someone explain SE : LAIN

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madbunny
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Post by madbunny » Mon Apr 05, 2004 8:07 pm

You could read an entire synopsis of Lain, and still not get it.

Basically, on the surface it's about Lain understanding who she is. There are a bunch of subplots, involving aliens, stolent children, mind control, the knights, and turning the world into a sentient ball of rock.

The show has such a deliberate pacing that sometimes it's easy to get frustrated with it, when it brings up fairly important plot points, and then deals with them ten episodes later.

Within all of this the story is a story of change, or as my wife likes to point out: "A Jesus parable."

All you really need to understand is that Lain is a chesspeice in all of this. The big part is finding out which one she is. At the end she basically has to make a choice where she decides the fate of the world, but at a price.

Oddly enough, multiple veiwings of the entire series do actually help. (I'd skip the aliens and the documentary stuff though)
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DTJB
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Post by DTJB » Wed Apr 07, 2004 4:00 pm

Maybe it's just me, but I kind of found Lain easy to understand, probably from watching Evangelion so many times, just to understand it all. I might not have given the Roswell incident and history of the computer and of the wired much of my attention, I found it didn't really have that much to do with the main plot. Of course, I only watched it once when I borrowed it from a friend of mine. Also, I'm not sure, but has anyone actually found this series to be depressing? I thought the final scene made the whole experience fun and was actually pretty cute.
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madbunny
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Post by madbunny » Wed Apr 07, 2004 4:33 pm

DTJB wrote:Maybe it's just me, but I kind of found Lain easy to understand, probably from watching Evangelion so many times, just to understand it all. I might not have given the Roswell incident and history of the computer and of the wired much of my attention, I found it didn't really have that much to do with the main plot. Of course, I only watched it once when I borrowed it from a friend of mine. Also, I'm not sure, but has anyone actually found this series to be depressing? I thought the final scene made the whole experience fun and was actually pretty cute.
Are you talking about the scene where:
spoiler wrote: Lain meets the older version of her friend. She 'almost' remembers Lain. Lain is doomed to a life in the shadows because she's chosen to reset the world as a place where she does not exist but can't let it go... that scene?
Build a man a fire, and he will be warm for a night. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.

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DTJB
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Post by DTJB » Wed Apr 07, 2004 5:12 pm

madbunny wrote:
DTJB wrote:Maybe it's just me, but I kind of found Lain easy to understand, probably from watching Evangelion so many times, just to understand it all. I might not have given the Roswell incident and history of the computer and of the wired much of my attention, I found it didn't really have that much to do with the main plot. Of course, I only watched it once when I borrowed it from a friend of mine. Also, I'm not sure, but has anyone actually found this series to be depressing? I thought the final scene made the whole experience fun and was actually pretty cute.
Are you talking about the scene where:
spoiler wrote: Lain meets the older version of her friend. She 'almost' remembers Lain. Lain is doomed to a life in the shadows because she's chosen to reset the world as a place where she does not exist but can't let it go... that scene?
Yeah, that's the one. To me, it felt like that, even though she was changing history, she was in a sense, given a second chance. Even if she couldn't be with her friend all of the time, she could still interact with her and watch over her. Somehow, it just put me in a really good mood.
Probably too busy to be here right now.

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Savia
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Post by Savia » Thu Apr 08, 2004 6:19 am

Thought Experiments Lain

Goodness abounding. Particularly the page on the Lain / Apple relationship.
"A creator needs only one enthusiast to justify him." - Man Ray
"Restrictions breed creativity." - Mark Rosewater

A Freudian slip is where you say one thing, but mean your mother.

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