(urth) Is Agia a Robot?

[David Stockhoff]

That's an interesting suggestion. It's a way to retain the "sacred 
twins" theory without the robot angle. Funny how it's easier to propose 
an entire unknown race (perhaps since we know such must exist)  than to 
explain why someone would create an assassin robot or why a sexbot would 
turn holy and self-directed.

The robot theory is based entirely on Agia's (1) possibly metal head and 
(2) possible identity as the poppet. The bio-android theory doesn't need 
#1. As Roy notes, there are no other hints that she is metal despite 
many opportunities, and if we accept as simple truth their twin origin, 
Agilus' death disproves the metalhead clue for me. But Agia remains an 
extreme femme fatale---emphasis on both words. Why?

The Asian-appearance thing is irrelevant to this except to the extent it 
suggests a non-Nessus origin for her and "explains" the use of ninja and 
assassin weapons.

I'd prefer to rest a theory on at least 3 data points. If she's not a 
"hard robot":

---Her strength has another source
---She could still be the poppet
---Agilus could be her actual twin IF she's a genetic/flesh android or 
just human

After giving away the hard-robot part, is it needed that A&A be anything 
other than human at all? It's not strictly necessary that Agia be the 
poppet; it may be enough that Hethor recognizes something in Agia that 
he likes---it could be as simple as that she is passive in bed and 
dominating/controlling otherwise, although I doubt her ability to even 
fake being passive if she's human. Perhaps Hethor needs both dominance 
and submission.

Still, I believe the poppet story must lead somewhere. We know Wolfe 
really likes the live-puppet theme, as a subcategory of the live-robot 
theme. It's actually hard to imagine a long novel by Wolfe without it. 
It has to be in there somewhere. Jonas is one twist on that theme.

Jeff Wilson wrote:
>
> On 6/20/2010 3:00 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
>>
>> From: "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net>
>>
>>> And I see no real connection between Agia and Hethor's lost sex doll.
>>
>> I doubt it too, but Hethor's description of 'sun-kissed skin' is
>> interesting, because Agia seems often to be described in terms of light
>> falling on her skin.
>
> Perhaps Agilus and Agia are the remnants of a race or a bloodline of 
> sexdoll-people, engender for that purpose and of similar origin as the 
> mastiff-men and the cat women. They look alike because they are not 
> just twins but made to be fertile only among their cohort and giving 
> birth to clones of themselves meant to eventually replace them. This 
> would explain why their incest is "acceptable" and thus not cursed 
> with defects from hidden recessives (because they don't come with 
> recessives) but the sin of their creation is visited upon them.
>
> This also explains why Hethor falls for Agia; she greatly resembles 
> his doll because their creators had similar opinions on what made a 
> most desirable woman, long term. (Dr Talos has more radical 
> preferences for Jolenta, no doubt contributing to her unsustainability.)
>