Mechanical aides: some speculations
Oct. 13th, 2009 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
narcasseThanks to the Russian Trinity Blood fandom, which always seems to be rather more organised than the English one, I’ve come across this image. I’d seen glimpses of it before elsewhere but hadn’t yet stumbled upon a flat version of the whole image which may or may not again be due to greater industriousness on the Russian fandom’s part.
It’s a fairly straightforward image at any rate. Abel versus Cain, lacking clothing in the process. Crusniks seemingly adhering quite strictly to that non-blended fibres business though Abel may be a bit of a heretic on that front. Cain and Abel being naked at each other seems to be a theme as far as Trinity Blood artwork goes. There’s the famous fanservice image of the pair of them out there which pairs nicely with the Isaak & Dietrich fanservice piece. So the nakedness isn’t really illustrative of anything other than that fact that I really didn’t need to see Cain’s nipples in official artwork. Even Cain reaching out to Abel isn’t anything new: his mission, aside from total world destruction, seems to be trying to get Abel to join in with him. And considering that Abel is the one who expressed a discontent with humanity beforehand it makes sense enough.
So the setup for the Crusniks isn’t really indicative of anything even if Cain gets his Seraph’s wings while Abel’s sans wings and instead surrounded by rather expanded Crusnik weapon. And while Cain’s wings surround Isaak too, Abel’s weapon loops round Tres as well so that’s not indicative of anything other than some artistic framing. Even the cable sticking out of Tres’ neck and arm aren’t really anything new since it’s no secret that he’s an android. But in the midst of a lot of the obvious what does interest me is the juxtaposition of Abel and his semi-mechanical companion and Cain and… well, whatever it is that Isaak really is.
I’ve said before that I’m quite convinced that Isaak was a nod to the lich archetype in typical fantasy settings and that the only way to create a character that would come close enough to fulfilling that archetype in a technology based setting was to turn him into a machine. And while this may well be biasing my view already this current image certainly does make me wonder. The juxtaposition of Isaak against Tres might just be a stylistic issue since otherwise you’d have to have Esther backing Abel and Dietrich with Cain, or maybe Helga if you’re going for a Crusnik’s with dubiously plausible love interest if by ‘love interest’ you mean someone who’s probably that little bit more interested in the Crusnik part than the human façade. Who knows? Maybe the point of the image was Crusnik and mechanical boyfriend because they’ve both taken a page from Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s book and I’m just overanalysing this.
Still, since the choice of characters caught my attention I did what I usually do with most Isaak images: studied his hair. And what struck me was that his hair really isn’t behaving like human hair at all. Part of it’s hanging straight down while an adjacent section seems to be blowing forward which really doesn’t make sense when you think about the physics. If there’s meant to be some breeze then all his hair should be moving, if not so dramatically, at least in some fashion to indicate a reaction. Instead most of his hair is just hanging limply while the front portion seems to have swung forward, and not just swung forward slightly: it’s spanning quite a distance. That’s not to say that his hair might not swing forward that much ever but it just seems to be doing that on its own. In fact the section past the point where Cain is grasping his hand seems to have taken on a life of its own and be actively reaching across the space, lifting upwards quite drastically, towards Abel. I can’t quite tell where Isaak’s hair ends but it certainly looks like the end point reaches Abel’s expanded weapon, almost as if it’s attempting to attach to it, like cable. Granted, the line of his hair may stop there because it looks better in the image like that or for any other number of artist reasons but to me it certainly manages to convey the impression that that so called hair might just be some kind of mechanical wire.
The only problem I’m running up against here is the fact that Isaak apparently bleeds at one point when that confounded chip is deactivated, though even that could be written off as a malfunction in some semi-organic engineering. After all, if he’s going to pass as at least remotely human that overlay of skin could probably do with a little blood injected into it. And Dietrich’s already clearly shown that even human beings can be turned into quasi-machines with the application of a little lobotomy so it’s still possible that parts of Isaak could be essentially human pieces of a mechanical system.
Of course beyond the above consideration there’s the part where I’m inferring an awful lot just from the bend in his hair which could just be reacting to Abel giving off a static discharge. It does look to me as if Isaak’s hair is reaching across that gap between them but it might not be doing that of its own accord if Abel is crackling with his usual electrical build up the static pull could easily be enough. Or… perhaps there is something there, some slight suggestion that Isaak’s hair is just as mobile as any of his other limbs. After all, if Ninja Scroll had Yurimaru’s electrocution wires I don’t see any reason why Trinity Blood couldn’t necessarily incorporate something similar.
