Fridge / NieR: Automata

As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Fridge Brilliance:

• 2B claims to have never heard of the E-type android designation before encountering one in a side quest. This can be proven patently false just by looking at the line-up of YoRHa androids at the very first portion of the prologue, where 7E is clearly listed. This is because, not only is the E-type, short for "Execution", highly classified outside of certain need-to-know situations, it's also her own classification, even though she uses 2B as a cover - her real ID is 2E, and even knowing about the designation would be a major red flag.
  • Related to this, the reason why 9S doesn't know about the E series, even though 7E was present in the intro mission, can be because of two things: he was never told the exact roster of YoRHa units who would be participating, and he didn't back up his memory of the mission either, so in any case he wouldn't have known about 7E.
  • Furthermore, even if 7E had survived the initial assault, it's likely 2B being a fellow E-type is why 7E showed up on her IFF as such (one assumes so the two E-types can coordinate if necessary while on the field, since 7E was implicitly there to keep tabs on 11B, who was planning to desert, while 2E is 9S's designated executioner). Her designation almost certainly isn't 7E on the others' IFF, as the very existence of E-types is highly confidential.
    • While this leads into the issue of why exactly does one of the Operators clearly announce "7E down" over the radio it's safe to say the Operators are aware of the E models otherwise they would find things they shouldn't much easier than 9S ever could and later segments of the game show that the andriods calls aren’t always linked and only 2B could be hearing the true designations (ie 9S and 2B’s check ins during their route A/B is exclusively heard when playing as one of them).
• If Scanner-models like 9S can be so destructive in battle with their combat hacking, why aren't they fielded more often? Because they're not just a threat to machines, their hacking skills are dangerous to the very information whose knowledge would delegitimize the entire android war effort. Fielding more than absolutely necessary would put the Human Server files under substantial risk, even with androids specifically made to kill them if they learn too much watching them at all times.
  • Not to mention that their hacking is supposed to be their only line of defense. 9S is an exception since he taught/reprogrammed himself to know how to fight so he can defend himself besides hacking, but normally, Scanners aren't made for battle or combat, so putting too many of them out would be wasteful if the machines managed to get to the Scanners before they're able to complete their hacking. This is supported by the fact that when we do find another S-unit (4S), he isn't equipped with a weapon like 9S is.
• 9S being weaker than A2 and 2B when it comes to using melee weapons makes a lot of sense thanks to The Memory Cage revealing S-Types are not programmed to use melee weapons. So how does he do it? He reprogrammed himself to wield them, which also explains why he uses what is effectively Telekinesis when swinging weapons compared to the two. The Commander effectively lets him keep said skills because he's just that useful despite the dangers it imposes.
  • It also explains why he can only use one weapon at a time instead of two, unlike 2B and A2. 9S could reprogram/teach himself how to fight, but he had to work around the fact that he's still just a Scanner-type model that isn't physically capable of wielding a weapon because he wasn't built for physical combat. This is backed up by the fact that 9S is considerably lighter than 2B (200 lbs. versus her 350+ lbs.); his lightweight body would probably make it harder for him to control more than one weapon at a time, which is probably why he came up with the Telekinesis fighting to make it easier on himself.
• Why did Terminals Alpha and Beta try and wipe out both Pascal's Village and the Amusement Park with a logic virus? Because, as demonstrated by their final moments with A2, they have an obsession about being pushed and evolving (or at least part of them do). However, pacifistic ideas aren't compatible with the Darwinistic ideas of theirs', so they had them wiped out on principle. Bonus that it does allow them to study the mind of machines like Pascal and the children under extreme circumstance like they did with the android.
• In route C, after the clown machines in the Amusement Park are infected by the logic virus, their eyes turn red (like all aggressive machines') and they start to limp (like the aggressive zombie machines you might have encountered in the stamp collection sidequest) — and yet they don't attack anyone if not provoked, as if they were still neutral (yellow-eyed), instead stammering vague threats feebly at you if you talk to them. Why? Because they are the Perfect Pacifist People they claim to be, and not even the logic virus can make them abandon their pacifism (unlike even Pascal's villagers whom the virus manages to turn on each other).
• The 'this cannot continue' and 'become as gods' mantras are linked to machines following the data sharing of Adam. Every machine connected to the network saw Adam as their savior; they made to stop the endless war from continuing, when Adam started reading the bible, and the lesser machines came up with more spiritual thoughts because of him. The last info he gave to the network was that he will put his life on the line to see what it feels like to be human, thus his death motivated the mass suicide so they could become gods.
