How Did Marguerit Maida Survive the Kharaa? | Subnautica Theory

The story of Marguerit Maida is one of the most fascinating stories to come out of both Subnautica and its sequel Subnautica: Below Zero. But while her story is no doubt legendary, there is one major plot hole that many of my viewers and I have noticed. How did Marguerit Maida survive the Kharaa Bacterium? Why didn’t it kill her, like it killed so many others? Well, there are a few possibilities that just might answer these questions...
Huge thanks to Kingnocho for helping me with brainstorming theories and proof reading my script!
►This video explains why Fevered Peppers and Frost Vase Plants can't be the explanation as to how Marguerit Maida survived the Kharaa: • How Can You Craft Enzy...
►Explaining Subnautica: Below Zero's Plot Holes: • Explaining Subnautica:...
►Subnautica Theory: • Subnautica Theory
►Subnautica: Below Zero Theory: • Subnautica: Below Zero...
Music by:
Simon Chylinski
Ben Prunty
Timestamps:
0:00 The Story
2:22 The Problem
3:22 Possibility #1
5:14 Possibility #2
6:09 Possibility #3
7:04 Possibility #4
9:15 Possibility #5
13:16 Possibility #6
13:52 Possibility #7
15:10 Thanks for watching!
#subnautica #subnauticabelowzero #theory
Let me know in the comments section down below if you have questions about Subnautica or Subnautica Below Zero that you'd like me to answer in another video. Are there any other plot holes you want me to cover? Did I miss anything in this video? Do you have any questions or concerns? Please let me know.
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Enjoy!

[@SpeedyMouse]

I've heard a lot of people talking about how the cold could have helped Marguerit and Sector Zero survive the Kharaa. The problem with that theory is that since Marguerit's body is warm, the cold wouldn't have affected the infection that's already inside of her. The fact that the Frozen Leviathan is infected with the Kharaa, even though it's frozen, also indicates that the Kharaa has no problems with the cold. When it comes to how Sector Zero was able to survive the Kharaa, this theory would make much more sense. The cold could have limited the bacteria's ability to spread, which might have helped Sector Zero to survive. I've also heard a lot of people talking about how since the Frozen Leviathan in Sector Zero is infected with the Kharaa, possibility #5 doesn't make any sense. However, this can actually be easily explained. The Frozen Leviathan didn't have the same common ancestors as the leviathans in Subnautica and the living leviathans in Subnautica: Below Zero meaning it wouldn't produce a Kharaa-curing enzyme. This is why we don't see any living Frozen Leviathans in Subnautica: Below Zero. The Frozen Leviathan also looks significantly different compared to the leviathans in Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero; it has a completely different body structure which further proves this theory. Because of this, I still think possibility #5 is a viable theory, perhaps even the most likely. Additionally, some further proof I recently found on possibility #5 can be found in the PDA entry on Enzyme Host Peepers (Peepers carrying Enzyme 42). The entry states that the enzyme, "Bears some superficial similarity to the stomach enzymes of larger predators." This is some very solid evidence, the only problem is that it only mentions the stomach enzymes of large predators. This would explain how Marguerit was able to survive, since she consumed a Reaper, but it doesn't explain how Reefback and Sea Treader Leviathans are immune to the Kharaa. My best guess is that since the PDA is under the "Advanced Theories" section, this is only a theory and isn't the complete truth that all large leviathans have the stomach enzyme that makes them immune to the Kharaa.

[@Luna-mo4bp]

(This may explain why the leviathan class don't get affected by the Kharaa but not Marguerit) What if the Kharaa is a cancer type disease? Bacterial Cancer is known to target healthy cells and even blend in from white bloodcells, this can explain how the Kharaa targets healthy cells and copies it's basic genetic code. Certain animal evolution on Earth allowed them to have a better genome than Humans, example: Blue Whales and Elephants, Elephants have a gene called Tumor-suppressant gene which humans have on a small scale. Basically bigger animal = more copies of cancer suppressor genes. What about Sea Treaders? They aren't massive so does that ideology fall apart? No, Blue whales have a loci(Genetic Strand) that has evolved faster than most mammals which basically keeps all DNA and cells in check for anything out of place AKA: Mutations. These huge creatures on Earth were forced to evolve like this because the bigger they are the more cells they have and if they aren't resilient to Cancer which increases in chance of contracting, then they die out as a species.

[@daniellewis3330]

Well, honestly your possibility #3 makes perfect sense on its own. By your own admission, the peepers allow organisms to hold the disease at bay. Marguerit may not actually be *cured*, she may just be essentially in a holding pattern. Whether she understands the significance of the peepers, or if it's just blind luck that she eats enough of them, that's unknown but not terribly relevant to the question of how she survives. But if she does know the significance of the peepers, then the explanation is airtight and she just has endless tuna melt breath.

[@2emil721]

Lol

[@KC-bu8qq]

@@Luna-mo4bp That could be true, and some humans have been genetically modified to have resistance. Even if in this universe cancer cures are plenty, and if Marguerite’s parents were also mercenaries, each generation could have a slightly higher resistance, eventually reaching the point that they can last years. Other people, like maybe Riley’s parents or grandparents, could have been very paranoid and chosen higher resistance, just in case. It could also be treated like a vaccine, where almost every body chooses the higher resistance, so they don’t die in a couple of hours, but if you were born on a spaceship or somewhere else unregulated, you could get off scott-free and live your whole life with a very bad resistance.

[@devdobariya]

Humans are completely immune to literally any disease in the Universe but our body takes time to find a cell that can kill that specific infection. Our body literally has trillions and trillions of cell with different DNA, it is like a dictionary to every disease. But maybe in case of Marguerit the cell with DNA matching to the Khara was found and it killed Khara and she got immune. You can watch this video to understand the immune system: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gp7Tppioocd9q5I

[@tomsilva8664]

When a leviathan class lifeform gets near Marguerit Maida they hear a voice in their head that says “detecting a Marguerit Maida class life form in the area, are you sure that what you are doing is worth it?”

[@jonathancole5179]

Hahahahaha, that is a good one.

[@Sirlance3000]

Lol, I love that!

[@purpwolf5337]

Worth a like

[@krissimonis3604]

Marguerit Maida doesn't hunt. She simply decides who lives. Once a sandshark bit her, but after 3 days of agony, it finally died.

[@Sirlance3000]

@@krissimonis3604 That makes no sense. But funny none the less

[@phantomtoxin8756]

I think Marguerit is a leviathan class lifeform

[@SpeedyMouse]

Lol maybe so 👀

[@thatoneperson5157]

She is tough

[@Len6722]

Imagine that one dialogue in below zero when you first meet her, your PDA go: Warning, detecting leviathan class life form APPROACHING RAPIDLY are you sure whatever you are doing is worth it ?

[@Reddeath7665]

Detecting multiple leviathan class life forms In the region are you sure whatever you are about to do is worth it

[@KloVe4k]

Warning detecting a leviathan class creature in this region are you sur- wait hold up it’s A HUMAN???

[@Bookishoodie]

10:50 Reapers aren’t apex predators. In the PDA there is an entry that says that the Sea Dragon Leviathan sometimes will swim up to the surface to drag a Reaper down, kill it, and eat it.

[@ChaoticElementals]

back in the earlier years of subnautica, there was a huge hole straight down to the lava zone at the front end of the aurora, that’s where the story of sea dragons pulling reapers down comes from

[@Tyekiller115]

@@ChaoticElementalsincorrect the mountain corridor is where that comes from

[@googleyoflolz9930]

Exactly. Incase anyone is confused : An apex predator is a predator that has no other predator to feed off it.

[@Metalgarn]

@@googleyoflolz9930 True enough but the term apex predator isn't really an exact science either. If you think about... there are NO apex predators on Earth. People will offer up suggestions like sharks, lions, etc... but I've eaten shark (and I could eat a lion) so by rigid definition they aren't apex predators... and of course humans aren't apex predators either, since we can be eaten by things we also eat. If you back off the rigid ideology of what an apex predator is supposed to be.... yet doesn't actually exist... a Reaper is very much an apex predator.

