Here's a very interesting theory regarding XCOM 2's story

For requests, ideas and general mod talk
Post Reply
rfriar
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 6:53 am

Here's a very interesting theory regarding XCOM 2's story

Post by rfriar »

I found it on Reddit today.

Quote, from Edumesh:

My theory is that on X2 we don't fight the true alien army, but merely their earth garrison.

The Ethereal Empire is nomadic in nature, they go from planet to planet searching for new species to either enslave for their army or use as their new physical vessels, with Humanity being the only species so far to be suitable for that second goal. There is a reason for the disappearance of every UFO except for fighters: they left Earth.

The Ethereals stationed an army with limited resources to maintain control of our planet, while the main fleets left. Why they left is up for debate. Some say that they left to fight a greater threat (the mysterious aliens mentioned by the Angelis). They created ADVENT to police Humanity through deception, rather than brute force. This reduces the potential for mass revolt, while they work on the Avatar Project in secret. They want to avoid mass revolt, because the alien forces stationed on Earth are second rate troops, hardly the best that the Ethereals have. There are no Muton Elites, no Sectoid Commanders, plasma weapons of shoddy quality (Tygan makes this observation), Sectopods of lower quality than those deployed during the first invasion (worse armor, and a mag cannon instead of a plasma one), and Andromedons (a unit that is clearly not suited for Earth's atmosphere). The Elite units seen on the first invasion left with the rest of the fleet for reasons unknown (maybe the galactic war against the mysterious enemy).

The Angelis is the overseer of the Avatar Project, and is also the leader of the Ethereals tasked with governing Earth. We know that there are thousands of Ethereals living inside the Temple Ship, and they left with the fleet. This is why we only see about 20-30 Ethereals during the final mission. These were the ones that stayed behind to supervise the occupation.

As for the Avatar project, I believed that it was something more than just bodies for The Elders. Avatars have alot of combat prowess, comparable to the Volunteer from the first game. I believe that they are super soldiers meant to turn the tide against the mysterious aliens. When XCOM becomes a big threat to the Angelis' operations, she decides to cut her losses and leave. The Elders are clearly desperate in developing these Avatars, which means that their war must be going badly.


And another, from Jeep-Eep:


I've basically drawn the same conclusion myself. Their stratagems are definitely one of a org operating on a shoestring, by alien standards.

They're pressing their UFO's into service as couriers, FFS. I wouldn't be surprised if many of those convoys, especially when it's early on and things are still quiet overall, are in fact hauling material to portals offworld where it could be more useful.

Edit: Also, I suspect the AVATAR project might survive it's destruction on Earth - they might have lost the facilities, but the knowledge might well escape earth, meaning that, while their bodies might not be as good as what they could make uninterrupted here, they might be able to save themselves and reappear later.


What do you guys think? It's certainly something to think about, at least.
NephilimNexus
Posts: 89
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2017 8:56 am

Re: Here's a very interesting theory regarding XCOM 2's story

Post by NephilimNexus »

I like it. It also coincides well with the ending hint that the Etherials themselves were fleeing another, stronger enemy that hasn't been seen yet.

They are, in their own way, waging a guerilla campaign.
Narcissistic_Martyr
Posts: 17
Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2017 6:34 pm

Re: Here's a very interesting theory regarding XCOM 2's story

Post by Narcissistic_Martyr »

That's possible.

I tend to prefer the, it's all series of simulations run by the commander theory. Where the commander being an alien computer (or a psionic being that acts as such) being tasked to analyze alien battle plans for weaknesses.

The individual games define the base parameters for a possible invasion scenario.

The expansion packs are the aliens allowing some of the commander's ideas that might not fit with humanity's well... humanity to be tested and analyzed in case humanity has a leader that could push them that far.

Look at EU compared to EW... the commander pushed Shen to cross that invisible line and create the MECs and stopped restraining Dr. Vahlen allowing her to experiment with alien genetics. All of which made the fight much easier. I certainly had a higher % of successfully completed iron man games in EU than EW anyways.

Now, remove the commander from the scenario in EW, Shen doesn't get pushed to create the MECs and other invasive tech to combat the aliens, instead opting to develop an AI for a robot, which he can't finish in time. Dr. Vahlen focuses on genetics instead of psionics thus humanity has no psions to save them. Worse still... with no restrictions on Vahlen she eventually makes the Alien rulers out of sheer curiosity.

Ultimately, all the games are just slight alterations to the alien's invasion plans based on the commander's comprehensive analysis of them exposing weaknesses.
Post Reply