Discussion for comic for 2012-03-26 (Monday) ✣ . (Chronology Entry)
I spoke too soon. Othar removed the chains. And hey, Tarvek pulled himself together and fixed the machine! You know, as brilliant as Gil is for making these heavier-than-air flying machines, it doesn't reflect well on him that his machines must be repaired mid-air on their first flights... ~Mysteria Femina~ (talk • Avatar wall) 05:48, March 26, 2012 (UTC)
- Oh, come on, Mysteria Femina! If he finished them before dropping them out of Castle Wulfenbach they would not be falling machines. They'd be flying machines. Falling is far more interesting than flying. -- Billy Catringer 05:59, March 26, 2012 (UTC)
- Part of the problem is testing from Castle Wulfenbach. Many experimental airplanes fail to launch from the ground on first try, but they become driving machines rather than falling machines. The fact that each of Gil's machines can be fixed on the first flight is great. (And this flight wasn't planned. Under other circumstances he would have started the engine before opening the hatch.) Argadi 09:21, March 26, 2012 (UTC)
- I do concede that at least they do work after a mid-air tune-up. (If they didn't, we wouldn't even have a heroine right now...) And true, there is the problem of test flights. But he could just make a wind tunnel type of machine to test them, or some other Sparky contraption to ensure safer test flights. Maybe he's just
insanean adrenaline junkie who likes the thrill of peril such as plummeting to the earth as you whip out the tools. Or maybe he's simply a do-now-think-later kind of guy, like how Bang is a kill-now-think-later kind of girl. He has shown many other cases of throwing himself out there without a second thought, such as his encounter with Herr Ketter's tractor and his struggle with Mamma Gkika after waking up, so it is rather plausible.
- I do concede that at least they do work after a mid-air tune-up. (If they didn't, we wouldn't even have a heroine right now...) And true, there is the problem of test flights. But he could just make a wind tunnel type of machine to test them, or some other Sparky contraption to ensure safer test flights. Maybe he's just
- Also, this is a Spark we're talking about here. Most of the other devices that Gil and other strong Sparks build work the first time, even the ultra-risky lightning rod+lightning generators combo (they didn't melt until after they already worked). I was mainly wondering if a stronger Spark, such as Agatha, could best him by making one that works the first time, with no repairs necessary.
- And most importantly, I was merely joking a little at Gil's expense. I was poking fun at him just to poke fun at him, not because I seriously thought he wasn't good. : P
- As a side note, I noticed a difference in the reactions of Agatha and Tarvek to their first time in one of Gil's flying machines. Agatha was much quicker to jump in and get Sparking, even disassembling the engine entirely, while Tarvek needed the antics of Othar and Vole to take his mind off the falling long enough to get to work. I'm guessing the fact that Agatha's a Heterodyne is probably at least part of the reason for her fearlessness. Danger is a thrill to Heterodynes. >: } ~Mysteria~ (talk) 22:04, March 26, 2012 (UTC)
As soon as I saw the sound effect, all I could think of was the song "Hooked on a Feeling." So where's Vole in the wide shot of the entomopter startng up? I don't see him in or out of it. —jdreyfuss 13:14, March 26, 2012 (UTC)
Yes, boys & girls, we gots us some genuine 3 Stooges action going on here.--Bosda Di'Chi 13:24, March 26, 2012 (UTC)
Yes Bosda Di'Chi but which one is Moe, Larry, or Curly/Shemp? I vote Tarvek as Moe, Othar as Larry, and Vole as Shemp. Everyone has hair so Curly was out. Tarvek as Moe being the "brains" of the outfit and others, take your pick, because they both can take a beating and still get up again. Der Fliegender Hollander 192.55.208.10 15:10, March 26, 2012 (UTC)
I always thought of Larry as being the closest thing the three had to a straight man, with Moe as the easily frustrated brains and Shemp/Curly as the free spirited dope, either through Curly's stupidity or Shemp's naïveté. So Vole is the most violent, but Tarvek is the most easily frustrated. Othar appears to be both the most naïve one and the one with the most tenuous connection to reality. Vole really does seem to be simply stupid but otherwise normal though. I'd say Tarvek = Moe, Othar = Shemp, and Vole = Larry. —jdreyfuss 15:36, March 26, 2012 (UTC)
jdreyfuss I'm Cool with that analysis, and I wonder which Stooge gets to actually fly the FM 2.0...Othar? I think Vole is hanging over the off side by one hand (accouting for the flyer's tilt) or Othar is sitting on him (accounting for Othar's rather high profile under the rotors). At least now Othar accepts that Tarvek is not Gil but Gil's "Degenerate Clone" (panel 6)...Othar is really in touch with reality. Der fliegende Hollander 16:17, March 26, 2012 (UTC)
"Tch. So Crude. All Power and no Finesse. Hmm... but I guess it is rather brilliant in its way.. its crude, smug, irritating, lowlife, debauched way." And so we have Tarvek's one panel summary of his feelings toward the house of Wulfenbach. Xelvonar 18:06, March 26, 2012 (UTC)
- I see Tarvek's line to be about Gil specifically and not about the whole house, especially the part about "debauched". But yes, I think it is a great job in condensing Tarvek's feelings. LittleAlvinMaker 23:29, March 26, 2012 (UTC)
Heh. I love the way Vole's 'assistance' to Tarvek mirrors Bang's 'assistance' to Gil. -- SpareParts
I'm just waiting for Othar to go overboard, & for Vole to follow shortly thereafter... They might actually hang out together after they land, simply because they can't manage to kill each other. Slowness 03:50, March 27, 2012 (UTC)
Well this resolves the whole copter blade question I had. I guess I was sorta assuming that this machine was a gyro-ortho-copter arrangement (with unpowered freely spinning blades) of some kind. Clearly, both blades and wings are powered, and quite powerfully. That's what I get for overanalyzing a world where a blivet can be found hanging from a pegboard and the laws of nature are way more flexible than the tiresomely restrictive "obey or die" ones we have here.
I should have been able to figure this out from the fact that the entire Wulfenbach fleet hasn't been blown into a mountainside from a spell of mildly bad weather. I'll bet both Boyle's Law and the gravitational constant are a lot different there. That would explain the lifting gas issue from a while back, and why no one ever seems to need an oxygen mask, and why falling machines seem to fall long enough to stage an opera before there's any danger they might hit the ground. ...and there I go again. Pardon me while I take a wrench to my inner engineer. (Maybe a spanner. No, no, I've got it, a two pound straight peen blacksmith's hammer! That's the ticket!) --Gsulli7369 10:40, March 27, 2012 (UTC)
- Just keep in mind that as long as the rules are internally consistent, it doesn't matter whether they're the same as ours. That should satisfy your inner engineer. And if that's not enough, remember the spherical chicken in a vacuum. —jdreyfuss 11:56, March 27, 2012 (UTC)
- Ha! Thanks, hadda google that one. Funny cuz it's true! - --Gsulli7369 10:02, March 28, 2012 (UTC)