I've heard a lot of people talking about how the cold could have helped Marguerit and Sector Zero survive the Kharaa. The problem with that theory is that since Marguerit's body is warm, the cold wouldn't have affected the infection that's already inside of her. The fact that the Frozen Leviathan is infected with the Kharaa, even though it's frozen, also indicates that the Kharaa has no problems with the cold. When it comes to how Sector Zero was able to survive the Kharaa, this theory would make much more sense. The cold could have limited the bacteria's ability to spread, which might have helped Sector Zero to survive. I've also heard a lot of people talking about how since the Frozen Leviathan in Sector Zero is infected with the Kharaa, possibility #5 doesn't make any sense. However, this can actually be easily explained. The Frozen Leviathan didn't have the same common ancestors as the leviathans in Subnautica and the living leviathans in Subnautica: Below Zero meaning it wouldn't produce a Kharaa-curing enzyme. This is why we don't see any living Frozen Leviathans in Subnautica: Below Zero. The Frozen Leviathan also looks significantly different compared to the leviathans in Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero; it has a completely different body structure which further proves this theory. Because of this, I still think possibility #5 is a viable theory, perhaps even the most likely. Additionally, some further proof I recently found on possibility #5 can be found in the PDA entry on Enzyme Host Peepers (Peepers carrying Enzyme 42). The entry states that the enzyme, "Bears some superficial similarity to the stomach enzymes of larger predators." This is some very solid evidence, the only problem is that it only mentions the stomach enzymes of large predators. This would explain how Marguerit was able to survive, since she consumed a Reaper, but it doesn't explain how Reefback and Sea Treader Leviathans are immune to the Kharaa. My best guess is that since the PDA is under the "Advanced Theories" section, this is only a theory and isn't the complete truth that all large leviathans have the stomach enzyme that makes them immune to the Kharaa.

When a leviathan class lifeform gets near Marguerit Maida they hear a voice in their head that says “detecting a Marguerit Maida class life form in the area, are you sure that what you are doing is worth it?”

10:50 Reapers aren’t apex predators. In the PDA there is an entry that says that the Sea Dragon Leviathan sometimes will swim up to the surface to drag a Reaper down, kill it, and eat it.

I think Marguerit is a leviathan class lifeform

I personally think it is a plot hole that the devs didn't have the time to account for. Based on some PDA entries from the cut storyline, it seems like there was supposed to be some kind of explanation for how Marguerit survived, but they never got to it. There were at least 10 incomplete voicelogs for her from when she was floating towards Sector Zero and only a few made it into the full release. In the ones that were cut, she talks about the Kharaa and how Bart had told her he could slow it down, but that now that she was on her own, it was getting worse. After she gets to Sector Zero, there is one where she says she thinks she only has a few weeks left to live and specifically mentions that the fish in the sector taste exactly like the Peepers she was eating in the Crater. Even though those are not technically canon, it seems most likely that she was surviving on fish that carried the enzyme. How she was cured permanently is anyone's guess. Maybe once the Sea Emperors were hatched, they carried the enzyme to other parts of the planet and she was cured for good at the same time Riley was.

i feel like we need to give more attention to the fact that Marg killed TWO reaper's with little to no injury and with just the equipment from their life pod, that crazy old lady could probably taken out the whole population with the equipment Riley had

The thing is, In below zero, when you find the antidote with the spy pengling, so you could still finish the game if you died and lost it, you can craft the antidote, and margurite had experience farming plants, and it takes plants to make the enzyme (that are in the area snow stalkers are where she got hers from) meaning she could’ve eaten both plants at the same time and accidentally created an antidote.

The theory I would go with is that humans are anatomically VERY different from the Architects. It's entirely possible that the mortality rate of Kharaa is actually significantly lower in humans than it was for Architects. Sure, Bart Torgal presumably died of the disease, but he lived for quite some time before succumbing to it, and was reasonably active while still sick. Ryley manages to complete the events of the first game while infected with Kharaa. Our sample size is pretty small; maybe Marguerit just...got better after a few months.

I've seen a alot of people theorize that because of the cold climate, the bacteria get weakened. Yet everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that the frozen leviathan contracted the infection within the *POLAR* climate, and then fell through *ICE* and *FROZE* to death. Yet the bacterium was still active within its corpse. Which in itself I find odd, wouldn't the kharaa die out without a living host?

