I played Horizon Zero Dawn and #HorizonForbiddenWest, and now I’m making it everyone’s problem 🐸 In this video, I examine the different perspectives and attitudes characters and groups have towards knowledge and information in the Horizon games series.
Note: big, big spoiler warning for both main games and DLC! Due to this essay being written before the announcement and release of Burning Shores, it doesn’t cover some of the info we get about the Quen in that add-on. Also, while I usually try to use gameplay capture showcasing exactly what I’m talking about at any time, I decided to make this essay into a video after I’d already completed HFW’s main story, of which I recorded very little. I’ve done my best to add screenshots (of which I did have plenty) for clarity. Just be aware that some of the footage includes somewhat spoiler-y scenes from the Burning Shores DLC.
If you’d like to check out the article that’s the basis of this video, you can find the blog here: https://ko-fi.com/Post/The-Truth-Is-Forbidden-The-Ethics-of-Knowledge-in-E1E1K0ZZE
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#horizonzerodawn #videoessay #videosaboutgames
00:00 – Opening
02:07 – Introduction pt 1
02:58 – Plot summary
09:21 – Introduction pt 2
12:39 – APOLLO
21:06 – Ted Faro
25:59 – Sylens
31:49 – Far Zenith
36:19 – The Quen
46:11 – Aloy
55:20 – Closing
Citations:
[1] The Left Hand of Darkness: https://books.google.de/books?id=MDveDQAAQBAJ
[2] Fictions of Knowledg: https://books.google.de/books?id=KZmIDAAAQBAJ
[3] Archive Abuse | Horizon Wiki | Fandom: https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Archive_Abuse
[4] Grigori Fasbach’s Journal | Horizon Wiki | Fandom: https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Grigori_Fasbach%27s_Journal
[5] Nemesis | Horizon Wiki | Fandom: https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Nemesis
Further Reading
(PDF) Of Pregnant Kings and Manly Landladies: Negotiating Intersex in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336892722_Of_Pregnant_Kings_and_Manly_Landladies_Negotiating_Intersex_in_Ursula_K_Le_Guin%27s_The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness
Review: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin: https://francisbass.com/2018/03/30/review-the-left-hand-of-darkness-by-ursula-k-le-guin/
‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ at Fifty: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/03/12/the-left-hand-of-darkness-at-fifty/
Techno-Optimism vs. Pessimism vs. Nihilism — Dark Gray Matters: https://etiennefd.com/dgm/techno-optimism-vs-pessimism-vs-nihilism/
Nihilism and Technology: https://books.google.de/books?id=reTaDwAAQBAJ
Nihilism and Technology (review): https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/nihilism-and-technology/
Treating your techno-nihilism — Part 1/2: https://medium.com/@davidgrosfeld/treating-your-techno-nihilism-part-1-2-cbd2f5711492
Treating your techno-nihilism — Part 2/2: https://medium.com/@davidgrosfeld/treating-your-techno-nihilism-part-2-2-efd15fe3ed21
24 Comments
Chapters!
00:00 – Opening
02:07 – Introduction pt 1
02:58 – Plot summary
09:21 – Introduction pt 2
12:39 – APOLLO
21:06 – Ted Faro
25:59 – Sylens
31:49 – Far Zenith
36:19 – The Quen
46:11 – Aloy
55:20 – Closing
One minor note. Climate change did threaten the world a couple of decades prior to the Faro Plague. When the climate finally tipped it was called The Great Die-off. This spurred the Clawback where the robotics of Faro Automated Solutions created by Elizabeth Sobek prevented the end of the world. Like Elon Musk Faro took all the credit and changed the direction of the company. Elizabeth Sobek left due to her inevitable fallout with Faro over the new direction and founded Miriam Technologies instead to continue the life-saving work she began doing. Then the Faro Plague happened due to Ted Faro's unimaginable tech-bro narcissism and it was all for naught.
Great video, always fun to discover a new small channel with some amazing gems of content 🙂
A few points tho
I don’t think Sylence intended for Aloy to die at the hand of the Far Zeniths. He states directly that he wasn’t aware that they had another clone and thought the only logical thing for them to do was to capture her as a useful asset. He just wanted her out of the way of his schemes until he had dealt with the Zeniths, not necessarily dead.
Another interesting thing to note is that we are never directly shown proof of Tilda’s death as nobody actually bothers to check. Considering everything I think it’s highly likely she’ll return in a future instalment.
Excellent video. This game has some of the richest lore you will find.
Sylens did not deliberately try to kill/sacrifice Aloy at any point in either game, including with the Zenith ambush at the Hades Proving Lab. If you visit Sylens at the base right before the ending mission, he will disclose that he was actually unaware of Beta's existence at that time, and therefore assumed that the Zeniths would find Aloy "a useful asset", which would keep her "out of harm's way". Combine this with the fact that he planned to eventually kill the Zeniths himself (prior to that Aloy foiling that plan), one could reasonably conclude that he only intended on subjecting Aloy to temporary captivity, not death. Sure, he did still disregard the importance of Aloy's autonomy/free will, but that's a high bar given his established character & the circumstances lol.
