Perhaps...Tri-edge isn't "evil."

[Red]

After first seeing the trailor I had this feeling that Tri-Edge was some re-creation of Cubia - attacking players it considers dangerous to The World (v2!)

After reading the first part of the Manga, I scrapped that.
One thing is pretty visible - Tri-Edge is unthinking, a ball of pure ubridled action. Instinctive. Any sentient being's eyes would show more soul.

[laysh]

At first I thought he was Cubia as well but I knew he wouldn't be protecting the world since Cuba wasn't a Protection program.

[Red]

In one of the Liminality DVDs there is a hidden 'area' that talks about it.
It said that Cubia was there to attack people who violated the rules of the system and Protect Aura.

So what overrules that?

[Blackwolf203]

A virus? No. Not with the Altimit OS. Viruses are pretty much extinct now.

what about pluto's kiss that was around during altimt was it not? (may be mistaken though) there for it would make sense because some viruses just copy and it would be copying what Kite or other pk's do.

Actually Pluto's Kiss is what set Altimit apart from all the other OS's because they are the only one to withstand the virus. This is what caused them to become universal in the first place.

Of course, in my personal opinion (with influence from AuraTwilight), CCC took it upon themselves to create a nasty virus that conveniently wipes out any and all competition with Altimit and then blame it on an kid. How odd, how coincidental that a kid creates the Ultimate Virus and conveniently forgets to include destruction to one OS

Yes, that definetly sounds like an effective business plan. CC. Corp. does sound like the kind of company that would do such an immoral act.

I completely agree, it's what I would have done.

oh ok thanxs never mind then

[milliennium_fox]

In one of the Liminality DVDs there is a hidden 'area' that talks about it.
It said that Cubia was there to attack people who violated the rules of the system and Protect Aura.

So what overrules that?

Evidence in the game itself, .hack//Analysis (a Japanese only Encyclopedia-like book of .hack). Not to mention, the extras didn't appear in any version of the .hack games except the North American version.

This doesn't mean all the info on it is wrong though. But, the Cubia info is indeed incorrect.

[Satu]

Well, why does Tri-Edge have to be classified? .hack is all about gray areas. I suppose there are several options of belief, though...

1) Tri-Edge is evil.
2) Tri-Edge is not evil or he's just misguided.
3) Tri-Edge is in the gray area I mentioned.
4) Tri-Edge and his actions transcend evil, not evil, and the gray area.

Yeah, there are tons more, but I'm working off of the assumption that Tri-Edge is indeed an AIDA and not Helba's child (which, like AuraTwilight said, who would NOT know how to hack, seeing as how hacking is punishable by death), Kite's now digital soul, or some other random hacker that woke up one morning and decided to mod his character into a zombified version of Kite's, somehow program Data Drain into his character, and all just to run around and place some random people into comas.

(But the whole "AIDA" name raises questions of whether or not there's a difference between a Vagrant AI/AI and an AIDA, seeing as how they have two separate names... Unless of course AIs and Vagrants are completely different from one another. Then we've got three different categories to describe and deal with. Just a thought.)

Anyway... Sure, this thing has artificial intelligence, but does it have a conscience? If it can't process "right" and "wrong," then it could be argued that Tri-Edge isn't responsible for its actions. Besides, we don't know very many details about the coma victims (right?), so it could also be argued that perhaps there is some good coming out of causing them to become comatose.

Or, perhaps The World is looking for another hero of sorts, but there are too many players deemed unworthy for the task. So Tri-Edge is sent to place people into comas in order to see if he can't draw a hero out from the crowd that's worthy enough for what needs to be done. An unlikely theory, but then again, that's all it is: a theory.

And the whole Bracelet going berserk theory... Well, doesn't that just seem unlikely when you consider what the bracelet is? No clue if this needs spoiler tags, but I'll use them anyway.  It was only an installation program made by Aura because Morganna limited her ability to perform Data Drain, thus protecting Morganna from being edited by Aura. So, perhaps the program went berserk? But Aura and even Balmung say that the bracelet is neutral. "It can bring salvation or destruction at the whim of the user," right? So, there'd need to be some sort of AI behind it in order for it to DO anything. Logically, it couldn't be the bracelet program itself, but an AI (or the system) using it. And, I'm not sure if there are rules in The World on as to which pieces of programming can gain sentience or not, but I don't think the Bracelet would be in the "Can Gain Sentience if not Monitored" section. In a way, wouldn't it be like saying that the program for "La Repth" could gain sentience, gain an avatar that had the ability, and run around randomly healing people?

