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It's not her fault the other elves are dicks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraco
Well...unless it is, because the reason they dislike outsiders is because of that one time a bunch of their people got murdered when they went out to recover that one vampire baby. :p
22
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Well that was eventful. Lotta confirmations of things people were predicting. Ariel is a kind of "new" personality that's a merging of Ariel and Body. And yeah, the girl in white is probably modern Kumoko.
UNLESS, Body isn't the only mind that split off. We could have 4 completely separate Kumokos at this point.
I didn't expect the 15 years after Ariel would be a fusion of the original Ariel and one of Kumoko's parallel minds. That being said, it would explain a number of things, such as continuing as a demon lord and maybe continuing with the old plans (although that might be false to a degree). At the end of the day, Kumoko herself is stupid, so if she had merely replaced Ariel fully, it's kind of doubtful Ariel would exist in any form anymore. If there's still half Ariel left, however, that's maybe enough wits to keep going as a demon lord.
I also wondered before how Kumoko is so okay with the classmates killing each other 15 years after, but seeing how she sees the local humans as little more than walking exp potions, despite having saved Sophia, she might have stopped caring entirely along the way. If it's like that, I can't help but wonder how interesting an MC she is any longer.
Feels more like Kumoko, already determined to murder as many collateral people she needs to for the EXP, doesn't really care about individuals anymore. She's driven to save the entire world (and herself by extension) on a doomed planet. First she has to figure out why it is doomed in the first place. All we and she knows is that the system started breaking down after some type of energy was discovered.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraco
Now that Body is taking over Ariel, and it is implied that Kumoko has a humanoid body, it makes a little more sense. In the Kumoko-time, there are a few forces stuck in a stalemate of sorts, using multiple nations as pawns. But Ariel (before Body) was too cautious (or scared) to do anything. The Church and the Elves aren't attacking each other because Ariel is there in the wings.
In Shun's time, Ariel is using Hugo as a pawn to start a war, but as powerful as they are, they're not directly attacking the elven forces or even going after Shun to keep Ariel safe. The majority of the demon forces are calmly executing another plan while Sophia works as an emissary for the bigger scale battle. Which screams "intentional distraction," to me. The Church is now sitting quietly in the wings, letting Hugo take all the risks.
I'd guess there's still currently a three way tie, Ariel has just found a way to safely kill off the elves and make it a 1-on-1. Or allied with the Church to do so. Maybe Kumoko and Ariel-Body figured out a way to convince the Church to let them save the entire world.
No, let's put it figured out a way to trick the Church to let them save the entire world. I have a feeling you can't convince the church of anything, but you might be able to make them think you believe you managed to convince them, when in reality they only see an opportunity to get stronger and backstab you. But it doesn't matter as far as your plan is concerned.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryllharu
Why am I watching a PS2 HD-remaster all of sudden?
Awful animation :/ When Berserk starts looking good all of sudden ...
I do. Admin knight said it's only because she's a Demon King that she's has integrated the invader instead of being consumed. I think that will always be the case. Ariel will never be fully consumed. Time will only make the mesh together more completely. They're Kumriel now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraco
It's called "When there's a hundred guys on screen."Quote:
Originally Posted by MFauli
Ariel's thought patterns with Kumoko's behavior, instincts, and mannerisms. So she's still Ariel, she just has the quirks and temerity of Kumoko now.
The mechanism behind the soul merging needs clarification. Right now, what we know is that Body is eating Ariel's soul. Apparently "because of her resistance, the souls are merging" or something.
-So what happens to Body as it's mauling into Ariel's face? Is Body gradually disappearing as well?
-Or does the "resistance" occur where by Body is unable to completely annihilate Ariel's soul (capped), and Body is left to just chill in Ariel's mindspace untainted, while in the real world this manifests as Ariel+Body mannerism?
The main difference comes down to whether or not Body suffers any negative effects of her actions, and whether it even knows this or has a choice to stop the attack.
Good questions. If they indeed are merging, it should affect Body as well. I reckon she would, as an independent entity, diminish and fuse with Ariel's mind, replacing the parts she managed to eat up until that point, at least to a degree. So, the resulting soul/mind would be a combination of those two, but the soul destruction would stop. But yeah, perhaps we will learn the details when it's shown why Kumoko (as the pale lady) is working side by side with the demon lord.
I'm going to guess that Kumoko got herself blasted into Vestiges or something from that attack, so now is some form of empty slave to Ariel. Ariel is destroying the world due to Body's influence on her. At some point, Kumoko is going to come back in full force.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraco
So pretty much I don't think white girl is Kumoko going "Ariel's cool, I'll tag along for a bit".
