hkmaly

You also have to be sure that's the fleet you want to actually knock out. The fleet docked at Pearl were mostly older ships. The US was busily putting together an updated navy, but like the Doomsday machine of Dr. Strangelove, we just hadn't told anybody so it had zero deterrence value. Of course we were mostly building a surface fleet, but very quickly into WW2, The US started asking the same question of cruiser-size ships planned or being built, "can we turn this into a carrier?" War with Japan took so heavy toll on US fleet they ended the war with four times more ships they had on start, didn't they? Japan seriously underestimated the capacity of US industry to build more ships. In general this is correct. Some few officers and experts knew exactly how ill-advised it was to poke the sleeping giant but they were overruled. For example, the famous Admiral Yamamoto spent years in the US and had a very high opinion of her energy, people and productivity. When asked his opinion of what would happen if Japan declared war on the US, he unhesitatingly declared, "We will be able to expand freely for six months, then we will be halted, and will never achieve new gains after that. And then we will lose all our gains one by one until we have nothing left." Yamamoto gave his very unpopular opinion and was then ordered to attack Pearl Harbour. He carried out his orders, convinced that they would destroy Japan's dreams of empire but determined to do everything he could to do buy as much time as possible. He died in 1944 when a plane he was riding in was shot down, having seen basically his entire prediction come true. Sometimes loyalty is a flaw. Presumably due to the string being too short?

I'm sure he bought her many nice things. Him being with her twice doesn't mean he was with her all those two months. I'm not sure if it NEEDED any names before. But it was definitely there long before being named America, like for example around year 1000 when Leif Erikson discovered it already full of people who didn't know it needs discovering. He named the area he landed in Vinland, but might not mean whole continent by that. (There is also Brendan of Clonfert who discovered some island and some people claim he was so drunk he underestimated size of his discovery and the island was North America.)

Like this? That MIGHT convince magic the best course of action would be to disappear. So no, something else.

While it's not canon yet, based on commentary it's obvious it should be. Lot of stuff in this storyline is this kind of "almost canon", starting with Hanma's existence. Also, that bit about Rhoda thinking about shrinking people ... it makes more obvious why she's got shrinking magic. Sure, disproportionate sense of scale, but still, wanting to do something with it was important.

Tedd has exposited almost solidly for two pages now. I think that may have at least equaled Edward's record, and Tedd might not be finished. However, the hands-down champion of exposition is Grace. Remember this from Sister (1)? She probably learned it from Edward as well. Yes. Nothing new to us - or Arthur - but possibly new to Magic. More exposition would like be good (though I don't know if Dan would be up to it based on Twitter and the commentary), but I doubt Magic would consider drastic changes after what Tedd told it. Magic wants to be used and doesn't really care about human morality (which is likely another alien concept to it) outside of whether or not they'll keep it secret if the ruleset says it needs to be kept secret. Even the secrecy is secondary objective, magic DEFINITELY wants to be used. And there may be other priorities behind HOW the magic currently works ... which may be reason why magic isn't going to change to be SAFER, no matter how good idea it would seem to be to human hearing this exposition. Still, I agree that Tedd should add something positive. It may care about morality but not related to individuals, only to big picture. I would say it wants to prevent big disasters or wars not only because the "wiping out humanity" bit but also because it would consider it bad idea from moral perspective. That was before and based on human assumption and the WoM's understanding of things, with this new perspective it choose that it's not worth it if humans are going to abuse any system it puts down and it might even decide that making magic public would be just as bad. What I've been saying is that Tedd needs to say something that will assure the WoM that magic being public wouldn't be as bad as some people might think. Remember that Tedd is STILL focusing only on the question if magic should or shouldn't go public. She's still arguing for "it will go public anyway, better expect it".

According to Disco Wizard the spell allows him "to remember who Grace is, details about her and our past meetings, and details about why I am contacting her" and all of that only applied when he's using the spell. When he's not using the spell he "just knows there is still a problem" which probably amounts a nagging feeling that he needs to use the spell again. Yes. The out-of-story reason might be that Dan isn't sure what term exactly should he use, but wants to imply that Pandora does. It might be reflex. Like, not saying secrets out loud even if noone is around to hear them. Also, didn't someone speculated that GRACE might be able to remember something from that conversation? I personally don't think so, but it's true it WAS inside her head ...

The idea of attacking Pearl Harbor and get US into war might've been similarly stupid, but at least most people believed the war between US and Japan was inevitable anyway. This execution was totally needless.

... ok. Definitely dramatic. Tedd didn't really said anything new (compared to this for example), but formulated it very differently. And Arthur's facepalm notwithstanding, magic will likely respond that this is exactly the logic it wanted. Which would make Arthur facepalm again. And, this kind of performance would definitely be something traumatized Tedd wouldn't be able to do.

Czarist Russia did not learn in time. It fell and was replaced twice, first by a burgeois revolution, then by the Leninists. The Empire of Austria and Hungary likewise collapsed and split into two. All that remained of what was once the mightiest power in central Europe was a rump around Vienna. Some lessons are so expensive that they do not leave much behind to benefit from what they taught. Hmmmm ... there was lot of learning happening in first world war. But you're right, doesn't seem it was in Austria-Hungary or Russia ... it was mostly Germany and Allies. The fact Austria-Hungary effectively stopped to exist after war and Russia went through several revolution which included executing of all people who learned anything might be related to that ...

Transformations, obviously. That classifies as a fetish in my head, not a point of physical or mental attraction. Except, I suppose, having a mate that's into the same fetish.... But it definitely turns her on. Both her and her partner being transformed. No matter if her partner has that fetish or not.