• Ending [E] being called the [E]nd of YoRHa and also the name for the [E]xecutioner Types takes on a whole new meaning with the realization that with the sword containing 2B(2E)'s memories ends up impaling 9S and the memories of 2B distracts A2 long enough for 9S to kill her. In other words, 2B (the [E]xecutioner-type unit) indirectly executed the last of the YoRHa androids.
• The machine cult in the Abandoned Factory obsessed with dying and becoming gods. Humans can be seen as basically gods to both machines and androids, considering how hard they try to emulate and become like them. Throughout the course of the story, our three main characters experience a wide array of emotions and become basically indistinguishable from humans. Then in Ending E they die but are "reborn" by the Pods, now freed from the purpose they were built for. 2B, 9S, and A2 died and became as gods.
• Adam's lack of malice in Ending D makes sense when you realize he isn't the real Adam, as he disconnected himself from the network during his fight with 2B and is a copy built on the data the terminals found, as 2B and Pascal notes that even if you can recreate androids and machines, the originals can't be restored without their core or their complete data. So this new Adam already has access to the data about humanity (the good and bad) and doesn't have reason to antagonize 9S as a result.
• In Ending E, the Pods have placed 2B and 9S next to each other while rebuilding them, while they put A2 in a skyscraper alone. Why not put all 3 together? Because they can probably figure out that, considering 9S's horribly fractured mental state, the first thing he should see when he wakes up is the woman he loves alive and well, and not the woman he was just in a Duel to the Death with. Nobody needs him getting... twitchy, again.
  • Another point to consider is whether A2 even wanted to be revived in the first place. Unlike 2B and 9S, who at least have each other (even with a lot of relationship issues still to work through), A2 doesn't have anything (or anyone — ever since A4's death) holding her in this world, except her pre-programmed duty to protect mankind, which she obviously considers fulfilled once she destroys the Tower. Granted, one may argue that her recognition of Earth's beauty in her last words may open up a Bold Explorer kind of future for her after rebirth, but it is equally likely that she has, all along, wanted to be reunited (in death) with her fallen squadmates, as the other half of her last words suggests. The Fridge Brilliance of her placement away from the other two in a quite obviously inactive state becomes apparent if you interpret it as the Pods leaving her the option to reject the resurrection, if that is her will, which is unlike what they did for 2B and 9S, who are quite obviously intended to reactivate soon in such a way that the first thing they see is each other.
  • Also pertaining to this ending: Pod 042 mentions that "we six" forged a connection that gave him the will to try and preserve his memories. That counts himself, his fellow Support Pod 153, the three playable characters (2B, 9S, and A2)...but that's only five. That leaves one character unaccounted for...or rather, not a character, but the player! You, the player, shared in their struggles, their joys, their sadness. You helped to make this connection possible!
    • Alternatively, he may also be referring to the secondary Pods 2B and 9S pick up during the course of the game. The machine gun (A), laser (B) and missile (C) Pods are separate physically, but share the awareness of Pod 042 and 153 respectively among all three. The designations of Pod 042(a), Pod 042(b) and Pod 042(c) (likewise with 153) can even be seen during conversations in the Ending C/D route. It may be a clever bit of Gameplay and Story Integration that even the player may have forgotten about.
• Despite the fact that 9S has endured worse (getting his limbs ripped off by a Goliath, being crucified on sticks for god-knows-how-long, crashing his Flyer unit into a huge machine), his Undignified Death comes off as overdramatic...until you remember that 2B's memories are sealed inside her sword. The same sword that 9S impaled himself upon. Yes, falling on the sword must have hurt, but it probably paled in comparison to the sudden onslaught of 2B's memories he received, including all of the ones involving her killing him for the past few years. It also explains his comment during his final memory log about how 2B didn't want to get close to someone she had to keep killing; some of his last moments were seeing her memories of them together before she had to off him over and over again.
  • It could also be a sign of just how human he's become as a result of everything that's happened to him. Similar to how Adam had a very human reaction to his own death as he realized it wasn't the glamorous ideal he believed it would be.
