EmpactWB

That is a fantastic metaphor for the internet. 

MRW I finish reading this comic

Panel 1: A plan. To deal with a creature that can't be seen. That, as far as they know, could have up to two centuries of experience. That has incredible magical power. You have a plan for that.
Well, it is Tedd's dad. Let's hear it.
Panel 2: Eh? ...does this mean no exposition?
Panel 3: VOLTAIRE!
You weren't the one to deal with Dex. Dex was handled by Pandora (the pithos amulet was a big clue). What's your angle? We know you're a lying liar who lies. What are you playing at?
[Edit] Then again, I'm not entirely sure we do know who set Dex up. Maybe Pandora did the marking--it fits her MO--but the amulet mind-control thing could've been Voltaire trying to frame her or something. I'm not entirely sure. I might need to reread that arc. [/Edit]
Edward is not amused. He was ready to go into so much exposition. He had charts ready and everything.
I'd describe Elliot's reaction as... nonplussed, is the first word that comes to mind. It's the eyebrows, really. Everyone else is shocked or angry. Elliot is nonplussed.

I was expecting Pandora or Les Immortels to intrude on Edward's war council.
If the Cheshire Fried Colonel believed that Dame Tara could not harm him, I doubt he feels intimidated by anyone in the current peanut gallery.
Although it potentially could be equivalent to an armed person shouting threats as they enter a doughnut shop.

How so?  "Grok" comes from Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, not Trek.

Didn't you pay attention in orientation?  That trick doesn't work.
 

http://www.egscomics.com/?id=2250
Ummm.....
Did anyone see this coming?
I didn't....

The lack of draft animals also contributed to the fact that they never developed the wheel*, as without draft animals to pull them there would not be much point to wheel carts. As a result many of the other things that are built on wheels never came into fruition as well.
 
*The exception to this was the Incas but due to their mountainous terrain they were mainly used in children's toy's

Magic itself seems to be very accomodating, rather eager-to-please.  Nanase is keeping secrets, so Magic gives her sneaky type spells.  Elliot isn't happy with having to turn into a girl, so Magic keeps making the girl-forms cooler and cooler, all the way up to genuine superpowers, trying to make him happy.  Susan was the "Hammer Queen" so when the general women-hammering-sexists spell disappears, the first spell she gets is to give her back the hammers; when she winds up using her fairydoll spell much more often, Magic expands on it for her.
It's possible that Magic interacts with individuals in a more simplistic or automatic way, a sort of autopilot that may even sometimes be contrary to the interests of the overall, more intellectual Will Of Magic.  A superheroine isn't exactly discreet, nor is a swarm of fairydolls.

On Soft Magic, Hard Magic, and the Will of Magic, it seems in EGS that the main limiting factor (aside from the availability of an appropriate spell) is one of energy--it apparently costs more energy to make more changes. Minor cosmetic things such as Nanase's hair change (or most self-transformations that leave the transformee still a baseline human) are low in energy cost, while stuff that actually grants high power (e.g. Nanase's Guardian spell) consume a huge amount of power. Sarah's spell apparently consumes so much power not because of the "impossibility" of it (since the scenes play out in her brain, it's just an illusion), but rather in the "information gathering" part of it (the energy is expended due to the spell having to collect an accurate "snapshot" of the surrounding space--at minimum a house-sized space, but Pandora implied that she may be able to simulate much larger spaces with practice).

I'm just relieved that Pandora doesn't want to "destroy the world" with Magic anymore, that could have the potential of releasing the eight legendary dragons.

That doesn't mean Dan can't make use of old plot points in creative ways. Remember how Diane revealed she knew Nanase had magic?

I actually think EGS is more middle ground with maybe a bit of a lean towards hard magic. Dan has developed magic in the EGS world to have no known limits to what someone can do with it, except of course time travel. This may seem like Soft Magic at first, expecially when you get the whole Will of Magic involved, but Will of Magic would also imply Hard Magic in that the Will has set up rules for how the system works, how people can learn and use it, the whole spells that fit the personality bit, and the fact that it all can change at any moment. There's also the fact the the way it's structured is much like science considering Tedd's role in the comic, as Nanase said, the laws of physics are more like polite suggestions, there may be flexibility to most spells but I've argued with people in these forums over how flexible and there have been many occasions where some spell theories just seem too overpowered to me, Soft Magic would be like  "Sure that can happen." while Hard Magic would say "Only someone who's spent years using that spell might be able to do it." the middle ground would be "If the Will of Magic happens to favour it.