One thing I wish you'd mentioned is that the precursors were uniquely susceptible to the virus due to their conglomerate DNA. Also Below Zero does throw a tiny wrench into your "Leviathans don't get Kharaa" theory, but it's only a tiny wrench because the obvious explanation is that the non-immune ones died out. Still, it's a solid theory and I personally go with the combined theory that "Maida is tough as nails" and "All (surviving) leviathans create an enzyme." It's simple, elegant, and wholly consistent with the facts as we know them.

Actually there is a good explanation for how she survived and it's explained through datapoints on Kharaa and its effects on local fauna. You learn that leviathan's have a level of resistance to the bacterium, with larger leviathan class lifeforms having the ability to coexist longer with the bacterium. They may get infected, but they have the ability to survive for much longer periods of time, or can live for years being infected without dying. It's most likely that Margaruit gained a stronger resistance to the bacterium through excessive consumption of the reaper leviathan. It's provided her with a natural ability to resist the bacteria. When you meet Margaruit in sector zero she is no longer infected or at least is in remission. She survived long enough via reaper resistance, then eventually received the cure from the sea emperor's enzyme, which was released in way so it would spread and cure the rest of the organisms on the planet. Likely the cure reached sector zero eventually in some form, and she probably ended up consuming cured peepers vented from the glacial basin, which cured her fully. (The frozen leviathan only had the bacterium still because it was never in the water when the cure was released, there was no way for the sea emperor's cure to reach it, hence it's the only organism still infected). The other explaination is that simply that she scared the Kharaa bacterium into leaving her body. After killing a reaper with a jagged peice of metal, the bacteria decided it had better things to do and didn't want to stick around.

Basically, she's badass. She was an extremely strong, healthy individual, and I imagine didn't settle for the tastes of the small fish, instead, going for stalkers and other predators. This made her concentration of enzyme-42 higher, boosting her immune system to not be fatally ill when the reaper attacked. Then, feeding on the reaper, her enzyme-42 concentration increased higher, letting her overcome the bacterium as they got to the map of Below Zero.

For possibility 5, The Sea Emperor is Sapient and possess physic capabilities. She may have freely given Enzyme 42 because she knew the dangers. Also the Architects were researching other Leviathans. The Kharaa was released in the first place because the Architects took a Sea Dragon Egg to study, and the mother attacked the base. We also don't see any other Leviathan level research outside of the egg and Emperor. They may not have been able to capture another Leviathan because of their size, with them only getting the Emperor because she wanted to help.

I think it’s probably because of the peepers that carry enzyme 42. Out of the three Degasi survivors, only Marguerit preferred to hunt for food instead of farming, meaning she likely ate A LOT of peepers. While it wouldn’t cure her outright since the mother Sea Emperor’s enzyme was too weak/unstable, it WOULD prevent a severe infection from taking root, just like it prevents fish in alien containment from getting sick. Maybe Marguerit couldn’t avoid the Kharaa ever infecting her, but she had enough enzyme 42 in her system that the infection wasn’t able to progress past a certain point & it burned itself out before it could kill her.

My background is as an EMT with ten years' experience and a degree in biochemistry and biomolecular analysis, so I have my own ideas on why Maida wasn't killed 1.) She drifted into an Arctic zone. Cold is well known to reduce some viruses capability to reproduce, and if stage 4's skin blisters are a major replication site, this could have had a preventative effect. In cold climates, your core body temperature drops. You will go down 1 or 2 degrees Fahrenheit, even more near the skin. This isn't dangerous, and even such a small change can have a dramatic effect on many diseases. 2.) While "natural immunity" isn't really a thing, having a strong resistance is. You can simply get less sick from a chronic illness, and we do understand why this happens, biochemically speaking. It's just an emergent field of study. 3.) It may function similarly to tuberculosis, which can have an immensely long latent period. Your body essentially walls off the infection like an oak gall. But eventually is breaks out. So possibly she just got to a point where the disease went into remission, not cured but not spreading. 4.) The peepers carrying the curative enzyme may have been acting like a treatment, not a curative. Before modern antibiotics, we used to treat syphilis with arsenic. It rarely cured the disease, but severely repressed it. We still use it in some forms of leukemia. It's possible the disease was just being suppressed by the peepers weaker version of the disease.

Maida is a mercenary. She very likely traveled a LOT and received numerous innoculations that most ordinary people wouldn't. It's also possible that in her travels she may have fallen ill with one or more diseases or bacterium that had been undiscovered at that time, and naturally developing the antibodies to those illnesses gave her a better chance of fighting off the Kharaa.

