Headscratchers / Doom (2016)

• At the end of The Foundry, when Olivia reroutes all the power in the facility to the Argent tower ("You could not have saved them anyway"), Why didn't the Slayer try to stop her? Even if for the sake of the narrative he wouldn't be able to, you could at least have a characterful moment of him jumping at the glass and punching a hole into it. Or better yet, at that point the player has two different rifles, a shotgun, grenades, and possibly even a rocket launcher, but instead he just stands there passively watching as she basically gives him the finger.
  • The Slayer probably knows that he can't get through the glass, and futilely throwing himself at something he knows he can't break is not in character for what we've seen. He only smashes what he knows he can smash. That, and for all we know, summoning more demons for the Slayer to kill is exactly what he wants.
• How does VEGA, a supercomputer so large that it requires an enormous facility to house it, so complex that it has new field of physics dedicated to its study, and so powerful that it generates heat multiple times hotter than the surface of the sun, have a backup that can fit on what is essentially a Powered Armor flash drive?
  • Most of that computing power and machinery was likely dedicated to running the facility and VEGA's own predictive capabilities. With just the VEGA source code and a copy of his memories/personality without all the fancy software strapped to it that made him work as a colony administrator, super calculator, and hell jump calculator all in one it would probably be very easy to put it on a mobile device.
  • Furthermore, since this game is set in 2149, according to Moore’s law, which states that data storage will get half as small every two years, the amount of data one could fit on a small flash drive like the VEGA is backed up on must be enormous. Not to mention that this is a huge facility that probably took many years or decades to build, let alone the unknown length of time since it went into operation. It's quite possible that the drive VEGA gets backed up onto is several generations newer than his original hardware. Imagine a room-filling supercomputer from the 90s and consider how a 2018 smartphone compares, or the storage capacity of a high-end 2018 SSD.
  • Most of the equipment in the VEGA core was for computation and cooling, not data storage. The actual data for VEGA's self-aware personality could easily be stored on a small drive, given data densities in DOOM's setting. You'd need the VEGA facility to handle something with VEGA's responsibilities (managing the Argent facilities) but just storing VEGA itself would be feasible on a portable drive.
  • According to Doom Eternal, both VEGA and the Slayer's suits are of Maykr origin. Given that the Maykrs had such godlike technology, it's possible that the VEGA facility was the closest humanity could come to replicating it with their limited technology.
• Why, after setting the games events in motion, did Samuel Hayden not revoke Olivia's security clearance? It would've prevented her from rerouting the facility's power to the Argent tower.
  • Because he wasn't trying to stop her. The production of Argent Energy was never a smooth operation. We know this, because demons trying to cross over into our world from theirs is such a common occurrence, there are automated messages someone had to record beforehand. Hayden needed to find a better way, because by this point humanity is entirely reliant on this energy they pull from Hell. The only better way was The Crucible. The only way he would've ever gotten it was by unleashing the DOOM Marine - the only flesh and blood to cross between dimensions. And the only way he could feel justified in waking him up was if the situation was well and truly fucked beyond repair.
    • Except Hayden didn't know that that's what the Crucible was for. If he did, he wouldn't have wasted time sending Doomguy off to use the Helix Stone, so my original point still stands.
    • Why then, did Hayden know how to activate the Laser Blade from the crucible? The Doomguy never used it, so Hayden could not have learned from him.
    • From this tablet in his office.
    • It's not like Hayden has a giant rock covered in Hellish inscriptions giving him instructions on how to use Hellish artifacts or anything....
  • An alternative theory is that Samuel Hayden gave the order... to someone who was ALSO corrupted by the Demons, so it was never obeyed. we have no idea how far the demonic corruption went, for all we know only a handful of people may have still been loyal at the time of the incident.
    • So he gave the order to have Olivia's security clearance revoked, and when the order wasn't carried out, he did nothing, rather than do it himself?
    • Or, you know, she locked him out of the system to stop him from doing that. You really think she'd plan an entire demon invasion that Samuel could stop with a push of a button? You'll notice he can't stop anything she's doing throughout the game even though he should have higher clearance.
