In the tenth episode of\u00c2\u00a0Serial Experiments Lain<\/i>, the illusion shatters. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Serial Experiments Lain<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
In hindsight, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure this is as convoluted as it felt to me while watching it, so ENJOY THE VIDEO OF ME BEING CONFUSED AND SHOCKED THE ENTIRE TIME. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m combing over the notes and the rough draft I wrote after immediately watching \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Love,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear to me that this show has become a character study as much as it is a mystery. Eiri and Lain are now set-up to be the main conflict, something that confused me initially. Eiri\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0the main antagonist, at least for Lain, and I imagine that the remainder of this will deal with the struggle to stop Eiri\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quest for godhood.<\/p>\n
Well, even\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly true, is it? Eiri is already a god of the Wired, at least by his logic. He fed his consciousness into the Wired through his experimental protocol, and the Knights were his followers and believers. (There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a neat but entirely coincidental thematic similarity between this and a lot of stuff in the\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t there?) The Knights worshipped Eiri, and that worship gave him power. But I am guessing that he wants more power than just what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the Wired. Sure, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already omniscient and omnipotent in one sense, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not enough, is it?<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s through this that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153true\u00e2\u20ac\u009d nature of Lain is revealed.\u00c2\u00a0I think<\/i>. See, I can never quite tell if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m supposed to accept things at face value or to challenge them. The show has outright lied to us before, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sensible to assume that the writers\/creators might do so again.\u00c2\u00a0Is<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Lain nothing more than the creation of Eiri? Did she come to corporeal form over the years rather than being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153born\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in any traditional sense? Aside from my unwillingness to accept everything I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m told by\u00c2\u00a0Serial Experiments Lain<\/i>, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really have a reason to reject this. As far as I can tell from the information we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten, this is the truth. Lain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s growth was always part of an experiment, which is why her parents slowly faded out of her life.<\/p>\n
(AND I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THAT. Did Mika know that she was part of a fake family? Is that why she acted so bizarrely towards the end? I get the mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s distance, as well as Lain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u009d interest in Lain and computers. In hindsight, their behavior now feels way more sensical. But I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really get what happened to Mika at all. HOW LONG HAS THIS FAMILY BEEN FORCED TO ACT LIKE THEY WERE REAL???)<\/p>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a very specific thing Lain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father says, though, that helped me figure out why this conflict between Eiri and Lain is so important to the show. More than once, he mentions that Lain has free will, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suggested that it is free will in the purest sense. She can choose to be literally anything or to do literally anything. Indeed, she even acts against the Knights in this episode. (I think? It made sense to me that Lain found out who was in the Knights and then leaked their names in retaliation. She has such pure free will that she can will into existence ANYTHING she wants, including the names of the people in the Knights.) That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an intentional thing to fight back against what Eiri shows her in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Love.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an entire existence\u00c2\u00a0without<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Lain in it that unfolds over the course of this episode.<\/p>\n
Why? So that Eiri can prove to Lain that she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0really<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0exist, at least not in the way she always believed she did. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my hypothesis: Eiri wants Lain to give up her body to live fully within the Wired (most likely with him) as the first step to getting\u00c2\u00a0everyone<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real\u00e2\u20ac\u009d world to do the same. Why else would he go to such great lengths to show her the vacancy of her life? If I accept that, then it seems clear that Lain wants to fight against an existence entirely in the Wired. She wants the real world. She wants bodies and families and friends, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not willing to sacrifice all of that to become a god of the Wired herself.<\/p>\n
Annnnndddd I could be completely wrong. About all of this. But I took what Eiri said with a grain of salt, yet I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t willing to completely discount what he said. Perhaps the idea that there is a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lain is a faulty premise, too, but the Lain we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve known for most of the show is the one who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s front and center. I think she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll ultimately make the decision that affects whether the Wired dominates or disappears.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Love\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards.<\/b> In the tenth episode of\u00c2\u00a0Serial Experiments Lain, the illusion shatters. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Serial Experiments Lain.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[661],"tags":[662],"class_list":["post-5835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-serial-experiments-lain","tag-mark-watches-serial-experiments-lain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"