[@Thebaconmurderer]

@googleyoflolz9930 not really its all based on the biome their currently in. You could say that a Grizzly Bear is an Apex predator, but Wolverines will kill and eat them if put in the position to do so. Same with Great Whites, they're apex predators, but still get killed and eaten by Orcas.

[@LashknifeTalon]

The theory I would go with is that humans are anatomically VERY different from the Architects. It's entirely possible that the mortality rate of Kharaa is actually significantly lower in humans than it was for Architects. Sure, Bart Torgal presumably died of the disease, but he lived for quite some time before succumbing to it, and was reasonably active while still sick. Ryley manages to complete the events of the first game while infected with Kharaa. Our sample size is pretty small; maybe Marguerit just...got better after a few months.

[@MulinaTheAngelWolf]

This is in a weird way my absolute favorite theory. Just “it got better “ lmao

[@friccle_]

Then theres the doctor in one of the lifepods on Subnautica that succumbed to the infection in literally 3 hours

[@drx737]

@@friccle_ he could've been injured

[@tsutsuyuasuifroppy5764]

@@friccle_ was he not a fake? Or am I thinking of someone else.

[@maryedmonds4350]

@@tsutsuyuasuifroppy5764 He is a doctor, but he cheated and lied on all his exams and stuff. Still a doctor since he got his doctorate(presumably) but like he didnt work for it

[@theviking6363]

The thing is, In below zero, when you find the antidote with the spy pengling, so you could still finish the game if you died and lost it, you can craft the antidote, and margurite had experience farming plants, and it takes plants to make the enzyme (that are in the area snow stalkers are where she got hers from) meaning she could’ve eaten both plants at the same time and accidentally created an antidote.

[@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606]

Yeah! The antidote enzyme seemed a lot simpler this time.

[@wanderingvagrant1551]

pog theory

[@montuckyliam6579]

That makes so much sense

[@jonathankessinger7735]

Well to be fair, curing the leviathan is not essential to completing the game, since I completed the game without even finding the infected leviathan. (I don't know how or why)

[@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606]

@@jonathankessinger7735 you mean you completed the alan storyline. You don't have closure on big sis.

[@ashura6265]

I've seen a alot of people theorize that because of the cold climate, the bacteria get weakened. Yet everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that the frozen leviathan contracted the infection within the *POLAR* climate, and then fell through *ICE* and *FROZE* to death. Yet the bacterium was still active within its corpse. Which in itself I find odd, wouldn't the kharaa die out without a living host?

[@jobkrabbendam7968]

the researchers from alterra researching it say it must have great sustainability sinse it lives on the corpse. its just one of its abilities

[@AtlasSMH]

then a new question arises, is it dead? remember that you can preserve things in cold climates (sector 0) if it were dead the bacterium would die as well, but if the bacterium is alive then we must assume the worst, the frozen leviathan is still alive

[@icantthinkofagoodname1838]

In general cold doesn't kill most bacteria. It just puts in it a kind of stasis and slows down or halts reproduction which is why even after you freeze chicken you can't eat it raw, you need the heat of cooking to kill the bacteria.

[@raionshishi8290]

Freezing bacteria never kills it, that's a myth and or misconception people still have spreading around. Heating and high temperatures kills bacteria, freezing it only halts and pauses the reproduction of it but it's still there living off whatever it's attached to.

[@delicatevessel9718]

I don't know about y'all but when I was near the frozen leviathen I heard it breath.

[@thefatherrabbit]

I personally think it is a plot hole that the devs didn't have the time to account for. Based on some PDA entries from the cut storyline, it seems like there was supposed to be some kind of explanation for how Marguerit survived, but they never got to it. There were at least 10 incomplete voicelogs for her from when she was floating towards Sector Zero and only a few made it into the full release. In the ones that were cut, she talks about the Kharaa and how Bart had told her he could slow it down, but that now that she was on her own, it was getting worse. After she gets to Sector Zero, there is one where she says she thinks she only has a few weeks left to live and specifically mentions that the fish in the sector taste exactly like the Peepers she was eating in the Crater. Even though those are not technically canon, it seems most likely that she was surviving on fish that carried the enzyme. How she was cured permanently is anyone's guess. Maybe once the Sea Emperors were hatched, they carried the enzyme to other parts of the planet and she was cured for good at the same time Riley was.

[@FeralSheWolf]

There WAS a removed juvenile Sea Emperor in Sector Zero. They took it out early on but it lived in the Lilypad biome. I never saw the cut bit about the Peepers--that's probably the real answer, then. I know there's a bit in the current logs where Maida says that what she "needs is inside" the Reaper, hence cutting into & eating it. I assumed she gained whatever resistance/cure Leviathans have by eating it.

[@trippymlgjunkrat5749]

@@FeralSheWolf i remember seeing it and being so happy all they had to do was wait a few months

[@louiesatterwhite3885]

@@FeralSheWolf yeah, pda does say that enzyme 42 in the carrier peepers resembled digestive enzymes of other leviathans. Which means that Marguerite may have consumed the stomach and/or other digestive organs of the reaper and thus consumed large amounts of the enzyme. Then, the pda states that when the emperors released enzyme 42 into the world, it pretty much purged kharaa from the world.

[@MimiMei29]

Hey! Short question, where did you get those cut voicelogs from? I didn’t even know about them! And it sound pretty cool and like it could in a different subnautica timeline make a lot of sense, So question; where did you get that "information" from? If you could could you please send a link that would be great, thank you! (+English is not my first language so I apologize if there are any grammar mistakes.)

[@FeralSheWolf]

@@MimiMei29 Oooh I'd also love to know. I figured they just played the alphas before the cut but I'm curious if they're around somewhere!

[@thealchemist5541]

i feel like we need to give more attention to the fact that Marg killed TWO reaper's with little to no injury and with just the equipment from their life pod, that crazy old lady could probably taken out the whole population with the equipment Riley had

[@A10.33]

She probably could

[@Tyekiller115]

@@Schwainermitaiyou are saying this like it’s not a true possibility

[@Sierra-058]

@@Tyekiller115 cause it aint💀

[@Tyekiller115]

@@Sierra-058 it is

[@Sierra-058]

@@Tyekiller115 a piece of metal salvage wouldn't kill a reaper. If you tried to kill a reaper with a fucking prawn suit it would take genuine ages. With drill arm aswell

[@vee1267]

I think it’s probably because of the peepers that carry enzyme 42. Out of the three Degasi survivors, only Marguerit preferred to hunt for food instead of farming, meaning she likely ate A LOT of peepers. While it wouldn’t cure her outright since the mother Sea Emperor’s enzyme was too weak/unstable, it WOULD prevent a severe infection from taking root, just like it prevents fish in alien containment from getting sick. Maybe Marguerit couldn’t avoid the Kharaa ever infecting her, but she had enough enzyme 42 in her system that the infection wasn’t able to progress past a certain point & it burned itself out before it could kill her.

[@jaiclary8423]

One thing I wish you'd mentioned is that the precursors were uniquely susceptible to the virus due to their conglomerate DNA. Also Below Zero does throw a tiny wrench into your "Leviathans don't get Kharaa" theory, but it's only a tiny wrench because the obvious explanation is that the non-immune ones died out. Still, it's a solid theory and I personally go with the combined theory that "Maida is tough as nails" and "All (surviving) leviathans create an enzyme." It's simple, elegant, and wholly consistent with the facts as we know them.

[@mihuioti]

Since the precursors were susceptible to the virus, maybe the virus hadn't evolved to quickly kill humans until they arrived on the planet? It's possible that the virus was FAR weaker against humans when the Degasi crew arrived but evolved within the next 10 years to affect the Aurora survivors more quickly. That combined with Marguerite having a stronger immune system AND consuming the reaper to obtain the enzyme for herself could explain why she lasted so long

[@zapheil]

To be fair, the leviathan in Below Zero had a mutated version of Kharaa. The mutation might have made it resistant to the enzyme.

[@jaiclary8423]

@@zapheil If this old strain were enzyme-resistant it would make no sense for the modern day strain to be weak to it. That would be like modern-day bacteria developing antibacterial weakness in the age of antibacterials.

