Story Monday May 29, 2017

[The Old Hack 2,448]

http://www.egscomics.com/?id=2353

[hkmaly 490]

Yes, Q would fit right between EGS immortals with his attitude. He seem stronger, on the other hand he got in problems for abusing his power so it might be just that Q are not so quick in inflicting punishment.

... interesting, I wasn't thinking about this third problem. Meanwhile, Ellen apparently don't consider the risk that even if everyone would keep the secret, Magic might be annoyed just based on number of people with marks. Considering how many transgender people is in world.

Also, yes, not sure which immortals could they actually convince to do something so boring. Jerry would refuse for sure, Pandora might accept if it would be Tedd who asked but twenty marks later snap and do something really bad.

 

[Stature 96]

Panel 6 sure sounds like "the spice of life for the immortals", and Pandora is surely in a "Meanwhile.." sort of state.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Darn it Ellen.  You are sounding like a Federation official lecturing a Starship Captain about the need to uphold the Prime Directive.  Even if the conflict on the primitive planet could be ended with a single photon torpedo and a well timed Vulcan Neck Pinch.

[hkmaly 490]

16 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Darn it Ellen.  You are sounding like a Federation official lecturing a Starship Captain about the need to uphold the Prime Directive.  Even if the conflict on the primitive planet could be ended with a single photon torpedo and a well timed Vulcan Neck Pinch.

Yeah ... I preferred how captain Hercules Hunt and his girlfriend was solving it (although I think that planet wasn't THAT primitive).

HUNT: Loose weapons. Secure the perimeter.
ROMMIE: Loose weapons, aye.
ERIK: You're killing them! You're just like Tyr.
ROMMIE: No, I'm better.

But there is important difference: Ellen doesn't have power for more direct solution. She's not the one who made up the rules, she just says how it is. Hercules Hunt was in position to make rules as he wanted.

27 minutes ago, Stature said:

Panel 6 sure sounds like "the spice of life for the immortals", and Pandora is surely in a "Meanwhile.." sort of state.

Surprisingly, Pandora almost surely is NOT playing with immortals now. She has more important things to do now.

[animalia 64]

Does anyone else want to give Elliot a hug by the end of this comic?

[Scotty 1,061]

7 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Yes, Q would fit right between EGS immortals with his attitude. He seem stronger, on the other hand he got in problems for abusing his power so it might be just that Q are not so quick in inflicting punishment.

Q would be if Immortals didn't have the 200 year reset guidline. Ancient, powerful, several had superiority issues, and some had severe boredom, and the civil war that ensue after Quinn's suicide disrupted reality, causing supernovae and auch. I can see Dan taking some inspiration from the Q when coming up with Immortals.

[hkmaly 490]

10 hours ago, Scotty said:

17 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Yes, Q would fit right between EGS immortals with his attitude. He seem stronger, on the other hand he got in problems for abusing his power so it might be just that Q are not so quick in inflicting punishment.

Q would be if Immortals didn't have the 200 year reset guidline. Ancient, powerful, several had superiority issues, and some had severe boredom, and the civil war that ensue after Quinn's suicide disrupted reality, causing supernovae and auch. I can see Dan taking some inspiration from the Q when coming up with Immortals.

"It's not a [superiority] complex, Dear. It's a fact."

Considering Q are not ancient but prehistoric, I would argue that they seem MORE stable than EGS immortals. Like, maybe similar how would EGS immortals be after few thousand years (if the rate their power grows and sanity vanishes remains same).

Note that in EGS, time travel seem totally impossible. Q, meanwhile, can travel in time as they want and are apparently shielded from paradoxes even more than everyone else in Star Trek. (And that's still nothing compared to Prophets, who surprisingly influence events in very linear way for beings who has problems understanding linear time.)

[Scotty 1,061]

1 minute ago, hkmaly said:

Note that in EGS, time travel seem totally impossible. Q, meanwhile, can travel in time as they want and are apparently shielded from paradoxes even more than everyone else in Star Trek. (And that's still nothing compared to Prophets, who surprisingly influence events in very linear way for beings who has problems understanding linear time.)

I can't remember if it was ever mentioned in the series, but I think the continuum exists outside of time, which would explain why they aren't affected.

[hkmaly 490]

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

I can't remember if it was ever mentioned in the series, but I think the continuum exists outside of time, which would explain why they aren't affected.

That wouldn't help them if they leave it.

[Scotty 1,061]

1 minute ago, hkmaly said:

That wouldn't help them if they leave it.

Not if they never truly leave it. I think the only 2 cases we've seen a Q outside the continuum was first in "Deja Q" where de Lancie's character was banished from the continuum and made mortal. And then in "Death Wish" with Quinn leaving the continuum to become mortal and then committing suicide.

There is a 3rd case that's more implied, as it happened before the events of TNG. The episode "True Q" has a starfleet intern who exhibited Q-like powers and Q was sent to invetigate. It was revealed that the intern's parents were members of the continuum who decided to live among humans as mortals and had a child together, and the continuum had them killed by a "random" tornado because they considered them a threat to the status quo. This episode might also have provided inspiration for Pandora falling in love with Blaike and restricting her powers and giving birth to Adrian. Though the episode "The Survivors" might have also provided inspiration with Kevin Uxbridge being a powerful Q-like being who fell in love with a human woman, they never had kids, but when the planet they lived on was attacked and Kevin's wife killed, his despair cause him to annihilate the entire race of beings that attacked them, just as Pandora wiped out the werewolves after Blaike's death.

