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rhaenyra targaryen, the rightful queen of the seven kingdoms

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bloodraven in a godswood

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Okay you know how 9 set off the atomic bomb as a way to get the attention on them so that way everyone knew about the Athena plan and the kids that died because of it. well you know how from the very beginning 9 and 12 didn't want to kill anyone but the atomic bomb shut off the electricity and by doing that hundreds of people did die because in logically terms patients in hospitals and old people hooked up to machines to keep them alive didn't have the electricity anymore

You make a really decent point! Honestly, it’s hard to tell the repercussions in that sense. I did a little research (just a smidge more in depth here), and at least from what I’ve gathered from reading scientific journals, it appears that that kind of medical technology has developed in the past ten years to the point where it will not be affected by EMPs. This specifically includes pacemakers. But then what about life support? That, I admit, I had a little tougher time finding anything on. I’m not a medical student, so I’m not exactly sure how how those machines still work. From what I’ve researched it appears to be implied that those machines also have some EMP hardware (similar material to that which held Nine’s mp3 player).

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Do you have any idea or thoughts on why Five was singing the nursery rhyme London Bridge in particular? She could have sung another song?

As this is commonly known as a rather unsettling nursery rhyme, this song fits the Five rather well. A foreboding song with a hint of childishness—Five is seen wearing a variation of a sailor suit (commonly used by multiple shows to show a child-like nature) yet she has a terrifying aura about her. She sees her interactions with Nine as no more than a continuation of a game from seven or so years ago. In short, she is a child in a grown-up body, socially and emotionally stunted by the terrible circumstances she was in in both the Settlement and I’m sure the custody of the American government. While her mind was honed to perform tasks way above normal adult comprehension, she would end up taking a disturbing disposition as a way to cope. Children can be scary sometimes, especially when they are not brought up with any moral code. To the members of the Athena Plan and the American government, she wasn’t seen as a person but more of a weapon—and weapons have no moral code. They just do what they are “programmed” to do and will carry out their task regardless of the repercussions. Therefore Five never was able to “grow up”, as she (and probably Nine and Twelve in the institution) was probably told “this is what needs to be done. It doesn’t matter how you feel about it”. Therefore in order to protect her sanity, she accomplished what Nine and Twelve could not do—she saw humans as targets and disposables, as means to and end and not worth valuing. After all, why should she care?

But Five wasn’t completely a “drone”—she had a human side as well. In a way, that song could have been her own way of keeping in touch with some part of humanity. “London Bridge is Falling Down” has multiple meanings, but there is one meaning most in resonance with Five’s emotional state, but it is also the most disturbing. This song could potentially allude to a perturbing mindset many people of the medieval world seemed to have back in the early first millennia. Back then when bridges were being built, it is said (there really isn’t much or any evidence to back up this claim) that children were “sacrificed” for the stability of the bridge—that is, they were literally walled up in the base structures of the bridge to serve as it’s “guardians” and keep the bridge from collapse. The death the children would not be to suffocation, albeit an easier death, but a long drawn out death due to starvation and dehydration.

How long does it take for someone to die of dehydration? About three days. Of starvation? About three weeks. We are seeing some familiar numbers here. First of all, we have three days of dehydration/three weeks of starvation. Lisa is most commonly attributed to the ocean/water symbolism of the ending, and her “number” (loosely) can be considered to be three. Lisa’s appearance and interference wasn’t expected by Five, and therefore resulted in an increased pressure on her, which may have triggered the side effects of the drug faster, and quickened her death. The fact that the death is long, painful, and drawn out parallels nicely with the agonizing deaths of Nine, Five, and Twelve (Twelve’s a little iffy on that one, as he appears to either be asymptomatic or completely fine—we don’t know).

Most obviously as the song can be about this child sacrifice, we can tie this in with how the members of the Athena plan were literally sacrificing children for their artificial-savant experiment. They were trying to build up the foundation of a “new era” with these children as the supporting pillars to their goal, which would bridge medical technology and the human mind’s capabilities together.

