Changes

Lain sees a boy with his arms raised toward the sky. She thinks nothing of it, but after school that day when Lain is out shopping with her friends the boys reappear. The clouds also part to reveal a naked figure of Lain<ref>In the Chinese (subtitled) version, the full body of Lain is shown (although without any marked sexual features to be spoken of), whereas in the American version, only Lain’s face is shown. Ironically, this is one of the only examples of things that are less censored in China than in the United States.</ref>. At this point, Lain ought to realize that her powers are now beyond her control, so ''lower the plot''<ref>Granted, for the purposes of this graphing exercise, happiness axiomatically translates to good fortune. But I also mentioned that “the converse is not necessarily true”, meaning good fortune is not only happiness. Although Lain may feel pride at seeing her figure in the air, it is painfully clear to the audience that she did not do that and that she is incapable of controlling her powers. Damocles may have wielded a lot of power; but with the sword dangling over his head, he did not have a lot of time to feel happy without his thoughts drifting to the sword again.</ref>.  

Lain sees a boy with his arms raised toward the sky. She thinks nothing of it, but after school that day when Lain is out shopping with her friends the boys reappear. The clouds also part to reveal a naked figure of Lain<ref>In the Chinese (subtitled) version, the full body of Lain is shown (although without any marked sexual features to be spoken of), whereas in the American version, only Lain’s face is shown. Ironically, this is one of the only examples of things that are less censored in China than in the United States.</ref>. At this point, Lain ought to realize that her powers are now beyond her control, so ''lower the plot''<ref>Granted, for the purposes of this graphing exercise, happiness axiomatically translates to good fortune. But I also mentioned that “the converse is not necessarily true”, meaning good fortune is not only happiness. Although Lain may feel pride at seeing her figure in the air, it is painfully clear to the audience that she did not do that and that she is incapable of controlling her powers. Damocles may have wielded a lot of power; but with the sword dangling over his head, he did not have a lot of time to feel happy without his thoughts drifting to the sword again.</ref>.  

Lain connects to the Wired. As she is still looking for information on the kids’ game, a solitary, giggling mouth pops up next to her. Lain refers to him as “Cheshire Cat”. The Cheshire Cat tells her that the game was invented by a Professor Hodgeson, and suggests she see him. When Lain sees Professor Hodgeson, he is lying on a reclining chair in a Romanesque villa facing clouds. He is evasive at first, but when pressed admits that it was part of an experiment to harness children’s supernatural power, and he expresses indifference towards the fate of the children involved. When Lain screams “That’s enough”, he vanishes from view—both from the real world and the Wired. ''Lower the plot until it touches the B-E axis''. Lain should realize by now that the Wired is not all pink-frosted cupcakes and unicorns

Lain connects to the Wired. As she is still looking for information on the kids’ game, a solitary, giggling mouth pops up next to her. Lain refers to him as “Cheshire Cat”. The Cheshire Cat tells her that the game was invented by a Professor Hodgeson, and suggests she see him. When Lain sees Professor Hodgeson, he is lying on a reclining chair in a Romanesque villa facing clouds. He is evasive at first, but when pressed admits that it was part of an experiment to harness children’s supernatural power, and he expresses indifference towards the fate of the children involved. When Lain screams “That’s enough”, he vanishes from view—both from the real world and the Wired. ''Lower the plot until it touches the B-E axis''. Lain should realize by now that the Wired is not all pink-frosted cupcakes and unicorns.

When she finally retires from the Wired into the safety of her own computer system, she sees two laser dots—the men in black are back! Determined to remove them once and for all, she goes outside, but they simply say “Get down”. After that, her computer system explodes. Before Lain can accuse them of having done it, they say “It wasn’t us. It was the Knights,” before silently driving away as always. Lower the plot below the B-E axis. Lain is now a target for the Knights, as they see her as a threat.  

When she finally retires from the Wired into the safety of her own computer system, she sees two laser dots—the men in black are back! Determined to remove them once and for all, she goes outside, but they simply say “Get down”. After that, her computer system explodes. Before Lain can accuse them of having done it, they say “It wasn’t us. It was the Knights,” before silently driving away as always. ''Lower the plot below the B-E axis''. Lain is now a target for the Knights, as they see her as a threat.

