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Dracula's Biggest Mistake

blog.ayjay.org

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Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#91

Post by thaumasiotes »

aspenmayer wrote: post #90
thaumasiotes wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...was this supposed to be related to my comment in some way? Do you just wander around the internet posting random links in random places?

Yes, if it wasn’t obvious I apologize. Many main characters have plot armor in a way that makes for lazy writing, bad characterization, lowers stakes in the plot in favor of protagonists, and breaks immersion, which is what I was alluding to in response to this part of your comment, and the thread broadly: > But compare e.g. her meeting with Glory in season 5, where the two of them get into a fistfight, and after tra…

> Yes, if it wasn’t obvious I apologize. Many main characters have plot armor in a way that makes for lazy writing, bad characterization, lowers stakes in the plot in favor of protagonists, and breaks immersion, which is what I was alluding to in response to this part of your comment, and the thread broadly:

>> But compare e.g. her meeting with Glory in season 5, where the two of them get into a fistfight, and after trading a few punches Glory realizes that a human would have been dead by now.

You have yet to describe what the connection is between your comment and mine. Plot armor describes people doing things they can't do, and not suffering the consequences because that would be a boring story.

What's the connection to people doing things that require the supernatural powers they are explicitly characterized as having?

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#92

Post by aspenmayer »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #91
aspenmayer wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if it wasn’t obvious I apologize. Many main characters have plot armor in a way that makes for lazy writing, bad characterization, lowers stakes in the plot in favor of protagonists, and breaks immersion, which is what I was alluding to in response to this part of your comment, and the thread broadly: > But compare e.g. her meeting with Glory in season 5, where the two of them get into a fistfight, and after tra…

> Yes, if it wasn’t obvious I apologize. Many main characters have plot armor in a way that makes for lazy writing, bad characterization, lowers stakes in the plot in favor of protagonists, and breaks immersion, which is what I was alluding to in response to this part of your comment, and the thread broadly: >> But compare e.g. her meeting with Glory in season 5, where the two of them get into a fistfight, and after…

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

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#93

Post by mnw21cam »

joosters wrote: post #82
thsksbd wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Dracula was defeated by being decapitated and stabbed in the heart. I do hope religion isn't claiming those as their own! FWIW, I like the concept in the book 'I Am Legend' where the vampires are repelled by religious symbols that are meaningful to them, rather than any religion in particular.

In https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_(2020_TV_series) the writers decided to basically write religion out of the Dracula story, and made it that he is afraid of sunlight, and the only reason he cowers from the big bronze cross is because it is reflecting sunlight at him.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#94

Post by amanaplanacanal »

at_a_remove wrote: post #32
jfengel wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Star Trek was well aware of that problem. They often encountered "ion storms", or landing parties got conked on the head and their communicators taken, or other ways of disabling communications. That also disabled the transporter, which is a convenient way to get into stories, but also makes it easy to get out of stories. Somebody somewhere must have done a PhD thesis on the way that cell phones have changed storytel…

I've counted at least three civilization-shattering technologies in Star Trek which were simply thrown in, without consideration for the long-term, for reasons of budget and convenience, but largely to maintain the Sailing Ship, Days of Yore set of metaphors. Transporters: Originally designed to save on tedious shuttle launches and landings and, most importantly, footage, these would utterly rewrite medicine, aging,…

One thing that struck me about TNG was how many plots were about Data and whether he should be considered alive, and what rights he should have, and absolutely no thought was given to the AIs in the holodeck.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#95

Post by hef19898 »

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 my optimism around pandemic control died during Covid, but the full collapse that always happens as soon as zombies show up just won't happen.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#96

Post by mnw21cam »

caseysoftware wrote: post #45
at_a_remove wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've counted at least three civilization-shattering technologies in Star Trek which were simply thrown in, without consideration for the long-term, for reasons of budget and convenience, but largely to maintain the Sailing Ship, Days of Yore set of metaphors. Transporters: Originally designed to save on tedious shuttle launches and landings and, most importantly, footage, these would utterly rewrite medicine, aging,…

> 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…

Schlock Mercenary https://www.schlockmercenary.com/ dealt with this particular theme quite thoroughly. One of the protagonists invents a "Teraport", and promptly a "Teraport Area Denial" is invented to protect against it. Recommended read, though the archive is huge.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#97

Post by hef19898 »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #94
at_a_remove wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've counted at least three civilization-shattering technologies in Star Trek which were simply thrown in, without consideration for the long-term, for reasons of budget and convenience, but largely to maintain the Sailing Ship, Days of Yore set of metaphors. Transporters: Originally designed to save on tedious shuttle launches and landings and, most importantly, footage, these would utterly rewrite medicine, aging,…

One thing that struck me about TNG was how many plots were about Data and whether he should be considered alive, and what rights he should have, and absolutely no thought was given to the AIs in the holodeck.

They did put Moriarity in his own holo reality. Quite cruel after all. Not sure ehat happened to him, I didn't watch the last season of Picard.

Also, the holodeck: Not only can the ship computers run multiple, basically self-aware General AI characters in parallel, it can also extent space beyond the confines of the decks physical dimensions. Pretty amazing tech, no idea why they don't use it to build the interior of all their ships, after all it also has superior environmental controls.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#98

Post by hef19898 »

SenHeng wrote: post #79
jimbokun wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Star Trek is very explicitly a post-scarcity society. There was an episode of Next Generation where they revive some Earthlings who had successfully frozen themselves in the 20th century. One was a businessman who was excited to see how much the stock portfolio he had put together as a long term trust had fared. Picard had to gently explain to him wealth and money were no longer a thing.

Last episode of the first season. Of course the Picard series itself then thoroughly destroys that thought by going on and on about money.

In all fairness, between that episode and Picard, the Federation had extensive contact with the Ferengi.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#99

Post by hef19898 »

caseysoftware wrote: post #45
at_a_remove wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've counted at least three civilization-shattering technologies in Star Trek which were simply thrown in, without consideration for the long-term, for reasons of budget and convenience, but largely to maintain the Sailing Ship, Days of Yore set of metaphors. Transporters: Originally designed to save on tedious shuttle launches and landings and, most importantly, footage, these would utterly rewrite medicine, aging,…

> 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…

With the federation transportes, as depicted throughout the series, the impact is limited. Easy to block, unreliable. They are used so, all the time, for boarding actions.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#100

Post by ffgjgf1 »

jackjeff wrote: post #58
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…

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.

Van Helsing being Dutch must have been a Catholic though? No way he was a Calvinist
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