Part 66: Episode LXIV: Flowers for Machines

Episode LXIV: Flowers For Machines


VIDEO: CLICK HERE TO WATCH ENDING A!

******


Music: The Sound of the End (Quiet)



Alright. Eve has been defeated and the rampaging machine lifeform crisis in is presumably over. All that’s left is figuring out what to do about this jerk...





Perhaps now that he’s chilled the fuck out 2B can initiate a dialogue with the defacto leader of the machine lifeforms and begin talks to broker a peace between the two factions in order to end this endless proxy war between the two races. It’d be gr—



Music: ENDS





...Or she could just stab him in the head. I guess that works too. Problem solved. You know... unless like three dozen machines decide to cluster together again and poop out another Sephiroth. Or god help us, they get creative and out comes a Seymour. The darkest of timelines.



2B drops her broken sword and takes some deep breaths before saying the absolute worst thing you can say in any situation where it appears all matters have been settled...



GodDAMMIT, 2B! You should know better than this! That is the last thing you should ever say before the credits rolling. I know you’re an idiot combat model android, but surely someone stumbled upon a collection of human records where someone declared things to finally be over and then...



Aaaaaarrrrhhhhhaaaa!



And look what happens right on cue. Nice going, 2B. Sheesh... This is all on you now. You’re lucky Eve doesn’t resurrect as a giant tentacled blob anus while we’re at it.





...Is that bad? That’s probably bad, right?



9S!



Nearby machine wreckage begins drifting towards 9S’s body. It’d probably be exceedingly inconvenient to be magnetized in a world where billions of metal trash can dudes have been destroyed and left littered bits of scrap metal all over the place. That’d get old REAL fast.


New Music: Vague Hope (You should listen to this.)



No...
It’s okay. I can always reload my backup data from the Bunker.
But you’ll lose you. The you that exists at this very moment.
Guess so... But we can’t... upload this corrupted data to the Bunker, so...
9S...



The outer layer of 9S’s skin begins peeling away thanks to the virus. That seems unpleasant and 9S sounds like he’s not having a very good time. Sorry, no sweet Cult of the Watchers tats for you, kiddo...



Please, 2B... I want you...



...to do this... for me...
......





Welp. Things don’t look good for 9S. Guess we’ve got to wipe off that broken sword and Old Yeller this poor dingus robot kid.









Alright. Let’s not make this anymore awkward than it has to be. Nobody likes doing a mercy killi—



...Oh. You’re gonna do him like that, huh? You... you sure you don’t want to go grab your sword? I know it’s gooey with Eve brain matter, but this seems kinda...



...Kinda brutal.



Music: ENDS





*begins crying*





It always... ends like this... *sobs*





2B’s mourning over 9S’s body is interrupted by a beeping in front of her.



One of the machine heads is flashing its eyes in rhythm and emitting a steady beep. It’s probably calling for some help. It just saw 2B stab his leader in the back of his skull and then slowly choke a fellow android to death. I’d wanna bounce too.



There’s still... some alive...?







2B is understandably upset after having to off 9S and channels her inner Caim. However...





That’s far from the only machine that’s started beeping and flashing its eyes.



Is this... a message?


New Music: Hope and Rebirth



The data transmissions... They’re resonating with each other...







...Now is THAT a good thing? I mean they’re all flashing the green eye lights. That usually means nice boys. It just occurred to me the machine’s eyes are following traffic light configurations with green being nice, yellow being mild indifference, and red being spicy bad news.



2B seems rather confused at this turn of events. 9S usually figures out this kind of weird nerd stuff and well... she finds herself a touch lost given recent unfortunate events.



However, there’s no time for understanding what the machines are doing as one of ‘em seems to still be active and directly behind 2B.



Uuuuuuggh... Uhhhh...





Who are...?
It looks like... I left my personal data in the machine side of things. Next thing I knew, my sense of self was regenerated over the surrounding network. Having multiple selves fused together like this is a pretty valuable experience, so I wanted to record it—but I couldn’t access any storage areas yet...
*drops sword and walks towards Machine 9S*
...so I just multi-plexed it over the memories of some nearby enemies, so that when I returned to my own body, I—



9S...
......
*lowers head* I’m glad you’re okay...



Yeah...






New Music: Weight of the World (English Version) (Listening to this is mandatory.)















I feel like I'm losing hope
In my body and my soul
And the sky, it looks so ominous

And as time comes to a halt
Silence starts to overflow
My cries are inconspicuous

Tell me God, are you punishing me?
Is this the price I'm paying for my past mistakes?

This is my redemption song
I need you more than ever right now
Can you hear me now?

Cause we're going to shout it loud
Even if our words seem meaningless
It's like I'm carrying the weight of the world

I wish that someway, somehow
That I could save every one of us
But the truth is that I'm only one girl

Maybe if I keep believing my dreams will come to life
Come to life...

After all the laughter fades
Signs of life all washed away
I can still, still feel a gentle breeze

No matter how hard I pray
Signs of warning still remain
And life has become my enemy

Tell me God, are you punishing me?
Is this the price I'm paying for my past mistakes?

This is my redemption song
I need you more than ever right now
Can you hear me now?

Cause we're going to shout it loud
Even if our words seem meaningless
It's like I'm carrying the weight of the world

I wish that someway, somehow
That I could save every one of us
But the truth is that I'm only one girl

Maybe if I keep believing my dreams will come to life
Come to life...

Cause we're going to shout it loud
Even if our words seem meaningless
It's like I'm carrying the weight of the world

I wish that someway, somehow
That I could save every one of us
But the truth is that I'm only one girl

Still, we're going to shout it loud
Even if our words seem meaningless
It's like I'm carrying the weight of the world

I hope that someway, somehow
That I could save every one of us
But the truth is that I'm only one girl

Maybe if I keep believing my dreams will come to life
Come to life...



Square-Enix has something to say to us following the credit roll. Let’s take a look...



Look, don’t quit yet. It’s weird. I know. But go load up the game again. That was only like... 40% of the overall narrative. Please don’t quit now. You have not finished this game yet!



So that was Ending A of NieR: Automata. The first proper ending we’ve gotten. And it went... surprisingly well for a Yoko Taro directed narrative. Other than a bunch of redshirt androids, nobody we care about died. I mean 9S did get strangled to death... but he immediately got better and is now the Iron Giant or some shit. It could be worse. He could have been turned into a pigeon or a skeleton orb.

Adam and Eve are both dead for good and that mess with the rampaging flesh eating machines is sorted out. We could probably just stop right here and while it isn’t the most satisfying of narratives, it is something resembling a happy ending for most folks involved. We all know it’s all going to be downhill from here for everyone involved. We all know this is going to be a bad time for everyone...

But... that Square-Enix PR Team did give us that nice message about how we should continue to witness the full NieR: Automata experience so...



Tune in next time as a new journey begins...






Video: NieR Automata Ending A (It’s the first proper ending. Yes, you should watch this, ya dingus!)





2B Render – Voted YoRHa class of 11943’s “Most Likely to Stab the Machine Lifeform’s Command to Death”