~Samuel Stuhlinger~ Why He Hears What Others Cannot

[Electric Jesus]

I came up with this idea after posting in the asylum.

Anyway, first I'd like to address the actual voice itself.

One bit of confusion people seem to be encountering is that they believe the "Demon Voice" Samuel hears us some unknown entity. However it is actually just Richtofen. Listen to the last thing it says in the opening scene. If you listen hard it says "accept your fate; begin anew!" which is what richtofen says immediately afterwards. It seems he is just repeating himself in a different voice.

Now, why does he change his voice?

We know Samuel is the only one who hears the demon voice. Perhaps the answer is more obvious than we thought. He is simply throwing his voice beyond Misty, Russman, and Marlton's range of hearing. For whatever reason he chooses to address Samuel individually sometimes, in which case he uses a voice beyond the others' perception.

Now this still leaves us with two big questions:

Why does richtofen choose to target Samuel specifically?

What makes Samuel's range of hearing greater than normal?

That is what I want to discuss here.

[Verrückt]

But why does Richtofen use his normal voice in TranZit, yet telling Samuel he is the only one that can hear him?

[Shooter]

I was under the impression Samuel can hear Richtofen because he has consumed an unknown amount of undead flesh. We know 115 is within the flesh of the undead, and by Samuel consuming it, he consumes small amounts of raw 115. This is what causes Samuel to be able to hear Richtofen and vice versa, and is most likely why the others heard in various radios could hear Richtofen as well. Members of the flesh would undoubtedly be haunted by Richtofen as consuming the 115 filled flesh.

As for the voice, the garbled voice may just be how Samuel hears Richtofen in his head. The end of the cutscene where Richtofen's voice is clearly heard may have just been Treyarch's way of letting us know who the voice was.

[Outcognito]

In Tranzit Richtofen tells Samuel he is the only one who can hear him.

[MysteryMachineX]

Samantha could control her voice, making it go from her sweet, little girl voice to her demonic voice. Up until now, we had only heard Richtofen's "normal" voice. We are now seeing his demonic voice.

And I agree that Samuel's connection is likely to do with The Flesh.

[bagel_]

I agree with Shooter and MMX, but one extra thing I want to add is that I think is that the reason the others can hear Richtofen as well is related to the drops. That is the only other time they hear him, and possibly because the drops have some link to the Aether.

[fryingpan57]

I can't say I agree that Samuel was a part of the cult like Flesh, I think when Samuel refers to the flesh in the cutscene, he refers to it a literally the flesh, as in zombie meat. The Flesh as in the cult, on the other hand were able to hear Richtofen once but by the speech the cult leader and how "he" abandoned them are no longer able to hear Richtofen. My thinking is that The Flesh are a group of average people that were coerced into eating 115 filled zombie meat, after this Richtofen commanded them to do his bidding, which after doing his tasks, Richtofen ceased communications with them, which made them angry. My other theory which makes a bit more sense is that, juding by the crying woman on the radio from Die Rise, Richtofen is communicating to people who have eaten the flesh but are not completing their assigned tasks correctly so Richtofen ceases communications with them, the Flesh could be people who did not do Richtofen's bidding correctly. As to why Richtofen chose Samuel and stopped talking to these cult members, maybe Samuel is the only person who is doing Richtofen's assigned tasks correctly or is the only person who has a well enough coordinated/equiped group.

[MysteryMachineX]

I can't say I agree that Samuel was a part of the cult like Flesh, I think when Samuel refers to the flesh in the cutscene, he refers to it a literally the flesh, as in zombie meat. The Flesh as in the cult, on the other hand were able to hear Richtofen once but by the speech the cult leader and how "he" abandoned them are no longer able to hear Richtofen. My thinking is that The Flesh are a group of average people that were coerced into eating 115 filled zombie meat, after this Richtofen commanded them to do his bidding, which after doing his tasks, Richtofen ceased communications with them, which made them angry. My other theory which makes a bit more sense is that, juding by the crying woman on the radio from Die Rise, Richtofen is communicating to people who have eaten the flesh but are not completing their assigned tasks correctly so Richtofen ceases communications with them, the Flesh could be people who did not do Richtofen's bidding correctly. As to why Richtofen chose Samuel and stopped talking to these cult members, maybe Samuel is the only person who is doing Richtofen's assigned tasks correctly or is the only person who has a well enough coordinated/equiped group.

Stuhlanger talks many times about eating human flesh. In the cutscene, we see him do it. Not just any human flesh, but zombie flesh. Who eats zombie flesh? The Flesh. Therefore Samuel is part of The Flesh.

When the spokesperson says "He" has abandoned us, he is making a reference to God. He was pointing out that both science and religion have failed humanity.

