CLANNAD 13-14: Theory of nothing?

For the record, I did feel the emotions welling up in my chest when I saw the teddy bear. It wasn’t anything I didn’t expect, but the manner in which Kyoto Animation served it almost made me tear…

And while the rest of the blogosphere goes on about how Key stories are typical tear-jerkers and Kotomi’s story was rather dissapointing compared to Fuko’s, to me it is a revelation.

In episode 13 when Kotomi’s father was talking about the “harps that make up the universe” or something like that. He was refering to String Theory, otherwise known as the Theory of Everything, the hottest theory in modern physics now. Everyone should be familiar with some physics and its sub-theories such as Electromagnetism, Wave Theory, Particle Mechanics etc. String Theory attempts to unite all these theories into one universal theories i.e. express the universe in 5 or lesser equations rather than use a hold bunch of sub-theories.

To illustrate this lets look at Electromagnetism. Before Faraday invented it, there were seperate theories for Electricity and Magnetism. But Faraday managed to find a link between both theories and united them both, thus leading to the theory of Electromagnetism. Today, everyone, even secondary 1 students, recognise that Electricity and Magnetism are intimately related. String Theory attempts to unite ALL theories into one huge theory. And this huge theory was something that Kotomi’s parents had discovered. To find out more of this theory, you can watch Discovery Channel’s documentaries on it.

I think the theory of everything will never be discovered and for a good reason, too. Basically, the truth will be too shocking for everyone to bear. This is why God, or whoever it is that created this world, had to kill Kotomi’s parents. And Kotomi’s parents, being governed by a human limitation known as “love”, had to save the teddy bear instead of the theory paper. As God himself would probably tell you, “humans are more predictable than you’d think”.

We humans recognise that the truth hurts. It really does. That’s why we come up with cliche quotes such as “You want the truth? You can’t HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!”

I mean, that’s really how the world works. We were born into this world as innocent, naive children. We had to take in the truth a little at the time. If we were to ingest everything at once, not a single one of us would not have wanted to commit suicide.

All the way through our schooling years and arguebly even in my Basic Military Training, my teachers and my sergeants have been shielding my eyes from the truth. The reason is simply that we humans perform better when we do not realise how the world is really like. That scholarships are just shackles that the government forces on the populace to resist brain drain. And that an armed force isn’t as honourable as we think it should be.

However, we’re talking about the ultimate truth here. Not trivial stuff like the military or school. We’re talking about the ultimate theory to explain the origins of this world. And truthfully? I don’t think it is as beautiful as everyone is thinking that it would be. I don’t want to destroy the hopes of any physicist or scientist working out there, but even now String Theory is merely a theory. There isn’t a particle of physical evidence to support it, yet.

Some of my initial predictions would be that God is simply a scientist experimenting with his “creations” so called. String Theory, or otherwise the Theory of Everything, predicts that the universe has at least 10 dimensions. So God could be sitting up there all high and mighty in his 11th dimensional world simply watching and experimenting with us. And when one of us 3-dimensional “deviants” go off the main road of evolution and come up with some amazing theory, he’ll have to initiate some damage control, naturally.

If I brought up this to any major newspaper or Church, I’ll definitely be condemned and labeled crazy. I mean, we humans generally cannot handle the truth. Look at how the Church has painted God and Jesus Christ. I’m only bringing up the Church because that is the religion I’m most familiar with having gone through 6 years in methodist schools. Its not because I’m anti-Chirst or anything. I’m just currently operating on logic, pushing my feelings aside.

Kotomi’s arc has demonstrated that this doesn’t start at the Church level. The reason why Kotomi has no friends is because really, she is simply too smart for her own good. She can see things that others cannot, and thus is ostracised by her classmates. This occurs a lot at school as well. If I elaborate I’m afraid that I’ll offend people, but I believe everyone can think of some examples. Even I have been guilty of making fun of nerdy deviants, and I have been victimised myself as well. I myself took Further Mathematics at ‘A’-levels, which was considered very difficult by my peers at that time. Thus, there were only 3 classes taking F Maths in the entire Junior College. And even though I didn’t admit it then, I could feel that our 3 classes were somehow segregated from the rest of the school.

But is it necessarily bad that this theory will never be discovered? I don’t think so. I mean, look at all the beautiful things life has to offer. First and foremost, there is always anime (LOL). Then there are your family and friends, and all the wonderful memories you have shared with them throughout your life. I don’t think I could live without either. And face it, we have achieved everything we’ve achieved because our eyes were, and still are, hidden from the truth all this while.

And this is also the reason why episode 14 was named thus. Key is amazing in this sense, as they predicted in 2004 with their release of CLANNAD that String Theory will not be truly established. Its 2008 now, and there is no news of a particle of physical evidence being discovered and thus establishing String theory as a true physical theory. Scientists have set up a huge facility in the Arizona dessert to attempt to find this, but so far they have failed.

As for the role of religion, it gives the masses hope. It serves an extremely powerful function in this sense, and I believe it will be around for quite some time, if not forever.

Well, seriousness and theory aside, from the episode 15 preview it looks like Nagisa’s arc is coming up. Does this mean Kyoto Animation plans to skip Kyou and Tomoyo’s arcs completely? Only time will tell.