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[THEORY] Adult Lin is a computer program


Ice Cream Sand Witch

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First, the necessary info for those who are new and not familiar with Reborn's history: the Reborn game is based on a league from the Pokemon Online battle sim that ran from 2010-2014. Most of the characters in the game were from the league, and many events are inspired from things that happened during that time. (this includes what happened to Corey and Kiki; the real Corey actually did jump off a bridge and the real Kiki did have a terminal illness)

 

In the online league, Lin had two different sprites: an adult one and a child one. 

 

Here's the adult sprite:

 

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Here's the child sprite:

 

LwoC7mrgQFm9YdlZ9_jQwg.png

 

Unfortunately, battle logs and other data from the online league were erased with November 2016's site update. But in a battle log between Ikaru and Lin, after Ika won, Lin said "Come and find the real me~" I don't really know the full story since the online league was before my time, but that comment, along with Anna saying in-game that there was no one riding the Hydreigon, seems to suggest that the adult Lin isn't real. 

 

A popular theory about the voice when we exit the Arceus site after defeating El is that it's Lin. Also, a lot of people believe the girl Adrienn saw crawling up a wall and the voice we hear are the same person. 

 

We know that Lin and Terra have a personal connection. When Lin started gaining authority in Team Meteor, she kept giving Terra promotions. According to Terra's parents in the renovated Jasper Ward, after they adopted a girl from the orphanage, Terra suddenly completely changed personalities and that's when she went to the circus. In one of the branching story paths in Tanzan, Laura mentions that Lin used to be at the orphanage. 

 

Ama theorized in another thread that Lin had Terra hack the PULSE Magnezone data, which makes sense to me. I wonder if Lin also had Terra program an adult version of herself. If Lin is the voice/wall-crawler, that would mean Lin is stuck in time like Adrienn was and would still be a child. The tone of the voice we hear is playful and childlike (it also reminds me of the baby Arceus diary entry in Terra's glitch world). 

 

The E17 preview we got after defeating Adrienn says: "Do you understand now? Steel will not make me bleed. And your shining armor is but tinfoil to the brimstone breath of the New World."

 

A few months ago, someone asked Ame on tumblr how good Lin would be in a physical fight, without Pokemon. Ame replied that we'll find out soon. From this and E17's preview, here's my interpretation:

"Steel will not make me bleed": We're going to the desert in E17, which is where Titania's gym is. Titania is known to use her Aegislash in a specific way. Maybe she'll try doing this to Lin, but it won't work. Steel will not make Lin bleed. If adult Lin is just a computer program or a hologram, then it makes sense why she couldn't be touched. 

"brimstone breath of the New World": maybe this relates to a counterattack from Lin after Titania tries to use Aegislash. Ame said that two gyms would be using the Dragon's Den field. Maybe Titania's gym will be one of them, as a result of what Lin might do to her arena. 

 

Conclusion of the theory:

-Adult Lin may be a computer program created by Terra, while the real, child Lin is waiting for something underneath Reborn

-Titania may try and fail to defeat Lin

 

There is one thing that doesn't line up, though:

Lin wouldn't have any of the four keys, since they all belonged to different parties. If I'm remembering correctly, those who don't have a key aren't just ageless, they're literally frozen in place, which is why Adrienn thought not even a day had passed since xe went to check out why the Grand Gate was stuck. The voice calls out to us, implying the person isn't frozen. 

Possible explanations for this:

-I'm remembering wrong about how time works down there

-It's not that you're literally stuck in place like a statue, it's just one of those things where time passes differently. "A few minutes in here is 10 years out there" type of thing. 

-There's a certain amount of distance from the Arceus site where you're safe from being frozen. The girl may have been crawling on the wall because if she were on the ground, she'd freeze, but would be fine up on the wall. 

-Lin has some kind of special ability or other item that bypasses being frozen in time

-she did have one of the keys at one point and either some of its essence is still with her or once you have a key, you're always immune from that point on even if you lose/give away the key in the future. 

 

Now that I think about it, if Adrienn saw the girl climbing on the wall, xe was able to move at some point while being down there...I'm now really confused about the time stuff. 

 

Either way, this is my current theory. I hope you enjoyed reading ^_^ Credit to Ama for the Terra hacking PULSE Magnezone theory, because that's what led to me coming up with some of this. (the Titania vs Lin and dragon's den field was an idea I came up with a few weeks ago, but I didn't consider adult Lin being a computer program until I read the Terra hacking PULSE Magnezone theory) Also, if someone could remind me in more detail about how the time stuff works, that would be appreciated. I feel like I might have either got something wrong or jumped to conclusions there. 

