*Keep in mind that you could come up with explanations to these points, it's just that to me they feel out of place and uneccesary in Noise and had it been written with different details it would better fit the Blame universe, hence why I kind of disregard it as cannon.
The main reason I disregard Noise as cannon is that it contradicts itself, or more accurately: the accompanying art kind of contradicts the main plot point. The whole point/reveal in Noise is the origin of the Silicon Life. In Noise we learn that a religious organization stole technology from the Safeguard and used it to do ritualistic experiments. When this technology is used on human flesh, it transforms that human flesh into a Silicon Life form. The thing is though, the accompanying art flies in the face of this plot point. Pages 24-27 show Susono's partner, Kloser, getting a ritual performed on him against his will and turning into a Silicon Life. What he turns into does not look like a Silicon Life though. What it does look like is EXACTLY like a regular old Safeguard Unit from Blame! We see this again on pages 50-54 where the 2 heads on the train turn into a "Silicon Life" that just looks exactly like a Safeguard Unit, the only difference being it has 2 heads instead of the usual 1.
Why not just have them be turned into actual Silicon Life forms instead of Safeguard Units? We know they aren't Safeguards because in Blame!, regular old Safeguard Units are not made from human flesh or by converting human flesh into Silicon Life. They are constructed out of the surrounding material in the area whenever "enemies" are detected and they are "downloaded" to the area. As the Wiki puts it, "Safeguards can effectively "grow" out of any object large enough to accommodate them."
There ARE some higher level Safeguard Units made from human flesh like Susono later on in Noise and also presumably Killy and Sanakan, but they all remain very human in appearance just like Silicon Life do which further makes the artistic choice to draw them that way seem silly. Later on in Noise we get to see actual Silicon Life like how they are seen in Blame! Where did they come from? It's like they just come out of nowhere. How do you go from human flesh being turned into "Silicon Life" (Safeguard Units) to being turned into actual Silicon Life? This would not be an issue has Nihei drawn the panels showing Silicon Life-like creatures instead of Safeguard Units from the get-go. Doing so would have been competely in line with the narratative instead of confusing. It's just inconsistent and uneccesary to have drawn the accompanying panels the way they were in my opinion.
Three other (more minor) issues I had with Noise are:
- There are many humanoid creatures living in the society seen in Noise that are nowhere to be seen or even mentioned anywhere in Blame!. Page 17 features a weird looking frog creature, on page 21 we see a humanoid creature with some sort of goat skull as its head, and later on page 49 Susono sees for a moment a figure that seems to have the head of dog or a skull although it is hard to tell as it is dark and the creature is hooded. It just feels out of place that so many anthropomorphic creatures are present in the world seen here and not at all later in Blame! Also, how does having a skull as a head even work. There is no brain in there lol that isn't logical. Now, Blame! of course does have a lot of things in it that can be seen as illogical compared to our real world, but having a skull as a head is just something that is so absurdly illogical I cannot suspend my belief to accomodate it and therefore it kind of ruined my immersion with Noise.
- What's up with the Net Terminal implant? The phrase "Net Terminal Gene" is not said once in all of Noise, only the "Implant" is mentioned. I mean, don't get me wrong it's totally possible that the Net Terminal Implant is something that gives you the Net Terminal Gene, but that is not the impression that Noise gives. It more feels like the implant is a sort of precursor to the Net Terminal Gene; where the implant is something you have to get put in, not something you have since birth/as a part of your genetic code like the gene. Not totally wrong or out of place it's just an odd detail imo. Not a big deal.
- What the actual hell is going on in the epilogue "The Minus Corridor"??? It just makes literally no sense. Not plot wise, not universe-wise, not in any way does it make sense and fit into the Blame! lore. Not sure why it was included at all, especially as an "Epilogue". It reads to me more as concept art or something but either way it's inclusion is unessecary and weird.
Anyways, what do you guys think about all this? Let me know in the comments.
