Hi, Vince! I am sorry for replaying late, but, unfortunately, I spent last week worrying about something else.
Partizan disqualified from UEFA Cup
Serbian club FK Partizan have been disqualified from the 2007/08 UEFA Cup with immediate effect.
Spectator incidents
The Belgrade club has been handed the punishment by the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body for the conduct of their supporters during the UEFA Cup first round, first-leg match against Bosnia-Herzegovnian hosts NK Zrinjski in Mostar on 19 July. Partizan won the match 6-1.
Additional fine
Partizan have also been fined €30,056 (CHF 50,000). An appeal against the verdict may be lodged within three days of the sending of the reasoned decision. The body took its decision after examining the report of the UEFA disciplinary inspector and hearing evidence from Partizan officials. Subject to any appeal proceedings, Zrinjski will progress to the second qualifying round.
Now, when everything is over, let try to put myself back together, and concentrate on this topic...
QUOTE
Yes. Notice how that report underlined how the reasons for what had happened were *unknown*. No one, on Earth, could have imagined the real reasons behind the unstoppable activation of the device.
Very interesting! With unknown reason you were able to present readers that behind the curtains, aliens were responsible, actually. And that satellite that appears on the plate altogether with Pleiade "constellation" is actually satellite of Mu, not alien one...
QUOTE
Yes. Which leaves an interesting question: what happened to Isemori? Amaterasu believed that the anti-matter was a weapon to be used agains Atlantis: she didn’t knew the truth (i.e. the pact between Isemori and the aliens) – and Isemori (the one who knew the truth) just does seem to disappear after the anti-matter is seized by Amaterasu and hidden in the Ombre Diafane’s city.
There was much more going on behind, of course – at least when we were plotting these storylines.
Logical answer on that question (since, I as a simple reader, have no clue what you guys were plotting on, but I can based my assumption on logic) is that Amaterasu, aware of Isemori's doing behind her back, and wishing that eventually become Empress instead of Empress, would put her sister in chains, or somewhat else neutralized her menace. For the sake of throne as well as sake of the war.
QUOTE
No: they came to Earth because they needed the anti-matter, not to destroy the planet. And they didn’t “destroyed Earth” (like the Vogon do in “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”). They “teached earthlings a lesson”. The method they choose for their retaliation was not one of total destruction, “only” one who would have guaranteed a long period of suffering to Earth’s inhabitants – from which maybe they would have re-emerged stronger and wiser. This, of course, didn’t worked at all.
It seems to me that you just have described Yahweh! Is He an alien?
However, when I mentioned Vogons, I didn't mean literally...
QUOTE
My girlfriend at the time noted how in my stories there was this recurring theme of an “outside intervention” aimed at “improving humanity” – and how it always ended up badly. This happens in “La Maledizione del Sahara” with the alien device in the lost city, in “Il Segreto delle Ombre Diafane” and in the last story of Magic Patrol, where, again, the attempt by the aliens to “improve humanity” ends up in the biggest display of suffering and disaster of the whole mini-series.
While I never consciously put these ideas in my scripts, I must admit that they are there. I fondly remember the last dialogue between Martin and Leslie in “La Maledizione del Sahara”, when Leslie is sad for the “lost opportunity”, while Martin, at the end, is happier to improve and become a better men through experience, personal learning, mistakes and failures.
Trivia moment: in the original script the last line of dialogue was “…At the end, I do like adventure more” (“…Alla fin fine preferisco l’avventura”) – which was a word play between what Martin had just said and the classic “end words” of many adventure tales. This was judged “too banal” during revision, and changed into “Come on, let’s return home” (“Coraggio, torniamo a casa”)
La maledizione del Sahara deserves another topic for discussing. I have to read it over again, but, I have fears that story don't fit to continuity either...
QUOTE
There was a reason for this. Earth, in the MM series, has been described by some readers as “a galactic crossroad”. It was true, and when I left, we had already started to lay down the groundwork for the reason behind this (remember that Earth is “the planet of mysteries…” well, for a good reason!”) I will only say that for some alien races humanity was “part of the big scheme” while for others it was “an unfortunate accident”. All, I want to specify, grounded down in ancient myth and in scientific theories and/or speculations – i.e. nothing in the “sheer realm of SciFi”.
I wish I can see the reason why is one pale, blue dot, an insignificant peace of rock in the Universe a galactic crossroad. Also, I hope that I will not learn it in stupid, moronic Asteroid Argo series. Does Vigna and company have a blessing from MM staff at all???
QUOTE
One key story was “L’Ultima Caravella”. There were many elements in it which I had put as a groundwork for future developments. Someone, for example, had criticized the fact that the alien probe came from “another galaxy” as “too far fetched”, because there was no need to go so far when our galaxy already has a lot of place and mysteries. It actually was one of the key points: to some alien species “space” had not the same meaning we give to it.
Interesting. I must have missed something. True, I have read it long time ago, maybe it is a time to refresh my memory (and weekend is coming, yeeeee).
