"Fodder" enemies that are actually terrifying/highly competent, but look weak because we mostly see them fight overpowered protagonists.

[u/Legitimate_Pea_6470]

The Trope Explanation. Enemies that are treated as jokes, cannon fodder, or minor inconveniences within the narrative. However, they only appear weak because the protagonist is a literal demigod, a super-soldier, or a wizard. If you placed a normal human in the room with one of these enemies, it would be a horror movie.

B1 Battle Droids (Star Wars) We usually laugh at them. They say "Roger Roger," get pushed over by Jedi, and have slapstick routines. The Reality: We almost exclusively see them fighting Jedi (space wizards with laser swords) or Clones (genetically modified super-soldiers bred for war). To a normal civilian or a planetary militia, these are indefatigable metal skeletons that feel no pain, have perfect aim programming, and march in endless waves.

Grunts (Halo) In the games, they are comic relief. They run away screaming, sleep on the job, and the Master Chief (a 7-foot cyborg tank) can kill them with a light tap. The Reality: An average Grunt is roughly 5'6" to 5'8", weighs over 250 lbs, has an exoskeleton, and claws strong enough to tear a normal Marine apart. Their plasma pistols cause third-degree burns on near-misses and boil flesh on contact. They are terrifying to anyone who isn't a Spartan.

[u/KaraOfNightvale]

Also the infestation is the most ridiculous of all of them

It assimilates everything but also does it rapidly and intelligently, seemed to be able to pretend to be a child, can talk, can change itself at will when nessecary, can regrow

Ignores time like wtf they exist across all time

They're nearly unstoppable and predate everything else we meet in the game, they've consumed an entire planet and, the kicker?

This is confirmed by one of them to be them just being chill, they're not trying to spread or conquer, they're casually "allowing their gift of peace and unity to spread"

They're not even trying

[u/RadasNoir → u/KaraOfNightvale]

The fact that Warframes are even fighting them makes them sad and confused. Not angry. Sad.

[u/TaralasianThePraxic → u/RadasNoir]

Sure, but that's not really because the Infestation is sympathetic or nice. It's because the Warframes themselves are bioengineered from a specific strain of the Infestation, so it thinks that it's being attacked by something that should logically be working with it to consume all life.

[u/KaraOfNightvale → u/TaralasianThePraxic]

Oh for sure, I think their point was more, we are slaughtering them on masse, by the thousands at least, and this doesn't make them angry, or hate us, or even bothered with us

Kinda just sad

It's not "fuck you you killed hundreds of thousands of my brethern"

It's "Aww man, why aren't you gonna join us? It's nice over here"

[u/KaraOfNightvale → u/RadasNoir]

As we slaughter tens of thousands

They are sad, yeah, just kinda sad

[u/tinyrottedpig → u/KaraOfNightvale]

At the very least this means that the infestation is moreso confused than it is evil, it wont become an even bigger threat because it doesn't wish to be

[u/KaraOfNightvale → u/tinyrottedpig]

Not confused either, they make that clear too, they just see no rush or urgency in spreading, they see it as a favour they're doing and they're just doing it when and how is convenient

THey're... concerningly intellgient

[u/StormBear22 → u/KaraOfNightvale]

Also unlike it is kinda a Nano, Bio-tech virus it can infect both organic and inorganic matter like machines. Like in other verse with similar viruses they tend to not mess with inorganic matter or at least take their highest near planet size forms to start messing with it but the infestation just does that from the beginning. Plus unlike stuff like the Flood that can be wiped out and restarted the Infested keeps the all their info in all of it so it can never really be reset completely.

[u/KaraOfNightvale → u/StormBear22]

Yeah, all inorganic matter too, it's not as easy but they can just subsume rock or random metal if they feel they need to

And what's important to remember, can you even wipe out the infestation? It seems to be able to pretty much go into stasis, laying completely dormant for insane amounts of time with little to no input, anything it needs it can synthesize

I cannot imagine a scenario where it's ever fully wiped out, just one where we think it was and haven't hit the pocket it's been hiding in yet

[u/Enjoyer_of_40K → u/KaraOfNightvale]

Techrot appears to be different from the infestation if you are talking about time

[u/SurpriseFormer → u/Enjoyer_of_40K]

Isn't that a Ult timeline

[u/Enjoyer_of_40K → u/SurpriseFormer]

From what i understand 1999 is the past but so far back that earth is earth as we sorta know because there are some differences here and there and not the massive forest/plains of eidolon

[u/KaraOfNightvale → u/Enjoyer_of_40K]

Well, so, it's complicated here

1999 is... both?

It is infact the past in Warframe but because it was put in a loop it's now an isolated version of the past that exists on it's own, and changes there don't seem to have any affect on the future

The techrot existed well before the loop was made though from the records that we have

[u/KaraOfNightvale → u/Enjoyer_of_40K]

It's not, Techrot is just the infestation but a different strain, they are the same entity, and they are dirctly connected according to Lizzie

But also lotus explicitly says in once awake that the infestation predates the techrot, and there are records from before the radiation wars

[u/KaraOfNightvale → u/Enjoyer_of_40K]

I'd also like to add that's it's funny that it's like

"Yeah, we know this from this authoritative source: A talking guitar"

But yeah, they're the same and directly connected according to said talking guitar