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This could actually be a distinct possibility, depening on the extent of Yahweh's power. Given his mentality, he may go into omnicidal maniac mode after getting beat hard enough, drunk in the delusion that nothing can exist without him, therefore if he is to be defeated, he will take everything and everyone with him.Night_stalker wrote:Yes, we need that as a T-shirt. We also need the Final Battle to be climatically awesome, preferably by having Yaw-Yaw destroy half of the Eternal City.
He can't risk that. Michael, as has been established, is a real old schemer, and knows that he doesn't just need to bring down YY. but to establish a backing for whatever he does next. And he won't achieve that with a cheap assassination, but only by properly outclassing the prior top dog. I'm personally wondering if his intention isn't, in fact:Morilore wrote:Michael made that waaay too personal. He should have just launched a bolt at Yahweh's heart suddenly when he was in the middle of prostrating himself. But I suppose this is very personal to him.
Specifically, based on the idea that music has the power to overthrow empires, cause aliens to abandon their culture-less lifestyles and either go insane or join with humanity in a giant kumbaya group hug, and generally cause bad thoughts to turn to good ones. And if that doesn't work, there's also kick-ass mecha that'll stomp you flat.Nematocyst wrote:Anime series with awesome music, missile spam, and mechs.Stuart wrote:I don't know. What's Macross?Is it bad that I immediately thought "Macross" when the whole bit about music came along XD?
I was wondering if his plan was not even to beat Yah-Yah, but to die heroically fighting the big lugnut, showing the other angels that Yah-Yah can and should be beaten, making himself a martyr for the Cause. But then that doesn't really fit in with his thought process that we've been privy to so far.Deebles wrote: He can't risk that. Michael, as has been established, is a real old schemer, and knows that he doesn't just need to bring down YY. but to establish a backing for whatever he does next. And he won't achieve that with a cheap assassination, but only by properly outclassing the prior top dog. I'm personally wondering if his intention isn't, in fact: Spoiler
Who's watching besides the Mason's audience, many of whom are already in Michael's pocket, the "living creatures," and the Elders, who hate Yahweh for what he makes them do? Also he has a number of his acolytes in the Angelic population ready to push for his acceptance as the new ruler.Deebles wrote:He can't risk that. Michael, as has been established, is a real old schemer, and knows that he doesn't just need to bring down YY. but to establish a backing for whatever he does next. And he won't achieve that with a cheap assassination, but only by properly outclassing the prior top dog. I'm personally wondering if his intention isn't, in fact:
Spoiler
They had information about how ineffective humans were against berserkers (Luga mentioned that they'd pop into Earth every now and then; back in TSW:Armageddon). Satan also had testimonials about the inability of any of his forces to stand against humans. He chose to disregard the former as unimportant, and disbelieve the latter. If instead he'd been a little rational; and accepted evidence that contradicted his own belief he would have realized how outclassed his field forces were and looked for something else sooner. Reread the mall attack,here (you'll have to scroll a bit, sorry) it was only stopped because of those two huntera; now imagine five Baldricks running loose slaughtering. Now, consider that multiplied by thousands; say a single legion devoted to rear attacks. It could have severely hampered the human mobilization out of all proportion to the resources devoted to it, instead of most of the effort going to the front, leaders might be forced to parcel out divisions to respond to Baldrick terror attacks. Think of it like a Demonic version of the V-2. It wouldn't be a war winner, but it might just force enough diverted resources to stalemate the humans. It certainly would have been a more effective use of resources than sending them to die pointlessly against human armies.GenghisQuan wrote:No, if Satan was intelligent (by the standards of his time) he wouldn't do any such. Berserkers have to port near Nephilim. All they would do is create chaos among the civilians, which is pointless because it doesn't solve the problem of the army on your doorsetp. There were no dumb demons in this story, only demons who had insufficient data with which to create an ideal way of dealing with the humans.Stuart wrote:
Therefore if Satan was intelligent he would have sent more than just one berserker at a time and used them much more often.
That said, he's not nearly powerful enough to destroy large fractions of the Eternal City, not if it's as big as Stuart is saying.Erra wrote:This could actually be a distinct possibility, depening on the extent of Yahweh's power. Given his mentality, he may go into omnicidal maniac mode after getting beat hard enough, drunk in the delusion that nothing can exist without him, therefore if he is to be defeated, he will take everything and everyone with him.
