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Post By
HH

In Reply To
Anime Jason 
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Location: Here
Member Since: Sun Sep 12, 2004
Posts: 2,834
Subj: "Math is hard".
Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2016 at 03:17:10 am EST (Viewed 4 times)
Reply Subj: They're right, if they mean I don't have to do math.
Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2016 at 10:21:24 pm EST (Viewed 443 times)



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      Aaand I'm back after doing a 1 hour 48 minute audio interview for my new novel. Ack! Voice is croaky!



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    Could be worse. That could have been the interview for a 48 minute interview.


It was fun, blunted a bit by the fact that a novel due out in mid-October still doesn't have a release date.


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      But then we come to those rare scenes where everybody scorns the unrealisitc CGI and the film makers say, "but that was a practical shot. We really did it."



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    And a lot of the time, nobody believes them.


Conversely, in the early days of TV visual effects, the very-low-operating-budget Doctor Who team at the BBC framed two complaints as badges of honour.

The 1968 story "The Web of Fear" was set in London Underground, but the BBC couldn't afford the fees demanded to film there. So they mocked the whole thing up in studio and filmed it like that - and got a legal proceedings from the Undergrouynd for filming down there without permission!

The 1971 story "The Daemons" featured an ancient evil awoken under a little village church. Most of the episode was filmed on location in a suitable village with a suitable 17th century church. When it came to the finale when the church blew up, the programme naturally resored to model work - but still got angry letters from people who knew the village and assumed that the BBC had somehow actually detonated the historic building!

To complete this somewhat irreleavent sidebar, much later, in 1988, "Rememberance of the Daleks" featured a Dalek battle in and around an old school building in Shoreditch, London. The big end explosion was a practical effect that the explosives team were a bit too enthusatic about. It created a huge black mushroom cloud over the area and was powerful enough to set off car alarms and burglar alarms. Fearing terrorist attack, fire engines rushed to the scene to confront the spreading black cloud - only to see Daleks emerging from it towards them.



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      There is probably also a division a bit similar to the old house slaves vs field slaves one, one between bodiless A.I.s like Hallie and D.D. bs nuts and bolts ones like Tandi and Joan (not that any of those four really suffer from it), and between those who were designed to be free and those who gained sentience and free-will by accident oir through being "liberated".



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    It's a pretty universal and obnoxious thing, that if one person happens to be able to get something done easy, they earn hate because they "didn't put in the time" or feel enough pain to get there.


Conversely, there is sometimes a new appreciation of other people in different circumstances when folks are pushed together by a crisis.


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        Anna is more forgiving about those perceptions. Nena is not. The difference might be that at one point Nena was deactivated because she was deemed too dangerous.

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        Nurture but maybe also nature?



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    In a way. Anna has never really seen just how far hate and fear will go. Nena has. So when Nena detects hatred in her direction, she steels for a fight to avoid being disabled or imprisoned etc. But she doesn't fault Anna's hopefulness. She wishes she could be like that, too.


We need this in-story.


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      It wasn't until I came to write the two characters together that I realised the similarities and differences between Lara and Cath. They obviously have a similar power set, but Lara has upwards of a decade's more experience than Lara at using those gifts. I'm not sure how old Lara is but JJJ has established that Cath is a recent university graduate. Beth has profiled Cath as suitable to "modify" to be a loyal and effective henchperson. Lara was raised pretty much to be a superhero. Lara must have grown up knowing she was good looking. Cath was slimmed down by about 30lbs by the Baroness' machines.



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    Lara is only slightly older than that. She's became a superhero because she found a super team by accident at 16, and was bored with living her life for school. She found it way more complicated than she asked for, and ended up retiring after a couple of years to complete her education, working on the side as a spokesperson and model representing various causes. That's around the time she visited the Parodyverse, and decided she missed the superhero thing.


Remind me how she gained her powers. It's relevant because Cathode gained hers quite differently from a genetic implant.


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      Rather worryingly for Lara, Cath is now working for a known killer who obedience-conditions her operatives (the LL know this from Silicone Sally). As far as we know Cath hasn't hurt anyone - yet. But Lara's reservation in her dealings with Cathode must be informed by her concern that she is a supervillain-in-the-making whom Lara can do very little to guide in other ways.



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    Lara is has no objections to the grey area. She's willing to work with anyone as long as they're not going on a murder spree in her presence. Hopefully the Baroness, the Hood, etc, would be smart enough to figure that part out, and keep Lara neutral.


What the Hood needs, as will become evident next issue, is a stubborn battery who won't back down.


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    Where it might get tricky later is if someone in the Lair Legion faults her for not taking them all down while she had the chance. From her point of view, she doesn't believe she has the right to do that just for them existing.


I suspect that by now the Legion has come to terms with how hard it is to take down most of their regular archvillains when those baddies aren't "in the act". There's that tricky chain-of-evidence thing. And right now, the Hood et al aren't exactly in their jurisdiction.


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      VV is definitely one of that blue-collar professional villain class,an experienced superior henchwoman who is dangerous despite not having any powers. Although I created her I established her as a Jarvis foe (back when poster-Jarvis was active and leader of the Lair Legion) and Lisa rival. She's been leader of most iterations of the Purveyors of Peril. She has a thing for archvillains and square-jawed good guys (and has had close liasons with Jarvis, CSFB! DBS and Danny Lyle at least). She kills when she had to but isn't needlessly bloodthirsty.



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    That could get interesting if the others have a plan to turn on Lara at some point. VV might be on the fence about it, both since Lara has done nothing to harm her, and because VV might feel like she might be next. Kind of like the Hunger Games - VV might feel like her smartest alliance is with the one who *won't* turn on her.



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    And also, she can kind of use a friend "on the inside" for her next run-in with the Lair Legion.


VV might be interested in a date.


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        The "Dead Galaxy" Tyrant's Empire and the Cult of Apostate have very different methods of relating to the galaxy. The Cult uses either subversion, raising up local converts until they can foment revolution, or direct conquest by their crusader fleed. The Tyrant prefers diplomatic solutions such as alliances and mergers and uses his armada only when faced with agression (although sometimes pre-emptively). The Trade Alliance is far more likely "to do business" with the latter; which is of course what the Hooded Hood wants.



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      In that case, the Alliance probably has already negotiated some sort of trade arrangement. The only thing they won't trade is their most advanced weapons, though; way back in their history they were already stung by that.


I made passing reference to the Dead Galaxy's "alliances and treaties" at some point early on in this run. This is what I was obliquely referencing without tying you down explicitly.

The other main treaty out there right now is with the Plyxtragar Peace Mission. Plxtragar the planet was devastated after the transworlds Challenge when many more powerfuyl races saw how nice it was and decided to conquer it. It was an occupied world for some time before Caphan Warlord Vaahir was sentenced there by the Shoggoth to "do good". He organised the resitance movement there, eventually aided by outcast Thonnagarian Shazana Pel, and with a push from the Juniors he finally helped the Plyxtragarians win their freedom.

That freedom was enshrined in "The Caph Accords" after the Parody War, when Emir Kiivan ruled Caph and Galactivac was repulsed. Shazana Pel took over the last effective Pigeonwarrior force and, at Plxtragar's invitation, based it there to insure the planet against further agression. The place has effectively become Geneva. The war-shattered planet could have turned very dark but has instead becomne a beacon of light.

I mention this because the same Hooded Hood was behind many of the events that set up that situation as was pushing the Black Galaxy armada's new empire-building. Two mechanisms towards the same end?

I've always meant to do a Plxtragar-related story to properly illustrate the new set up but haven't found an opportunity yet.







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