OOTS #1302 - The Discussion Thread

[arimareiji]

D&D is a game I play to live out unrealistic fantasies. Like being able to get up off the floor in less than six seconds.

Thank you for a deep laugh. (^_^)b

As someone with treatment-resistant MDD that's finally in remission (who's going to share this joke with fellow nerdy TRD'ers being treated for it), I would note that it can be a wildly-unrealistic timeline to try to turn over and get out of bed.

[Quizatzhaderac]

I can get out of bed, hit snooze on my alarm, and return to bed in six seconds.

But somehow the first part by itself takes much longer than the rest.

[Riftwolf]

Thank you for a deep laugh. (^_^)b

As someone with treatment-resistant MDD that's finally in remission (who's going to share this joke with fellow nerdy TRD'ers being treated for it), I would note that it can be a wildly-unrealistic timeline to try to turn over and get out of bed.

Glad you appreciated the joke :)

[Precure]

So i'm almost scared to ask, but why do you hate Bloodfeast exactly?

I'm not a big fan of animal mascot characters, especially when we already had two of them. There is also Calder factor as the writing, in my opinion, unintentionly made him an underdog, which compels me to root for him.

[hroþila]

I also rooted for the underdog* Sauron when the good guys rudely kicked him out of Dol Guldur just as he was trying to pull himself together after a very long slumber
*underwolf?

[Precure]

Nah, the whole third age is Sauron trolling the middle earth with his minions while he himself was sitting on his ass, probably watching them while eating popcorn with a four fingered hand.

[brian 333]

I also rooted for the underdog* Sauron when the good guys rudely kicked him out of Dol Guldur just as he was trying to pull himself together after a very long slumber
*underwolf?

Nah, the whole third age is Sauron trolling the middle earth with his minions while he himself was sitting on his ass, probably watching them while eating popcorn with a four fingered hand.

You guys missed the real hero of the story. He fed false info to the dark lord for years, ganked his doods just when they got the lewt drop they had been farming for, and set up a sacrificial distraction attack exactly timed, (perfectly timed,) to pull his forces off the actual line of attack.

Did anyone thank him or give him a fair share of the lewt? Nope. They forced him to respawn, ransacked his base, and drank his brews. And then, to make things worse, when he was pwning noobs for low-level gear, they ganked him.

Saruman rage-quit and never got back into the game. I hear he's farming speed-runs in Call of Duty now, and has unfriended his old guild.

[Kish]

I like "underwolf."

[arimareiji]

I like "underwolf."

Ah, the things you learn from random bored Googling. Apparently Sesame Street did a parody of "House of Cards" which featured Frank Underwolf trying to get into the three little pigs' White Brick House.
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movi...-parody-98443/

[bunsen_h]

Ah, the things you learn from random bored Googling. Apparently Sesame Street did a parody of "House of Cards" which featured Frank Underwolf trying to get into the three little pigs' White Brick House.
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movi...-parody-98443/

The parody is amusing; I enjoy all of the Sesame Street parodies of adult media. That article in Rolling Stone... needs a competent editor. Two homophone errors: "Underwolf sets his sites on the White Brick House" and "Beau Willimon did not seem phased by the online chatter." And "overtakes" is not the right word.

[Quizatzhaderac]

I also rooted for the underdog* Sauron when the good guys rudely kicked him out of Dol Guldur just as he was trying to pull himself together after a very long slumber
*underwolf?

But the truth is Sauron has never been much of a threat. It's nothing but propaganda by men and elves that Sauron as the aggressor in the second age. Mordor was at peace for 1,500 years before Ar-Pharzon landed with the largest army of Numorians ever assembled.

And what the Numorians did is regarded by every expert to be a genocide. They invaded a peaceful, sovereign nation and basically destroyed it.

Also, I'm going to suggest an umulut for ünderwolf; pronounced with a phoney Bavarian accent.

