I am busy replaying Gears 4 and I am a little confused and wondered if the devs have explained some of this.
So the Swarm are basically an evolved version of the Locust who now have a hivemind. They want a Queen. Why? They seemed genuinely loyal to Myrrah. But they are pretty brutal when capturing Reyna, have no issue trying to kill Kait in Gears 4 or 5 and obviously don’t listen to Reyna at all when capturing her. Shes obviously in a lot of pain and clearly objects to this; why aren’t the Swarm compelled or feel an obligation to do what she says? If it was just a biological impulse then how can that Scion talk to us as an individual and when he slams his fist on his chest and proclaims “the path to your mother lies through me” that implies a personal devotion you wouldn’t expect if he was simply driven by some base need to get a new Queen for the Hive. So whilst I get the general gist that, they would need their Queen to go through the same evolution that they did theres a few gaps I am not sure I follow.
I think theres two possibilities:
They weren’t trying to make Reyna Queen. They were trying to bring Myrrah back.
The Locust will only listen to the Queen once she manifests telepathic abilities.
The way they abducted and used Kaits mother is reminiscent of a blood sacrifice. If the swarm were loyal to Myrrah and found out she was dead they would obviously do anything they could to bring her back. In the Shadow of Raam DLC she is shown as able to communicate with the Locust via telepathy. If all Locust are now part of a Hive Mind, then all those links they had with the leader might be enough, with a genetic host close enough to Myrrah, ideally a daughter, to allow her to be reborn. This would explain why they don’t have a problem trying to kill Kait or hurting Kaits mother and don’t listen to either of them. They are loyal to Myrrah and are trying to resurrect her. So they aren’t actually interested in getting a new Queen.
Alternatively, it could be that although the Locust are individuals they are still extremely bestial and feral. So are still basically acting on a general instinct to “bring the Queen to the hive and merge her with the swarm”. If you’re familiar with the Tyranids from 40k and how their synapse system works; think like that. In the absence of any higher level creatures the swarm reverts to its base instincts until a new synapse creature is born. So the Scion IS loyal to Myrrahs family and does want Reyna or Kait to be Queen. The problem is that they are acting on base instincts. Yes Reyna can shout at a Scion but he won’t really “hear” her.
This is why Kait, when she gets these visions and shouts about getting it “out of my head! I want it to stop!” the implication is that she is developing a telepathic connection with the Swarm like her grandmother did. Maybe they put her mother in that thing in an attempt to coaxes such a change from her but this process either didn’t work or was interrupted. So it might be that Kait can actually command the Locust. Although I am assuming she would still need to undergo some sort of process to become part of the Swarm and its not clear if the fact she is two generations removed from Myrrah means she is too human.
As I mentioned above, I am not a 100% on theory 2 because we see that Scion is more intelligent than the old Locust and seems to have a more individual personality. So how could he not be aware of Reyna protesting what was happening to her? If he was only compelled to follow Myrrah out of some sort of telepathic domination then why be so obsessed with the idea of putting one of her family on the throne? Its a contradiction.
I am really interested about where they go in Gears 5. Coz, the way I see it the trailer asks two questions. Is Kate going to be corrupted by the Swarm and can she control the Swarm? I mean, I think she s going to learn who she is and try to use that to stop the Swarm because from the trailer I don’t see how they can stop THAT by conventional means.
We don’t even know if the Swarm or Scions would want to try cloning Myrrah.
Getting Reyna, filling in DNA sequences?
What’s up with the New Hope Facility, more biological traces of Myrrah?
I’m thinking something similar to protagonist in Resident Evil.
Yeah but if they make her Queen then she’ll tell them “STOP KILLING HUMANS!!!”.
Plus why didn’t they listen to her mother? I mean they do not pull any punches capturing her and she is clearly in a lot of pain being put in that thing.
You can’t want a leader and then ignore everything that leader is saying?
Until JD mantle kicks her and stabs a knife through her head and then Del gets mad and chainsaws JD.
Then Marcus rages and nukes the planet and he safely escapes in his ship to another Moon where the Alien v Predator fight is happening and we get Gears 6: AVP-VM.