[hkmaly 490]

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

Not if they never truly leave it. I think the only 2 cases we've seen a Q outside the continuum was first in "Deja Q" where de Lancie's character was banished from the continuum and made mortal. And then in "Death Wish" with Quinn leaving the continuum to become mortal and then committing suicide.

Right ... what we see outside the continuum can be just projected avatar.

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

The episode "True Q" has a starfleet intern who exhibited Q-like powers and Q was sent to invetigate.

Her name was Amanda. Maybe that was inspiration for Amanda in EGS? While we are at the searching for possible connections between EGS and Star Trek.

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

and the continuum had them killed by a "random" tornado because they considered them a threat to the status quo.

Assholes. Q can play with Picard as he wants, but when someone decide to just live peacefully ...

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

This episode might also have provided inspiration for Pandora falling in love with Blaike and restricting her powers and giving birth to Adrian.

It might also be inspiration for Lúthien, who gave up her immortality for Beren ... oh wait, that's little older than BOTH EGS and Star Trek. And there are even older examples in fairy tales (I'm surprised I didn't found it as a trope on tvtropes). Not speaking about fact that Pandora's restriction was completely arbitrary, she wasn't FORCED to actually not help him using magic, we don't even know if she woved not to.

(Little Mermaid is also related. The original, I mean, before Disney.)

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

when the planet they lived on was attacked and Kevin's wife killed, his despair cause him to annihilate the entire race of beings that attacked them, just as Pandora wiped out the werewolves after Blaike's death.

This one might've also be inspired by one flood ... but ok, it seems more related than the Lúthien bit.

[Scotty 1,061]

4 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

It might also be inspiration for Lúthien, who gave up her immortality for Beren ... oh wait, that's little older than BOTH EGS and Star Trek. And there are even older examples in fairy tales (I'm surprised I didn't found it as a trope on tvtropes). Not speaking about fact that Pandora's restriction was completely arbitrary, she wasn't FORCED to actually not help him using magic, we don't even know if she woved not to.

This one might've also be inspired by one flood ... but ok, it seems more related than the Lúthien bit.

I admit, I had to look those names up to be reminded they are Tolkien's work, it's been a while since I've read The Hobbit and I don't remember all the details from watching the LOTR films. Dan has also admitted he hasn't read much LOTR either in commentary, as well as having not read many books in general. I do get the feeling (mainly through Susan) that Dan has watched a lot of Star Trek so I tend to see many similarities.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

How many life forms commanding "god-like" power have been encountered in all versions of Star Trek?

How many in EGS?

And how many are actually worth the effort and stress involved when dealing with them?

[hkmaly 490]

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

I admit, I had to look those names up to be reminded they are Tolkien's work, it's been a while since I've read The Hobbit and I don't remember all the details from watching the LOTR films.

Don't worry, they don't show in either. Those are from Silmarillion.

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

Dan has also admitted he hasn't read much LOTR either in commentary, as well as having not read many books in general.

Therefore, the fairy tales would be likely more relevant. Unless he bases his fairy knowledge solely on Harry Dresden.

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

I do get the feeling (mainly through Susan) that Dan has watched a lot of Star Trek so I tend to see many similarities.

It is of course possible, but more likely, even in case of author who read so little as Dan, everything has multiple sources of inspiration.

25 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

How many life forms commanding "god-like" power have been encountered in all versions of Star Trek?

Are we talking species or individuals?

(Ok, I'm bluffing, I don't have time to count neither.)

25 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

How many in EGS?

Without quotes, zero. With quotes Immortals (5), Ancients (0, but were mentioned) and whatever the Heka Mantle Holder is.

25 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

And how many are actually worth the effort and stress involved when dealing with them?

You ask as if it was your choice ... the major source of stress is that it's THEM who decide to deal with mortals ...

[The Old Hack 2,448]

4 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Therefore, the fairy tales would be likely more relevant. Unless he bases his fairy knowledge solely on Harry Dresden.

Jim Butcher comes closer to getting fairies right than most post-Victorian stories do. Fairies are not cute nor nice. Terry Pratchett has a good idea of how benevolent they aren't, too.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

1 hour ago, The Old Hack said:

Jim Butcher comes closer to getting fairies right than most post-Victorian stories do. Fairies are not cute nor nice. Terry Pratchett has a good idea of how benevolent they aren't, too.

Paul Taylor (Wapsi Square) had Fae down as well. He even handed one over to a Sub-Titan for sensitivity training, as it were.

[hkmaly 490]

12 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

13 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Jim Butcher comes closer to getting fairies right than most post-Victorian stories do. Fairies are not cute nor nice. Terry Pratchett has a good idea of how benevolent they aren't, too.

Paul Taylor (Wapsi Square) had Fae down as well. He even handed one over to a Sub-Titan for sensitivity training, as it were.

Either I'm reading just "correct" webcomics or most webcomics are getting it right. DMFA, Chasing Sunset, Darwin Faeries, Earthsong, Rogues of Clwyn Rhan, Key Shadilyn, Castlevania RPG, Nikki Sprite, Foot Loose, Rusty and Company, Public Humiliation, Puck, Blooming Faeries, ... not even Dreamland Chronicles have this problem, although it's not so obvious as they are on main characters's side.

Note: Wanted to add Peter Pan, but that webcomics is following original book. Where Tinkerbell wasn't as nice as in Disney.

13 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Fairies are not cute nor nice

They are cute. And wonderful, marvellous, fantastic and glamorous ... but not nice. Definitely not nice. Although they have nice smile.

[Don Edwards 548]

Awesome and terrific... in the original meaning of both words.