Science debate|current topic: Tea for the wicked!!!

[Omeg@]

I wonder if you can buy those things from somewhere. Then again, it might lose the original point of scaring the child. "Look how easily she could have aborted your sorry ass." "Oh, grow up mom. I know you bought those from Mrs. Sullivan".

[BrianJ]

I think both.

However, reminds me of a comedian who said that he was going to add the title "the second" to the end of his kid's name (even though there was never a first with that name). When the kid would ask about it, he'd say, "Well, my first son didn't listen to me, so..."

[Omeg@]

Where the hell have I been? Good question, bad answer.

I am a bit puzzeld at the moment, but that is what magic does, I guess.

I theory, magic shouldn't work against Sandra, but this toilet banishment seems to work on her. How is it different? Guesses?

[MrBigMr]

Has it been said that Sandra totally is immune to magic (by someone who came to the conclusion by other means than just tossing everything the had at her with no effect and in the end threw their hands in the air and gave up), or just that so far next to nothing has worked on her? And how would "being immune to magic" work? I would guess that I can't turn her into a toad, but can I lob at her with a fireball? Surely the resulting very much non-magical explosion would have an effect (see "robot death ray", "wolf teetch", "bomb" and "several rounds from a pistol", among other things).

Maybe the magic resistance only works on spells that are designed to harm her (trying to turn her human is basically "hurting" the demon aspect of her)? In other words, a spell that would just throw her across the room or something like that, would get through, but more direct spells wouldn't. So the toilet spell is more of a "Vade retro, satani!" than being banisher forever.

Or maybe the spells is directed on something totally different, like the air aroung her, or her clothes (Then why her wings got sucked in? How the hell should I know, I'm just saying. At least I'm doing something. I don't see you coming up with anything better.) *insert some other option*

[vole-in-hand]

I get the feeling she's immune to magic, the same way a cat is immune to landing on its back.

[Omeg@]

Maybe the magic resistance only works on spells that are designed to harm her (trying to turn her human is basically "hurting" the demon aspect of her)? In other words, a spell that would just throw her across the room or something like that, would get through, but more direct spells wouldn't. So the toilet spell is more of a "Vade retro, satani!" than being banisher forever.

I find it a bit odd that the banishing spell would work, but a containing spell wouldn't. I mean, boardshoulders went as far as conjuring a piece of hell on earth and letting it transfer Sandra through it when it would return back. Perhaps there is something special about this particular spell.

I get the feeling she's immune to magic, the same way a cat is immune to landing on its back.

An intresting idea. With this in mind, how would Toilet of Power bypass Demon's magic resistance? Would it try to throw the floor at the cat, for instance? OR lowering the cealing that the cat cannot fit wihtout it's back touching either the cealing or the floor? Sort of like givin' the magic resistance two options: Either get destroyed or be sucked in.

[vole-in-hand]

I get the feeling she's immune to magic, the same way a cat is immune to landing on its back.

An intresting idea. With this in mind, how would Toilet of Power bypass Demon's magic resistance? Would it try to throw the floor at the cat, for instance? OR lowering the cealing that the cat cannot fit wihtout it's back touching either the cealing or the floor? Sort of like givin' the magic resistance two options: Either get destroyed or be sucked in.

Her abilities just sort of seem like clues to her nature... she can be in two places at once, parts of her can flash in and out of existance, she can walk on walls, etc. Maybe she's immune to magic because she's immune to many of this universe's constraints. She can ignore gravity, space, and probably entropy, so it's not a stretch to say she can ignore magic. It's just a natural grace, like that of the cat.

So basically if you want to find a way to harm her, you have to do your research and find out what she can't ignore. It was probably a matter of time until Jack either got killed, or finally found that sweet spot. He is something of an expert on the subject after all.

[Omeg@]

Her abilities just sort of seem like clues to her nature... she can be in two places at once, parts of her can flash in and out of existance, she can walk on walls, etc. Maybe she's immune to magic because she's immune to many of this universe's constraints. She can ignore gravity, space, and probably entropy, so it's not a stretch to say she can ignore magic. It's just a natural grace, like that of the cat.

So basically if you want to find a way to harm her, you have to do your research and find out what she can't ignore. It was probably a matter of time until Jack either got killed, or finally found that sweet spot. He is something of an expert on the subject after all.

