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Tom Sewell

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29 minutes ago, Scotty said:

The only instance of -Canadian that I'm aware of is French-Canadian. I am uncertain whether it's supposed to be belittling to Quebec residents though, Quebec's been very insistent on maintaining their cultural identity that it feels like we have to refer to them as French-Canadians.

I have a friend who is Danish-Canadian. Her father was Denmark's ambassador to Canada for many years.

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8 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

I have a friend who is Danish-Canadian. Her father was Denmark's ambassador to Canada for many years.

See, I can understand it being used to refer to dual citizenship. but African-Americans didn't just immigrate to America and French-Canadians didn't just move in from France, they've been there for generations.

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4 minutes ago, Scotty said:

See, I can understand it being used to refer to dual citizenship. but African-Americans didn't just immigrate to America and French-Canadians didn't just move in from France, they've been there for generations.

I guess that means I am actually an Indo-European-Dane. Some three thousand years ago my ancestors moved here, decided they liked the place and booted out the previous occupants for war crimes. 1

 

1The previous population committed the crime of going to war armed with flint and stone weapons against copper and bronze. As always, this was punished very seriously.

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18 hours ago, Scotty said:

See, I can understand it being used to refer to dual citizenship. but African-Americans didn't just immigrate to America and French-Canadians didn't just move in from France, they've been there for generations.

This is one reason why most African-Americans actually tend to prefer Black nowadays (At least, according to my black friends, the only people I feel comfortable around tip-toe-ingly asking their preference about it and thoughts on it).

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Hmm, I had thought that the term "African-American" was mainly pushed by people who wanted to encourage them to be more aware of their pre-slavery ancestral cultural roots.

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I read (part of) a great series set in New Orleans just after it had become a possession of the United States.  The first book is A Free Man of Color.  Back then, "black" meant someone who was pure African, and "coloured" meant someone of mixed race,  They had terms for all sorts of finer distinctions within the category of "coloured."  The main character is three-quarters black, one-quarter white, while his half-sister is three-quarters white, and it makes a huge difference in their standing and prospects.  Benjamin January moved to Europe and trained as a physician and surgeon, but when his wife dies he moves back to New Orleans to be with family, and can only find work as a musician despite his skills and training.  It's a fascinating setting, and from what I've read in reviews, it's very well-researched and historically accurate.  It really makes you think about how terms for race, and attitudes about race, have changed through the years.

Nowadays, thanks to bad associations with Jim Crow, you almost never see the term "colored" even though by the old terminology that's probably the vast majority here in the states.  (I think the NAACP is the only place I can think of that's still used, just like the United Negro College Fund hasn't changed its name as the preferred terms changed.)

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On 8/6/2016 at 11:14 AM, Tom Sewell said:

Why didn't "magic itself" come down on Jerry for providing all women with  the potential for summoning hammers?

Perhaps because it's just one thing and knowing about it doesn't really give much indication that there are other spells/other ways to get magic, or much information about how other aspects of magic work (like awakening and magic marks and such)?  (Especially if Jerry powering the hammers meant that using hammers didn't build up energy that could be used for awakening.)

On 8/6/2016 at 11:14 AM, Tom Sewell said:

Would you be willing to donate to the Fund for Nameless EGS Minor Characters? I mean, Ronin, Theater Clerk

How about "Theodore Clark"?

Re: Evil Monkey American: Regardless of whether African-American etc. are good terms to use/make sense/etc., I think that's probably what he was referencing.  In any case, he seems to be following the letter of the law regarding political correctness, and either not understanding well or not caring about the reasoning behind it (he knows one should accept gay people, but doesn't think about why it might be a bad idea to basically say "I accept you being gay" publicly to someone who either isn't gay or isn't out about it), so even if the term African-American isn't preferred it would still be in-character for him to use it.

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11 hours ago, chridd said:

Re: Evil Monkey American: Regardless of whether African-American etc. are good terms to use/make sense/etc., I think that's probably what he was referencing.  In any case, he seems to be following the letter of the law regarding political correctness, and either not understanding well or not caring about the reasoning behind it (he knows one should accept gay people, but doesn't think about why it might be a bad idea to basically say "I accept you being gay" publicly to someone who either isn't gay or isn't out about it), so even if the term African-American isn't preferred it would still be in-character for him to use it.

He was actually highly politically incorrect. He assumed that it was evil just because it looked evil to him. Bad!

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17 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

He was actually highly politically incorrect. He assumed that it was evil just because it looked evil to him. Bad!

Wasn't it trying to attack someone innocent at the time?

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4 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

Not at that moment. All it did was run into view. Admittedly it jumped at Tony the moment after, but 'Ronin' was still jumping the gun.

Ah, fair. I had the order of operations mixed up.

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Taking a break from questions about how Susan and Sarah are/are not related:

How old are Edward and Noriko?

I think everyone is assuming that they would be in their mid to late 40s or even 50s now, but they could just as easily be about the same age as Elliot's mother. I think it's somewhat more believable that Noriko left her child behind as a younger woman than a more mature woman who might well have had some difficulty in having a child at all. And we do know that Noriko has at least one other child, a vote in the favor of the greater fertility that goes with comparative youth. And it would also fit in with the warning Tedd gets from his dad about going too far too soon with Grace. 

