Roamer wrote: ↑Sun May 13, 2018 1:13 am
Maybe the fact that Ed seems to be getting a lot less effective is because they've
dumbed him down to make an easy mode for her.
Given his stories about the past, and his behavior and attitude, it would seem he's usually very competent, in a psycho kind of way. He just seemed to be outclassed, and by those who appear to be getting more powerful individually and more coordinated as a group as well.
Maybe the example is he meets up with Miho, promptly forgets she's untouchable (unless she wants to seem so) because she's not of this fabric. (one way to look at it) If Ping has gathered some of this empowerment from Miho, and so have in their ways Erika Kimiko Largo Piro? Certainly somebody who is outclassed, and keeps trying the same methods is going to do worse. Especially against a group of enhanced if the single and unenhanced were mostly beyond his capabilities to start with.
Although also in a lot of ways, there appears no back story or reasoning yet to explain why a company would send an apparently unmonitored agent to destroy something as trivial as a prototype non-h emotional doll system that fell out of the hands of an investor. Although if we take such as 33 fairly literally, there doesn't need much in the way of explanation of why game companies have black ops and enforcement divisions or why destroying something like an EDS might not be a big deal to them, whatever they know. Even if not, how does anyone prepare for somebody fully outside of all rules and modifying the story as it goes along. If you found out somehow what was going on, you'd only be absorbed into the narrative yourself it would seem.
You always make your own prototypes. Even if you're going to farm out production, you make the prototype, because it's the only way to be sure it's spec'ed out correctly. And assuming that each prototype has the same capabilities as Ping, and can change their appearance, then there could be literally hundreds of them and there would be no way to tell.
If it's something being built, out of parts, in the current world out here -- and maybe even for however Ping may have been created wherever she may have created for whatever purposes. The notion was that if this isn't some kind of initial version of an off the assembly line machine and even if it is, there may not be many more. Or even any more, at least not like this one. Yes perhaps there are dozens or hundreds of prototypes but this is the only one that even functioned on a basic level. Or that might be untrue, and she Ping was created uniquely for the purpose of becoming an Analogue or as near as possible.
We don't even know how she is made or of what though. So is there only one or are there thousands? Who can tell.
Regardless, the entire EDS thing may not be true, or she might not actually be one of them. She's got some manuals and has been said to be certain things, but maybe she's the only one like her, or even if not isn't produced off an assembly line from parts. Which just brings up more questions of if it was actually Sony that created her, why anyone would let her into the hands of some random investor unmonitored or just send one guy by boat to go take her out of the hands of who she ended up with. There's quite a bit to consider beyond the easier meta answer.
if she's gone renegade, are they going to try and impede anything that slows her down?
Maybe somebody will try and let her run out of power. If that works any longer. Yet she seems to have advanced far beyond the 'go berserk when ignored' response, so that seems doubtful it would need to be done, or at least not for violent behavior.
if Ping's date is working for Sony, the odds are good that he's there to 'retire' her
If they made her, and sent another operative without bothering to shut off Ed (which given the last time we saw him in 1260 maybe he did need a replacement). Yet this guy here is not much acting like he's trying to do anything like some subtle text to your head before the kill. Are any of our ideas about him are correct, it seems just as easy that he fully believes this is Junko and sees nothing else, and hasn't had anything to do with what Ping is doing. After all, Ping has been acting oddly for a while, "losing Miho" has done something to Ping even on the physical level. Perhaps an extensive amount.
It's so much at odds with almost all her prior behavior that it's actually jarring.
Very much so; it seems very abnormal for her.
It's not just the sudden go very active, preemptive and out alone, or the tricking of Junko and this guy, the thinking she's saving Junko from something she very much doesn't want to do, stealing things. ( Maybe it's not Miho who Ping has absorbed, it's Yuki ; )
The overall change is less nuanced. Looking at the bigger picture, she's leapt from wanting to beat up Largo for not having pants on to arranging dates with her friend's crush that she has never met and trying to seduce them while pretending to be somebody else. And all that appears to concern her is she doesn't have the content to easily do so.
It's the thing that most leads me to believe that someone is using knowledge of her decision trees and code to manipulate her.
This guy gives an impression he seems aware of who and what she is, and we can imagine there's some way to put her into this mode via Junko and Junko's phone. Whoever he is and works for or not, perhaps he arranged this. If it's true, how, and for what reasons, those are trickier. As it is tricky to answer if this is just all more of Miho's unfinished story or the demonstration of what's up with her. Or maybe there's nothing here beyond it just happened. There is nothing much aside from expectations and perception to show this didn't all just accidentally happen on its own. That Ping hasn't become fully autonomous, simply as a matter of side effects causing growth, unplanned by anyone in MT.