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Stark700
Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2017 11:38 am
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Episode 3:
If I was in Tanya's shoes, I'd be pissed too as they put her life in danger to test some object that may or may not work. Her logic wasn't wrong with that thing being fragile.
Idk about miracles but Tanya is lucky to have survived. The nutcracker thing (in my opinion) can be interpreted as two things: a dream or Tanya's own vision/delusion that's playing in her head, something that blurs between the lines of fiction and reality. Pretty interesting episode in regards to the development of science or whatnot.
I'm guessing we'll get into the battles again soon.
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Blood-
![](/bbs/phpBB2/images/subscriber-silver.png) Bargain Hunter
Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23980
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2017 5:07 pm
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One thing confuses me about "Tanya's" attitude. We have quite clearly seen that her salaryman soul was all about "following company rules" because it was easy to do so and lead to an easy life. Which is why I can't understand why she is so resistant to kowtow to "Being X." She has abundant proof he/she/it exists yet she persists in not playing by its rules which is very clearly going to lead her to not lead an easy life. Odd.
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scrwbll19
Joined: 16 Jan 2006
Posts: 87
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2017 5:18 pm
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I think that the catch for Tanya is that she is interested in taking the easy life, but she is only interested in doing so on her terms via how she understands how life works. "Being X" presents an alternative to her present view on life. Tanya is very much a humanist while "Being X" posits that such a view is unsustainable. Such a challenge to Tanya undermines her identity so to speak. So, we essentially get these two parts of Tanya that are at war with one another in a way.
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Blood-
![](/bbs/phpBB2/images/subscriber-silver.png) Bargain Hunter
Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2017 6:49 pm
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And no doubt that's what the creator (heh) of the title intended. It's just that faced with such overwhelming evidence of both the existance and power of "Being X", you'd think Tanya would fall into line faster than she is currently doing. Mind you, lots of people would say that contradictory behaviour is the essence of humanity.
Of course, "God" is being a bit odd in this show, too. Usually God requires you believe as an article of faith. If you explicitly reveal yourself, you are providing "proof" of your existence and thus circumventing the requirement on the part of your believers to exercise blind faith. Not only that, but this "God" is basically torturing Tanya until she agrees to acknowledge his awesomeness. Sort of reminds me of Mark Twain's famous quote that "God is a malignant thug."
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DuskyPredator
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15542
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 5:17 am
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If I had to give explanation to her thoughts. I think that she in essence refuses to believe that there is a big guy at the top who would have absolute power over everything. She sees the conflicts of various groups fighting over each other as chaotic and illogical, that anyone who would claim to be control of that is a liar and a fake. Or more specifically she sees the good parts of life to be the creations of man, that it is people who build the systems themselves, bring order and thus are the true creators. She herself is devoted to working within the system than man has created. At the same time she also sees war as pointlessly stupid, and so despite being in the system for it, she does not want to sacrifice herself to something so illogical.
The god (being X) himself seems to have gotten quite petty, feeling such a need to be worshiped as the creator. Tanya herself would look at the advanced devices that she is using to fly as the greatness of human ingenuity, and as crazy as the scientist was he was creating his own work, not something god did. But then god comes in, taking the man’s desire to succeed in his creation and decides he wants in. Yes, he kind of saved her, but it only happened after he butted in to influence the scientist to do something so crazy, she never asked for it. It would be like people claiming peace had been attained because of god, but the reason people went to war originally was because they thought god said so. Wow, this is sounding super anti-god or something, but I think it maybe plays advocate for why Tanya would refuse to bend her will and acknowledge X. Actually thinking, the evil in her title might purely be reference to her denial of a higher being.
Anyway, episode 3 was fun, looking at the OP and like, there is a certain Overlord feel to it. Interesting connection is that Aoi Yuuki was fantastic in Overlord as a villain, and her part here as Tanya could be seen as an extension that she does quite well in some crazy roles. The show continues to be fun, in a way I think that I can only describe as ironic, like in how we see Tanya looking kind of adorable in her way too long clothes.
