Maybe this is what causes Maria to snap and go on a killing spree.
Maybe this is what causes Maria to snap and go on a killing spree.
What do you mean by "this"? Simply the fact that society is after Mamoru? Mamoru dying? Or just this current mess in general?Originally Posted by animus
I'm pretty sure this is where it's gonna be too. Saki won't be dying and Maria/Satoru... yeah, not happening.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
Episode 14 - UTW
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Especially when Satoru appeared I got the feeling the board of education was planning to get rid of the whole group, all at once conveniently and well outside of the village, behind Tomiko's back. While the preview suggested queerats' own ambitions might be more dangerous, it's still not mutually exclusive, in fact it would be nothing but the two sides of the same coin. You can't have queerats kill humans but still keep them thinking humans are gods. So, employing them like that is digging your own grave, considering they are much more numerous and the human population must be dwindling.
The board of education wasn't surely too impressive. No wonder they make mistakes. Which is also exactly why they could be trying to pull a fast one while Tomiko believes stuff is going her way. But who knows, it's hard to judge, and maybe they really are willing to wait three days.
I felt they were more than adequate. While they certainly look worse because they have been challenged by Tomiko's chosen group, the inquiry itself was well done. The vice-chairman got to be the "bad cop" and fluster whoever they are talking to, while the chairman herself plays "good cop," worming her way into their confidence by being "helpful." Toward the end, she very quickly turns around and acts with utter disdain toward Saki. Granted, her reaction is probably hardened by Group 1 being Tomiko's pet project, but we also saw that the chairman idolizes Tomiko.
The way they did it, it would be trivial to trap someone in a lie, or use the Prisoner's Dilemma against them. You could tell they're very good at McCarthy-style trials.
I do enjoy being wrong with regards to story direction though. Saki's vase repair turned out to be quite impressive and important. No wonder she was having so much trouble. I suppose it makes sense. Glass easily shatters, but as an amorphous solid, it must work similarly to telomeres. So while the other students think that Saki is only mediocre because she struggles at her assigned task, hers turned out to be as equally difficult as Shun's was. I wonder what, if anything, they were grooming Maria for then. Probably not Board of Education, they seem to prefer rigid thinkers who like the status quo.
"Docile lambs alone cannot protect a village."
And with that statement most of my doubts concerning the soundness of how they're going about trying to deal with the situation they're in are laid to rest. Some details are still missing in the specifics, but up until now I wasn't convinced that that concept existed somewhere in their society. With that in mind, I actually agree with Kraco on the lack of impressiveness of the ethics committee. It's not that they don't do their jobs well, it's that they don't realize the stakes concerning the members of group 1. This is particularly unimpressive because they were aware that an experiment was being performed on group 1, and that it was ordered by the ethics committee chairman.
In light of that, their decision to dispose of Mamoru without consulting granny was a mistake. That along with their handling of Saki and Satoru implies that they did not consider the reasoning behind the ethics committee's decision to go along with the experiment. This is either because they did not know it, or they really could not (for whatever reason) use that knowledge as input in their decision making. That makes the education committee come across less as a driving force behind the village's protection, and more as a mere tool. Until the introduction of the Tomiko, I thought everyone behind the village's defense were more like the members of the education committee.
"You are not free whose liberty is won by the rigour of other, more righteous souls. Your are merely protected. Your freedom is parasitic, you suck the honourable man dry and offer nothing in return. You who have enjoyed freedom, who have done nothing to earn it, your time has come. This time you will stand alone and fight for yourselves. Now you will pay for your freedom in the currency of honest toil and human blood."
- Inquisitor Czevak
I just cannot agree with these peopleīs conception of society. Yes, even individuals can become huge disasters if they turn into fiends/karma demons. But the solution mustnīt be that we kill every child that shows certain signs. Itīs all the worse when seemingly all adults agree on this procedure. I also cannot imagine that Saki would ever agree on it, so I wonder what has Mrs Immortal that confident.
During Sakiīs hearing, I kinda hoped that she would just say "screw it" and start going berserk against these heartless pricks. And when somebody knocked the door, I had hoped itīd be Satoru, having fled from where he was kept after his hearing, and wrecking havoc on, again, these pricks.
About the telomer-regeneration: Shouldnīt this be an ability that everyone can learn? Fixing stuff seems rather unspecial.
Think of it as a final safeguard. If a fiend or karma demon cannot be stopped, eventually they'll die of old age, illness, or their own genes becoming unstable due to their Cantus. Given how long Saki has been practicing fixing that vase, it is apparently quite difficult, and that's only the first exercise to achieve that. It doesn't seem like an ability that would spontaneously develop from one's subconscious, it requires a lot of concentration.
You want to give that ability to someone with an extremely stable psyche, like Tomiko believes Saki has.
Also, who wants to live forever? It's a tough skill, those who can pull it off get the "reward" of watching everyone around them die of old age, like Tomiko said.
Education maintains the status quo for the sake of stability, and Ethics carefully guides society forward. If Tomiko has been ruling their community for 200+ years, she finally found someone who can guide them in a new direction.
Both are necessary, and Ethics > Education in the hierarchy because otherwise society would simply stagnate.
Because history has taught them that it's the best available method, even if it's not ethically ideal.
