hkmaly

Why?

Well, the God works in mysterious ways and Dan is the God inside EGS, so ...

The description and first look sounds rather risky, but looking at angles, I suspect Rhea is covered by the chair AND could remain covered with chair while apologizing ... that is, assuming she CARES if Charlotte sees her naked. Although she probably does, considering she tried to wrap herself in napkin in first place ... wait. That might be because she didn't wanted TEDD to see her. Success, Tedd is not there yet and they MIGHT manage to keep him away. ... now, Charlotte, be careful and don't just absent-mindedly try to move the artefact to the chair to pass it to Rhea.

I think if they meant it seriously with science project, the one taking notes should drink less tea. At the same time, I don't think they meant it that seriously. It's definitely not what I would expect from teenagers. Not sure how they convinced the professor ... wait. I know. It's because MOST students don't mean it seriously and manage to screw even research topics which shouldn't be POSSIBLE to screw up, and this would be at least fun to grade. Also, regarding Liz experiments ("Just not the kind of experimenting people assumed") ... well, I'm sure the kind of experimenting people assumed would follow. In fact, this might be Liz's plan how to open Susan up.

Well yes, male or female bodybuilders who reach high-end competition tend to look disturbingly unnatural rather than just really strong. However, there is a level of muscle definition beyond what athletes in other sports normally achieve that can still look pretty good, a level that you normally need to do some training with the intent of building muscles to achieve (or so I understand), and if this isn't in that category it's certainly close to it. Maaaaaaaybe, I didn't studied athletes that much. I would still consider better idea to just stay within the athlete range. Like, for displaying those superheroes for example. Personally, I'm interpreting her to have developed very wide chest and hips; in my interpretation her back isn't bent particularly unnaturally, though it might not be a comfortable position to stand in for long. However if you assume more normal chest and hip proportions it does look like she's practically folded in half (though in that case, I would expect her upper abs and lower chest to be sticking out more in front). Yes, the wide chest and hips are how it's SUPPOSED to look. I think it failed. However, it's just my personal opinion and it's possible that you can really get this with unlucky angle of photo ...

Can you imagine better opportunity for pranks like this?

There is also the possibility that Arthur wanted her to put Elliot up for adoption or get an abortion and finish school but Mrs Dunkel refused and they had a bit of a falling out because of it. Arthur later realized he was wrong but hasn't made any attempt to reconcile yet. He might not have treated Kevin this way if things happened differently 19 years ago. Again, doesn't match what he is saying. He said his daughter would assure Ellen. But she was created by magic and has obviously shown to have thoughts that are independent of Elliot's. But she doesn't THINK about herself that way. She thinks about herself as human. Unless she taunts Elliot. Probably. We didn't even saw what the magic analyser wand reported Why? Arthur is not related to Adrian as far as we know. There are actually strong hints that the way Susan looks like Diane's twin is more that just "resemblance running strong", that it was some sort of magic making point. However, he still doesn't look like Adrian at all and the other points hold. But it would carry much more weight with Ellen if it was someone she already knows and trusts. She's suspicious of Arthur's motivations because she only knows him based on that others may have said about him, if his daughter was his assistant or another agent, there's no reason to be instantly convinced of anything, but if his daughter is Mrs Dunkel, someone Ellen loves and trusts, then of course she'd have a "huh...okay...." moment. It would carry more weight, but his statement doesn't need to. Arthur might want to quell Ellen's suspicions and put her more at ease, but if he doesn't, then the course of events doesn't really change that much. The worst that might happen is Ellen try to convince Ashley not to accept Kevin's help, but I suspect that Ashley is already firmly on-board with Kevin training her. A suspicious Ellen might be an annoyance going forward, but not really detrimental to any of Arthur's plans (And if she turns out to be detrimental to some plan, he could just ask Edward to exposit at her talk some sense into her) Note that just because it would be better for Arthur if his daughter would be someone Ellen knows, he can't MAKE it so. His daughter is best character reference he has no matter how good she is. Also, Ellen presumably knows more people than we do. There are certainly more than three teachers in Moperville South, for example ... Arthur's daughter being teacher could work. And yes: Ashley is definitely going to let Kevin train her. Ellen being suspicious could became another running joke along with Nanase suspecting Ashley is evil.

http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/g2-129 No, I don't think this gets her closer to being Minotaur. But nice try.

