BLAME! didn't end when we thought it did

[@waardlafrance110]

12:48 Note that in the Japanese pre-publication version, there are 2 extra pages without text showing this location. As for the rest, the drawings are the same, though very slightly different, generally only sharper, and the Japanese texts don't seem any different either. 12:50 On the right, you can see that the elite exterminator is making the sign with his hand -III-, I see in this a representation of symbol III, that is, an image of the resurgence of the city's guardians, which are the Government Agency that controls the safeguard. 14: 53 Well, in volume 1 there's a chapter called EX LOG, in which Killee destroys a Silicon nursery, only to discover that it's actually humans at birth, like the child from the sphere he brought into the world, whom he raised and lost, which affected him greatly, as can be seen at the end of LOG 1 and during LOG 2. At the end, when we see him having destroyed everything, he shows an expression as if he'd gone harder than he'd intended, and his reflexes had been too strong. This is the first change to come after his later disappointments, such as his relationship with the Agency and its betrayal of humanity. It's also worth noting that in Blame, all the chapters are marked LOG, which has both a diegetic and extra diegetic meaning: they are recordings from various sources, such as dreams, system recordings, etc. This chapter is specifically set apart, it's called EX LOG, as if this recording had been deleted. And as Killee rebels against the system at the end of the Nest Ruins* ex log, a rebellion that takes place off-screen, we can assume that Killee has changed profoundly, he may see Silicon life as a danger but no longer necessarily as a threat to be destroyed automatically. *Blame follows a narrative process linked to the principle of the Fatidic Instant.

[@johnsonbenjamin887]

Thanks for this overview!

[@waardlafrance110]

19:00 Killee is a Japanese man with black hair, the engineer is a blond man, for me it's yet another character, some say it could be Shibo's child, it depends which one because for me the child dies at the beginning of Blame. On the other hand for me there could be a link with Shibo and Kille by the fact that Shibo likes to do science and that Killee has knowledge of the system, so if Killee destroys the system nothing prevents him from returning to Shibo to start building a caste of engineers whose role would be to preserve humanity by preventing technologies from reactivating. 16:00 Note that the Japanese pre-publication version is very different, it has a very gothic look like Blame, the drawings are quite different although similar in the position of the characters and the scenery. However, this version contains much more information, such as the fact that Killee has reached the agency for kill. Assuming that Killee's aim was to bring someone with access genes to give instructions to the city, the fact that the “guardians” no longer exist is a problem. In fact, Killee's rebellion at the end of Blame, in this version, reached the Agency and destroyed it, globally deactivating the technology. And since then, a caste of engineers has been working to keep the situation as it is.

[@waardlafrance110]

I've written a book on the red-dit of blame, in French, but here's a quick translation of my chapter on the epilogues (I'll skip the explanations on the epilogues, as I'll just tell you what happens in them and how they relate to blame). What the epilogues have in common : - The Government Agency and Countermeasures have largely disappeared. - The megastructure has been deactivated - Humanity has endured - Humanity has centralized and is moving forward to master technology. - It's a human organization with a stroke symbol - Despite the fall of the Netsphere, the city's BIOS, including Builder management, continues to run. - Touching the city's relics is not permitted. We can therefore conclude that, should there be a sequel to Blame, the logic of Blame's story is that the Government Agency and Countermeasure are disconnected from the city, but remain in rare places as an ancient threat, and that humanity has prospered without having come into contact with the technology contained in the megastructure, which has more or less faded away. And that the city now only functions in minimal mode through its BIOS, where only the Builders and the city's basic maintenance technologies remain. The relationship of the epilogues to the two commonly understood endings The Blame Gakuen (and so on) manga presents “the Blame2 and Resosphere Engineer epilogues”, which is how French publisher Glénat presents it, but it's also how it's presented on the Internet in foreign sources. So there are two independent stories set at the end of Blame that give information that doesn't quite fit with what we know about the two potential endings to the main Blame story as they are commonly accepted: ▪ 1. Killee has fulfilled his mission by bringing the sphere's child into the world, and the Government Agency will take back the city thanks to him and his genes. ▪ 2. Killee failed in his mission to bring back the child, but thanks to his journey and Shibo things have moved on, and humanity will be able to endure thanks to the new things the Government Agency will be able to rely on. If we take hypothesis 1, the two epilogues make no sense to exist, because if the City was able to survive thousands of years of chaos then it should have survived over 1,000 with control, and these epilogues would then have to qualify as bonus stories like the other episodes of Blame Gakuen, which is not the case. If we take Hypothesis 2, the presence of the epilogues would already make a little more sense, as Shibo, who has long been conducting research into synthetic genes, could very well end up with what's left of the contaminated child and possible findings by Killee, who continues his never-ending quest. Which would then mean that the Engineer from the epilogue “Engineer of the Resosphere” is an official of the new humanity, using the technologies developed by Shibo. But there are still contradictions, such as the fact that the government agency, also known as the “Invisible Master”, has gone when it should still be there. Worse still, there's even a desire on the part of the author to convey the need to keep the old technology dormant, and Blame2 goes in the same direction of this forbidden technology that must remain dormant, and adds Killee who saves a Silicia who should in this hypothesis always be considered an element to be exterminated without a second thought, not to mention the fact that the Silicia says: “a tower that was used to call the guardians of the city”, i.e. the Government Agency more than the Countermeasure, which is just a police force, so Killee would have no incentive to save the Silicia or destroy the last artifact of the Government Agency he was still serving in second hypothesis.

