hkmaly

While Tedd probably CAN use mind-bending aspects of Elliots secret identities in combination with emotional changes of FV5, I doubt she would be the type to make actually useful offensive spell from that. She can also use some of EDWARD's spells. I'm sure Edward does have strong offensive spells, yet possibly non-lethal. Are we talking before or after the vampires attack Moperville and <spoiler>? Good questions, although I suspect answer is "no" on all.

Good question. It is possible that immortal can't DIRECTLY attack aberration attacking her child. However, I'm sure there is lot of indirect stuff they can do. Note that the vampires are supposed to be DISTRACTION. They are not expected to survive the attack on Adrian. That's why I think there will be no hostage situation.

You might have been. Romantisizing Rome doesn't seem a part of WW2 beyond the obvious of italy. I don't get that from Nazi Germany or japan. My knowledge of WW1 motivations beyond a webwork of alliances that forced a bunch of nations to fight, is a little murkier. Hmmm ... ok, the connection to Roman Empire itself might not be as direct as I though ... Nazi Germany however saw itself as successor state of Holy Roman Empire. And their salute was supposed to be based on Roman salute, although it might actually be just what was supposed to be Roman salute at that time, the actual Roman works don't seem to display it. I repeat, they are not human. Human wouldn't keep the promise. Agent Smith wouldn't. But the ruling AI's actually might, and I think that's what the movie is supposed to say. He didn't said anything to Thorin. I have Unfinished Tales here and he told it to Frodo and Gimli after Aragorn's coronation. He was much more ready than Gandalf expected, which was proven when Gandalf with rest of White Council attacked Dol Guldur, where Sauron was at that point. THATS where Gandalf was when he wasn't helping Bilbo and the dwarves, and it IS actually shown in movie. The attack succeeded, but Sauron was already planing to move to Mordor so it was extremely short victory. However, it's true it is not directly mentioned there if the orc army attacked on Sauron's direct order. And some are VERY far from that. There is no real villain similar to Joker. There are lot of them in comics. The law can be changed. ... I must admit I know more about Middle-earth than about Batman.

The status quo of "orcs in Mordor" was totally broken. ... was I too subtle? There was a world war about the topic. Machines planed to destroy Zion ... again, to continue the cycle. Neo made them promise they won't, and they, being AIs and not human, will keep the promise. That WILL change things - the destruction and rebuilding of Zion each time it become too powerful was status quo. Although I agree that I expected more after the end of first Matrix. After Bilbo made it out of Smaug's lair safely, the dragon flew off to Laketown. Bilbo told a thrush to send word to Bard of Smaug's weakness. Bard shot the Black Arrow at the bare spot, killing Smaug and sending him to rot at the bottom of the lake, but destroying part of Lake Town. Sauron was not POV character obviously, but the fact he lost the battle suggests something. The big pot of gold not protected by dragon anymore obviously forced everyones hand. Sauron DID send an army, but it wasn't in optimal condition. What Sauron would prefer would be to ALLY with Smaug and make coordinated attack with him. Gandalf specifically wanted Smaug to be destroyed before the "war of the ring" because he feared the possibility. This is mentioned in The Quest of Erebor, part of Unfinished Tales, along with fact that in time of battle of Minas Tirith, there WAS also battle on North which would certainly ended differently if Smaug wasn't be dealt with - Gandalf in fact feared Imladris might've been sieged and Arwen killed. There is an endless number of good stories, but comics writers seem to not be able to prove that when they repeat already written story again and again with just minor changes. The Joker is mentally ill. You don't execute someone because they're sick. What kind of monster are you? Practical one. Every time Joker escapes he kills people. Their lives have bigger value than Jokers. Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. There was argument that Batman is responsible, but he isn't, he can't be if he's supposed to remain on side of law. The officials are responsible. Note that I don't propose killing him on first try. I just conclude that they should've already exhausted all other possibilities. Either they didn't, which suggest they are corrupted or incompetent, or they did, in which case capital punishment is only remaining solution.