  • One thing to note about the UAC facility is that while it is centrally-controlled by VEGA, most of its systems are hardwired and can't be overridden easily, specifically because of the demonic threat. Hayden was, for most of the game, basically stuck in his office watching remote feeds. He couldn't revoke any clearance because the moment Olivia activated the Lazarus Wave, the whole UAC facility was in lockdown and he couldn't do anything.
• Given the demons were eventually able to capture and imprison Doomguy in the sarcophagus, what was preventing them from just killing him then and there?
  • Don't forget they trapped him by literally collapsing an entire (un)holy site on top of the guy, supported by massive amounts of blood magic. The sarcophagus was likely carved out that rubble and the demons were very unlikely to pry it open, even briefly, due to how terrifying they found him. In addition they most definitely were wanting to torture him; audio logs mention that Doomguy was put through "unimaginable torment" while imprisoned.
  • The data logs note that the recovered Doom Marine was protected by an impregnable energy shield, which only appears to have disappeared when he woke up. Perhaps it was a two-way shield: It stopped the demons from killing him, but since removing the shield would also make the dreaded Doom Slayer wake up again...
    • But then who removed his armor and how? The codex states that it was found nearby the sarcophagus.
    • An important thing to note in regards to the armor. It doesn't appear to have been taken out of the sarcophagus when found after awakening. Rather it appears to be taking up the space in the lid of the sarcphagus. It seems highly unlikely they ever managed to actually take it from him instead it just came off with the lid as part of the pseudomagical barrier of protection that had kept the demons out the entire time.
    • The shield may not have prevented removing his armor, but the last thing they would want if the Doomguy woke up again was for him to wake up still in his armor. Small victories.
  • It could be the "shield of adamantine strength" given to him by the demonic traitor. Being separated from the Crucible may have weakened it enough that after he woke it never reactivated.
  • Maybe the demons view Doomguy in the same way the UAC views Hell — as an extremely dangerous potential resource. They saved him for experiments, in order to create demons as powerful as Doomguy.
  • Maybe they're holding him as a trophy, or a cautionary tale? It's entirely possible that they don't want to destroy him when they can simply hold him.
  • According to a theory I heard, the blessing Doomguy received from heaven was the ability to return to a previous chekpoint in a bit of a Gameplay and Story Integration. Because of this, killing him had zero effect so long as he had the will to continue fighting, of which he had in abundance. As such, the only thing they could do to get rid of him was to imprison him in Hell's version of suspended animation and hope that he would never wake up again.
  • The demons of Hell are, well, demons of hell. Remember, these beings gleefully make trophies out of their enemies, and nothing would please them more than the Doom Slayer being imprisoned and tortured for eternity with an invulnerability shield.
    • Given that the demons will start slaughtering each other at the drop of a hat, even when the Doom Slayer is right in front of them, it's completely logical that the demons would either not realize or not care that the Slayer could be freed by an outside force.
• When Hayden pulls Doomguy back from Hell after killing the Spider Mastermind, and reveals that, not only does he intend to use the Crucible to get Argent Energy again, but that he's gonna send Doomguy to parts unknown...what, exactly, is stopping Doomguy from fighting back? There's nothing shown that would keep Doomguy from unloading the Super Shotgun into the guy's face.
  • If you noticed with the tether, compared to other times where you'd fall down when the tether finished it's work, you didn't fall down here. You're suspended in midair, unable to move. And, of course, Samuel is behind the control of it. Samuel Hayden forcefully gave you the tether system and used you like a sucker.
  • Also, if you open fire on Samuel in the brief opportunity you have to do so earlier in the game, he's protected by a shield very similar to that used by the Spider Mastermind and your gun is forcefully lowered about a second afterwards. While this is obviously a quick technical fix to stop you killing Sam, it's not too out there to suggest that the tether system can disable the Doom Marine to a certain extent.
