hkmaly

Ok. 7. I barely noticed one before starting to read commentary, but to be fair I rushed to commentary to see what the deal is with the barrels ...

Ok. So she said she's virgin - exactly the think people are unlikely to believe her. Would be long wait till Wednesday Also, I'm not sure: it is really hypocrisy announcing she's self-centered to crowded cafeteria? She didn't said she stopped, did she?

Alternatively it's question of, uh, balance? I mean, it is possible the closer the object is to sphere, the easier it is to send. ... ok, it's more likely it's volume. At minimum, it would require building bigger TDE. I'm pretty sure you can fit pretty big device inside living animal if you only need it to live for few minutes. It would be cruel but Sky.NET wouldn't have any problems with that. However, reading wiki, apparently the TDE is quite unreliable, capable of missing both year and city in comics (it seemed quite reliable in movies). Maybe Sky.NET didn't wanted to risk that ...

There is nothing in that story proving it's true time loop. It may be just example of cyclic model of universe.On the other hand, it's true there is nothing there to disprove it either. (In fact, one could assume that THIS universe is the one created by AC and that the history will be different here, because the question was already asked. Not that the difference of 105 years would be somehow important when THIS universe will be ending and it's AC will be creating another one.)

It's probably the same as Elliot's secret ID forms and the goonmanji 2 mental effects in that they really only show if the person lets them show, so in this case Susan was letting the cheerfulness run things until she thought she was in trouble, since Tensaided seems to be ok with Susan being transform, she'll probably return to being cheerful though a bit more aware of safety. It SHOULDN'T. I mean, the Elliot's secret IDs are specifically designed that way, and in Goonmanji it was probably something Susan specifically insisted about to make them "not evil" ... the tea has no reason to be THAT convenient ... but I wouldn't be surprised if Dan would make it work that way.

I think the urinary system actually slows down during sleep to make that more likely to succeed. I think most of metabolism does.

Yup. You probably can't reduce the mass of Plutonium, but there are likely other isotopes, less safe to work with but more effective. Also, it was specified that TDE requires bioelectric field to send something back in time. Leaving aside the issue of T-1000 and T-X, nowhere is specified it must be human. How much harder would be to send something like whale? I'm sure you can fit LOT of plutonium inside whale. It won't really be mobile after transport, but with enough yield, that might not be necessary. On this forum? Unlikely. Still better than when someone thinks he came with clever variation and in reality came with something which will completely broke it. Exactly. Some people insist on referring to some sort of "original timeline" which was then altered by the time traveller, but there never was an alternate timeline with a proper stable time loop Yes. Original timeline is only present in variant with multiple time dimensions. Who else should be recruiting yourself into time-travel-police force than you? He knows exactly what to say to make you take the job. And regarding the ultimate incest ... well ... it IS a way how to ensure stability of loop on genetic level ... However, I wouldn't like to be searching for therapist for that person. Philosophically speaking he has free will, but convincing him about it would be complicated ...

I don't think Diane awakened or is close to it (also, I think Helena and Demetrius awakened Nanase AND gave her her spellbook). However, that doesn't mean Diane's acrobatic talent is completely non-magical. Remember that Elliot had his "Tamashii Gekido" - clearly magical martial arts technique - long before awakening, AND both him and Justin were canonically capable of using illusions before awakening. Similarly, we can assume Diane is dreaming and using magic in her cheerleading. In fact, she certainly does, because come on: she landed ON TABLE. Puting aside it was superhero landing, unless the table is bolted into floor - and possibly even if it IS - it wouldn't keep standing like that after her landing on it - it would either break or move and quite likely tip over. She stated trying to deny anything likely wouldn't work, unless she manages to put the majority of the boys on the spot about lying, she'd probably have to use Tedd levels of badassery there though. I second this ... I mean, seriously, what is she going to do? Sure, she got everyone's attention, but that doesn't mean people will believe anything she said.

