Results 811 to 840 of 1474
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2019-10-24, 02:39 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- England. Ish.
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
Except he wasn't cloning her. He was explicitly reviving her, albiet intending to put in a different brain. It might have worked, though.
Warning: This posting may contain wit, wisdom, pathos, irony, satire, sarcasm and puns. And traces of nut.
"The main skill of a good ruler seems to be not preventing the conflagrations but rather keeping them contained enough they rate more as campfires." Rogar Demonblud
"Hold on just a d*** second. UK has spam callers that try to get you to buy conservatories?!? Even y'alls spammers are higher class than ours!" Peelee
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2019-10-24, 02:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2013
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
Even without some sparky super science for detection I suspect there are some kind of traces for the kind of clone you grow an adult body in a short while instead of it growing up. So an explanation why it doesn't work wouldn't be hard and it depends on whether the authors wanted to have such a plotline.
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2019-10-24, 02:49 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2013
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
I assume the use he had in mind was to control the Empire. Fix Agatha's body up, then stick in a Construct brain that is able to pass casual inspection. He then has "Agatha" publicly announce the support of House Heterodyne for the Empire. He keeps her in seclusion apart from trotting her out periodically for public events where access to her is tightly restricted.
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2019-10-24, 03:12 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
Oh sure. For starters, a body grown in a vat or tube will be taller, since floating in the fluid-stuff means you don't have spinal compression. A cursory examination will also show a lack of all those small scars we pick up in a lifetime as well as missing repetitive damage due to just using your body.
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2019-10-24, 04:01 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2004
- Location
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
Height also depends on diet while growing up, so vat-grown clones may very well also be taller simply because they were better fed during their accelerated growth. Body fat also matters, and also has an impact on how the skeleton develops (the famous "big-boned" thing). And muscle, too. Your vat-grown clone with its accelerated growth, is typically depicted just floating indolently in artificially-maintained sleep. That's not gonna develop a lot of muscle mass.
It's plausible that vat-grown clones would suffer, among other cloning-induced problems, from about the same problems as an astronaut who stayed too long in microgravity and didn't exercise enough: frail bones, insufficient muscles to stand upright. In addition, probably, to excessive fat. So they'd have to get through a lot of physical education -- basically the equivalent of reeducation -- before they can appear functional in public; and even then we're betting on mad science/super technology to take care of their mental development because there's really no reason why your clone would emerge from the vat knowing how to speak or do anything else that people of their apparent age are expected to know how to do.Hark! An avatar drawn by Kate Beaton!
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2019-10-24, 04:30 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
Yeah, cloning is right next to time travel as a sci-fi trope that makes me roll my eyes clean out of my head. Doing it via magic, however, doesn't trigger that reaction for some reason.
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2019-10-24, 05:15 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Leeds, UK
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
Cloning and time travel both offer easy outs to story consequences, in particular character death.
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2019-10-24, 06:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2013
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
Cloning can be okay when used realistically. That means no instant cloning, cloning someone makes a baby. That baby is a distinct person with its own set of legal rights and is considered a different person. The ramifications for inheritance law can be fascinating (there's a great discussion on it in the Honor Harrington books) and you can have a lot of fun with illegal cloning of this type.
Of course, this type of cloning is rarely seen because the "magic second you" makes for more engaging storytelling. Even if it is massively unrealistic.
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2019-10-24, 10:51 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
That's less cloning and more in vitro with a couple extra bells and whistles.
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2019-10-25, 06:43 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- Watching the world go by
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
I like how both get used in the Vorkosigan books at various points. One time cloning creates an insane clone assassin. The other time the local ruler essentially engages in prima nocta with every expectant mother in his city (in an insane plan to increase the working population by making more women).
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2019-10-25, 09:22 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2012
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2019-10-25, 09:33 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2013
- Location
- Pacific NW
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
SpoilerOK, Foglios, get the ear-plugged guys in here, have a gun-battle, and get this over with. Have the wasped troops spirit away the extracted Head-Lu to cause trouble later, fine, just enough with the Agatha-possessed storyline, please!
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2019-10-25, 10:16 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2009
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
OK, now I am really expecting the final form.
Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1955
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2019-10-25, 10:33 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
I think Lu is going to be extracted. The only tool they had to keep Lu in check, the brooch, is basically not working anymore. And I don't think the group could function very well with a real fear that Lu can pop out at any second.
