WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Horizon Forbidden West.
Horizon Zero Dawn introduced one of the most detestable character in all of video games: Ted Faro. Faro was a narcissistic businessman who sold militaristic robots used in war. It was bad enough that Faro made his wealth through violence and bloodshed, but his greed pushed him to even further extremes. In his efforts to create the ultimate military weapons to increase his profit margin, Faro designed killer robots that could adapt to any combat situation.
The hyper-intelligent robots eventually went rogue and began attacking their owners. With the ability to self-replicate using biomatter, the robots would soon wipe out all life on Earth. To salvage the planet, a scientist named Elisabet Sobeck and her handpicked partners used Faro’s immense wealth to create an AI that would restart life on Earth after its extinction and educate future humans so that the mistakes of the past would not be repeated. Claiming that knowledge of the past would corrupt future humans, Faro deleted the part of the AI meant to educate new humans and murdered its designers so they could not rebuild it.
Why Is Ted Faro So Hated?
It’s easy to see why Horizon Zero Dawn fans would have such negative opinions of Ted Faro; he was pretty much created to be despised. Faro not only single-handedly ended the world, but doomed future humans to ignorance. All of the technological advancements, history lessons, and general knowledge that would have saved lives and made survival much easier were entirely lost.
Horizon‘s fandom has rallied around their shared hatred for this character and all that he stands for. There is even a subreddit solely dedicated to discussing how terrible of a person Ted Faro was, fictional though he may be. Even individuals that have never played Horizon Zero Dawn and don’t know about the game’s lore understand that Ted Faro is someone they should dislike immensely.
Despite the near-universal resentment toward Faro, there was always some debate over his motives. Did Faro truly believe that knowledge was a disease, and was he honestly trying to prevent future humans from becoming like him? Or was he just a coward that didn’t want future humans to know that he was the cause of the end of the world? Horizon Forbidden West settles that debate once and for all in the mission, “Faro’s Tomb.”
The Final Fate Of Ted Faro
During the “Faro’s Tomb” mission, Aloy travels to Faro’s bunker in order to gain his Omega level clearance so that she can save the world once again. There she discovers recordings detailing what happened to the people inside. When the end of the world finally came, Ted Faro locked a guru, a group of his girlfriends, and a doctor inside with him.
The bunker was filled with massive statues of Faro as a testament to his ego. Because of Faro’s obsessive need for control, he forced the doctor to place “off switches” inside of everyone’s bodies so that he could kill them if he so chose. Faro tormented and abused everyone in the bunker daily. Those that discovered the truth, that he was responsible for the end of the world, were killed.
Encouraged by the words of his guru, Ted became consumed by a desire to lead the new humans of the future. To achieve this goal, Faro forced the doctor to perform experiments on him to stop his aging and become effectively immortal. When the new humans finally emerged in a thousand years, Faro planned on becoming their god and ruling over them.
The Legacy Of Ted Faro
Faro’s plan worked to some degree. Because of the fragmented pieces of history left behind, a tribe called the Quen believed that Ted Faro was the savior of the world and worshipped him as their god. By purging the education function of the AI, Faro had ensured that almost no humans knew of his role in the destruction of the planet. Luckily though, Ted never even got the opportunity to leave his bunker.
The experiments were successful, and Ted was made immortal, but with one significant downside. His constantly regenerating cells caused new mutations to repeatedly appear. These mutations had to be treated by the doctor so that they didn’t grow out of control. Eventually, the doctor and his daughter committed suicide, which left Faro alone without medical help.
In a desperate attempt at survival, Faro connected himself to the reactor of his bunker. He used the reactor as an energy source that he hoped would keep him alive long enough to greet the new humans. But without medical assistance, Faro continued to mutate until he became a twisted blob of flesh unable to move or speak. Eventually, he was killed by a member of the Quen tribe that was horrified by his form. Ted Faro’s ego and greed not only caused the downfall of the planet, but himself as well.
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