Adamir he/him Posted June 29, 2015 Posted June 29, 2015 Nearly every exposed cell on your body is dead. Hair? Dead cells. Nails? Dead cells. And most importantly for my question, skin? Dead. None of those cells are active; you shed skin at the same rate that new skin cells grow beneath it, which then proceed to die - to become inactive and stop growing. So why don't Shardblades cut skin? They have been shown to slice hair and nails. They have cut through Parshendi carapace without obstruction. But when it comes to skin, they pass through as though it were still alive. They 'sever its soul', despite the fact that skin doesn't have a soul. It is linked to the rest of your body in the same sense that a collar is linked to a dog. My personal interpretation relies heavily on Realmatic Theory; allow me to elaborate. When you look at this table, what do you see? The table isn't a table, it is just pieces of wood and nails put into the shape of a table. We look at the table as a table for so long that it begins to see itself as a table, and not as a dozen pieces of wood. -Shai, The Emperor's Soul. Note that I may be recalling the quote incorrectly. If we go by that explanation, we can make a few assumptions. When you look at someone, you do not see trillions of cells. You see a person. My logic here is that, as the skin's cognitive aspect believes itself to be connected to the body, the Shardblade assumes the same, and severs it as though it actually were. This could also explain why Parshendi carapace can be sliced; it looks enough like armor for its cognitive aspect to consider itself separate. The only flaw in my theory is hair and nails; why do Shardblades still cut them?
Guest Posted June 29, 2015 Posted June 29, 2015 (edited) They probably do cut skin, but the layer of skin that is dead is so thin that in the times before forensics it just isn't noticed. Edit: Only the Epidermis is dead. Edited June 29, 2015 by LabRat
Oudeis he/him Posted June 29, 2015 Posted June 29, 2015 Pretty much Labrat's thing. There's a lot of support on this forum for the "cognitive trumps everything" theory you describe, but I see several flaws in it. In this case, if I think of my skin as myself, why don't I think of my hair as myself? Or my nails? 1
king of nowhere Posted June 29, 2015 Posted June 29, 2015 Pretty much Labrat's thing. There's a lot of support on this forum for the "cognitive trumps everything" theory you describe, but I see several flaws in it. In this case, if I think of my skin as myself, why don't I think of my hair as myself? Or my nails? maybe because you regularly cut your nails and hair, but not your skin. 1
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