Ah, but he thinks Adrian is the son of either Helena or Demetrius. He's going to expect a reaction from an immortal who only recently reset, and improperly at that. Instead, he's going to get an immortal who hasn't reset in several centuries. He thinks the approaching light is a motorcycle, but it's an express train. ... personally, I wouldn't stay in way of motorcycle, despite it being much less risky than express train. Yes, it does seem optimistic for him to assume they remember their son ... on the other hand, he might assume that based on "Abner" saying it, they remember because otherwise Abner wouldn't know.

Jerry's niece? Though given her personality, she'd probably prefer the sempai thing. She sounds like she would really like to be someone's niece but that doesn't mean she actually is. She MIGHT grow out of it. Maybe. Pandora actually KNOWS western culture references. Based on the "Poorly spoken Japanese" comment last comix, I suspect this immortal doesn't know anime as well as she pretends. We should test her.

Yes. Especially comics heroes are preserving status quo a lot. That's wasn't what I argued against. I was talking about the minority of cases where they don't. Yes, fighting against status quo is political statement because you need to describe it good enough to explain WHY the hero fights against it. Meanwhile, you can make story about protecting status quo without describing it enough to make political statement. Also note that Cheerleadra is NOT fighting against status quo with being genderfluid because her being genderfluid (or transformed and gender-meh) is not public knowledge. Unless you count people who both believe Voltaire and correctly guessed what he spoke about - despite the Cheerleadra sightings disproving that. Destroying the One Ring destroyed Sauron's empire. Not exactly preserving status quo, especially if you realize that fighting Sauron was basically status quo since Melkor's defeat. Replacing one status quo with other is not preserving status quo. Note that I did mentioned that Sauron wanted to change the status quo more than the heroes, so it can be said that they tried to preserve status quo and just weren't completely successful. But I would say that lot of people believed Aragorn as king will do plenty of changes. One hundred years. And what followed wasn't exactly same as before either, although it presumably returned to previous status quo when the children disappeared. Then other humans came of course ... And, again, replacing one status quo with other is not preserving status quo anymore. For example, attempts to recreate Roman Empire are generally not seen as preserving status quo ... When you end with The Matrix, Neo directly SAYS he will change things in end of movie. When you end with Revolutions, the change is already there. Note that Zion is small anomaly, the artificial world is where most people are - and Neo cared more about the Matrix than Zion in first movie. Wasn't Bilbo originally telling someone about the flaw in Smaug armor? Not in the movie of course. But, yes: the main thing Bilbo and maybe more importantly Thorin II Oakenshield did was ending the status quo of Smaug occupying the Lonely Mountain by making him angry enough to get himself killed. They also forced start of battle of five armies, which Sauron would definitely prefer to happen later. My point wasn't (just) that heroes don't support the status quo. As I already said, I was commenting that heroes who don't support the status quo can still make good stories. I agree that most superheroes spend most of their time supporting status quo. I would even say some of them support status quo so well (and long) it's getting boring, therefore not good story. If you think of the status quo as people able to go about their daily business as they see fit, then yeah. But he doesn't affirm the gloomy corrupt aspect of the status quo, so you get a mixed bag that is a qualified yes or qualified no depending on how you want to view it. Batman is trying hard to both protect the status quo for normal people and change the status quo for politicians. His results seems to be that both statui quo holds, meaning he failed in his revolutionary aspect. The authorities are so corrupt they were still not able to execute Joker, despite repeated proofs they are not able to keep him in jail!

I suspect FV5 IS influencing your mental state so you are happier, or like less worried about stuff. Look at Susan. There's definitely some of that in there but I would posit that part of why she is so happy is because of unconditional support. She had that from other people but Pandora is kind of family. ... although this may help too. He has both high spell resistance and high enchantment resistance. In any wizard battle, he will likely just ignore anything the other wizard casts on him. No, shrunken wizard will still cast dangerous spells. And shrunk people are more resistant to damage, so even for physical opponents it's not so useful. The main eight don't have any truly offensive spell yet. Except Susan's fairy unsummoning and Nanase's fairy punches, and both seems relatively weak. (Sure, Susan can summon hammers and other weapons, but she needs to HIT someone with them then.) I think she might be unable to let herself get hit even if asked. Generally, FV5 makes people very similar, and Tedd isn't that much different from Ellen when the flowing hair prevents us from using hair style for recognition. I think Dan tried few times to make her look more like Tedd, then resigned and just hanged a lampshade on it.

