In-Depth Analysis of 'insurance policy'

[AlphaOmega]

Hello everyone! I’m here today to go very in-depth about the infamous ‘insurance policy’ that Richtofen talks about at the end of the Zetsubou no Shima EE.

Spoilers ahead!

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So let’s begin with the exact dialogue:

Dempsey: Gotta admit: didn’t see that coming.

Richtofen: Call it…our insurance policy. In case we don’t like were we end up.

So let’s start exactly at Dempsey’s part. He didn’t see this coming. We should try to narrow this down in an opposite way, in that what he HAS seen.

-Memories of Dempsey 1.0

-Dimensional travel and time distortion; Agartha, alternate universes

-Apothicons, Keepers, and other worldly beings (BUT NOT THE GIANT MONSTER FROM SOE)

-The summoning key and most of its abilities

-Gruesome experiments of group 935 and Division 9

-He knows enough about Richtofen’s plan to carry it out himself (evidenced by round 1 quotes)

-Supernatural forces from beyond the grave (Ghost wolf, demons, mother nature)

-The effects of 115

So where does that leave us? Well, hard to say. In a sense: Dempsey has seen a lot of SHIT but this takes the cake. It is on a level that even at this stage, he could not have forseen what just occurred. At most, it has to top BLOWING UP THE MOON and killing himself. But before we speculate what that could be, lets look at Richtofen’s quote.

This is the real meat of the controversy. Richtofen calls whatever they just did their ‘insurance policy’. It is important in how it was phrased: he is simply “calling it” that. That means he is either downplaying it from something very big and unimagineable or playing it up from something that doesn’t seem super exciting. From Dempsey’s quotes, we could hazard the guess that it is something BIG.

The next part is “In case”. Seems small, and a fragment sentence, but it speaks volumes when spoken by Richtofen. By now, we have established he has a “plan”. However, just by this statement, he obviously has doubts about where it could go. This means that he has knowledge of multiple outcomes. With that, he has devised an alternate plan to ensure…hmm…we don’t actually know. All we know is that he will “bring order to the universe” and that only “he can do what is necessary to fix the universes”. We know he is taking the souls of the 1.0s but we don’t know what they will be used for. We ASSUME it is a ritual, but that’s mainly conjecture, though provided has good evidence.

Let’s move away from our quotes stated above for a moment. Going back to Richtofen being alive as a necessity to achieve their goals, why is it just him? More importantly, if he is the main person that needs to be kept alive and trusted, why does he bother to get insurance for everyone on the team? Honestly, I have no idea and I don’t want to point directions until we know more. Back to the quotes above.

“Where we end up”. This phrase is the real question, not what the “insurance policy” is. This single phrase is proof that Richtofen is aware or knows a few things:

-They failed (They never reached their goal, they died)

-The PLAN failed (The plan was useless, it changed nothing)

-They did not make it to a specific place (They meant to land at A but instead got stranded at C)

-They were too late (Damage is irreversible; they are in a position where they cannot continue)

All these scenarios would merit Richtofen to create this “insurance policy”. But the bigger questions should be “If we went through such lengths for an insurance policy, what could our future hold?” After all, the bigger the gun, the bigger the threat it is meant to kill. So what is that scope of which traversing another universe could be necessary to insure that there was a way to have a plan B? Again, I have no answer as I feel we need more exposition.

Lastly, let us actually look at the meaning of an insurance policy. An insurance policy, by strictest definition, is when an insurer is paid by someone to cover a problem in case of an emergency. Example: you pay a premium to ensure that your car’s damages will be paid for by the insurer. But that’s a monetary ideal. Let’s talk from a…different view.

Richtofen did an ACTION, before an emergency or disaster, that ENSURED a SPECIFIC OUTCOME if things go WRONG. Furthermore, this was a SPECIFIC ACTION. It is meant to counteract a SPECIFIC SITUATION or SITUATIONS that may arise. When we break it down like that, there is a bit more that we can glean a bit more info about this ‘insurance policy’.

-He knows of other outcomes and that his plan may have flaws.

-He somehow has knowledge of an action in another dimension or place that may influence what they do in the future.

-Whatever this insurance policy is, it was not only worth it to get it but it is also powerful enough to fix if they fail to “bring order to the universe”.

This isn’t just some little thing about the blood vials. They did something to get those vials and those actions have consequences too. But until we know more, we can only assume.

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Thank you for reading. Please leave feedback in the comments! I’d like to hear more theories and some that challenge what I’ve stated; that’s how we get to a good theory.

[tEfugleskremmel]

@AlphaOmega Excellent read sir! Much more in depth than some of the other stuff I've seen regarding this topic. I appreciate that you actually thought to look into HOW Richtofen and Dempsey speak and not just what they say. Many people forget that it's not just what someone says, but the inflections et al. in what they say. 

