WelsperTheCat
25-10-01, 07:46 PM
BTW, "cosmology" is a big word we physics majors use to mean the study of the origin, current state, and future of the Universe. Sounds impressive, huh?
I promised on some thread here to lay out the order of things according to Fujishima-sama, so here it is!
Despite what one might think from the light-hearted tone of "Oh My Goddess!" and its roots in Norse mythology, the OMG universe is based upon hard physics. Things like superstrings and black holes, names like Maxwell and Schrodinger are encountered throughout the manga. Besides liking motorcycles, Fujishima-sensei also has a thing for physics, it seems.
If anything in the following discussion confuses you, I recommend grabbing the nearest willing physics major and reading "Terrible Master Urd" together. 90% of what I talk about here is revealed during the TMUrd story arc.
Here are the major points of OMG cosmology:
1. Heaven and its inhabitants exist completely outside of this universe.
Not just outside of our dimension of the universe, but completely separate from our universe and its associated parallel universes, pocket dimensions, etc., etc. We know this because Yggdrasil was able to emulate the Universal Superstring after the Superstring was cut during TMUrd. Because the Supersting IS everything in the universe, Yggdrasil could not have done this if it was in any way physically associated with our universe.
2. Heaven and its inhabitants are at least 10-dimensional entities.
Belldandy explains in the manga, shortly after Skuld arrives, that the 3-dimensional forms of the goddesses which we see are not their true forms and must be constantly regenerated or else they will fade from 3-space and we will no longer be able to detect them. They will still be there, just not in a form we can detect from 3-space. Given the fact that Yggdrasil was able to emulate the Universal Superstring, which is 10-dimensional, Yggdrasil must be at least 10-dimensional. Since Heaven and the goddesses exist in the same space as Yggdrasil, they also must be at least 10-dimensional as well.
3. Yggdrasil controls the Universal Superstring.
Yggdrasil "runs" the universe. Obviously, Yggdrasil is not responsible for the complete action of the Universal Superstring*, but it is capable of controlling the Universal Superstring. Problems in Yggdrasil often have physical manifestations in this universe. Therefore, deities in OMG have complete control over everything in this universe and their attacks, since they change the definition of the universe directly, cannot be defended against by anything in this universe. Scary, huh? When you think about it, OMG deities are REALLY powerful. Of course, they have strict rules on behavior (more-so than Washuu). With great power comes great responsibility.
Final Note: The demons in OMG have similar abilities, but don't have a direct link with Yggdrasil. They aren't quite as powerful as the Heavenly beings, but probably everything said here applies to them as well, since Nidhog (the demon's computer system) is linked with Yggdrasil.
If you want to know more about Superstring Theory, I have a long, overly simplistic but hopefully not too boring discussion at the end of this post.
* When the Universal Superstring was cut in Terrible Master Urd, it took all of Yggdrasil's processing power to emulate and reconstruct the Superstring.
So, what does this imply about our favorite goddesses? Well, their extra-universal nature combined with Yggdrasil's control of the Universal Superstring puts them on a level that most of what passes for deities in fiction just can't match. I'm going to list some gods from other series and see how they stack up against the likes of Bell-chan. :)
Tenchi Muyo (Washuu, Tsunami, Tokimi)
The goddesses of Tenchi Muyo can manipulate dimensions and pocket universes, but there's nothing to suggest they are extra-universal themselves. Their ability to influence our universe might mean that, say, Urd could get stuck in one of Washuu's devices. However, the fact that they exist within the context of our universe means they have no means of defense against program-based spells from OMG deities. If Urd wanted to turn Washuu into a turnip, she would cast a spell (start a program running on Yggdrasil) which would command the Universal Superstring to, instead of drawing in the Greatest Scientific Mind In The Universe, draw in an ordinary turnip. And that's what Washuu would now be. Not a turnip with the ability to control her devices, but a plain old ordinary turnip. Since souls transcend the Universe, Washuu would be aware of the change, just not be able to do anything more about it that an ordinary turnip could do. Washuu, even with advance warning and all her devices would have no more to say about the change than the image on your TV screen has to say about the changes it goes through.