But Tri-Edge brings up one question in my mind: Where are Aura and Cubia? I mean, the theory that Tri-Edge is Cubia makes a little bit of sense, but... It doesn't make that much sense. And, if Tri-Edge isn't Cubia, then you'd think that Cubia would become active and, I dunno, DO something about him. Crappy defense system, if you ask me. And if you bring up Aura, you might as well add that she's a rather crappy Ultimate AI for letting The World have such an anomaly in it.

Okay, I'm done now. I dunno if people are going to dislike my theories or not, but I guess it doesn't really matter anyway, since they're all probably wrong.

[AuraTwilight]

(But the whole "AIDA" name raises questions of whether or not there's a difference between a Vagrant AI/AI and an AIDA, seeing as how they have two separate names... Unless of course AIs and Vagrants are completely different from one another. Then we've got three different categories to describe and deal with. Just a thought.)

Both terms were coined by CC Corp, so I don't think it matters. Vagrant AI and AIDA, when you break it down, really mean the same thing. Buzzwords like that are just cool.

Anyway... Sure, this thing has artificial intelligence, but does it have a conscience? If it can't process "right" and "wrong," then it could be argued that Tri-Edge isn't responsible for its actions. Besides, we don't know very many details about the coma victims (right?), so it could also be argued that perhaps there is some good coming out of causing them to become comatose.

Or, perhaps The World is looking for another hero of sorts, but there are too many players deemed unworthy for the task. So Tri-Edge is sent to place people into comas in order to see if he can't draw a hero out from the crowd that's worthy enough for what needs to be done. An unlikely theory, but then again, that's all it is: a theory.

I totally agree. That would rule.

And the whole Bracelet going berserk theory... Well, doesn't that just seem unlikely when you consider what the bracelet is? No clue if this needs spoiler tags, but I'll use them anyway.
It was only an installation program made by Aura because Morganna limited her ability to perform Data Drain, thus protecting Morganna from being edited by Aura. So, perhaps the program went berserk? But Aura and even Balmung say that the bracelet is neutral. "It can bring salvation or destruction at the whim of the user," right? So, there'd need to be some sort of AI behind it in order for it to DO anything. Logically, it couldn't be the bracelet program itself, but an AI (or the system) using it. And, I'm not sure if there are rules in The World on as to which pieces of programming can gain sentience or not, but I don't think the Bracelet would be in the "Can Gain Sentience if not Monitored" section. In a way, wouldn't it be like saying that the program for "La Repth" could gain sentience, gain an avatar that had the ability, and run around randomly healing people?

I agree with that as well. However, another thing I've noticed is that (playing Devil's Advocate) the Bracelet does sort've "evolve" from it's original parameters, unlike La Repth. It was intended for Data Drain and Data Drain only, but then we have Gate Hacking and Drain Heart and everything. Plus it is, in essence, a piece of Aura. I'm sure if conditions are made just right, it could become artificially intelligent. We do know that AI's can spontaniously generate from ordinary trash data.

But Tri-Edge brings up one question in my mind: Where are Aura and Cubia? I mean, the theory that Tri-Edge is Cubia makes a little bit of sense, but... It doesn't make that much sense. And, if Tri-Edge isn't Cubia, then you'd think that Cubia would become active and, I dunno, DO something about him. Crappy defense system, if you ask me. And if you bring up Aura, you might as well add that she's a rather crappy Ultimate AI for letting The World have such an anomaly in it.

There are two problems with this. One, Cubia isn't a defense system at all. It's pretty much all the junk data Kite created with Data Draining. You people need to think for yourselves a bit more. Even IF he was a defense system, which he's not, Aura clearly doesn't want him around, so he would've been deleted immediately once she got the oppurtunity to do so. And even still, there's no guarantee he survived the destruction of the World R:1. This also applies to Aura, who's implied to either not be a part of this new World R:2, or to have been sealed or damaged or something.

[Gundam_Alchemist]

i doubt it will reach 80 hours. Insanely long games like Xenogears only get up to mid 50 hours long - at least for me, i beat it in 52 hours and im told thats really fast for that game.

