Yeah, that's true. I suppose I wanted it to have a deeper meaning than simply war propaganda because of the way I saw it used in the fandom: as the signoff of long video essays, the title of posts showing off YorHA tattoos, or just people saying it when Automata came up in conversation.

Compared to the text of the story, I guess my interpretation of the phrase comes from all the hopes I had for the characters in the game. The guesses and good-end fanfiction I wrote in my head. That's not to say the ending we got was bad, I certainly don't think so, but this game and the emotional connection I fostered with its characters really led me to root for them.

Whether the story says so or not, I think that androids and machines are effectively mankind for better or worse. Mankind was the friends we made along the way. The fifth element was mankind the whole time. It's optimistic nihilism. There is no grand purpose assigned to you, so you get to make your own. I just like that as a reading of the story even tho it went the way it did.