Fan Theory: Your character is dead!
Tarkannen
North Carolina Join Date: 2016-08-15 Member: 221304Members
North Carolina Join Date: 2016-08-15 Member: 221304Members
Note: This originally started as a comment to @Nautical_Nick and his thread Fan Theory: Your character is insane! but it got so long I wanted to make it a thread of its own... Enjoy! 
I'm of the opinion Subnautica can be viewed as an existential crisis, similar to the fan theories of "Link is in Purgatory" (LoZ:MM) and "Squall is Dead" (FF:8). Both theories attribute unusual gameplay changes and bizarre story events to the main characters actually dying and trying to cope with their life regrets, or attempting to resolve the problems of loved ones before passing on to the afterlife. Here's my take on the subject regarding Subnautica in the same vein as the above videos.
*NOTICE*
This is by no means what I claim the story of Subnautica to be, nor do I propose that it be taken seriously. It's just a funny idea I came up with one day.
The only time we know our character is alive and well, is in the intro sequence when they are escaping via the lifepod. They enter the hatch and slide down the ladder, and rush to the safety harness as the pod jettisons from the Aurora. What happens next? They witness the ship exploding above them through the hatch, then encounter turbulence. The pod is rocked violently, alarms and klaxons are wailing! Then the panel from the power assembly comes free, bouncing across the pod, until it SLAMS-- You're dead.
Afterwards, the game opens up on this alien world that defies normal classification. The entire planet is covered with water, with very little surface landmass. The starship crash-landed on the surface, but the shockwaves generated by the landfall didnt kill the native wildlife nor seemed to have affected the planet's ecosystem. Furthermore, there are no survivors to be found. Yes, there are lifepods abound with 'last-moment' records, but no traces of bodies anywhere... some notes talk about something trying to get into the pods as the owners perish.
Theory twist:
You actually died in the crash, but what remains of the damaged PDA system onboard the Aurora is trying to revive you. It can't bear the thought of surviving an eternity (in a computer's lifespan) with no one to boss around, so it decided to create a companion. It has the Mobile Vehicle Bay drones round up all of the dead human corpses (and some of the native wildlife) and converts them into biomass, then it pulls up the crew manifesto. Since the Medical Bay has been obliterated, all that is left of the crew medical records is an unknown service technician that was repairing the Lab's spectroscope scanner, and had his neural brainwave patterns stored in the nearby data coil.
The PDA AI then uses the biomass to rebuild his body, integrates his mind back into his body and teleports him where he originally died: Lifepod 5. The process took over three hours to restore him, but the AI desperately wants companionship so she doesn't bother to extinguish the fire in the pod. As this body is physically so young, the survivor can't stay underwater for longer than a minute, and takes a lot of damage from creature attacks and heat sources. As a selfish precaution, the damaged AI sets up the Lifepod and Seabase equipment to scan him whenever he enters or leaves. This way she can rebuild him faster each time, as the new scans contain updated biological and neurological data... although this has the disadvantage of also restoring anything he had with him when he died. Anytime the AI can free up memory space, she dumps the excess data with the snarky reply "You died and lost some stuff."
All is well with life, the PDA is pleased to monitor her little human scurrying across the environment, happily collecting items and building stuff (It is what all humans love to do, right?)... until her survivor comes across the idea to leave the planet. Unable to bear the idea that her single human wants to leave, she sabotages his every attempt to do so. She locks away any vital escape vehicle technology from the survivor, detonates the dark matter drives to keep him away with radiation poisoning, and attracts dangerous predators to guard the Aurora and its vital technology... after all, she can just make another human if he dies.
Then a ship attempts to make contact with the Aurora... this cannot be allowed! The PDA disables the outgoing transmission antenna, so at least the human can't make his presence known. She then tries to send a jamming signal to the offending ship, but the debris left in orbit is scattering the signal. The ship then makes contacts again later, stating they intend on rescuing her survivor! She won't allow it! As a last ditch effort, she communicates with the alien cannon that first put her in this state of misery. She won't let anyone take away her last ounce of joy by snatching away her human! She races to decode the alien language, and tries to gain access to the unfamiliar equipment. By the time the selfish ship announces they are halfway to the planet, she's learned what she needs to know now... No one is coming for him... not now, or ever.
