Darth Fluffy

Expressing my actual opinion of him would take me weeks or months and would end up looking something like 'The Oxford Dictionary of Obscenities and Vulgar Expressions'.

Load of nonsense. After all, IBM themselves said that some stupid device for making copies of written material would never be of any use in office work.

You set your lake on fire once, and nobody lets you live it down ...
 

This, for me, is the crux of the matter.  What would we want someone who has done something terrible to do?  Should they dress in sackcloth or a scarlet letter, and never ever be a part of society again?  Should they kill themselves because they can never, ever make up for their error?  Or should they change, stop doing the terrible thing, sincerely apologize to those they have harmed, and resolve to do better, to become a force for good instead of evil?  And if they can make that change in themselves, shouldn't we encourage that, instead of continuing to vilify them just as hard as if they had never changed at all?

I do.
The green variant was the killing one.
The red one was the one which would do something absurd like turning him into a monkey, making him bald, turning him into a girl... anything the plot demanded.
The white variant killed plants. Any and all plants, earth ones included.
The gold variant would permanently remove all superpowers from Kryptonians.
Finally, there was a blue kind which only affected Bizarro doubles of Superman, for some reason.
These were the kinds I remember from silver age comics. They mostly got done away with after Crisis on Infinite Earths. They experimented a bit with a 90s variant, but for some reason it didn't make him snarl, distort him anatomically and cover him with pouches.

Much agree.

 I would argue there was ignorance on Diane's part as well, but you're right that the important difference is Elliot never trying to be hurtful or even just negative ; Diane was.
On the other hand, yes, he didn't went out of her way for that. Most likely, it wasn't literally only case where she shown this opinion, but she basically only shared it with Justin when asked.
Well, NOW it doesn't work, but it was nice idea originally: It was a challenge to hit you as they would hit an equal, instead of hitting you as a social inferior.
As someone who read Amber I have it simpler and harder at same time
But yes, we seem to make such sharp distinction between what is "real" and what is "fictional", but the difference is nowhere near as big as we claim. Lot of "fictional" people are more real to us than some people in Africa we share planet with ...
More relevant to the discussion is the fact that Diane will never hear about your opinion of her. At least not in continuity ... it would be easy to write fanfic where Scale, established character with access to our world internet AND device allowing her to visit any comic, would tell her. (I'm not even sure if it would be the stupidest idea for fanfic ever written.)
I would label it naive. She's naive when she thinks she can leave the supernatural world ... now when she was there, she will become part of it.

No, earlier I mentioned that I was bullied throughout school by someone named Justin, to the point where the name is a reminder and I have to tell myself that not all Justins are like that, Tony is more representative of the Justin I knew. I guess I was more in Tedd's position, but not exactly.
I've had similar experiences as well, but I haven't seen Justin since highschool, I've seen his mother around, heck his grandmother lives a couple of apartments down from me and his cousin stops by from time to time to help her with things, I guess there could be a number of reasons he's not in the area, I haven't thought the need to ask.
Oh of course, Diane certainly stuck her foot in her mouth there.
I'm pretty certain that's why I enjoy it as well, many times I've wished that people could stop treating others like crap just because they look different or have different interests or preferences or whatever. EGS helps keep that hope alive.

 
I do not recall what prompted it, but I've been thinking about this lately. What is existence? Can you say that a fictional character, such as Diane exists? My take on it is that in some sense she must, else why are we able to discuss her. She exists in Dan's mind, who is using his vision of her personality to write her into his comic, and she exists in his community of fans; she even has a few works of prose on the web describing her.
Yet clearly, she does not exist in the same sense as a real person. Your forgiveness/unforgiveness can affect your neighbor. It will never matter to Diane.
My dad passed away a number of years ago. Is he a real person? He obviously was a real person, he's not fictitious, but today he shares many characteristics with web comic characters. He, like Lincoln, Napoleon, or Guy Fawkes, exists primarily as a memory, or as a legend. My youngest kids barely remember him.
What about my hypothetical descendants? Do they exist? They will exist (presumably I'll have at least some more), So it seems they are also not merely fictitious, but they have only a potential existence at this point.
Even among fictitious characters, there seems to be a hierarchy of realness; how fleshed out the character is, how well presented, how memorable. "Is often discussed" seems to be an observable aspect of this, or "Is often reused", like Sherlock Holmes. Actually, since a character can be viewed as property, it has a legal existence.
You could also make a case for people, as personalities, only exist in their own and other people's heads. To be fair, you could record details in a notebook, you could create a fictional character with perceived similar characteristics, and that personality will play out through the actions of that person's body to affect the physical world around them, but in a very real sense, the actual person is the neural software running on the meat based computer.
 