The antidote ingredients is the vase plant and fevered pepper. And in Below zero, there's so many fevered pepper around the island. I think maybe she survived because of them?

Dude this one weird story inconsistency has destroyed my brain many times over. Edit: wait a minute! I can't believe no one has thought of this! Ok, so the Khaara antidote thing you can find in below zero is crafted with flora specific to sector zero, and whatever gives the flora these properties has likely spread throughout the ecosystem, perhaps via snow stalkers, as Preston is show to be omnivorous, so other snow stalkers likely consumed the aforementioned plants and some may have drowned by getting lost under the glaciers, and pengulls and the various carnivorous fish may have feasted on their carcasses!

The Kharaa bacterium on 4546B had a thousand years to evolve properties which specifically allowed it to infect the yellow-blooded native organisms of that world. Possibly, in adapting to more effectively go after that one specific biosphere's life forms, it incidentally became less lethal to creatures with a *non*-4546B biochemistry.

When chuck noris meets Marguerit they shake hands respect each other and go along their way because they know it would be a even fight that would last for eternaty

very well done speedy, the finished product is better than I could have imagined

"Possibility #5: Ever Leviathan is Immune to Kharaa" The frozen ancient leviathan in Sector Zero wasn't. But it's ancient and perhaps it uniquely lacked enzyme 42 or the enzyme adapted after it was frozen. Perhaps the disease wiped out a significant percentage of the biomass on the planet and what life has been encountered are the descendants of the survivors. The games said biodiversity is unusually high in the Crater and Sector Zero, which would be consistent with why those sites were of interest to Alterra/Xenoworx.

my idea is that she was observant enough to notice the enzyme carrying peepers at the vents and possibly limited her diet to them and plants. eating enzyme carrying peepers helped her keep the infection at bay until Ryleh released the sea dragon babies and then she got her cure from them much like Ryleh did.

Perhaps the reason leviathan class lifeforms seem to be immune to the bacterium is similar to the lack of cancer in huge creatures such as whales. I recommend watching Kurzgesagt's video on this as I don't know the details.

Bacteria have a tendency to lay dormant when they are in environments not suited for growth. It might be possible that Marguerit saved herself by half-starving herself and living in such a cold and inhospitable environment that the Kharra remained dormant or at least progressed very slowly until the cure arrived.

Yep. I have to go with #7. The story writers were rushed into a sloppy storyline. Consider how bad some of the dialog between _scientist_ Robin and _scientist_ Alan is. Consider how disjointed some of the conversations on voicelogs sounds. Consider that Alan was on 4546B to find a cure for Kharaa yet barely talks about it when it comes up and never shows any interest in the cure that now exists. Wouldn't Alan be concerned about Alterra considering trying to exploit Kharaa? Wouldn't he mention bringing some of enzyme 42 to his homeworld? The writing for BZ was sloppily as hell and was probably a result of the writers being pressured into rewriting part of the story with limited time and too many constraints.

Always a really good day when speedy uploads

In biology contaminants become more dense inside organisms higher in the food chain. Since the reaper leviathan is at the top of the food chain, the enzyme could’ve built up so if she ate the reaper, she would’ve gotten much more of the enzyme then eating just a single peeper.

I have another theory to add on to number 5. What if the leviathans don’t have a common ancestor, but it’s convergent evolution! What do we know about reefbacks, ghost leviathans and sea emperors? 1. They all cannot be infected in game and 2. They are all filter feeders My theory is that to digest the planktonic organisms of 4546B, all these separate species developed something similar in chemical composition to enzyme 42. Reapers are the only likely predators of reefbacks, and sea dragons share a recent common ancestor with sea emperors. The only hole in this theory is the sea treader Edit: perhaps the sea treader shares a common ancestor with a once filter feeding ancient fish. Idk, it’s a big plot hole

I have one theory that might not make any sense if dug into, but perhaps Kharaa, like Covid has over the past few years, mutated and produced new strains over time. The deadly version is the most prevalent, but maybe Marguerite had the fortune to catch a much weaker strain, and was able to recover

Very interesting theories speedy. I believe that the reason why sector Zero and Marguerit were not annihilated by the bacterium is because specifically the cold climate, since diseases can’t live, or are severely weakened in cold climates

This question is actually answered canonically in Bellow Zero, but in a very roundabout "blink and you miss it" way. Margaret's log in the greenhouse mention that she is "craving" a salad. "Huh? I hear you say? In bellow zero, after you find the antibiotic to clear the dead leviathan of the disease, you then have it in your PDA as something you can make. It requires 1x Frost Vase Plant and 1x Fevered Pepper. Seems to me that these must have antibiotic nature that effect Kharaa. Margaret has been munching on salad's containing these ever since, hence survived. Other animals in the area must have also been eating these and adding the cure to the food chain (and their droppings into the water) explaining why life survived in this area.