[@spacecolonyalliances.c.a1234]

@@jaiclary8423 If I am correct, bacteria will lose their anti-biotic resistance in exchange for resistance against phages, which are know viruses that hunt bacteria. Perhaps a phage exist of 4546B that made it so the antibiotic resistance of the bacteria was lost in order to be more resistant to the phage.

[@katelijnhovestad8382]

Bacterium, not virus

[@praetorianplays9945]

I'm pretty sure in subnautica there is a PDA entry that says something about all leviathans on 4546B having a similar stomach enzyme to the emperor which is why you don't see them infected or something like that. Maybe since she was eating the reaper she also consumed some of those enzymes. also it seems alot of people think that because of how easy the antidote is to craft in Bz she just accidentally made that but I think that theory can be ignored because knowing BZ the Devs probably just made it craftable so people wouldn't complain if they lost it and couldn't complete the Sam storyline. Quick edit: Also the reaper enzyme would probably be alot weaker than the emperor version so the precursors didn't think it'd be a viable cure since it'd require too much and take too long.

[@CadetFuzzball49]

I’m pretty sure maybe after the enzyme gets through the water it goes through the plants so it cures the plants basically the plants absorbed the enzyme from the water and then they can use the plants to make a weaker less potent cure but that and the reason the frozen leviathan isn’t cured is the ice formed long ago along with the fact that the enzyme would die or stay stagnant in the ice and I’d like to mention that the water Carry’s a cure not as pontent as the enzyme itself but is keeps the planet cured somehow even thought it would realistically take millenniums for the whole plant to be cured but it’s not far fetched to say that the precursors put vents in sector 0. Now that would pose the question why not use the water to cure it if it has the enzyme well it’s a very small amount and the version the leviathan has is a mutated strain.

[@praetorianplays9945]

@@CadetFuzzball49 it could also just be that it's not a cure to the virus more a disinfectant that kills 99.9% of germs. So that's why the precursors didn't use it because they'd die because you don't just inject hand sanitizer into you to cure diseases.

[@colinmartin9797]

My background is as an EMT with ten years' experience and a degree in biochemistry and biomolecular analysis, so I have my own ideas on why Maida wasn't killed 1.) She drifted into an Arctic zone. Cold is well known to reduce some viruses capability to reproduce, and if stage 4's skin blisters are a major replication site, this could have had a preventative effect. In cold climates, your core body temperature drops. You will go down 1 or 2 degrees Fahrenheit, even more near the skin. This isn't dangerous, and even such a small change can have a dramatic effect on many diseases. 2.) While "natural immunity" isn't really a thing, having a strong resistance is. You can simply get less sick from a chronic illness, and we do understand why this happens, biochemically speaking. It's just an emergent field of study. 3.) It may function similarly to tuberculosis, which can have an immensely long latent period. Your body essentially walls off the infection like an oak gall. But eventually is breaks out. So possibly she just got to a point where the disease went into remission, not cured but not spreading. 4.) The peepers carrying the curative enzyme may have been acting like a treatment, not a curative. Before modern antibiotics, we used to treat syphilis with arsenic. It rarely cured the disease, but severely repressed it. We still use it in some forms of leukemia. It's possible the disease was just being suppressed by the peepers weaker version of the disease.

[@katelijnhovestad8382]

Im not trying to doubt your expertise on this, but Kharaa is a bacterium, not a virus :)

[@luisamador8460]

Thanks for sharing! Sums up a lot of what has been discussed and makes a lot of sense

[@Drave_Jr.]

For possibility 5, The Sea Emperor is Sapient and possess physic capabilities. She may have freely given Enzyme 42 because she knew the dangers. Also the Architects were researching other Leviathans. The Kharaa was released in the first place because the Architects took a Sea Dragon Egg to study, and the mother attacked the base. We also don't see any other Leviathan level research outside of the egg and Emperor. They may not have been able to capture another Leviathan because of their size, with them only getting the Emperor because she wanted to help.

[@silverdemon1530]

but the enzyme the sea emperor wouldn't have worked permenantlly tho because of it's old age

[@snakesareadorable8515]

Actually when the precursors found her she wasn’t extremely old As the sea emperor said that they were small enough to get in but no longer are Well they said it in a really cryptic way

[@ahmed4363]

Since we know the precursors are mostly made of biomachines and their brains are probably computers. They couldn't hear the sea emperor. Since Riley is a human, he gets to hear and help the sea emperor.

[@furanduron4926]

Nah. Plothole

[@Croftice1]

@@ahmed4363 That's a flawed explanation, the Precursors/Architects had psychic abilities as well. Maybe they were blocking her signal for some strange reason (and even unknown to themselves), maybe their biology wasn't compatible enough to receive her messages. Even their creation - the Self Warping Enforcer Unit (Warper) is able to use some psychic stuff to "hack" into Riley's radio, they communicate with each other wirelessly and the radio picks it up sometimes. So it's definitely not, that their brains are computers and thus unable of psychic stuff. They were very psychic themselves.

[@saza23]

The antidote ingredients is the vase plant and fevered pepper. And in Below zero, there's so many fevered pepper around the island. I think maybe she survived because of them?

[@nonec384]

i think youre only meant to craft then if by some weird reason you lost the original one , but the other degasi crew where working on a cure maybe they managed it but lost it for the reaper and only margarit got it

[@harrisonsnyder8069]

Nobody knew about the cure until Samantha Ayou discovered it by squishing and mixing random stuff together and probably tested it on a carved out piece of the Frozen Leviathan

[@ariellesedore5590]

Actually there is a good explanation for how she survived and it's explained through datapoints on Kharaa and its effects on local fauna. You learn that leviathan's have a level of resistance to the bacterium, with larger leviathan class lifeforms having the ability to coexist longer with the bacterium. They may get infected, but they have the ability to survive for much longer periods of time, or can live for years being infected without dying. It's most likely that Margaruit gained a stronger resistance to the bacterium through excessive consumption of the reaper leviathan. It's provided her with a natural ability to resist the bacteria. When you meet Margaruit in sector zero she is no longer infected or at least is in remission. She survived long enough via reaper resistance, then eventually received the cure from the sea emperor's enzyme, which was released in way so it would spread and cure the rest of the organisms on the planet. Likely the cure reached sector zero eventually in some form, and she probably ended up consuming cured peepers vented from the glacial basin, which cured her fully. (The frozen leviathan only had the bacterium still because it was never in the water when the cure was released, there was no way for the sea emperor's cure to reach it, hence it's the only organism still infected). The other explaination is that simply that she scared the Kharaa bacterium into leaving her body. After killing a reaper with a jagged peice of metal, the bacteria decided it had better things to do and didn't want to stick around.

[@gage2189]

Basically, she's badass. She was an extremely strong, healthy individual, and I imagine didn't settle for the tastes of the small fish, instead, going for stalkers and other predators. This made her concentration of enzyme-42 higher, boosting her immune system to not be fatally ill when the reaper attacked. Then, feeding on the reaper, her enzyme-42 concentration increased higher, letting her overcome the bacterium as they got to the map of Below Zero.

[@gayfrogs6985]

That would make sense that predators of peepers probably would have more 42 die to them properly eating the 42 carrying peepers

[@brayerkh]

Well said

[@Kevin-zz9du]

So she was an overly masculine feminist mary sue character.... A trash character...

[@sciencewizard2861]

@@Kevin-zz9du stop being so offended by video game character lololol

[@gage2189]

@@Kevin-zz9du "Mary sue is defined as a female character without flaws" -Paul Torgal: cowardly, overprotective -Bart Torgal: he seemed like a mediator in the voice logs, he must've been raised well but not by his father! -however you spell it: Hostile, shoots first, paraphrasing here, you kill the sea monsters. Then kill the bigger sea monsters with small sea monster bones

[@logandothewarlock6043]

Dude this one weird story inconsistency has destroyed my brain many times over. Edit: wait a minute! I can't believe no one has thought of this! Ok, so the Khaara antidote thing you can find in below zero is crafted with flora specific to sector zero, and whatever gives the flora these properties has likely spread throughout the ecosystem, perhaps via snow stalkers, as Preston is show to be omnivorous, so other snow stalkers likely consumed the aforementioned plants and some may have drowned by getting lost under the glaciers, and pengulls and the various carnivorous fish may have feasted on their carcasses!