Repairing things on a micro-scale is apparently not. You don't have to have a perfectly flat surface for something to function as a mirror.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
I called the education board unimpressive because they are supposed to supervise education (and students in general, that is, young population), but I think being placed in charge of disposing kids has twisted them. If they appeared good at interrogations, good cop + bad cop routines, and whatnot, that's nothing but a sign of how bad things are. They are just witch hunters anymore, and only try to maintain appearances. There's no way they would have interfered with Tomiko's experiment if they hadn't fallen so deep into their god complex, because they would have seen the bigger picture like those responsible for education and public morals among the youth should. In short, they have given up already. No wonder Tomiko wishes for a successor who could perhaps change things.
What about this: Make sure to train EVERYBODY into a strong Cantus-user. Even if one of them turns into a karma demon, the others should be powerful enough to stop the fiend with their own powerful Cantus. That way you donīt have to dispose of imperfect children.
Death-feedback makes normal humans rather incompetent killers.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
I brought this up a couple of weeks ago, asking the question about why cantus cannot be used to interfere with another's cantus. The series hasn't quite answered that question yet, but the overwhelming impression is that, for one reason or another, this is not possible. As far as harming the cantus user himself (as opposed to interfering with his cantus), the behaviour conditioning they go through prevents that.
Everyone is indeed being trained to control their cantus, but not everyone has the same potential. If nothing else, they seem willing to train you as far as your potential will allow.
"You are not free whose liberty is won by the rigour of other, more righteous souls. Your are merely protected. Your freedom is parasitic, you suck the honourable man dry and offer nothing in return. You who have enjoyed freedom, who have done nothing to earn it, your time has come. This time you will stand alone and fight for yourselves. Now you will pay for your freedom in the currency of honest toil and human blood."
- Inquisitor Czevak
UTW - Episode 15
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Squealer!! Boy, do I LOVE hating you. It would be my pleasure to wring you like a cloth, but you bring along the much-enjoyed (one could argue "needed") tension in this show that I'll have to wait till the end of the series.
Last edited by Buffalobiian; Sat, 01-12-2013 at 08:53 AM.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
Squealer is surely thinking big and queerats making progress by leaps and bounds. It's indeed a dangerous situation for the humans who are stagnating fast. Of course queerats have the huge weakness of depending on a single queen per colony, but nevertheless, the humans shouldn't get too complacent. It's as clear as a winter sky that Squealer wouldn't think twice about slaying all humans if an opportunity without unreasonable danger arose. Even now he's quite masterfully using Satoru and Saki to further the imperialistic goals of his own colony.
I guess it was hinted a human could be used for his cantus if properly lobotomized...
All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening. And then: Golf.
The show runners are quite masterful at building tension. It almost felt like watching a horror anime. The scene where they were entering the queen's chambers was rather scary. In fact, I don't think I've felt this way since the scene in Shiki, when Megumi slithered from under the bed to blood drain Toru.
And yeah, I'm fully expecting the queerats to fight against the humans soon. They're definitely kissing human ass right now, but having been able to exert significant power upon their own queen, they've gotten a taste of what it is to rise from under oppressive rule and fear. I have no doubt they at least somewhat see a similarity between the power previously held by the queen, and the humans. I'm sure that right now, they're brainstorming and developing ways to fight against cantus users. In fact, Squealer's intense attentiveness to Satoru's abilities and limits during the group trip arc is probably what prompted the effort to begin in earnest.
Yup...
"You are not free whose liberty is won by the rigour of other, more righteous souls. Your are merely protected. Your freedom is parasitic, you suck the honourable man dry and offer nothing in return. You who have enjoyed freedom, who have done nothing to earn it, your time has come. This time you will stand alone and fight for yourselves. Now you will pay for your freedom in the currency of honest toil and human blood."
- Inquisitor Czevak
Perhaps.
Childbearing is a biological function though, while Cantus control seems to require a proper consciousness to filter through. An incapacitated Cantus-user-in-a-jar could be quite dangerous. It'd essentially be a Karma Demon.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
Indeed. However, I'm not so sure Squealer would in fact want a cantus in a jar. He might simply want a docile, obedient, harmless human to parade around, to use as a tool to rally queerats againt humans by showing that while they can be dangerous, they certainly aren't gods. Of course it's possible, if they have a false minoshiro, that he might have learned of karma demons and could be planning to make a "cantus bomb" to decimate a human town, but right now I feel that's a stretch.
I REALLY hated Saki and Satoru in this episode. Oh no, queerats donīt like letting themselves be eaten by their queen! Bad, bad queerats! Youīre oh so cruel defending yourself against this awesome example of a "mother". WTF
And I really like Squealer. At least one "person" in this anime thatīs smart, clever and ambitious. Itīs quite clear to me that queerrats are one of the degenerate past human tribes. And theyīre about to cause an upset. Though Iīm not following the above discussion. Saki wasnīt worried about the queerrats using a cantus user ... she was worried about them using cantus-users in the same way they use their queen. Or am I over-analysing this? It kinda sounded to me as if Saki was worried the queerrats would breed their own cantus-users ...
I think they've evolved rats. Cantus users are changing their environment and creating new species. The False Minashiro was supposed to be a sea cucumber or something. It seems as if there are no degenerate humans to be seen thus far. They're all either dead, or Cantus users.
The theory is supported here by how the two main clans (Robber Frly, Giant Hornet) are also the most human, seemingly due to their higher exposure/interaction with Cantus-humans.
Saki is worried that queerats would revolt against humans (their superiors) when they have the means to do so. If humans were deemed necessary to the queerats' survival somehow (let's say... they need bioenergy - to borrow from The Matrix), then humans would be kept alive to the extent of serving that purpose only.
I was amazed at words like "concrete", "diplomacy" and "encephalitis" to come from Squealer's mouth. It really shows how far they've come (and how far they can go / how dangerous they can become).
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
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