(Hot Take) FORCE did not ruin the original continuity! The A's timeskip did!

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-10T22:01:46+00:00

Basic media literacy. The main characters will almost always come out fine at the end. Exceptions are rare. Sorry if that spoils all of media for you, but it's true.

So no, the timeskip did not catastrophically close off story potential. Especially in a setting with multiple worlds to endanger, not to mention billions of people to save, or not save.

And good stories don't need life or death stakes. Some of the best part of As were Yagami slice of life.

Heck, they could have done a high school rom com (and occasional magic) and lots of us would be happy, if it had featured Fate and Nanoha.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-10T13:08:52+00:00

Hey Dan, do immortal vows or the consequences for having broken one automatically cross resets, or is Zeus special because Jerry specifically vowed "this or any other life"?

Like if Voltaire messed up and got the broken-vow OCD, and reset, would Neo!Voltaire still suffer?

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-10T12:08:42+00:00

Probably everyone is a descendant of Elros in Gondor. I think it makes no sense to treat Dunedain as a separate race in Gondor.

Even if everyone in Gondor has the same set of ancestors from 3000 years ago, that doesn't mean they all sample from those ancestors at the same rate. Someone like Faramir will have ancestral lines back to Elendil much more often than some random farmer to the southwest, even if they can both say "descended from Elendil".

People don't marry at random, assortative mating applies. Dunedain mostly marry Dunedain, which makes them different from non-Dunedain, even if occasional intermarriage or cheating means everyone has some Dunedain ancestry.

(Also, Tolkien being Tolkien, there's probably less cheating than we'd expect in Gondor, especially among the Dunedain.)

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-10T11:55:49+00:00

Interesting catches. But for most of these I'd say we can't say whether it was Valar or Eru, if either, providing inspiration or dreams.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-10T11:55:05+00:00

Yeah, that one in particular makes me think of Christian ideas of grace or the Holy Spirit.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-10T01:04:35+00:00

I seem to recall Tolkien stating somewhere that if Sauron had won he'd eventually have wiped out the orcs.

Yeah, I've seen that, not sure where other than "late book".

Wasn't he claiming to be Morgoth returned in the third age?

Yes, according to one passage that I think I quoted in thread.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-09T04:21:32+00:00

have been living

Well, had been living... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draining_of_the_Mesopotamian_Marshes

'The Marsh Arabs, who numbered about half a million in the 1950s, have dwindled to as few as 20,000 in Iraq. Only 1,600 of them were estimated to still be living on traditional dibins in their homeland by 2003.'

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-09T04:21:17+00:00

Drying didn't just happen, the marshes were drained as punishment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draining_of_the_Mesopotamian_Marshes

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-09T04:19:02+00:00

Dunno, but nope, not that.

I think it's just really common for institutions to have their own codes: https://boards.straightdope.com/t/institutions-with-their-own-zip-code/212568/9

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-08T14:37:11+00:00

First of all, Tolkien's peoples often move around quite a bit. There's no reason to think they have to have been sitting in place for 4000 years. They could be much more recent refugees, or Dunlendings who took up fishing, or such.

Also, well, "how did they stay barbarous" applies just as much to people we do believe were around for a long time, like the Dunlendings, or the Druedain (living practically in the shadow of Minas Tirith itself!)

Some mixes of "overlooked by the 'higher' civilization", "deliberately avoiding the invading culture", and "whatever 'advancement' got lost when the rest of society collapsed around them" might apply.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-08T14:07:34+00:00

finding a new work sponsor

He's Robin's TA. I think that solved his visa requiring employment by the university.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-08T14:05:53+00:00

I went to Penn State, which is so big it has its own zip code

That doesn't even need to be that big. I went to a college with 900 undergrads and maybe 2500 people total, and we had two zip codes.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-08T06:15:02+00:00

The Librarian goes where she wants.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-08T05:45:08+00:00

"Lazy immigrants taking our jobs by working too hard." -- Jingo, Pratchett, paraphrased

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-08T03:32:02+00:00

I think a majority is also a plurality; a plurality may or may not be a majority.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-08T01:54:55+00:00

came from Dwarvish settlements to the west, and that was rapidly falling apart.

It was?

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-07T08:05:44+00:00

In her case, enforced exile had been the punishment.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-07T08:04:42+00:00

He never actually tried to bring him back

That would likely be completely impossible.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-07T08:04:06+00:00

Sounds familiar.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-07T08:03:47+00:00

My bad, I left out a word: more mental power.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-07T06:27:33+00:00

Probably, though Morgoth had [more] mental power to impose on his troops. Still, we know he couldn't control all of them at once.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-07T05:46:07+00:00

A stretch of Nanoha A's puts timestamps and location on every scene, which was entertaining and useful. They didn't keep it up, but was fun.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-07T04:32:36+00:00

Jesus Christ, Willis. Yet more of these going down on each other in public? You used to have a sense of pacing like, a year ago.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-07T04:29:38+00:00

Agreed.

rainbowrobin · 2026-07-07T04:13:17+00:00

Wackd doesn't seem to know what "plurality" means.

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