[@sentientmustache8360]

Another theory: Eating peepers with an enzyme trail slows down the infection, up to a point where its progress is pretty much halted

[@raionshishi8290]

@@sentientmustache8360 That's literally what the first game tells you.

[@francisharkins]

Theres alot of Story Inconsistencies in Below Zero... might have something to do with the story being scrapped like what? 5 times before they settled on something? Ironically the one for Marguerit isn't very inconsistent as many people pointed out eating a peeper with an enzyme trail halts the progress of the Kharaa, and the fact cure ingredients were at Site Zero. Having both experience gathering samples and working with Bart Torgal to maintain both a source of food and to attempt to find a cure for the Kharaa. With Bart's experiments ending with Leviathans due to their higher resistance to the bacterium. Likely from consuming peepers as a result, and with the only food source and shelter out in the void being the Reaper corpse she likely had to consume its flesh which staved off the Kharaa until her immune system managed to counteracted the weakened bacterium or she gathered the new flora and fauna at site zero

[@logandothewarlock6043]

@@francisharkins Yeah but you realize that as the enzyme traveled up the food chain the amount found in the reaper would likely be way less than that which could be found in the number of enzyme host peepers eaten by the carnivores eaten by the reapers, this stuff gets digested, you know.

[@francisharkins]

@@logandothewarlock6043 True, which is why I said or.... or at least I thought I did lol. Its most likely she got super lucky and her immune system actually managed to fight of the Kharaa. Who truly knows though. Sadly the story was scrapped 5 times for Below Zero so it could be anything.

[@Hobodeluxe960]

my idea is that she was observant enough to notice the enzyme carrying peepers at the vents and possibly limited her diet to them and plants. eating enzyme carrying peepers helped her keep the infection at bay until Ryleh released the sea dragon babies and then she got her cure from them much like Ryleh did.

[@lachydragneel]

But if she did this she would of informed the others as then she would have a better chance to catching food but for them to realise this they would first encounter the bacteria.

[@sharondornhoff7563]

The Kharaa bacterium on 4546B had a thousand years to evolve properties which specifically allowed it to infect the yellow-blooded native organisms of that world. Possibly, in adapting to more effectively go after that one specific biosphere's life forms, it incidentally became less lethal to creatures with a *non*-4546B biochemistry.

[@kingnocho1231]

very well done speedy, the finished product is better than I could have imagined

[@Caffin8tor]

Yep. I have to go with #7. The story writers were rushed into a sloppy storyline. Consider how bad some of the dialog between _scientist_ Robin and _scientist_ Alan is. Consider how disjointed some of the conversations on voicelogs sounds. Consider that Alan was on 4546B to find a cure for Kharaa yet barely talks about it when it comes up and never shows any interest in the cure that now exists. Wouldn't Alan be concerned about Alterra considering trying to exploit Kharaa? Wouldn't he mention bringing some of enzyme 42 to his homeworld? The writing for BZ was sloppily as hell and was probably a result of the writers being pressured into rewriting part of the story with limited time and too many constraints.

[@ghekor]

They rewrote the story like 3 times and each iteration was worse than the previous I feel.

[@cpncorndogg]

They should have never tried to write so directly

[@lobsterspasta]

Dude to be real, writers are artists have so much constant pressure on them, not every story line is going to be as insanely detailed as you’d like. They may not have elaborated on too much, but at this rate what can you do. Get angry at over worked writers?

[@Caffin8tor]

@@lobsterspasta angry at the writers? Just the opposite. I realize they were rushed to throw something together that fits in with most of the framework of what had been completed in the game already. If anything I blame the execs or whoever was responsible for scrapping the old story and trying to rush a new story without giving enough time and resources to get it right. They may have even been forced into it by circumstances like financial limitations or poor initial planning. Such is the hazards of game development for relatively small studios. At least they're apparently working on a new game in the Subnautica universe. Fingers crossed they can pull off another great game. I'm here for it.

[@MrVoid-tr4bz]

i saw gameplay of the original story with Robins sister alive which seemed better then the final release. not sure why they changed it

[@jrm48220]

Maida is a mercenary. She very likely traveled a LOT and received numerous innoculations that most ordinary people wouldn't. It's also possible that in her travels she may have fallen ill with one or more diseases or bacterium that had been undiscovered at that time, and naturally developing the antibodies to those illnesses gave her a better chance of fighting off the Kharaa.

[@G-Manfromhalflife]

This, this is the most plausible

[@qwera48]

How can people agree with Leviathans being immune to Kharaa when a huge part of Below Zero's plot is healing a Frozen Leviathan from the bacteria?

[@ArmourFarmer]

that's a good point, I hadn't thought of that. It could be explained by the frozen leviathan being part of a different evolutionary family I guess

[@jakubgrono9070]

@@ArmourFarmer yea it mabye was a part of stalker family and was called a leviatan thank to it size

[@raionshishi8290]

@@jakubgrono9070 Leviathans are categorized by size, literally explained in the games lore. Size is what gives them the title of Leviathan, not some special ability or anything like that, tho it is mentioned that most of the Leviathans on the planet have developed an ability to create enzyme 42, but the Emperor species is the only one capable of producing a potent version of it in general.

[@Egoswaffle]

REAPER leviathans not all leviathans 😑

[@tsutsuyuasuifroppy5764]

The ones that weren’t died. This concludes my TedTalk

[@gluuuuue]

"Possibility #5: Ever Leviathan is Immune to Kharaa" The frozen ancient leviathan in Sector Zero wasn't. But it's ancient and perhaps it uniquely lacked enzyme 42 or the enzyme adapted after it was frozen. Perhaps the disease wiped out a significant percentage of the biomass on the planet and what life has been encountered are the descendants of the survivors. The games said biodiversity is unusually high in the Crater and Sector Zero, which would be consistent with why those sites were of interest to Alterra/Xenoworx.

[@Derakon_]

I played literally yesterday, and I can confirm that leviathans are NOT inmune to the Kharaa, as I saw a Ghost Leviathan showing clear signs of it.

[@SpeedyMouse]

I think you're either mixing up what a Ghost Leviathan is or you thought you saw it and didn't because the game's code doesn't allow that to happen. I could be wrong but I've never seen that before and I've played this game for a very long time. As for the Frozen Leviathan, that can be easily explained. It likely just had a different common ancestor since it lived in Sector Zero instead of the Crater.

[@lachydragneel]

​@@SpeedyMouseit makes more sense that due to their size the bacteria takes longer for symptoms to develop

[@moonlord1374]

Always a really good day when speedy uploads

[@MannMannMannMann]

focus on your finals bro

[@moonlord1374]

@@MannMannMannMann bruh I’m done with finals for today lemme rest

[@mylesloiacono230]

@@moonlord1374 xcdffff

[@mylesloiacono230]

@@moonlord1374 zvrviantx

[@moonlord1374]

@@mylesloiacono230 what? Did you have a stroke? Are you ok?

[@martinelavoie4795]

Maybe the Kharaa isn't as deadly for humans that it is for the Architects. Until our character "cures" the planet with the help of the Emperor, none of the people we "know" is dead because of the disease. They all died from other things.

[@sharondornhoff7563]

Or maybe Kharaa was *never* 100% lethal, even among the Architects. We only know that had killed over 143 billion of them at the time of the 4546B labs' disaster. What we *don't* know is whether their total population numbered in the billions, the trillions, or even the quadrillions at the time.

