It's kinda funny, after seeing 9s, 2B's reaction and hearing the music change, it automatically makes all of us fight faster, harder and more concentrated on this boss fight :D
Possibly my favorite part of Nier Automata. Adam gets it; he's read his Hegel. According to (Alexander Kojeve's interpretation of) Hegel, Man became self-conscious through risking his life in battle. This alone places Man above all other animals, as it shows that we are willing to face death for things beyond biological necessity (like animals protecting their young, their pack). We strive for honor, for recognition that we are conscious of our own consciousness. And this desire, this conflict, is what sets all of human History in motion. Now, there are problems with Hegel's Master-Slave Dialectic: you lose if you die because you failed to prove you are a self-conscious being worthy of recognition; and you lose if you live because you've killed the only other person who could truly recognize your endeavor. Thus the compromise which puts most of human conflict into perspective- the winner spares the loser's life and enslaves him- but being recognized by a slave isn't the same thing; and being the slave can't lead to self-actualization either. Thus different systems of government are attempted to solve the problem of mutual recognition. History ends when this "universal and homogeneous state" is reached (liberal democracy, globalism, one world government, great reset, etc.). However, when everyone is equally recognized, there is no more conflict and humans lapse back into their unconscious animal nature. Thus the cycle can be said to be futile. There is also the problem that equality is a hoax, and that attempts to fit everyone into a single set of rules will lead to utter dehumanization and global tyranny. Hell, I'd love to see a whole game made with Hegel/Kojeve's philosophy. In short, as much as it might seem cool for Adam to have played a larger role in the game, this boss sequence provides an excellent vignette for discussing the machines' endeavors to "derive meaning from a world that is fundamentally meaningless"; and to keep Adam alive after this would have severely cheapened his actions.