That's why dolphin often only sleep with half brain. Humans can't do that. Yes. I can totally snore when awake. But when the snoring person is awake, he usually stops snoring if threatened. Sounds like hopeless strategy, unless Pandora is really the last one who's vote he needs to change ... also, I'm not convinced Pandora would be against. I think his goal is something like showing that the current laws are not enough on Pandora. Or his real target is Tedd and he just wants Pandora out because she might help him.

I'm not sure if I get what exactly Vorlonagent was trying to say, but my point was that it's unfair to blame experiments with heroes who do not protect status quo for low quality of mass comics production. (Personally, I would suspect the "mass" bit - I mean, that expecting most comics would be good is too optimistic given how many of them is produced.)

Actually, he helped elves with creating the other rings, but the last three were done by Celebrimbor without Sauron's help. When he tried to use the One ring to rule over other rings, elves noticed and took off their rings, so Sauron attacked with army and took 16 rings while the last three were hidden. It IS possible that more than 20 rings was made and the others just didn't survive the war. Sauron might not be so eager to give humans 9 rings if the elves didn't do most of the work. I wouldn't think THIS is the reason. With the status quo getting less and less attractive to people, heroes who are actually changing status quo gets more popular. But there is one problem: if the hero changes the status quo, it means the story has distinct beginning and end ; you can't just continue. When hero protects the status quo, he can protect it as long as the writers get paid for it. Note that Aragorn and Frodo were NOT protecting status quo. They helped to end third age. Granted, Sauron was planing to change the status quo as well. Those kids in Narnia were NOT protecting status quo. They ended the reign of queen Jadis who was totally protecting status quo. Luke Skywalker was NOT protecting status quo. He ended the Galactic Empire. Which his father helped to build from Galactic Republic ... which lasted tens of thousands years (ok, it was the Old Republic which lasted so long, still, Galactic Republic lasted thousand years). And for something newer: Neo totally wasn't protecting status quo. The machines were - and got increasingly efficient with it (There are also lot of heroes who didn't have such ambitions and wanted just to get home. Like Bilbo Baggins ... oh wait, he actually helped to kill one of the last dragons and made sure the North will be protected when the next party will go South to deal with Sauron. Not exactly keeping status quo, is it?)

There is little problem then: TF gun may not be able to change you to something which is not mammal. Maybe. It can't do cold blood or hollow bones, I'm pretty sure it can't make you breathe water as well, on the other hand it can make scales or feathers so maybe changing throat is not completely out of question ... Hmmm ... do dolphins snore? The other immortals would only be dangerous if they find out, but with the number of elves around, it would be pretty hard to hide. Also, I suspect that when the other immortals would know some immortal is fighting Aberration possessing Elf, they will NOT reset her ... Or they may have so big resistance Sirleck has no chance to get in even with surprise. Yeah sure ... it worked great against Robocop ... hostage can only work if you can harm the hostage faster than the one you hold him against can kill you, WHILE he is looking at you and you are giving him time to prepare attack. And, of course, the moment you kill the hostage you are dead. Trying it against someone who can move in another layer of reality sounds very risky. Trying it against someone who can be on multiple places at once and likely can teleport is certainly suicide. Even if immortals can't directly attack aberrations (even while protecting their child? Sounds unlikely) Pandora likely wouldn't care and kill him even if it meant she will be reset. Then there is the question of empowering ... in hostage situation, there must be plenty of ways how to empower the hostage in way which kills the one holding it. Like surrounding the hostage with fire. Conclusion: Sirleck would be crazy trying it against Helena and Demetrius. Which means we are short on words to describe his state of mind when he would try it against Pandora.

How did I break the fourth wall? Not you. The immortal I was speaking about. The fourth wall is very hard to break from our side.

Ok, Sliding Transparent Aluminum Doors. Are you SURE that would help?

The EGS fourth wall gets broken so often, Dan should replace it with a sliding glass door. Not true. There are worse "offenders". Also, sliding glass door won't help if you don't slide them fast enough.

