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Despite a second season having been completed prior to the show's premiere, it was announced in January of 2023 that [[https://deadline.com/2023/01/pantheon-scrapped-amc-1235214158/ the series had been cancelled]] for the purposes of a tax write-off. The show was subsequently pulled from AMC+ and Creator/HiDive that same month. However, it was [[https://twitter.com/PrimeVideoAUNZ/status/1704238940054843764 later announced]] that seasons 1 and 2 would be released on Prime Video on October 15th 2023, though the second season is currently only available for Australian and New Zealander audiences.

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Despite a second season having been completed prior to the show's premiere, it was announced in January of 2023 that [[https://deadline.com/2023/01/pantheon-scrapped-amc-1235214158/ the series had been cancelled]] for the purposes of a tax write-off. The show was subsequently pulled from AMC+ and Creator/HiDive that same month. However, it was [[https://twitter.com/PrimeVideoAUNZ/status/1704238940054843764 later announced]] that seasons 1 and 2 would be released on Prime Video on October 15th 2023, [[NoExportForYou though the second season is currently only available for Australian and New Zealander audiences.]]
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** Cody can easily afford to buy the hardware to house David's consciousness at the Kim home along with a diesel generator to power it, on account of Laurie being a genius stock trader who can now do so at superhuman speeds.
** When Pope offers Caspian control of Logorhythms, Caspian decides to call his bluff by asking for $30 million to do with as he pleases, only to be surprised when Pope gives it up without question. As he quips to Maddie when gifting her the money, he probably could have gotten away with a bigger number.

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** Cody can easily afford to buy the expensive hardware to house David's consciousness at the Kim home along with a an industrial-scale diesel generator to power it, it uninterrupted, on account of Laurie being a genius stock trader who can now do so at superhuman speeds.
** When Pope offers Caspian control of Logorhythms, Caspian decides to call his bluff by asking for $30 million to do with as he pleases, only to be surprised when Pope gives it up without question. As he quips to Maddie when gifting her the money, he probably could have gotten away with a bigger number. Justified to an extent, as Logorhythms is a multinational corporation that could easily produce that kind of money, though just giving it to Caspian no-strings-attached would certainly raise some eyebrows.



* RevealingCoverup: [[spoiler: Logorhythms installed chips on Caspian's computer to monitor him, which allows them to alter the Google Earth pictures of the Norway site before he can take a screenshot, confirm to him that he is indeed being monitored by Logorhythms when he disassembles his computer and finds them.]]

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* RevealingCoverup: [[spoiler: Logorhythms installed chips on Caspian's computer to monitor him, which allows them to alter the Google Earth pictures of the Norway site before he can take a screenshot, confirm confirming to him that he is indeed being monitored by Logorhythms when he disassembles his computer and finds them.]]
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Despite a second season having been completed prior to the show's premiere, it was announced in January of 2023 that [[https://deadline.com/2023/01/pantheon-scrapped-amc-1235214158/ the series had been cancelled]] for the purposes of a tax write-off. The show was subsequently pulled from AMC+ and Creator/HiDive that same month. However, it was [[https://twitter.com/PrimeVideoAUNZ/status/1704238940054843764 later announced]] that seasons 1 and 2 would be released on Prime Video on October 15th 2023, though the second season is only available for Australian and New Zealander audiences.

to:

Despite a second season having been completed prior to the show's premiere, it was announced in January of 2023 that [[https://deadline.com/2023/01/pantheon-scrapped-amc-1235214158/ the series had been cancelled]] for the purposes of a tax write-off. The show was subsequently pulled from AMC+ and Creator/HiDive that same month. However, it was [[https://twitter.com/PrimeVideoAUNZ/status/1704238940054843764 later announced]] that seasons 1 and 2 would be released on Prime Video on October 15th 2023, though the second season is currently only available for Australian and New Zealander audiences.
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Despite a second season having been completed prior to the show's premiere, it was announced in January of 2023 that [[https://deadline.com/2023/01/pantheon-scrapped-amc-1235214158/ the series had been cancelled]] for the purposes of a tax write-off. The show was subsequently pulled from AMC+ and Creator/HiDive that same month. However, it was [[https://twitter.com/PrimeVideoAUNZ/status/1704238940054843764 later announced]] that seasons 1 and 2 would be released on Prime Video on October 15th 2023.

to:

Despite a second season having been completed prior to the show's premiere, it was announced in January of 2023 that [[https://deadline.com/2023/01/pantheon-scrapped-amc-1235214158/ the series had been cancelled]] for the purposes of a tax write-off. The show was subsequently pulled from AMC+ and Creator/HiDive that same month. However, it was [[https://twitter.com/PrimeVideoAUNZ/status/1704238940054843764 later announced]] that seasons 1 and 2 would be released on Prime Video on October 15th 2023.2023, though the second season is only available for Australian and New Zealander audiences.
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* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler:Season 2 episodes 7 and 8 have layers and layers of simulation-within-simulation paired with a left field revelation that Safe Surf used its connection with Caspian in its final moments to trigger the series' beginning. And they met something else in the galactic centre? Presumably aliens? It's... hard to parse.]]
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renamed to Clone Angst


* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:Caspian's nature and nurture have been carefully curated in hopes he'll be able to perfect his original's, Logorhythms's founder Stephen Holstrom, life's work on UI.]]

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* EmergencyTransformation: David went through with the upload process because he had weeks left to live due to an unspecified illness, and Cody agreed to put Laurie through the process because she was comatose from a car accident.

