hkmaly

I'm not so surprised. In canon, Susan didn't actually fight with a sword until she killed the first vampire at the mall. I think the only other times Susan summoned a sword in canon were: In Sister when Susan summoned a sword during the second fight with the Goo, but didn't use it.) In Hammerchlorians, during the flashback to what happened in France and again to demonstrate to Sarah and Grace that she doesn't have the same sword. Earlier in Sister III when Susan found out there had been seven different vampires in Moperville. I think it might be worth noting that while Susan has "a couple" of swords, she didn't mention having an axe. Axes are a lot easier to come by than real swords. Why? Maybe because killing her first vampire with an axe has something to do with it. I'm pretty sure she's using her sword against Goo here, but you don't actually need to learn anything to fight against goo. She probably DID summoned the sword on other occasions but not for real fight, yes ... still, the reason why she has the swords in first place is because she's afraid more vampires will find her. For the same reason, it would make sense for her to learn how to use the swords. But there IS explanation, actually: maybe she DID tried to learn swordfighting by watching movies or something, and was confident it would be enough until she found it isn't. She DID mentioned she has some tools, and axes as WEAPONS are harder to find than swords ; what is easier to find are wood-cutting axes, which aren't good in fight, and fire-fighters axes, which might be usable but still counts more like tools ... ... yes, she might avoid axes due to her first vampire ... or because axes are HEAVY. It's also possible she DOES have axe in the trunk but doesn't want to talk about it. Also, EVERYONE knows that sword-fighting is a thing. The fact that fighting with battle axes allowed for more finesse than woodcutting is less known. Ellen admitting she would like to try might be little twist ... but I'm still waiting for the artifacts. I could also see the alternative of Susan somehow forcing herself into Hitlerjugend even if she would be first girl to do so. Her mother would support her at that, and she's scary. Yes. Nanase would be great for this, although it would mean she would get even MORE hiding spells. Obviously, she couldn't ask right after returning, but there must've been other occasions later which would be less suspicious. And I don't think her mother would take too much convincing to let Susan work on her self-defense skills. On the other hand, it was just two years and the classes might only open on start of school year ... I was just saying it may take few years. Nothing the will of magic did will make keeping secret that much harder. And Arthur Arthur already mentioned that the real secret is ACCESSIBILITY of magic, not existence. Sure, he had other plans, but it may be the best thing to do now - keep the secret just few years and prepare detailed plans for the inevitable revelation. Note the Arthur Arthur have big advantage now against all other governments who didn't have seers on meeting, and he likely WILL transform this to advantage for DGB (and presumably US). In reality, if just one event would change (but several generations ago), EVERYTHING would be different and noone resembling specific people in our universe would exist in that parallel one. Butterfly effect and stuff. But making same actors play their counterparts, just with more facial hair and different outfits, is easier for production AND allows more interesting plot for viewers. It is likely that Magus's universe magic is more researched. However, it's also completely different: the magic rules of his universe are likely different than in EGS main universe, making any comparison very difficult. I still don't believe he would have chance against Noriko. Magus's comment about not knowing how car works suggest that they indeed has less technology than we do. However, I would remind the Lina Inverse answer about gunpowder (paraphrased, can't find it): It's not worth working with it, as gunpowder based bombs and weapons are weak compared to magic based explosions. Sure, Lina Inverse's spells are very OP and Magus is unlikely to have that much destructive power, but still, developing technology to point where it's actually useful against magic user with fireballs - and magic SHIELDS - would be hard. And, yes, dragons might be impervious to non-magic weaponry. And the answer? The one who can combine both has ALWAYS advantage against someone who has JUST magic or JUST technology. (Although to counter Lina Inverse's Giga Slave you probably need some really heavy calibre. Maybe cosmic string?) Yes, I can see this. If he hasn't been exposed to the right kind of anime, find some with flying combat or throw in some superhero genre stuff. With enough exposure he will work out an extension system of flight-based martial arts. And probably also develop some sort of flying ability as well. That "insight" was probably his awakening. And I don't think he didn't saw any anime with flying combat.

Unless, as I keep suggesting, he was just pretending he doesn't care where Nioi is. YES. Nioi is nice to Lord Tedd. Sure, Shade Tail CAN say that she just pretends to be nice and wants to hurt Tedd, and he will probably be successful in convincing Tedd to get rid of her. BUT it will mean he shows Lord Tedd that pretending to be nice is possible. Shade Tail is in MUCH better position when Tedd isn't realizing that. She's at worse position because Lord Tedd will still default to Shade Tail, but yes: even if she builds up her relationship with Lord Tedd to point where he would default to her, she would still be vulnerable by this. Even the "Lord Tedd sees the truth himself" can be dangerous to her ; she needs him not only capable of recognizing Shade Tail is using him, but also confident enough to not fear everyone else is also using him after that. Which explains why she wants to sidestep the issue by getting rid of Shade Tail instead, despite the fact that it makes her manipulator AND it may even actually hurt their side.

http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=755 Ok. Susan basically admitted she would like to be under influence of the mental effect just to be able to admit she would like the rest of package as well. ... unless she will choose something even MORE skimpy.

http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=754 ... so, the liveguard is absolutely ideal for Susan. In fact, she may even decide to go with the swimsuit. Also, wouldn't she feel the hot less if she would have the hair braided? Or blond?