Ranma 1/2 (Saffron)
Basically a super-powered mortal, Saffron isn't on the level of the Earth Spirits which populate OMG. If, say, Saffron were to mess with Megumi, the low level Earth Spirit guarding her apartment would have his head! Hey, even Skuld could take out this guy with little trouble.
Necronomicon
These beasties that populate so much of occult literature are extra-terrestrial, possibly even extra-dimensional, but definitely not extra-universal. Thus, as distasteful as the thought of pitting Bell-chan against Cthulhu or the "Elder Gods" is, Keiichi's girlfriend would have little trouble sealing (I seriously doubt she'd let the situation degenerate to where she had to destroy) Cthulhu and anything else the Necronomicon could throw at her. Given the nature of their attacks against humanity, it's doubtful that they could give the OMG goddesses as much trouble as the Tenchi goddesses could. In other words, Skuld would have her hands full, but would probably prevail in the end against the likes of Cthulhu as long as she didn't let him scare her to death! (Skuld is afraid of ghosts and such, much to Urd's amusement.) Cthulhu would look really funny as a turnip, don't you think? ;)
Hmm, that's all I can think of for the moment. I wrote this mostly in response to some really stinky fan-fiction I have read recently.
SUPERSTRING THEORY (in an overly simplistic nutshell :D )
This concept was originally postulated in a lecture by Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman. Picture the universe as being the image on a TV screen. Not the screen itself, but the image (picture) being presented. Now, that picture is made up of little red, green, and blue dots (phosphors) which are lit up by a stream of electrons from an electron gun located at the back of the TV's picture tube. In this example, the Universe is the image, and the Universal Superstring is the stream of electrons which light the phosphors to create the image. Now, if you can control the electron stream, then you can make the image look like anything you want. That's what Yggdrasil does. It controls the Universal Superstring by changing the data the Superstring uses to tell itself how to create the universe. Therefore, anything which does not exist outside the Universe can be affected by Yggdrasil.
OK, my brain hurts... :sleep:
I promised on some thread here to lay out the order of things according to Fujishima-sama, so here it is!
Despite what one might think from the light-hearted tone of "Oh My Goddess!" and its roots in Norse mythology, the OMG universe is based upon hard physics. Things like superstrings and black holes, names like Maxwell and Schrodinger are encountered throughout the manga. Besides liking motorcycles, Fujishima-sensei also has a thing for physics, it seems.
If anything in the following discussion confuses you, I recommend grabbing the nearest willing physics major and reading "Terrible Master Urd" together. 90% of what I talk about here is revealed during the TMUrd story arc.
Here are the major points of OMG cosmology:
1. Heaven and its inhabitants exist completely outside of this universe.
Not just outside of our dimension of the universe, but completely separate from our universe and its associated parallel universes, pocket dimensions, etc., etc. We know this because Yggdrasil was able to emulate the Universal Superstring after the Superstring was cut during TMUrd. Because the Supersting IS everything in the universe, Yggdrasil could not have done this if it was in any way physically associated with our universe.
2. Heaven and its inhabitants are at least 10-dimensional entities.
Belldandy explains in the manga, shortly after Skuld arrives, that the 3-dimensional forms of the goddesses which we see are not their true forms and must be constantly regenerated or else they will fade from 3-space and we will no longer be able to detect them. They will still be there, just not in a form we can detect from 3-space. Given the fact that Yggdrasil was able to emulate the Universal Superstring, which is 10-dimensional, Yggdrasil must be at least 10-dimensional. Since Heaven and the goddesses exist in the same space as Yggdrasil, they also must be at least 10-dimensional as well.
3. Yggdrasil controls the Universal Superstring.
Yggdrasil "runs" the universe. Obviously, Yggdrasil is not responsible for the complete action of the Universal Superstring*, but it is capable of controlling the Universal Superstring. Problems in Yggdrasil often have physical manifestations in this universe. Therefore, deities in OMG have complete control over everything in this universe and their attacks, since they change the definition of the universe directly, cannot be defended against by anything in this universe. Scary, huh? When you think about it, OMG deities are REALLY powerful. Of course, they have strict rules on behavior (more-so than Washuu). With great power comes great responsibility.
