From: ikonoqlast@gmail.com   
      
   On Monday, July 28, 2014 12:20:19 PM UTC-7, Leszek Karlik wrote:   
      
      
   > >> > Hero's friend.  Kim Kinnison clone- smart, strong, handsome,     
   >    
   > >> charismatic, nice, whole package.  Naval intelligence officer of the     
   >    
   > >> adventurous type, NOT of the George Smiley persuasion.  Very good at     
   >    
   > >> undercover work.   
   >    
   > >> A bit too good to be true. So perfect I want to smack him.   
   >    
   > > Nah, he's too nice.  He is perfect.   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > His name should be Martin Sue. :-)   
      
      
   His name is Ken(drick) Kinison.  The hero is George Seton.  Of COURSE they hit   
   it off...  The most dangerous villain is DuQesne...   
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
   > >> > Bosun.  Been there, done that, multiple times.  Old salt.   
   >    
   > [...]   
   >    
   > >> This character could be female. Actually she should be female.   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > > Not in my head, and it would raise the question 'why didn't grandpa fuck     
   >    
   > > her'?   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > Because she didn't want him? Had a husband, or a wife, or wanted to   
   >    
   > keep it professional?   
      
      
   Yeah... no.  Male.     
      
      
      
      
      
      
   > > Grandpa is deliberately modelled in James T. Kirk,   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > Did he have a magic wand of mind control? :-)   
      
      
   Well, the stories the Bosun tells about him all somehow have the same   
   punchlines as well known dirty jokes...   
      
      
      
      
   > >> > Ship's clerk.  Marine.  Babyfaced (cf Audie Murphy), extremely shy,   
   >    
   > [...]   
   >    
   > >> Ooh, or if this character was female that would certainly subvert   
   >    
   > >> expectations.   
   >    
   > >   
   >    
   > > No female marines- not strong enough.   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > So, you have a highly advanced civilisation able to give people     
   >    
   > colour-changing   
   >    
   > skin and able to regenerate any bodily damage, but they can't make women     
   >    
   > which   
   >    
   > are as strong as men?   
      
      
   They CAN, they just don't.  Civilization considers body modification   
   repugnant.  At least polite society does (think tattoos and piercings).     
      
   This is not a society, despite the fact that it is thousands of years more   
   advanced than ours, that we would call modern or 'progressive'.  They are   
   deliberately victorian and old fashioned (within limits, as they have female   
   naval officers and crew), in    
   contrast to the less advanced civilization they are dealing with here that   
   DOES look modern and progressive (to us) but which they consider backwards.     
      
      
      
      
   > Seems highly unplausible. ("We have a civiliation that is very advanced   
   >    
   > technologically, but we will intentionally keep some of the problems, so     
   >    
   > that   
   >    
   > the armed forces have the same dynamics as warriors in stone-age societies   
   >    
   > where they had to run around with swords.")   
      
      
   Excuse me, but in the 21st century combat jobs are limited to men as well.   
      
   Some jobs require strength that women simply don't possess, and combat   
   infantryman is near the top.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)