As to why Five was singing that song of all songs? There can be multiple meanings. It could be seen as her way of crying out, or it could be seen as her way of turning her whole situation into a joke. She is aware of the situation she is in—that she is seen as more of a “human”-like weapon but was also considered a “necessary sacrifice” if she died. She sings this song when she is in the car or when she is looking for Lisa—both situations are rather critical in their own right. On one hand she is with her caretaking “captors” and has to put on a calm face as she heads to a big meeting, and on the other hand she is looking for Lisa as a means of leverage against Nine (and Twelve). Clarence, her monitoring “caretaker”, misinterprets her singing as her in a good mood. She very well may be in a good mood, but it can also be interpreted as her way of setting her mood and what kind of attitude she needs to have. As a reminder of the situation she is in and how she needs to act in order to survive. Five’s emotions can very well be the most complex, for there are a lot of external and internal factors at play, but I believe this song accurately depicts her “internal struggle” and the view on her situation.

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Terror in Resonance Soundtrack Analysis: -crystalized-

After around a month of waiting, we are finally presented with the second soundtrack (arguably just as good as the first one). While the first soundtrack contained most of the “main theme” songs, this soundtrack has enough character to stand on its own as well. The first soundtrack painted a vivid picture of a transformation from subdued outrage to gentle hope; this soundtrack contrasts wonderfully with its melodies from solitary desperation to panicking action to at last fulfillment.

If one is to think the first soundtrack shows the “beginning” and the “end”, then this soundtrack most definitely can be considered to be the “middle”. It is really interesting that the soundtrack artist, Kanno Youko,/creators decided to release the soundtrack that way. Why that is for certain, I cannot say, but I speculate the reason may be how the first and the last episode tie so well together. In the beginning of the first episode, we are shown a world heavily dependent on technology, but also blissfully ignorant. At the end of the last episode, the world is back to its dependence on technology—but what is different? The “enlightenment” of the peoples. What happened between those two events are important in their own right, and I believe that the creators wanted to show us that.

And so, without further ado, let us jump into the analysis.

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Final Episode Analysis: Humanity in Resonance

Well, here we are. The final episode. From the on-point execution of soundtrack to the stunning visuals, the finale was masterfully crafted. The story left just enough ambiguity to leave us wondering “what if?” but enough heartbreak to satisfy our angst needs for the next year or so (if not the rest of our lives). I’ve received a plethora of messages ranging from the emotional extremes of resentment to joy—while all of our reactions may be different, we can all at least agree that the creators have done their job stirring some sort of emotion within us. And now, without further ado, the final episode analysis.

  Keep reading

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Episode 9 Analysis: Humanness and The Fall (?) of Sphinx

If anything, this episode was certainly one for the emotions. While I am tempted to discuss my personal reactions to the episode, I am going to leave my subjective thoughts at the door and try to analyze this as objectively as possible. We are back into our usual episode formatting, that is, the episode lets the actions of the characters speak louder than the dialogue. At the same time, we are finally given a little backstory on Nine, Twelve, and Five’s situations at “The Settlement”. Things are really starting to pick up this episode. With only two episodes left, the creators have done a masterful job of still leaving us guessing of what is going to happen in the end.

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I just found your blog and fell in love with all your analyses :"> I was wondering if you have any theories about the significance of Iceland in the whole series, aside from the obvious VON? Why Iceland?

Wow! Thank you so much!

Honestly, that is a really interesting question. Besides the use of “VON” in the beginning of the series,  using it as their mantra per say, there really are not many other references to Iceland present in the actual show (in the soundtrack titles, on the other hand, there are “saga”, “fugl”, “hanna”, “ili” in “ili lolol”, “bless”, and “kvak”.). The only other time Iceland is remotely referenced is when Nine’s eyes are described “as cold as ice from a faraway land”. Outside of that, there isn’t much. However, looking a little bit deeper, there is more of a connection than initially thought.

