The Old Hack

Yeah. This topic has come up before. Take Marco Polo, for example. He really meant to go to Madrid but he got turned around and before he knew it he was in China. And then there was Lewis and Clark. They just wanted a short trip to New York but then they took a 'short cut' because they wanted to dodge the New Jersey turnpike. And Columbus, man, Columbus. He was the worst of them all. He wanted to go to India and dude ended up in the Caribbean.

And they fell for it, too. Suckers deserved it. Look, that was all just a big misunderstanding. Sauron actually wanted to occupy the lands to the far south but he got the map turned upside down. It was a mistake anyone could have made.

That was their own fault. Remember, they totally abducted the guy and hauled him there. If it had been me, I'd have done the exact same thing. Weak organisation. Typical of CEOs who try to do everything themselves. Also look at all the health hazards around Mount Doom. That place needed an OSHA overhaul if any place ever did.

'Lose' it? That is an interesting interpretation of having some Numenórian punk MUG YOU AND CUT IT OFF YOUR HAND. During a home invasion, no less. Some people. Okay, these are good points. That volcano was totally an unsafe work space. Also security was awful. Anyone could waltz right in. "The Eye of Sauron sees everything" my ass.

Technically, so was the One Ring. And then some hobbit vandals dumped it in an active volcano. Some people.

Technology is getting damn uppity. Even back when I was a kid I felt that clocks had too much power over our lives. Now they come right out and tell us to take a hike.

I really hope it is Ellen firing a beam and not... whatever Golem spotted in the box. Either way, I am worried.

Duh. We had to do something to occupy the breaks at half time.

It's because he is about to do a jump to the left and then a step to the right..

Take care of yourself, man, and feel better.

I guess they were still believing in that thing with the Space Nazis. It reminds me of that scene in Contact where the aliens seek to establish a bridge of communication and one of the first signals they send is a repeat of the very first TV transmission ever made on Earth.

http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=2491 Now I am worried.

SURELY a completely anime-obsessed and incredibly bored young Immortal with nothing better on her hands to do could have nothing to do with being inspired to GUIDE and EMPOWER a handsome looking human who was watching and rewatching one of the best and most unjustly cancelled anime shows for 168 hours straight.

"It's all rubbish." Lady Sybil sniffed. "Oh, it sounds nice, I'll grant you. Then they realize it means soot-burns, frizzled hair and crap all down their back. Those talons dig in, too. And then they think the thing's getting too big and smelly and next thing you know it's either down to the Morpork Sunshine Sanctuary for Lost Dragons or the old heave-ho into the river with a rope round their neck, poor little buggers." -- Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

Also the dragon we see in the background behind Pandora might be only a handful of yards away from her and be no bigger than a pony. That would make it easier for it to hide.

So maybe they are progressive. Marriage as an institution has been ever-changing for a long time now.

Possibly, but not insoluble. It is entirely possible to have married couples that hate one another. You even see people united by a common hatred.

Well, as far as I know, Daleks do not routinely undertake a vow of celibacy.

He married into the family.

