u/Emperor_AI

Look, I know a lot of people believe in this theory due to how eerily childish their behavior is and due to the trailer showing one grabbing a teddy bear.

But I believe there is more than meets the eye in them than what the theory suggests.

Here are my a friend of mine's reasonings to why the Crusher are more likely adults (multiple of them in fact, since its implied Crushers are what Fleshmobs were supposed to be) than kids.

* Head the size of a grown man, a feature consistent across other voteless-style foes, implying that the mutations inflicted by the Illuminate can't go as far as to alter the size of the skull itself.

* Mouth kept fully intact, which is a privilege exclusive to them.

* Cries sound very much to those of a fully developed, middle aged man in a state of primal anguish more than a child.

* All voteless style enemies are implied to be alive and in pain, similar to headcrab zombies from Half Life series, which means the noises other units make may very well also be those of suffering, albeit obscured by their mouth mutations.

The real conclusion they made was that the Illuminate have likely kept the mouths so their enemies can hear them weep as a form of psychological warfare.

Though I wish to give out some theories of mine.

1. The Crushers, being what Fleshmobs were supposed to be, are multiple people in it. But do keep in mind Fleshmobs don't seem to have any kid on them so its most likely neither does the Crusher. Though the cow skull is either because they just mixed things up to make a Fleshmob or it is apparently a ingredient to make a Crusher... for some reason.

2. Crushers are flesh golems freshly made inside the Void, as the Illuminate begin perfecting their fleshcrafting and are slowly making their own zombies from scratch instead of turning people into Voteless. Thus Crushers, while having a developed body, don't have developed minds, thus acting more closely to children.

Okay, and before saying anything at all, I need y'all to read this text to make a better judgement of what they did. AND NOT LARPING.

1. Bugs: No. They were NOT a parasitic species that ate everything on their path. We practically have no idea of who they were prior GW1, and the Alien Kudzu that they spread is either how their colonies are structured and/or flora they produce to farm like ants do. We have zero confirmation, other than the extremely unreliable SE that they were already spreading from planet to planet, with the thinly veiled reason being to just get oil and E-710 from their corpses. They are also NOT a hive mind formed by mindless beings, as opposite to everyone's believes. They act more like a swarm intelligence where each Terminid had their own thought process and enough individuality to inform others of their kind, with each an every single one of them, I'd say smart as elephants or maybe monkeys. Why do you think their Scout units call in reinforcements with spores if they, supposedly a Hive Mind, can just send in reinforcements with no need for spores by having one of their units to see enemies and send Bugs? Everything seems to point out the Bugs were just milling around before SE came in contact with them and took interest on them for the oil they produced with their corpses. They aren't what humans did to cows or pigs or wolves, they were a species like humans who got turned into cattle.

2. Cyborgs: No, Cyborgs DON'T turn captured SE citizens into more Cyborgs to fight. In spite of the Immolators' decription saying they are fallen SE soldiers turned into Cyborg soldiers, the wording makes it unclear if they are corpses reanimated or if they willingly joined Cyberstan and SE simply deemed them dead in its eyes. And before anyone says they made a terrorist bombing, the way the news says it makes it heavily imply that the bombing was a false flag operation to scapegoat Cyberstan and go to war to ensure no other human faction existed beyond SE. Like, do you guys seriously believe some politician who proclaims everything they say is true and from sources he doesn't even have the decency to show and shuts down anyone who claims otherwise? Doesn't that sound for you guys suspicious? However, it is important to point out how the Collective Cyberstan was formed is unknown, as opposed to everyone saying they were former SE workers that got tired of the poor work treatment to the point they had to use cybernetics to survive. We have no idea where the idea of cybernetics even came from and its mostly a erroneous assumption. Overall GW1 seems to point out the Cyborgs were just people who realized SE was terrible and wanted to make a name for themselves, and got enslaved for it.

3. Illuminate: The Illuminate Empire is described by SE to have Obliterator bombs that destroy entire planets and that they put up a false veneer of peace to lull SE into comfort... and you are telling me not a single planet was ever destroyed in during the course of GW1, which canonically lasted 40 years??? These bombs could have given the Illuminate several capitulizations to push into SE, yet not a single one was ever detonated, not even Hd2 ever mentions of destroyed planets in GW1 until the events of the second game. Not to mention of a certain event that this takes inspo of. It is also said the Illuminate had a Darwinistic society where Mind makes Right and that they treat those who don't learn fast enough poorly and made Outcasts to die in battle. Now, this is contradicted in a HD2 MO text back when the Illuminate were back for HD2 which stated that even during their peak, they were always trying to protect their numbers, especially with the heavy usage of robotics back in the day. So this gives credence that SE actually doesn't know a thing about Illuminate culture and either confused or maliciously lied to demonize the Illuminate. Hell, even the so-called mind control they were feared for isn't even outright overriding the Helldivers, just messing up their sense of direction and the Illusionist entry description states that SE soldiers felt apathy or outright unwillingness to fight the Illuminate, possibly desilusion when the Illuminate telepathically shows them the truth about their government. In short, the Illuminate were a species where the game portrays them as well-meaning folks that got wrongfully accused.

Whenever someone discusses about Starship Troopers I tend to see more discussion about the Feds and Arachnids, but almost never the Skinnies.

How they should be introduced if a new movie, game or series had them make their appearance again? Something similar done with the Roughnecks series or something else?

The name of this colossal weapon is still pending but its capability is unmatched!

With it, we have crumbled the defense of Varylia 5 with a potent kinetic orbital bombardent!

ONWARD CHILD OF THE CYBORGS!

TO VICTORY!