Chris wrote:

>Actually, Doublet is not that hard to understand. Remember that it is a
>deterrent to fratricide amongst Gods and Demons. You kill one, the other
>dies. Thus, these beings of immense power must use that power judiciously.
>
>The exceptions that confuse me? Well, Troubadour killed a godling.

Given Urd's low-key reaction to the incident and the point you made about
the Doublet System, I don't think the godling died.  Lots of pain, yes, but
died, no.  Not that Troubadour isn't capable of such, he certainly expected
K1 to die from his attack.

>And K1 killed the Lord of Terror,

K1's innocent!  It was Skuld who erased the disk containing the Ultimate
Destruction Program, and Bell-chan who destroyed the Urn, sent Midgard to
kill Fenrir and then terminated Midgard, so it was one of the two of them
who killed the LoT, not K1.  Moral of the story: Don't mess with Bell-chan's
family.

> leaving Hild to run the whole show downstairs.

Hild was already running it.  The LoT had probably been sealed for umpteen
centuries, in wherever that urn had been hidden when Mara found it.  Even in
Norse mythology, Loki (i.e. the LoT) never went to Nifelheim.  Hel had the
place to herself with all her dead friends and her loyal doggie, Garm.

> Makes you wonder who selects who for the doubleting.

It most certainly does!

>If its Kamisama then this all
>>still falls under the "test" jurisdiction, but if not him then who? A
>>demon?

I don't see how it could be either side.  If Kami-sama is powerful enough to
force the Doublet system on the demons, why would he want to do something so
limiting to the gods?  So demons aren't killed?  He certainly didn't sound
like he would hesitate to kill Urd if need be, and he didn't hesitate to set
events up to destroy the urn, Fenrir, Midgard, the LoT, and the UDP.

Did Kami-sama go into agreement with Hild on a system to limit possible
bloodshed?  Maybe, but the opportunities for cheating abound.  Suppose Hild
or whoever matches up a weakling demon with a powerful god?  If she kills
the demon, the god dies also and the demons are ahead of the game.  Maybe
there are checks and balances in place to make sure that doesn't happen?

The other possibility, of course, is that the Doublet System was imposed on
both sides by a third party we don't know about.

Troubling plot device, that old DS!

>>More likely it depends on the case. Who cashed in a smegload of favours in
>>order to be able to choose Belldandy's doublet demon? I gotta say, this
>>particular idea has me more interested than anything in quite a while.

Interesting thought, but with whom would this person cash those favors in,
Sam?  Who is the governing authority when it comes to the DS?

>>
>>Sam the man
>>
>
>Hmmm, the thing with Velsper has to relate to Hild's appearance somehow.
>She's showing up to restore Peorth, I know, but Velsper fits into this
>equation somehow.

Curiouser and Curiouser!

Brian W.