I think the above distinction is important because it ties into my bigger point – Sylens is subtly not a 100% cold utilitarian, and he was/became capable of sympathy & even compassion long before he turned back from that Zenith shuttle. You may remember that he apologizes to Aloy twice in the first game over his insensitive comments – once at the Zero Dawn facility and once again at GAIA Prime. He seems to have his own character arc and it's been developing for longer than most people probably realize.
Although he is not very "good" at sympathy & compassion (for example the apologies were quite awkward lul). He is also insulting selective with who he entitles to that privilege – which is basically limited to people above a certain threshold of intellect/competence (i.e. just Aloy so far).
Sylens is one of my biggest sources of lasting interest in the franchise. He is such an interesting character, and still clouded in unaddressed mysteries. On one hand he is brazenly provocative with his insensitivity & disregard of others, but on the other hand the fact that he managed to acquire his level of intellect deserves admiration considering that unlike Aloy he was born a normal tribal and (presumably) did not acquire a Focus until he became an adult.
I would love a DLC on the background of Sylens, but I can only understand if they decided it's too late for that now… RIP Lance Reddick.
Wow just wow this video just wow! So well written out and detailed absolutely love it! You did such an amazing job with this! RIP LR
Bravo. A well articulated video with intriguing perspectives on the characters in the Horizon universe. The ethical angle in particular presents an exciting avenue that can be applied to the world of other games. I look forward to more of this. Hopefully, you will get to cover Burning Shores characters.
Incredible video, Thank you ❤
Ive long held the belief that Horizon is exploring the burden of power, but to frame it as knowledge is so eye opening and makes everything so clearly discussable. I loved this essay. Can't wait for more.
Hi again, I’ve just re-listened to your very thought provoking essay. Why did Sylens stay? I think there might be a clue in his last recorded “companion” datapoint. What do you think. I still think he is seeing everything like a chess board, Aloy (or Beta??) are still IMHO a means to his end
Really great video and an even better analysis.
One thing I am quite surprised by is that you didn't explore the relationship Utaru's had with knowledge, most importantly Zo. I think they had the most interesting one: they tried to worship what they couldn't understand, like many, but when the unknown became threatening, they simply resigned their lives, unlike others who tried to tame/understand or conquer. Zo, however, in a beautiful contrast, not only learns the technology but also still retains her religious valorisation of the machines, so much so that, she is offended at the suggestion that the God-machines can be replaced with other machines.
Zo emerges as a 'unity of opposites', if you will, unifying the Spiritual with the Rational, and while many characters cannot help but fall to one end, she is able to harmonise the two and help and understand people on both ends.
I've often been frustrated by alloy's behavior towards others, but you actually explain her so well that I get it now, good job! I didn't plan on watching the whole, I was shcoked when I realized I had, at no point did i get bored or even realize how much time had passed
Ted screwed it all up and decided that no one in the future should know about his mess ups. Imho it wasn't about the "loss of innocence" that was him rationalising his own choice, he just didn't want to be remembered as the ass that ruined it for everyone.
This was so awesome!
Aloy seeing herself as one of Gaia's machines is suuuuuuch a good point and helps to explain some of her more un-emotional, repressing instincts (though they have many causes). Thank you for this essay, it was an absolute treat! You capture the Horizon universe beautifully. Can't wait to see what's next!
I enjoyed your essay immensely! I'm fascinated about the fabric woven of morals and ways of thinking, and especially curious about the makings of scientific humanists. (I think that Aloy exemplifies the affirmations of scientific humanism.)
Those interested in thinking styles will appreciate Horizon's illustration of the differences between flexible and rigid thinking styles. I'm happy to see that flexible thinking (freethought) melded with empathy is shown as morally responsible and that rigid (authoritarian) thinking & low-level empathy is shown as morally deplorable. Aloy is raised and learns from the wild (through Rost, the survivor-hunter) how to be flexible and resilient in mind as well as body. She becomes all too aware of how the Nora's rigid way of thinking has led them (with a few exceptions) to shun her. Her focus gives her understandings (a grounding) that shows Nora beliefs to be naive (and harsh unto brutal). Her ability to doubt, her scientific attitude (which seems almost innate) only gets stronger as she learns about Elisabet and as she interacts with Sylens, who has a scientific attitude but effectively lacks empathy. Thanks again for your essay!
Great topic! I am glad to find this video. HZD was very very important game for me.
The rage I felt when I realized what Faro Did led to long retrospective which helped me understand what for me means being human and Knowledge sharing as my core value.
I disagree about Sylens. I personally don't believe he wanted Aloy dead, just out of the way so not to interfere with his plans as he knew that she would not want to put people's lives in danger. Being a clone, he assumed that they would keep her, hold her captive perhaps. He wasn't to know that they had their own clone and therefore no need for Aloy. I am also guessing that he was not worried about her safety as he knows that she is very capable.