[@defeatedink0544]

I have one theory that might not make any sense if dug into, but perhaps Kharaa, like Covid has over the past few years, mutated and produced new strains over time. The deadly version is the most prevalent, but maybe Marguerite had the fortune to catch a much weaker strain, and was able to recover

[@lachydragneel]

Well don't forget during her 3 week journey she was in extreme conditions, she didn't have shelter from the harsh sun or any weather, she had food and a rough way to get fire but she would die from dehydration within 3 days since the water is undrinkable the harsh sunlight would give her sunburn and further the process of dehydration and the ocean acts like a magnifier glass and drinking pee is worst than sea water and wouldn't be able to sustain her for the 3 weeks, you could argue that the reapers blood she could survive on but that isn't very likely since its blood. And she somehow survives that she would be so physically weak that it would be impossible for her immune system to fight the bacteria. And that isn't even mentioning all the creatures in the dead zone that imminently agresses onto you if you step into the dead zone.

[@Tyekiller115]

@@lachydragneelyou can’t compare leviathan blood to blood we as humans understand it could have very different chemical properties

[@mr.poplongo9673]

Maybe because the reaper she was living in had some sort of immunity or wasn’t very infected so it wasn’t as sped up as eating a peeper. Maybe leviathans have a small immunity like how they studied dragon leviathans for that reason.

[@willcraft1007]

If I recall reapers literary can’t get the bacterium

[@KanohiVahi]

@@willcraft1007 Where is that established? I don't remember that part

[@furanduron4926]

No

[@FreedomPuppy]

They studied the Sea Dragon (eggs, not the species itself) because they needed to figure out how to hatch the Sea Emperor eggs. I'd really love for you to show me where they reference these things though.

[@shadowbonnie2314]

Actually, it was a crab squid, I dunno how he concluded it was a Reaper Leviathan though-

[@Stygia7]

I think a sea dragon trashed their base since Paul says that it looked like a kracken and it had tentacles and was bigger than a cyclops while a reaper has the same size as the cyclops

[@lightninglacs9468]

makes sense, but how would Margueit get a Sea Dragon there in the first place, and then theres the whole floating on the dead reaper across the void which proves it's a reaper

[@gage2189]

Maybe . . . reaper meant reaper of death? no, she came back for the skull

[@ethanwinters3281]

@@gage2189 maybe the reaper was the bigger of its species

[@TacticianMark]

if you listen closely to Degasi voice log #9, you can hear the roar of the leviathan at the end right before it tore through their base. It sounds too close to a Reaper to be a Sea Dragon. That being said though, I originally thought it was the adult Ghost Leviathan that liked to circle around not too far away from that base before I doubled back and found the voice log for completionist purposes so I ultimately guessed wrong too.

[@ethanwinters3281]

Has any of you played below zero

[@bradylyons6345]

During the original storyline for below zero and beta of the game. I remember sea emperors being apart of it and there being a sea emperor in sector zero. The model was unfortunately cut from the game when the story was changed after the deep dive update. I’m not sure if that sea emperor is one of the offsprings of the one in the original subnuatica but it could’ve been an original idea for Marguerit to have encountered that leviathan there and get cured from that one which would explain why sector zero was still able to survive the kharaa bacteria. But hey that’s just an idea…

[@brainstorm7828]

The change makes sense as the Sea Emperor possibly only has eggs once a life time (according to pda in 1st game) and BZ takes place 2yrs after the first game so it wouldn't make sense for the emperor in BZ to be the offspring of the juveniles from Subnautica

[@shmuck_gamer5804]

If the Kharaa stages took so long within the body. The immune system probably grown a immunity to the Kharaa overtime. In the game when you get infected, if you scan yourself the PDA will say your immune system will began fighting the Kharaa before the first stage meaning that maybe her immune system grown a immunity.

[@anakinbondariev9105]

I have a follow-up on theory #4, it is possible that the factor that caused the disease to become docile, or put into hibernation was the extreme cold temperatures of the subnautica below zero biome. Think about it, diseases can be affected with different temperatures, with periodical exposure to extreme colds, as Marguerit would not be in the freezing water all the time, the constant and extreme changes in temperature could have caused kharaa to constantly go from hibernation to waking up, preventing it to be able to adapt to a certain environment. And this also answers the question as to why the architects didn't use this method to cure themselves, because not only does it not cure them, as well as not being able to be replicated due to the insane task of turning the whole planet (or even an island) into a frozen tundra. I'm no disease professor, but this theory seems pretty airtight as far as im concerned.

[@rainbowaxolotl288]

Hence the reason you wont get infected from being near the Frozen Leviathan, and will simply see the living, albiet docile pustules of it on the creature

[@michalkuban9888]

She's so badass that the bacteria got infected by Maida and died.

[@TheFructowallGuy]

True..

[@AMCoffee]

Holy crap, that mask blooper had me in tears. That was excellent. Thank you.

[@TheLexMexx]

The theory about leviathans producing their own enzyme similar to enzyme 42 makes actual total sense, as I never understood why The Architects understood that Sea emperor leviathans produced it in a concentrated form, yet they incubated Sea DRAGON eggs, completely different yet probably related. Furthermore, with console commands, you can infect any creature with kharaa with the spawn command and a specific tag you put after the creature name i believe, however, this only works on non-leviathan creatures. (this could just be an oversight tbh).

[@theofficialcreator2231]

I think that the Architects tried getting 42 from Sea Dragons after they realized that the Sea Emperor wasn't going to give them it.

[@sharondornhoff7563]

They experimented on Sea Dragon eggs because Sea Dragons and Sea Emperors are evolutionary cousins. Sea Emperors bred so seldom that they probably couldn't *find* enough eggs to risk the few they had in experimentation.

[@RylixBlizzai]

i had always just assumed that sector zero was cold enough to completely halt or severely slow the disease to the point where she could survive the ten years until that emperor leviathan juvenile grew up came along to cure the sector of the disease

[@nebulaetheaddict3403]

Very interesting theories speedy. I believe that the reason why sector Zero and Marguerit were not annihilated by the bacterium is because specifically the cold climate, since diseases can’t live, or are severely weakened in cold climates

[@eybaza6018]

That also explains it.

[@SpeedyMouse]

I think that's definitely part of the answer but I also think there's more to it than just that.

[@eybaza6018]

@@SpeedyMouse Khaara is an alien bacteria, so it probably reacts differently to cold temperatures than earth bacteria.

[@baalzagoroth4693]

Unless marg spread it there is no species that travels between the crater and sector zero. Wouldn't that explain it? Because Kharaa came from the disease research facility.

[@FumanyuX]

The giant frozen leviathan still has the infection

[@x_RoseBuds_x]

You’re great, loved the episode where you did multiplayer with salvner, aci and bacon. It was truly a delight to watch ♥️

[@datmanydocris]

"If other leviathan could produce the enzyme then why didn't the architects use them to make a cure." They tried to. It's specifically said by AL-AN after you build him his body and when he's telling his story that he was in change of the mission to 4645b and that the architects had noticed that the sea dragon leviathan were able to fight off the karaar bacterium so they tried to incubate sea dragon eggs in the facility in the lost river which eventually lead to the sea dragon parent attacking the facility and releasing the bacterium to the whole planet.

[@FreedomPuppy]

The only reason Al-An ordered the eggs to be taken was to study their hatching process, due to their similarity to the Sea Emperors. Nowhere in either games is it mentioned that Sea Dragons are immune.

[@holyvipers9814]

@@FreedomPuppy it's a very reasonable assumption to make considering how closely related the sea dragon leviathans and sea emperors were, is it so unreasonable to try and find a cure in a different yet similar species when the one they were currently working with wasn't working? You gotta remember how desperate the architects were.

[@Gamerlogan3000]

my theory about marguerit is that she has a powerfull imune system as human imune systems technically have a cure to everything but its a matter of time and because of her tough nature it could have allowed her to survive the kharaa

[@lachydragneel]

Still would due to dehydration

[@shadowstar6257]

Another possibility is there is something that fights the Kharaa bacteria in the Below Zero location. In nature, bacteria compete with other types of bacteria all the time, so perhaps there could be some bacterial agent that fights the Kharaa bacteria. The reason this wouldn't work as a cure could be it very climate-sensitive, or it had harmful effects on the Precursors.

