For the longest time, people have been speculating that there’s some sort of deeper connection between No2 (A2) and Kaine. I may have been the culprit for this with my initial speculation after going to the original YoRHa Ver.1.0 stage play in 2014, whether that’s accurate or not, I don’t really know, but there was one line in which the titular character mentions her “false memory” of growing up on a farm with her grandma that stuck in my memory at the time. I initially thought this detail was unusually specific and drew some connections to Kaine, who also grew up with her grandma, although the details were quite different.

Over the years I grew to distance myself from this speculation, but it seemed like the overall fanbase liked this correlation between the characters, so no matter how much I might suggest people only view this as speculation, it seemed to make people believe it all the more. Whether this is actually what happened with the fanbase or not, it doesn’t really matter, but for me, I tend to dislike it when people state this obvious speculation as absolute fact. It’s one thing to have a fun head canon and another to preach to others that it’s the only correct outcome.

Additionally, it seems like some folks are getting a little carried away with this speculation, so allow me to address some silly comments recently made on 4chan, which you’re free to have your own opinions on the medium… But since they mentioned me by name, I felt it was my responsibility to respond, although indirectly with this post.

▶︎ The Comment

“Kaine did not live on a farm with her grandmother.

The original human Kaine lived in a mansion and she was an experimental weapon made from Curly’s genetics and Legion DNA. This is in the Drama CD.

Replicant Kaine lived in that place outside the Aerie and it is most definitely not a farm. Moreover, she is a Replicant so they wouldn’t have used her memories.

A2’s original personality is the one we see in the stage play and in episodes 6 and 17 of the anime. She is an innocent cheerful girl and that is why they named her Freesia. She only became vengeful after the betrayal and loss of her family. Her story arc in Automata is about her regaining her humanity and opening herself up to others (she is the opposite of 9S), so we barely see her vengeful self at all, especially in the anime (though the game localization kind of messed up her personality imo).

This entire theory was created by Rekka because she sloppily thought it matched up. She has since said that it was an incorrect theory and asked people to stop spreading it because it was wrong.” ー4chan

So, first of all I’d like to remind people of the timeline of these events.

• The first YoRHa stage play debuted in October 2014.
• I first spoke openly about my speculation here, in December 2015.
• NieR:Automata released in February 2017.

If we’re to tackle the localized interpretation of her character, you’re going to run into some issues because there are clear actors who want to equate A2 to Kaine, but there is actually very little connecting the two. The issue is the distance between the original game and the localized English version, which lends to what we see in the localized version of the anime… There are many aspects that are altered or slightly skewed for whatever reason. The fact is that neither version is entirely 1:1 accurate and you sort of need to make your own acceptance with this incongruity.

All that to say that A2 is HARDLY on the same personality level as Kaine. She began as an extremely timid girl and was sharpened into the slick blade that she became due to her harsh experiences of being used as a mere tool that can be discarded and losing her dear friends under her own watch. That alone will change a person, and that is exactly what happens to her. That doesn’t necessarily mean that she becomes a completely violent person with a vile mouth. That’s not A2. That’s Kaine. That is where these two characters differ greatly. Of course, you could draw some similarities if you wanted, but I honestly don’t seen enough that would absolutely solidify this, that A2 and Kaine are essentially the same person, as fact.

What it seems like the main hang up that people have is the difference between speculation and reality. Granted, these ideas that I initially had, no matter when I first posted them, were cultivated from what I learned at the initial YoRHa stage play in 2014. This was when the YoRHa idea and NieR had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with each other.

And yet I still speculated some ideas here and there. One of my ideas was largely based on a singular line by No2 that distantly resembled the past of Kaine from NieR. You can read more about this here.

▶︎ Scene from the YoRHa Ver.1.2 Musical

No2: Our memories… are pseudo memories.
No4: They’re false memories programmed in order to promote diversity and evolution on the battlefield.
No2: In my memories, I lived in the country with my grandma.
No4: In my memories, I hung out a lot with my friends at school.
No2: Everyday, grandma and I would tend to the farm and knit… The cold of the rain, the ferocity of the storms. The silence of the snow. The gentle warmth of spring…
No4: After school, we’d go eat the most delicious things, have fun dressing up, playing games…
No2: Since we lived in the country, I couldn’t have everything I wanted. But because the other villagers looked out for me, including my grandma… strangely, it wasn’t so hard.
No4: As long as I had my friends, I could endure my studies. We’d laugh day after day; no matter what hardships came our way, we were able to overcome them.
No2: ……My grandma taught me “kindness,” a gentle heart to cares for others.
No4: ……My friends taught me “hope”, a strong heart to laugh even in the face of difficulty.
No4: Holding tightly onto these false memories, we fight.
No2: But they are also our precious memories.
No2 & No4: The time… draws near…
No2 & No4: Our final moments… are about to begin…

Although the above blurb comes from the YoRHa Ver.1.2 Musical, which debuted in 2018, this setting also existed in the original play penned by Kaoru Asakusa in 2014, so that alone might be an important factor. We don’t necessarily know how far Yoko’s setting extended and where Asakusa created on his own; although it’s more likely that Yoko made this setting from the very beginning.

But whether this speculation is accurate or notー that’s sort of not the point because that’s what speculation is. We merely bring up interesting or odd coincidences and try to make sense of them, drawing from what we already know.. That doesn’t necessarily mean these speculations are accurate or correct in any way.

So, it would be nice if people could separate speculation from 10 years ago from what we currently know as fact… Personally, I think it’s perfectly okay to believe whatever you want as your own headcanon, but it’s also important to acknowledge the facts a little bit and to weigh everything against each other in order to come to a reliable assessment.

In the end, what you want to believe is up to you, and that’s totally okay, but for me personally, I’d greatly appreciate it if people could please leave me out of this situation. 10 years is a long time to have stated a simple bit of speculation for people to still be believing it as fact or blaming me for its inaccuracies. It’s about time to move on… xD