Fridge / Doom Eternal

Fridge pages are Spoilers Off by default, so all entries have been folderized as a security measure. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned!

---

Fridge Brilliance

• When the Doom Slayer arrives in Sentinel Prime, the Khan Maykr tries to presuade him to spare the last Hell Priest by promising to return to him "what the Demons took from [him] so long ago." What exactly is she referring to? She is referring to the Doom Slayer's family, of which you can find a photo of if you look closely at the floor below his computer desk in his headquarters. No doubt that they were killed when the demons invaded his own Earth back from Doom II and despite that he saved his own homeworld, he couldn't save them and the guilt and remorse he feels about them is so strong, he can barely keep the last piece of memory of them left without tearing it in two and throwing it away, as if deliberately forgetting them is his only way to cope with the lose. The promise that the Khan Maykr is giving is just like that of the promise given to the Betrayer about his dead son, and she likely hopes that it'll convince the Doom Slayer to relent his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. But he knows better than to listen to her false promise and continues to seek out the last Hell Priest because he personally knows that only by slaughtering every demon and their allies on sight can he stop them from tearing more families apart and save people from the suffering he'd suffered by the demons' hands.
  • She could also have been referring to Daisy, Doomguy’s rabbit the demons killed when they invaded earth in Doom 2. Since even back then, that’s been the reason he hates demons so passionately
• It may be an Easter Egg reference to System Shock, but why does the Doom Slayer have a book on Artificial Intelligence systems maintenance aboard the Fortress of Doom in his "office" for Eternal? Simple: he needs all the knowledge he can get to make sure VEGA is in good working order after rescuing it from certain death in Doom (2016), as its part of the central governing A.I. of not just the Slayer's Praetor Suit, but the Fortress itself.
• The introduction of the Equipment Launcher, from a not just gameplay but in-universe perspective. Some demons are susceptible to burning, some are susceptible to freezing, and some pop nicely with a well-placed grenade. That alone makes it worth stocking these things. But not everything burns, not everything freezes, and not everything pops. Thus, it becomes counter-intuitive for the Slayer to have to spend time occupying his hands with swapping out options that are only optimal in certain situations. What's the happy medium for this? An automatic hands-free support option that can deploy while his arms are taking care of other methods!
• Unlike 2016, where the Doom Slayer punches a Mod Bot holding a box containing a weapon mod, in Eternal, he gently acquires the box with the mod and doesn't hit the Bot at all. Why the sudden change? Well, given the box carries the Slayer's mark/sigil and the Bot carries VEGA's name explicitly front and centre, the Doom Slayer knows these items are meant to help him by the very A.I. whom he saved and restored by the time that Doom Eternal takes place.
• The reason the Slayer is such an angry and stoic Ax-Crazy individual is because he is the original Doomguy from the original games who has been battling the demons of Hell for all this time, and something like that would take its toll on anybody.
• A common complaint of the game is that the ammo count is too low, and that chainsaw is needed to be use repetitively to gain ammunition. It which makes sense actually, since the chainsaw is what you use when you run out of ammo.
• Why can't you use the chainsaw on the Barons anymore? Well, in this game, the Barons' insides are quite literally, liquid magma. The Slayer knows that chainsawing them runs the risk of melting the chainsaw itself.
• Codex entries late-game imply that the Slayer used to talk as we see back when he was still the Doomguy in the flashbacks, but after some point in his Night Sentinel career he simply stopped talking. Probably because his muttering about killing demons and Hell resulted in the Maykrs finding the dimension and ultimately caused the events of this part of the series to happen. Between seemingly regaining his sanity and the events that ensued, anyone would probably stop talking if their mere words accidentally ended entire civilizations in perpetual torment.
• A core theme in both DOOM (2016) and Eternal is how people justify their actions. The Doom Slayer acts like a silent, uncompromising Jerkass with No Social Skills, but he is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who never hurts innocent people, and only targets demons as well as those who consort with them. In contrast, there is the UAC and its members who present themselves as "saviours" of humanity but betray their fellow humans in pursuit of power and demonhood, while the Maykrs have angelic appearances but made a deal with Hell's forces in exchange for energy that'll save their dying planet/empire, energy that comes from horrifically torturing humans until they're left as transformed husks once their souls are extracted. Thus, the DOOM reboot series presents An Aesop: People who try to cover up and justify their evils with good intentions are actually not so different than the monsters and demons themselves. The fact that the Khan Maykr is actually a demon-looking alien queen underneath her angelic armor/mask emphasizes this, as she's revealed to be a hypocritical, arrogant, and self-righteous mass-murderer hiding behind a carefully-crafted facade while the Doom Slayer is completely willing to save humanity and is honest about his goals despite his flaws, and is as a result portrayed in a more heroic light.
  • Samuel Hayden fits into this scheme as well - while he's the mind behind the UAC, there's one critical difference between him and the Khan Maykr; his schemes are driven by a genuine desire to save humanity, and he's capable of putting others before himself. Thus, he was willing to accept the decades-long setback to UAC research that would be awakening the Doom Slayer, and accepting personal setbacks to stop the invasion. Which is why, of course, when he's finally hit with what Argent is, he finally runs out of rationalizations and makes a Heel–Face Turn to the extent he can, recognizing that some things are just not justifiable and actually growing incensed at the Khan Maykr for being a terrible leader willing to damn her own species for her own power. Thus, the game implies that a genuinely Well-Intentioned Extremist has lines they will not cross, if only because it would ruin the goal they're working towards.