You are assuming. You are assuming that these other ancient dragons were more powerful than modern weaponry is today. I see absolutely no reason why that assumption should be true. A dragon of a thousand years ago could have armouring much weaker than modern bullet resistant metals and still be impervious to most human weaponry. Plate armour of the fifteenth century gave such good protection against weaponry extant at the time that trained knights were quite difficult for common foot soldiers to kill. They most commonly died when pulled down by being surrounded, held down and stabbed through cracks in the armour. Indeed. Are you aware that when water is left in the open at temperatures above freezing, it will evaporate and turn into moisture or steam sooner or later? I assure you, that is equally relevant. That is to say, not at all. Yes. I do indeed. "I have absolutely no idea what I am talking about, but if I spout balderdash about a nonexistent baseline, perhaps no-one will notice." Thank you for your obtuse condescension, but I have seen it done better. Next argument, please. Indeed. And in literature in general, dragons range from unstoppable engines of death and destruction to small inoffensive swamp creatures that accidentally explode if they get a bad case of hiccups. We have no idea which if either extreme applies to EGS. *snicker* Yes it is. EGS is part of the published literary body, your denial notwithstanding. And ironically it is the BEST example we have for EGS because it is the ONLY example we have. You must really get rid of that odious habit of setting up a position that your discussion partner has never taken and then pretend it is his in a feeble attempt to make your opponent defend it. You may think it lends you an air of spurious cleverness. In truth, it only makes you appear the pathetic buffoon. Dragons could readily exist that were still bigger and more powerful than the bulldog dragon without being your astounding wet dream of monstrosities with armour plating to match or outperform that of modern battleships. And also I said nothing of numbers. Even the bulldog dragon type would be a considerable threat if it came in swarms numbering dozens or hundreds. Or more. You also assume that all people in Magus' home universe have his or nearly his power level -- a tall assumption. He is in a battle mage school. Even assuming that a battle mage is a common soldier in that world, that would limit their numbers to a quite small percentage of the population. We know that the Terra of his world is more powerful than he is but she is the equivalent of Tedd whom we know has an impressive amount of power among users of magic. More, exactly because dragons are considered a threat, we know that the humanity are not the unfettered masters of their planet the way h. sapiens sapiens is of ours. They may have a smaller population. Creatures like dragons or related threat levels might make ressources less freely available than they are here. They rely on magic to a degree that may have hampered the development of technology. I note that for all his bragging about power, Magus has not made one boast of his world's technology. And if they in fact had weaponry to match ours, why even the battle mages? No. I have something against poor reasoning and ill faith arguments. I suggest you work on both of these areas, you have a lamentable tendency to stumble into both of them in a desperate attempt to retain dominance of a discussion.

The Moderator: Making claims about the quality of candidates is solidly in the territory of politics. Kindly desist from this topic or I shall have to lock the thread. ~tOH.

Armour has a tendency to be as heavy as needed to protect its wearer. It has to do with practicality among other things. A thousand years ago mankind possessed few weapons even approaching the penetrative and destructive power of even common armour piercing bullets. A dragon that was all but invulnerable then might be far less so today. I give as an example the demon from season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that was so powerful that it took armies to bring it down. Two thousand years ago, that is. Buffy brought it down quite nicely with a common rocket launcher. And even magic has limits. If "make yourself invulnerable to mortal weapons" was a common spell, that handgun would not have represented a threat to Raven in the mall. Don't fall so in love with magically invulnerable beings that you start to attribute protection levels that strain suspension of disbelief levels established for the world in question. Please give a baseline for the typical dragon in the EGS-verse and give links to your sources.

Thank God.

I disagree. You are comparing them to WW1 Ack-Ack which was notoriously imprecise and did not have that heavy a weight of fire. Already in WW2, anti-aircraft weaponry fired MUCH faster and more accurately, too. Gatlings fire even faster and with tracers you can practically draw lines in the air. With a firing rate of about 6000 rounds a minute AND HOLY BOLLOCKING HELL IS THAT FAST, YOU READ IT RIGHT, ONE HUNDRED BULLETS GET SENT FLYING EVERY SECOND, anything that isn't ludicrously heavily armoured for a flying object gets ripped absolutely to shreds if the Gatling manages to keep its line on it for any length of time. Compare this to Colonel Gatling's original design which fired a 'mere' 200 rounds a minute, and, well... Also that is assuming an airborne and evading dragon, which still fits my profile of 'leery of showing itself.' Something openly attacking near the ground (like the bulldog dragon) would get completely cheesed1 by a Gatling. 1 As Sir Terry Pratchett put it, 'cheesed' is like 'creamed', only it takes longer.

Please. It is really poor taste to celebrate a person's victory over diabetes by eating junk food. :/