I think it'll get up to about 45 to 50 hours long.

u need to read up on it. it's alredy been released that the 1st volume is goin to be bout 80 hours long which is longer than all 4 of the previous put together

in the old games i say the story-wise it took about 18-20 hours maybe. but you could go up from there just leveling up or collecting rare items. i remember i use to go into level 30 dungeons just to get the summon "elemental name here" at the end i had around 20 of each spell and finished about 34 hrs or so

[Satu]

Both terms were coined by CC Corp, so I don't think it matters. Vagrant AI and AIDA, when you break it down, really mean the same thing. Buzzwords like that are just cool.

Hm. I never took that into consideration. I still think it'd be interesting if there were different kinds of AI...

I totally agree. That would rule.

Thank you. I didn't know if that theory was a good one or not. I doubt that I'm correct, but I suppose it'd make good fan fiction material or something.

I agree with that as well. However, another thing I've noticed is that (playing Devil's Advocate) the Bracelet does sort've "evolve" from it's original parameters, unlike La Repth. It was intended for Data Drain and Data Drain only, but then we have Gate Hacking and Drain Heart and everything. Plus it is, in essence, a piece of Aura. I'm sure if conditions are made just right, it could become artificially intelligent. We do know that AI's can spontaniously generate from ordinary trash data.

I'm not sure if the other versions of Data Drain were programmed in not... Perhaps they were programmed in to be unlocked when the character's levels were high enough to take the infection rate brought on by the more advanced levels of Data Drain. According to the hidden extras in the fourth //Liminality disc, Gate Hacking was included in the Bracelet's programming by Aura, though. And I'm sort of torn on the "piece of Aura" thing. Is it enough of a piece of her to turn into an AI, or is it just an ability that she had, given to her by Harald like La Repth (to stick with my previous example) is given to a user by an item?

There are two problems with this. One, Cubia isn't a defense system at all. It's pretty much all the junk data Kite created with Data Draining. You people need to think for yourselves a bit more. Even IF he was a defense system, which he's not, Aura clearly doesn't want him around, so he would've been deleted immediately once she got the oppurtunity to do so. And even still, there's no guarantee he survived the destruction of the World R:1. This also applies to Aura, who's implied to either not be a part of this new World R:2, or to have been sealed or damaged or something.

Again, going to the hidden extras in the fourth //Liminality disc... Okay. For this, I'm booting up my PS2, writing down the exact words of the extras, and putting the main points in spolier tags (still don't know if they're needed or not...) to support my points. Please note that I'm working off of official information here.

 "Morganna could anticipate human behavior and plan ahead. One example of this is Cubia, a monster designed to balance the game against hackers and edited character data."

It may be junk data from all of the DDing, but it is indeed a designed monster whose purpose is to... Well, if I quoted what I just posted, then there'd be no point in spoiler tags. But that certainly sounds like a defense system to me.

Do we have concrete proof that Aura doesn't want him around?

 "Cubia was ment to seek out malicious players with illegal items and abilities like the Bracelet and Data Drain them, deleting their PC files. ...Once the Bracelet had became active, Cubia sought Kite whenever he came in contact with Aura because it believed Kite was a threat to the system, to which Aura belonged."

It sounds like a pretty good program, to me. Its soul purpose is to protect her and the system. I think that it may be a little extreme, but it did a good job, and something like that is needed in The World. Sure, there's reason to believe that Aura doesn't want him around, but there's also reason to believe that she may want to keep him around, as well.

Final quote from it...

 "Cubia disappeared when Kite destroyed the Bracelet because the danger to the system was removed and its job was done. Cubia remains in the system, however, and should something new appear that threatens the game balance it will launch again."

So, according to that, it's still there. Aura may have deleted it, but she may not have. There's also the possibility that Morganna somehow made it extremely difficult to delete or impossible. I suppose there just isn't enough information provided to make concrete statements on the matter.

But, then again, I'm still playing by the old rules here. =)

If we factor in the fire that destroyed a lot of the old game... Then, yeesh, Cubia and Aura have a pretty bleak future. Although, I highly doubt that Aura just disappears. She's such a huge factor in the .hack series.

Then again, they must both be located in the blackbox folder, and I'm not sure if even The World R:2 can function without that. If they spliced in enough of a new video game, then maybe... But I can't imagine .hack losing such a major component of its plot like that. Maybe there's a new version of Aura in R:2, but I doubt the Ultimate AI is gone completely.

(I don't know why, but I feel like I should mention this... Please note that Cubia made copies of Kite whenever it [Cubia] launched, so if Cubia survived, then copies of Kite's character data survived, as well. Is it possible that they may have merged? Maybe, but it's something to think about, along with that theory that Kite's actual data was also in the blackbox folder because it was protected. And, seeing as how Tri-Edge is more than likely Kite's old data in some way or form, we can almost assume that the blackbox folder survived and is in use in R:2.

