Episode 289 of the Letters Page: Writers’ Room: America’s Newest Legacy #511

Baron Blade finds a new Legacy to go after.

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The “oops, the episode’s over already” jokes? That’s fine, it’s amusing. But call me a viewer instead of a listener? HOW DARE THEY

Felicia’s ability to assess what is and is not a big deal is, I suspect, very compromised by the sort of people she hangs around with on the regular.

So we need Naturalist shenanigan adventures in Australia, huh?

You know, in another case, I might complain about the lengthy “how fast can Legacy fly?” section, but honestly? This is the kind of “who would win?” power-level-defining stuff that they tend to avoid, and it’s interesting that they’re engaging in it, almost unconsciously.

“Hi, Dad. I’m kids these days.”

This is a really cool story, the sort that you can only get with decades of generational interplay with the characters. That’s so neat.

Who knew Baron Blade was Mordengrad’s Cleverest Legacy all along?

I love how they go from another “gilding the lillies” joke directly into letters, no other intro, as though Trevor is just sighing and hitting the music cue so we can move things on.

Adam hoping for a visit from Snakey Claus.

Who knew you could destroy Christopher just by calling Legacy “Frank”? XD

Me time! :open_mouth: And a surprisingly satisfying answer, thank you!

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I think C&A got caught up on the idea that the couple were a real couple and the hint was towards that. I don’t think that’s the case: I could be wrong, but I suspect that the “Mr. and Ms.” in this situation are referring to Mr. Jitters (fear) and Ms. Information (lies) and their shared hatred of Legacy.

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I did definitely get the sense that they were assuming these were real people they really know, but oh man, this is quite the wild theory. :open_mouth: I like it.

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I was getting very nervous about the direction the story was starting to head, with Legacy threatening to scatter nuclear material all over the “uninhabited outback” and I’m very glad they ended up going a different direction with it.

I’m guessing a lot of people aren’t familiar with the Maralinga nuclear tests in the 50s, where the Australian government essentially took over a section of land they had previously set aside for the indigenous peoples (Is Aborigines a problematic term these days?), decided that because the indigenous groups were nomadic that they totally didn’t own that land, forced them off it, and proceeded to detonate hundreds of nuclear weapons that coated the whole area in radioactive dust. It’ll probably never be safe again, at least not for centuries.

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when they were talking about where the action was taking place I could only think of one thing-
The Jolly Rogers - Shantytime: South Australia (youtube.com)

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Yeah, I was also glad for that, for that reason!

I’m not Australian, but my understanding is yes. What term to use instead is a complex topic if you aren’t discussing a specific group, and it varies depending on which sub-culture you’re discussing. The general rule is that the common terminology is “Aboriginal”, with the note that this only applies to the Indigenous peoples of mainland Australia and Tasmania, and the Torres Strait Islanders call themselves that. Some prefer “First Nations” or “First Australians”. As always, if you’re going to be talking to folks it’s always good to check what their internal rules are.

Also, both Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders are Indigenous, but very few of their cultural groups like to be called that unless you’re having a broader conversation about global Indigenous situations because they reasonably feel that it detracts from their unique cultural identities by lumping them in with cultures from other continents.

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Now that I run with the thought myself: Legacy’s former therapist and former girl Friday certainly know him too well, don’t they?

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Felicia being taken down by the mining l.a.s.e.r. makes me think of a power defining argument that I am sure happens a lot online and in editorial of the comics-
How does “Single Attack Negation” work against a prolonged beam or continuous aura? In theory the mining l.a.s.e.r. does not fire a shot like a gun but generates a beam that only stops when you turn the Device off. Does “Single Attack Negation” protect for the first 6 second of the beam? the first Minute? until the “one attack” of the beam ends?

and for those who liked my first comment it was not just the shanty but the performers I like

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Well, by that definition, what’s the first instance of damage, the heat from the beam or the kinetic shock? If I had to guess, I would say the “single attack” bit is probably like invulnerability frames in video games. So as soon as nerve endings recover from the initial shock, that’s when Legacy is vulnerable again. At least, if I was writing it. But as many of my letters indicate, I approach things from an internal “magic system” perspective.

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Yeah, unfortunately the answer is probably just “however the story needs it to work.” Might be interesting to write in and have them mull it over though.

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Eh… not sure about that. That seems to be a pretty consistent thing that they either say “what does the story need” or “how did the artist show it” rather than trying to define it. That particular rabbit hole has been exhaustively explored.

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Yeah, I didn’t mean that in a boring “quantify this for me” powerscaling nonsense question. More just engaging with the metafiction, like how different writers depict it across the ages, how often writers actually remember that Single Attack Negation exists, does it come into play as a crucial point in the story often? That kind of stuff.

I find they’re usually a lot more willing to engage deeply with questions about powers as a function of fiction rather than just asking them to quantify things, which is dull.