Monday, August 5, 2013

Overthinking Things: 999, Digital Roots, and Numerology.

Even when I was playing Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors before I started the Visual Novelist LP arc about it, I noticed how finding the digital root of a set of numbers was similar to, if not exactly like, the use of numbers in the study of numerology.

Warning!: This post contains spoilers for the plot of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.


You see, in numerology (as far as names are concerned), all the letters in the alphabet are assosiated with a specific number. A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, and so on and so forth. And, of course, letters whos number in the alphabet are double-digits can be reduced to a single digit as well. (J = 10. 1 + 0 = 1.) So, here's some of the numbers I dug up.

Ace = 135... 1 + 3 + 5 = 9.
Santa = 11521... 1 + 1 + 5 + 2 + 1 = 10. 1 + 0 = 1.
Clover = 336459... 3 + 3 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 9 = 30. 3 + 0 = 3.
June = 1355... 1 + 3 + 5 + 5 = 14. 1 + 4 = 5.
Seven = 15455... 1 + 5 + 4 + 5 + 5 = 20. 2 + 0 = 2.
Lotus = 36231... 3 + 6 + 2 + 3 + 1 = 15. 1 + 5 = 6.

Junpei = 135759... 1 + 3 + 5 +7 + 5 + 9 = 30. 3 + 0 = 3.
Akane = 12155... 1 + 2 + 1 + 5 + 5 = 14. 1 + 4 = 5. Kurashiki = 239118929... 2 + 3 + 9 + 1 + 1 + 8 + 9 + 2 + 9 = 44. 4 + 4 = 8. 5 + 8 = 13. 1 + 3 = 4.
Aoi = 169... 1 + 6 + 9 =  16. 1 + 6 = 7. 7 + 8 = 15. 1 + 5 = 6. 6 + 8 = 14. 1 + 4 = 5.
Gentarou = 75521963... 7 + 5 + 5 + 2 + 1 + 9 + 6 + 3 = 38. 3 + 8 = 11 (or 2). Hongou = 865763. 8 + 6 + 5 + 7 + 6 + 3 = 35. 3 + 5 = 8. 11 + 8 = 19. 1 + 9 = 10. 1 + 0 = 1.
Light = 39782... 3 + 9 + 7 + 8 + 2 = 29. 2 + 9 = 11 (or 2).
Yotsuba = 7621321... 7 + 6 + 2 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 22 (or..4).
Hazuki = 818329... 8 + 1 + 8 + 3 + 2 + 9 = 31. 3 + 1 = 4. Kashiwabara = 21189512191... 2 + 1 + 1 + 8 + 9 + 5 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 9 + 1 = 40. 4 + 0 = 4. 4 + 4 = 8.
Teruaki = 2593129... 2 + 5 + 9 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 9 = 31. 3 + 1 = 4. Kubota = 232621... 2 + 3 + 2 + 6 + 2 + 1 = 16. 1 + 6 = 7. 4 + 7 = 11 (or 2).

Wow, we've got some omous numbers for Akane here. Time to put on the tin foil hats here...
Part of the first sequence of numbers in Akane's last name include 911, either the American emergency phone number or...September Eleventh. (Dun-dun-duuun!) Also, in the second sequence, there's two fours. The number four in both Japanese and Chinese also sounds like their respective words for "Death", which is why four is tradionionaly unlucky there. (Dun-dun-duuun! Again!). And after combining the numbers for the first and last names, 5 and 8, we end up with...13. Which when combined results in 4, again, which could also refer to the fact that she's trying to prevent her own death; though her link with the owner of the 5 bracelet, Junpei.

Considered unlucky in Europain-based cultures not only because it goes one step beyond 12, which is usually considered a 'perfect number'; but also because of a tale where Loki crashed a party... (Making him the uninvited thirteenth guest) ...and tricked Balders blind brother into killing him, and how apparently the knights templar (or was it Jesus, if not both? I'm just not bothering to look it up.) were killed on a Friday...the thirteenth.

And, in the end, thirteen itself condenses down to...four. Yeah, maybe Akane's a harbinger of misfortune...

That's interesting, not only does the number of Ace's real given name condense down to 11 (double ones), but with the number of his family name added, in several rounds of double digits it condeses down to...1, the same as his number in the second Nonary game. Same odd little coenicidence with Clover and Snake's real given name along with Lotus's real full name, bonus points that both Clover and Snake's real names both condense down to one of the two master numbers as well. Which are 11 and 22 by the way.

I also noticed that the characters that have master numbers in some way are also involved in death in some way: The 9th Man died, Snaked faked his death, Ace killed people, and Clover people killed in some endings.

And those involved with Akane's survival plan are linked with each other in some way. Akane's given name number is the same Junpei's bracelet number, Junpei's given name number (3) is the same as Santa's bracelet number, and Santa's full name number (5) is also the same as Junpei's bracelet number.

And here's the numbers of...me, Shimohi.

Shimohi = 1894689... 1 + 8 + 9 + 4 + 6 + 8 + 9 = 45. 4 + 5 = 9.

And, yes, this can also be done with birth dates. Just simply take the digits of your birth year, birth month, and birth day and add them up 'till it's reduced to a single digit. I'm not including the math behind this, sensitive information and all, but my birth date can be condensed down to the number 2 or 11 if you're going by the whole master numbers thing (Which are, by the way, 11 and 22).

But can all of this numerology stuff really be considered to be relevant to the plot of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors? Or am I just...Overthinking Things.

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