History Headscratchers / ElGoonishShive

The title of [[https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2002-03-07 this strip]] mentions that it has the second DudeWheresMyCar reference in the strip (that being, Sarah literally saying exactly that). What was the first? In the commentary, Dan says he doesn't even know, and didn't want to bother looking through the archives for it.

** Rebuttal: Even in irregular combat situations, close-quarters fighting still isn't very useful, mostly because if the enemy is that close to you, then you probably screwed up somehow. Plus, armies already have perfectly adequate close-quarters fighting techniques and weapons (like combat knifes and bayonets), and such fights are more often decided by skill then physiology (look at the fight between Grace and Damien). Also, there is no real indication that they are far stronger then normal, and their Main/ShapeSifting abilities would make it difficult to wear body. Furthermore, it doesn't look like Vlad and Guineas could wield modern weapons effectively, if at all. Finally, you can't seem to make a whole lot of [[Main/SuperSoldier Super Soldiers]] this way, rendering their impact on anything other then ''very'' small battles extremely low.
** As stated below, they weren't really super-soldiers, just super-assasins. Being able to transform into a harmless-looking animal would certainly be helpful for a stealth-killer. The halfway form may not have even been intentional, it could've just happened--after all, Grace gets the halfway form automatically whenever they give her a new animal form with the transformation gun without having to also program in a halfway form. A bit more work was thrown into Grace, but that was specifically tailoring her to fight one person, and proved successful (mostly because they made her immune to his main weapon).
** While super-assassins make more sense then super-soldier, Grace and her brothers wouldn't make very effective assassins. While being able to turn into a small, harmless animal is useful for stealth reasons, there's more to being a good assassin being stealthy, especially for one in the employ of a large nation-state. The assassin would also have to be able to kill silently, so they can get away for another mission, and kill the target in such a way that it isn't apparent that the target has been assassinated. Otherwise people are going to get suspicious when the nation-states enemies start dieing mysteriously, even if they can't figure out how that nation is killing them, which would defeat the whole propose of killing them stealthily. Furthermore, the smart enemies would increase their security after a few successful hits, making it harder to kill the people the nation would most want to kill.

** Er... Maybe because it's silly? This is supposed to be a dramedy, after all. Besides, compared to some of the ''actual'' stuff dreamed up by the real US Department of Defense (incendiary bats, pigeon guided missiles), maybe squirrel and guinea pig based assassins aren't that far-fetched after all. Dr. Sciuridae as much as admits that the whole animal-based assassins thing was just a marketing gimmmick anyway.

[[folder:Uryom Name]]

* Uryoms and uryomoco. Why is it that their own word for themselves translates directly to "alien"? Is the substitution cipher setup just halfway translation convention?
** It doesn't; Uryom is a proper noun and proper nouns stay as they are in Uryomoco. It's just a joke.

* Mrs. Kitsune has since been revealed to have a hidden agenda. Apparenly she already knows Nanase is a magic user and may know that she's gay.

** His female form is naturally busty ''and he was concentrating on Sarah's face rather than her chest''. From what we've seen, there's no reason why he couldn't change any given aspect of his "default" female form if he tried hard ough, he's just not experienced enough with the spell to manage it with any consistency.

** She's not ''in'' FV5, she's in her default form ''based on'' Elliot in FV5 – that's why she can V5 herself once more (and maybe why in her case it looks rather exaggerated). That, and by the time Elliot touched DD [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-07-24 pheromones were normalized long ago]] anyway. Other than this, only basic "twisted curse" effects DD gave them are linked with FV5, they both got derived spells soon enough (because they ''had'' to discharge every day), and those aren't related to FV5.

