Commander's role (SPOILERS)

[Uwul]

***SPOILER ALERT***
If you haven't completed the game yet stop here.

What do you think is the link that the commander has with the "old elder"? Has anyone else noticed how in the intro cinematic the elder seems to be granting him something? And then at the end when the other elders are talking about him winning being the end for "all others" and how "it will follow you as it followed us" probably meaning the clifhanger "glow" we got to see at the end.

It seems to me that the Commander was gifted at some point by a specific Elder for some reason. A reason to do with what we saw in the abyss maybe?

[R2_Opus2]

I think the character was just used as a pawn to help Advent own humanity Maybe a side effect of doing that meant that the character almost became the protype Avatar rather than the one you teke from the Forge mission.

I think that whatever is in that abyss was there a long time, maybe as long as it took between initial invasion and the player becoming aware of it. Maybe its the elder's fall back for all the others like him, where maybe their bodies die but they found a spot to plop their consciousness so they can manipulate another day.

Whatever this drive was the elders had to make themselves continue, it isn't clear yet if humanity would become just like them as far as it being the thing that kills us. It seemed to me to be the narrative that they needed us to bridge that gap for their continued survival.

Like right now in the narrative it feels like they need us, and we don't need them at all.

[Exarch_Alpha]

In the tutorial fight, when you rescue the commander there are screens implying a human (naturally most likely, the commander) had half human, half elder DNA.

Replay that mission and pay close attention to the surroundings.

[Uwul]

Also if you played XCOM Declassified (I know I know.. but it was supposed to be prequel to enemy unknown) the main char. is "nudged" by a "benevolent" elder. I wonder if there are more sides to the aliens.

[SamBC]

Originally posted by Almindor:

Also if you played XCOM Declassified (I know I know.. but it was supposed to be prequel to enemy unknown) the main char. is "nudged" by a "benevolent" elder. I wonder if there are more sides to the aliens.

Though those Ethereals were ascended, energy-based life forms, while the Uber Ethereal in EU states that they had failed to do that. If you try to read the games as consistent with The Bureau, presumably some of the Ethereals ascended, and those that didn't decided to start screwing with lower life forms.

[R2_Opus2]

You have a point about unforseen consequences if the ethereals die out. Presumably they have the ability to control all the aliens you face, such that if you remove them, the results would be unpredictable. i.e. They all may only act on instinct for example, where as with control, they can be steered this way or that.

At the same time, they're big on genetic manipulation. It may simply be a case of mind control initially, then genetic manipulation steps in to the point where they can act in a way the ethereals approve without them needing to shadow them every second. With perhaps the exception of the chryssalids (who seem to be animals that act on instinct though still controllable on some level), this is most likely the best reason why Advent was such a good idea for them.

With Advent acting as police and military, you don't need as many aliens running around. They wind up being used to protect their most vital assets.

I think narratively, we may get more explaination with all this stuff in a sequel. Depending on where they want the canon to go, whether they actually count us winning in this chapter unlike EU, you can go all sorts of places and not necessarily keep everything Earth centric.

We've scratched the surface of understading the gates, which could unlock many travel possibilities in terms of instant travel, but there's also the tricked out Avenger which represents in my view conventional space travel leading to colonization options in a much faster way. At least in terms of our solar system if they can't make or find a gate large enough to send the ship through to wind up light years away or something.