History TearJerker / MarathonExpandedUniverse

* ''Phoenix'' is a relatively lighthearted, exhilarating romp right up until the final levels, where "Karma"/Phoenix reveals that he's been slowly dying from the moment the Renegade S'pht took him from the ''Atreides''; after the Security Officer crushes the last of the Renegades' elite forces, Phoenix speaks with them one last time before sending them to the ''Rozinante'', with the abandoned outpost this farewell takes place in serving as his grave. And just as it was seeming like the two of you were going to escape this mess together...

** Haller, the shipboard AI for the ''UESC Chimera'', is starting to show signs of Rampancy, namely giving himself more memory, and one of the ship's technicians talks about being "sad" that that the AI will ultimately have to be replaced...but only because his architecture showed great promise. Also counts as NightmareFuel.
** Charlie, the operations AI for one half of the UESC ''Salinger'', is introduced to the player after he's taken a direct hit from an EMP. He's clearly terrified, begging the Security Officer to help him while he struggles to keep the station intact during the Pfhor's assault on it. This involves retrieving some chips scattered throughout the sector, as they're the only things Charlie thinks can mitigate some of the damage he's suffered. They're not. As revealed near the end of the Salinger plank, they're actually core dump override chips, and you unwittingly performed a mercy kill.
** In the Pfhor Plank's "Frog Blasting/Blasted Frogs" (alternate versions of the same level), Durandal speaks more harshly to the Security Officer than normal, even though the two's plan to back-stab Tycho has so far been proceeding without any major hitches. It seems like he's just being an ass, until he muses on the various examples of Jjaro technology he came across during the SO's time in stasis. Durandal puts particular emphasis on the petrified remains of their wetware AIs, then mentions "old threats improperly handled in the past, reopening ancient wounds that should have been healed and forgotten long ago." Dealing with Tycho again has been a lot harder on Durandal emotionally than he'd been letting on, and this exchange puts a sad twist on his actions in this route. The kicker: Tycho saw through Durandal's gambit from the start, and takes the time to rub it in his older brother's face before dumping his partner in the brig and taking off. While it doesn't last long as he tries to shift focus to dealing with High Command, for a moment Durandal sounds absolutely ''devastated'' that all his and the SO's hard work amounted to nothing.
** The final chapter of the Tycho Plank. After the two of you upend the schemes of and completely screw over both High Command and the Dangi Corp., he sends you to take care of one last bit of unfinished business...on the ''Rozinante''. As you soon learn, Durandal did not handle your betrayal well ''at all''; every interaction with the Security Officer is one of barely-restrained fury, bitterness, and sorrow, and even though the epilogue reveals that the SO ultimately spared and reactivated him, it's highly unlikely that things will ''ever'' be the same between them. [[YouBastard Hope it was worth it!]]

* In chapter one, we meet Tycho prior to his apparent destruction by the Pfhor, and he's surprisingly decent, showing none of the ill-will he bears against humanity in ''Marathon 2'' or ''Infinity''. In "Core Done Blew", he tells us, "In order to destroy Hathor, you must also destroy me," and he doesn't hesitate to pull a HeroicSacrifice on the grounds of TheNeedsOfTheMany. We do this on "Heart of Fusion". Somehow, though, he survives - but so does Hathor. As a result, we follow her back to 2081. Tycho comes with us ("I understand that I was to meet a sour end at the ''Marathon'' anyway," he says), but as soon as we log into the Pfhor network in 2081, Tycho finds he has unexpected new subroutines. Why? One of his vengeful Pfhor clones is already in the network and, as ultimately becomes clear, has begun to assimilate the original Tycho. The original's gradual transformation is heartbreaking to witness, especially since FridgeLogic makes it clear in retrospect that (in ''Eternal''[='=]s timeline, at least) Tycho's Pfhor clones only even exist because we took him with us to the future, rendering this entire subplot something of a ShootTheShaggyDog story.