Finally resolved: Raven Is Diane's Father, but is Susan's Distant Ancestor. Basically, without his "age magic" to look like a older Human male, Raven Looks a lot like Susan's dad,(only with Elf ears) who was "a cheaters cheater". This is due to the fact that he is really over 400 years old, and may be immortal due to his Mother, An actual "Immortal" Fairy named Pandora Chaos Raven (aka Box). When he was "in his actual 20's" is when he probably got someone who became Susan's ancestor pregnant. Because he Honestly believed he could not have kids (Because his Mother also did not believe that he could have kids) he lost touch with both parents. Given the passage of time while it is Possible that Susan is currently his "Sole decedent" from his earlier lover, the odds are that by now there may have thousands of actual descendants. Diane is his actual daughter. The unplanned reunion happened when Susan outright Killed a Abomination, in front of Diane, Then Raven jumped in, killed 2 more with a Summoned Magic Sword given to him by Susan, while confronting another Abomination a hidden abomination pulled out a .50 revolver... and was killed (along with all the other Abominations in the mall) By Pandora, who was forbidden to do so by Immortal law. this resulted in her apparent disappearance in a flash of light. Needless to say Diane was shocked. Raven is stunned by the guilt of knowing that he has been a Cad for all this time, and the apparent loss of his mother(she is not as lost to him as he things, he is apparently not yet aware that Pandora chose to refrech instead of reset. meaning that even though she is more or less reduced to a more child like state, she will still love him (and by extension his family) . Currently, reunion between Father and Daughter is currently on hold.

* It is my imagination, or Justin is just about the only one from the main gang to not have a romantic developement? He is so out of focus in the story that isn't even funny. Well, the comic is known for its DoubleStandard, but to leave Justin developeless for so long...

[[folder:Nio's magic nose beep]]

** She's clearly decided that those second life memories as much not her's as Elliot's, and is as such trying to distance herself from them and behave according to the memories of her own three months of life as much as she possibly can – and seems to be succeeding in getting emotional reactions more from those three months than the rest. She knows he's a good person quite well... but she also knows that her own personal experience, bad things happen to her when he's around.

** Maybe he's used to his face? Shapeshifting into someone else is fun as long as it's explicitly shapeshifting, temporarily masquarade that will end with becoming yourself once again. And I don't think that acknowledging he has to change what he was born like is going to help {{fix}} Tedd's self-image problems.

** It's a Japanese name, so it has simple "consonant-vowel" pronounciation. English is complicated like that, but it's really just "Na-na-se", with "na" as in "banana" and "se" as in "sex".

* My guess is that they'd get the extended lifespan of an elf and probably even better shapeshifting than Grace but wouldn't be able to use traditional magic. There's no real evidence either way in the comic but that seems to fit with the general trend that Uryom/Chimera shapeshifting overrides normal magic.
* My guess is that it would follow the same basic pattern as normal reproduction. An immortal!Seyunolo would have the extended lifespan of an elf, and if they found a way to suppress their Uryom magic they'd probably have a much easier time building up their "conventional" magic. An elf!Seyunolo would essentially be indistinguishable from a human!Seyunolo, except that if they found a way to build up their conventional magic they'd have a bloodline affinity (just as Susan, her various ancestors, and Diane are normal humans with a bloodline affinity).

Finally resolved: [[spoiler:Raven Is Diane's Father, but is Susan's Distant Ancestor. Basically, without his "age magic" to look like a older Human male, Raven Looks a lot like Susan's dad,(only with Elf ears) who was "a cheaters cheater". This is due to the fact that he is really over 400 years old, and may be immortal due to his Mother, An actual "Immortal" Fairy named Pandora Chaos Raven (aka Box). When he was "in his actual 20's" is when he probably got someone who became Susan's ancestor pregnant. Because he Honestly believed he could not have kids (Because his Mother also did not believe that he could have kids) he lost touch with both parents. Given the passage of time while it is Possible that Susan is currently his "Sole decedent" from his earlier lover, the odds are that by now there may have thousands of actual descendants. Diane is his actual daughter. The unplanned reunion happened when Susan outright Killed a Abomination, in front of Diane, Then Raven jumped in, killed 2 more with a Summoned Magic Sword given to him by Susan, while confronting another Abomination a hidden abomination pulled out a .50 revolver... and was killed (along with all the other Abominations in the mall) By Pandora, who was forbidden to do so by Immortal law. this resulted in her apparent disappearance in a flash of light. Needless to say Diane was shocked. Raven is stunned by the guilt of knowing that he has been a Cad for all this time, and the apparent loss of his mother(she is not as lost to him as he things, he is apparently not yet aware that Pandora chose to refrech instead of reset. meaning that even though she is more or less reduced to a more child like state, she will still love him (and by extension his family) . Currently, reunion between Father and Daughter is currently on hold.]]

