Chapter 196

[mvjz8]

Chapter 196's interesting. I was sort of surprised though, by pg. 19. (don't want to say; might be spoiler?) Any thoughts?

[Jimmy C]

Additionally, what do you people think of the extras? Especially the page from Collection?

[mvjz8]

The extras were great! All the stuff I want but can't have...^_^; And it was interesting to see the very beginnings of AMG.

[Timotheus]

Loved the extras. I've been trying to find that Tee shirt ad for years. It was different from what I'd heard and I'm changing the notation on the timeline.

As for chapter 195 and 196...
(Replaced rough draft with more polished version, Feb 1)

The events at the end of Chapter 195 have perhaps clarified something I've been trying to pin down in Oh/Ah My Goddess since I first started investigating it. Namely what is the goddesses attitude toward sex and physical intimacy.

Both Urd and Peorth have certainly implied the goddesses are fully aware of the physical aspects of love, and Bell knew what she wanted when Urd's potion overcharged her libido, but somehow you never got the impression it was all that important to them. In Belldandy's case, she keeps telling Keiichi how much she loves him and how his feelings for her make her feel glad, but she doesn't seem overly interested in physical expressions of it. Not indifferent, just not greatly desiring it. Well I think we may have just been shown why.

It goes back to what is the true nature of a goddess, or more precisely, how are goddesses different from us mortals physically and spiritually. While we share three common dimensions (length, width, and height) in which their bodies and ours seem to be fully comparable and compatable, goddesses have at least six more dimensions than we do. So their three dimensional aspect is only a portion of their total physical existance and we can only guess at what feelings and senses are entailed in the portions we cannot see. (I have a theory that the goddess markings on their faces are actually just the visual hint, a three dimensional footprint as it were, of a far more complex extra-dimensional extension of their intelligence and senses.) Thus the physical sensations of three dimensional intimacy, while appreciated, aren't the big deal they are to us poor mortals.

More importantly, I've come to believe that unlike us humans, whose bodies are made for us by Yggdrasil according to the natural laws it been programmed to follow and who are dependent on these bodies for the stability of our existence while in this world, for the gods, goddesses, and demons its the other way around. The all important core of their being is independent from their physical bodies, existing instead in the form of a free willed, self aware energy field, sort of like an artificial intelligence program except it isn't artificial and doesn't need a computor to exist. Their intellegence, memory, and emotions all exist in a ethereal state that is directly interfaced with Yggdrasil, and which then directs Yggdrasil as to what sort of body to make for it to inhabit.

These bodies are needed for the gods, goddesses, and demons to interact with the world that Yggdrasil is creating around them, but unlike us mortals who get what we get, their bodies are being created from instructions they give directly to Yggdrasil. Thus, since their appearance is a direct result of who they are, they can't easily change how they look, only their size. (Higher authorities CAN alter forms, but not easily and usually as a form of punishment.) Creating multiples of themselves involves copying their essential data and then having Yggdrasil create new bodies for each of them. (Conservation of matter requires the total mass of these multiples to be the same as the original being.) These are then distinct entities while they exist, but never lose their sense of unity and easily recombine when the multiples aren't needed.

And in the case of chapter 196, apparently goddesses can embody both a functional subroutine program of Yggdrasil and be a seperate physical entity at the same time.

This is a complex idea, aspects of which I'm still hashing out and who knows if I'll ever be satisfied with it. But I can explain one result of this thinking that applies to chapter 195. Goddesses respond to emotional feelings more strongly than physical sensations. Whenever Keiichi thinks warm thoughts about her or does some kind act for her, Belldandy is getting the warm fuzzys from it. She feels no need for heavy make-out sessions, she's getting her fill of love and affection just sitting next to her man, and returning it to him with all her heart. The problem is that she doesn't seem to understand that Keiichi might need more because he doesn't recieve feelings back with the same intensity she does.

The final clue for me was what happened when Keiichi finally said he loved her in chapter 195. I've checked with several sources (including a couple of Japanese exchange students) and the general consensus is that Belldandy was going orgasmic up on that roof when Keiichi finally says I love you to her and basically passing out from emotional exhaustion. ("love" graphics dancing all over her nude body and the blissed out look on her face) Thanks to Urd's potion (and possibly Keiichi being over-motivated thanks to Peorth's "training") Keiichi's emotional broadcast when he mentions the word love was sending out massive waves of emotion that overwhelmed any receptive goddess on the recieving end. (Including Skuld, Urd, and Peorth.) It may be that Keiichi already was a stronge transmitter of such emotions, one reason goddesses seem to like him, and Urd's potion only served to push it over the edge.

This isn't something new. If you go back through the manga you'll find lots of references to the goddesses reacting physically to strong emotions, especially from Keiichi. And if I get ambitious maybe I'll do that, but for now I'm just throwing this out there.

[tedne]

I also am confused by page 19 although it does fit in with a thought I had elsewhere that the megami don't have clear chains of command. They have differing responsibilities and may have different hierarchies simultaneously.

Several time Belldandy has said things to the effect that all her strength comes from Keiichi. Unless she is just massaging his male ego it may well be that she has really gained a great deal of power over the course of the manga from his love for her.

I don't want to reignite an old controversy but it is likely that Keiichi is the one holding back, for a variety of reasons. They both live in the present, she seeming to do so courageously; he with a morbid fear of loss.

[tedne]

Well, it turns out that chapter 197 is even more confusing.

Nothing got answered about Peorth. Perhaps she really is in charge of "forever."

At one point it looks like Skuld, Urd and Peorth are trying to protect Belldandy and Keiichi from the attentions of the Gate. Are they afraid she might try to grab Keiichi? Any ideas what is going on there?

[Jimmy C]

Have you read the english release? I thought it was pretty clear. They're not "protecting" K1 and Bell. That's just an effect of the viewing angle.

[Thrym108]

This may not be the appropriate area to ask, but, just WHERE are you getting the english translations to the Manga? Last one I found was Nekomi Kodai who seems to have stopped at ,I believe,178. I would REALLY like to get translation after this as I have the Tankouban after these. Thanks.

[Jimmy C]

thrym, check the links page on the G2G site (not this forum). It's at the bottom of the page.

[Thrym108]

I have already looked at the 3 sites on the 'Links' page. Bittorrent is not usable due to security concerns and Kyoshiro.net only gave one site Directmanga.com as a source. They only had up to Chapter 36.

[death]

Hi,

I had a similar problem with those sites, I would also like to know where to get the english volumes on the internet.