Final Note: The demons in OMG have similar abilities, but don't have a direct link with Yggdrasil. They aren't quite as powerful as the Heavenly beings, but probably everything said here applies to them as well, since Nidhog (the demon's computer system) is linked with Yggdrasil.
If you want to know more about Superstring Theory, I have a long, overly simplistic but hopefully not too boring discussion at the end of this post.
* When the Universal Superstring was cut in Terrible Master Urd, it took all of Yggdrasil's processing power to emulate and reconstruct the Superstring.
So, what does this imply about our favorite goddesses? Well, their extra-universal nature combined with Yggdrasil's control of the Universal Superstring puts them on a level that most of what passes for deities in fiction just can't match. I'm going to list some gods from other series and see how they stack up against the likes of Bell-chan. :)
Tenchi Muyo (Washuu, Tsunami, Tokimi)
The goddesses of Tenchi Muyo can manipulate dimensions and pocket universes, but there's nothing to suggest they are extra-universal themselves. Their ability to influence our universe might mean that, say, Urd could get stuck in one of Washuu's devices. However, the fact that they exist within the context of our universe means they have no means of defense against program-based spells from OMG deities. If Urd wanted to turn Washuu into a turnip, she would cast a spell (start a program running on Yggdrasil) which would command the Universal Superstring to, instead of drawing in the Greatest Scientific Mind In The Universe, draw in an ordinary turnip. And that's what Washuu would now be. Not a turnip with the ability to control her devices, but a plain old ordinary turnip. Since souls transcend the Universe, Washuu would be aware of the change, just not be able to do anything more about it that an ordinary turnip could do. Washuu, even with advance warning and all her devices would have no more to say about the change than the image on your TV screen has to say about the changes it goes through.
Ranma 1/2 (Saffron)
Basically a super-powered mortal, Saffron isn't on the level of the Earth Spirits which populate OMG. If, say, Saffron were to mess with Megumi, the low level Earth Spirit guarding her apartment would have his head! Hey, even Skuld could take out this guy with little trouble.
Necronomicon
These beasties that populate so much of occult literature are extra-terrestrial, possibly even extra-dimensional, but definitely not extra-universal. Thus, as distasteful as the thought of pitting Bell-chan against Cthulhu or the "Elder Gods" is, Keiichi's girlfriend would have little trouble sealing (I seriously doubt she'd let the situation degenerate to where she had to destroy) Cthulhu and anything else the Necronomicon could throw at her. Given the nature of their attacks against humanity, it's doubtful that they could give the OMG goddesses as much trouble as the Tenchi goddesses could. In other words, Skuld would have her hands full, but would probably prevail in the end against the likes of Cthulhu as long as she didn't let him scare her to death! (Skuld is afraid of ghosts and such, much to Urd's amusement.) Cthulhu would look really funny as a turnip, don't you think? ;)
Hmm, that's all I can think of for the moment. I wrote this mostly in response to some really stinky fan-fiction I have read recently.
SUPERSTRING THEORY (in an overly simplistic nutshell :D )
This concept was originally postulated in a lecture by Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman. Picture the universe as being the image on a TV screen. Not the screen itself, but the image (picture) being presented. Now, that picture is made up of little red, green, and blue dots (phosphors) which are lit up by a stream of electrons from an electron gun located at the back of the TV's picture tube. In this example, the Universe is the image, and the Universal Superstring is the stream of electrons which light the phosphors to create the image. Now, if you can control the electron stream, then you can make the image look like anything you want. That's what Yggdrasil does. It controls the Universal Superstring by changing the data the Superstring uses to tell itself how to create the universe. Therefore, anything which does not exist outside the Universe can be affected by Yggdrasil.
OK, my brain hurts... :sleep: