6 Philosophical Ideas That Make Horizon Zero Dawn Even Better

6. Democritus And Free Will

Democritus was a firm believer in determinism - how one event determines the outcome if others, even not purely connected with the primary occurrence. This theory is based on history and basic physics i.e. through the analysis of the past, we can (supposedly) predict the future.

While not always applicable in real life, determinism is what makes Aloy the savior of not only her tribe, but the whole planet Earth. GAIA recreates her programmer, Elisabeth Sobeck, and determines her future. She programs "future Sobeck" to find the Focus and gives her features that will allow her to re-enter the facility and destroy HADES. When Aloy learns this, she reacts with anger, shouting: "I'm an instrument!"

But as she comes to herself, she does what is supposed to be done. Even though HADES corrupted GAIA and Aloy needed to do a lot in order to learn her destiny, once learned, there was simply no escaping it.