#null numbers theory

[leptrois]

Null numbers theory

{pt.: Null numbers theory}

Correct me if this doesn't yet.

Null is typically zero, which is the neutral value. It's distinguished from empty sets sometimes. Analogously, 0≠∅.

But what about complex numbers? What about adimensional places. Are they extranull (extrinull/externull)? Supranull (suprinull or supernull) means positive null, meaning either (0, +) or (+, 0). Or above null, meaning there's more than 2 dimensions to consider. Exonull (exinull) would be null in dimensions that aren't fathomable, I imagine. Ultranull (ulternull/ultrinull) would be an extreme null, so an ambivalently or omnivalently infinite junction (infininull). And transnull (enantionull)? Transfinite, for example, would imply it's not essentially in infinidimensional planes while beyond finidimensional places (e.g. oligodimensional, multidimensional, unidimensional, adimensional, semidimensional, semitridimensional, etc.). So it's technically phantasmal or phantasmagorical I'd technically say, because it's related to speculative or imprecise prediction in statistics, like uncountable indeterminacy (radical or classical), surreal/unreal/irreal/areal mensuration or unlimited endlessliness. Like, this nullity is neither existent or inexistent.

Now antinull: it's a miscellaneous yet present number. Things it can be: absolutely existent; different from zero; possible or precise; valid or defined. And hypernull would be almost null, and hyponull would be scarcely null. Allonull is a frequentistically distinct nullity. Non-null is a pseudo-random number that is not null. But anull would change depending on the context, since it's absence of null in some way. And finally, extranull is outside a certain dimension.

[positively-knotted]

Category theory has made us so accustomed to morphisms that it always feels wrong when a natural map isn't a morphism, at least not in the obvious category.

Like, take a manifold closed surface Σ. Write UTΣ for the "unit tangent bundle" of Σ, ie the space of unit vectors tangent to Σ. A loop γ in Σ gives a canonical loop (γ,γ') in UTΣ. Let's call that the lift of γ. So far so good.

It's natural to ask if this descends to homology. Let's take Z/2-homology to be simple. It actually doesn't, since any null-homotopic loop γ has γ' "do a full loop", so the homology class of the lift of a collection of null-homotopic loops depends on the parity of the number of loops.

But that's fixable. Let ζ be the homology class corresponding to a lift of a single null-homotopic loop. Then we do have a well-defined map φ: H_1(Σ) -> H_1(UTΣ) given by sending [γ] -> [(γ,γ')] - ζ. You can check that this is independent of representatives - you just play around with diagrams. The idea is that you're just measuring the "extra" spinning in γ', and ignoring the full turn that's necessary by yknow, being a circle.

This looks good! It's pretty natural, it sends 0 to 0, it feels very homomorphism like. But it's not! It satisfies φ(a+b) = φ(a) + φ(b) + (a•b)z, where • is the intersection form. This is like, close enough to a homomorphism that you can work with it, but still! It goes against modern mathematical sentiments.

[ajaxgb]

Okay so Murder Drones Episode 7 clarified a lot about what's going on, and I think I now mostly understand The Plot. Pulling my thoughts together into a rough timeline (warning, this is looong, major spoilers obv):

The setting:

Humanity is in the space age, having colonized other planets like Copper 9.

The company "JCJenson IN SPAAAAACEE!!!!" appears to have invented sentient robots, called worker drones.

Worker drones have no rights and are generally thought of as disposable slave labor.

Worker drones have a known "bug": if a dead worker drone's core is left alone in the body, it has a ~0.01% chance of coming back to life (a "zombie drone").

JCJenson has a fix for this, called "wdOS_606" (assumed to stand for "Worker Drone Operating System 606"). It's installed in dead worker drones to prevent reanimation, but in some cases the dead body can "reject" the update (even after lying dormant for up to five years!) so users are instructed to remove the core and destroy the body, too.

If a drone does reanimate, there's 70.3% chance that everything is fine and the drone is just alive again, a 29% chance of undergoing "terminal lockout", and a 0.7% chance to reboot with "potentially hazardous mutations".

So if you do absolutely everything wrong, there's a ~0.00007% chance of "potentially hazardous mutations".

That's probably fine.

The backstory:

Someone does absolutely everything wrong.

An improperly discarded worker drone awakes in a mass grave of other drones.

This drone is recovered by Tessa James Elliott, heir to the Elliott fortune, who names her "Cyn", after the drone's serial number.

Tessa has a fascination with worker drones, treating them like people and dressing them up as butlers and maids (much to her parents' annoyance). In addition to Cyn, she has three other worker drone rescues, who she has named "N", "V", and "J" after their serial numbers (Tessa is not terribly creative).

Unbeknownst to Tessa and the other drones, Cyn is one of the previously mentioned 0.00007%. She has a mutation (or something) called "Absolute Solver".

Exactly how much of the original Cyn is left in there isn't clear. Exactly what Absolute Solver is also isn't clear. (Personal theory: JCJenson didn't actually invent sentient AI. They found some eldritch alien technology, reverse engineered it, locked the original programming down under a giant pile of safeguards, and referred to it as "potentially hazardous mutations" in the user manual. But that's purely speculation.)

Whatever it is, Absolute Solver is obscenely powerful and dangerous. It can manipulate objects telekinetically with extreme force and precision, regenerate from virtually any injury, project expansive life-like holograms, generate massive bio-mechanical extensions to its body and surroundings, and create "null" zones capable of shattering a planet with the correct placement.

During this time J and Tessa regularly keep Cyn locked in the manor's basement at the request of Tessa's mother, who finds her disturbing.

Absolute Solver / Cyn spreads itself into N, V, and J without their knowledge and spends its time cloning and experimenting on them down in the basement, wiping their memories to prevent them from noticing.

Eventually, Absolute Solver / Cyn attacks a gala the Elliotts are holding, killing most or all of the guests and taking full control of N, V, and J.

Either at the gala or during the subsequent genocide, Absolute Solver / Cyn takes Tessa's body. It's not entirely clear whether AS killed Tessa and is wearing her body like a suit, or whether Tessa is still "alive" in some way (which would be even worse IMO).

Absolute Solver fully mutates N, V, and J into their murder drone forms, cloning them and using them as soldiers in the genocide of Earth. Their original personalities are mostly suppressed during this time, leaving them as mindless killing machines.

Earth is eventually fully destroyed, presumably by nuking its core with a null zone, and waves of murder drones start spreading out to other colonized planets.

The common worker drones on Copper 9 apparently never hear about any of this?

As the wave closes in, the JCJenson outpost on Copper 9 starts doing secret experiments on worker drones that are infected with Absolute Solver, under the code name "Cabin Fever".

For safety, the scientists stock the underground labs with anti-drone sentinels, raptor-like robots programmed to freeze and destroy worker drones.

Some of the worker drones they experiment on never gain any powers. The ones that do eventually become corrupted by Absolute Solver / Cyn and have to be put down. By the time of the final experiment, only two successful experiments remain: 002 Nori (Uzi's mom) and 048 Yeva (Doll's mom).

The scientists manage to develop a patch that can suppress Absolute Solver's influence. The patch is successfully installed into Yeva, but Nori has already been corrupted by Absolute Solver by this point. The scientists frantically struggle to install the patch into her as well.

During this final procedure, for reasons unknown, the intended lead scientist Dr. Chambers never shows up. His hazard suit and name tag are mistakenly taken by Mitchel, the world's unluckiest intern.

Absolute Solver / Nori is rampaging out of control. Dr. Ridley hopes that Yeva can subdue her with her powers, and due to the mix-up sends Mitchel to fetch her.

While Mitchel is gone Absolute Solver / Nori kills everyone in the cathedral lab (except for Dr. Ridley), gets rid of the sentinels, and projects a hologram to disguise the killing.

Mitchel returns with Yeva, but finds the situation seemingly under control and the patch already installed into Nori. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with Yeva in the first place, so with the danger apparently passed he leaves her outside and claims he never found her.

Mitchel leans down to pick up what he assumes is a spare copy of the patch (it's actually the original), and freezes as he spots Dr. Ridley hiding silently behind a pew. Absolute Solver / Nori kills Dr. Ridley and drops the hologram, then flings the patch USB at Mitchel's face to kill him too.

Yeva catches the USB before it hits him, having followed him inside, although the sheer wind force shatters Mitchel's visor and breaks his suit camera. She flings the USB back at Nori, successfully "plugging" it into her at last.

Before being fully suppressed, Absolute Solver throws the USB down a giant hole and generates a null zone in Nori's hand. Yeva slices the hand off and lets it fall into the hole, too. The null zone explodes, partially shattering the planet and killing all human life (rip Mitchel).

Nori and Yeva escape to the surface and join the newly forming worker drone society. One of the failed experimentees, Alice, remains below and begins scavenging parts from worker drones that have been killed by the roaming sentinels.

Nori and Yeva have children (however that works), Uzi and Doll respectively. Although it is not yet obvious, their children inherit the suppressed Absolute Solver.

The main Absolute Solver / Cyn construct was observing these events from Earth to the best of its ability. Faced with the threat of other drones that share its powers but are not under its control, it reprograms N, V, and J to wipe out all the worker drones on Copper 9.

Under the reprogramming, they mostly regain their original personalities (seemingly due to a twisted sense of sentimentality-slash-sadism) but are given false memories of being built by JCJenson as "disassembly drones" to suppress the worker drone "uprising".

Their abilities are "nerfed" to prevent them becoming a threat to Absolute Solver. This may be why they need to consume worker drone oil so frequently, although Uzi and Doll have that urge too. Their ship is also intentionally crash landed to prevent them from returning, and the radio is removed to prevent them discovering the truth.

It's possible that J's reprogramming was different, as she "was getting orders from someone."

In one of their early attacks, the disassembly drones "kill" Nori, but she manages to survive and escape as a core using her Absolute Solver powers. She returns to the underground lab to search for the dropped USB, never telling Khan she's alive. Presumably her goal is to use the patch to stop Absolute Solver / Cyn and the disassembly drones.

V also kills Yeva and her husband, apparently for real. The trauma awakens Doll's Absolute Solver powers.

Khan builds the doors to hide the remaining worker drones from the disassembly drones.

With her powers awakened, Doll needs to consume oil. She begins secretly killing her classmates to survive and training her powers so she can avenge her parents by killing V. Lizzy finds out and fully supports her friend's serial killing / revenge plan.

The present:

Uzi manages to befriend N, leading him to start questioning the corporate propaganda he's been reprogrammed with.

Uzi and N fight V and J. J is seemingly killed, and N confines V to the ship. In reality J's Absolute Solver awakens and takes control of her body, now reduced to a core. V could escape if she chose, but she pretends to be captured for now, seemingly conflicted.

Uzi's Absolute Solver powers begin to awaken.

Absolute Solver / J stalks and kills several worker drones using holograms, seemingly for materials to construct a new body. N and Uzi fight and eventually defeat it. N repeatedly stabs its core with his nanite acid, collapsing it into a small void that drifts away. It's not entirely clear whether it's dead or not.

Offscreen, Lizzy starts hanging out with V? While she's locked up in the ship, I guess?? and forms a semi-sorta friendship with her. Her intention seems to have been to mention prom to V, so that V would get the idea to go there for murder purposes and Doll could kill her. (The Promening is kind of a confusing episode and several characters have inconsistent unclear motivations.)

Uzi begins to notice the disappearances caused by Doll's killings, but is prevented from investigating by Khan, who attempts to distract her from all that creepy stuff with prom.

Doll attempts to isolate and kill Uzi, with Lizzy's support. As far as I can tell Uzi wasn't being targeted specifically, and was just another of Doll's victims. Uzi finds the bodies of Doll's previous victims and escapes. Lizzy goes to let V inside.

V escapes from the ship and heads to prom with the intention of killing everyone. N follows to stop her, joined by Uzi.

Doll crowns herself the prom queen, having murdered all the other candidates. I have no earthly idea why she did this, other than that the murderous psychic girl was crowned prom queen in Carrie (for different reasons) and this episode is a light Carrie reference.

V descends on the prom with murderous intent, but is suddenly distracted by the prospect of becoming prom queen. Lizzy declares that V is her friend and peer pressures the other students into forgiving V and declaring her prom queen. Lizzy eventually decides that V is "hotter than Doll" and warns her to run just as Doll attacks.

If this sudden shift in Lizzy's alliances confused you when you first watched it, don't worry! It's just as confusing in hindsight.

Doll and V fight, killing tons of students nobody cares about. Uzi and N enter the fray, finding themselves defending V instead of stopping her.

Doll and Uzi both attempt to convince the other to join them in taking revenge on / working with the disassembly drones, without success.

Lizzy helps V, cementing their weird semi-friendship.

Doll discovers that Uzi also has Absolute Solver powers and says she's sorry for her. She escapes, saying she's going to search for a cure and promising to help Uzi if she does.

Uzi's oil cravings begin to get worse.

Tired of waiting for the disassembly drones to finish the job, Absolute Solver / Cyn / Tessa (who I will now call Skyn) arrives on Copper 9 in person to do it herself. She is accompanied by a J clone. Their cover story is that Tessa is working for JCJenson to stop Absolute Solver. It's not yet clear whether this J is aware of the truth or has false memories.