[Provengreil]

But the truth is Sauron has never been much of a threat. It's nothing but propaganda by men and elves that Sauron as the aggressor in the second age. Mordor was at peace for 1,500 years before Ar-Pharzon landed with the largest army of Numorians ever assembled.

And what the Numorians did is regarded by every expert to be a genocide. They invaded a peaceful, sovereign nation and basically destroyed it.

Also, I'm going to suggest an umulut for ünderwolf; pronounced with a phoney Bavarian accent.

1500 years of peace, or 1500 years not covered by the author?

/Haven't read Tolkien beyond The Hobbit and LOTR so that question is at least half serious, I know Silmarillion covers a lot.

[Peelee]

The parody is amusing; I enjoy all of the Sesame Street parodies of adult media. That article in Rolling Stone... needs a competent editor. Two homophone errors: "Underwolf sets his sites on the White Brick House" and "Beau Willimon did not seem phased by the online chatter." And "overtakes" is not the right word.

Let's be fair here, Willimon probably wasn't phased either.

[arimareiji]

The parody is amusing; I enjoy all of the Sesame Street parodies of adult media. That article in Rolling Stone... needs a competent editor. Two homophone errors: "Underwolf sets his sites on the White Brick House" and "Beau Willimon did not seem phased by the online chatter." And "overtakes" is not the right word.

Thank you for noticing, and for saying something which let me know it wasn't just me. The first one actually gave me an eyebrow raise. (0_o)

Very silly thought: I wonder if Flu-Know-Who preferentially hits certain types of brain cells (thus goofing up specific circuits after the initial inflicting of brain fog and accelerating the process of aging [both documented])? I've noticed my own brain has been oddly susceptible sometimes to weird homophone errors, like typing fours when intending to type force. I quickly catch them, but it still really weirds me out.

[El_Chupacabra]

Late to the party, but can we infer anything from Calder's lack of reaction to the mention of Xykon? Or does Calder at least know who Xykon is?

The part about "greater glory" suggests he knows Xykon is stronger, but it could also mean that Calder thinks Xykon is a bigger "loot pile" and nothing more.

[Quizatzhaderac]

1500 years of peace, or 1500 years not covered by the author?

After skimming the wiki a bit I think it's 1,500 not covered by the author.

I expect Tolkien's intention was that it was 1,500 years of oppression, war with insignificant neighbors, and low grade civil strife endemic to feudal societies.

But if we interpret is as an unreliable narrator (as the webcomic does), then we have 1,500 years without anything bad to say, by someone who loves saying bad things about Sauron/Mordor.

Late to the party, but can we infer anything from Calder's lack of reaction to the mention of Xykon? Or does Calder at least know who Xykon is?

Probably doesn't know who Xykon is. Calder was suspended for a long time, and Xykon was pretty low profile before Azure city.

Back in order of the scribble times, Xykon might have been much weaker, to.

[brian 333]

But the truth is Sauron has never been much of a threat. It's nothing but propaganda by men and elves that Sauron as the aggressor in the second age. Mordor was at peace for 1,500 years before Ar-Pharzon landed with the largest army of Numorians ever assembled.

And what the Numorians did is regarded by every expert to be a genocide. They invaded a peaceful, sovereign nation and basically destroyed it.

Also, I'm going to suggest an umulut for ünderwolf; pronounced with a phoney Bavarian accent.

Numoria is a peaceful nation which has never invaded anyone, and this Are Pharzon guy never even went to high school there.

During those missing 1500 years, Sauron was peacefully engaged in teaching history, economics, and leadership in Numenor, while occasionally partnering with elves to teach them jewelry crafting.

[KorvinStarmast]

Numoria

1. Númenor.
2. Unterwolf in case you were wondering how to compound a German noun.

Auf Englisch the word wolf sounds like volf. It means the same thing:
3. Sauron has a long and well earned reputation as a liar, going back to the First Age. Suggest you not fall for his propaganda.

