Shaving

[Doc Denim]

Kambei - yes - this is a point that I've had under consideration off and on for some time - we had a discussion about this a while ago (over under "Can Scarlet Die of Natural Causes') and I came to pretty much the same conclusion - that it amounts to virtual immortality either way:

Interesting question, but I think the answer is yes - providing he doesn't get done in before he has time to do it. And by that I mean that if he's left alone (alive and uninjured, that is) long enough, I'm sure he'd age 'naturally' - grey hair (I somehow can't visualize male pattern baldness here), wrinkles, that sort of thing....but if he managed to get himself bumped off one way or another, even accidentally, I think that the retrometabolism would kick him back to his 'original' copied state. I believe I blathered about this somewhere else in the forum - and that the retrometabolism is a physiological reset of sorts - Scarlet 'reboots' to the Mysterons’ original template when bad things happen to him.

It would be another interesting question as to how much deviation from the 'pattern' would be required before the reboot would 'activate' - supposing it's a minor as a paper cut, then I'd have to assume he's doomed to live forever (even if he's below average clumsy) or if there's a 'threshold' that has to be crossed....and if we go there, then we also have to ask at what point the retrometabolism will fail to save Scarlet - if he's incinerated or dismembered, or eaten alive (just for examples), then what 'raw material' is the retrometabolism left to work with? (There are theories that can save him from that, too.)

I'm quite convinced that Scarlet worries about this stuff!

and I'm sure there's more about this someplace, I just haven't found it again...

enjoy!
Doc Denim

[MMK]

Hi, I'm not sure which category this should come under (apart from Retrometabolism)... but i was wondering:

Would Scarlet be alive again after...


Decapitation?

[Captain Indigo]

Being cut in half was discused in the 'Can Scarlet die of natural causes' thread, but I can't quite recall anything dealing specifically with decaptitation.

I'm of the opinion that he can't, by the way. I'm sure someone will go into magnificently gory detail about their own particular POV, but I can't quite think how to put my idea into words.

Maybe I've just watched too much Highlander...

[gojohnniegogo]

At first I thought that this thread was going to be about Captain Black, for me - dunno if anyone's noticed, but in The Heart of New York, he looks different. And seems to have lost his stubble, particularly in the vault scene where he says "The Greed of Man" line.

With Scarlet, and regarding when he hits 70, if he's been retromotablised so many times, wouldnt the power of it have at least started to diminish - eventually to the point where it stops working?

[Captain Indigo]

With Scarlet, and regarding when he hits 70, if he's been retromotablised so many times, wouldnt the power of it have at least started to diminish - eventually to the point where it stops working?

This has been touched upon before in other threads, and it all depends upon whether or not you think Scarlet is capable of aging. My particular PoV about this (and, unusually, the reasoning behind it) is in the thread 'Old Age'.

If we bring it down purely to the number of times that Scarlet retrometabolises, then I'm of the opinion that as long as he replaces the energy lost during the process then his ability to regenerate or heal is infinite.

Deprived of replacement energy (a.k.a. food), his ability to retrometabolise will decrease to the point where he could actually die without being able to recover. (This has been partially dealt with on page 2 of the thread 'How indestructible is Scarlet?')



Gosh, darn it - you've got me thinking about all of this technical biological stuff again, and just in time for me to back to uni .

[Intensity Angel]

If Captain Scarlet did get drunk, it would have to be something really strong, his retometabolism fights off anything that enters his bloodstream remember.

But there is one thing that bothers me, if his retometabolism breaks down, wouldn't he suffer from increased ageing?

[Captain Indigo]

But there is one thing that bothers me, if his retometabolism breaks down, wouldn't he suffer from increased ageing?

Going off my original hypothesis (see 'Old Age'), if this were to happen, Scarlet would return to normal, and start aging at the same rate as he was before.

Interesting point, though.

[Marion]

The posts that discussed Intensity Angel's proposed new story have been moved to:

http://spectrum-headquarters.com/v-web/ ... php?t=1270