The Descent And Demise Of Ted Faro: Horizon Forbidden West Lore

[@acuyra]

The moment you enter Thebes and realize he wasn’t alone down there, you just know it’s about to get dark.

[@psaikik]

when i heard there was a teenage girl there.....

[@HaydrogenBomb]

@@psaikik YYYYYYYYYikes 😬

[@RainAngel111]

To be honest I thought it made total sense that he had some people with him. It's kind of gross that it was just several girlfriends, a guru, a doctor and his teenage daughter, but it was undeniably better than being alone. People go crazy without social interaction of some kind. As a megalomaniac Ted especially needed some people.

[@feliciafenish7128]

@@RainAngel111 sad he got crazy even with people around him. (Not surprised really)

[@johnnyk617]

The doctor telling Ted the reactor would help his mutation was a last act of vengeance. It did technically help his mutations…helped them grow uncontrollably

[@masteroftheassassins]

Honestly, it couldn’t have happened to a better person. Ted Faro’s mutation just brought out everything that was inside and showed the monster he truly was.

[@Usotsukii.]

I imagine the monster he has become is supposed to symbolize every imperfection the monster he is for causing all the suffering the caused

[@NoOne-fo1di]

I also hold on to the hope that he was still aware of himself. I hope that he knew who he was and what he had been planning and now knew it would never happen and be would be stuck like think until someone found him or the place fell apart due to an earthquake or eruption.

[@musizlover2008]

Still, to turn into something like that and being unable to die, I almost pity him. At least he was put out of his misery.

[@daokoxd1145]

When I first watched the Cutscene of Ted killing the Alpha's, I feel like crying in anger. I feel the pain of Samina too. Imagine her lifelong work, gone, because of some egomaniac who wanted to play god and hide his crimes

[@rd6416]

Pity we didn't get to see it though 😕

[@theinspiredgamer1949]

Thebes honestly felt like something out of a Fallout game. At the end of it all I felt unyielding hatred towards Faro and great sadness for the people of Thebes. Also, while I would have liked to see what Ted Faro became, I understand why they wouldn’t include it because it alone might’ve required them to put an M rating on the box.

[@finecastleie]

I'm just imagining The Master from the first Fallout, except that Ted has "minimal brain activity"

[@MarkEmerAndersonII]

@@finecastleie Yeah - that was my and my sisters first thought too.

[@benjaminewering5329]

Would have been interesting to see what the Game could have made out of Faro and his story. It sucks a bit that his story is wiped away so quickly.

[@jackschroeder4588]

John Gonzalez wrote horizon and fallout new vegas

[@MarkEmerAndersonII]

@@jackschroeder4588 Yep - 100% the reason the game plots are so good. He even sketched out the whole trilogy at the start.

[@dhoulmagusrhapthorne9082]

Ted Faro: *Chilling on a 1500 degree reactor* Ceo: "Throw your torch at him..."

[@jacquesmckay4873]

i have this feeling hes just buried not dead

[@zac-1]

@@jacquesmckay4873 but didnt it meltdown because he died though lol

[@AbrahamArthemius]

@@jacquesmckay4873 The reactor literally melts down whenever the system detects Ted to be dead. Sure, Ted is pretty much immortal but just like the Zeniths, it's only affecting the aging part, other than that he (and the Zeniths) can still die from outside force which in this one being burned by lava and that is a completely different ball game than just staying inside a really hot reactor.

[@TheSephi]

@@AbrahamArthemius Actually I think any disturbance would have done it. He didn't necessarily have to die to trigger meltdown

[@jacquesmckay4873]

sorry i wasnt paying attention

[@mathewlombardo3876]

I literally JUST realized the whole Faro - Pharaoh thing. What a freaking "duh" moment lol

[@ZaiDrizzleDrop]

Oh SHIT!!!

[@PrestigeLearning]

Figured it out myself in the first game ... but it took a loooong time for me, too

[@ThePlasticBowl]

Damn I’m dumb as fuck, how did I miss that

[@mosey_around2231]

Pharoah's tomb - Faro's tomb. Man I love word play!

[@ThePlasticBowl]

@@mosey_around2231 i wonder if she hey planned this all along or if they just kinda released during development that like “Yo this could work.”

[@samdilks9516]

honestly? Thebes was one of the highlights of the game. The pacing, the writing, the atmosphere, even the acting - it was all so polished and excellent. The fight against the corruptors was surprisingly fun, and felt like a moment of "look how for you and aloy have come since the first game" even if it did raise the question of WHY the hell ted thought putting two of those robots in his apocalypse bunker specifically DESIGNED TO KEEP SAID ROBOTS OUT (lbr it was because of his ego.) and the reveal of what happened to Faro.... like others in the comments, i felt a bit cheated that we didn't see what he looked like properly, and didn't get a resident evil-style boss fight, but on reflection it makes a lot of narrative sense. he wasn't some infallible titan of justice like the Quen believe he was - he was a greedy coward who stood on the shoulders of giants and never had to pay the price. The fact that he was reduced to a lumpy growth in a reactor underground far away from anyone who cared, a thousand years after everyone he knew was dead, only to then get burned to death by disgusted tribesmen is a fate he deserves because he completely brought it upon himself. as Sylens and Aloy say in optional dialogue later on in the game: Sylens: However he died... it was too good for him. Aloy: Let me guess. You would have scraped out his brain, stuck it in a jar and prodded it? Sylens: ...for a start.

