X-O Returns...

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DirtbagSailor
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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by DirtbagSailor »

Or would you...? :poke:
Possibly because you understand the interconnectedness of everything and you're trying to impact and influence a sequence of events you have foreknowledge of.
Deep. 8-)
Re-direction of a “butterfly effect” on a remote planet that might later affect the known universe would certainly be something that an all-knowing Aric might attempt; however, based on the actual story (that I have carefully read), it does not appear that Aric is operating on that level or with the total sum of the Torment’s knowledge.

Unfortunately it would be difficult to write a truely enjoyable (X-O Manowar) story with the full scope of what Aric is now supposed to know.

The story would be less Conan in space, and more Divinity/Doctor Manhattan(ish).

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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by DirtbagSailor »

Knowledge and awareness have a way of changing how a person views things.

In the past, I have taken young, cocky military members to a Battle Update Brief (BUB) or Commanders Update Brief (CUB) so that they are exposed to the larger picture of the operations that are occurring around them. Who/what was (or was about to be) attacked, who died (and how many), where the threats are/were and who they are/were/will be, what obsticals exist, and so on.

Usually, they have a very different view of things immeadiatly following this. Perhaps not completely, but certainly different in that they have a lot more pieces of the puzzle to work with.

Imagine having ALL of the knowledge from the universe.

Aric would be completely redefined in every possible ways. His past and even recent experiences would become almost insignificant, like remembering a kindergarten wrestling match at recess compared to reshaping a galaxy, altering the events of infinite time-streams, or re-building interstellar civilization.

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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by SuperMage »

nonplayer wrote:The big plot point is how the past series ended with Aric receiving eons and countless civilizations worth of knowledge from the Torment.
Did that have any affect on Aric, was it just a means to an end rhe last series? will we find out what that plot point ment for our hero. I'm amazed none of you are talking about it. It's the same as God coming down and saying hey greg I'm going to tell you everything there has ever been to know. Then we jump way in the future and nothing has changed he's still running this group and hasent said peep or changed at all.
I am looking forward to seein Aric go back to earth but everything is still hanging from last year.
I suspect it won't be explained glossed over at best with no payout. Hope I'm wrong.
I don't think Aric actually leanred anything from the Torment. The dialogue between him, and Shanhara is the ealier issues of the 2017 series imply than Shanhara is the only one able to comprehend the knowledge Aric aquired. When Aric confronted the Monomen Shanhara gave him a series of options, and displayed what the outcome to each would be. I felt that those two moments where meant to make it clear to the reader that Shanhara is the one who is able to process all of the kowledge the Torment gave them. Besides Aric is still only human, and that much information would cause him to go into sensory overload. There's a limit to how much a person can remember. The pretty the knowledge of the entire universe would pass that limit.

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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by corey »

SuperMage wrote:
nonplayer wrote:The big plot point is how the past series ended with Aric receiving eons and countless civilizations worth of knowledge from the Torment.
Did that have any affect on Aric, was it just a means to an end rhe last series? will we find out what that plot point ment for our hero. I'm amazed none of you are talking about it. It's the same as God coming down and saying hey greg I'm going to tell you everything there has ever been to know. Then we jump way in the future and nothing has changed he's still running this group and hasent said peep or changed at all.
I am looking forward to seein Aric go back to earth but everything is still hanging from last year.
I suspect it won't be explained glossed over at best with no payout. Hope I'm wrong.
I don't think Aric actually leanred anything from the Torment. The dialogue between him, and Shanhara is the ealier issues of the 2017 series imply than Shanhara is the only one able to comprehend the knowledge Aric aquired. When Aric confronted the Monomen Shanhara gave him a series of options, and displayed what the outcome to each would be. I felt that those two moments where meant to make it clear to the reader that Shanhara is the one who is able to process all of the kowledge the Torment gave them. Besides Aric is still only human, and that much information would cause him to go into sensory overload. There's a limit to how much a person can remember. The pretty the knowledge of the entire universe would pass that limit.


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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by greg »

Then, perhaps Aric wants to go back in time, but Shanhara won't let him. As a result, Aric refuses to get along with Shanhara. Saana might not like knowing Aric would leave her in a minute to go back to Dierdre. Shanhara may know that Gorin's future does matter.

Several of the ideas you guys are suggesting would work.

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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by jmatt »

Personally I think the Torment omniscience thing has been set aside during the Kindt run and has nothing to do with any of the current storyline. If not, that's a pretty important factor to leave off the table for the last ten issues.

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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by kinggirlfriend »

Yeah, I like the idear that Shanhara absorbed (gained?) all the Torments knowledge. I agree that the human mind probably wouldn't be able to handle that much info and being opened up that much without going mad. I wonder if Vendetti and Kindt discussed this at all or if it's just been completely sidestepped? I wonder if it will actually make the reader's journey worth it.

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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by Shadowman99 »

kinggirlfriend wrote:Yeah, I like the idear that Shanhara absorbed (gained?) all the Torments knowledge. I agree that the human mind probably wouldn't be able to handle that much info and being opened up that much without going mad. I wonder if Vendetti and Kindt discussed this at all or if it's just been completely sidestepped? I wonder if it will actually make the reader's journey worth it.
I think that Kindt disregarded this plot point in favour of doing what he wanted to do with Aric, but I think that this can easily be justified in terms of continuity by saying that this much knowledge would be too much for any human. Therefore, Shanhara has probably 'stored' this knowledge in the same way that a computer hard drive stores files.

