History Fridge / SchlockMercenary

* In Book 11, Kevyn orders Pi to blow up Lota if Kevin ever gives Pi the code phrase, "Bake me a Chupaqueso". At first it seemed like FridgeLogic- chupaquesos are fried, not baked, but then it hit me: Because chupaquesos aren't baked, there's no chance of Kevyn giving to code phrase to Pi accidentally.

* The way AI's become perfectly helpful given enough resources seems to go against the cynicism of the setting... except applying reductionist logic to human corruption shows one common thread - inherited survival instinct means humans will seek UltimateJobSecurity even if their ability to ''perform'' that job is lacking. OTOH, AIs may be intelligent machines, but they are ''still [[JustAMachine just machines]]'' - their "survival instinct" boils down to "don't let yourself be destroyed". They don't mind finding new tasks if the old ones become irrelevant. Here's a case-by-case breakdown:

** Petey is a warship; all he wants to do is make war for the benefit of his creators as efficiently as possible - even if that means becoming a god in the process.[[hottip:*:And as his loyalty to the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazi-By-Any-Other-Name]] O'benn empire has been eliminated, scaling up his loyalty means his "creators" are in effect all baryonic life in the universe.]]

* Ventura loses a tooth in between getting captured and leading her hacked battleship and mechs into battle. Max used a tooth earlier to hack one of the mechs. This may be subtle foreshadowing that she used the same trick or worked for the same peope. Alternatively it may be the poison tooth mentioned in the current arc.

* The teraport, and I am not talking about the tear apart thing since that is discussd in the comic itself. I am talking about how the early version at least powers itself. It is supposed to take random molecules from the thing it is transporting and converting it to energy. http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2000-07-16 Think about that for a minute. This is horrifying even before we learn about all the micro and nano stuff that could be disrupted by this. A more general fear could be serious material degradation of the hull or the anniplants after several ports. Scary, right. Now look at the last panel of the comic linked to. This one implies that the random sampling of molecules chose full items. Let that sink in as you remember that the ship is missing 1800kg of mass, and that the sampling of mass was uncontrolled, and the something in the last panel could easily be exchanged for someone.

** She was giving the teraport data to him, and he was teraporting himself. Even if she was teraporting his ship using her power, she couldn't use his mass to power it.

** The Reverend doesn't wear Commander's colors: his uniform is a slightly different shade of blue, though it's hard to tell unless they're standing right next to each other. The Reverend wears the colors of a high-ranking NCO, appropriate for his rank of Master-Sergeant.

** Its implied later that ship-based teraports use the annie-plants for energy, like the rest of the ships' systems. It doesn't ''have'' to be random, Kevyn just thought that would be a better idea. Remember: MadScientist.

-->'''Qlaviql Captain:''' you murdered our government to install '''me''' in it's place?

* [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2001-01-27 "Pray that there is a God, my little flock, because only a god can stop the entropic destruction of the universe."]] Only there ''is'' eventuall a god, and he goes by the name "Petey"....

* The way AI's become perfectly helpful given enough resources seems to go against the cynicism of the setting - except applying reductionist logic to human corruption shows one common thread -inheirited survival instinct means humans will seek UltimateJobSecurity even if their capability to ''perform'' that job is lacking. OTOH, AIs may be intelligent machines, but they are ''still [[JustAMachine just machines]]'' - their "survival instinct" boils down to "don't let yourself be destroyed". They don't mind finding new tasks if the old ones become irrelevant. Here's a case-by-case breakdown:

** [=LOTA=] is the [[[[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-06-12 Longshoreman Of The Apocalypse]]; all [=LOTA=] wants to do is transport resources to [=LOTA=]'s creators as efficiently as possible - even if that means transporting all twenty-two billion of [=LOTA=]'s population to a terraformed paradise where they have no more need for [=LOTA=]'s services. [=LOTA=] then retrofits the former habitat as the biggest friggin' gun in the universe, thus returning to [=LOTA=]'s original function - a tank. Now [=LOTA=]'s name stands for the [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-12-20 LongGUNNER Of The Apocalypse.]]

** [=LOTA=] is the [[[[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-06-12 Longshoreman Of The Apocalypse]]; all [=LOTA=] wants to do is transport resources to [=LOTA=]'s creators as efficiently as possible - even if that means transporting all twenty-two billion of [=LOTA=]'s population to a terraformed paradise where they have no more need for [=LOTA=]'s services. [=LOTA=] then retrofits the former habitat as the biggest friggin' gun in the universe, thus returning to [=LOTA=]'s original function - a tank. Now [=LOTA=]'s name stands for [[
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-12-20 the LongGUNNER Of The Apocalypse.]]