[@toothlessrick3970]

I believe Faro had those robots as guards because they are called Scarabs and Scarabs were of ancient Egyptian culture.

[@samdilks9516]

Yeah i know, the chariot line was all named after egyptian things (scarab, khopesh, and horus) my question was why the hell ted thought it was a good idea considering those very same robots were eating the planet, the global catastrophe that he built Thebes specifically to avoid You might as well write "no pets allowed" on the sign of a butcher shop and then assign a guard dog to the freezer.

[@J-manli]

@@samdilks9516 My take, those were functional but deactivated scarabs during the plague. But the hades/ nemesis signal probably reactivated them, but there was not enough nearby biomass to alert them until Aloy and co showed up.

[@coltonwilliams4153]

I’m with Sylens. That’s a pretty good start.

[@chefboiardeeznutz9881]

I would love if Sylens did end up somehow getting some of it though. I like sylens character, but I feel he switched sides too easily. Hopefully they bring more enigma to his character.

[@kalebnicholas8010]

I honestly thought the ceo would have walked inside the the reactor and moments later we would have saw his body fly across the room and splat on the wall 😂😂😂

[@deandrenicholas2545]

That's what I was hoping for too. Fuck that guy, smug douche. See ya at the family reunion, cousin lmao

[@ghalibsohail9781]

😂

[@piousaugustus84]

I hoped the same thing tbh. But getting crushed under the head of the statue made me giggle with glee.

[@MirandaLovesPathology]

Same here 😂😂😂😂

[@finecastleie]

I was expecting that the reactor room would have been a massive room, and we would have seen a lump of flesh in the distance wrapped around the core.

[@_Petrichor]

My god I was terrified that Ted would make his way out of the reactor and we’d have to fight the horrific flesh monster ala TLOU2

[@Alexriga]

I was hoping for it bro :)

[@anotherhappylanding4746]

More like resident evil

[@BlueMoonlight777]

Oh yes the rat king. I absolutely hated and feared this part.

[@Atlas-pn6jv]

Guerrilla said in a statement about it that they didn't want to show him for risk of stepping into the genre of horror and losing their T rating.

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

@@Atlas-pn6jv Was hoping for a concept art.

[@duncanfriend3766]

I feel like Somptow telling Faro that the reactor would "help" his mutations was actually a bold faced lie. It was his way of exacting revenge on Faro. It's a freaking reactor, it likely made his mutations grow exponentially worse. Also before Faro went to the reactor, he said that Somptow left him alone, meaning that the rest of the Harem, and everyone else in Thebes was already dead. I really enjoyed uncovering what happened to Ted. Felt a lot like how HZD was where you discovered events instead of having everything be told to you like the rest of Forbidden West. I did, however feel slighted that we never got to see or meet him. After learning the Zeniths had discovered eternal life, I figured Ted had that same tech. I thought he may be behind the Zeniths and everything else, but I was sadly disappointed. His end is a fitting one, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations and left me feeling a little empty.

[@chunkybuttization]

Wow I never thought of it like this. Makes total sense. I’m gonna have to go back and read/listen to all those datapoints again…

[@d3vastat0r89]

One of my other hobbies is reading. I love to read very thick, engaging fantasy stories. Somehow this does not get transcribed to video games. I very quickly get bored when I have to read a lot while playing a game, so I very much enjoyed having everything fed to me in this game. The last time I said that on here I got accused of being brain-dead or having the intelligence of a child, so I’ll prepare myself. Anyway, I do agree the end of Ted Faro’s story was a bit disappointing in that we do not get to see it for ourselves and properly savor it. I guess, in a way, that was fitting. This god just inadvertently locked himself up for a millennium, and became a blob. For a bit I was concerned that this other egomaniac, Ceo, was about to unleash a new god on the world.

[@MrQuaritch]

@Duncan Friend yeah I felt the exact same way, I was really hyped to see and learn more concerning Ted after killing the Alphas. After beating the game I would have much rather had him be the big baddie behind the curtain than the Zeniths.

[@Riftsrunner]

@@MrQuaritch I think even for the Zeniths, Ted was too big of a bite to swallow. So I am assuming either he wasn't offered transport on the Odyssey or he megalomaniac personality wouldn't allow him to leave the Earth and miss out on a chance of corrupting Elizabet's dream of the future of life on Earth. Because even after his swarm engulfed the planet, he believed if not for him there would never be that future and he deserved to set the record straight, that it wasn't his fault and he bankrolled its survival.

[@freazeezy]

I think that even the zeniths had enough standards to not invite faro. Gotta draw the line somewhere.

[@xenogil180]

Yikes, his inner self becoming his outer self. Talk about weird ironic punishments...Good lore dive Zoe!