Your videos always get me back into the cycle of playing subnautica for 15 hours a day then not playing for a month and repeat

Maybe the Kharaa isn't as deadly for humans that it is for the Architects. Until our character "cures" the planet with the help of the Emperor, none of the people we "know" is dead because of the disease. They all died from other things.

If the Kharaa stages took so long within the body. The immune system probably grown a immunity to the Kharaa overtime. In the game when you get infected, if you scan yourself the PDA will say your immune system will began fighting the Kharaa before the first stage meaning that maybe her immune system grown a immunity.

How can people agree with Leviathans being immune to Kharaa when a huge part of Below Zero's plot is healing a Frozen Leviathan from the bacteria?

Maybe because the reaper she was living in had some sort of immunity or wasn’t very infected so it wasn’t as sped up as eating a peeper. Maybe leviathans have a small immunity like how they studied dragon leviathans for that reason.

The theory about leviathans producing their own enzyme similar to enzyme 42 makes actual total sense, as I never understood why The Architects understood that Sea emperor leviathans produced it in a concentrated form, yet they incubated Sea DRAGON eggs, completely different yet probably related. Furthermore, with console commands, you can infect any creature with kharaa with the spawn command and a specific tag you put after the creature name i believe, however, this only works on non-leviathan creatures. (this could just be an oversight tbh).

During the original storyline for below zero and beta of the game. I remember sea emperors being apart of it and there being a sea emperor in sector zero. The model was unfortunately cut from the game when the story was changed after the deep dive update. I’m not sure if that sea emperor is one of the offsprings of the one in the original subnuatica but it could’ve been an original idea for Marguerit to have encountered that leviathan there and get cured from that one which would explain why sector zero was still able to survive the kharaa bacteria. But hey that’s just an idea…

"If other leviathan could produce the enzyme then why didn't the architects use them to make a cure." They tried to. It's specifically said by AL-AN after you build him his body and when he's telling his story that he was in change of the mission to 4645b and that the architects had noticed that the sea dragon leviathan were able to fight off the karaar bacterium so they tried to incubate sea dragon eggs in the facility in the lost river which eventually lead to the sea dragon parent attacking the facility and releasing the bacterium to the whole planet.

She's so badass that the bacteria got infected by Maida and died.

i had always just assumed that sector zero was cold enough to completely halt or severely slow the disease to the point where she could survive the ten years until that emperor leviathan juvenile grew up came along to cure the sector of the disease

I think a sea dragon trashed their base since Paul says that it looked like a kracken and it had tentacles and was bigger than a cyclops while a reaper has the same size as the cyclops

Fun theory: The Khaara functions like tetanus, with the side-effect of violent seizures being the real thing that kills. A compound inhaled from Burning Reaper fat, or contained in one of its edible organs causes neurotransmitter blockage on the post-synaptic cleft similar to a benzodiazepine, lessening the seizure effects and giving Margie's immune system an unusually long opportunity to combat the infection. Also fun if she caught and ate a Mesmer which is just as likely. Given it's a bacterial life form it's more than reasonable that Margie just lucked out and her immune system managed to kick it old school. Given that any answer is likely retcon anyway, this is a perfectly serviceable explanation. The chance of her riding a reaper body to site zero is probably way less likely than her immune system triumphing over an alien bacterium. A note on symptoms: She wouldn't have been naturally immune to the initial infection. Developing symptoms and even getting very sick is more likely than having no symptomatic presentation at all.

maybe in the first possibility the Kharaa wasn't as deadly to humans years ago and evolved in the current era due to how it couldn't kill her for some reason or she had a stronger immune system to the disease because she had been a merc for a long time putting her in contact with a good amount of wildlife and potential diseases her immune system fought off and it gave the Kharaa a difficult time due to it.