It might be summer in NP, but it is January in main comics AND it was January in Sister I.

No they bollocking wouldn't. I don't see any version of Nanase or Susan tamely joining an organisation dedicated to turn them into good little obedient homemakers. At least, not planning to leave it intact. Actually Nanase would be FORCED to join by her mother. But anyway, the "girls" in that sentence were not supposed to speak about someone specific. I'm still surprised SUSAN didn't learned how to use sword properly. That new class wouldn't help, as it wouldn't cover ANY magic stuff, just ordinary martial arts. Definitely. But they might be too lazy for that again ... Not yet. While Will of magic gave up keeping the secrecy and adapted to magic eventually going public, DGB didn't gave up yet and would likely try to keep magic secret as long as possible even when they realize it wouldn't be that long. But eventually, yes ; if DGB won't employ Greg itself to train new agents (because it WILL need more agents now), soon he will be able to open again because his at least little controlled approach would be better than no control at all.

You mean "more self conscious". Also note that the bare midriff clothes might be adaptable ... I mean, the clothes she had over them could actually be just open and not unclosable. (And, based on Grace and actually almost everyone else, it really WAS relatively warm January.) BTW, her purse.

As Melissa once pointed out, even a compact-car-sized dragon doesn't have wings big enough to fly without magic. Wings might give some kind of agility bonus, especially at speed. I wasn't saying they fly without magic. Just that they are using wings and would be suboptimal to teach someone without wings. Agree, however it's possible he would be able to put her to sleep even in guardian form ... or use some offensive magic on her.

That's what I was getting at -- Nanase isn't exactly a well-trained expert in flying fisticuffs either. She and Elliot would need to either find an airborne combat expert to train them, or work things out by trial and error, probably with Greg's help. Hmm, maybe he'd have the same sort of insight he had when he invented ASMA in the first place? Nanase probably didn't get any well-trained expert in airborne combat to train her, BUT she doesn't need to do the trial and error stuff because she ALREADY DID. Probably with Greg's help. And, given the number of people with levitation abilities, she might easily be in top ten - not because she's that good, but because there isn't that many people who would even start training that in EGS universe to start with. (Well ... at least on their half. Griffins fly differently, but there may be human flying mages on their half.)

She's not only one. The emotions and views involved are conflicting!

The girls would have joined the Bund Deutscher Mädel. And who says there's only one Nazi universe? GURPS had six official ones the last time I checked. Right. Didn't wanted to imply there's only one. The number is likely infinite. With infinite evil Elliots, despite not every Nazi universe having evil Elliot.

Shade Tail wouldn't want ONLY rational reasons. ... telling them what to think would actually be counter-productive wouldn't it? She described herself as servant. She likely does have SOME position. Wasn't Eva Braun photograph and photography studio assistant? Not general, sure. Actually, lab assistant makes LOT of sense in Tedd's case. Yes ... but would that be worth it? Tedd might been emotionally unstable to the point that he would get HARDER to control if hurt too much. (Also, I think that for real cementing, there would need to be more than Shade Tail's word to convince Tedd.)

Well Noriko was missing in main universe as well. And Edward ... maybe Edward didn't shown to understand Tedd enough. Or maybe he died. Yes. On the other hand, it would hurt Tedd a lot, so General Shade Tail is not likely to do this without being sure - or being forced to. To General Shade Tail disappointment, Nioi is not so easily replaceable as he would like, her almost identical clone notwithstanding. It would likely be better to arrange some accident and kill Nioi without telling Tedd. Or even better, arrange so it seems someone else killed Nioi. Maybe some enemy Tedd was reluctant to eradicate before ... (On a related note: if he was just pretending to not care, it could mean he really didn't known and was punching the bag so much to let off the anger about it. Or, maybe he though he knows where Nioi is but didn't know why.)

I'd agree that Shade-Tail dpoesn't have Lord Tedd on marionette strings. But has striven to be the one Lord Tedd looks to for advice and confidence, meaning that Lord Tedd shouldn't make a big decision without consulting Shade Tail and Shade-Tail's approval. I see Shade-Tail's control as primarily political. I don't think Sahde-Tail is trying for a cult-grade contorl over Lord Tedd's personal life. We are getting closer Lord Tedd doesn't need Shade Tail's approval. But Shade Tail positioned himself as most reliable advisor (if not only advisor), and Tedd is not so confident in his political decisions, so he rarely does something Shade Tail didn't approved. I would expect that's how Sahde-Tail would put it with the goal of keeping Lord Tedd a bit distance from everybody else. I don't think he'd want Lord Tedd to look too much on his subordinates as pets. Shade-Tail is a subordinate! 9at least on the organization chart) Shade Tail is advisor, not pet. Him referring to Nioi as pet is exactly to highlight the difference between them, despite both being subordinates on the chart. On the other hand, he needs to be careful: his own teaching would make Lord Tedd turn against him if he would suspect Shade Tail is not following orders. That "not caring" was what I took as evidence of complacency. Even if Shade-Tail isn't trying to control every aspect of Lord Tedd's life, he should be keeping his finger on the pulse. Yes. Nioi has lot of influence on Lord Tedd. If Shade Tail really didn't knew where she is and didn't cared, he got too complacent. But ... it's possible he just pretended that.

