#ultrakill theory

[disasteradam]

my prediction for Treachery

Original image if anyone wanted it lol

[halluciniwaynia]

the cybergrind terminals having a custom music playlist that v1 can access implies all of the music that you, the player upload into the game is music that was not only produced in the world of ultrakill but also considered important enough by the terminals to keep around for the possibility of machines entering the cybergrind in order to keep them coming back and enriched, since machines have an appreciation of music that the terminals already use to lure them in and develop a symbiotic relationship with them

this means 100 gecs can be canon to the world of ultrakill along with neil ciceriga, should you upload their music into your cybergrind playlist.

[shkika]

Since my wrist is killing me and I can't draw, have my ramblings about machines having souls and being able to become husks and also just Ultrakill thoughts! Predictions about the ending if you squint??

im just having fun here

Like I'm so deranged about how machines being intelligent and actually conscious is handled in Ultrakill. The build-up, even if accidental(?), is SO SO CLEVER and gradual (as gradual as ultrakill can get). How that fits into the overall narrative and how the tragedy of this game manages to be so awesome??

First with how I love the way "Machines are living beings" idea is handled. It starts from the introduction and establishes the world so well in so few words it's so lovely. You get introduced to the machines as war weapons. They need blood to survive and humanity has been eradicated. That's all you need to know.

You start with the basic information that these machines don't want to die. Which makes sense, it doesn't have to mean they are actually alive. It makes sense a machine would look for any way possible to keep itself running to continue doing it's job.

And then immediately in the prelude you meet the Swordsmachine. A part of a specific group of machines the terminal calls "scrapheads" which modify their own bodies. While at first that does not ring as anything that's especially noteworthy. A machine trying to upgrade itself is nothing unheard of. It's to be better, stronger, more efficient.

Except that's not exactly what the Swordmachine design is about according to the game. It is mentioned to have very impressive combat prowess compared to other machines, however what it is also referred to as is "beautiful". The design is appreciated almost like a piece of art. And some of it's parts don't even wield a practical purpose, the mentioned example being it's voice box.

It is not ONLY about utility. It is also about art!!

Alright. That's interesting. Let's give an even more outrageous example. Skipping Limbo for now, there is lust where we are introduced to Mindflayers. Which?? Are so wild??? And mysterious? We don't know what and when they were made for (ALTHOUGH I VERY MUCH HAVE HEADCANONS ABOUT IT) their bodies are described as completely seperate and useless to the machine. And yet it is stated they act very lovingly and take care of their bodies. So much so in fact that they SELF-DESTRUCT if it is harmed.

V2 in the first fight is a rival to you as any other machine, however once it's arm is stripped away from V1 the confrontation becomes PERSONAL. The second fight is not simply about the lack of resources anymore. It is to reclaim what was lost. Whether that be the arm or something else. Even the very terminal entry itself calls it revenge.

And of course. With Violence it is revealed that with all of this. Machines can also make other forms of art like poetry. Which is even more interesting is that the machine which did that was first EVER machine to use blood mind you. An extremely old design, yet it could make art to express it's feelings.

Machines are capable of modifying, changing, expressing and LOVING themselves. They make art and some are frequently seen attacking you in groups! Those are clearly intelligent beings. And I mean. Duh. everyone playing Ultrakill knows that. Obviously. Like. Yeah.

So then why isn't the fact that these walking weapons probably have souls more discussed? What makes a soul? Why would machines not have them? If they can do all that people can on an emotional level.

And what happens when these machines die? What exactly is stopping them from ending up hell? Obviously heaven is unobtainable. Their very reason for existence, is to cause pain and suffering. The means through which they need to keep themselves alive is to cause suffering. It makes sense they'd all become hells beloved children. Doing what is in their nature is an art form to it.

What's even more is that the game itself supports the idea that some are souls. Surely hell cannot create them since everything made by hell are demons, which are very easy to recognize by the stone exterior.(?? unless im wrong??)

And there is no feasible way for machines like the Guttermen and Earthmovers to be their actual living counterparts. On a basic level they LACK the means to be alive. The people inside the Guttermen need to be alive in order for them to function. When opening them in-game they are just skeletons. Nobody has been supplying them with blood for a long time. Because it's hell. The game itself states that death is a luxury in hell. It does not happen easy.