• Making Faustian deals tend to end badly in the reboot games, as shown with Olivia and Valen the Betrayer. Eternal reveals that Argent energy is made from the suffering of humans, which meant they were probably offered up unwillingly to benefit another, namely the Maykrs and those who were tricked into following them. The extreme suffering they would endure would transform these humans into demons once their soul is extracted and converted into Argent. As horrific as the demons are, their treatment of Faustian deals could be interpreted as punishing those who consorted with them to benefit themselves at the cost of innocent lives.
  • The reason for this is their leader was betrayed himself, thus takes such things poorly.
• In DOOM 2016, the Praetor Suit is implied to be of non-terrestial origin, and yet it has the style and appearance of being based on Earth technology, including the glass visor that no other Sentinel has. The revelations of the Doom Slayer's origin in Eternal means that the Praetor suit was likely crafted in the image of the Doomguy's original Marine armor to better suit his preferences.
• During the final battle against the Icon of Sin, why doesn't it take advantage of its humongous size to, you know, grab and toss the Slayer into the sun? And why is the player unable to just use the Crucible to attack from the get-go instead of in a cutscene? Because the Slayer has killed a Titan before, and it most likely attempted to grab him only to get a literal Hell blade lodged in its brain for its troubles. The Icon of Sin will NOT make the same mistake, and will launch everything its got short of actually getting into ripping and tearing range of the Slayer.
  • It could also be a case of it being smart enough to understand that picking him up would only make the Slayer's job that much easier - especially since he's toting the Crucible, the BFG 9000, and a myriad of other heavy artillery. He's enough of a handful at range with an arsenal like that; why would you want him closer to you?
• The Slayer does not hesitate in the slightest degree once he closes to quarters with the Deag Priests. He instantly and brutally dispatches them, regardless of what they say - even Deag Grav, despite both of them knowing that this will cost him his status with the Argenta. This makes total sense. The surviving Sentinels are most likely loyalists from the civil war, meaning that their loyalty means little to Doomguy at this point; the Deag are responsible for the betrayal and deaths of his True Companions, the Night Sentinels who remained true to Argent D'Nur. He's had an indeterminate but very lengthy amount of time to nurse his anger against the Deag for what they did, and when the opportunity to avenge his fallen brothers-in-arms comes, he takes it instantly; he cares little for the status he has with the remaining Sentinels because they were probably among the ones who refused to turn against the Maykrs.
• After rescuing Dr. Hayden, the Slayer stays to fight the Marauder, tossing Hayden's body through the portal even though he can just leave. But consider the backstory of the Marauders: they were once Night Sentinels who sided with the Kahn Maykr and her Deagic priesthood during the coup of Argent D'Nur. Aside from wanting to deal with the demonic threat sooner rather than later, the Slayer likely took some personal satisfaction from killing him.
  • Not to mention that, if left unchecked, the Marauder would most likely slaughter the ARC scientists. The Slayer stays to put him down, so he can't hurt anyone.
• The Khan Makyr bringing the Icon of Sin to Urdak is foolish and arrogant, but the Doom Slayer went across the whole galaxy to slay the Hell priests in under what feels like a few days. It's the only place the Doom Slayer haven't reached or even knows how to reach, giving her time. That and the opposite would be to have her leave Urdak which is not something she seems inclined to do.
• When the Khan Maykr's true face is revealed after her boss fight, we can see that it looks hideous and somewhat demonic. But why? It could be obvious symbolism about how ugly and evil she is underneath the surface... or it could also be a reference to the the old testament angels. In fiction, angels are often portrayed as looking impossibly elegant and beautiful, but they weren’t always. Back in the old days, angels were described in religion as looking extremely monstrous and lovecraftian (not that the latter term existed yet, but you get the idea). The game developers probably made the Maykr look monstrous and somewhat demonic for that very reason!
  • Additionally, Christian Mythology holds that demons and angels are the same beings. This is normally shown with demons looking like angels (See Good Omens). However, Doom is inverting this, as the angels look like demons.
  • The Ancient Gods reveals that he "Father" of the Maykrs and the Dark Lord of Hell are one and the same. With this in mind, the most likely explanation is that the Maykrs and demons look similar because their mutual creator has a Signature Style - Furthermore, the Maykrs covering up their natural features with armour and masks might have been motivated by a desire to distance themselves from their creator after betraying him.
• When looking for a way to enter Mars's core to access the Sentinel Prime slipgate, the Doom Slayer immediately looks up the BFG 10k. How does he know about this superweapon? Well, in the Slayer's room, he has several magazines scattered about. One such magazine has the BFG as a featured story on its cover, so needless to say it was likely fresh on his mind.