[@Obfan1831]

Alr let’s be honest she’s just the REAL main character

[@natashaowens8780]

This question is actually answered canonically in Bellow Zero, but in a very roundabout "blink and you miss it" way. Margaret's log in the greenhouse mention that she is "craving" a salad. "Huh? I hear you say? In bellow zero, after you find the antibiotic to clear the dead leviathan of the disease, you then have it in your PDA as something you can make. It requires 1x Frost Vase Plant and 1x Fevered Pepper. Seems to me that these must have antibiotic nature that effect Kharaa. Margaret has been munching on salad's containing these ever since, hence survived. Other animals in the area must have also been eating these and adding the cure to the food chain (and their droppings into the water) explaining why life survived in this area.

[@TheFructowallGuy]

Believeable

[@deyo286]

For possibly 5 the reefbacks have those glowing orb things on them that serve a purpose in uts digestive system like the emperor

[@Speedwars]

Your videos always get me back into the cycle of playing subnautica for 15 hours a day then not playing for a month and repeat

[@m33tballa]

Good job covering all the different angles in depth. I think the enzyme being present in all leviathans is the most interesting but it leaves behind another plot hole with the architects not realizing it, like u said.

[@wajill189]

finally someone who makes this kind of video and does a good job.

[@junk06]

We all know the kharaa was deadly but what did it do and how? Knowing how it harms the victims might help with further theories!

[@gingergamer8204]

I’ve never played the Natural Selection games, but I know that kharaa exists in it. Maybe there’s more information in those games?

[@Ghostiekidsrule]

I’m thinking it might weaken the host and eventually kill the host similar to tuberculosis maybe even make the host see things I believe Bart (or whatever his name was ) said in his final pda that he saw something in the dark like a sea glide

[@amirking5452]

@@Ghostiekidsrule didnt it say something about harming DNA or smth?

[@escaped_cephalopod]

@@Ghostiekidsrule i always figured the sea emperor was trying to communicate with him

[@angelfeather7547]

I came to believe it was eating the Reeper that saved her. I remembered the PDA that said the Leviathans may be the cure. I just assumed that is how she survived after seeing she was in Below Zero.

[@noobyboomy506]

Reaper, not reeper

[@tsutsuyuasuifroppy5764]

@@noobyboomy506 no, Reaper is spooky, but reeper, is a reaper leviathan with peepers eye, thank me for putting that image in ur head.

[@squidiz496]

Well made video! Subbed!

[@redlabsgaming5086]

One slight thing: before being removed Emperor Leviathans were found in the lilypads. The same place Marguerite took shelter. It shows that while they may not be back yet, the region is a natural environment for them. So its possible that the lilypad biome still has enough enzyme 42 in its system circulating

[@frankbuffo5070]

i could have never guessed how interesting the game of subnautica is.

[@MaxTopToast]

Oh there's mire lots more

[@PorkFork]

Still feels silly she's even alive, would the bloating of the reaper really compensate for the weight of the Prawn suit? amongst other things. Feels like they just didn't want to make a new character to use.

[@ThatCringeCalledIggleboz]

She built a new prawnsuit.

[@Croftice1]

@@ThatCringeCalledIggleboz Yea, most likely found some in the wreck of Mercury II, there are few around that site. It was never mentioned, that she killed the Reaper using a Prawn suit, but a sharp piece of metal. She wouldn't need a sharp metal, if she could just use a Prawn suit.

[@jonathancole5179]

Plus she used the Reaper for shelter. Also, she had swam up, so that wouldn't work with a prawn suit.

[@yosnapz2965]

Excellent summary!!!

[@gydorack]

Bacteria have a tendency to lay dormant when they are in environments not suited for growth. It might be possible that Marguerit saved herself by half-starving herself and living in such a cold and inhospitable environment that the Kharra remained dormant or at least progressed very slowly until the cure arrived.

[@sharondornhoff7563]

"Starving and cold" wouldn't be good conditions for Marguerit's own tissues to grow in. The bacteria, unfortunately, wouldn't need her body's tissues to be healthy or well-fed to utilize them as a food source, any more than bacteria in a rotten log need the tree to still be living to consume it via decomposition.

[@vikram69420]

Speedy ur going abt this wrong, after my 1200 hours in sub 1 i can conclude that the purple vents from below zero spews out heated up enzyme 42 which is able to completely kill khaara, also the leviathans dont get infected as they made the khaara which is a robot and released it throughout the world to weaken prey, a reaper told me. Seriously tho, great job on the video!

[@SpeedyMouse]

😂

[@ObviouslyFlakey]

uh, i think you’ve gone insane

[@ZstackZip]

Here’s my headcanon: The other Leviathans do produce a similar enzyme to 42, but as you said, they don’t leave their bodies, and the Precursors didn’t eat them and neither did Ryley. But since Maida ate part of the reaper, she got cured

[@lachydragneel]

She would still die from Dehydration

[@fisticuf]

Fun theory: The Khaara functions like tetanus, with the side-effect of violent seizures being the real thing that kills. A compound inhaled from Burning Reaper fat, or contained in one of its edible organs causes neurotransmitter blockage on the post-synaptic cleft similar to a benzodiazepine, lessening the seizure effects and giving Margie's immune system an unusually long opportunity to combat the infection. Also fun if she caught and ate a Mesmer which is just as likely. Given it's a bacterial life form it's more than reasonable that Margie just lucked out and her immune system managed to kick it old school. Given that any answer is likely retcon anyway, this is a perfectly serviceable explanation. The chance of her riding a reaper body to site zero is probably way less likely than her immune system triumphing over an alien bacterium. A note on symptoms: She wouldn't have been naturally immune to the initial infection. Developing symptoms and even getting very sick is more likely than having no symptomatic presentation at all.

[@tooth2887]

maybe in the first possibility the Kharaa wasn't as deadly to humans years ago and evolved in the current era due to how it couldn't kill her for some reason or she had a stronger immune system to the disease because she had been a merc for a long time putting her in contact with a good amount of wildlife and potential diseases her immune system fought off and it gave the Kharaa a difficult time due to it.

[@TheReaper637]

Since I found out that she’s Marguerite…I just figured maybe she’s immune to the disease. Maybe one of the very few who are. But thinking back to one of Bart’s voice logs when he mentions that they ALL are showing symptoms and such…I guess we’ll never really know unless the Devs decide to answer that 😅

[@LtLost15]

My theory is that she was never infected to begin with. In the Degasi logs Bart only notes that she was coughing, he doesn't mention that she had any other symptoms.

[@divinemj3650]

but the bacteria is everywhere in the water, how could she avoid it?

[@Karottenregen]

When chuck noris meets Marguerit they shake hands respect each other and go along their way because they know it would be a even fight that would last for eternaty

[@benbertrum2892]

Very interesting! I think that a combination of some of the possibilities makes a lot of sense. I think it would’ve been sick if they put a fourth PDA in Margueit’s base about how she secretly went even deeper to the Disease research facility and found some sort of antibiotic/unfinished cure

[@defaul_tm4886]

I would like them to make a DLC or another installment where you play as her

[@bartholemulethefourth2314]

In subnautica in the databank in advanced theory’s under enzyme host peeper it says “chemical analysis of enzyme: ~Bears some superficial similarity to the stomach enzymes of larger predators”

[@introvertedspectator8917]

Perhaps the reason leviathan class lifeforms seem to be immune to the bacterium is similar to the lack of cancer in huge creatures such as whales. I recommend watching Kurzgesagt's video on this as I don't know the details.

[@MonStarGuy]

Your voice is so deep now. Great video dude.

