As read The Story of Braid thread, I realized that even though I read every book I could find and thought I grasped the true meaning of Braid's metaphors...I really had no idea.
It is all explaned so clearly, it makes me question why I passed up the simple clues that the game throws in your face (The intro scene of Braid is manhattan burning in the background and I had no idea...)
I am now aware that this was all about the manhatten project and wanting to undo that crap, but I personally found the story more profound thinking that Tim loses a love and becomes a creepy stalker guy standing out this girls window.
I think the beauty of Braid is it can be interpreted multiple ways. The Manhattan project stuff is interesting, but it isn't a definitive answer. I think Tim experiences the passage of time in reverse to everyone else - there is a book that speaks of Tim and the Princess being able to hide their mistakes from each other, which I took to mean he meets her at the end of their relationship, from her point of view.
He only knows their future, and she only knows their past, but from Tim's point of view it is the reverse. When Tim passes the point at which they first met, he can never be with her again, because from her point of view they haven't met yet.
He tries to recapture their intimacy, but she just shuns him as a crazy stalker - which I found to be heartbreaking. All of the experimentation described in one of the books is his attempt to understand time (and worlds 2-6 are the result of his new powers in time) but he is still unable to perceive the world as the rest of us do.
Just my opinion, but one of many possible interpretations.
As you'll see later on in that thread, the Princess is spoken about in a myriad of different ways, many of which are incompatible with the atomic bomb interpretation.
Not that the princess ISN'T an atomic bomb -- given the Manhattan quotes, she most certainly is -- but she's not ONLY an atomic bomb. I've got my own opinions on what both endings of the game mean, and I still remain confused at certain aspects: if you're at the point where you think you've got Braid completely pegged down and 100% understood, then you've probably gotten it wrong.
Jon Blow himself has said that if he understands something, it's probably not worth his time: if the princess in Braid were easily categorized as one literal, definite thing I'd be surprised.
On his blog, Jon asked for a wikipedia entry about the plot be removed as it was a spoiler and wrong. If anyone can get something about the story "wrong" then there has to be a "right" interpretation.
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He only knows their future, and she only knows their past, but from Tim's point of view it is the reverse. When Tim passes the point at which they first met, he can never be with her again, because from her point of view they haven't met yet.
He tries to recapture their intimacy, but she just shuns him as a crazy stalker - which I found to be heartbreaking. All of the experimentation described in one of the books is his attempt to understand time (and worlds 2-6 are the result of his new powers in time) but he is still unable to perceive the world as the rest of us do.
Just my opinion, but one of many possible interpretations.
Not that the princess ISN'T an atomic bomb -- given the Manhattan quotes, she most certainly is -- but she's not ONLY an atomic bomb. I've got my own opinions on what both endings of the game mean, and I still remain confused at certain aspects: if you're at the point where you think you've got Braid completely pegged down and 100% understood, then you've probably gotten it wrong.
Jon Blow himself has said that if he understands something, it's probably not worth his time: if the princess in Braid were easily categorized as one literal, definite thing I'd be surprised.