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hkmaly

Q&A / Story Monday, Apr 8, 2019

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http://egscomics.com/comic/qa8-13

... also, Dan mentioned on twitter that this will be last week of Q&A.

... somehow, I think my questions will not get addressed ...

But back to comics. I think Dan already mentioned Susan's sexuality is autobiographical? On one hand, it means she may not be ace. On the other, it doesn't exactly look good for her threesome with Elliot. Or Catalina. Or both. She probably will be just looking ...

Also, of course Dan has sinister political agenda.

George Orwell said:

The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.

... but specifically the bit about trans people "getting it on" transformation seems quite logical. Although I still in first place think it's weird that magic is super safe but can't be used for healing.

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7 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Although I still in first place think it's weird that magic is super safe but can't be used for healing.

I believe it's just transformation that can't be used for healing, and the main reason is for story balance (in particular to prevent the TFG from being over powered). (At least that's how I remember it being explained.)

Also, if magic/tf could be used for healing, it would make the Masquerade even more undesirable, and would make me wonder why magic users didn't at least try to pass magical healing off as a form of non-magical healthcare during the period where they had to put up with Magic's desire for secrecy. Healing magic/tf would also mean that once the Masqurade is ended, the world would be even less like our own than it would be just from adding in the types of magic already seen in EGS.

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6 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Although I still in first place think it's weird that magic is super safe but can't be used for healing.

Pandora said she could have given Ashley a spell that let her heal very small scratches, who knows how powerful that could have gotten if Ashley had awakened with it.

 

It's also possible that older magic systems had healing spells and enchantments that work differently. Don't know if we'll see any of those though.

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Yes, it was definitely just transformations that couldn't be used for healing.  If you have wrinkles at 45, and transform to a saved pattern of yourself at eighteen, no more wrinkles.  If you have a gash in your leg, and you transform into that 18-year-old self, then you become a teenager with a gash in her leg, and possibly a worse one.  Chop off a hand, and you can't just grow it back by using a saved pattern of yourself from before your dismemberment.

I kinda hope her wand can detect and nurture that spark of healing ability.  This party could use a cleric, and there's absolutely no doubt what her alignment is....

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So the various characters in EGS represent different aspects of the author's personality or the personalities of other people the author has known?

Seriously though, this is part of why I find writing so difficult.  I can not imagine my way into another person's mind.  And I am terrified by what I find in my own head.

 

 

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Over on Scribophile there's a discussion of whether the characters are the author. I'd post a link but it's a members-only forum. (Of course, you can sign up to be a member.)

My own position on the subject is that a "yes" or "no" answer is wrong.

Clearly "yes" is wrong because every writer writes characters that are unlike themselves - true-crime novels are not normally written by the criminals they document; science-fiction stories are not written by people from other planets; fantasies are not written by thousand-year-old dragons; "furry" stories are not written by mice; males write female characters and vice versa; modern people use computers to write stories of stone-age cave-dwellers...

But "no" is also wrong because those characters come from inside the author's head. Even if they are writing a character who actually exists in the real world, what they write - beyond what's documented fact - must come from their internal image of that person. So in some sense and some degree that character-as-written is the author.

-----

Pharoah, the best way to get better at writing characters is to keep trying. Also read a lot - and every now and then stop and imagine being that character. Try to predict characters' reactions to stuff. For that matter, throw situations at them that are unlike anything in the story. The Emperor's five-year-old granddaughter has invited Darth Vader to share a tea party with her dolls... what does he do?

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7 hours ago, ChronosCat said:
15 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Although I still in first place think it's weird that magic is super safe but can't be used for healing.

I believe it's just transformation that can't be used for healing, and the main reason is for story balance (in particular to prevent the TFG from being over powered). (At least that's how I remember it being explained.)

Also, if magic/tf could be used for healing, it would make the Masquerade even more undesirable, and would make me wonder why magic users didn't at least try to pass magical healing off as a form of non-magical healthcare during the period where they had to put up with Magic's desire for secrecy. Healing magic/tf would also mean that once the Masqurade is ended, the world would be even less like our own than it would be just from adding in the types of magic already seen in EGS.

Yes, I remember that there is story balance reason for healing not working. But the in-universe reasoning is weak.

6 hours ago, Scotty said:
15 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Although I still in first place think it's weird that magic is super safe but can't be used for healing.

Pandora said she could have given Ashley a spell that let her heal very small scratches, who knows how powerful that could have gotten if Ashley had awakened with it.

... true.

6 hours ago, Scotty said:

It's also possible that older magic systems had healing spells and enchantments that work differently. Don't know if we'll see any of those though.

We know for sure that enchantments worked differently. So maybe healing used to be more useful ...

4 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Yes, it was definitely just transformations that couldn't be used for healing.  If you have wrinkles at 45, and transform to a saved pattern if yourself at eighteen, no more wrinkles.  If you have a gash in your leg, and you transform into that 18-year-old self, then you become a teenager with a gash in her leg, and possibly a worse one.  Chop off a hand, and you can't just grow it back by using a saved pattern of yourself from before your dismemberment.

Why not? In-universe reason ; the story balance one is obvious.

