NP Comic for Saturday, Mar 1, 2025

[Darth Fluffy 378]

NP Comic for Saturday, Mar 1, 2025

Panel 2: apparently eyes are capable of transforming in this universe. Adrian's have shrunk to pupil size, and Elliot's have become horizontal lines.

Definitely fantasy. A royal worried about being out of touch? Would never happen.

[mlooney 3,826]

5 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

NP Comic for Saturday, Mar 1, 2025

Panel 2: apparently eyes are capable of transforming in this universe. Adrian's have shrunk to pupil size, and Elliot's have become horizontal lines.

Definitely fantasy. A royal worried about being out of touch? Would never happen.

That being said, we are talking about Elliot here, even if it's an AU version of him.

[ijuin 611]

6 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

NP Comic for Saturday, Mar 1, 2025

Panel 2: apparently eyes are capable of transforming in this universe. Adrian's have shrunk to pupil size, and Elliot's have become horizontal lines.

For Elliot’s, I think that he has his eyes closed, and that the dark lines are just his upper and lower eyelashes overlapping.

[mlooney 3,826]

20 minutes ago, ijuin said:

For Elliot’s, I think that he has his eyes closed, and that the dark lines are just his upper and lower eyelashes overlapping.

Yeah, those are how DS draws closed eyes.

[Darth Fluffy 378]

Glad we're not straying into L'il Orphan Annie territory.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,668]

 

if Elliot wishes to be a Great monarch, he should worry.

But the Prince must remember the bar to clear as an effective monarch is rather low. 

Can you be in any way better than Charles I of England or Charles II of Spain? 

 

[Darth Fluffy 378]

2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

But the Prince must remember the bar to clear as an effective monarch is rather low.

It's the inbreeding, isn't it?

[mlooney 3,826]

4 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

It's the inbreeding, isn't it?

He comes from the House of Dunkel, not the House of Habsburg.

 

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,668]

 

Chuck 2 (Spain), inbred 

Chuck 1 (England), stubborn 

 

Edited March 2, 2025 by Pharaoh RutinTutin
Opps

[ijuin 611]

Chuck 3, incumbent.

[mlooney 3,826]

Given the history of English kings' named “Charles” I'm surprised he took that name. Maybe he thought, “3rd time's a charm”.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,668]

 

If the current monarch ascended to the throne as a younger man, I understand he was considering George VII.  

But in his 70s?  

Why bother? 

 

[mlooney 3,826]

As I understand it, one of his names in Arthur.  <google> Yeah, his full name is “Charles Philip Arthur George” He could have been King Arthur.  Would he have taken the II or not?

[Darth Fluffy 378]

7 hours ago, mlooney said:

He comes from the House of Dunkel, not the House of Habsburg.

Yes, but he comes from this fantasy royal family of Dunkel. Royalty marries royalty (Although, not in Cinderella), so gets inbred.

Inbreeding is weird. the odds of genetic defects if you marry a cousin are only about 2x someone not related. It's not terrible odds. But when you compound it over generations, the power of exponentiation kicks in, and you get 2ⁿx.

But isolated communities that are not initially related, but small in number can get inbreeding issues over time.

But it is not a rule. Many tribal cultures face this and still avoid the issues; it helps when they purposefully exchange young people to stir the genetic pot. Still, you have to wonder why very isolated cultures such as Inuit do not have more problems with this.

It is probably noteworthy that cheetahs are almost entirely a single genotype. Again, not a rule, I suppose. But it might be hard to argue that cheetahs are highly successful; in spite of their phenomenal spring speed, they are weak cats for their size and are frequently pushed away from their kills. The niche that saves them is they are valued as hunting companions for humans, which ensures those cheetahs get fed regularly.

 

[mlooney 3,826]

19 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

It is probably noteworthy that cheetahs are almost entirely a single genotype.

Cheetahs are also the most endangered of all the big cats, due, in part to their relative fragility.

[mlooney 3,826]

21 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Yes, but he comes from this fantasy royal family of Dunkel.

Yeah, but the House of Dunkel keeps having magical members.  Granted, they tend to be clones, which doesn't help the inbreeding factor, but it does keep the line alive.

[Darth Fluffy 378]

6 minutes ago, mlooney said:

Yeah, but the House of Dunkel keeps having magical members.  Granted, they tend to be clones, which doesn't help the inbreeding factor, but it does keep the line alive.