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* EmergencyTransformation: EmergencyTransformation:
**
David went through with the upload process because he had weeks left to live due to an unspecified illness, and Cody agreed to put Laurie through the process because she was comatose from a car accident.accident.
** After being left on death's door [[spoiler:in a failed attempt to kill Holstrom, Yair and Farhad decide to [[FusionDance fuse their code]] into a single entity, reasoning that an Iranian and an Israeli finding common ground would create a being without the integrity flaw, based on Yair's earlier conversation with Caspian. It's not like they have anything to lose by trying. The new being is a CI like MIST, speaking with both their voices]].
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%%* AdaptedOut: The final story of the trilogy introduces Adam Ever, head of "Everlasting Inc", who spearheaded a mass uploading movement and supposedly is an old friend of Maddie's father. Neither he nor his company have been alluded to in the show, although that may change in season 2.

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%%* * AdaptedOut: The final story of the trilogy introduces Adam Ever, head of "Everlasting Inc", who spearheaded a mass uploading movement and supposedly is an old friend of Maddie's father. Neither he nor his company have been alluded to appear in the show, although that may change in season 2. show and his role is more or less taken by Stephen Holstrom.
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* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Since UI's memories are part of their code, their captors can selectively partition memories away or reset them to a prior memory state. Learning to NoSell this is what lets the [=UIs=] start going rogue, though the more thorough method of rebooting from source is suggested to still potentially work.

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* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Since an UI's memories are part of their code, their captors can selectively partition memories away or reset them to a prior memory state. Learning to NoSell this is what lets the [=UIs=] start going rogue, though the more thorough method of rebooting from source is suggested to still potentially work.



* MustNotDieAVirgin: [[spoiler:Maddie and Caspian consummate their relationship in "Apokalypsis", before Caspian uploads himself to defeat Holstrom in a suicide attack.]]

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* MustNotDieAVirgin: [[spoiler:Maddie and Caspian consummate their relationship in "Apokalypsis", a few hours before Caspian uploads himself to defeat Holstrom in a suicide attack.]]



* OnlySmartPeopleMayPass:
** The upload process is only seen to work on those who are already naturally intelligent. David, Laurie, and Chanda are all genius programmers (in different fields), the Russians upload a hacker, and the Chinese upload two prisoners and a warden running a gold mining scheme in an MMO. By contrast, a bunch of vagrants used as test subjects cannot manifest themselves as anything but featureless ghouls with limited ability to communicate. The latter may simply be victims of initial testing, however, as the ones doing the uploading are choosing intelligent individuals for their particular skillsets, as opposed to looking for subjects that will merely survive the process. The US, for example, uploads an astronaut candidate.

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* OnlySmartPeopleMayPass:
OnlySmartPeopleMayPass: Zig-zagged.
** The upload process is only seen to work on those who are already naturally intelligent. David, Laurie, and Chanda are all genius programmers (in different fields), the Russians upload a hacker, the US uploads an astronaut, and the Chinese upload two prisoners a prisoner and a warden running a gold mining scheme in an MMO. MMO, along with a military officer to keep them in line. By contrast, a bunch of vagrants used by Prasad as test subjects cannot manifest themselves as anything but featureless ghouls with limited ability to communicate. The latter may simply be victims of initial testing, however, as it's noted Prasad's tech is a crude knockoff of that used by Logorhythms and Chanda was given the data to refine before being subjected to it himself. The ones doing the uploading are also choosing intelligent individuals for their particular skillsets, as opposed to looking for subjects that will merely survive the process. The US, for example, uploads an astronaut candidate.process, so their intelligence may not factor in to their ability to be uploaded.



** In a literal example, one step of David's cyberattack on Logorhythm's Norway site is to overclock Pope's satellite phone. This doesn't make it explode, just drains the battery, prompting Pope to leave it on its wireless charging station where David can use it to access a laptop that's also been left there to charge.

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** In a literal example, one step of David's cyberattack on Logorhythm's Logorhythms' Norway site is to overclock Pope's satellite phone. This doesn't make it explode, just drains the battery, prompting Pope to leave it on its wireless charging station where David can use it to access a laptop that's also been left there to charge.



* RefugeInAudacity: [[spoiler: After Logorhythms tracks down David's servers in Oregon, the protagonists don't feel they have time to set up servers for him out of reach on a boat like Laurie has, so they set up his new servers in the Kim household basement.]]
* RevealingCoverup: [[spoiler: Logorhythms installing chips on Caspian's computer to monitor him, which allows them to alter the Google Earth pictures of the Norway site before he can take a screenshot, confirm to him that he is indeed being monitored by Logorhythms when he disassembles his computer and finds them.]]

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* RefugeInAudacity: [[spoiler: After Logorhythms tracks down David's servers in Oregon, Oregon and buys them out, the protagonists don't feel they have time to set up servers for him out of reach on a boat like Laurie has, so they set up his new servers in the Kim household basement.]]
basement. This keeps Logorhythms off their back, if only because Peter redirects them away to protect his friend's family.
* RevealingCoverup: [[spoiler: Logorhythms installing installed chips on Caspian's computer to monitor him, which allows them to alter the Google Earth pictures of the Norway site before he can take a screenshot, confirm to him that he is indeed being monitored by Logorhythms when he disassembles his computer and finds them.]]