  • The fact that Sam can interface with the suit to upload the tether system indicates he's probably accessed it before. Putting in something to deal with the single-minded demon killer he'd heard about makes a good deal of sense if he doesn't want all the demons and their realm destroyed.
  • Doomguy is physically restrained by the tethering system when Hayden approaches him. He can't shoot Hayden.
• When Doomguy got pulled into hell for the first time, why didn't Samuel Hayden just use the Praetor suits tether system to bring him back?
  • With the Hell event under control (for the time being), Samuel could refocus and re-consolidate himself and his resources. Letting Doomguy run amok for a while wouldn't have done anything to Samuel's plans other than let him blow off some steam.
    • The Argent Tower just got destroyed, a portal to Hell that (as far Hayden knew at the time) can't be closed has been opened, and the only person who might be capable of closing it was in Hell without the means to do so. In what way was the situation "...under control..."?
  • In addition, Samuel did not give Doomguy the tether until a while after he returned from hell. Simply put, the Praetor suit did not have it when Doomguy entered the first time.
    • Then when was it installed? The first time they meet face to face (the only other time it could've been installed) is when Hayden uses the tether system to restrain Doomguy, so Hayden installed it in the suit through a steel door how exactly?
    • Samuel installed the tether when the Doom Marine touched the console to open the door to his office, which was just before the Doom Marine went to the Lazarus Complex to read the Helix Stone.
• Why does the chaingun eject casings when it's a pneumatic weapon according the codex?
  • Rule of Cool?
  • The in game codex claims "Far from simply conventional, the D12 uses Argent energy infusion to overdrive its firing mechanism, a piston capable of 220,000 PSI pressure, resulting in an extremely high muzzle velocity of 5000 feet per second. This crucible is self-recharging, using the barrel heat produced from firing to keep its internal battery charged. It utilizes 15 mm caliber tungsten slugs as ammunition." So perhaps the 'piston' mentioned here is the replacement for a conventional hammer?
• Demons use argent energy. The source of argent energy is the Well. The source of the Well is the corpses of the three Wraiths. So how did the demons manage to be a threat before the Wraith were killed? If the Wraiths had all that energy they should have been able to wipe the floor with the non-empowered demons, even if one of the bodyguards betrayed them to the demons (like if one of Superman's friends had betrayed him to a bunch of mooks).
  • Remember, the civilization of the demons had already conquered lots of other places. The only reason the Doom Marine's people survived as long as it did was because of its warriors and the power of the Well. Once someone betrayed a weakness in the Night Sentinels and helped the demons exploit it, the Wraiths' power was basically at their demonic fingertips. No one ever said the Wraiths had any loyalty, which is likely why they had large groups of Sentinels guarding them. It's possible that the Wraiths didn't realize the demons were a threat to them until they were right before them.
  • The demons' victory over the wraiths is spelled out in the codex.The demons' kidnapped one of the Knight Sentinel's sons and used it as a bargaining chip to get one of their priests close in on the wraiths while they slept. The priest then cursed the wraiths—probably in a manner similar to them cursing the Doom Marine—and made the well from their essence.
  • Answered in Doom Eternal: Argent energy is the combination of Hell energy and Wraith energy. Before the Wraiths were captured, they just used raw Hell energy. Hell energy is less powerful than Argent, but (combined with the enormous number of demons at their disposal) was still strong enough to make them a sizeable threat. Capturing the Wraiths just turned the conflict from a war into a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• There seems to be some sort of church/religion which isn't Olivia's cult. What was it about? Was it something like the Cult of Reason?
  • Where was anything like this said?
  • Not OP here, I think OP meant whatever religion Olivia was denying in her personal messages to cult followers, the one that has a heaven they won't get to go to. Given the heavy Satanic imagery in the sacrifices and Hell-scapes, I'd assume it's either Space Christianity (which would probably be in decline because of the world-wide use of free energy explicitly derived from Hell) or some other generic Abrahamic-esque religion with a good and bad afterlife.
