[UA] various topics

[Gregory Paul Stolze]

At 05:55 AM 12/10/2000 EST, you wrote:
>I have to agree that these two groups seem to have changed from the way 
>they're first presented... TOSG even changes from one end of the UA book to 
>the other. In the "itty bitty summaries of every group" section at the start 
>of the book, they're presented as a group of tinfoil hat-wearing nutjobs, 
>like a little white supremacist militia that's just discovered magic or 
>somesuch, but once you turn to the NPC descriptions in the back you learn 
>that the bigwigs in the Order are really, really dangerous and not just 
>small-time crackpots.

If a TOSG book ever crawls out the door, it'll probably be from their point
of view, and they'll look perfectly sane and heroic.

>The Inquisition was also presented in the first book like a large, 
>mixed-about magic mafia that was entirely dependent on Alex Abel's 
>networking, and that he was just kind of poking his fingers into the magical 
>underground pies for the fun of having power. But once "LG&M" comes out, we 
>find he actually has a purpose, and some organization to his structure, and 
>the whole organization gets a 'good guy' presentation. I don't get it? :P

Very few people get up and say "Hey, I'm a BAD GUY.  I'm a villain.  I'm
working for the downfall of everyone!"  Nazis thought nazism was best for
German society.  The KKK saw themselves as the defenders of innocence.  If
you're going to HAVE an organization (meaning you're not just a lone nut
like Joey Dunes), you need to have a party line people can get behind.
Otherwise your motivation problems doom your project from the start.  Now,
TNI has a big advantage because, for most of its recruits, the alternatives
are very dire.  

Whether TNI are good guys or not depends entirely on what you think of
Abel.  Or, I suppose, on what you think of following him.  

Do you really think Tex Chang is a good guy?  Here's a preview of the
fiction in the next book.  It touches on these "good guys."

	"Remember Tex?  You were with Tex down in Burundi, weren't you?  You said
he 	bullseyed a pregnant woman from two hundred yards and didn't change
expression."

	"What about him?"

	"He's here.  Specifically, he's in the parking lot, holding a machinegun
with a 	clip as long as your arm.  He's got a laser mike trained on the
window, and if he 	hears me leave or get shot, he'll turn this room into a
blender.  Brinker?  You 	willing to take that much risk?"

-G.

Critics are like medical students: they always think a writer is suffering
from the very disease they happen to be studying at the time.
		-Milorad Pavic

http://www.waylay.com
http://www.thehungersite.com/index.html


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