4 unrelated things, including ramblings about Trigun

[edenfalling]

1) Have been singularly uninspired this week. Nevertheless, I wrote about 300 words of "Guardian," 1/3 of "Lemonade" chapter 4, and another 600 words or so of "Finding Marea," bringing that to 7,150 total at the moment.

2) Am still unemployed. *sigh* Am still applying for jobs. Have even lowered my standards enough to try part-time minimum wage clerk positions. We shall see how this goes.

3) Tried to work on "Secrets" and realized I'd lost the flow of the story. Must reread chapters 1-9 soon, so I recall the right 'feel' for chapter 10.

4) Spent far too much time yesterday trying to figure out a workable solar system model and planetary environment for Trigun. Eventually concluded that Yasuhiro Nightow has no fucking clue about anything technical that doesn't involve guns (with the possible exception of motor vehicles). Also concluded that there must be other energy sources besides the Plants, and liquid water somewhere underground. Although the Plants, as written, must use whacked-out physics theories to draw energy from extra dimensions or something, because otherwise the power conversion rates are scientifically impossible.

Furthermore, the political system makes no sense either. If people live in a bunch of city-states, who the hell has the authority to rescind Vash's bounty? And if there is a central government of some sort, why does it never seem to appear except in the form of bounties and the occasional throwaway 'federal' marshall?

If I think about this too hard, I get pounding headaches. *sigh*

Comments

[thisistony.livejournal.com]

2) I'm sure you'll find a good one! Keep your head up, you can do it! がんばって！

He knows guns???

[(Anonymous)]

Yasuhiro Nightow knows guns??? Maybe some, but Vash's gun shouldn't be able to work at all. The barrel is on the bottom, but the hammer is on the top so when the hammer strikes the whole thing should blow.

I never wondered about energy sources or water or government. I always wondered what those people did for food. And clothes. And pretty much everything that didn't need earth to be made.

I do hope you get the chance to watch the series. I saw it first, and even if the setting doesn't make a lot of sense, the series is very fun and nice animated. The anime does leave out a bunch, so I understand (haven't read much of the manga,) things like when Vash's hair changes, and it takes a lot longer before they start explaining what Plants DO.

Sorry for rambling, good luck with the rest!

WeatherMarmalade

[valles-uf.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the job thing. ^_^;

Anyway, yeah, the Plants are almost certainly drawing off of zero point or core tap type power sources. Gunsmoke's civilization does use at least one type of generator beyond them - one of the towns shown in the anime is basically built around a truly huge-ass wind turbine.

Astronomy... Well, I haven't got the sources on hand to run the actual numbers (nor the energy to go looking, at the moment), but I think that what's seen in the anime, at least, can be rationalized under certain assumptions:

- That Gunsmoke's primary stars are of spectral class G or K
- That their relative seperation as seen during the series is, in fact, the farthest apart that they ever seem (that is, that a line from Gunsmoke to the system's center of gravity will be roughly perpendicular to a line between the stars)
- That the sizes of moons, as shown on screen, are exaggerrated for effect - which happens a lot in anime and is actually kind of hard to avoid doing. Therefore, all we really know is that there are at least five, and that they appear to be different sizes when seen from the planet's surface. Catherine Asaro details an even more complex system she created in one of the appendices of her novel The Moon's Shadow, so this isn't reallly an 'illusion breaking' question, just one that needs some thought.

(I'd reccomend her books in general, BTW, but I wouldn't start with that one - her chronology features a lot of people doing a lot of interacting things over varying periods of time, and each person pretty much has their own novel, none of which were really written in order. TMS is a pretty direct sequel to The Radiant Seas, though, which is a direct sequel to Primary Inversion, which is a good starting place. There aren't any bad ones, come to that - she's pretty good about explaining what the audience needs - but Inversion was the first written, and assumes the least.)

The desert planet thing has been addressed comprehensively in at least two different places that I know of - Herbert's Dune, of course, and Dream Pod 9's Heavy Gear RPG setting.

If people live in a bunch of city-states, who the hell has the authority to rescind Vash's bounty?

The people who offered it, of course. ^_^ Presumably, in the absence of a central government, that would be Bernardelli Insurance, or some company of comperable scope.

The marshalls, though... well, maybe they're all there is to the federal government?

Ja, -n

[alliancesjr.livejournal.com]

As far as employment goes, would you mind terribly an entry-level corporate position? Such as either mailroom, reception, or some wacky combination of the two?

[(Anonymous)]

So, no Guardian this week? Sad that. But keep trying okay, we really love your work.

I'm trying to find a job too, but no one wants me and I refuse to work in food...I'd never eat again if I had to resort to that.

[tripoverhercats.livejournal.com]

::delurks, give a little wave::

It's been a few years since I watched Trigun, but there was an episode dedicated around a man who was controlling a vast underground water source and a few other moments that implied that there is water, you just have to dig for it. Another episode dealt with a family that had successfully terraformed a good sized chunk of land into a very fertile area.

I got the impression that things on the surface should be much more livable but between human greed and Knives interfering wherever he could, life is much, much rougher than it should be.

::Relurks::

[shikomekidomi.livejournal.com]

Hrm. Well, it seems most of your issues have been discussed in decent depth...
About the idea of a federal government, references imply there is one, but considering how little we see of it, I'd say it would be safe to assume that it has very little power or resources. Which really makes sense considering the isolation of the towns involved. It wasn't until the telegraphs and railroads that the federal government had any real power in the 'Wild West', after all. In an entire planet where towns are seperated by large stretches of land that no one wants to cross, I'm surprised there's a central government at all, really. But since Trigun is modelled to some extent after said 'Wild West', I'm assuming that the parallells include a federal government with little power to actually control much or protect anything.