22 thoughts on “How Dead Space Perfects Cosmic Horror”
That EM Signals Emmited by the Marker, that's Not EM, It's Literally What Roanoke Tells When Your Brain is Being Scarmbled from Molecular Level in His Review of Annihilation "Shimmering"
The largest in her class, the CEC's pride and joy, and yet she's gone dark. Communications have fallen silent, and an entirely unenvisioned disater has befallen her… Sounds like a certain famous/infamous sea-going vessel in our real world. The one that was referred to as "unsinkable".
What I don't understand is that the brother moons are built up to be this cosmic horror akin to elder gods that are beyond most human comprehension and cannot be killed, only slowed down. But the technology that humanity has at its disposal doesn't really reflect that. Radiation bombs, FTL, PLANET CRACKING, hell even our basic mining tools can fuck up even the worst that the brother moons could throw at us. Our modern military already has shredder missiles and non-nuclear weapons that will literally vaporize a person into atoms, let alone weapons 400 years into the future.
When you look at the story, it doesn't makes sense for humanity to lose: -We were able to reverse engineer the original marker very "early" in dead space's history which means its effects have been well known to humanity for several hundred years. -The Ishimura got decimated because it's a bunch of civilian miners and basic security. -The military ship APPARENTLY got decimated by ONE necromorph implying they didn't have guns pointed directly at the hatch the moment they opened it/didn't know it was a possibility that there was a necromorph onboard(which makes absolutely no sense since the government knew this kind of outbreak has happened before and would have immediately assumed it happened again given they knew a marker was on the surface)
Don't get me wrong I love dead space but humanity has to be both super dumb and the brother moons need to be super lucky in order for them to win.
Just because the secret ending is secret doesn't mean it's the canon ending. The ending you promote in this video as the true ending is just a 'what if' scenario by the new devs, it's not canon.
I think Dead Space have the deepest lore in any horror video game. Resident Evil and Silent Hill also have a deep lore, but the former is a little bit convoluted and the latter is filled with speculations, theories and implications more than an actual in depth lore which is fine btw considering that Silent Hill is intentionally made that way. Dead Space is on a whole other level.
In cosmic horror, truth and madness are often one in the same. We build our collective understanding of the world on observation, education, training, experience, and experimentation, things that we consider to be reliable. However, even in real life, that understanding can be tainted by prejudice, ignorance, deception, and personal agendas, creating vast gulfs in understanding depending on what people are able, or willing, to accept as true.
In cosmic horror stories like Dead Space, to accept the hidden truth of the world means to abandon that common consensus of reality, to see clearer and farther than everyone else, but finding only horror and desolation stretching to every horizon. The "reality" of humankind is a castle built on a foundation of sand, but because others cannot accept it, they cast out the truth-tellers and the doomsayers. They are labeled as mad, cast out or locked away, all to preserve that false reality just a little bit longer.
Isaac Clarke learned the truth, and to escape it, he buried himself in self-deception and denial, and in so doing, became a servant of the Marker. But that wasn't him going mad- that was how he kept sane, in spite of the crushing weight of his reality. It was only when he was forced to confront the truth directly that he finally snapped, and thus opened his mind to the influence that would lead to the events of Dead Space 2.
What adds to the horror is that it was implied that the plans for DS4 was to show that there's a bigger fish than the necromorphs and the brethren moons, makes you wonder what kind of threat can be larger than an all consuming corruption. Kinda echoing the three body problem in some aspects.
The weakness of the Brethren moons would be a functional, industrial and technologically advanced society finding out about them. Had Earth, as a collective, known of the necromorphs when a fully functional civilization, defeating them would be rather easy. Don't use organics. Use nano-technology and chemical warfare, AI. Even a thermonuclear assault on a Brethren moon from long range. Their strength is their mystery, and overthrow with the Markers.
Whats super sad about these scene on 29:30 is that if you do the side quests, I believe nicoles, you learn that isaac and nicole got into an argument before he arrived in the system, then she sent her final video as everything died. From the side quest and this scene you learn that isaac never got a chance to apologize or make up. He never got to make amends and was led on by a hallucination, it makes for a rather devistating reveal as a new player. I'm a vet of the series however that side quest really made me feel for isaac as it made that scene so much more crushing for this poor man.
