Resident Of The North Atlantic Garbage Patch

I can't be the only one that thinks Al-An and Noa are pretty similar, right? Al-An seems to have more of a lisp than Noa so far but their cadence and pitch in voice sound pretty close to each other. Not only that but Noa has proven to be far more sentimental and empathetic than a normal AI in these games would be. He commemorates the dead, he shares his opinions on each colonist you learn about. And he's gone rogue multiple times before. The player can hear other colonists calling out to him for assistance in life threatening situations on multiple PDA recordings only for Noa to ignore them, resulting in their demise.

Hell, The Frozen Titan file found at the top of the first camp base is about Noa. Nahema discusses how Noa doesn't have a real mind of his own and can't change how he thinks but how did he develop this behavior in the first place? Why is Noa a frozen AI and unable to modify his own cephalopod inspired architecture? If Noa is wiping the crew's mind in an effort to keep them pliable and obedient why isn't he wiping out the incriminating audio logs the player can find about him even if players play it right in front of him? What does Noa gain from gaslighting the colonists into working for him if he doesn't have a stake in the game? And if he doesn't have a stake in the game why is he so intelligent and affable at first? Is Noa even a man made system if the manual itself describes the human operators using him as "less intelligent systems"?

And where did he even come from? That, I think, is something we get a hint about thanks to the manual mentioned in Nahema's Frozen Titan log. Al-An had an equine adjacent centaur body with limbs he controlled telekinetically to aid in his operations. And his body was constructed artificially, meaning that the form could be modified in whatever way the Architects would need them to be.

My theory with all of this in mind is that Noa is an Architect. His humanity in comparison to the other AIs is palpable and his motivations are contradictory. In the very beginning of the game he is the one helping the player's pioneer escape. He is the one pushing the player to find a cure to this new virus and locate the colonists later on. Yet he's also the one killing colonists on multiple different occasions. He bucks against the programming Alterra has given him yet people believe he cannot think. I believe that Noa's only stake at this point is to cure this new virus because it is connected to the Kharha virus or poses a similar threat to life that the virus has. And considering that he's repeatedly gone rogue to kill colonists it's not for the sake of humanity, it's for the sake of his species. Alterra probably tracked down the Architects through Robin and Al-An, intercepting them at some point after the events of Below Zero. And from there I think they used what they learned from Robin's PDA to find another Architect stuck on planet or they stole that fragment of Al-An in Robin's mind from her. Personally I'm inclined to believe the latter since Noa's voice and cadence resembles Al-An but he speaks in the casual manner Robin would. Alterra stole this being made from Al-An and Robin's mental connection and enslaved him, forcing him to become a glorified assistant without any real bodily or mental autonomy. I believe that Noa's original state is the one you see of him in game and that he's been programmed to be genuinely helpful to the colonization efforts Alterra has in mind. It's only when his memories of his true self resurfaced that he started lashing out and letting people die. From there he's only decided to follow his programming for the sake of curing this new virus and knows that no matter how he treats the colonists in the long run that they will ultimately need to cure the virus too. Maybe he's been rogue longer than people suspected and intentionally veered off course from Zetura to nip this virus in the bud before it could fester into something worse.

I also came up with this crack theory of NoA being an enslaved Architect and people in the official discord told me I was being ridiculous!! So I am VERY happy to be validated here!! The rest of my yapping is under the read more because it got uh… long 😅

Like, most of the major story beats, at least the ones that directly affect her, have a prominent visual component so she’s following along with the basics. But she has no idea who cave johnson is, or what wheatley was trying to explain to her, and she certainly wasn’t hurt by any of glados’ insults.

their (live!) young gestate for. wait for it. eight to eighteen (??) YEARS. can have up to 10 at a time. good grief.

longest lifespan of any vertebrate, up to five hundred years

toxic flesh

has giant eyes but is usually blind because of a weird little crustacean that's evolved to live on and eat their eyes. this doesn't seem to bother them much.

lives in deep cold water and has the lowest swim speed and tail-beat frequency for its size across all fish species. just generally lives life in extreme slow motion

largest genome of any shark

eats everything including moose and polar bears

This Tumblr post is the first time someone has explained to me *why* I couldn’t feed them before those instances.

every single time i have had to say, "i understand that if he had food or water, he could aspirate it into his lungs under anesthesia. i am not lying to you." THEN someone would make a little note and i would stop being repeatedly asked.

not a single time was that risk explained to me. the only reason it came up was because i already knew. i still don't understand why it isn't standard pre-op counseling or pre-op check information, when me as a parent acknowledging the actual risk also put THE MEDICAL STAFF at ease because i conveyed that i had informed understanding as reason to not lie about giving my kid food.

It actually did pop into my head when reading this that in all 4 times my cat has went under general anaesthetic for a procedure (and also now again because he's needing dental x-rays and two molars with lesions on them removed) that my vet has went through the effort to very clearly explain to me what the risks of anaesthetic are and that it doesn't matter how much he begs I Cannot feed him for at least 12-16 hours before his appointment because it could kill him, and then they give me a little print out that has that written down!

This Tumblr post is the first time someone has explained to me *why* I couldn’t feed them before those instances.

every single time i have had to say, "i understand that if he had food or water, he could aspirate it into his lungs under anesthesia. i am not lying to you." THEN someone would make a little note and i would stop being repeatedly asked.

not a single time was that risk explained to me. the only reason it came up was because i already knew. i still don't understand why it isn't standard pre-op counseling or pre-op check information, when me as a parent acknowledging the actual risk also put THE MEDICAL STAFF at ease because i conveyed that i had informed understanding as reason to not lie about giving my kid food.