What Do We Know About Taimi's "Degenerative Disease"? [Minor LS4.2 Spoiler]

Taimi's reunion (in the middle of LS4.2) with her college colleague has sparked some speculation about whether she might be interested in the technology that made Blish how he is today, as a way to help her deal with her "degenerative disease." That made me wonder what we really know about Taimi's condition (and whether she really needs the tech for herself or whether she has some Scruffy 4.0 project in mind).

The only thing I could find on the wiki was from Season 1:

Player Character: Are you injured? What happened to your legs?Taimi: I was born this way. My legs were never strong enough to carry me very far. Don't pity me, though. I hate pity. And I don't need it because I do just fine for myself.

PC: I can see that. Can your legs be cured?T: That remains to be seen. The degenerative effects of my condition may spread to other parts of my body as I get older, but for now it's just the legs.

PC: How far can you walk?T: I can get in and out of Scruffy when I need to. For example, I can walk from my bedroom to the water closet. Just don't ask me to be your partner in a dance marathon.

What else do we know with certainty? I'm interested in actual in-game quotes and canonical details from ANet blogs/interviews.

(I realize few of us can resist the urge to speculate; that's fine too. I just ask that you include your source, if you have one. Thanks :) )

Edit: I've asked the same question of ANet in the Official Forum Chat(basically: they aren't ready to say anything about what we might already know, to prevent hinting at the future direction of the story)

I think that's the extent of what we solidly know. I don't think it's ever mentioned in Season 2 or beyond, aside from her eternally having the limping walk eternally on her.

you mean Scruffy 3.0.Scruffy 2.0 was destroyed in previous episode.

btw. in the most recent episode she is seen without golem and I assume she can walk for longer distances now? unless someone is carrying her behind the scenes.

Is her exaggerated and accelerated growth also part of the disease? her head is SO big now....

@Ardid.7203 said:Is her exaggerated and accelerated growth also part of the disease? her head is SO big now....

Just adolescence and time. She's gone from 13/14 to 18 in the time we've known her.

ye she becoming a robot faaaaak yaehhhhh

Six million dollar asura? I hope she gets her own theme song. I like the become a golem idea. I honestly would like to see some cyborg-esque legs she was researching as a possible replacement. And another question that I would like to know the answer to is that if the asura are advance in technology, does that correlate to the medical field too (anti biotics, growing limbs, parts of organs, maybe nanobots to help replace the affected cells, and other stuff)?

for the queen of ex-machina heal herself is a easy task. she will find the cure on Ommad Machine.

Omadd's Machine no longer exists. All the important parts went into "Taimi's Machine" which was destroyed. Even Taimi did not know how those parts worked entirely, and certainly not enough to re-create it.

Taimi was never an ex machina anyways. She was borderlining Mary Suedom like Scarlet had entered, but she was never an Ex Machina. An ex machina would be the Commander pulling Mordremoth's weakness out of their arse. Taimi's Machine was built upon pre-established aspects of lore, and Taimi herself had multiple failings that her theorycrafting failed to account for, and was proven partially wrong on more than one account of her theories.

I do remember a few people asking for Taimi to get her comeuppance prior to Flashpoint: funnily enough, we're not seeing so much of that now. B)

I think the writers handled her near-death experience very well, so this experience in Daybreak could finally make her grow up. She's still her, but she finally realized that it's time to be more adult and I think Blish and Gorrik will help her with that new adventure. ;)

If Taimi would do the same thing as Blish, that would mean she is a coward- using technology, because it's not easy to live is the greatest act of self-loving and childish behaviour.

@Arden.7480 said:

If Taimi would do the same thing as Blish, that would mean she is a coward- using technology, because it's not easy to live is the greatest act of self-loving and childish behaviour.

I strongly disagree. It's not cowardice to seek a solution to a handicap, particularly one that might kill you. It's not selfish to want to be able to do the things that those around you take for granted. (It is self-loving, but what of that? Most of us could do with loving ourselves better.) And it's certainly not childish to take on risks to herself, knowing full well what she might sacrifice, in pursuit of those aims.

This is still all hypothetical, but if Taimi does go in for golem legs, all she's doing is fitting herself with prosthetics. And even if that wouldn't be enough to halt the spread of her disease, and she chooses a full golem body, how could that be wrong? A choice between death or living on through 'technology'... it depends on your moral code, but most would say either that it's her choice to make, or else that she has an obligation to pick living on, whatever the cost.

