Durkon's Papers have Expired [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

John Cribati

2011-01-13, 10:34 PM

He's there as a guest of Malek right now. I'm sure Malek has made arrangements.

He's there as a guest of Malek right now.

Malek

Please tell me you did that on purpose. There's no discernible reason for someone to misspell a name that's printed more than ten times since the character was introduced.

3SecondCultist

2011-01-13, 10:38 PM

... its Malak isn't it?

John Cribati

2011-01-13, 10:47 PM

... its Malak isn't it?

:furious::furious::furious::furious:

Katana_Geldar

2011-01-13, 11:02 PM

Maleck maybe?

Capt Spanner

2011-01-13, 11:07 PM

Please tell me you did that on purpose. There's no discernible reason for someone to misspell a name that's printed more than ten times since the character was introduced.

I just wrote it the way I always pronounce it...I don't really pay that much attention to the exact spelling of names. To be fair, his name hasn't been written that much.

Firemeier

2011-01-14, 02:36 AM

Please tell me you did that on purpose. There's no discernible reason for someone to misspell a name that's printed more than ten times since the character was introduced.

Might I suggest that you stay away from any topic featuring Therkla or Tsukiko, then? Within the first 5 post you usually get at least 7 different spellings of each name :smalltongue:

Mystic Muse

2011-01-14, 03:01 AM

... its Malak isn't it?

To be fair, I can see a lot of people making this mistake because of "Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic."

KillianHawkeye

2011-01-14, 07:14 AM

To be fair, I can see a lot of people making this mistake because of "Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic."

Personally, I always think of Malek from Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain.

Barstro

2011-01-14, 08:54 AM

Your conclusion isn't supported by your premise.

How so? I'm pretty sure this passes the logic test;

1) Roy and Belkar were arrested for not having papers. As far as I can tell, that is the only crime they were convicted of, and no defense seems to be possible.

2) Durkon obtained papers that last 30 strips (over 30 strips ago).

3) Durkon's papers are expired

4) (not too large a leap) Expired papers are completely invalid.

Conclusion; 1) You need valid papers to be in the city. 2) Durkon does not have valid papers. 3) Durkon is in the city illegally.

Techinically, V, Haley, and Elan have always been illegal. But nobody has cared so far because they became Tarq's guests.

Jay R

2011-01-14, 09:46 AM

Techinically, V, Haley, and Elan have always been illegal. But nobody has cared so far because they became Tarq's guests.

Actually, that might have been taken care of. Tarquin said he would arrange for their papers in this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0726.html)strip, in panel seven.

snoopy13a

2011-01-14, 10:30 AM

I'm not the biggest fan of Malack. I have fears that Malack is plotting something against the order. Although, I could be mistaken about Malack. Perhaps Malack just wants to be good friends with Durkon. I could see Durkon and Malack sitting around at a bar with Malack telling Durkon old cleric jokes.

Hopefully, the latter is what happens. I would hate for Durkon and Malack's friendship to be ended by the plotting of Malack.

Ellen

2011-01-14, 11:04 AM

On the Malack/Maleck issue -

English spelling is an evil perversion. We have too few symbols to match the number of sounds (26 letters vs over 40 phonemes, and Cs and Qs and Xs are redundant]). Then, we decided back in the 19th century to hold to "historical" spellings even when the sounds had completely changed ("knight" when the k is silent and so is the gh).

THEN we spend years LYING to little children, telling them spelling is phonetic and that they can spell it out while flunking them on spelling tests when they do exactly that.

Oh, AND having spelling bees where we're amazed at the kids who can actually pull it off, not to mention having national championships where the last kid left standing wins (meaning one kid out of a few million school age children in the whole country doesn't get knocked flat by all the irregular spellings).

(I never got the hang of spelling until I got to college and read up on the history of our bizarre rules. I still resent them, but knowing "knight" used to actually be a phonetic spelling and wasn't some lunatic's Kafka-esque bit of insanity made a lot more sense than any of the twaddle they threw at us in elementary school)

What, me, issues? I don't know what you're talking about.