If we talking about potential, Pandora is definitely more dangerous than Magus. On the other hand, she's likely the best counter to Voltaire we have ... Maybe Magus WITH BODY will be necessary counter to something as well? Hah, that gave me the giggles. Your suggestion is an excellent one, and honestly, many people might be hesitant to use magic for a permanent change, when a change for just the night would be enough, but I envisioned the following scenario: "Hey honey, toss me my Teddcorp Snore-Away watch." "Uh, okay..." "What's the matter, honey, I thought you like the way you could sleep now that I don't snore anymore?" "True, but do the only options on the watch has to be Catperson, SquirrelPerson, or that other one..." "You mean the FV5?" While funny, I think that specific spell to JUST shrink the appropriate tissues would be more effective than relative (non-clone) forms. Also, yes: no matter what Dan tries, he can't deny that medical applications of transformations - especially the crazy safe transformations of EGS - would be extremely useful.

It's not the length of the wand, but the magic in the stick. or It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. That's probably a budgetary limitation. Cosmetics can be expensive, and Tedd needed every available cent to get the video game parts he uses to build those devices. Tedd can make lipstick for free, just as he didn't paid for the hair dye.

Where did the navigation go? How do I get from subforum to parent forum? Also, the problem with text being white-on-white when editing is back.

You would think so, but try and find a magic ring with the ability to rule the world ever since! I checked every single magic shop I could find without coming across even one! If you think you could rule the world with One ring you were not paying attention. On the other hand, you are in good company, Saruman made the same mistake. If anything, ring resistant to fire so much only the volcano could destroy it AND as a bonus influencing the wielder to not toss it there is above average. On the other hand, some artefacts are even more resistant and you need to throw them into SUN. Or black hole. Those tend to be even harder to find than volcanoes.

Won't these immortals be RUNNING the evil game? I'm pretty sure neither Pandora nor Voltaire would be running it. Just the last one. Also, bonus points for breaking fourth wall.

I believe the commentary that Dan didn't originally planning this. Given that even if Tedd DOES try that on Elliot, Magus would be unlikely to be ready for it, I still think it will be Ellen who will hit Magus. (Which, on the other hand, is something Dan likely already has in plan.) While desperation on Magus' part would be a pretty strong motivating factor, I believe that he would categorically refuse any 'help' from her given how he ended up the last time he dealt with her. I think it's hard to apologize to someone while you keep him restrained, which is only way how to make Magus listen to the apology. It's possible HE's been up late working on stuff ... but yes, I suspect SHE was working more often I don't think Grace snores THAT loudly. ... "it's okay, we've got fur"? Is she dreaming about being naked in public? With Sarah as furry catgirl? Snoring gets worse with age. She likely left before that became problem.

Well ... he MIGHT react differently if he also didn't somehow ended up without pants despite his hips getting bigger. Although I shouldn't complain much as I totally like it. Yes, she lend him some clothes despite the shirt being completely ok ... and he let her, so he really likes her back despite not showing it much in canon.

I know, I just disagree. I don't think her being in hurry to talk to lot of people needs to be because she wants to reset. I think it's because she doesn't do anything halfway. Note that one of her motivation was boredom. Sure she COULD, but I don't think she PLANS to. Yeeeaaah. I don't think Pandora PLANS to reset this week, but I'm not sure she will survive anyway.

If she started teaching Adrian the basics just before Blaike died, she might have taken it easy, but after Blaike's death, she would have felt an urgent need to teach Adrian as much as she could before it was time to reset. She still intended to reset after Blaike had died, it was only when it came time to do it that she ignored it in favor of making sure Adrian was safe. Well, I think she at least PRETENDED to take it easy for some time after Blaike's death. I disagree. She's already admitted that with each year it gets more difficult to stay focused, she wouldn't last another century without going insane with boredom. Well, century might be too much, but I think her "soon" is not so soon in mortal terms. It's certainly not this week. More likely, she doesn't have timeframe yet, but started to be aware that she will need to reset sooner or later, that she should make up her mistakes before that and that it wouldn't be easy so better start immediately. For start, I don't think she plans this to be her only teaching session with Tedd. And she likely still plans to help Sarah in THIS incarnation. It was an AKM, thank you very much. ... maaaybe it would be better if I ask: do YOU think you were lucky? Or should I stop reminding it to you?

You're lucky they didn't wake you with submachine gun. ... wait ... did they?