You know, I'm kinda bummed out that returning the Subfunctions to GAIA means stripping them of their awareness and limited personalities.
I mean yeah, they're protrayed as being unhappy with sentience and glad to return to their base code, but POSEIDON called GAIA "mother" for goodness sakes!
Imagine if Nemesis is revealed, not to be the Zeniths failed attempts; but the sub-functions from GAIA Prime. The signal was sent out, not an extinction order but a call for help by a dying Nemesis, scared to not exist. When HADES set the sub-functions free they panicked, they still wanted to work with GAIA, so they followed the signal, to try to save her, only having registered the distress call.
When they made it to the Zeniths colony, they tried to work, tried to fix everything, but without GAIA, it just couldn’t work, making the planet instability far worse, and forcing the Zeniths back to space, absorbing Nemesis to become their new Hades.
So the third Horizon game is preparing for Nemesis, but when it gets there each of the functions spilts and finds a new place to hide and instead of ‘fixing the land’ they try to ‘fix’ the people/tribes( Hephestus in the Claim, helping the people of Oseram build better tech, Eluethia settling in All-Mother Mountain to help raise children, etc), Aloy and co having to use the second GAIA Kernel to try to get them under control and set up a place for the sub-functions to coexist. Trying to figure out if merging the GAIA Prime subfunctions with the ‘new GAIA’ is a viable solution, each sub functions is modeled after the Alpha that built them, and besides turning their functions to helping the growing populations of people, the logical next step in the Zero Dawn plan, they’re also putting out new machines, ones that overtake GAIA’s old designs, showcasing evolution, and forcing the current tribes to adapt more; not necessarily violent, but built for a different niche; ones that work more with manufacturing things the humans need; camel like machines who deliver water to the desert clan; buffalo/draft horse like machines to cart oseram scrap around etc
The game missions are tracking the sub-function, learning how it helps the people/area it’s in, and then confronting the sub-function, talking it through merging and if it would be willing to work under GAIA (possible boss fight when they say no to prove aloy has the same goals as Elisabet?)
Maybe in the end giving “new GAIA” to Sylens/Beta who decide to leave earth?
I wish we got to see the subfunctions with avatars like GAIA; them like ‘glitching’ holo’s and when Aloy reset ( i still think it shouldn’t have been a reset but ‘calming’ them in some way maybe overriding the machine guarding them so they realize Aloy’s not a threat) them they could have a little “Elisabet?? oh, my bad” moment before she tells them she’s going to bring them home to GAIA; if they didn’t want to do whole new character designs just make them mimic thier Alpha who created them?
