More Speculation.

[HarJIT 97]

1 hour ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

Edward's hair is blue, Ted's hair is purple, Nanase has red hair and her motther is purple red brown black inconsistent... (while double checking things for this i found a pic of her with black/brown and one with black/purple... and the rest of the pictures are from gray scale pages and are no help.  WTF?) _{Wiki says purple, so guess i'll go with that}, and you get people purple when you add read red to blue, so it's logical to assume noriko's hair is either red or purple something dark. Whatever. specific color isn't as relevant as it being not blond.

If the genetics of their world are anything like ours, hair colors more often mix than override one another creating dozens of shades. If noriko was their mother, or a parent in any way, they should have some darker tints to their hair. (susan's current hair color doesn't count. that's magic) they do not.

While not imposible, a relation in spite of this contradiction is unlikely.

... is the suggestion that Tedd's purple is a codominance between a maternal red and paternal blue allele?

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

it was origionally, but then confusion occured. 

[Scotty 1,061]

4 hours ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

so wrong hair, wrong eyes, generics says "not likely" to noriko relation.

I guess the question is, can magic alter the traits of an unborn child as it's developing?

Like genetic re-sequencing, tweak the embryo making the Asian genetic code become recessive, so then when the child(children) are born they have their father's eyes and hair colour, etc?

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

Until we see a canon example otherwise, my guess is not likely, simply because several of the possible scenarios that could lead to would have broken the masquerade ages ago. Children born with unexpected/unusual traits get noticed, and magically occurring phenomena often aren't subtle.

[Scotty 1,061]

2 hours ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

Until we see a canon example otherwise, my guess is not likely, simply because several of the possible scenarios that could lead to would have broken the masquerade ages ago. Children born with unexpected/unusual traits get noticed, and magically occurring phenomena often aren't subtle.

In Q&A#5, Raven did say the the limits to what people could do with magic are unknown and that the only thing they know for sure that is impossible is time travel. We know permanently altering a person's default form is possible, the question is, could it be used on an embryo or fetus? or maybe it was used shortly after birth to hide Susan and Diane's relation to Noriko, I guess by that logic you'd wonder why it wasn't done so that there wasn't any resemblance between Susan and Diane, so maybe it could have been done at conception before there was any knowledge of there being twins? I guess also one could wonder if a person changed their default form, then concieved a child, would that child take on the characteristics of the parent's default form at the time of conception?

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

Again, until we see a canon example otherwise...

 

Besides, at this point it feels more like your grasping at straws than anything else. I don't see a point in discussing this further.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

8 minutes ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

Again, until we see a canon example otherwise...

 

Besides, at this point it feels more like your grasping at straws than anything else. I don't see a point in discussing this further.

The point is in the title of the thread -- speculation!

[Scotty 1,061]

3 minutes ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

Again, until we see a canon example otherwise...

 

Besides, at this point it feels more like your grasping at straws than anything else. I don't see a point in discussing this further.

Isn't the idea of speculation and wild theories to how something could happen the whole basis to this thread existing?

I agree with the whole "until we see canon evidence" stuff, but that shouldn't stop us from coming up with our own thoughts on how something could be a certain way. Dan did say in the recent Q&A page that speculators have surprised him before.

[Matoyak 51]

I really feel we need a split thread between "likely theories and speculation" and "wild theories and speculation". This clearly falls into the latter camp for a variety of in-story, out-of-story, and meta-story reasons (plus, any time a person has to go to "well, we're told anything is possible!" it likely means there isn't much for the speculation to stand on). There's been several times in this thread where this kind of divide has broken down discussion, and having two distinct spots for each of them would give a better idea about what the discussion should be about.

I propose that this thread title be changed to "Wild Theories and Speculation" or maybe "Unusual Theories and Speculation" or something to that effect, and that a separate thread titled "Likely Theories and Speculation" or "Less Wild Theories and Speculation" be created. I don't want this to be the split we had previously, between "Wild Theories" and "Mundane Theories", which just ended up being "Wackadoo ideas!" and "Too boring to discuss ideas!".

[Vorlonagent 442]

And Tame Theories....  

