Comic Genesis Forums

how many times have they tried to get this right??

alright guys, stay with me here, and if i repeat someone, i'm sorry ^_^ (sometimes i miss threads)


Point one.
<a href="http://www.faans.com/d/20020307.html">Cometary Commentary</a>

Here, we learn that THIS time the general and her "army" wait for someone else to invade the earth first.

i keep coming back to that page, and further back, to the "alternate" reality where we first heard the General's name.

It bothers me that they say "the earth".. it leads me away from the belief that they are random planetary invaders.. it bothers me even more that they seem to know so much about the future of the earth.

Today, something else started bothering me. Well, two somethings to be specific.

One, they have to choose the right moment (again, the strip above) and two.... before this day is over, Kath will want to damn the general.


And here it comes.... wait for it....

This.. has happened before.

All of this. The General landing on earth, healing Shanna's mother, Guth's encounter with the alien.... it has all happened before, over and over and over again... and each time, the General comes a little bit closer to getting it right.

Maybe later in her life, (or perhaps when she was younger.. who knows with this kind of travel) the general will become/was the general from Phantoms....

And if you're still following.. lets hurt our heads for a moment shall we?

i'll try to draw out the timeline theory i have in my head right now.To keep my head straight i'm going to leave out Tom's findings regarding the GUTRC theory.. i know it can fit, but its easier to leave it out for now.... And now on to the timeline... PLEASE forgive me if this just comes out confusing. i'm going to make up fake dates to assist in this timeline.

Phantoms Future A (20??). Julianna M., for some reason, decides that Fandom is just plain bad. She develops a plan to destroy it, given her knowledge of the influences throught recent history, and some method of time travel.

Phantoms Past (19??). Jullianna M., under the guise of the General, allies with a younger, more power hungry Jones. Through him, she manages to completely supress fandome, except for,

Phantoms Present (19??) Rumy manages to locate a younger, more vulnerable Julianna, and somehow make her realize the error of her ways.

Phantoms Future B (20??) The General who came in contact with Rumy, in collaboration with Rumy, in an effort to save SOMEONE (see the icy finger of death thread), goes back in time to stop herself from destroying fandom.

But something is not quite right. That important person died anyway.

That important person keeps dying, no matter how many times the general goes back through time, no matter what alliances she forms, no matter what year she comes.

Wow... i wrote all that... and in retrospect, i think it's all bs... but i also think there are a good deal of truths scattered in there.

Who can take what my mind has wrought and make it into something right?

I've got the crown, take it from me.. it hurts my eyes...

I understand what you're saying. When you think about that though, what exactly does that say about me?

Um, silversmoke? I like the thoughts you're posting, but I'm missing where the General's interaction with multiple universes is documented. You cover several possible futures and pasts, but I've no idea where they're from.

However, the idea that she's "playing god", and stepping through the infinite parallel earths trying to mould history into a certain shape is quite interesting. It's just the thing that Doctor Who tries to prevent, and Quantum Leap avoided all together. And exactly what the 'evil' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the one labeled in dark and unfriendly letters that said "PANIC") was designed to do, eliminate all possible alternate universes that didn't conform to what the Guide's authors wrote.

If you're right, though, the question is who is the Spiney General trying to manipulate? Or what event, perhaps?

Obviously she doesn't think that an alien invasion is going to mess up the works, despite the randomness one would expect such an event would likely produce. How could she be so sure of that, since her minion said that it was _different_ this time, that they wouldn't invade first (except for the possibility that in the past they prevented that alien invasion or just they themsleves invaded first.).

And she needs Shanna's mom both alive and much more sane than she was (perhaps in one of the 'more successful' timelines she never had a breakdown?).

The last question you've gotten me to think about is the condition of the parallel worlds she's already visited. Does earth exist? Does it go on with some horribly perverted timestream? Have they mangled things so baddly that those (or some of those) parallel universes have ceased to exist? Did they collapse their waveform, effectly erasing them from ever having existed in the first place (H2G2:MH)?

I don't think this will fry our Fannish brains, it certainly seems to be the toughest nut T's given us to crack.

Very interesting post, silversmoke. I think you're on to something.

There don't have to be alternate universes, just alternate timelines. This could be "Groundhog Day" on a grand scale as easily as anything else, with the difference that the principle character is consciously going back and starting over.

I'm wondering about the interaction with Kath. Clearly, in a number of timelines, Kath becomes a hugely influential person. The issue for the General seems to be how she will be influential. First, she demonstrates that Kath is still quite vulnerable to the temptations of power and control, and then she demonstrates that not everything that appears evil is. Let's see where I can go with that:

It looks like Rikk could well be short-circuited as a leader at least for the near term, between being carless, Tim's seizure, and (most importantly) Alisin's dying. Guth is calling Kath to intervene with the alien, so she's about to default into her old role as leader. That fits together neatly. The alien isn't evil (just misunderstood!) and Kath could put that old crown of hers on again, too easily, and lead the fans down the wrong historical path.

