Norman was born at LAMBDA theory PART2
Again, watch out for manga spoilers here if you are not up to date with the current chapters.
So I recently wrote about my theory that Norman was genetically engineered as part of a LAMBDA experiment, before he was sent to Gracefield as a baby.
(technically they could have used IVF on a Gracefield mama candidate to implant his embryo already at Gracefield, but the point still stands that he could be a creation of the lambda project since birth…)
If you want to read more on that and why I think so, just search my tpn theory tag.
I am writing again, since thanks to talking to @vobomon , I have figured out what that experiment might be about, and more pieces have fallen into place in my head.
Okay, so I think everyone and their mothers have noticed by now how Norman looks like James Ratri, and it’s getting even more apparent as he grows up…
For a manga that makes a painstaking effort in drawing its cast as diverse and as different to each other as possible, this CAN’T BE A COINCIDENCE.
I have seen multiple speculation of Norman being James’ clone, son etc, BUT I haven’t come across any reasonable explanation why this would have been done.
Another big clue we have is the fact that Peter Ratri, an incredibly busy and important man, collects Norman PERSONALLY from Gracefield. I think this is a clear message that the Ratri clan has a PERSONAL STAKE in Norman. But why?
Peter casually dismisses the idea of being called Norman’s father, but he asks him to “help” in what he, the head of the Ratri clan, considers HIS (personal) “RESEARCH”.
What could be Peter researching, and what is the connection to Norman? We know that Norman is then taken to lambda, an experimental facility, but from what we can see they don’t do any experiments on him.
All they do is observe and assess him. They keep him a very normal looking environment, and even keep his schedule of sleep, tests, free-time and food as close to his Gracefield routine as possible.
It frankly just baffles even Norman himself. Yet, he concludes that he must be a “guinea-pig” in an experiment.
So what is the key to the mystery?
I talked about before how Norman being the control group in a genetic experiment might explain his treatment at lambda. But what is this experiment about?
Our clues lie in what the scientists are interested in:
They monitor his HEALTH (going as far as to comment on it) and assess his INTELLIGENCE (noting how it’s beyond their expectations).
Okay, so how about we talk about the Ratri clan now? We know that they had been around for the last 1000 years, and if you ask me, that’s pretty exceptional, and there isn’t many precedent in real history for such a thing.
(The longest surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial house of Japan, having been at reign since 660BC actually…)
So, what is common knowledge about long standing, aristocratic dynasties? Among other things, they tend to have an unusually high level of inbreeding. Which gives rise to congenital (hereditary) disease, and a below average immune system. Remember this omake?
Uh-huh. Are you connection the dots yet?
Okay, so what if the Ratri clan had a couple of hereditary diseases, and / or a weak immune system? Maybe they married to preserve their intelligence, which could have been the trait that they were selected for as leaders of the human side of the promise?
So if you were the Ratri clan, would you be interested in using modern science to improve your genes? Fix the weaknesses and maximise your strengths? But there is that slight problem about ethics stopping certain kinds of experiments in the human world’s science…
Wouldn’t it be convenient to create a facility where you could test whatever you wanted, and ignore ethics. If only such a place existed. Oh, right.
Perhaps that’s why the Ratri clan backed the LAMBDA project in the demon world. And the experiment the Ratris are personally interested in… is involving Norman… who looks like their splitting image, except has off the charts intelligence…
Oh. Yepp, that’s the strongest case setup for genetic modification tests if I have seen any. However, the fact remains that Norman has been a sickly child, even if he is healthy now, so he isn’t the perfected, final product.
He seems to have however exceeded their expectations in intelligence, and I think they were trying to collect data on him to figure how they can use this for further genetic tests in the future.
If Norman had been a part of an experiment since before he was born, then there would be no need to do new experiments on him, they just need to collect data and analyse it. Aaaand basically all of the newest chapters support that Norman hasn’t been experimented on after he arrived at LAMBDA as an 11-year-old.
He says himself that he was only kept there, and now in chapter 124, the people closest to him at lambda has also carefully talked about how the 4 of them (Zazie, Barbara, Vincent and Cislo) has undergone experiments, and gained powers from them. They NEVER say that Norman had any of those experiments done to him, and they NEVER say that Norman has any power beyond his intelligence. They keep saying it’s their power and NORMAN’S PLAN on how to use those that got them where they are.
Is it reasonable to think that Norman’s intelligence might be artifically created?
Yes, and I think we have seen evidence from chapter 1. The chart that the demon holds with the Gracefield kids’ scores on it clearly shows that even though Ray and Emma are also full-score children, not all of their averages and scores are 300. Except’s Norman’s list has NOTHING but 300. Is that really normal? He gets pushed further at LAMBDA with more difficult questions, and STILL gets a perfect score.
If he now knows that he isn’t actual normal (lol, nice pun there), that would also explain his melancholia when asked if he has changed by Emma. No, he is the same, but Emma doesn’t know that he has always been different from them. That his whole existence is unnatural.
It would explain all the observations made about him being different to the others, without having been (artificially) changed since they separated (since he was made different even before being separated).
BAM Cue drama, angst and a road to self-discovery and how his friends will still accept and love him even if he was fundamentally different to them and their beliefs of him.
I think this is exactly the plot twist our dear author, Kaiu-san would use. *slow clapping*