QUOTE
As I wrote, I still feel that the reason for “The End of the World” was still firmly rooted in the rivalry between Mu and Atlantis. Isemori tried to up the ante and overcome Atlantis (and her sister as side effect) one time too much, and the breaking point was reached. It was bound to happen, soon or later, aliens or not aliens, IMHO.
Of course that the reason for the destruction was the rivalry between 2 superpowers, that's not the problem. Not even that chain of Isemori's and Amaterasu's steps toward war/peace with Atlantis caused it. The only problem for me WAS (but not still now
) that aliens played a trigger for the Last Day. But, you have convinced me that aliens could have some role in this war...
QUOTE
[Another trivia moment: in the original edition of MM 23, pag. 59, in the caption Nadia is mistakenly called “Diana”. Reading the story we have the impression that the there is a feeling of sort between Martin and Nadia (Martin even asks her to come to America with him), and, of course, NADIA is the anagram of DIANA. One day I jokingly said to Alfredo that “if he needed an idea for “MM’s unknown son” the time that Martin and Nadia spend in the Siberian cave – awaiting death – could have been a good moment for the “scandal to happen”. Alfredo of course blew a couple of blood vessels and the question was never again touched
However, let’s imagine for a moment that the idea of a son for Martin was seriously on the table… see how
without introducing anything new and without twisting the continuity, the story elements for him to have a son
were already in the books? Many other things we developed at that time worked this way.]
If you ask me, more appropriate girl for that "role" is Hilda Schmesser. They have spent almost two romantic months together, so... well, you know
But, of course, BVZA ruled out any idea about MM's son, right?
QUOTE
I think that the mistake, here, is to think to Atlantis times as a “snapshot”. I think of them as a vast era in the world history, with some key players who had the powers to live for centuries, a floating geopolitical situation (think of our world in 1900, 1950 and 2000), and a lot of mysteries. Remember that “Atlantis had her Atlantis, too”, i.e. there are hints of an ever more ancient civilization that came ***before*** Atlantis and Mu, and disappeared. IMHO, numbers like “50.000 years of history” are nothing in geological times, but immense in human terms.
To tell you the truth, I never thought about Atlantis as a "snapshot". For me, the war that we are talking about was the LAST one, between Atlantis and Mu, that caused totally destruction of Earth, civilization etc... It is normally to assume that in the very long history of this rivalry there were more clashes and wars between 2 superpowers, but finally war is the one that we are discussing right now.
For me it is not a problem to lace events described in La citta delle ombre diafane in the time before, let say 50 000 years BC. It is OK to suppose it, because you have claimed in your gigante that those naacal tablets that were read by Orloff were actually incomplete, therefore those tablets could be mix of previous and later events. Thus, Ra Vanu, Ra Mu and Kala could be actors of some other war between Atlantis and Mu. But, for clearing this mess up, we really need another Mu/Atlantis story in the future including all of these elements above. Don't you think so?
Here we have another mystery to resolve: which was the first destruction of Atlantis? Was that 75 000 years ago, when Oduarpa caused it (see Il canto della sirena, and Il re rosso), or there were more destruction of Atlantis (according to Almanacco del mistero 1989)? I know that it is not a part of our discussion, but I just want to mention it as a curiosity.
QUOTE
Maybe it was an “Empire” from Mu’s point of view – remember the “Imperialist Americans” of Soviet times
OK, it makes some sense...
QUOTE
I don’t know. Actually, I had the feeling that Mu could have physically decentralized the government, so that there was not a single “Capitol” but a network of government offices and regional capitols connected in real time both technologically and spiritually – maybe to avoid the problems of a “first strike” or maybe because that was in their culture. If you accept this, then the “honorary Capitol” would have been were Amaterasu was located.
I see. But, anyway, you could give us some names of Mu's cities. IMHO, always is better to have any kind of name that none (or just "capitol")...
QUOTE
Which is understandable, since I did that ***exactly*** to avoid a precise placement in time and space of the events portrayed
While I can understand your reasons for NOT placing the precise time of events in Il segreto delle ombre diafane, which might be that you wanted to have more freedom for further development, by not doing this you have provoked 2 things:
a) a reader (aka me
) is left with confusion, having him (uhm, me) feeling totally lost in space and time, not able to put things together that make some sense, and
b) leaving to the other writers (aka Russo) open hands to f**k up the storyline for good by placing 18th year of Grat Eagle only 2 years before destruction of Earth, eliminating those 10 years of building memory chamber through whole world by both powers
Knowing that the war started in the 8530 year BC, or 4203 year of Yod, you have a lot of space and opportunity to precise those events on Mu, they might happen before the war started, they might happen while the war was already there, but it MUST be placed BEFORE 8522 year BC, or 4211 year of Yod, so that both Atlantis and Mu have a chance for chambers building...
Thanks for the answers.
All the best,
Darko
che modo di rito:
Perdona la brutalità di un lettore appassionato che ha cercato anche in altre serie (NN 64-65) delle risposte trovando però altra confusione (Atlantide 15.000 anni fa invece che 10.500).