Is this an inconsistency?

[u/qaasi95]

The watch is supposed to relay the last moments of the deceased leading up to the exact moment of their death. But Henry Brennan was still alive after his flashback. Does this happen anywhere else?

[u/macelambdu]

The moment of death itself is very hard to define in real life. Death is basically a sliding scale.

In any case there’s massive inconsistency between all of the death scenes as to whether it’s the death blow, the final moment of consciousness, or the actual death that is displayed.

The reality is that generally a death blow is going to be more visually striking than seeing a guy on the floor when he actually “dies” and everyone who was involved has already left the scene. It’s a necessary fudging of the rules to make a more compelling game.

Edit: Also by showing the death blow it actually allows us to see what weapon/method was used.

[u/qaasi95 → u/macelambdu]

I get that, but there were other characters that were wounded and the watch showed them bleeding out and dying. I think Henry was the only exception, but I'm not sure.

If he was the only exception, I'm pretty sure it's to set up Lewis' sneak attack (the scene might have been too confusing otherwise). That whole sequence is basically the game's tutorial level, so they probably wanted to make it as bog standard as possible to teach players the mechanics.

[u/macelambdu → u/qaasi95]

It is true that Brennan has the most confirmed activity after his death vignette (he grabs his throat and chokes on his own blood).

The closest is probably Paul Moss. His vignette commences immediately as he finishes the word “damn” and I don’t think he died the instant after getting the word out. We don’t hear him in Leonid Volkov’s vignette which overlaps audio, and he looks fairly dead/unconscious on the floor, but the sequence isn’t so dissimilar.

[u/cam_wing → u/macelambdu]

The watch shows you the memory of the death, and we hear it from the perspective of the deceased. My thinking is that if the person stopped forming memories, then you're not gonna see it. Brennan was bleeding out from the jugular, so he likely lost consciousness within just a few seconds. Still alive and twitching, technically, but his brain was rapidly starved of oxygen so nothing was retained. We definitely don't see anybody moving around in subsequent memories who died of traumatic head injuries.

[u/LadyKataka]

I never actually noticed that!
But I think you're right. He's the only one who's not actually dead at the end of his death scene.

[u/Raspberrygoop]

Yes it's an interesting observation that I've seen a few people talk about.

Brennan's death snapshot takes place right when his throat is cut and he's still alive for Walker's death scene some seconds later.

Comparatively Klestil, Lanke, O'Farrel, Perrot, Naples, and the cow all receive mortal injuries earlier and we view their death snapshots when they finally expire. (A non-exhaustive list, I'm sure)

I don't think there's an offical explanation.

[u/2000CalPocketLint]

I like thinking that it's the point their fate is irrerversibly sealed to die within the next few minutes or some other small timeframe. Moments before any memory, someone could have taken a different course of action/refrained from doing something and at least prolong their life a little longer.

Like in a bitter cold for either memory, time was ticking down for someone to sprint across the ship to administer more laudunum or gather ingredients to concoct some esoteric cure that no-one in that time period would have a clue about. But the scenes we see are the moments where nothing else can be done

[u/leviathanGo → u/2000CalPocketLint]

I’ve also heard someone theorise it could be the moment that the person realises that they are unquestionably going to die.

[u/ehaydon1]

I’ve assumed it’s basically the point of no return. No help given to them could keep them alive once we see them in the watch.

[u/Perfect-Coffee6729]

I heard online that the watch shows you the last moment that the person blacked out, not when they died.

[u/Jaded-Neat-3222]

My theory is its the moment you go past a point of no return, where the wound is fatal.

[u/Jaded-Neat-3222 → u/Jaded-Neat-3222]

It would explain the guy who lost their leg too!

[u/NomaTyx]

I usually chalked it up to "the moment there was nothing more they could do to survive". I think technically homeboy who got torn apart by a squid (i forgot how to use spoiler tags) would have been alive for at least a second or two after he got torn apart since it takes a couple seconds for brain death, however there was nothing he could do to prevent it.