I’m taking this as the secret unless Ron specifically says otherwise, just so I can finally get some peace of mind, lol.
But yeah, is the secret the same as the plot, the ending, the initial idea, etc., or is the secret something that doesn’t have anything to do with that? Who knows.
Exactly. It makes zero sense for that to be a secret, much less the SECRET™ and no amount of context would change that. There’s nothing to suggest that Ron has changed his mind on what the SECRET™ is, nor that he would have randomly revealed the original SECRET™ in a promotional interview, without so much as saying that it’s what the original SECRET™ was. I don’t understand why some people have decided, apropos of nothing, that Stan being in Hell was the SECRET™.
Well, in truth we could rephrase it to make it sound like a “secret”.
“Guybrush follows Lechuck in hell and finds out that Stan is actually Hell’s gatekeeper”.
In Hell, we find out that Stan is actually that Indian god with many arms
Edit: Stan… add one letter and you have “Satan” 
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That would only work as a grand secret, were Stan a major and pivotal character and not a recurring comic relief side character with a string of bad luck. Having a humorous used car style salesman be revealed as the gatekeeper of Hell wouldn’t be a secret to build a trilogy of games around or something for Ron to have closely kept under lock and key for decades. I’m fully prepared for the SECRET™ to be underwhelming after decades of fan speculation (it seems almost inevitable) but I wouldn’t ever expect it to be that underwhelming; to the point of being a big pile of absolutely nothing at all.
Ron’s entire point was that the SECRET™ would sound inconsequential when written down but when put into a game and given context, it would be a really impactful moment upon its reveal. All the context in the world wouldn’t make “Stan is the gatekeeper of Hell” or “Stan is Satan” a major and impactful moment which recontextualises the previous games. Stan’s just not that important of a character to warrant that level of player investment.
I totally get it, but (and I’m just grasping at straws) it might not be underwhelming from a comedic standpoint. It depends on the writing…
I don’t think we have enough data to be certain of one way or another… @LowLevel , what do you think? Are you prepared to the secret being about Stan in hell?
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Well, more accurately, there’s simply no data to support this out-of-left-field theory of Stan being in Hell being the “original” SECRET™, much less that Ron has changed his mind on what the SECRET™ actually is. I can’t rightfully give credence to a wildcard, invented theory and one that’s born from utter conjecture and zero evidence. I mean, I can say that I believe the SECRET™ is that Guybrush is a squirrel dreaming of being a pirate and that Elaine represents a delicious, tasty nut but that’s doesn’t make it so.
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I kinda disagree. Stan is in my opinion THE secondary character, and apart from being in general a fan favorite, he proves himself extremely important in both adventures by giving out seemingly random objects that you need to advance. We’re not talking the Men of low moral fiber here, it’s Stan!
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Can I ask to those of you who played Tales and Escape if there’s a part in Hell, or with Stan in Hell?
if not, what exactly had “already been done”?
At least we know this was his whole idea for MI3a, because he very specifically says so:
The totality of that idea was “Guybrush chases the demon pirate LeChuck to hell and Stan is there.” That’s it. That’s all it was.
And he refers to that as his original idea:
We talked about my original “hell” idea
So if the original secret is something different, it has to at least work around that premise.
I’m not sure that I would describe a salesman trying to scalp Guybrush for as much money as possible, in order for him to buy a rickety and dilapidated, but absolutely essential ship, to be “handing out a seemingly random object”. Nor would I consider Guybrush having to trap Stan in a coffin so that he can steal the crypt key as Stan “giving a random object” to Guybrush.
There’s a section where you have to escape from Hell but Stan isn’t there.
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It seems like you’re forgetting about the magnetic compass in MI1 and the handkerchief in MI2
Okay, but how does that support the notion that Stan being in Hell is suddenly a major reveal and the real SECRET™? I assume you’re suggesting that the promotional items that Stan gives Guybrush are done so by Stan because he knows that they will be essential to Guybrush completing his quests? There’s two issues with that…
1/ If Stan is so keen to help Guybrush and knows what Guybrush needs to complete his quests, then why doesn’t he gift the ship and the crypt key to him?