Putting the joke aside But he ran out of time. I'm not sure since when Jack has know that the Toilet of Power would work on Sandra, he didn't want to use it, because he wanted to "save" her. A man can change his priorities rather quickly when one goes and threatens his sister. It seems that Sandra can't ignore the Toilet for some reason.
A theory for this is that most magic is sort like water and demons are oil. They don't mix, because of the hydrophobic group on the fat molecules. Jack needed to find some sort of detergent to mix the oil and the water. His first attempt didn't go so well, so maybe the ToP is made out of a bit stronger stuff. Who knows..

Then again, ToP doesn't seem to work on Wally, so maybe it's strickly an anti-demon spell.

[vole-in-hand]

Her abilities just sort of seem like clues to her nature... she can be in two places at once, parts of her can flash in and out of existance, she can walk on walls, etc. Maybe she's immune to magic because she's immune to many of this universe's constraints. She can ignore gravity, space, and probably entropy, so it's not a stretch to say she can ignore magic. It's just a natural grace, like that of the cat.

So basically if you want to find a way to harm her, you have to do your research and find out what she can't ignore. It was probably a matter of time until Jack either got killed, or finally found that sweet spot. He is something of an expert on the subject after all.

Putting the joke aside But he ran out of time. I'm not sure since when Jack has know that the Toilet of Power would work on Sandra, he didn't want to use it, because he wanted to "save" her. A man can change his priorities rather quickly when one goes and threatens his sister. It seems that Sandra can't ignore the Toilet for some reason.
A theory for this is that most magic is sort like water and demons are oil. They don't mix, because of the hydrophobic group on the fat molecules. Jack needed to find some sort of detergent to mix the oil and the water. His first attempt didn't go so well, so maybe the ToP is made out of a bit stronger stuff. Who knows..

Then again, ToP doesn't seem to work on Wally, so maybe it's strickly an anti-demon spell.

You may recall this. Not sure if the toilet is different, and if so, why.

[Omeg@]

You may recall this. Not sure if the toilet is different, and if so, why.

If the toilet is similar, eg. it tosses Sandra into limbo, which will deliver her into hell, then she has a chance to escape it the same way she did before.

[MrBigMr]

I find it a bit odd that the banishing spell would work, but a containing spell wouldn't. I mean, boardshoulders went as far as conjuring a piece of hell on earth and letting it transfer Sandra through it when it would return back. Perhaps there is something special about this particular spell.

As in... It works? That's pretty special, right?

You may recall this. Not sure if the toilet is different, and if so, why.

If the toilet is similar, eg. it tosses Sandra into limbo, which will deliver her into hell, then she has a chance to escape it the same way she did before.

Even better if she escapes through another toilet. While someone was using it. An explosion of blood and guts as a spawn of flailing hooves, horns and talons eject from an interdimentional portal right into your backside.

Now that's entertainment.

Reminds me of a larp in which an interdimentional portal was housed in an out of order restroom. So people might exit through it and enter as totally different characters.

[BrianJ]

It may be something a lot simpler than our current speculations: Sandra is almost completely immune to magic. Jack did cast a spell, but not a spell ON SANDRA. It was an area type spell, which created/summoned a portal (in the shape of a toilet) to another dimension. It is the PORTAL, not the spell which created the portal, which had an affect on our wayward demoness.

Maybe?

[Omeg@]

It may be something a lot simpler than our current speculations: Sandra is almost completely immune to magic. Jack did cast a spell, but not a spell ON SANDRA. It was an area type spell, which created/summoned a portal (in the shape of a toilet) to another dimension. It is the PORTAL, not the spell which created the portal, which had an affect on our wayward demoness.

Maybe?

That is a good guess. But it doesn't explain why demons would be sucked in it and werewolfs (and probably everything else) just pass through. Could it be that the demons' magical immunity/resistance would somehow work against them? Meaning that ToP would target and lock on the creatures that mudae magic doesn't work on.

[Omeg@]

Come on, it's not like some natural "everybody poops" sort of things where we don't have to be shown and told about it (though it would make good (in a really, really bad way) strip), because we can assume they just do it. But we have 4 different bad guys who all drank tea, so there must be something to it. It's not like we've all come across them just at tea time, especially since everyone was at a different time.

So, we've found a similar feat in majority of your villains. Do they all just share a same taste or is there something else behind this? Personally, I think that it's the former, but I've been wrong about these things before.

thoughts?

[MrBigMr]

A most puzzling inquiry, old chap, and a very keen observation indeed. Any lesser man would have not even notice something as trivial as that, or even bothered with it if he had, but nothing escaped you, my eagle-eyed friend, now does it. Surely this is something worthy of ye olden Science Debate, where we have disproven both evolution and creation, won WW2 through re-enactment via the medium of finger puppets and made sweet love to a beautiful mind.