[@Human_01]

I thought the same thing. Agreed! Smh.

[@pegmay7209]

Portrait of Dorrian Gray style.

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

This man is a trillionaire and had 18 lawsuits... ... Against a woman he had to literally crawl back to. 👀

[@maceofbass9295]

I really didn't think I'd need more reason to hate Faro after ZD, but oh my god was Thebes a series of revelations in repulsion. The Resident Evil final boss Ted was definitely not what I was expecting lol...

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

I don't think a rocket launcher would suffice here. I'm surprised they were able to kill it with fire when the reactor room was over 1000 degrees.

[@finecastleie]

I would love to see just even some concept art of what Ted looks like, and just laugh at him.

[@greenhat8978]

Do what I do, look up artwork of the gravemind and just imagine it pink instead of green.....

[@HaydrogenBomb]

@@greenhat8978 I imagined something more along the lines of the Rat King or the fetus monster from Resident Evil: Village.

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

I'll bet he looks like G in his final stage but pinned up and spread across the reactor.

[@raphmaster23]

Or fully mutated William Birkin from resident evil games

[@chunkystains8950]

What Ted turned into makes me think of "I have no mouth, but I must scream" 15:00 Serves him right, but I still wish this part was fleshed out more. (No pun intended)

[@DONUTBOY1o1]

Out of all the amazing cinematics in both Horizon games...leaving Ted Faro's final form up to the imagination of the player stuck with me the most. The build up and climax of the scene sent CHILLS down my spine

[@thundageon5962]

In Zero Dawn when I reached the ice tower and witnessed how Faro regrets his actions I sympathized with him thinking it must be difficult for to manage the swarms but later in the game when I saw that Faro deleted Apollo, killed the remaining Alphas started this whole mess with no strings attached, my blood boiled. He is truly inhuman

[@purplepothos5794]

I'm impressed how the game writers made Ted even worse than the first game. Far Zeniths were Ted's contemporaries and all were shown to be greedy and selfish and you'd think running away from the end of the world whilst even a narcissist like Ted stayed behind would somehow make them worse but hearing Ted's last recording about believing future generations would "need" him and his "guidance" made his reason to stay behind all the worse. As bad as the Zeniths were at least they didn't feel the need to be worshipped like Ted did.

[@天安門廣場-w5r]

Well they would have needed Teds guidance and most likely benefited from it.

[@KingDayDayDay00]

This game took me for a spin. I was suspecting he was secretly a Zenith and it turns out he was sealed away as some giant tumor blob suffering for over a thousand years

[@Riftsrunner]

I know everyone else in Thebes was dead by the time the doctor and his daughter killed themselves. Ted began the snowball rolling down the mountain when he 'shut off' the guru. If he hadn't tried to cover it up and pass it off as the guru died of natural causes, he may have been able to get away with it. However, he then kills the woman that the guru told what he had discovered about Ted Faro. The first death could have been passed off as an unfortunate happenstance. The second death so soon afterwards would have raised people's suspicions and led to fear of Faro. Eventually, everybody would fall to Ted's whims because he has to always be right and in control. I believe the doctor and his daughter left Ted on their own terms, instead of living their lives with this threat hanging over their heads of having to live in so much uncertainty. So they left on their own terms and did it as a huge middle finger to Ted.

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

That's not a normal red flag, that was crimson.

[@spookyshran5274]

even though it would be quite counter to the style of the horizon games, I cannot help but feel somewhat cheated by guerilla not giving us a fight against a william birkin-esque / nemesis faro mutant

[@WhiteManGodzillaFan]

Some resident evil stuff

[@jaythekid4728]

Yeah I was upset that we didn’t at least get to see him

[@emmafrost16]

Yes, so disappointed. Would love to see aloy mock him then end his miserable life.

[@mathewlombardo3876]

I moreno wanted faro to see Sobeck's resurrection in the flesh, and see what his reaction was knowing all he had done

[@Eradicator-jv9xr]

@@jaythekid4728 guerilla didn't want to lose their T rating...

[@samanthar3014]

It's called Thebes because his last name is Faro (Pharoh). There's a lot of Egyptian themes to the games (ie scarab, kopesh, Horus), even Sobeck is an Egyptian god of the Nile who brought fertility to the land.

[@FirebirdPrince]

I appreciate his demise but I also wished they gave us a sort of boss fight with him. When they first mentioned his immortality I thought "oh shit this is gonna be like the zenith fights but without any of the human elements". Ultimately thought, Faro is probably one of the most interesting villains that never done anything directly to the main character. Truly compelling. And something tells me his menace is far from over

[@quixote_7]

He's definitely dead

[@jacquesmckay4873]

@@quixote_7 i think he meant do something to piss off aloy indirectly in the 3rd game

[@juuubart]

Would have wanted to see a scene where Aloy confronts him and tells him "Everyone knows what you did. APOLLO survived. You lost."

[@jacquesmckay4873]

yeah that would have been epic

[@andrewowens4421]

Oh, that would have been nice to rub into his face... or whatever was left of his face.

