[Zolda]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Soul-copying is essentially the same thing as soul creation, which would be a crazy high feat even for the Alchemist of Dawn. This would imply that the Geryon who assimilated Germain isn't actually the same as the Geryon who was eaten by Germain, as you'd have to address what happened to the original soul. Like, we know humans created 99 out of the 101 Chemies, but that's not exactly the same thing as giving them a soul.

How did you come to the conclusion that copying is creation? Copying is copying, not creation. Copying is converting the chemical configuration of object B into an identical clone of object A, be it matter-wise and or information-wise. If I copy all the Lord of the Rings books with a photocopy machine, then does it mean I create TLOTR? Of course not. The creator is still J.R.R Tolkien. I'm just creating a clone of the texts. I'm not creating anything new. I'm just changing the chemical/informational configuration of several sheets of blank papers to look like the texts from TLOTR. Another example: If I copy, aka playing a cover of the guitar tracks from the song Metropolis Part 1 by Dream Theater, then does it mean I create those amazing rhythms, leads/melodies, and solos? Of course not. The creator/writer of those amazing guitar tracks is still John Petrucci, not me. I'm just trying to copy his performance. I'm not creating any new performance. Now, if I write a new lead guitar track or a solo guitar track over the rythm guitar track, then I'm creating something new, though I'm sure the quality won't even reach 10% of Petrucci's tracks, haha.

Glion's soul-copying technique is basically converting the chemical configuration of some (or all) parts of his favorite golden Rubik cube into a clone of a part of his body he considered to be a soul. This works similar to Fuga's surrogate bodies, which are likely identical homunculi injected with copies of his soul. Like Germain said, when he ate Glion, Glion's original soul might've been really destroyed along with his body, so the original Glion did indeed die in the same scene, and the currently resurrected Glion is copy #1. So far, the story shows that the copied soul inside the golden Rubik cube is a 100% perfect copy with no deterioration, kinda like a copied file in a computer that is 100% identical to the original file with no corrupt bits. It'd be interesting if it's shown that the copied soul is actually imperfect, corrupted and thus slowly deteriorating, proving that the fundamental laws of nature cannot be bent without serious consequences.

And, isn't conversion and manipulation of matters the core of alchemy, like stated in episode 2? That's the core idea of transmutation in alchemy as recorded in history: Converting and manipulating matter A into matter B/C/D/etc, with one of the main goals of converting lower value matters like copper, lead, or tin into those of higher values like gold or silver. This is why the story often shows Houtarou/Rinne/Minato/etc and all alchemists changing the shape and or chemical configuration of an object into another object, for example in episode 3 @ 17:10 when Minato transmuted a metal drum and changed its shape into a rectangular shield. With adequate skills that drum could've been converted into another shape and or matter. Another main goal of alchemy is converting inert, inorganic matters into organic matters which is the main goal of homunculi creation, and also Chemies in this story. The creations of elixir (the liquid of youth/immortality) and panacea (the ultimate, universal remedy) are several other main goals of alchemy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I suppose Golems would be viable candidates for Dread users though, but could Geryon mass-produce them on equal or greater scale to his Isaac-powered Dreads? We shouldn't dismiss the power of soul-reading technology.

The power of Golem creation is a power possessed by the Gods (the Unholy Trinity), so Golems should be easier to mass-produce and should perform much better compared to mere AI-enhanced Dread Troopers, which are mere alchemical technologies created by humans. How could mere human technologies beat the power of God? It makes no sense at all! If Glion's target is the AU, then he should have little problems. He's gonna have a serious problem when the target is the other members of the Unholy Trinity and or KR Rainbow Gotchard, and maybe also the Alchemist of Dawn.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Humans also create humans, but the soul comes from elsewhere, right? Life creation is a mysterious process.

