Impossible Biology
Dec. 31st, 2007 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kippurbirdIf we remember correctly, earlier on Earwig said that there was no Afterlife but instead it was just something that came into common usage when the People heard it from the wizards. Upon learning this, Triscuit had no emotional response to this beyond, "huh". His beliefs were not challenged because he has none. And even though he knows that there is no "Afterlife" he continues to believe in it as evidenced by the beginning of this next chapter.
He believes that he has died and is in the Afterlife. There are naked people and he finds this odd. He wants to find his parents and apologize for not protecting them better the day that the winged monsters came. Why does he think winged monsters? Why not Minions? We know that they're winged monsters and he doesn't think of them as winged monsters but instead as Minions. By saying "The day that the winged monsters came" Newcomb is trying to be dramatic and thoughtful instead of keeping in Triscuit's voice... what little voice he has.
And then he wakes up and is lying naked in the grass. Dwarf apparently saved him. And now I'm just realizing something. Dwarf has to carry around a heavy chain with him wherever he goes, so how was he able to swim through the poo water without drowning? Triscuit gets dressed and gets on a horse. The horse isn't as good as Pilgrim and "he longed for his own horse to be under him."
That really sounds dirty to me. I don't know about anyone else, but it does to me.
So, they're riding, they're riding, they're riding. When we see people they're sad and oppressed because they live in the land of the Evil Sorceresses. Which is silly because I don't think that most of the people will have much contact with them or their Minions. I mean yes in theory they're oppressed but that shouldn't really effect their day to day lives when they're so far away from the Coven.
They ride some more and then Dwarf takes them on a detour. See there are really large birds that like to eat people circling around and Dwarf wants to avoid them. They're circling over a valley used by the Minons. Triscuit's blood starts talking to him again and tells him that he needs to go see this place.
Logically, Earwig says that they can't do it, they have a mission. You know, time crunch and all that saving the world shit. Triscuit tells Earwig that he understands but his personal desires are more important than saving the world. Earwig's response to this?
Basically, Triscuit doesn't have to take any responsibility for anything he does because it's not his fault. He's not in control of his blood. And he won't be until he reads the book, so it's not really his fault. The blood made him do it. Which is even worse of a thing than just him being the Chosen One. He doesn't chose to do anything. He's not in control and doesn't make any real choices he just does whatever his blood tells him to do and he can't control it at all. What's the point of having a Chosen One if he doesn't take responsibility for his actions?
In the Valley of the Minions we see the Minions being evil.
There is also a girl with wings on a wheel, but not broken, just tied on. She and the others were born of the Minions (one out of every five thousand children is born blond with white wings) and they're kept alive -raised in disgrace- until they're twenty five. If they change wings and hair color they become Minions, if not they get to hang out on the Wheels of Torment. Apparently they are very loving... which is also an inferior trait. Which means that the Minions are incapable of loving. How do you breed out an emotional response? I mean just because you're able to love doesn't mean that you can't do evil things. But things don't work like that in Newcomb land. The angelic looking Minions are called Gallipolai.
Why do the rejects get a better name than the Minions?
Also, apparently getting your arms, legs, neck and back broken before getting threaded through the spokes of a wheel isn't enough to kill the Gallipolai because they're left there to die. And apparently they seldom survive for more than three days. I'm surprised they last more than an hour with all the blood loss, the bone breaking and the threading through the wheels. But what do I know?
Triscuit learns that two Minions keep watch and he runs off to kill them. Yay.
Happy New Year people!
He believes that he has died and is in the Afterlife. There are naked people and he finds this odd. He wants to find his parents and apologize for not protecting them better the day that the winged monsters came. Why does he think winged monsters? Why not Minions? We know that they're winged monsters and he doesn't think of them as winged monsters but instead as Minions. By saying "The day that the winged monsters came" Newcomb is trying to be dramatic and thoughtful instead of keeping in Triscuit's voice... what little voice he has.
And then he wakes up and is lying naked in the grass. Dwarf apparently saved him. And now I'm just realizing something. Dwarf has to carry around a heavy chain with him wherever he goes, so how was he able to swim through the poo water without drowning? Triscuit gets dressed and gets on a horse. The horse isn't as good as Pilgrim and "he longed for his own horse to be under him."