 

 

 

At home, Lain tries to talk about that to her parents, but they aren’t interested. Rumors are also flying around campus about Alice being in love with a teacher. Lain accesses the Wired in class<ref>What exactly are the technical details of accessing the Wired? In the later episodes of the series, the Wired is depicted as a full environment no different from the real world. If so, how can Lain remain in her seat or speak without drawing the attention of her fellow classmates? The author of this work believes that when Lain speaks she does so by typing in words, with modifiers to express tone of voice much like how in Wiki-markup there are modifiers to express bold, italic, etc. But the guess of the imaginative reader is as good as anyone’s, including mine.</ref>.  When she returns, she finds that both her classmates and her teacher are watching her, ''a la'' Inception. This is not because she has been accessing the Wired in class, but because the words “Lain is a peeping tom” are all over the Wired. ''Lower the plot''.

After that, “evil Lain” is revealed to be the culprit that spread the rumors. The “wired” Lain at one point has a wrestling match with “evil Lain”. Since they are equal, neither can defeat the other. “Wired Lain” pulls out her trump card: she erases everyone’s memories of the rumors. But none of it matters for our purposes, as we have defined Lain as “real-world” Lain.

After that, “evil Lain” is revealed to be the culprit that spread the rumors. The “wired” Lain at one point has a wrestling match with “evil Lain”. Since they are equal, neither can defeat the other. “Wired Lain” pulls out her trump card: she erases everyone’s memories of the rumors. But none of it matters for our purposes, as we have defined Lain as “real-world” Lain.

When all is said and done, Lain has disappeared from everyone’s memories . She is unable to interact with her friends. “Evil Lain” walks up to her, giggling at the tragedy which she has brought upon herself. A duplicate Lain goes to Alice and her friends, and seems to be happy with them. Lower the plot.

 

Lain goes to Cyberia. The DJ there tells Lain she left something there yesterday . It turns out to be a chip.  Lain asks some children what the chip is, and convince a young boy to go home with her. Once there, Lain plays some music that hypnotizes him into speaking the truth, but he genuinely does not know since he is not a full member of the Knights. When he is about to leave, he suddenly kisses Lain full on the lips. Lower the plot.  

When all is said and done, Lain has disappeared from everyone’s memories<ref>Logically this should not happen; she deletes her memories, not her existence.</ref>. She is unable to interact with her friends. “Evil Lain” walks up to her, giggling at the tragedy which she has brought upon herself. A duplicate Lain goes to Alice and her friends, and seems to be happy with them. ''Lower the plot''.

Lain goes outside. She looks up, and sees Eiri Masami, the God of the Wired, in the flesh. He has been stitched together with tape , because he committed suicide by lying on a railway track, and letting a train run over him. Eiri claims that objectively there is no god, but anyone who can affect the Wired and has believers is a god in the Wired.   

 

Lain goes to school, where her teacher orders them to stand up and bow. But there is no chair or desk in her place, and when the teacher passes out the test she passes it straight through her. Lain is surprised.  Alice turns and whispers to her, “the real world doesn’t need you.” Lower the plot. Lain is saddened. When she gets home, her family is gone. Her father comes in and all but reveals the fact that he was not her real father. Bidding her farewell and wishing her good luck in the Wired, he departs. Lower the plot.

Lain goes to Cyberia. The DJ there tells Lain she left something there yesterday<ref>Strangely, she is visible to those around her now…?</ref>. It turns out to be a chip<ref>This sequence is interspersed with what seems to be snippets from a documentary about alien conspiracy theories. Vannevar Bush’s “memex” is mentioned, even though from its description in his original article “As We May Think…” it would be far outclassed by the modern internet. An alien opens the door, then swiftly closes it again in one scene; the alien is heavily popular-culture influenced and never reappears. Possibly, the series is stating that the effect of the Wired merging with the real world is that if enough people wish for something to happen, it will happen. Also, “Schumann resonance” is mentioned; it is alleged to be an extremely low electromagnetic frequency that spreads easily throughout the Earth’s lower atmosphere, and it was the subject of several proposals to use it for the dissemination of messages, including one by the (in-universe) Eiri Masami.</ref>.  Lain asks some children what the chip is, and convince a young boy to go home with her. Once there, Lain plays some music that hypnotizes him into speaking the truth, but he genuinely does not know since he is not a full member of the Knights. When he is about to leave, he suddenly kisses Lain full on the lips. ''Lower the plot''<ref>After that Lain connects to the Wired on her NAVI. She sees herself being “introduced” to her parents and Mika. Disturbingly, when her father is shown to bring Lain to her room, the door opens behind Lain sitting at the computer.  Has her NAVI gained the power to go back in time and superimpose what was then to what is now? A computer powerful enough to figure out causality and calculate its inverse could conceivably do that. After all, physics has four fundamental forces, like mathematics has four fundamental operations, to which all forces and operations (respectively) and their inverses could be reduced.</ref>.  

