Let’s end this. I’m given one last chance to organize my fleets, and then it’s showtime.

He introduces himself as “The Progenitor” because the developer was too lazy to give him a real name. He then proceeds to exposit on stuff we already know from the abandoned databanks.

Progenitor: “You may not know this, but our society… our lives… all we take for granted… are running on borrowed time. I was one of the first designers of the cellular reconstruction emitter technology that you all rely on. And as you can see, it is… not perfect. Eventually the effects will decline, and cease altogether.”
Alicia: “You’re saying we’re not gonna live forever? How do you know that?”
Progenitor: “My dear, look at me.”

Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer, Alicia.

Progenitor: “You who travel at a fraction of light-speed are delayed by relativity, while those stationary like myself…”

This is actually scientifically accurate, but just raises the obvious question of why he chose to stay stationary if he was so worried about dying.

Progenitor: “But… there is more. Even if we were to exist indefinitely, the universe that houses us is not so fortunate. I first confirmed this truth some time ago. An end to our universe is coming, and sooner than we thought.”

Alright, here we go. This is why the emitter reveal is so stupid. I already explained why it has no sting last post, but now we see it doesn’t actually matter. If the universe is about to end anyway, what does it add to say that also they’re going to die of old age? It’s a moot point! Saying the Big Crunch is right around the corner is already an existential threat that demands immediate action, the emitter failure is totally redundant. The Progenitor is acting like the Big Crunch is the more imminent threat, too, so it’s not like the emitter failures are actually gonna kill anyone before the universe goes kaput anyway. This is nothing but more “science will always fail us” crap thrown in thoughtlessly. The most I can say here is that maybe this is meant as a justification for why this guy is so desperate, but he still took pretty much the most roundabout route possible while obsessing over irrelevant tangents, so it doesn’t even work on that level.

It’s also baffling that no one ever brings up the possibility of just, y’know, fixing the emitters. We already know they’ve gone through at least one version upgrade. If the Progenitor designed the things, surely he can at least try to figure out what went wrong and improve on the design? I would accept it if he mentioned he tried to do that and couldn’t, but there’s absolutely no mention of the obvious solution that any scientist would try upon hearing this problem. (Also, maybe if you mentioned this earlier the scientific community could have fixed it, you knowledge-hoarding dick.)

I’m also confused on the timeline here. We know from the databanks notes that he started to age while the lacertians were still being created, and it seems like there was a big gap between that and the Shine. Why did it take him so long to put his plan in action? If even failing emitters are able to stretch a few decades of lifespan into like a million years, that’s still pretty good.

Progenitor: “Naturally, I had to do something. We still have so much left to accomplish in the name of progress.”

Also there’s the fact that everyone will die if he doesn’t do something, but why give nerds sympathetic motivations when we can make them strawman caricatures. For bonus points, this stated motivation makes no sense with his proposed solution: we’ll learn in a few lines that his plan is to make everyone immortal in such a way that they can no longer have any direct influence on the universe. The plot would actually make more sense if the dev would just let go of his hate-boner for long enough to make the scientist act like a real person.

He then confirms that he was responsible for the Shine.

Progenitor: “I assure you, my calculations were sound and I had only the best of intentions. But, despite all the power I could muster to propel the expanding counterforce, it was not enough.”

Yeah, no duh? How exactly did you think that releasing a ton of energy was going to defeat entropy?

Progenitor: “Some… cosmic imbalance propagated, and the energy spread askew from the shape of the universe.”

This sounds like it has something to do with latent energy. The answer, of course, is ERROR YOUR PLOT RESOLUTION IS IN ANOTHER GAME.

Progenitor: “I do deeply regret what happened, but by taking no action, I would be even more at fault.”