It’s a fairly straightforward image at any rate. Abel versus Cain, lacking clothing in the process. Crusniks seemingly adhering quite strictly to that non-blended fibres business though Abel may be a bit of a heretic on that front. Cain and Abel being naked at each other seems to be a theme as far as Trinity Blood artwork goes. There’s the famous fanservice image of the pair of them out there which pairs nicely with the Isaak & Dietrich fanservice piece. So the nakedness isn’t really illustrative of anything other than that fact that I really didn’t need to see Cain’s nipples in official artwork. Even Cain reaching out to Abel isn’t anything new: his mission, aside from total world destruction, seems to be trying to get Abel to join in with him. And considering that Abel is the one who expressed a discontent with humanity beforehand it makes sense enough.
So the setup for the Crusniks isn’t really indicative of anything even if Cain gets his Seraph’s wings while Abel’s sans wings and instead surrounded by rather expanded Crusnik weapon. And while Cain’s wings surround Isaak too, Abel’s weapon loops round Tres as well so that’s not indicative of anything other than some artistic framing. Even the cable sticking out of Tres’ neck and arm aren’t really anything new since it’s no secret that he’s an android. But in the midst of a lot of the obvious what does interest me is the juxtaposition of Abel and his semi-mechanical companion and Cain and… well, whatever it is that Isaak really is.
I’ve said before that I’m quite convinced that Isaak was a nod to the lich archetype in typical fantasy settings and that the only way to create a character that would come close enough to fulfilling that archetype in a technology based setting was to turn him into a machine. And while this may well be biasing my view already this current image certainly does make me wonder. The juxtaposition of Isaak against Tres might just be a stylistic issue since otherwise you’d have to have Esther backing Abel and Dietrich with Cain, or maybe Helga if you’re going for a Crusnik’s with dubiously plausible love interest if by ‘love interest’ you mean someone who’s probably that little bit more interested in the Crusnik part than the human façade. Who knows? Maybe the point of the image was Crusnik and mechanical boyfriend because they’ve both taken a page from Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s book and I’m just overanalysing this.
Still, since the choice of characters caught my attention I did what I usually do with most Isaak images: studied his hair. And what struck me was that his hair really isn’t behaving like human hair at all. Part of it’s hanging straight down while an adjacent section seems to be blowing forward which really doesn’t make sense when you think about the physics. If there’s meant to be some breeze then all his hair should be moving, if not so dramatically, at least in some fashion to indicate a reaction. Instead most of his hair is just hanging limply while the front portion seems to have swung forward, and not just swung forward slightly: it’s spanning quite a distance. That’s not to say that his hair might not swing forward that much ever but it just seems to be doing that on its own. In fact the section past the point where Cain is grasping his hand seems to have taken on a life of its own and be actively reaching across the space, lifting upwards quite drastically, towards Abel. I can’t quite tell where Isaak’s hair ends but it certainly looks like the end point reaches Abel’s expanded weapon, almost as if it’s attempting to attach to it, like cable. Granted, the line of his hair may stop there because it looks better in the image like that or for any other number of artist reasons but to me it certainly manages to convey the impression that that so called hair might just be some kind of mechanical wire.
The only problem I’m running up against here is the fact that Isaak apparently bleeds at one point when that confounded chip is deactivated, though even that could be written off as a malfunction in some semi-organic engineering. After all, if he’s going to pass as at least remotely human that overlay of skin could probably do with a little blood injected into it. And Dietrich’s already clearly shown that even human beings can be turned into quasi-machines with the application of a little lobotomy so it’s still possible that parts of Isaak could be essentially human pieces of a mechanical system.
Of course beyond the above consideration there’s the part where I’m inferring an awful lot just from the bend in his hair which could just be reacting to Abel giving off a static discharge. It does look to me as if Isaak’s hair is reaching across that gap between them but it might not be doing that of its own accord if Abel is crackling with his usual electrical build up the static pull could easily be enough. Or… perhaps there is something there, some slight suggestion that Isaak’s hair is just as mobile as any of his other limbs. After all, if Ninja Scroll had Yurimaru’s electrocution wires I don’t see any reason why Trinity Blood couldn’t necessarily incorporate something similar.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-14 09:24 am (UTC)I don't know, I'm speaking as a complete ignorant of esoterism and such, but does a machine still helds the faculty of wield such advaced magic?
I like very much the wire-theory about Isaak's hair, though..
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-17 06:24 pm (UTC)- Arthur C. Clarke
Anything that can be managed in soft science series would easily apply to Trinity Blood so his teleportation becomes molecular deconstruction and reformation via the self-directed equivalent of StarTreck’s transporter pads, the shadow business is also similar as is the forming of his ‘pets’. He can make as big a show of esotericism as he likes but in a world where we get detailed descriptions of the fact that anaerobic bacteria are the reason why Radu can throw fireballs or nanomachines that eat other nanomachines there really doesn’t seem to be much room for magic. Not that that would discount the possibility that it could be magic that Isaak was deliberately being over the top about so that people would believe that it was technology, and certainly there does seem to be something of an issue with the public thinking that magic is possible much to the annoyance of the Inquisition who define that belief as heresy.
