Megami Mortality/Immortality Megami ML ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- OK, I've seen a pic of Peorth once and I hear that she makes an appearance in the Manga once in a while. However, to your main point, I would tend to agree. Megami get born, go through puberty, grow to their early to mid-twenties, then stop aging. Of course, this is entirely my opinion, as Fujishima-sensei hasn't made a pronouncement on this. Now if you'll pardon me, I have to go and hang my life size Belldandy in my den. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > It's important to remember we're dealing with fictional characters >here and thusly it's important not to ascribe traits from other >mythological gods to our favorite goddesses without good cause. Simply >being Megami doesn't imply that they do not age or only age to a certain >point. Urd certainly looks older, to me, than Belldandy or Peorth and if >we accept the OAV's portrayal of Belldandy as having once been a child >then the most logical conclusion is that they do continue to age at a >rate more or less consistent with human beings. For all we know, they >could even die. I don't think it's been implicitly stated in the manga >anywhere that they are immortal. It's really up to Fujishima and, so >far, he's not said. :-) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Les, please. Don't go ruining it for everybody! What's the point of being a megami if you're going to end up and die like a human? I mean, it takes all the fun away from being a Goddess. You get born, grow up, and then, party on for the rest of existence. We're talking billions and billions of years, here, or at least until the universe contracts again into singularity, and then that would depend upon the effects of singularity on the dimension occupied by the megami. I mean, look at the implications of what you're saying (possibly). If it's true, and Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld can grow old until they push up daisies, then all the megami are a bunch of no good, garden variety super heroes! And that's disgusting! Aren't you all just SICK TO DEATH of Superman, for crying out loud? You can tell a comic is on its last legs when they change the trademark outfit of the main man. It's as if they decided to dress Batman in white, for Christ's sake. Mortality for Belldandy makes her nothing more than a jumped-up A-Ko! Mortality for Skuld implies an existence akin to, well, B-Ko. As for Urd, I was going to mention that "La Blue Girl" character, but I don't want to start a revolution. Besides, I like Urd. And another thing that gets my goat. What happens when Keiichi gets older. Does Belldandy grow old with him to keep him happy (something postulated in one of the stories from Ryo's fanfic page)? Do they have ("gulp") CHILDREN?!!!! And inquiring minds want to know, what does Skuld say when asked to babysit? And when K1enters rigor mortis, does his spirit ascend to The Heavens? Does he join Bell-chan up there? Does the B-Girl say to him, "....well, forever on earth and forever in heaven are two different things. Besides, I've been reassigned." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I think the whole fun of it is that we don't have to worry about things like that and we can just enjoy the series how it is, not worrying about things like that, because they impact the innocence and beauty of the story. Personally, I don't even like to think about Belldandy and Keiichi having kids. Notice, my fanfic doesn't even touch base on stuff like that. There's no reason for it, in my opinion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- There's no reason not to have it either though. They are, afterall, two people in love and one of the multitude of reasons many people get together is to have children. Even if Belldandy is indifferent to the concept, Keiichi is still human and may have wanted children one day. If it's determined that megami and humans can not bear children then his only option he'd have available to him if he really wanted kids would be to leave Belldandy. Lots of people have split up over their inability to bear children. Sure would be a tragic ending to the series. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The AMG had some chapters on the subject of growing up, usually focusing on Skuld. It would be an interesting twist to have Skuld play the responsible adult to a couple of little half-megami brats running around the temple grounds. Imagine how exasperated Skuld might get when these incorrigible little monsters run around, ruining her projects. ^_^ But a story like that probably won't work with the current AMG. The relationship between the main characters (primarily Belldandy and K1) will have change drastically. Perhaps the current AMG can end with a wedding, and after a while, a new series might start, focusing on the kids. But I doubt that too, since the readership of AMG is generally older than those who are interested in little kids' story. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- While I will concede that Fujishima does not have to follow Norse mythology from which the three goddesses are drawn from. If we do look at Norse mythology for our model as to how they age, we will see that In Norse mythology the gods and goddesses DO age, are not imortal and can die. The death of Balder being the prime example. To keep from ageing the gods and goddessed had to eat a special food supplied to them by a goddess. (It was golden apples). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sure there is. Despite all the magic about it, AMS is firmly grounded in the Real World. Morisato and B-chan are developed as "real" characters with "real" emotions (well, okay, Belldandy does go over the top from time to time, when K1 is concerned). That's its charm. One can "conceive" of these characters existing and imagining what life would be like for them as time marched on. One of the things that grow as life goes on, especially for these two, is love. Very deep and very abiding. And I do not see why, under normal circumstances, that love should not develop into a married life that includes children. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I also enjoy these threads. Should B & K later decide to marry, it will be as ADULTS, and not as people who have lived their whole lives, to date, as adolescents or children. Each of them will be more mature, more skilled and competent, more self-confident and less likely to freak out easily (We should hope ;-) Bell will be a good, strong woman whose depth of feeling is now matched by its breadth. And Keiichi will be a real mensch, a man of respect, who can look life straight in the eye without wincing or giggling*. As one grows older, it becomes possible to grow UP, as well! And children? Ahhh! This groaning world has dire need of the children that such as they can raise. Such children will be a joy in themselves and a real gift to the future. And you know? I'll bet that Auntie Skoo - an adult by then, and also more mature her OWN sweet self - will just LOVE to zip on over in her silver five speed '66 X-KE, top down, and spoil them ROTTEN... And when she can't, I'll babysit those kids myself. Either way, I can't WAIT! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to a recent Drark Horse translation, there's another bit of evidence on this question. The story translated involves Urd's possible recall to heaven (and we can see where some ideas in the OAVs may have come from). But Belldandy says that if Urd is recalled, she might not be sent back to Earth for hundreds or thousands of years. Now this _implies_ that Urd might be around in some form, to be sent back for that long. (I don't exclude the possibility of some sort of cycle of reincarnation among the heavenly beings, but that's not required by the evidence.) My personal theory is that the whole Goddress Relief Office is a training ground where kami/megami are intended to get experience and work out their equvalent of "karma" before moving on to other responsiblities. "Other responsiblities" might include the roles of bodhisattva ... since there appears to be "plenty of room at the top" for that position.