hkmaly

Don't worry, it only took me few minutes.
... so do I. Is easy because we have very little facts.
Most strategic games and many others allow player to start reign of terror ... meanwhile, only few allow him to start democracy build upon principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. Even the Sid Meier's Civilization with it's "totally democracy but you remain in control for several centuries" doesn't exactly look fair ...

But not time travel.

 
 
 
Let's see...based on what we've seen in the canon....
Susan was openly outspoken against the school uniforms from the moment they were announced, tried to get others to join her protests, and readily accepted that she would be punished for it.  She might well have been an open dissenter.  Which would mean she'd probably end up somewhere from ostracized to killed, depending on the regime.
However, there is a darker possibility.  Susan also bought into her mother's militant male-hating version of feminism for years, letting it shape most of her actions and associations.  I could, sadly, see this potentially applying to a Nazi type view instead, in some alternate universe.  Susan might embrace the tenents, approving of the BDM's encouraging girls in athleticism, job training, and education.  If the Nazi views took the place of feminist views in this other Susan's life, then she might even embrace the goal of women being helpmates and support staff.  However, just as our Susan changed her views when presented with evidence to the contrary, this alternate Susan would eventually see through the Nazi propaganda and indoctrination, and once she did, she would accept she'd been wrong, and find some way to fight against it.  Only question would be whether it would be openly or underground -- Susan isn't so good at subtlety or dissembling, so I suspect she'd be open about it, and again, likely getting ostracized and eventually killed.
What about Nanase?  She spent years following along with her mother's wishes, being an excellent student, trilingual, dressing conservatively and not protesting the homemaker role too openly.  However, when her mother wasn't around, she began changing into clothing she knew her mother would disapprove of.  I could see Nanase being a good little BDM in public, but rebelling in the shadows, possibly joining some sort of fifth column group.  If she knew Susan in this version, she might even be able to get her involved more discreetly once she discovered her change of heart.

... 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.

Yesterday, I watched two birds fighting in flight.
The smaller bird drove away the larger after about a minute of circling and diving.
I suspect that either one of these birds would have been more than enough of a challenge to get Elliot's feathers ruffled.

An NYPD officer in California is an officer by courtesy only, with no legal authority. (Except possibly in the context of a prisoner transfer - but the prisoner will be handed from one police force or prison-guard force to another, not encountered randomly, and with a bunch of paperwork, prior notice, and scheduling involved.) Therefore wearing an NYPD uniform in California is not impersonating an officer.
And I'm sure there are provisions in the law for actually wearing California Highway Patrol uniforms on California highways, with prior CHP approval, for such purposes as making TV shows.

Eh, even if Magus just wanted to wake her up, Elliot's reaction is justified.
Magus conspired with a parasitic lifeform to take over Elliot's and Ellen's bodies. He didn't hesitate to squash his former ally like a bug after the inevitable betrayal.
Elliot has absolutely no reason to trust someone who's capable of doing all that and can kill with a hand gesture.

I suspect that ur-ellen is supposed to mean Magus.

Most likely, but I strongly suspect that Magus's prejudices are coloring his perceptions and he might not be as strong relative to the main cast as he thinks he is. He's not going to be a push-over, he is a trained battle mage after all, but his own confidence, combined with those prejudices, could be his undoing.

Yes. Unfortunately, they learnt that very well in last two thousand years.
I suspect only reason they are even thinking about stuff like paperless office is they are afraid of papercuts.

Bollocking dihydrogen oxide. It gets everywhere and no-one seems to do anything about it. Do you realise that it is so prevalent that people are actually born dependent on it? It is so addictive that you can barely go without it for a few hours before you start to notice. It's a planetary crisis and the governments don't even care.

My job often requires jerk-like behavior.
Why should I be a jerk when no one is paying me?

Ooooooh....I just realized something else.
 
When Abraham tried to kill our Ellen, Nanase convinced him to swear not to hurt her. Abraham's exact words were "I solemnly swear to never harm Ellen Dunkel". What do you all think Abraham might think if he walked in thinking Magus was a threat only to find out his name is Ellen Dunkel?

Susan was willing to play the game, at least in part, because the transformations that would happen to her would be outside her control.
But now she must chose a temporary transformation.
She must make that choice knowing that it is her choice alone.
She must make that choice knowing that the others around her know that it is her choice alone.
If you go into someone's home for a meal, you eat what you are served.
If you go to a pot-luck or buffet, your choices are limited to what has already been prepared and presented.
But if you are handed a menu, then the servers, the kitchen staff, and anyone who sees your dishes being presented knows that you have asked for that specific meal.
It can, at times, be difficult to publicly admit "I want this".

Anyway, to summarize: Magus's note about how Sirleck can't explain how the car works is WEIRD. We can argue about why that might be true about magic, but it's definitely not true about technology - Sirleck may be unable to rebuild the car from scratch, but his answer that he does know how car works in NORMAL for technology in technology-based civilization.
After all, it's not rocket science nor brain surgery.
I went to my first computer conference at the New York Hilton about 20
years ago.  When somebody there predicted the market for microprocessors
would eventually be in the millions, someone else said, "Where are they
all going to go? It's not like you need a computer in every doorknob!"
       
