Board Thread:Theories/@comment-27441457-20151225042055/@comment-27702860-20160605095446

Tausendberg wrote: " The Beast/Zeke" Just a side note, I think it's safe to just call him Zeke at this point. I just do that in case newer people read. Besides, "Zeke the Beast" has a certain "Jenny say 'qua?'"

''Also, to get to the rest of your post, correct me if I'm wrong but at this point the only proven way for a dumb dumb to turn into a shifter is for that spinal fluid to enter their mouth (presumably the spinal fluid goes to the stomach and gets processed but we don't even have that much explicitly confirmed, for all we know the spinal fluid might seep in through the back of the throat and go directly into the brain). Also, you know, giving a shot to the titan might prove... difficult.''

Let me be blunt: from a physiological standpoint, that is all a load of bull excrement. I am not criticizing you, because thus far we are "stuck" with the story the author gave us, and it does not work. So speculating based on physiology is like wondering how Dilithium crystals stabilize matter and anti-matter. So trying to sort that out is going to be a mess. I will leave it at that since I am sure no one wants a rant on CSF!

Thus to take this comment--and this is not meant to be insulting:

''Finally, it appears that the spinal fluid, I mean, when they give people a spinal tap, they take just a very tiny bit, a sample. ''

Depends. One can take a lot. Then just lie down and have some caffeine. Let me put it this way, it is more than the "vials" you find Levi wandering about with. Again, I do not expect the author to know this.

''Considering that in all depicted instances in the manga, the dumbs dumbs eat the shifter enough to the point that they take the entire spine, they might need a full spine's worth of spinal fluid and you can't just completely empty out a human being of their spinal fluid through a lumbar puncture because then they'd die. ''

Actually. . . they would not. But this gets techinical and The Point [Tm.--Ed.] is that the AUTHOR [No shouting!--Ed.] is not following physiology. You can pretty much remove "all" of the CSF and replace it with. . . saline. My point in that is the Author already sets up an unphysiologic situation: where people can "shift" their consciousness to the spinal cord. No. That cannot happen. No. Never. Uh-uh. The spinal cord lacks the architecture for such. Just as the CSF is not going to "transmit" powers, and the spinal cord is not going to "transmit" cognitive function. The Titans should be eating "BRAINS!" That is not a criticism to the author--or you--he is writing a story.

It is like bitching about "Wargs" in Game of Thrones or how the time line in Higurashi works or whether or not Verbal Kint actually tells Agent Kuyan he shot a drug dealer: fiction is not always consistent. The author creates a world and we give him some leeway. WE are stuck in the middle of the story trying to sort things out. On THAT note, one of the BEST horror films is the Carpenter The Thing which would require a heat-signiture on "the Thing" so hot it would glow. The scientists would just have to look for whomever was, like, on fire! Who cares? Fun movie! And the Enterprise should not "woosh" and X-Wings should not "bank."

Back to theory:

''From what I can tell, it's entirely possible that when a human is a dumb dumb, then they get something that might amount to a complete transfusion of spinal fluid when they eat a shifter. Maybe, in theory, a human could be made a shifter if a donor shifter was completely "emptied out" using a lumbar puncture and the receiver had all of the fluid injected, but given their apparent limited technology and the fact that the donor dies either way, it might just be more practical to just have the dumb dumb eat the shifter.''

That actually makes some "sense" in Titan Land. IF we imagine that the "Magic Stuff" is a concentrated distilate of CSF/brain/spinal cord, that could, perhaps work.

even if you could transfer the power and they'd stay alive, they wouldn't stay alive for long anyway.

Exactly! Though you would think you would rather die--as Tyrion put is, "at the age of eighty with a belly full of wine and a woman's mouth around my c[CENSORED--Ed.]ck!" So IF it could be done "some other way" you think it could would be. Why not just drain Eren's CSF? Aparently that is not enough, which means we are still "stuck" explaining the "Magic Stuff."

Anyways, do NOT take that as personal criticism. We are all "stuck" trying to figure out a story where all of the details are not revealed and the author has more concerns than trying to make it scientifically possible. We are dealing with Huge-Ass Peoples attacking citiies. ''Ugh, the Annie crystal bothers me because I'm just thinking... ''

"GUYS! Just take Hydrochloric Acid, or if you don't have that, Stomach acid, as much as you can, heat it up as hot as you can get it, and dump it on the crystal and see if that slowly dissolves it!"

Or a lot of other things! Maybe it is made of "transparent aluminum." How does she breath? Eat? Excrete? Again, this is a story. Remember, we have Huge Ass Titans--apparent Shifters--who are acting as walls provided no one shines a light on them! Do they not have to, you know, go to the bathroom?

''Also, that reminds me, in theory the Survey Corps was supposed to guard Annie 24/7, I presume that means at least 1 if not 2 or more Survey corpsmen, including right now when the SC are away on their current expedition. Guess they're lucky.''

Also, yeah, I was being harsh, *deleted* 

No, you were not. The "fun" of AoT is it is NOT obvious so we make theories. The problem is the author is not playing by "our rules," but if he did we would not have a story! So our theories are all going to suck on some level and it is frustrating but fun at the same time! ^ ^

As for Annie I suppose she is limited in a confined space--hence her refusal to go down the tunnel. Apparently, such things can "squeeze" a Shifter. So they keep her underground figuring if she ever gets "frisky" she cannot actually transform without messing up her hair or something. --J.D.