Ironik

He will hulk-out every episode, guaranteed!*




* For two minutes, maximum.

First of all, ixnay on arvelMay. Different universe, different rules. Marvel's mutants are not Paragon's mutants, so whatever works in *their* universe does not work here. Here the Well makes you into an Incarnate, which seems to be code for demigod. Since the Well is magic, then it doesn't accomplish anything through science. No one's making a note here, it's not a huge success.

To couch it in Marvel terms -- if Iceman suddenly became permanently uberpowerful because he was exposed to the super soldier treatment, then he would have started as a Mutant and become a Science. If Dr. Strange gave him an amulet to use in emergencies, he'd still be Mutant using a Magic tool. However, if Dr. Strange cast a spell on Iceman and he became permanently uberpowerful as a result, he becomes Magic. He's still making ice slides and throwing snowballs and whatnot, but doing it at a vastly improved rate and increased scale ONLY BECAUSE of magic... then he's magic. If he's doing because of his secondary mutation, then he's still a Mutant.

What I actually said was that if someone uses a mojo hand, then they aren't magic because it's just a tool. That's the same as using a rifle or a car or a mechanical pencil. The Well of Furies, though, changes something fundamental inside your character via magic, thus changing your origin from whatever it was to Magic. It's the "fundamental change" part that people seem to keep forgetting. Your cyborg was great, all due to his Technology origin. But now he's awesome, because the Well of Furies has permanently and irrevocably infused his being, his very essence, with abilities beyond even his normal ones, and it does it with magic. Thus, your character has been changed on a fundamental level and has become Magic origin.

Before... could your cyborg do what he does because of Technology? Yes.
After... can your cyborg do what he does because of Technology? No. He does it because of magic. Ergo, his Origin has changed. He has changed on a fundamental level.

If you get an inoculation against the flu, then you are protected via science but are still Natural origin. However, if that inoculation changes the way your cells operate, then you become Science origin. I don't know how many times I can say the same thing before you guys get my point.

Maybe it's the word "origin" that's the hang up, but I'm using that the way the game does, as a synonym for "power source" NOT as a synonym for "beginning." Yes, your cyborg started out as a tech guy, but after he becomes an incarnate he will be a magic guy. Magic has changed the basic way he works and he couldn't operate on that level without magic, therefore he is magic. It may not be expressed in stereotypical magical ways -- he still shoots lasers or whatever -- but nonetheless his very being is dependent upon magic to operate. And yes, if you took the magic out or sent him back in time before the Well changed him, then he would revert to being a technology guy. But as long as he relies on the Well's magic to perform at Incarnate levels, then he's Magic.

You'll go blind doing that.

If they're 60 and healthy because of medicinal intervention -- heart or kidney transplant, diabetes treatment, etc. -- then Science. My family would be Natural, because they are mostly ridiculously long-lived.

It's been pretty much disproven that the whole "average life expectancy was 35 years old" thing was an error of statistics. Take out childhood deaths and war and the average life expectancy 200 years ago was roughly the same as it is today. Even the Bible has the years of a man's life as "threescore and ten." (For those unfamiliar with old-timey counting, a score is 20 years, so that's 20+20+20+10... 70 years old, in other words.)

Whatever you do, take stuff out of the larger context. Using a tool doesn't change your origin, bonding with the tool does. Critical mass, crossing a line, going over the edge, hitting the tipping point and et cetera. know wut i mean, vern?

You are? I invented Brutes and Punchvoke.

That's right, he is. You will kneel before Z-Man! And so, too, will your heirs!

Even if they gave you $3, it's not worth it.

Since she's been singing in movies for nearly 15 years, it's rather surprising anyone would be surprised.

Mostly good songs except for the last one and, of course, the abomination of "Make 'Em Laugh," a song that was born as a direct rip-off of the superior "Be A Clown". The Cee Lo song was superb, as was the number from Chicago.

I do wonder how much they charge for brownies at their bake sales, though, because the production numbers are insanely expensive. My high school wouldn't have been able to afford the outfits, nevermind waterfalls and giant TVs. Mostly our sets were fingerpaints on cardboard taped together with masking tape and the "costumes" were things we found in our parents' closets.

Less message, more fun, the way Glee is supposed to be. "There must be a Journey song we haven't covered, yet!"

That's right Marcian, this episode didn't totally suck. Pick your jaw off the floor.

That's why I don't use search.

I can't think of a single drama on TV that holds up to any degree of scrutiny. They all break the rules to one degree or another. Watch a medical show, any medical show, with a doctor or nurse and ask them, "What did they do wrong?" and you'll likely get a response along the lines of, "Good lord, where do I begin? Everything is wrong about that!" Watch a legal drama with a lawyer or a cop show with a cop and you'll hear the same thing. Hell, I can't even think of a single time I've ever seen someone use an *asthma inhaler* correctly in movies or TV, and that's the easiest thing in the world to get right. Somehow no one ever does.

The thing is, audiences will tend to do one "buy in" of an unrealistic element in a movie or TV show and happily maintain their willing suspension of disbelief. However, once you start stacking other impossible things on top of it, no matter how minor, that WSOD goes away. So once you've gotten them to allow for zombies, you have to make sure that the other stuff you have in it scrupulously follows reality in order to preserve that delicate balance in the audience's mind.

It varies by person, of course, but there always comes a point where the viewer throws up their hands and says, "This is ridiculous." Usually it's after just one or two unrealistic things, which is why you have to make sure you've crossed your Ts and dotted your Is. To use an extreme example to illustrate this: if the Asian kid had poured sand in the Charger's gas tank and zoomed away, everyone would be crying BS because it's utterly unrealistic. The show being about zombies doesn't excuse that sort of thing. Even minor gaffes and liberties taken with reality can have the same effect.

The other problem is that most of the books are built around the idea that a specific person is the superhero, so it's hard to change that. It's especially difficult with some of the backstories -- there's only one surviving son of Krypton, there's only one guy who was bitten by a unique spider, and so on. In order for there to be an evolving, changing roster, it kind of has to be built in to the book. Plus, audiences become attached to characters, so there is resistance to seeing them switched out.

This also occurs in TV. The original concept for The White Shadow was that there were be an ever-changing cast of characters as the kids graduated from high school and moved on. When the second season came around with a mostly new bunch, ratings dropped and the show got canceled. Same deal with Heroes: it was designed around the idea most of them would die or be depowered by the end of the first season, making room for new heroes, but the suits decided that the fans wouldn't go for that and dictated the original cast stay around. (We kind of got a taste of the new heroes coming in, but that stuff was abandoned pretty early and left unresolved.)

DC did revamp both Green Lantern and The Flash once upon a time, but those revamps become more iconic than the characters they replaced, which made it hard to replace them... but not impossible, since everyone knew these were "new" guys, thus making them easier to supplant.

Oh, Lisa-Trots are the worst, especially after slamming tequila.

Sounds good to me. I'll cheerfully use that very idea for one of my characters. However, you guys do realize that's a non-canon rationalization of how the Well works? It's been made pretty clear that it's a magical font of superpowers.