Sure, the standard TF gun forms alter existing body. But the clone forms make ANYONE look same. Why couldn't that be used to "regrow" hand? It can't be question of mass ; altering mass is not a problem, as proved by Grace transforming while standing on scales.

3 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

Clearly "yes" is wrong because every writer writes characters that are unlike themselves - true-crime novels are not normally written by the criminals they document; science-fiction stories are not written by people from other planets; fantasies are not written by thousand-year-old dragons; "furry" stories are not written by mice; males write female characters and vice versa; modern people use computers to write stories of stone-age cave-dwellers...

... your point is valid, but you are exaggerating ; lot of crime novels have the DETECTIVE as main character, science-fiction novels may have characters from Earth (Captain Kirk was born in Iowa ; he just WORKS in space) and Red Book of Westmarch was written by hobbits, not elves or dragons ... and males are often criticized for writing female characters incorrectly.

Most writers write characters which are not them, but the similarities are there.

3 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

But "no" is also wrong because those characters come from inside the author's head. Even if they are writing a character who actually exists in the real world, what they write - beyond what's documented fact - must come from their internal image of that person. So in some sense and some degree that character-as-written is the author.

Lot of authors describe their characters in way which could get them diagnosed with multi-personality disorder. That's not just internal image.

3 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

The Emperor's five-year-old granddaughter has invited Darth Vader to share a tea party with her dolls... what does he do?

Complain a lot, but in the end would do what Palpatine ordered.

Luckily for Anakin, Palpatine didn't have any daughters.

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21 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Seriously though, this is part of why I find writing so difficult.  I can not imagine my way into another person's mind.  And I am terrified by what I find in my own head.

Imagining what other people are thinking is an integral part of how I function on a day-to-day basis. If I can't make an educated guess what is going on in someone's head, I can't predict how they will act, which tends to make interacting with them quite stressful - sometimes downright scary.

21 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

Pharoah, the best way to get better at writing characters is to keep trying. Also read a lot - and every now and then stop and imagine being that character. Try to predict characters' reactions to stuff.

Often when I re-watched my favorite movies as a child, I would choose a character and then pay particular attention to their story, trying to keep track of what they knew at any point in the story and trying to figure out what they were thinking and what the motivations for their actions were. (When writing, I do the same thing. The only reason I don't do it with movies anymore is I don't re-watch them very often these days.)

Another thing I like to do is take a game or piece of fiction that is part of a larger franchise I'm familiar with, and try to imagine what someone not familiar with the franchise would think of it. (For instance, watching the first episode of classic Dr. Who as a fan, the first view of the TARDIS is a really cool moment. However, someone who knew nothing about the franchise probably would just wonder why there was a Police Box in a junkyard (and in this day and age, what a "Police Public Call Box" even is), and/or why the camera was focusing on it.)

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5 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Yes, I remember that there is story balance reason for healing not working. But the in-universe reasoning is weak.

My understanding of the in-universe reasoning is that, while small-scale healing like the kind that Pandora could have granted to Ashley is just a matter of accelerating the patient's own natural healing, major healing such as patching up major trauma or reversing organ failure is more like a kind of transformation--you are basically transforming the damaged tissue into an undamaged form. The problem arises when we realize that all transformations in the EGS world are reversible--the transformation-to-healthy could "wear off" if the patient ever runs out of energy to maintain the transformation (e.g. imagine somebody falls into a coma who had a previous transformation-healing, and due to being in the coma the transformation reverses). The patient might also unwittingly "will" the transformation to wear off during a period of intense suicidal thoughts . . .

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4 hours ago, ChronosCat said:
9 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Seriously though, this is part of why I find writing so difficult.  I can not imagine my way into another person's mind.  And I am terrified by what I find in my own head.

Imagining what other people are thinking is an integral part of how I function on a day-to-day basis. If I can't make an educated guess what is going on in someone's head, I can't predict how they will act, which tends to make interacting with them quite stressful - sometimes downright scary.

Yes, dealing with other people IS stressful.

18 minutes ago, ijuin said:
5 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Yes, I remember that there is story balance reason for healing not working. But the in-universe reasoning is weak.

My understanding of the in-universe reasoning is that, while small-scale healing like the kind that Pandora could have granted to Ashley is just a matter of accelerating the patient's own natural healing, major healing such as patching up major trauma or reversing organ failure is more like a kind of transformation--you are basically transforming the damaged tissue into an undamaged form. The problem arises when we realize that all transformations in the EGS world are reversible--the transformation-to-healthy could "wear off" if the patient ever runs out of energy to maintain the transformation (e.g. imagine somebody falls into a coma who had a previous transformation-healing, and due to being in the coma the transformation reverses). The patient might also unwittingly "will" the transformation to wear off during a period of intense suicidal thoughts . . .

Tedd has non-reversible transformation. But yes, it's true that enchantments are not ideal for long-term healing. They would still be useful short-term - like, patch the person with enchantment magic, get it to emergency department, end the enchantment. Or, enchant the organ to work until a donor is available for transplantation. Then there are infections: you may be able to enchant bacteria in way immune system will recognize and destroy them.

... and finally, when the alternative is death, you may not mind the cure being of temporary and fragile kind.

 

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Quite. Transformation in EGS could be used for a quick stopgap, but it's useless for a "transform the bad stuff away and not have to worry about it any more" approach.

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