    • The link between Argent Energy and Hell is not public knowledge in this universe; Space Christianity is probably doing just fine.
• Are the demons Card Carrying Villains or not? From the demonic voice recordings in Hell, some of the words choices seem to indicate that they viewed the Doom Slayer as evil, while other word choices indicated that they viewed themselves as evil.
  • The forces of Hell are bullies, now facing someone who can bully them straight back. They revel in brutality and suffering until it gets inflicted on them.
  • They're literal demons from Hell, so yeah, they view themselves as evil.
  • Still, some of choice of words on the slayer testaments indicates they hold some level of respect for his brutality.
  • The Demons clearly work on Evil Feels Good, so while they view themselves as evil, they view the Doom Slayer as an even bigger evil, as Eternal reveals, there is some purpose to their evil, but, to them at least, the Doom Slayer is just a mindlessly angry force of destruction.
• Why did Hayden not try to come up with more alternative energy sources during the interim between opening the Well and the demonic invasion? Putting aside that relying on a single source of energy is a profoundly bad idea, did Solar Energy, Wind Power, and Thermonuclear Fusion (not to be confused with fission, which was already explicitly stated to be nonviable due to Uranium and Plutonium depletion) just not get invented in this universe?
  • The game is actually a Satire so I imagine it's making fun of people sticking to an energy source that's bad in the long run rather that putting in the effort to find or make a new one.
  • It could also be that all that stuff does exist and is being used to their fullest extent; it just isn't enough. The in-game codecs state that the Argent Tower generates in just a few seconds what a nuclear reactor can make in 12 months - windmills and solar panels don't exactly compare.
  • Fusion doesn't work anymore. Human society had already depleted all available stores of plutonium and uranium. Solar and wind don't have enough energy densities even on Earth to match a society that energy-hungry, and wouldn't be useful for facilities on airless planets or planets far from the Sun, which is a serious issue because humanity inhabits the entire solar system, not just Earth. At this point, the only alternative to Argent energy would be building a Dyson swarm, considering that VEGA alone was running hotter than the surface of the Sun purely from waste heat. Hayden wasn't joking when he said that Argent energy was absolutely necessary, because they literally can't run their society with any lesser energy densities without a Dyson swarm.
  • Fusion doesn't require plutonium or uranium, that's fission, which I pointed out in the point above. Fusion requires hydrogen isotopes like Tritium or Deuterium, which can easily be synthesized from water.
• The chainsaw is shown to run on gasoline even though the game takes place centuries after a Post-Peak Oil crisis, that stuff shouldn't even exist anymore let alone be found in a mars research base!
  • Are we sure it's even gasoline? There's plenty of other things that can go down into a fuel-tank that serves as an alternative for common gasoline. Especially in this setting. (Heck, it might even run on argent, for all we know...)
  • I don't think it's argent energy, given that A) The fuel comes in traditional gasoline containers, B) Argent Energy has qualities of plasma and is used in batteries, and C) Argent Energy is thousands to millions of times more efficient than nuclear fission, while the chainsaw effectively runs out of fuel within seconds.
  • In modern times, we can synthesize coal from CO2. I presume this 'fuel' is some form of synthesized hydrocarbon liquid. And while argent is more efficient, my best guess is that some of the older equipment around Mars still uses hydrocarbon fuel-based power, hence its scattered presence.
• Does the demons' alleged fear of the Doom Slayer feel like an Informed Flaw? They quickly charge into combat with him and fight to the last monster. None of them run away (except as a tactical decision), beg, surrender, or do more advanced things like overthrow and turn over their leadership or try to promise not to invade other worlds in exchange for mercy. They seem just as quick to move toward spilling the Slayer's blood as any other human they encounter.
  • I'd say it's either Gameplay and Story Segregation or the demons consider fear and retreat to be the ultimate acts of shame and weakness. You might be staring down the bane of all hellspawn who has cut a bloody swathe through the forces of Pandemonium for centuries, but you will stand up straight, roar your battle cry and charge right into him. If you die, then you die an honorable death at the hands of the most unkillable being in Hell's history.
