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Post by exdevlin on Feb 13, 2014 14:18:16 GMT
I have a theory that all of these cheap Hallowe'en gimmicky things we've seen in this chapter are The Real Deal. Basically, these props are actually how the ROTD works, but there is some sort of magic involved that just allows the visitors' imaginations to fill in a LOT of details. The first Kat-like human probably found the props, decided he could reproduce them, and began making human copies that were not magically enchanted, and are now sold in stores every year for the occasion.
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Post by alpacalypse on Feb 13, 2014 16:06:51 GMT
I'd like to think that the RoTD that Kat is seeing is the real thing and that the place is visually enhanced for those who are in tune with the ether (like Ghosts and Annie) because honestly who else would normally be able to get there. Kat is an unintended visitor and since she is unable to see things in the ether without help, she is seeing how it really looks. Back in Chapter 16 when Ketrak appears, Annie is able to see him but Kat is not. I think it would make sense if Annie is seeing something different than Kat because she is able to and Kat inability to look into the ether just so happens to make everything easier.
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Post by sidhekin on Feb 13, 2014 16:46:15 GMT
I think the VHS clinches it: The stuff Kat's seeing is not The Real Deal™, but coloured by Kat's world view.
The Realm of the Dead would not Really™ use a technology that was current for just two or three decades.
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Post by mglvna on Feb 13, 2014 20:00:17 GMT
It makes perfect sense for ROTD to use outdated tech. If Annie and Mort are seeing ancient, arcane and most mysterious magics written in lost languages, the tech equivalent certainly isn't going to be an iPad. A Rolodex though? Fits in just right. And if Kat's expectations have already been colored by cheap decorations and silly gimmicks, a switch to modern and user-friendly methods would be downright jarring.
This does raise the question of the Verification Bat. Are they hearing different things as well as seeing them? Or did Annie and Mort witness a large and majestic winged creature perch with noble stature atop Kat's shoulder and judge her worthy to enter? The world may never know.
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Post by Lightice on Feb 14, 2014 8:04:41 GMT
The Realm of the Dead would not Really™ use a technology that was current for just two or three decades. Really? I think it makes perfect sense that they'd be using dead technology. |
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Post by sidhekin on Feb 14, 2014 8:21:30 GMT
It makes perfect sense that it would appear as such, but ... what kind of technology would they have been using, say, three hundred years ago? And why did they stop: What was dead then, would be just as dead today, no?
Why would they bother Really™ throwing out the technology every few years?
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Post by KMar on Feb 14, 2014 8:37:49 GMT
It makes perfect sense that it would appear as such, but ... what kind of technology would they have been using, say, three hundred years ago? And why did they stop: What was dead then, would be just as dead today, no? Why would they bother Really™ throwing out the technology every few years? That's why I adhere to that Robo-Goddess Cult interpretation of the ROTD: the ROTD has taken such a form that Kat the Angel can navigate easily and use e.g. summon records from the Vault of Memory without any difficulty. Because what kind of Angel that would be who couldn't do that? |
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Post by Gulby on Feb 14, 2014 9:42:29 GMT
It makes perfect sense that it would appear as such, but ... what kind of technology would they have been using, say, three hundred years ago? And why did they stop: What was dead then, would be just as dead today, no? Why would they bother Really™ throwing out the technology every few years? Maybe, because the ancient deads keep in touch with "new" technology, while the "new" deads generally know their own time's one ?...  |
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Post by warrl on Feb 14, 2014 18:55:53 GMT
I'm sure he has seem novices though, even if they were still silent. By the way, at some point there must be an explanation to all this. Why is it all so boringly cheap to Kat, and why not to others? What do they see (aside from thousands of books)? Why does it matter that they see the ROTD differently? I mean, is this just for laughs? If not, then why? First, I think Kat is seeing a lot less than the other two because: * Mort is staff. Normally on a detached assignment, but still, he works for the same outfit. * Annie is in fact a psychopomp. Not one of the regular ones, and with very little experience - but a nonzero amount. She was the sole psychopomp for her mother, retrieved the little boy's spirit from his own nightmares when the proper, experienced psychopomps could not, and escorted some unknown but respectable number of spirits while in the company of experienced psychopomps. * Kat - nothing so far. She's going to be a psychopomp, but she has precisely zero experience at it to date. So she only gets to see stuff that is directly relevant to her mission or that will guide her to what is relevant. As for why the stuff she sees takes the form it does: I like the notion that it's because she's going to be a techno-psychopomp, so for her the realm of the dead takes the form of recently-dead, dying, or obsolescent technology. Paper books, Rolodex, VCRs (and tapes), tube televisions. And really cheesy paper Halloween decorations that lots of people wish were dead. Why not long-dead stuff such as scrolls? Because they really aren't part of the world as she sees it; at most they are relics from a world that she never saw. But it could be for some other reason entirely. |
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