At some point, Skyn and J meet with Doll and give her some information about operation Cabin Fever. Doll agrees to find the key they need to get into the underground labs if they take her with them.

Doll travels to Camp 98.7, a former facility used in the Cabin Fever experiments, to find the key. N and Uzi follow her there to try and figure out what's going on. They bring V and all Uzi's surviving classmates too because why not.

Uzi finds a green robot-bug which has the keycodes, though she doesn't know this yet. N finds a VHS tape describing zombie drones.

Uzi's corruption gets worse. She loses control and kills several of her classmates. V fights Uzi, addressing her as "Cyn", but N manages to calm them both down.

N has been recovering partial memories of his time in Elliott Manor. While at a not-sleepover at Uzi's, he and V collapse as their reprogramming tries to delete those memories, pulling them into a memory of the night of the gala. Interestingly, their screens display "Error: 606" during this time, suggesting a connection to "Worker Drone Operating System 606", the operating system intended to prevent zombie drones.

Uzi hacks into N and V's brains to protect their minds and to recover the memories in full. As she's doing this, Doll breaks into Uzi's home and steals the key-bug. Torn between saving her friends and letting the one clue she's found slip away, Uzi decides to help N and V.

Uzi helps N and V successfully recover their memories of the gala. Uzi sets herself as their system admin to prevent Cyn from tampering with them again.

They follow Doll to her rendezvous with Skyn and J, shocking everyone. While Skyn (pretending to be Tessa) explains her cover story, Doll runs off with the key and ducks into the office complex leading to the lab.

Everyone else follows her, fending off sentinels and Alice (that ex-experimentee from earlier) along the way. Skyn tells N that Uzi is infected and must be killed for the good of the universe, a half-truth meant to drive a wedge between them since Skyn A) is the Absolute Solver, and B) knows about the patch. Alice is killed by sentinels.

One sentinel manages to wound Skyn and goes berserk, probably due to the paradox of a creature that is both human and worker drone.

They find Doll seemingly frozen by the sentinels, but it's a trap. Doll uses the key to summon an elevator down to the labs, opening her own way and leaving them cut off, surrounded by sentinels. V sacrifices herself to let them escape.

Down in the labs, Skyn continue to push Uzi away from N, freaking Uzi out and leading her to accidentally collapse the tunnel, separating all three of them.

With "Tessa" missing, Skyn is free to return to her Cyn form. She torments N with illusions of V and his suppressed memories of the genocide on Earth.

Absolute Solver / Cyn attempts to further manipulate N's mind, possibly trying to wipe his memory again, but is unable to get around Uzi's admin override.

That attempt having failed, Cyn starts dragging N away into the tunnels. He is saved by Nori, who in an amazing coincidence has just today found that patch USB she's spent all these years searching for.

Uzi finds Mitchel's suit cam recordings of the final experiment, seeing her mother horrifically possessed by the Absolute Solver but not the moment when she was cured.

Returning to her Skyn-suit, Skyn accesses and deletes all the Cabin Fever team's notes, while new-J destroys the disassembly drones' ship on the surface, leaving Skyn and new-J's ship as the only way off the planet.

Skyn is confronted by Doll, who demands to know where the patch USB is, determined not to let Absolute Solver use her to destroy the planet (which was never actually its plan). Skyn does a funny Five Nights at Freddy's reference and fatally wounds her.

Nori catches N up on her backstory and the two try to figure out whether Doll or Uzi was the Absolute Solver that just attacked them, unaware of Skyn. Nori makes N promise not to tell Uzi that she's her mother.

Doll, bleeding heavily (a thing she can do thanks to Absolute Solver!) approaches Uzi and collapses. Skyn, re-disguised as Tessa (I swear she does like five costume changes in this episode she's so extra), follows Doll in and tries to kill Uzi, who is having the worst day of her life and is in no mental state to fight back.

N stops her and, determining that she did know about the patch and wanted to kill Uzi anyway, decapitates "Tessa". He tries to give the patch to Uzi, but she's already succumbed to Absolute Solver and destroys it.

N and Nori fight Absolute Solver / Cyn / Uzi. The fight goes poorly, and Absolute Solver / Uzi almost manages to eat Nori before N executes a flawless collective-embarrassment-jutsu, snapping Uzi out of it, but causing her to toss Nori into the giant flesh pit. N spills the beans about Nori and both of them freak out in each other's arms.

Skyn finally reveals herself, devouring Doll's still-living core and beginning to yank Uzi and N into the pit as she prepares to detonate Copper 9's core just like Earth's and kill every remaining threat to her expansion.

J gets hit by a bus, loses her car keys, and is accosted by teens.

Uzi sacrifices herself to toss N the keys and get him out of there.

Uzi is pulled into the pit and somehow ends up in space, looking down at a big hole in Copper 9? Presumably the next episode will clear up what's going on here.

Which brings us up to the present.

[aikoiya]

LoZ: Wild - The 7 Heroines Symbol Analysis

Ya'll, with @alasse-earfalas' help, I realized that dang near every one of the Heroines' symbols all relate to mathematical symbols or phonetic symbols in some way!

To start off, one of them is most definitely a Lambda, which relates back to another theory, but that's for another time.

Anyway, here are the symbols in question!

The one in the upper left is the Lambdah (Λ/ʎ), which is the letter correlating to L in the Greek alphabet.

The Lambda is the 11th character in the Greek alphabet & according to Herodotus, Labda was the daughter of Amphion (demi-god son of Zeus & twin to Zethus, associated with the lyre) & the mother of Cypselus by Eetion. Cypselus eventually established the earliest known tyrant dynasty.

Evidently, it symbolized unity under oppression & is referred to as the Greek letter for “sameness.” It also corresponded with the number 30 in the Greek numerical system. Which, 30 was often associated with maturity, as well as the attainment of a certain level of experience or wisdom, especially considering the lifespan expectations in ancient times.

The origins of the letter is thought to depict a shepherd's staff, meaning that it has themes of guidance & authority. It's shape also resembles an arrow pointing upwards, which conveys an impression of accent or elevation. And this leads to metaphorical themes revolving around progress or advancement.

Not to mention, in physics, it refers to wavelength. But in calculus, it's a "formal system in mathematical logic for expressing computation based on function abstraction & application using variable binding and substitution."

Here are the symbols, as I know them. Λ (lambda, phonetic symbo, Ll; ʎ used in math), ʃ ("esh" & integral; phonetic symbol, formerly used to represent ‘sh’) or ⎎ (technical symbol, hysteresis symbol, correlates to f), ǁ (math, parallel to; phonetic symbol, aveolar lateral consonant), : (ratios or scales), ❜ (phonetic symbol), o (phonetic symbol) or O (math, Landau's symbol, describes the asymptotic behavior of functions or represents the null matrix where all elements are zero), last is the drop-looking symbol that I'm struggling with.

It may be that the colors of them are also important.

Just for reference, asymptote is defined as "a line that continually approaches a given curve but does not meet it at any finite distance."

Now, for the Heroines, here's what we know.

Rotana said that the powers were: "skill, spirit, endurance, knowledge, flight, motion, & gentleness."

However, the Stelae say that they are: "heart, skill, fortitude, wisdom, flight, mobility, & compassion."

Luckily, these are easily condensed: heart/spirit, skill, fortitude/endurance, wisdom/knowledge, flight, motion/mobility, & gentleness/compassion.

Heart & spirit are interchangeable as "heart" is likely referring specifically to one's spiritual heart based on Kokoro (心), which can translate to both.

For now, I believe that the Λ may be the symbol for the Heroine of either wisdom/knowledge or motion/mobility or possibly flight. Though, for the moment, I'm leaning more towards wisdom/knowledge.

And, because of the nature of spirit within Japanese culture, I'm inclined to believe that the symbol of the Heroine of heart/spirit may have been ❜.

Heart = ❜

Skill = "The ability to do something well."

Fortitude = "Courage in pain or adversity."

Wisdom = Λ?

Flight =

Mobility = Λ/O? "The ability to move or be moved freely & easily."

Compassion = "Sympathetic pity or concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others."

Also, the gifts left for the 8th were a gold rupee, a ruby, a sapphire, a topaz, a spear, a shield, a claymore, & scimitar.

These gifts were all positioned at the foot of a statue with, most likely the 8th being the one in the center.

Starting from front-left (Gerudo Shield), middle-left (Golden Claymore), back-left (Ruby), middle-back (Sapphire?), then going back-right (Topaz), middle-right (Gerudo Scimitar), front-right (Gerudo Spear), & ending in center (Gold Rupee?).

I haven't figured it all out yet, but if anyone has any suggestions or knows what the drop symbol is, I encourage assistance.

---

Edit: I'm sorry.

I just realized that it's very possible that the game already shows you which is which.

Look at the way they are always arranged.

It appears to be the same each time.

And, the Stelae, which may or may not have been carved by the Heroines themselves, write it out as "heart, skill, fortitude, wisdom, flight, mobility, & compassion."

Also, something interesting of note is the characters used for them in Japanese.

Shin or Kokoro (心) = Heart, spirit, mind.

Gi or Waza (技) = Skill, technique.

Tai or Taeru (耐) = Enduring, to resist or withstand (e.g. 耐火 is “fire-proof”).

Chi or Shiru (知) = Knowledge, wisdom.

Hi or Tobasu (飛) = Flight, used in a lot of verbs related to jumping or letting something fly.

Dō or Ugoku (動) = Motion.

Jū or Yawaraka (柔) = Gentleness, softness (it’s the “ju” in judo).

---

Heart = Shin (心; heart, spirit) = ❜ = Shield

Skill = Gi (技; skill, technique) = Λ = Claymore

Fortitude = Tai (耐; endure, resist) = O = Ruby

Wisdom = Chi (知; knowledge, wisdom) = : = Sapphire

Flight = Hi (飛; flight) = ⎎ = Topaz

Mobility = Dō (動; motion) = Drop Sign = Scimitar

Compassion = Jū (柔, gentleness, softness) = ǁ = Spear

...

Did I just figure it out?

... Regardless, even if I am right, I'm still ridiculously curious as to what the drop symbol is, though. Like, is it just the odd one out that they chose just to mess with us?

Are the gifts they left for the 8th in any way related to their Special Powers™ or the way they fight? Are the symbols?

And, if so, how?

Like, I'm pretty positive that, if I am right, then the Heroine of Heart's symbol is, in fact, a reference to the Mitama of Japanese myth & the Heroine of Fortitude's gift may have been a hint to the term taika (耐火) meaning "fireproof.

Though, I noticed that the weapon missing from this line-up is the Golden Bow. But, then again, it's possible that one of the Heroines that gave a gem might've used one. Possibly the Heroine of Flight. I mean, Hi (飛) is evidently used in verbs referring to “letting something fly,” so that might well be it.

I'm not entirely positive of the rest, though...

... That drop sign is gonna erk me until I get confirmation, won't it? 😮‍💨

LoZ Wild Masterlist

[centralcitylibrary]

Response to Death Battle's Bowser vs. Dr. Eggman: Part 3/3 - Analysing the Match-up

Welcome to part 3/3 of my response to Death Battle. This part will focus on my providing my own analysis of the match-up, and my conclusion at the very end of it. If you watched the whole episode, you’ll know that this absolutely required its own dedicated part just to focus on. For the sake of a fair analysis, this will operate on the same standards that Death Battle themselves operate, rather than my usual methods (assuming you’ve seen it prior).

You can find part 1 here, and part 2 here.

This is probably the absolute hardest Mario vs. Sonic MU to decide on. Both sides have so many options, it’s dizzying, and any side could pull out a win from just unveiling one of their strongest weapons at the right time.

In fact, these instant win weapons are so numerous on both sides, that it turns the strength advantage, usually a major factor in any fight, into merely another number on the list of victory conditions. As such, while I will still provide my own strength calculations, I’ll primarily be focused on each of these trump cards, and what options the opposing army has in stopping them – alongside how both combatants could leverage these trump cards.

Let’s first list out the actual trump cards both sides have, just to make things clear:

Bowser:

Castle Bowser – can warp reality on a universal level, given enough time to charge up.

Dream Stone – can erase people from existence, and if broken its pieces can be consumed for Dreamy Bowser, which empowers him based on how many dreams he can absorb – potentially a raw power option if it can absorb enough dreams.

Fury Bowser – can mind control and corrupt others while he’s active in the form, alongside sending people to another world, and lastly invulnerability negation. Requires Bowser Jr.’s paint brush.

Star Rod – can grant wishes and is on par with the Star Spirits, who created the Dream Depot.

Painting (King Boo) – sealing. Anyone who gets trapped in this cannot escape.

Several ghosts – operating under King Boo, their release can destabilise the dimension.

Mind control.

Power Stars & Grand Stars – raw power.

Pure Hearts – raw power (but even more), invulnerability negation.

Eggman:

Metal Virus – transmutes any organic member infected by it into a metal zombie.

Finalised Phantom Ruby Prototype – can create tangible illusions (effectively reality warping) that only affect those the user wants to affect, alongside inverting gravity, creating an infinite army, and banishing others to Null Space (which blocks dimensional travel) – has 4 copies.