What we've always known about Richtofen is that he is a very purposeful man. Whether it's his actions or his words, there's alway purpose there. While in Black Ops 1 he surely leads on the others, it doesn't change that he had a plan then too. Or that every step had weight to it. We're in a similar boat with what is happening now. In storytelling there is a classic structure that we are currently adhering to:

1. Initial Harmony: Before 115 discovery

2. Disruption of Harmony: Group 935 work with 115, WWI and WWII

3. A Hero or Heroes are found: Our 4, Maxis, new character "M"

4. A Plan is formed: Maxis/Richtofen, the Kronorium

5. The Quest and Trials of the Hero(s): Summoning Key, Rituals, The Giant-Present and beyond

6. Resolution: Remains to be seen

I believe that this insurance policy was formed during his plan, obviously. Not for an expected outcome, but for something he fears could jeopardize everything. Given how foreshadowing works, we will either see them enact the policy to solve a problem OR to gain an unexpected leg up on the adversary. This usually occurs when the hero(s) discover an exploit or flaw in their opponent. The outcome for the plan and other steps therein remain unchanged. 

As for speculation on the new sets of blood vials. Seeing as we now have four sets of two, I see it as unlikely it's all four MOTD characters. Rather, it's possible that each of our characters posses the blood of two characters from various sets of teams we've seen in the past. Be it the Five crew, COTD crew, members of Ascension group, the Tranzit crew or other characters we've seen in the past (Brock/Gary, Gersch/Yuri, Groph/Schuster). The plan is to set things right, and all of these characters had a hand in things going tits up in the past. Therefore, it stand to reason we need these blood vials for a similar reason we're collecting the souls of the O4. 

Things are getting pretty exciting though!

[Electric Jesus]

You know, I almost got the impression that it had to be something along the lines of the movie The Prestige. Zombies has already drawn inspiration from that film, such as in Kino aesthetically. Anyway in that movie, it's revealed that every time someone teleports, actually 2 of them come out the other end, and the version of the dude at the end is just the one of many copies that incidentally survived the whole movie, unlike the rest.

 

Anyway something kinda similar is the Gene imprint plant things on Zetsubou, that act like an auto-detonating time-bomb to an extent. You pop out with all the perks you had at the time of leaving your genetic material there. I think maybe Richtofen's insurance policy is like that. In case they die or end up in a shitty place, they can just kill themselves and let their clones carry on and hopefully not mess up. The MotD vials were probably just what Richtofen used as a test sample of DNA from someone else. He could have potentially literally cloned the MotD characters on Zetsubou just for verification. Then he realized, ok this is possible, and took the other 3 to get blood vials of alternate versions of themselves. Or maybe he just literally took all of them to a doctor's office and drew their own blood.

 

This explains why he didn't choose to call in this insurance policy until Zetsubou. He didn't have confirmation that cloning himself would work until Zetsubou. I still can't say why of all people his test trial would have blood from MotD. Anyway I suspect that it has to do with saving "back-up selves" with the blood. 

[PINNAZ]

Could it be ????? @Electric Jesus

 

Glad you are still around old mate 

[Electric Jesus]

I never left, Dad. Still play the hell out of Zombies, finally got the Zetsubou egg today in fact. Just not quite[/] enough time to deal with life, play, AND talk about it here. But by god I'll make time. 

[Stop Mocking Me0]

"Didn't see that coming" can mean just about anything.  

The insurance policy is even more of an enigma. It could be a backup plan for the key, the kronorium, time travel, the loop, rituals.... List goes on. 

[JJ2380]

Phew is this an old post. But I have some different theories. I've been recently doing extensive research on this "insurance policy" because I beleive it will come into play very soon. I beleive this all revolves around the blood vials. 

 

The players from MotD all have the ability to travel into the afterlife. An ability Richtofen may want to use as an insurance policy. If they "don't like where they end up" , they have the afterlife to fall back on. Richtofen has The Weasel as the useful blood and the other as a baseline. 

 

I originally thought the insurance policy was something along the lines of the insurance policy in the movie Primer (spoilers) . Their insurance policy was to go to the beginning if all else fails. But, as you said, Dempsey didn't see it coming. So it had to be some crazy shit for him to not see it coming. That's why I crossed that theory off. 

 

No matter what theory I have written down, 95% of them revolve around those damn blood vials. 

 

[anonymous]

On ‎6‎-‎2‎-‎2017 at 6:34 PM, JJ2380 said:

On ‎6‎-‎2‎-‎2017 at 6:34 PM, JJ2380 said:

Phew is this an old post. But I have some different theories. I've been recently doing extensive research on this "insurance policy" because I beleive it will come into play very soon. I beleive this all revolves around the blood vials. 

 

The players from MotD all have the ability to travel into the afterlife. An ability Richtofen may want to use as an insurance policy. If they "don't like where they end up" , they have the afterlife to fall back on. Richtofen has The Weasel as the useful blood and the other as a baseline. 