The whole Will of Magic could be seen as giving a false sense of Soft Magic as well with the fact that if doesn't want to be mainstream, keeping the number of people who can use magic limited maintains that sense of fantasy to those that get a brief glimpse of it, while those in the know treat it like a science.
 

That's my feeling from the spider vampire as well.
But the point is that vampires in EGS evidently can be very different - in fact, them being aberrations is likely only characteristic ALL have in common.
On one hand, Jerry clearly said that there are people in France who would be better to deal with the vampire.
On the other, they likely never actually SAID that Susan and Nanase are only one who can do it. Even Susan when recollecting it said "They made us feel like we had to kill it", not "they said we had to kill it".
Of course, it's not really important if they actually SAID some lie. Important is what motivation they had for using Nanase and Susan and if what happened was according to their plan or if something went wrong (possibly ending with their reset) and it wasn't supposed to be that bad. It would be hard to justify what they did, but not impossible.
.... aaaand note that him killing victims would be true even if he only killed like one in five.

Yes. As a writer, Dan can do anything he want with his story - but not free of consequences. There are rules which he CAN break, but would alienate lot of readers by it. Sandersons first law would be relatively weak one - the most important rules deal with internal consistency. And considering magic in EGS is pretty "hard" based on Sanderson's definition, there is already lot of stuff Dan needs to be careful with. Double so considering some of those were established years ago, by considerably younger Dan.
I suspect it will be on case-by-case basis actually. No cybernetic arm is as much cohesive unit as normal arm, it can be taken apart with some tools, but I would still agree that if you need half hour with screwdriver and wrench to disconnect it - and if you rarely actually do it - it counts as part of body. On the other hand, I wouldn't expect you can grow whole mecha just because you are connected to it with cables in your spine.
Unfortunately, we are unlikely to see mechas or advanced cybernetics in EGS anytime soon, so we may never know ...

Yup, there's growing evidence that the previous inhabitants of the Americas were far, far more numerous, sophisticated, and technological than they've been given credit for.  The travelers on the Mayflower found a deserted town and carefully managed orchards waiting for them, left behind when all but one of the inhabitants dies in a plague which had swept the coast.  Europeans remarked on how easily they could move through the forests, never considering that it was because they weren't wild places, but closer to orchards and parks.  Even Lewis and Clark found that devastating plagues had beaten them to most of the places they explored.  (The linked article is long, but worth it!)

And we still don't have solid proof that they lied either. It's still all hearsay and assumptions, and it's worse because the two don't fully remember what happened.

The charm spell was to lure victims to a secluded spot for killing, trying to convince a possible victim to follow them would be much more difficult without such a spell.
Also, it's possible some vampires don't stop at blood when feeding. And maybe they have spells for hiding the remains.

Obviously, they should've prepared some SHORTER rituals. Wasn't something like this on evil overlord list?

Rise in number of missing persons might be noticed but without immediately realizing the reason. Victims would have little common etc. (Assuming they don't find the blood drained corpse of course.)
Also, she only needed to be RELATIVELY quick - meaning, quicker than the vampire in searching for food. And considering the vampires were under orders to keep low profile, they might be not THAT fast.
Also, even blood-suckers might not necessary kill their target. If we look at the vampire in France specially, he was hypnotizing his targets ... it's possible that normally he let them alive. Hypnosis combined with correct choice of targets would make him harder to notice than if he killed them. Of course, he wanted to kill Susan because he perceived her as thread.
Note that it's possible vampires are most common aberrations - at least on griffin's half of world.

Catalina: "Ready to find out if you are Rhoda."
Rhoda: "Ok. First you, then your shirt, your pants, lift up your shirt so I can get your bra"
Catalina: "Not wearing one."
Rhoda: "Okay...then let me...."
Catalina: "Not wearing underwear either."
Rhoda: "You were hoping I'd do this weren't you?"
Catalina: "Mmmmmaybe?"

