Serial Experiments Lain: Foreseeing the unforeseen?

I'll give this away first. I foresaw the ending (Not fully, my god, that's not even possible) by the beginning of EPISODE 2. Really. I just watched this anime for the first time, and figured 95% of the stuff that's supposed to fuck your mind many episodes before they were actually shown. I'm not fucking with you here. It disturbs my anus greatly. Some people who have watched the whole series never got it, but I got it way before it's shown? Lunacy. I know, I'm not the only one, but goddamnit. REALLY? Of course, this is a series that REAAAALLLY is interpreted in a half a million ways, but I'm just telling you. NEVER did S.E.L genuinely surprise me. I feel like a genius, but I feel bad about it. I don't think this will be very long...

Surprisingly Complex? Serial Experiments Lain


Inverted?

Okay. Usually when I do this, I tell people the things they miss that clue them to the truth during a series. But this time is going to be different. I'm going to point out the things that no one notices, that helped me to figure this series out way before it unfolds. If you want a short review: It was a pain to watch, but I'm a masochist. It's like watching a friend of yours trying to hide something from you, that you actually already know. That's what it was for me. For someone else, it's different, you're free to have your opinions.

I connected the pieces before there were fucking pieces!

Let's start with the opening. The opening shows, of course, Nintendo Wii before Nintendo Wii, but also Lain in many many screens. When I saw the opening for the second time, I knew she would be integrated into the system by the end of the series. That was the first clue, and it's practically the ending. What? Also, a random fact. I watched a bit Steins;gate before watching this, so after the "Present Day. Present time." I always imagined the Steins;gate opening to start. It's weiiiiiird.

Then... Some episodes in, someone says something along the lines of: "History isn't just a string of happenings. It's separate occurences, connected with a line." and "Everything can be connected with a line." Ten seconds, and I realize that Lain is/will become some sort of god. Why? Everything can be connected with a line. A line, a shape between points A and B. A line. Then say the name of the protagonist. Lain. Goddamnit. By the end of the series, she became a "connecting point" of everything. It's a stupid pun on an alternative way to say her name, but still. Goddamnit.

And all the talk about "the real world" and "the wired" connecting and such just flat out screamed to me: "THE LAIN OF THE WIRED IS THE REAL LAIN." I don't know. It's supposed to be mindbending, but somehow I just avoided all those.

By this time I basically won the series. It became kinda dull, because it was hiding information from me that I knew, and it doesn't really give anything if you figure it halfway through.

Only thing that mildly surprised me was the "god." His name was told, and I didn't make the connection right away. Why? This series came a long time ago, and I watched it straight through. The name of "god": Eiri, is shown in the previous episode for the first time in the series. So, from the point of the name being told and the time of revelation would normally be a week, but for me it was... 20 minutes. So...

I can see right through your plot

I'm not here to brag, just to tell people. This series is boring in a way if you figure it out too early. I still watched it, out of obligation, and to see how much I got right. I rarely get anything THIS right. Even in basic movies the twists can fuck my mind because I think too much about it. Maybe the special thing about Serial Experiments Lain is that it's right in the little spot where my mind does not overthink it, and I just see through it. I don't know how many have had this, and it's actually kind of annoying. I see the artistic side of it... Well... I can make this longer with that....

The basics go like this. S.E.L doesn't tell, it shows without telling. Like see how they made the outside world alien from the very beginning. The path Lain walked every day, with the weird shadows and such? Showing her alienation. Also, Lain's personality changes by the time she gets the new Navi in ep 3 i think. And from there, the shots of her room become darker and darker, and the real world becomes darker and darker. This just shows how the only thing with light, the navi, has become her light.

Also. Remember those mindfuckery imagery that disappeared after a couple of episodes? They were remainders of her mind in the Wired or such. They disappeared immediately when she connected to the Wired.

I really don't know, what to make of this. Did I miss something big? It just left a hollow feeling. Maybe if there was some really fascinating things that you would get only by understanding the series. I think the problem lies probably more in me than in the series. I just felt like it had interesting ideas that didn't really go anywhere.

Time to Steins;gate... We'll see how long that takes...

TL;DR?:

I figured this shit out too early, and that's why it's not so special to me. The only mindfuck I got was the one I made: I was right from the beginning.