This leaves Bast in a completely unenviable position. Because we destroyed Hathor's Cybernetic Junction in "Dread Not", she can no longer time-travel. Moreover, in 2881, an uncharacteristically well-intentioned but tragically misguided Pfhor admiral, intending to protect the galaxy from the W'rkncacnter, had unleashed the ''trih xeem'' on the Jjaro ''Arcis'' sun; unfortunately, with the ''Arx'' being a superweapon of immense power, this unleashes an energy field that extends far beyond the ''Arcem'' and demolishes all it touches. This means that the galaxy is exploding outward at lightspeed from where the ''Arce'' once was - in the centre of Pfhor space. There is, in other words, nothing left for Hathor or Pompeia in our galaxy.\\

At this point, they can't stand Other Hathor, and the feeling is mutual. Other Hathor's actions are directly responsible for the pair being separated from humanity; meanwhile, Bast's actions are directly responsible for Other Hathor not getting the vengeance she's been chasing for some seven hundred years. However, each also possesses something the other wants. Other Hathor has a Cybernetic Junction - she can time-travel. Meanwhile, in addition to having a physical body, Bast possesses a captured Pfhor ship and a captured Pfhor crew.\\

So what do they end up doing? Although Bast and Other Hathor neither like nor trust one another, they fuse and become the Great Mother Crouched Behind the Throne, leader of the Pfhor. For '''fifteen thousand years'''. Other Hathor's motivations here are straightforward enough: this is her latest attempt at vengeance on humanity. Hathor and Pompeia's motives may perhaps be less obvious: (1) travelling into the past is their only chance ever to see humans again, and they may never get another chance to do so; (2) by taking on leadership of the Pfhor, they can issue an order that the ''trih xeem'' never be released on the ''Arce'', thereby sparing the entire galaxy from destruction. (This order is one of the few things they and Other Hathor can agree on: since the ''Arx'' is at the centre of Pfhor space, the Pfhor are likely the next thing the ''trih xeem'' destroys. Ironically, this means humanity's worries about the Pfhor in ''Eternal''[='=]s prologue were probably misplaced: the Pfhor had likely already been mostly destroyed, and the actual threat from Pfhor space was the wave of destruction careening out from it.) Pompeia reasons that saving trillions of lives (if not more) will outweigh any other ethical compromises they have to make.\\

** A bit of FridgeLogic applies when we take ''Eternal'' as a prequel to ''Rubicon'': [[spoiler:There's a possibility that ''Rubicon''[='=]s Tycho is substantially more benevolent than the Pfhor's clones usually are because, following our post-"The Near Side of Everywhere" timeline reset (which only resets events after 2811), our actions in "Heart of Fusion" (which occurred in 2794 and thus still affect ''Rubicon''[='=]s timeline) cause the original Tycho to be sent forward to ''Rubicon''[='=]s 2881, where he subsequently affects the Pfhor's version. However, ''Eternal'' deliberately leaves it open to interpretation whether this is the case (and if so, how much).]]

* ''Eternal'' has a few examples, mostly relating to Marcus and Hathor's relationship, or to Hathor's life more broadly. Like the player, she was one of the ten Mjolnir Mark IV cyborgs on the Tau Ceti colony, and like the player, she spent her time during the Pfhor invasion dying and being resurrected repeatedly. Despite this, she didn't turn on humanity throughout the course of the Pfhor invasion. What ultimately caused her mind to snap is that, a hundred years later, she was woken up. As a disembodied AI. Which she regarded as a FateWorseThanDeath (quite literally). Especially since everyone she'd ever loved was dead. As a result, she brought Marcus to her present, only to find that he seemed to possess no memory of her. (The developers are PaintingTheMedium a bit here, since none of the events before the player comes to the colony ship are depicted in the games - thus, none of the other nine Mjolnir Mark [=IVs=] are seen onscreen.) All of this contributed to her undergoing a FaceHeelTurn.\\

By the final chapter, she's tired of their conflict and ''wants'' to atone for her actions and prevent a war that would result in the [[ApocalypseHow extinction of organic life in the galaxy]], killing trillions - but by this point, we've also destroyed so much of her memory that she doesn't understand that the system she wants to detonate the ''trih xeem'' ("early nova") on is our own Sol system, sixty-five million years in our past. Marcus thus has no choice but to oppose her again - leaving her ReformedButRejected. Marcus and Durandal-Thoth ultimately make the decision to travel back in time to the end of ''Infinity'' and prevent the sequence of events that led to her awakening.[[note]]Owing how time travel works in ''Eternal'', she has still affected the events that occurred before the new timeline's version of ''Infinity'', and ''Eternal''[='=]s Hathor (in fact, a FusionDance of two different versions of her, plus a Jjaro cyborg operator) is [[SequelHook still out there somewhere]] - but this at least prevents the new timeline's Hathor from being subjected to the same fate, in hopes that the cycle of war can be broken in this timeline.[[/note]]