If what you mean by humans creating humans is the real-life example of the birth of human lives, then I'm afraid you're wrong. Humans do not and cannot create humans. The one creating humans is the universe, not humans. One day, I will have children, and I'm 1000% sure that my children come through me and my future wife, not from me and my future wife. My children are the gifts from the universe to us, the parents. Humans are mere rivers that give way to the next generation, and the fountain is the universe. Humans are mere nanoscopic, replaceable cogs inside the colossal machinery known as the universe. The mystery of souls and lives is one of the biggest mysteries of the universe, which I think could be an eternal secret only known by the universe. It took billions of years and millions of species, generations, and painful trials and errors for the universe to give rise to sentience and souls, and I dare to claim that my peanut brain can create souls in 100 years? The audacity! Haha.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Soul =/= personality. If Isaac had Sabi's personality, then Sabi would have no need for him anymore. I think the appeal of Isaac as a "character" is that his interpretation is different from how Sabi would say it. This is the appeal to Sabi as well, that Isaac is part of Kenichi and a reminder of when the brothers were close. Basically, Isaac is the Gotcha-N-Go between Sabi's soul and Kenichi's personality, which is what distinguishes him from your average translation AI. Only Arumi's Isaac is shown to use direct interpretation, since the user has literally no lines, unlike Sabi.

Why would Sabimaru have no need for the Isaac tablet anymore if it had Sabimaru's personality? The proof of the bond between Kid Kenichi and Kid Sabimaru was the Isaac AI, not the personality of the Isaac AI. The existence of the Isaac AI right at Sabimaru's fingertips is more than enough of a proof of Kenichi's support. Why would Kenichi make Sabimaru's Isaac tablet speak like Kenichi (or rather, the distant, resentful Kenichi), not like Sabimaru's real personality, only with louder voice? Isn't the point of the Isaac AI is to bridge communication? How would an AI create an effective communication if the personality of the user, which is a huge part of the dynamic in a communication, is hindered and instead overridden by the programmer's personality? Isn't that a form of deliberate distortion in communication?

If Sabimaru's Isaac tablet had had Sabimaru's personality, then several serious miscommunication problems could've been avoided, for example in episode 12 @ 12:38 where Sabimaru complimented Houtarou, but his Isaac tablet just kept silent. People think Sabimaru is rude, while he's actually friendly and even shy, and the one that's rude is his Isaac tablet. Its rudeness isn't even the dynamics of Sabimaru's inner ego-super ego-id at work. It's rude just because. If anything, the rudeness of his Isaac tablet only created misunderstanding and confusion. We should thank God that Sabimaru has never encountered street thugs in narrow, lightly-dimmed alleys. A mere "excuse me" from Sabimaru would be grossly blown out of proportion by his Isaac tablet into "make way for me, you slackers!" and severely misinterpreted by the thugs as casus belli, and would very likely result in Sabimaru being beaten into a pulp, haha.

I think Arumi having no lines could've been a hint that she's very likely mute, not mere socially awkward like Sabimaru. The witty, sassy responses made by Arumi's Isaac tablet reflected her actual personality. If Arumi's Isaac tablet successfully created an effective communication between a mute person and normal people, then why did Sabimaru's Isaac tablet create misunderstanding and confusion instead? Being witty/sassy is one thing, being rude is a whole different thing. Instead of making the rudeness of Sabimaru's Isaac tablet the appeal, the writers should've made it extroverted and cheerful, to contrast with Sabimaru's introversion/shyness.

Another weird thing I forgot to mention is the fact that the Isaac AI is a communication AI. How could a communication AI be casually converted into a military AI? Kenichi himself has never used it for other purposes, let alone apply it in a military setting. How could Glion be so sure that it'd work as he intended? What if Kenichi only programmed it strictly as a communication AI, not a general-purpose AI? My girlfriend joked that the Dread Trooper in this episode could be defeated by a mere untransformed human because it's a communication AI that's force converted into a military AI. What Glion did was basically forcing a translator to be an army soldier. No wonder it was so incompetent! I'm imagining an unintentionally funny scene where Glion, due to his hubris, doesn't even bother to field-test the mass-produced Dread Troopers and immediately deploys them into battlefield. When Glion shouts the command "Attack!", the Dread Troopers will instead speak out his inner monologue en masse in a rude manner similar to what Sabimaru's Isaac tablet did when Sabimaru was sleeping. Glion will be really pissed off and yell "Damn you, Zolda!". Haha.