I understand that there is a rhythm and flow to these things, Captain Wilkin, but could you possibly just cut to the chase and throw the man off the roof?
That’s how this kind of villain gets you. You keep putting it off to find out what they did, and in that time they set more stuff in motion. The cycle never ends until you’re willing to take your chances not knowing.
I think of that as the Krycek effect. If Mulder had just carried through with his initial promise to kill Alex Krycek, he might have avoided a lot of the mayhem and tragic storylines of the X-Files. But each time, Krycek would say the magic phrase, “there’s more I can tell you….”
And there really wasn’t.
Yes. If a villain tries to stop you from killing them by saying “can you afford to take that chance?”, you should immediately finish them off. And then answer their question posthumously.
Or, worse, they convince you that maybe their plans *are* for the Greater Good. The Miller Option is brutal, but oftentimes pragmatic expediency is best.
I guess Mr. Green’s plan is for the two non-human sides to destroy each other. I don’t know why he couldn’t just let those who want to leave go to Lovetron. What does he care, as long as they’re not on Earth anymore?
Mr Green is a controlling narcissist, besides which, from his perspective, letting his enemies escape to regroup and join up with their allies will inevitably lead to them returning to “make humans obsolete” even faster. His goal is the complete cessation of non-human progress, emphasis on “Complete”.
Why don’t the Chinese let the Uyghurs leave? Many of them have tried to leave the country for neighboring lands like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia, but have been refused permission to leave China, usually accompanied by being sent to “reeducation” centers, and then surveillance, jailings, beatings, etc, if they don’t immediate fall into line. You’d think China would be happy to let “undesireables” leave, yeah? So why don’t they?
Because it’s a ~genocide~. China doesn’t want Uyghers to leave, because they want to ~eradicate~ them instead: if possible culturally, by converting them into “good Chinese citizens”, but if not, then by making it impossible for them to live and causing them to die out “naturally”. China knows they can’t get away with just sending in the army and shooting all the Uyghers – it would be far too costly internationally, it would likely trigger armed revolts among the Uyghers themselves, and it would also rile up other oppressed minorities. So instead, they walk right up to the line and do everything they can just short of murdering people in the streets to wipe these people out.
Why? Because they don’t conform to the Chinese orthodoxy – they are different, and therefor dangerous, and therefor must be destroyed.
It’s the same way with Ira and non-human sapients. It’s not enough to let some of them leave – they might come back! They’d be out there somewhere, lurking, plotting, scheming revenge! And worse, they’d be consorting with aliens! To protect humanity from the “inevitable aggression” of those inhuman monsters, he decided to strike first (a pre-emptive “defense”, you see!). It’s not just about removing them from earth, it’s about removing them period!
They saw the staggering jewels of the night in their infinite dust and their minds sang with fear.
“It’ll have to go,” the men of Krikkit said as they headed back for home.
On the way back home they sang a number of tuneful and reflective songs on the subjects of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life, and the obliteration of all other life forms.
Overnight the whole population of Krikkit was transformed from being charming, delightful, intelligent if whimsical, ordinary people, into charming, delightful, intelligent, whimsical, manic xenophobes. The idea of a Universe didn’t fit into their world picture, so to speak. They simply couldn’t cope with it. And so, charmingly, delightfully, intelligently, whimsically if you like, they decided to destroy it.
~ Douglas Adams – Life, The Universe, and Everything
It’s been my understanding—correct me if I’ve been misinformed—that the Uighers are, to put it simply, Chinese Muslims, that there’s little genetic difference between them and other Chinese, and that the dispute is over their religion. Reprehensible, however you look at it.
(The Chinese themselves break down into several different groups, but I’m writing this off the top of my head, and, for the moment, I’m unsure of my data.)
Uyghurs are a Turkic people: in terms of language, genetics and history, they’re more closely linked to Turks, Tartars, Uzbeks, Kazaks and various other peoples in a belt stretching from Turkey to eastern Siberia. Before the 20th century, Xinjiang Province used to be a group of independant Uyghur kingdoms along the Silk Road. Similar situation to Tibet: both regions were conquered by China relatively recently, and both have independence movements. There /are/ many non-Uyghur Chinese muslims living across the rest of the country, who are less culturally different from the the Han and seem to be more tolerated by the government.