I'm expecting it to be one of the classic Kumoko moments of using the illusion to make the Demon Lord think she annihilated Kumoko. Since the demon lord isn't quite wholesome in the head anymore, due to the soul merge, who knows if she has anymore the faculties to sense whether Kumoko is dead or alive. At least immediately.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buffalobiian
Does becoming Vegito diminish the Goku and Vegeta in him? Or are they both fully there, but also fully a single being?Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraco
Except this does not seem reversible, making the question more pertinent.
Either way, it comes down to math.
Is Vegito .5 Goku + .5 Vegeta = 1?
Or is he 1 Goku + 1 Vegeta = 2?
Is new Ariel half a Kumoko plus half an Ariel, or is she just Kumoko plus Ariel?
It's not so much Goku + Vegeta type of maths, because if Body is still eating, then as far as we know she's still just eating Ariel's face. She doesn't get input from Ariel's 5 senses and doesn't participate consciously in any decision-making.
Ariel ends up acting in ways that fit Kumoko's thought patterns, but is still ultimately in charge of these decisions. Body doesn't have any say in things like "I'm hungry, so let's eat" - because Body doesn't feel Ariel's hunger in that mindspace, and also can't issue commands to Ariel per se.
"Merging" was used in the translation, which implies Body is also suffering from the same effects as Ariel - which is something we have yet to see confirmation of. All we've actually seen right now is that Ariel is being tainted by Body.
episode 23:
Bad episode :/
So much boring fighting. And I really hate this "Im not taking anything seriously, lol" attitude from all the demons. The robots are just dumb fodder, too. And reinforcements? Power levels in this anime are based on a Tecmo-Koei Musou-game, noname soldiers are less than flies.
Ugh.
Also the white girl absolutely isn't Kumoko, way different personality.
Or just someone with her soul blasted away.Quote:
Also the white girl absolutely isn't Kumoko, way different personality
One loose end that's yet to be addressed was the hole idea behind the puppet spider. They introduced it in such a way that told us Kumoko's evolution path isn't the extent of all spider existence, but we weren't left with anything else to work off.
Personally, I found this to be a pretty great episode, aside from the obviously Quality derp shit going on as the budget continues to dwindle to nothing.Quote:
Originally Posted by MFauli
The majority of the episode shifts to Sophia's perspective after Shun stops Hugo, with Shun's side slowly realizing they're pawns while saying all sorts of cliché shonen shit. Satire gold. It's a really nice touch and a good way of showing the audience that "the heroes" have always been on the wrong side, and the demon lord has been trying to save the world from the elves. The elves have high tech shit, mecha, full control rooms in underground bunkers. I'd start to question that most of them use magic at all aside from Oka. This is very much a case of the advanced civilization sitting on the backs of an otherwise swords & magic world in an Overseer role. If you tie all of this episode into the vision Kumoko had when she hit Taboo Level 10 and realized the world was dying...guess who is still making it worse?
Except this franchise has actual Overseers in the Administrators, who aren't too keen on the shit the elves has been doing. That in turn explains why Gilly-Gilly is one of Ariel's commanders. Fei understands it too, which is why she attempted to surrender and leave, but Shun and she have a pact, and she has to follow his will whether she agrees with it or not. At least she isn't forced like some kind of Command Seal.
Oka's had an entire life of indoctrination, or at least following along because her father made her precious students hostages. The elves are using Oka, to manipulate Shun, to keep themselves safe from Ariel. They will discard Shun and crew the moment the threat is gone.
The episode was a nice way to show that while Hugo was strong, Shun was stronger with the Hero title, while being drastically out of his league in actual world affairs. That's kind of the point all along, no? Normal people and soldiers are nothing, reincarnations are all over the board, and the real power comes from Sophia's level, people who have actually trained for the decade and a half to bring themselves up. And Ariel and Kumoko are in the top heap with Potimas.
I've forgotten it already: Is Sophia's master the demon lord or perhaps the pale lady? I'm asking this because Sophia was ordered to spare all the reincarnators. Ariel shouldn't have any reason to do that. The pale lady's personality certainly surprised me as well. In fact Ariel herself is more like the old Kumoko than that pale lady. I still can't help but think the pale lady's somehow related to Kumoko, though, but what on Earth happened to her? Is Kumoko's personality shattered? It would suck if it has remained shattered for who knows how long. How would she have leveled up enough to reach a perfectly humanoid body with a shattered personality?
Of course there's still a change the pale lady isn't Kumoko, but realistically speaking, who else would she be? Kumoko is otherwise nowhere to be seen in the 15 years later world, yet the plot has already progressed so far. Or at least I assume it has. I suppose the demon lord could have retained her senses mostly after the fusion with Body, so if Kumoko as the old Kumoko was still around, Ariel would want to slay her. Perhaps Kumoko has been acting meek for many years, living right under the demon lord's nose. Ariel might think Kumoko's personality is gone, and the pale lady is just a loyal servant.