"...and I built his cage"

[Tetzlaff]

Remember the asian scientist at the beginning of the game, he told you something like "The devil is real! And I built his cage..." English isn´t my first language, and though in general it´s rather easy to understand all the written and spoken text in Doom3, there are a few sentences I don´t really get, like this one.

What cage? Is it a synonym for something?

An other word I didn´t understand was "ballbuster" :) In an email an UAC employee is calling Councellor Swan "a real ballbuster"... I didn´t knew that word, and the only description I could find was "a dominant female"... Well, I can figure out what he meant by saying this, but I´m still lacking a word to translate it.

[Manc]

For the first one, "The devil is real! And I built his cage...", he's indicating that he's seen the demons from hell, and in order to view them, they needed to have some way to observe them. Like in a zoo, you have animals that are put into cages for others to view. In this case, it's perhaps a more metaphorical cage, where he means that he helped build the portals to Hell and allow for observation of such demons. It could also be a literal translation meaning they actuall built cages and containers for some creatures.

For the second phrase, "a real ballbuster", that is a metaphor for someone who is constantly on your case; someone who makes you work really hard and rarely stops doing so.

Hopefully this helps. I may not have been simple enough in my explanation. If not, perhaps someone else can break it down even further.

[jt39137]

What he says is as follows:

"No, no! you must let me get this message out! You do not know what I have seen!..... The devil is real... I know; I built his cage."

[Manc]

jt39137 said:

What he says is as follows:

"No, no! you must let me get this message out! You do not know what I have seen!..... The devil is real... I know; I built his cage."

I don't quite think you get what he's asking...

[jt39137]

Mancubus II said:

I don't quite think you get what he's asking...

i know.. i was just quoting him.. a lot of people don't hear everything he says

[Tetzlaff]

Thanks for the explanation! The description for ballbuster was pretty much how I thought it was meant.

- So the "cage" comment is related in a way to the scientific research they did on the hell dimension?
I thought maybe he meant something like he was helping the devil to physically incarnate, like the cage being his physical body or something.

[insertwackynamehere]

a cage is usually used to hold animals. Like a birdcage: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.wtv-zone.com/coplove/Scraps/birdcage.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.wtv-zone.com/coplove/pgs/bcage.html&h=416&w=233&sz=20&tbnid=R9caH3T0e24J:&tbnh=121&tbnw=68&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbirdcage%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

[Manc]

Tetzlaff said:

- So the "cage" comment is related in a way to the scientific research they did on the hell dimension?
I thought maybe he meant something like he was helping the devil to physically incarnate, like the cage being his physical body or something.

There is no right or wrong answer really, it's said in a vague way so you can derive your own meaning from it.

[Tetzlaff]

insertwackynamehere said:

a cage is usually used to hold animals. Like a birdcage

Yes I know what the common meaning of cage is ;) I just thought it could be meant in a more metaphorical way, not just literally.

Like for example, the word "shell". Of course I know what an ordinary shell is, but you can also use the word in a more metaphoric way, like "the mortal shell" of a being. I thought perhaps cage would have such an additional meaning as well.

So, the scientist basicly is saying, in other words: I´ve seen hell and I helped building a demon zoo ...

[Bloodshedder]

He probably means he's seen Hell, but also devised the mechanism to keep everything in Hell from inordinately escaping to the real world.

[insertwackynamehere]

Oh ok heh :D I assumed that the cage was the scientest was controlling when you come up to him. Thats why he's freaking out. He's monitoring the cage which holds hell back, even while the portals are opened. Thats why when he's talking to you the portal opens: he took his eyes off of it and the "cage" holding back hell became unstable.

[Jehar]

Are you sure he said "built"?

I always thought it was "bent his cage", which kinda makes more sense.

The portals being open = the cage of hell being bent open.

[Bloodshedder]

That makes even less sense.

[kristus]

I've always wondered if he said "built his cage" or "been to his cage".

But I guess it's the former seeing as you seem to have heard it as that aswell.

[Job]

Bloodshedder said:

He probably means he's seen Hell, but also devised the mechanism to keep everything in Hell from inordinately escaping to the real world.

Exactly. It's basically a metaphor.

[Mogul]

He said "built."

[Dodge]

Do you know that for certain? Sounded to me like "been in his cage" when I played it. And have all of you forgotten the cage you get stuck in after stepping on that teleporter at the beginning of Hell? ;)

[Jehar]

That doesnt even sound like "been in" to me.. but hey, whatever.

I still stick with bent.

[Janderson]

Maybe the message he was planning to send was instructions on how to stop the portals from accepting hellspawn, or just a request for evacuation leaving the demons trapped on Mars while the populous retreat to Earth.

Alternately a darker interpretation could be that he let the Devil possess Bertruger, a rival scientist with a harmless shell in an attempt to keep the ultimate evil bound harmlessly, killing two birds with one stone. Unfortunately the fact that the beast in Bertruger was just as powerful in him as he was in Hell is still on the loose but now with influential status means that Hell is basically knocking on the door. The scientist flees after his failure and tries to warn the rest of civilisation of his error etc. etc. ...just my imagination running away with me.

[Jehar]

As far as the message goes, you can actually read it on his screen after the cinematic... not sure i remember what it was, but i think it was a distress signal to stop whatever they were doing to the portals.

nice theory there janderson.

and its still "bent"

THOUGHT: why dont we see what DOOMcc says about it? they are putting all the cinematics and voice and shit into captions.

[Amaster]

Funfact: The scientist shoots himself in the head in the original story.

[niguel]

i thought its "i built this cage"

[Mogul]

Dodge said:

Do you know that for certain?

Yeah, I'm pretty positive. Every time somebody comes to the house I have to show them DOOM 3's awesome graphics and stuff, so I've seen this scene like twenty times or something. :)

[Jomero]

It's "built."

Why is it built? Other than the fact that is what he said? Well, other than the reasons already stated, "built" emphasizes that he and his fellow scientists were quite arrogant in believing that they could actually CONTAIN and CONTROL the devil. That their "built" cage is flawless and would get the job done without a problem at all.

It was that same arrogance that resulted in the entire catastrophe.

[Lutrov71]

I agree, it is built.

[Combine]

well i thought i heard it was seen.....
and that would make more sence wouldnt it?
i mean this cage is probobly hell were ''god'' placed lucifer when he went bad. the chinese guy helped in building the dimension gates that made a way out of the cage/hell without knowing its hell, when he finds out what it is he tries to warn the world.
doesent that sound more likely?

[AndrewB]

Lutrov71 said:

I agree, it is built.

The revenant does NOT wear pants.

[DOOM Anomaly]

AndrewB said:

The revenant does NOT wear pants.

He wears shorts.

[Jello]

He says built. I assume the scientist was one of the people resbonsible for both the discovery of hell, and the monitoring of the teleporters and whanot, to make sure they didn't escape. I'm pretty sure he meant it just about in the literal sense. In this case cage meaning 'something that keeps something confined'. Not necessarily a physical cage, but still something the kept the demons from getting to the base.

Ball-breaker? Well, basically that's when a person is really hard on another person. Gives them a hard time for the job that they do, and mocks their efforts. Also, is really sarcastic with another person.

[Khorus]

If you keep watching the monitor, you see a zombie snap a guy's neck.