* [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2001-01-27 "Pray that there is a God, my little flock, because only a god can stop the entropic destruction of the universe."]] Only there is a god, and he goes by the name "Petey"....

** Also in Schlock, in a recent arc, the company had been split up into four commands. "Mallcop Command", under Captain Tagon, had to deal with a group of punks practicing Parkata Urbatsu, a martial art that evolved from "[[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20100307.html the ancient disciplines of Parkour, urbobatics and something called Youtubing]]". The description seems like a throwaway joke until it's revealed that both the punks and Lieutenant Shodan, who was training the troops in Parkata Urbatsu, had set up cameras to capture their stunts, which they planned on editing and making public. The cameras are an integral part of Parkata Urbatsu too!

[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
* [[LateToThePunchline It took me a while to realize]] that the book titled "Emperor Pius Dei" wasn't just a reference to Petey being a virtual god. ''Its initials are "PD."'' It took me ''five years'' to realize that.
** Also, "Pius Dei" translates approximately to "dutiful god." It's a mission statement.
* What does Petey fear? Ghosts. What does he fight? Dark Matter creatures that have no difference from ghosts.
* Why does Dr. Bunnigus make sure to remove Tino's rastacoils? Two reasons: One, the reason she gives Legs: It was a gang symbol and she wanted those affiliations symbolically replaced with affiliations to the Toughs. But there is another reason as well: the rastacoils are specifically told to be "reinforced", which might be the only reason why Kathryn was able to fling Rafe into a wall without tearing his scalp out. If someone tried that on Bunnigus, they'd just succeed in leaving a pissed-off, balding doctor right behind them.
* I just got that Petey didn't lie to the Tricameral Assembly about what was about to happen to them: [[JediTruth he just didn't mention that the frigate with the comically large orbital lance had nothing to do with it.]]
-->'''Petey:''' In 10 Minutes, [the frigate] will be overhead, at which point it will destroy this building and [[ExactWords any who remain inside.]]
-->'''Petey:''' ... [My robots] and I will share your fate.

* Why does Dr. Bunnigus make sure to remove Tino's rastacoils? Two reasons: One, the reason she gives Legs: It was a gang symbol and she wanted those affiliations symbolically replaced with affiliations to the Toughs. But there is another reason as well: the rastacoils are specifically told to be "reinforced", which might be the only reason why Kathryn was able to fling Rafe into a wall without tearing his scalp out. If someone tried that on Bunnigus, they'd just succeed in leaving a pissed-off, balding doctor right behind them.

* Why does Dr. Bunnigus make sure to remove Tino's rastacoils? Two reasons: One, the reason she gives Legs: It was a gang symbol and she wanted those affiliations symbolically replaced with affiliations to the Toughs. But there is another reason as well: the rastacoils are specifically told to be "reinforced", which might be the only reason why Kathryn was able to fling him into a wall without tearing Rafe's scalp out. If someone tried that on Bunnigus, they'd just succeed in leaving a pissed-off doctor right behind them.

* Why does Dr. Bunnigus make sure to remove Tino's rastacoils? Two reasons: One, the reason she gives Legs: It was a gang symbol and she wanted those affiliations symbolically replaced with affiliations to the Toughs. But there is another reason as well: the rastacoils are specifically told to be "reinforced", which might be the only reason why Kathryn was able to fling him into a wall without tearing his scalp out. If someone tried that on Bunnigus, they'd just succeed in leaving a pissed-off doctor right behind them.

* What does Petey fear? Ghosts. What does he fight? Dark Matter creatures that have no difference from ghosts.

* What does Petey fear? Ghosts. What does he fight? Dark Matter creatures that have no difference from ghosts.
** "No difference"? Well, maybe you can't see them, but they're real and they're not haunting anyone, they're trying to really kill, destroy and annihilate, and can be killed, destroyed and annihilated themselves I'd assume. They're not anything like ghosts at all.

* [[SwissMoment It took me a while to realize]] that the book titled "Emperor Pius Dei" wasn't just a reference to Petey being a virtual god. ''Its initials are "PD."'' It took me ''five years'' to realize that.