One of the things I've recently noticed in playing GF all the way through again is the enormous amount of foreshadowing going on.
Mostly, it's been little things, like in Year 2, when Chowchilla Charlie tells Manny that some day, he might have a suit as nice as his (and it happens in Year 4).
Or when Manny and Glottis arrive at Dom's mining operation at the edge of the world, Manny tells Glottis to poke the octopus in the eye if it comes back (and Manny has to do exactly this).
I thought it was one of the neatest things I ever saw when the mariachi band was playing at the end, and they were standing next to the little pool by the Gate to the 9th Underworld, and it exactly mirrored the scene from the beginning, with the little mariachi dolls standing next to Manny's ashtray.
I can't think of any others at the moment, but I know they are there.
[On a completely unrelated note (and at the risk of hijacking my own thread), does anyone know if there's a specific reason all the ship names start with L? Lamancha, Lumbago, Limbo (Lola), Lambada...]
And the award for most-protracted forshadowing goes to..."Spray that on this packing foam and we'll both be riding the giant roman candle out of here" (year one dialog which gives a hint for the solution to a year four puzzle).
Well, you both have good points. The foreshadowing is one of the first things I noticed while playing. But the very first thing to hit me happened while watching the cutscenes. Manny is so darn successful! People throughout the whole game chew him out and refer to him as being lower than them and whatnot. But what happens? He ends up being successful anyway. First, he starts out mopping the floors of the auto-mat and then he turns it into a casino/cafe which he owns, then he mops the deck of the Limbo and ends up owning the newly-remodeled and renamed Lola! Then at the end, he gets to leave the land of the dead with a Number Nine ticket! I mean, talk about getting ahead!
Give a reason for life...
Foreshadowing is quite an art. Grim employs the practice to great effect. A good example:
"I wonder if I'd be happier on a boat? Then again, I'm so competetitive, I would't be satisfied until I was Captain"
This ties in with Isis's point as well. Manny is the perfect example of what one might call a "Self-made man", The Self-made man (or woman) works hard and keeps their head down, at the same time striving to excell and rising steadily through the ranks. An admirable ethic.
Yeah. I couldn't have put it better myself.
found another 2 foreshadowings:
when lola dies she tells manny that if she continues dating people like Nick shell end up sprouted and at the end (spoilers) she gets sprouted because she fell in love with LeMans. the second one is that manny tells Nick that he doesnt have time to get him for lola and in year 4 he gets killed on the double N
Worse than that, he got to burn in hell forever.
Also, the tube switcher guy in Year 1 complains that e was fired from his job manning the lifts. But then what happens? 3 years later he's manning the lifts in Hector's Casino.
It's the sign of a good narrative that it is so tight, and for the observant player there are a whole load of nuances to pick up on.