BuddhaTheGreat

1. Likely not an alternate timeline or fake memories, but memories which are politically inconvenient to the Orokin (and probably morally harrowing to the Tenno). Loid calls the histories 'polluted', but never false. In fact, he clearly says 'some things are best left forgotten', which implies that these memories are true, but remembering them would do more harm than good.

2. The massive astrolabe on the ceiling indicates that we are probably trying to locate Tau through the memories.

3. It's unclear if Lotus is feeding us these memories or somehow helping us recall them. Personally I lean towards the latter a la Teshin in the War Within.

4. The eyeless Margulis. Goddamn. That along with the old Alad V dialogue of how we wiped out a civilization last time we got close to the Sentients... We may be getting new Tenno Trauma™ to consider.

5. I predict Ballas is likely involved in destroying the peace treaty, since peace between the Orokin and the Sentients does not serve his ultimate goal of destroying the Orokin.

6. Regarding the treaty itself, we may now be moving towards understanding the Old War not as a single conflict, but a full period of history which likely lasted centuries (Ballas said in the Sacrifice that he had had lifetimes to plan his defection). It's more like the Hundred Years War in that there were likely multiple periods of hot and cold conflict, detente, temporary peace, etc. I for one would love the see the High Orokin Society explored, if only to see its excesses.

7. Implementation of Tauron into focus will be interesting. I wonder how we'll do it. New focus nodes? Entirely novel system?

Yup, completely right on this front.

Also right on this front.

Looks like it's a bit of both on this front since Margulis made us forget our time on Tau, but it's likely this forgetting was more of a suppression rather than an erasure. We use the Dark Refractory to access our buried memories, but there is definitely something The Lotus is doing to aid us here. Why else would she be connecting those cables to us? Maybe she's using Margulis' imprinted memories of Tau as an anchor? Still unclear on this front.

New trauma was indeed found, though it's Ballas's fault more than ours.

This was so easy I'd rather not claim credit, but yeah, I was right.

Also right on this. We did get some glimpses into high Orokin society, albeit indirectly through Roathe's conversations and memories.

New focus nodes indeed, though the Tektolyst artifact modding does count as a new system.

This right here is the heart of Warframe's story. The reason why I love it so much.

Gara and the Unum. The Solaris. Duviri. The Entrati. Alad V's entire saga. The Wolf of Saturn Six. The Operator and Lotus. Ordis. Octavia's Anthem. Harrow. The Stalker and Jade. Saya and Onkko. The Sentient's family relations. Umbra. Albrecht and Loid. The Cavia. The Hex. Sands of Inaros. Mirage. The Silver Grove. Vala Glarios.

The tiny, human stories that make up the world at large. They make me emotional, they are the reason why I think about the game so much. I have a problem with wanting to cry but being unable to, and I broke a half year long streak of zero tears thanks to the Lotus and the complex web of familial relations she's in, with the Operator, Hunhow etc.

Drifter and Operator picking up the mannerism not just of Warframes but those around them.

Both of them are needed in the labs, and something goes wrong and Operator goes off like a Ventkid with some Ostron curses mixed in for flavor while Drifter curses in Tenochtitlán, and then a few Brittanic swears. Loid is baffled and Tagfer is taking notes on things to call Albrecht.

Operator stands like their frames certainly but there are times, when they're quietly thinking, they fold their arms and tilt their head and Drifter snorts because they look like a little mini-Loid.

Drifter stands like a soldier, Arthur says as much, but it's not until Drifter stands next to Umbra that they realize they stand like a Dax.

Stalker is extremely, almost comically powerful when he's in his element. The spy mission is laughably easy. He auto hacks every terminal. He can insta-kill every enemy. He can stay invisible basically the entire level and when he's invisible he doesn't trigger any alarms or tripwires. There's no challenge whatsoever. He's been doing this for centuries, to the point its become effortless.

This is juxtaposed with his complete and total powerlessness to help Jade. He doesn't know what to do or how to do it. He doesn't have any abilities or tools that help him with this. He can only watch her waste away.

Or, he can ask for help.

He can break the endless repetition and make a change. He can go to those he hates more than anything for help.

And, despite a thousand years of rage and pain, he does. Because, somewhere, deep down, in a part of himself he's long forgotten, the desire to protect is still what defines him, moreso than even the hate.

The second mission is slightly harder, as AOE damage circumvents his invisibility to a small extent, but is still pretty effortless. It's a change in why he's doing it, but not much change in what he's doing. He's still in his element and extremely powerful.

Then Sirius(or Orion) is born and Stalker's role, his goals, his whole existence, changes instantly. He's no longer the hunter, but rather the hunted. No longer a just a killer, but rather a Protector.

All of his abilities are disabled. All of his weapons besides the scythe are disabled.

The scythe that, in a written prelude, Hunhow praises for, unlike his other weapons, being a tool meant both for destroying and for growing. For creation and destruction.

A tool he uses as a shield. But, crucially, one that FAILS.

He CAN'T protect Sirius. He's defeated. He has to be spared. Someone else also has to choose to protect. To choose to go against the trait that has defined their life (greed/ambition in the case of Xeto) in order to protect something precious.

And they do.

Xeto gives up her chance to impress the Sisterhood and likely paints a huge target on her back, in order to help someone she doesn't know. She lets Stalker get to his feet and she and her men stand aside for him to escape.

And, in that moment, bloodied and beaten and dragging his broken form to his landing craft, we are given back control as the player over Stalker only to sell the effect of the powerlessness, physically, he has been reduced to.

And how, in that moment, as a person, he has more power than he has in a thousand years. Because he has chosen to break the endless spiral of grief he's been trapped in for a millennium and go against what he was crafted into to, once again, choose to love and protect instead.

Ballas tried to shape him into a tool of nothing but bloodshed because he hated how Sorren had defined himself with love in a way Ballas never could and, in that way, attained the love Ballas always saw himself as unfairly denied. He tried to destroy every bit of that love and every scrap of that man. But he couldn't. He could not destroy the child that Jade and Sorren created and he couldn't ever fully stamp out the love between them. And, even in the deepest depths of hatred and despair that Stalker fell into, the caring and loving man he was remained, never able to be destroyed.

Slowing those steps down and forcing the player to hold the command to keep going forward the entire time gets that feeling across in a way that is so poignant and part of what makes interactive media like video games such a powerful and unique medium.

He is reclaiming both his past and his future. Reclaiming the parts of himself defined by love. He is rejecting that easy path of wallowing in misery that he's chosen for so long and instead dragging himself forward, one limping, painful step at a time, towards something that actually matters to him.