This is true, but he couldn’t have run the idea by anyone else first? Scientists work in teams for a reason. And he’s part of EROS, he has the connections. Why in the world was he trying to go it alone instead of publicizing his findings and enlisting the help of people who weren’t bonkers? This has a really easy fix: just say he tried that but EROS didn’t believe it and covered it up, convincing him he had to cut ties and do everything himself. That would even explain why he suddenly starts getting a lot crazier and insists he’s the only one who can do it toward the end of the databanks notes. If he tried reaching out and everyone else was willing to let the universe burn, it’s pretty understandable he’d snap at that point – I think any reasonable person would! He would be totally justified in thinking the universe needs his intelligence, too – he’s the only one who cares about something this important, everyone else is clearly an idiot!

Then the Stardraw leak happened.

Progenitor: “A simple piece of technology singing across the Typelog data streams. Do not push outward… but pull inward.”
Tezkhra: “No…”
Progenitor: “Yes, my brilliant friend. A stardraw-based feedback loop… energy upon perpetual energy.”

I still have no idea how this “feedback loop” thing is supposed to work, but okay.

The Progenitor explains that his brilliant plan to stop the Big Crunch is to… accelerate the Big Crunch, somehow, which is going to work because this has actually been a fantasy story all along:

Progenitor: “Triggering this device will draw all energy, all matter into one perfect singular point of energy. Our consciousnesses will be ripped from our physical forms at the speed of light… and left behind in the void that briefly follows. And then, what comes next, you ask yourself? The universe blooms anew from that single point, with our minds in control. Outside, looking in.”

Kara immediately points out that that’s completely insane.

Progenitor: “Is that so, Doctor? What if I told you that it has already happened to our universe once before? Have you never had the feeling of someone watching… looking in… controlling your every movement?”

…No?

This is so pointed that I’m guessing it’s supposed to reference the player, but too little, too late, game, if you wanted to be Undertale you had to commit to it the whole time not throw it in at the last minute. If this really is a fourth wall break it does nothing but undermine the narrative at this point – how am I supposed to take this seriously as a deep statement on the progression of our society and the ubiquity of futility if there’s a completely fictional and abstract element influencing it? I think it is possible to use a story to examine both real and metanarrative concepts simultaneously, but it requires far more finesse and dedication than we have here.

(And even if this is the case, how in the world could he have learned this?)

Thomas picks this moment to tap into the channel and order Ros to dispose of the Progenitor’s device. I feel like that just needlessly complicates things; the rest of the crew, particularly Marie, is already opposed to the idea. This would be stronger if the crew really was allowed to stand completely on their own without chafing under someone’s authority for once.

The Progenitor then starts gushing over how awesome Ros is.

Progenitor: “I invited you all here because I had to share this breakthrough with someone before committing to it! After all this work… there was no chance that I would risk being forgotten in the next life!”

Except she’s also going to be part of this ghost collective, so I’m not sure what he’s trying to accomplish here?

Anyway, he wants Ros to be the one to trigger the device: this will, somehow, ensure that she becomes the most powerful ghost… player? afterward, and the Progenitor believes that her time dilation ability makes her the only one capable for the job. Uhh, wouldn’t that ability disappear once she’s an intangible ghost with no special blood proteins? But okay, fine, he must have been doing something all this time, I’ll take his word for it that he’s done his research.

Rami: “Yeah, right! You’d rather skip a step and just destroy all of reality! Ain’t that right, Boss?”

Wellll… we did say we were going to try diplomacy first…

Daszk: “Um, what? Are you okay?”

I would have never expected Daszk to get the best line during this sequence, but he’s just full of surprises to the end.

Ros: “Your plan… … Is it… really gonna work?”
Progenitor: “Why, yes, of course. But not without you at its center. Your mastery over time, your instincts… You would be the exact center of the universe, controlling its ebb and flow all by yourself. Think upon it. Unseen caretakers of an entire reality. No more fighting, no more hate… You were created for some reason… for some higher purpose, Ros Ouranos. This is that purpose.”

That sure doesn’t sound like he’s trying to dodge the question by buttering me up at all! I’m sold.

Okay but seriously, think about what’s going on here. He says the end is nigh, and while the solutions he’s come up with have been lunacy, that’s no reason to believe the problem he’s reacting to isn’t still a problem. We know the Big Crunch has to happen eventually, the idea that there’s an additional factor accelerating it isn’t that farfetched. So… he’s totally right that there is a problem here. Killing him and trashing his machines isn’t going to make that problem go away.

