How powerful are Tantalus rays?

KeenEmpire · Post by **KeenEmpire** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 21:01

The long awaited question. Are Tantalus rays city-killers, or world-killers? I'm sure every dedicated Keen fan can come up with arguments for both.

Evidence for city killers:

As we know, in Keen 2, the Vorticon mothership was

hovering over the Earth, ready to destroy all of Earth's cities and wonders

The destruction, as we know, would have been via

eight X-14 Tantalus rays in the Mothership, each pointing to a specific city on Earth.

The wording of the story strongly suggests Tantalus rays being city killers (otherwise, much of it would be redundant). It is possible to interpret it otherwise - but it would probably be worse than most biblical interpretations.

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Evidence for world killers:

When Keen "accidentally" fires off a Tantalus ray (or, alternatively, dies before completing his mission), we are shown clear visual evidence of the entire earth being blown up via a single Tantalus ray.

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So, let's try and settle this the democratic way (since we all know science by democracy is most valid - just think of the flat earth!). Under maximum power, are Tantalus rays world-killers, or city-killers? Should the game over sequence be considered "more" canon than the storyline, or simply dramatic license? Any kind of creative reconciliation is welcome.

memsys · Post by **memsys** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 21:11

world killers but not powerfull enough to vaporize the earth
the debris would at least damage the ship of not destroy it

Lava89 · Post by **Lava89** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 21:34

Maybe setting off one ray sets them all off?

KeenEmpire · Post by **KeenEmpire** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 21:42

Lava89 wrote:Maybe setting off one ray sets them all off?

Shouldn't we be able to see eight tantalus rays homing into 8 separate targets, then? (And I need not point out that the endgame sequence is also identical if Keen had already destroyed 7 tantalus rays, but failed on the 8th

)

ckguy · Post by **ckguy** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 21:57

LOL, this apparent inconsistency never even occurred to me!

Lava89 · Post by **Lava89** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 22:04

KeenEmpire wrote:
Shouldn't we be able to see eight tantalus rays homing into 8 separate targets, then? (And I need not point out that the endgame sequence is also identical if Keen had already destroyed 7 tantalus rays, but failed on the 8th )

Well if it was one ray, wouldn't the beam from that particular ray be thinner? If it shoots out one beam everytime, maybe it's all of the beams combined, and it's so big it engulfs the earth?

Though we really are trying to explain something that Tom and company didn't think about. It's like explaining Star Wars or Star Trek inconsistencies, they just didn't think about it or changed their minds lol.

ckguy · Post by **ckguy** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 22:08

And all of the Tantalus rays couldn't shoot at once, because half of the targets would be on the other side of the planet ...

Lava89 · Post by **Lava89** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 22:11

Planted explosives then! It's conspiracy I tell ya!

Post by **KeenRush** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 22:17

How do we know the ending screen isn't manufactured Vorticon propaganda?

Perhaps their power can differ and that switch just turns it to maximum and thus destroys the earth.

Edit: So I guess I'll vote for world killers.

MortimerInBlack · Post by **MortimerInBlack** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 23:38

heres what i think; i think that one ray is very powerful, but only one ray cannot spread out to cover the entire surface of facing-side of planet, so here's what they do.

They target several areas, and fire beams that go more or less straight through; just like a speeding bullet flying through the middle of an apple will make it explode, even tho the bullet is small. With the planet, u need several "bullets" and spread out areas/

so, planet killers AND citie killers. (but if it's a planet killer, it's also a city killer lol).

Freeyorp101 · Post by **Freeyorp101** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:19

I think the beams are city killers; keen could have just destroyed the firing mechaninsm for each tantalus ray. When one fired, the rest joined in. If all of the firing mechanisms are destroyed, then the ship cannot fire.

What do you think?

KeenEmpire · Post by **KeenEmpire** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:42

Mortimer seems to be suggesting that the Tauntalus rays are supposed to destroy cities, but have the side effect of blowing up a planet also

(Of course, it only takes one ray to do this).

Free: unfortunately, not very likely. When Keen disabled a ray, he didn't just destroy the firing mechanism, but also destroyed the cell (of the big purple space amoeba) that was powering the ray. Unless you're suggesting that each ray is still capable of drawing power from another cell halfway across the ship.

Post by **Flaose** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:47

The planet blowing up was just a conspiracy by the Bush administration to declare war on the Vorticons. Obviously, the ray could only truly destroy a city.

entropicdecay · Post by **entropicdecay** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:52

Hmm, I never really thought about this, but now that you mention it, it does kind of seem as if one ray destroys the whole planet.

Maybe the vorticons overestimated how much damage the Earth could take, or they underestimated the power of the Tantalus Rays?

Although if I recall it correctly the game over sequence does look very simplified in a way, it seems more like a burst of energy is fired towards the Earth. Maybe that represents all the rays and it's just stylised/simplified to be more straightforward.

KeenEmpire · Post by **KeenEmpire** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:55

Although if I recall it correctly the game over sequence does look very simplified in a way, it seems more like a burst of energy is fired towards the Earth.

For all we know, though, the Tauntalus ray could look exactly like that. =/

Anyone up for emailing Tom Hall?

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