The most horrific yet genius part of Dead Space's cosmic horror is that humanity isn't irrelevant, exactly, on the cosmic scale, but rather that we are the primordial cells of an even greater superorganism that has yet to form. That our religious urges and yearning for a great unification in the afterlife is in fact the ultimate objective of the chemical process of life- that we were built to join together and even our intellect is nothing more than individual neurons in a cosmic, eternal brain. This changes the struggle of cosmic horror from the external to the internal- do we have the right to deny our creators the purpose for which we were built, if it is horrific in process? Would humanity be happier if our collective unconscious became our only consciousness? Is the loss of a "self" worth giving up to become a small part of a greater existence? Is it even ethical to resist this process, or is such resistance nothing more than a cancerous, selfish reaction that threatens the life of the whole? Do we have a right to condemn these beings for what they're doing to humanity, when each and every human alive is doing the exact same thing to trillions of their own cells? If our cells were conscious, would we fault them for rebelling against assimilation into the body, and would we try to stop our immune system from killing our cancers on ethical grounds, however futile that may be? The process of life is ugly and disgusting, and often cruel when you look at it from a greater perspective. But that is just the nature of life itself.
The ONE thing I always had trouble suspending my disbelief with for this series is how Unitology could ACTUALLY spread that much when it’s basically a very obvious “drink the cyanide” style cult. And it’s based on what equates to the average person as a conspiracy theory.
If they were a problematic big cult, that would be believable enough. But the way Deadspace presents them and even tells us directly Unitology is basically bigger than Christianity. No normal human-being with an average IQ would ever actually buy the shit they’re selling, let alone in that big a number.
So unless the unitologists all had secret brainwashing Markers in their churches (possible), I always found it hard to believe that every 3rd or so person in the games you meet is a suicide pushing, Unitologist-scripture thumping, brainwashed zealot.
That part is just too dumb in a series that is otherwise full of fairly believable character.
That EM Signals Emmited by the Marker, that's Not EM, It's Literally What Roanoke Tells When Your Brain is Being Scarmbled from Molecular Level in His Review of Annihilation "Shimmering"
The largest in her class, the CEC's pride and joy, and yet she's gone dark. Communications have fallen silent, and an entirely unenvisioned disater has befallen her… Sounds like a certain famous/infamous sea-going vessel in our real world. The one that was referred to as "unsinkable".
What I don't understand is that the brother moons are built up to be this cosmic horror akin to elder gods that are beyond most human comprehension and cannot be killed, only slowed down. But the technology that humanity has at its disposal doesn't really reflect that.
Radiation bombs, FTL, PLANET CRACKING, hell even our basic mining tools can fuck up even the worst that the brother moons could throw at us. Our modern military already has shredder missiles and non-nuclear weapons that will literally vaporize a person into atoms, let alone weapons 400 years into the future.
When you look at the story, it doesn't makes sense for humanity to lose:
-We were able to reverse engineer the original marker very "early" in dead space's history which means its effects have been well known to humanity for several hundred years.
-The Ishimura got decimated because it's a bunch of civilian miners and basic security.
-The military ship APPARENTLY got decimated by ONE necromorph implying they didn't have guns pointed directly at the hatch the moment they opened it/didn't know it was a possibility that there was a necromorph onboard(which makes absolutely no sense since the government knew this kind of outbreak has happened before and would have immediately assumed it happened again given they knew a marker was on the surface)
Don't get me wrong I love dead space but humanity has to be both super dumb and the brother moons need to be super lucky in order for them to win.
Funnily enough the secret ending could indeed be canonical, considering you start the next game in a straight jacket.
Nice use of majora’s mask ost. It’s underrated.
Just because the secret ending is secret doesn't mean it's the canon ending. The ending you promote in this video as the true ending is just a 'what if' scenario by the new devs, it's not canon.
I think Dead Space have the deepest lore in any horror video game. Resident Evil and Silent Hill also have a deep lore, but the former is a little bit convoluted and the latter is filled with speculations, theories and implications more than an actual in depth lore which is fine btw considering that Silent Hill is intentionally made that way. Dead Space is on a whole other level.
Good vid but it didn't need all the cutscenes.
In cosmic horror, truth and madness are often one in the same. We build our collective understanding of the world on observation, education, training, experience, and experimentation, things that we consider to be reliable. However, even in real life, that understanding can be tainted by prejudice, ignorance, deception, and personal agendas, creating vast gulfs in understanding depending on what people are able, or willing, to accept as true.
