| “ | He's unscrupulous and dangerous. But also brilliant, skilled, and knowledgeable without equal. | „ |
| ~ Ourea describing Sylens. |
Sylens is a major character in the Horizon series, serving as the deuteragonist of the 2017 video game Horizon Zero Dawn and a major character in its 2022 sequel Horizon Forbidden West.
He is a mysterious Banuk researcher and a wanderer, who spent years wandering for answers regarding the fate of the Old Ones and how their life ended. He later helps the Elisabet Sobeck clone known as Aloy finding out her true origins, while hiding his true nature behind his plans, though not without committing questionable acts to get what he wants.
He is voiced by the late Lance Reddick.
Synopsis[]
This section is too long. Visit here for more details: Sylens's Synopsis on the Heroes Wiki.
His Good Ranking[]
What Makes Him Admirable?[]
In General[]
- Unlike Aloy and Beta who are genetic templates of Elisabet Sobeck with Alpha access, Sylens stands out within the high admirable standards of the series with much less resources (he is not a clone of an Alpha and only has his machine-overriding spear and his Focus).
- This is lampshaded by Sylens himself when talking to Aloy about him being unable to break the entrance to GAIA Prime's genetic-locked doors, despite many attempts of breaking the door by several means, which can only be unlocked by an Alpha, meaning Aloy.
Horizon Zero Dawn[]
- He is the only person to reach GAIA Prime, 19 years before the start of the main story, despite being just a normal human. This is especially important since he is the secondary catalyst of many of Aloy's heroic actions in the present time, using the facility as a hidden spot to spy on HADES and Helis, as well as all of the Eclipse.
- Throughout the entire game, despite his morally ambiguous ways to assist Aloy out, he helps her out in her quest to uncover her origins as being a clone of Elisabet Sobeck, given his moderate knowledge of the Old Ones.
- Risked his life in saving Aloy from Helis by overriding three Ravagers, after Aloy defeated the Corrupted Behemoth within the Sun-Ring, thus striking a heavy blow to Helis and the Eclipse, and with Aloy finally subsequently defeating the Eclipse commander in the Battle of the Alight, along with HADES. This is despite his hostility towards Helis.
- After the Eclipse's defeat, he would soon imprison HADES through a lantern-like device, via his own lance that he gave to Aloy, where he would soon proceed to interrogate the AI regarding Nemesis and Far Zenith.
Horizon Forbidden West[]
- Despite his deceit was soon uncovered by Aloy, he decided to complete his anti-Far Zenith shielding weapon, where he would use it against Verbena Sutter outside of Ninmah Research Lab, with the help of the Sons of Prometheus, and later improved upon it, which later played a significant role when the attack of the Far Zenith base was initiated by Aloy and her group.
- After his plans soon collapsed, following Regalla's defeat and death in the Memorial Grove and with Tilda van der Meer revealing his secret pact with Regalla, he would soon abandon his plan of using the Tenakth as mere fodders against the highly technological Far Zenith army, and sided with Aloy's team.
- During the attack of the Far Zenith base with Aloy's group, his improved anti-Far Zenith weaponry played a pivotal role in the final battle, which soon stripped all of the Far Zenith survivors of their energy shielding, allowing Aloy and the rest of her team to gain the upper hand against the Zeniths, resulting in the organization's subsequent defeat and collapse.
- Instead of abandoning Earth to Nemesis, in exchange of having the APOLLO archive, he instead opted to stay on Earth to help out Aloy and her allies against the future oncoming threat of the rogue AI to the inhabitants of the new Earth.
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores[]
- Aided Aloy in giving Walter Londra's location.
- Hacked through many of Londra's data at the end, especially the "Dagger in my Boot" data point, which uncovered a wealth of information on how to deal with Nemesis in the future through giving her locations of technology corporations in the Old World across North America.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He has far too many corrupting factors to be even considered as NPG-level minor preventions. To say that would be an understatement.