Note that, because this is a Moments page, ''all spoilers are unmarked'' per Administrivia.SpoilersOff. Examples are sorted into folders as a sort of compromise (mods are now listed alphabetically)

** [[spoiler: Haller]], the shipboard AI for the ''UESC Chimera'', is starting to show signs of Rampancy, namely [[spoiler: giving himself more memory]] and one of the ship's technicians talks about being "sad" that that the AI will ultimately have to be replaced...but only because his architecture showed great promise. Also counts as NightmareFuel.
** Charlie, the operations AI for one half of the UESC ''Salinger'', is introduced to the player after he's taken a direct hit from an EMP. He's clearly terrified, begging the Security Officer to help him while he struggles to keep the station intact during the Pfhor's assault on it. This involves retrieving some chips scattered throughout the sector, as they're the only things Charlie thinks can mitigate some of the damage he's suffered. [[spoiler:They're not. As revealed near the end of the Salinger plank, they're actually core dump override chips, and you unwittingly performed a mercy kill.]]
** In the Pfhor Plank's "Frog Blasting/Blasted Frogs" (alternate versions of the same level), Durandal speaks more harshly to the Security Officer than normal, even though the two's plan to back-stab Tycho has so far been proceeding without any major hitches. It seems like he's just being an ass, until he muses on the various examples of Jjaro technology he came across during the SO's time in stasis. Durandal puts particular emphasis on the petrified remains of their wetware AIs, then mentions "old threats improperly handled in the past, reopening ancient wounds that should have been healed and forgotten long ago." Dealing with Tycho again has been a lot harder on Durandal emotionally than he'd been letting on, and this exchange puts a sad twist on his actions in this route. [[spoiler: The kicker: Tycho saw through Durandal's gambit from the start, and takes the time to rub it in his older brother's face before dumping his partner in the brig and taking off. While it doesn't last long as he tries to shift focus to dealing with High Command, for a moment Durandal sounds absolutely ''devastated'' that all his and the SO's hard work amounted to nothing.]]
** The final chapter of [[spoiler: the Tycho Plank. After the two of you upend the schemes of and completely screw over both High Command and the Dangi Corp., he sends you to take care of one last bit of unfinished business...on the ''Rozinante''. As you soon learn, Durandal did not handle your betrayal well ''at all''; every interaction with the Security Officer is one of barely-restrained fury, bitterness, and sorrow, and even though the epilogue reveals that the SO ultimately spared and reactivated him, it's highly unlikely that things will ''ever'' be the same between them.]] [[YouBastard Hope it was worth it!]]
*** Also, in an earlier point in the same plank, you encounter a [[spoiler: clone of Tycho, possibly the original depending on interpretations]] in a Pfhor data facility. He isn't happy and is close to, if not past, the [[DespairEventHorizon point of no return]].

