If you havent' finished World 1. or don't even know where or what that is: Don't read on! Seriously. It would just ruin the game for you. This is not about hints anyway, just about story.

So, I played through the game in one go. Haven't done a speed-run yet and have not collected any stars, but I'm not sure if this will add anything to the story any way. After I had read the books in the Epilogue last night, I couldn't stop thinking about what this game actually means to say. It's just like the dude from Eurogamer said, you keep thinking about it, even dreaming about it.

I have basically found to interpretations:

• Tim is a psycho-maniac who stalks this poor girl and justifies this by his weird princess story, all of this probably because his Mom was mean to him and he could never get what he wanted (the candy store thing). Most of the game is just in his mind and actually only the last scene before the Epilogue is "real".
• Tim is some sort of scientist who manipulates time to find his princess, but he is not even sure if she exists, he might also be crazy like above.

My interpretation while playing the game was a less psycho, more desperate Tim. One book said that even if he found his princess, the world would not allow him to have her, it would actually break the world, because you can't have the perfect "special someone". This is mirrored by her running away and Tim trying to (desperately) fight for his dream of the princess, but she runs away with another man (who might also just symbolize the cruel reality). The core message would be something like: There is no perfect princess. That's why leaving his girl for the search for some princess was the biggest mistake Tim ever made.

Upon reading the other opinions though (which all make just as much sense, I think), I am just even more excited about the game and want to play it again as soon as possible. This is the first game I have ever seen a discussion about interpretations of its story. This is frackin art. Yes it's weird and maybe it doesn't really make any sense, but maybe that's what it's supposed to be. It reminds me of the stream of consciousness ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_consciousness_writing) technique found in literature, especially Finnegan's Wake ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegans_Wake_(novel) ) by James Joyce or Naked Lunch ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_Lunch ) by William S. Burroughs. It's just this crazy mess, shifting perspective, flowing back and forth through time, making no sense at times and than clicking together. Just like the actual gameplay. I would dare to say, this is the first stream of consciousness game, at least a modernist game. It's even less traditional than stream of consciousness in its free flowing narrative and gameplay. It makes even more sense that the game actually has no beginning or end. The Epilogue could be the Prologue, you start in World 2 and end up in World 1 (in which you actually go backwards in time (the flower image) and then find yourself at what you thought was the beginning). It doesn't matter where you start, you always come back to where you were, which is just like Finnigan's Wake works, I think. It also fits the theme of "This is the world, or snapshots of it, go and do what you can with it"

So, my final interpretation would be, that this game is supposed to just get you to make your own interpretation. Find what you think is meaningful, create your own story. Don't listen to what others say, each bit you take and put together is just there because it is significant to you. The strongest story part of the entire game and something that has already really had an impact on me is the last screen of the Epilogue. The castle built from the icons of the levels you passed through. What the books on this screen say is just so true and brilliant. This is also a moment where Blow breaks the foruth wall, the way I see it, "he does not understand" (or something like that), this is not Tim. It's you, the player. This is what you should take away from this. Now go. Build your own castle.

On a side note: If you want to know who the quote (the one marked with the footnote 1 in the epilogue) is from, watch the credits. That was another piece of brilliance in this game, just a subtle, but brilliant touch. Oh and yould you also please post the name, I can't watch the credits right now and forgot who it was and I'd really like to know exactly where the quote is from. Thanks ;)

I'm just gonna link to my blog post now.

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/MaSuTa/what-i-think-braid-is-about/30-7261/

That's what I think Braid's about.

As I said in the comment, I think your interpretation is very interesting. There is something to that whole Oppenheimer thing, I don't know, maybe you are right. But isn't there a relatively modern computer in Tim's house? Maybe he is just thinking himself to be Oppenheimer or has done something similarly dangerous. Like tinkering with time. Maybe that's why she runs away from him, he's toying with something, that should better stay the way it is.

I also agree with the 3rd comment, it's just fantastic that this game spawns thoughts and disussions like this. Very few games do that.

I have a question, can you finish the game, with out getting all the puzzle pieces?

"I have a question, can you finish the game, with out getting all the puzzle pieces?"

Well, technically you can run through each level without touching a piece. This is one of those games where 100% is essentially beating the game, though I don't think the stars count.

Really great art is usually wide open to many interpretations.  If it means many personal things to many people, it has touched a universal nerve beyond the artist's imagination.