The God Eater series is set in a World Half Empty where humanity is fighting a futile struggle against a never-ending threat, so of course it has its fair share of Nightmare Fuel.
Warning: All spoilers below are unmarked, as per Nightmare Fuel policy!
Background Setting
- Before we go into detail, keep in mind the first game starts on 2071 AD, when the first Aragami appears in 2050 AD. Yes, within merely twenty years, the Earth turns into a wasteland as it's known in the main game.
- And before the first God Arc makes it into combat (thus the deployment of the first God Eaters), the Aragami already run through the Earth for six years. Imagine the absolute horror that humankind faced in the blank period: facing an enemy that cannot be stopped in any way, whether it's conventional or not. It isn't some kind of Zombie Apocalypse we saw in the media: as bad and numerous as zombies, at least they can be killed by anyone who armed proper. Against the Aragami? Not a chance.
- Imagine how bad the world has become when circuses (beastmasters), seasonal flowers and even dogs become rare sights, as Resurrection revealed.
- Oracle Cells. As of Rage Burst, it's still not clear what, or when, created the these cells (and subsequently Aragamis), be it human's creation, or the Earth's answer to human beings' acts. And they eat up everything they come in contact with, including even explosive amounts of radiation from an overloaded nuclear core, so not only humans are in danger, so is every other living thing on Earth... though ironically, since some of the Aragamis manage to adapt photosynthesis to compensate the loss of plants, the world is not doomed immediately. For now.
- The only thing that can counter or eliminate Oracle Cells are, ironically enough, other Oracle Cells, thus the creation of Bias Factor, and subsequently God Arcs and God Eaters. The problem is that in order to use the God Arcs, they need to inject Oracle Cells into their body, with only their bracelet to contain them from running wild with your body. If you lose that by any means (mostly in combat), Body Horror WILL always ensue on your body and, as shown in Rage Burst, must be executed to prevent them becoming another Aragami. Lindow was a bit more fortunate than others, but he still undergoes quite a bit of shapeshifting for life.
- God Arcs, on the other hand, aren't something that can be picked up on the fly to fight the Aragami. Each God Arc is basically tailor-made for a single God Eater, so if someone like the main character in Burst picks up someone else's God Arc, chances are that the Oracle Cells inside that God Arc will devour that person instead. Not even the aforementioned bracelet won't help in any way.
- The fact that humanity is fighting a losing battle against the Aragami is Nightmare Fuel alone. Humankind can barely live in the fortresses built by Fenrir, which are under constant attack from all kinds of Aragami. But the fortress walls will (eventually) fall, leading to waves of Aragami rushing into the complex; or by an even greater stroke of misfortune, they'll sneak into the fort and wreck havoc. People live in fear that they may be killed at any moment, any time; and while human resources are limited, the Aragamis just keep coming without number and without end.
- And why humans are still doomed even though they finally have God Eaters to deal with the threat? Because the Aragami threat is literally endless: When they are killed, the many clusters of Oracle Cells that comprised its entire biology disperse into the air or into the earth, and later be reborn somewhere else, sometimes adapting to tactics and/or attacks that killed them before. That means for any Aragami, Death Is Not Permanent, and they simply coming back stronger, tougher and smarter than the last.
- In case it wasn't apparent already, becoming a God Eater is a very dangerous job, as it takes one mistake and your life is over. But while Fenrir can test any possible candidate for the potential to become a God Eater, it doesn't mean everyone can become one: not only can a person die from the test, it's revealed in side materials that there are age limits; once it's reached then they must retire from frontline combat. As shown in the Episode 1 from the anime, when things turn sour at that time, chances are that few God Eaters have to face a large horde that they can't handle... And if a Bolivian Army Ending ensues, the whole complex (and everyone inside) is as good as gone.
- And it's later revealed that not all of the humans live in the forts; Outer Ghettoes, as they are known, are for those who arent rich, affluent or useful enough, and they certainly don't receive as much love from the Fenrir. Imagine how miserable their lives must be......And Episode 10 of the anime really shows. With the lack of resources unlike those under the administration of Fernir, it's a total Scavenger World in the wilderness where a small fever can potentially become a terminal illness. And that's not accounting the threat of roaming Aragami threat which can be anywhere; problem is, Fernir usually doesn't give a damn about wanderers in the outside world so, in case you're facing an upcoming Aragami attack without a fortunate appearance of God Eaters, you are as good as dead.
