 | Gandalph |
| | Bella teoria!  Ne avevo lette alcune simili, ma nessuna riusciva a collegare il progetto Itakura (probabile digitalizzazione della mente) e quindi la branca informatica dell'Organizzazione con il progetto Silver Bullet di quella chimica. In effetti così quadrerebbe. Detto questo (e premesso che anch'io sono digiuno di rilettura di quei volumi), va aggiunto che quando si fa riferimento ai fatti di vent'anni fa non mi sembra che si specifichi esattamente la data (come sarebbe stato fatto dicendo ad esempio "21 anni fa") quindi è probabile che la determinazione temporale sia indicativa e comprenda un lasso che va dai 18 ai 22 anni fa, per cui non sussisterebbe alcun paradosso. Anche a proposito della presunta fantascienza profetica di Gosho (sappiamo infatti che ad oggi sono realmente in corso esperimenti sui telomeri e sulla digitalizzazione dei processi mentali): sappiamo che quasi sicuramente Gosho non immaginò fin da subito l'Organizzazione come la conosciamo noi oggi e anzi sono convinto che tutt'ora la trama sia ancora un progetto in fieri e suscettibile ad aggiunte o cambiamenti più o meno radicali (cosa che vale per quasi tutte le pubblicazioni episodiche), per cui non ci sarebbe da stupirsi se lo scopo dell'organizzazione fosse cambiato anche più volte in corso d'opera, al primo sentore di Gosho degli esperimenti suddetti e del buon effetto che avrebbero fatto nella trama di DC. Ora però in riferimento alla teoria: perché ricercare una sostanza che faccia regredire fino allo stato embrionale, quando si presume che siano stati raggiunti risultati stabili o incoraggianti per la sostanza che fa regredire all'età di 30 anni (Vermouth)? Voglio dire, se lo scopo del Boss è l'immortalità perché non sviluppare meglio quella sostanza che si presume abbiano creato i Miyano, che permette di rimanere eternamente nel fiore della giovane età? Cioè, mettiamo caso che il farmaco miracoloso che fa regredire allo stato embrionale venga infine creato: il Boss lo assume e poi? Deve aspettare quanto meno una ventina d'anni per essere veramente in grado di guidare di nuovo la sua Organizzazione, o anche supponendo che gli venga subito reimpiantata la sua mente, dovranno passare almeno 5-6 anni per riottenere delle facoltà fisiche minime per poter comunicare ad esempio e intanto in quel lasso di tempo l'Organizzazione che fa? Non sarebbe più comodo ritornare a un'età giovanile, nel pieno delle proprie forze? L'altra ipotesi è che voglia ridursi ad embrione per potersi clonare e creare potenzialmente copie infinite di sé stesso che, guidate dalla stessa mente digitalizzata, lo rendano praticamente un'entità con un unica coscienza centralizzata con centinaia di incarnazioni che agiscono secondo la sua volontà, un'entità di una potenza spaventosa, perché ubiqua e assolutamente immortale se la mente-server viene tenuta in un posto sicuro: infatti anche uccidendo una incarnazione ne rimarrebbero infinite altre, senza tralasciare l'estrema comodità di essere guidate tutte dallo stesso pensiero rendendo quindi superflua ogni comunicazione. Tra l'altro se la mente è stata digitalizzata probabilmente è possibile anche potenziarla aggiungendo spazio di archiviazione in più, rendendo questa potenziale creatura quasi divina, oltre che quasi onnipotente, anche onnisciente. Un progetto che quindi potrebbe essere sì pericoloso per l'intera umanità. Ma rimane un'incongruenza: perché lavorare proprio alla riduzione del Boss a un embrione, non sarebbe meglio piuttosto fare ricerche di eugenetica, produrre esseri umani praticamente perfetti, superiori alla media e impiantare in essi l'autocoscienza del Boss? E lentamente moltiplicando questi esseri creare intere città che si muovono e pensano coordinate da un solo sistema nervoso, e passare dalle città agli Stati al mondo intero, popolato al coronamento del progetto solo da appendici del Boss? Cioè clonando se stesso crea potenzialmente infiniti soggetti che hanno il suo aspetto, rischiando che qualcosa vada storto nel processo di inversione e che quindi in ogni caso il suo corpo vada perduto; se anche andasse tutto