‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 723

Please note: NAV is updating only on Tuesdays until the end of June.

15 Comments

I’m new here, and I’ve gotta say I’m lovin’ this story!

I Googled Kido, and according to Wikipedia:

“Kido (written: ?? lit. “tree door” or “wooden door”, or ?? lit. “castle door”) is a Japanese surname.”

“Castle door” is a great name for a device that’s the gateway to L.i.F.e. and The Game!

I really hope that Danni and Mae will each get a Hakido, eventually. I’m hoping that it will give them both the ability to move around freely in the real world, and in VR. Also, I hope it can greatly reduce the pain that Mae experiences.

Danni is apparently paralyzed and on life support. We don’t know if it’s due to accident, degenerative disease, or maybe, just maybe due to a not-so-successful operation to remove the implanted portion of the first, failed Hakido prototype. I know that last one is a stretch, but wouldn’t a dancer be the perfect test subject for the Hakido? We know that the Kido doesn’t let Danni dance as smoothly as she could in real life. http://navcomic.com/qa-sessions/december-break-07/ If a famous ballerina could have danced just as well in VR as in the real world, using a Hakido, then everyone would have wanted to trade up from their Kido.

We know that Mae was injured in a collapse, and that she can’t use her left arm. It also causes her a lot of pain. I think I remember reading that her father was carrying her around, at one point, but I don’t know if that means that she can’t walk or if he just had to because she stays in L.i.F.e. all the time.

We’ve seen Kleya activate her Hakido, and the process only showed four of the six LEDs on it lit up. Normally, Kleya’s brain controls her body, but when the Hakido is engaged, it (instead?) controls her VR character. I’m hoping that the unlit LEDs are an indication that the Hakido can be used to bypass a damaged or diseased nervous system. That could (hopefully) give both Danni and Mae the full use of their bodies, in the real world, as well as exceptional control of their VR characters.

I think the reason that the first test of the Hakido failed was that it didn’t have advanced enough software. I think the way Keiko(Kleya) got it to work was by pilfering a copy of an advanced A.I. that her father was working on. We know he developed an A.I. to guard his island in the game. I think D was that A.I. Now, D is inside her head… more or less. On the page that showed Keiko laughing at the destroyed hospital, her irises were orange. I think that was a pretty big clue that D was in control, at the time.

—–

Another crazy idea I had: What if Saisuke is Jane’s missing husband? We know Jane’s husband went to look for help. What if he finally reached a city, but Jane had left before he could get back to her? We know Saisuke is looking for someone he knew in the real world. It could be Jane. Maybe what motivated him to become the best in The Game was to earn as much money as possible to pay for the search.

—–

I’m sure a lot of these theories have been discussed already, but it would’ve taken me forever to get through the archive, if I had read every comment. I was reading them all, at first, but I kept getting frustrated that I couldn’t respond to them. xD I totally understand how much of a pain it would be to moderate the comments, if they weren’t closed on the old pages, though.

Where can I get a Kido, to play NAV: The Game: The Game? 😉 I don’t think I want a Hakido, till they come with a more chill A.I.

I know your not reading the comments anymore but can you read the next one from me plz, Speedy.

ooh, I’ve heard the theory about Saisuke being Dad, but don’t think I’d heard one about it being Jane’s husband….

I remembered another theory that I had. What if Kleya did start Deconstruct Me, not as a group of malicious hackers, but rather as a think tank with the goal of literally deconstructing her? If D did kill her mother, then Kleya would almost certainly have wanted to separate herself from him.

D would consider any attempts to remove Kleya’s exoskeleton or to remove him from it as an attack. D might have created the Virus as both a defense against Deconstruct Me and as a way to frame them for malicious activity.

Has that theory been brought up before? If so, what was the general consensus about its plausibility?

