As an OG DW fan I hope this isn’t a repeat of 9, but I’m not optimistic. “1 v 1000” and “realism” are two completely different things.

What about ThePicardManeuver?!

We are in post-competition capitalism. Even if the alternative isn’t owned by the same parent company, they will do the same bullshit.

What do you mean? There’s like 10,000 (?) years of history between replicant and automata. There’s so much that could happen. They could lean hard into the cyclic timeline theme and have literally the same story set up as automata just have it play out completely differently. Maybe an origin story for the machine lifeforms. I don’t think a direct sequel will ever happen but there’s a lot in the nier universe to explore.

They only liked the one that was covered in sick kid germs.

That was definitely my impression too. More like cycling executives through positions to build their resumes.