I'm certain it would reverse when used again on a male that Ellen's FV5'd, because she flat out refused to turn Tedd back to normal, I don't think that would have made for a good punishment if she couldn't have been considered an easy way to reverse the effect to begin with. Mind you Tedd probably didn't think being turned into a girl would be much of a punishment anyway, especially considering how Grace reacted to it. First, it's obvious everyone including Ellen ASSUMES it's work that way. Second, the device gave green light, that might've mean that yes it will reverse ... actually, the fact the beam can be reversed with TF gun despite being magic-based talks a lot about how same it works ... I agree; my son is considering gender reassignment surgery. But Sam was (obviously) born with at least externally female anatomy--and while there are rare cases of genetic males who are born with female anatomy, it's far more likely that Sam is a genetic female who's mentally male. Unfortunately, even Tedd can't offer a permanent solution to that problem as yet, although it's quite possible Magus/Ellen knows how. He doesn't have anything ready, but he has a pretty firm grasp on how to make transformation wands that permanently change default form, sooooo ... While quite possible she is capable of a lasting intimate relationship with someone of either sex, I think Sarah is different than Ashley: it actually seems Ashley PREFERS females, if only slightly, while Sarah prefer males, although she hasn't quite admitted how slightly ... And Diane might easily prefer males even more than Sarah. Sure her crush or Nanase doesn't look completely platonic AND she may opt for relationship with female due to Elliot not being available AND possibly not knowing him as well as she thinks, but she would prefer male ...

http://egscomics.com/comic/tlod-020 Diane, if you meant Justin, he's just behind you. So, when she finished introspection, she seem to think logically again: yes, the boys you weren't cool to likely don't deserve apology ; yes, trying to denying the rumors wouldn't help - at least not applied to general public, you may try to explain herself to Nanase, Susan, Elliot or your father for example ... ... and yes the rumors are also about Lucy but it's not like you can do anything with it, is it?

That is a good point. Sky.net could have loaded its T-800 with a hundred kilograms of explosives and had it blow itself up as soon as it got near enough to ensure a kill, but instead decided to have it choose projectile weapons (it wanted a plasma rifle, but chose firearms when it realized that future weapons were unavailable). It was Kyle, not the T-800, who chose to employ explosive ordnance. Loaded? Kilograms? In third movie, we learnt that T-800 are powered by something which explodes as fusion bomb ... oh, wait, that's T-850 and apparently it's not that big explosion ... the nuclear power cell seems more stable. So, ok, loaded, but I would still opt for nuclear device. I mean, with future technology, it seems likely you can fit T-800 with something which destroys most of the city ... would reduce the need to get so near.

There is still next strip ... but yes, seems Susan is not THAT out of it. The physical effects are probably stronger than the mental. We saw the description of the tea effect. Tensaided didn't and it's true that just because she's running and blond he shouldn't assume she has poor judgement ... and, yes, even we didn't saw anything like that yet. ... or there is the override option. Or, maybe the mental effects are stronger just after drinking but the physical effects last longer.

Sometimes I'll get in the zone while playing a game or something and end up holding it in longer that I really should. "Just a few more and then I'll go to the bathroom!" Not drinking as much as you should could also help ... five hour is not exactly normal but I wouldn't call it totally impossible.

... that thing in his hand is supposed to be game? Which one? ... oh, right, Nintendo DS is even blue, so probably that, although I think the upper corner would look differently ... in comic, it looks more like some sort of box. Like, the kind of boxes which contains ring ... Also, while in general, not noticing to be woman for several hours is possible (until you need to go to toiled ; seriously, you can't miss it there) the size of breasts makes hard to believe he didn't noticed it's harder to see the screen ... ... unless, of course, the change was not immediate but continuous, and his breasts getting bigger and bigger is what made him notice.

