History Headscratchers / NieR

* Exactly where did Emil's butler come from? The mansion was [[spoiler: over a thousand years old]] and was [[spoiler: abandoned a long time ago]] so when did the butler arrive? Was he another [[spoiler: android and just took care of Emil as part of his cover]]?

* Where did Yonah go in ending C? After [[spoiler:the fight with Kaine begins]] she just seems to disappear.

** Possibly also a HeroOfAnotherStory, then. Certainly sounds like [[VideoGame/{{Drakengard}} someone we know...]]

* How come Emil and Kaine camp just outside the village? Emil owns a mansion that is about a minute away, yet they both sleep outside.

** There is absolutely nothing to suggest that the "pact" that Nier and Weiss entered is in any way similar to the big-time Drakengard Pacts, let alone the magical science of Emil, Tyrann and Kaine's symbiotic existence, or the ending sacrifice. They probably don't even operate under the same rules of magic. For that matter, the pact between Original Nier and Noir ''itself'' is drastically different from the one with the Replicant and Weiss.

** From ''Grimoir Nier'', there is pact magic in the world, but it's not between Weiss and Nier, it's [[spoiler:between the original humans and the corpse of the Red Dragon. In ''Drakengard'' pacts are based on the exchange of souls; it's the fact that the dragon's corpse is soulless that allows humans to undergo the Gestalt process.]]

* Is it ever actually explained how or why the Repilicants gained sentience?

** [[WordOfGod Yokoo]] says she still has it, and is doomed to die. She did seem rather weak in part 2 though - walking a few steps takes quite a lot out of her.
* The infobook. [[spoiler:the Shades being unable to live without the Shadowlord makes no sense. The prologue shows Gestalt!Nier (who ''is'' the Shadowlord) fighting against the Shades, and there is clearly no "Shadowlord" at that point in the timeline, which clearly shows that they are capable of existing without a leader.]]

* How exactly do [[spoiler:Replicants]] get made? They seem to be flesh and blood so they were more likely "grown" like you might a clone, but at somepoint it is said [[spoiler:they are sterile and without android overseers they'll die out. So how are new Replicants]] produced in a world that has approximatly midevil level technology?
** Not all of the [game] world has medieval technology --Nier hardly expressed any surprise at the robot-filled Junkheap, or even the factory-like facility itself. Even the Weapons Lab merited little response other than where its hidden entrance was. But anyway! There's the implication that the [[spoiler:Androids have their own, hidden facilities for cloning Replicants. ''Grimoire Nier'' mentions that, at some point, Replicants go to the Androids, are made to sleep for a while, and when they wake up they suddenly have a child. Since the late human world regularly created Replicants to use in the war against Legion, it's easy to assume that at least some of these installations still exist somewhere.]].

* In the beginning of the game Nier makes a pact with Weiss to fight the shades and save Yonah. Which doesn't raise any eyebrows except for the fact that it's presumably a ''Drakengard'' pact which changes everything. Pact magic is explicitly a part of Nier's backstory and even helps explain some of game's more cryptic moments such as why [[spoiler:Tyrann is able to erase Nier from existence to save Kainé. It's just pact magic at work. Emil turning into a weird skeleton can also be explained by him pacting with his sister for power.]] The thing is that these two examples are consistent with pact magic in the sense that there's a pact **price**. [[spoiler: Nier forfeits his existence and Emil forfeits his appearance, which is a fitting price for both them.]] However Nier's pact with Weiss doesn't seem to cost him anything. Plot hole much?
** Not how pact works in Drakengard to begin with, Shadowlord outlived his pact beast, they reengineered the pact magic to make project Gestalt.

* In the beginning of the game Nier makes a pact with Weiss to fight the shades and save Yonah. Which doesn't raise any eyebrows except for the fact that it's presumably a ''Drakengard'' pact which changes everything. Pact magic is explicitly a part of Nier's backstory and even helps explain some of game's more cryptic moments such as why [[spoiler:Tyrann is able to erase Nier from existence to save Kainé. It's just pact magic at work. Emil turning into a transsexual skeleton can also be explained by him pacting with his sister for power.]] The thing is that these two examples are consistent with pact magic in the sense that there's a pact **price**. [[spoiler: Nier forfeits his existence and Emil forfeits his appearance, which is a fitting price for both them.]] However Nier's pact with Weiss doesn't seem to cost him anything. Plot hole much?

** Possibly also a HeroOfAnotherStory, then. Certainly sounds like [[{{Drakengard}} someone we know...]]

** They are sterile because their genes aren't in them [[they are in the Shades, that's why the black scrawl is a DNA sequence, the body is reacting to a the relapsed feedback and collapse.]] Basically they are streamed data that can't be downloaded by someone else.

* The infobook. Just...just the infobook. [[spoiler:the Shades being unable to live without the Shadowlord makes no sense. The prologue shows Gestalt!Nier (who ''is'' the Shadowlord) fighting against the Shades, and there is clearly no "Shadowlord" at that point in the timeline, which clearly shows that they are capable of existing without a leader.]]

* How is it that no one in the village ever noticed that Devola and Popola never age? Nier even comments at one point that she doesn't look a day older then when they first met, but he doesn't seem too bothered by it for some reason. You'd think that some of the elderly villagers would be a bit more shocked about it though.

* In the beginning of the game NieR makes a pact with Weiss to fight the shades and save Yonah. Which doesn't raise any eyebrows except for the fact that it's presumably a Drakengard pact which changes everything. Pact magic is explicitly a part of Nier's backstory and even helps explain some of game's more cryptic moments such as why [[spoiler: tyrann is able to erase nier from existence to save Kainé. It's just pact magic at work. Emil turning into a transsexual skeleton can also be explained by him pacting with his sister for power.]] The thing is that these two examples are consistent with pact magic in the sense that there's a pact **price**. [[spoiler: Nier forfeits his existence and Emil forfeits his appearance, which is a fitting price for both them.]] However NieR's pact with Weiss doesn't seem to cost him anything. Plot hole much?

*** It's not that [[spoiler:Shades can't exist. It's that 'non-relapsed Gestalts' can't exist. Sentient Shades like Gretel, Kalil and her mother, Roc, the Shades hiding amongst humans in the Aerie, and possibly Gestalt Yonah herself can't retain said sentience without the specific element produced by Gestalt Nier and harvested from him for 1300 years, so any similar Shades still alive by that point would eventually relapse and become mindless and hostile. The Shadowlord himself is a very unique kind of Gestalt, able to maintain a very close likeness of his human form, and apparently has the power to put Gestalts back in their Replicants all on his own. When he's destroyed (and he doesn't just fade away like other Shades, his death animation is just as unique) then the source of this element is also gone, and with Weiss 'also' gone there's no way for Project Gestalt to return the remaining Shades to their Replicant bodies]].

* The Shadowlord's defenses make no sense. Why are the children on the path directly toward the shadowlord instead of away in some safe area among the massive area surrounding Shadowlord's place. Shouldn't they have Goose on the frontlines to fight Nier's team before they have a chance to massacre everyone. And if Popola can destroy the bridge why not just do that in the first place.
* On another note, why is Popola so helpful to Nier. Giving him transport to the Shadowlord and giving him direction even when he had been wandering aimlessly for five years. What does any of that accomplish for her or Shadowlord's plans.