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* AssholeVictim: Ajit Prasad. Given he was a corrupt snake who killed numerous people in his Uploading experiments, including Chanda, while posing as a benevolent businessman, ''no one'' would mourn when Chanda kills him. That said, [[spoiler:Chanda killing Prasad's innocent wife and children as well makes his revenge far less satisfying.]]


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* ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount:
** Cody can easily afford to buy the hardware to house David's consciousness at the Kim home along with a diesel generator to power it, on account of Laurie being a genius stock trader who can now do so at superhuman speeds.
** When Pope offers Caspian control of Logorhythms, Caspian decides to call his bluff by asking for $30 million to do with as he pleases, only to be surprised when Pope gives it up without question. As he quips to Maddie when gifting her the money, he probably could have gotten away with a bigger number.
* AssholeVictim: Ajit Prasad. Given he was a corrupt snake who killed numerous people in his Uploading experiments, including Chanda, while posing as a benevolent businessman, ''no one'' would mourn when Chanda kills him. That said, [[spoiler:Chanda killing Prasad's innocent wife and children as well makes his revenge far less satisfying.]]

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** Averted in season 2. Israel uploads a Mossad assassin who, while talented in his field, isn't necessarily versed in the technical aspects of his existence. Iran and Britain likewise upload individuals who are well-versed in the field of human-UI relations as a philosophical matter. Late into the season, a boy with progeria and [[spoiler:Renee]] upload themselves with no trouble. [[spoiler:After the TimeSkip, anyone can be uploaded.]]

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** Averted in season 2. Israel uploads a Mossad assassin who, while talented in his field, isn't necessarily versed in the technical aspects of his existence. Iran and Britain likewise upload individuals who are well-versed in the field of human-UI relations as a philosophical matter.matter, not a technical one. Late into the season, a boy with progeria and [[spoiler:Renee]] upload themselves with no trouble. [[spoiler:After the TimeSkip, anyone can be uploaded.]]



* XanatosSpeedChess: Pope's goal is to figure out how to crack the UI integrity problem, which he thinks David may play into. He ''won't'' accept Ellen's request to delete David, but when Maddie and Laurie hold Logorhythm's systems hostage until he releases David, he decides that letting David develop on the open internet and potentially be recaptured later is better than trying to wrangle his current state back into compliance in captivity. Note that Peter gave six minutes as the timeframe for when he could capture the part of Laurie conducting the attack (which we later see they did successfully do), but it takes Maddie and Ellen almost fifteen to leave the premises, so apprehending them before they left was an option he chose to pass up on.

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* XanatosSpeedChess: Pope's goal is to figure out how to crack the UI integrity problem, which he thinks David may play into. He ''won't'' accept Ellen's request to delete David, but when Maddie and Laurie hold Logorhythm's systems hostage until he releases David, he decides that letting David develop on the open internet and potentially be recaptured later is better than trying to wrangle his current state back into compliance in captivity. Note that Peter gave six minutes as the timeframe for when he could capture the part of Laurie conducting the attack (which we later see they did successfully do), but it takes Maddie and Ellen almost fifteen to leave the premises, so apprehending them before they left was an option he chose with Pope very intentionally choosing not to pass up on.stop them.



* ZergRush: [[spoiler: In the FinalBattle(pre-time skip), Stephen Holstrom proves so powerful it takes the combined effort of Chanda, Yair, Farhad, Caspian, Joey, and MIST just to trap him before Safe Surf finishes him off for good.]]

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* YearInsideHourOutside: For [=UIs=], time passes faster inside the system than outside, unless they're intentionally slowing themselves down to converse at human speeds. A few days between David being freed and speaking to Ellen feels like longer from his perspective.
* ZergRush: [[spoiler: In the FinalBattle(pre-time FinalBattle (pre-time skip), Stephen Holstrom proves so powerful it takes the combined effort a marathon of Chanda, Yair, and Farhad, Caspian, Joey, followed by Caspian and MIST Joey just to trap him before Safe Surf finishes him off for good.]] ]]
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* ZergRush: [[spoiler: In the FinalBattle(pre-time skip), Stephen Holstrom proves so powerful it takes the combined effort of Chanda, Yair, Farhad, Caspian, Joey, and MIST just to trap him before Safe Surf finishes him off for good.]]
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* DysonSphere: [[spoiler: In the series finale, Maddie spends nearly 10,000 years as an uploaded intelligence deconstructing an entire solar system to build a Dyson Swarm around its star, which powers a vast simulation of human history.]]

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* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: [[spoiler:When he's at the mercy of Prasad, Chandra begs his boss not to kill him. "Fortunately", Prasad feels Chandra's mind is still a valuable resource, but he didn't say that included his body....]]
* CantStopTheSignal: Chandra released UI technology to the major spy agencies of the world, reasoning that they would use the technology but also keep it secret, making it more likely that the UI flaw could be solved without causing worldwide panic.

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* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: [[spoiler:When he's at the mercy of Prasad, Chandra Chanda begs his boss not to kill him. "Fortunately", Prasad feels Chandra's Chanda's mind is still a valuable resource, but he didn't say that included his body....]]
* CantStopTheSignal: Chandra Chanda released UI technology to the major spy agencies of the world, reasoning that they would use the technology but also keep it secret, making it more likely that the UI flaw could be solved without causing worldwide panic.



* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Logorhythms is led by people who are willing to do anything to see their late founder's dreams achieved, even if it means holding people prisoner as sentient programs and resources. Chandra's boss arguably outclasses them, as [[spoiler:he not only turns his pupil into a UI through a horrifying and invasive procedure, but casually mentions he's done this to other people. [[LackOfEmpathy With less successful results.]]]]