[@alipetuniashow]

Yeah

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

Minimal brain activity.

[@felixleong61]

It would be a befitting ending. Elizabeth's daughter telling Ted, mutated into the monster he really is within him, that deleting APOLLO will not hide the truth of what he had done

[@jamesmartin6737]

I love what became of Teddy boy Faro. I think that *spoilers ahead* him becoming a crazed mutant monstrosity locked into an inescapable tomb, doomed to spend eternity alone, locked in a cage of his own design.

[@bluethebear909]

I read an interview on why Ted faro’s body was never seen on screen, the developers thought it was best for players to develop the horrific image on immortal Faro. I don’t think we’ll see the blob of faro but it be an interesting secret boss on the trilogy. Maybe ice and acid for a weakness

[@Tuberiascaesar]

I felt conflicted. I can see why they ended him like that, but I kind of felt cheated also in a way if that makes sense.

[@princssnasty]

cheated how? did you want something worse for him? cause it’s hard to imagine a more horrific fate than an entire millennium alone in a furnace painfully mutating into an abomination 😳 i thought it couldn’t have been more fitting for him seeing as he brought it on himself with his egomaniacal desire to live on and become like a god to the future human population after personally wiping out the first... i literally couldn’t have imagined a better payoff lol so just curious what you mean 🤷‍♀️

[@tomislavpoje2159]

@@princssnasty he was a monster from the inside and then became a monster from the outside. a fitting end.

[@Tuberiascaesar]

@@princssnasty I see your point. I just expected aloy to fight him, or him be a villain if not the villain of the story, or a resident evil monster fight or something.

[@princssnasty]

@@Tuberiascaesar huh, it just never occurred to me to even remotely expect any of those things because of how totally out of place they’d be 😆

[@Tuberiascaesar]

@@princssnasty well when I learned she'd enter thebes and that he had survived with immortality experiments I thought ok. Then when I found out that he'd mutated into a monster I at least expected a monster fight. Besides, giving how much I've loved to hate him since the first game I thought he'd be more interesting a villain than a krypton lex luthor who only appeared twice in the whole game :)

[@Phage626]

It's even worse when you consider he had planned to kill the alphas when he had Thebes commissioned and planned for all those people to be there.

[@08vic24]

Thanks for putting together this video. This was definitely one of my favorite quests in these games so far, and felt very reminiscent of going into a Vault in a Fallout game and gradually piecing together the disturbing truth of what exactly happened in there. Also a great example of how audio and text ‘logs’ can be used effectively in a game IMO.

[@feathers8233]

Thebes was beautiful. I'm just gonna be straight up honest, it was gorgeous (in terms of amazing game design) and I wanted to go back after the mission to take screenshots but oh well As for Faro's end, so deserved. Thousands of years of suffering only to be burned to death by the people he wanted to command, yep, dude deserved that. Just sad I didn't get to see this mutated blob he was x'D I was curious

[@eurogamer]

I feel exactly the same about exploring Thebes! I thought we were going to have a brief horror-ish section seeing Ted's mutated form, a little disappointed we didn't but loved it all the same. Zoe

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

The people there dressed like they were the richest settlement.

[@zephon6745]

I think that Ted Faro is still alive in thebes trapped forever under a mountain of rumble. He wanted immortality I say he got it.

[@ZaiDrizzleDrop]

Do you know what he became?

[@zephon6745]

@@ZaiDrizzleDrop A monster outside as well as inside.

[@markj3169]

Going deeper into Faro's crypt I kept thinking "are we about to do a resident evil here?" and then it turned out Faro went full resident evil 😂😂love it

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

To bad, I would've love to see his reaction when he sees Aloy.

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

Minimal brain activity, may not recognize her.

[@davidgferguson2]

Is Faro really withstanding the extreme temperature of the reactor though? Given the fact that Ceo's lackeys dispatch him by tossing a torch at him, the temp and Ted's existence might just be separate bits of information.

[@princssnasty]

they had flamethrowers & firebombs but honestly even just a lit torch coming into contact with that reactor core (the log said had become extremely unstable) would ignite it to far beyond even those temps and then probably blow the f up

[@reddemon6668]

@@princssnasty the base temp of the reactor was on the mean range for lava temps though. Even if the reactor had a meltdown, all it would probably do is stop the cooling process as it lets itself meltdown through lava. In other words if Ted can survive the lava temps, then there’s a good chance he might still be alive. Then you would need to ask why would devs feel the need to implement the temps of the reactor in the first place? Why not just an in depth log of the structural integrity? Right after that log, we immediately get that scene that Faro happens to be wrapped around the reactor. Coincidence perhaps… or perhaps not

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

@@reddemon6668 I still wonder how he got wrapped around it.

[@happysnail8546]

@@LegendaryDarkKnight602 lmao he probably took the doctor's advice way too literally and just hugged it

[@danielcenker6111]

I have always suspected that the gap that forced Lis to exit the facility was his fault. He planned on eliminating the Alphas and Apollo but knew Lis could somehow stop him. Also... yeah... with a name like Horus, his Thebes facility sticks with his whole Egyptian theme. And when I scanned the first entry inside, I knew this was going to get really dark. Was not disappointed.