[@FeralSheWolf]

The fifth one is, imo, right. (Below Zero spoilers ahead.) Maida does say something in her Below Zero logs--along the lines of "what I needed was inside it" (re: the Reaper Leviathan). She's already infected in Subnautica, and knows the Leviathans hold the secret (this is why she's capturing/killing them), but doesn't know how. She eats Reaper flesh hoping it'll help as she floats toward Sector Zero. This isn't likely to do with Leviathan diets, as you mention, as the Leviathans were resistant/immune before the enzyme was released (this is why the aliens were studying them to begin with, before the enzyme was released into the Peeper/vent system). My assumption is that that's exactly what happens: she eats Reaper meat, and this holds something that helps her body fight the Kharaa. They WERE trying to use other Leviathans, by the way--that's what went wrong; the Sea Dragon smashed the laboratory to get to the Sea Dragon baby/eggs that Al-an's team were experimenting with, and accidentally released the disease onto the planet. The other plot holes in Below Zero are far worse imo, and have to likely do with its writing team leaving halfway through & the plot being entirely rewritten. Ex. how did entire Sector Zero survive Kharaa to begin with? It's too far from the Sea Emperor system. We know a juvenile Emperor was cut early on, so it was implied that it was keeping the place safe, but if it was one of the released babies that was way too recent to explain Sector Zero's overall survival. "Cold" isn't likely; the crashed Mercury II's crew was infected with Kharaa in Sector Zero, implying it was carried there. Also, why did Sam make a cure but then hide it in a hole and just try to blow that Leviathan up..? Why not cure the dead Leviathan? And lastly, why did the crews of all the Alterra stations just... leave? The Kharaa was under control; the potentially VERY lucrative bases were all still present, the frozen Leviathan still infected and accessible. Why did the staff all abandon the planet..? And why didn't Al-an want to bring the cure when he departs the planet?!

[@FreedomPuppy]

They weren't trying to use other leviathans though? They took the eggs to figure out how to hatch Sea Emperor eggs, and that's it. Leviathans in general aren't immune to begin with.

[@FeralSheWolf]

@@FreedomPuppy No, they were using others. They took Sea Dragon Leviathan eggs and experimented on those in the Lost River facility, and the Sea Dragon (whose skeleton is found in Lost River) smashed her skull trying to break in, destroying the facility. That's how Kharaa got out to begin with on the planet. In the original game, it was implied that all Leviathans were immune--all other creatures could passively get the bacteria except Leviathans; they were top of the food chain so their stomach enzymes apparently nullified disease somehow. In the sequel, which was... poorly written, to say the least, there's a Leviathan that had Kharaa--so it was lore-wise downgraded to "resistant" instead of "immune."

[@Croftice1]

@@FeralSheWolf They took the Sea Dragon's egg, but not to study it for the cure, they were trying to figure out, how to hatch the Sea Emperor eggs, due to their species genetical similarities. So no, they weren't studying other Leviathans, they focused on the Sea Emperor solely. She was their main goal, as she was the only known source of the enzyme to them.

[@FeralSheWolf]

@@Croftice1 They were studying multiple leviathans there, actually, and had a juvenile trapped if you'll remember the skull--the Disease Research Facility data entries explain that they're testing all of them for disease immunity. They have a number of Leviathan eggs and embryos and note that the babies aren't yet resistant.

[@barklet6110]

@@FeralSheWolf the frozen leviathan is a distant ancestor at best and completely unrelated to any leviathans in the crater, not to mention that the kharaa could have easily killed all non immune leviathans, leaving only the immune ones in the breeding populous

[@kawgum3718]

How about this; Marguerit was pretty resistant to the Kharaa disease but still got infected and sick, yet it didnt kill her. When she travelled on the back of the reaper, she temporarily stopped the progression of the infection and when she arrived in sector zero she found the enzyme in the water. I know that sounds pretty really random and stupid but do you guys remember that in the original first early acces of subnautica below zero, the children of the sea emperor swam around in the deeper parts of sector zero, spreading the enzyme? I feel like the plot hole is in the part where they scrapped the juvinile sea emperors!

[@giannismith5041]

Marguerit got to sector 0 after a few weeks, Riley got there two years after that

[@kawgum3718]

@@giannismith5041 what is your point, what does this have to do with Marguerit not dying of Kharaa

[@giannismith5041]

She couldn’t have survived long enough to get the enzyme, I actually got my numbers wrong, 10 years before riley got there was when she got to sector zero

[@kawgum3718]

@@giannismith5041 hence why i said she was probably really resistant to it. Although didn’t ryley build a rocket? you know we’re playing from someone else’s POV in below zero right?

[@giannismith5041]

@@kawgum3718you said Marguerit survived because of the enzyme in the water, are you talking about enzyme 42?, if you are I don’t believe she could have lived 10 years to get said enzyme

[@Axlplayz]

I have another theory to add on to number 5. What if the leviathans don’t have a common ancestor, but it’s convergent evolution! What do we know about reefbacks, ghost leviathans and sea emperors? 1. They all cannot be infected in game and 2. They are all filter feeders My theory is that to digest the planktonic organisms of 4546B, all these separate species developed something similar in chemical composition to enzyme 42. Reapers are the only likely predators of reefbacks, and sea dragons share a recent common ancestor with sea emperors. The only hole in this theory is the sea treader

[@skittybug1558]

The fact that life exists in BZ and Regular Subnautica isn't a plot hole, it's actually strongly implied in both games. In Regular Subnautica, one of the PDA logs says that life on the crater underwent rapid adaptation for "some reason," which is strongly implied to be as a result of Kharaa being introduced into the water. What this means is that most fish in 4546B were indeed killed, but those that survived had such a high chance of reproducing in comparison that rapid evolution underwent as a combination of surviving the disease and filling the now missing niches. So I think it's a combination of Possibilities 1, 2, 5, and 6. Maida was simply able to better hold off the disease, and that combined with her eating the flesh of the Reaper bought her enough time for her immune system to overcome the bacterium. Remember, the Degasi Survivors were in the Deep Grand Reef for months, which already shows the disease progressing way slower in their systems. That little edge could easily have been enough to beat it entirely.

[@supadog1745]

She's just build different

[@samurexatlas7373]

Heat is known to help the body fight viruses, given Maida's hunter build and the fact that she had to keep warm all those years, and possibly the Leviathan Enzyme theory, she could have lasted, and you also have the matter of other foods possibly mixing to help her immune system fight it either for good or until the Enzyme release.

[@swapertxking]

theres something to be said about diseases and human immunology, save for measles, if you can survive an infection long enough you can become immune; from the looks of it the architects lived exceptionally clean lives and probably had weak immune systems, humans are sorta filthy animals. Its probably a combination of her incredible physiology, consumption of reaper leviathan meat, and then time. who knows really.

[@dabberthes9807]

this is actually a good reason

[@kumien5095]

i think that Marguerit rlly found the alien vents and cured peepers, but she found it alone. From on of PDAs you can discover that Marguerit wasnt keen on telling eveythiong to Torgals. For example: When she went out and brought a lot of Stalker teeth and didnt tell where she did get so much of them. So Imo some combination of Theory #3 and #4

[@electronicserver9760]

New Video YAY! :)

[@Term756L]

I think she might've survived because she ate the reaper leviathan flesh and since you really don't see reapers with the Kharaa infection it must've had anti-bacterial properties like Enzyme-42, which could've killed the infection or gave her an immunity.

[@thecyanpanda241]

That, or any reapers that get kharaa just die really quickly and thus we don't see them. However I do believe that the Margaurit eating the reaper theory is the most plausible

[@izzylord6533]

The Kharaa infecting Marguerit could have changed making itself more subtle or long lasting. Part of what makes the Kharaa so deadly is cause it mutates at a rapid pace. Maybe the rapid change in environment Marguerit kept doing made the Kharaa think it'd spread more if it layed low rather then instantly killing its host. Then Barts strain killed him because he settled on the floating island. Plus she "traveled" for weeks on that dead Reaper. A fast mutating bacteria might sense that forcing itself to become docile for a time. The way I see it is If ur moving environments rapidly like Marguerit and Ryley, it goes "Oh were spreading lots yay let's stay here for a bit" well if ur stagnant like Bart was near his end, or the fake doctor trapped in his pod, or most medium-large fish on 4546B (as in they rarely leave specific biomes) then the Bacterium would think "huh I'm not spreading fast enough maybe if i UNALIVE this person they'll be eaten so I can spread". Or at least that's the theory that makes the most sense to me

[@Neomerica-1993]

I think she wasn’t immune at first but eating the reaper enzyme plus the decade might’ve created basis that helped her body build a immunity to the sickness

[@dyme6699]

What if, since its VERY cold in sector zero, the disease is slowed like putting food in a freezer, and then it was slower in affecting her, and then eating peepers, which have trace amounts of enzyme 42, would slow the infection significantly. There is also the chance that reapers have a small amount of immunity from Kharaa and eating the meat prolonged her further

[@raionshishi8290]

This is literally all the reasons why she survived longer, she ate peepers that had trace amounts of enzyme 42, she ate a Reaper leviathan which in game story lore literally says all Leviathans have the ability or has trace amounts of this enzyme in their stomach cavity just not as highly potent as the Emperor species. Also being in the cold slows down any virus/disease/infection from developing, it can literally completely stop it from spreading at all, it won't kill it but it will stop it from even developing in any way. This also explains why the disease even survived on that dead Frozen Leviathan as it was feeding off of it's dead corpse or just simply surviving on it. We have seen videos of people uncovering ice age creatures that were dead 100x longer but still had tissues and diseases that could be studied and identified. Not to mention the body and skin of those creatures were frost bitten, rotten and decaying and completely destroyed. This is barely more than 1000 years old and the body is still fully intact.