Shanna's role is a bit harder to piece together, but with a sane mother she's much less likely to hang on to her hang-ups, and - ah! - she's less dependent on Kath as a beard.

All of which, taken together, means that Kath might not be much longer for this world.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Amorph on 2002-03-20 09:20 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Amorph on 2002-03-20 09:23 ]</font>

The multiple universe theory based on quantum mechanics states that every event that could have at least two different outcomes causes a branch in the timestream, yielding a complete alternate universe for each possible outcome. Thus _all_ temporal outcomes are accounted for, as all quantum states are accounted for.

I think you've answered the question, Amorph, as to who the General is most interested in. That she's there in person surprised me when she first took the stage, therefore the interaction with Kath must be so critical that she trusts none of her lackies with the task. However, Kath will likely live at least through the day, as she's informed that she'll likely be cursing the General before it's through.

And exactly what the 'evil' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the one labeled in dark and unfriendly letters that said "PANIC") was designed to do, eliminate all possible alternate universes that didn't conform to what the Guide's authors wrote.

Okay I missed where the 'evil' Hitchhiker's Guide came into play (in anything). Is it an official Doublas Addam's thing? Where do I learn more if this spiffy thing?

http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/0345379330.html

It's quite official. Or, at least as official as anything written by DNA is, considering the pleathora of conflicting versions of H2G2.

I was ticked at DNA when he wrote Mostly Harmless, as I found it depressing to end the series definatively. But there are tons of wild ideas in that tome, most of which go by so fast you have to back up to be sure you've caught them. Like the disembodied arm. I mean, that's terribly funny, but it only gets a couple of pages, then it's never mentioned again. Or the robot with the Happy Feedback Loop.

Oh well.

I still can't believe it's been a year...

On 2002-03-19 23:15, silversmoke wrote:
<a href="http://www.faans.com/d/20020307.html">Cometary Commentary</a>

Just an aside, but am I the only one out there who remembers that "sirrah" is an insult? Boy did that bother and confuse me.

I noted that too, Ray, but I let it go with all the "future trends in human behavior" and slight fluxations in development across the parallel earths.

The only other explaination would be a Trakin/Vader dynamic, where the much less powerful individual is a watchdog, and therefore can speak down to the other.

On 2002-03-21 09:25, Nullset wrote:
I noted that too, Ray, but I let it go with all the "future trends in human behavior" and slight fluxations in development across the parallel earths.

Yeah, but that was the only real difference in language that we saw. If their speech was really supposed to seem futuristic or alien, there would have been more differences than that....

The only other explaination would be a Trakin/Vader dynamic, where the much less powerful individual is a watchdog, and therefore can speak down to the other.

I am picturing Respin, standing behind the General's shoulder, saying, "You are mortal. You are mortal."

Well, she does call her subordinates "Gentles", hardly a normal word. And I suspect they're anything but, judging from Respin.

On 2002-03-21 22:55, J. wrote:
Well, she does call her subordinates "Gentles", hardly a normal word. And I suspect they're anything but, judging from Respin.

It read to me like an effort to convay a launguage freed from the genderbiased language certain roomates of mine like go on about without falling into the 'freshperson' trap. Gentles is certainly a plausable outgrowth of 'gentlemen/women' widdled down, and Surrah just sounds better then, say, Sor (though we still love you FutureQuest).

Welcome, JamesK, and that's what we were going for here.

Maccabee

On 2002-03-23 12:19, Maccabee wrote:
Welcome, JamesK, and that's what we were going for here.

Maccabee

"Good Gentles" is standard SCA crowd address. It makes for one of our more humorous spelling errors: any number of electronic missives sent to SCA mailing lists begin "Good Gentiles".

Judy

On 2002-03-24 17:43, Judy wrote:

"Good Gentles" is standard SCA crowd address. It makes for one of our more humorous spelling errors: any number of electronic missives sent to SCA mailing lists begin "Good Gentiles".

Judy

I feel so excluded.

Maccabee,
Jew-boy extrordinaire

On 2002-03-24 18:18, Maccabee wrote:

On 2002-03-24 17:43, Judy wrote:

"Good Gentles" is standard SCA crowd address. It makes for one of our more humorous spelling errors: any number of electronic missives sent to SCA mailing lists begin "Good Gentiles".

I feel so excluded.

Maccabee,
Jew-boy extrordinaire

Move to Utah, then.