[Scotty 1,061]

2 hours ago, Matoyak said:

(plus, any time a person has to go to "well, we're told anything is possible!" it likely means there isn't much for the speculation to stand on)

Yes, I did say that as far as the comic stated, anything could be possible, but I also backed it up by using an example of something the comic has stated is possible, that there are spells that alter default forms, Tedd's mark spell is proof they exist. So why couldn't they be used to hide someone's true identity? Of course, the idea of it explaining how Susan and Diane could be related to Noriko is out there, but can we say with 100% certainty that it's impossible? Probably not unless Dan shows us something that makes it impossible.

[Matoyak 51]

26 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Yes, I did say that as far as the comic stated, anything could be possible, but I also backed it up by using an example of something the comic has stated is possible, that there are spells that alter default forms, Tedd's mark spell is proof they exist. So why couldn't they be used to hide someone's true identity? Of course, the idea of it explaining how Susan and Diane could be related to Noriko is out there, but can we say with 100% certainty that it's impossible? Probably not unless Dan shows us something that makes it impossible.

I don't care one way or another (as in: I have no personal stake here) about the actual arguments at play for this particular speculation. Sure, it's totally possible, but my thoughts on the particular theory have little to do with my suggestion, really. The debate around this kind of a theory is different than the debate on a more plausible theory (I address this further in the second paragraph), and people coming in to the debate understanding what's at stake will mean you don't get derailed in the way that InfiniteRemnant did due to the stretches needed to be made about the core of the theory (ie: that Susan is related to Noriko).

This isn't the first time a farther-reaching theory has derailed the thread in this way. In my suggestion, Susan being related to Noriko would go in the more wild speculation thread, while the use of spells that alter default forms being used for hiding a true identity would be more likely to go into the less wild speculation thread. The former has much more to overcome due to not just having to overcome in-world evidence, but also meta-fiction reasons. The latter only needs in-world support.

If you have them in threads like I suggest, people would feel more hesitant to go "It seems very unlikely this is the case, and there's really no point in discussing it." because you're already in a space that's talking about unlikely theories (that can still totally be possible theories. Hence why I don't want it to be the same split we had before). The fan theory of Greg and Vladia dating would be an example of going into the more wild thread, as there's no evidence one way or another. The Susan and Diane being a Uryuom egg baby could go into the less wild one. That Raven is one of the parents might go into the wild theory one due to us having been told he can't reproduce, though this theory is a bit more complicated and could be debated for either. ~shrug~. It isn't a perfect solution, but it would help with the derails and "why are we even discussing this" questions.

[Scotty 1,061]

2 minutes ago, Matoyak said:

The Susan and Diane being a Uryuom egg baby could go into the less wild one. That Raven is one of the parents might go into the wild theory one due to us having been told he can't reproduce, though this theory is a bit more complicated and could be debated for either. ~shrug~. It isn't a perfect solution, but it would help with the derails and "why are we even discussing this" questions.

You gotta admit though, my current theory is more plausible than the egg theory. Heck another piece of evidence we could use for it is Adrian's illusion on Grace looking a lot like Susan. If he was the one that cast the default form spell on the twins, that could explain how the illusion on Grace looked similar, the hair colour would be a trivial matter that he made the twins blonde as part of keeping them from looking like Noriko, and Grace's illusion had black hair to make the idea of her being Adrian's niece be more convincing.

To me, it's not a matter of what's tame or wild, it's throwing ideas out there to see what sounds good. It's supposed to be fun and if one of our theories turns out to be close to what Dan had in mind, that's just a bonus, and if a seemingly wild theory turns out to be a lot closer to the truth than some of the tamer theories, then it really wouldn't be such a wild theory after all would it?

[Matoyak 51]

13 minutes ago, Scotty said:

You gotta admit though, my current theory is more plausible than the egg theory. Heck another piece of evidence we could use for it is Adrian's illusion on Grace looking a lot like Susan. If he was the one that cast the default form spell on the twins, that could explain how the illusion on Grace looked similar, the hair colour would be a trivial matter that he made the twins blonde as part of keeping them from looking like Noriko, and Grace's illusion had black hair to make the idea of her being Adrian's niece be more convincing.