Classic. I remember reading Feynman's autobiography where he among other things described his work at Los Alamos. At one point, to his utter astonishment, he received a private visit from Nobel prize winning physicist Niels Bohr and his son, acting as interpreter. Turned out that Bohr had noticed that where everyone else nodded in awe at every pronunciation from him, this young sprat scowled and seemed to worry at his ideas. So he discussed them with Feynman because Feynman actually argued against them and wanted more proofs. Or as another book I read put it, "Recognising your own weaknesses and taking steps to correct them is rare. And praiseworthy." Even if you ARE actually so good that everything you say is true and brilliant ... how can you KNOW if everyone is just nodding? You may get away with it in liberal arts, but for real science, as well as strategy, you need someone who will independently check for mistakes. Because even if you never made a mistake, it just means the first you do will be devastating. ... and in nuclear physics, that is even more worrying than in other fields.

I suspect only female body-builders who didn't went too far are the ones who didn't finished yet. Body builder ideal doesn't look well even on man, much less woman. Of course, not like body-builders are only ones who failed to realize danger of extremes ... Agree. At least when they are USING that force ... However, some commenter commented that he feels something is wrong with the curve of her spine. I don't think problem is the curve. I'm pretty sure her spine has acute angle somewhere. Also known as being broken. ... common condition between female superheroes, actually ...

It surprised him as well. I don't see it, sorry. He would worded it differently if THAT would be true. Also, I don't believe Mrs Dunkel considered abortion or adoption. I don't see this either actually. I think she means HUMANS in that "we", not comparing herself to Kevin. If that would be it, they would be MORE chill about magic but LESS chill about everything else ... and Tedd and Elliot wouldn't meet when Elliot was playing knight in shining armor. Also, Mrs Dunkel doesn't seem to have any magic talent. Also this. In fact, this page would be weird if ANY of main eight are related to him. Except (see below) ... Would make sense. Amanda's timeline related to main cast is unclear. Could be possible. All three seers we know off being related? Two are suspicious, but all three, that would be too much. Susan, meanwhile? Hmmm ... she wasn't in basement when they were looking at Arthur in TV ... she does have some talent ... ok, we can't rule her out completely.

There IS possibility we never saw her. Right? Right? (Seriously, it can't be Charlotte or Rhea.) No, he said specifically life HE intentionally created. His daughter was unplanned. And I hope it's not Mrs Dunkel ... for start, Arthur's daughter would have considerable magic talent, possibly even wizard one. And yes, confirmed that Arthur would totally confiscate Kevin if he was created by someone else ... but it's his creation and he's feeling guilty. Just like with his daughter (and presumable her mother). New info, Kevin wasn't supposed to be sentient, although Arthur's assumption it was magic is just one possibility ; personally I think it's combination of him not really understanding the book which gave him this idea (and which was from before magic reset and caused Kevin to not work) and his subconscious. Also confirmed that Kevin wants to train Ashley ; apparently, it's not something he was programmed to do, so less linking to her and more just liking her. And Ashley FINALLY did something which wasn't totally lawful good! I mean, asking Ellen to not sabotage her chance to get Kevin. Obviously, she wasn't effective at it, but the thought counts!

... not deliberately, but I wouldn't be surprised if it would be my subconscious at work. First, I suspect that Kevin might be more effective. Second, I don't think transforming herself violates her ethics, or transforming Elliot who presumably would consent. So even "normal" transformation spells would be usable. I think the issue with her goodness blocking her yarning for transformation is that when she thinks about transformations, she primarily thinks about transforming others against their wills, which is obviously against her ethics. It's actually another case of thinking too much: if she focused more about how she would like to transform someone and less on how hard would be to find willing target, she probably would be markable AND would find at least someone to transform. Third, yes, of course Tedd can test wands with spells which are totally discreet and raise magic as much as possible. It's something he would NEED to test, anyway.