Gnome Alone

2011-01-14, 11:21 AM

I'm pretty sure Durkon just got papers for a short visit and the 30 strips thing was what I believe is referred to as "a joke."

I mean, it's only been like 3 days or in-comic since they got there.

Barstro

2011-01-14, 11:33 AM

but knowing "knight" used to actually be a phonetic spelling and wasn't some lunatic's Kafka-esque bit of insanity made a lot more sense than any of the twaddle they threw at us in elementary school)

I was going to mention that fact. The real problem with language, especially English and American, is that we allow it to evolve. We had K-nig-hets, we spelled it "Knights". Then the speakers become sloppy (or wanted to save a few syllables) and pronounced it "Nyts". But we kept the old spelling. Then we get OotS and people cannot agree how to pronounce "Elan". In 1500 years (after the 127th movie adaptation on the planet Z'ztxy), Historical accounts will have his name listed as "El-han", "Ay-lon", "Ee-lan", and "Ellen"*.

Let us protect OotS now and translate it into Esperanto.

* I just realized that Ellen would make a rather convincing Elan. She is thin, blonde, projects complete lack of intelligence while being strangely charismatic, and probably dated a cute redhead.

DrizztFan24

2011-01-14, 12:48 PM

(I never got the hang of spelling until I got to college and read up on the history of our bizarre rules.
Colonel? ten characters

Talya

2011-01-14, 02:39 PM

I'm not the biggest fan of Malack. I have fears that Malack is plotting something

Mal, bad. In the Latin.

Nimrod's Son

2011-01-14, 02:47 PM

Mal, bad. In the Latin.
Rich has said that Malack was named after this guy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malachi), though.

3SecondCultist

2011-01-14, 02:56 PM

Rich has said that Malack was named after this guy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malachi), though.

... that seems much more likely than a Latin translation. Nice River Tam quote though, Talya! :smallwink:

Talya

2011-01-14, 03:21 PM

Nice River Tam quote though, Talya! :smallwink:

That's all I was actually going for.

Talya

2011-01-14, 03:24 PM

Rich has said that Malack was named after this guy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malachi), though.

Malcolm Reynolds wasn't named after the Latin for bad, either.
http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/meaning_of_Malcolm.html

Gift Jeraff

2011-01-14, 07:53 PM

Please tell me you did that on purpose. There's no discernible reason for someone to misspell a name that's printed more than ten times since the character was introduced.
Haley, the second or third main character of the strip who has been around from the very beginning, is regularly spelled as "Hayley" by many posters. Once you except that, you'll come to except Malek, Vesuvious, Zycon, Ravenwing, Shinjo, Lord Hojo, Ol'chul, Tsuio, Quar, Tarkinn, Ganji, Enore, Lord Hojo's nephew Shinjo, Lord Shinjo, Durkon and Dorukan being one and the same, Girand, Liriel, and all the rest.

SPoD

2011-01-14, 07:59 PM

Haley, the second or third main character of the strip who has been around from the very beginning, is regularly spelled as "Hayley" by many posters. Once you except that, you'll come to except Malek, Vesuvious, Zycon, Ravenwing, Shinjo, Lord Hojo, Ol'chul, Tsuio, Quar, Tarkinn, Ganji, Enore, Lord Hojo's nephew Shinjo, Lord Shinjo, Durkon and Dorukan being one and the same, Girand, Liriel, and all the rest.

Also, the use of the word except to mean accept.

"Shinjo" is the one that bothers me the most, because I legitimately cannot tell whether they are referring to the dead lord of the city or his nephew.

Gift Jeraff

2011-01-14, 08:11 PM

That was totally part of the joke.

Theodoriph

2011-01-14, 08:32 PM

How so? I'm pretty sure this passes the logic test;

1) Roy and Belkar were arrested for not having papers. As far as I can tell, that is the only crime they were convicted of, and no defense seems to be possible.