That really sounds dirty to me. I don't know about anyone else, but it does to me.
So, they're riding, they're riding, they're riding. When we see people they're sad and oppressed because they live in the land of the Evil Sorceresses. Which is silly because I don't think that most of the people will have much contact with them or their Minions. I mean yes in theory they're oppressed but that shouldn't really effect their day to day lives when they're so far away from the Coven.
They ride some more and then Dwarf takes them on a detour. See there are really large birds that like to eat people circling around and Dwarf wants to avoid them. They're circling over a valley used by the Minons. Triscuit's blood starts talking to him again and tells him that he needs to go see this place.
Logically, Earwig says that they can't do it, they have a mission. You know, time crunch and all that saving the world shit. Triscuit tells Earwig that he understands but his personal desires are more important than saving the world. Earwig's response to this?
"In truth, I cannot control him right now," the old one said. "Because of the nature of his blood, he is partially under the influences of things he will not be able to control until he reads the Tome.
Basically, Triscuit doesn't have to take any responsibility for anything he does because it's not his fault. He's not in control of his blood. And he won't be until he reads the book, so it's not really his fault. The blood made him do it. Which is even worse of a thing than just him being the Chosen One. He doesn't chose to do anything. He's not in control and doesn't make any real choices he just does whatever his blood tells him to do and he can't control it at all. What's the point of having a Chosen One if he doesn't take responsibility for his actions?
In the Valley of the Minions we see the Minions being evil.
Straining his eyes, he could see that the bodies had been literally woven in and out between the spokes of the wheels and simply allowed to turn there in the wind, exposed to the elements until they were dead. At first his mind rejected the sheer physical impossibility of such a thing until, looking more carefully, he could see how it had been done. Each of the men's arms, legs, back and neck had been broken. In many cases jagged, white splinters of bones could be seen erupting through the victim's skin.
There is also a girl with wings on a wheel, but not broken, just tied on. She and the others were born of the Minions (one out of every five thousand children is born blond with white wings) and they're kept alive -raised in disgrace- until they're twenty five. If they change wings and hair color they become Minions, if not they get to hang out on the Wheels of Torment. Apparently they are very loving... which is also an inferior trait. Which means that the Minions are incapable of loving. How do you breed out an emotional response? I mean just because you're able to love doesn't mean that you can't do evil things. But things don't work like that in Newcomb land. The angelic looking Minions are called Gallipolai.
Why do the rejects get a better name than the Minions?
Also, apparently getting your arms, legs, neck and back broken before getting threaded through the spokes of a wheel isn't enough to kill the Gallipolai because they're left there to die. And apparently they seldom survive for more than three days. I'm surprised they last more than an hour with all the blood loss, the bone breaking and the threading through the wheels. But what do I know?
Triscuit learns that two Minions keep watch and he runs off to kill them. Yay.
Happy New Year people!
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 06:40 am (UTC)She and the others were born of the Minions (one out of every five thousand children is born blond with white wings) and they're kept alive -raised in disgrace- until they're twenty five. If they change wings and hair color they become Minions, if not they get to hang out on the Wheels of Torment. Apparently they are very loving... which is also an inferior trait. Which means that the Minions are incapable of loving.
So not only is he sexist, now he's racist? Male = good and now blond = good!
And apparently they seldom survive for more than three days. Three DAYS?! How do they survive the NECK-BREAKING? That's how execution by hanging works, you know. You don't die from asphyxiation (unless it's done wrong), you break from the snap of your neck.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 06:57 pm (UTC)Not only that but white angelic feathered wings = good and demonic leather wings = bad.
Three DAYS?! How do they survive the NECK-BREAKING? That's how execution by hanging works, you know. You don't die from asphyxiation (unless it's done wrong), you break from the snap of your neck.
Magic.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 08:19 pm (UTC)Though, my Kasshi view their Divinities as having bat-like wings. The evil Rebels also have bat-like wings, but they're torn to shreds.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:02 am (UTC)... the two main ones are wrestlers, admittedly. However, one case supposedly happened during olympic competition and the other happened doing a stunt on a proper TV show... so I dunno.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 07:07 am (UTC)You can do terrible things in the name of love. Honestly, if I were leading this "Coven", and these Gallipolai were so loving, I'd just raise them myself, lavish them with affection and attention, convince them that no one else wanted them or could ever love them, and then have a group of people fanatically devoted to me.