My reckoning is that Michael's planning to win this, but he's also gamed it so that if he loses, YY's aura of invincibility is still shattered (whereas if he'd gone for the assassination and then lost, it wouldn't have looked nearly so impressive). This then would leave the field open for someone else to maybe take down the (exhausted?) YY.Werrf wrote: I was wondering if his plan was not even to beat Yah-Yah, but to die heroically fighting the big lugnut, showing the other angels that Yah-Yah can and should be beaten, making himself a martyr for the Cause. But then that doesn't really fit in with his thought process that we've been privy to so far.
I think this might be thematically appropriate.The Vortex Empire wrote:So we finally come to the climax of this part of the story. Fucking amazing job, Stuart, this is the best story I've ever read. It's a shame Michael doesn't have any metal bands in the Club, now there's some truly powerful music. They're not dead yet, but get Judas Priest or 3 Inches of Blood in there and Michael would have the power to smash Yah-Yah down in one strike.
Yeah, that feels about right.Gogyra wrote: I think this might be thematically appropriate.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=tcdJcrGJ97M&sns=em[/youtube]
Good one, although I'd still prefer something that would work in the original narrative, which was written long before humans could do such a thing (unless we assume God has precognition and foresaw human tech development, but that creates a whole lot of other issues). Hmm, maybe leave the Euphrates one of the only uncontaminated fresh water sources, then have the contamination be simultaneous with the appearance of the frog creatures. That seems close enough to the spirit if not the literal description, if you squint at it right.Emerson33260 wrote:These two would link nicely. If for some reason the Euphrates becomes one of the few major sources of fresh water that is not contaminated, it would become like the Colorado River, which in most seasons is completely siphoned off before it reaches the sea, or in this case merges with the Tigris. Yahweh once again getting credit for human acts committed in desperation.
You know, virtually all literary criticism can be potentially answered that way, what with art appreciation being inherently subjective and all. If you don't like something, it's obvious you're just mad that the author didn't write the story the way you liked it, rather than because it might actually have flaws. Battlefield Earth is clearly a great movie, and the people who diss it clearly are just mad that it wasn't the kind of movie they wanted to see.Erra wrote:To sum up the last couple of pages...
"WHY DIDN'T YOU WRITE THE STORY LIKE HOW I WOULD WANT IT BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW"
*Cringes* I'll spare you any griping (and lists of "watch X and then get back to me"), but I'll say that Anime and Cartoons are very different, partially because of the cultural climates they grew from- specifically, cartoons had their formative years during the Great Depression when people wanted to be amused, and anime had its formative years after Japan lost WW2 and got all introspective. Now for westerners animation= kids and the Japanese use it for pretty much anything that live action is used for, but more flexible.Stuart wrote:Ahhh, thank you. Such things are unknown to me; I don't like cartoons and their ilk as a genre. I don't even like Tom and Jerry. So I know very little about them except for odd bits I've caught by accidentNematocyst wrote: Anime series with awesome music, missile spam, and mechs.
This.CaptainChewbacca wrote:Michael isn't just trying to destroy Yaweh's power, he's trying to destroy his ability to rule through fear. I've no doubt he hopes to win, but if it was just about killing him he could have smuggled a whole whack of explosives into the temple. No, Michael needs to (as Whiplash said in Iron Man 2) prove that even gods can bleed.
Who said the Holy Court is on his side?Morilore wrote:Oh right; Michael has high-ranking supporters throughout Angelic society, and he's moving faster than he wanted to because he's convinced humans are about to unleash a nuclear holocaust on his species, but most importantly he needs to make a point of how right he is for the forty or so people who are currently watching him, most of whom are already on his side. It's not like the author made a point of Michael reflecting on how he's enjoying himself too much, after all.
When it's a 1500 km square city, or 2,250,000 km2 (a little bigger than Mexico and a little smaller than the Democratic Republic of Congo), that might be kind of tough. If the Ultimate Temple is in the center, the HEA is at least 750 km (~560 miles) away, and the effects might be somewhat attenuated by that point. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.Erra wrote:There's gotta be some instruments going crazy from the sharp increase in electromagnetic forces, the humans will probably send in a spy drone or something to see what the hell is going on.