I have a follow-up on theory #4, it is possible that the factor that caused the disease to become docile, or put into hibernation was the extreme cold temperatures of the subnautica below zero biome. Think about it, diseases can be affected with different temperatures, with periodical exposure to extreme colds, as Marguerit would not be in the freezing water all the time, the constant and extreme changes in temperature could have caused kharaa to constantly go from hibernation to waking up, preventing it to be able to adapt to a certain environment. And this also answers the question as to why the architects didn't use this method to cure themselves, because not only does it not cure them, as well as not being able to be replicated due to the insane task of turning the whole planet (or even an island) into a frozen tundra. I'm no disease professor, but this theory seems pretty airtight as far as im concerned.

Another possibility is there is something that fights the Kharaa bacteria in the Below Zero location. In nature, bacteria compete with other types of bacteria all the time, so perhaps there could be some bacterial agent that fights the Kharaa bacteria. The reason this wouldn't work as a cure could be it very climate-sensitive, or it had harmful effects on the Precursors.

Speedy ur going abt this wrong, after my 1200 hours in sub 1 i can conclude that the purple vents from below zero spews out heated up enzyme 42 which is able to completely kill khaara, also the leviathans dont get infected as they made the khaara which is a robot and released it throughout the world to weaken prey, a reaper told me. Seriously tho, great job on the video!

Since I found out that she’s Marguerite…I just figured maybe she’s immune to the disease. Maybe one of the very few who are. But thinking back to one of Bart’s voice logs when he mentions that they ALL are showing symptoms and such…I guess we’ll never really know unless the Devs decide to answer that 😅

One slight thing: before being removed Emperor Leviathans were found in the lilypads. The same place Marguerite took shelter. It shows that while they may not be back yet, the region is a natural environment for them. So its possible that the lilypad biome still has enough enzyme 42 in its system circulating

i could have never guessed how interesting the game of subnautica is.

The fifth one is, imo, right. (Below Zero spoilers ahead.) Maida does say something in her Below Zero logs--along the lines of "what I needed was inside it" (re: the Reaper Leviathan). She's already infected in Subnautica, and knows the Leviathans hold the secret (this is why she's capturing/killing them), but doesn't know how. She eats Reaper flesh hoping it'll help as she floats toward Sector Zero. This isn't likely to do with Leviathan diets, as you mention, as the Leviathans were resistant/immune before the enzyme was released (this is why the aliens were studying them to begin with, before the enzyme was released into the Peeper/vent system). My assumption is that that's exactly what happens: she eats Reaper meat, and this holds something that helps her body fight the Kharaa. They WERE trying to use other Leviathans, by the way--that's what went wrong; the Sea Dragon smashed the laboratory to get to the Sea Dragon baby/eggs that Al-an's team were experimenting with, and accidentally released the disease onto the planet. The other plot holes in Below Zero are far worse imo, and have to likely do with its writing team leaving halfway through & the plot being entirely rewritten. Ex. how did entire Sector Zero survive Kharaa to begin with? It's too far from the Sea Emperor system. We know a juvenile Emperor was cut early on, so it was implied that it was keeping the place safe, but if it was one of the released babies that was way too recent to explain Sector Zero's overall survival. "Cold" isn't likely; the crashed Mercury II's crew was infected with Kharaa in Sector Zero, implying it was carried there. Also, why did Sam make a cure but then hide it in a hole and just try to blow that Leviathan up..? Why not cure the dead Leviathan? And lastly, why did the crews of all the Alterra stations just... leave? The Kharaa was under control; the potentially VERY lucrative bases were all still present, the frozen Leviathan still infected and accessible. Why did the staff all abandon the planet..? And why didn't Al-an want to bring the cure when he departs the planet?!

I came to believe it was eating the Reeper that saved her. I remembered the PDA that said the Leviathans may be the cure. I just assumed that is how she survived after seeing she was in Below Zero.

I believe in theory #6. Sometimes, the most simple explanation is the correct one: Maida was just lucky enough to become immune/be cured due to a sequence of several factors. Maybe she was more resilient to the Kharaa than others and, since she passed more time hunting/exploring in the water, most likely was more exposed to the peppers who carried the incomplete enzyme 42. After that, she may have simply developed immunity on her own, or allowed her to survive long enough to consume the Reaper Leviathans enzyme 42 and be cured.

Your voice is so deep now. Great video dude.

For possibly 5 the reefbacks have those glowing orb things on them that serve a purpose in uts digestive system like the emperor

my theory about marguerit is that she has a powerfull imune system as human imune systems technically have a cure to everything but its a matter of time and because of her tough nature it could have allowed her to survive the kharaa

We all know the kharaa was deadly but what did it do and how? Knowing how it harms the victims might help with further theories!

