2010-03-22: This. Is. Tsuiraku!

For talking about the plot, the art, the dialogue, the characters, the site, and the individual updates...
Post Reply
User avatar
The Comment Golem
Unstoppable Posting Machine
Posts: 0
Joined: June 10th, 2009, 8:04 pm
Location: Tsuiraku Public Library

2010-03-22: This. Is. Tsuiraku!

Post by The Comment Golem »

Discussion thread for This. Is. Tsuiraku!
User avatar
Forrest
Finally, some love for the BJ!
Posts: 977
Joined: August 21st, 2007, 12:49 pm
Location: The Edge of the Earth
Contact:

Re: 2010-03-22: This. Is. Tsuiraku!

Post by Forrest »

Metacomment: something seems broken with the posting of the new comics to the main page. Friday's was majorly delayed too, despite a thread existing and the link in it working (well... not the being-linked part, since that takes the second-pass magic, but the URL contained in it went to a working page with the proper comic, as does this one).

Non-meta comment: "Yes. Tell your smug, arrogant peers that Tsuiraku says 'KOOOM!'"
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of All Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
User avatar
Imp-Chan
Not Yet Dead
Posts: 1407
Joined: August 10th, 2007, 11:03 am
Twitter @: ImpChan
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Contact:

Re: 2010-03-22: This. Is. Tsuiraku!

Post by Imp-Chan »

I think it might be a caching issue. The comic is displaying just fine on the main page for me, but then I hadn't checked the site in several hours.

Will ask Kaitou to look into it in the morning. Right now, I'm exhausted because my new meds just kicked in.

^-^'
Because scary little devil girls have to stick together.
Image
Theros
Forum Trainee
Posts: 21
Joined: September 2nd, 2007, 9:22 pm

Re: 2010-03-22: This. Is. Tsuiraku!

Post by Theros »

Ah, so War it is.

I doubt that the elves have any real idea of just how outmatched they're going to be. If anything, they'd probably have required a pre-emptive strike; but with the country headed directly to a war footing that's not going to be feasible.

Too bad for them!
User avatar
ChunLing
Advocate of Justice
Posts: 858
Joined: October 20th, 2009, 4:32 pm

Re: 2010-03-22: This. Is. Tsuiraku!

Post by ChunLing »

This isn't quite a declaration of war.

Now, if events had gone anything like what the L was yelling before, a declaration of war would be redundant. Since they did not, and the elves cannot afford hostilities with Tsuiraku anyway, this will probably be interpreted as a 'rebuke'. Not an entirely diplomatic one, but somewhat removed from being an act of war. Or, just possibly, we will receive additional confirmation that Ian is on a fool's errand, trying to destroy a race that is doomed anyway.
Kill...more...elves.
User avatar
mindstalk
Typo-Seeking Missile
Posts: 916
Joined: November 9th, 2007, 10:05 am
Contact:

Re: 2010-03-22: This. Is. Tsuiraku!

Post by mindstalk »

Theros wrote:Ah, so War it is.

I doubt that the elves have any real idea of just how outmatched they're going to be. If anything, they'd probably have required a pre-emptive strike; but with the country headed directly to a war footing that's not going to be feasible.

Too bad for them!
And people thought *Lucian* was undiplomatic...

I think Poe said at some point that the elves were still the most powerful nation. There's too much we don't know to judge for ourselves. How many people *does* Tsuiraku have? The city's an upside-down mountain, probably a few square miles a most. If they have Manhattan densities that could be a few hundred thousand people; if they have extradimensional apartments like bags of holding, more. How many of them are actually top mages?

Elves have "low four digits" numbers, a few thousand, but none of them are dependents.

Who's more advanced? We haven't seen elven familiars or golems, for what that's worth. We know elves have more advanced gate technology (recently leaked, but that should take time to get to grip with.) Elves have anti-magic grenades and reactive armor and tens of thousands of year of history, much of it spent in war.

Anything from "Tsuiraku outnumbers and outguns them" to "the elves go 'we built those levitation devices, we can turn them off, let us show you how'" is plausible. Dramatically speaking, something like an equal match seems more satisfying, with Tsuirakuan numbers and occasional new tech being offset by elven experience, personal power, and deep reserves of helltech.

Hmm, thought: almost all elves are the ones who *survived* a genocidal civil war that wiped out most of their population. A few ways of doing that: staying out of it (especially in an underground city), being lucky, and being damn good and ruthless. Modulo 1700 years of atrophy, sure. But on the high end you've got 1000+ cold-blooded veterans with a semi-mobile teleport network Tsuiraku doesn't know about and access to secret weapons ditto.


"Wretched little bag of bones", wow. Well, old guy probably seems disgusting to her.
User avatar
icekatze
Forum Regular
Posts: 65
Joined: September 13th, 2007, 3:19 am

Re: 2010-03-22: This. Is. Tsuiraku!

Post by icekatze »

hi hi
I think Poe said at some point that the elves were still the most powerful nation.
Was that before or after Ian played kick the can with elves' main combat force?
User avatar
Boss Out of Town
Team Captain
Posts: 1051
Joined: August 20th, 2007, 8:49 pm
Location: Near where the Children of the Corn go to school

Re: 2010-03-22: This. Is. Tsuiraku!

Post by Boss Out of Town »

This is the way diplomacy works in most fiction . . . it's a lot more satisfying than keeping your cool, talking the other guy down for hours and hours, day after day, and thereby preventing death, pain, and impoverishment of thousands or millions of people. Probably going to end badly, but it looks cool in the newspapers and history books.
History celebrates the battlefields whereon we meet our death, but scorns to speak of the plowed fields whereby we thrive; it knows the names of kings’ bastards but cannot tell us the origin of wheat. This is the way of human folly. --- Henry Fabre
User avatar
Boss Out of Town
Team Captain
Posts: 1051
Joined: August 20th, 2007, 8:49 pm
Location: Near where the Children of the Corn go to school

Re: 2010-03-22: This. Is. Tsuiraku!

Post by Boss Out of Town »

All that dramatic context aside, it's easy here to see which side of her lineage Meji got her attitude genes from . . . she's Ichiro's granddaughter, for sure.
History celebrates the battlefields whereon we meet our death, but scorns to speak of the plowed fields whereby we thrive; it knows the names of kings’ bastards but cannot tell us the origin of wheat. This is the way of human folly. --- Henry Fabre
User avatar
Tiamat
Jordan's Lab Assistant
Posts: 449
Joined: August 20th, 2007, 7:41 am

Re: 2010-03-22: This. Is. Tsuiraku!

Post by Tiamat »

mindstalk wrote:Elves have anti-magic grenades
IIRC, they have 1 left. Awesome against one or two mages, but against an army? Not so much.

The elves also have another couple of disadvantages: Ian still lives, and he already killed a lot of their best fighters under the mountain. And like someone pointed out last thread, the elves can't breed, but humans can.

Never-the-less, bad move on Ichiro's part as a diplomat. Awesome move on his part as a grandfather, though.
Post Reply