While true, the term of author using his power to resolve situation in his writing is called "deus ex machina" and is generally considered bad writing. Author is SUPPOSED to make story hold even without himself. Yes, such simplified case makes possible to show what can happen in clear way. I also saw it somewhere ... oh, right, it's on wikipedia explaining casual loop. You can model cases like this even with the billiard ball. Also remember that quantum physics is principally statistically based and when multiple outcomes are possible, which one happen is random, so it doesn't need to be ONLY possible scenario, just likely enough - and the fact that time travel happens isn't, by itself, something which would lower the likehood of scenario happening. I believe it does justify existence of such loops, although it's harder to explain why exactly was everything in superposition in advance ... it's because existence of time travel itself makes the scenario when time travel WONT happen LESS stable than the scenario with stable time loop, because someone would try to interfere. In the Gargoyle case (note that I didn't saw that episode), someone ELSE would try to travel into past but failed to form a stable loop, while the character itself going into past does result in stable loop, so it can happen. In terminator case, later episodes (which allowed past to change, but anyway) established that sky.NET is something which can happen even without time travel ; presumably, it would then invent time travel and try to change the past, failing to form a stable loop. Similarly, the resistance would try to change the past. It is possible that the stable loop that happened, which DID bring sky.NET faster BUT also gave resistance their leader, is the most likely stable scenario from all which could happen - and it actually makes sense, because both sides trying to utilize time travel gained something. It's even possible that it solves the major problem with the movie, specifically the fact that it would be easier to send into past something which would wipe out whole city: it's possible it didn't happened BECAUSE it didn't resulted in stable time loop. (Although the explanation that authors didn't think it though is easier.) ... also, it's not MY quantum-physic based explanation. I would like to take credit but I suspect that I didn't formed it independently but only based on story which explained parts of Novikov self-consistency principle ... and, in fact, had I remembered how it's called, I might just refer to it instead of trying to explain it myself.

Let me remind you that Arthur J. Arthur is running things now and he's already brought Tedd aboard. Diane isn't just in on The Secret; she's part of it. You really think Diane won't have powers by the end of this arc? Not sure about end of this arc, but yes, DIANE is in. Lucy, on the other hand ... Arthur J. Arthur was already running things when Edward talked about being fine. And he's unlikely to support the idea that friendship is more important than secrets. Uh, it's Grace's party. Grace is kind of hard to stop when she gets going. And it was Grace who set the gender-switch theme for the last party, basically to help Tedd. Grace notices things other people don't; she knew Sam was really female, and she noticed right away how similar Diane and Susan were. Plus Grace goes to Diane's school, and Grace has a special relationship with Adrian. Something else Grace will do or at least try to do is bring them together once she knows their true relationship. ... ok, that might happen. You're right that Grace is hard to stop AND she has weird ideas about what is her problem to solve ... ... and I already mentioned that if it's Ellen who's making everyone FV5 and not the TF gun (which is all kinds of top secret), it might not be THAT big problem to Edward ...

Huh, missed that. So did Diane, apparently. It's lunchtime now, so there is some time presumably ... Obviously she's doing it deliberately. Although with her musculature, this may be the option she can do most convincingly. While I would like the bonding experience of beating the crap out of some jerk, I don't think Dan will show anything like that in EGS. The other options are not so likely either. As someone who was surprised by "short" story lines getting very long, Dan might use three digits even if he plans only like 30 pages, just to be sure. Diane might consider trying to integrate Lucy with her other friends, but remember those other friends have secrets which are not theirs to share. Edward Verres could stop being fine with them. I mean, the circle of eight already sort of expanded ... ... also, Lucy's comment needs not to be taken literally. Obviously, turning Diane into boy wouldn't actually help her any more than Justin turning Elliot into girl. ... and Grace's next party is probably going to be "everyone FV5". Which actually COULD help Lucy ... first, Diane would be more likely to kiss her, second, she would have something to blame when she kisses her. So yes, pity that getting Lucy to that party is unlikely to happen ... although ... actually, with the magic being public, maybe revealing Ellen has such spell wouldn't break that much trust. Of course, they shouldn't reveal Uryuoms or their technology ...

