History TearJerker / HorizonZeroDawn

** Anyone with just a slight interest in history and science will be in tears over this part. Faro didn't just doom the next generations to ignorance, he destroyed ''everything''. All of humanity's cumulated knowledge was contained in APOLLO, and he destroyed it all out of selfish madness. The brilliant philosophers, artists and strategies of the classical world? Deleted. The magnificense of Ancient Egypt, which lasted for thousands of years before our time? Lost. China and its countless dynasties? India with its melting pot of cultures and religion? The native cultures of the Americas, carefully preserved through hardships and suppression? Gone. Gone. ''Gone!'' Even if Aloy shares the truth about GAIA with the world, no one will ever know the context of why the AI is named like that because the myths that have fascinated generations are lost forever.
** It was not only humanity's collected knowledge, history, and culture that was doomed to the ash heap. The ARTEMIS and DEMETER subordinate functions, intended to repopulate Earth's animal and plant species respectively, only introduced Stage 1 "pioneer organisms" into the reborn biosphere. Humans, educated by APOLLO and instilled with a keen understanding of the need for conservation in light of the fate of the Old World, were intended to manage the process going forward from there, taking control of the terraforming system from regional control centers and coordinating with ARTEMIS and DEMETER to introduce organisms from Stage 2 and beyond. It is for this reason why there are no domesticated animals or large predators in this new world--there was no one who knew how to operate the terraforming system (or who even understood that the machines populating their world were a part of one), so most of the species Zero Dawn worked frantically to preserve were never reborn--their stored embryos and seeds sealed away and forgotten, forever.

** Anyone with just a slight interest in history and science will be in tears over this part. Faro didn't just doom the next generations to ignorance, he destroyed ''everything''. All of humanity's cumulated knowledge was contained in APOLLO, and he destroyed it all out of selfish madness. The brilliant philosophers, artists and strategies of the classical world? Deleted. The magnificense of Ancient Egypt, which lasted for thousands of years before our time? Lost. China and its countless dynasties? India with its melting pot of cultures and religion? The native cultures of the Americas, carefully preserved through hardships and suppression? Gone. Gone. ''Gone!'' Even if Aloy shares the truth about GAIA with the world, no one will ever know the context of why the AI is named like that because the myths that have fascinated generations are lost forever.
** It was not only humanity's collected knowledge, history, and culture that was doomed to the ash heap. The ARTEMIS and DEMETER subordinate functions, intended to repopulate Earth's animal and plant species respectively, only introduced Stage 1 "pioneer organisms" into the reborn biosphere. Humans, educated by APOLLO and instilled with a keen understanding of the need for conservation in light of the fate of the Old World, were intended to manage the process going forward from there, taking control of the terraforming system from regional control centers and coordinating with ARTEMIS and DEMETER to introduce organisms from Stage 2 and beyond. It is for this reason why there are no domesticated animals or large predators in this new world--there was no one who knew how to operate the terraforming system (or who even understood that the machines populating their world were a part of one), so most of the species Zero Dawn worked frantically to preserve were never reborn--their stored embryos and seeds sealed away and forgotten, forever.

* The very first cutscene in the game. A young Aloy watches a group of children picking berries and receiving praise and affection from a woman. Aloy gathers and presents a large amount of berries to the woman, only to be called an outcast and ignored. While it does act as her motivation to become strong and succeed in the Proving, having to accept that "this is the way things are" at such a young age is terribly cruel. And Rost doesn't help too much in this regard either, as though his stoic acceptance of living as a shunned outsider should also apply to a five year old girl who doesn't fully comprehend why she's being rejected by the only other people she knows and sees everyday.

* Ted Faro, while he ends up [MoralEventHorizon jumping off of the slippery slope] towards the end, has some tragedy built into his story. There was a time when he was hailed as the man who saved the world and had actually earned that title. While half that credit goes to Elisabet Sobeck, he certainly was a part of that accomplishment. Then, after Elisabet left the company, his latest creation for the military goes out of control, no one can stop it, and it is getting ready to destroy all life on Earth... and the plan to give life another chance at survival was going to know he was responsible for it. Heck, all of humanity during his time knew it, to the point that the calamity was called the Faro Plague. Watching as his single greatest mistake easily, effortlessly eclipsed a lifetime of accomplishments, to the point that even in the distant future that they were planning to create, his name would be synonymous with catastrophic failure... well, who wouldn't be driven mad by that?

** Anyone with just a slight interest in history and science will be in tears over this part. Faro didn't just doom the next generations to ignorance, he destroyed ''everything''. All of humanity's cumulated knowledge was contained in APOLLO, and he destroyed it all out of selfish madness. The brilliant philosophers, artists and strategies of the classical world? Deleted. The magnificense of Ancient Egypt, which lasted for thousands of years before our time? Lost. China and its countless dynasties? India with its melting pot of cultures and religion? The native cultures of the Americas, carefully preserved through hardships and supression? Gone. Gone. ''Gone!'' Even if Aloy shares the truth about GAIA with the world, no one will ever know the context of why the AI is named like that because the myths that have fascinated generations are lost forever.

* Ted Faro, while he ends up jumping off of the slippery slope towards the end, has some tragedy built into his story. There was a time when he was hailed as the man who saved the world and had actually earned that title. While half that credit goes to Elisabet Sobeck, he certainly was a part of that accomplishment. Then, after Elisabet left the company, his latest creation for the military goes out of control, no one can stop it, and it is getting ready to destroy all life on Earth... and the plan to give life another chance at survival was going to know he was responsible for it. Heck, all of humanity during his time knew it, to the point that the calamity was called the Faro Plague. Watching as his single greatest mistake easily, effortlessly eclipsed a lifetime of accomplishments, to the point that even in the distant future that they were planning to create, his name would be synonymous with catastrophic failure... well, who wouldn't be driven mad by that?

