1/27/07: Failure

[thegayhare]

There are limits, however. In the example you've provided, the instructor only kills the student if the student fails. After the student fails.

And the bloat-filled needles on the pipe?  I guess they technically kill you five seconds after you fail...

No, you failed to expect someone to be trying to kill you. If you haven't checked your morning cup of tea for poison, you're not cut out to be an assassin... :-)

exactly
assassins are hired to do a specific service,  one that most people don't like havinf preformed on them.  So since people who might be targeted for a suprise gift from the Assassins guild are lible to take precuations (take for example the elaborate traps and precuations set up by Commander Vimes, although he was much better then the guild) and so bloat coated needles, and caltrops are a reasonable example of the  precuations they might run into. 

[superluser]

Well, why is that sort of method valid for Assassin school, but not for adventurer school?

[Manawolf]

::Tosses Occam's Razor, gets out Occam's Cleaver::

[GabrielsThoughts]

what, you don't have an ax?

[Manawolf]

It's not a proper lesson if you're dead.

[superluser]

It's not a proper lesson if you're dead.

There's a difference between the lectures and the exams.  The lectures give you knowledge; the exams make sure that you're not passing someone whom you shouldn't.  In the case of adventuring, you shouldn't pass anyone who is not capable of defending herself from an instructor of adventurers, because you are quite likely to find someone out there who is at least at that level.

If you were that good at adventuring, you wouldn't be teaching others how to do it--you'd be out there adventuring.  I'm sure the pay's far better.

[Manawolf]

And a lesson isn't an exam.  Lesson's where you learn the stuff that will be on the test.

Today's lesson: Stop throwing out stupid theories the moment they come to mind.  It doesn't make you look any better, and at worst it'll end up spreading like a retard wildfire.

[Zedd]

Oh I belive someway Abel did past the test

[Manawolf]

But the test wasn't even for him.

[thegayhare]

Well, why is that sort of method valid for Assassin school, but not for adventurer school?

I'm not saying it isn't but  in the Assassins exam the teacher sets the course and places reasonable hinderances the the students path.  The traps can be fatal but in this the teacher is a passive oponent.  In a direct confrontation the student wouldn't stand a chance.

In this situation if Devin was the teacher he would most likely have access tto a vast library of magical knowlage and exerance far above  what most students would have (unless the student was like Venteri).  If devin is a teacher here he isn't testing there abilities fairly.  He's pitting his skills and experiance directly against them

[superluser]

And a lesson isn't an exam.  Lesson's where you learn the stuff that will be on the test.

Well, in that case, I think the instructor used the wrong term.  She's obviously being graded on this, and we don't want to see grade inflation, right?  The instructor is in the company of Sean Connery on this, too.

Today's lesson: Stop throwing out stupid theories the moment they come to mind.  It doesn't make you look any better, and at worst it'll end up spreading like a retard wildfire.

Fair enough.  OK.  Listen up everybody!  This idea that the instructor attacks the students during the lesson?  Stupid.  That's not to say that it's not going to happen, but I'd have a hard time accepting that any competent writer would actually use that trope in anything other than a self-mocking manner.

I'm not saying it isn't but  in the Assassins exam the teacher sets the course and places reasonable hinderances the the students path.  The traps can be fatal but in this the teacher is a passive oponent.  In a direct confrontation the student wouldn't stand a chance.

I'll bet you that quite a few world-class chess players could force Kasparov (or Kramnik) into a draw.  Repeatedly.  It's supposedly notoriously easy to force a draw in chess.

One on one, the student couldn't be expected to defeat the instructor, but any reasonable adventurer should be able to defend against those attacks.

[Manawolf]

No, the stupid part was saying that it was one of the characters that we saw die onscreen.

Heck, a teacher would never give their student free shot like when Devin jumped up from Abel's headwings.

[superluser]

No, the stupid part was saying that it was one of the characters that we saw die onscreen.

Heck, a teacher would never give their student free shot like when Devin jumped up from Abel's headwings.

Well, that's *two* of the stupid things about the theory.

Unless... (William of Ockham will now have a coronary)

If Devin as teacher found out that Abel was an incubus, he would want to make sure that Abel thought that he was dead to throw suspicion off of himself.

Hmmm... Nope.  Still stupid.

[Manawolf]

Not to mention the abilities of a cubi seem somewhat sporadic.  Abel's telepathic powers appeared soon after his headwings, but Dan hasn't heard the thoughts of a single person since his popped up.

[Boog]

My guess is that Devin's fairly dead. However, it wouldn't be too unlikely that whoever the intructer was would happily kill one of his students. That demon mentality in demonology 101 again.

[Tapewolf]

Not to mention the abilities of a cubi seem somewhat sporadic.  Abel's telepathic powers appeared soon after his headwings, but Dan hasn't heard the thoughts of a single person since his popped up.

Not quite, but almost:  http://missmab.com/Comics/Vol_588.php

[Aleolus]

Well, I'm just glad her test was pass or fail, based on survival.  Apparently her classmate wasn't so lucky, though.  He was the one who really failed.

[ShiningShadow]

I think the mysterious shadowy claw is Dark Pegasus if he could change the hoof to a three poited claw than it's him but a younger more like a teacher type. I feel it that's him for sure.