* [[spoiler: My guess is that it would follow the same basic pattern as normal reproduction. An immortal!Seyunolo would have the extended lifespan of an elf, and if they found a way to suppress their Uryom magic they'd probably have a much easier time building up their "conventional" magic. An elf!Seyunolo would essentially be indistinguishable from a human!Seyunolo, except that if they found a way to build up their conventional magic they'd have a bloodline affinity (just as Susan, her various ancestors, and Diane are normal humans with a bloodline affinity).]]

* So why didn't Not-Tengu become an Aberration? I doubt he has any ethical objections to it, and the immortality and monstrous forms would be extremely useful, as would the resistance to harm from non-magical weapons. And given the number of aberrations we've seen on-panel, the process to become one can't be ''that'' hard to find out...

Finally resolved: [[spoiler:Raven Is Diane's Father, but is Susan's Distant Ancestor. Basically, without his "age magic" to look like a older Human male, Raven Looks a lot like Susan's dad,(only with Elf ears) who was "a cheaters cheater". This is due to the fact that he is really over 400 years old, and may be immortal due to his Mother, An actual "Immortal" Fairy named Pandora Chaos Raven (aka Box). When he was "in his actual 20's" is when he probably got someone who became Susan's ancestor pregnant. Because he Honestly believed he could not have kids (Because his Mother also did not believe that he could have kids) he lost touch with both parents. Given the passage of time while it is Possible that Susan is currently his "Sole decedent" from his earlier lover, the odds are that by now there may have thousands of actual descendants. Diane is his actual daughter. The unplanned reunion happened when Susan outright Killed a Abomination, in front of Diane, Then Raven jumped in, killed 2 more with a Summoned Magic Sword given to him by Susan, while confronting another Abomination a hidden abomination pulled out a .50 revolver... and was killed (along with all the other Abominations in the mall) By Pandora, who was forbidden to do so by Immortal law. this resulted in her apparent disappearance in a flash of light. Needless to say Diane was shocked. And Raven is stunned by the guilt of knowing that he has been a Cad for all this time. There reunion is currently on hold.]]

* It is my imagination, or Justin is just about the only one from the main gang to not have a romatic developement? He is so out of focus in the story that isn't even funny. Well, the comic is known for its DoubleStandard, but to leave Justin developeless for so long...

** Probably. There've been other things that turned up again significantly later.

Finally resolved: [[spoiler:Raven without his "age magic" to look like a older Human male, Raven Looks a lot like Susan's dad, who was "a Cheaters cheater". This is due to the fact that he is really over 400 years old, and may be immortal due to his Mother, An actual "Immortal" Fairy named Pandora Chaos Raven (aka Box). When he was "in his actual 20's" is when he probably got someone who became Susan's ancestor pregnant. given the passage of time while it is Possible that Susan is currently his "Sole decedent" odds are that there are Raven by now may have thousands of actual descendants. Diane on the other hand is his actual daughter. The unplanned reunion happened when Susan outright Killed a Abomination, Then Raven jumped in, killed 2 more with a Summoned Magic Sword, while confronting another Abomination a hidden abomination pulled out a .50 revolver... and was killed (along with all the other Abominations in the mall) By Pandora, who was forbidden to do so by Immortal law. this resulted in her apparent disappearance in a flash of light]]

** [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=838 Wrong]].

** [[http://elgoonishshive.com/Filler/d/20070223.html Wrong]].

** His female form is naturally busty ''and he was concentrating on Sarah's face rather than her chest''. From what we've seen, there's no reason why he couldn't change any given aspect of his "default" female form if he tried hard enough, he's just not experienced enough with the spell to manage it with any consistency.

[[folder:“Before you dated my brother?”]]
* After learning about how Nanase use to date a lot of guys Ellen asks [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1298 “Before you dated my brother?”]] I read this as asking “did you cheat on Eliot when dating him.” Nanase didn’t actually answer the question. Her reaction to the question could be interpreted as meaning yes she did. Why is this not treated as a big deal? Is this ever brought up again?