[@JorgeMP53]

Indeed. Ever since I started exploring every corner of Thebes, reading the data entries and listening to the audiologs I knew it was going to be wild, but right at the exact moment I saw what Faro had become I was like: "No way...". I literally jaw dropped for bout 2 mins.

[@hell3quin864]

I am loving these. Don't have a ps4 or 5 so haven't played the games, which are obviously excellent: vids like these are very enjoyable as they satisfy the deep lore curiosity that Let's Play & stream creators obviously don't go into.

[@littlered6340]

Halfway through the bunker I was so sure the game was going to make me fight him and there would be nothing I could do that was a satisfying end to him... Then when happened was so much better. Very "Hartman Was Stretched" vibes

[@dimitri_1of1]

I love the Control reference

[@billykovack314]

The writers really did such a good job making Faro incredibly ublikeable

[@天安門廣場-w5r]

Best character in the series easily

[@Lexxi_Pop]

I'm honestly so glad we didn't see him, sometimes things are best left to the imagination

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

Naw, I wanna see. 👀

[@dallinnevitt_444]

Don’t trust an off screen death

[@Krystalqueen737]

Seeing his clone die had me rolling cause I was just like “YES YES! THAT’S WHAT I WANTED!”

[@jacquesmckay4873]

I don't think the ceo is a clone i think he's just some kind of fanatic if he was a clone the door would have opened for him but begs the question are they're any clones of him?

[@ryanbull6384]

Isn’t ceo a clone of travis Tate?

[@jacquesmckay4873]

@@ryanbull6384 could be he resembles him more than ted faro.

[@isdrakon9802]

@@jacquesmckay4873 and I'd believe it, but Travis wasn't this much of a dick

[@Incog2k6]

When "Ceo" entered the reactor room, I not only expected to see Faro, but I honestly thought that the game was about to turn into Resident Evil 😂. Faro even sounded like Birkin from RE2, haha. Anyway, he deserved his fate, as dying back then with everybody else would've been too merciful.

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

When they opened the door to the reactor I was expecting everyone in the joining room to burn alive.

[@robertolivingston4176]

Diving into thieves was amazing, it just gave off that dark cold feeling of just trying to imagine what happened here. I usually didn't read all the data but here I read everything to find all the twisted things that went on with these poor people just wanting to live to now live a life in fear from a monster to their final days. In all thieves was amazing just wish it had been just Aloy and Alva cause the Ceo was so annoying (glad he died😏) when I was looking around the area and he's trying to rush me😒

[@JorgeMP53]

I find it extremely ironic that ceo died crushed by Faro Statue's head. I immediately said: "Heh. Well played, Guerrilla. Well played" 🤣.

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

I like how the first game took us to the Zero Dawn project where the Alphas were murdered. The second game took us to Thebes where their murderer resided.

[@plumbcrazy9195]

I thought he named it Thebes not only because he sees himself as a god but his last name Faro=Pharoh. This was a great breakdown, I love the Horizon lore

[@PLAYER_42069]

Ted is an egomaniac, and destroying Apollo was a blow to future generations of Zero Dawn. However... I think even if Apollo had survived, nothing was going to go as planned, regardless. Future generations weren't just going to start off in some idealistic utopia where they take the lessons of the past to heart and make things better for themselves and the new world. As pointed out, humans have free will, and this includes making selfish and extinction level decisions. The idea behind Zero Dawn & Apollo, was flawed from the start because "Life finds a way (to screw the best laid plans)", but the story doesn't focus on this aspect. It's meant to get us angry at Ted Faro's arrogance and selfishness, but the human race was still doomed even if it survived, IMHO.

[@princssnasty]

you’re literally just arguing nihilism, ‘nothing matters what’s the point’ 🙄 ofc it wouldn’t have provided a smooth transition back into civilization or even ensured the long term success of new humanity (everyone gets this, it’s not deep thought) but deleting it is still horribly stupid and wrong. don’t fool yourself into thinking there’s any upside to it or even that it doesn’t really matter either way. it can literally only lead to worse outcomes and cause unfathomable amounts more horrific suffering and death than would’ve been necessary for absolutely no reason beyond one man’s ego

[@PrestigeLearning]

Everything ends, someday. If immortals from "Highlander" were real, they'd wind up alone on a frozen barren rock floating through an endless night, trillions of years down the road. Point of Apollo, however, wasn't just to serve as a database, but as an artificially intelligent teacher that would parse out education based on the students' readiness. Or at least that seems to be Samina's intent, when she talked about safeguards she'd built into it.

[@ManiyaVinas]

You mean moids

[@tkondor]

In this analogy Ted Faro could be the representation of the human race.