2) Durkon obtained papers that last 30 strips (over 30 strips ago).

3) Durkon's papers are expired

4) (not too large a leap) Expired papers are completely invalid.

Conclusion; 1) You need valid papers to be in the city. 2) Durkon does not have valid papers. 3) Durkon is in the city illegally.

Techinically, V, Haley, and Elan have always been illegal. But nobody has cared so far because they became Tarq's guests.

Nope. The problem is that you're missing information. You only know what's shown in the strip. The characters do many mundane things while you're not looking (e.g. eat, sleep, sex, bathroom). So you can't draw the conclusion that Durkon is currently in the EoB illegally. You're missing key facts, including, but not limited to, whether he has current papers.

grimbold

2011-01-15, 04:51 AM

you may have predicted a future plot point young man, very well done

Kurald Galain

2011-01-15, 05:18 AM

Maleck maybe?

Oooh, maybe he works for Zykon!

Shoelessgdowar

2011-01-15, 09:09 AM

Oooh, maybe he works for Zykon!

Wasn't he the guy that hired Nail, Thraug, and the Lyniar Gyld?

AlexanderRM

2011-01-15, 11:12 PM

Nope. The problem is that you're missing information. You only know what's shown in the strip. The characters do many mundane things while you're not looking (e.g. eat, sleep, sex, bathroom). So you can't draw the conclusion that Durkon is currently in the EoB illegally. You're missing key facts, including, but not limited to, whether he has current papers.

By this, I presume you mean that we don't know the actual length of time which has passed? (can't see any other meaning you could have).

The whole point of the joke in that comic (and of this thread) is that the expiration date on the papers is, in fact, set in the number of strips, and so we can tell that the papers have expired, because we of course know how many strips it's been.

Occasional Sage

2011-01-15, 11:53 PM

Nope. The problem is that you're missing information. You only know what's shown in the strip. The characters do many mundane things while you're not looking (e.g. eat, sleep, sex, bathroom). So you can't draw the conclusion that Durkon is currently in the EoB illegally. You're missing key facts, including, but not limited to, whether he has current papers.

While mundane activities are completed off-screen, having valid papers was a major plot point, leading to Roy and Belkar's arrest; then, it was brought back with Durkon getting valid papers for himself. I don't think, after all that, that we can blithely hand-wave the importance of this timing issue.

Especially after the comment about plots always taking longer than expected.

Actually, that might have been taken care of. Tarquin said he would arrange for their papers in this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0726.html)strip, in panel seven.

Yeah, but only for the three in-panel. Tarquin still doesn't know that Durkon is with Elan et al.

Volthawk

2011-01-16, 12:14 PM

However, strips for Durkon may just meant the ones he's actually in.

Shoelessgdowar

2011-01-16, 01:07 PM

However, strips for Durkon may just meant the ones he's actually in.

Good Point Fire-Breathing Lizard Buddy!!!

Lemonus

2011-01-16, 09:13 PM

I think that it doesn't matter, because he is Malak's guest.

HalfTangible

2011-01-16, 09:15 PM

Maybe it means 30 strips where Durkon actually shows up on screen?

EDIT: Ninja'ed. Because i didn't read more =(

Shoelessgdowar

2011-01-17, 08:31 PM

I think that it doesn't matter, because he is Malak's guest.

Good Point Squid faced Not a Mind Flayer cause that would violate legal stuff Buddy!!!

Forlong

2011-01-18, 06:48 PM

Maybe in the paperback we'll see him renew his papers.

LuPuWei

2011-01-18, 11:36 PM

Maybe in the paperback we'll see him renew his papers.

Repeatedly...

CCC

2011-01-22, 09:37 AM

Also, the use of the word except to mean accept.

"Shinjo" is the one that bothers me the most, because I legitimately cannot tell whether they are referring to the dead lord of the city or his nephew.

Shouldn't that be 'expect', not 'accept'?