@Aaron Ansari.1604 said:

@Arden.7480 said:

If Taimi would do the same thing as Blish, that would mean she is a coward- using technology, because it's not easy to live is the greatest act of self-loving and childish behaviour.

I think the geniuses like Snaff wouldn't do anything like Blish did, because he would rather die, than making himself a golem. Snaff knew so many secrets that even the Inquest were interested in his projects and everything, and he certainly knew about that Asura can become golems. I call it Transasuranism, and I think that Asuran techonology CAN make the lives of all people improved, but I don't really like the idea of that the Asura can become immortal or whatever.

If Snaff didn't do that, he had his reason and I respect his view on everything.

This topic is very much related to our- human morality, I mean the idea of transhumanism- I am not its enemy, but I don't think connecting with the machine would be right, I am even scared of it- how our lives would look like.

It's very likely that Taimi will be just like Blish, because she loves herself too much, so she cannot even control herself, she will never be like Snaff- probably the greatest Asura in the history.

I'm still more interested in hearing if anyone has information about Taimi's "degenerative disease." Do we know what it is? Do we know how likely it is to spread? Do we know if she's seeking medical advice? Does stress make it more likely to progress? Could she go into remission?

I realize it's fun to speculate about what Taimi might choose to do in the future (or what other Asura might do in a similar situation). In this thread, though, I'd hope to stick to what we've learned about the past from the story or from pubic statements by ANet staff.

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:I'm still more interested in hearing if anyone has information about Taimi's "degenerative disease." Do we know what it is? Do we know how likely it is to spread? Do we know if she's seeking medical advice? Does stress make it more likely to progress? Could she go into remission?

I realize it's fun to speculate about what Taimi might choose to do in the future (or what other Asura might do in a similar situation). In this thread, though, I'd hope to stick to what we've learned about the past from the story or from pubic statements by ANet staff.

Her disease makes me think of "Osteogenesis imperfecta" best known as the brittle bone disease, It must be the asuran equivalent of that disease if not the very same. Basically her bones are very fragiles, reason why she can't put too much pressure on her body and couldn't possible fight anyone without a golem.

What she said (which you quoted on your post) reminds me a lot of Jeff Mureau from the first mass effect game, who has that disease, and he says basically the same thing as she.

@"Pax.3548" said:reminds me a lot of Jeff Mureau from the first mass effect game, who has that disease, and he says basically the same thing as she.

Jeff "Joker" Moreau

has a moderate to severe case of Vrolik syndrome, which causes extreme brittleness in the bones; he was born with severe fractures to his legs and even with modern medicine he finds walking nearly impossible, relying on crutches and leg braces.The ME wikia article links Vrolik syndrom to

Oseogensis Imperfecta

, aka brittle bone disease. It's apparently a group of disorders, rather than just a single thing. On our planet, it apparently affects one in 15k people.

However, Taimi simply says that her legs "were never that strong". She doesn't comment on her bones, whether this is a muscular problem, etc.So while I think it's plausible that she has OI, I don't think we know enough to say for sure.

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:However, Taimi simply says that her legs "were never that strong". She doesn't comment on her bones, whether this is a muscular problem, etc.So while I think it's plausible that she has OI, I don't think we know enough to say for sure.

She may have said that in a generic way, meaning the bones of her legs "were never that strong", but you're right, we'll have to wait and see if we get any confirmation or hints in future content.

@Pax.3548 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:However, Taimi simply says that her legs "were never that strong". She doesn't comment on her bones, whether this is a muscular problem, etc.So while I think it's plausible that she has OI, I don't think we know enough to say for sure.

I guess my impression was that it was a muscular problem, but after reading your original comment, I realized she doesn't actually say. Could be either or both. Or something else. She's extremely vague.

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:I'm still more interested in hearing if anyone has information about Taimi's "degenerative disease."

Besides from what you quoted in the OP, there's more dialogue here that establishes her condition could spread to other parts of her body as she gets older. There's also

@"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:there's more dialogue here that establishes her condition could spread to other parts of her body as she gets older. There's also

Stellar, exactly the sort of thing I was hoping someone would post. Thanks!