But I suspect the Foglio's have to play it up a bit because this the climatic ending to a long multi-volume problem that has plagued Agatha. Just having a character push a magic button to get rid of it would be anti-climatic.Last edited by xroads; 2019-10-25 at 10:34 AM.
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2019-10-25, 10:34 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2009
- Gender
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2019-10-25, 10:35 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2005
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
This repeated fakeout isn't working either though, because it's building up the tension only to snatch it away like Charlie Brown's football over and over.
NOW COMPLETE: Let's Play Starcraft II Trilogy:
Hell, It's About Time: Wings of Liberty
Does This Mutation Make Me Look Fat: Heart of the Swarm
My Life For Aiur? I Barely Know 'Er: Legacy of the Void
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2019-10-25, 10:42 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
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2019-10-25, 11:15 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
I repeat what I said before. At this point, I'm willing to accept Agatha dead if that's the price of ending this stupid plot.
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2019-10-25, 01:08 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Location
- Greece
- Gender
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2019-10-25, 03:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2010
- Location
- Tor zur Welt
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
* my emphasis
http://dmreference.com/SRD/
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/
Things that don't kill me make me strong
Things that do kill me leave me dead
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2019-10-25, 11:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2005
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
At least the Castle mixed it up, which kept it somewhat fresh. It was a non-stop extended string of different disasters and obstacles, and there was always another obstacle waiting in the wings, so while it dragged on endlessly it was never repetitive.
This is an endless loop of "1-attack Lucrezia-momentary advantage-Lucrezia regains advantage-GOTO 1". The only variation is 'who' is currently failing to do anything meaningful.Last edited by The Glyphstone; 2019-10-25 at 11:40 PM.
NOW COMPLETE: Let's Play Starcraft II Trilogy:
Hell, It's About Time: Wings of Liberty
Does This Mutation Make Me Look Fat: Heart of the Swarm
My Life For Aiur? I Barely Know 'Er: Legacy of the Void
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2019-10-26, 12:23 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2013
- Location
- Pacific NW
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
Last edited by geoduck; 2019-10-26 at 12:23 AM.
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2019-10-26, 09:41 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2013
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
I'm still annoyed that nobody knocked Agatha out when she was restrained by Albia. We even have a character who has done exactly that in order to control people in the past. Twice, even!
Agatha/Lucrezia gets restrained by Albia. Then:
1) Violetta (who is not doing anything at this point) clonks her on the head like she did in the garden.
2) Violetta whacks her with a sap like she did to Tweedle in the train station.
3) Violetta (who has many poisons) shoots her with a tranquilizer dart.
4) Any or all of the other characters working on the machine takes a few seconds to tie Agatha up.
5) Any or all of the other characters working on the machine simply strap her into it like they did in the Castle.
This isn't difficult.
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2019-10-26, 12:20 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2015
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
Yeah, I know, this frustrates me too. Violetta was busy laying traps at the time, but come on, she couldn’t have taken the time for one tranquilizer dart? We haven’t even seen any of her traps go off.
I suppose it’s possible that Agatha HAS to be awake for the machine to work, just like Gil had to be awake with the Baron in charge for the Baron-extraction to work.
That said, the “time to go!” thing makes me wonder if the reason Albia isn’t coming back is because she’s getting ready to blow the dome. 2 copies of Lucrezia, possibly Vapnoodle (though she might not know about that one), and 4 major and politically powerful and troublesome sparks in one go...it might be too tempting to resist.Sincerely,
NobleCuriosity
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2019-10-26, 01:08 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
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2019-10-26, 01:20 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2013
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
Maybe not which is a great reason for the plot to do that because they can have people being somewhat sensible and then being surprised by something they couldn't be expected to predict instead of them running into issues that were easy to predict and counter and her then playing that trump after some pointless stuff.
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2019-10-26, 01:30 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2013
- Location
- Pacific NW
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
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2019-10-28, 12:59 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2012
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
They seem to be making their own decisions instead of just obeying, so probably not directly Lucrezia's. Another Knights of Jove faction or Zola's?
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2019-10-28, 03:15 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2017
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2019-10-28, 04:50 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2017
- Gender
Re: Girl Genius XXVI: Madness is the best possible response
Oof, those poor guys. They've been setting up ultimate!power!Lucrezia here, but she obviously can't snap any of the main heroes out of existence, so I reckon these guys are here to get snapped out of existence to show how dangerous Lucrezia is.
And then, while she's gloating over snapping them, the machine's helmet get's slapped on her head and she gets pulled out of Agatha.Jasnah avatar by Zea Mays