El Goonish Shive

Modern response is to record from a seemingly safe distance until forced to retreat. Someone hiding in the bushes might record until the fight moves to them and they're forced to run.

I think it is probably because people are more skeptical and more interested in recording things for propriety. They probably see themselves more as a reporter and recording the event as being the opposite of apathy.

edited 31st Aug '15 11:45:29 AM by DatLonerGirl

It's because we actually have the technology to record pretty much any event that happens around us. Most people have smartphones now. So everyone is walking around with a convenient camera in their pocket. That means the option of recording something for posterity is there, which was never true until the past few years. Even 15 years ago, only a small number of people would have a camera on their person at any given moment.

If people had cameras 500 years ago, they'd be doing the same thing we do now. It's not that people see themselves as reporters. It's that people are interested by interesting shit, and want to share that interesting shit with other people who might be interested. It's the same instinct as when we see a cool new TV show and want to tell everyone around us about it even though they've already heard they should watch the show but they've got a long list of shows they "should" watch already and they have enough trouble finding time to watch the shows they actually want to watch so I just don't feel like starting a binge on Game of Thrones so just lay off me already OK?

Erm. Sorry. My point is, we live in the goddamn future, and being able to record everything around us means we have to record everything around us. It's not apathy, or scepticism, or even egotism. It's just using the tools available to us. The first hunter to use a spear probably got called lazy and apathetic, but it caught on and became just a part of society. Cell phone cameras are our generation's spears. Or something.

Wasn't there a The Unspeakable Vault (of Doom) page about modern response to Cthulhu?

Edit: Found it.

edited 1st Sep '15 2:06:30 AM by Medinoc

Um. Assuming that every person within earshot isn't a complete idiot, Cheerleadra just said the worst possible thing. "Okay, that was me" - so what? No one knows who it was she met before, or even that it was a boy. But there's no way what Cheerleadra says here makes sense unless "Elliot" was the person she met, and the audience has no reason to doubt the griffin when she says she can see through the superheroine form.

I'm wondering if that was intentional. Is Cheerleadra about to be outed?

This page sure was posted late. I'm too tired to think of anything interesting to say.

I don't think this griffon is well informed about the activities of late. Also it's never seen Star Wars.

Okay but like

what was the thing he said that was probably a bad idea in retrospect?

THE MOST BURNING MYSTERY

Probably said it was in England.

Necessary Doublepost

Long story short this griffon is starting to come across as delusional.

edited 4th Sep '15 5:10:44 AM by stevebat

Well, going over the last couple of days, a couple of thoughts.

One, if the general assumption that Pandora is the one leading the griffin astray is correct, we just might not be seeing the aftermath of all the Ancients realizing that she lied yet. If the lie just happened, well, shit don't just go down in a day.

Two, reflecting on what Pandora said in the past, she might want an all-out war started. I put absolutely nothing past her motive-wise.

Three, the first two points may just be moot because we know that Ancients aren't forced into complete and utter truth-telling. Jerry's younger form has already shown some skill at that, and his current incarnation is pretty fresh-faced, so far as such things go. In terms of incredible abilities Pandora might have, being the master of the Metaphorically True statement is one of the simplest to believe.

Side note: the whole bit about Ancients (assuming that's just another term for Immortals) is a nice subtle explanation on the two French Immortals, who are now amnesiac and hanging around Elliot surreptitiously. Jerry outright said that they lied; being forced into an incomplete resurrection cycle with amnesia might be the consequence of that. I suppose they felt that they did what they had to do to prepare for something else.

As for the griffin being delusional... no, I wouldn't say that at all. For one thing, if we're looking at a creature that still has strong instincts and is instinctually led to lifelong monogamy, losing one's mate is an incredible strain. Among other things, this would result in the fact that she's really bad at reading Elliot at the moment (and we'll get back to that in a moment). For another, assuming I'm right about Ancient = Immortal, then most of what the griffin is saying would be a reasonable line of thought in most situations. She just doesn't know that this situation is one in which said line of thought doesn't necessarily apply. Finally, the griffon just doesn't know a whole bunch of things that are pertinent to the situation - just how much that Ancient wants to stick to the rules, what the limits to what Elliot might know are, or that Elliot is a terrible liar and is pretty obviously telling the truth (if you know him). The griffin is a pawn whose role is being hidden very well.

While I would say that the griffon is reaction a bit irrationally, it's an irrational situation overall. I don't think she's deluded.

Slow down Griffy, he didn't say she was dead or anything.

Yeah, okay, all sympathy I had for this griffon has gone out the window. Kill it.

Kill it? I wouldn't go that far. Besides, the last person to get killed in this comic was Damien (unless you count the boar), and he was way worse than a overprotective griffon. That being said, I hope a good fight comes out of this.

An emotionally distraught spouse who was mislead! Kill it to death!

I'm not saying that it's right to have little sympathy for the griffon, but it did manage to self inflict a rabid frenzy without any meaningful provocation.

Yeah, kill it seems a bit extreme. Beating it senseless and then tie it tight seems to have become the most sensible option, though. She is shown to be impossible to reason with and she is seems to be too dangerous to just be left to her devices.

It's a super-predator combining the deadliest aspects of a bird with the raw power of a lion. It also has an unknown assortment of magic powers and has already expressed that one of its superpowers is the ability to strip Elliot of his super-form, leaving him helpless.

If a method of nonlethally subduing it is available, by all means go for it, but given how incredibly dangerous it is, that wouldn't be my first option now that it's moved from threatening violence to enacting it. It's the difference between arguing with a belligerent person versus arguing with a belligerent person who is also firing a gun.

It sucks that all the griffon wants is to find her wife, but her rights end where the rights of others begin. She has created a hostile situation and needs to be stopped by whatever means necessary. The safety of everyone around her comes first.

edited 4th Sep '15 10:03:13 AM by TobiasDrake

@21090 Self-inflict? Oh no - I'd bet good money that she was deliberately mislead into a frenzy by the Ancient.

That's why I do still have sympathy for the griffin - from all that's been said so far, I think she was tricked into the current situation. Someone could die trying to do the right thing but being tricked? That's tragic and pitiful.

@21092 The potential for death is possible in any fight, and I think Elliot knows this. That said, it's one thing to say "Subdue if possible, but kill it if there's no other choice." It's even another thing to say "Go in with full force, but do your best to direct it to avoid death." (Given that it already has expressed willingness to kill Elliot, that is a fair attitude for Elliot to take.) But you weren't nearly as prosaic in @21087. You jumped straight to, and I quote, "Kill it." That level of sanction is extreme.

errybody watch out, Shive has discovered the majesty of the underboob.

The journey to porn takes another step.

Let's get ready to rumbleee!

Incapable of saving the agent of chaos? Gasp! Does this mean that Elliot's going to die?! Does Shive have the BALLS to kill off one of his precious main characters?!?

I sincerely doubt it.

Wow, yeah, fuck that lesbian griffin.

Chaos is what Magus called Pandora, remember. So the pawn of chaos could easily be the griffin.

edited 7th Sep '15 2:45:53 PM by Gilphon

Also NP where we have, um, yeah...