I wonder what the cook would say if she met Peonie’s father. I have a feeling he likes to break chain analogies regarding his country like a figurative strongman. With a poisoned knife up his sleeve. And big burly guards to help snap the chains when no one is looking if he can’t manage it himself ^_^
Philosophically, it’s also as wrong than the “wild = carebears” from a few strips ago. It’s basically why animals (as us) go social : “weakness” from some are compensated by “strongness” of others (if you think of it, it’s the basis of civilization : Each element can specialize).
Webcomics are generally written by peoples from universities, without real experience of life, with a lot of “politically correctness” thinking.
I suggest peoples read “Conan” (the originals, not the “de Camp & Carter” re-writting). Even with his “wild is superior” thinking, the author got relations betweens peoples far better than what we can find in webcomics.
Yes, i hate when Webcomics start to go in “moral lecturing”. Webcomics authors are generally from overprotected group (students…) and generally confuse “moral theories” and reality.
I honestly wait for the kicking ass return. Go Tiff !
D. Durand… have you actually BEEN to a university? I’ve seen a lot of non-and anti-PC there. And this barely touches on it.
Countries are only like chains when they are stretched to their absolute limit. When removing any one individual would cause the entire place to crumble. Peonie’s land is far from that point, so the cook should really be saying much the same question but in a different tone: – ‘I notice I am surprised: her land should have been put to the torch, yet hasn’t. In fact, it gets along fine even with some people as soft as her around. Maybe they know something about building a civilization that I don’t.’
Nations aren’t chains you idiot. If you want to make a metaphor out of it, nations are more like incredibly close knit fishing nets, which means they can take a few broken cells.
Even if nations were chains, an over-strong chain that doesn’t have a breakaway section can drag a ship down in rough seas if it cannot break. Or rip a mount from the deck.
“Webcomics are generally written by peoples from universities, without real experience of life” – There is nothing wrong with showing viewpoints that also *do* exist in real world, as the viewpoint of a character. It does not make the viewpoint “true”.
This was sort of viewpoint of Spartans, and part of basis of eugenics which was popular all across western world in 1920s and 1930s. The greek Spartans killed at birth any weak/defective (non royal) child as part of their culture.
David is correct. Just watch the movie “300.” The downfall of the king and his 300 bodyguards wasn’t a failure in strategy, it wasn’t a failure in tactics, it wasn’t the terrain (he chose a perfect choke point to hold of the mongolian horde), it wasn’t even the actions of a traitor in the Senate. No, the downfall was due to a deformed cripple who, feeling slighted that he could not join the fight as a warrior, went to the Mongolians (whose ambassador went before the Spartan king with skulls of several other kings to make the Mongolian demands) and sold Sparta out. So the cook’s philosophy DOES have merit.
Of course that is the movie version. In reality things were a bit different. The Spartan force (and all the other Greeks who weren’t Spartans but got left out of the tales) was a suicide mission. They expected to make a big showy sacrifice to buy time for the rest of Greece, and in particular the Athenian fleet, to get its act together. They fully expected to be slaughtered to a man, and for the Persian scouts to find the various shepherd paths through the mountains. It was just a matter of how long they could hold Persians up.
The tactics in the movie were a bit shit though. Less boring phalanx fighting, more dramatic breaking ranks and personal duels.
There’s some things you can glean from the Ash Tribe (they aren’t as primitive or crude as the south implies), but they’re not the most perfect society either. This flawed logic (which applies well in the harsher northern climate) doesn’t quite work as well in the southern Alliance lands.
But it IS going to make Peonie think a little bit. The conclusions she reaches will fall into that dreaded realm of “character development.”
To change the previous subject… Who else gets the feeling that (some of) the women of the tribe have a role far superior to ‘tenders of laundry and breeding cattle’? Right now, she’s starting to look like an eminence grise, of sorts.
Give a gifted trainer a child up unto a certain age, and it is usually theirs for life…
Peonie is a strength brag of another sort – we can afford to have weak,decorative members of our tribe. That’s the whole point of the pale, soft-skinned gently born female ideal.
Also, good to see a more balanced view of the role of the Barbarian women.
The cook is a women living under very different living conditions where personal strength is required.
The Luminary Alliance is a realm with a different structure. It needs more specialists as the society is more sophisticated. Scribes don´t have much time to exercise their muscles but they are essential to copy knowledge, keep the empire running etc.
The North and the Alliance have clashed in the past. It´s not srprising that members of each society have an axe to grind with the others and take chances to throw insults at the other.
The cook seems to be a no nonsense woman who worked hard all her life, so it´s not surprising that she doesn´t like the soft southern woman.
If her point is valid or not, depends. Perhaps it´s true in the society she lives in, it´s not true for the Luminary Alliance.
IIRC Peonie did quite a few stupid things in the past but she had some scenes like the one where she tricked the guardians of the prison to throw Faden into jail.
And well she behaves like an annoying brat when she interacts with her dad, OTOH she noticed Melan -Knee´s condition first
@greenstalker no there is that smaller girl there as well, more worrying is that the pot appears to be magic, note how the handles keep changing number and position.
I wonder what the cook would say if she met Peonie’s father. I have a feeling he likes to break chain analogies regarding his country like a figurative strongman. With a poisoned knife up his sleeve. And big burly guards to help snap the chains when no one is looking if he can’t manage it himself ^_^
Loranna
oooh Peonie just got philosophically bitched slapped
Philosophically, it’s also as wrong than the “wild = carebears” from a few strips ago. It’s basically why animals (as us) go social : “weakness” from some are compensated by “strongness” of others (if you think of it, it’s the basis of civilization : Each element can specialize).
