'inspired' by a forum post i read years ago which is quoted almost verbatim somewhere in here. see if you can find it! it is like a treasure hunt
i am so sorry about this you guys
'They're ghosts. Of course they can't die.'
'No, but—do you get what I'm saying? He can evade them and even delay them for a bit but they'll catch up eventually. It's a metaphor for mortality.'
'What about when you beat the 255th level? The fruit subroutine tries to draw 256 fruits or something and the world collapses.'
'Well, it's not a perfect metaphor.'
'So those pellets are really medicine, then? Or what?'
'Sure. Cholesterol tablets; he's got a heart condition. The screen wraps around because he works a mind-numbing desk job. No matter what he does it's the same routine.'
'That's retarded.'
'No, guys. The screen wraps around because he's in purgatory. That's why there's ghosts and shit.'
'There's ghosts and shit because it's a video game about a big yellow dot eating smaller yellow dots and fruit.'
'No! No, listen. Pacman's a ghost. He just doesn't know it. That's why touching a ghost kills him, he's confronting his fate.'
'All right, yeah. That's why the fruit thing. He can't sustain the delusion forever and his subconscious starts breaking through. Like in Vanilla Sky.'
'I thought it was a grammar metaphor. Like, malformed ellipses. Right? Three dots only.'
'Does Pacman shit?'
'What?'
'Can he, even? He eats shit; ghost shit I'd always assumed. The ghosts won't eat it but they're strangely protective of it.'
'Hey! That's my shit you fat yellow fuck! Maybe he's eating fruit and fibre tablets because he's constipated. The ghosts are probably just ghosts, he's in a haunted house. Ghost shit is a laxative.'
'Pilots, is there a problem? We're reading a lot of comm traffic on your end. Maintain radio silence. This is a stealth operation.'