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It is very well thought out but I have  few issues. Lin is tangible. In the scene where she killed Amethyst she returned her hydreigon (even though no pokeball seems to be involved but that might graphical limitations). At the very least Lin needs to control a robot or the factory remotely. Also if she is going to be in the desert as a hologram she needs something to project her which might reveal her true nature immeditely.

Edited by FairFamily
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4 hours ago, Ice Cream Sand Witch said:

"Steel will not make me bleed": We're going to the desert in E17, which is where Titania's gym is. Titania is known to use her Aegislash in a specific way. Maybe she'll try doing this to Lin, but it won't work. Steel will not make Lin bleed. If adult Lin is just a computer program or a hologram, then it makes sense why she couldn't be touched. 

 

Well I think that this could also be interpreted as a metaphor. Like "you can't defeat me", "steel (types) will not make me bleed (will be no trouble for me)".

 

But who knows!! :) 

 

Anyway, I think that the Ana thing (being unable to see Lin) is something relevant. I can't remember that exact line, perhaps because i took a different path or simply because I played it a long ago and my memory is so so hahaha

Edited by Alaris
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I always thought the voice was inside the Sanctum (I mean, the closed doors) but that's an interesting idea, not a hologram but a hollow body of some kind, a robot or a puppet (Maybe a Malamar-posessed person or something like that), or indeed a zoroark (In which case Anna would have sensed the Zoroark?)

Edited by kithas
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If anything makes sense, then she should not be something alive. We know Anna is never wrong. Hence the line "Nobody on the Hydreigon". 

Being a hologram needs a projector and physical properties. Being a robot doesn't. But would that not show? 

 

Real Lin was adopted by Terra's parents. So, in order to persuade Terra to join the organization she must have been scouting for her and already formed Team Meteor or at least have some part in it. This implies she already visited the place under the stairway, froze in time, escaped, joined Team Meteor and assumed power. It's a bit confusing to fit all this in a timeline that makes perfect sense. 

 

Adrienn claimed to have seen the girl climb the wall. That at first implies it really was Lin, who managed to escape.

Then we hear the voice of a little girl still under there. So she can't be in both places. So she came up, talked to Terra, got her involved and then returned underground? For what purpose? Does she gain anything from being closer to Arceus or a mythical power?

I would not say that adult Lin is fake, but rather that both Lins are somehow real. The mental image is a reverse ZEL. 

A "split" could mean a division of character traits in two different people with the same appearance. Thus while a playful Lin stays under, a murderous (complete opposite) makes it her life purpose to gain power. Adult Lin seems to know enough about everyone, including things Terra's network can't find out. There is probably also a connection to her younger self underground and what "come back and play" could actually mean. 

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@GS BALL the Lana thing is a bug, soooo, maybe not the ideal example of ubiquity :P

 

In all seriousness though, the problem isn't what is believable generally speaking, it's what is or isn't believable when put in the context of the game's universe and lore.

Cults, cultists and rituals are believable because religion around Arceus is a real thing in the pokémon universe. Dead men...? I'm not sure of what you're referring to. Shade? Idk if he's actually a dead man, he's described as an "entity", whatever it means... Even if he were, that's fine with me because ghosts are a thing in pokémon too.

 

What Terra does, on the other hand, makes no sense even in the world of Reborn, which is why I don't like her that much as a character.

Similarly, ubiquity isn't really a thing either in this universe, to my knowledge. So I'd be ok with it only if a very logical and valid explanation was eventually given to justify it.

 

This situation reminds me of something Samwell Tarly's actor said, about people criticizing the fact that Sam was still fat in GoT in spite of spending seasons running around in the snow.

The guy said something along the lines of "This show has dragons and white walkers, and that's me still being fat that you don't buy?"

I really disliked that comeback, because yeah, Sam still being fat does not make sense in universe, whereas dragons and white walkers do. Try again, dear actor who's name I forgot.

 

Just my two cents ;)

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This was a really good theory! It seems pretty plausible to be honest.

 

And let's not forget that in Shade's gym, we see a vision of adult Lin getting sliced to pieces. But after the Water Sewage Treatment, Shade says only two of people in the visions would actually die for realizies. Since Corey and Kiki are dead, this means Amaria and Lin lives. We already saw the vision about Amaria come true, which means the only vision that hasn't happened yet is Lin's. It seems likely to me that Titania will confront Lin in the desert, and use her Aegislash to slice Lin into pieces. But if the adult Lin isn't the true Lin, then the true Lin would still be alive, and Shade wouldn't have been lying when he said only two of the people in the visions actually die.

 

So that's my take on it. Titania will fight adult Lin in the desert, and she will succeed in killing her. But since the real Lin is still alive, it wouldn't help much.

 

(Also, I don't think time freezes for the people near the meteor, it just moves way slower than on the outside, which is why Adrienn was able to see the girl.)