I agree with this, however that doesn't require Shade Tail to be able to outscheme Lord Tedd or being able to turn him into tool. It's just that Shade Tail is more mature and understand the emotions. By keeping Tedd immature, he can't control exactly what will Lord Tedd do, but can be reasonably sure it would be something he likes anyway. On second though ... pain might not be the best word. Shade Tail basically teaches Tedd that only way to have something is to own it. Nioi is not his equal, she's his pet, servant. She will be punished if she would abandon him. That's the way how to prevent abandonment Shade Tail is teaching Tedd. Note that him pretending to not care is important part of hiding how much he influences Tedd. On the other hand, he might be getting little complacent based on how easy it was so far ...

It sounded like people were assuming that all Elliots were born boy/girl scouts. Was just putting out the idea that if there's an Elliot that's the complete opposite, then it must be an "Elliot of Pure Evil". He's probably from that universe where young boys/girls are not becoming scouts but Hitlerjugend because the Third Reich won the war.

"If"? Your multiverse must be very small.

Yes, but you can also be manipulative and still not turn the target into tool. For example, I can imagine General Shade Tail is "protecting" Tedd from some other people who might have positive influence on him. Probably made sure Tedd thinks he ordered him to. But, if Tedd would decide to meet someone else himself, General Shade Tail would just warn him about the risk ... because he doesn't have him under complete control and is not clever enough to have plan which would prevent such meeting without Tedd getting some suspicion. Also, I don't think he would be able to remove Nioi now, unless she will do some mistake.

Agree. Lord Tedd met General Shade Tail sooner ... ... and in fact, maybe it was General Shade Tail who found Nioi for Lord Tedd, although he didn't expected how much influence she will get.

And even if she doesn't (her guardian form knowledge may disappear when the form does), Elliot and Nanase and Greg could work out the basics through trial and error together. She doesn't have the guardian form advanced combat instincts and ability to fly in formation when not in that form, but she's still have lot of experience both in normal flying and in flying with fairy. (Although she technically lost both of those fights ...) That is possible. However, if they would hate being female as much as Magus thinks, would that be fair to him? ... of course, we know Elliot might really jump at that excuse AND that Ellen doesn't mind being female, so ... I would expect she would like to try sometime, but really, it's not like she doesn't have such option. She might not want to try because she's afraid she would like it too much (There is still the question about how do they solve the issue with Nanase's children ...)

Indeed, given how great an influence Grace has had on Tedd, and that General Shade-tail likely still shares all but one parent with Grace and their meeting may have been equally momentous, it's quite possible this Shade-tail is meeting some of the needs Elliot fills and some of the needs Grace fills for our Tedd. ... except he's "filling" them differently, which is pushing Tedd to be more aggressive and vengeful - exactly what General Shade tail wants. (Although SOME needs are likely being filled by Nioi instead.) But that's exactly what I'm talking about. Noone would say our Tedd is Grace's (or Elliot's) tool.

Maybe I shouldn't talk about it either but seriously Elliot you are in dire need of airborne fighting training! Nanase has lot of experience, let her teach you. (Also, yes ; Elliot acknowledged the attempt to prove to Magus women can be strong.) Given how boy scout this Elliot is I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that alternative Ellen/Magus is so reasonable. Yes. And that "reasons" for not using physical forms stronger and still female looks similar to Elliot's "not enough introspective" ... they are really similar. Most of Ellen's counterpoints were related to it being temporary and the issues with magic secrecy. Still, yes, even if Ellen wanted to be male there would still be practical problems. There are just two schools in Moperville, unless she wants to move DGB really can't provide her with new identity this time. So, she would need to temporary switch back to female at least until end of school. Unless she would basically switch with Elliot.

With the emphasis on strength he is likely less clever than Grace. Meanwhile, Tedd is very clever and you need considerably higher intelligence to predict someone's reaction for complete control. And it's more risky ... and the gain is unlikely to be that much greater. (On the other hand, while Tedd is clever he may be too focused on his magitech and is not really using his cleverness for other stuff.)

That's the idea of why Lord Tedd would be a catspaw, he's just a tool for General Shade Tail. Not a tool. General Shade Tail is unlikely to be clever enough to actually control Lord Tedd completely - and he doesn't need to. The term "catspaw" might still apply, though.

Considering Nioi believes General Shade Tail is corrupting Lord Tedd, it's quite possible that, in the spirit of the current story arc's title, Lord Tedd is just a catspaw. ... I think if GST wouldn't be satisfied with his position he would just kill Lort Tedd. He is satisfied with his POSITION. There are other things he's not satisfied with and the things he does to push Tedd in direction he would prefer is what Nioi calls "corrupting".