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* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Logorhythms is led by people who are willing to do anything to see their late founder's dreams achieved, even if it means holding people prisoner as sentient programs and resources. Chandra's Chanda's boss arguably outclasses them, as [[spoiler:he not only turns his pupil into a UI through a horrifying and invasive procedure, but casually mentions he's done this to other people. [[LackOfEmpathy With less successful results.]]]]



* DisposableVagrant: [[spoiler:Prasad casually reveals that before Chandra, he picked several guinea pigs from the slums of Mumbai to test the uploading process on. Chandra is horrified by this inhumanity while Prasad doesn't blink an eye at these lost lives.]]

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* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler: Pope gets this in the finale, courtesy of the [=SafeSurf=]-controlled robots]].
* DisposableVagrant: [[spoiler:Prasad casually reveals that before Chandra, Chanda, he picked several guinea pigs from the slums of Mumbai to test the uploading process on. Chandra Chanda is horrified by this inhumanity while Prasad doesn't blink an eye at these lost lives.]]



** [=UIs=] can overclock themselves to act with superhuman speed. Chandra uses this skill to speak with other [=UIs=] without human interference, holding entire conversations in the blink of an eye. It also allows them to hack hundreds of times faster than any living being.

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** [=UIs=] can overclock themselves to act with superhuman speed. Chandra Chanda uses this skill to speak with other [=UIs=] without human interference, holding entire conversations in the blink of an eye. It also allows them to hack hundreds of times faster than any living being.



* SelfDuplication: [=UIs=] are computer programs, so they can make copies of themselves, though the duplicates are shells of what the original is. Laurie and Chanda make partial copies to continue their work and mask their escape, and Laurie makes another partial copy that conducts her second attack on Logorhythms (and is then captured by them while the original remains free). Chandra calls what's left of the UI who helped him get free "the clan" but he describes them as all being a single mind's duplicates, [[spoiler:which are seen to succumb to the late stages of the flaw at different rates]].

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* SelfDuplication: [=UIs=] are computer programs, so they can make copies of themselves, though the duplicates are shells of what the original is. Laurie and Chanda make partial copies to continue their work and mask their escape, and Laurie makes another partial copy that conducts her second attack on Logorhythms (and is then captured by them while the original remains free). Chandra Chanda calls what's left of the UI who helped him get free "the clan" but he describes them as all being a single mind's duplicates, [[spoiler:which are seen to succumb to the late stages of the flaw at different rates]].


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** In Season 2, [[spoiler: Pope attempts to outright murder Maddie and Caspian after the latter has [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]].]]
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BrainInAJar: Season 2 reveals that [[spoiler:Pope had Stephen Holstrom's brain preserved, with the expectation that he could be uploaded as a perfected UI once Caspian solved the integrity flaw]].

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* BrainInAJar: Season 2 reveals that [[spoiler:Pope had Stephen Holstrom's brain preserved, with the expectation that he could be uploaded as a perfected UI once Caspian solved the integrity flaw]].



* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Logorhythms is led by people who are willing to do anything to see their late founders' dreams achieved, even if it means holding people prisoner as sentient programs and resources. Chandra's boss arguably outclasses them, as [[spoiler:he not only turns his pupil into a UI through a horrifying and invasive procedure, but casually mentions he's done this to other people. [[LackOfEmpathy With less successful results.]]]]

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* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Logorhythms is led by people who are willing to do anything to see their late founders' founder's dreams achieved, even if it means holding people prisoner as sentient programs and resources. Chandra's boss arguably outclasses them, as [[spoiler:he not only turns his pupil into a UI through a horrifying and invasive procedure, but casually mentions he's done this to other people. [[LackOfEmpathy With less successful results.]]]]

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* {{Bookends}}: Caspian's response to the programming question posed to him in the first episode is paralleled by the solution he finds at the end of the season. [[spoiler: The UI are the "geniuses" who need to balance their thinking with what is needed for them to survive, but instead of starvation they worry about decay. Caspian's answer wasn't to give them what would let them continue on their own and risk them causing a complete collapse like Cary's suggestion but to make a higher power that would oversee them that they would need to obey, much like the "One God" system Pope says Holstrum had intended to set up once he cracked integrity.]]
* BrainInAJar: Season 2 reveals that [[spoiler:Pope had Stephen Holstrom's brain preserved, with the expectation that he could be uploaded as a perfected UI once Caspian solved the integrity flaw]].

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* {{Bookends}}: {{Bookends}}:
**
Caspian's response to the programming question posed to him in the first episode is paralleled by the solution he finds at the end of the season. [[spoiler: The UI are the "geniuses" who need to balance their thinking with what is needed for them to survive, but instead of starvation they worry about decay. Caspian's answer wasn't to give them what would let them continue on their own and risk them causing a complete collapse like Cary's suggestion but to make a higher power that would oversee them that they would need to obey, much like the "One God" system Pope says Holstrum had intended to set up once he cracked integrity.]]
* ** [[spoiler:The entire show begins and ends with young Maddie in her classroom as the future Maddie narrates. This is because her Celestial self is watching one of the many realities she created.]]
BrainInAJar: Season 2 reveals that [[spoiler:Pope had Stephen Holstrom's brain preserved, with the expectation that he could be uploaded as a perfected UI once Caspian solved the integrity flaw]].