• Some fans have wondered just where Doomslayer got his new Praetor Suit ever since the initial reveal of the game's visual designs, and why he even needed it given that the 2016 version seemed to function just as well. But when you enter his personal office in the Fortress of Doom, the 2016 Praetor Suit is visibly hanging from the ceiling and dismantled with several parts missing. While factors such as battle damage could be involved, it bears repeating that Samuel Hayden managed to install a Tether System into the old suit which caused Doom Slayer's exile into parts unknown at the end of the previous game, and Doomguy was probably trying to prevent it from happening again by removing the offending systems—failing that, he used a newer design based off of the Night Sentinel Atlans, which was most likely furnished by the Betrayer.
  • This also explains why he lost the past game's weapons and upgrades: Either stuck to the old suit or separated by the last couple of Tether warps. Might also explain the lower ammo caps, being something that came about when making the new suit.
• Hayden explicitly likens the Slayer to the Icon of Sin, saying "Now is the time. Two Titans meet, as it is written." The Slayer has the power to absorb the strength of his fallen enemies and become stronger. Keep in mind that, in addition to the countless others he's already taken out, he felled a Titan before 2016 took place, a monster that was even bigger than the Icon. It's no wonder he takes it on without hesitation and wins.
• In DOOM 2016, there's an interaction between Hayden and Olivia Pierce regarding awakening the Slayer, with Hayden ending their argument off by telling Olivia that as CEO, all of her research and discoveries belong to him, stating, "[the Slayer] was mine before you even found him." However, if Hayden's actually the Seraphim, as Eternal implies, the line about the Slayer being his takes on a whole new meaning considering Hayden might've helped make the Slayer what he is now.
• In DOOM 2016 demons had a more alien appearance while Eternal returns to more classic designs. Most notable is the Macubus, who now has two eyes, loses its Monstrous Mandibles, and gets a more normal skin color. This isn't just a cosmetic choice, the Eternal Mancubi are born from the bodies of human damned, while the 2016 version was born from the damned of an alien species.
• The Ancient Gods Pt. 1 gives you literally everything possible from a fully upgraded Slayer with one exception, the Crucible. Why? Because it is currently embedded within the head of the Icon of Sin, and thus unusable until he can reforge it, if he chooses to do so.
• Doom Eternal, even moreso than Doom 2016, is rife with means that Id Software used to inject elements of the fandom and its in-jokes into the series proper. The Ancient Gods Pt. 1 follows this trend, by injecting the one part of the Repercussions of Evil fanfic that wasn't touched upon in the original release to deliver the biggest Wham Shot of them all: "No, John, you are the demons."
• The first Crucible confused many players, as Hayden tells you to retrieve your crucible from the Sentinel homeworld, but you already had a crucible you used to power the Fortress of Doom, with all signs pointing to it being the Doom Slayer's crucible. However, its clearly demonic design clues you in: it technically is his crucible, just not this universe's version of it, but your Evil Counterpart, the Dark Lord Davoth's, Crucible.
  • Also, it's currently powering the Fortress of Doom. If he takes it out to fight the Icon of Sin, the ship's power will shut down. Ergo, if he wants to kill the Icon of Sin for good he'll have to get another Crucible to do it with.
• Why does Doomguy rip and tear his enemies apart? For one, it’s incredibly effective. But aside from that, Doomguy is the only thing the demons fear—because all they understand is violence. And so, paying back the demons’ violence with even more visceral violence shows to the demons that Doomguy is a force to fear.
• At the end of Ancient Gods Part 2, while we see demons in Urdak dying off, the fate of the Maykrs themselves is not shown. Which fits the motivations of the Doom Slayer, he doesn't care what happens to the Maykrs, only that mankind is safe.
• Archviles are one of the only demons to consistently show genuine, unmistakable terror at the sight of the Slayer. If what was established about them in the original game is still true, this is likely because they're healers who, honest to The Father, cannot comprehend someone with that much focused, unbridled rage in their hearts that they'd go out of their way to hurt what is essentially a field medic. Furthermore, this also explains why they're considered royalty; They're the ones most in-tune with Davoth's desire to heal his people... and also like him, do so at the cost of anyone those people will then kill in a feral rage.
• Between II and Eternal, the Archvile's power to bring back dead monsters gets replaced with simply summoning in replacements. Perhaps it has something to do with how most monsters now burn away after dying, without leaving a corpse to resurrect.
• Green benefits the Slayer, as per usual as seen with the Combat Armor and the punchable level elements. However, blue also represents something good for the Slayer, usually being permanent upgrades like the crystals and the Mod Bots. In this game, blue is most commonly associated with the Sentinels, from their ghosts to Sentinel Energy. In the original games, a special blue variant of Combat Armor decreased health damage taken and increased armor damage, giving the color a sense of protection. In the same tone, the Slayer enjoys sovereignty in Argent D'nur and faces no opposition from the Sentinels despite his intent to defy their law, to the point that Sentinel Prime is completely devoid of enemies outside of the boss fight.
  • Similarly, blue things tend to turn red when things go bad, such as the Doom Slayer's blue health bar turning orange and red when his health is low. Red represents Hell, of course, but it also references the Sentinels once again, who left their Sentinel Energy behind in favor of Argent Energy, becoming more loyal to the Khan Maykr and Hell than King Novik. Even in the lore, when blue turns red it means Hell is at an advantage.
• Whiplashes are speedsters whose main weakness is their speed being rendered null. Spectres are invisible Pinkies that suffer most from having their invisibility undone. Both have particular troubles with the Ice Bomb, Whiplashes being frozen in place and Spectres becoming visible under the ice. Almost as if they decided to combine their weaknesses, the Whiplash Spectre borrows both weaknesses from its sources.