a buon fine gli esseri creati hanno tutti il suo aspetto risultando quindi troppo evidente agli occhi del mondo, se quindi l'obiettivo fosse la conquista del mondo ci dovrebbe essere una guerra gigantesca tra le appendici del Boss e l'umanità, magari vinta comunque dal primo, visto che il vantaggio di avere un'unica intelligenza motrice è inimmaginabile, però sarebbe infinitamente più produttivo (e vicino al carattere prudente del Boss) continuare a produrre appendici con aspetto diverso e lentamente infiltrarle nel mondo conquistandolo senza che questo neanche se ne accorga, tra l'altro potrebbe tenerle sempre giovani già con il Silver Bullet dei Miyano e in ogni caso la sua mente digitalizzata sarebbe immortale e costantemente arricchita dalle esperienze delle sue appendici e da qualsivoglia informazione si decida di immagazzinare dentro. Tutto questo per dire che non vedo il senso di spingere le ricerche oltre il ringiovanimento fino ai 30 anni, se la teoria dello scopo prevedesse questo. Un altro discorso sarebbe se la mente digitalizzata potesse essere impiantata di nuovo solo nella persona del Boss, ma perché dovrebbe essere così? Se è possibile il processo di innesto di una mente digitalizzata è evidente che dev'essere possibile a prescindere della persona, infatti il boss allo stato embrionale sarebbe comunque sottoposto a delle variabili che renderebbero il neonato comunque leggermente diverso dal Boss di prima. Se invece è solo una questione di DNA va bè, io ho fatto il classico e non me ne intendo troppo  , ma penso che sia possibile creare un embrione con lo stesso DNA artificialmente senza che ci sia bisogno di avere l'individuo clonato anch'esso allo stato embrionale, a maggior ragione se si parla di un manga che ha spunti di fantascienza, anche se è fantascienza molto realistica. In più rinuncerei a cercare di identificare il Boss partendo da questa teoria: se il Boss investe effettivamente nel settore scientifico alla luce del sole, lo fa sicuramente per mezzo di numerosi prestanome (Pisco magari è uno di questi), è una persona troppo prudente, e il suo nome di certo non figurerebbe in quelli del floppy con il rischio che l'Organizzazione possa essere estirpata alle radici se qualcuno venisse in possesso di quelle informazioni (il Night Baron non basta come protezione se i nomi si sono intravisti e si è riuscito a capire che erano persone che avevano fatto investimenti: se qualcuno avesse registrato la schermata con una telecamera, tanti saluti all'Organizzazione). Poi tra l'altro non penso sia necessario che questi investimenti vengano fatti davanti agli occhi di tutti: se l'Organizzazione si occupa giornalmente di traffici di centinaia di milioni di yen e nessuno in Giappone se ne è mai accorto, saprà certamente nascondere a dovere tutti i suoi spostamenti di denaro. Il Boss infine secondo me appunto per la sua estrema prudenza ha finto la sua morte e vive nascosto (Karasuma o Atsushi, tra l'altro mi sembra di aver letto che l'intervista che afferma che Ai dovrebbe rimanere fortemente stupita dell'identità del Boss potrebbe essere un falso perché non è mai stata data la fonte) A proposito di Vermouth invece: mettiamo che sia stata esposta a una sostanza che l'ha fatta rimpicciolire a uno stato neonatale 50 anni fa e poi si sia cercato di replicare questo risultato sottoponendola costantemente a delle analisi (motivo del suo odio): perché testare i prototipi di nuovo su di lei? Diventa secondo me la meno adatta come cavia perché il funzionamento della nuova sostanza potrebbe essere dovuto alla vecchia esposizione e quindi risultare innocuo o dannoso su chi non ha avuto la sua stessa storia: non avrebbe quindi senso che il Silver Bullet dei Miyano fosse testato di nuovo su di lei causando questa regressione. Tra l'altro non ho capito molto bene l'andamento dei fatti: se Vermouth aveva 20-30 quando ha ucciso il padre di Jodie ed era stata appena regredita dal Silver Bullet, perché adesso ne ha ancora 30? Non avrebbe senso assumere di nuovo il Silver Bullet, per prima cosa perché era solo un prototipo che non raggiunge l'effetto