Darius Sabotage Theory [Forza Horizon 1 theory]

Forza Horizon Legacy Horizon FH1 Discussion
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disclaimer:

My spelling isn’t the best but i tryed my best and same with capital letters. Please don’t complain too much of it. I am still learning english. many people have started complaining about my spelling and how the theory is layed out along with lines that doesn’t make alot of sense. just don’t please try show positive answers because i spent nearly 4 hours on this.

theory:

In Forza Horizon 1. You make your way to become the champion of the horizon festival. Most people call it "The King Of Horizon ‘’ champion. During the past 3 years Darius Flynt has been the ultimate champion 3 times in a row to be exact. However that would all change in 2012 when a new racer appeared on screen with an unknown name. At the time of the festival’s start. Nobody knew him and just assumed that he was simply a normal racer. However that would all change very soon as he proceeded closer to becoming the champion. However in order to do that he had to defeat Darius Flynt and other drivers while on the way. As he proceeded. He had to race against more challenging drivers. However he thought to himself that it wouldn’t be such a big deal and remained calm. He grew in popularity fast and he beat several “challengers” on his way. It came to the point he was at the finals. Where you and Darius and a few other drivers raced for the finish line and you beat Darius Flynt along with other drivers. Darius wanted to have a private race around the entire Forza Horizon 1 map. Which you won about 40 mins later. The protagonist was struggling a bit to remain on the road but he ultimately defeated Darius Flynt and became “king of horizon” 2012. As a celebration. You decided to speed off the highway at a very high speed. Everything seems to go well for him. Up until one point where his brakes didn’t work. His ferrari 599xx’s brakes didn’t work. As he panicked and struggled. He hit the mid road barrier leaving behind his tracks and his not so damaged ferrari 599xx. He died during the crash. As the audience watched the news and saw that their favorite racer had died. Many people were left shocked with gaping mouths. They started to hate the festival because of its lack of security. Multiple lawsuits were launched at the festival. The festival knew what may have happened. The festival was aware that it was Darius who sabotaged “his own” car that he lost from getting defeated by the protagonist.

Before the incident either he lost his sponsorship or he got jealous that he lost. (sponsorship one makes more sense so i will stick with that one). Darius’ sponsorship wasn’t happy with Darius losing and they were about to leave Darius without a sponsor but Darius (me theorizing) said something like: “i will do anything to get the sponsorship back which they responded with “we will give you one last chance however you have to kill the “new king" (king of horizon festival] which he wasn’t sure about but the sponsor would give him so much money and he probably cared more about the money then a stranger’s life so he forced himself to do what his sponsor said and decided to higher a mechanic to break the protagonist’s brakes. he paid the mechanic a lot of money to break the brakes. The mechanic forced himself to do it. and led to our “new king of horizon festival" to crash into the mid side barrier. That led to his death.

After the event the festival struggled to have the festival opened and closed earlier than previously expected and they took a year off to avoid further lawsuits until 2014 when it reopened however nobody returned to the festival after the incident and the festival was greeted to new racers and a new protagonist. no sight of anyone returning to the festival, not even Darius himself. however when you visit a few locations you can hear human sounding screams coming from somewhere however you are alone. (This is also theorized that Darius himself actually returned however he remained in low profile and only targeted small less popular drivers) Knocking them off the road and the scream of a driver vering of track and is about to lose their life and the scream is the last thing heard by the driver before their demise.

The ghost remains and is haunting various different places that are either abandoned or highly populated. However the scream can only be heard on the xbox 360 version of Forza Horizon 2. After the festival was over Darius decided it was time to quit racing. He didn’t enjoy racing anymore so he quit after 2014 and never returned again to the festival. The festival’s later years never mentioned 2012 or 2014 to anyone. due to reminding people of the incident and keeping it quiet throughout the years forward.

that’s the Darius Flynt Theory (updated version)

hints of the theory’s existence:

Hint 1:

At the end credits of Forza Horizon 1 you will start to see tracks and make out what looks like your Ferrari 599xx that you won from Darius Flynt. believed to have crashed into the mid barrier.

Hint 2:

The game mentions “Darius doesn’t handle well with drivers” (something like that) at the start of the game

Hint 3:

Darius at the end of his race against the protagonist mentions: “my sponsor won’t be happy about this”

My opinion:

I think this theory actually makes a lot more sense with my new updated version of it. I really enjoy thinking about this theory because it makes so much more sense when seeing the end credits at the point where you can’t see the ferrari’s trails and the ferrari itself and the dialog makes so much sense.

Changes between the first post and the new one:

Different possibilities and better writing.

Note:

This is not entirely original content. I took a bit of inspiration from a similar version of this exact same theory but I added a more extended version, better writing, better english/ a better understandable way of describing the theory and a more sensible way to the theory.

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Appreciate your take on it.

I can see how Darius could have sabotaged the car, however I believe the player was destined to lose control and crash regardless.

Another elaborate articulation of this theory that I found is from RogueDogX back in 2016, also here in the Forza forums.