There is no deity or other intelligent entity required. Quantum physics already has mechanism capable of "stabilizing" the causal loops without external intelligence. Look at Fermat's princople: the path taken between two points by a ray of light is the path that can be traversed in the least time. On first look, it seems like it would require the ray to somehow look at possible paths and determine which is best, but that's obviously not happening. What is happening is that particle (e.g. a photon or an electron) propagates over all available, unobstructed paths and that the interference, or superposition, of its wavefunction over all those paths at the point of observation gives the probability of detecting the particle at this point. The formation of causal loop would need to be similar: until the loop is closed, everything is in superposition of all possible actions. What actually happened can only be determined AFTER the loop is closed, and it's one of the sequences of actions which results in loop being closed (actions which do not form stable causality graph are impossible), chosen with the more likely sequences being more likely to happen. In some cases, the result will STILL contain some very lucky or unlucky events (that is, events with low probability to happen normally) - because without those events the loop wouldn't be stable. As I just described, you can have both free will and predestination. You did choose your own actions, others choose their own actions ... just, thanks to series of random events, it still resulted in stable time loop. Granted, if you are deliberately trying to change the past and are determined enough, this mechanism can result in you being killed by something which was dropped from aircraft and just by chance fell directly on your head. Or possibly something even LESS likely. Now, obviously, WRITING story like this is HARD. As author, you don't have the ability to test superpositions. You need to write good enough to convince the reader that what happened was really one of the most likely sequences of events from the ones forming stable loop ... I find it unlikely Diane is that delinquent (or are you suggesting the school has a "miss two classes and you're expelled" policy?), and at any rate it wouldn't matter that far in the future whether the reason she missed the class was because she was arguing with her inner child in this story or if it was for some other reason. Well ... I wouldn't be surprised if she had some problems previously. Being late to class might be problem by itself if it's happening often enough. But true, the one class missed due to arguing with her inner child is unlikely to cause THAT big difference. True.

If we take the implication from her single non-flashback appearance that she has a drinking problem at face value, there is a good chance that she's doing it for the mind/emotion altering affects. Assuming she isn't physically addicted or can push past that, a mind-altering tea might be just the thing for her (if not Bubbly Tea, then maybe one of Tea's other products). Hmmm ... yeah, maybe some other product ... except so far the bubbly tea is the only mind-altering one shown, isn't it? I don't think she wants to be energized. Well, green tea extract may. The strips may be independent, but nevertheless, it was Susan who was shown buying bubbly tea previous strip.

The thing is, he shouldn't need to. Susan is intelligent enough to realize it herself ... even beforehand. If the bubbly tea made her think it's good idea, Mr. Tensaided saying anything might not change it ... Putting aside the fact we don't know what the bubbly tea does with the liver, I'm not sure her mother would accept such substitute. She's unlikely to drink to be bubble now ...

And then police armed with equally or more advanced weapons show up to arrest him, because they knew he was going to be there. Why? They knew he didn't shot. (In fact, maybe it wasn't weapon in first place ...) There is only one form of government capable of this: dictatorship. Democracy is never so stable. On the other hand ... not even dictatorships are so stable, especially when faced with someone from future ... basically, that government would need either to be coordinated to end of time, or at least have agreement with the government which will came afterwards ... we can't even imagine that. Explains why the time travel is not public Who will decide when the amount of evidence of crime is sufficient? Well ... noone actually. Police will only go to stop crime to places and times where they KNEW they were present ... well, ok, presumably the weird causality of unchangeable past requires some responsible person who will think "yes, we arrived at correct time", but somehow I think it would cause all sorts of problems. There will always be someone who would say "let's add just this little bit of knowledge". Especially when crime is involved. So either someone would keep VERY strict control over the time travel ... maybe to the point of actively LYING about future ... or yes, there would be very few surprises. Actually, I remember reading some story where everyone had option to send some limited amount of data to past self. So, they knew when the important stuff happens, like when they meet their future partner ... and they also knew they would always cooperate with government. Except you can guess what will happen if they rebel and wont cooperate with government ... right ; the government will send them false data claiming they didn't rebel. NO form of "tourism" is viable on large scale. Sure, there would be limited - VERY limited - amount of historians who prepare themselves very well for the era and will record everything very thoroughly ... but that's not what is normally called tourism. And that's a problem? ... it would be awkward.