As long as I'm here... I might as well add that it is mentioned once or twice that his party's data is protected, as well. (I think that Kite's is and so is Shuugo's in LotT. You could probably find where they say it.) This could also mean that everyone who ever formed a party with Kite had their character data transfered into the blackbox folder. It's unlikely, but a possibility.)

Cubia, however... Well, it's been mentioned that Tri-Edge may be Cubia or a new version of him, which is possible. If CC Corp didn't have such a large hand in creating R:2 (or at least as much as I think they did), I'd think that a new defense system would've been created, but now I'm not sure.

Hm. This is slightly frustrating. I feel like there's some things I left unsaid... We just don't have enough information to go off of in order to come to any conclusions about anything, including Tri-Edge. (Particularly, I'd like more info on the fire, what it destroyed, the construction of R:2, and maybe a little more information on coding and how games are made... But most of us would like all of that.)

That's all I've to say. Thank you to anyone who read this... And I also feel as if I got off-topic somehow. ^^; Sorry. I was just on a roll when I wrote this, and may I point out that people have gone off-topic in other threads in ways a lot more meaningless than I did. So, uhm, again, thanks for reading.

[AuraTwilight]

I'm not sure if the other versions of Data Drain were programmed in not... Perhaps they were programmed in to be unlocked when the character's levels were high enough to take the infection rate brought on by the more advanced levels of Data Drain. According to the hidden extras in the fourth //Liminality disc, Gate Hacking was included in the Bracelet's programming by Aura, though. And I'm sort of torn on the "piece of Aura" thing. Is it enough of a piece of her to turn into an AI, or is it just an ability that she had, given to her by Harald like La Repth (to stick with my previous example) is given to a user by an item?

Yes, Gate Hacking was preprogrammed, but the other techniques are implied to be beyond what Aura intended. Data Drain was supposed to be a program for Aura to use in order to extract data from Morganna for her own evolution. The theory of the Bracelet's developed AI assumes that the Bracelet can "read" the data as it passes through from Kite to wherever the data is stored before being returned to Aura, which could possibly allow it to develop consciousness.

"Morganna could anticipate human behavior and plan ahead. One example of this is Cubia, a monster designed to balance the game against hackers and edited character data."

Yea, like I give a darn? The extras on that Liminality disc are North American only, and are, at best, second hand rumors. More reliable Japanese sources, like .hack//Analysis and the game's original Japanese script, heavily imply that Cubia is a literal darkside of the Bracelet like Aura said. A program born and created specifically to deal with Kite.

Furthermore, the theory of Cubia being designed for game balance doesn't work. If it's intended for such, how come it NEVER goes against anyone else? How come wherever it goes, it corrupts fields like a Phase or a Data Bug? How come it's deliberately trying to prevent Aura from being completed and doing NOTHING to stop Morganna from ruining the game balance? How come Cubia doesn't attack other Data Bugs? Furthermore, what use would a monster be against a hacker anyway? Why can't it just be an ordinary program that IP banishes hackers and whatnot? Why can't it be incorpereal like Morganna? It's a stupid theory made by North American dubbers who didn't know what they were saying.

Do we have concrete proof that Aura doesn't want him around?

"He's too dangerous." "That thing is a menace." "It's the Dark side of the Bracelet." "It's my fault."

It sounds like a pretty good program, to me. Its soul purpose is to protect her and the system. I think that it may be a little extreme, but it did a good job, and something like that is needed in The World. Sure, there's reason to believe that Aura doesn't want him around, but there's also reason to believe that she may want to keep him around, as well.

Yea, real effective. Let corrupted fields, Data Bugs, incomplete AI's, Junk Data, Virus Cores, hackers, Net Slum, and a corrupted operating system run wild while actually working detrimentally to Aura's wellbeing and attacking the one person who can actually fix this crap. (And, since Kite has the Bracelet, he should be recognized by the system like Morganna and Aura.)

Then again, they must both be located in the blackbox folder, and I'm not sure if even The World R:2 can function without that. If they spliced in enough of a new video game, then maybe... But I can't imagine .hack losing such a major component of its plot like that. Maybe there's a new version of Aura in R:2, but I doubt the Ultimate AI is gone completely.

My theory is that Aura and the other AI's escaped or...whatever (Won't theorize on that with so little information) And the Epitaph Program is restarted in R:2, taking a NEW direction. Like an alternate path.