desiderato e in secondo luogo perché non le è piaciuto regredire, oltretutto regredendo un'altra volta ha dovuto fingere la morte di Sharon, abbandonare gli amici (Yukiko), creare infinite altre complicazioni. Per me la tesi più probabile rimane che Vermouth non invecchia, perché con questa ogni tassello a lei relativo va a posto. Ho letto la teoria del DCTP a suo proposito ed è davvero convincente, provo a riassumerla. Essa prevede che Vermouth non abbia avuto solo le identità di Sharon e Chris ma una terza, ovvero quella della madre di Sharon. A un certo punto del manga viene detto che i genitori di Sharon sono morti in un incendio (anche se questo sembrerebbe già preludere ai metodi dell'Organizzazione) in concomitanza con il suo debutto da attrice, cosa che ricorda molto la prima apparizione pubblica di Chris al funerale di Sharon. Si presume quindi che 60 anni fa sia successo qualcosa che blocca l'invecchiamento di Vermouth quando lei ha 25-30 anni, lei quindi inizia a costruire l'identità di Sharon, quando giunge il momento in cui Sharon dovrebbe avere la sua stessa età, fa sparire i genitori di Sharon (ovvero la sua vecchia identità) in un incendio, in modo che sparisca ogni traccia della loro storia e del loro aspetto (questo è abbastanza semplice perché non esistevano archivi informatici e i genitori di Sharon non sono famosi, lei lo diventa appena dopo questo avvenimento), quindi assume a tempo pieno l'identità di Sharon, a un certo punto finge una gravidanza, fa passare un po' di tempo di nuovo e quando Chris dovrebbe avere più o meno la sua età, uccide Sharon e assume l'identità di Chris a tempo pieno. Sono stato molto sbrigativo ma vi metto in spoiler l'intera teoria a proposito di Vermouth del DCTP (anche le altre sono molto interessanti  ) Vermouth/Chris Vineyard/Sharon Vineyard/Sharon’s mother and Sharon's husband
Please refer to Vermouth's wiki article. It is really quite good as a reference and explains a lot of things. In general there is a lot of unresolved stuff about Vermouth which I will try to cover most of here.
Cause of non aging
Vermouth's lack of aging is probably caused by some unmentioned substance instead of APTX 4869 or Silver Bullet. Furthermore, this substance was likely created by someone other than Elena and Atsushi Miyano.
Arguments against APTX and Silver Bullet
Vermouth could not take APTX 4869 to achieve her youthfulness unless she was willing to face near certain death trying it. Before Vermouth discovered Haibara and Conan, the known members of the Black Organization (besides Sherry) only knew about APTX 4869's lethal effects. We know this because Sherry didn’t tell anyone about the deaging mouse, or else the Org would figure out what had happened to her and how she escaped the locked room she was being held in, and APTX 4869 was considered deadly enough that Sherry's superiors employed it as an untraceable murder weapon.
It is possible Vermouth might have tried to commit suicide recently (Around when Shiho escaped) with APTX 4869, but I don’t think she has shown suicidal intent, and that doesn’t explain why she would concoct two separate roles, Sharon and the younger Chris, well in advance and then kill off Sharon in order to be Chris.
Vermouth couldn’t have taken APTX anytime other than very recently because if she had taken it earlier, the other Org members would have known what it could do and then connected that with Sherry's mysterious escape from the handcuffs and locked room. Even if she kept the deaging and APTX a secret, it doesn’t explain why no one in the Black Org has questioned why Vermouth has become younger, especially after Gin saw her true damaged face following the Haunted Ship case.
Vermouth probably didn't take Silver Bullet either because it was probably the same project as APTX (discussed in the Black Organization section above.) Also the timing supports some compound more than 10-15 years old, which is discussed below.
So in conclusion, I don’t think Vermouth took APTX 4869 at all. Instead, there is another compound that hasn’t yet been mentioned that caused Vermouth’s aging problem.