The Kharaa infecting Marguerit could have changed making itself more subtle or long lasting. Part of what makes the Kharaa so deadly is cause it mutates at a rapid pace. Maybe the rapid change in environment Marguerit kept doing made the Kharaa think it'd spread more if it layed low rather then instantly killing its host. Then Barts strain killed him because he settled on the floating island. Plus she "traveled" for weeks on that dead Reaper. A fast mutating bacteria might sense that forcing itself to become docile for a time. The way I see it is If ur moving environments rapidly like Marguerit and Ryley, it goes "Oh were spreading lots yay let's stay here for a bit" well if ur stagnant like Bart was near his end, or the fake doctor trapped in his pod, or most medium-large fish on 4546B (as in they rarely leave specific biomes) then the Bacterium would think "huh I'm not spreading fast enough maybe if i UNALIVE this person they'll be eaten so I can spread". Or at least that's the theory that makes the most sense to me

i think that Marguerit rlly found the alien vents and cured peepers, but she found it alone. From on of PDAs you can discover that Marguerit wasnt keen on telling eveythiong to Torgals. For example: When she went out and brought a lot of Stalker teeth and didnt tell where she did get so much of them. So Imo some combination of Theory #3 and #4

Here’s my headcanon: The other Leviathans do produce a similar enzyme to 42, but as you said, they don’t leave their bodies, and the Precursors didn’t eat them and neither did Ryley. But since Maida ate part of the reaper, she got cured

Still feels silly she's even alive, would the bloating of the reaper really compensate for the weight of the Prawn suit? amongst other things. Feels like they just didn't want to make a new character to use.

My theory is that she was never infected to begin with. In the Degasi logs Bart only notes that she was coughing, he doesn't mention that she had any other symptoms.

I believe in one of the older pre-release versions, there was a precursor log about how many billions had died and one survived. I believe Marguerite overcame the disease all by herself. When there's a disease, there's always someone who's more resistant to it than the others. It's similar to the black death. Most people died but some survived it and never got it again so they were tasked with burying the bodies of the deceased.

You’re great, loved the episode where you did multiplayer with salvner, aci and bacon. It was truly a delight to watch ♥️

I would like them to make a DLC or another installment where you play as her

In subnautica in the databank in advanced theory’s under enzyme host peeper it says “chemical analysis of enzyme: ~Bears some superficial similarity to the stomach enzymes of larger predators”

Heat is known to help the body fight viruses, given Maida's hunter build and the fact that she had to keep warm all those years, and possibly the Leviathan Enzyme theory, she could have lasted, and you also have the matter of other foods possibly mixing to help her immune system fight it either for good or until the Enzyme release.

Good job covering all the different angles in depth. I think the enzyme being present in all leviathans is the most interesting but it leaves behind another plot hole with the architects not realizing it, like u said.

The fact that life exists in BZ and Regular Subnautica isn't a plot hole, it's actually strongly implied in both games. In Regular Subnautica, one of the PDA logs says that life on the crater underwent rapid adaptation for "some reason," which is strongly implied to be as a result of Kharaa being introduced into the water. What this means is that most fish in 4546B were indeed killed, but those that survived had such a high chance of reproducing in comparison that rapid evolution underwent as a combination of surviving the disease and filling the now missing niches. So I think it's a combination of Possibilities 1, 2, 5, and 6. Maida was simply able to better hold off the disease, and that combined with her eating the flesh of the Reaper bought her enough time for her immune system to overcome the bacterium. Remember, the Degasi Survivors were in the Deep Grand Reef for months, which already shows the disease progressing way slower in their systems. That little edge could easily have been enough to beat it entirely.

Alr let’s be honest she’s just the REAL main character

How about this; Marguerit was pretty resistant to the Kharaa disease but still got infected and sick, yet it didnt kill her. When she travelled on the back of the reaper, she temporarily stopped the progression of the infection and when she arrived in sector zero she found the enzyme in the water. I know that sounds pretty really random and stupid but do you guys remember that in the original first early acces of subnautica below zero, the children of the sea emperor swam around in the deeper parts of sector zero, spreading the enzyme? I feel like the plot hole is in the part where they scrapped the juvinile sea emperors!

