History Headscratchers / TalesOfMU

** You're misunderstanding the point of being an Ian fan. It's not that he ''has'' a handle on his problems, it's that he ''knows'' he has problems in the first place and knows what they are. Meanwhile every other character has major issues they refuse to speak about and are in denial. Comparing him to the whole chunks of the worlds that are essentially amoral wrecks he's likley the most stable man in the entire setting.

** Eh, as described, it's that things work more by associations and similarity than causality. Quantitative research doesn't pay off, but stick your nose in a bag of herbs and you can pick among mental images of herbal effects that you can imbue water with. Or, at least that's the general line - after all, Amy's corrective lenses are hinted to be non-magical. (Mind, that may have been retconned in supplemental stuff I haven't read.) Then there are the Mechans, who may indicate that science is suppressed.

** Part of the emphasis on No Science is to avoid the LikeRealityUnlessNoted trope so common even in fantasy settings (like Lord of the Rings), and to avoid FridgeLogic like "if you can summon food, then why are there still starving people?" The answer being: the physical universe actively works against you, as the rules change if you try to abuse them too easily. In a sense, it's a lampshade hanging on how people in-universe will react to [=GMs=] house ruling broken spells or spell combinations. The reason, say, televisions can be mass produced is probably because they're not being used to cripple the economy, utterly annihilate entire countries, or to amass vast personal resources in a manner that, well, matters. In a sense, the universe (or GM) will say "you can't do this any more" if your method of getting rich is basically "learn Summon Chest Full of Gold, cast a million times". But if it is "gather up these materials, assemble them in a certain way, and then spend time and effort to sell them so they can become useful", then the caster will get a free pass, as "watching TV" won't be considered broken.

* How the hell does a society work when murder is semi-legal, there are no obvious anti-cruelty laws, and teachers petition to be allowed to kill students? For that matter, why hasn't one or more of the supposedly-powerful gods created, say, a [[IncrediblyLamePun geas to see yourself as other see you]] if at least some of them are really good? This is supposed to be a modern society, and it can't even get its act together enough to prevent random slaughter?

*** That's debatable. A lot of the frustrations he displays seem to be because he's trying to handle the polyamory thing, but the people he's doing it with never seem to actually LISTEN when he tries to articulate his concerns. Combine that with how he's clearly not a priority for the people who a priority for him, and you've got a huge social power imbalance.