• The Terminals gaining access to the Gestalt project and the follow up of the first game explains a lot of their methods. In the first game Replicants were only shells that earned sentience through stimuli gained by fighting the Legion. They applied the same logic on the aliens machines and so did the founders of YoRHa]] for their own troops. The difference is that while sentience was an accident in the Gestalt Project here it's what they want since they don't care about destroying all the machines and androids and use their data to make new models with the emotions they gained by years of fighting for their lives.
• The game starts with 2B remarking about the never-ending spiral of life and death that they have been perpetually trapped in and whether they'll ever have the chance to kill the God that was responsible. This is exactly what you do in Ending E by fighting the Gods of the game just as the machines killed their God (the aliens) and the androids lost theirs (the humans). It is only after the God of the game is defeated that they, and you, are free and have each become as Gods.
• The shipment list of the supplies being sent to the Moon found in Route B are only two containers of water and repair materials. Besides all the empty containers, this is a shipment meant solely to keep the YoRHa team at the lunar dummy server going, as YoRHa androids use water as an energy source.
• Many of the bosses and characters are clear references to philosophers in both name and theme with some being deeply ironic and others being deconstructive:
  • Jean-Paul Sartre is famous for his ideas that humans are "condemned to be free" and that "existence precedes essence" or that purpose only comes after having been born rather than the other way around. Both the machines and androids, however, did have well-defined creators in the aliens and humans respectively, but lost their creators and as a result have lost their purpose. Much of the game's theme revolves around this situation.
  • Simone Beauvoir was another existentialist philosopher who happened to also have had a lifelong relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre. She wrote much about the nature of the identity of a woman and gave a negative example of a woman who's identity is based on nothing but a man's affection. The Amusement Park boss' name is Simone, and her rejection by Jean-Paul Sartre is what causes her existential crisis.
  • Blaise Pascal's most famous work "The Pensées" famously seeks to convert readers to Christianity by convincing readers of the horrors of life and human existence assuming that those readers would then be convinced to turn to God. Pascal in game teaches the village children about fear assuming that it would keep them safe, but they instead succumb to that fear and kill themselves. Additionally, similar to how Blaise Pascal understood what he saw as "the wretched nature of Man" but writes in a way that can be considered consoling and heartwarming, the machine Pascal is charming and is comfortable with his own nature as a machine. It is also unsurprising that machine Pascal rejects the philosophy of Friedrich "God is Dead" Nietzsche.
  • Søren Kierkegaard's writings have much to do with the concept of both religious faith and doubt and emphasized death accusing society as a whole of being in denial about it. In a world of contradictions, he believed that one could only take a leap of faith and believe in religion. He wrote “to have faith is precisely to lose one's mind so as to win God.” Kierkegaard is the name of the leader of the Abandoned Factory cult. Kierkegaard was not a fan of the organized religion of his time, yet was still deeply religious whereas the Abandoned Factory cult are cut off from the network, yet still establish a cult revolving around death.
  • Karl Theodor Ferdinand Grün was a socialist thinker who argued the idea that humans are inherently social beings that have a need of a community of others in order to survive. Grün in-game is a machine lifeform that was discarded by the machines and was motivated by a desire to rejoin their community.)
  • Immanuel Kant wrote of the role of reason in determining moral principles along with duty in moral action and one's duty to obey one's government. He also prized the intent behind an action moreso than its result in determining the morality of an action. Immanuel, otherwise known as the Forest King, sacrifices himself for his people out of good intent but with little result. Likewise the king's duty-bound subjects put him in the body of a child with good intent, but with unfortunate results. The subjects of the Forest King also emphasize the importance of duty in their actions when you engage them in combat.
    • The entire plot of the Forest Kingdom also plays with intent and action. The first time you enter, you only see the results of the machines' actions. The second time, viewing the plot from 9S's perspective, you see fragments of the machines' memories and come to understand their intent. Even then, however, A2's intentions in killing the baby machine are never explained.
  • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were the co-founders of Marxist theory which makes it quite amusing that their models both physically make up a part of a giant factory. They are literally a means of production for the machines.
  • George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel emphasized the importance of looking at one's past in order to learn from it and was a believer in learning from intellectual enemies. Hegel's fight with A2 ends with Hegel attempting to hack A2 allowing A2 to view the memories of Hegel, A2, and 2B, and ultimately defeat Hegel. Additionally, it is here that many players first suspect the true nature of 2B by experiencing a small snippet of her past.
