03-03-10 This mirror?

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JMac85
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Re: 03-03-10 This mirror?

Post by JMac85 »

Ravenhull wrote:You got to remember that a lot of 'vampire lore' was based on superstition and folk tales, for which the 'laws of nature' were never consulted. When the idea of no reflections came about many moons ago, the no-soul=no reflection thing made sense to them. :-B
Again, unless the people who came up with that subscribed to animism, the only thing that would be visible in a mirror would be the naked image of the viewer floating in a void.

Radbaron's hypothesis makes sense. Though I have to wonder what schmuck decided silver was the end-all material for battling the supernatural. Did someone get attacked by a wolf, stabbed it with a silver cheese knife, and attributed their brush with death to the silver instead of the fact that any creature will react negatively to being stabbed, regardless whether it was a shard of an unearthly meteorite or a frozen turd.

It's kind of depressing, really. People thousands of years ago were no stupider than we today, it's just their methods were so flawed they reached all kinds of retarded conclusions. Which means, of course, that if intellectualism was stamped out, humanity could regress back to superstitious nonsense. Just look at places where education is a luxury very few can afford like Africa and rural Asia.

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Re: 03-03-10 This mirror?

Post by Don Alexander »

Listen, I don't think you need to look further than the US of A to get an amazingly large part of the population which believes in total nonsense... Maybe not such terrible stuff like "Having sex with a virgin will cure me of AIDS!" but... Well, I should up, I don't want to offend anyone's beliefs.
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Re: 03-03-10 This mirror?

Post by Ravenhull »

I think that we're just gonna have to accept it as an 'acceptable break from reality' in those stories where that holds true (which we haven't even confirmed has any relevance to the EC universe, anyway).

On the other hand, I would love to have a mirror that did act as you just described. ;)
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BobDole
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Re: 03-03-10 This mirror?

Post by BobDole »

An acceptable break from reality concerning vampire lore?

There's just something overly silly about that.

Since we're talking about fiction here - isn't it the author's choice what the rules of the universe are?

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JMac85
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Re: 03-03-10 This mirror?

Post by JMac85 »

BobDole wrote:An acceptable break from reality concerning vampire lore?

There's just something overly silly about that.

Since we're talking about fiction here - isn't it the author's choice what the rules of the universe are?
I never said it wasn't, I was just critiquing real-world vampire lore and how it doesn't make a lick of sense, regardless of it dealing with metaphysics.

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Re: 03-03-10 This mirror?

Post by Adamas »

I personally think part of it has to do with the ancient roman belief about a broken mirror bringing bad luck, which was supposed to be caused by the loss of part of your soul and took 7 years to heal. Much like many tribal peoples believe an image captures a part of the persons soul.
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Re: 03-03-10 This mirror?

Post by badwolf »

I gotta admit that when I first saw this, I didn't realize it was an evil version of Nina; I thought the reflection was that of Ms. Hellrune's punky little red-haired cohort, and that she was gleeful because the two girls were running away in horror. So what did the girls see, evil versions of themselves, or just Nina's evil twin leering at them as in the last frame? Either would be sufficiently terrifying, of course.

Looking forward to seeing more evil Nina, if we're so, er, 'blessed...' ;)

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Re: 03-03-10 This mirror?

Post by badwolf »

JMac85 wrote:
Ravenhull wrote:You got to remember that a lot of 'vampire lore' was based on superstition and folk tales, for which the 'laws of nature' were never consulted. When the idea of no reflections came about many moons ago, the no-soul=no reflection thing made sense to them. :-B
Again, unless the people who came up with that subscribed to animism, the only thing that would be visible in a mirror would be the naked image of the viewer floating in a void.

Radbaron's hypothesis makes sense. Though I have to wonder what schmuck decided silver was the end-all material for battling the supernatural. Did someone get attacked by a wolf, stabbed it with a silver cheese knife, and attributed their brush with death to the silver instead of the fact that any creature will react negatively to being stabbed, regardless whether it was a shard of an unearthly meteorite or a frozen turd.

It's kind of depressing, really. People thousands of years ago were no stupider than we today, it's just their methods were so flawed they reached all kinds of retarded conclusions. Which means, of course, that if intellectualism was stamped out, humanity could regress back to superstitious nonsense. Just look at places where education is a luxury very few can afford like Africa and rural Asia.
That's the kind of thinking you get in lieu of rational or scientific thought, of course. We can see that in our own time with this marvellous invention we're typing back and forth on now - the Internet. Was there ever a place so full of rumors, lies, scandal, gossip, and superstition? It's ongoing proof that humans love entertaining one another more than we love facts or truth. In fact, a lot of people HATE hearing the truth, especially when it conflicts with what they "always knew was true."

C'est la vie...

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Re: 03-03-10 This mirror?

Post by David Johnston »

JMac85 wrote:
Ravenhull wrote:You got to remember that a lot of 'vampire lore' was based on superstition and folk tales, for which the 'laws of nature' were never consulted. When the idea of no reflections came about many moons ago, the no-soul=no reflection thing made sense to them. :-B
Again, unless the people who came up with that subscribed to animism, the only thing that would be visible in a mirror would be the naked image of the viewer floating in a void.

Radbaron's hypothesis makes sense. Though I have to wonder what schmuck decided silver was the end-all material for battling the supernatural. .
Possibly the guy who noted that that silver both kept food and drink from spoiling for longer (antibacterial properties) and made a useful poison detector by reacting with the sulfer in a lot of unsophisticated poisons. Thus silver is good against evil spirits and black magic. It didn't hurt that silver was the go-to metal for making religious jewellery anyway because it was shiny and cheaper than gold. Then there there's obvious lunar symbolism, making it a light in the darkness.

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Adamas
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Re: 03-03-10 This mirror?

Post by Adamas »

I love how we have taken a webcomic's forum and turned it into a seminar about the possible sources of various mythical monster's lore. :-bd
Aquila89 wrote:It's really nice how a conversation about linguistics overlaps with a debate about strap-ons.
A good friend comforts you and talks you down when you are angry. A best friend skips along side you, carrying a baseball bat, and chanting, ‘Somebody’s gonna get it!"
Chelvo56 wrote:Sorry, but when the sentence "It is wrong to go into a foreign country, take out your weapon and enforce your will there", coming from an US-diplomat, was generallly laughed at, you might want to think why.
And to keep for future reference: Image

nowonmai
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Re: 03-03-10 This mirror?

Post by nowonmai »

Ravenhull wrote:'Cuz she's too 'innocent' to recognize what Blair truly is, and immature enough to want to still have her dolly.

I was going to do this last week but I had a little too much "happy juice".

I'll do it quickly.

1) Nina is obviously a very (unknowingly) confused little vampire (the easter thing and all that).
2) An adolescent with serious unresolved emotional issues is the usual precurser and (again unknowing) instigator of a poltergiest event.
3) Blair is the possible poltergist who, on seeing the opportunities to see some cartoon flesh, made himself at home.
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