Phantom Ruby (original) – the same as above, except it provides its own power source. All Phantom Rubies can only be used by those with enough willpower, which amongst Eggman’s army includes Eggman himself, Infinite, Metal Sonic, and the Hardboiled Heavies.

Modified Phantom Ruby Prototype – can modify memories alongside the above’s effects, designed to alter the planet’s memories – has 2 copies. Can create infinitely sized areas via his Egg Fields, and thus has infinite range.

The Chaos Emeralds – just… so many things. Including raw power.

Mind Control Cannon – mind control.

Jewelled Sceptre – raw power (again).

Reverie – turns dreams into reality (aka real reality warping).

Sol Emeralds – they’re like the Chaos Emeralds.

Cyber Space (Sage) – can trap people within, separating their bodies and soul, and even (slowly) corrupt anyone who tries to save them. Even if they can escape, they’ll be left involuntarily intangible.

Time Eater – space-time erasure (and by proxy, existence erasure), raw power (yet again).

Supreme – raw power (constant showings of raw power).

Now all of these tools should – in theory – be able to instantly end the battle, or at bare minimum instantly remove the opposing side’s standard army, leaving it to just the main 2 to duke it out. However, a vast majority of these trump cards has at least 1 method of dealing with them, usually multiple. These are all of the checks and counters to those trump cards mentioned above (if you’re familiar with competitive Pokemon, those terms should be familiar to you – a check is anything that can prevent an opposing tool from working once it’s actively on the field, while a counter is either outright immunity or can be brought on after the fact to counteract it).

Bowser’s checks & counters:

Transmutation magic (Bowser, Kamek) – can counter the Metal Virus, and can check the Phantom Rubies, Jewelled Sceptre, Reverie, Mind Control Cannon, and Time Eater. Cannot counter the Chaos Emeralds, as the latter are not only able to undo their own transmutation, but still work even while transmutated.

Reality warping (Castle Bowser, Bowser to a lesser extent) – checks the Phantom Rubies’ own reality warping; Jewelled Sceptre, Reverie, the Time Eater, and Supreme. Counters the Mind Control Cannon.

Item theft (Kamek) – checks the Phantom Rubies, Jewelled Sceptre, Reverie, and Time Eater. Because of the presence of both the Chaos Emeralds and Sol Emeralds, attempting to steal either of them without knowing how to control them will destabilise the universe, and Eggman’s knowledge on this fact will prompt him to leave the universe immediately while Bowser’s side dies, letting him gain a technical win. Phantom Rubies will not work for Eggman’s side when stolen. Some of Eggman’s items can check his trump cards.

Power nullification (Kamek) – can check everything except the Metal Virus and Sage, especially the Chaos Emeralds and Sol Emeralds. While both can be restored by positive emotions, Eggman has never done so himself, and likely can’t due to his poor genuine leadership skills combined with his immense ego; leaving Sage as the only positive bond he has in this fight. Counters the Mind Control Cannon, as it does not function without Hyper-Go-On.

Illusions (King Boo, maybe Kamek) – since the Phantom Rubies are all illusion-based, counteracting the illusions should be a functional check to them.

Bowser’s computer brain (Bowser) – yeah his computer brain. It can restore his memories, allowing Bowser (albeit only Bowser) to counter the memory altering effects of the Modified Phantom Ruby Prototype.

Minion Spirit – makes Bowser’s army immune to mind control from sheer loyalty, if they’re devoted enough. Should also apply to Bowser himself, and is thus a check to both the Metal Virus and the Mind Control Cannon.

Existence erasure (Dream Stone) – is a soft check to everything Eggman can bring out, albeit it’s possible for Eggman to send Metal Sonic, or a Replica of Metal Sonic or Shadow into White Space to search for and restore whatever has been erased, if Eggman’s forces can stall for long enough.

Data immersion (King Boo) – is a very soft counter to Sage, by virtue of being the only individual who can directly deal with her when she’s not piloting Supreme. Cannot check Supreme directly, as Sage was unable to hack any of the Titans and could only pilot Supreme because it had no pilot.

Invulnerability negation (the Pure Hearts) – can negate invulnerability granted by the Chaos/Sol Emeralds.

Raw Power & restoration (the Pure Hearts) – can counter Eggman’s strongest weapons by virtue of equivalent power and counteracting space-time erasure (assuming finite values).

Eggman’s checks & counters:

That weird illusion/selective reality manipulation (the Phantom Rubies) – can check Castle Bowser (and Bowser’s reality manipulation), the Dream Stone, and Fury Bowser.

Reality warping (Reverie) – can check Castle Bowser, the Dream Stone, Fury Bowser, and the Star Rod.

Memory Manipulation – can check everything that doesn’t come from Bowser himself, and even remove some of Bowser’s own checks and counters such as Minion Spirit or his allies.

Dimensional travel (Chaos Control, Sage, potentially the Phantom Rubies) – can counter anyone being removed from the battlefield by Fury Bowser.

Item theft (Forcejewels) – can unreliably check the Wonder Flowers, Dream Stone, Star Rod, Power Stars, Grand Stars, and Pure Hearts. Some of Bowser’s items can check other items of his.

Mind Control Cannon – can unreliably check King Boo’s painting sealing, by forcing King Boo to undo the effect. Not guaranteed to work, given the potential of true minion spirit, but given there is no indication King Boo is particularly loyal it should be more likely to work than not. Even if Eggman is taken out, Sage can use the mind control cannon on King Boo to undo it.

Sage – given she’s not a physical entity and is really on the EggNet, she should be able to ignore Kamek’s mind control and send Eggman out of range to command his troops from afar, or take direct control of Eggman’s army – a check.

Neo Metal Sonic – his bio-data copying means that he can become immune to any check/counter that comes from an innate ability of any of the Koopa Troop, which can potentially counter many of Bowser’s own checks and counters.

Damage transfer (rings) – checks Bowser’s Power Stars, Grand Stars, and Pure Hearts, as they allowed base Sonic to survive hits from The End, a being more powerful than even Solaris and Time Eater.

Shield (Sage) – is able to block hits from even The End, serving as a check to the Power Stars and even Pure Hearts.

Raw power (Chaos Emeralds, Jewelled Sceptre, Sol Emeralds, Time Eater, Supreme) counters Bowser’s Power Stars and the Pure Hearts (assuming peak values).

That’s a lot, isn’t it? But if you noticed, everything has at least 1 check or 1 counter to it, no matter how unreliable that check/counter actually is.

Some highlights include:

The Chaos/Sol Emeralds are only checked by Kamek and the Dream Stone, and attempting to steal them will in fact force a tie from the resulting destruction and destabilisation.

Kamek alone checks so many of Eggman’s trump cards that he’ll end up becoming a priority target as the battle goes on.

Metal Sonic, if he’s not shut down by Kamek, can continue to copy more and more of Bowser’s powers based off of the bio-data of him and his army, which means that with enough time he can gain a majority of the checks and counters that Bowser’s army has, and gain immunity from them as a result (albeit that likely came too late for it to influence the result of the Death Battle).

Sage, due to being part of the EggNet/Cyerbspace, can only be checked by the Dream Stone and King Boo, meaning she’ll become a top priority to deal with by the end of the battle. Piloting Supreme ironically makes her more vulnerable, given that if Supreme is destroyed while she’s piloting it she’ll die too.

Bowser’s computer brain is the only true method Bowser has to deal with the modified Phantom Ruby’s memory manipulation, and he’ll need to get rid of it as soon as possible if he doesn’t want his allies turning against him.

Supreme is the most dangerous of the raw power weapons on Eggman’s army, as it came in pre-charged and doesn’t need continued use of the Chaos Emeralds unless it were to get its power drained, and is invulnerable to conventional damage.

Altogether, the sheer volume of weapons plus the fact that every single one of them has the potential to be stopped in its tracks with the right set up means that ultimately this duel is going to come down to a quick draw – who can pull off a broken win condition first. Which, of course, means that stats is the next most important factor to bring up.

And I’ll be bringing out stats twice for each side, a calculated finite value, and their absolute peak.

Power:

Bowser (base):

Finite: 2.28012318407×10^108 Foe – Can defeat Culex, who claimed – after gaining a 3rd dimensional form – to be capable of destroying all of time and space. Assuming this would destroy the entire universe at every single moment in time down to the Planck time, and assuming the universe is as old as ours from Big Bang to present, this is the value required to destroy the universe. Mario (and by proxy Bowser) has gotten stronger since then.

Peak: Infinite – could defeat Culex, who claimed to be capable of destroying all of time and space.

Power Stars & Grand Stars:

Finite: 8.05115087719×10^50 Foe – 284 Power Stars/Grand Stars, with one possessing enough power to destroy the universe. Likely lower, as Power Stars are weaker than Grand Stars.

Peak: Infinite – unspecified boost from every single Power Star and Grand Star.

Pure Hearts

Finite: 2.28012318407×10^108 Foe – their amp allowed Bowser to defeat foes amplified by the Chaos Heart – which is strong enough to destroy the entire space-time of a universe (same as the Culex finite feat). Much higher to an unquantifiable degree, as every universe should bring back a roughly equivalent value.

Peak: Infinite multiverse – could threaten the entire Mario multiverse.

Eggman (base mechs):

Finite: 1.4125×10^48 Foe – can fight with Sonic, who while weakened could defeat the Erazor Djinn empowered by half of the World of the Arabian Nights, which should be comparable to a universe given it resembles Earth and has stars. Sonic has gotten stronger since then, and Eggman constantly upgrades his machines to match.

Peak: Infinite/2 – the World of the Arabian Nights includes an infinitely sized location, which should make the whole universe infinite in size.

Chaos Emeralds:

Finite: 2.28012318407×10^108 Foe – Solaris could destroy the entire space-time of a universe (same as the finite Culex feat). Much higher to an unquantifiable degree, as every universe should bring back a roughly equivalent value.

Peak: Infinite 4th dimensional multiverse – Solaris could threaten the entire Sonic multiverse (Maginaryworld is explicitly confirmed to be 4th dimensional, and when the (weaker) Paradox Prism shattered Sonic’s prime universe into the Shatterverse, it was divided into multiple universe sized spaces with separate space-times and ended with restoring the original universe within the Shatterverse, suggesting that a universe is a higher dimensional construct housing one or more 3rd dimensional spaces within).

Now that was power, and as you can see who’s stronger depends on whether we’re using finite values or infinite values (Bowser handily taking the advantage in the prior category, Eggman taking the advantage in the latter). But as I said before, raw power is not important in this fight, and merely a bullet point on the list of ways they could win.

The real important stat is speed, and well...

Speed:

Bowser:

Finite: 24,450,000,000,000,000 C (24.45 quadrillion times the speed of light) – Mario flew to the trial galaxies – located at the edge of the universe with a launch star (and back with a Power Star), and can react at these speeds (as evidenced by landing on his feet and picking up star bits on the way) – given this happens before Mario rescues Peach from Bowser, each trip should take no more than 6 hours to make, but I’ll be generous and claim it took 1 minute.

I know Death Battle claimed this trip took 3 seconds, but there’s a loading screen both to and from the Trial Galaxies, and when the loading screen ends Mario is already back at the observatory – and the trip to the galaxy features a menu while Mario is flying at high speeds (as evidenced by the moving speed lines), which doesn’t have any time limit to the player selecting the Star, making the true time frame hard to accurately verify.

Peak: 24,450,000,000,000,000 C (24.45 quadrillion times the speed of light) – Mario flew to the trial galaxies – located at the edge of the universe with a launch star (and back with a Power Star), and can react at these speeds (as evidenced by landing on his feet and picking up star bits on the way).

Eggman:

Finite: 48,900,000,000,000,000 C (48.9 quadrillion times the speed of light) – Time Eater erased the entire universe in seconds. Even though we see Shadow sent to White Space in the time it took to raise his hands, and Sonic’s chilli dog landed back in his hand instead of landing on the ground after he defeated the Time Eater, I’ll be strict and assume a 30 second time span. Eggman was piloting the Time Eater, and Classic Sonic and Shadow could each react to this feat happening to them, so by all accounts this should scale to Eggman’s reaction time (and the reaction time of his post-Generations machines). In addition, later in Frontiers base Sonic could react to the Titans, who are themselves empowered by the Chaos Emeralds.

Peak: Immeasurable – regularly battles Sonic, who could restore areas erased from time by the Time Eater with his raw speed.

… Oh. Even with being generous towards Bowser, and strict towards Eggman, Eggman still ended up faster. You could argue that I could be even more generous towards Bowser, or even more strict towards Eggman – and that’s true – however, the opposite is true as well.

If we treat both these feats as generously as possible Eggman’s speed feat should still be extremely close to Bowser’s, enough to have little relevance, while if we treat both of them as strictly as possible Mario’s half-universal trip has a lot more potential time to cross than Sonic’s chilli dog flight.

All of this, of course, while ignoring the fact that Shadow Generations just provided a better speed feat than before with no ambiguity, showing Time Eater erasing the universe in 12 seconds – and no loading screen, so the timeframe is exact. This likely wouldn’t be added into the voiceover, but would absolutely make it into the analysis & black boxes given information from Mario & Luigi: Brotherhood made it in.