—–

I think D has been getting his claws dirty in ways that Kleya would most strenuously object to. For instance, I think D knows exactly where Mina and her family are, and I think he’s doing whatever it takes to keep them there. I think D was the one who sent the med-bot that blocked a possible route of escape from the rubble. The bot had medical supplies that Mae needed, but it blocked the path, ensuring that the family stays “safe” under the rubble, where they can continue to provide companionship for Kleya, in L.i.F.e., but can never reach her in the real world. He might also be seeding the ruins with food and other supplies, so Mina and her parents can stumble across them when they’re foraging. I think the family is just another resource that D is collecting.

Kleya and D remind me of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or of a number of anime characters who have a somewhat symbiotic relationship with a demon that’s possessing them. Simply put, I think what D thinks is good for Kleya is nothing like what Kleya thinks is good for Kleya.

—–

I’m curious about what resources were in space, before the Apocalypse. Could D have dropped a rock on Yellowstone or another supervolcano? Could forcing eruptions from certain volcanoes possibly change the flow of liquid metals in Earth’s outer core, thus jumpstarting the supposedly overdue magnetic pole reversal? It hardly seems likely, considering that the outer core is like a couple of thousand feet deep. Anyway, it supposedly takes like a thousand years for the poles to reverse, when it happens naturally. The only way I can think of to effect Earth’s magnetic field would be to drop a massive chunk of iron on it, but that would certainly cause an Extinction Level Event(E.L.E.).

I’m guessing that the pole reversal in NAV was either natural, or that some future technology was involved. (Or… maybe D converted the Large Hadron Collider from a ring of huge electromagnets into one massive electromagnet, and ran it constantly, until he changed the flow of liquid metals in the outer core. That sounds at least fake sciencey enough to make a SyFy movie out of, doesn’t it?)

https://www.sciencealert.com/navigation-systems-finally-caught-up-with-the-mysteriously-north-pole-shift

Earth’s Layers:
http://www.iupui.edu/~g115/assets/mod04/earth_composition.jpg

As far as I’m aware Dani was not involved with any Hakido prototype. And it pretty clearly started in the comic, that Dani was paralyzed due to a big accident that happened before things got to dire. I believe it was she was up on stage giving some performance and the building collapsed on top of her. but in a way she was lucky in that there was still enough resources at that point for them to be able to dig her out and get her on life support. but it sounds like either she has suffered to big a trauma physically, or that resources ran out before they could do much more so now she’s stuck in this limbo state, which her parents are doing all that they can to keep her status quo going.

I don’t think it’s so much that she lost control to the ai so much as lost her grip on reality and for a while thought she was still in a game when the wasn’t and we all know how she used to treat games. I think that’s why she went on such a rampage, she was aware of what she was doing, but not aware that she was doing it in real life.
I’m thinking it could of been some blended mode. like Augmented reality, instead of Virtual Reality. It could

as far as Saisuke as Jane’s missing husband that is interesting idea, and your right it is quite plausible.

Finally I’d also be interested in trying out a Kido as well. if we could.
Though You’d not have to worry about the Hakido though, as even in the story they don’t know how to make those work. They don’t know enough about how Kleya modified hers to make another working one. they just know that she did do something to to hers, and now they can’t remove it with out killing her.

I know Mae was injured in a cave-in, when she was foraging unsafely in the collapsed building where the family is trapped, but I think what caused Danni’s paralysis is still a mystery.

There’s no evidence for my crazy theory about Danni being a Hakido test subject. It’s just that in fiction, characters’ pasts are often much more intertwined than IRL. I think watching Lost made me start looking for the unlikeliest ways that characters’ backstories could be linked.

—–

I think when Keiko got her Hakido working, she was still very immature and impressionable, and she had spent so much time in VR that she didn’t have a firm grip on reality. I think D did give her an augmented reality, with real world data he collected or hacked, much like he still gives Kleya in VR. I think D took advantage of her weaknesses, and influenced her to do some very bad stuff. I don’t know if he was able to take control of her, back then, or if he was just a very pushy “shoulder demon” that she wasn’t equipped to resist. Even now, after years of experience with him, she still has trouble keeping him (and herself) in check.