Fridge Horror

• Samuel Hayden is reintroduced in this game as an utterly destroyed and bisected non-functional cyborg. With the 'cyborg' part in mind, Hayden is still a living man in that body of steel and iron, and VEGA outright states that he still maintains life readings (though minimal). The only organic part of his body left was stated to be the non-cancer wracked portions of his brain, all the rest being replaced with cybernetics of all types. With his mech body completely checked out, this could mean that he was, best-case-scenario, in a completely vegetative state until the Doom Slayer dumps him into the Fortress of Doom, where only there does he fully regain sapience. And I Must Scream at its worst.
• In a case of both Fridge Horror and Fridge Heartbreak; Why is the Doom Slayer so powerful? Aside from the arcane rituals placed upon him, Argent Energy as a whole is born of the suffering of others. He's lost everything he's ever known to demons and the machinations around them twice, and locked himself in Hell to fight them endlessly out of sheer hatred and a lack of any other meaning. And he has had many, many years to let it all sink in. At this point, he has become human suffering incarnate, in the exact opposite way a demon is. Thus, it stands to reason pure Argent Energy agrees with him.
• It's already been well-established that the Doom Slayer is a Shell-Shocked Veteran. Due to their quiet and sweet demeanor, rabbits are very common therapy animals, especially for trauma patients. It's entirely possible Daisy was Doomguy's emotional support animal.
• During his seeming death in Doom (2016), VEGA proclaims that he has many regrets. At first, one may think he merely means taking part in the events that caused the demonic invasion... but after it's revealed that he is actually the consciousness of The Father, it's possible that VEGA was beginning to remember his origins, and the fact that he allowed the Dark Lord to cut a swathe of destruction amongst the gods and the realms sheerly because he couldn't bear to raise a hand against him until it was too late, and even then he could only seal him away rather than kill him. When VEGA was copied over, it's likely that this memory was repressed until he was placed in Urdak's systems due to how traumatic the situation and the memories themselves were.
• The Ancient Gods Part Two reveals that Davoth is in fact The Father who had created all of reality itself; the only way to destroy him is to give him physical form and kill him that way, which in turn would destroy all demons outside Hell. Maykrkind are essentially prehistoric demons in that regard, who live in Urdak...meaning that place is positively doomed for extinction.
  • If correct, this also confirms Samur's final fate after his transfiguration: he's dead, perishing a most undignified death with no sanity.
  • "It is not required that you end his life". The Father may have said this as an act of mercy on first glance, but in hindsight he was right. There was certainly no need to kill Samur personally if he was bound to die in the first place.

---