Millennial return of the Archangels + nature of the Seijin

Hmm, interesting speculation Bruno. After years of being Arch Angles I can see one trying it, the Schuler of the image springs to mind, a megalomaniac, in a Pica body. The old saw, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely," springs to mind. As always we must await RFC's decision, but it does lead one to imagine a Pica vs Pica duel. What a scene!

Poker

I think that at its core, the Safehold story is about purpose, failure and redemption. Life has purpose even if we as individuals can't see it. Even if we can't see it, we must look for it because survival/life might depend on it. Once we find it, we have to give pursuing that purpose our all. If we fail initially, try again and try harder. Trying harder after failure can lead to redemption but failure might lead to death. This is true for everyone.

Since the themes of the story is true for everyone, why make the key movers and shakers super-human? That implies humanity is incapanle of making the critical moral choices essential to succeeding and survival.

No, the critical choice needs to be made by humanity at large. They need to either accept that Langehorn's Writ is a lie and the Gbaba await or not. The choice to puruse survival is one that ALL humanity must make and most need to embrace if humanity has any hope to survive. A war between PICAs would tend to detract from choice.

RFC could write the story well using AIs and PICAs on both sides but the humanity of the struggle would be diluted. Recall that Merlin was denied his high speed data interface which made him much more human.

Just as a footnote, seijin translates as "adult". Intentional by RFC?

PeterZ wrote:I think that at its core, the Safehold story is about purpose, failure and redemption. Life has purpose even if we as individuals can't see it. Even if we can't see it, we must look for it because survival/life might depend on it. Once we find it, we have to give pursuing that purpose our all. If we fail initially, try again and try harder. Trying harder after failure can lead to redemption but failure might lead to death. This is true for everyone.

Since the themes of the story is true for everyone, why make the key movers and shakers super-human? That implies humanity is incapanle of making the critical moral choices essential to succeeding and survival.

No, the critical choice needs to be made by humanity at large. They need to either accept that Langehorn's Writ is a lie and the Gbaba await or not. The choice to puruse survival is one that ALL humanity must make and most need to embrace if humanity has any hope to survive. A war between PICAs would tend to detract from choice.

RFC could write the story well using AIs and PICAs on both sides but the humanity of the struggle would be diluted. Recall that Merlin was denied his high speed data interface which made him much more human.

Nice post and I agree--although a confrontation between PICAs would add a bit of spice in terms of drama.

Don

Of course if they both "died" in a final duel or one in the duel and the other as an aftereffect, that would still leave humanity with the choice as all the superhuman sources would be gone.

PeterZ wrote:I think that at its core, the Safehold story is about purpose, failure and redemption. Life has purpose even if we as individuals can't see it. Even if we can't see it, we must look for it because survival/life might depend on it. Once we find it, we have to give pursuing that purpose our all. If we fail initially, try again and try harder. Trying harder after failure can lead to redemption but failure might lead to death. This is true for everyone.

Since the themes of the story is true for everyone, why make the key movers and shakers super-human? That implies humanity is incapanle of making the critical moral choices essential to succeeding and survival.

No, the critical choice needs to be made by humanity at large. They need to either accept that Langehorn's Writ is a lie and the Gbaba await or not. The choice to puruse survival is one that ALL humanity must make and most need to embrace if humanity has any hope to survive. A war between PICAs would tend to detract from choice.

RFC could write the story well using AIs and PICAs on both sides but the humanity of the struggle would be diluted. Recall that Merlin was denied his high speed data interface which made him much more human.