History Fridge / ArmoredCoreVIFiresOfRubicon

** Perhaps more baffling is the fact that completing the game and starting a NewGamePlus run has ALLMIND greet 621 like they've been through this before. Some have theorized that the first two endings are just ALLMIND simulations, and whether that has any truth or not, their Arena analysis data can only be plausibly gathered from the multiple playthroughs in the first place. It's almost as if [[NiceJobBreakingItHero your repeated play to complete everything is bring ALLMIND for the ride to see it all.]]

** Even worse is Alea Iacta Est has the Coral do a species wide FusionDance with humanity. It's probably how ALLMIND was going to remove free will in the first place, by manipulating it to effectively lobotomize emotion and choice. Even with your alterations to the Coral Release Plan, some people would likely have died.

** Rather than mercenaries, the bulk of the PCA's ranks seem to be personnel directly under its payroll and coordinated by "[[BenevolentAI The System]]". In other words, professionals who logically would ''not'' be utilizing ALLMIND in any meaningful capacity and thus more difficult to directly manipulate. This could explain why, if NG++ suggests anything, the AI has to rely for a time on Sulla [[LoopholeAbuse by virtue of being a merc on contract]] with the PCA.
* As much of a gung-ho and cruel DrillSergeantNasty G1 Michigan is, there are signs that he really is a competent leader who genuinely cares for his men, however much it's buried under the persona he presents. This is especially seen in the mission in which 621's tasked with taking him out:
** His "insults" are actually helpful to the situation they're in, such as when he's berating a pilot for downplaying 621's capabilities and tells him to instead have the eject button ready.
** When another pilot talks about G5 Iguazu deserting the battle, Michigan immediately cut her off, and focuses instead on maintaining unit cohesion.
** When addressing those who retreated from the fight, he only tells them to keep a low profile, and to write "need more to training" in their diary, rather than chastising them for cowardice.

* V.II Snail has been waiting in ambush for the player when they defeat IB-01 CEL 240. Earlier in the same mission, you fight V.VI Maeterlinck and defector G3 Wu Huahai who were both ordered to remain behind by him. Maeterlinck calls for backup when engaging you and repeats the call when you begin to turn the tables on her; both are answered only with silence from Snail, and after finishing the fight, Walter [[LampshadedTrope notes]] they were purposely left for dead. In other words, either [[WeHaveReserves Arquebus or Snail]] himself deliberately sacrificed the two pilots just to delay [[TheDreaded 621]] long enough to set up the ambush.

* Also in the Liberator ending path: the mission to kill Carla offers you a measly 81,000 [=COAMs=], both a strangely irregular amount and a paltry reward for an endgame mission. But who's asking you to do it? ''Ayre''. Who, it has been established, cannot exactly compensate you through conventional means. That money is all she could scrounge up to convince you to ''stop the genocide of her entire kind'', along with all life on Rubicon.

* In Regain Control of the Xylem, dying to time out doesn't see Walter or Carla talk about their success. Instead it has ''ALLMIND'' talking about how she'll need to adjust her plan for the time being, implying that she either knows Coral will return once more or that she has other plans to dominate humanity. This is pretty bad on its own, but when you pair it with "Fires of Raven," it means that what looks like a tragic but well-intentioned end to the conflict is anything but, and that ALLMIND, the true mastermind of nearly everything wrong with Rubicon, ''already has contingencies.'' And in that ending, all that's left of OVERSEER is 621, with both Walter and Carla dying or potentially meeting a worse fate.

* V.II Snail also implies when you fight him in the Liberator route that he was opposed to the idea of sending 621 to be re-educated, which makes you wonder what he had planned for you instead, since he isn't exactly the merciful type. At best, he could have just had you [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim summarily executed right then and there]], but knowing where he gets his augmentations from, he might have had some more... [[TheyWouldCutYouUp destructive analysis]] in mind, especially if Arquebus somehow found out about Ayre.

* The vast majority of the mercs and other characters encountered on the battlefield (the ones still breathing up to that point anyway) are known by their nicknames, callsigns or some other moniker. Which makes Kate Markson subtly stand out all the more as a disguised ALLMIND by virtue of having a ''mundane full name''. It's likely the AI overcompensated in trying to pass off as human in every other aspect that it neglected such an "irrelevant" observation.

