MitD XIX: The Potted Plant Is Starting To Look Reasonable

[Kish]

I think the name of the book the protean is found in is enough to establish that it's not meant for normal encounters, and any scene that illustrates the creature in the darkness being massively powerful is enough to establish that his mysterious species is not meant for normal encounters. Convenient dovetailing there.

Okay, I think I misunderstood you the first time. Are you saying that the hit-lightly contest is too pure to be a vehicle to advance the plot?

I am saying that:

Rich is looking at his chosen monster and wants an excuse for it to use its lightest attack instead of its hardest one, because it is not a punch and would hit farther than its actual punch would, if physics were allowed to apply. So he invents a hit-the-lightest game, and the monster uses the attack with the most leverage instead of the most damage, which creates good visuals for a monster in the dark.

Please accept this as just a story and not an attempt to persuade you of anything other than the ability to tell multiple stories.

is a story development process significantly below the quality I expect from Rich after six books. And that's what I'm supposed to be responding to: it as a story, unconnected to anything actually in the comic. Right?

If we're actually talking about the story that's in the comic, how about this:

Rich has the creature hit Miko and her horse each once. Each of them is knocked through a wall. They take damage. It is an unspecified amount of damage below the amount that would kill either of them.

"This is him hitting as lightly as he can" points to "he is massively strong and doesn't know this." It does not point to "something Rich wouldn't want would happen if he actually tried to punch Miko," except insofar as lacking a joke and lacking a "massively strong!" highlight would be things Rich doesn't want. It does not indicate that when he said "hit the lightest" he actually meant "use some kind of special attack which should be explicitly distinguished from a word that actually means hitting."

And it should surprise no one that I do not agree with your paraphrase of the text you quoted from Rich.