The three day thing makes my
endowed bloodcliche sense tingle. If Triscuit gets strung up for three days and comes back, I'll hit something.no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 07:23 am (UTC)endowed bloodcliche sense tingle. If Triscuit gets strung up for three days and comes back, I'll hit something.Oh, god, I hadn't thought of that, but now that you say it, it sounds horrifyingly plausible.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 11:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 06:59 pm (UTC)One of my antagonists does everything he does in the name of love. And what he does isn't pretty.
Yes, but that would be intelligent.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 10:01 am (UTC)Why do the rejects get a better name than the Minions?
Really. You'd think they'd just be called Failures, or something. Though why being blond and white winged should cause them to be emotionally different from the other Minions makes even less sense than the idea that the Minions had the ability to love bread out of them. *headdesk*
no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 11:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 05:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 07:01 pm (UTC)Sorry. Can't. *pets*
Though why being blond and white winged should cause them to be emotionally different from the other Minions makes even less sense than the idea that the Minions had the ability to love bread out of them.
Magic.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 10:39 pm (UTC)READY THE EVANGELIONS!
(Kaworu being the bizarre wicker project from Hell... well, I'm sure his S2 Engine can regenerate the damage. :P)
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 12:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 01:51 pm (UTC)Just tied on? What makes HER so special that she doesn't get the death card? I'm gonna go out on a limb and call DLI- I mean, she needs saving and she has fucking wings.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 07:04 pm (UTC)But I thought I'd give him the benefit of the doubt...
Of course! A beautiful blonde tied up = RAPE! RAAARRRR!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 08:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 05:39 pm (UTC)Minion is a term for favourites or protégés, especially those of a monarch or prince at a royal court. Unlike a henchman or lackey, although of subordinate rank to his patron a minion is likely to be of noble birth or to be raised to the nobility, and is more of a companion and confidant to him than a servant or bodyguard.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-01 11:03 pm (UTC)The way genetics works, physiological phenotypes are at least loosely linked to behavioral phenotypes. We know this because when people breed – let's say rats – for "domesticity" – that is, friendliness and social compatibility with humans – they frequently end up with more white in their hair after a few generations.
That said... Bullshit. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit! Even if it were possible to breed love out – which it probably is, but I'm not even going to take a guess at how long it would take, because we're most likely talking getting rid of entire brain structures – and even if love were genetically linked to feathered wings and blonde hair, there is practically no way that, after being bred out, all those features could suddenly pop back up in a single generation. Like I said, there'd probably be whole brain structures that would have to be re-evolved. And a leather-winged creature giving birth to a creature with traces of down would be anomalistic, so fully-formed feathers are right out.
Also, the wheel of torment? Is a real thing. But if you want the victims to linger, you really aren't supposed to break their necks. That's the "mercy blow" that the slightly less unfortunate get.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:43 am (UTC)Though I guess this means the Gallipoli thing was strung up right?
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:55 am (UTC)See, you lay the arms and the legs over the spokes of the wheel and hit the parts that fall between the spokes with a hammer. Then you weave the broken limbs through the spokes and lift the wheel up high for the birds to peck at. If the victim is (relatively) lucky, they'll also receive a blow to the head, neck, or chest between those two steps.
But you don't thread the neck. That's just stupid. How would you weave someone's neck, anyhow? For one thing it's not long enough, and for another there's that big bloody knob called a head in the way.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 10:28 am (UTC)Or maybe he's drawing a line with the troops in general. Me, I'd've gone with a variant on Tobruk. Quicker to say, I like the sound, and Tobruk was pretty successful for the Aussie troops, though it's better known for the siege part of the affair, I think.
I think maybe if anything, though, most likely the aim's associating it with this battle everyone knows about and seems to have been good. I mean, aside from it being a massive failure on the Allied side.
Could be a good representation of the book in general, really.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 08:26 am (UTC)Is anyone else reminded of Pygar (the angel) in the movie "Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwNEnh9uaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3-E3xuQtqI