Here's a question that might be a little too technical: Does Ryuko, by virtue of being a human/Life Fiber blend (chimera) have a unique blood type? If Ryuko needed an organ transplant for whatever reason, and Satuski had compatible (human) antigens, would Ryuko's body accept the organ (due to compatible human antigens and furthermore relatedness) or not (due to Life Fibers)?
I think I should beasking you this, considering yourprevious posts on geeps and gut microbes and genes and gestation that deal withthis kind of topic!
(Seriously, folks. Igot degrees in Creative Writing, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, andAnthropology, and I probably fit every stereotype you might expect from someonewho gets those kinds of degrees. Icannot hard science. Or math. At all.)
That said, I think thescope of this question goes beyond the plausibility of organ transplants, becauseyou also have to question why Ryuko would need a transplant in the first place.Considering she gets ripped in half and stabbed straight through the chest andso on, it’s probably safe to say that she wouldn’t need any organs transplanteddue to injury. As long as a thread remains, she can regenerate herself.
But can Ryuko getsick? Can illness create a need for her to require a transplant? Or do Life Fibersprotect her from that? It’s something never delved into in canon, so I cannotprovide a concrete answer; the more I think about it, though, the more it makessense that she would be immune to disease.I mean, if Life Fibers can instantly fix up literal holes in her body, I don’tsee why not…
Still, let’s say she did needa transplant for some reason, as stated. Would it work? It probably really depends on howyou view the whole Life Fiber infusion situation in the first place. I’ve seenthe Life Fibers compared to mutagens here, I’ve compared them myself toparasites living in the body based off a conversation with my biology-majorfriend (page 135 here for the more concise and edited version, or here for the original post), and, as noted, you’vecompared the situation to chimerism.
Now, organ transplanting andcompatibility is very complicated, but from what I understand, there are twomain components to securing a match for most organs, and that’s matching bloodand tissues. Following the chimera reading, then, I think failure is likely forthe reasons mentioned. Ryuko could very well have a unique blood type as aresult of being a Life Fiber/Human chimera, or very unique tissues that wouldn’tbe compatible with anything that’s just “human.” I think it probable that themutagen reading would have similar problems.
The parasites, though?Doesn’t seem like it’d be an issue.
Of course, I amliterally the farthest thing from a scientist,so take this all with a grain of salt. This is also a series that’s prettyfirmly “soft science fiction” (if you even want to categorize it as “sci-fi” atall, rather than just “fantasy”), so you could probably come up with many explanationsthat would work in this universe.