As long as I'm here... I might as well add that it is mentioned once or twice that his party's data is protected, as well. (I think that Kite's is and so is Shuugo's in LotT. You could probably find where they say it.) This could also mean that everyone who ever formed a party with Kite had their character data transfered into the blackbox folder. It's unlikely, but a possibility.)

Kind've. They were just protected by an Umbrella effect whenever they were currently in Kite's party. If Blackrose left Kite's party for an hour or so and got Data Drained, there's nothing to protect her.

[Satu]

I'm sorry, but I just have to defend the North American dubbers' theory. It's not that I necessarily believe it... I just sort of find this to be...fun, I guess. Besides, if this theory is truly flimsy and invalid, it should be simple to totally dismantle it, right? I just want to have no doubt in my mind that it's incorrect.

And, besides... AuraTwilight, how interesting would things be if everyone agreed with you wholeheartedly everytime you said something? I know that _I'd_ be bored, but then again, I'm not you. And is it truly my fault for using information that masqueraded as official? I may be ignorant and unthinking, but I'd be even more so if I didn't question what you said with what little information I had that seemed official.

Yea, like I give a darn? The extras on that Liminality disc are North American only, and are, at best, second hand rumors. More reliable Japanese sources, like .hack//Analysis and the game's original Japanese script, heavily imply that Cubia is a literal darkside of the Bracelet like Aura said. A program born and created specifically to deal with Kite.

Furthermore, the theory of Cubia being designed for game balance doesn't work. If it's intended for such, how come it NEVER goes against anyone else? How come wherever it goes, it corrupts fields like a Phase or a Data Bug? How come it's deliberately trying to prevent Aura from being completed and doing NOTHING to stop Morganna from ruining the game balance? How come Cubia doesn't attack other Data Bugs? Furthermore, what use would a monster be against a hacker anyway? Why can't it just be an ordinary program that IP banishes hackers and whatnot? Why can't it be incorpereal like Morganna? It's a stupid theory made by North American dubbers who didn't know what they were saying.

Yeah, I knew it was shaky to bring the extras up. Why would the go and publish false information like that, though? It doesn't accomplish anything... And they obviously have connections to Japan where the real answers are, so why are they coming up with their own stuff...? *sigh* Whatever. I'm still too trusting.

But I CAN answer some of those questions. It may have had specific instructions to go after Kite and ignore everything else (flimsy, but this whole thing is). I can't answer the corruption question, except with a vague statement about what Cubia may be made out of...

That's the thing though: it's not deliberately preventing Aura from doing anything. It's not an AI, and it doesn't have a conscience (obviously, and like what I brought up with Tri-Edge), so it can't tell. It launched whenever the Bracelet got near Aura because it thought there was a threat to the system. It didn't attack Morganna because it saw her as apart of the system, as well. If the system screws with the game balance, then I can't help but assume that Cubia thinks it's fine because it's the SYSTEM doing it, and it was never programmed to question the system. It's not that smart of a program. With the Data Bug Monsters, it's the same thing. Morganna made them; they're apart of the system in Cubia's eyes.

The penultimate question... That's like asking why Albireo needs to be near something in order to debug it. The World doesn't seem to have much of an IP-banning system. All that must be done by CC Corp. And the last question's like asking why there was a visual manifestation of Cubia's birth, and why there's a visual manifestation of all of the coding going berserk in the root towns and everywhere else. How anti-climatic would it be if Kite just gets IP-banned by an invisible program, and that's the end of the game series? I can't help but assume that you know all of this already, but it's just to make it visually dramatic.

"He's too dangerous." "That thing is a menace." "It's the Dark side of the Bracelet." "It's my fault."

Oh, okay. Just wondering. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, so I had zero chance of remembering anything that Aura said.

Yea, real effective. Let corrupted fields, Data Bugs, incomplete AI's, Junk Data, Virus Cores, hackers, Net Slum, and a corrupted operating system run wild while actually working detrimentally to Aura's wellbeing and attacking the one person who can actually fix this crap. (And, since Kite has the Bracelet, he should be recognized by the system like Morganna and Aura.)

To be fair, according to the description, its purpose was to balance against hackers and edited character data, which takes most of that stuff off of the list. (And I explained why it'd not recognize those as affecting balance, anyway.) Hackers and the Net Slum... Well, it's only supposed to go against "malicious" character data, so maybe what some of the hackers were doing wasn't affecting game balance enough to matter. If you compare adding cat ears to your character to the power of the Bracelet, I think the Bracelet would come first when it comes to defending balance.