[@Tom-H1]

Theory: The writers forgot she was supposed to be infected and let the players invent an explanation

[@a1o9u6]

This

[@Tyekiller115]

Nope

[@radoslawmazurekwaw]

Simple, realistic explanation. If disease does not kill 100% of infected (common case) then she recovered from illness by her own. This is how it works in the real world. Pretty much always someone survives illness.

[@TShirtGyattGuy]

Your body has a weapon to fight every disease, and the reason people die to diseases, is because your either at a very sensitive age, the disease is very deadly and works fast, the disease isn’t effected by your body’s defenses, or your immune system takes a hella long time getting it’s defenses ready. Marguerit most likely is just naturally more defensive against this specific threat. She could still be at high risk for other diseases.

[@gregtheseatreaderleviathan4609]

I think possibility 3.5 at 7:04 is the most plausible

[@ArmourFarmer]

thank you so much for this video. I've been wondering about this ever since I found out that Marguerit survived. The best theory I've ever had was that she got frozen in ice similarly to how the frozen leviathan got frozen, which is completely and utterly stupid. Personally I don't think there is a proper lore-accurate solution to this plot hole. I find the flora theory a bit ludicrous as the enzyme works by killing the bacteria through phagocytosis and Kharaar simply isn't something which targets plants, meaning no flora could get an immunity towards Kharaar (although they can produce an antidote, I just don't think it would work from a biological standpoint). If you continue along this biological standpoint, eating other animals doesn't transmit the white blood cells and antibodies to the consumer and if it does, those foreign antibodies would be in all likelihood rejected by the immune system. The only conceivable way that theory could work would be through transfusion. However Marguerit clearly states that all she had was a repair tool. Also I doubt that all the leviathans had a relatively recent common ancestor. While the Sea Dragon and Sea Emperor clearly are related, the sea treader is more likely related to the cave crawler. As to how all the leviathans who aren't the sea dragon and sea emperor didn't get Kharaar, first of all, originally they were supposed to get kharaar prior its redesign but ignoring that, due to the fact it was deleted, maybe caraar just can't infect larger organisms as it works too slowly and so the immune system kills it. While I think that it's completely ludicrous, the devs would probably explain this plot hole with the plant solution. Also I'm currently revising for my Biology GCSE topic 3 so that's why my explanation got more scientific than average. Anyway time to stop procrastinating. Have a good day everyone. Who reads this. I'll stop now.

[@ArmourFarmer]

My first hearted comment =D I need to procrastinate more

[@Iliveforzelink]

I was about to ask if you were a med student or smth

[@ArmourFarmer]

​@@Iliveforzelink just a very bored person who somehow made it into top set science

[@mackintosh9330]

My problem with the leviathans having a cure theory is that the PDA tells us that the leviathan clad creatures are not all closely related, and is merely a classification of size, not a taxonomic classification. Yes, it’s clear that the sea dragon and emperor are closely related, but I’m sure that some small predatory creature like a bone shark is more closely related to the reaper than a reef back is, despite them both being called leviathans.

[@midnightsocean2689]

cool vid! The precursors would have been dissecting all sorts of things looking for cures, no way they just didn't know every leviathan sized creature had the cure. IMO, her being a meat eater, getting more temp cure from larger animal meat and falling within the right mortality percentage is the best explanation I can think of.

[@Ajexec]

I think there is one other reason, Marguerit has biological enhancements. One of the other members of the degassi mentions that he can get a new liver to keep living, some off market organ enhancements just screams "THIS IS SOMETHING MARGUERIT WOULD HAVE"

[@oggaming7362]

She didn't survive. Everything in Below Zero should canonically be ignored. It's trash.

[@jadegecko]

I've only made it partway through the base game and I'm so happy to hear Marguerit lived and we get to meet her

[@bartman156.]

I believe in one of the older pre-release versions, there was a precursor log about how many billions had died and one survived. I believe Marguerite overcame the disease all by herself. When there's a disease, there's always someone who's more resistant to it than the others. It's similar to the black death. Most people died but some survived it and never got it again so they were tasked with burying the bodies of the deceased.

[@carolynchurch4642]

And she still kept the reapers skull as a trophy. Talk about badass!

[@serenastarz867]

Actually, I think she was never infected. I’m not sure how the virus works, but one thing that I thought was interesting was the fact that when she scanned it, it just said that she had a rash it’s entirely possible. She didn’t actually have the virus at that point and just had symptoms that appeared similar to theirs, then later on when she eats the leviathan to survive and subzero, she has the enzymes that make it so she’s able to survive and doesn’t actually get the disease. Fighting a disease you already have versus becoming immune before you are subjected to it or two different things I think the leviathan the equivalent of a shot. They were already used to the virus and had ample enzymes to fight off and therefore became a vaccine of sorts. I’ll have to rewatch the video and figure out who said what because I came up with this theory while I was half asleep from watching all the videos

[@Dexter_Solid]

It's also possible that enzyme 42 affects only certain mutations of the disease and not all, and through the biomagnification process mentioned she was cured of her strain.

[@estrellaescobar5723]

I believe in theory #6. Sometimes, the most simple explanation is the correct one: Maida was just lucky enough to become immune/be cured due to a sequence of several factors. Maybe she was more resilient to the Kharaa than others and, since she passed more time hunting/exploring in the water, most likely was more exposed to the peppers who carried the incomplete enzyme 42. After that, she may have simply developed immunity on her own, or allowed her to survive long enough to consume the Reaper Leviathans enzyme 42 and be cured.

[@lachydragneel]

She would still die from dehydration

[@theplagueddoctor3716]

It's also possible that she just wasn't lethally effected. Diseases IRL have a distinct aversion to 100% mortality rates, as that's an evolutionary dead end for them. Diseases need living beings to reproduce, so the most successful evolutionarily are ones that don't kill everyone. However, we know the precursors were especially susceptible to Kharaa due to their unique DNA structure, explaining why it was 100% lethal to them. It's also possible that contact to numerous alien contaminations prior to the trip the 4548b had already strengthened her immune system. After all, she was an accomplished mercenary, so this likely wasn't her first time on an alien world.

[@serafima2]

The voice actor who voice over Dorian in Dragon age has such a reconisable voice. I immediately noticed it while listening to the voice log of pod 12.

[@yooples54]

I was just thinking about this today and this video showed up on my feed

[@BuilderB08]

For the first counter to point 5, they did. The Precursors tried to study a Sea Dragon egg, but the facility was torn apart, and they probably decided it was a bad idea to study the Leviathans, other than the Emperor, which was old and wouldn’t be able to do much damage.

[@Croftice1]

You've got it wrong, they studied a Sea Dragon egg in order to find out how to hatch the Sea Emperor's eggs. That was their main goal. They weren't researching other Leviathans for the cure, they were solely focused on the Sea Emperor, just tried the Sea Dragon's egg due to their genetical similarity.

[@BuilderB08]

@@Croftice1 It’s reasonable to assume they would have also learned about the Sea Dragon’s immunity as well and studied it, and they still would not try again except with leviathans like the Reefback.