This is something that bothers me more every time I see it. Every story always hates extremists, despises them. They’re always wrong proven wrong somehow, almost always in two binary subsets: either they’re revealed to actually have some ulterior motives and were lying about caring about the problem, or the universe will conspire to prove that actually their plan is unnecessary or won’t work for reasons they didn’t know at the time, at which point they will continue clinging to it anyway because haha nerds are so dumb! Regardless of the setup, they’re the bad guys, so all we have to do is stop their bad plan and everything is solved forever. But extremists don’t exist in a vacuum. If the problems they’re bringing up are legitimate, then stamping out one malignant symptom isn’t going to solve anything. Ten more extremists will pop up in their place, or, in the case of an existential threat like this one, the world will explode while everyone is busy patting themselves on the back.

When dealing with an extremist, you can’t just reject their solution, you have to provide a better one. Because there is a problem, and problems need fixing. The Progenitor’s solution sounds like an insanely risky one, but I don’t see anyone else coming up with any better ideas. That means that what they’re really advocating for is that we roll over and let the universe kill us. How can anyone be expected to condone that? The Progenitor may be nuts, but at least he’s trying to do something about this! I’m going to have faith that he’s spent the past aeon doing his homework instead of twiddling his thumbs like everyone else and that he knows what he’s doing. I have to. The way things stand now, it’s that or commit universal suicide, effectively.

But the developer doesn’t understand this, so the game interprets my choice as coming from the exact opposite direction.

Ros: “You’re right… about everything. Look at this mess. Look at what we’ve become. We’re not worth maintaining. Even if your plan doesn’t work, I’m… tired. Tired of being caged up, told what to do, used like a tool… All the fighting, the orders, the destruction, chaos… what good has it done? What good have I done? I am… the most powerful person alive. If I can use that power to truly reshape reality for the better…”

Yes, truly it is the people who want to do things who have given up on the world and are willing to let it all burn.

Ros decouples from the fleet and is allowed to pass through the Progenitor’s army unopposed.

Marie: “So that’s it, huh, Ros? You do realize we can’t let you go through with this, right?”

Maybe you should have provided me with a better option, Marie.

For some reason Ros doesn’t activate the device immediately, and just sits there for however long it takes for the crew to cut through the MOD defenses and catch up to her.

Progenitor: “They’re coming for you, you know. They don’t understand what it means to be truly in control.”

Yes, the person trying to save the universe actually just evilly wants to control everything. People who do things are evil, you see.

What the heck, Mahk. You were planning to backstab me the whole time? I was gonna feel bad about killing you but congratulations, you just killed any sympathy I had left. I thought we were supposed to be best friends forever? No?

Neff: “Ros, this is crazy! Just… just give up while you still can! We’ll make Thomas go easy on you…”

Neff desperately tries to do damage control by acting like someone with a functioning conscience.

Luke: “Impressive, Ros! I didn’t see this coming at all! Oh well. I’d rather keep this universe, thanks.”

Why? He’s a depressed semi-reformed criminal. He said himself the only thing he cares about is the crew, and Ros in particular. He should be on my side here.

Ivoronus: “And to think, I trusted you with my son’s life. No matter. We shall put an end to you together.”

Oh what do you care, Mr. Suicide Is Awesome? Nihilists don’t get to lecture people on the fate of the universe.

Chac: “Commander… it has been a sincere honor. No hard feelings.”

We then oscillate back to someone with a sensible response.

The Progenitor offers me some support MODs to even the odds, and the battle begins.

The final boss music, which plays throughout this whole sequence, is “Pianissimo”, which is a strange name since it’s a pretty loud and energetic track. Like Lazarus’ battle theme, it’s nicely busy, which is a good contrast to the normal boss music, and the sinister, somewhat distorted tones are fitting, given that I’m playing the villain. I think I can hear some echoes of the main theme in it, too, which every good final boss track should have.

I’m also liking that background. There are far more stars than in the normal backgrounds, which gives it a feeling of importance; it really looks like you’re at the center of the universe.