Well, like I said, it's not that smart of a system. Morganna could've tampered with it, as well, seeing as how this theory says that Morganna created it. And the Bracelet... Well, like I said, that problem could be fixed by tampering with Cubia, or perhaps because it took the form of an installation item... Also, if this theory was correct (and I'm leaning towards not...), then it'd support my idea that perhaps the Bracelet isn't THAT BIG of a part of Aura. It's just an ability and not actually HER.

Kind've. They were just protected by an Umbrella effect whenever they were currently in Kite's party. If Blackrose left Kite's party for an hour or so and got Data Drained, there's nothing to protect her.

That clears it up. ...But do you think that prolonged exposure to the Bracelet would have any effects on character data, like BlackRose's? It may have done something to her character, especially if we work off of the theory that the Bracelet can become sentient. (Then again, I'm sort of thinking on real-world terms with the "prolonged exposure" thing. I've stated before that I know very little about coding, and even less about how The World's coding works.)

'Kay. I'm done again. You have to admit that there ARE grounds for this theory. Yeah, it's heavily hinted at that Cubia is the counterpart of sorts of the Bracelet, but I wonder why it couldn't be a little bit of both?

[Shinsou Wotan]

That clears it up. ...But do you think that prolonged exposure to the Bracelet would have any effects on character data, like BlackRose's? It may have done something to her character, especially if we work off of the theory that the Bracelet can become sentient. (Then again, I'm sort of thinking on real-world terms with the "prolonged exposure" thing. I've stated before that I know very little about coding, and even less about how The World's coding works.)

It does canonically have some sort of effect on her. In Another Birth, Mia notices that BlackRose "smells" like the Bracelet, at a time when she is not in Kite's party.

[AuraTwilight]

And, besides... AuraTwilight, how interesting would things be if everyone agreed with you wholeheartedly everytime you said something? I know that _I'd_ be bored, but then again, I'm not you. And is it truly my fault for using information that masqueraded as official? I may be ignorant and unthinking, but I'd be even more so if I didn't question what you said with what little information I had that seemed official.

It's not that, it's just that it gets annoying to have to correct the same dubbing errors over and over and over again.

Yeah, I knew it was shaky to bring the extras up. Why would the go and publish false information like that, though? It doesn't accomplish anything... And they obviously have connections to Japan where the real answers are, so why are they coming up with their own stuff...? *sigh* Whatever. I'm still too trusting.

It's not like they know their information is fake or that they're trying to deceive us. Ultimania does this kind of thing all the time. Heh, one of the Ultimania guides claimed that Aura was a coma victim, and it was supervised by Bandai. So clearly they can make mistakes in the storyline like us fans.

That's the thing though: it's not deliberately preventing Aura from doing anything. It's not an AI, and it doesn't have a conscience (obviously, and like what I brought up with Tri-Edge), so it can't tell. It launched whenever the Bracelet got near Aura because it thought there was a threat to the system. It didn't attack Morganna because it saw her as apart of the system, as well. If the system screws with the game balance, then I can't help but assume that Cubia thinks it's fine because it's the SYSTEM doing it, and it was never programmed to question the system. It's not that smart of a program. With the Data Bug Monsters, it's the same thing. Morganna made them; they're apart of the system in Cubia's eyes.

But it IS an AI, since it's demonstrated intelligent behavior and is working automonously. Anyway, even if Cubia did find this ok because the System did it, then by that logic Kite should be found "alright" Since the system (Aura) did it. Why doesn't Cubia go after Net Slum and Helba and all the other hackers? And of course, there's still the issue of Cubia being the main source of most of the game's corruption from Infection era onwards.

The penultimate question... That's like asking why Albireo needs to be near something in order to debug it. The World doesn't seem to have much of an IP-banning system. All that must be done by CC Corp. And the last question's like asking why there was a visual manifestation of Cubia's birth, and why there's a visual manifestation of all of the coding going berserk in the root towns and everywhere else. How anti-climatic would it be if Kite just gets IP-banned by an invisible program, and that's the end of the game series? I can't help but assume that you know all of this already, but it's just to make it visually dramatic.

I guess you have a point, but technically, Cubia can't delete/ban Kite anyway, so as a protection program, Cubia isn't even a threat.