I would be surprised if Cinderella fantasy House of Dunkel includes Ellen. Magus's universe does not have both, so it appears uncommon even in EGS.

[ijuin 611]

1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

If the current monarch ascended to the throne as a younger man, I understand he was considering George VII.  

It looks like it is his grandson who will be George VII.

1 hour ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Yes, but he comes from this fantasy royal family of Dunkel. Royalty marries royalty (Although, not in Cinderella), so gets inbred.

It is implied that the women who were invited to the ball were of the background that would be considered for marrying into the royal family. In most versions of Cinderella, that is the Stepmother’s motive for disinheriting Cinderella—so that she can claim the inheritance for her own blood-daughters.

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

Cheetahs are also the most endangered of all the big cats, due, in part to their relative fragility.

They do say that cheetahs never prosper.

1 hour ago, Darth Fluffy said:

I would be surprised if Cinderella fantasy House of Dunkel includes Ellen. Magus's universe does not have both, so it appears uncommon even in EGS.

https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/cinder-022
We see here that Prince Elliot does have a sister, and it is implied that this is Princess Ellen in a relationship with Princess Nanase.

Hmm, it may also be that the houses of Dunkel and Kitsune are also Royal in the EGS Magical sense of royalty. And if other EGS relationships carry over here, then Cindertedd’s mother was the maternal aunt of Princess Nanase, which does indeed make Cindertedd be of a lineage suitable to marry the heir to the crown. Meanwhile, Sarah and Ashley would be fairly weak Mages, as in canon EGS.

[Darth Fluffy 378]

10 minutes ago, ijuin said:

It is implied that the women who were invited to the ball were of the background that would be considered for marrying into the royal family. In most versions of Cinderella, that is the Stepmother’s motive for disinheriting Cinderella—so that she can claim the inheritance for her own blood-daughters.

Becoming royal by marrying in is the goal, they aren't royal beforehand, at least in any Cinderella mythos I've ever been exposed to, with a Disney bias.

 

15 minutes ago, ijuin said:

https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/cinder-022
We see here that Prince Elliot does have a sister, and it is implied that this is Princess Ellen in a relationship with Princess Nanase.

Ah, good point, not spelled out, seemingly because it would entail a lengthy explanation that is not germane to the story. So, just a sister, for now.

 

16 minutes ago, ijuin said:

They do say that cheetahs never prosper.

Points!

 

[mlooney 3,826]

2 hours ago, ijuin said:

They do say that cheetahs never prosper.

/me  And that gets you a red star, smudged by a cat's paw print.

[Don Edwards 581]

On 3/2/2025 at 10:56 AM, Darth Fluffy said:

But isolated communities that are not initially related, but small in number can get inbreeding issues over time.

But it is not a rule. Many tribal cultures face this and still avoid the issues; it helps when they purposefully exchange young people to stir the genetic pot. Still, you have to wonder why very isolated cultures such as Inuit do not have more problems with this.

Inbreeding combined with aggressive culling is how you improve a bloodline. Although if it's being managed by humans, there may be issues with the definition of "improve" - that's how we got dogs with such flat faces they have trouble just breathing, for example.

For that matter, though, that's just a form of over-specialization. Which is what has driven multiple, independently-evolved versions of saber-tooth felines to extinction, when the environment around them changed such that their specialization wasn't helpful. (There's another try at the idea in progress. The Bornean clouded leopard. The longest fangs, relative to body size, of any known felines since the North American saber-tooths died out.)

[mlooney 3,826]

On 3/3/2025 at 0:53 PM, Don Edwards said:

Inbreeding combined with aggressive culling is how you improve a bloodline.

You can't ethically or, in most places, legally do this with humans.  At least not in modernish times, that being defined as the enlightenment forward.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,668]

 

The Byzantine empire got it right. 

Once the heir apparent is known, aggressively kill off all his siblings and cousins. 

 

[Darth Fluffy 378]

2 hours ago, mlooney said:

You can't ethically or, in most places, legally do this with humans.  At least not in modernish times, that being defined as the enlightenment forward.

And prior to, in effect randomly staggering around addressing the issue, which generally works, see 'evolution', but our big brains tend to get in the way; we see shiny things and the selection process goes sideways. Of course, this is still true in modern times . . .

 

1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

The Byzantine empire got it right. 

Once the heir apparent is known, aggressively kill off all his siblings and cousins.

Gotta love a simple, effective plan.