Bump because I just don't understand.
>>143605421
First of all you need to understand something about Japanese gods. They have a shit ton, and their power comes from belief. If enough people believe that a god exists with certain powers then he does. If people stop believing in them then they cease to exist.
The only thing I really know for sure is that Lain is the true god. The god of the Wired needed people to believe in him to exist. Lain wiped the memory of her from everyone yet she still exists.
I think the first part of what you said is correct. I don't really understand most of Lain either but I don't think she was an AI. Some people think she is a program created by the god of the Wired but I don't think that either. I don't know what the fuck was up with her sister. Also there are like 4 Lains running around but someone else will have to explain that cause I'm still confused on it.
AND YOU DON'T SEEM TO UNDERSTAND
>>143606484
In layer 12 she does explain that Eiri was just a stand in god to enable her own birth.
But she still needs the wired to connect humanity for her to achieve her power.
I think that her power comes from mankinds collective unconscious rather than belief. So she's basically the god of mankind if people believe in her or not because humanity is still connected to the wired.
Even after she resets the world the colored shadows still indicate that the wired is bleeding into reality even if protocol 7 wasn't put in place by Eiri.
Fuck me this is confusing.
>>143606796
Also I think that it's important to note that Eiri's power was derived from his power over only the wired while I think Lain's power derived from the collective meme energy of all mankind.
Eiri was just a "god" that influenced reality by manipulating the collective unconscious via the wired rather than drawing his power from it.
>>143606720
A shame the OP song suffers the same sin many others do, not having enough verses. The second verse is chilling as fuck.
Bump
Lain is basically a documentary, everything Lain was about is way more relevant to today than it was back when it was made.
>>143605421
Based on my analysis of the Lain game and anime along with interviews and trying to explain every little detail in context of the environment, this is my conclusion.
Lain was a piece of the natural collective consciousness. When the wired was created, it tapped into the principle of human to human connection on a metaphysical level, and thus Lain branched off and floated around in the ether of the wired as a non-sentient thing. Eiri found that and gave her a body and human sentience so that she would end up helping him. This is why she has all the odd "powers" - because at the fundamental level she is related to the very fabric of humanity. All of her hallucinations and the appearances of different Lains in her POV are illusions that the Knights and Eiri use to either sway her to their side, or give her a mental breakdown so she, at the point of total loneliness, willingly brings about Protocol 7's final stages (for example, Chisa never talked to Lain in episode 1, the Knights were just trying to get Lain to kill herself trough an avatar of her. Why else would she have had a totally different view on suicide in the second to last episode when talking to Lain?). The only "real" other Lain is the confident one, "wired" Lain. Notice how it sporatically comes and goes as the wired is more and more integrated with real life. It's a representation of how the introverted Lain can interact online without being nervous, and of her non-human nature, not a separate Lain. Eiri thought that humanity was obsolete, and that a return to primordial connectiveness was warranted. He also wanted power. Lain's sister got trapped between the wired and real life, and had her empty shell used as a spy by the Knights.