To be fair, according to the description, its purpose was to balance against hackers and edited character data, which takes most of that stuff off of the list. (And I explained why it'd not recognize those as affecting balance, anyway.) Hackers and the Net Slum... Well, it's only supposed to go against "malicious" character data, so maybe what some of the hackers were doing wasn't affecting game balance enough to matter. If you compare adding cat ears to your character to the power of the Bracelet, I think the Bracelet would come first when it comes to defending balance.

but the Bracelet is Aura's own programming. If anything, Kite should be supported by Cubia just like Morganna is.

Well, like I said, it's not that smart of a system. Morganna could've tampered with it, as well, seeing as how this theory says that Morganna created it. And the Bracelet... Well, like I said, that problem could be fixed by tampering with Cubia, or perhaps because it took the form of an installation item... Also, if this theory was correct (and I'm leaning towards not...), then it'd support my idea that perhaps the Bracelet isn't THAT BIG of a part of Aura. It's just an ability and not actually HER.

Well of course it's not actually HER, but besides Aura and Morganna/The Phases, it's the most important part of the system since it's REQUIRED for Aura to be completed, and Aura's completion is the entire reason the World even exists.

That clears it up. ...But do you think that prolonged exposure to the Bracelet would have any effects on character data, like BlackRose's? It may have done something to her character, especially if we work off of the theory that the Bracelet can become sentient. (Then again, I'm sort of thinking on real-world terms with the "prolonged exposure" thing. I've stated before that I know very little about coding, and even less about how The World's coding works.)

No, it wouldn't. The Bracelet just doesn't work like that.

'Kay. I'm done again. You have to admit that there ARE grounds for this theory. Yeah, it's heavily hinted at that Cubia is the counterpart of sorts of the Bracelet, but I wonder why it couldn't be a little bit of both?

The way Aura describes it, the two theories aren't compatible. She describes Cubia as the Dark Side of the Bracelet, and one can't exist without the other. If Cubia existed before or after the Bracelet in any way or form, then that means Aura is wrong, and If we can't believe Aura, then it's simply ****.

[Kite_2000]

I'm back after a long way...Anyways, I found out that Tri Edge is merely Kite's corrupted data. I rest my case

[SnowManZero]

after all of those long post's you come on and post a one liner which has been talked about so much it's almost dead?

ha ha ha ha ha*continue's laughing*

back on topic-

there is still a lingering question of whether or not there will be the darkside of the bracelt.....

*play's 'A' note*what if tri-edge's the darkside of the bracelet?if this was the case then there would need to be a light(other) side to it?

(if that's been brought up already, then sorry)

also, i would just like to draw attention to the missing part on tri-edge's braclet, and the fact that it's the same piece which was lost when B/R slashed it.

i can't think of any relation at the moment.....but it wouldn't surprise me if there was.......

again, if this has already been brought up, i appolagise.

[laysh]

Well for the broken braclet there could be 2 reasons. The one you said or Dawn could have been damaged in the fire and lost some of the data.

At first I thought Tri-Edge could have been the other side of the braclet but Aura has informed me that the new braclet he got didn't have that effect.

[Satu]

It does canonically have some sort of effect on her. In Another Birth, Mia notices that BlackRose "smells" like the Bracelet, at a time when she is not in Kite's party.

Thank you! I figured that the Bracelet would have some effect on BlackRose. It wouldn't have made sense otherwise (to me, anyway).

---

It's not that, it's just that it gets annoying to have to correct the same dubbing errors over and over and over again.

I stumbled across that locked Cubia thread right before I read this post. (Never noticed it before now.) And I must say that I apologize for ever bringing it up. Ah, well. My lesson's learned. I'm never trusting a source ever again unless I've got three other sources and a translation from the original language it was in to back it up. ><

But it IS an AI, since it's demonstrated intelligent behavior and is working automonously. Anyway, even if Cubia did find this ok because the System did it, then by that logic Kite should be found "alright" Since the system (Aura) did it. Why doesn't Cubia go after Net Slum and Helba and all the other hackers? And of course, there's still the issue of Cubia being the main source of most of the game's corruption from Infection era onwards.

*sigh* Yes, it's an AI. Agreed. I still don't think Cubia was that smart, though. An AI, but nothing jaw-dropping in the thought department. Otherwise, it would've been hunting for Kite 24/7 in order to fulfill its purpose, or would've tried to sabotage him a bit more or something. (Personal opinion here.)