How is Tedd the grand-godson of Pandora?

This could mean Pandora is (or considers herself to be) the godmother of one or both of Tedd's parents., or that Adrian is the godfather of Tedd.

Does Edward already know who and what Pandora is?

In the very first appearance of Pandora, Edward knows she's an Immortal. Wolf and Cranium were both with him; neither could detect her magic. But it seems that Edward could.

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54 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

How is Tedd the grand-godson of Pandora?

Edward and Noriko (and possibly Nanase's mother) were all trained by Adrian.  That is what brought Edward and Noriko together.  I think we generally thought that was why they named Adrian as the Godfather of Tedd.  Of course, by Adrian's own admission it what his at least partly his fault that Noriko's magic work drove them apart.  So Adrian has not been on friendly terms with Edward since then.  Tedd knows of Professor Raven, and perhaps even knows that his father once worked with him.  But I don't know how much Tedd knows about how close his parents were to Adrian.

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4 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

In the very first appearance of Pandora, Edward knows she's an Immortal. Wolf and Cranium were both with him; neither could detect her magic. But it seems that Edward could.

Edward likely couldn't detect her magic and that's what gave away the fact she's Immortal, Adrian had also mentioned that it would be a bad idea for an immortal to pose as someone known to be a powerful wizard in front of someone who could detect magic potency. Supposedly everyone has some magic energy and could potentially awaken and use magic, so a distinct lack of detectable magic energy would suggest something else.

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How many pairs of sisters could Sister III feature?

  1. Elliot and Ellen (front of the title page)
  2. Susan and Diane (third row of the title page, behind Magus, in front of Pandora)
  3. Nanase's mom and Tedd's Mom
  4. Sarah and Carol
  5. Diane and Rhea
  6. Nanase and Akiko
  7. Mrs. Pompoms and her so-far unseen, unnamed sister

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4 hours ago, Scotty said:

Edward likely couldn't detect her magic and that's what gave away the fact she's Immortal, Adrian had also mentioned that it would be a bad idea for an immortal to pose as someone known to be a powerful wizard in front of someone who could detect magic potency. Supposedly everyone has some magic energy and could potentially awaken and use magic, so a distinct lack of detectable magic energy would suggest something else.

It may be that an Immortal's magical aura is SO undetectable that they look like a magical "void" (i.e. a space where there is too LOW a magic level to possibly be a living humanoid). Scanning for magic and coming across an Immortal would thus be kind of like viewing the scene in thermal-band infrared and seeing that she has NO body heat.

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6 hours ago, ijuin said:

It may be that an Immortal's magical aura is SO undetectable that they look like a magical "void" (i.e. a space where there is too LOW a magic level to possibly be a living humanoid). Scanning for magic and coming across an Immortal would thus be kind of like viewing the scene in thermal-band infrared and seeing that she has NO body heat.

Exactly.

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13 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

How many pairs of sisters could Sister III feature?

Maybe Tedd's sister? He does have at least one sibling.

Also (especially if we get a visit from Lord Tedd & company) Nioi and Kaoli.

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14 hours ago, Scotty said:

Edward likely couldn't detect her magic and that's what gave away the fact she's Immortal, Adrian had also mentioned that it would be a bad idea for an immortal to pose as someone known to be a powerful wizard in front of someone who could detect magic potency.

That's not quite what Adrian said: 

An Immortal whose magic power cannot be sensed...

If Adrian had meant that all Immortals have magic powers that can't be detected by mortals who can detect magical potency, I think he would have used "Immortals" rather than "An Immortal." He could mean that his mother is the only Immortal he knows of who has that level of magical stealth. And that might support the that Edward knew it was Pandora when the egg dropped. Since Edward was once very close to Adrian, it's a reasonable conjecture that he met Pandora at least once before.

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2 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

That's not quite what Adrian said: 

An Immortal whose magic power cannot be sensed...

If Adrian had meant that all Immortals have magic powers that can't be detected by mortals who can detect magical potency, I think he would have used "Immortals" rather than "An Immortal." He could mean that his mother is the only Immortal he knows of who has that level of magical stealth. And that might support the that Edward knew it was Pandora when the egg dropped. Since Edward was once very close to Adrian, it's a reasonable conjecture that he met Pandora at least once before.

Adrian didn't even know that the Wolf impersonator was his mother until she said his name. Adrian would have seen "Wolf" walk in and think "Wolf was already here, so who...." in which case he would then do his magic sense thing and determine that they were an Immortal.

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16 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

And Pandora herself has confirmed that several immortals could be in close proximity and none of them would know about the others unless one or more chose to be visible.

But she didn't say that other immortals would be invisible to her. The promise she made to Disco Wizard suggests that she can see other Immortals when she looks for them, and Jerry's remarks about Immortal fights suggests she's not the only one who can do so. 

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1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:

But she didn't say that other immortals would be invisible to her. The promise she made to Disco Wizard suggests that she can see other Immortals when she looks for them, and Jerry's remarks about Immortal fights suggests she's not the only one who can do so. 

What Pandora said doesn't necessarily mean finding the Immortal (Voltaire) responsible would be as easy as just looking for their magic signature, she likely intends to draw him out by other means, heck Voltaire telling Sirleck about Adrian could be his attempt to get Pandora to show herself.

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