- The Memories of Zero you get from doing Zero's DLC in that game show what happen to Mikhail after Ending D. From the sound of it, he lives long enough to see the world go to hell. If he does appear, he won't be as innocent or cuddly as he was, yet he'll still be a bit lighter hearted than he was as Michael.
- That's a different timeline than the one Nier takes place in.
- Caim and Angelus crossed from Ending E of Drakengard to modern Tokyo (which is the future of Ending C of Drakengard 2, and Drakengard 2 is the future of Drakengard's Ending A), so anything's possible.
- Neir and Drakengard's timelines are presumably parallels spinning off from the same singularity point i.e. the "canonical" timeline ending for Drakengard 3. Which means the Nier timeline is less "modern Tokyo" and more a timeline continuing on from D3 where magic faded away only to be reintroduced by Angelus and the Giant. And according the the DLC, Mikhail going on from the final ending will very likely live until the end of the world on that stream. So he should be alive in both the Drakengard and Nier timelines. He doesn't appear but presumably somewhere on Earth in Nier Automata Mikhail is out there.
- That's a different timeline than the one Nier takes place in.
- Actually, the timeline in the World Inside book makes it clear that the Nier-universe is the future of Drakengard 2's Ending C.
- Jossed, the gestalt reports in the game match the story in Nier.
- Jossed:If they are humans, they're clearly mutated and advanced beyond all humanity. And they're dead.
- Another alternative is that it once again looks at the One-Man Army trope, but to approach it from a completely different angle this time around by coming to one simple conclusion, it's impossible.
- By ending E You can't win alone but you aren't if you're connected to the network, the song turns into a chorus to symbolize it.
- Actually happens in the demo, at least it almost until 9S and 2B just decide to use their black boxes to nuke the area.
- Good point, but humanity also created Devola and Popola in the past, so the mystery deepens.
- If the protagonists were created to destroy humanity by the aliens, there would be no need for this to be a secret from them. They could just be human-killing machines that want to kill humans.
- Also, the definition of "androids" is that they look human. As opposed to the "living machines/mechanical lifeforms".
- Jossed. Humanity is already long dead before the aliens even arrived. The androids merely fooled themselves into thinking humans are still living on the Moon and fight the machines in order to give themselves purpose.
The mechanical structure has more than a passing resemblance to No. 6, and some of the enemies even wear masks similar to the one worn by the King of Facade. Perhaps the aliens that built these machines found Emil wandering in the desert after the events of Nier or something and based their machines around him?- Turns out that Emil's head just happens to look like the aliens'. It's possible that the research into the Ultimate Weapons happened to uncover visions of the aliens and one of the scientists decided to go with it. This does allow Emil to use Machines as an exosuit, though.
- Not convinced it's Jossed. The Hegel machine lifeform is almost identical in design and function as one of the Emil clones you encounter. Actually it's highly likely that the aliens created the machine lifeforms by reverse-engineering the Emil clones, as the Emil clones are depicted fighting the aliens themselves rather than machine lifeforms in his story.
- Emil fought the aliens when they first arrived, even copying himself to make an army. The machines are very likely based on his appearence, as their biggest treat among the earthlings.
- Partly Confirmed. Humans went extinct long before the aliens actually invaded.
- Alternatively, it could be a flashback to the Crusades that occurred in NieR's backstory, where the Legions (victims of the forced pact known as White Chlorination Syndrome) were led by a being known as Red Eye.
- Terminal A and B have a starkling resemblence to Manah, so this might be intentional.
- Jossed. One of hte Q&A reveal the Red Eyes of the Machines is connected to the Red Eye Disease, but the Cult of the Watchers Tattoo was something Adam and Eve learned about from reading human records. Adam insists that Eve adds it to himself, and when Eve loses control the tattoo loses all shape because it's a fake.
- Jossed
- Jossed. Adam and Eve have Barbie Doll Anatomy. You get to confirm this during their first disturbing boss fight.
- Confirmed
- It is already well established that it is indeed canon.
- Confirmed. It's revealed that the androids are in fact built from reverse engineered machine technology.
- Jossed. Adam and Eve are machines that have managed to take on human form, and are generally antagonistic towards the androids. However, they do have a genuine fascination with humans and hold no ill will towards the androids when they leave Earth in Ending D.