• When 2B and 9S encounter A2 in the Forest Kingdom, 2B immediately wants to attack A2 on learning who she is. This becomes Foreshadowing when you get the information from the YoRHa stage play from Anemone's files - Attacker unit Number 2's profile states that the Type E's were specifically assigned to deal with her.
• When Eve asked Adam why they call themselves those names, especially because Eve was a woman, Adam just blows it off like it's nothing. However, think about it? The story of Cain and Abel is about how one brother killed the other out of jealousy. Adam is shown to be very interested about human history and reads a lot of books. So surly he read the Holy Bible and came around that story. Eve clearly looks up to his order brother Adam out of love, and wants to spend lots of time with him. Therefore calling themselves Cain and Abel wouldn't make sense, because they have a loving relationship.
  • Even better, Adam was created first (you can tell for sure in play-through B, where the previously unreadable boss names are legible), and then Eve bursts out of his rib cage. It's actually a really neat set of Meaningful Names.
• If, after ending E, the player inputs a hostile message, instead of a friendly one, the game will skip offering you to sacrifice yourself to help other players, after all, it's not like you would offer your saved data to help them after telling them to give up, right?
• Pod 042 couldn't have a more fitting designation number. As an artificial intelligence who gains self-awareness and develops the mindset of The Anti-Nihilist, he proves to be someone who has found his personal answer to the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
• While the blindfold visors serve mostly as a striking visual motif (or a means to avoid doing facial animation as some game developers might argue, considering how Yoko Taro complained about tight budget), it is particularly poetic for 9S. By the end of the game, he has become blinded by his hatred and despair.
  • This blindfold motif also carries more meaning for the YoRHa forces as a whole, as the vast majority of the soldiers are kept in the dark due to them being on a need-to-know basis and thus don't know the true nature of their world. Most androids wear the visors since they're all blind due to their general ignorance, and 2B and 9S only remove their own after they learn earth-shattering information that destroys their worldviews. The only androids that aren't initially wearing a blindfold are already aware of these secrets or are in a position to discover them: the Commander (directly speaks to the Council of Humanity and how humanity is extinct and the endless war's purpose), A2 (served YoRHa until she finds out that YoRHa treats androids as expendable, eventually learns about the Human server), and the veteran Resistance members who have existed long enough to know more than they should, with Jackass finding YoRHa's secrets, and Devola and Popula are administrators of Project Gestalt and created the Human server).
  • There is a similar motif with the Operator types who's eyes are not covered but have veils over their nose and mouth. Potentially in reference to the concept of Speak no Evil. One of the Operators tells us that they retain all their memories between missions and likely have access to a higher clearance level than combat models and sensitive intelligence in general that must not be shared.
  • It could also be argued that the blindfold symbolizes how the androids blindly follow the orders they receive, as the only time we see them take off their blindfold willingly is when they go rogue, as seen with both A2 and 9S inside the Tower.
• The performance of Romeos and Juliets is not only hilarious, but also foreshadows one of the final twists of the story. Like in the original, “family names” of 9S and “2B”, Scanner and Executioner, prevent them from being together. But in the machine interpretation of the play it's not double suicide that leaves the characters dead, but a combat in which multiple Romeos and Juliets are killed, like how 2B has killed 9S over and over again. And afterwards, the surviving Juliet laments: “My Romeos are no more. I have slain them each and all”. Like 2B crying over how “it always ends like this”.
• A more meta example. Before the option is taken away, a few situations could had been avoided if the androids, more specifically 9S, backed up their memories. Then you remember how many times you the player went a while without saving basically the pot calling the kettle black.
• Near the end of the game is a fight against twin machine bosses Ko-Shi and Ro-Shi, who eventually combine into a single machine. Their names could be combined into "KoRoShi", the japanese word for murder.
• Project YoRHa's true purpose can be interpreted as a massive critique of Religion itself. YoRHa is a noble lie created to give androids a meaning in life. The truth is, Humanity went extinct a long time ago, and without their "gods", the androids fell into chaos and an existential crisis. Thus, Project YoRHa perpetrated the lie that a colony of humans, the "gods", still existed on the Moon. When the Machines themselves actually invaded, YoRHa, the unifying symbol of androids' faith and worship of Mankind, assumed so much power that it was in essence the Church Militant. When 9S found out that YoRHa, his entire purpose in life, and especially as one of its clerics, was a fraud that was programmed into mass suicide once its purpose was complete, the sudden existential crisis a faithful one will face upon the truth of the abyss hit him like a truck that eventually wore down on his faith and reduced him into a Straw Nihilist. In other words, YoRHa has a lot in common with the "become as gods" machine cult.
