/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Something I started thinking about last thread was how Ran and Shikigami function. Through trying to reason everything in canon to be true, I think I have a theory that is a synthesis of the big opposing arguments about Ran to be both true, those being: 1) Ran is not the Kitsune and is a Shikigami automaton, and 2) Ran is the Kitsune and has a free will. So I've concluded that Shikigami cant have a self or a will and instead are spirits that augment the possessed item or creature.
Ran in 19 burns through thousands of paper Shikigami per duel as it's her basic Danmaku. I don't see Ran contracting that many willful spirits into paper, even with her processing ability. It's also an uncomfortable thought to contract a thinking being into an object casually thrown away as a disposable projectile, by the thousands. Shikigami themselves are frequently said to be computers which while computationally impressive and can perform whatever task you direct it to, has no self. This leads me to believe that Shikigami are conjured from the caster's own power instead of summoned beings. So with that definition, it is far more plausible Ran could mass produce that many as literal cookie cutter Shikigami. Like a far more refined and focused version of the magic Alice uses to make her dolls.
That is for inanimate objects, but for free willed beings that is a different story. A Shikigami is—at its base description—control logic software. Since it doesn't have a self it has to get it from somewhere, and so it copies it from the thing it possesses. Paper has none, but a Nine Tailed Kitsune like Ran does.
The SCoOW article in question:
>Be careful though: Ran Yakumo is strictly the shikigami, and the nine-tailed fox youkai she is possessing is an entirely different being. However, since the original fox never shows on the surface at all, there's no problem in thinking of Ran Yakumo as a nine-tailed fox.
>but in her case the possessed bakeneko is a clearly distinct being. As she is vulnerable to water both while possessed and in her original state, splashing water on her will dispel the shikigami.
I reason that nothing has been contradicted, the Shikigami is dyed with Ran's memories, personality, and everything that makes her her. It becomes Ran and is indistinguishable from Ran the original fox. The only difference is her now augmented processing ability enhancing her already scary intellect, and the control Yukari now has over her. So technically Ran the fox and Ran the Shikigami are distinct totally separate beings, but they are otherwise identical and it's no trouble thinking of them as one and the same. It's literally an "I'm you, but stronger."
Ran didn't change on the exterior, and only very mildly on the interior. Toutetsu recognized her instantly and Ran recognized her instantly as well. Ran the Shikigami spoke of the changes of Animal Realm as if she experienced it personally, and she did as Ran the fox since they are one and the same. This plays nice with past definitions of Shikigami such as with Chen, where if the Shikigami is dispelled Chen is the same as she was behaviorally, just without the power benefits and control mechanism. A "clearly distinct being"
With the above, the argument boils down to the same type of hair splitting semantics as the "if you were teleported, are you really the same person?" argument scifi-fags have.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.