But what a gem it is that you have brought us today. What a god of a question among queries. That most noble of things left unaswered...
...
Ya'll stopped reading, right?

Ok, I'll get to the point. The point is: The truth is out there!

I admit, there's a lot of non-tea drinking bad guys in ZG, but so far we have total of 4 that have done it. And not in some hot water in a mug kinda way, but in the old Bond villain style of doing it right and having it in a cut and with a saucer and so forth. It could be nothing, but it could be everything. Maybe it's just some universal law, like how all magical tomes are found in attics. In this case "all villains like to drink tea".

History will prove me right!

[Omeg@]

Oh, you shameless sycophant you.



Maybe it's like those -lawful vs. chaotic / good vs. evil -things, meaning that all the (more or less) civilized evil characters have to show themselves that they are not mindless butchers. Tea is calming and can do wonders to a sore throat. Coffee is more chaotic. It's boosts your energy, makes you restless and upsets your stomach. People who drink tea are capable of making wise decision and don't need to rush on things.


I wonder what the good guys drink. If we look at Sam, I'd say that it's Beer.

[MrBigMr]

So Tea = Lawful Evil?

Hmm... What would coffee and beer be? Remember, Sandra doesn't seem to be drinking much coffee since she turned Evil, so we must judge it by her old status.

[Omeg@]

*ahem*

[MrBigMr]

...

But remember when Crystal sits down with Wolfmother for tea? It's not like she's Lawful Evil (or is she...? *dun-dun-dunn*) It's not like Evil Sandra had a coffee brewer in her little shack in the woods. She stole the cup from another person, not get it herself. It might have been more the act of stealing than the coffee itself.

[BrianJ]

Enjoyment of tea has been a long-standing note of a level of sophistication (especially among the English). I don't quite understand why, I enjoy a good cup of hot tea, and also enjoy a good fart joke and/or Larry the Cable Guy. Go fig.

On a side note, I'm not really sure if Pookah Zinn was actually enjoying the cup of TEA, or the CUP that happened to have tea in it. image: 3rd panel, he holds the cup over his gaping maw (those teeth! ), and then in the 5th panel (in-laid in 4th), Mary's putting a saucer back into her basket, but there's no sign of the cup anymore.

[Omeg@]

Mary's putting a saucer back into her basket, but there's no sign of the cup anymore.

That's nitpicking. She already could have put the cup in. In comic generally there are lots of things happening, but the artist can't draw every single little detail.

She stole the cup from another person, not get it herself. It might have been more the act of stealing than the coffee itself.

SO you think she's a kleptomanic? Does smoke create fire if it gets too thick (well, actually it does, but.... nevermind). The point is that whil Sandra can only taste coffee, the other creatures might only taste tea. Maybe they can taste something else too, like Doyenne might know the taste of blood, but one hardly makes a good impression with a piece of flesh hanging from your jaws. ">Hello Crystal. Have some deer."

And even if that theory fails, drinking tea does give them some amount of definition as a character. People just drink tea. It's mundane.

[BrianJ]

That's nitpicking. She already could have put the cup in. In comic generally there are lots of things happening, but the artist can't draw every single little detail.

Well now, if the 12/3/2009 entry is any indication, it appears Black Betty, Pookah Zinn, and their kin do rather enjoy a CUP of tea after all...

[ltcdruphs10]

Does anyone think that there could be a correlation between the bad guys ( i use that term lightly seeing as Sandra's recent change of attitude (and yes, i know that by now it's not that recent)) drinking tea, and the good guys (again, used lightly) enjoying coffee? I mean, coffee and tea are alike, liken that to Sandra and the truly evil group being magical, but coffee is usually bitter, darker color depending on the type (other such differences), and Sandra and group being good, with the other tea drinkers being bad? O.o i feel like i've been rambling, so i shalt leave it open to discussion now.

[Omeg@]

By that definition, my e-ville scale would be up to a villian level, since I hate coffee but enjou tea quite a bit (You should see my collection).

But as I mentioned previously:

drinking tea does give them some amount of definition as a character. People just drink tea. It's mundane.

Just because they drink tea, doesn't make them evil or vice versa. I think that they just try to act more civilized and that way oppose the idea of maddly rambling aberrations that you read about in Lovecraft's and Ligotti's stories.