I think that Kleya has the skill to create a sane A.I. that could replace D in her Hakido, and that could be used in Hakido for Danni and Mae. The real problem is that D will probably not let her replace him. Remember, Kleya’s heart stopped, when they tried to remove her Hakido. I think that Kleya was unconscious for the procedure, so she was unable to control D. I think D stopped Kleya’s heart temporarily, to force them to abort the procedure, in order to preserve himself and his connection to Kleya. (I think the part of D that’s with Kleya is in her implant, not in the exoskeleton portion of the Hakido)

If Kleya could start producing non-psychotic Hakido, then people could use them to easily control mechs that could help with rescuing trapped Outsiders, like Mina’s family. I’m betting that D stashed away a bunch of mechs, when people started destroying them. D is a hoarder.

—–

I think I might know what D stands for – Daemon.

dae·mon
/?d?m?n/
noun
noun: daemon; plural noun: daemons; noun: daimon; plural noun: daimons
1. (in ancient Greek belief) a divinity or supernatural being of a nature between gods and humans.
an inner or attendant spirit or inspiring force.
“Socrates claimed to have lived his life according to the dictates of his daimon”
synonyms: inspiring force, genius, numen, demon
2. archaic spelling of demon.

dae·mon
/?d?m?n/
noun (COMPUTING)
noun: daemon; plural noun: daemons; noun: demon; plural noun: demons
a background process that handles requests for services such as print spooling and file transfers, and is dormant when not required.

– definitions from Google

I think all those definitions could apply to D. Many of us probably think of D as a demon, but he probably thinks of himself as a daimon in the rough. In fact, he might actually be a diamond in the rough. I think he does want to help Kleya, but he has no conscience, empathy, or moral compass. I think as Kleya develops them in her self, she may become D’s “shoulder angel”, and be able to help D develop them.

(Sorry if any of this has already been discussed umpteen times on previous pages)

Maybe hear what the researcher found before you flip out, guys? Just saying.

You made some very interesting points and connected a few dots I didn’t and I’m impressed that you are new to this story and wish you would be able to see this comment but theres really no point for you to go backwards to read here now.

I just want to say for all you new readers, I hope you keep this up. It is worth the waite tho it seems slow. I noticed in my 4 years of being a fan when she was doing two pages a week that she was so spent and overwhelmed due to the brilliant colors and all that goes into this beautiful masterpiece.

The writer was forced to take breaks and kept mushing on for us. This is why I know she won’t give up this work of art and actually think she should charge more for her books than she does.

KEEP ON READING! it’s worth the seven day wait until the next panel so stay with it…!!

Thanks for replying! I had a lot of fun, trying to connect the dots. Of course, I’ve probably connected several of the wrong dots, making a scribble instead of an accurate picture of where things are heading. But, that’s half the fun! xD

I’ll certainly keep reading. This story is too good to miss!

Now, I think I’ll go take a long nap. Does anyone know how to program an alarm on my Kido for next Tuesday? … Reeeally? Now, just how good of a programmer are you?…

love panel 2 😀
Sandra’s reaction seems odd to me. Sounds like outsider goes missing, group is out of gameplay has already been established in the rules, shouldn’t she be more concerned?
I get that you want to show that outsiders going missing is such a common thing it’s barely worth the attention, but Sandra doesn’t decide to get permission to play minus one person until Danni pushes the issue, like it’s more of an afterthought than anything. Considering what’s a stake for all of them, I would think she’d be more interested in whether or not her group will play.
And if I were TENka, I would not give permission so that interested people will be more likely to search for her and make it harder for her to hide.

it has already been established that Sandra’s major interest is in Kleya and what her skills can do for her especially against Tenka, no Kleya means she is basically going thru the motions especially since she does not want Tenka focused on Kleya

Sandra’s kind of a manipulative little…twit, ain’t she?

Oh; and Jake’s interesting in panel 2. Looks like he’s trying to be very…unnoticeable.

If The Dude weren’t in the way, Jake would be getting a Gibbs slap, right about then.

LOL – Give it to the Dude and tell him to “Pass it on!” 🙂

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 723