That depends on your point of view. I would hate to think what would have happened if Herr Hitler let the Generals run the army. No, the point of view is given: he wasn't as good in leading the war because the army effectiveness went down. Now, obviously, there are lot of people here who are GLAD that Hitler was bad in leading army. Doesn't change the fact he was bad. Only way he might be good would be if he DELIBERATELY sabotaged his army, and I don't think anyone suspect him of that.

A couple points of possible relevance: 1) Sirleck intended to pass his fortune on to a future victim of his possession. 2) Ellen was the last of his victims, and there will never be another. ... are you implying Ellen thinks it's HER money now? Ellen was always supposed to be temporary host who won't even see the money. But Dunkels also aren't exactly rich and I can see her wanting some compensation ...

she might not have been zapped with a cow form that had patterned skin colours. That was my point: that her cowgirl options were limited but after this, she might design more and get zapped with them. Although I wasn't thinking about patterned skin colours ; in fact, those seem counterproductive for Minotaur.

Well, more like I assumed Dan would anthropomorphize and forgot to mention my assumption. It's extremely rare in fiction (even speculative fiction) to see beings which are as intelligent/sentient/etc. as humans but think differently in a way that is deeper than culture (unless you count attempts at the POVs of other Earth animals, but most animals are not as intelligent as humans and are usually portrayed accordingly when not being anthropomorphized) so I never really expect to see it. It's certainly rare, and even rarer to be done right, but ... there are cases in webcomics. And, frankly, Dan already did pretty good job with Will of Magic. On the other hand, it doesn't seem Kevin would be AS important to be given this sort of specific treatment ... Not really. She would be able to awaken much faster if Pandora gave her transformation spell, but she probably would need lot of training with the spells Pandora was able to give to her. Note that Arthur will be considerably more embarrassed if Kevin would be interacting with actual agent. It's at least little better if it's teenagers. First, Arthur given up on keeping magic secret in his first appearance in comic. Second, he don't really have option to keep Ashley untrained. She's friend of main eight and already knows about magic. If he doesn't do anything, it's quite clear Elliot will help her. But yes, he doesn't seem the type to help her awaken without reason. Which is not problem: I already provided one. Embarrassed or not, knowing if Kevin is actually working and can have results is important, ESPECIALLY now; they may need to create more wands like him. And testing Kevin on Ashley might be less embarrassing to Arthur that testing him on someone else, especially given she already interacted with him. On the other hand, Kevin probably did directly assumed he's supposed to continue training Ashley. Even if he can be reset, Arthur might not like doing that. Cranium, Wolf, Edward, Mr and/or Mrs Dunkle, Ashley's parent(s), Lavender, Dr Sciuridae, Mrs Kitsune, "Top Men", Allen Funt... Should we take bets? No reasons for Dunkles or Ashley's parent to be there. Dr. Sciuridae, even less so. Mrs. Kitsune is more likely to be near Nanase if she gets involved. If Cranium and Wolf are not still busy cleaning up the PTTAOLUTASF, they are likely to be there. Edward might be there if he already returned from his business, but I don't think he did. Lavender would only be there with Edward. Now ... could Assistant Director Leifeld be there?

You are anthropomorphizing. Kevin might be sapient and sentient and not really care he can't interact. However, personally I would assume that without power, he was in state similar to sleep. AND that he only gained sentience after magic "not-a-reset". So, he gained sentience in sleep, then was waken up by being powered up by the diamond. It was experiment AND he was less knowledgeable than he's now. And most likely, there was literally noone in whole DGB who would know if that could work because Arthur was only seer there.