 
Heh, I get what you are saying. I like and subscribe to the turn the other cheek philosophy, I have seen situations defuse by one party taking it upon themselves to not pursue a conflict, and it seems healthier. But there does seem to be times when you pretty much have to stand up to the bully and let him know you won't back down. <shrug> I'm no oracle, with an infallible sense of right and wrong. I think for me, sometimes missing a third option has been more of an issue.
 
 

And, of course, I did a thing:

It certainly does. If the aircraft were designed without an engine, in other words, a glider, gravity is providing the forward motion needed to produce lift. When engines fail, all airplanes become gliders; though some are better at it than others. (Some, you d@#% well better bail out of.) The space shuttles landed as gliders, although not very good ones, more like controlled falling.

I feel the same way about the dizziness in this EGS comic. It really doesn't seem to fit. Sigh, indeed.
On the other hand, "I haven't figured out how to land properly" is funny, and makes some sense; also it's not like she can't, she just needs to work on it.
 

... and now I'm hearing "Dueling Grand Cathedral Organs" in my head; thanks.
 

... and now I'm hearing "Dueling Grand Cathedral Organs" in my head; thanks.
 

Appreciated. Thank you.

More like deflecting, but if you're having a bad day, I'll give you space.

... and there are still some "blue laws" restricting alcohol sale on Sundays, though those are falling by the wayside.
 

It has varied; I think it may be 21 everywhere now. I don't know if that's a federal override, but when I was 19, it was per state, and we used to walk from Pa to NJ (short walk) where we could legally drink. Perhaps someone closer to the age it would matter might know.
My parents used to let me have a little bit of wine on special occasions like holiday dinners, always in the privacy of the home. Even at a very young age, it was not enough to get drunk on. The legality never occurred to me at the time, I thought it was normal, but I don't know; I'm pretty sure our authorities would flip out today.
 

True.

Re: Nanase jealous or whatever, I'm going to go with it's exactly what Nanase said, she doesn't understand how someone could not be demanding answers. Diane made sense to her, Ashley doesn't. But in her own way, Diane was more blasé, dismissive, skeptical. Ashley has embraced what she's seen, even proved useful, although the Sirleck experience seems to have overwhelmed her. I think Grace nailed it, Ashley is genre savvy.
 

Because the movie would have sucked?

It's not  core requirement in US high schools. You probably won't see is as a for-credit course here until you hit it in a Political Science or Law program later.
 

If you consider a "date" as getting acquainted, I suppose they've been on fast forward.
Elliot's response fits, in-universe. In real life I would say, "Elliot you need more grounding. You've seen each other in exceptional circumstances, see if you still like each other with some normal dates under your belt." Not to say that people can't ever bond quickly, but it tends to work better if they're older and know themselves; and it has been pointed out that Elliot is weak in introspection. Ashley seems a little better at it, but she has little experience with dating, and Nanase's concerns, "Seriously? No questions?" may reflect perceiving immaturity in Ashley. To be fair, Elliot's recent showing initiative may reflect overall maturing in his character over the last school year.
Eh, <shrug>, I'm sure it will work out within their setting.
Another question is, "Where are they carrying all the shoes they keep dropping?" I'm waiting for Wednesday for yet another shoe to drop. Must be what the backpacks are for.