2/ How do you get from “Stan is in Hell” to “Stan is a guardian angel to Guybrush”? That’s quite the leap of logic.
I was just disagreeing with your “Stan is not an important character”. Stan is an important character in my opinion.
Also, Tales did the same with Voodoo Lady. The ending tells us everything had been orchestrated by her and that’s an ending I liked. The idea of the overly friendly salesman actually being a demon is something I’d have loved.
But no, I don’t consider that to be “the secret”. I consider that to be an interesting twist, but not the secret. Just as the secret is not “there’s a giant robot monkey under Monkey Island” but that’s for another reason.
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Fair do’s. As much as I enjoy Stan’s appearances in the games, I don’t really view him as much more pivotal to Guybrush’s quests than, say, Wally.
Agreed. The expansion of the Voodoo Lady’s role was one of the few things I really liked about Tales of Monkey Island. I’ve always suspected that her role in the grand scheme of things is one of the key things which Ron Gilbert informed the development team of during his brief visit to TellTale Games during pre-production. In fact, I’m almost certain that I read an interview with one of the developers around that time where they specifically said that Ron had given them some pointers on the Voodoo Lady’s role within the lore.
Ah, okay. We’re on the same page then. I wouldn’t even really consider it a twist though; rather more of a humorous reveal. I’m pretty sure that Ron would have played Stan’s appearance in Hell for laughs. I wonder what he would have been selling… maybe flame resistant gloves and pitchfork deflecting pants?
Indeed. The main reason being that it’s f**king stupid. 
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Don’t you know? Stan is Guybrush’s uncle.
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Monkey Island is made of people!
… that’s the secret
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I have not read all the new messages but regarding the secret™ we know that:
- LeChuck, when still alive, goes to Monkey Island because discovering the secret of this island would impress Elaine.
- Estevan says that only LeChuck knows the secret of Monkey Island.
- The captain of the Sea Monkey writes in the logbook: “Captain’s log, April 4th. Toothrot and I filled the rowboat with supplies and are ready to set out to Monkey Island™. We are both excited at the prospect of being the first civilized people to learn the Secret of Monkey Island™.”
So, whatever the secret is, it is presented as something related to the island and something of big value.
The original document written by Ron to pitch Monkey Island also says: “The secret was unknown, but legends value it as priceless.” (Source)
So, personally I would dismiss any possible little story element unrelated to the island or far from being of giant value.
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So you’re expecting a big twist plot-wise, not something that only makes sense comedy-wise (like: Stan is in Hell selling used Bibles).
What makes me uncertain is that , in today’s post, Ron had the tone of someone who is revealing the secret at last:
People talk a lot about Monkey Island 3a as if it was the game I would have made after Monkey Island 2 had I stayed at Lucasfilm.
Here’s the deal.
This could be read as: “ok, you really want to know what MI3a would have been? Fine, I’ll tell you:”
The totality of that idea was “Guybrush chases the demon pirate LeChuck to hell and Stan is there.” That’s it. That’s all it was.
This could be read as: “That’s it. That’s all the secret was (has been for 30 years). And you are not going to ever see it, because I abandoned it, because it had already been done , partly, and because inspiration comes during the act of creation”
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It seems to me that you are using “idea”, “plot” and “secret” interchangeably, as if they were synonyms.
It’s my impression that Ron has disclosed only his original idea for the plot of MI3a. From my perspective, the secret is simply some information about the island that nobody knows, which makes it just a detail of the story.
Not necessarily, because I can’t rule out that the secret has already been shown to the players, even if it hasn’t been identified as such in the first two games.
For example, the secret could simply be “Monkey Island is the gate to hell”, which is something at least inferable from what happened in MI1.
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