Original artwork, not a still
Everything that lives is designed to end.
— NieR: Automata • 2017
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
It sets the series' bleak question in a sentence: nothing lasts, so what is the point of fighting? Fans quote it as the game's philosophical thesis, since the story keeps testing whether anything can be meaningful in a world of loops, memory wipes and endings. It has also become a standard line for people mourning a character, a series or a season.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for NieR: AutomataShow the scene
This is the opening thought of NieR: Automata's protagonist 2B, delivered in narration during the game's prologue. In the full passage she says that living things are trapped in an endless spiral of life and death, asks whether this is a curse or a punishment, and wonders whether she will ever get the chance to kill the god who blessed everyone with such a puzzle. The words come back in writer-director Yoko Taro's concert story "Lies", which opens with 2B narrating them and later has Pod 153 repeat the first sentences, applied to "them", with Operator 6O answering that everyone was born here and so goes on living.
Sources (2)
- NieR Wiki: YoRHa No.2 Type Blead quoteReference checked
- NieR Wiki: Lies (2B/Pascal)Credits and Scene 1Reference checked
Context reviewed
