ANI314 | Nicholas Svensson

[A]nimation: Nick Svensson b[A]sed on: nier:automata

[A]lways ends like this (spoilers for nier:automata ending A)

ANI314_alwaysendslikethis_FINALv05_SVENSSON_Nick.mp4

Context statement about the scene:

This is just after the fight with Eve, wherein he is corrupted and controlling a large amount of debris, and is trying to kill 9S and 2B because they killed Adam, his brother. 2B has just stabbed Eve through the head, and notices 9S crying out in pain, having been corrupted himself. 9S asks 2B to kill him, and even though they are androids, this will kill the current version of his consciousness, his personality, because you cannot upload corrupted data to the Bunker. So, she kills him by strangling him to death, and is extremely distressed by this (there is a whole lot of context that we, at this point in the story, do not have becasue 2B is very cagey about anything that isn't the specific current mission, specifically not wanting to talk about anything related to her past). This is ending A, the end of the first third of the story.

The background of this scene non-plot-wise is that 2B is a battle unit for YoRHa, an organisation of androids meant to fight for mankind, who is on the moon. 9S is a scanner unit for the same organisation. Adam and Eve are examples of machines (different to androids) who are beginning to become more human in nature. The corruption that 9S faces due to Eve is something unexplained at this point, as far as I can remember. There aren't many humans living on Earth anymore, there's a resistance, but it's mostly machines and androids... and Emil but he's not important to the plot of this game. The game is set a considerable amount of time (tens of thousands of years) after the events of NieR: Replicant, which itself is set a great many years after Ending E of the original Drakengard, which is set after Drakengard 3. Those don't have too much of an effect on this game though, just extra context.