They correctly state that:

“Later on in the credits you in your Ferrari come back into view, but this time the Ferrari (or whatever car you raced off in) has collided with with the center highway divide and looks really smashed up. Indicating that you hit the center at a really high speed and died instantly.”

I did some further extensive investigation.

When claiming the 599XX from Darius, the game will prompt you the option of whether or not you want to get into the car.

Thus whatever option you pick, getting into the 599XX or declining to instead stay in the car you last drove in free roam, will decide what car you see appear in the credits scene.

I say the free roam car, as this is how the prompt operates in this game. You can rock up to a race sign up in one car, but select a different one for the race, and when returning to free roam, have the option to stay in your race car, or return to your free roam car.

For example, I can be freeroaming a Lamborghini, but for the race, in this instance the Horizon Finale and showdown, select a Viper. If I decline the offer to get into the 599XX, then my Lamborghini will appear in the credits scene, not my Viper.

Moving on, it is interesting to note that there can be different scenarios after you win the showdown.

One is of course the credits scene, followed by returning to Race Central.

The other is no credits scene, and instead loading back to the highway.

I have also seen a video where you are respawned back at Race Central but with no credits scene.

I don’t know why this is the case, and I cannot verify the requirements of initiating a specific scenario if that is at all possible. In my playthrough, I got the first scenario. Maybe playing with assists off or certain AI difficulty level has something to do with the AI losing control of the car.

But what I have noticed is that if you reload back at Race Central, whatever car you opted for will be in 5th or 6th gear, perhaps hinting that you crashed in that respective gear.

If you reload at the highway, whatever car you opted for will start in 1st gear.

Regardless, I agree that it does seem very likely the player suffered a catastrophic accident, that killed them, or at least put them in a coma, something almost reminicent of Driver: San Francisco. This could explain the hallucinogenic “Count of Ten” intro of Horizon 2.

Something which further supports this theory is that upon becoming Horizon Champion and beating Darius Flynt, the game ends very abruptly and anticlimatically. I was very surprised there was no special cutscene celebrating your win, only simple dialogue in the rewards screen. This is odd, especially considering how Alice Hart is very suppportive of the player throughout the campaign.

This is particularly emphasised when unlocking the Horizon Final, Alice confesses that she “dreamed” about the player beating Darius and becoming Horizon Champion, encouraging the player to “Make it come true. Please”. With all the anticipation building towards the Horizon Final, there absolutely should have been a more impactful conclusion, but the game doesn’t show this and there isn’t a proper satifisfactory ending.

Instead, when you return to the game after your triumph, there is no mention of you being the new Horizon champion. There is no more hype around the player, contestants and the Horizon Final, and nothing new is being discussed. After you have conquered Horizon and Darius, the world now merely exists for players to finish off things they hadn’t done yet, and of course the ability continue to play the game.

This does not seem natural, since the player had a significant relationship with the characters and the whole game had led up to that moment. Thus in terms of continuity in the storyline, that has suddenly ceased, and instead we are left on a cliffhanger, having infer the aftermath based on the crash scene which strongly hints that the player was involved in a life changing accident.

The aftermath would not be ‘carry on as normal’ as the game might have you initially believe. Horizon would absolutely see some dramatic shake-ups. Not only did they move to another continent, but the people originally involved in Horizon in the US would no longer be involved.

I would be inclined to think that from Horizon 2 onwards it takes place in a dream, where the player is in a perpetual coma, and I hope that the player can awaken come Horizon 6, because we need a return to a underlying story behind a Horizon game, rather than as an aside. Also, if this story was properly revealed and integrated into the next game this would generate great intrigue right off the bat.

The only thing I could really find that somewhat alters this theory is Horizon Rally, where upon winning the championship, Alice congratulates you, saying “First you beat Darius at Horizon, now you’re the Rally champion too”. Perhaps the Rally championship could have taken place between the players victory over Darius and becoming the Horizon Champion and the end credits scene, or it could have been the player’s first ‘dream’ following their accident.

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coma or dream is a very possible explonation. Bc why would the player lose control of his car if he have used rewind as help to avoid slamming into the mid side barrier. Once he realized that “someone” had sabotaged his car. He knew that at whatever speed he was going. He knew there was no way for him to survived. If it was not a sabotage. It was suicide atempt but again it could have been the A.I path-finding that screwed up but whats the fun in that. I also did not expect to get such a huge respond on this but i am not complaining bc i learned a lot from it and that also tells me that i am not the only one that looks into too much details about surtent topics. I also uploaded a updated version of this theory on forza’ subreddit on reddit called “Darius Sabotage Theory (updated version)” if you want to check it out and stay updated with the theory.

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@NakariNova Today i finished forza horizon 1 for the first time and i got the ending in which we are in the racing center, it is also worth adding that the ferrari that we can choose was crashed exactly on the left side, which we can see at the credits.

Here is the link to the video:

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Whait… What!?. I never seen that before. I still have FH1 but i finished game like 1 year ago, and i allways have collisions off. OMG, meaybe this theory is true… Whait… That means… Our hero is a ghost ?

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I don’t think the theory is actually true I think it’s just a cool theory people have theories can be fun but personally I don’t think it’s actually real still interesting to imagine tho and kinda dark too lol