2010-09-30: They're asking for help.

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Forrest
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Re: 2010-09-30: They're asking for help.

Post by Forrest »

This is getting silly discussing the minutia of a throw-away analogy I made, but:

- you said another difference in the analogy was that Tsuiraku is on an island in the sky whereas America, Russia, and China were not

- I replied that that is still pretty analogous since America's being surrounded by oceans isolated it in ways similar to Tsuiraku's aerial position

- you replied that Ian can fly (implying, as I took you to mean, that he can negate that isolation)

- I replied that the Japanese could fly too (given that they rather famously bombed an American military harbor)


Granted, that harbor was only halfway across the ocean compared to most of the rest of America, but still, America at least believed that the Japanese could reach the mainland west coast: out here in California there are still old WWII-era AA-gun mounts on the beaches here and there.
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ChunLing
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Re: 2010-09-30: They're asking for help.

Post by ChunLing »

I get what you were trying to say, but the comparison is so deeply flawed that I felt no serious need to answer it.

As has been pointed out before, the fact that Tsuiraku's main city is based on a flying rock does tend to isolate them, but it really does nothing substantial to protect them. Rather the opposite, in fact. The comparison is like saying that the Japanese (or someone else) is capable of sinking the North American continental mass (but not other continents or even other islands) into the sea. Which is a cool enough idea that I'll consider it, but it's not very relevant to the conversation we're having now.

The Tsuiraku high council knows enough about Ian to guess that he does have a reason for what he's doing, and to guess pretty accurately what that reason is. They can guess that he went to Emerylon because it is the primary known contact point with elves, as they apparently visit it more often than once a decade or so. They can guess that he popped Luminosita because the Veracians popped it on him. They can guess that he's attacking the elves (for the second time) because elves exterminate half-elves indiscriminately (which Sarine all but admitted when pressed on the subject).

So, the Tsurakuans should have a pretty short list of things that might provoke Ian into a major attack. First, attacking him personally. Second, exterminating half-elves indiscriminately. They know that Ian can carry out actions that would be beyond their power. The rational response for people who don't arrogantly assume that there is no possibility that their nation could ever lose a fight is to avoid those two specific actions (and the appearance of helping anyone else perform them) until they know more. A lot more.

Now, personally I would want to know three things before initiating an attack on someone. I would first want to know the probable and possible outcomes of such an attack. I would second want to know the probable and possible outcomes of not making such an attack. And I would third want to know how the outcomes of making the attack stack up against the outcomes of not making the attack.

This isn't to say that most individual people or most nations behave according to my ideas. Just that they are the minimum requirements for intelligent decision making about whether or not to attack someone.
Kill...more...elves.
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