 

Lain goes outside. She looks up, and sees Eiri Masami, the God of the Wired, in the flesh. He has been stitched together with tape<ref>Why should he need to be stitched up if he is dead and has assumed the form of a disembodied spirit visible only to Lain? This is not unique to this particular scene: many times, incorporeal people or things assume the attributes and limitations of their corporeal cousins. Is this a commentary on how the human mind is incapable of truly perceiving supernatural things, without putting them under a human mold?</ref>, because he committed suicide by lying on a railway track, and letting a train run over him. Eiri claims that objectively there is no god, but anyone who can affect the Wired and has believers is a god in the Wired<ref>The author of this work agrees with him in this respect. A god without believers is simply a demon to be feared and fought against. But this inherently unstable equilibrium will be resolved either by people believing in the unbelieved-in god or creating a new god out of whole cloth to oppose the demon. Like human tyrants who oppress their citizens under the guise of fighting evil, this new god might set all manner of catastrophes upon its believers, and the believers would still remain unfazed, simply because they believe. The best example is, of course, the Old Testament Jews, who (or at least whose literate prophets and priests) viewed every catastrophe their God failed to protect them from as either as a test of their faith or as a punishment for falling away from it, an attitude still held by many fundamentalists today.</ref>

   

Lain goes to school, where her teacher orders them to stand up and bow<ref>So China took ''this'' from Japan as well?</ref>. But there is no chair or desk in her place, and when the teacher passes out the test she passes it straight through her. Lain is surprised<ref>Wasn’t she surprised when she passed right through the door? Or, if she opened the door, weren’t her other classmates surprised when the door appeared to move by itself?</ref>.  Alice turns and whispers to her, “the real world doesn’t need you.” Lower the plot. Lain is saddened. When she gets home, her family is gone. Her father comes in and all but reveals the fact that he was not her real father. Bidding her farewell and wishing her good luck in the Wired, he departs. ''Lower the plot''.

 

Outside, the sky is multicolored and crisscrossed with wires. Voices emanate from the sky, all addressed to Lain. Raise the plot. The Wired (represented by the wires) is her oyster. In an empty Cyberia, (presumably busted by a police raid because of controlled substances) Lain somehow releases the information of all members of the Knights, and they are purged on the orders of an unknown employer, two of whose agents are the men in black. The men in black pay a visit to Lain. They do not kill her, both because they believe she is under the protection of God, and because they love Lain.  Raise the plot (somewhat).

Outside, the sky is multicolored and crisscrossed with wires. Voices emanate from the sky, all addressed to Lain. Raise the plot. The Wired (represented by the wires) is her oyster. In an empty Cyberia, (presumably busted by a police raid because of controlled substances) Lain somehow releases the information of all members of the Knights, and they are purged on the orders of an unknown employer, two of whose agents are the men in black. The men in black pay a visit to Lain. They do not kill her, both because they believe she is under the protection of God, and because they love Lain.  Raise the plot (somewhat).

Lain is faced with Eiri Masami after she leaves her house. Eiri Masami claims that she was an artificially created organism. Lain refutes all of his allegations with a simple and effective “Lie”. When Eiri continues to demand Lain “abandon the flesh”, she roars at him, literally pushing him away. Lower the plot.

Lain is faced with Eiri Masami after she leaves her house. Eiri Masami claims that she was an artificially created organism. Lain refutes all of his allegations with a simple and effective “Lie”. When Eiri continues to demand Lain “abandon the flesh”, she roars at him, literally pushing him away. Lower the plot.