[@jadeith2]

whenever someone lock themselves away with a "harem" things are not going to go well

[@TheJohnpocalypse]

Just completed Thebes yesterday, and jumped into this video to make sure I didn't miss anything. Looks like I got all the lore bits, what a terrible creature is Ted Faro, even before he turned into a mass of mutated cells. Odds are his brain activity was low because his brain cells would also have mutated and multiplied and the human body is not designed to think over such vast synaptic distances. Anyway, I'm glad the devs decided to keep Ted's actual horrible mutant body offscreen so that anything we imagine would be way worse than they could model.

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

So losing brain cells as time passes?

[@evansinclair1999]

This moment in the game genuinely had me disturbed and on the edge of my seat I liked that we didn’t actually see what happened to him with our eyes my imagination did the job and had my heart pounding

[@nicholekollman]

I loved how the Quen leader was called the Ceo. Ceo - C.E.O. Very clever, Guerrilla Games. The Quen were obsessed with their gods being these ancestors that were business people, so it made sense that they would call him the Ceo.

[@salaarcash9177]

Love your lore series!

[@wanghiskhan7345]

Faro's end definitely reminded me of Gil in BioShock 2. Although you "kinda" see Gil 🤣

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

As a Bio Shock fan, I agree.

[@sethledesma8106]

6:50 that line made me wonder if Grigori had found out about the truth behind Project Zero Dawn. Because, many people especially those in Operation Enduring Victory believed that it was a superweapons program to make weaponry capable of destroying the Chariot line.

[@nomi_101]

So I watched all the way to 2:45 before getting to Thebes and thought I got spoiled (my fault, i couldn't help myself.) Let me tell ya, I was SHOCKED when i finished that questline!! I'm now binging all Horizon videos on KZbin since I've finished the game am loving the content!!

[@TheSephi]

I have a feeling ol' Teddy is coming back. If that core didn't incinerate him, how could a burning stick? Even if he died, he might be cloned for the incoming problem thats coming.

[@eldenlion5850]

Me: Nice Guerilla Games, you turned a guy into an Akira? Guerilla Games: He Akira’d himself!

[@herbertadams8433]

Blood Pressure is listed at 371. That's not elevated. It ridiculously high. At 180 a normal person is in a hypertensive crisis about to stroke out.

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

At this point I'm surprised he even has blood.

[@Batman-zn3dj]

Thank you for the video. My son absolutely loves both games

[@BraveTiger6]

This video just made me me realize the pharaoh similarity with Teds last name.

[@philiphunn194]

Elisabet Sobeck is also named after Sobek, the crocodile-headed Egyptian god of healing and warding off evil. Egyptian motifs are everywhere in this series - Corrupters are Scarab-class scout machines, Deathbringers are Khopesh-class weapons platforms (a khopesh is a sword with a curved blade), and Metal Devils are Horus-class mobile foundries.

[@two2truths]

Anyone else notice how the 'Ceo' is also CEO in the corporate world?

[@kalamies.]

I think that was pretty obvious

[@two2truths]

@@kalamies. you’d be surprised! People are dense and stupid sometimes

[@PrestigeLearning]

The Quen culture is all about comical misunderstandings of the Old Ones. Look at the medallion of Bohai, the First Diviner. It’s a mosaic forming the WiFi symbol against mother-of-pearl. And Ted Faro is “The Renewer” (because of the clawback), with Sobek as his assistant (which she kind of was, during the clawback).

[@gabrielcarrasco8414]

I think it was a fitting end. He died with a whimper. He was always grandiose and in death he died alone and only ones left alive that know are Aloy and Alva. One of if not most despicable villains in gaming.

[@天安門廣場-w5r]

I dont understand how he was a villain

[@Atlas-pn6jv]

I didn't think of the different screams and possible multiple mouths thing. Thanks for those nightmares.

[@Azuwat]

Just found Eurogamers vids. These vid types are good 👍

[@lichtschluusseln3528]

The Ted Faro character reminds me of what Bobby Rottick and people alike is doing to the videogame industry. We would have enjoyed tripcastering, shredding, bombing and arrowing the mutant Faro then hunting down his surviving descent with his harem or his clones among the Zeniths. Thanks, Guerrilla, for such a beautiful game and story. XD XD XD XD XD

[@jayzgaming0097]

I just love the facial expression aloy made when she she discovered what happened to faro

[@gruenekatze0]

For a second, when CEO. entered I was scared that Ted Faro would take over his Mind or something like that, and gain an new body.

[@KevCorr91]

Great video, thanks a lot! Maybe cover Sylens or the Zeniths for the next one??

[@eurogamer]

Keep an eye on the channel on Saturday 👀 Zoe

[@vinceA3748]

Yeah, that Ted Faro. In this world, he's probably the biggest villain in history. I think he went completely off the deep end when Sobeck died. At that point, she was the only thing keeping him in line. His sanity was all but gone with her. (SPOILER) I was just bummed he wasn't still alive, because I wanted to end him myself....with extreme prejudice.

[@baercub521]

I wish they were gutsy and actually allowed Aloy speak to him

[@abydosianchulac2]

Ugh, and if it was proven that he actually did retain some intelligence and recognized her, oh that would have been sweet deliciousness.