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Gina Szanboti
Joined: 03 Aug 2008
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 5:50 am
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I don't think she's rejecting a "higher being" so much as rejecting that such a being is God, or is even necessarily "higher." She's been confronted with a being that appears more powerful than humans, but that doesn't make it God any more than some guy with a match is God just because someone who hasn't yet learned to make fire worships him. Or if lightning is God to such a person doesn't mean lightning is really God. She believes in the "advanced tech = magic" trope, and so refuses to believe that power she can't yet explain = God.
If such a being can reincarnate her soul and stop time though, it sort of feels like semantics to deny that it's a god, even if not The One and Only Capital-G God. For all intents and purposes, such a being might as well be, if it wields all the powers and knowledge you expect of God. Whether said god is worthy of veneration is another matter entirely, and is probably where she's hingeing her definition.
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lesterf1020
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Joined: 29 Apr 2008
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Location: Trinidad and Tobago
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 8:09 am
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I think it is a whole lot simpler than that. Tanya is a typical stubborn human being. When people who have dedicated and built their lives around a particular philosophy or ideology get presented with facts that prove them wrong they normally just deny the facts or as one of Murphy's lesser known laws state "When the facts contradict the theory the facts must be disposed of."
Tanya has dedicated her life to science , logic, following rules and the belief that there is no god and morality is unnecessary. It is how she lived her life and it is what allows her to do unpleasant things without considering the moral ramifications. If Tanya accepts god she will be saying her entire life philosophy and everything she believes in was either wrong or in serious need of adjustment. She is not ready to do that and so has decided to use technicalities like naming god Being X to simply avoid dealing with the ramifications and continue living life on her terms according to her rules. You can see it clearly in the anime. Tanya is stubbornly trying to live by the same rules she lived by as a salaryman. Tanya is a typical stubborn human.
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Blood-
![](/bbs/phpBB2/images/subscriber-silver.png) Bargain Hunter
Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 8:44 am
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I'm glad I raised the question about Tanya's behaviour because it has garnered some interesting discussion. Good points, y'all.
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scrwbll19
Joined: 16 Jan 2006
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 8:47 pm
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One additional point: we have to remember that this story is written by a Japanese author, which more than likely puts the concept of god within a Shintoist/Buddhist perspective. If one puts the concept within a Judeo-Christian context, obviously, it will change everything, especially in terms of "Being X"'s behavior. A god out of Shintoism might need the affirmation of a human to enable it to have power. However, this is not true from a Judeo-Christian perspective. A god in Shintoism need not follow the rules of good and evil that are more black and white in a Western culture. Similarly, demons are not always evil in Japanese lore. So, I would say that Tanya's reaction to "Being X" is much more understandable if one puts her and her author within a total Japanese context and mindset.
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Blood-
![](/bbs/phpBB2/images/subscriber-silver.png) Bargain Hunter
Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 9:17 pm
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I think that's a valid point. There is a huge difference between the Western concept of God and the Japanese concept of a god.
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TarsTarkas
Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5903
Location: Virginia, United States
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 2:50 pm
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As mentioned above, there may be other higher level beings, that could have such powers (besides God). There is many other creatures that could do such stuff. Like Khubey, for one.
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Cam0
Joined: 13 Dec 2009
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Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 1:15 pm
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I caught up with this show and I think that it's pretty cool. I didn't read anything about its plot so the introduction of "Being X" and the main character being a reincarnation of a salaryman were surprising, but interesting twists.
However, I'm constantly surprised just how friggin' short Tanya is. How old is she supposed to be? I got the impression from somewhere that she is 10, but I'm not sure.
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DuskyPredator
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
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Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 9:13 pm
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Cam0 wrote: | However, I'm constantly surprised just how friggin' short Tanya is. How old is she supposed to be? I got the impression from somewhere that she is 10, but I'm not sure. |
I thought that the age 11 was brought up somewhere, but that does seem to be around the age that she is. Physically has not hit puberty yet.
I did a little search, and it said she was born in 1913, whatever the maths is.
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Cam0
Joined: 13 Dec 2009
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Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 5:04 am
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According to wikipedia's episode summaries the year is 1924. So yeah, that would make her 11.
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DeTroyes
Joined: 30 May 2016
Posts: 521
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Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 4:44 pm
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Cam0 wrote: | According to wikipedia's episode summaries the year is 1924. So yeah, that would make her 11. |
Most of the promo material has said she's 10, but that could just mean she hasn't reached her 11th birthday (in that world) yet.
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