? Ok, the Empress' henchwoman, but how, exactly? I mean, she doesn't seem to be a sand creature (she can cross water portals and bleed when killed). Is she "part" of the Empress? Like, Kaileena is the Empress' human avatar and Shadee is one half of said avatar? Was she a mercenary trained and hire by the Empress? And why does she try to kill Kaileena, who's technically her mistress?
She is a sand creature, just extremely powerful, second only to Kaileena. Notice that every sand creature in Warrior Within bleeds and can sustain a certain dose of water before it dies (there was rain when the battle on ships occur).
You just contradicted yourself, Rain is not a certain amount of water it's a lot for a being made of sand to take. That's even more evidence that she may be human.
You forgot that Shahdee was accompanied by other sand creatures (Raiders) on the ship who clearly don't have a problem with being out in the rain.
My theory is that some, if not all, of the enemies on the island are the remains of treasure hunters who arrived some time in the past and were infected by the sands and enthralled to the Empress. Shadee may have been the captain of the raider enemies in her human life, explaining why they answer to her and how they can be such experienced sailors (not to mention why they would have a ship on the island at all). Shadee may have been granted more autonomy to preserve her former skills, which is why she would retain the capacity to rebel against her mistress.
How does a better sword help one destroy walls? Surely that's mostly a question of the user's strength?
The sword is more durable, and extra weight allows more momentum to be delivered in the swing.
If the Sands of Time was created by killing the Empress, how come there was sand and sandmonsters everywhere on the island even before that event?
I always figured that Kaileena used some of her essence to create a huge army to protect her at some point in the distant past.
If Shadee can use the portals, the other Sand Creatures probably can too. Perhaps every enemy on the island is from the future (from the Empress's perspective), possibly being scavengers who came to the island for treasure, only to be corrupted by the sands floating around the ruins. This would also explain why she doesn't seem to interact with them herself, other than Shadee, as they would only serve to reinforce her inevitable fate each time she saw one. The only sand monsters she is ever seen making are unique to her boss fight and are entirely composed of sand, unlike the rest who appear to be corrupted humans.
In the second game, why are the Prince's actions considered so bad and selfish that he's ashamed of them as if he butchered his way across a sea of innocents like Kratos? Yes, he's fighting for his survival, but really, was there some morally better or humanitarian option out of the mess? Personally, I cannot think of anything that won't end up with the Prince being disintegrated by the Dahaka. Probably, it was incredibly convoluted and drastic, but I guess that if there were other ways to get rid of the Dahaka permanently the Prince would have take them.
They never really got into it. Previews indicated he got a friend killed at some point, though never how or why. There's also at least one trailer that showed him fleeing the Dahaka through a marketplace. I'd imagine it caused some collateral damage, up to and including people getting killed. Nobody else actually calls him selfish for what he's doing - largely because you don't talk to anyone for most of the game - so it's just his own guilt for possibly getting others killed. There might be a part of him wondering whether it'd be better to just lie down and die.
The Nintendo DS interquel: Battles of Prince of Persia sees the Prince, searching for a way to stop the Dahaka, start a war between Persia and India in order to obtain a magic box on the belief he could use it to imprison the creature. He goes rogue with a portion of the Persian army to find said box, leading to the death of his mother, causing a rift to form between him and his father. When he finds and opens the box, it turns out to have been occupied by a clan of demons. The demons kill Kalim, Farah's brother, not to mention causing untold death and destruction besides, before the Prince is able to re-banish them. If the events of Battles are erased by Warrior Within's golden ending then it might ultimately be a net gain for everyone, despite the events of Two Thrones. It's a pity this storyline was left to a handheld strategy game that nobody remembers, because it sounds like it could have been a hell of a ride to play as in an expanded sequel. I kind of wish Forgotten Sands had adapted some of it.
During the fight between the Prince and the Empress at about the halfway point of the game, she tells him how she had hoped the Dahaka would have already killed him by that point. But then in the cutscene just before the game's True Final Boss battle, she exclaims "What is that thing?" upon seeing the Dahaka show up, and just before this, the Prince briefly mentions it to her in a way like he's describing something she's unfamiliar with. Did she forget what the Dahaka was or something?
Writing error most likely. All the time travel stuff probably left the writers as confused as us. Besides, why wouldn't Kaileena know what the Dahaka is if Time and all it's paradoxes are within her domain?
Or she just didn't know what it looked like. She never tried to go against the timeline prior to the Prince's arrival, so why would she have seen it before?