As the human waits for the ship to land, she patches in the final communication to crush his will for good; normally communications via PDA are restricted to senior officers, but she needs him to know this is for his own good... he can't survive without her! As the red spike surges, she unleashes the raw power of the planet against the offending starship... the Sunbeam, was it called? Whatever, it's nothing but molten scrap now. Finally, her human will understand he can't live without her care, and her love will fulfill his every need. Smug in her attempt to destroy the human's desire to escape, she encrypts all of the data files and locks down the disable command by activating an alien security scanner. She's set it to prevent any attempts to turn it off, by denying access to any human with a biological disease. She scanned traces of it in the water after the crash, but she couldn't keep it out of the biomass due to the Medical Lab being destroyed in the crash. If her survivor continues to disregard her care and affection, then she'll just amplify the biological presence to increase his dependence on her...
End of Theory
So now this is why the theory/story ended up as its own thread instead of an actual comment for @Nautical_Nick and his thread... Sorry Nick!
I hope you guys enjoy reading it, even though it ended up being more story than actual theory. But it was fun to write about!
I'm of the opinion Subnautica can be viewed as an existential crisis, similar to the fan theories of "Link is in Purgatory" (LoZ:MM) and "Squall is Dead" (FF:8). Both theories attribute unusual gameplay changes and bizarre story events to the main characters actually dying and trying to cope with their life regrets, or attempting to resolve the problems of loved ones before passing on to the afterlife. Here's my take on the subject regarding Subnautica in the same vein as the above videos.
*NOTICE*
This is by no means what I claim the story of Subnautica to be, nor do I propose that it be taken seriously. It's just a funny idea I came up with one day.
The only time we know our character is alive and well, is in the intro sequence when they are escaping via the lifepod. They enter the hatch and slide down the ladder, and rush to the safety harness as the pod jettisons from the Aurora. What happens next? They witness the ship exploding above them through the hatch, then encounter turbulence. The pod is rocked violently, alarms and klaxons are wailing! Then the panel from the power assembly comes free, bouncing across the pod, until it SLAMS-- You're dead.
Afterwards, the game opens up on this alien world that defies normal classification. The entire planet is covered with water, with very little surface landmass. The starship crash-landed on the surface, but the shockwaves generated by the landfall didnt kill the native wildlife nor seemed to have affected the planet's ecosystem. Furthermore, there are no survivors to be found. Yes, there are lifepods abound with 'last-moment' records, but no traces of bodies anywhere... some notes talk about something trying to get into the pods as the owners perish.
Theory twist:
You actually died in the crash, but what remains of the damaged PDA system onboard the Aurora is trying to revive you. It can't bear the thought of surviving an eternity (in a computer's lifespan) with no one to boss around, so it decided to create a companion. It has the Mobile Vehicle Bay drones round up all of the dead human corpses (and some of the native wildlife) and converts them into biomass, then it pulls up the crew manifesto. Since the Medical Bay has been obliterated, all that is left of the crew medical records is an unknown service technician that was repairing the Lab's spectroscope scanner, and had his neural brainwave patterns stored in the nearby data coil.
The PDA AI then uses the biomass to rebuild his body, integrates his mind back into his body and teleports him where he originally died: Lifepod 5. The process took over three hours to restore him, but the AI desperately wants companionship so she doesn't bother to extinguish the fire in the pod. As this body is physically so young, the survivor can't stay underwater for longer than a minute, and takes a lot of damage from creature attacks and heat sources. As a selfish precaution, the damaged AI sets up the Lifepod and Seabase equipment to scan him whenever he enters or leaves. This way she can rebuild him faster each time, as the new scans contain updated biological and neurological data... although this has the disadvantage of also restoring anything he had with him when he died. Anytime the AI can free up memory space, she dumps the excess data with the snarky reply "You died and lost some stuff."
All is well with life, the PDA is pleased to monitor her little human scurrying across the environment, happily collecting items and building stuff (It is what all humans love to do, right?)... until her survivor comes across the idea to leave the planet. Unable to bear the idea that her single human wants to leave, she sabotages his every attempt to do so. She locks away any vital escape vehicle technology from the survivor, detonates the dark matter drives to keep him away with radiation poisoning, and attracts dangerous predators to guard the Aurora and its vital technology... after all, she can just make another human if he dies.