  • Given that the game has strong roots in existentialist and Nietzschean ideas, it is very likely this is intentional.
• The aliens being deemed inferior by their machine makes sense when you realize how the first game robots like Beepy and android like the Twins were advanced and unique compared to the generic machine fashioned to look like Emil. The aliens were only good at copying and playing catch up, something the machine network can do without problem, understanding emotions and developing consciousness however is something harder to program yet the humans did it millenniums ago.
• The Forest King, also known as Immanuel, was placed into the body of a baby robot which would never grow into an adult and be a king for them again. Besides Immanuel meaning "God is with us", in that they have indeed kept their King with them by placing him in the baby, Immanuel is also one of the names ascribed to Jesus, son of God. In this way, baby Immanuel is both their former King and a "son" of the Forest King by way of an odd form of reincarnation. Though, sadly for the Forest Kingdom, their idea fails and their King remains trapped as a baby.
• In many ways, 9S is The Ace. He is a Scanner designed for reconnaissance and is one of the best YoRHa units at it, but he has upgraded his own combat abilities to the point where he is capable of going toe to toe with elite combat units. Towards the end of the B route, Operator 21O tells 9S that command is very impressed with him and will be increasing production of his model. Shortly afterwards the logic virus kicks in, destroying YoRHa as it has completed its objective to collect combat data in preparation for building the next generation of androids. The time of this suggests that 9S' success means that he is the answer for command, and that the next generation of androids will be based on the 9S model.
• Devola and Popola are frequently persecuted and treated with hostility by other androids for the failure of Project Gestalt. However, it's not just the androids who are treating them that way. Any player familiar with the original Nier will most likely also be on guard around them after remembering the antagonistic role that game's Devola and Popola served, even though this game's Devola and Popola duo had nothing to do with them outside of sharing the same model. The player's suspicion of the pair is very much an Intended Audience Reaction, and the tragic story they share as a result of their status as pariahs is as much a commentary on you as it is on the androids.

Fridge Horror:

• The Forest King's consciousness is trapped in a speechless body since he is cute and they aren't smart enough to know what to do, he is kept that way, all the while crying for his mommy. Sure he is loved but this is still really being stuck in a locked in syndrome with no way out. Even A2 doesn't stop it, as he's used as the center of the Box found in the Forest Kingdom, crying for his mother while the Forest Kingdom machines try to keep themselves together to protect him.
• The machines seems to have unveiled the cult of the Watchers if Eve and the terminals are any indications. Not only does it explain the Logic Virus working like the red eye legion in the first game's backstory, it also means the Grotesqueries from Drakengard might make their comeback in this world. Despite this, the machines are otherwise shown to be full in control of the network and virus, meaning any machinations sought by the Grostesqueries is likely not going to plan, especially due to the machines wanting to be human and not wipe them out when the Gods hate humanity and want them completely gone forever.
• As demonstrated by Ending D, all data pertaining to Project YoRHa is wiped clean after the death of the last android. The only thing that stops it this time is the AI of the pods gaining a degree of self-determination. Emphasis on this time. How many projects like YoRHa have the higher-level android initiated and thrown away in the thousands of years the war has been going on?
  • Anemone and her unit from the Stage Play were also units sent down 200 years prior. While they were likely made with machine cores as well (Infected with the Logic Virus at several points in its story) the previous groups were simply abandoned instead of disposed of, allowing them a chance to survive unlike YoRHa.
• The novelization reveals some additional details that make the incident in the Amusement Park a bit more disturbing. 2B and 9S were urged to find the lost androids because their black boxes were still active, but they were out of contact. If an android's black box is active, then a new body cannot be made because it's uncertain if they're still alive or not, no matter how severe the circumstances become they have to let the situation "play out". 2B also confirms that for this reason, their self-destruct features have been used as a means of "escaping" an unwinnable situation.
  • Considering the androids will also lose a good many of their memories upon dying, 2B's urgency in the game and novel to find the androids becomes a good deal more depressing when you learn about her past.
• The sidequest "YoRHa Betrayers", where 2B and 9S are tasked with capturing, and eventually killing, a trio of deserters. It makes perfect since why 2B was chosen. Eliminating deserters is part of a Type E's job.