Tbh, what the Swarm would want with Kait is to have her dead during the entire Campaign.
All those gun fights and such, no much point in trying to capture alive.
While Kait does want something with the Swarm… to eliminate them.
Besides, it’s unknown if can transform or turn in pods if the humans are already dead.
Or do they need a live bait?
Could do. But then couldn’t they have implanted her personality into anyone? I mean obviously its very dragonage to have it be her daughter.
I don’t think shes going to fall. The fact JD is going out the gate with that makes me think that she is going to try and do the right thing in the end. However I think her trying to become Queen carries enormous risk and will certainly estrange her from the COG. But I think we’ll see a split in the Swarm. So you will have Kaits swarm, the “good” Swarm and then you will have the ones that don’t. Which would start a civil war amongst the Swarm and would enable her to win without automatically ending the Gears franchise.
If that means a Swarm costume for Kait on red team, then I’m all for it.
Kait already borrowed Anya’s armour, so why not Myrrah’s battle armour?
They could implant in anyone, but I think the necklace might be an indicator for the Chosen one.
And it’s only given, passed down Myrrah’s family generation.
That sounds like an amazing endgame. A civil war between locusts and merged machine swarm. That would be a strong reason for Kait to lead the locust. She would stare at her comrades and tell them, “This is my war. My fight. I destroy these machinations, and lead the swarm to victory; to a new home, a new hope. That’s what my grandmother desired… And so do I.”
Kait’s friends join her cause and help eliminate the the opposing side. That could lead into Gears 6. Can you imagine a trailer with Marcus, JD, Del, and other COG or Outsiders battling alongside the locust amidst a burning location?
But… what about the people that died?
The Scions that we killed over from Gears 4 period and the last Act?
Do you really expect the new COG’s and Scions to form a truce?
Even Gears 3 didn’t do this, and we ended up with 3 main factions.
Humans, Locust and Lambent.
The Humans and Locust didn’t form a truce or pact, to battle off the Lambents.
you’re all wrong the swarm wants her beanie that’s why it’s gone in gears 5 the swarm stole her beanie and now she’s on a quest to get it back and thats why she pulled a gun on del because she suspects he’s working with the swarm for the ultimate beanie collection
easy, Del is working with the swarm for now but plans to betray them and take all of their collected beanies so far and as for Marcus they have no interest in his doo-rag only beanies
When it comes to the Swarm and their need for a queen, I think it’s because they lack any form of leadership. Yes, they have the hive mind (which makes me believe imulsion must be somehow involved in their existance), but they lack a leader, that one organism that would be on top of their command chain and control the whole network, like the Gravemind in Halo.
The Swarm we’ve seen in Gears 4 was very savage, feral and even primitive. That’s why they need a queen - Having someone in charge would make them more organised and “civilized”. If I had to guess, I’d say they want only the descendants of Myrrah to lead them, because in the eyes of the Locust Myrrah was the only human/human-locust hybrid worthy of being their queen. In Gears 2, 3 and most recently The Rise of RAAM we can see the Locust were very devoted to her.
I think they didn’t really care about what Reyna had to say in that matter, they just wanted to transform her into the heart of their network and they wanted only her. The Scions wouldn’t follow someone who isn’t Myrrah or her descendant.
Now about Kait - I guess she’s connected to the hive mind, because a few percent of her DNA must be Locust DNA if she’s related to Myrrah and she most likely had some connetions with the Sires. Because of that her connection to the hive mind is very weak and manifests itself only while she’s sleeping, when her brain and mind are most vulnerable. I also don’t think she would stop the Swarm from exterminating mankind if she becamee their queen - She’d most likely turn evil (indoctrinated by the Scions?) or just transform into a Swarm creature and wouldn’t be even herself anymore.
That would be also a lame way to end this story, cause it would make the whole struggle against the Swarm pointless. Not to mention that the Swarm and humans would not be able to coexist without killing each other for very long. That was the very reason why the Locust invaded the surface - They’ve seen that humans are not able to leave peacfully with each other and they definitely wouldn’t be able to coexist with the Locust, so in order to survive they had to exterminate mankind and become the dominant species.
(obviously I’m not justifying the Locust logic, but I get their way of thinking)