I used to think so too, but then I noticed Abner using the same phrase that Dex was muttering right before blasting at Noah, Dex's "now" questions seemed to count down to Elliot and Grace showing up, the bulldog dragon isolated Elliot, blasted into traffic on command causing Elliot to have to block instead of dodge, and then moved to finish Elliot until Melissa stepped in. Killing Dex might not have been the original plan, just an effort to cover up Voltaire's involvement when he couldn't finish Elliot. The pithos might have been a message to Pandora, perhaps signifying that this was the hope of the world rather than what she's attempting.
I'm not sold on this theory, mind. It has a lot of holes due to lacking information on what Voltaire was up to at the time and how long he's been against Pandora.
That same comic implies that the same person who gave him the pendant was the one controlling him, though, and while it's difficult to be certain, I think you can see the top of the mark when Dex puts on the pendant in panel 2. Also, he noticed the mark Friday and summoned his fairy on Saturday, but it wasn't until Tuesday when he summoned the fire guy that we see any evidence that he had the pendant. We see in Legends of Celida that Tedd already has multi-function watches, so I would think he's probably been working on them for more than the twenty-odd days since the attack. (Admittedly, I can only confirm a minimum of ten days between him saying he's making sense of magic and using that watch. I thought it was nine, but then I noticed panel 3 would fall on a Saturday if it was successive days, so the book bag means there has to be at least one day skipped.) Plus Raven didn't think it was crazy enough to be her, and if there's anyone who should know... Yeah, the more I think about it, the less certain I am of Pandora being the one behind the pendant.

It's not about putting him in danger. It's about pulling him out of it. Or possibly failing to, if, instead of using all resources they have, he will keep secret from Verres.
And note that it doesn't even need to make logical sense for him to feel that way.
Seems most likely now, yes.
Remember that Elliot ALSO used his Cheerleadra spell first time there. Well, not counting when he casted it while sleeping, IF it was cheerleadra spell and not just normal girl transformation spell with same look.
Cheerleadra would likely be able to defeat the fire golem herself, but it WOULD be possible Voltaire tried attack Elliot hoping he'll fail to transform. Especially if he's not really as old as Pandora and is worse at predicting.

I used to think so too, but then I noticed Abner using the same phrase that Dex was muttering right before blasting at Noah, Dex's "now" questions seemed to count down to Elliot and Grace showing up, the bulldog dragon isolated Elliot, blasted into traffic on command causing Elliot to have to block instead of dodge, and then moved to finish Elliot until Melissa stepped in. Killing Dex might not have been the original plan, just an effort to cover up Voltaire's involvement when he couldn't finish Elliot. The pithos might have been a message to Pandora, perhaps signifying that this was the hope of the world rather than what she's attempting.
I'm not sold on this theory, mind. It has a lot of holes due to lacking information on what Voltaire was up to at the time and how long he's been against Pandora.
That same comic implies that the same person who gave him the pendant was the one controlling him, though, and while it's difficult to be certain, I think you can see the top of the mark when Dex puts on the pendant in panel 2. Also, he noticed the mark Friday and summoned his fairy on Saturday, but it wasn't until Tuesday when he summoned the fire guy that we see any evidence that he had the pendant. We see in Legends of Celida that Tedd already has multi-function watches, so I would think he's probably been working on them for more than the twenty-odd days since the attack. (Admittedly, I can only confirm a minimum of ten days between him saying he's making sense of magic and using that watch. I thought it was nine, but then I noticed panel 3 would fall on a Saturday if it was successive days, so the book bag means there has to be at least one day skipped.) Plus Raven didn't think it was crazy enough to be her, and if there's anyone who should know... Yeah, the more I think about it, the less certain I am of Pandora being the one behind the pendant.

That's probably stretching things. Considering how Tedd was feeling when Grace and Elliot returned from The Nest, this is actually technically the 5th time Elliot's life was in danger, the first time was the second goo fight and while technically that was Ellen that fought the goo, the goo's objective at that point was to kill Elliot. The second time was The Nest, things could have gone badly if he had managed to break the ropes and attempted to fight Damien. Third and fourth times were the fire golem at the comic shop and then the bulldog dragon, though the fire golem might have been just a test run. And then the fifth one being the incident at the mall, and only the mall incident was after Tedd was marked so I dunno how he'd blame the mark for putting Elliot in danger.
 
On the note of the first fire golem attack, while Pandora was the likely one that marked Dex, Voltaire would have provided the pendant, and to make sure it worked properly just had Dex summon 1 fire golem outside the comic shop, Voltaire likely didn't expect to kill Elliot with it and maybe didn't expect Justin to use his mark spell, or maybe he did and it didn't matter for the fact that it was just a test run, the next attack at the dojo with more fire golems and the bulldog dragon was the real attempt.