Arguments for another mystery compound
Whatever Vermouth took probably didn't just deage her like APTX 4869 (if it deaged her at all), but instead froze her aging at the point when she took it. Vermouth must have planned in advance to change into a more youthful role when she created Chris. It makes more sense for Vermouth who is aware she is not aging to plan for an eventual switchover than it would be for her to create a second persona years in advance in anticipation of taking a compound that would deage her a precise number of years. Also, in the New York case, it is likely Vermouth to have a body that was youthful at the time because Vermouth managed to suddenly vault over a handrail from a dead hanging position while shot in the side. It would take a lot of strength training for even a 20-30 year old to do that while resisting the pain, I am not confident that a 50 year old woman's body could manage, even with extreme training. Another corroboration occurs in her discussion with Yukiko (which to be fair could be untruthful), Vermouth said "It's actually quite tough you know - pretending that it's not just your face, but everything about you that's aging too." (823 p2)
Whatever she took wasn't something Atsushi or Elena Miyano invented because of the timing. Instead, the APTX 4869/Silver Bullet project was more likely attempt to replicate whatever it was that caused Vermouth to stop aging. If we look at the timeline for what we know about Vermouth, the timing implausibility becomes clear.
~probably 30-35 years ago - Sharon debuts on screen, her parents die in a fire (Sharon's age ≈ 15-25),
30 years ago - Sharon pretends to be pregnant with Chris to avoid potential maternity accusations down the line (Sharon's age ≈ 20-30), she wins an Oscar, her husband dies.
30 years ago - the Miyanos are called in to research
~20 years ago - Sharon started with Toichi (age ≈ 30-40)
~20 years ago - Vermouth killed Jodie's father with a 20-30 year old face
~10-15 years ago: The Miyanos make a breakthrough with Silver Bullet
~10 years ago - Chris is old enough to switch into as a role, Chris goes independent from Sharon (Chris' age = 18-19, Sharon's age = 40-50)
< 1 year ago - Sharon dies (age ≈ 50-60)
< 1 year ago - Chris comes out into public besides movies and publicity interviews. (age = 28-29)
The Miyanos came in around the exact time Sharon should have faked being pregnant (29 years + 9 months). If one tries to take into account the time needed for the Miyanos to build trust in the organization and to make a breakthrough in their anti-aging serum (Silver Bullet was 10-15 years ago), Vermouth's aging problem seems to have occurred before the Miyanos even get there. This means whatever happened to Vermouth was not related to Atsushi and Elena's APTX 4869. Instead, it is more likely the inverse situation occurred: Elena and Atsushi were called in to research Vermouth.
Age and identity
While it is likely Sharon is Chris is Vermouth, Sharon’s mother may also be Vermouth because she died in a fire on the day Sharon debuted. (vol 35-1 page 2) Thus, Sharon may not be Vermouth’s first alias. (The last name "Vineyard" is awfully thematic for the Org, perhaps intentionally so?) Vermouth would have to be 80-85 or older if Sharon's mom was the same person. This could also be additional evidence that Silver Bullet and APTX in its current incarnation aren’t the source of Vermouth’s apparent failure to age because those projects are only 30 years old at most. (Discussed above) Shiho’s parents and their experiments are too young to account for the time point. It would have to be Shiho’s grandparents or something else entirely.
Here is an example timeline of events should Vermouth be Sharon’s mother where I have tried to keep Vermouth's age real age to a minimum. There is more flexibility if Vermouth is actually older.
(click to show/hide)
•Vermouth is ~25-30 (55-60 years before the current timeline) - Something halts Vermouth's aging.
You could call this the 50 year old project start date that Ai referred to even though it may have been going on before and Vermouth may not know she was not aging yet. The reason is that if Vermouth was exposed to something that halts aging, someone around her responsible for getting her exposed is likely to be working on a project with the intent of lengthening lifespan or something like that.
•Vermouth is ~30-35 (50-55 years before the current timeline) Vermouth realizes she is not aging and she now knows she is going to need a false identity to become or else people around her are going to start to notice. Another possibility is that she is affected by a mysterious drug t at this point, which also deages her a little and then stops her aging making it obvious from the start she needs an identity switch.
Creating a false child identity isn't as hard as it sounds back then because there were no electronic records that are easy to check on and with bribery, fake papers, and whatnot, it's possible to create a proper paper trail especially if she has the Black Org's help (or what will become the Black Org). Vermouth could pretend her child was adopted or something like that at an older age so she could switch in sooner. You could also assume this was the project start date as well.