** Samina Ebadji’s cheerful recorded greeting to the intended students of of Lyceum. Just… ''all of it.''

* The above NightmareFuel is ''[[StoryboardingTheApocalypse storyboarded]]'' by the [[http://horizonzerodawn.wikia.com/wiki/Emergency_Recording "Emergency Recording"]] hologram and the buildup to it. As Aloy explores [GAIA Prime, she finds records of its final days; after Elisabet sacrificed herself to repair a malfunctioning seal, Ted Faro, whom she had kept a careful watch on, began planning something unthinkable. At the very heart of the facility is a meeting room full of corpses - Zero Dawn's Alpha leads. '''And Faro killed them all.''' Worse than that, ''he erased every trace of humanity's collective wisdom from history'', which is why the world was repopulated with ''kindergarteners.'' The Alphas react with disbelief and horror; sixteen months of nonstop work [[RaceAgainstTheClock racing against time]] to save ''something'' of the world from the result of this very man's egotistical greed, and he up and ''outdoes'' himself by ''damning the new human race to a new Dark Age.'' And then he outdoes himself ''again'' by murdering them all so they couldn't attempt to undo what he did. The utter disbelief in their voices at realizing Faro has murdered history... The horror in their cries as he depressurizes the room and watches these ''heroes'' die in '''agony'''... His stuttering mad declaration that he's "saving" those "blameless men and women" from the "disease" of knowledge - knowledge that '''he''' abused to murder the world! Ronson says it all:

** It was not only humanity’s collected knowledge, history, and culture that was doomed to the ash heap. The ARTEMIS and DEMETER subordinate functions, intended to repopulate Earth’s animal and plant species respectively, only introduced Stage 1 “pioneer organisms” into the reborn biosphere. Humans, educated by APOLLO and instilled with a keen understanding of the need for conservation in light of the fate of the Old World, were intended to manage the process going forward from there, taking control of the terraforming system from regional control centers and coordinating with ARTEMIS and DEMETER to introduce organisms from Stage 2 and beyond. It is for this reason why there are no domesticated animals or large predators in this new world—there was no one who knew how to operate the terraforming system, so most of the species Zero Dawn worked frantically to preserve were never reborn, their stored embryos and seeds sealed away and forgotten, forever.

** It was not only humanity’s collected knowledge, history, and culture that was doomed to the ash heap. The ARTEMIS and DEMETER subordinate functions, intended to repopulate Earth’s animal and plant species respectively, only introduced Stage 1 “pioneer organisms” into the reborn biosphere. Humans, educated by APOLLO and instilled with a keen understanding for the need for conservation in light of the fate of the Old World, were intended to manage the process going forward from there, taking control of the terraforming system from regional control centers and coordinating with ARTEMIS and DEMETER to introduce organisms from Stage 2 and beyond. It is for this reason why there are no domesticated animals or large predators in this new world—there was no one who knew how to operate the terraforming system, so most of the species Zero Dawn worked frantically to preserve were never reborn, their stored embryos and seeds sealed away and forgotten, forever.

** It was not only humanity’s collective knowledge that was doomed to the ash heap. The ARTEMIS and and DEMETER subordinate functions, intended to repopulate Earth’s animal and plant species respectively, only introduced Stage 1 “pioneer organisms” into the reborn biosphere. Humans, educated by APOLLO and instilled with a keen understanding for the need for conservation in light of the fate of the Old World, were intended to manage the process going forward from there, taking control of the terraforming system from regional control centers and coordinating with ARTEMIS and DEMETER to introduce organisms from Stage 2 and beyond. It is for this reason why there are no domesticated animals or large predators in this new world—there was no one who knew how to operate the terraforming system, so most of the species Zero Dawn worked frantically to preserve were never reborn, their stored embryos and seeds sealed away and forgotten, forever.

** It was not only humanity’s collective knowledge that was doomed to the ash heap. The ARTEMIS and and DEMETER subordinate functions, intended to repopulate Earth’s animal and plant species respectively, only introduced Stage 1 “pioneer organisms” into the reborn biosphere. Humans, educated by APOLLO and instilled with a keen understanding for the need for conservation in light of the fate of the Old World, were intended to manage the process going forward from there, taking control of the terraforming system from regional control centers and coordinating with ARTEMIS and DEMETER to introduce organisms from Stage 2 and beyond. It is for this reason why there are no domesticated animals or large predators in this new world—-there was no one who knew how to operate the terraforming system, so most of the species Zero Dawn worked frantically to preserve were ever reborn, their embryos and seeds forever sealed away. This, in turn, would see a rebirth of slavery in the new world—-with no draft animals and no knowledge of advanced manufacturing, the Carja for instance would capture members of other tribes for forced labor, planting their fields and building their cities.

* One Carja noble is trying to find his daughter Elida, who has been showing signs of depression. When Aloy finds her at a nearby island and investigates, Elida confesses that she was here to meet Atral, a childhood friend who is now a soldier for the Shadow Carja; them meeting could break the cease-fire and start the war all over again. Aloy reaches Atral in a nearby stronghold, but he's already dying from being tortured under suspicion of betrayal. Atral asks Aloy to pass on a keepsake, and the words "it's worth it", before he succumbs to his wounds. Returning to Elida reveals that she already figured out that Atral has died, and to Aloy's horror, implies that [[DrivenToSuicide she will join]] [[TogetherInDeath him in death]]. This is partly because Aloy miscommunicated Atral's last words (saying "it ''was'' worth it" instead of "it ''is'' worth it"), which she amends before Elida can do anything drastic, saying that Atral wants Elida to live on. Elida shakily agrees, and talks about it with her father once Aloy directs him to her.