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Dracula's Biggest Mistake

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Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#121

Post by hef19898 »

actionfromafar wrote: post #117
SenHeng wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree. For a warrior race, the Klingons sure don’t seem to do that much conquering when it would make so much in-world sense for them to be Romans-in-space. They really seemed to make every race encountered to be a relatively peaceful semi-utopian culture.

The Klingons are extremely big on honor, though. I think that taken at face value, can be just as self-limiting as a prime directory. Subjugating an inferior planet just for resources doesn't seem honorable at all and in my mind I can play a scene of klingons ridiculing someone suggesting it.

Isn't the Klingon way of conquering a world something like killong all government officials and installing an imperial overseer? If I remember that DS9 episode correctly.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#123

Post by aspenmayer »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #118
aspenmayer wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The supernatural powers are the plot armor which prevent OP characters from suffering the consequences.

[flagged]

> Did you read your own link?

To ask this is definitely against HN guidelines and feels like motivated reasoning. I was posting to enhance the discussion of your points and those of others, not as some kind of takedown. Your responses by contrast feel to me like trying to score internet points at the cost of the discussion itself. We’re on the same team, aren’t we? Why the hostility?

> The supernatural powers, obviously, are an in-universe explanation.

That isn’t really consistent with how the term plot armor is commonly and colloquially used. Please try Steelmanning more. You’re being extremely dismissive in my opinion, and I can’t see why.

The links I posted are explanations of the term plot armor, and are not exclusive or exhaustive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivated_reasoning

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#124

Post by dgacmu »

pvg wrote: post #46
dgacmu wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

psnehanshu's comment literally begins with "TL;DR by Gemini"

Lots of people have showdead off by default and don't know it's there/what it does.

They're probably wiser than I, now that I think about it. :-) Showdead certainly makes you appreciate the moderation that happens.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#125

Post by interludead »

hef19898 wrote: post #95
dreamcompiler wrote: post #77

Slightly OT but Dracula is not the only monster that has no chance in the modern world. The "Quiet Place" movies make me laugh because if those creatures ever really came to Earth we'd have them under control in about 5 minutes. Too many monsters? Rig up a battery-powered AM radio with a motion detector and a stick of dynamite. Toss 1000 of these things out in a field somewhere. Monsters go boom. Every human now wear…

Same with all those zombie scenarios. Quite conveniently, each and every film or series starts with patient zero, skips the part where the whole world order, society and whatnot collapses, and starts with our heros trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. World War Z, the book that is, is the only instance that tried to explain how the collapse occured. I'd expect it to take a lot more than 5 minutes, a lot of…

Yeah, agree.. I think medical advances and public health measures would likely be able to contain and control most infectious diseases

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#126

Post by gwern »

exolymph wrote: post #41
gwern wrote: post #37

OP is echoing, with a Catholic-centric viewpoint, a point that's been made in much greater depth by others: I suggest https://gwern.net/doc/economics/2014-robbins.pdf and then more briefly, https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/turning-back-the-economic-c... https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/02/br... I read _Dracula_ afterwards, and I think this perspective is 100% correct, and perhaps the single larg…

Out of sheer nerdy curiosity, have you read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and if so what did you think? I didn't realize Dracula lore was among your many sidelines :P

I haven't, sorry.

I didn't realize either until August last year!

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#127

Post by PH95VuimJjqBqy »

wisty wrote: post #53
gwern wrote: post #37

OP is echoing, with a Catholic-centric viewpoint, a point that's been made in much greater depth by others: I suggest https://gwern.net/doc/economics/2014-robbins.pdf and then more briefly, https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/turning-back-the-economic-c... https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/02/br... I read _Dracula_ afterwards, and I think this perspective is 100% correct, and perhaps the single larg…

A lot of vampire fiction includes themes about technology vs the supernatural, Anne Rice especially has the vampires being overwhelmed by the new world. The focus (not so much in Ann Rice books) can be more on more action oriented technology (trains and gadgets) rather than the modern weapons of a detective though. Weird steam-punk gun gadgets (even in a modern setting like Dusk to Dawn) are a common and lazy example…

it's been a few years since I've read through Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles but I don't recall them getting overwhelmed by the "new world".

What I recall is that vampires who don't occasionally "go to sleep" never make it long enough to become truly strong. In essence, they burn out. Almost as if the world becomes so boring that they must sleep for centuries so they can wake up and find the new world _invigorating_ rather than overwhelming.

In her books, both the original vampires did this, as did Lestat.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#128

Post by PH95VuimJjqBqy »

hef19898 wrote: post #107
strken wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing I find unconvincing about zombie movies is that the zombies are running around powered by human physiology for weeks in the middle of winter and yet their numbers are inexhaustible and they can get through security doors. It seems like a far more realistic scenario would be a fortnight of chaos where everyone locks themselves inside, possibly enforced by 24/7 shoot on sight curfews, followed by the death of…

Or zombies ripping humans litterally apart. No idea where a dead body would take the strength from for that. Take the living dead for example: From what I understood, it is the Wildfire virus that causes it, with everyone (I assume everyone who contracted it) turning upon death. As soon as people figure that out, every dead person is getting his brain stem severed. And there are not that many people dying, outside of…

this is all true and it's fun to deconstruct these things.

But it's also fun to just roll with it :)

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#129

Post by caseysoftware »

crooked-v wrote: post #86
caseysoftware wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Transporters: Originally designed to save on tedious shuttle launches and landings and, most importantly, footage, these would utterly rewrite medicine, aging, manufacturing, and so on. I'm more interested in how it would rewrite the rules of war. If you can transport a nuke (or even a strike team) directly into your enemy's headquarters, wars end faster with less widespread destruction. Until you develop no-transp…

> the physical material has to come from somewhere Extended canon Star Trek has references to both (a) feedstock material storage, with big blocks or tanks of elementally pure materials that get shaved off and recombobulated as necessary by the replicators, and (b) synthesis of elements from pure energy on demand, though usually with the preference of the first method over the second because it's far, far less demand…

That works well if you're going TO a transporter pad.

It doesn't work when they use a transporter to go to a desolate planet.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#130

Post by pavel_lishin »

thsksbd wrote: post #69
jackjeff wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s really Dracula vs Modernity. There’s nothing in the blog post that justifies the usage of the “Catholic” epithet. London is the seat of Anglican faith after all and using type writers and records are secular endeavors.

But the sacramentals used against him are Catholic (and in Romania Orthodox). I didn't read all of it, but the first two pages of [1] demonstrate how the book is "Catholic" as opposed to Anglican, with the protagonist feeling awkward, as an Anglican, at the icons and crucifixes used as (in the book effective) protection. Keep in mind, for the purposes of the book Catholicism and Orthodoxy can be considered the same a…

> But the sacramentals used against him are Catholic (and in Romania Orthodox).

Sure, but they sure ain't modern.

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