A colossal error or a deliberate change in the story? (Alita: Battle Angel)

[MrFaber]

I just was looking to a late reaction video to Alita: Battle Angel, and while the guys in it where debating the movie i notices a huge detail i had misses so far.

In the scene when Vector is ready to send Chiren to Salem as biological samples, among her organs the living brain clearly shows up. And she has a full grown salemite woman with the mark. And so she should have had a brainchip instead.

Might this have been a big oopsie? Or, in case any sequel happens, there will be no Secret of Salem? Or maybe, just to convolutely think as a fan, the factory processing the dismembering of her body dropped in a random brain and dealt with the brainchip to cover for the Secret?

I vote for the oopsie.

[jjaquinta]

I posted about my daughter noticing it in an earlier thread.
Since then we went back and watched the Anime and her brain is in there too. So it has the same "error".
For the OVA, I would say it was made before the "Secret of Triphares" was published and Kishiro didn't want to tip his hand.
For the movie, I think Cameron only read the first volume or two of the comic, and, mostly, watched the OVA. He formed his ideas of what he wanted to do from that and never really read the rest of the comic.

[litchi master]

I could have sworn we had discussed this before but I must have been wrong, my apologies.

My reasoning is still the same

@ jjaquinta kudos to her for noticing, I think some of us had already seen this detail, but I must admit it has puzzled me ever since.At first, i thought Rodriguez had just followed the ova and kept the scene fr its shock value.(as the ova had been produced before Gunnm was finished, the people responsible for it couldn't possibly be aware of the secret of Zalem/tiphares) and because he has a soft spot for graphic scenes and he could not help but include this scene at the cost of consistency.
But the more I think about it, the more I believe there may be a reason for this mistake which could be explained later on.
maybe chiren actually survived and was recruited by nova, so this scene would be a red herring as a part of the audience would be fooled into thinking she had died, while fans like us would dismiss it as being inconsistent with the original and all would be equally surprised to see chiren back.
While the casual fans would be puzzled, we would understand immediately and claim we knew all along...
if this is indeed what Cameron and Rodriguez are going for that would be a clever twist!

[Neksus]

For the movie, I think Cameron only read the first volume or two of the comic, and, mostly, watched the OVA. He formed his ideas of what he wanted to do from that and never really read the rest of the comic.

Nonsence. In the movie and bonus materials there is much of elements from the rest of the manga including Gelda, interplanetar war, Nanotech etc...
Obviously, they were chanched to be packed in PG-13 (Movie Gally is not a tumor, yay!), so was happened with the "Secret of Zalem" too.
Well, that is sad change, but the story in movie's sequels still can be interresting, even without this nuance.

[Dream]

The whole thing doesn't actually connect to anything even in the manga. It's just shock value, for all we know the organs could have been used by their scientists or some sick pervert.

[Martin]

The Secret of Tiphares is the best moment of the entire series. It is the point of the entire series and its ramifications are still unfolding 20 years later (not motorball). The movie is a disaster and hoping for a reboot is our best hope.

Hope for a sequel feels pointless at this point, given the movie math.