Spoiler: About Unter and how to move that to English

Show

1. {dative} (= unterhalb von) under; (= drunter) underneath, below; (Unterordnung ausdrückend) under; (= zwischen, innerhalb) among(st); (= weniger, geringer als) under, below

2. {accusative} under
bis unter das Dach voll mit … full to bursting with …
unter Verbrecher geraten to fall in with criminals

For Quizatz: if you believe that, I've got some prime real estate to sell you in the Everglades.

[alceryes]

Late to the party, but can we infer anything from Calder's lack of reaction to the mention of Xykon? Or does Calder at least know who Xykon is?

The part about "greater glory" suggests he knows Xykon is stronger, but it could also mean that Calder thinks Xykon is a bigger "loot pile" and nothing more.

I don't think we can infer any of this. Calder is just reacting to Roy's reduction of his grandeuer down to a mere resource waste.
In Calder's instance it's an especially sic burn. Kudos to Roy!

[arimareiji]

2. Unterwolf in case you were wondering how to compound a German noun.

Auf Englisch the word wolf sounds like volf. It means the same thing

Not metal enough. It needs to be Dås Üntervølf at the very least, or people will mistake it for Unterwehr.

[KorvinStarmast]

Not metal enough. It needs to be Dås Üntervølf at the very least, or people will mistake it for Unterwehr.

I guess that some of those metal bands went a bit too far with umlauts, etc.

[arimareiji]

I guess that some of those metal bands went a bit too far with umlauts, etc.

Thank you for not acknowledging the godawful pun, on reflection that's probably for the best. (^_^)º

[Kardwill]

I guess that some of those metal bands went a bit too far with umlauts, etc.

If any human being can actually read your band's name on the cd cover, then you're not metal enough, apparently.

Late to the party, but can we infer anything from Calder's lack of reaction to the mention of Xykon? Or does Calder at least know who Xykon is?

Calder was trapped at least 60 years ago. At that time, Xykon was just some random 50 years old human sorcerer trying to figure out what his big bid for power would be. A mid-to-high level murderous creep, sure, but not a global threat, and probably not on anyone's radar.
Xykon would become a lich and a real threat 30 years after Calder was put in stasis. And even then, as pointed out by Quizatzhaderac, he was "just a lich", not really famous until he destroyed Azure City.

[Precure]

I wouldn't be surprised if Xykon and Calder turned out to be old coffee buddies.

[danielxcutter]

I don't think I've seen dragons treating coffee seriously outside the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

[KorvinStarmast]

I don't think I've seen dragons treating coffee seriously outside the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

Many zoologists contend that this is why you don't see dragons anymore on Earth.

Thank you for not acknowledging the godawful pun, on reflection that's probably for the best. (^_^)º

It did get a smile out of me.

[Peelee]

I guess that some of those metal bands went a bit too far with umlauts, etc.

How dare you besmirch Spinal Tap?

If any human being can actually read your band's name on the cd cover, then you're not metal enough, apparently.

Now you're getting into subgenres. And if we do that then NWOBHM is the best, and they have quite legible album covers.

I don't think I've seen dragons treating coffee seriously outside the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

Truth.

Many zoologists contend that this is why you don't see dragons anymore on Earth.

Eh, those zoologists minds are probably addled by being addicted to a mediocre beverage.

[Precure]

I don't think I've seen dragons treating coffee seriously outside the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

Well, how many coffee enjoyer sorcerers have you seen outside of Xykon? Their unusual common interest in coffee would be the thing that make them a perfect pair.

[bunsen_h]

I don't think I've seen dragons treating coffee seriously outside the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

I don't recall that detail, which means that it's probably time for a re-read. Cherries Jubilee, definitely.

Well, how many coffee enjoyer sorcerers have you seen outside of Xykon? Their unusual common interest in coffee would be the thing that make them a perfect pair.

The Dark Lord of Derkholm, IIRC. Who would not in any way have tolerated spending time with either Xykon or Calder.

[Quizatzhaderac]

I don't think I've seen dragons treating coffee seriously outside the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

I imagine them drinking tea with uncle Iroh.