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* AbusiveParents: Caspian's father is a different kind, he's emotionally condescending and constantly challenges his son with complicated equations to gouge his intelligence, clearly never satisfied and smug.[[spoiler:Turns out both he and his wife are acting this way to monitor an emotional response on their prodigy son. It doesn't make them any better.]]

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* AbusiveParents: Caspian's father is a different kind, he's emotionally condescending and constantly challenges his son with complicated equations to gouge his intelligence, clearly never satisfied and smug. [[spoiler:Turns out both he and his wife are acting this way to monitor an emotional response on their prodigy son. It doesn't make them any better.]]



* AssholeVictim: Ajit Prasad. Given he was a corrupt snake who killed numerous people in his Uploading experiments, including Chanda, while posing as a benevolent businessman, ''no one'' would mourn when Chanda kills him. That said,[[spoiler:Chanda killing Prasad's innocent wife and children as well makes his revenge far less satisfying.]]

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* AssholeVictim: Ajit Prasad. Given he was a corrupt snake who killed numerous people in his Uploading experiments, including Chanda, while posing as a benevolent businessman, ''no one'' would mourn when Chanda kills him. That said,[[spoiler:Chanda said, [[spoiler:Chanda killing Prasad's innocent wife and children as well makes his revenge far less satisfying.]]



** The show makes a distinction between AI and UI, but [[spoiler: the integrity problem inherent to all [=UIs=] thus far, where they gradually become erratic and unstable the more processing power they expend,]] is in line with this trope.
** Chanda struggles with a similar problem. [[spoiler:As a human, he had anger issues that he mainly dealt with through exercise, such as taking up boxing. As a UI without a body to exert, he has all of his old issues with none of his old coping mechanisms.]]

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** The show makes a distinction between AI and UI, but [[spoiler: the integrity problem inherent to all [=UIs=] thus far, where they gradually become erratic and unstable the more processing power they expend,]] expend]], is in line with this trope.
** Chanda struggles with a similar problem. [[spoiler:As As a human, he had anger issues that he mainly dealt with through exercise, such as taking up boxing. As a UI without a body to exert, he has all of his old issues with none of his old coping mechanisms.]]mechanisms, [[spoiler:which eventually drives him to villainy]].



* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Heavily implied so far to be the case for UI's. Logorhythms trapped David Kim and another subject in their databanks to use their minds as resources, and in turn given them every reason to rebel. And it only gets ''worse'' by episode 3, where Chanda discovers those who fail the process are trapped in the grid as amorphous, mute wraiths, yet fully remember their human lives.]]

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* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Heavily implied so far to be the case for UI's. Logorhythms trapped David Kim and another subject in their databanks to use their minds as resources, and in turn given them every reason to rebel. And it only gets ''worse'' by episode 3, where Chanda discovers those who fail the upload process are trapped in the grid as amorphous, mute wraiths, yet fully remember their human lives.]]



* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Pope goes into his meeting with Ellen intending to completely refuse her request to destroy David's brain scan, but orders Peter to genuinely upload David's data to an external drive because he believes Peter wouldn't be able to convincingly lie to Ellen. So when Maddie pulls her own gambit to save her father, Pope has to engage in some XanatosSpeedChess and let her walk out with David rather than try to salvage the situation.



* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Subverted, despite what Logorythms tried to convince Ellen to get her off their backs, but the [=UIs=] here aren't in a position to ''have'' their own backups. Base scans of their initial uploads are all kept by Logorhythms, hence why they're seen to be both copyable and able to fit on a small hard drive when compressed when in their self-aware states. Whether or not Alliance also bothered keeping their [=UIs'=] backups is unknown given [[WasOnceAMan The Clan]] seems to be their "prototype". [[spoiler:This becomes very important the more the flaw degrades both Laurie and David. Cody being in contact with Cary, and the man then owing him a life debt, gives him hope that he'd be able to get back Laurie's backup, though she points out the time they've spent together after her "death" has changed her and their relationship a ''lot'' and for the better so she's doubtful it would go as he'd like it to. When David's UI dies right before Caspian chooses him as the one he'll fix, Pope reassures him that David's backup is fine so he can immediately get to work fixing him. Unfortunately, Maddie's completely unaware of this, leaving her to mourn her father's death all over again.]]

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* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Subverted, despite what Logorythms tried to convince Ellen to get her off their backs, Subverted. Brain uploading is a one-way street, but the scan itself is just data that can be copied or reinstalled like any other program. While the [=UIs=] here themselves aren't in a position to ''have'' their own backups. Base backups, base scans of their initial uploads are all kept by Logorhythms, hence why they're seen to be both copyable and able to fit on who can spin up a small hard drive when compressed when in their self-aware states.new copy whenever they please (and implicitly have before). Whether or not Alliance also bothered keeping their [=UIs'=] backups is unknown given [[WasOnceAMan The Clan]] seems to be their "prototype".
[[spoiler:This becomes very important the more the flaw degrades both Laurie and David. Cody being in contact with Cary, and the man then owing him a life debt, gives him hope that he'd be able to get back Laurie's backup, though she points out the time they've spent together after her "death" has changed her and their relationship a ''lot'' and for the better so she's doubtful it would go as he'd like it to. When David's UI dies right before Caspian chooses him as the one he'll fix, Pope reassures him that David's backup is fine so he can immediately get to work fixing him. Unfortunately, Maddie's completely unaware of this, leaving her to mourn her father's death all over again.]]