[@baercub521]

Yes this where I wish choices came into play. Do you end Ted Faro at the behest of Ceo or do you spare him where he will most likely be treated like a god by the Quen

[@DEEJAYWAL]

I wish Aloy had been given the chance to fight him. How immensely satisfying that would have been. But look at what actually happened. He was utterly alone for nearly a thousand years, with only one thing keeping him going. The hope that when the new batch of humans find him, they'll worship him as a god. And when they do show up, how do they react? "AAAARGH! KILL IT WITH FIRE!" For such an egomaniac, that would be the greatest blow. No punishment would be sufficient for him, but that comes close.

[@MrJesusPrime]

My theory is.... Spoiler if the game is not finished... That is the warning. Seriously this theory has a massive spoiler so don't continue reading if you have not finished the game. Because of Ted Pharaoh's lower brain activity and Nemesis basically being a giant digital brain... Benefit I'm understanding things correctly really likes heat so could not have been burned alive. The are going to merge pharaoh and Nemesis creating the big bad and the issues that we are going to have to deal with in Horizon 3 the rise of pharaoh

[@garyhall2770]

my theory is that Nemesis is a clone of Faro already. the Zeniths had Elizabet's DNA, so why not Faro's??? who is to say one of the Zenith's was madly in love with Faro and Faro wouldn't leave earth. so that Zenith cloned Faro after arriving on Sirius and Faro tried to take over and became Nemesis.

[@mazendahhan]

I think we will see him as enemy in the future in next version of Horizon, because he can stand high temperature and I doubt they killed him.

[@chevalierj3930]

Even if he survived that fire, how do you expect him to be an antagonist to Aloy when he is a blob of flesh.

[@Atheniandream]

I missed a large portion of this whilst playing the game tbf. Thanks for the summary

[@mikeyplays9677]

15:50 I would like to believe that his cell mutation kept his brain intact and he would be aware of the centuries passing around him in constant agony know that he finally became the monster all of his friends knew him to be. It's more poetic that way I think

[@TheRealRoscoe]

I must say, Faro's fate was *almost* perfect. The two things that would have made it better: 1. if he'd retained enough brain function to appreciate his state and comprehend just how much he deserved it, and 2. if Sylens found him first. Enduring agony. I hate this dude.

[@felixleong61]

Yeah. I would wished Aloy said this to Ted (whether he understands or not) : "It's no use hiding the truth Ted Faro. The Faro plague, the murder of the Alphas, deletion of APOLLO, and a lot more. You will not fool us. We all know what you did. APOLLO survived. You failed"

[@天安門廣場-w5r]

@@felixleong61 Ted Faro did the right thing by destroying APOLLO and killing the alphas

[@side2k]

@@天安門廣場-w5r never thought I'd see someone thinking through it a bit deeper. Cheers!

[@decusq]

I'm slightly dissapointed we didn't get to put an Arrow in his head ourselves but hopefully this is the real Ted Faro and he's permadead. Personally i was half expecting Ted to have liquified himself and put his mind into a mainframe to achieve immortality or turned himself into a cyborg or something a little more easily killed. See him in his twisted mental state thinking Elizabet is alive and trying to rehash any of his memories for sanity and then getting the chance to kill him.

[@Iblameyouu]

Ted Faro reminds me of Ocean Gate CEO Stockton Rush. Ignores all the red flags and keeps advancing his vision with no hesitation for selfish gain.

[@ryani4576]

The insults. Priceless 🙏🏻

[@ugoeze7360]

“White dude calling himself ‘Pharaoh’ earns Ted here another 10 duck points”. And just like a pharaoh of old, sealed his “employees without compensation for free labor” in his tomb… I mean, pyramid with him. Ted was a true duck.

[@joshuasterling2144]

That's what happens in all pyramid schemes....lol

[@Tata45868]

The pyramids were actually build by paid workers

[@white0thunderwhite0thunder71]

Dying as a blob of squirming meat, in an empty tomb, in the middle of nowhere island after a thousand years of isolated insanity. Freeza: Honestly, I'd say it's too good for him...

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

Even Frieza and Garlic Jr found out the hard way that immortality was a bad idea.

[@tobiewolfen01]

Ted's downfall is a thing of nightmares. I envision him appearing as something from a horror game, like Dead Space. I read an article that stated Guerilla omitted showing his final form to the player as it would've not been so rated T for teen at that point. I would like to see Netflix eventually pickup rights to making a show that covers the backstory in things like this. The lore is certainly intriguing and rich.

[@side2k]

Ted Faro seems to be different in Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. In the former, he's a broken man, who was crushed by the immense guilt and I think he really believed that he's doing good for past-ZD generations by destroying Apollo - there are some clues to that. In Forbidden West he's a caricature villain.

[@lollyel943]

Thank you for the recap video laying it all out clearly. I don't know how I felt about this story point. It just felt a little rushed and janky, didn't really fit. (Just a friendly comment to say the title card is a little spoilery. I hadn't gotten to this point in the game when this game up in my subscription list. So it gave away that you'll discover more information about Ted Faro and find out about his death)

[@TheStevedie]

The only thing I wish they added to the scene of Faro in the core was him recognizing "Elizabeth".