- Even with all that in mind, with humans being humans, they still do stupid things even when facing the coming storm ahead. For instance (according to side materials), just a month after the Aegis Incident (between the first game's ending and Burst), there was a terrorist attack inside the Far East Branch. Let me repeat: facing Aragami outside the fortress walls, there was a terrorist attack inside the wall. And that's not accounting for someone like Rachel whose actions mean absolutely zero good for an already-bleak world...
- And if the scientists are correct, there is the Devouring Apocalypse, which will inevitably come and consume all things on Earth until the planet is a lifeless barren rock. No one is sure what happen afterwards, but one thing is certain: humanity will go extinct afterwards. There is no way of stopping it, only delaying it. The players may have stopped Shio and Julius from becoming the Singularity to trigger the Apocalypse, but with the introduction of the Red Rain, a natural mechanism meant to create new Singularities, no one can say for certain when the danger of the next Apocalypse will come to pass, and if anyone will be able to delay it from happening. This is Johannes von Schicksal's motivation for starting his Ark Project because, as he perceived, this is the only way to save humanity from total extinction. It really puts into perspective just how hopeless things are when the only way to save humanity is to sacrifice the Earth to the Aragami.
- As if the condition in the first two entries are not bad enough, God Eater 3 reveals the situation has turned out for the much worse. To name a few:
- Almost all of the world are consumed by the Ashlands by the time the game starts, which contains different kind of Oracle Cells altogether that makes the area not safe even for the Adaptive God Eaters made to counteracting them. In fact, it is so dangerous that humans are now forced to live in underground ports.
- The new type of God Eaters are not treated like heroes like their predecessors, instead they are treated as slaves with no value outside combat with little to no freedom because how close they are to Aragami and due to the resource scarcity. With few exceptions like Hilda's crew, they treat the AGEs as slightly better than expendable garbage, with many of them being forced to live in cells with inhumane condition.
- The God Eater's conversion process into an AGE. Not only you are basically being forcibly taken captive and stripped of everything that makes you human, but the conversion process involves artificially inducing Ashblight corruption to the candidate's body before administering a special kind of Bias Factor. We get to see this happening to the protagonist in the opening (including how the veins in their arms turned purple from the corruption as they writhe in pain), who was only a child. After the process is completed, while the protagonists of previous games proceed to stand tall as they firmly grip their new God Arc, the protagonist is left on their knees on the floor as they struggle to adjust to the changes their body just underwent.
- The new type of threat, the Ash Aragami, are pretty much invulnerable with no known measure to combat against it because they are able to Devour and corrupt those with Oracle Cells. The Hounds (the protagonist's crew) are pretty much the first ones who manage to win against them, and even then, it is only possible the first time around because Phym is there to assist them.
- Think the terrorist attack aforementioned above is bad enough? The game introduces the existence of extremist AGE movement around halfway through the game, which basically existed in the first place because of how horrible the treatment against AGEs are. This makes them sympathetic to some degree, but later in the game the situation has gotten so bad to the point it escalates into all-out war against Gleipnir, with some of them becoming what basically amounts to suicide bombers by triggering artificial Ash Storms using special device installed in their armlet in desperation to protect their loved ones. If anything, humanity is just as responsible for their destruction as the Aragami.
- The worst part of it, probably, is how at this point humanity has descended so low that many of them are basically willing to do anything to reclaim whatever is left of humanity, or make the best of it for their own ends. The official stance of Port Gleipnir is that they see existence of AGEs as being Necessarily Evil, but sometimes you can't help but to wonder if the inhumane treatment is actually necessary. And that is not getting to the downright amoral experiments conducted by Ports such as Port Baran...
The Aragami
- As mentioned above, the Aragami are completely impervious to anything without an Oracle Cell. Not only that, they're able to slowly yet surely evolve, adapt to different terrain and sometimes, become God Eater themselves. This can be seen on-screen in the Anime: Zygotes slowly evolve down the Sariel line, and even one of them can give a hard time to individuals. Also, if the Promotion Video is any indication, 2065 (5 years before the main series) doesn't have anything bigger than a Kongou and we're significantly weaker, but then we look at the games...
- While some of the Aragami looks like animals we know (the Kongou line is monkeys/gorillas, the Vajra line is tigers, etc.), some of the Aragami look absolutely outlandish and bizarre. The Quadriga line, for example, looks like amalgams of elephants, bulls and most importantly, TANKS AND MISSILES. How can you beat something like that?
