Plot-Hole Discussion #1: Corruption of the Dark Aether

[ProjectKMR]

Hey everyone, I'm here to start a series of discussions I'm calling Plot Hole Discussion for the Zombies Storyline. Basically, it's me going on small tangents on incredibly small details in Aether that while they may seem unimportant have a larger purpose in the long-run.

This post will discuss the corruption of the Dark Aether that created the evil of the multi-verse we know as the Apothicons. Former Keepers who turned against their brethren and became agents of pure evil and mass destruction. Thing is, we know that the corruption of the Dark Aether is what created the Apothicons. But there's a glaring issue with this. In the Zombies Timeline shown during the release time of Zombies Chronicles, we get an incredibly interesting look at the true power Dr. Monty has. These three entries in the Timeline are incredibly interesting to look at.

 

"Samantha Arrives: Monty brings Samantha to the House, reuniting her with the Dimension 63 incarnation of her father."

 

"Samantha's Corruption: Knowing that Samantha has been corrupted by the Dark Aether, Monty takes her away from Maxis and the House."

 

"The Restoration of Innocence: Monty returns Samantha to Maxis, her innocence restored."

 

These three entries in the Timeline are interesting because Monty clearly has the powers required to cure corruption of the Dark Aether. Thing is, if this is the case, why doesn't he simply use this power on himself and the Shadowman in the first place? If he were able to do this to all the Apothicons, there would literally be no more troubles in the multi-verse. We learned in Tag Der Toten from Nikolai that Monty himself was corrupted by the Dark Aether trying to desperately save the Shadowman from its clutches. So then, if Monty is corrupted, how come he still is able to align himself with the Keepers rather than the Apothicons? That question is a whole other can of worms as Monty would say, but why couldn't he just simply restore both himself and the Shadowman if he so clearly has the power to wipe the slate clean for someone who was corrupted?

 

I think the answer resides in multiple possible answers that can also raise more questions.

 

My first theory is that Monty simply cannot do that to anybody who is unwilling to go through with it. Because free will exists, Monty cannot just simply do as he pleases to everyone around him. Plain and simple, but a very boring answer.

 

My second theory? Monty simply can't use his powers on other higher-powers. His power to erase the affliction of the Dark Aether can only work on mortals who come into contact with it. Hence why he cannot prevent Apothicons from coming into existence.

 

Final theory is probably my favorite of the bunch. The story of the Yin-and-Yang. Good, cannot exist without the presence of evil. While Monty can at least prevent some people from becoming afflicted by evil, he cannot prevent all from becoming evil simply because Fate willed both to exist at the same time, forever and ever. It's a paradox that will always be around even in our world. There will never be only good with no evil or evil without any good in the world, regardless of what world you're in. I mean think about this, even in stories have you ever heard of there being absolutely no good willed individuals in said world? Every story at the root of it all is good vs evil. Without one another, there simply wouldn't be anything in existence. If Monty were to make an attempt to rid evil completely, he'd have to rid himself and everything he stands for as well. Sure, he has the power to likely do it, but at what cost?

 

What do you guys think? Let me know down below, we can continue the conversation there as I've given my take. I wanna hear yours. 

[anonymous]

I think it the fact that Monty cannot de-corrupt the Apothicans because the creatures have been contaminated with the Dark Aether for way too long. It is even said that the appearance of the Apothicans is thanks to evolution, which is a product of natural selection. I imagine some kind of alien, extradimensional ecosystem with all kinds of Apothicans wandering around, the with the strongest surviving.

Either that or the Apothicans are manifestations of the Dark Aether, literally. We see them spawning in as some kind of ball of energy. Maybe it is just Dark Ethereal energy from a lower dimension taking a form in our 3 dimensional universe, so it becomes perceivable to us. Energy becomes matter, E=m*c2. 

 

Anyway, coming back on your topic, I think the Apothicans have simply become too corrupt. In fact, they are so much influenced by the Dark Aether that they pretty much became the definition of the Dark Aether. As much as the Dark Aether is the place they live, the energy, the Apothicans theirselves are the organisms. The groundtroops, if you will.

 

But you raise a good point: How can Monty simply restore Samantha's innocence? Maybe it is because she still is a child, as Richthofen also needed a child-version of himself to restore his own innocence. If Monty could simply restore anyone's innocence, he could also de-corrupt Maxis, rather than whiping him out of existence. Maybe "restoring innocence" means killing the original version and making some kind of clone. If that would be the case, I don't want to know what Monty did to Samantha when he took her away from her father. It's stuff to think about, you'll hear more from me later.