She's just build different

I think she wasn’t immune at first but eating the reaper enzyme plus the decade might’ve created basis that helped her body build a immunity to the sickness

My personal pet theory is that when the Architects outfitted the Primary Containment Facility, they equipped its water-circulation system with seven alien vents, not six. The seventh was specifically designed to cool down the inflow into the Sea Emperor's tank, to counter the ambient heat of the Active Lava Zone. As the tropical Crater's temperature wasn't nearly low enough to do the job, the seventh vent was installed in Sector Zero, linked to the PCF via a miniature and permanently-open transport arch. This mechanism was still in good working order when Ryley discovered the Facility, although he never found a way down into the deeper pipe network, so didn't learn of this mini-gateway to the polar sea. To keep the tank's ecological mix from being contaminated by invasive arctic species, the vent's intake opening was equipped with a finer-grade mesh than the ones in the Crater; hence, we don't see any arctic peepers or arrow rays sneaking into Her Imperial Majesty's residence. But the Architects didn't much care about the arctic ecosystem's integrity - they needed Big Mama alive for research, not the cold-water critters - so the exit door of the vent remained traversable to peepers. While most enzyme-bearing fish went straight back to the Crater, a small percentage of them took a wrong turn in the pipe network and ended up in Sector Zero. Being tropical, they quickly froze to death, but their carcasses' load of enzymes still got consumed by scavengers or absorbed by flora, thus introducing Enzyme 42 to the regional food chain and keeping Sector Zero alive as a second refugium for 4546B's native species. Eventually, after the Facility's monitoring equipment discerned that the old Sea Emperor Leviathan had died, the PCF's water-circulation system shut down and all seven vents deactivated. With no more currents flowing through them, seabed silt and debris quickly covered all of them, which is why Robyn never finds the seventh vent during her own sojourn. But, because the Emperor had clung to life after the hatching in order to share her telepathic parting words with Ryley, the circulation of water kept going long enough for a good strong dose of the pure Enzyme 42 - the dollops which the hatchlings deposit in the tank itself, before they leave - to be sent through the vent to Sector Zero. This preserved the polar organisms for a few months' time, until the juvenile Emperors' enzymes could spread globally. As for Marguerit, I suspect she may have gotten lucky: when setting up her greenhouse, she harvested flora and silt from the seabed as an initial growth medium. If the place where she collected that substrate just happened to lie immediately downstream from the seventh vent, it'd be especially rich in enzymes. Indeed, the vegetation there would be conspicuously lush and healthy, encouraging her to harvest that particular patch of silt for her gardening. Without even knowing it, Marge would have been giving herself a daily dose of Enzyme 42 - absorbed from the substrate into the crops she grew - with every fresh salad she ate, and Preston, a dose with every purple fruit treat she fed him for being a good doggie. 🙂

I think she might've survived because she ate the reaper leviathan flesh and since you really don't see reapers with the Kharaa infection it must've had anti-bacterial properties like Enzyme-42, which could've killed the infection or gave her an immunity.

What if, since its VERY cold in sector zero, the disease is slowed like putting food in a freezer, and then it was slower in affecting her, and then eating peepers, which have trace amounts of enzyme 42, would slow the infection significantly. There is also the chance that reapers have a small amount of immunity from Kharaa and eating the meat prolonged her further

I think possibility 3.5 at 7:04 is the most plausible

The Architects BROUGHT the Kharaa to 4546B quite awhile before Subnautica (I think 1000 yrs) so the Kharaa on 4546B could've adapted to the watery planet and hence this strain didn't have as strong as an effect on land-based creatures, making it possible that Marguerit could've lasted longer due to this coupled with the fact that she most likely would've had cybernetic/biological enhancements seeing as she is a mercenary

15:12 Possibility #8 She is one tough SOB... lol You have to admit she IS very forthright and tougher than nails!!! Her fortitude is the stuff of legends!

Theory: The writers forgot she was supposed to be infected and let the players invent an explanation

I think there is one other reason, Marguerit has biological enhancements. One of the other members of the degassi mentions that he can get a new liver to keep living, some off market organ enhancements just screams "THIS IS SOMETHING MARGUERIT WOULD HAVE"

My personal theory is that below zero is just poorly written

Simple, realistic explanation. If disease does not kill 100% of infected (common case) then she recovered from illness by her own. This is how it works in the real world. Pretty much always someone survives illness.

It's also possible that enzyme 42 affects only certain mutations of the disease and not all, and through the biomagnification process mentioned she was cured of her strain.

She didn't survive. Everything in Below Zero should canonically be ignored. It's trash.