Hmmm ... right, that does sounds more likely, despite this. Surprisingly, Sarah IS probably becoming better girl for Elliot with all her transformation experiments she does in Tedd's basement. But yes, the main problems of that relationship was Elliot's indecisiveness (which got better with Ashley, but partly because she has same problem) and that Elliot sees Sarah as sister (which didn't changed at all). Another question however is if Ashley realizes this. She IS jealous ... (I'm assuming this and lot of other things in that story is canon despite story itself isn't.) Purely physical attraction makes MORE likely she would just want Elliot or her be transformed like that. Transformations, obviously. Maybe she would want Sarah just as friend and not girlfriend? When Grace transforms ; Ashley won't magically know how good Grace is with transformations until Grace shows it.

I expect you'd know better than me, but people can always subdivide more the easier it is to do it. The Scottish want another vote over breaking away from the British after all. That's why I said most and not all. Like ... we have Spain, Britain and then Albanians want their own state from various pieces of other states, and there is 49 states in Europe (not counting Russia which is mostly in Asia anyway), that seems like most are ok doesn't it? It's true that there are more separatists movements on list, but lot of them wants just some autonomy inside the state they are in or moving region from one existing state to other. ... on the other hand ... yes, if the splitting would be easier (and it WOULD be if European Union decided to support it) there might be more. People are already more eager to split when it doesn't mean they would need to build border crossings.

I said "poor Ashley" because 1) Sarah is trying to get Elliot back 2) Noone transformed HER (yet) Not sure which one would be more important to her but I suspect the second one. However, I don't think she's particularly attracted to Sarah OR Nanase. Susan, yes. But I think she would rather be transformed with Fv5Nanase and then hug Elliot. Or, let both her AND Elliot been transformed with Fv5Nanase and hug.

I though Tedd only understand better than other magic users because he's seer ...

Does that list of minorities include the Hungarians? It used to be much more common. In fact, I'm sure Spain really regrets there is noone to conquer to keep those Catalans in ... Most European countries however already split as much as they wanted. ... they learned from that mistakes, didn't they? I mean countries. I expect those generals were executed. Everybody were scared of the Canadians in every war. Canadians are just not known for going into war with the intent of serving the enemy tea and scones, for some reason. Wait ... are you saying that people would be more or less afraid if Canadians would serve tea and scones?

Not sure if it's supposed to be punishment, and so far it's just Sarah. And at least one version from patreon is more like merge of his ex-girlfriends.

Evidence strongly suggesting that Van and Tedd are, or aren't, half-siblings, is extremely lacking. Both weak evidence (Van doesn't have Tedd's eye-shape) and probability say they are probably not. In-story evidence is really like you described. Meta evidence, however, suggests that Van and Tedd are related. Because the story world is smaller than it should. As proven by Carol being Sarah's sister. If Pandora had said "Tedd's best friend" - well, it wouldn't take much observation to learn who Tedd's best friend is. She was protecting Ch.. that superheroine's identity. Of course 1) The dream wizard wouldn't remember it anyway 2) Voltaire already said his name 3) Tedd's whatever is pretty short list. If not "best friend", what could fit ... "girlfriend", implying Grace, "cousin", implying Nanase, and I suppose we COULD blame Sarah as well although I'm not sure what word would be there. So, not so great protection. Oh, wait: it could also be Tedd's father, mother or brother.

And that's assuming they can't use the internet to teach globally, without any need to travel. Khan Academy: Introduction to Magic (not really, darnit) Yes, somewhere in the thread was this assumption mentioned.

I though that Hilbert's Hotel opens empty, but then the first infinite bus fills it up.

Ellen is laughing so hard on this ... ... poor Ashley.

Unification wasn't happening. Not at that point anymore, but it used to in past.

Didn't we already said this? Anyway, seems pretty likely to me as well. Well, maybe he IS too young. What do you think he would be able to do if Arthur and Tedd both decided for reset? Probably not, and the explanation would be that seer powers are not spell. The only reason why Grace is the way she is, is because Dr Scuiridae's daughter Grace died in a car accident in the main universe, and so a grief stricken Scuiridae used her DNA in the Shade Tail Project instead of the intended Human DNA. The Shade Tail in Lord Tedd's universe got the intended Human DNA because Dr Scuiridae's daughter didn't die, it's possible the the Human DNA used might have made that Shade Tail more aggressive than expected, also apparently opportunistic and therefore likely ended up being a bigger threat than Damien in that universe. But the really important part would have been a lack of Elliot, Tedd even stated that Elliot was there when he needed someone, so if Elliot wasn't around and somehow Shade Tail took on that role of guardian and "friend" then he might have been able to manipulate Tedd into doing things. I would totally agree with it except one thing: I don't think Voltaire KNOWS about Lord Tedd or all the details necessary for his plan to succeed. But, yes, Lord Tedd would be what he wanted ... and possibly what alternative Voltaire in THAT universe wanted and got. Also, remember what Pandora almost called Elliot? I mean, she only said he's Tedd's-- ... but I'm sure whatever the missing word was, it was referring to his role as LordTeddPreventer. (Also, yes ; Nanase would never get into Tedd's inner circle if not for quite improbable sequence of events involving Susan and Ellen. And the Goo sent by Lord Tedd ...) I totally understand anyone who just put cloak over comfortable clothing. Especially if that person have lot of magic and the comfortable clothing is clearly made in high-industrial society. Also, would YOU tell the Archmage he dresses funny?

The flaw in the logic is that everyone knows at least something. Are you familiar with the terms "null set" and "almost everywhere"? Like, for anyone, their knowledge is null set in almost every area of expertise.

They might know about the alliances but not about the "fondly looking" and optimistically believed Russia won't honor the treaty? Also, because marrying someone was legitimate and peaceful way to unify two territories.

It's also possible she wanted to get rid of the Genie card. She can draw better one on end of turn.