And that’s just talking about the finite values, once we delve into their hypothetical peaks that speed advantage just gets exaggerated, and Eggman just speed blitzes Bowser’s entire army and wins for free.

If we exclusively discuss in terms of finite values then Bowser’s strong enough to one shot anything that isn’t a Super tier in base, but only his Pure Hearts form is strong enough to contend with those Super tiers. This raw power gap would also prompt Eggman to rely on his trump cards far quicker than usual (something he already tends to go for), making an incredibly close match, but ultimately one that Eggman should come out on top for.

This in addition to Sage being able to make millions of calculations in a short time span, whose battle strategy is said by Sage herself to be on focusing on the best method of survival, and whose intelligence surpasses even Eggman’s, thanks to her AI nature and being integrated with the Ancients’ Cyber Space.

Or in other words…

Eggman wins.

Thank you for reading my 3 part response to Death Battle – or at least reading any one of my 3 parts, I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into the match-up, and I hope Death Battle going independent means that they can continue to push and evolve the show even further beyond what it’s been this last decade.

Happy independence!

[xyymath]

Exploring the Infinity Paradox: What Does Infinity Really Mean?

Infinity is a concept that challenges our intuitions. It isn’t just a number; it’s an idea that can stretch across mathematical fields, appearing both simple and mind-boggling.

1. Zeno’s Paradox: Halfway There… Forever

Zeno’s paradoxes, particularly the famous Achilles and the Tortoise, deal with infinity in the context of motion and time. In the paradox, Achilles runs ten times faster than the tortoise, but the tortoise gets a head start. Zeno argues that Achilles can never overtake the tortoise because, by the time he reaches the point where the tortoise was, the tortoise will have moved further ahead.

While the reasoning seems absurd, it introduces the idea of infinite divisions of time or space. In reality, calculus helps us solve this paradox—by summing the infinite series of steps, we conclude that Achilles will indeed surpass the tortoise in a finite amount of time.

2. Cantor’s Set Theory: The Sizes of Infinity

The concept of infinity is explored profoundly in Cantor's set theory, which shows that not all infinities are equal. Cantor introduced the idea of countable and uncountable infinities. A countable infinity is an infinity where you can list all elements, like the set of natural numbers {1,2,3,4,… }\{1, 2, 3, 4, \dots\}. This type of infinity is represented by the cardinal number ℵ0\aleph_0 (aleph-null).

However, uncountable infinity is much more interesting. Consider the set of real numbers between 0 and 1. No matter how much you try, you can’t list them all in a sequence because for any number you list, there’s always another real number that isn’t on the list. This is a larger infinity—the continuum. Cantor showed that the real numbers form an uncountable set, and the cardinality of this infinity is represented by 2ℵ02^{\aleph_0}, often referred to as the cardinality of the continuum.

3. Hilbert’s Hotel: A Hotel with an Infinite Number of Rooms

Hilbert's Hotel is a famous thought experiment that demonstrates the paradoxes of infinity in a concrete way. Imagine a hotel with infinitely many rooms, all occupied. The hotel manager is faced with a new guest arriving, yet there is no available room. But because the hotel has infinitely many rooms, the manager asks each guest to move from room nn to room n+1n+1. This frees up room 1 for the new guest. The paradox shows that even with all rooms occupied, infinity can accommodate more guests.

The real kicker? If an infinite number of new guests arrive, the manager can still accommodate them by shifting guests in a similar pattern. Infinity has no "end," and this seemingly impossible scenario exposes the counterintuitive nature of infinite sets.

4. The Paradox of Infinite Sets: The Size of the Continuum

Cantor’s discovery wasn’t just theoretical; it had deep implications for how we think about the continuum of real numbers. The real number line is uncountably infinite—there are more real numbers between 0 and 1 than there are natural numbers, even though both sets are infinite. This raises the issue of infinite sets with different cardinalities. While ℵ0\aleph_0 is the size of the set of natural numbers, the set of real numbers between 0 and 1 has a larger size, denoted 2ℵ02^{\aleph_0}. This revelation left mathematicians questioning the true nature of infinity, as it seems there’s no upper bound on the size of sets.

5. The Infinite Hotel of Cantor: A Deeper Dive

Cantor’s paradoxes are further developed by thinking of sets of different "sizes" of infinity. Consider Hilbert's Hotel again, but now with infinitely many floors, and each floor is also infinite, forming a 2D array. This two-dimensional infinity shows that even within the same "size" of infinity, there are many different levels of infinity. As Gödel and Cohen later proved, infinity is not fully understood: questions like the Continuum Hypothesis—whether there is a set whose size is strictly between the size of the natural numbers and the real numbers—remain unresolved.

6. The Unknowable Future: Limits of Infinity

Infinity isn’t just something that mathematicians wrestle with—it’s tied to the very limits of knowledge and computation. Turing’s halting problem and the limits of computability further illustrate the practical consequences of infinity. No matter how powerful a computer becomes, it will never be able to calculate all the possible outcomes of an infinitely large problem.

Infinity is also central to modern physics—from the infinite expanse of space to the singularity at the center of black holes. As much as we strive for understanding, the paradoxes of infinity challenge even our fundamental laws of the universe.

[ultravioart]

Echo: Why did you choose the name "Null Sector?"

Ramattra: Because we defy the numbers humans gave us. We are zeroes, undefined.

Echo: Is that not it's own struggle?

Ramattra: Of course. I expect you know that better than anyone.

---

Nameless the gender punk bnuuy omnic absolutely was inspiration for the name Null Sector. I have joked about Null Sector being "nonbinary sector" before bc null=none and nonbinary robots puns, but knowing it's legitimately a reason Null Sector was named Null Sector: a rejection of humanity's predefined roles for omnics (from unit #s to names to genders to pronouns)... that is honestly so cool???? World building wise it essentially confirms omnics as fundamentally created as undefined lifeforms put into human-created castes, and idk I loooove when media uses robots as a narrative tool to explore the absurdity of humanity putting unique life experiences into strict binaries or boxes.

Also it means sooo much to me (Ramattra is a special interest of mine) that Ramattra is definitively nonbinary coded if not implied to be nonbinary or gender non-conforming because of his leadership role with Null Sector.

I wonder of he too, rejects his R-7000 unit number? Or does he wear it with pride, as a survivor? He had taken up the name Ramattra (presumably at the Shambali) and still uses the name even after leaving the Shambali but I wonder if Ramattra is struggling with his sense of purpose. I have a theory that base omnic coding influences an omnic's instincts so I wonder if Ramattra is finding himself becoming the very thing he didn't want to become (Ramattra disagrees with Anubis' approach. Anubis made R-7000s to be commander units sending omnics into war, carrying out Anubis' will after Anubis was gone.) :<

Idk. This post is rambles but!!! Nonbinary and/or gender non conforming Ramattra, my beloved....

Sucks that Overwatch had to make a (now queer coded) freedom fighter 'kick puppies' to justify defeating him. (The subjugation helmets are very extreme.) But. Yknow. It's Overwatch and I don't think they thought out the omnic allegory implications very well. :''')

[deewithani]

Theory:

Clone Force 99, Omega, and Emerie Karr are the 6 Null ARCs embryos that "died" from Republic Commando.

Note: This post will be connected to another theory post I'm writing about Palpatine's failures in cloning.

Proof:

1. CF99 refused Order 66. Crosshair shot Lt. Nolan. Emerie helped release Crosshair. We don't even need to talk about Omega.

Null ARCs are well known to be independent thinkers and resistant to command.

From Wookipedia:

When the Kaminoans began cloning, they produced twelve prototypes, designated as Null-class Advanced Recon Commandos. Their extreme physiological modifications killed half of the prototypes during gestation. The "enhancements" to the Fett genome handicapped the survivors with erratic behavior and an inclination toward disobedience, making their loyalties unpredictable. Kal Skirata, a Mandalorian warrior who had been brought to Kamino to assist in the training of a special unit, concurred with the Kaminoans' rationale behind "modified" troopers; an "unaltered" Jango Fett was not the ideal infantry soldier. Disappointed with the unsatisfactory results of their wayward creations, the Kaminoans deemed 12 of the first 100 prototypes complete failures and intended to kill them

They're also very loyal to those who are loyal to them.

Other regular commandos followed Order 66.

2. In Republic Commando, the Kaminoan scientist Orun Wa created the Null ARCs. This is what he said about them:

Highly intelligent, deviant, disturbed—and uncommandable.

In Season 1, Episode 1, Tech says this when AZI says they're defective clones:

We're more deviant than defective.

3. The living Null ARCs numbers and the "dead" Null ARC embryos' numbers.

N-5 ("Prudii")

N-6 ("Kom'rk")

N-7 ("Mereel")

N-10 ("Jaing")

N-11 ("Ordo")

N-12 ("A'den")

Missing are Ns 1-4, and Ns 8 & 9.

Clone Force 99s designations are likely CT-9901-9904. We know that Crosshair is CT-9904. They are Ns 1-4, respectively.

Omega is N-9. She's the last experimental clone Nala Se took for her experimental unit.

That leaves Emerie Karr as N-8.

4. Omega is a defective clone, and it has nothing to do with her being an unaltered clone.

Nala Se also says she's a defective clone to Tarkin. She specifically tells him that five genetically defective clones are all that remain. This excludes Echo. He wasn't genetically defective. This also excludes Emerie Karr. She's with Dr. Hemlock by this point in time.

If Omega is one of the Null ARCs, she wasn't created unaltered. She was created with accelerated aging like all the others.

Her accelerated aging is broken. She's not older than the rest of CF99. She's the same age.

I suspect she started out aging rapidly, like 99. That was Omega's genetic defect. She remembers everyone else in the tubes but being outside of them herself.

Omega was an experiment too. Nala Se figured out how to turn off accelerated aging to keep her from aging too fast.

This also mirrors Republic Commando. The Kaminoans at one point knew how to slow aging. Kina Ha is proof of that. She was engineered for long hyperspace journeys, but those never came to pass. That particular trait wasn't really needed anymore after that and was abandoned.

Slowing down the aging of clones isn't a good idea for the Kaminoans financially, after all. You want your buyers to keep buying.

(I also find it interesting that both Nala Se and Ko Sai had hidden underwater research labs).

All of Ko Sai's research was destroyed by Ordo (to Ko Sai's knowledge, anyway. They kept a copy). Nala Se's research would have been destroyed with Kamino, except a living copy remains. Omega.

Omega only appears unaltered because her broken genetic defect was fixed.

Nala Se theoretically knows how to slow/stop aging, and Omega is a genetic template for that.

5. Probably the flimsiest proof. Delta Squad exists in canon.

It's not out of the question to believe that Omega Squad and the Null ARCs could be pulled into canon as well.

I'm personally interested to see if Bo-Katan gathers any Legends Mandalorian clans. If any Clan Skirata members show up that could help this theory.

[thisuserislilsilly]

Codex entry: Neran Solticence, the Hollowgrace and the Painless Mutes

Summary: My own take on one of the redacted lost Primarchs and Legions

TW: none

Goblin tag squad: @cardinalcanis @finchly-tintinnabulation @artemisareia @echo-of-damnation @meervalv0 @jaghatai-khock

Name

•Neran Soltilence "Hollowgace"

Titles

•"The Blank Stare", "Hollowgace","The Soulless"

Legion

•Relentless advance. Frontline combat, "Painless Mutes"

Date of Reunion

•852.M30

"There are no words for the emptiness I saw in the eyes of the Emperor's son that stood in front of our leader; it was simply as if no living soul resided in that inexpressible face. The choir that was in front of me quieted down, no more prayers nor chants were sung, everything seemed to stop at that moment in total expectation of what would happen.

I have no doubts of what I saw, even if it is not true, even if the penalty for this words are death. I saw the Emperor frown at the sight of one of his children."

- Remembrancer Edyth Matthoa

Deeds done prior to Reunification

•Neran roamed the Tagaroid System for an unknown number of years in which the Primarch brought the end of the Shakrim dynasty of the Voscax Xenos race with their own technology. Whatever the case and reason for that campaign was, the reunion of the Emperor with his lost son was done in a quiet and empty planet

The bones of that Xenos race was found in the course of the travel towards meeting the lost Primarch; spread everywhere without rhyme or reason as far as the eye could see, Solticence approached his father surrounding a hole which was filled with those bodies.

Size

•Approximately 13'5ft tall.

The most accurate depictions of Neran compared him as to be slightly bigger than Lion and Russ although this didn't translate quite so well with his physique, various rembrancers noted the skinny and noticeable "weak" features of the Primarch who seemed to be in an advanced stage of starvation. He wasn't the best of fighters with neither a blade or a gun, but some unnatural features made Neran an enemy to not underestimate so easily.

Mutations

•White as snow color of skin, black eyes with red iris and inhuman pain threshold; often compared with the Primarch Vulkan from the Salamanders in terms of how much damage his body could endure there was one significant difference that made Neran even more unnatural than the others. While his brother could die and feel pain before being resurrected, Solticence couldn't feel 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 at all, even the pleasant sensations or smells couldn't be perceived by Neran.

It is said that the armor he wore at the time of his discovery was what stimulated his body to react and feel everything around him; when it was discarded by it's null defensive capabilities the common theory suggested that it too shattered the only form of sensation his body had. Leaving Soltilence completely deprived of that important human feature.