To me, it's not a matter of what's tame or wild, it's throwing ideas out there to see what sounds good. It's supposed to be fun and if one of our theories turns out to be close to what Dan had in mind, that's just a bonus, and if a seemingly wild theory turns out to be a lot closer to the truth than some of the tamer theories, then it really wouldn't be such a wild theory after all would it?

~shrug~, they both seem equally unlikely to me. This one slightly more so, truth be told. I don't care for either theory, honestly. I just think splitting the discussion into two spots with distinct expectations will help discussions from devolving into what this one did between you and Remnant.

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

what is and is not probable is far more interesting and worthy of discussion than what is possible. at least in my eyes.

[Don Edwards 548]

21 hours ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

what is and is not probable is far more interesting and worthy of discussion than what is possible. at least in my eyes.

In general, yes. Occasionally it's fun to dive into the absurdly improbable, or even the impossible, for a bit.

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

35 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

22 hours ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

what is and is not probable is far more interesting and worthy of discussion than what is possible. at least in my eyes.

In general, yes. Occasionally it's fun to dive into the absurdly improbable, or even the impossible, for a bit.

Belivable but improbable what if scenarios are what fanfics are for. Which this fandom is severely lacking in...

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

On an unrelated note, Diane seems to be into magic, and Elliot, but not the kind of magic Elliot tends to get, and seems unsure about trying to compete with Ashley now that they've met...
Magus' plot-line seems to be drawing to a close soon (though soon in this comic's world could easily equate to two or three years our time) if the escalation on the aberration front is anything to go by, and the more we see of him the more Magus reminds me of a jaded version of Elliot...

What are the chances of Diane falling for a post-restoration Magus?

[partner555 170]

14 minutes ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

Belivable but improbable what if scenarios are what fanfics are for. Which this fandom is severely lacking in...

I think it was said somewhere Dan does not like fanfics because if he does read them, it would mean he can't use the idea in the fanfic for copyright reasons.

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

...but that's true of ANY fandom. what makes here different?

[SeriousJupiter 49]

38 minutes ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

What are the chances of Diane falling for a post-restoration Magus?

It depends on whether or not Magus

1) manages to get away with everything he did to regain his physical form

2) gets possessed by Sirleck

3) decides to stay in this dimension

4) is into girls

5) enjoys spending money on his girlfriend. But hey, he can make gold, so that shouldn't be a problem.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

4 hours ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

...but that's true of ANY fandom. what makes here different?

Dan does not object to fanfics posted elsewhere. He did object to having them posted here for legal reasons: that any fanfics overlapping with the actual plot would make him vulnerable to lawsuits claiming that he had plagiarised the fanfic in question.

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

I meant here as in 'this community' not 'this site'. the FF.net and AO3 archives for EGS are more or less dead, and it's presence elsewhere seems nonexistent. Which for an ongoing series with an active enough fanbase to make a patreon account viable seems downright bizarre.

[HarJIT 97]

I have written a couple: https://sites.google.com/site/harjitegs/home/you-are-not-alone-a-fanfiction and https://sites.google.com/site/harjitegs/home/the-rising-of-the-dark-a-fanfiction

... actually, that leads me to speculate...

Perhaps I'll be off to the Off-Topic section.

[Matoyak 51]

49 minutes ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

I meant here as in 'this community' not 'this site'. the FF.net and AO3 archives for EGS are more or less dead, and it's presence elsewhere seems nonexistent. Which for an ongoing series with an active enough fanbase to make a patreon account viable seems downright bizarre.

I suspect a fair amount of it is twofold:

1) People in the fandom know that Dan doesn't really want fanfic out there (he has said he's not a fan of it, but will tolerate it in other places), and most of this fandom nowadays tends to follow his lead on stuff.

and

2) There's not a whole bunch to fic about. EGS is one place where nearly anything could happen, and between Patreon Pinups, Sketchbooks, NP, and the Mainline there's a lot of place for all kinds of stuff to go down. Really the only things that aren't ever going to show up are hardcore smut scenes or major universe crossovers.