My theory, at least, is that Adam noticed a lot of similarities between not only himself and 9S, but also between Eve and 9S. 9S' behavior during Route D/E was endearing to Adam because deep down, Adam was reminded of Eve. After all, Adam has made comparisons between himself and 9S before—both driven deep down by hatred. However, 9S reacted very strongly to 2B's death, almost similar to how Eve reacted when 2B killed Adam. It might explain why Adam regarded 9S so fondly on the ark; Adam could look after 9S the way he could with Eve, since 9S would be helpless without Adam if 9S joined them on the ark.
- Conversely: 9S interests Adam but Eve has nothing to do with it. Adam considers hatred to be the core of humanity; to be considered a worthy successor to humanity, he must demonstrate his human-ness. 9S's Roaring Rampage of Revenge against A2, however futile, proved him worthy of hitching a ride on the ark.
- Given how much of a pretentious windbag Adam is, he's more likely doing it (and making Eve do it) in order to ape what he's learned of humanity from the Bible (hence his comments about gaining great wisdom from fruit), without really understanding the reasoning behind it (while thinking he does).
- Possible. Yoko stated that although Adam, Eve and the androids are 'born' without them, they are capable of growing out genitalia that can even produce semen and even change their sex at will, although they will never be able to properly reproduce. Given how highly they idolize humans, it is safe to assume they had formed genitalia by the time they start wearing undergarments.
- ..... This changes the entire dynamic of Adam and Eve's relationship.
- Self harm and self-destructive tendencies
- Seeking out high-risk/dangerous pursuits
- Intense physical reactions to reminders of the event
- Loss of interest in activities and life in general
- Sense of a limited future (you don’t expect to live a normal life span, get married, have a career)
Of course these are also all common symptoms of various trauma-induced problems. So why do I say PTSD specifically, when these symptoms could have more immediate causes? Mostly, it's his reaction to the clones of 2B in ending C - he brutally murders all of them, and expresses gladness at being able to do so- but this is after he bursts into tears at the sight of them, and he still clearly experiences affection towards them.
If he retained or somehow regained memories of 2B killing him repeatedly (we don't know how many times she did it, but it's highly likely it was more than we saw) - that means he has repeated memories of what is, essentially, his own murder -and he reacts towards the cause of that with the kind of grief that has been observed in many victims of abuse. This is particularly common in people after the death of their onetime abusers, when there is no longer a place to direct any (perfectly justified) anger they feel. It is, essentially, a form is Stockholm Syndrome, and 2B's image induces feelings of Post Traumatic Stress -aka the intense physical reminders of the event. If he in some way were aware of what she'd done, that would push his reactions from basic grief, to a form of Stockholm Syndrome.
(NB: This is not saying 2B is an abuser, because she's not. Her behaviour and the reasons for it do not fit the pattern that would indicate an abusive personality, but the results are the same - the sense of deep betrayal and anger towards your attacker, combined with a deep seated, psychologically induced affection for them, is common in many toxic relationships).
Likely as a memorial to humanity.
To explain, there were hardly any ruins of the modern age left by the time of Nier. Millennia after that, and you'd need a university of archaeologists just to argue about where they used to be. Additionally, the city ruins are intact enough to recover fragments of magazines, and paper is not going to last that long, not out in the open.
Well, not paper that was mass produced for a disposable edition.
After humanity went extinct, the androids needed to do something to serve their masters. Humans may be gone, but the androids could still try to keep them from being forgotten. So, a city, modeled after the ones the humans made at the height of their power, but built to last forever. Or at least through an alien invasion.
When the YoRHa Androids were being designed, their creators accessed human historical data for reference and found various anime series and ended up with what we see in the game.
The shoot 'em up section in the Ending E credits is known to be designed to be unbeatable without help from other players. This means that, unless the developers had a shmup wizard clearing it alone over and over with different accounts, they placed some arbitrary initial helping accounts. In other words; your help never mattered: there were false accounts who could do what you did without any effort — made so that you would sacrifice your account for a greater purpose, which in reality is a lie, not unlike the Yo R Ha and the war aganist the alien machines. The true purpose of Ending E is to show that you, the player, are just as gullible as the Yo R Ha, and all the players proud of their savefile deletion are proof of that. (Which by the way, includes me)
- Jossed. Some people who could not play the game online were forced to finish it without any help. That also meant no prompt to erase their files, however.