... definitely unexpected. Susan having some fun in safe space, ok. Susan being under influence in public - and in work, where it can mean she makes some mistake and be fired? Very unlikely.

Yes, that was what I was talking about: it gets old really fast. Like, sometimes even before they finish their first travel. Right. Except if you try, you always did, which increases likehood they will be waiting for you. Or YOU will be waiting for you. ... this kind of story is really hard to think through. You have people who should know exactly what will happen and yet don't do anything to prevent that - because if they could, they would already do it. Meaning, either they have right motivation, or they don't know past can't change and are that clumsy, or they do know past can't change and are fatalists or something. Oh, right, temporal tourism. There was one hundred people watching this event and always will be. So, who would they be? The auction can start. Oh, look, we have first participant, the sympathetic gentleman from future who is just aiming at me with something looking like it wouldn't be invented for next thousand years. Visiting friends and family MIGHT work, yes. Except it raises the possibility of running into YOU or at least being told about it. Not counting cases like last goodbye to someone dying ... THAT is good idea, if you didn't managed to be there when it happened, you can always try to return later. That actually work both ways. Faster than light travel IS technically travelling into past or at least very close to it - like, there must be some very clever rule preventing using of FTL to travel to past, which violates the principle of independence of physical laws (especially the constancy of the speed of light) from the choice of inertial system. So ... there likely IS such rule in EGS. Or, Dan wasn't clever enough to create laws of universe without contradictions. Well, better authors failed at that ... Technically, her missing class can appear ANY time later - just because she's not punished immediately doesn't mean noone noticed, they might be counting. Five stories from now, two months of EGS time, two years of real time: Diane: "Sorry, I can't go. I already missed one class two months ago, if I miss another I fail the school"

Well, I used the term "predestination paradox" but that wasn't really accurate; if you accept the idea that the timeline is unchanging there's nothing paradoxical about a causal loop. So there's nothing logically wrong with including them in a story (so long as the story/world doesn't also include instances of history being altered). I'm just tired of writers using them to show off how clever they are. And if the timeline is unchanging, then breathing or reflecting light in the past isn't changing anything, as you were "always" a part of the past. Oh, you mean THIS kind of "can't change past". But, isn't predestination paradox necessary in such case? My problem with that is that I think it tend to makes unsatisfying stories. I mean, someone goes to the past, presumably because they have some reason for it ... and, due to this mechanism, they MUST fail. Sure, there are ways how to make it work - you can have multiple people with different motivation going to past, or you can have the hero find out that it was bad idea and it's better the way it was anyway ... but that works for one-time story. I tend to see EGS as something where plot elements stays to be reused, but there is little motivation to try to travel into past multiple times if you already found it doesn't change anything on first run. ... wait. Remembered one type of story where it works. If the goal of characters is actually to recover something (possibly just information) which would be lost otherwise, then they can succeed and later realize that they didn't needed to be so careful in their attempts to not change the past ... which COULD work in EGS. Like, what if Pandora will forget something? Well, it's something to argue about discuss, but will it matter in the long run? Compared to the galactic collision with Andromeda? Probably not. But I don't think only long run matter. EDIT: How long of a long run are we considering here? It probably won't matter as the last proton decays in the heat death of the universe. I see I failed to think in properly long terms

Is it really a retcon if it was the author's intention for something to be a certain way from the beginning but added clarification later? Considering Dan's stance of "what's not clear from comics is not part of canon", yes. It removed some possible interpretations from the superposition of comic meanings.