Earthmovers need sunlight to power them. And the game specifically put them in an area that is clouded. There is none to be seen in violence. No they are just trapped in place, forced to shoot each other for all of eternity.

Machines, when they die… go to hell! Probably!

Some of the machines you kill, perhaps reccuring enemies go to hell (Thank u l@/little-tornad0 for the addition hehe)

When you die.

You respawn! Hell keeps you going. Hell wants torture. Hell wants bloodshed. Hell wants entertainment and you are the purest form of it.

It makes me think a lot about the potential ending of the game. About the themes. I don't think this means inherently that hell is a perfect self-sustaining organism that can go on like this forever. Gabriel says machines are destroying it and leaving nothing behind. Things are clearly going south in some way. And it'd fit the themes better if it was all going to uh.. hell lol. If it was all going to collapse. From the main theme of the game literally being "The fire is gone" to the name of the last chapter literally being named "Godfist suicide"

Also for what it's worth the Mirage secret is awesome meta-commentary on the idea that everything will die. Everything is destined to end. It is up to you how your each that end.

I think this is what Ultrakill will kind of be about at the end maybe. Gabriel will die out with a bang doing what he wants.

V1 itself is clearly NOT killing efficiently to survive, but for fun. Before it all ends. It's going out with a bang.

And with no new humans or machines that can enter hell in the long run. Perhaps it's very being too will decide it wants to go out with a bang.

In short. uh machines have souls. everything will die but not in a sad way. but in a very cool awesome way. thats pr awesomesauce

[wawaisme786]

Okok right I have no idea if this has already been said but a theory for something wicked:

So we know after the revamp that something wicked’s basically just a cardiovascular system and a lifeless heart. But what else do we know that features a distinct cardiovascular system?

Prime souls!!!

The terminal entry states some speculate something wicked to be a husk that failed to fully form, but what if it’s really a prime soul that failed to fully form, and has somehow found its way to prelude.

The fact that it’s much larger than any husk we see in game would support this and the fact it can kill any life from through just touch links with the sheer power of prime souls.

Anyway I have no idea if pple have already been talking abt this, but I just thought of it whilst playing 0-s and now I can’t get it out of my head

[noriyucko]

drives me crazy how in ultrakill even human souls that were religious and virtuous enough to gain entry to heaven are still eternally punished by being reduced down to random geometry and forced to stay in hell just like its “sinners”. no guys because the greatest sin to heaven was literally just being human no human soul in ultrakill went unpunished its just always been rigged guys please listen to me

[chlksux]

what if at the end of act III V1 gets gabriel's arm... teehee. machine supersedes both man and angel. just an inch resting thought

[a-teacup-of-golden-cracks]

I'm normal around friends who I trust I promise (love you @zeloznog lmao)

[bluefire-axolotl]

do you think the ULTRAKILL universe has furbies powered by blood?

[samuelthesilly]

*Puts on autism goggles*

So fun fact, V1 never participated in the murder of humankind. This isn’t just a headcanon either, this can be backed up with actual facts. When you first start the game, you’re presented with this:

A hallway with planks over it. In order to enter hell, you need to break these planks with your fist, a simple way of implementing a tutorial. Right?

WRONG.

If V1 had to break those planks, that means that it was the first being to enter Hell after it had been closed off by humanity.

If all the machines in ULTRAKILL run on blood, (and they do, every single one gives blood when hit, plus the terminal entries confirm it) surely after depleting all blood on the surface, they would venture into Hell where there’s more in order to survive.

V1 being the first to enter Hell implies that at some point, for one reason or another, they were turned on and set free/escaped into the world.

“But Sam, V1 could have entered Hell first and also killed the humans”

NOPE!

Look at your health when you first start the game. 10/100. V1 runs on blood, so surely after massacring even just one human, they would be much higher health. No, to me this implies that V1 was purposely kept on low health at whatever lab/storage facility it was at (considering V1 never made it out of the prototype phase).