Now, if you could remember back to the locked Cubia thread, a user named phant@m said something that puzzled me about coding in relation to the Bracelet and obviously in relation to Cubia.

Cubia was programmed to follow one simple bracelet, which in its own was also a program that contained a unique code or SET of codes which allowed it perform such actions as gate hacking and data drain. NOW since the bracelet was destroyed Cubia couldnt find that Code it was programmed to find so it just....stopped. This new bracelet that was given to the main character in LOTB has a different code altogether, even though it probably can do the same things as the old one the code is still changed and Cubia cannot go after it until Morganna changes its programming to recognize the new code.

I'm beating a dead horse to no avail here, but... When Aura made Data Drain into an installation item for Orca to use, wouldn't the ability's "unique code" change? And, if it did, then Cubia may not have recognized it or Kite to be apart of the system. Plus, you need to factor in that it's still a deletion program coming in contact with the Ultimate AI, which would be a no-no if he was a defense system (which I'm 99.9% sure he/it (I keep switching....) isn't).

And I'm not sure if I want to get into the Net Slum and Helba or not. Both are really iffy, if you ask me. The Net Slum seems to be within The World, but not. I think it's been described that way in LOTT, but that was probably a different area that I'm thinking of.

I guess you have a point, but technically, Cubia can't delete/ban Kite anyway, so as a protection program, Cubia isn't even a threat.

Wow. I managed to make a point. xD *restrains self from doing a dance* My first and last time in doing so, I'm sure.

The way Aura describes it, the two theories aren't compatible. She describes Cubia as the Dark Side of the Bracelet, and one can't exist without the other. If Cubia existed before or after the Bracelet in any way or form, then that means Aura is wrong, and If we can't believe Aura, then it's simply ****.

Very true words. I just think some people would like the other theory better because the "There is no light without shadow" bit got old awhile ago. I see it way too much for my liking, and I wish that .hack would deal with more gray areas. I don't like the idea of anything being black and white like that because things are rarely that simple. (But at least it didn't come off as corny when they displayed it in this way.)

---

And I just gotta ask this... Where the heck is everyone seeing that missing fragment from Tri-Edge's (and I still can't believe they're sticking with that name) Bracelet? I honestly can't see it anywhere, so I must be blind.

Besides, did the new Bracelet that Aura created even have a missing piece? I'm fairly sure that Tri-Edge's Bracelet wouldn't be from the old Bracelet that was deleted. (Of course it's possible, just not that probable.)

Since SnowManZero brought up the theory of a new "darkside of the bracelet," I just want to point out something. While Cubia was indeed its "darkside," it wasn't that much of one in terms of darkness. Cubia wasn't evil. The Bracelet wasn't good. They were just two different sides of the same coin. Think about it this way: if Kite had used the Bracelet to harm others and destroy the game (some people would've done that), then Cubia would've thought to be "good" because it was trying to destroy the Bracelet.

So good and evil are fairly subjective. If you think about them too concretely, then your mind will eliminate possibilities on the subject, and we won't have as many theories to discuss.

[Kasami]

Oh my. What ever have I done?

[SnowManZero]

And I just gotta ask this... Where the heck is everyone seeing that missing fragment from Tri-Edge's (and I still can't believe they're sticking with that name) Bracelet? I honestly can't see it anywhere, so I must be blind.

i saw a pic of it somewhere,posted by shinsou or maybe someone else, i can't remember right now. when Blackrose sliced the bracelet(we call it that because we don't have anything else to call it.) in quarentine, a piece fell off completely before it was destroyed. that's the piece which is missing. if you freeze the trailer when tri-edge is about to DD haseo and you see him from the side, you can just notice it. i didn't see it iether until i saw the pic which was posted by someone,i think it may have been luther who had the missing part circled.

Since SnowManZero brought up the theory of a new "darkside of the bracelet," I just want to point out something. While Cubia was indeed its "darkside," it wasn't that much of one in terms of darkness. Cubia wasn't evil. The Bracelet wasn't good. They were just two different sides of the same coin.

true but i only called it the darkside because we are playing subjectively through haseo's eye's, who see's tri-edge with the bracelet as evil, in the same way that kite see's the other side of the bracelet(cubia) as the badguy.

[Kyle1818]

(i don't know if this was metiond)

Tri-Edge wasent born after the fire, he was seen in the Legend of the Twilight Braclet Manga.
Im thinking that the Data in Kite's old braclet toke any data of him and combined it with the remaining data of every thing that he Data Drained when he was uesing it, why? i don't know