In the ~20 year interim between her current state she could become Sharon, she could work on disguise and acting, skills necessary for being an actress and for creating the appearance of a daughter if necessary. As Sharon’s parents are not famous actors, relatively few people are going to know or care about what they look like, and Vermouth can erase them when her Sharon actress role becomes popular and attention might be attracted to the parents.
•Vermouth is ~50-55 (30-35 years before the current timeline) Vermouth now has the ability to swap into her Sharon role who aged to approximately just graduated from high school age.
She rises to stardom and kills off Sharon's mom when she debuts in a movie and takes up Sharon's role in full. She uses a fire to obfuscate the replacement corpses and also to destroy evidence about what Sharon’s parents looked like and how they lived. In anticipation of future events, Vermouth starts working on backdating the Chris identity I assume by faking a pregnancy or something like that.
30 years prior to the current timeline, the Miyanos start their research
20 years prior to the current timeline, Vermouth kills Jodie's father
~20 years ago Sharon learns disguise from Kuroba Toichi (Yukiko learned disguise back when she was a beginning actress. She started her career while in high-school. Yukiko is 37)
~10-15 years prior to the current timeline: the Miyanos make a breakthrough with Silver Bullet
•Vermouth is ~70-75 (~10 years before the current timeline) Chris has become old enough (19) to disguise as because the Chris role has aged to approximately just-graduated-from-high-school age. She begins to work on Chris's stardom, but keeps Chris's private life a secret. This is referenced as the time Sharon last saw Chris.
•Vermouth is ~80-85 (<1 years before the current timeline) Vermouth kills off Sharon and takes up Chris full time.
Boss's favoritism
Vermouth is the boss’s favorite which grants her some independence. Her lack of aging, and thus her status as a project success may be the boss’s favorite for this reason. If Vermouth is as old as I suspect (80-85), then perhaps she even knew the boss before he/she started the Org and may one of the original -if not the first- members of the Org.
Traitorous behavior
Strangely, Vermouth seems like she wants the Black Org to be brought down, but for some reason is unable to do so or does not want to do so herself. She withholds important mission information like Shiho’s and Shinichi’s shrunken state from her coworkers which gives them a fair and fighting chance. Part of this withholding of information is related to her not wanting their deaged states known, but she does not interfere with their normal allies whom they communicate with or foil their plans unless it is something she personally desires (Shiho's death). She protects Kogoro and Conan from assassination. She does not alert her comrades about Conan’s interference in missions, like when she realizes that one of Conan’s bugs is creating static on their radios, she tells Gin “nevermind.”
This behavior is definitely not like normal black org behavior. As mentioned above, part of Vermouth's reason for withholding the information is because she does not want their shrunken state revealed to the greater Organization for some reason, but she goes further than that by making bargains and promises with them, and generally letting them do what they want to the Organization's detriment. Vermouth could be held “hostage” in some way, or simply resent the organization or its goals because of her anti-aging condition. My personal belief is if Vermouth is as old as I suspect, she has become more cynical and no longer believes in the value of Org's mission. Vermouth has been through many experiences which may have changed her opinions of long life, such as changing her identity and faking her death which means cutting herself off from her former friends and people who knew her. Examples include her friendship with Yukiko and her apprenticeship with Toichi. It also means outliving many of her former friends, and having to lie all the time. We also know she has been touched by her interactions with Ran and Shinichi at the New York case when they saved her life.
As for why she isn’t taking a more active role in the Org’s destruction if she is cynical, she probably still has various ties to the Org and may be “friends” with the boss and any other creators. She is stuck with the conundrum of wanting to see the end of the Org’s activities, but would feel guilty about destroying their dreams by herself. The loophole is that she can let others have the chance to do it for her, which is an additional reason why she protects Conan.
Gin seems to have noticed her behavior change because he seems to be looking for opportunities to kill her, like at the bar while she was dressed up and during the off season Halloween party on the mystery boat. He also didn't mind her getting blown up on the Bell Tree express if it came to that. He also voiced concern about her harboring sympathies about Sherry implying he was worried her loyalty was wavering and she was withholding information from him.