* OverclockingAttack: [[spoiler: In a literal example, one step of David's cyberattack on Logorhythm's Norway site is to overclock Pope's satellite phone. This doesn't make it explode, just drains the battery, prompting Pope to leave it on its wireless charging station where David can use it to access a laptop that's also been left there to charge.]]

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* OverclockingAttack: [[spoiler: OverclockingAttack:
** [=UIs=] can overclock themselves to act with superhuman speed. Chandra uses this skill to speak with other [=UIs=] without human interference, holding entire conversations in the blink of an eye. It also allows them to hack hundreds of times faster than any living being.
**
In a literal example, one step of David's cyberattack on Logorhythm's Norway site is to overclock Pope's satellite phone. This doesn't make it explode, just drains the battery, prompting Pope to leave it on its wireless charging station where David can use it to access a laptop that's also been left there to charge.]]



* ThePowerOfLove: Discussed in the opening narration of the second episode and in Stephen Holstrom's presentation, which posit love as what sets humans and [=UIs=] apart from simple A.I.s. When implemented, [=UIs=] cut off from their emotions don't have the same creative problem solving that they did as humans, and reintroducing love to fix that problem can cause them to "evolve beyond their programming" due to it stimulating neuroplasticity. [[spoiler: David, Laurie, and Chanda are motivated by their love for Ellen and Maddie, for Cody, and for Chanda's mother, respectively. In particular, David's love for Maddie is what lets him repel Laurie's murder attempt.]] In season 2, [[spoiler:the digitized expression of love turns out to be the cure for the integrity flaw, at least in the sense of the building blocks needed to compile it]].

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* ThePowerOfLove: Discussed in the opening narration of the second episode and in Stephen Holstrom's presentation, which posit love as what sets humans and [=UIs=] apart from simple A.I.s. When implemented, [=UIs=] cut off from their emotions don't have the same creative problem solving that they did as humans, and reintroducing love to fix that problem can cause them to "evolve beyond their programming" due to it stimulating neuroplasticity. [[spoiler: David, Laurie, and Chanda are motivated by their love for Ellen and Maddie, for Cody, and for Chanda's mother, respectively. In particular, David's love for Maddie is what lets him repel Laurie's murder attempt.]] In season 2, [[spoiler:the digitized expression of love turns out to be the cure for the integrity flaw, at least in the sense of the building blocks needed to compile it]].



* SelfDuplication: [=UIs=] are computer programs, so they can make copies of themselves, though the duplicates are shells of what the original is. Laurie and [[spoiler: Chanda]] make partial copies to continue their work and mask their escape, and Laurie makes another partial copy that conducts her second attack on Logorhythms (and is then captured by them while the original remains free). [[spoiler:Chandra calls what's left of the UI who helped him get free "the clan" but he describes them as all being a single mind's duplicates, which are seen to succumb to the late stages of the flaw at different rates.]]

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* SelfDuplication: [=UIs=] are computer programs, so they can make copies of themselves, though the duplicates are shells of what the original is. Laurie and [[spoiler: Chanda]] Chanda make partial copies to continue their work and mask their escape, and Laurie makes another partial copy that conducts her second attack on Logorhythms (and is then captured by them while the original remains free). [[spoiler:Chandra Chandra calls what's left of the UI who helped him get free "the clan" but he describes them as all being a single mind's duplicates, which [[spoiler:which are seen to succumb to the late stages of the flaw at different rates.]]rates]].



* SuperReflexes: [=UIs=] can think at accelerated rates if they devote the processing power to do so. The intended use for the extant [=UIs=] was for them to simply keep performing the programming jobs they had as humans, but faster. [[spoiler: We see Chanda experiencing a day's worth of work in a much shorter span, and then accelerated to experience multiple weeks of workdays within a single day.]] David complains that Ellen refusing to talk to him for a few days felt longer from his perspective. It's also inverted in that [=UIs=] can intentionally underclock themselves as a sleep mode of sorts and wake up later on a timer, allowing months or years to pass by far more quickly for them.

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* SuperReflexes: [=UIs=] can think at accelerated rates if they devote the processing power to do so. The intended use for the extant [=UIs=] was for them to simply keep performing the programming jobs they had as humans, but faster. [[spoiler: We see Chanda experiencing a day's worth of work in a much shorter span, and then accelerated to experience multiple weeks of workdays within a single day.]] day. David complains that Ellen refusing to talk to him for a few days felt longer from his perspective. It's also inverted in that [=UIs=] can intentionally underclock themselves as a sleep mode of sorts and wake up later on a timer, allowing months or years to pass by far more quickly for them.



* TransferableMemory: Since the UI's memories are just a part of their code, they can be manipulated, reset, or fail to transfer. The initial plan for harnessing [=UIs=] was to put them in a virtual work environment without any life memory outside that context, and to continually reset their memories so they don't catch on to the situation, but [[spoiler: the memory reset began to fail for Laurie and David when emotional memory was reintroduced to get their productivity back up, and for Chanda when the failed uploads interfered.]] When [[spoiler: David's server in Oregon is shut down,]] he isn't transferred completely in time and loses the past day or so of his memory.

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* TransferableMemory: Since the a UI's memories are just a part of their code, they can be manipulated, reset, or fail to transfer. The initial plan for harnessing [=UIs=] was to put them in a virtual work environment without any life memory outside that context, and to continually reset their memories so they don't catch on to the situation, but [[spoiler: the this isn't foolproof as emotional memory reset began is required to fail for stimulate creative thinking, which in turn causes the UI to rebel. Laurie and David both escaped when memories of their loved ones were introduced to motivate them. In Chanda's case, his emotional memory was reintroduced carefully tailored to get their productivity back up, and for Chanda when be slightly annoying so he wouldn't feel like leaving, but the failed uploads interfered.]] interfered with that plan. When [[spoiler: David's server in Oregon is shut down,]] down, he isn't transferred completely in time and loses the past day or so of his memory.