  • There is a very simple reason for that, doom slayer even completely unarmed and unarmored is terrifying to the demons, but running away now just means that he gets stronger, this is doom guy after a thousand year nap, having had a building dropped on him and with a comparatively small arsenal, they want to throw everything they have at him now because its the only chance they have to actually win, its also shown with the cyberdemon that demons can be brought back to life so its unlikely the individual demons are to concerned about dieing for the cause
  • Aggression and rage appears to be how the demons react to fear. Remember how when the UAC troops got close to the Slayer's prison, the demons attacked even more ferociously and desperately. They are rage, brutal and without mercy. In the Slayer Testaments they keep repeatedly attacking the Slayer as well, and the only time they are recorded to break ranks and feel despair is when the Titan was slain. The demons are afraid of the Doom Slayer, but that fear is expressed in hatred and rage.
  • I've pondered this too and, to me, it seems like a similar story to Metroid Prime's Space Pirates. In-game they act fearless and resolute in bringing down Samus but once you read through their accounts of dealing with her, they come across as fearful and unnerved at how easily she tears through their forces. However culture demands they stand tall and go into battle, regardless of the odds of survival. Likewise, Doom Slayer cuts a striking and imposing figure when he arrives but that is no reason not to fight, even if later on the demons recall that fighting him is a futile and horrific effort.
  • Or a simple case of You Have Failed Me - The demonic hierarchy seems quite clearly a case of Might Makes Right. Any lesser demons that fail their masters are punished with death... or this being hell, a Fate Worse than Death. The minions would rather die facing the Slayer than report their failure to their masters.
  • Another option is that they see the presence of the slayer as a "cornered mouse" situation were as soon as he appears there is no place to run from him so they think they have a better chance of survival in fighting him than running from him.
  • The Doom Slayer does not stop, but, he is just one person, they are an army uncountable members strong, they know that however small, there is a chance, just a slim, million to one shot, that at eventually they might wear him down enough to take him down, the managed it before, when they imprisoned him, but they know, if they run, he will kill the rest and then come for them he won't take their surrender, they could beg, but it will fall on deaf ears, the Doom Slayer won't stop until every single demon is crushed and killed, even though he gets put into a lockdown when the demons are around, he want's it that way, because then he can be sure he has killed every single one in the area, the Demons fight because they know, they either fight or they die, there are no other options.
• Why does destroying the Argent energy filters set everything to "square one" in humanity's energy crisis? How come they can't just fix the filtration system?
  • While the filters themselves can be easily fixed, they're a small component in a very large, complex system, which is still functional. Ripping out a component in such a system can cause catastrophic problems to the entire process. Argent Energy production did not cease even with the demonic invasion, which means breaking those filters tore out a critical piece of the industrial process in the middle of production.
  • To add to that, according to the backstory, the Argent Tower took 31 years to complete.
• Why in the world did Samuel delete Peters? Doomguy is already out and rampaging at the time of the game, so presumably Samuel's only motivations at this point are to stop the invasion and preserve the Argent machinery. Peters restores power, gathers components, jumps into hell to kill an escaped Cyberdemon, then closes a huge portal the demons were streaming through. The only thing I can think of that would be against anything Samuel wants is that he opened a small portal to Hell himself, or that Samuel wants to be the only brain scanned AI out there in some uncharacteristic fit of jealousy. Saying that he caused "problems" seems a bit of a cop out to make sure there isn't anyone almost as badass as the Doom Slayer around.
  • Probably because He Knows Too Much. He did do some hefty work such as opening a portal to Hell and killing a Cyberdemon, but in the end he's a loose end that could potentially spill secrets about the UAC. That and Hayden is infamous for working his employees to death...
• Who was speaking to the Doomguy at the start of 2016, telling him to Rip and Tear? We know it wasn't anyone introduced in the sequel..
  • According to Hugo Martin, it's intended to be King Novik in both 2016 and the sequel. They also share the same voice actor.