2013-05-02: [CT] Totally Not Foreshadowing Something

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The Comment Golem
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2013-05-02: [CT] Totally Not Foreshadowing Something

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5Cats
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Re: 2013-05-02: [CT] Totally Not Foreshadowing Something

Post by 5Cats »

Panel 4 is exceptionally good! Just thought I'd mention that...

What's going on in Jon and Ellis's minds? Possibly variations of: Oh no! Young love! Icky!

And the "Have someone else do it for them" line, then showing Jon the Assassin for hire... effective!
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Re: 2013-05-02: [CT] Totally Not Foreshadowing Something

Post by Bytemite »

Does Jon even know that Meji isn't as young as she looks? I don't think Meji ever told him her real age, did she?

And even if she did there's the whole half elves mature slower thing and the whole Ian is actually FORTY thing.

I've always looked at this as Meji just has a crush on Ian that wasn't really reciprocated. Although, then again, there's all the protective stuff Ian does, and that one time Meji takes a bath. I think even Leah calls Ian out on this.

Actually I've decided I don't want to think too hard about this. Oh look it's wood alcohol and detergent to the rescue! Horray, save us from the awkwardness!
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Re: 2013-05-02: [CT] Totally Not Foreshadowing Something

Post by Forrest »

As I recall Ian was intrigued but embarrassed to run into Meji bathing. I think every healthy 40 year old straight man would feel that way there. I mean, she's as attractive as girls her age were when he was that age; but he's older now and not supposed to admit that; so awkwardness naturally ensues.

I do wonder what the traditional "acceptable age" rules are for long-lived and slow-developing races, though. I mean, Misa at 1500 is still "the baby", though that may have more to do with there being nobody younger than her, forever. But like, Sarine is 3000ish. What would Elves think about her with a 4500 year old man? A 6000 year old man? Are they all just generic "adults" now and age is irrelevant because nobody ages, or is there some "half your age plus 700" rule that they follow?
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Re: 2013-05-02: [CT] Totally Not Foreshadowing Something

Post by Bytemite »

That's another weird thing. Males tend to develop later than females. And considering how Meji looks, would Ian have even been having those kinds of hormonal impulses at that age?

Meji I can buy her being a little hormonal and the reputation she's implied to have at school because she seems to actually have started to develop a little, plus she had Bani to encourage her. And sure I can understand that any guy who has been through junior high and high school might still be attracted to girls that age, even though there's some obvious reasons why pursuing girls that young is a terrible idea, ethically questionable, and why laws were passed. But I still have no explanation for Ian other then he really does seem to actually be a pedophile, half elf heritage not-with-standing.

Like I said, both Leah and Riley are troubled by Ian's interest in Meji, and it doesn't seem like their knowing her actual age helps that much. I can only presume it's disturbing to them because despite how old Meji is, biologically she's still underdeveloped and immature both by any standard and by half-elf standards.
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Re: 2013-05-02: [CT] Totally Not Foreshadowing Something

Post by erejnion »

I... am not sure Ian was ever much interested in fucking Meji. It's more of that he felt he needed to protect her? And I can't help but sequent this into some pun about a japanese dating sim, for example Kanon. How would it go... for example: Meji is an acceptable target, uguu!
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Re: 2013-05-02: [CT] Totally Not Foreshadowing Something

Post by hkmaly »

Forrest wrote:I do wonder what the traditional "acceptable age" rules are for long-lived and slow-developing races, though. I mean, Misa at 1500 is still "the baby", though that may have more to do with there being nobody younger than her, forever. But like, Sarine is 3000ish. What would Elves think about her with a 4500 year old man? A 6000 year old man? Are they all just generic "adults" now and age is irrelevant because nobody ages, or is there some "half your age plus 700" rule that they follow?
I'm sure having rule like that would be totally illogical, but that doesn't mean they don't have it. And I surely hope that Misa didn't needed to wait several hundred years to get any.
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Re: 2013-05-02: [CT] Totally Not Foreshadowing Something

Post by Bytemite »

It's more of that he felt he needed to protect her?
Well, yes. But there was also a scene where he totally oggled her while bathing. So that implies to me that the interest is not entirely just about protection.

Hence, I think he might kinda sorta be a pedophile. Or at least he comes across as one a little bit. He was also attracted to Riley apparently when there wasn't a disturbing age gap, but then that kind of thing doesn't necessarily preclude more normal interests. At least as normal as interests can go towards Riley before finding out about her extra features, which is not really all that weird compared to the underage thing.
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Re: 2013-05-02: [CT] Totally Not Foreshadowing Something

Post by Graybeard »

Bytemite wrote:
It's more of that he felt he needed to protect her?
Well, yes. But there was also a scene where he totally oggled her while bathing. So that implies to me that the interest is not entirely just about protection.

Hence, I think he might kinda sorta be a pedophile. Or at least he comes across as one a little bit. He was also attracted to Riley apparently when there wasn't a disturbing age gap, but then that kind of thing doesn't necessarily preclude more normal interests. At least as normal as interests can go towards Riley before finding out about her extra features, which is not really all that weird compared to the underage thing.
On Ian's behalf, I enter a plea of not guilty. He even "made a genuine effort not to look at [Meji's] chest," even though she'd carefully set the whole thing up so that he would look. Remember too that the aging curve for half elves, which Ian was immersed in for practically his whole life, isn't linear compared to humans', and varies widely from person to person -- part of errantcy. For that matter, Ian knows that Meji is seventeen rather than the 14 that she looks to be, and for a large majority of the real world's historic cultures, that would put her clearly in the "nubile" age group. Treating her accordingly isn't pedo behavior at all.

I have detected in the comments to this reboot a pronounced tendency to dump on Ian since he's obviously evil. This is both unfair to Ian (whose "evil" in the early going was pretty well limited to mugging that priest -- no admirable thing, of course, but he didn't kill the guy, and every major character in Errant Story did worse) and counter to the overall story as it was being told. Ian as Bad Guy was a transformation that happened much later.
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Re: 2013-05-02: [CT] Totally Not Foreshadowing Something

Post by Imp-Chan »

I actually started hating Ian right around this point in the story the first time through as well. I did not include his being older than Meji on the list of reasons why, though. I felt that Jon was definitely too old for her, but didn't get the impression that Ian was in terms of either maturity or apparent age. Jon's easily a dozen years younger than Ian, but really, who's counting?

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