* The "Fires of Raven" ending states that millions died in the aftermath of the new cataclysmic incident spreading across Rubicon-3 and the surrounding star systems. It's one thing to have fridge horror over how people were caught off-guard entirely this time and likely not many survived compared to before -- until you realize what "millions" can mean. Earth, as of September 2023, is estimate to have 8.1 ''billion'' people, and a million can solidly sit into a larger city's worth of a population. This means most of the casualties were likely calculated from surrounding stars more than the already-deathly Rubicon, and yet the system is grossly underpopulated for a star-faring humanity. 621 under Raven's alias is probably considered one of the greatest monsters of humanity ever, not so much for raking a few cities' worth of casualties, which the Corporations likely do not even remotely care much about, but more for [[SkewedPriorities stripping humanity of a vital resource]] valued by billions if not ''trillions''.

* When you fight the Arquebus BALTEUS in the Liberator route, it doesn't get a reprise of "Contact with You," or any boss music for that matter (instead, "Steel Haze (Rusted Pride)" [[BackgroundMusicOverride keeps playing throughout the level]]). That's because "Contact with You" is Ayre's theme, not BALTEUS', and it was already playing throughout the previous level [[PointOfNoReturn when you committed fully to Ayre's side against OVERSEER.]] You can even fight V.II Snail in his own AC to that music [[OptionalBoss if you feel like it,]] before he takes over the BALTEUS in the next mission. Additionally, destroying the BALTEUS isn't actually the objective of the mission; it's just Snail and Arquebus' last, desperate attempt to regain control of the situation and [[EvilIsPetty throw one more obstacle in 621's path.]] It's barely a boss fight, so the game barely treats it like one; a fitting end for a BigBadWannabe.

* When you fight the Arquebus BALTEUS in the Liberator route, it doesn't get a reprise of "Contact with You," or any boss music for that matter (instead, "Steel Haze (Rusted Pride)" [[BackgroundMusicOverride keeps playing throughout the level]]). That's because "Contact with You" is Ayre's theme, not BALTEUS', and it was already playing throughout the previous level [[PointOfNoReturn when you committed fully to Ayre's side against OVERSEER.]] You can even fight V.II Snail in his own AC to that music [[OptionalBoss if you feel like it,]] before he takes over the BALTEUS in the next mission. Fittingly, destroying the BALTEUS isn't actually the objective of the mission; it's just Snail and Arquebus' last, desperate attempt to regain control of the situation and [[EvilIsPetty throw one more obstacle in 621's path.]] It's barely a boss fight, so the game barely treats it as one; a fitting end for a BigBadWannabe.

* When you fight the Arquebus BALTEUS in the Liberator route, it doesn't get a reprise of "Contact with You," or [[BackgroundMusicOverride any boss music]] for that matter. That's because "Contact with You" is Ayre's theme, not BALTEUS', and it was already playing throughout the previous level [[PointOfNoReturn when you committed fully to Ayre's side against OVERSEER.]] You can even fight V.II Snail in his own AC to that music [[OptionalBoss if you feel like it,]] before he takes over the BALTEUS in the next mission. Fittingly, destroying the BALTEUS isn't actually the objective of the mission; it's just Snail and Arquebus' last, desperate attempt to regain control of the situation and [[EvilIsPetty throw one more obstacle in 621's path.]] It's barely a boss fight, so the game barely treats it as one; a fitting end for a BigBadWannabe.

* The "Fires of Raven" ending states that millions died in the aftermath of the new cataclysmic incident spreading across Rubicon-3 and the surrounding star systems. It's one thing to have fridge horror over how people were caught off-guard entirely this time and likely not many survived compared to before -- until you realize what "millions" can mean. Earth, as of September 2023, is estimate to have 8.1 ''billion'' people, and a million can solidly sit into a larger city's worth of a population. This means most of the casualties were likely calculated from surrounding stars more than the already-deathly Rubicon, and yet the system is grossly underpopulated for a star-faring humanity. 621 under Raven's alias is probably considered one of the greatest monsters of humanity ever, more for [[SkewedPriorities stripping humanity of a vital resource]] than they are a few cities' worth of casualties, the latter of which the Corporations likely do not even remotely care much about.

* The "Fires of Raven" ending states that millions died in the aftermath of the new cataclysmic incident spreading across Rubicon-3 and the surrounding star systems. It's one thing to have fridge horror over how people were caught off-guard entirely this time and likely not many survived compared to before -- until you realize what "millions" can mean. Earth, as of September 2023, is estimate to have 8.1 ''billion'' people, and a million can solidly sit into a larger city's worth of a population. This means most of the casualties were likely calculated from surrounding stars more than the already-deathly Rubicon, and yet the system is grossly underpopulated for a star-faring humanity. 621 under Raven's alias is probably considered one of the greatest monsters of humanity ever more for [[SkewedPriorities stripping humanity of a vital resource]] than they are a few city's worth of casualties, the latter of which the Corporations likely do not even remotely care much about.