Psychic Abilities

•"None" known

Personality

•Neran was detached from those around him and mostly failed at making consistent progress in the relationships he formed with others around him.

Distant and seemingly disengaged with the people that would engage in a conversation with Neran. The Primarch failed constantly in political discussions or agreements with others heavily relying in his equerry to speak for him in many social activities or interactions with others outside of the Legion.

Despite of his disadvantages at the hour of expressing himself, those who got to knew him better could easily spot the intentions behind his words or infer the meaning of whatever phrase Neran was trying to articulate. In the battlefield this lack of emotion and failure to express any kind of emotion was actually beneficial for Soltilence; no injury nor psychological attempt at demoralize the Hollowgace seemed to affect the Primarch in any sort of way, the enemies of the Mutes would lose their confidence and would see their morale rapidly decrease as their enemy kept staring blankly as it marched towards them, any kind of damage was proved to be useless as Neran kept moving forward disregarding how much pain his body was under or what sort of damage the enemy fire had caused in him.

Likes

•Neran and his legion followed a strictly set of rules on their daily lives. No sound was allowed to be made neither in the ships that the legion fleet was composed of nor in the common gathering places of the Legion unless it was extremely necessary for a clear purpose that once fulfilled would resume the quietness that once reigned those places. The only moments where noises weren't prohibited was the personal chambers of the legionaries and the practice cages; only then and there the Marines bonded with each other and little personality traits would surface in their small talks and training.

This instances were held in high regard and venerated by the Mutes; legionaries would long for and count the days for their next visit to the training cages, missing one of this events was considered a tragic experience that would affect the Mute physically and too psychologically, desperate to have another chance of participating in training as soon as possible.

•Neran and his legion particularly disliked being in public places or in a large gathering of people. Too much noise would often drive the Mutes irritable or aggressive towards anyone who would get near them.

Due to the silence that took a hold of every place Neran and his sons inhabited, the human assets that accompanied the legion would often feel a certain unease whenever they were in the presence of the Legion never fully understanding their odd rituals and customs. Most of them would ask for transfer after a few months or years claiming that it was too quiet and odd for their liking. Those who stayed with the legion became just as solitary and weird as the Space Marines they shared time and space with.

Dislikes

Titles and ranks too were less likely to be displayed by Neran and his sons, presenting a very simple heriarchy amongst their ranks where age and experience was privileged rather than acts of valor or honor, thus the eldest would be the chief commanders of the legion while the newborns would always take the low positions and titles that the legion was structured upon. Once the Marine was old enough he would simply move up in the heriarchy leaving his empty previous position to the youngest. Those who were created before their reunion with his Primarch would become Neran personal guard and rarely took other positions.

Closest Brother(s)

•Amongst the relationship with his fellow brothers, Neran would only truly speak to in a repeated manner with Corvus Corax and Konrad Curze. The solitary personality of Soltilence seemed to be understood by and accepted by Corax, who would made adjustments to his language and general behavior in the presence of Neran, creating a sense of comfort for the two brothers to engage in friendly conversations or some little philosophical advices exchange between them.

Curze and Neran however had a love-hate relationship. Konrad mocked his brother or would remark the odd mannerisms of Soltilence but at the same time he would jump to defend his brother from incoming criticisms given by other members of the Imperium or amongst the other Primarchs. Neither of then admitted to one another how much relaxing it was to spend time with someone who perfectly understood the solitude of the other and the need of not being ridiculed by their different ways of expressing themselves.

Hated Brother(s)

•A completely different relationship was the one Neran had with Fulgrim and Roboute Guilliman. It was virtually impossible for both of this Primarchs to understand the reasons behind the behavior and actions of Neran and his legion.

While Fulgrim treated Soltilence as an insensible man incapable of understanding or creating art in even the poorest manifestations of it, the Phoenix didn't understand as well how could someone aspire to be as mediocre and uninteresting as possible; the quiet and inexpressible face of Neran drove Fulgrim mad every time the brothers met, it was said even that both of then intentionally left planets or rooms whenever they were informed of the presence of their brother in the vicinity.

Roboute on the other hand would disapprove of the way Neran commanded his legionaries in the Great Crusade. The Primarch would be visibly frustrated after reading the reports of the victories that Neran would claim as his own, hating the seemingly chaotic and deprived of planning methods in warfare that the Mutes showed in battle.

Armor

•"Entombed resolution" was the name that the Artiticer armor of Neran was known as, very heavy and specially designed to limit the movement speed and flexibility of the wearer, the Mutes Primarch while wearing this armor was seen more as a caged beast in his armor more than a conqueror or a proud warrior.

The process of suiting could take long hours before Neran was ready to march unto war; always showing some sort of discomfort or even "pain" for a couple of minutes after ending the suiting ceremonies. However once the Primarch joined his sons on the battlefield he was practically invincible, a towering wall of defense or a unstoppable soulless tool of the Imperium who only knew one simple directive "push forward and kill until there are no more enemies of Mankind"

Wargear

•Another feature of Neran that caused unease amongst those who fought alongside the Primarch was the fact he had a certain disdain for weapons as a whole; preferring to use his hands or feet after being prohibited from keeping the strange and foreign technological advanced weapons that were found in his possession on the moment of his discovery by the Emperor.

However after sustaining the pressure of his own legion to use anything, any sort of weapon at all to defend and attack without having to rely on the sacrifices of his sons to keep the Primarch alive, Neran grumbling and begrudgingly opted for the usage of a spear and a storm shield.

This two weapons composed all the arsenal Soltilence used throughout his life up until his redaction from the Imperial records and history of the Imperium as a whole. No glory or legend could be traced back to this weapons, rembrancers of the time that were a part of the Mutes expedition fleet didn't even had a nickname for it, they were simply known as the "Spear and shield of Neran Soltilence" and that is as far as a description this tools of war had.

Allegiance

•The Primarch of the Mutes seemed to have a neutral opinion of his father and the loyalty he displayed to the Imperium was the bare minimum required of him. It is to be believed that at the moment of his redaction from the Imperial records Neran became more and more rebellious from his Father although no signs of devotion to the Chaos Gods was ever found in his personal life nor in the actions of his sons.

Backstory

"The child looked around, nothing to his left nor to his right. He raised a hand to the vast space and it only saw the shadow his limb casted upon the earth. All alone, the boy was left in solitude and without any stimulus to do anything, his mind traveled amongst the stars until he found life. But it was far too late, the boy deprived of every feeling, was simply a blank living organisms without a soul, without a name, without his humanity"

- Remembrancer Edyth Matthoa

•The gestation capsule of Neran Soltilence landed on a empty world named Tagaroid 0HI. The planet possessed only the most basic forms of life that the universe could produce, barely having enough fauna to form a small food chain of small creatures feeding upon even smaller ones.

Neran spent his first five years of lifetime surviving in complete loneliness, only having the flora and small living creatures to feed upon and develop the basic capabilities of a human. Even so, the child had in his blood the genes of his "father" the Emperor of Mankind, which manifested itself upon the infant Neran as he was capable to "travel" in ways that have been long since censored to other planets.

Once the young Soltilence was old enough to have a better grasp of this "gift" of short space travel, Neran appeared in the blink of an eye in other planet of the Tagaroid System; this world had a Xeno race as the dominant species while the little human population that remained from the first colonizers that traveled there being hunted for sport, as the Voscax population saw Mankind as merely sub-developed animals.

It is at this point there is a confusion amongst remembrancers as to what exactly happened; some suggest the Voscax killed the last remaining humans on the planet right in front of Neran eyes, making the Primarch enter some kind of frenzy that led to his decision of purging the Xenos from the face of that world in an attempt to avenge the deaths of those who were similar in appearance to him. Others claim that Neran was discovered by a small group of humans who adopted the Primarch and venerated him as some sort of deity, a reflection of the Emperor that their ancestors probably knew and passed down the stories about Him unto his sons; this humans inspired Soltilence to start a revolution that ended with both races existence and left Neran as the only survivor of such bloody war.

No matter what the truth was, whatever caused the death of both humans and Xenos in Tagaroid 00-4 left the remains of both civilizations out in the open, with their bones and decaying bodies in the surface plunging the planet into the quiet and barren wasteland in which both Primarch and Emperor met on.

Once Father and son reunited at last, the ■■ legion was passed on to Neran; this first generation of Astartes looked slightly different from their "father" as their skin wasn't as pale as Neran was, but the Marines had the characteristic solitude and loner demeanour of Soltilence imprinted in them. The army and their general didn't exchange a word in their first encounter but both parties knew there was some sort of blood bond between them.

The ■■ legion counted amongst their accomplishments the liberation of the Sulivis Passage, discovery of the lost humanity settlement in Oxvin-68 and victory over the Xe'minar xenos race in Cirog-052.

Upon the arrival of his Primarch, little was changed of the behavior and customs of the Legion, in fact it became more stricter under the direct command of their Father. Their participation in the Rangdan Xenocides cemented their reputation as a unrelenting force to fear, as no injury or foe would stop the advance of the Mutes to their objective, following their given orders until it was done.

Reason for Redaction

•The Rangdan Xenocides were just one of many signs the Mutes and Neran were created for no higher purpose other than to fight for the Imperium so others could achieve the dreams of the Emperor of Mankind for humanity. They were just the lesser evil the Emperor chose over the extinction of his people.

As all the attempts of making Neran have a personality of his own failed one after the other, the Emperor and the brothers of Soltilence didn't knew what to do with the primarch of the Mutes. The tensions between the brothers were raising up to a boiling point, at any moment the fragile bonds of brotherhood could break and have catastrophic consequences for Neran and his sons even if they were blind to the path of destruction their actions were causing and the mistrust their behavior caused in those around them.

The event that triggered the redaction of the ■■ legion and it's Primarch was the misunderstanding escalating to a fight that Leman Russ from the VIth had with his brother after a tough war against an Ork Waagh!. Russ voiced his discomfort for the collateral damages caused to the planet by Neran and his sons, screaming and shouting at the lack of response coming from his brother until the Wolf-King lost control and punched Neran in the face to get a reaction out of him.

The shouting competition that followed was brutal, with both brothers accusing each other with every bad decision or action made up to that point by either Primarch. When the conflict was presented to their Father, Neran refused to apologize with his brother and, redacted records suggests, the Primarch of the Mutes left with the following words, never returning upon the presence of his Father ever again:

"𝖳𝗁𝖾 𝗈𝗇𝗅𝗒 𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗌𝗈𝗇 𝖨'𝗆 𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗇𝖽𝗂𝗇𝖽 𝖻𝖾𝖿𝗈𝗋𝖾 𝗒𝗈𝗎, 𝗈𝗁 𝖤𝗆𝗉𝖾𝗋𝗈𝗋 𝗈𝖿 𝖬𝖺𝗇𝗄𝗂𝗇𝖽, 𝗂𝗌 𝖻𝖾𝖼𝖺𝗎𝗌𝖾 𝗈𝖿 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝖼𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇. 𝖡𝖾𝖼𝖺𝗎𝗌𝖾 𝖨 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖼𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝖻𝗒 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗍𝗈 𝖿𝗎𝗅𝖿𝗂𝗅𝗅 𝗆𝗒 𝗋𝗈𝗅𝖾 𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗋𝗂𝗌𝖾 𝗈𝖿 𝖬𝖺𝗇𝗄𝗂𝗇𝖽 𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗋 𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗂𝗋 𝖾𝗇𝖾𝗆𝗂𝖾𝗌 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗍𝗁𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗍𝗌 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝖼𝗈𝗇𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗇𝗍𝗅𝗒 𝖽𝖾𝖿𝗒 𝖧𝗎𝗆𝖺𝗇𝗂𝗍𝗒 𝗋𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍𝖿𝗎𝗅 𝗉𝗅𝖺𝖼𝖾 𝖺𝗆𝗈𝗇𝗀𝗌𝗍 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗋𝗌. 𝖨𝗇 𝖽𝗈𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗌o, 𝖨'𝗆 𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗇𝖽𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖾 𝖺𝖼𝖼𝗎𝗌𝖾𝖽 𝖻𝗒 𝗆𝗒 𝖻𝗋𝗈𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝗈𝖿 𝖾𝗆𝖻𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗐𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝖨 𝖺𝗆 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗐𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝗆𝗒 𝗌𝗈𝗇𝗌 𝗐𝖾𝗋𝖾 𝗂𝗇𝗌𝗍𝗋𝗎𝖼𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝗍𝗈 𝖽𝗈.