"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong." (Clark’s 1st Law)
And more importantly Asimov’s corollary in regards to my last point:
"When, however, the lay public rallies round an idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly scientists and supports that idea with great fervor and emotion -- the distinguished but elderly scientists are then, after all, probably right."
I don't know, I'm speaking as a complete ignorant of esoterism and such, but does a machine still helds the faculty of wield such advaced magic?
I took a break to laugh here because I’ve often described one Golden Dawn manual as looking like a geometry textbook threw up over a printing press so when it comes to the mathematics part I don’t expect being a machine would cause him any problems. Then again when it comes to spiritual progression it would depend on whether or not he has some kind of self-awareness/central essence of self. There’s a Japanese concept, I believe it is, of the ghost in the machine where every object or system has some basic energy to it so you could imply that the more complex the system the more likely it is to have the self-awareness that we might term a soul.
The hair theory may well be influenced by something I wrote (http://imperial-artist.livejournal.com/361971.html) quite some time ago really.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-14 12:27 pm (UTC)Secondly, I interpret the image as Crusinks and their adjuctants. Because while Issak is stated in cannon to be Cain's second(while Abel remains on the other side that is) it is widely accepted in fannon that Tres is Abel's second, at least where fighting is concerned. And as the battles between the forces of good and evil go, while the protagonist and antagonist share many similarites, so do their Lieutenants for the most part, which comes back to your theory of Isaak being something along the line of Tres.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-17 06:45 pm (UTC)I definitely agree, I suspect that Tres’ appearance surprised me entirely because I’m simply not interested in AX enough to have bothered figuring his status in regard to Abel out. I’ve only ever really considered Tres for his attachment to Caterina and even then I’ve been far more focused on her evolution as a person than anything else. I recently picked up ROM 2 again and was struck by Kate’s surprise at Caterine not taking an interest in Esther which may lead into a post I should make regarding her (unfounded) fear of displacement. Abel, for all his faults, does at least seem to take his women as individuals and not replacements for each other.
Regarding the mirroring going on in the image when I picture it in those terms it’s easy to see why Süleyman failed. He didn’t have a clear shot at his adversary due to lacking information on her MO so instead he conducted himself as if his rival was Mirka. If the situation had been Süleyman vs Mirka with Radu and Ion as their respective seconds then he would have most likely won. Of course because Mirka had a Crusnik to back her Süleyman lost out but now that makes me wonder how the situation would pan out if it was Seth & Mirka vs Cain & Isaak.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-25 07:18 am (UTC)Süleyman vs Mirka with Radu and Ion as their respective seconds then he would have most likely won.
I agree. I think it would make a nice AU where Seth knew of this but decided to sit back and watch the fun, reasoning at if Mirka lost she wasn't worthy to be second anyway.
As for Seth & Mirka v/s Cain & Issak, I don't think it would be set up the same as Able & Tres v/s Cain & Issak, because while Seth and Cain are reasonably matched, I wonder if Mirka could hold her own against Issak in direct combat. I would really like to see, how things go down between the two, if they are not engaging each other directly.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-31 06:08 pm (UTC)If it were Isaak vs. Mirka it would definitely have to be indirectly because while she has Methuselah strength and reflexes she may well not be combat trained and even if she were, Isaak seems to have the edge in any combat situation just due to his extra abilities. If Mirka were moving her pawns then there’s probably a good chance that she might just wear Isaak down because he personally doesn’t have that many people to manipulate directly and who have the means to go up against Mirka. Isaak’s limited to people he can draw in from outside the Orden and Dietrich where as Mirka has the entire weight of the Empire behind her and with it as many pawns as she wants to throw against the ramparts of Isaak’s defences. Mirka has the kind of numbers where skill may not even matter because she’s just got so many that Isaak will waste his time fending them off anyway. To go with the siege analogy, Mirka really can just keep throwing troops at the walls until either the walls collapse under the weight or the dead become a makeshift ramp for her to send the rest of her army up over. Isaak has himself, a wolf and a lieutenant of dubious loyalty who may not even stick around and instead just run off to chase after one of Mirka’s daughters (granted, it’s the taller one with the blue-black hair who hates her mother anyway but she’s pretty ineffectively in the matricide stakes when it really comes down to it
and that’s before anyone gets into the trouble with that older boyfriend of hers). Traditionally speaking it should be a situation where Mirka’s empathy gets in the way but canon shows us that it doesn’t: she’s quite happy to throw people to the wolves for the greater good which has the same result as Isaak just using people without mercy in the end so they’re actually rather balanced when it comes to using others.