In our own (US) history there’s another example. There were a number of Northern abolitionists in 1861 who were happy to see the South secede. With the South gone, they figured that the stain of slavery would no longer disfigure the US. (They probably figured that they could quickly outvote Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and Delaware and ban slavery there.)
Obviously Lincoln saw things very differently, and so more than half a million men had to die.
It looks like he handed Tip the original glass (the one he sipped from in the last comic) and kept the new glass himself. This would be an effective way to demonstrate to an enemy that you have NOT put something in it. Drinking from a prepoured glass and pouring your enemy a cup from the bottle screams “I put something in your glass or the bottle”, but Ira’s method demonstrates to Tip that Tip’s glass is clean. (Unless Ira’s using something he’s already taken the antidote to, but there’s no way to demonstrate he’s not doing that.)
The most horrible outcome would be if Ira and Tip brought out their *personal* therapy puppets for a “Punch and Judy” slugfest, and Sweetheart mojo’d in to write the fanfic…
The sides rally for their destruction. But Ira is still an obstruction. Whatever he’s hatched, they’re evenly matched. But Ira still sucks at seduction.
It’s not PRIMARILY a seduction.
This went from a bowl of popcorn fight to sipping wine tussle.
Duking it out the CIVILIZED way!
It’s not ONLY a seduction.
I understand that there is a rhythm and flow to these things, Captain Wilkin, but could you possibly just cut to the chase and throw the man off the roof?
Pleasurable though that may be, it would be wise before killing him to at least try to find out what other things Ira has set in motion.
That’s how this kind of villain gets you. You keep putting it off to find out what they did, and in that time they set more stuff in motion. The cycle never ends until you’re willing to take your chances not knowing.
Pretty much. Whatever Ira’s current plan is, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t involve suddenly figuring how to fly in the next thirty seconds.
They’ve….they’ve weaponised monologuing! The monsters!
And then he started dialoguing… to quote from The Incredibles.
I think of that as the Krycek effect. If Mulder had just carried through with his initial promise to kill Alex Krycek, he might have avoided a lot of the mayhem and tragic storylines of the X-Files. But each time, Krycek would say the magic phrase, “there’s more I can tell you….”
And there really wasn’t.
Yes. If a villain tries to stop you from killing them by saying “can you afford to take that chance?”, you should immediately finish them off. And then answer their question posthumously.
Or, worse, they convince you that maybe their plans *are* for the Greater Good. The Miller Option is brutal, but oftentimes pragmatic expediency is best.
From context I can guess what you mean by “The Miller Option”, but I wonder what story it is from.
That’d be from *Leviathan Wakes*
Also, many people- I would personally venture to say most- are not actually down for casual murder.
Ira’s *actual* attempts at seducing Tip were decidedly less subtle…
Very strange.
Has Tip turned down anyone else?….Ever?
So is Ira bi, or what?
I think Ira is a control freak. He will attempt to control and manipulate people however he can.
I guess Mr. Green’s plan is for the two non-human sides to destroy each other. I don’t know why he couldn’t just let those who want to leave go to Lovetron. What does he care, as long as they’re not on Earth anymore?
Mr Green is a controlling narcissist, besides which, from his perspective, letting his enemies escape to regroup and join up with their allies will inevitably lead to them returning to “make humans obsolete” even faster. His goal is the complete cessation of non-human progress, emphasis on “Complete”.
Why don’t the Chinese let the Uyghurs leave? Many of them have tried to leave the country for neighboring lands like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia, but have been refused permission to leave China, usually accompanied by being sent to “reeducation” centers, and then surveillance, jailings, beatings, etc, if they don’t immediate fall into line. You’d think China would be happy to let “undesireables” leave, yeah? So why don’t they?
Because it’s a ~genocide~. China doesn’t want Uyghers to leave, because they want to ~eradicate~ them instead: if possible culturally, by converting them into “good Chinese citizens”, but if not, then by making it impossible for them to live and causing them to die out “naturally”. China knows they can’t get away with just sending in the army and shooting all the Uyghers – it would be far too costly internationally, it would likely trigger armed revolts among the Uyghers themselves, and it would also rile up other oppressed minorities. So instead, they walk right up to the line and do everything they can just short of murdering people in the streets to wipe these people out.
