#QuestionOfTheDay What's something (a trope, plot point, character type, twist, technology, magic, decision, conceit of the genre/world, whatever) in fiction that you just can't buy.

@MorningSong @nazokiyoubinbou I defend nothing, not the Matrix sequels, not the Star Wars prequels, if it's bad it's bad and I'm not going to spend brain energy trying to rehabilitate them just because they're in a franchise I liked the original things in

Like I always say when people constantly revisit the prequels to find new meaning in them or talk about the newest mid Star Wars thing and how actually...

"Would we be spending this much energy trying to justify how it all makes sense if it wasn't named Star Wars?"

@nazokiyoubinbou @ami_angelwings To be clear, I've got no problems with red alerts. We should have alerts and they should be red.

It is just funny to me that in scifi, shields just kind of...exist. We have collectively decided that if you have a spacecraft, that spacecraft will have shields. That repel particles and energy. That can be "weakened" somehow by repeated pummeling by said particles and energy.

I'm okay with Uhura falling towards the turbolift, but shields? Impossible!

@5easypieces @nazokiyoubinbou it was always weird to me that shields could be weakened by phasers but also by photon torpedoes which did even more damage to weaken them. Like I thought maybe you could drain the shields with phasers and then use the photons on the actual ship. Also that shields can be specifically weakened in certain areas by concentrating on them and they don't just work as a single energy field. And yes I have the TNG technical manual I know how it's "supposed" to work and I know why it's done that way for tension reasons, and it doesn't ruin Trek for me, I am happy to live vicariously in that world and go "oh no, you better redirect energy from the aft shields to the front!" but still, it is really weird

@ami_angelwings Time travel models that don't at least try to answer the question of "why not go back in time again and fix your previous time travel fuckup?" Whenever I replay Chrono Trigger, I just want to go back to an earlier point in one of the eras and un-do something.

There's so many ways of addressing that, like Link Click handles it by having the concept of an "anchor," or there's other stories that just run with "yep, you can!" It's always weird when that question is left hanging.

@ami_angelwings @5easypieces The Elite Dangerous game handles this fairly intelligently. Shields are basically affected by thermal energy the most. Lasers/etc drain shields pretty fast, but explosives do very little damage (not zero, but then explosives do release thermal energy after all.) Then it's the converse for the actual hull material. Thermal damage is very weak on the hull while explosives are pretty high tier.

Kinetic damage is also fairly weak against shields, but for some reason it's super effective to add a mod that causes kinetics to produce a very tiny bit more thermal energy. (It's not even much, but I guess it adds up because all the PvPers use it.)

Also, if I were in Star Trek's world I'd probably sneak a torpedo around back when they shift their shields around...

#QuestionOfTheDay What's something (a trope, plot point, character type, twist, technology, magic, decision, conceit of the genre/world, whatever) in fiction that you just can't buy.

i.e. you get that it's fiction, & that it's a thing that happens, or that in the fictional world it's accepted, justified, or explained, or fans love it, etc. It's not that you don't understand it, it's just that you don't buy it, it doesn't work for you, you just can't accept it or take it seriously, etc...

This is a judgement free zone (at least from my end) so if you're like "when space magic shows up I can't take it seriously" or "ppl being able to fly makes no sense to me" etc that's totally fine.

#fiction #Television #TV #manga #anime #film #movies #books #CCGs #ttrpg #videogames #comics #comicbooks

@xgranade @ami_angelwings There's also a paradox many things don't even try to fix where if you go back and change a thing, you never would have had incentive to later go back and change the thing because it's already changed. Except then it wouldn't be changed so you'd have to go back and change it. Except then you wouldn't. Except then you would... 🤯

It can make sense if timelines are actually completely separated from each other, but then you're changing a universe that is kind of like yours but not actually. Your own universe is still screwed.

Well, unless your solution is like in Noein where they basically decide just to destroy everything.

@nazokiyoubinbou @xgranade always destroy

@ami_angelwings @xgranade It was... a bit of an overreaction though, you have to admit...

@nazokiyoubinbou @5easypieces I know it's for dramatic reasons and I absolutely love the movie and the ending fight but it always shocked me how many photon torpedoes they had to fire on a shieldless bird of prey in Star Trek 6, like the first homing torpedo should have destroyed it xD

@5easypieces @nazokiyoubinbou it was always weird to me that shields could be weakened by phasers but also by photon torpedoes which did even more damage to weaken them. Like I thought maybe you could drain the shields with phasers and then use the photons on the actual ship. Also that shields can be specifically weakened in certain areas by concentrating on them and they don't just work as a single energy field. And yes I have the TNG technical manual I know how it's "supposed" to work and I know why it's done that way for tension reasons, and it doesn't ruin Trek for me, I am happy to live vicariously in that world and go "oh no, you better redirect energy from the aft shields to the front!" but still, it is really weird

@ami_angelwings @nazokiyoubinbou This is just a reminder to try to remember which box I put my TNG technical manual in

@5easypieces @ami_angelwings It was the one next to the thing over in that place with the stuff.

@ami_angelwings Just about every secret org in YA fiction unless it's very specifically being played for laughs. Just a whole ass genre of beautiful, often long haired and long coated people who somehow exist on the fringes of society who're unaccountably able to Go Anywhere Important and Do Incredibly Important things, all apparently walking normal ass streets unsmiling waiting for the chosen ones to mentor without anyone side eyeing them like "who is this weird Amish metal head?"

@5easypieces @ami_angelwings It was the one next to the thing over in that place with the stuff.

@nazokiyoubinbou @5easypieces next to the "on the anatomy of the daleks" 600 page medical reference text

@nazokiyoubinbou @5easypieces next to the "on the anatomy of the daleks" 600 page medical reference text

This also happens in reverse for me with face heel turns, like in wrestling when Steve Austin turned heel and teamed up with Triple H who literally tried to run him over with a car a year ago! Water under the bridge now that the "evil" switch has been flipped.

@ami_angelwings it seems to me that turning evil would make you less forgiving, not more

@otherdracula they tried to justify it as he respects Triple H cared so much about winning he would try to kill somebody over it, but also, the justification of the whole plotline is that Steve Austin got hit but a car which took him out of action for almost a year, then he comes back but because of the injury he's insecure about his ability to be himself so he turns evil to get Vince McMahon's help (who they also have tried to basically kill each other on various occasions) to win a championship, and then he teams up with the guy who put him in this position in the first place? I guess cuz he's evil now and is like actually opposing authority is bad, look where it got me, now I should join them and be evil

I guess it makes sense if you look at it from a certain angle but also it doesn't