Another thing is the main objective; ‘find a weapon’. If V1 had engaged in the killing, it would have absolutely scavenged a weapon to help kill better (we know it definitely isn’t above stealing things from other machines). If you want to, you could write off the breaking of the planks as nothing but a tutorial. However, this still doesn’t make sense. If it entered Hell after humanity was already dead, what was stopping it from scavenging/stealing a weapons before venturing downwards?

Anyway, my theory, which probably doesn’t even matter, is this;

V1, for whatever reason, was powered on/released before the massacre of humanity. Maybe a few hours, or even minutes beforehand, it can’t have been long considering the whole game takes place over the course of like 24 hours. Also, we literally see the mass influx of souls in the river Styx. (This also implies that the Ferryman was saved by Gabriel pretty much right before we meet them, which is kinda sad. Imagine getting saved, then either dying to a robot or a f*cking leviathan. I’m not sure how they had time to carve the statue of Gabe, so I’m gonna cautiously assume they made it before meeting him IRL.)

That’s pretty much all I have. I don’t know why V1 entered Hell in the first place, all I know is it wasn’t responsible for humanity’s extinction. Feel free to theorise/tell me i’m an idiot in the tags/replies.

[batter-sempai]

Hello hello! ...Dorry for my last ask. Got a bit overexcited and brainspewed all over your inbox.

Guess who's gotten into Ultrakill thanks to you! I'm definately not complaining, that's for sure.

So... I have decided to spice things up with a bit of a Ultrakill ramble instead of my usual Papyrus Nonsense (Does this mean I'm no longer the Pap Anon? The sacrifices I make for new blorbos... /lh)

One thing that I noticed was that I couldn't find a single role reversal fic. Which is fair. The Idoits (aka Gab and V1) are Too Damn Similar to just swap without making it the practically exact same story. So.... I came up with an idea. What if the setting was a "holy crusade" type of story? The angels culling humanity on the surface instead of machines in Hell? And the machines (either previously made for OG purpose or made specifically to fight the angels) have been sent out by humanity in defense? I just think it would be neat.

Side ramble from story ideas since that's the only one I've got, but something that interests me is... how do the machines WORK? I know there's.meant to be suspension of disbelief and all that but I want to Know. Do they have little suction holes all over their plating to suck in the blood? Does the blood work like with humans, only they lack the ability to regenerate that blood? Or is it that the blood works more like oil for a car? And the concept. Oh wow the concept. Imagine being in a weapon design commitee or whatever they have and some saying "you know what would be really messed up?" and everybody just nodding along and saying what a good idea that was?

Wow this is getting long. Going to cut myself off here but tldr thank you for the Thoughts.

- No Longer Just Pap Anon

Hehe hello there Pap Anon. :D I’m so happy I got you into Ultrakill. I’ll reply to your other asks too, I’m sorry it took so long. ;_;

I guess you’re both the Pap and Ultrakill anon now? Nice. ^^

Now that I think about it, what would a combination of both games be called? Underkill? Ultratale? Both sound pretty great.

Yessss I love how similar Gabriel and V1 are, while having the opposite goals. Both of them are, or now were, pawns to a higher force (the humans and the angel Council) and tend to act on instinct. Their dynamic is fascinating to me.

Ooh! I love the idea for this AU so much. :o Maybe in this world, humanity didn’t destroy itself with war and making the war machines, and managed to live on somewhat peacefully. But the Council didn’t like that and sent an army of angels, including Gabriel, to purge the humans. Would be very messed up if the angels sent down had to consume blood to survive too. Humanity’s last-ditch effort to survive was to send machines to fight the angels, and V1 being the last and most powerful weapon they made. V1 and Gabriel meet and fight like they do in the game, only on Earth instead of in Hell. ^^

On the topic of how the machines work, the game says that all machines who aren’t V1 have a “separate blood refueling process”, though it’s never specified what it is. V1 is unique that he’s the only machine that can absorb blood through his metal plating. So maybe V1 has very tiny suction holes on his plating to absorb blood. But the other machines might have to stop and siphon the blood into them somehow. I like to think they have some kind of blood vacuum, but I still need to give it more thought.

Also I think blood is actual fuel for them, due to the tagline “blood is fuel”. It’s mostly like gas for cars, they need it to keep moving. I've seen some people depict machines as having tubes as veins for blood in their bodies, or having parts that look like metallic human organs, which are amazing ideas, but I don't know how canon that is.