Why? Because they don’t conform to the Chinese orthodoxy – they are different, and therefor dangerous, and therefor must be destroyed.
It’s the same way with Ira and non-human sapients. It’s not enough to let some of them leave – they might come back! They’d be out there somewhere, lurking, plotting, scheming revenge! And worse, they’d be consorting with aliens! To protect humanity from the “inevitable aggression” of those inhuman monsters, he decided to strike first (a pre-emptive “defense”, you see!). It’s not just about removing them from earth, it’s about removing them period!
They flew out of the cloud.
They saw the staggering jewels of the night in their infinite dust and their minds sang with fear.
“It’ll have to go,” the men of Krikkit said as they headed back for home.
On the way back home they sang a number of tuneful and reflective songs on the subjects of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life, and the obliteration of all other life forms.
Overnight the whole population of Krikkit was transformed from being charming, delightful, intelligent if whimsical, ordinary people, into charming, delightful, intelligent, whimsical, manic xenophobes. The idea of a Universe didn’t fit into their world picture, so to speak. They simply couldn’t cope with it. And so, charmingly, delightfully, intelligently, whimsically if you like, they decided to destroy it.
~ Douglas Adams – Life, The Universe, and Everything
It’s been my understanding—correct me if I’ve been misinformed—that the Uighers are, to put it simply, Chinese Muslims, that there’s little genetic difference between them and other Chinese, and that the dispute is over their religion. Reprehensible, however you look at it.
(The Chinese themselves break down into several different groups, but I’m writing this off the top of my head, and, for the moment, I’m unsure of my data.)
Uyghurs are a Turkic people: in terms of language, genetics and history, they’re more closely linked to Turks, Tartars, Uzbeks, Kazaks and various other peoples in a belt stretching from Turkey to eastern Siberia. Before the 20th century, Xinjiang Province used to be a group of independant Uyghur kingdoms along the Silk Road. Similar situation to Tibet: both regions were conquered by China relatively recently, and both have independence movements. There /are/ many non-Uyghur Chinese muslims living across the rest of the country, who are less culturally different from the the Han and seem to be more tolerated by the government.
In our own (US) history there’s another example. There were a number of Northern abolitionists in 1861 who were happy to see the South secede. With the South gone, they figured that the stain of slavery would no longer disfigure the US. (They probably figured that they could quickly outvote Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and Delaware and ban slavery there.)
Obviously Lincoln saw things very differently, and so more than half a million men had to die.
If Ira is trying to get Tip drunk, he should have given him the glass with more wine.
But do you evenly match glasses when livers are in?
Did Ira pour the whole bottle into the first glass? Why pour half his glass into Tip’s? Is something else in it?
It looks like he handed Tip the original glass (the one he sipped from in the last comic) and kept the new glass himself. This would be an effective way to demonstrate to an enemy that you have NOT put something in it. Drinking from a prepoured glass and pouring your enemy a cup from the bottle screams “I put something in your glass or the bottle”, but Ira’s method demonstrates to Tip that Tip’s glass is clean. (Unless Ira’s using something he’s already taken the antidote to, but there’s no way to demonstrate he’s not doing that.)
yeah, he could be infected with some highly contagious novel bat virus that spreads through spit particles which are now in Tip’s glass
But really he probably just wanted to do the cool “evenly matched” visual metaphor.
“Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.”
And look how well that turned out.
Tip was in Special Forces. Surely he knows that there’s more than one kind of seduction, and has seen this sort of spy game before.
And is a past master at it.
I suspect Tip and Ira will bring out the puppets any second now
Things haven’t sunk to that level yet.
The most horrible outcome would be if Ira and Tip brought out their *personal* therapy puppets for a “Punch and Judy” slugfest, and Sweetheart mojo’d in to write the fanfic…
“It’s not all about your taut body, Captain.”
“Well, sure. But a surprising amount of thing actually are.”
The sides rally for their destruction. But Ira is still an obstruction. Whatever he’s hatched, they’re evenly matched. But Ira still sucks at seduction.
Well done! And Ira really does suck at seduction, doesn’t he?