Sometimes a little roughing is in order. I mean, when in doubt get the boot out.
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A Pagemaster reference!? Awesome!!! 
Just got around to read the latest two chapters. It’s some good s#it!
I don’t read alot of books and I am definitely no master of literature, but I really enjoyed reading this so far. It’s fun, full of action and has an awesome way of painting the room with words. Love it.
I read the 4th chapter. Cinder’s awesome. Nothing else can be said.
I get why they mentioned Playstation and PC in the last chapter now and not Xbox. The Xbox in this universe is the Ultrabox. And since Kim Wu’s uncle was anti-Ultratech, he probably didn’t allow his sons to get one. I guess it’s not all that complicated.
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Indeed. Ultratech it’s the biggest corporation in this universe, and any who challenges their hegemony surelly would be absorbed. If Microsoft ever existed, now they are part of Ultratech.
My guess into Gargos’ origin:
Sounds like Hisako has the ability to purify Jago in some form or another if I’m reading that right, she was the one that opened and dragged him through the portal right? Her being a guardian I wonder about.
My theory is that Gargos is a Gargoyle and like other gargoyles he was created to be a guardian. His job was to ward off evil spirits from the holy temple and to protect the worshipers. Over time Gargos had grew jealous of all the worship that take place before him daily. Gargos very much wanted to be a god himself, he quietly schemed against the temple. However his schemes were not successful. Gargos was eventually caught in the act and the other gargoyles sent out to destroy him. While Gargos was as strong as the others they out number him . In an effort to escape he hastily summoned a random portal. He unwittingly locked himself away for centuries, in the astral plane. The green gem stone stone that marble throughout his body glowed radiantly and in that moment he knew exactly where he was. Gargos grew stronger and stronger, but he was stuck. Gargos’ joy quickly became anger, all this power and no one to rule over. But He eventually made contact with a lil blue man through his prayers, and Gargos was more then happy to reply.
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No, Jago and Shadow Jago are already separate beings.
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Cinder may not be evil per say, but he is most definitely a “bad guy”. He isn’t the type to go out of his way to do harm to people, but if the easiest, most efficient way to get to his target is to go through a village of innocents, he will do it.
ARIA isn’t harsh, she is brutal. But yeah, she isn’t evil as she doesn’t do this for personal gain or just to seed hardship, she has an ultimately altruistic goal.
IMO Gargos’ trailer is made that much cooler due to the fact that he is mocking ARIA’s efforts to thwart him. He says, “I can play your game too machine,” and to me that says he knows what she has been doing, what the purpose of the KI tournament was, and that as advanced and “smart” as ARIA is, she still doesn’t compare to Gargos…at least in his own mind.
I honestly can’t wait until the Shadow Lords mode and more lore overall. They are doing an amazing job rounding out this universe.
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I agree. Even though I can’t play her, I love her character. Her backstory is one of my favorites.
That does make Gargos even more threatening than before. It should be really interesting to see how this plays out because we know ARIA can’t really be killed. Gargos can destroy her body 20x over but unless he manages to destroy w.e holds her data/consciousness or w.e she can keep coming back.
It would be quite a twist to see Ultratech be the ones to save the world though. I am sure Orchid/Jago’s little group (With Kim and Tusk) will be the ones who save the day, but id love to see ARIA and UT play a pivotal role in saving the world from Gargos and his forces.
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Cinder sees things as a job. It’s gotta be done. The military mindset. “mission before anything else.” It’s what the miltaray teaches you in basic and after.
Gargos is probably the most arrogant character in the series with kim and tusk following short behind him that and maybe kan-ra as well.
Mine too. ARIA as a character is very intriguing to me, as the idea of her playing earth as a massive game of risk / chess is just ridiculous.
ARIA can be killed, but it would just be incredibly hard seeing as she is essentially a ghost in a machine. It has been pretty well established that her true self is in the Pinnacle so destroying the UT HQ building would presumably be the way to stop her, but yeah, whose to say she doesn’t have copies of herself, and other high-tech facilities all over the world.
I think more than likely there would be an alliance of sorts in order to bring down Gargos.
UT, like Cinder and ARIA herself, aren’t evil, just brutal in the pursuits of its goals. UT has save countless lives with the tech they have pioneered, but at the same time they have ruined many lives too in the name of “preparing” the word for what is to come. I mean, if you just look at TJ Combo, and the fact that UT thoroughly ruined his life in order to experiment on him…the fact that he is now one of earth’s most powerful heroes is precisely the other side of that horrible coin.
The same goes for Orchid and Jago, and even the whole Glacius / Cinder situation. Glacius wants to stop ARIA from bastardizing his race, and ultimately bring balance back to the way things should be, but ARIA is truly protecting the earth from potentially hostile outside forces, and in creating Cinder and Fulgore she has grown earth’s “hero” count.
It is all pretty complicated and grey (which I really love) as the supposed “good guys” and “bad guys” over lap a lot in their motives. When everything goes down (granted it is all done right and well) it could play out to be an amazing story.