In cosmic horror stories like Dead Space, to accept the hidden truth of the world means to abandon that common consensus of reality, to see clearer and farther than everyone else, but finding only horror and desolation stretching to every horizon. The "reality" of humankind is a castle built on a foundation of sand, but because others cannot accept it, they cast out the truth-tellers and the doomsayers. They are labeled as mad, cast out or locked away, all to preserve that false reality just a little bit longer.
Isaac Clarke learned the truth, and to escape it, he buried himself in self-deception and denial, and in so doing, became a servant of the Marker. But that wasn't him going mad- that was how he kept sane, in spite of the crushing weight of his reality. It was only when he was forced to confront the truth directly that he finally snapped, and thus opened his mind to the influence that would lead to the events of Dead Space 2.
My only hope for when they decide to make a remake of the Dead Space 2 is that Issac is not the main antagonist?
How the fuck do you do these vids so quick??
Other essay channels need like 6 months to do a quality vid like this. And you? 2 weeks.
You always cover the things I’m most interested to that moment. Just like your god of war Ragnarok videos.
Glad I found your channel 🔥
This guy came out of nowhere but started dropping absolutely banger videos, keep it up
I had a similar concept for a video topic like this, but you beat me to it. Great Work!
But who made the brethren moons
I haven't played dead space and watching even a documentary on it at night is terrifying!
What adds to the horror is that it was implied that the plans for DS4 was to show that there's a bigger fish than the necromorphs and the brethren moons, makes you wonder what kind of threat can be larger than an all consuming corruption. Kinda echoing the three body problem in some aspects.
The weakness of the Brethren moons would be a functional, industrial and technologically advanced society finding out about them. Had Earth, as a collective, known of the necromorphs when a fully functional civilization, defeating them would be rather easy. Don't use organics. Use nano-technology and chemical warfare, AI. Even a thermonuclear assault on a Brethren moon from long range. Their strength is their mystery, and overthrow with the Markers.
Whats super sad about these scene on 29:30 is that if you do the side quests, I believe nicoles, you learn that isaac and nicole got into an argument before he arrived in the system, then she sent her final video as everything died. From the side quest and this scene you learn that isaac never got a chance to apologize or make up. He never got to make amends and was led on by a hallucination, it makes for a rather devistating reveal as a new player. I'm a vet of the series however that side quest really made me feel for isaac as it made that scene so much more crushing for this poor man.
The most horrific yet genius part of Dead Space's cosmic horror is that humanity isn't irrelevant, exactly, on the cosmic scale, but rather that we are the primordial cells of an even greater superorganism that has yet to form. That our religious urges and yearning for a great unification in the afterlife is in fact the ultimate objective of the chemical process of life- that we were built to join together and even our intellect is nothing more than individual neurons in a cosmic, eternal brain. This changes the struggle of cosmic horror from the external to the internal- do we have the right to deny our creators the purpose for which we were built, if it is horrific in process? Would humanity be happier if our collective unconscious became our only consciousness? Is the loss of a "self" worth giving up to become a small part of a greater existence? Is it even ethical to resist this process, or is such resistance nothing more than a cancerous, selfish reaction that threatens the life of the whole? Do we have a right to condemn these beings for what they're doing to humanity, when each and every human alive is doing the exact same thing to trillions of their own cells? If our cells were conscious, would we fault them for rebelling against assimilation into the body, and would we try to stop our immune system from killing our cancers on ethical grounds, however futile that may be? The process of life is ugly and disgusting, and often cruel when you look at it from a greater perspective. But that is just the nature of life itself.
This was another great video!
The ONE thing I always had trouble suspending my disbelief with for this series is how Unitology could ACTUALLY spread that much when it’s basically a very obvious “drink the cyanide” style cult. And it’s based on what equates to the average person as a conspiracy theory.
If they were a problematic big cult, that would be believable enough. But the way Deadspace presents them and even tells us directly Unitology is basically bigger than Christianity. No normal human-being with an average IQ would ever actually buy the shit they’re selling, let alone in that big a number.
So unless the unitologists all had secret brainwashing Markers in their churches (possible), I always found it hard to believe that every 3rd or so person in the games you meet is a suicide pushing, Unitologist-scripture thumping, brainwashed zealot.
That part is just too dumb in a series that is otherwise full of fairly believable character.