[@Armataan]

He named it thebes because he idolized ozymandias. A man who would be God and who proudly declared his name would be remembered forever.

[@RainAngel111]

I'm pretty sure that Faro was just hooked up next to the core. Not actually in it. He couldn't have survived the heat. It also doesn't make sense because when Ceo sends in a guard, they're using fire arrows. Seems pretty clear that he was burned to death, though maybe shot as well. We know he died because the reactor melts down

[@stevenbaumann5911]

One thing I don't understand is Elizabeth Sobek knew what kind of person Ted Faro was. You would think she would have horse in a circumstance where Ted didn't want the world to know what he had done. So if she had known that she could have put safeguards in place in case Ted tried anything.

[@cptrex8274]

Who in the unholy hell thought it was a good idea to give Ted god damn faro omega Clarence

[@coffeecake1984]

I'm pretty sure he gave it to himself

[@adrianbowen4024]

Faro reminds me a lot of Clovis Bray from destiny. Both were egotistical mad scientists who wanted to achieve immortality and both went way off the rails.

[@taecampus]

Nice video! I really wish we could've seen what Ted Faro looked like after being alive through all that time. I get that they want to leave it up to the imagination on how disgusting and horrifying he looks, but I would've still loved a view or at least a silhouette.

[@LegendaryDarkKnight602]

Hopefully we'll at least get concept art in the dlc.

[@matthewrogers94mr]

I just had a thought about what happened to the other bodies, what if Tedd absorbed them maybe they were living or passed but to grow that massive, just a thought which makes Tedd even more disturbing!

[@mannyrobles3065]

Using the Apex Thunderjaw as reference isnt quite good point to establish for a spoiler point, since you might battle Apex Thunderjaws before then. If you get high enough level wise, you can encounter Apex Thunderjaws before this part in the story. Heck when I went into that part of the map i was already level 50, so i had encountered Apex everything.

[@fishmurse]

So I really enjoyed this segment of the game. But, I want to offer some criticisms of its delivery. I would have rather seen this as recorded holograms and video logs that the player organically encounters as they go deeper into Thebes. It would have had way more punch than data points. In reality it told the story rather than showing the story. Another missed opportunity is Ted Faro's mutated body seeing it rather than Illuding to it would have also had more impact. Better yet, it should have been an epic boss battle that had strong narrative meaning.

[@justinpatterson5291]

He wanted a glorious fortess to house his godly prowess and ego. Instead, he got a mausoleum to showcase how much of a greedy, selfish and wrathful man he was.

[@michaellego5600]

I'm curious to if the team behind Guy could've upgraded her enough to defend herself against the rogue signal

[@ragingclawstrider1556]

2:20 and 2:30 "D*ck" hahahahhaha🤣 Love this video😍, not just important info about Ted Faro but with a mix of humor

[@oliviamoore3426]

Forbidden west actually retconned faro’s reasons. In zero dawn he destroyed the alphas and all knowledge because of a guilty conscience and he didn’t want the coming humans to make the same mistakes. The retcon is he killed the alphas and the knowledge to lead humanity and shape them to his will, like a god. I think it’s in one of the audio files in Thebes, possibly near the generator

[@selocan469]

Closest counter part of Faro in real life that comes to mind is of course is Musk, but of course he has no means of doing such things or do that kind of damage like some people want to believe.

[@MJC1891]

1:04 😂love it

[@keishalebray1996]

This is just a theory but what if the people who fled on the odyssey (forgot the company name), while still here, were experimenting with their hive mind project and it sent a pulse to the chariots without them knowing??? If that’s true then the people from the odyssey are responsible for the glitch that created the plague even though faro enabled it to be carried out. I agree the biomatter stuff, repairing itself And reproducing is extreme and could’ve itself been used as a kill switch but still. If the odyssey people and Liz came together, after realizing their secret plan was the cause, they could’ve made their mistakes right and SAVED existing life with Gaia upgraded to Nemesis level (without evil personality) seeing as nemesis easily gave hades and other functions a personality of their own. But no one wants to admit they doomed all of humanity with the touch of a button and it’s easy to point the blame at someone else but at what stage do you say “ok this isn’t funny anymore” and admit you are wrong especially if your life is on the line and the person/people you ACTUALLY love.

[@hmo6498]

I mean, also Thebes meets the Egyptian theme. FARO, the chariot line etc.... just like Gaia is Roman themed.

[@Aeon08897]

4.35. What’s the deal with the white guy comment? Didn’t think euro gamer would push racist comments out but here we are.

[@Bell_Matt]

Narrator sounds like hypocritical trash.

[@salaarcash9177]

Can you make a video about all the black box stories or break down of forbidden west story

[@Resilient_Sage88]

I love when Aloy says to Sylens: "Lemme guess, you would've scraped him into a jar and prodded his brain, like you did with HADES." When she tells him of Faro's fate.

[@aedanranson1092]

"For a start...." gotta love Sylens lol