Then a ship attempts to make contact with the Aurora... this cannot be allowed! The PDA disables the outgoing transmission antenna, so at least the human can't make his presence known. She then tries to send a jamming signal to the offending ship, but the debris left in orbit is scattering the signal. The ship then makes contacts again later, stating they intend on rescuing her survivor! She won't allow it! As a last ditch effort, she communicates with the alien cannon that first put her in this state of misery. She won't let anyone take away her last ounce of joy by snatching away her human! She races to decode the alien language, and tries to gain access to the unfamiliar equipment. By the time the selfish ship announces they are halfway to the planet, she's learned what she needs to know now... No one is coming for him... not now, or ever.
As the human waits for the ship to land, she patches in the final communication to crush his will for good; normally communications via PDA are restricted to senior officers, but she needs him to know this is for his own good... he can't survive without her! As the red spike surges, she unleashes the raw power of the planet against the offending starship... the Sunbeam, was it called? Whatever, it's nothing but molten scrap now. Finally, her human will understand he can't live without her care, and her love will fulfill his every need. Smug in her attempt to destroy the human's desire to escape, she encrypts all of the data files and locks down the disable command by activating an alien security scanner. She's set it to prevent any attempts to turn it off, by denying access to any human with a biological disease. She scanned traces of it in the water after the crash, but she couldn't keep it out of the biomass due to the Medical Lab being destroyed in the crash. If her survivor continues to disregard her care and affection, then she'll just amplify the biological presence to increase his dependence on her...
End of Theory
So now this is why the theory/story ended up as its own thread instead of an actual comment for @Nautical_Nick and his thread... Sorry Nick!
I hope you guys enjoy reading it, even though it ended up being more story than actual theory. But it was fun to write about!
Comments
Maybe we are an undead sociopath ey...
Ya know...it's not a bad concept.
I think my theory makes for an interesting read, like the "Link is in Purgatory" or "Squall is Dead" theories. But like those ideas it's just a highly plauisible re-imagining of established storylines; none of them should be taken seriously.
This whole theory seems to be centered on the idea that the PDA AI can't leave the planet. But that doesn't make any sense. If this bizzare frankenstien that the PDA created repairs that Aurora, or builds a new vessel of some sort, surely they would either integrate the AI into it's systems or simply take the PDA with them. Same goes for being rescued by the Sunbeam. This is especially true since even as the AI becomes attached to the psudo-human it created, a human would probably become attached to the PDA, not really in some much an emotional way as a "this is the thing that kept me alive on this weird planet, I don't want to leave it" way. Not to mention, it seems like it would be much easier for an AI to hack itself into a human starships computer and take up residence there than take control of highly advanced and until now unknown alien computer system.
It just doesn't add up.
Subnautica is always on "Hardcore mode". So, you died, and didn't go to a better place, instad:
Who cares if they make sense. They are theories more for thought experiments or laughs and not actual theories on how the universe was created or why the sun shines yellow and not pink on 4546B.
See below:
It's your opinion and that's perfectly fine, but I was mostly being silly. It's not really meant to be serious, really. I was poking fun at the "ohnoz, the main character is really dead and the entire gameplay is just an existential journey into what makes us human" kind of internet theories online. I guess I should have made my notice larger:
I'm sorry if it wasn't serious enough for you to enjoy.
Ohnoz----Ohnos----Onos!
Hahahahaha *whispers*
quickly, get the mines, flamethrower and grenade launcher
Don't forget the Exos
Like GlaDOS, but instead of needing to test, she needs to assist?
From there I worked the theory around actual events, making her more malevolent as you "disregard" her attempts to keep you happy and stranded for eternity.
Also @Obraxis or any of the devs, could the PDA get an official name in-game? It doesn't have to be grandiose, even just a casual mention in a data entry is fine. I like her personality and voice acting, but it feels odd to just call her the "PDA AI."
I have never understood why we aren't dead anyway, that metal plate comes at our head sideways, not flat.
We should be Decapitated, not unconscious.
(please note, I am not the artist..., mine wouldn't look as good)
Well, I'm no dev, but for the PDA I personally like Synthetic Cognitive Heuristic Management Unit and Crappy Keepsake, better known as SCHMUCK.
Personal Information & Technology Assistant
And if it keeps a little bit of it's somewhat snarky personality, it would also stand for Pain in the Ass.
Both really good names
But I like SARA: Smart-Ass-Robotic-Assistant
............WOW!.............
Heh...
I believe that we can say without a doubt, that Connie's Underwear, Never Touched...
Is NOT going to be an option in the game... EVER.