 

Look forward to other's replies, as well as your next PHD episode (pun not intended)!

[anonymous]

Oh and by the way I just read somewhere that in Lovecraft's works, the tentacles aren't really 'tentacles'. It's more that they're pieces of the being floating in and out of dimensions and that our mind can only comprehend them as tentacles. Tentacles are our perspective of the 4th dimension. Carl Sagan's Flatland describes this phenomenon fairly well:

 

[ProjectKMR]

11 minutes ago, anonymous said:

I think it the fact that Monty cannot de-corrupt the Apothicans because the creatures have been contaminated with the Dark Aether for way too long. It is even said that the appearance of the Apothicans is thanks to evolution, which is a product of natural selection. I imagine some kind of alien, extradimensional ecosystem with all kinds of Apothicans wandering around, the with the strongest surviving.

Either that or the Apothicans are manifestations of the Dark Aether, literally. We see them spawning in as some kind of ball of energy. Maybe it is just Dark Ethereal energy from a lower dimension taking a form in our 3 dimensional universe, so it becomes perceivable to us. Energy becomes matter, E=m*c2. 

 

Anyway, coming back on your topic, I think the Apothicans have simply become too corrupt. In fact, they are so much influenced by the Dark Aether that they pretty much became the definition of the Dark Aether. As much as the Dark Aether is the place they live, the energy, the Apothicans theirselves are the organisms. The groundtroops, if you will.

 

But you raise a good point: How can Monty simply restore Samantha's innocence? Maybe it is because she still is a child, as Richthofen also needed a child-version of himself to restore his own innocence. If Monty could simply restore anyone's innocence, he could also de-corrupt Maxis, rather than whiping him out of existence. Maybe "restoring innocence" means killing the original version and making some kind of clone. If that would be the case, I don't want to know what Monty did to Samantha when he took her away from her father. It's stuff to think about, you'll hear more from me later.

 

Look forward to other's replies, as well as your next PHD episode (pun not intended)!

What I find superbly strange is that Richtofen had to kill his younger, child self in order to retrieve his innocent soul yet the others are restricted to having to kill their adult-selves who have been through some shit. Especially Nikolai and Takeo. If they're going after innocent souls, why would they be going for the souls that have been through so much? Being through a lot can ruin innocence, but yet there they are collecting that specific soul. It just doesn't make sense to me. 

[KronoriumExcerptB]

Well all we know about the BO3 plan is that Maxis says they have to get those specific souls at those specific times or it won't work. 

 

Maybe only one version of them in the universe can have their soul extracted? It's not really explained

[ProjectKMR]

3 hours ago, KronoriumExcerptB said:

Well all we know about the BO3 plan is that Maxis says they have to get those specific souls at those specific times or it won't work. 

 

Maybe only one version of them in the universe can have their soul extracted? It's not really explained

If the reason will forever remain unexplained, I feel like that will be one of the few things I will actually take issue with never being explained.

[RadZakpak]

I would chock Monty's inability to de-corrupt himself up to the classic writing trope of not being able to perform some sort of life-saving magic on yourself, as a form of irony. In the words of Chancellor Palpatine:

Quote

Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself.

In-Universe however I think he is simply too old a being to be able to reverse the process, as said above. Though, a neat head-canon would be that he tried to do that to another equally-powerful being, i.e. the Shadowman, but ended up corrupting him even further. Or that he did try to do it upon himself, but ended up splitting himself in two, the worse half becoming the Shadowman.

 

57 minutes ago, ProjectKMR said:

If the reason will forever remain unexplained, I feel like that will be one of the few things I will actually take issue with never being explained.

This is worthy of another thread in and of itself! I could go on about the symbolism of these characters and why these specific versions may have had to die.

[Inconcievable]

It's probably worth mentioning that, circa AO's end cutscene, Samantha doesn't exactly subscribe to being an innocent creature. More... the same?

 

I think innocence in this sense of the term is probably a façade of the perfect world Monty created, if anything. He wants them to believe they're content, that they're innocent and the like. It's a matter of pure manipulation.

[ProjectKMR]

1 minute ago, The Meh said:

It's probably worth mentioning that, circa AO's end cutscene, Samantha doesn't exactly subscribe to being an innocent creature. More... the same?

 

I think innocence in this sense of the term is probably a façade of the perfect world Monty created, if anything. He wants them to believe they're content, that they're innocent and the like. It's a matter of pure manipulation.

That's an incredibly interesting take that I cannot say I thought of. I think you may actually be right about this now that you say it