 

I originally thought the insurance policy was something along the lines of the insurance policy in the movie Primer (spoilers) . Their insurance policy was to go to the beginning if all else fails. But, as you said, Dempsey didn't see it coming. So it had to be some crazy shit for him to not see it coming. That's why I crossed that theory off. 

 

No matter what theory I have written down, 95% of them revolve around those damn blood vials. 

 

WaWPhew is this an old post. But I have some different theories. I've been recently doing extensive research on this "insurance policy" because I beleive it will come into play very soon. I beleive this all revolves around the blood vials. 

 

The players from MotD all have the ability to travel into the afterlife. An ability Richtofen may want to use as an insurance policy. If they "don't like where they end up" , they have the afterlife to fall back on. Richtofen has The Weasel as the useful blood and the other as a baseline. 

 

I originally thought the insurance policy was something along the lines of the insurance policy in the movie Primer (spoilers) . Their insurance policy was to go to the beginning if all else fails. But, as you said, Dempsey didn't see it coming. So it had to be some crazy shit for him to not see it coming. That's why I crossed that theory off. 

 

No matter what theory I have written down, 95% of them revolve around those damn blood vials. 

 

I agree with you that the "insurance policy" probably stands for the bloodvials. There are still so many mysteries around 'em. Its one of the things I still don't fully understand in the endcutscene of Revelations: Maxis takes the bloodvials, and the Primis disappear to the Middle Ages. Why? And then there is the Icarus plane of MotD seeable in most maps (if not every map). The plane crashes in the Giant, the map where we see Primis (excluding Richthofen) for the first time in BO3). Coincidence?

[InfestLithium]

Something interesting about the ending of ZNS:

 

This would be the first time that the group (excluding Richtofen) retrieves the blood vials, correct? Up until this point, Richtofen did not have a plan for the other three heroes to be part of the insurance policy up until witnessing Takeo have selft-conflictment.

 

In Mob of the Dead, Al has a quote along the lines of "Nikolai, Nikolai...why do I keep hearing that name?" For the longest time, we couldn't theorize why he was hearing that because it didn't make sense. But now it does.

 

The events of Mob of the Dead are taking place at the same time Richtofen takes the others to retrieve the blood vials, or at least within the same timeframe that the mobsters in Alcatraz are in purgatory.

 

The only question becomes how exactly they went about getting the blood. Did Richtofen obtain the blood samples upon death of the inmates, or did he successfully get into purgatory during the cycle to get them? Obviously, Richtofen had done it before with himself so he had the procedure ready for another attempt. Dempsey's quote about astonishment tells me that they didn't get blood a few dead bodies...it had to be something really odd and unexpected. I'm thinking that they somehow entered the realm of purgatory via the Summoning Key, although I can't quite specify when it occurred. Possibly before the 2nd cycle was introduced? [Note: 2nd cycle being where Al kills the night guard Ferguson, changing the outcome of the loop.]

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Now backtracking to what the insurance policy is really for, we understand that Richtofen was going to deal with it alone. Had the others not drank the blood, they would fade as well from existence except Richtofen. I don't believe that Richtofen truly knew that he'd fade until he stopped trusting Maxis due to Monty being involved. Once that occurred, he probably began assuming that collecting the pure souls of their former selves would mean they - the 2.0s - would be wiped out in some way...unwelcome in what "secured future" was to come.

 

Monty says himself that the blood vials were from "realities that are already closed off". Already? As in, not closed off after Revelations? Could it be possible that it was Monty who helped Al break the cycle in Mob of the Dead in order to close it off for good? Because according to Monty, the undead are not suited for a perfect world, and thus, are considered a dilemna to keep in any dimension/universe, even in a purgatory apparently...

 

That leads us to  a reasonable conclusion regarding the blood vials: the blood itself is not so important. What is, however, is that they originate in a universe that was closed off from any other universal interaction where it didn't belong. Which means the events at Alcatraz stay right where they are with no Devil, no zombies, nada. In fact, you could even say that the mobsters never go into the purgatory they experience in Mob of the Dead.

 

Since the blood is literally within the four heroes, they just left a small hole within MotD's universe, which exposes it to other universes. That is why Monty is upset - because he wants ALL ties with the universes closed off, as they were prior to Group 935 "fracturing" the universe via the first teleportation. This opening allows for Richtofen in the crew to bounce between both universes, and possibly more given the supernatural circumstances around Mob of the Dead.

 

In a nuthshell: the blood vials are from the closed-off universe of Mob of the Dead, which creates a potential gateway into other universes that Monty does not want and thus the four 2.0s can [almost] freely roam between dimensions.

 

That's what the blood vials are for - they do not hold a "second chance" other than being able to continue existing where possible.