Very interesting! I think that a combination of some of the possibilities makes a lot of sense. I think it would’ve been sick if they put a fourth PDA in Margueit’s base about how she secretly went even deeper to the Disease research facility and found some sort of antibiotic/unfinished cure

There is a plot hole in theory 5 because we know the sea dragons that were being tested are what released kara into 456b. This means leviathans aren’t fully immune. I like the video and the ideas keep it up.

Your body has a weapon to fight every disease, and the reason people die to diseases, is because your either at a very sensitive age, the disease is very deadly and works fast, the disease isn’t effected by your body’s defenses, or your immune system takes a hella long time getting it’s defenses ready. Marguerit most likely is just naturally more defensive against this specific threat. She could still be at high risk for other diseases.

6:30 you don’t need to be near a vent to find an enzyme host peeper. I found one in the safe shallows without ever seeing an alien vent before.

It's also possible that she just wasn't lethally effected. Diseases IRL have a distinct aversion to 100% mortality rates, as that's an evolutionary dead end for them. Diseases need living beings to reproduce, so the most successful evolutionarily are ones that don't kill everyone. However, we know the precursors were especially susceptible to Kharaa due to their unique DNA structure, explaining why it was 100% lethal to them. It's also possible that contact to numerous alien contaminations prior to the trip the 4548b had already strengthened her immune system. After all, she was an accomplished mercenary, so this likely wasn't her first time on an alien world.

For the first counter to point 5, they did. The Precursors tried to study a Sea Dragon egg, but the facility was torn apart, and they probably decided it was a bad idea to study the Leviathans, other than the Emperor, which was old and wouldn’t be able to do much damage.

Of all these possibilities, option 5a is most likely, the one where a reaper has 150 peepers. she ate the reaper, which was full of the enzyme, over a few weeks which allowed her body to build up a natural resistance or immunity to the kharaa. It would also explain why the frozen leviathan is infected, proof that not all leviathan class life forms are immune. It's also possible that the kharaa originated from the frozen leviathan, which is why it's not dead after 1000 years of infection and that sealife in sector 0 has also built up a resistance or immunity. Maida ate the fish in sector 0 which further helped build up her own resistance over the next 10 years. The reason the precursors didn't study life forms in sector 0 for a cure though is because they only had resistance and it would take years they didn't have to find a cure by studying them. The kharaa had undergone enough mutation to infect at least 29 different species on the planet, making it so only a complete cure, like enzyme 42, would be capable of completely curing it. In short, Maida survived by constantly consuming some amount of the enzyme or fish that had a natural resistance. The precursors couldn't do this though because there wouldn't have been enough resistant fish to give the precursors this option, they had to find a proper cure, which is why they studied the only other place capable of survival, the crater.

My problem with the leviathans having a cure theory is that the PDA tells us that the leviathan clad creatures are not all closely related, and is merely a classification of size, not a taxonomic classification. Yes, it’s clear that the sea dragon and emperor are closely related, but I’m sure that some small predatory creature like a bone shark is more closely related to the reaper than a reef back is, despite them both being called leviathans.

cool vid! The precursors would have been dissecting all sorts of things looking for cures, no way they just didn't know every leviathan sized creature had the cure. IMO, her being a meat eater, getting more temp cure from larger animal meat and falling within the right mortality percentage is the best explanation I can think of.

The Reaper immunity thing actually makes a whole lot of sense, and would best apply to Marguerit given the Reaper diet she lived off for weeks. It's very possible the Leviathans all have a similar Kharaa immunity to the Sea Emperor and it just wasn't nearly efficient enough to serve as a cure for the entire Architect population, but it worked wonders for Marguerit's situation.

Lets not forget that their are already peepers with enzyme 42, most likely their was an emperor in sector zero and a few of the peepers were carrying and spreading it. But since its cold environment and limited food source, it would have died of starvation soon before Marguerite arrived which would have still been enough time for her to be given a little bit. We must remember that the Sea Emperor is a species, not an individual so its definitely possible for their to be more. Like you said, it affects people differently so she might have had a better immune system response.

The voice actor who voice over Dorian in Dragon age has such a reconisable voice. I immediately noticed it while listening to the voice log of pod 12.

Honestly there might be a chance that the Kharaa reacts to certain things, such as the water of 4546B and the land that she was living on in sub-zero was actually a major factor in her living that long.

12:53 Also they did try to study other leviathans but you see in the Lost RIver that the Sea Dragon didn’t take well to having it’s kids taken/