Webcomics are generally written by peoples from universities, without real experience of life, with a lot of “politically correctness” thinking.
I suggest peoples read “Conan” (the originals, not the “de Camp & Carter” re-writting). Even with his “wild is superior” thinking, the author got relations betweens peoples far better than what we can find in webcomics.
Yes, i hate when Webcomics start to go in “moral lecturing”. Webcomics authors are generally from overprotected group (students…) and generally confuse “moral theories” and reality.
I honestly wait for the kicking ass return. Go Tiff !
D. Durand… have you actually BEEN to a university? I’ve seen a lot of non-and anti-PC there. And this barely touches on it.
Countries are only like chains when they are stretched to their absolute limit. When removing any one individual would cause the entire place to crumble. Peonie’s land is far from that point, so the cook should really be saying much the same question but in a different tone: – ‘I notice I am surprised: her land should have been put to the torch, yet hasn’t. In fact, it gets along fine even with some people as soft as her around. Maybe they know something about building a civilization that I don’t.’
Nations aren’t chains you idiot. If you want to make a metaphor out of it, nations are more like incredibly close knit fishing nets, which means they can take a few broken cells.
Even if nations were chains, an over-strong chain that doesn’t have a breakaway section can drag a ship down in rough seas if it cannot break. Or rip a mount from the deck.
“Webcomics are generally written by peoples from universities, without real experience of life” – There is nothing wrong with showing viewpoints that also *do* exist in real world, as the viewpoint of a character. It does not make the viewpoint “true”.
This was sort of viewpoint of Spartans, and part of basis of eugenics which was popular all across western world in 1920s and 1930s. The greek Spartans killed at birth any weak/defective (non royal) child as part of their culture.
David is correct. Just watch the movie “300.” The downfall of the king and his 300 bodyguards wasn’t a failure in strategy, it wasn’t a failure in tactics, it wasn’t the terrain (he chose a perfect choke point to hold of the mongolian horde), it wasn’t even the actions of a traitor in the Senate. No, the downfall was due to a deformed cripple who, feeling slighted that he could not join the fight as a warrior, went to the Mongolians (whose ambassador went before the Spartan king with skulls of several other kings to make the Mongolian demands) and sold Sparta out. So the cook’s philosophy DOES have merit.
Of course that is the movie version. In reality things were a bit different. The Spartan force (and all the other Greeks who weren’t Spartans but got left out of the tales) was a suicide mission. They expected to make a big showy sacrifice to buy time for the rest of Greece, and in particular the Athenian fleet, to get its act together. They fully expected to be slaughtered to a man, and for the Persian scouts to find the various shepherd paths through the mountains. It was just a matter of how long they could hold Persians up.
The tactics in the movie were a bit shit though. Less boring phalanx fighting, more dramatic breaking ranks and personal duels.
There’s some things you can glean from the Ash Tribe (they aren’t as primitive or crude as the south implies), but they’re not the most perfect society either. This flawed logic (which applies well in the harsher northern climate) doesn’t quite work as well in the southern Alliance lands.
But it IS going to make Peonie think a little bit. The conclusions she reaches will fall into that dreaded realm of “character development.”
Scary, I know.
> “weakness” from some are compensated by “strongness” of others
I believe that the word you’re looking for is “strength”.
> Webcomics are generally written by peoples from universities, without real experience of life
Why do you assume that the cook’s point of view is endorsed by the author, or even by the rest of her (fictional) tribe?
The last panel — the cook looks evil.
Those who say that a group is only as strong as its weakest member forget that quantity has a quality all of its own.
And what I mean by that is ZERG RUSH.
To change the previous subject… Who else gets the feeling that (some of) the women of the tribe have a role far superior to ‘tenders of laundry and breeding cattle’? Right now, she’s starting to look like an eminence grise, of sorts.
Give a gifted trainer a child up unto a certain age, and it is usually theirs for life…
@Gallstone:
Indeed, i wouldn’t be surprised if she could take down Melan-Knee
@crypticmirror The weak link metaphor went over your head, didn’t it? And no she isn’t an idiot and she has a point.
Peonie is a strength brag of another sort – we can afford to have weak,decorative members of our tribe. That’s the whole point of the pale, soft-skinned gently born female ideal.
Also, good to see a more balanced view of the role of the Barbarian women.
I don´t think it´s a statement from the writer.
The cook is a women living under very different living conditions where personal strength is required.
The Luminary Alliance is a realm with a different structure. It needs more specialists as the society is more sophisticated. Scribes don´t have much time to exercise their muscles but they are essential to copy knowledge, keep the empire running etc.
The North and the Alliance have clashed in the past. It´s not srprising that members of each society have an axe to grind with the others and take chances to throw insults at the other.
The cook seems to be a no nonsense woman who worked hard all her life, so it´s not surprising that she doesn´t like the soft southern woman.
If her point is valid or not, depends. Perhaps it´s true in the society she lives in, it´s not true for the Luminary Alliance.
IIRC Peonie did quite a few stupid things in the past but she had some scenes like the one where she tricked the guardians of the prison to throw Faden into jail.
And well she behaves like an annoying brat when she interacts with her dad, OTOH she noticed Melan -Knee´s condition first
It seems noone is focusing on main problem in here and quiet side-tracked with political argument. SHE IS LEAVING POT WITH PEONIE.
@greenstalker no there is that smaller girl there as well, more worrying is that the pot appears to be magic, note how the handles keep changing number and position.
If all the barbarians have the same philosophical view as that cook, Denver is totally going to go scholar on this guys.
So that’s what the King did with Peonie’s mother..