Raildex verse (A Certain Magical Index, A Certain Scientific Railgun, A Certain Scientific Accelerator)

Because she's still convinced he's hiding some awesome power (which he is, technically) and could easily negate any of her attacks if he cared.

The specific example I'm thinking of is from NT 5 or 6, where she's running around trying to find Touma, she lands on a dumpster that he happened to be inside, and the narration goes "yeah, if that had happened a few seconds earlier or later when he was trying to get in or out, Touma would have died."

It's just a bit odd seeing stuff like that treated so casually.

It's related to Amusing Injuries and Comedic Sociopathy (even though no one got hurt and it was an accident). Sometimes, pain is funny. It is what it is.

he gets nearly killed each novel anyway.he's died more times than the Misakas too.

I don't find it funny, is the thing. We're all sitting here saying that Index is awful for attacking Touma, it's only fair to mention that Mikoto often does worse things. And I don't see the point of including things that are so nonchalantly treated in-story such that the characters don't even realize that someone almost died.

It would be different if it looked like this was building up to some kind of drama, but i's obviously not. Even when Mikoto accidentally drops Touma off a building, it quickly goes back to "Oh, guess he's OK. Back to trying to electrocute him."

It's not like he really remembers most of it, so I'm not sure it counts.

That last part is important. If you don't find it funny, hey, that's your choice. But you can't get mad at the characters for not treating a near-death seriously when they have no idea that someone almost died. Especially in the specific example you gave. If the narration hadn't pointed it out, you would have never noticed the close call either.

I'll give you the "Mikoto attacks Touma on purpose and almost kills him" thing, though I disagree. But blaming her for something no one in-story is even aware of is just silly.

Oh, sorry, I wasn't quite clear about what I meant.

I'm not blaming the characters for that event, it's just an issue I have with the writing continually presenting this stuff as if it's not something to be concerned about.

oh yeah,random question:

are all Espers teens so far?cause Esper pregnancies sound interesting.Mages shouldnt be the only ones with hax babies.

Yes, all espers are teens so far. The characters are shocked when they see "espers" (actually magicians) who are older than about twenty or so. As for esper babies, in theory they should be perfectly normal, since most of the esper development program revolves around hypnotism, chemical alterations, and advanced math training. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if Lamarck Was Right was in full effect.

same should apply for magicians,but for people who "copied" Espers (riiiiiight) it sure comes more natural for them.

/stares at witch fetus

edited 21st Sep '14 3:14:37 PM by alekos23

What's that about? They did copy espers. Gemstone espers like Himegami and Gunha have been around for as long as the human race. Magic found ways to replicate their powers, then a few years ago Aleister figured out a way to create what are basically artificial gemstones.

Well, the type of power is obviously genetic (the Sisters all have the same type of ability as Mikoto). The strength of that power? Who the hell knows?

Seems to be more up to personality than anything else.

edited 21st Sep '14 4:21:46 PM by clockworkBabbage

hmm,would baby Espers potentially be the strongest?they dont know any limit of their ability.

it hasnt been Technobabbled yet either.

Even if baby espers don't inherit powers, they probably would be pretty strong, but maybe not because they don't know their own limits. Remember that the whole "don't know their own limits" thing has only come up like, once, when Word of God said that the reason the Level 5's were all Level 5 was because it never occurred to them they wouldn't be.

But anyway, back on topic. Babies would be good for esper training in the same way children are (presumably if adults responded to the development anywhere near as well as children, there would be adult espers), but only more so. Young minds are much easier to mold, and learn complex systems like language much more easily—assuming you can teach it to them properly. Which might not be possible here. We don't get much detail on exactly what the power development program entails, but I have a feeling it's not something that would work with babies. You ever tried to perform even routine medical tests on them? They don't like to sit still.

edited 21st Sep '14 10:09:09 PM by Discar

New Railgun chapter.

This Indian Poker thing allowing people to share dreams seems like it could easily be abused. Yet another piece of mind-affecting terror-technology in Academy City.

edited 29th Sep '14 1:44:01 AM by clockworkBabbage

I think it might have been intended to brainwash people without Misaki going to the trouble of doing in manually, but who knows. Either way, it's pretty damn disturbing that the only thing that poor girl dreams about is serving Misaki.

This feels oddly like the Level Upper Arc. Also the kids playing with the artificial psychokinesis thing was kinda adorable.

I doubt Misaki is all that involved honestly. Doesn't seem like her style. More likely it's some evil scientists. Maybe a Kihara, maybe not. We know they've brainwashed some of the board of directors so that they can carry out their schemes without interference, so maybe this is the testing phase of that.

edited 29th Sep '14 8:28:14 AM by redacer

Misaki Sisters arc!

edited 29th Sep '14 8:36:19 AM by alekos23

Yeah, I'm not seeing this being Misaki's doing at all.

I just know I was pretty unnerved for the whole second half of that chapter seeing as how Level Upper was totally a thing. Also, after what Saten's gone through, it seems odd that she's OK with the idea of strange, mind-affecting technology that's not really capable of being verified as safe.

Saten doesn't know how evil AC is though. Level Upper was illegal software disavowed by AC. This stuff is apparently city-approved. Hell, even kids are using versions of it. She probably assumes AC wouldn't let people use this stuff if it was dangerous.

This isn't something AC has even acknowledged, I don't think. Instructions for making them were just "released online." And the technology itself is not the issue, so much as the potential for abuse. All it takes is for someone to start distributing fun dreams that hide some kind of subliminal mind-virus or something. I just feel that Saten should probably be a lot more wary about using things that can potentially fuck with one's head.

Also, a little side note, in the context of the prospect for abuse with this dream stuff: "A horror dream would probably be more fun" is possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard Mikoto say, up there with "Yeah, sure, inject me with that paralysis drug" in that dumb arc of the last Railgun season.

Saten is dumb.

That... could be an explanation, yes.

It's either that, or Kamachi just didn't think about it.

edited 29th Sep '14 9:55:43 AM by clockworkBabbage

Maybe Mikoto is just the kind of person who likes horror movies, and didn't realize that she'd be in the dream, rather than just watching it.

I mean, it's not like it's out of character for her to be thinking that; she might've been thinking along the lines of a bunch of terrifying monsters or something that she can then blast in the face. And pretty obviously none of the characters are even thinking of the implications.

But still.

(Also, we've seen that apparently these dreams aren't necessarily easy to wake up from. So that's a thing)

edited 29th Sep '14 11:07:32 AM by clockworkBabbage