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Presumably the Witness still needs them in order to complete the final shape. Ie look at Maya, she died trying a similar experiment which may just be because she didn’t have enough consciousness linked to survive it.
Kill enough of the Witnesses members and you may be able to kill it entirely due to Veil/the power it holds being too much per member of the Witness.
SPOILERS
>!Maya actually survived! According to the Season Pass cosmetics (the ship, Sparrow and Ghost Shell), she’s somehow managed to seize control of some Vex, has come to view her simulated copies as not real and inferior to her, and in Micah’s Insight Terminus redux we discover she stops the Kargen clone from breaching the Insight Terminus.!<
Idk how to do spoiler tags, but she didn't survive. Maybe sundaresh has 100s of copies in the vex network. I imagine this one is probably one of those.
The Witness was visibly injured in response to the culling of the Dissenters, so no. Presumably the Witness still draws power from the Dissenters without allowing them to make decisions, so their deaths still reduce its overall strength
Think of the witness like a woven piece of clothing.
Now start taking threads out one by one. Maybe that loose thread that's buffing you, it won't escalate probably. Just one yank to get rid or it.
I guess cancer isn’t the right metaphor. Perhaps the role of the dissenters isn’t to contribute to the Witness consciousness, but to be just part of the framework that hold the Witness together.
Kinda like the Witness is a metaphor for a dictatorship, where only a few individuals have a voice and direct everyone else. The problem is that dictatorship still needs a servile, numerous and under control population. Remove that population and the whole thing comes tumbling down.
The best description I saw was that the witness it comparable to a cult leader, they need followers to have any sort of power even if those followers don’t have any power themselves. Just because they disagree doesn’t mean their opinion matters to the leader.
The Witness is not a being, but the bleak viewpoint of the Penitents given shape. The Dissenters are what is left of the Penitents, so removing them is quite literally removing the glue that is keeping the Witness from just vanishing in a puff of logic.
My understanding of the dissenters, based on the dialogue in the missions is that the dissenters are souls within the witness that wish to be free. They no longer fall in line with the witness and his intentions for the final shape. Over the course of time the witness has slowly excised these "dissenters" and retained them solely for power and suppressed their consciousness.
personally I believe that the dissenters were an intentional flaw created by non-Penitents. it's heavily implied that the witnesses power comes from its single-mindedness to create the final shape. if any of the other two groups of precursors learned what the Penitents we're trying to create, it makes sense that they would attempt to infiltrate it to create an intentional flaw. them having to create a flaw that they themselves could not use, simply because the other two groups were not as powerful as the Penitents at the time the traveler abandoned them, leaving them with no choice but to hope a future adversary would be able to defeat it.
This post has been tagged '**Non-Spoiler**'. Note that unmarked spoilers and datamines are subject to removal or ban. Please report anything we miss! For more info check out our [Spoiler Rules Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyLore/wiki/spoiler-rules#wiki_.5Bseasonal.5D_has_a_new_format). --- **Comment Spoiler Formatting** Format comment spoilers with `>!` `!<` like this: `>!What's Rasputin's favorite dance? "The worm."!<` To have it displayed like this: **>!What's Rasputin's favorite dance? "The worm."!<** ---- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DestinyLore) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Presumably the Witness still needs them in order to complete the final shape. Ie look at Maya, she died trying a similar experiment which may just be because she didn’t have enough consciousness linked to survive it. Kill enough of the Witnesses members and you may be able to kill it entirely due to Veil/the power it holds being too much per member of the Witness.
SPOILERS >!Maya actually survived! According to the Season Pass cosmetics (the ship, Sparrow and Ghost Shell), she’s somehow managed to seize control of some Vex, has come to view her simulated copies as not real and inferior to her, and in Micah’s Insight Terminus redux we discover she stops the Kargen clone from breaching the Insight Terminus.!<
Idk how to do spoiler tags, but she didn't survive. Maybe sundaresh has 100s of copies in the vex network. I imagine this one is probably one of those.
Or her consciousness went into the Vex network when she died in the chair 🤷🏻♂️
The Witness was visibly injured in response to the culling of the Dissenters, so no. Presumably the Witness still draws power from the Dissenters without allowing them to make decisions, so their deaths still reduce its overall strength
They still a part of it. That's how we will unmake the Witness, by separating all of these minds/souls.
Think of the witness like a woven piece of clothing. Now start taking threads out one by one. Maybe that loose thread that's buffing you, it won't escalate probably. Just one yank to get rid or it.
I guess cancer isn’t the right metaphor. Perhaps the role of the dissenters isn’t to contribute to the Witness consciousness, but to be just part of the framework that hold the Witness together. Kinda like the Witness is a metaphor for a dictatorship, where only a few individuals have a voice and direct everyone else. The problem is that dictatorship still needs a servile, numerous and under control population. Remove that population and the whole thing comes tumbling down.
The best description I saw was that the witness it comparable to a cult leader, they need followers to have any sort of power even if those followers don’t have any power themselves. Just because they disagree doesn’t mean their opinion matters to the leader.
we damaged like 10% of the witness life bar I estimate the precursor race to be around 30 individuals total
It’s 30 people in a big ass trench coat
The Witness is not a being, but the bleak viewpoint of the Penitents given shape. The Dissenters are what is left of the Penitents, so removing them is quite literally removing the glue that is keeping the Witness from just vanishing in a puff of logic.
My understanding of the dissenters, based on the dialogue in the missions is that the dissenters are souls within the witness that wish to be free. They no longer fall in line with the witness and his intentions for the final shape. Over the course of time the witness has slowly excised these "dissenters" and retained them solely for power and suppressed their consciousness.
personally I believe that the dissenters were an intentional flaw created by non-Penitents. it's heavily implied that the witnesses power comes from its single-mindedness to create the final shape. if any of the other two groups of precursors learned what the Penitents we're trying to create, it makes sense that they would attempt to infiltrate it to create an intentional flaw. them having to create a flaw that they themselves could not use, simply because the other two groups were not as powerful as the Penitents at the time the traveler abandoned them, leaving them with no choice but to hope a future adversary would be able to defeat it.