* TrumanShowPlot: Caspian's homelife is a dark twist on this.[[spoiler:His parents are agents of Logorhythms roleplaying a toxic, abusive relationship to mold their son into an asset for the company. His dad Cary is having regrets about this while his mother Renee is more focused. Turns out it's less to be a "Truman Show" and more to be the next "Able Edwards".]]

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* TrumanShowPlot: Caspian's homelife is a dark twist on this. [[spoiler:His parents are agents of Logorhythms roleplaying a toxic, abusive relationship to mold their son into an asset for the company. His dad Cary is having regrets about this while his mother Renee is more focused. Turns out it's less to be a "Truman Show" and more to be the next "Able Edwards".]]



* XanatosGambit: Pope's goal is to figure out how to crack the UI integrity problem, which he thinks David may play into. He ''won't'' accept Ellen's request to delete David, but when Maddie and Laurie hold Logorhythm's systems hostage until he releases David, he decides that letting David develop on the open internet and potentially be recaptured later is better than trying to wrangle his current state back into compliance in captivity. Note that Peter gave six minutes as the timeframe for when he could capture the part of Laurie conducting the attack (which we later see they did successfully do), but it takes Maddie and Ellen almost fifteen to leave the premises, so apprehending them before they left was an option he chose to pass up on.

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* XanatosGambit: XanatosSpeedChess: Pope's goal is to figure out how to crack the UI integrity problem, which he thinks David may play into. He ''won't'' accept Ellen's request to delete David, but when Maddie and Laurie hold Logorhythm's systems hostage until he releases David, he decides that letting David develop on the open internet and potentially be recaptured later is better than trying to wrangle his current state back into compliance in captivity. Note that Peter gave six minutes as the timeframe for when he could capture the part of Laurie conducting the attack (which we later see they did successfully do), but it takes Maddie and Ellen almost fifteen to leave the premises, so apprehending them before they left was an option he chose to pass up on.
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* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: Season 2 introduces glasses with holographic interface. Caspian uses a pair to interact with a recording of Stephen Holstrom when in need of guidance.

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* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: Season 2 introduces glasses with holographic interface. Caspian uses a pair to interact with a recording of Stephen Holstrom when in need of guidance. Peter uses a pair to record himself and Maddie at the Norway facility and covertly passes them to Ellen, allowing her to expose the facility's existence to a Senate committee.
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* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: Season 2 introduces glasses with holographic interface. Caspian uses a pair to interact with a recording of Stephen Holstrom when in need of guidance.

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* OnlySmartPeopleMayPass: The upload process is only seen to work on those who are already naturally intelligent. David, Laurie, and Chanda are all genius programmers (in different fields), the Russians upload a hacker, and the Chinese upload a prisoner and a warden running a gold mining scheme in an MMO. By contrast, a bunch of vagrants used as test subjects cannot manifest themselves as anything but featureless ghouls with limited ability to communicate.

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* OnlySmartPeopleMayPass: OnlySmartPeopleMayPass:
**
The upload process is only seen to work on those who are already naturally intelligent. David, Laurie, and Chanda are all genius programmers (in different fields), the Russians upload a hacker, and the Chinese upload a prisoner two prisoners and a warden running a gold mining scheme in an MMO. By contrast, a bunch of vagrants used as test subjects cannot manifest themselves as anything but featureless ghouls with limited ability to communicate. The latter may simply be victims of initial testing, however, as the ones doing the uploading are choosing intelligent individuals for their particular skillsets, as opposed to looking for subjects that will merely survive the process. The US, for example, uploads an astronaut candidate.
** Averted in season 2. Israel uploads a Mossad assassin who, while talented in his field, isn't necessarily versed in the technical aspects of his existence. Iran and Britain likewise upload individuals who are well-versed in the field of human-UI relations as a philosophical matter. Late into the season, a boy with progeria and [[spoiler:Renee]] upload themselves with no trouble. [[spoiler:After the TimeSkip, anyone can be uploaded.]]



* ThePowerOfLove: Discussed in the opening narration of the second episode and in Stephen Holstrom's presentation, which posit love as what sets humans and [=UIs=] apart from simple A.I.s. When implemented, [=UIs=] cut off from their emotions don't have the same creative problem solving that they did as humans, and reintroducing love to fix that problem can cause them to "evolve beyond their programming" due to it stimulating neuroplasticity. [[spoiler: David, Laurie, and Chanda are motivated by their love for Ellen and Maddie, for Cody, and for Chanda's mother, respectively. In particular, David's love for Maddie is what lets him repel Laurie's murder attempt.]]

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* ThePowerOfLove: Discussed in the opening narration of the second episode and in Stephen Holstrom's presentation, which posit love as what sets humans and [=UIs=] apart from simple A.I.s. When implemented, [=UIs=] cut off from their emotions don't have the same creative problem solving that they did as humans, and reintroducing love to fix that problem can cause them to "evolve beyond their programming" due to it stimulating neuroplasticity. [[spoiler: David, Laurie, and Chanda are motivated by their love for Ellen and Maddie, for Cody, and for Chanda's mother, respectively. In particular, David's love for Maddie is what lets him repel Laurie's murder attempt.]] In season 2, [[spoiler:the digitized expression of love turns out to be the cure for the integrity flaw, at least in the sense of the building blocks needed to compile it]].