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So I'm not going to throw a theory out there, but I am going to throw some clues or things to take note of, but I actually didn't recall what Terra's parents said about adoption Lin. I will say that we might be making a wrong assumption that there are two Lins, but very possible that the Lin we see isn't actually Lin at all. Anyways, here's a couple things to look at:

 

-Ame's poem for the fairy tale field update mentions a little girl locked up in a tower

-During the Shade foreshadowing Lin is seen having an explosion before disassembling heavily implying she is a machine

-Sigmund joined Team Meteor due to Lin (in fact he is in disbelief seeing her)

-If Lin were alive/aged correctly, she would not look that old according to Laura (an age discrepancy)

-There's a blood stained bed in the orphanage yet has no context whatsoever (could be decoration but I theorize it has relevance)

-After looking at the dialogue, Terra's parents TRIED to adopt the girl, but were not able to

 

There's a lot of clues regarding Lin, but that leads to a lot of possibilities and questions that still need answered.

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Hmm, I recall posting something like that a while ago in one of the many theorycrafting topics shortly after E16 was released - not detailed like here obviously, but I certainly agree Lin we see daily is a kind of impostor, avatar, and real Lin is trapped around Arceus. Terra might have helped to build and program the avatar. And she has somehow access to Lin and Arceus, too - don't forget she freely goes in and (maybe one day) out of computer. And let's not forget how Lin's death scene looks like - she explodes, kinda robotic. A robot is destroyed, so technically nobody dies, and as we all agree, two deaths confirmed by Shade already happened.

 

So all in all, we have a motive for Lin - it is not only plain destruction and to wreak havoc, she wants to release herself at all costs.

 

On a how time down there works thing - who said robots, electronics, etc. are subject to the same rules as the living things? And it was stated rather clearly that people are frozen in time there, unless they posses the Keys, I don't think it leaves a room for overanalyzing.

 

There are few pieces we need to find, the first of them being what exactly happened when Adrienn entered the Xanadu, how child Lin got into there? It came to my mind, because Arceus is a young one (we see cultits and others referring to him as a baby Arceus), maybe it was him, who wanted a companion? It was him, who lured young Lin and tempts her to release him, in order to gain power? Have we ever considered the Arceus being the real evil one here? We don't know the source of time freeze spell, if it is Arceus, he may lift it for Lin?

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But there's also the "Don't harm the pc" thing... Is it only "I want a worthy adversaire I can enjoy killing"? or maybe she knows the pc will be needed later? With all the fairy thing that went with Adrienn and the meteorite I could see a time loop happening here as someone said in another theory...

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While your analysis is really well made, I really hope that isn't the actual case. I think that plot twist (the villain was actually a robot controlled by her younger self/her friend) would be a bit silly for a Pokemon game (even a fanmade one). also i really hope Titania doesn't die because I don't wanna go through another gym battle where you don't get a badge in the end

One idea I had about the connection between Child!Lin and Adult!Lin was that maybe it's like a "Spell of the Unown" cenario. There are a lot of Unown underground, and it has never been really explored (as far as I know) in Pokemon games what the hell they actually are, where they come from and how they fit in the pokemon lore. I thought maybe the Unown found Child!Lin when she fell underground and made Adult!Lin as a projection of Child!Lin's bitterness/hate/loneliness/sadness/whatever, just like in the movie, where they made older projections of what Molly wanted to be, and they fed on her emotions to become more powerful. But that's just me thinking out loud.

Honestly, I hope Amethyst doesn't go too crazy with the plot twists on the final episode and keep the ending relatively simple. I want the story to end on a satisfying note, like something along the lines of Black and White.

 

Also, I don't know if it has already been explained, but did Terra's parents say if Lin and Terra were about the same age when they became friends? Because if they did, some stuff doesn't add up about the passage of time (unless Terra is actually younger than she looks).

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One idea I had about the connection between Child!Lin and Adult!Lin was that maybe it's like a "Spell of the Unown" cenario. There are a lot of Unown underground, and it has never been really explored (as far as I know) in Pokemon games what the hell they actually are, where they come from and how they fit in the pokemon lore. I thought maybe the Unown found Child!Lin when she fell underground and made Adult!Lin as a projection of Child!Lin's bitterness/hate/loneliness/sadness/whatever, just like in the movie, where they made older projections of what Molly wanted to be, and they fed on her emotions to become more powerful. But that's just me thinking out loud.

That would be a good one, but two things: there is no room for Arceus in here, the main focus is on him all the time and we already saw that - I don't think copying Spell of the Unown scenario would be greeted enthusiastically. Nonetheless, using the Unowns in a more complicated plot than collecting alphabet soup would be interesting.

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