You can just call me by my username, or just “robots” until I can think of a better url

(At this point a lot of other people have probably brought up similar points in their analyses of Ultrakill, but I've had this post in my drafts for more than a year so I'm gonna post a version of it because I really need to express this somewhere)

These two beings are so dedicated to their code that they violently execute it even after the death of their creators who made that code in the first place. They kill those who have already died, they punish those who have already been punished.

Their attempts to follow the will of their absent creators could be seen as a twisted, unintended version of that will, or alternatively, an exact performance of it, making you question the creator’s intentions.

Humanity's justification for making V1 parallels Gabriel as well. Because it's a weapon, its creators must have seen the bloodshed it was designed for as necessary and justified. Gabriel believes at first that his violence, even his killing of beloved leaders in Hell, is a just punishment.

I think Gabriel himself started to see all of these similarities he has to V1, a mindless killing machine following orders, when it matched his own strength, and upon self-reflection it caused him to realize his own lack of free will and break out of it. Part of why I see it this way is because his epiphany occurs to him after he literally consumes blood like V1.