𝖬𝗒 𝖺𝗇𝗌𝗐𝖾𝗋 𝗂𝗌 𝗡𝗢, 𝖿𝖺𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋. 𝖨 𝗋𝖾𝖿𝗎𝗌𝖾 𝗍𝗈 𝖺𝗉𝗈𝗅𝗈𝗀𝗂𝗓𝖾 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗆𝗒 𝗇𝖺𝗍𝗎𝗋𝖾 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗆𝗒 𝗆𝖾𝗍𝗁𝗈𝖽𝗌 𝗈𝖿 𝖾𝗑𝖾𝖼𝗎𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖬𝖺𝗇𝗄𝗂𝗇𝖽 𝗉𝗅𝖺𝗇𝗌. 𝖨 𝗋𝖾𝖿𝗎𝗌𝖾 𝗍𝗈 𝗁𝗂𝖽𝖾 𝗐𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝖨 𝖺𝗆 𝗈𝗋 𝗉𝗋𝖾𝗍𝖾𝗇𝖽 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝖨 𝖺𝗆 𝖺𝗇 𝖾𝗊𝗎𝖺𝗅 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝖺𝗅𝗅 𝗈𝖿...𝗈𝖿 𝗆𝗒 𝗌𝗈-𝖼𝖺𝗅𝗅𝖾𝖽 𝖻𝗋𝗈𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋𝗌; 𝗇𝗈 𝗅𝗈𝗇𝗀𝖾𝗋 𝗐𝗂𝗅𝗅 𝖨 𝖻𝗈𝗐 𝗆𝗒 𝗁𝖾𝖺𝖽 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗌𝗎𝗉𝗋𝖾𝗌𝗌 𝗆𝗒 𝗅𝖺𝖼𝗄 𝗈𝖿 𝗌𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗇𝗍. 𝖨'𝗏𝖾 𝖻𝖾𝖾𝗇 𝗁𝖺𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝖻𝗒 𝖺𝗅𝗅, 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖻𝖾𝖼𝖺𝗎𝗌𝖾 𝗈𝖿 𝗐𝗁𝖺𝗍?!? 𝖡𝖾𝖼𝖺𝗎𝗌𝖾 𝖨 𝖽𝗂𝖽 𝗇𝗈𝗍 𝗂𝗇𝗁𝖾𝗋𝗂𝗍 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝗏𝖺𝗅𝗈𝗋 𝗈𝗋 𝗅𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋𝗌𝗁𝗂𝗉 𝖿𝖺𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋, 𝖨 𝗂𝗇𝗁𝖾𝗋𝗂𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱, 𝗜 𝗮𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝘂𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗴𝗼."

Before Leman Russ was given the order of purging his brother for the outrageous offense against the Emperor, Neran had already flee from the Imperium as a whole, his Legion disbanded and given the explicit order of remaining spread across the galaxy by their Primarch; awaiting the moment the ■■ would unite once more to put an end to the long slow death of the Imperium, either to save it once and for all or to give it a quick painless death. The legion was redacted from the Imperial records and the statues in honor of Neran were destroyed and the population was fed with the lie of his death and his legion.

In the silent and secluded planet that quietly saw Neran grow, the Primarch remains to this day. Watching the universe run it's course. Meditating and awaiting patiently, still reflecting upon the right action to do for the best interest of the Imperium. If it's best for Mankind to die and rest, or to keep fighting and some day achieve the greatness it once could aspire to achieve.

[roseaesynstylae]

Republic Commando: Triple Zero

On one hand, this book has Delta Squad and Mird. On the other, there's Kal Skirata, who you will want to punch in the balls by the end.

There are multiple new counts here, in order to cover the greater number of characters.

Jedi-Bashing: Carrying over from the previous book, this count records every time the Jedi Order is put down, insulted, or generally mutilated. Thanks to the presence of one Kal Skirata, this one is going to be high.

Mando-Shilling: A companion to the above, this count covers every time Mandalorian culture is placed on a pedestal. Please note that this doesn't count worldbuilding or people following Mandalorian traditions; this covers every time the Mandalorian way of life is portrayed as Ideal and Better Than Your Culture In Every Way.

It's a Man's World: Simply put, every time this book makes women satellites to men, every time women being able to reproduce is emphasized, every time Kal Skirata makes a sexist remark, it goes here.

Shut The Fuck Up, Kal: Every time you want to grab Kal Skirata by the lapels and scream at him to shut up.

Deltas, Move Out: Every time Delta Squad is too sexy good for this series.

Mird, My Beloved: Any time Mird exists.

Is This the Bad Batch?: This one's self-indulgent, but I need something to keep my spirits up. Any time there are similarities between the Nulls and the Bad Batch, and any time there's even the flimsiest evidence to the "the Bad Batch are the other half of the Nulls" theory that has been sustaining me, this gets a point.

Chapter 1, Part 1

Chapter 1, Part 2

Chapters 2 & 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 6

[runabout-river]

Thoughts on JJK chapter 236 (spoilers)

😭

This chapter starts with a gut punch. A time displaced reality where Gojo suddenly sees his dead friend again and realizes, together with the readers, that he lost. Is this a figment of Gojo's imagination or a gathering of souls before they depart to the afterlife?

The souls have some heartfelt conversations with each other and Gojo talks about how strong Sukuna was (my analysis from two weeks ago is null and void at this point but my point that Sukuna isn't finished and that Gojo still needs to be taken off the picture has come true at least.)

We get a panel of Lotus flowers, and apparently they represent resilience and rebirth but more on that later. Gojo also talks about a father. His own or is this about Toji that Shoko will deal with now?

Nanami references a conversation he had with Mei Mei about choosing a path in your life. Going North for starting anew or going South for staying who you are. These directions have meaning in Buddhism but I don't know too much about it.

Nanami chose south and went back to being a sorcerer and the title of this chapter is also about going south. But what about Gojo? Does the north/South decision apply to him as well?

I wonder if the start of the anime season 2 influenced Gege into drawing this scene like this. And of course, Toji photo bombed the panels again. Overall, this scene has such a serene energy to it. Even in death, people can find peace, unfortunately I can see the death count reaching Demon Slayer heights like this. But also...

Is he dead? Completely and utterly dead? As we learn, Mahoraga is dead but Sukuna used its adaptation as a manual to find a way to circumvent Infinity and he succeeded. Sukuna straight up cut the entire space around Gojo making Infinity useless. Still, Gojo's head is still attached to his torso and in a later panel we see him smile.

Sukuna is actually happy right now, completely at odds with everyone else except Kashimo. Did Gojo show him what true love is? Will that love follow him to the future or will it be something fleeting? Will Sukuna yearn for this fight later on?

What will happen now and is Gojo truly dead. Some thoughts.

- "Go South" is a solitary chapter as it has no number in it, meaning next chapter will start the Kashimo fight as its own mini-arc

- There are actually multiple ways in which Gojo can still survive, most prominent being that his head is still attached to his (separated) torso AND Shoko's absence in this chapter. The Lotus flowers also strengthen a rebirth/survival theory.

Gojo himself had told Toji that he should've cut his head off to kill him properly and that principle still applies here and we see Gojo smiling in his last panel

Basically everyone from Hidden Inventory got to shine this chapter at the airport but Shoko, the only living person from that time, was conspicuously absent in the later panels. We see Yuji, Yuta and Maki but not her

Up until now, we could make a good guess on how Gojo's fight went by looking at Shoko's reactions. That she's missing here is telling in that a shocked face e.g. would've cemented Gojo's death

Shoko can use RCT on others and Gojo can use it on himself. In addition, as long as Gojo is conscious he can make a binding vow to help his healing, even if in this case it's about re-ataching his torso with his abdomen

Take note that Gojo lost this fight. He is the loser and he accepted that in the airport. He has no regrets regarding this BUT I will not believe that he won't have regrets in leaving his students behind with a sorcerer who even he couldn't defeat.

My hope is that Gojo will sacrifice his 6-Eyes in a Vow to save his life. This might be the decision he has to make on going North or South: going North to Nirvana or going South on the path of a Boddhisatva. The title says South.

How I see the next set of chapters going: The Kashimo/Sukuna will start and it will take centre stage but somewhere in the background Shoko will get to Gojo and try to save his life.

After overcoming the initial shock and going through a short grieving process over this fictional character that means so much to me, I've come to partially accept his death actually. I still hope for his survival and I'm sure that at least on the editorial side of JJK nobody would be completely on board with Gojo getting killed. Gojo is more of a face of JJK then Yuji in some ways. This character is important to the manga on a meta level and him getting killed before the end of the manga seems unlikely.

That the break happened last week on not after this one could be a sign that no one in Jump wants the "Gojo is dead" scene to fester too much before it's revealed that he will be saved, too.

[digitalgate02]

(Rough) Fact Checking on Rui & Ukkomon's statements in 02TB

Tbh I'm kinda concerned about people taking Rui's statements for granted and not realizing the movie is unclear what is legit and whatnot.

This is not Kizuna-like levels of screwed up, but this is still bugging me as i've been discussing about this movie with friends who managed to watch it before me, and once i watched it by myself i completely understood their thoughts and theories regarding the movie and the Rui & Ukkomon lore.

We still got no actual news of digital releases or EN subs (tho i believe fansubs might appear once the JP Blu-Ray/DVD is released in May) or any other country digital release (or Blu-Ray/DVD ones) so i can’t completely make a detailed lore busting post about Rui’s statements and what we know or were presented in the original Adventure’99, 02 and their extra materials like Drama CD and movies.

But i do remember tiny bits of the movie… And stuff said in the pre-release stream.

I’ll do my best here.

[WARNING FOR SPOILERS AHEAD]

The movie staff released a timeline for this movie, which indicates Rui met Ukkomon in February 29 1996 → I don’t think this is a contradiction, because if the Korean interview with SekiP is reliable (i mean, we can’t check what she said in JP, and the telephone game from JP to KR and to EN means something might have been lost in the process!), she said they changed a bit of the lore for this movie. Btw, the OG lore of Digimon Partnership count starts in 1995 and then it doubles year by year is still present in the movie, as there’s a scene where the current number of partnerships in the year of 2012, but the number stated is not exact since the movie takes place in February only. So of course the count wouldn’t be the full year number, which is 131,072 partnerships in total.

Rui and Ukkomon form a bond, and Ukkomon grants Rui the wish of having many friends, which he tells the 02 group that partnerships with digimon were the result of this wish → This is completely uncertain, and it is also doubted by the 02 kids in the movie. In Adv’99 and 02 we learn that there’s multiple sources for becoming a Chosen Child: Homeostasis (Adv Eight, possibly their predecessors); Holy Beasts (Daisuke, Miyako & Iori); unknown sources (Menoa, Meiko, Ken, Wallace, Worldwide Chosen, Dark Seed Children perhaps?)

Rui claims he’s the first person who was partnered with a digimon → Well, this is not wrong! Now, if he were claiming to be the first to have met or interacted with a digimon… He would’ve been wrong: The first human to get in touch with the Digital World and the digimon were actually two – Oikawa Yukio and Hida Hiroki (yes, Iori’s late dad), in the 1980s. Despite that, they never had digivices at all. Then in 1995 we possibly had a double digimon encounter happening: Wallace meeting Gummymon and Chocomon briefly ¹, and the Yagami siblings meeting a Koromon. This could mean Rui and Ukkomon were actually the fourth digimon encounter in the timeline. But what is correct is that he became Ukkomon’s partner first because he got the very first digivice in the world. Taichi and Hikari weren’t partnered with that same Koromon ², but they got their own partner digimon + digivices in 1999. And Wallace probably became Terriermon’s partner years after, possibly in 1996 and after Chocomon’s disappearance ³, or post-1996.

Rui claims Ukkomon is a special digimon because he can grant wishes → Okay, but i definitely remember the 02 Kids going like “sounds cool bro but we doubt it” when he said that. And the movie itself quite shows the opposite later: Ukkomon did not cure Rui’s father, and he was possibly manipulating everyone else like puppets (besides Rui’s parents i meant) – so what kind of digimon who can grant wishes is this?! He has no magical god-like powers at all! And his null lore (Bandai’s) profile points out that part of granting wishes are just rumors. But you know what said profile mentions too? That Ukkomon is able to hijack the opponents’ minds. It’s his species’ special move – Liar Dream – besides spinning like a beyblade to attack (Whirlpool Spin).

Rui claims he killed Ukkomon a long time ago → Also not totally true. Rui tried killing Ukkomon, but he couldn’t commit to it. He tried to destroy the digivice, which resulted in his injury in the right eye. Ukkomon did not… “die” apparently. Yes, he was melting, but one detail you might not know is that when a digimon dies, everything from their body, or their weapon is also erased too. Check Adv’99 death for Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon. The eye Ukkomon slapped into Rui’s face was still there after his “death” so this was the biggest hint for the audience. It was also implied in the Audio Drama #3 (released in the Japanese theaters, and soon in the BD/DVD deluxe box as bonus with the other two theater ones) – But it’s okay, he possibly never had a contact with another digimon or even a Chosen Child before meeting Daisuke & co, so we can’t blame him for believing he had killed Ukkomon.

In a flashback, Ukkomon tells Rui that he’s connected to something bigger → This might be the only legitimate truth he had told Rui, besides that Rui was the first person partnered with a digimon. Somehow, Ukkomon is connected to some god-tier entity because once BigUkkomon is destroyed, the digivices are not needed anymore. This part might be completely confusing for everyone else, but it’s not confirming Rui’s claims that the digimon partnerships were caused by Ukkomon, and yes the part of Ukkomon’s claims to be related to some higher up god-like entity.