Here’s a screencap I took from the game explaining V1’s refueling process.

And honestly, the humans should have seen this coming. Imagine making powerful machines that NEED blood to survive and not expecting anything to go wrong. Then again, I guess humanity in real life isn’t any less foolish sometimes. But hopefully we won’t make something as awful as blood machines.

It’s okay ^^ Thank you so much for the ask.

I guess I can be both a Papyrus theory and Ultrakill theory blog too, because this was really fun to type out.

Also, here’s a screencap I took in Roblox of Papyrus and Gabriel. Hope you enjoy it Pap/Ultrakill Anon. ^^

[xmothbrothx]

I know the "God is V1" theory is debunked, but have you ever thought of the parallels between V2 and Lucifer falling from grace for challenging their superiors. Have we ever made that connection yet or are we still on the V2 Icarus train-

[theblindtree]

I feel that V-2 will

come back in the fraud layer

be completely destroyed

PAINTED FUCKING BLUE TO IMITATE THE SUPERIOR BROTHER/SISTER/SIBLING

[thatchezguy]

it’s 2 AM and I’m still at work so I’m going to yap about ultrakill

The V models were most definitely made for g•nocide. Like actually. At the time of their conception, the biggest bot on the wasteland were earthmovers. Invincible long ranged automatons capable of not only destroying whole populations but nurturing one as well; In fact, living on an earthmover probably became the safest place to be during the final war because of its force field.

You bet your sweet bippy that in the final age of the war majority of humanity were squeezed up on the backs of kill giraffes stuck in an endless stalemate launching energy spear after energy spear until the sky gets choked out. The V models were the answer to this dilemma. These machines are built to be high mobility infiltration units with the express purpose to destroy the vitals of a earthmover and proceed to the next target. Issue is that it would need a constant source of fuel meaning it would need to burn energy that could be lobotomizing more war horses is spent getting refills at the nearest unexploded blood refinery, adding a massive tail to the V model’s tooth.

That is where the cities living on the backs of the earthmovers come in.

V1’s absorptive armor actively gives the machine adcentive to gun down every single person on a earthmover but also hunt down any stragglers as well. These things were made to destroy whole peoples, juice up on their blood, and immediately find the nearest earthmover to do so again.

Yeah no fuck V1 was never deployed, the deprived scientists working on the manufacturing of it probably grew a conscious and decided not to turn on the perpetual war machine.

[ziptie-bouquet]

Gabriel is Satan, narratively.

He is an angel who defied God's Will and who rebelled against his kind. He was cast out, and severed from the light. He is the embodiment of Treachery after he massacred The Council that trusted him.

He is the last fight we are going to find on that layer, and in Dante's Inferno, the Ninth Circle is where Satan is trapped in ice. He is Satan.

[funkehouse]

ULTRAKILL layer 7 SPOILERS !!!!!!!!!!!!

This is about soundtrack.

Im listening to the 7-4 soundtrack and I’m noticing something. There is elements of all the types of music in the game so far bur what stands out to me the most at this moment is the inclusion of something that sounds like it’s from 2-3 (shear heart attack).

Shear heart attack stands out from the other lust layers because it doesn’t have the same leitmotif. Something we see every person talk about when it comes to the games soundtrack.

I wonder if it’s to do with the similarities between the giant omnipresent figures looking down upon v1.

Or if it has something to do with minos having a conection to violence as a former judge of hell.

Or my final theory of that’s just what hell sounds like when it’s fucking with v1. This theory I’m still working on but it has to do with the fact that the earthmover is tied down by hell itself for v1 to kill.

[noriyucko]

i had like a massive epiphany and like im going insane abt layer 7

so theres a theory i really like going around abt how v1 could have been designed specifically for destroying earthmovers

adding onto that what if v1 wasnt designed to end wars by destroying them, but as a way to continue perpetuating the endless death.

people began moving onto earthmovers after their cities were destroyed, as stated in game

with how seemingly common this was, other people would have definitely known that there were now people living aboard the machines

v1 was designed to end wars by ending these death bringers, but it was also to wipe away entire populations just like the earthmover.