This is only true if it's really full mind control. There are other options, although what Not-Tengu was doing definitely didn't looked like something allowing personal initiative. And there is big advantage in suppressing the self-preservation. Kamikaze proved ineffective because it required human with long and therefore costly training, however what if you can force pilot knowledge into random person by enchantment, along with that tradition of death instead of defeat, capture and shame which was part of Japanese culture but is pretty rare otherwise? However, you may be right that even with magic nothing more effective than second world war germany can be build. Still, the second world war germany was unique opportunity, basically build on top of results of first world war ; the ability to create something possibly not as effective, but quickly without the dozens of year of preparation is still dangerous. I also suspect that German command went more strict with time, while the experience of field commanders went down due to the experienced ones being dead. Meanwhile, allied commanders were better than French ones from start of war. She definitely didn't told anyone else YET. But the question remains: Did she not told because she doesn't want Arthur to know? Because of politeness like you suggested? Because she doesn't want to admit she remembers something from Sirleck? Or because she assumes Arthur knows and it's not important enough to mention it? Or ... does she want to use that information to make her own trap for Magus? Another question is if that information would really help Arthur. He really may already know, or realize it when investigating Sirleck.

Arthur (thinking): So the wand is talking now ... we still need to test if it's really working on someone who's not important ... Ashley: "Is Kevin okay?" Arthur (thinking): Perfect. Or that ... ... she probably thanks to vending machine. It's HIS project. He probably wouldn't consider talking wand person otherwise, but he's emotionally compromised by this one. Question is who is behind that mirror. His function being from a feature of magic being suppressed in magic reset is exactly what I'm assuming. We are not intelligent enough to create intelligence as one block. What we are currently trying to do is to create multiple simpler blocks and hope they will become intelligent when put together. And by "multiple", I mean billions. We would STILL not be able to understand how the whole thing works, obviously, but if we do the testing on smaller blocks and smaller complexes well, it may work. I imagine magic cheats and is borrowing the building blocks of human intelligence Note that the fairies (Susan's or Dex's) are using human subconscious to get the "intelligence". Meanwhile, bloodgrem is summoned creature. It's possible Kevin's sapience is created by process starting with copying Arthur's or someone else's. I'm pretty sure that's not how he plans to spend his retirement. Also, I suspect that his sense of responsibility won't allow him to retire anytime soon. Of course, he MAY be interested in how well is Kevin teaching Ashley ... unless he leaves the debugging on Tedd.

So, Grace can't do better Minotaur than the game cowgirl option? Maybe next time.

People like Kitty would be considered a nuisance by Arthur--it's the malicious ones like not-Tengu who are the real threats--i.e. people who forcibly transform minds and not just bodies. Not-Tengu is directly dangerous ; Kitty probably isn't dangerous by herself, but if she goes on rampage like this, she will raise awareness not only about existence of magic (almost everyone will know that at that point) but also about how easy it is - people will say "if someone like THIS managed to get magic, it can't be hard". But, yes ... it's possible Vorlonagent and me little overestimate her dangerousness ...

More like "try to". Arthur's novel wand didn't worked, and he doesn't seem to continue researching. Pandora praised Tedd for his new ideas, and those ideas probably were not possible before computers ... although it's also possible Pandora wasn't exactly up-to-date in latest research and one of those seers who overdid the research and made himself illegible also created something similar ...

Several members of my family would not be in a position to tell the difference. They died in the most gruesome way imaginable in places full of indescribable human suffering. All of it inflicted by perfectly ordinary other humans, many of which did indeed plead that they were merely following orders when put on trial. While it's indeed possible enchanted army wouldn't be able to kill people in more gruesome way, it might be able to kill MORE people that way.

That was more reacting to the fact that Pandora gave Rhoda the mark and with the intention of her using the spell to shrink the boar instead of supersizing it, that's a separate revelation to Rhoda realizing she was the one that supersized it Yes, I'm not searching for it but I think it was directly mentioned that she realized she grow the boar. True ; even if Rhoda didn't told her it's not exactly hard to guess. However, after the note we can be SURE Catalina knows.