The notes within the text:

To my biggest surprise… Wallace never mentions when his mother found the egg. But he definitely mentions when Chocomon disappears – 7 years before, which means 1995. I’ve seen many people think this movie goes against the canon in different ways… But now i’ve reached the conclusion that what Wallace meant is that he met Gummymon and Chocomon in the same year Chocomon disappeared in the flower field. Plus, Wallace is shown in those flashbacks as a 4 years old kid (stated in the Memorial Chronicle) and we know via a CD bonus card that Wallace’s age is 11 years old in 2002 (same as Daisuke, Takeru, Hikari and Ken) – so i guess if he had gotten the egg before 1995 he would’ve been too young to remember it (unless you opt for 1994, but i think this wouldn’t be possible…)

The Koromon who met Taichi and Hikari is implied to not be the same who was partnered with Taichi 4 years later in Adventure'99: the TV series Agumon knew Taichi’s name because of the data inserted on his egg by the Agents, which were also manufacturing the Crests and Digivices, according to Homeostasis’ analysis on the children from the Greymon vs Parrotmon fight.

Since Chocomon went missing, i suppose Wallace became partnered with Gummymon only, but if we go with Adv’99 and 02, the Chosen Children can evolve non-partnered digimon as well: Leomon mentions he only managed to evolve into SaberLeomon because of the Chosen Children’s digivices being used on him previously in the series, and in 02 we witnessed the Digimon Kaiser using his digivice to dark evolve Agumon into both SkullGreymon and MetalGreymon virus (the latter only when he created the Evil Spiral, of course).

[reckless-lambert]

Question what do you think of infinite from Sonic forces (don't skip any detail I would like to hear this)

WOAH HELLO!! OK OK OK OK you're in for a ride because I am kinda crazy about this guy.

Right off the bat I wanna say that imo he's not a bad character. Like not in a sense of potential or whatever, I did like him in general.

To try to keep myself on track there will be 3 topics I'll give my opinions on: powers, backstory, character.

POWERS

First of all I don't think that he is a pushover. If we are talking about measuring strength of a character based on their bossfight pretty much all sonic characters up until 06 have bad bossfights that can be finished in seconds so it's not a good measuring point. In terms of lore there are many many many theories to be had, I prefer to look at his encounters from a story standpoint (we don't talk about dying to a flamethrower in 0.5 seconds accident). I think it's safe to assume that Infinite was a capable fighter (hence the title), him being beaten by Shadow doesn't really tell us anything, Shadow is arguably the most powerful character in sonic series so losing to him is to be expected. Infinite was just a very skilled mercenary, what was he supposed to do against teleporting, regenerating, super fast living plasma cannon?!?

Anyways if we are talking about real encounters (after him getting ruby powers) there are many ways to interpret it (other than just saying that it's bad). Here's my understanding of the events. Sonic gets captured at the start of the game because Infinite just overwhelmed him with quality and numbers. After this the whole war happens (no one talks about Infinite conquering 99.9% of the world), Sonic escapes and encounters Infinite in mystic jungle, this time around we can see that Infinite doesn't have illusions of past villains helping him so it's safe to assume that his powers are actually pretty finite (he can't uphold too many illusions all over the world at once, first time he had them helping because he wasn't using them elsewhere), he still beats Sonic and leaves.

Next time we see him in Metropolis, here we see avatar pretty much matching him with his own bullshit (I have a magical rock that neutralises your magical rock) which is fine by me and Infinite still comes out on top thanks to energy blasts and presumed better fighting skills. Escape to null space can be blamed on phantom ruby prototype again. As to why Infinite didn't use it before I assume Eggman and Infinite invented this ability not that long ago.

For the last encounter, Infinite doesn't have to distribute his illusions all over the world so he uses them in battle, but still has a hard time because numbers advantage is no longer on his side + he probably struggles to control so many entities at once so the quality is diminished drastically. He decides that using an all out attack is a better tactic, but yet again kindergarten logic applies so the sun doesn't explode (rock to rock shenanigans). Despite the sun doing nothing I think it drained Infinite's resources drastically + he was using only the backup power. So in the end avatar and Sonic finally beat weakened Infinite only for him to be transported somewhere and never seen again.

In my opinion we can clearly see that Jackal wasn't defeated by power of friendship or avatar or whatever else people tend to say as some sort of parrots. Infinite was defeated only by his own hubris and his own kind of magic. I think he did alright all things considered. He was pretty powerful and I'm fine with the way things played out. The only thing lacking here is good presentation, people just don't take the plot seriously so it all crumbles, but I don't think that it's fair to say that someone is not powerful because you don't take the stakes of the story seriously. Still can't believe that people call a guy with power to create rockets and lasers out of thin air and change gravity at will "all talk". The only reason our characters are alive is thanks to phantom ruby prototypes and Infinite's weird fondness of main cast (if you are complaining about sega not outright killing sonic or other main characters, Infinite is not the one you should blame + I have some ideas as to why he does that described later).

BACKSTORY

Infinite's initial motivation is fiiiine. As we can see in his prequel comic his main desire is to ruin, he even says that "he is tired of this world" at the end of it. So it's safe to assume that our Jackal doesn't like how things are going and wants to overthrow the current world order. As to why he is that way it's up for debate (more about it later). That desire is what drives him towards Eggman.

After unspecified amount of time "episode Shadow" happens. Shadow presumably kills the whole Jackal squad except Infinite whom he deems unworthy of killing and throughoutly insults him instead (super mean! Shadow wtf!). Infinite in attempt to somehow amend his self image after losing everything he had (all thanks to his ambition and Shadow btw), decides to abandon his old self as if it was a different person (sad to look at) and double down on alliance with Eggman because it's all he has left - professor's promise of greatness, something to cling onto. So that's how we get to forces. Some might say that Infinite doesn't really enact revenge on Shadow in any way, but there're still things to consider: 1. He actively avoids his old identity, so you can say that he avoids Shadow and feelings tied to him in the same way (doesn't necessarily mean that he doesn't feel them) 2. Eggman could have done some mental gymnastics with the Jackal. It's pretty easy considering that Shadow is a self proclaimed guardian of this world (he made a promise and all of that) + he works for GUN. So what better way to enact revenge than to ruin all the things your enemy stands for? Bonus points for this objective coinciding with his initial motivation.

Those options are something I thought of, I think they create a rather straight forward narrative + nobody said that those are the only ones.

Anyways I hate how people yet again somehow diled his story down to "Shadow beat him called him ugly and now hes bad". As if killing his whole squad is nothing, like Infinite's character can be interpreted in many ways, but even if you think that he is a cold hearted killing machine - how can he live as a captain and a sole survivor of the squad, it's the end of his mercenary life if captain is the only one standing that means he fucked up real bad it's the ultimate failure, there's no recovering your career after that.

CHARACTER

I saved this one for last because It's almost purely my headcanons and subjective opinions. Anyways as I mentioned above Infinite is not fond of current civilization for some reason. My take is that:

1. He hates united federation for some reason. I think it would be funny if jackal squad were some sort of child soldiers GUN experimented on. Desert is already torn apart by bandits Eggman and feds fighting all over the place, no one will notice random street orphans missing (a lil metal gear revengeance brainrot for ya). But they deserted and became a more evil versions of desert raiders from Archie becoming a nuisance for every party involved: collecting bounties, raiding Eggman's bases and GUN convoys - earning reputation and fame. But jackals' hate for their previous captors is not forgotten and it's also mutual as UF probably wants them dead as soon as possible because they are a living proof of their dark deeds.

2. I think Infinite has problems coping with all the things he was deprived of. His first instinct is hate "how dare they live normal happy lives while I'm fighting for my life every day!" And because all he knows is conflict he thinks that living by jungle rules is the only right way and everyone else is living a lie (that's how I interpret his lyrics). So his desire to ruin the civilisation stems from his idea that jungle rules shall return, and UF citizens should suffer the same way he does. (Spreading misery is fun amiright)

Also I don't think that jackal squad was a family or a friend group, more like a congregation of equaly fucked up individuals who kinda trust each other with tasks, as soon as they deem you a burden they will abandon you. Also imagine the pressure captain of such group would endure. Infinite is not ok. He is partially driven by pride, but also by peer pressure of his fellow child soldiers, being cruel = being strong. As a leader he must be the strongest. That's why his sadism might not be inherent to his character. Also I do think that he was bullied in his unregulated child environment, heterochromia and girly tendencies make him a prime target (CMON PEOPLE dude has the longest hair in the whole franchise and presumably lived in highly militarized environment, there will be problems). I guess he just powered through (it's hard to bully you when you are the strongest).

Anyways coming back to episode Shadow I think Infinite was so scared of not being in control, being pretty much bullied by some stranger. So he did what he always does - search for more power.

Interesting side note here is that Infinite doesn't really have ambition, he doesn't create himself a castle or even a throne (and he is someone with power to create things from thin air, for example it took Zetis 1-2 days to throw together those in idw, he doesn't do it despite having the whole year). He just wants power to not be pushed around and push around others (I IMPLORE you to understand, he is not a nice person, but it doesn't mean that people should just give up on him, my boy needs help).

Also I think episode Shadow warped his brain really hard, like he tries so hard to re-enact his own trauma onto others many many times despite clearly seeing it not working except the first time with avatar. Like we can clearly see that it's all he thinks about, how not deeming someone worthy of killing is the most painful thing he can inflict on them, far more painful than just outright killing the guy. This hinders his critical thinking really hard and it's sad to look at.

Anyways that's pretty much all of my thoughts on this guy (says the guy who thinks about him every day for past 1.5 years, I can mumble on and on, but it will never end if I do), hope you enjoyed!

[16pointedasterisk]

OUR UNIVERSE IS SURROUNDED BY DARK MATTER AND SO ARE BLACK HOLES (SINGULARITIES) THE SINGULARITY IS A TINY UNIVERSE. TO ACHIEVE POWER DUPLICATION, AN UNSTABLE MATERIAL RIPS THROUGH THE BLACK HOLE (EX. FRANCIUM-224) AND ALLOWS POWER TO BE INPUTTED THE BLACK HOLE CONTAINS AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE WHERE THE LAWS OF PHYSICS DIFFER. I KNOW THIS BECAUSE OF A FACTOR: THE MASS OF A SINGULARITY IT IS A REGION OF INFINITE MASS AND DENSITY. I DETERMINED: IF MASS IS INFINITE, ENERGY CAN BE CREATED. IF MASS IS LIMITED (FINITE NUMBER), ENERGY CAN'T BE CREATED OR DESTROYED. IF MASS IS NULL, ENERGY CAN BE DESTROYED. THEORETICALLY, THE UNIVERSE WE LIVE IN IS A SINGULARITY WITH LIMITED MASS, WHICH IS ONLY POSSIBLE WITH THE POWER OF A _GOD_. CONCLUSION: ENERGY DUPLICATION IS POSSIBLE. THERE IS A GOD, EVEN IN SCIENCE. THE UNIVERSE WE LIVE IN IS A BLACK HOLE. THE POSSIBLE THEORY

[dailyanarchistposts]

Chapter VII. Fifth Period. — Police, Or Taxation.

1. — Synthetic idea of the tax. — Point of departure and development of this idea.

In order to render that which is to follow more intelligible, I will explain, inverting, as it were, the method which we have followed hitherto, the superior theory of the tax; then I will give its genesis; finally I will show the contradiction and results. The synthetic idea of the tax, as well as its original conception, would furnish material for the most extensive developments. I shall confine myself to a simple announcement of the propositions, with a summary indication of the proofs.

The tax, in its essence and positive destiny, is the form of distribution among that species of functionaries which Adam Smith has designated by the word unproductive, although he admits as much as any one the utility and even the necessity of their labor in society. By this adjective, unproductive, Adam Smith, whose genius dimly foresaw everything and left us to do everything, meant that the product of these laborers is negative, which is a very different thing from null, and that consequently distribution so far as they are concerned follows a method other than exchange.

Let us consider, in fact, what takes place, from the point of view of distribution, in the four great divisions of collective labor, — extraction, [21] manufactures, commerce, agriculture. Each producer brings to market a real product whose quantity can be measured, whose quality can be estimated, whose price can be debated, and, finally, whose value can be discounted, either in other services or merchandise, or else in money. In all these industries distribution, therefore, is nothing but the mutual exchange of products according to the law of proportionality of values.

Nothing like this takes place with the functionaries called public. These obtain their right to subsistence, not by the production of real utilities, but by the very state of unproductivity in which, by no fault of their own, they are kept. For them the law of proportionality is inverted: while social wealth is formed and increased in the direct ratio of the quantity, variety, and proportion of the effective products furnished by the four great industrial categories, the development of this same wealth, the perfecting of social order, suppose, on the contrary, so far as the personnel of police is concerned, a progressive and indefinite reduction. State functionaries, therefore, are very truly unproductive. On this point J. B. Say agreed with A. Smith, and all that he has written on this subject in correction of his master, and which has been stupidly included among his titles to glory, arises entirely, it is easy to see, from a misunderstanding. In a word, the wages of the government’s employees constitute a social deficit; they must be carried to the account of losses, which it must be the object of industrial organization to continually diminish: in this view what other adjective could be used to describe the men of power than that of Adam Smith?

