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[PA Comic] Wednesday, July 24, 2013 - Sand, Part Five
Geth
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
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Terri Brosius;
Jen Taylor; (or)
Ellen McLain.
Nope. Everything female is Jennifer Hale in my head.
Wondering where this side of the story is going. Giving it the benefit of the doubt because it's set in space.
What's that? I can't hear your examples over Morena Baccarin.
Oh God we're DOOMED!
Switch - SW-3699-5063-5018
Seriously, matrons wear habits, not neon-purple nudity in yellow contrast!
generalized plotline spoiler
Anyway the story itself is kind of losing me? Hopefully we'll get back to rad Western Messiah guy, he was cool.
Unless I miss my guess, he's right there, getting the exposition dump. You just don't recognize him without the Nice Hat (and the [redacted]).
It can't be Terri Brosius.
The other characters aren't sufficently busy screaming, running for their lives or dying for it to be a Terri Brosius AI.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
This is an interesting criticism and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
Yea, me too.
Tricia Helfer (EDI), here.
your = belonging to you
their = belonging to them
there = not here
they're = they are
I don't think so. His nose and chin look way different.
your = belonging to you
their = belonging to them
there = not here
they're = they are
Yeah, that seemed like too obvious a thing for Tycho to mess up. I didn't say anything because I was hoping it would be addressed somehow, and I'm glad they came through. Well done.
Oculus: TheBigDookie | XBL: Dook | NNID: BigDookie
This was originally up for vote against The New Kid, a sci-fi concept. Mike said that was his favorite idea, but we voted for the western.
This screams of, "well fuck that i'm doing a sci-fi."
This is wholly inaccurate, considering The New Kid is in pre-production as a film, with the rights being held by Paramount now.
In fact, after the vote, Tycho spelled out what was going on in Sand and it dovetails with what we're seeing here.
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
your = belonging to you
their = belonging to them
there = not here
they're = they are
*steeples fingers* This character is black. The Western guy white.
I'm gonna go with 'no, they are absolutely 100% not the same character'.
I don't mind the Western/Sci-fi combination-- I think it's interesting! But I would have really liked to spend a lot more time with the Western world that was affected by the AI's influence before we get into who the AI is. It's too early for this kind of exposition, imo. It takes away the ability to really theorize, which is a huge reason I even read scifi comics. I like guessing. I like trying to piece things together. Having it handed to me by page five feels a bit like a spoiler I was unprepared for.
Alrighty then.
It would be nice if they dropped hints at the sci-fi, but considering that they have to get this done in a few pages, it's understandable. We'll be lucky to even see this again in a year.
Jerry is bent on writing sci-fi one way or another it seems.
Cue the Lookouts twist where it is revealed that the forest is actually an artifact of high science after the fall of advanced human civilization.
The cultural rules and taboos can be attributed as a reaction to the perceived hubris of humanity.
That part, as Ian Malcolm tells us, comes later. (After the ethical constraints come off, and she "re-examines her priorities, and draws new conclusions.")
The Captain doesn't look white or black to me. He's Ambiguously Brown, in that way some claim most people will be in the Future.
I like the other officer. She's cute (even with the loose hair, aka "ahoge"). Which means, of course, that something terrible will happen to her.
The Roaring Twenties (Automata): Rapid technological advancements in robotics and computation leads to the development of sapient androids colloquially known as "Automata." Automata are granted rights as free citizens despite the endemic prejudice and resenment against their kind.
The Turn of the 21st Century (present day Penny Arcade): The rapid industrial development spurred by further refinements in robotics causes the world to become polluted and over-resourced. China emerges as a global power and billions of people are now looking for a taste of some of the finer things in life. Global warming is ignored until it is too late.
The Golden Age of Technology (22nd Century): The high standard of living of modern life proves to be unsustainable. Faced with wars, rising oceans and the impending threat of being cooked off the planet, a united world wide initiative along multiple scientific disciplines is launched. Orbital shipyards and orbital elevators are under construction. Biotech also offers the promise of terraforming other worlds, and perhaps, even reclaiming Earth.
The Fall (Late 22nd Century): Countless brushfire conflicts and devastating storms start to take its toll on humanity. The majority of populations have fallen back into secure enclaves tucked away in fortress cities. In a desperate gambit to save the planet, the unfinished and untested terraforming technologies are loosed upon the world -- for good or ill. The few colony ships with FTL capability now produced are launched as budgets and resources reach a breaking point.
The New World (Lookouts): Over the next few centuries, the terraforming technologies take root and the world is covered in a verdant blanket. With the majority of the human population dead and their technologies finally lost to the dim memory, the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are brought back down to comfortable levels. The religion and myths of the New world tell of a time when the gods and Nature herself become wroth with the hubris of Man. Since that time, strange spirits have twisted and given birth to new life throughout the land, and everywhere he turns, man is prey. Every generation undergoes a childhood rite of passage to cull the numbers. The old fortress cities are accursed and taboo places.
Elsewhere in Space (Sand): A mysterious malfunction occurs on the shipboard AI of one of the colony ships launched during the Golden Age. The subsequent damage to the ship forces an early landing on the most habitable desert world nearby.