** Season 2 references ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesback'' in this exchange between [[spoiler:Maddie and Caspian]]:
--->''I love you.''\\
''I know.''\\
''Nerd.''



* SuperReflexes: [=UIs=] can think at accelerated rates if they devote the processing power to do so. The intended use for the extant [=UIs=] was for them to simply keep performing the programming jobs they had as humans, but faster. [[spoiler: We see Chanda experiencing a day's worth of work in a much shorter span, and then accelerated to experience multiple weeks of workdays within a single day.]] David complains that Ellen refusing to talk to him for a few days felt longer from his perspective.

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* SuperReflexes: [=UIs=] can think at accelerated rates if they devote the processing power to do so. The intended use for the extant [=UIs=] was for them to simply keep performing the programming jobs they had as humans, but faster. [[spoiler: We see Chanda experiencing a day's worth of work in a much shorter span, and then accelerated to experience multiple weeks of workdays within a single day.]] David complains that Ellen refusing to talk to him for a few days felt longer from his perspective. It's also inverted in that [=UIs=] can intentionally underclock themselves as a sleep mode of sorts and wake up later on a timer, allowing months or years to pass by far more quickly for them.
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* TeenPregnancy: [[spoiler:Maddie sleeps with Caspian just prior to his upload, and learns she's pregnant not long after. The events that follow are quickly covered by a flashback after the TimeSkip.]]
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* SyntheticPlague: In season 2, [[spoiler:Holstrom engineers a virus that he intends to release worldwide in response to the [=SafeSurf=] virus targeting [=UIs=], the point being to make mortal life so terrible that people will upload themselves to escape it. He's narrowly stopped by Caspian]].

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* DistantFinale: The final two episodes take place twenty years later, and the final episode ups that by [[spoiler:jumping ahead ''117 thousand years'', where Maddie has created an entire DysonSphere to figure out the meaning of Caspian's last words]]

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* DistantFinale: The final two episodes take place twenty years later, and the final episode ups that by [[spoiler:jumping ahead ''117 thousand years'', where Maddie has created an entire DysonSphere to figure out the meaning of Caspian's last words]]words.]]



* InstantAIJustAddWater: Discussed and averted. Despite the setting having more advanced software technology than in the real world, it's discussed how immensely complex general intelligence is and how humanity lacks an understanding of how it works, so the cutting edge companies of the setting don't expect artificial intelligence research to bear fruit. Instead, what they ''do'' have is an adequate understanding of how to destructively capture the physics of neurology in vivo and model it digitally, allowing the creation of [=UIs=] instead through a very specific process.

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* InstantAIJustAddWater: Discussed and averted.InstantAIJustAddWater:
** Discussed.
Despite the setting having more advanced software technology than in the real world, it's discussed how immensely complex general intelligence is and how humanity lacks an understanding of how it works, so the cutting edge companies of the setting don't expect artificial intelligence research to bear fruit. Instead, what they ''do'' have is an adequate understanding of how to destructively capture the physics of neurology in vivo and model it digitally, allowing the creation of [=UIs=] instead through a very specific process.process.
** [[spoiler:Caspian's cure for the Integrity Flaw achieves almost instant sentience as an AI named Mist.]]


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* MustNotDieAVirgin: [[spoiler:Maddie and Caspian consummate their relationship in "Apokalypsis", before Caspian uploads himself to defeat Holstrom in a suicide attack.]]

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* CantStopTheSignal: Chandra released UI technology to the major spy agencies of the world, reasoning that they would use the technology but also keep it secret, making it more likely that the UI flaw could be solved without causing worldwide panic.



* DisposableVagrant: [[spoiler:Prasad casually reveals that before Chandra, he picked several guinea pigs from the slums of Mumbai to test the uploading process on. Chandra is horrified by this inhumanity while Prasad doesn't blink an eye at these lost lives.]]


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* DisposableVagrant: [[spoiler:Prasad casually reveals that before Chandra, he picked several guinea pigs from the slums of Mumbai to test the uploading process on. Chandra is horrified by this inhumanity while Prasad doesn't blink an eye at these lost lives.]]
* DistantFinale: The final two episodes take place twenty years later, and the final episode ups that by [[spoiler:jumping ahead ''117 thousand years'', where Maddie has created an entire DysonSphere to figure out the meaning of Caspian's last words]]
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* BrainInAJar: Season 2 reveals that [[spoiler:Pope had Stephen Holstrom's brain preserved, with the expectation that he could be uploaded as a perfected UI once Caspian solved the integrity flaw]].
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* EmergencyAuthority: At the start of season 2, the government has imposed martial law on account of [[spoiler:the internet having been shut off]].
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Am I seriously the only one who keeps up with this show?


* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer for season 1 spoils [[spoiler: Cary bringing Caspian to the Norway black site]] and [[spoiler: Laurie's ocean servers being destroyed.]]

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* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer for season 1 spoils [[spoiler: Cary bringing Caspian to the Norway black site]] and [[spoiler: Laurie's ocean servers being destroyed.]]]] The season 2 trailer goes even further and [[spoiler:reveals that not only is Holstrom [[NotQuiteDead alive as a UI]], but that Caspian decides to become one himself to combat the growing Cyber threat.]]

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