From memory, the Torment were happy to have found an organism that was worthy of being given this knowledge, but they never specified that it was Aric that was the organism - could easily have been Shanhara they were referring to. Counter to this though, is how the Torment have been travelling the universe for aeons without having encountered any of the other armours to pass their knowledge on to. Knowing what we know from having seen other parasitic armours in the past, it seems Aric is unique in having mastery over his armour rather than being overcome by the parasite, so perhaps Shanhara truly is a single, unique organism worthy of the Torment's knowledge.
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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by grendeljd »

Shadowman99 wrote:
kinggirlfriend wrote:Yeah, I like the idear that Shanhara absorbed (gained?) all the Torments knowledge. I agree that the human mind probably wouldn't be able to handle that much info and being opened up that much without going mad. I wonder if Vendetti and Kindt discussed this at all or if it's just been completely sidestepped? I wonder if it will actually make the reader's journey worth it.
I think that Kindt disregarded this plot point in favour of doing what he wanted to do with Aric, but I think that this can easily be justified in terms of continuity by saying that this much knowledge would be too much for any human. Therefore, Shanhara has probably 'stored' this knowledge in the same way that a computer hard drive stores files.

From memory, the Torment were happy to have found an organism that was worthy of being given this knowledge, but they never specified that it was Aric that was the organism - could easily have been Shanhara they were referring to. Counter to this though, is how the Torment have been travelling the universe for aeons without having encountered any of the other armours to pass their knowledge on to. Knowing what we know from having seen other parasitic armours in the past, it seems Aric is unique in having mastery over his armour rather than being overcome by the parasite, so perhaps Shanhara truly is a single, unique organism worthy of the Torment's knowledge.
I have always kind of assumed that it was Shanhara that absorbed the knowledge from the Torment and not Aric. Why would one human have the capacity to take all that data in all of a sudden, when they had "sampled" many humans before that confrontation with Aric occurred.

Clearly Shanhara is the special entity, and perhaps it is also as Shadowman99 suggests - it's the fact that even she is unique among living armours because of how Livewire manipulated the parasitic function & turned it off (as opposed to it being anything to do with Aric's willpower over Shanhara).

As such, this allows Kindts story to occur as a sidestep to continuity, rather than anything that contradicts it. The fact that *something* happened that has caused Aric to separate himself so distinctly from Shanhara means he has no access to the knowledge from The Torment as long as this storyline goes on.
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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by geocarr »

grendeljd wrote:...because of how Livewire manipulated the parasitic function & turned it off...
Remind me which book and issue # did this happen in please?
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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by grendeljd »

geocarr wrote:
grendeljd wrote:...because of how Livewire manipulated the parasitic function & turned it off...
Remind me which book and issue # did this happen in please?
I can't recall which issue for sure, but I do believe it was in an early issue of Unity. It was after she had taken Shanhara from Aric & briefly wore it long enough to be able to understand it.
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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by Shadowman99 »

grendeljd wrote:
geocarr wrote:
grendeljd wrote:...because of how Livewire manipulated the parasitic function & turned it off...
Remind me which book and issue # did this happen in please?
I can't recall which issue for sure, but I do believe it was in an early issue of Unity. It was after she had taken Shanhara from Aric & briefly wore it long enough to be able to understand it.
I'd quite forgotten about this, but it's certainly reason enough to go and read over the Shanhara/Livewire issues of Unity again :)
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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by Keith »

Shadowman99 wrote:
grendeljd wrote:
geocarr wrote:
grendeljd wrote:...because of how Livewire manipulated the parasitic function & turned it off...
Remind me which book and issue # did this happen in please?
I can't recall which issue for sure, but I do believe it was in an early issue of Unity. It was after she had taken Shanhara from Aric & briefly wore it long enough to be able to understand it.
I'd quite forgotten about this, but it's certainly reason enough to go and read over the Shanhara/Livewire issues of Unity again :)
Actually, it’s in Armor Hunters #3 and #4 where it’s spelled out. Not sure if it is mentioned in Unity.
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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by geocarr »

Keith wrote:
Shadowman99 wrote:
grendeljd wrote:
geocarr wrote:
grendeljd wrote:...because of how Livewire manipulated the parasitic function & turned it off...
Remind me which book and issue # did this happen in please?
I can't recall which issue for sure, but I do believe it was in an early issue of Unity. It was after she had taken Shanhara from Aric & briefly wore it long enough to be able to understand it.
I'd quite forgotten about this, but it's certainly reason enough to go and read over the Shanhara/Livewire issues of Unity again :)
Actually, it’s in Armor Hunters #3 and #4 where it’s spelled out. Not sure if it is mentioned in Unity.
Awesome! Thanks!
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Re: X-O Returns...

Post by Shadowman99 »

geocarr wrote:
Keith wrote:
Shadowman99 wrote:
grendeljd wrote:
geocarr wrote:
grendeljd wrote:...because of how Livewire manipulated the parasitic function & turned it off...
Remind me which book and issue # did this happen in please?
I can't recall which issue for sure, but I do believe it was in an early issue of Unity. It was after she had taken Shanhara from Aric & briefly wore it long enough to be able to understand it.
I'd quite forgotten about this, but it's certainly reason enough to go and read over the Shanhara/Livewire issues of Unity again :)
Actually, it’s in Armor Hunters #3 and #4 where it’s spelled out. Not sure if it is mentioned in Unity.
Awesome! Thanks!
Great, I'll go have another look at those issues when I'm able to get back into my comic boxes again (moving house at the moment) :)
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