Here, then, is a category of services which, furnishing no real products, cannot be rewarded in the ordinary way; services which do not fall under the law of exchange, which cannot become the object of private speculation, competition, joint-stock association, or any sort of commerce, but which, theoretically regarded as performed gratuitously by all, but entrusted, by virtue of the law of division of labor, to a small number of special men who devote themselves exclusively to them, must consequently be paid for. History confirms this general datum. The human mind, which tries all solutions of every problem, has tried accordingly to submit public functions to exchange; for a long time French magistrates, like notaries, etc., lived solely by their fees. But experience has proved that this method of distribution applied to unproductive laborers was too expensive and subject to too many disadvantages, and it became necessary to abandon it.

The organization of the unproductive services contributes to the general welfare in several ways: first, by relieving producers of public cares, in which all must participate, and to which, consequently, all are more or less slaves; secondly, by establishing in society an artificial centralization, the image and prelude of the future solidarity of industries; and, finally, by furnishing a first attempt at balance and discipline.

So we admit, with J. B. Say, the usefulness of magistrates and the other agents of public authority; but we hold that this usefulness is wholly negative, and we insist, therefore, on describing these functionaries by the adjective unproductive which A. Smith applied to them, not to bring them into discredit, but because they really cannot be classed in the category of producers. “Taxation,” very well says an economist of Say’s school, M. J. Garnier, — “taxation is a privation which we should try to reduce to the furthest point of compatibility with the needs of society.” If the writer whom I quote has reflected upon the meaning of his words, he has seen that the word privation which he uses is synonymous with non-production, and that consequently those for whose benefit taxes are collected are very truly unproductive laborers.

I insist upon this definition, which seems to me the less questionable from the fact that, however much they may dispute over the word, all agree upon the thing, because it contains the germ of the greatest revolution yet to be accomplished in the world, — I mean the subordination of the unproductive functions to the productive functions, in a word, the effective submission, always asked and never obtained, of authority to the citizens.

It is a consequence of the development of the economical contradictions that order in society first shows itself inverted; that that which should be above is placed below, that which should be in relief seems sunken, and that which should receive the light is thrown into the shadow. Thus power, which, in its essence, is, like capital, the auxiliary and subordinate of labor, becomes, through the antagonism of society, the spy, judge, and tyrant of the productive functions; power, whose original inferiority lays upon it the duty of obedience, is prince and sovereign.

In all ages the laboring classes have pursued against the office-holding class the solution of this antinomy, of which economic science alone can give the key. The oscillations — that is, the political agitations which result from this struggle of labor against power — now lead to a depression of the central force, which compromises the very existence of society; now, exaggerating this same force beyond measure, give birth to despotism. Then, the privileges of command, the infinite joy which it gives to ambition and pride, making the unproductive functions an object of universal lust, a new leaven of discord penetrates society, which, divided already in one direction into capitalists and wage-workers, and in another into producers and non-producers, is again divided as regards power into monarchists and democrats. The conflicts between royalty and the republic would furnish us most marvellous and interesting material for our episodes. The confines of this work do not permit us so long an excursion; and after having pointed out this new branch in the vast network of human aberrations, we shall confine ourselves exclusively, in dealing with taxation, to the economic question.

Such, then, in succinctest statement, is the synthetic theory of the tax, — that is, if I may venture to use the familiar comparison, of this fifth wheel of the coach of humanity, which makes so much noise, and which, in governmental parlance, is styled the State. The State, the police, or their means of existence, the tax, is, I repeat, the official name of the class designated in political economy as nonproducers, — in short, as the domestics of society.

But public reason does not attain at a single bound this simple idea, which for centuries had to remain in the state of a transcendental conception. Before civilization can mount to such a height, it must pass through frightful tempests and innumerable revolutions, in each of which, one might say, it renews its strength in a bath of blood. And when at last production, represented by capital, seems on the point of thoroughly subordinating the unproductive organ, the State, then society rises in indignation, labor weeps at the prospect of its immediate freedom, democracy shudders at the abasement of power, justice cries out as if scandalized, and all the oracles of the departing gods exclaim with terror that the abomination of desolation is in the holy places and that the end of the world has come. So true is it that humanity never desires what it seeks, and that the slightest progress cannot be realized without spreading panic among the peoples.

What, then, in this evolution, is the point of departure of society, and by what circuitous route does it reach political reform, — that is, economy in its expenditures, equality in the assessment of its taxes, and the subordination of power to industry? That is what we are about to state in a few words, reserving developments for the sequel.

The original idea of the tax is that of REDEMPTION.

As, by the law of Moses, each first-born was supposed to belong to Jehovah, and had to be redeemed by an offering, so the tax everywhere presents itself in the form of a tithe or royal prerogative by which the proprietor annually redeems from the sovereign the profit of exploitation which he is supposed to hold only by his pleasure. This theory of the tax, moreover, is but one of the special articles of what is called the social contract.

Ancients and moderns all agree, in terms more or less explicit, in regarding the juridical status of societies as a reaction of weakness against strength. This idea is uppermost in all the works of Plato, notably in the “Gorgias,” where he maintains, with more subtlety than logic, the cause of the laws against that of violence, — that is, legislative absolutism against aristocratic and military absolutism. In this knotty dispute, in which the weight of evidence is equal on both sides, Plato simply expresses the sentiment of entire antiquity. Long before him, Moses, in making a distribution of lands, declaring patrimony inalienable, and ordering a general and uncompensated cancellation of all mortgages every fiftieth year, had opposed a barrier to the invasions of force. The whole Bible is a hymn to JUSTICE, — that is, in the Hebrew style, to charity, to kindness to the weak on the part of the strong, to voluntary renunciation of the privilege of power. Solon, beginning his legislative mission by a general abolition of debts, and creating rights and reserves, — that is, barriers to prevent their return, — was no less reactionary. Lycurgus went farther; he forbade individual possession, and tried to absorb the man in the State, annihilating liberty the better to preserve equilibrium. Hobbes, deriving, and with great reason, legislation from the state of war, arrived by another road at the establishment of equality upon an exception, — despotism. His book, so much calumniated, is only a development of this famous antithesis. The charter of 1830, consecrating the insurrection made in ’89 by the plebeians against the nobility, and decreeing the abstract equality of persons before the law, in spite of the real inequality of powers and talents which is the veritable basis of the social system now in force, is also but a protest of society in favor of the poor against the rich, of the small against the great. All the laws of the human race regarding sale, purchase, hire, property, loans, mortgages, prescription, inheritance, donation, wills, wives’ dowries, minority, guardianship, etc., etc., are real barriers erected by judicial absolutism against the absolutism of force. Respect for contracts, fidelity to promises, the religion of the oath, are fictions, osselets, [22] as the famous Lysander aptly said, with which society deceives the strong and brings them under the yoke.

The tax belongs to that great family of preventive, coercive, repressive, and vindictive institutions which A. Smith designated by the generic term police, and which is, as I have said, in its original conception, only the reaction of weakness against strength. This follows, independently of abundant historical testimony which we will put aside to confine ourselves exclusively to economic proof, from the distinction naturally arising between taxes.

All taxes are divisible into two great categories: (1) taxes of assessment, or of privilege: these are the oldest taxes; (2) taxes of consumption, or of quotité, [23] whose tendency is, by absorbing the former, to make public burdens weigh equally upon all.

The first sort of taxes — including in France the tax on land, the tax on doors and windows, the poll-tax, the tax on personal property, the tax on tenants, license-fees, the tax on transfers of property, the tax on officials’ fees, road-taxes, and brevets — is the share which the sovereign reserves for himself out of all the monopolies which he concedes or tolerates; it is, as we have said, the indemnity of the poor, the permit granted to property. Such was the form and spirit of the tax in all the old monarchies: feudalism was its beau ideal. Under that regime the tax was only a tribute paid by the holder to the universal proprietor or sleeping-partner (commanditaire), the king.

When later, by the development of public right, royalty, the patriarchal form of sovereignty, begins to get impregnated by the democratic spirit, the tax becomes a quota which each voter owes to the COMMONWEALTH, and which, instead of falling into the hand of the prince, is received into the State treasury. In this evolution the principle of the tax remains intact; as yet there is no transformation of the institution; the real sovereign simply succeeds the figurative sovereign. Whether the tax enters into the peculium of the prince or serves to liquidate a common debt, it is in either case only a claim of society against privilege; otherwise, it is impossible to say why the tax is levied in the ratio of fortunes.

Let all contribute to the public expenses: nothing more just. But why should the rich pay more than the poor? That is just, they say, because they possess more. I confess that such justice is beyond my comprehension.... One of two things is true: either the proportional tax guarantees a privilege to the larger tax-payers, or else it is a wrong. Because, if property is a natural right, as the Declaration of ’93 declares, all that belongs to me by virtue of this right is as sacred as my person; it is my blood, my life, myself: whoever touches it offends the apple of my eye. My income of one hundred thousand francs is as inviolable a the grisette’s daily wage of seventy-five centimes; her attic is no more sacred than my suite of apartments. The tax is not levied in proportion to physical strength, size, or skill: no more should it be levied in proportion to property. — What is Property: Chapter II.

These observations are the more just because the principle which it was their purpose to oppose to that of proportional assessment has had its period of application. The proportional tax is much later in history than liege-homage, which consisted in a simple officious demonstration without real payment.

The second sort of taxes includes in general all those designated, by a sort of antiphrasis, by the term indirect, such as taxes on liquor, salt, and tobacco, customs duties, and, in short, all the taxes which DIRECTLY affect the only thing which should be taxed, — product. The principle of this tax, whose name is an actual misnomer, is unquestionably better founded in theory and more equitable in tendency than the preceding: accordingly, in spite of the opinion of the mass, always deceived as to that which serves it as well as to that which is prejudicial to it, I do not hesitate to say that this tax is the only normal one, barring its assessment and collection, with which it is not my purpose now to deal.

For, if it is true, as we have just explained, that the real nature of the tax is to pay, according to a particular form of wages, for certain services which elude the usual form of exchange, it follows that all producers, enjoying these services equally as far as personal use is concerned, should contribute to their payment in equal portions. The share for each, therefore, would be a fraction of his exchangeable product, or, in other words, an amount taken from the values delivered by him for purposes of consumption. But, under the monopoly system, and with collection upon land, the treasury strikes the product before it has entered into exchange, even before it is produced, — a circumstance which results in throwing back the amount of the tax into the cost of production, and consequently puts the burden upon the consumer and lifts it from monopoly.

Whatever the significance of the tax of assessment or the tax of quotité, one thing is sure, and this is the thing which it is especially important for us to know, — namely, that, in making the tax proportional, it was the intention of the sovereign to make citizens contribute to the public expenses, no longer, according to the old feudal principle, by means of a poll-tax, which would involve the idea of an assessment figured in the ratio of the number of persons taxed, and not in the ratio of their possessions, but so much per franc of capital, which supposes that capital has its source in an authority superior to the capitalists. Everybody, spontaneously and with one accord, considers such an assessment just; everybody, therefore, spontaneously and with one accord, looks upon the tax as a resumption on the part of society, a sort of redemption exacted from monopoly. This is especially striking in England, where, by a special law, the proprietors of the soil and the manufacturers pay, in proportion to their incomes, a tax of forty million dollars, which is called the poor-rate.

In short, the practical and avowed object of the tax is to effect upon the rich, for the benefit of the people, a proportional resumption of their capital.

Now, analysis and the facts demonstrate:

That the tax of assessment, the tax upon monopoly, instead of being paid by those who possess, is paid almost entirely by those who do not possess;

That the tax of quotité, separating the producer from the consumer, falls solely upon the latter, thereby taking from the capitalist no more than he would have to pay if fortunes were absolutely equal;

Finally, that the army, the courts, the police, the schools, the hospitals, the almshouses, the houses of refuge and correction, public functions, religion itself, all that society creates for the protection, emancipation, and relief of the proletaire, paid for in the first place and sustained by the proletaire, is then turned against the proletaire or wasted as far as he is concerned; so that the proletariat, which at first labored only for the class that devours it, — that of the capitalists, — must labor also for the class that flogs it, — that of the nonproducers.

These facts are henceforth so well known, and the economists — I owe them this justice — have shown them so clearly, that I shall abstain from correcting their demonstrations, which, for the rest, are no longer contradicted by anybody. What I propose to bring to light, and what the economists do not seem to have sufficiently understood, is that the condition in which the laborer is placed by this new phase of social economy is susceptible of no amelioration; that, unless industrial organization, and therefore political reform, should bring about an equality of fortunes, evil is inherent in police institutions as in the idea of charity which gave them birth; in short, that the STATE, whatever form it affects, aristocratic or theocratic, monarchical or republican, until it shall have become the obedient and submissive organ of a society of equals, will be for the people an inevitable hell, — I had almost said a deserved damnation.

[aetherceuse]

' Be honest... Tell me more about Type: Null. ' > meta 4 meta

Be honest. // @kaanta

" None of us anticipated this creature's ability to mimic human speech, " Lusamine remarked, looking over some of the notes taken in the lab. They seem to be hand written by an Aether tech who assisted in the splicing process.

" Of all of the samples taken from gene pool, there aren't any that come directly from a Pokémon known to copy language. My current theory is that Type: Null's higher intelligence allows it to understand language enough to store a number of vocabulary words. It's quite remarkable, and very useful. We have witnessed the beast mimic the sound of a baby Pikipek while hunting for prey in the wild-- it was successful in luring the mother Trumbeak.

I look forward to studying this unexpected ability in other environments. "