Anyway, these battles have a quirk: Everyone will always target Ros and ignore the MODs (except Mahk for some reason, I guess because he thinks he’s avenging the Machinatorium). This works both for and against you: as you can see here, the crew will flail impotently at you even if they’re out of range and have no chance of connecting… but since all the damage is getting concentrated on Ros, things can go south in a hurry if their attacks do connect. You definitely want to make the auroral specialists priority targets. Ivoronus’ laser blade has extra range, too, so he’s a big danger; he managed to shave off half of Ros’ health in the first round.

Of course, you have another advantage here: Assuming you’ve been paying attention to the status screens, you know everyone’s elemental weaknesses, so you don’t have to waste turns on scanning. The support MODs are still pretty limited (they have one weapon for each health type but only one property per MOD), so you can run into trouble, but overall it should be possible to defeat everyone before Ros gets too battered.

But I actually got careless and let Mahk snipe me at the start of the second round! Whoops, have to sit through all those cutscenes again.

And this is the only reward you get for killing your friends, which actually makes sense given Ros was in charge of all the finances. Crime doesn’t pay, it seems.

Progenitor: “Do not worry about your friends. They are becoming part of something greater than themselves.”

So… wait, they’re still alive? I guess they got bumped back to the support beacon. That’s a weight off my conscience, I guess.

The second fleet approaches.

The one and only time Tezkhra is sympathetic. A shame he chose the doomed timeline for his atonement.

Kara: “I always knew you would be the wild card in our operation. You are far too unstable to live.”

What happened to me being the only one with the spine to make the tough calls, Kara? I guess you only respect that as long as it suits your own purposes?

Deirdre: “I can’t let you do this! I still have so many things left to fix in this universe!”

That… doesn’t make a lot of sense. Her resolution was to kick back and wait for new science to fix the problem; if the universe is going to get crunched soon, that’s no longer an option, and they won’t have much time to enjoy it even if she does fix them. In fact, given that their degradation appears to be physical, sucking their souls out could be the only way to help them. That would make as much sense as anything else at this point.

Cassidy: “Looks like we’re never gonna get that retirement. At least we’ll go out blazin’, eh Cole?”
Cole: “Mmm.”

WHY IS EVERYONE SUICIDAL.

After I deal with them, the remaining crew makes a last stand.

Daszk: “Awww…”

These two demonstrate for the class what realistic behavior in this situation looks like. Unfortunately, the other three missed the memo.

Jessamine: “I don’t think I like you no more, Ros.”

Screw you too.

Marie: “So that’s it, huh? I bring you to life, show you the world, and this is how you pay me back?”

What the frick, Marie.

Recall that Ros’ entire villain rant, right before she did this, involved her repeatedly saying she was tired of being treated like a tool. That is, ostensibly, the reason why she’s doing this: she was pushed too hard and now she’s rebelling. And you know who among these people holds the most responsibility for that? Ms. Do What I Say Or I’ll Shove You Out The Airlock here. And her only response to this is to fume that Ros is a tool and how dare she act like she gets to have her own opinions. Wow. So I guess when she made that dramatic speech about how Thomas can’t have Ros because she belongs to the crew, she meant it literally. Ros doesn’t get to be a person. Ros is Her Thing. This could have been a real knife-twisting moment where Marie realizes her part in this and apologizes while begging you to reconsider, but no, she shows I was right about her from the beginning and she really is just a controlling jerk who was only nice to me as long as I gave her what she wanted.

Is the game trying to make me regret this decision, or is it trying to make me regret not killing these douchebags a long time ago?

Alicia: “You hurt Marisol, you hurt all of us. We’re gonna make you pay big time, you creep.”

And Alicia is reduced to Marie’s satellite, because that sure isn’t horribly dissonant after a whole subplot about how she wants to be seen as her own person.

As per usual, they hilariously whiff most of their shots in their single-minded rage and I cruise to an easy victory. But it’s not over yet.

Progenitor: “Ah, one of the anomalies. You and your Lesser friends are too late to take over, I am afraid.”