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Virginia Woolf, from a diary entry written c. July 1932 featured in “The Diaries of Virginia Woolf,”

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Monster (モンスター) // Naoki Urasawa

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what makes me angry about how this ended is that it all seems so unfair.. I mean , the ideal end punishment would have been for Nine and Twelve to have done time in jail maybe, but an ending where they have to die, just because they wanted to show Japan the truth despite and not having taken any lives themselves just feels so unsatisfying, and there isn't a lot of closure at all which stresses me out

One thing I really love about this series is how realistic it is. Nine and Twelve were very human and relatable, however they did some pretty shocking things. Granted they didn’t kill anyone, but they stole an atomic bomb, performed acts of terrorism, and overall were a significant threat to society. Their goal was noble, yes, yet they were also toying with the underbelly of Japanese and the American governments. This wasn’t something that, even if the truth were to come out, they could walk away from unscathed. As much as we all hoped there would be a happy ending, there was no possible way the two of them were going to receive that. As we see in the news, terrorists are portrayed as almost inhuman and something that should be “taken care of”, one way or another. And that is exactly what happened here. Nine and Twelve knew too much, and if their story was completely out in the open it would result in an undoing of power. Naturally, those in power are most afraid of losing said power. 

It is ironic that for two people who tried so hard to prevent the deaths of others would die at the hands of humanity, let alone the people they could have potentially saved. If that atomic bomb wasn’t stolen and was used in warfare, millions of people could have perished as a result of the explosion, especially soldiers. 

Besides, if Nine and Twelve were thrown in jail, what then? Nine would quickly pass away (assuming), and no one knows about Twelve. By living, it would give people the opportunity to rally behind Sphinx (given that the truth comes out), and Sphinx would be transformed into some sort of glorified hero. No, the government couldn’t risk that. They needed to erase the humanness behind Sphinx, to leave them as an unfamiliar, impersonable entity that the masses couldn’t relate to. Because if the public related to Sphinx, if they saw them as human and understood their struggle, it could result in an all-out uprising. As terrible as it was to kill Twelve, it was the only way to eliminate that very probable risk.

Life isn’t fair. Actions have consequences. Crimes and murder can and will be carried out for the sake of selfish goals rather than for the good of the people. I think the creators wanted utilize Nine and Twelve’s deaths to make a statement (albeit a little political) about the two sides of humanity. One one hand we have the humanity Nine sought so hard to protect: the precious value of human life and humanity’s accomplishments; this is found in Lisa and Shibazaki. On the other hand we have the selfish, darker side of humanity: people only concerned about their own goals and desires, willing to sacrifice even the lives of others if that is what it takes.

During that scene, this dark/light comparison is vividly portrayed. Yet this scene also leaves the viewer with a conflict of feelings and, as you have put it anon, a feeling of lack of closure. There are so many what ifs, so many questions left unanswered, and so many possibilities left unexplored. The finale masterfully gives us a real life scenario, because real life isn’t like a drama or a movie. Sometimes there isn’t going to be resolution, and sometimes there isn’t going to be a happy ending.

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Hi! I know it's a little far-fetched idea, but how do you think the legal process would have went if Twelve and Nine had been captured in ep 11? Like their trial and sentence and how Tokyo coped with the death of all electronics? :)

This is a really interesting question! First, I went a little into about the ramifications involving electronics here. Secondly, I did what I could into looking into Japan’s domestic policy around domestic terrorism, but there is little to be said in specific details. The documents I could find seemed repetitive and discouraging; as I cannot understand Japanese I had to rely on more US-centric/English-written documents, which essentially stated Japan to be unable to create their own domestic security and had no other choice but not only strengthen their alliance with the US but comply with any and all US demands. This is especially highlighted in ZnT, and the creators did an excellent job of subtly revealing to us the difficult position the Japanese government is in. However, I did find a few things that could give us a clue to what we would expect to see.

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Zankyou no Terror • Favorite Pairing → Requested by kkiibbaa

“The crying of stardust and ringing in my ears break finally. I dream an endless dream in a soundless view. At the night of the falling stars, if we grip both little hands, the stars deliver our wish to the far sky and call the happy morning.” II ✭

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I’m not playing by the rules. As if anyone would just take me away when I wanted them to. I’m so stupid.

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Color Palette Meme

hittoka requested: Twelve and Lisa in pastels & pales kind of lol