Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
Artery Gear: Fusion does its best to hammer in the fact that War Is Hell. And it will hit you with gut punch after gut punch, over and over again...
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Main Story
- Being turned into a Puppet amplifies the victim's consciousness when they were human. This holds especially true to Puppet Masters, who try to Puppetise everything in an attempt to satisfy their desires when they were still living. Only they can no longer remember what they once wanted, and the creation of more Puppets only satisfies them temporarily.
- Humans Are Bastards is a running theme in the story. Many human factions have broken out in civil war over territories and resources, and even in the present, richer humans are still unwilling to share with the homeless. Queen Lisa Autoluna has no qualms exiling humans who do not have enough contribution points to the ground, where they will almost certainly die a painful death.Atlas: Why is it that you humans who all share the same language are trying so hard to deceive and exploit each other?
- The whole subplot in chapters 4 and 5, where Rela experiences complete despair after Mel chose to save her. The formerly stoic and cold Rela breaks down in tears, is in utter desperation to find her friend, and cannot bring herself to shoot any puppets that even remotely resemble her.
- Despite the bad blood between them, and the fact they had been fighting to the death minutes prior, Milvus attempts to save her former colleague Condor by offering her own core when both are dying. Condor responds by shattering it into pieces. All Milvus can do is quietly accept her decision.
- Fiel's attempts to expose the propaganda machine at work in Autoluna gets her branded as a wanted fugitive. She is almost killed twice: once when a soldier is ordered to fire on her, and twice when the people lobbied for her execution.
- Deaths are inevitable, and many, many Artery Gears lose their lives in the war.
- The fact that every Artery Gear who becomes a puppet forgets everything about their previous lives. What they once sought to protect, they now mindlessly destroy.
- Yuyi does one last salute at commanding officer Della before she performs a Heroic Sacrifice, self-destructing so the rest of her battalion can take out the Iron Maiden. Unfortunately, this was for naught, and the Iron Maiden taunts an increasingly enraged Della over her sacrifice.
- When Fiel realises the 48th Battalion sent her away so she wouldn't have to witness their deaths, she breaks down crying and runs back to their last known location in a desperate attempt to find them again. All she finds is their remains and several puppets that were once soldiers of the 48th Battalion... only now they're trying to kill her.
- Even Teufel, normally a cold and imposing commander, is gentle and considerate to Winnie after learning she was the only survivor of her squad. Poor Winnie is sobbing uncontrollably, unable to cope with the deaths of so many of her squadmates.Winnie: Everyone chose to self-destruct... so they wouldn't turn into Puppets...Winnie: They aren't here anymore... They've all turned into bits and pieces!Winnie: Just this morning, we had our meals together, trained together, and launched attacks together...
- Clarice suffers from a Villainous Breakdown after the commander chooses to save Capella. She starts screaming and crying, wondering why she wasn't enough for the commander, demanding to know why they wouldn't save her back then.
Events
- Cream's past is revealed to be rather sad. She had been under the impression her parents did not care about ever since she became an Artery Gear. Then, it's revealed that she had formerly been puppetised as a normal human, and would not have survived if she hadn't received an immediate transformation into an Artery Gear. In exchange, however, she can never see her parents again.
- In Retrogressive Heroes, despite the many battles Alma survived up to this point and finding hope for a better world in the Commander, she is captured and turned into one of the Purifiers in the end, memories tampered (again) and her perception of the Commander overlaid onto Diana.
Character Stories
- It is mentioned that 04's cold demeanour and general irritability isn't just because she's unfriendly. She is in fact suffering from depression, and struggles with comprehending that her own life is precious.
- Raising Chihaya's affection reveals that she has only thought of herself as a weapon until you, the commander, took the time to befriend her. Everyone else is afraid of her, and only you have shown her kindness.