??? What does he mean by “anomalies”? The energy beings, or just anomalous Lessers in general? Does that mean there are others?

The Black One: “Drmm… you cannot do this while the Blue One still lives! It will be the end of all things!”

Yep, it wasn’t enough for the extremist to be evil, we’re also doing the thing where the universe twists itself into pretzels to prove his plan wouldn’t work anyway. Give up, nerds! Everything you do is doomed to failure!

But hey! This actually isn’t a problem! Let’s just go and kill Tez right now, I’m down for that! In fact, I’m pretty baffled why Blacky is wasting his time with me instead of getting his murder on.

Progenitor: “Ros, take whatever is left and dispose of him. We have a deadline to meet, after all.”

But haha no even when the game lets me jump tracks it’s still a railroad plot. Also what are you talking about, is the Big Crunch really going to happen within the hour it would take to kill Tez?

And again we see that damage seems to get capped at around 500. Weird. It also doesn’t seem to have a range penalty. Hm.

The Black One is actually a fairly difficult final boss, if only because he’s ridiculously agile so a lot of the battle comes down to luck. His defenses are very good – I’m only able to deal about 50-100 damage with the MODs, and moving Ros from the back row is too risky unless you’re going in for the killing blow. Like the crew, he only targets Ros, but unlike the crew, his accuracy is good enough to land a hit most of the time. Since his attack deals ~500 damage, you’re on a pretty strict time limit: if you keep Ros in the back row, she can survive two blows, but there’s no way she can survive a third. Unfortunately, there is no strategy in this battle system, so what that actually means is you just have to pray your MODs don’t miss too many shots, and that you’re not stuck with thermal or chemical properties (which he’s resistant to). I had basically the worst setup here; a LAC Ros is a sitting duck since she can’t attack with any accuracy from the back row, and I was dumb and went with pilot damage even though Ros’ pilot weapons all draw from pilot health.

But in the end I win by the skin of my teeth. And for some reason Blacky drops some pretty good cash, so crime does pay after all.

After that, Ros does what she should have done from the start and enters the Progenitor’s chamber, activating the device.

We linger on that last shot for a while, and then the game fades out.

That’s it. That’s the ending. Did it work? Was the Progenitor right? Was The Black One right? WHO KNOWS, have an empty unfulfilling resolution for daring to think the universe deserves to be saved.

You get a badge when when you complete each of the two endings, and… now wait just a minute. How is this the pessimist ending?

This is, I think, where the developer really tips his hand, even moreso than everything leading up to this.

Really, think about it: how does this ending represent pessimism? I did this because I had faith in science – in the only person who was actually trying to fix the problem. Comically unreasonable faith, even! I believed that the universe could be saved, that we should try to struggle instead of submitting to inevitability. I refused to give up, and persevered in the face of uncertainty. How can that be anything but optimism? But I rejected the moral the game was trying to spoonfeed me, therefore I’m a bitter cynic who just wants to destroy everything.

Now, I will acknowledge this: I’m grateful the developer had the grace to allow the player to trash the set and completely derail the story. That takes courage and humility, to recognize that not everyone is going to like your story and you should try to consider other points of view – that some people might even get so fed up with the story they want to go to this extreme. It’s nice when creators acknowledge that kind of agency in their audience. This may have only been a shallow, petty, and obligate “evil ending”, but I’m still glad it’s here.

…Still, what the heck was up with the crew’s pre-battle lines. I expected them to act hurt and pitiful, to really twist the knife on what I was doing, but instead they just act so horrible it’s going to irreparably taint my view of them in the main story. Apparently that rousing speech last episode was complete garbage and they don’t actually care about Ros at all; the moment she deviates from what they expect, suddenly it’s time to snarl about how evil and ungrateful she is and that she needs to be put in her place. After all that drama over Ros’ free will and the people who try to control her, this is the final verdict: she really is just a tool to the people who are closest to her. Was the goal to make me want to kill them? Because if so, mission accomplished.

Well. While we have reached an ending, obviously it’s not the canonical one. Now that I’ve saved the universe, it’s time to destroy it.

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