- He is grey-zoned, as he often switches sides, either between the good side (particularly Aloy) or the bad. Most of the times, he helps Aloy out on her personal quest, but other times he has instances where he temporarily betrays her and sometimes even going so far in luring her to her death making him on and off.
- He is often known for his unethical and amoral acts, such as using others in his quest, placing little value on empathy and humanity, and focusing more on the cold logic behind his actions.
- He is a textbook anti-hero and a heroic criminal, as he is willing to commit morally ambiguous acts, all to benefit his pursuit of searching for knowledge, irrespective of the lives he tries to take.
- His act of sacrilege against the Banuk, when he ransacked the Banuk Conclave by pillaging the tribe's spoils for his selfish reasons. It is considered far too corrupting, since it is a serious crime, and it is clear that Burgrend had known of his infamy and no one dared to talk about it, except for Ourea. To add to that, if Aloy chooses to talk Ourea about his dark secret, Sylens only selfishly tells her to not talk about it, which is corrupting.
- In To Curse the Darkness, he purposely does not tell Aloy about the truth of his affiliation with the Eclipse, which later comes to a head once Aloy infiltrates the Eclipse base, with the experience nearly putting her whole life at risk. He also does not subvert that said corrupting factor, even giving Aloy the cold shoulder at the end of the mission.
- Deliberately lies to Aloy during The Point of the Lance about HADES, later revealing that he interrogated the defeated AI for answers, showing that he only used Aloy to defeat the AI with her Master Override out of his selfish reasons.
- During Death's Door, he lies to Aloy about the truth behind the signal within LATOPOLIS, deliberately hiding the true source of it: Far Zenith. This led to Aloy being almost killed by one of them: Erik Visser.
- This is taken to the extreme after The Wings of the Ten, where through Tilda van der Meer's revelations, he has a villainous act of using the Tenakth and Regalla's hatred towards the Carja as attempted fodder to attack Gerard Bieri's base in a suicidal counteroffensive, all for his rather selfish goal to reach the Zenith base and escape Earth through the Odyssey with the APOLLO archive of it.
- He has several jerk moments throughout his run, as he is often known for his egocentric and brash personality. This is often common with his interactions towards Aloy, causing friction between the two.
- He is extremely insensitive to anyone's emotional trauma and has no qualms in doing it.
- His first encounter with Aloy in Maker's End quest played it straight, where he unnecessarily scolds her for asking about his name, while Aloy was still trying to recompose herself after the shocking revelation about Ted Faro.
- He remorselessly tells Aloy about her origins as a Sobeck clone, mockingly telling her that she's a "what" (clone of Sobeck), not a "who" (daughter of Sobeck).
- He darkly jokes about Aloy's connection as a Sobeck clone during The Heart of the Nora, even telling her offhandedly that she is the daughter of a "dead mother and a machine". All without remorse.
- While he shows standards, including his severe hate of Ted Faro for dooming the entire generation of erasing millennia-long knowledge, he is a hypocrite since he is willing to steal the APOLLO archive while also trying to doom an entire tribe that he tried to use in his attempt to stop the Zeniths. His actions also nearly deprived the new generation of humanity of its past knowledge that was wiped out by Ted Faro himself.
- Despite being an anti-hero for the majority of the series, as he is mostly an On & Off character, Sylens had shown some villainous acts as an anti-villain, both in the past and the present, especially towards Aloy, all for his obsessive pursuit of knowledge.
Trivia[]
- He, Stanley Pines, Omni-Man, Midnight, and The Man with No Name are the five Inconsistently Admirable characters to be in the Inconsistently Heinous Wiki, Magnificent Baddie Wiki, and Guile Heroes Wiki at the same time.
External Links[]
- Sylens on the Heroes Wiki
- Sylens on the Villains Wiki
- Sylens on the Horizon Wiki
- Sylens on the Inconsistently Heinous Wiki
- Sylens on the Guile Heroes Wiki
- Sylens on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
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 Inconsistently Admirable
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Beta | Travis Tate | Sylens | Sona | ||