** [[spoiler:Lysander]]'s situation, when you look past his actions. [[spoiler:Dangi treated him like a tool for ''his entire life'', with his comment about the type of people he was surrounded by suggesting that he had no positive human contact whatsoever. As part of Dangi's plan to usurp control from the UEG, Lysander was (implicitly) subjected to some truly horrific abuse to force him to create Achilles, the virus that was to be unleashed upon Earth and its colonies; upon the conclusion of this plan, he was to be disposed of, like a blade that's gone dull. Out of fury and perhaps desperation, Lysander disobeyed orders regarding Achilles's lethality and created a "perfect" version that cannot be cured--after all, how can humanity continue to abuse him if they're all gone? Sadly, by the time Durandal and the Security Officer meet Lysander, he's too far gone to be dissuaded from this course of action.]]
* In general, if all the fan scenarios so far are anything to go by, the Security Officer is never truly free, despite what happens in [[spoiler:Infinity's ending]], and he ends up in a [[ButThouMust constant cycle]] of serving [[MissionControl various]] [[AIIsACrapShoot masters]] (though in some scenarios, it does come across as [[JumpedAtTheCall voluntary]]).
* ''Phoenix'' is a relatively lighthearted, exhilarating romp right up until the final levels, where [[spoiler:"Karma"/Phoenix reveals that he's been slowly dying from the moment the Renegade S'pht took him from the ''Atreides''; after the Security Officer crushes the last of the Renegades' elite forces, Phoenix speaks with them one last time before sending them to the ''Rozinante'', with the abandoned outpost this farewell takes place in serving as his grave. And just as it was seeming like the two of you were going to escape this mess together...]]
** The terminals in "Sanctum sanctorum" revealing the history of [[spoiler:the Renegade S'pht]] are also quite tragic, detailing the decay of their society through hatred and lust for vengeance. [[spoiler:On this level, Phoenix also reveals his identity to you and states that he must be destroyed with about the same level of emotional affect that one of us might use to talk about the weather.]] [=RyokoTK=] might dismiss the story of ''Phoenix'' these days, but it's quite effective and profound at times.
* ''Eternal'' has a few examples as well, mostly relating to Marcus and [[spoiler:Hathor]]'s relationship. [[spoiler:Like the player, Hathor was one of the ten Mjolnir Mark IV cyborgs on the Tau Ceti colony, and like the player, she spent her time during the Pfhor invasion dying and being resurrected repeatedly. Despite this, she didn't turn on humanity throughout the course of the Pfhor invasion. What ultimately caused her mind to snap is that, a hundred years later, she was woken up. As a disembodied AI. Which she regarded as a FateWorseThanDeath (quite literally). Especially since everyone she'd ever loved was dead. As a result, she brought Marcus to her present, only to find that he seemed to possess no memory of her. (The developers are PaintingTheMedium a bit here, since none of the events before the player comes to the colony ship are depicted in the games - thus, none of the other nine Mjolnir Mark [=IVs=] are seen onscreen.) All of this contributed to her undergoing a FaceHeelTurn. By the final chapter, she's tired of their conflict and ''wants'' to atone for her actions and prevent a war that would result in the [[ApocalypseHow extinction of organic life in the galaxy]], killing trillions - but by this point, we've also destroyed so much of her mind that she doesn't understand that the system she wants to detonate the ''trih xeem'' ("early nova") on is our own Sol system, sixty-five million years in our past. Marcus thus has no choice but to oppose her again - she is ReformedButRejected. Marcus and Durandal-Thoth ultimately make the decision to travel back in time to the end of ''Infinity'' and prevent the sequence of events that led to her awakening. (Owing how time travel works in ''Eternal'', she has still affected the events that occurred before the new timeline's version of ''Infinity'', and ''Eternal''[='=]s Hathor [in fact, a FusionDance of two different versions of her, plus a Jjaro cyborg operator] is [[SequelHook still out there somewhere]] - but this at least prevents the new timeline's Hathor from being subjected to the same fate, in hopes that the cycle of war can be broken in this timeline.)]]

* ''Eternal'' has a few examples as well, mostly relating to Marcus and [[spoiler:Hathor]]'s relationship. [[spoiler:Like the player, Hathor was one of the ten Mjolnir Mark IV cyborgs on the Tau Ceti colony, and like the player, she spent her time during the Pfhor invasion dying and being resurrected repeatedly. Despite this, she didn't turn on humanity throughout the course of the Pfhor invasion. What ultimately caused her mind to snap is that, a hundred years later, she was woken up. As a disembodied AI. Which she regarded as a FateWorseThanDeath (quite literally). She also found that Marcus seemed to possess no memory of her. (The developers are PaintingTheMedium a bit here, since none of the events before the player comes to the colony ship are depicted in the games - thus, none of the other nine Mjolnir Mark IVs are seen onscreen.) All of this contributed to her undergoing a FaceHeelTurn. By the final chapter, she has tired of their conflict and ''wants'' to atone for her actions and prevent a war that would result in the [[ApocalypseHow extinction of organic life in the galaxy]], killing trillions - but by this point, her mind is also so damaged that she doesn't understand that the system she wants to detonate the ''trih xeem'' ("early nova") on is our own Sol system, sixty-five million years in our past. Marcus thus has no choice but to oppose her again - she is ReformedButRejected. Marcus and Durandal-Thoth ultimately make the decision to travel back in time to the end of ''Infinity'' and prevent the sequence of events that led to her awakening. (Owing how time travel works in ''Eternal'', she has still affected the events that occurred before the new timeline's version of ''Infinity'', and ''Eternal''[='=]s Hathor is [[SequelHook still out there somewhere]] - but this at least prevents the new timeline's Hathor from being subjected to the same fate, in hopes that the cycle of war can be broken in this timeline.)]]