Key points
- Pascal teaches machine children about fear, emphasizing the importance of experiencing both negative and positive emotions.
- A2 emphasizes the fear of being alone, recognizing the importance of appreciating time spent with loved ones.
- Bitter irony unfolds when the fear of being alone leads to cannibalization, highlighting the irrational decisions made under stress.
The following contains spoilers for episode 21 of NieR Automata Ver1.1a, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Goliath has been defeated and the children have been rescued, but A2 receives an urgent message from the Resistance camp. Meanwhile, Lily and her allies quarantine themselves from the infected Resistance members, after being exposed to the Logic Virus by one of the distraught machine children, turning into zombies in the process.
Although Jackass, Popola, Devola and the others come to their aid, Lily decides to stay behind and kill the infected to ensure the virus doesn't spread. A2 arrives on the scene just as the last survivor, Lily, who is also infected, asks A2 to put her out of her misery. 9S gets the final code and realizes that his feelings for 2B were mutual, while Pascal is confronted with the sight of machine children being cannibalized.
What it means to be human
Most people agree that experiencing both negative and positive emotions is fundamental to the human experience. With that, the ability to grow, adapt, and learn follows suit. Pascal actively distanced himself from other mechanical lifeforms and founded his own village in hopes of living a more passive and enriching lifestyle. Because of this, he had the ability to empathize and relate to other androids, even befriending the Resistance and earning the respect of Lily, who lost her comrades to his species. One of the main lessons he taught the mechanical children of his village was the concept of fear. Fear is what keeps things alive, as it acts as a deterrent to pursuing activities that might otherwise be considered dangerous. In episode 18, the mechanical lifeforms exhibit this exact behavior in response to A2's scolding. Interestingly, A2 herself teaches them another concept: being alone.
The fear of being alone
In an attempt to cheer them up, A2 stated how happy she was that she wasn't alone; and when they asked her what that meant, she explained the importance of appreciating time spent with loved ones, as they could easily find themselves alone at any time. In the ensuing panic, after the surviving machine children were taken to the Resistance camp, one of them exhibits symptoms of the Logic Virus. It is implied that it was his own turmoil that infected him. In episode 6, the Logic Virus bore a striking resemblance to PTSD, when 21S peered into Lily's memories, while administering a cure for her contamination. She was also later the first of the group to be infected. Under stress, people (and even animals) can make irrational or extreme decisions.
Bitter irony
When Pascal witnesses the remains of the machine children, the first one to be infected cannibalized the rest, which stemmed from his fear of being alone and the fact that he thought a souvenir music box he was carrying had broken. Ironically, it can be argued that A2 planted this idea in his head, as with children in real life, they often overreact and take things literally. When he thought he was in danger of losing everything, he ate everyone else so they could “be together forever”. To varying degrees, 9S also suffers from this. After an encounter with 2B's old flight unit, he discovers a message that was left for him, confirming that 2B's feelings were mutual. But unlike the machine lifeforms and the Resistance, he is truly alone.
Community and family are a stellar aspect of what it means to be human. And with every encounter, a separation inevitably follows. Lily, infected with the same virus from which A2 had initially saved her, dies at his own hands, shot with a gun, the weapon from which A2 had protected her.