Great video. It's interesting to hear people's thoughts.
This is hands down one of my favorite topics within the Horizon series and you handled it so completely and clearly. So glad this got recommended to me! I really look forward to watching whatever you make in the future!
Do it like Skylar… F freakin Ted
Very interesting take on the Horizon world, thank you!
SPOILERS, obviously
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The single point I would have liked you to have expanded upon is the captivity of the new humans in All Mother Mountain. I can't imagine the torture they must've gone through with only the pre-teen schooling available way into their teenage years while "Mother" suppressed all intimacy between them and having none of it to give itself. No wonder they came out of that facility scarred for life and arguably generations. Once again, F Ted Faro, what a piece of work…
While I dearly like Aloy overall, especially how she's kind of joky but nobody gets it, after almost 100h with Forbidden West it's a bit grading that she's got like two flaws in total.
SPOILERS ahead, c*nsoring because YT 🙂
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I don't really buy that she would be raised by Rost, shunned by her tribe through no fault of her own and trained to be the most badass because she can and has the willpower and at the same time turn out as emotionally intelligent as she is. They could've done with more vulnerability and character dents, she hasn't really changed since the day before the proving hasn't she? She says that she couldn't have done it all without the others in the end but I don't believe her (or rather the writers paying lip service) because I know she could depopulate the whole West by herself, if she wanted, I know because I as the player defeated ridiculous amounts of machines and slaughtered countless humans.
On the topic of being human: how does Aloy even know about the Birds And the Bees if nobody treated her as human, I don't imagine Rost gave her enlightened s*x ed, did the focus have "archives"? How would she be merely annoyed by all the horny people she encounters after the proving? My head canon until Burning Shores was that she's as*xual/aromantic and simply doesn't get what all the fuss is about but the writers went another route, so her previous behavior makes even less sense to me in hindsight. Not only she seems to think of herself as a machine built for a purpose but I get the sense that the writers are guilty of that too to a degree. Maybe they were afraid of playing into a Damsel trope? It's weird to me that she's so well adjusted while basically embodying everything good in humanity. I should feel something for her because she cares, the Paragon of Animals, so to speak. But she barely feels human to me outside of some little quirks although we spend a lot of time with her alone in her head; and I mean, she's a talker isn't she? Which I adore admittedly, I like that it makes total sense in lore that she would constantly talk to herself and she's quippy in a weird way. I get the feeling she kind of enjoys talking over the tribal people's heads sometimes when she's at peek annoyed but then the writers don't pursue that but almost always reign her in. I get that they want her actions to speak louder than words but that aspect didn't work for me that well. The only time I saw a glimpse of the character's potential is when she admitted it was fun to descend on the rebels with her Sunwing after Kotallo pressed hard. Wow, she's actually human, or could be 🙂
In that sense Beta is way more interesting to me, granted it probably would've required a different game concept entirely to i.e. pivot to her as the protagonist or something like that but I for one would've loved to see what they could've achieved by stripping all the cruft from the game mechanics and focus on character instead. I'm almost three whole work weeks in and I still can't muster the motivation to clear the rebel camps, how about they're solved when Regalla is captured? No, it needs to be open-world 101 by the books, frustrating.
In conclusion: I like Aloy a lot but I wish I liked and felt for her more if that makes sense.
I loved this, I also would love to see your thoughts on the Burning Shores and how it handles knowledge and ethics. SPOILERS:
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e.g. Aloy choosing to tell those Quen the truth about Londra, telling Seyka about Nemesis, and the aerial captures that have a soldier discover the truth about Zero Dawn and come to the realisation that Operation Enduring Victory is a necessary lie for Zero Dawnto succeed. (If I got anything wrong, please correct me! I didn't actually get to play it myself, only watched playthroughs).
This was soooooo well made. I think you really hit the nail on the head as to how much this franchise values knowledge, and how different people with different morals handle knowledge, with Aloy truly being the only one willing to share knowledge with those who display a willingness to learn, though part of this also stems from Aloy developing a willingness and patience to teach, which is just as important. It certainly took a lot of convincing from people like Varl and Erend to have Aloy open up to them, and accept help from them without viewing them as people who would slow her down, having been previously burned by people who are far more closed-minded like the Nora, or as duplicitous as Sylens.
As much as Aloy views herself as Sobek's successor and humanity's savior, I think even Aloy was able to understand that Sobek isolated herself emotionally and formed no attachments because she didn't believe any of the people she may have cared for in the past were capable of assisting her, and so she poured herself into Zero Dawn. Aloy however, particularly in Forbidden West, learned the value of friendship (partly from seeing recordings of Sobek's isolation, but also from how Sylens chooses to isolate himself), and this is what will see her through in saving the world from Nemesis to secure the future Sobek always wanted, but was unable to complete.