Years later, I went back to the same hotel.  I noticed the room keys had
been replaced by electronic cards you slide into slots in the doors.
There was a computer in every doorknob.
        -- Danny Hillis, cca 1999
 

Anyway, to summarize: Magus's note about how Sirleck can't explain how the car works is WEIRD. We can argue about why that might be true about magic, but it's definitely not true about technology - Sirleck may be unable to rebuild the car from scratch, but his answer that he does know how car works in NORMAL for technology in technology-based civilization.
After all, it's not rocket science nor brain surgery.
I went to my first computer conference at the New York Hilton about 20
years ago.  When somebody there predicted the market for microprocessors
would eventually be in the millions, someone else said, "Where are they
all going to go? It's not like you need a computer in every doorknob!"
       
Years later, I went back to the same hotel.  I noticed the room keys had
been replaced by electronic cards you slide into slots in the doors.
There was a computer in every doorknob.
        -- Danny Hillis, cca 1999
 

Ashley,
I know you were thrust from background to secondary to approaching-principal character status pretty quickly.  But that is no excuse.
You should have read the handbook and attended the staff meetings just like everyone else.

I, for one, am glad that Magus was very up front about wanting to kill Sirleck and most importantly didn't hold back when the time came to do so.  Having bad feelings about killing a monster AFTER you kill it isn't unexpected, but thinking that Sirleck was a friend before you made your attack would be.  It's sorta a call back to Susan killing the vampire in France, in that it might very well be a life changer, but it didn't slow her down when it came time to do so.
 

If anything, it speaks well of Magus that he's feeling such a complicated mix of emotions, that he's so inclined to human contact and friendship that he'd feel that way.  It also speaks well that he's aware of his complex, "messed-up" emotions; I guess he's more like Ellen as far as degree of introspection.  Or maybe he's just been trapped alone with his own thoughts and feelings long enough that he's become so.
That is the key.  The lesser of two evils is still an evil.  It's rather like Grace and Adrian versus the boar -- killing the boar was evil, but it had to be done.  A good, emotionally healthy person will try to find some other way, and when there is none, they'll di what needs to be done, but feel bad about it.
It needed to be done.  There have been a very small number of cases where I've had to euthanize a beloved pet dog who had developed a dangerous aggression problem.  It's sad, it breaks everyone's hearts, but if the safety of your children is at stake and nothing you've tried has worked, then sometimes you have to choose the lesser of two evils.  Then, it's your duty to make sure it's done with as little pain/fear/trauma as possible.
Hey now, I don't think Scotty was implying any such thing, and it's a bit of a Straw Man for you to paint things that way.
My assumption would be that he had tried everything he could think of, had tried more and more desperately, and had simply failed.  Sometime, like with the boar, you wind up with there not being a better way.
Probably depends on how much Elliott was aware of while possessed, and how soon Ashley and/or Ellen intervene.

All too much sense. It does strange things to the human mind to spend your time in complete isolation. Escape from that, no matter how strange the company, fills an essential need. It is difficult to see how he could have reacted otherwise.

Tony is Elliot's enemy in the main universe, they don't really go out of each other's way to fight, though Tony has constantly bullied Tedd throughout both elementary and secondary school and Elliot's been there to defend Tedd, what if it's an even more heated rivalry between Magus and his universe's version of Tony. In the "Night Out" story it was implied that Tony was attracted to Tedd, and in the "Oblivious Wand Waving" non-canon story, Tony is seen admiring Tess, what if Tony's alternate in Magus' universe had a thing for Terra and wanted Magus out of the way to get to her?

The Hawk has hatched. Little mice better beware. (Wait, Pandora says he's going to "grow". This being EGS we can't rule it out, but I doubt she meant the "grow" literally. So does that mean he's going to get even more powerful? Was she referring to something else besides returning to the physical plane when she talked about him "hatching"? Or did she over-complicate her analogy for the sake of drama?)
Also, I knew Sirleck wasn't boss material (at least from a combat perspective).
Ding dong the witch vampire is dead!
Sirleck is creepy, and she wasn't expecting him to suddenly appear. I'm sure if the battle had lasted long enough for her to help, she would have.
Or at least a red flag that Magus knew Sirleck was planning on possessing him, and was prepared.
Incidentally, this more-or-less confirms the theory that when Magus seemingly-accidentally hinted to Sirleck that he'd be a good host, he knew exactly what he was doing. This guy is crafty (which, actually, is a little surprising for an Elliot).

We must speak good of the dead.
He's dead. Good.

It's confirmed, Ellen was able to fight back because she's just that awesome. Er, I mean because she was born from magic. (And yes technically it's just speculation in-comic, but the commentary implies she's right about the "born from magic" idea.)
Meanwhile, Sirleck looks even more creepy than usual in the last two panels, but a lot less imposing. Seen from that angle, he looks like the sort of JRPG monster you can beat in two or three turns at most if you're the proper level for the area. ...Which is rather appropriate since I expect Magus is about to trounce him.

He's free! After all these years, Magus is free!