Vermouth, her dislike of the Miyanos, and her secret she is trying to hide
Vermouth seems to dislike or has attempted to kill anyone who knows clearly about her aging situation. We know she has attempted to kill Shiho Miyano and Jodie Starling particularly, and has killed Jodie Starling's father who collected information on her. She threatened her friend Yukiko at gunpoint for poking around the topic, and is actively hiding Conan and Haibara from her coworkers so they do not learn about their deaging. It would not be past her to even kill the Miyano parents in a forged accident (and because she doesn't like them).
For a reason likely related to the Miyano's projects, she detests Miyano Shiho, and that dislike probably extends to Atsushi and Elena as well. Because Vermouth mentioned their science project being foolish (434), the source of her dislike may be the APTX 4869/Silver Bullet project. If they based APTX 4869/Silver Bullet 30 years ago off of her, that means that Vermouth was their research subject. It may not have been a pleasant experience for her. Also, if Vermouth has become more cynical about her aging condition and the Organization's goals over time, then she would come to dislike Atsushi and Elena who are, in a way, a personification of the Organization's science goals. Vermouth being the source of info Shiho is basing her project on would explain why Shiho knows Vermouth well and is especially terrified of her, despite them being in different lines of work. Assuming Silver Bullet and APTX 4869 are the same thing, Vermouth nicknaming the APTX-affected Shinichi "Silver Bullet" may indicate she was involved in the earlier stages of the project development with the parents if she is using the Miyano's old nickname to refer to him.
Vermouth's personality change
Vermouth’s personality seems to less wicked and vicious compared to the little we know about how she acted one year ago and earlier. Most obviously, Vermouth went to self-endangering lengths multiple times to protect Conan and Ran. (Bus Jack, Party Showdown, Org vs FBI) Vermouth also went out of her way to be well liked while disguised as Dr. Araide; Vermouth was rather liked by students, so much that Araide asked Jodie if she was really a bad person. (459) She even plays along with Conan in Sato's matchup case. How much is acting and how much is really her personality? Twenty years ago she tried to find and kill the then child Jodie, but recently she tells Gin to ignore the kid that she interrogated to learn about Kir’s motorcycle accident. Of course, this doesn’t prevent her from doing horrible things in the present like blackmailing someone to murder, or using coworkers for her own ends that results in their deaths, but she is certainly a kinder person than most other loyal organization members we have seen so far.
Sharon’s husband
Sharon apparently had a husband who died. During the NY case, Sharon told a story to Yukiko, Shinichi, and Ran that Chris Vineyard came to the funeral disguised as her husband to harass her; this is impossible because Sharon is Chris. Did Vermouth really have a husband or did she create him with a disguise as well? The anecdote originally served to provide an example of Chris’s bad personality, but perhaps there is truth to the husband being alive to visit his own grave? If he is a real person, perhaps the funeral story of Vermouth's was inspired by something that happened almost like she described: the husband faked his death too and came to visit his own grave. Something like that would probably mean the husband is BO, but who knows if he is even real to start with? I won't speculate much without more information.
Miscellaneous
•Agasa said Chris was a “second generation actress” meaning Sharon’s mom wasn’t an actress. (34-2 pg 8)
•Vermouth would have had to have known Dr. Araide well to successfully take his place. Vermouth seems to have a decent amount of medical knowledge as she was able to pass at being a school nurse and taught back exercises to the principal (458). This is extremely difficult as medical knowledge requires a large amount of high degree of training and memorization. It's not something one could fudge. Perhaps Vermouth had medical experience at one point? It might make sense if she was a scientist when she was exposed to whatever caused her cease aging then switched professions later.
•Jodie’s father in the FBI was secretly investigating Vermouth who was Sharon Vineyard at the time 20 years ago. (433) He found something incriminating enough so that Vermouth killed him and burned his house down with the info inside. My guess is that the info related to not aging and maybe her pre-Sharon role.
•Vermouth had a cat around her one year ago according to Itakura Suguru. (V39-6) The reason why her face was hidden at the time was because she was still in her Sharon role and Vermouth being Sharon hadn’t been revealed yet. | | | |
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