[@waardlafrance110]

The relationship of the epilogues to the new ending hypothesis But according to the new ending hypothesis of Blame's main story, exposed through these sub-chapters, it shows that each epilogue makes sense with this new ending: ▪ 3. Killee, after recalling his long journey, faces his Fatidic Instant, disappointed by the the Government Agency, which is definitively betraying mankind in order to use the powers of Countermeasure for delusional purposes, having exterminated Silicia for reasons that will ultimately end in vain, ... remembers that he is also an emissary of the system and decides to destroy the Government Agency, which is also betraying the system, deactivating the technologies, which will leave the archive of LOGS linked to his journey to fade after the gradual loss of the knowledge stored in the megastructure. Hypothesis 3 offers a 100% connection with the two epilogues, in understanding this end of the main story, meaning that : Epilogue: “Engineer of the Resosphere”, is the story set after Killee was responsible for the destruction of the invisible master, i.e. the Government Agency, through his relationship with Shibo and his own position as emissary of the system, system, which would be the BIOS of all this technology as assumed in the artbook, he is able to offer the latter information to create a technology to deactivate the artifacts of the Countermeasure and the Agency, to be wielded by a mysterious caste of Cyborg Engineers. And the city doesn't collapse with the total shutdown of its technologies, because it's still running thanks to the system, which at the very least runs in a kind of “No-Fail” mode. The epilogue: “Blame2” is still the story of the disappearance of the Government Agency and the Countermeasures, and where it is indicated that the use of their technologies is forbidden, the appearance of Killee who destroys the countermeasures and the tower that was used to call the city guards, a term that indicates rather the Government Agency than the Countermeasures, would imply that we still have countermeasures under the control of the Agency and that Killee continues his war against the Agency here. And the fact that Killee saves the Silicia at the end of the story would support the hypothesis that EX LOG's naming of the destruction of the Silicia nursery has been erased from his memory as an act of regret, and that Killee's relations with the Silicia, while not peaceful, are no longer necessarily exclusively hostile.

[@saulcraft200]

There's also a oneshot called fort of silicon that explores a little more about silicon life.

[@melena1705]

Welp, I think I'll be tracking this down and maybe make a video about it soon.

[@Icantfindanamewtf]

hey new sub here , i would love to see more game reviews from your prsepective with your special gift you have

[@julinofooly]

Hell yea this ruled. And it got released officially here in the us recently? Hell I saw it on some (legal) manga site recently even? I think it was manga plaza. Really surprising! (You didn’t do that bad on musubis name. Its the same pronounce as “spam musubi” lol)

[@julinofooly]

Also keep in mind: the older the fan translation the more likely it’s double translated. Nihei was a huge hit in France before he was one in the anglosphere. The oldest scanlations (like ones I read decades ago) were very much japanese to french to English and I think some I read actually passed through Russian or Chinese first also. That’s why older scanlations and especially the ones of one shots before EN releases really vary hard. On another note, I actually never considered Killy having any motivation or feeling any “joy” killing anything. I see him as a non human shell who has forgotten emotion and such since he just exists for thousands of years. Also, graviton weapons seem to have been common before Killy was the only guy left (also Blame! Proper). I actually don’t think any of those guys like the dismantler or musubi are related or supposed to be him. I think Killy is just all that’s leftover. Other works (Sidonia) have the graviton weapons they are just generally much larger while Killy’s seems to be last stage, smallest version. Like, I see Sidonia as faaaaar in the past compared to Blame! Which is why the graviton weapons there are like… small ship sized almost (The one that was Kanata’s eye) With the assumption that Toha Heavy Industries developed them smaller and smaller from that point on. Tho, officially all of those series take places in alternate timelines (like the biomega toha is absolutely a different version of the company) but I could see Sidonia and blame being possible in the same universe just separated by thousands of years

[@melena1705]

@@julinofooly all really good points. The more I thought about it, the more I realized the connection between these characters lies in the fantastic world building. And I agree, I think Sidonia is possibly thousands of years before Blame! I always had trouble understanding and attaching any motivation (or personality) to Killy, but he does smirk when killing things, so I started thinking perhaps he found joy in that, but I cannot be certain. Thanks for watching and for sharing some good insights.