- Then we have Deusphages, the type of Aragami that are difficult to hunt and should be avoided at all costs because of the threat they pose. Susano'o in particular deserves a special mention, because it's believed to specifically hunt down God Eaters.
- As if normal Aragamis don't look (and become even more) terrifying, the new "Psion" species in 2 takes them up to eleven: Marduk may a mere Palette Swap to Garm, but it already has the capability to push all surrounding Aragami into rage on top of attracting any Aragami on the field to its location, Nyx-Alpha is impervious to all melee attacks, and so on. These guys are rare, but even one of them leading a horde is the last thing Fenrir wants to see. The Return of the Defense Unit DLC shows how bad can things become when hordes of these things lead the attack against Fenrir.
- Then inside the Helix Tree, there exist the "Arc Aberrants", and they're even stranger than others because they fuse God Arcs directly onto their bodies. It's like with Susano'o; their outlook turns them from living biomechanical abominations into something that comes straight out from Terminator movies. Not to mention they also has access to Blood Powers based on the members of the Blood Unit, in case it doesn't look painfully terrifying enough...
- In-game, the Ouroboros line is probably one of the easiest bosses in the game, despite its reputation of being a mountain-sized Aragami; but in the Episode 3 of the Anime, we finally have a glimpse of it: "mountain-sized" is an understatement. Given that a normal Large-sized Aragami needs a whole team to be properly defeated, God only knows how Fenrir handles one of these...
- The Dyaus Pita looks quite creepy with its realistic human face. And its chilling Evil Laugh in the anime makes it seem as if Aragami are just enjoying bloodlust for no specific reason at all. And in its introduction in episode 5, it delivers a Curb-Stomp Battle not only to some Vajra that were attacking the heroes and some civilians, but also the heroes themselves. Even series protagonist Lenka is completely powerless, and near the end of the episode, the most he can do his barely carry away Alisa for a short distance before he succumbs to the wounds, and utters "God" as if to ask for a divine intervention. Made more chilling by the somewhat serene song being played as Dyaus Pita kills Vajra and people left and right.
- Equally as terrifying, if not more so, is the Prithvi Mata, basically an ice variant of the Vajra with a more feminine looking face. What really makes this Aragami so unsettling is that it looks like its jaw is broken and hanging open.
- The anime depicts a very gruesome scene in an Episode 11 flashback with Soma's birth. It also shows the progression of an oracle cell infection in a person, then quickly goes full tilt on the gore. The doctors try to deliver Soma via c-section but the moment the scalpel touches Aisha, the operation room explodes into gore. Similar to a previous scene in the anime, oracle cell colonies react to harm. The gruesome implication however, is that Aisha's infection had progressed enough that the oracle cells in her body perceived even her uninfected portions as a part of itself. In the aftermath, Aisha is reduced to a messy pile of oracle cell flesh because merely being cut accelerated the infection within her, turning her into a proto-Aragami that's basically a loose collection of cells.
- As revealed in Code Vein, even vampiric monstrosities like The Lost don't stand a chance against the Aragami, as some of the revenants that managed to get past the mist that keeps the Aragami at bay are slaughtered like animals. It's even creepier since the Aragami that slaughters them is the above mentioned Dyaus Pita.
- The Dromi from the third game. It already looks like the eldritch bastard child of a Deviljho and an Ukonvasara, but taking it a step further by giving it some of the most potent ice powers in the series, an unrestrained bloodlust and arguably the most terrifying Devour Attack in the form of the T-Rex chase scene, with no vehicle to save you. Get hit, and what was already a horrifying situation takes a turn for the worse as now it has access to a hailstorm, ice shockwaves and an icicle machine gun! It is easily one of the hardest foes in the series to the point where horror stories of its carnage are well-known across the God Eater community. Unlike Crimson Orochi however, this absolute monster is mandatory!
- It also has a lovely little quirk that was foreshadowed a while before its debut: It exclusively hunts and eats AGEs! Yeah, the absolute powerhouses that make up the strongest God Eaters in the current age are its prey.
- Even its boss theme
sounds less like a showdown against a powerful foe and more like a struggle to survive against an archosaurian abomination hellbent on destroying everything you hold dear and reduce you to nothing but a memory and Oracle Cell dust.
