FINALLY! 119 posted on fan fiction.net

[Little Brown Fox]

Isaac... I dunno... it never occurred to me that he was "good" necessarily. He certainly wasn't "bad", but he strikes me as more being "above" that sort of ideal, even if he does what's best for everyone- in fact, that would be exactly why he's above such a notion- I dunno. I'm not making sense right now. I need to better collect my thoughts.

All I am certain of, though, is that I think that this is a really bad idea. I'm sorry if that offends you. And it is your story, but, I feel like it was going somewhere else before you got this "devilish idea".

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Chapter 10 is now up!
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9410396/10/

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Chapter 11 is up

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9410396/11/

[Little Brown Fox]

Past Chapter Ten so far. If I were you, I'd rename the anti-daemon, and change his appearance, so that he doesn't seems so over the top and not to be taken seriously. He needs to be more believable. Did Isaac Newton have any suitable rivals in real life? Perhaps some other notable man (or woman!) of science. If you lessen the cheesiness and the heavy-handedness of the character, you might be able to pull him off.

I'll still probably never like him, though. I just don't want this to ruin this, or potential future, stories.

Edit: Ah, well, while it nearly ruined the story, at least I don't have to worry about that thing again, I hope. It's a shame I'm unfamiliar with half of the music listed, though.

......... And, the violin, huh...?

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

I'm sorry for the cheesy satanic references, but there was no getting around the image of Isaac's alter ego as being sort of an Anti-Christ like being. I even threw in the four horsemen of the apocalypse for crying out loud. You can blame April for the inspiration with her comment to me about the Trinty, (and the fact that Dan Brown just came out with a new book).

As far as the music references, well you can always find the mentioned pieces on Youtube and judge for yourself, but if you just can't get into classical music I feel sorry for you. The Shulbert and Rachmaninoff pieces are the most beautiful and the most moving melodies I know, if they don't bring tears to your eyes something is wrong.

Night on bald mountain was used in Fantasia to depict the Demons rising from the dead and attacking the world. Danse Macabre is often used on Halloween to bring up images of the dead rising from their graves and spending the night out. Both are sort of tone poems, music that paints a picture.

[AprilSeven]

I'm sorry I've been posting reviews on ff.net

While I also said the image of the "dark side of Isaac" could have been something other than what is commonly perceived as Satan, I think the idea of any truly sentient life form possessing the capacity for "good" and "evil" exists and I've never seen it addressed as TetPen did in this story.

I actually feel he kind of ran into another whole, huge adventure on his way to completing this one (maybe it deserved its own separate telling).

We have to assume that all the robots in Atom's world would be programmed to not hurt humans - otherwise they'd be no different than we are, and it would just be a matter of time before they started becoming more of a danger to mankind than a help.

But Isaac is a DIFFERENT kind of sentient AI - he kind of created "himself" (or SOMETHING ELSE did - because he didn't begin as truly sentient)

And notice that once Isaac gave himself a physical place to be (in Cobalt's body) that his "dark nature" emerged. Isaac had no programming to STOP him from harming people and robots. He had become too dangerous.

There's a song by the Charlie Daniel's Band called "The Devil Went Down in Georgia" which is basically the "contest" you see played out. It's a funny country-western number with an incredible fiddle solo. And those classical numbers are honest to God classics everyone should Google up.

Yeah, TetPen did kinda take a "shortcut" to bring the conflict to a conclusion - and I think that's perhaps what you might be responding to (this story could have EASILY gone on for 10 more chapters).

And because all the action got so condensed, it may have seemed more trivialized than it should (I laughed, because I "got" the references in the fiddle contest and musical allusions, but truly . . . there was REALLY MEATY MENTAL/MORAL STUFF going on that would have made an amazing, thought provoking adventure).

That doesn't mean he can't go back to revisit this concept at a future time (I hope he does). Should Isaac actually exist? Just because they squelched his dark side for now . . . what's to keep that from returning - assuming that with every computer, smart phone and tablet that is connected to the internet that he becomes bigger and stronger?

This is (IMHO:rolleyes an example where an enjoyable Astro-story hatched something original, but full of incredible potential. Look at how Urasawa took the "Pluto" arch and expanded it to tell a deeper, richer story than Astro stopping a force of evil, and Uran touching Pluto's heart.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

I hope you didn't mean that you were sorry for the fact that you were posting a review there. Did I say something bad?

I also didn't mean to imply that Isaac was evil, but rather that his very creation was split into two separate sentient "beings". Isaac was (thankfully) the dominant one, but there was another side to this, and that one now had to be dealt with. I'm no bible expert, but isn't this similar to the angel that fell from heaven to become the ruler of the underworld?

In any case, I'm very glad to have given people something to think about!

[AprilSeven]

I hope you didn't mean that you were sorry for the fact that you were posting a review there. Did I say something bad?

No, no . . . I just had missed the comments Little Brown Fox had made because I hadn't checked this thread.

And I took Isaac to possess the capacity for both good and evil (as we all do). But yeah, if he's more of a God-like creature, then Beelzebub is more of an individual entity (although some people argue that Satan is the "dark side" of God - you know. . . .yin/yang and that kind of thing.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

I took Isaac to possess the capacity for both good and evil (as we all do). But yeah, if he's more of a God-like creature, then Beelzebub is more of an individual entity (although some people argue that Satan is the "dark side" of God - you know. . . .yin/yang and that kind of thing.

That's probably closer to what I had in mind. I still don't exactly think that Isaac is a God, though to the Internet he is probably the #1 Daemon, and that might make him the all-mighty of the 'net.

There is a lot one can do in science fiction with religious themes, and maybe I'll revisit the idea with another Isaac tale in the future, and I won't need the 'bots to do that. I wanted to wrap this one up as Cobalt's and Uran's origin story, and I began to feel that the spy angle wasn't going to cut it. Your trinity comment started to eat on me, and I noticed a new Dan Brown book at Costco (still need to pick that up at the library), and my Dad's Yahrzeit was last week, so religious overtones started to leak in.

One of these days I just may go whole hog on the cyberspace is 'heaven and hell' idea and stage a REAL battle there with the fate of mankind hanging in the balance.

Anyway, I hope everyone searches youtube for some of the classical music. It's worth the trip.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Final chapter is up
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9410396/12/