[Verrückt]

I can't say I agree that Samuel was a part of the cult like Flesh, I think when Samuel refers to the flesh in the cutscene, he refers to it a literally the flesh, as in zombie meat. The Flesh as in the cult, on the other hand were able to hear Richtofen once but by the speech the cult leader and how "he" abandoned them are no longer able to hear Richtofen. My thinking is that The Flesh are a group of average people that were coerced into eating 115 filled zombie meat, after this Richtofen commanded them to do his bidding, which after doing his tasks, Richtofen ceased communications with them, which made them angry. My other theory which makes a bit more sense is that, juding by the crying woman on the radio from Die Rise, Richtofen is communicating to people who have eaten the flesh but are not completing their assigned tasks correctly so Richtofen ceases communications with them, the Flesh could be people who did not do Richtofen's bidding correctly. As to why Richtofen chose Samuel and stopped talking to these cult members, maybe Samuel is the only person who is doing Richtofen's assigned tasks correctly or is the only person who has a well enough coordinated/equiped group.

Stuhlanger talks many times about eating human flesh. In the cutscene, we see him do it. Not just any human flesh, but zombie flesh. Who eats zombie flesh? The Flesh. Therefore Samuel is part of The Flesh.

When the spokesperson says "He" has abandoned us, he is making a reference to God. He was pointing out that both science and religion have failed humanity.

I agree with the second point, but about the first one... Just because he ate zombie flesh doesn't mean he is part of The Flesh. Remember, the spokesperson was heard in TranZit, he was told to eat flesh by a voice. It was a voice telling them to eat flesh, Stu might have listened to the voice and never knew what is The Flesh society.

By the way, Jackass Flats soldiers or whoever that was also heard voices. I don't think Richtofen talks only to the people who eat flesh.

[CrazyTrain0917]

As the announcer, everyone can hear Richtofen. All of the characters have comments talking to the announcer for ammo etc..

Stu is obviously the only one hearing voices. I'm thinking the same voices that Richtofen used to hear in Black Ops 1. This is likely whoever's driving at the time (Sam/Richtofen)

It's definitely Richtofen on Transit so why wouldn't it be him on Die Rise? The question is why? Why Stu and not the others. There's some back story that we haven't seen yet.

Consuming zombie flesh is the likely culprit in my opinion. Stu insinuates he has consumed zombie flesh, so as per above maybe this gives him some sort of link with Richtofen directly. I don't think it's a "range of hearing" thing as much as I think it's a supernatural subconscious type thing from consuming 115. This means in ways Richtofen can control Stu. He hasn't been completely consumed like the zombies have but he has enough in his system that he can start to hear the driver.

[83457]

Everyone can hear Ric say ka-boom or instakill, only Samuel can hear his directions.

Samuel also hears garbled zombie thoughts continuously, which are clearly not Ric.

[Electric Jesus]

Honestly I know treyarch say they have meaning behind everything, but when it comes to the other characters being able to hear the drops, that is likely for a sort of obvious reason.

Gameplay. obviously they want all of the PLAYERS to know what drop they got, which gives them a reason to allow all the players to hear his voice. Otherwise Sam's player would have to tell everyone what drop he got, and that would just be stupid.

For the actual storyline you could simply say that richtofen wants to give the characters a little bit of a break and make his game of toying with them more enjoyable giving them a fighting chance.

Verrückt's point is the main flaw in this idea. Plus as y'all said the flesh is likely the reason he can hear Richtofen. However, What about the flesh makes him able to hear richtofen? We know the zombie's can hear him because they do his bidding. As Crazy Train said it might make him ever so slightly 115-ified, granting contact (albeit minuscule) with the aether, which is the "dimension" from which richtofen operates.

[bagel_]

I still think Richtofen can only talk to the ones who have consumed the Flesh. As it's been stated, the other characters only hear Richtofen during the drops, but disregarding gameplay, there could be some connection to the Aether through them, right? We hear one of his audio quotes say, if we don't pick up a drop, "That gift as just for YOU!" My guess is it was somehow transferred from the Aether to the body of the zombie.

Rictofen also says to Samuel, "You appear to be the only one of your friends that can hear me" back at TranZit when the power gets turned on. Now, why would Samuel be special for hearing Richtofen and eating the Flesh not be connected given the possibility? I just don't see why people eating flesh filled with 115 would mean nothing of actual importance in the storyline. I believe there must be a correlation between getting the 115 into your system via the Flesh and hearing Richtofen. Otherwise, everyone would probably just listen to Richtofen instead of thinking it's a hallucination. That's why at Jackass Flats, they all fought each other. They probably were split between listening to Maxis and Richtofen. Before anyone raises a finger to say Maxis wasn't there, we hear him in the same TV transmission as the survivors from Jackass Flats.

Everyone can hear Ric say ka-boom or instakill, only Samuel can hear his directions.

Samuel also hears garbled zombie thoughts continuously, hich are clearly not Ric.

Pertaining to this:

yzlRG3fyG50

(Skip to 1:05.)

This is what EJ was talking about in the OP. Though it could be another voice that we haven't seen before giving the literal exact same instructions as Richtofen, I find that unlikely. Plus, we have no proof to show it's a zombie's thoughts, but we do for it being Richtofen. It's more likely to be Richtofen IMO.

I don't mean to jump on everybody's backs, but, there is evidence. Why shoot down the idea when we don't have anything to prove it wrong?