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Kan-ra for sure is crazy arrogant. Gargos is pretty arrogant as well, but I feel that he has the power to back up his hubris. But you think Kim and Tusk are arrogant? Why?
I mean I get that Kim is cocky, but I don’t get the sense that her ego is over inflated or anything. And Tusk too…he is pretty powerful in his own right, and is probably the strongest of those fighting for earth, but still I don’t see him as arrogant. I think a lot of what could be perceived as arrogance from Tusk is just the idea that we don’t know everything about him yet. I mean he just jumped out of a plane head / sword first in the Novella, flying at terminal velocity towards solid ice and didn’t flinch. Dude hit the ground “with the sound of a bomb” and survived. At this point Gargos might be the only one capable of killing him.
That reminds me…anyone got any ideas for why Tusk found that red piece of cloth by him in Chapter 2? It obviously cam from Hisako, but why would she have shown up? Did Tusk defeat that Shago, and Hisako showed up and took him? which would imply that the other Shago that showed up back in that town after the fight was yet another shago copy.
Or did something else happen, and did Hisako save Tusk after he was defeated by Shago? Which would make be question just how powerful Kim Wu with Yeo is as she decimated Shago, where as Tusk seemingly struggled.
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Everyone is superhuman in KI.
Man thats good stuff! Any chance of publishing into a product we can purchase?
Same here dude. I think she is one of the more interesting characters tbh. I can’t wait to to see what she has in store in S3’s story. Her ultimate goal is to ensure the survival of humanity, and with Gargos coming in this is sort of like the ultimate test lol
Yeah that is pretty much what I meant but I am 100% sure that a being of ARIA’s intelligence would know not to make it so obvious/easy. She knows UT has enemies that want to bring them down, so I believe she is would know better than to keep her one true self in one place that could be destroyed, like you I think she has many copies of herself in places all over the world as precautions.
Exactly! That is my favorite thing about her and this whole situation. The lines between who is good and bad is blurred and it makes things much more interesting than having everything be black and white. ARIA is a character that kind of makes you think and I like that. Even though they aren’t similar, she intrigues me the same way Shinobu Sensui does. Another character who I find very interesting that I really like lol
I think some of this plays into Shadow Lords and Season 2 and 3’s story.
ARIA isn’t like the old UltraTech from KI1 and KI2. She’s not summoning ancient warlords just because she can, or getting incredibly strong fighters killed for the sake of bloodsport. She wants to help humanity. Force them to grow and accept UltraTech’s technological advancements, no matter how stupid or insane they get. That’s why she summoned Gargos. “What better way to force humanity to accept my ideals than to lead them against a world-destroying threat?”
Yes, she could’ve killed the other heroes when she had them pinned down at the City of Dawn; they all actively hate UltraTech and surely plan to off ARIA as soon as possible. But why do that when she can instead prove that they can’t be true “heroes” unless UltraTech are the ones leading the path?
In a way, it’s almost like she’s narcissistic. She wants to be the big hero. She wants to be humanity’s savior. But she’s not doing that to be a generic villain; it’s just her programming. Ryat-Father wanted her to save the world and protect humanity, and that is what she must do.
(I type up an ARIA essay like every 3 months. I like her a lot!)
Back on topic, this is where the “uneasy alliances” part comes in for Shadow Lords. She’s going to force rivals to work together to purge the threat of Gargos. For example, Cinder goes from taking pleasure in setting Sabrewulf on fire:
…to him, Sabrewulf, and (for example’s sake) Tusk clearing out a bunch of Gargos’ minions in downtown New York.
Whether or not they get along is the important part. They better, because A). ARIA will slap the human out of them, B). Have a bunch of Fulgore and Riptor units do it for them, and/or C). Gargos/his many soldiers will have already ripped them in half and hung them on his wall.
EDIT: And yeah, it’s mentioned in ARIA’s backstory that she has multiple facilities set up around the world where she can “respawn”. It’s not just The Pinnacle.
“ARIA has been planning for this day for years.”
“I have made backup copies of myself scattered all around the world.”
I said this before. ARIA can die, it’s just…you basically have to throw the world back into the dark ages (aka NOT a good thing to do) to wipe her out by crashing the internet. And I doubt any virus anyone attempts to upload would do the trick. So essentially one must “pull the plug” to kill her.
But doing that has consequences which will most likely label the “good guys” as “bad guys.” Seeing as how humanity is still alive but being thrown back into the dark ages can spur conflict.
“Well ultratech is no more. But the world has to star over…”
random citizens
“YOU THREW US BACK, WE HAVE NOTHING!!! THANKS TO YOU!!!”
To me…that’s a problem. I don’t think someone like orchid wants said problem.
That’s just a theory though.
But Cinder said it best.
“If these pinheads gave it some thought they’d see they’re on the wrong side.”
ARIA seems like an approachable person. If everyone sat down and talked things over…I’m sure a deal could be made.
there’s also the issue of mega battery backups. Even if you destroy the internet, she would probably have a few hidden bunkers somewhere where some mega Tesla battery is storing a copy of her. you can never have too many battery backups.