09-13-2016, 12:38 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: bending stereotypes
A Renaissance Patrician who is pious, incorruptable, and honorable, and a skillful merchant-prince but has no taste for Humanist painting, thinks Gothic style is perfectly OK by him, and wouldn't have the slightest idea how to mix a poison.
A Medieval Monk who eats a good diet, studies and exercises regularly, does not obsess with ritual abasement, thinks miracles a possible event but is skeptical about any given report, and has never persecuted a single heretic in his life. A bedouin who kicks weary travelers out of his tent. A galley captain who if you suggested using slaves would laugh at such an inefficient method.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
09-13-2016, 12:54 AM | #12 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: bending stereotypes
Persecuting heretics isn't really a monk thing even in stereotype. But a Papal inquisitor who scrupulously investigates reports of assault and murder by witchcraft and only lays charges if he establishes beyond reasonable doubt that the accused really was trying to curse (or poison!) someone
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09-13-2016, 01:06 AM | #13 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: bending stereotypes
Quote:
In practice it was somewhere between that. All courts back then were faulty beyond belief, though they were not as absurd as might be thought and had some rational ideas that would be useful when investigating technique caught up with legal principle. In any case they were not fools. I remember in The Last Duel when trial-by-combat was proposed, the attitude was not,"That's a good idea" but "Got a better idea anyone?"
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
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09-13-2016, 01:10 AM | #14 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: bending stereotypes
How about a Sultan who only has four wives and never considered axing any of them, is more interested in attracting trade then in conquest, and whose Grand Vizier is a trustworthy and skillful administrator?
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
09-13-2016, 03:48 AM | #15 | |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: bending stereotypes
Quote:
Unless you mean it as a adjective then of course it can be more generalized for attitude.
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09-13-2016, 03:52 AM | #16 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: bending stereotypes
The Name Of The Rose starring Sean Connery based on a book had such an analytical but pious monk.
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09-13-2016, 03:57 AM | #17 | |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: bending stereotypes
Quote:
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Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
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09-13-2016, 03:59 AM | #18 | |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: bending stereotypes
Quote:
Not to mention that if "your guy" lost then you would loudly claim cheating and around everyone goes again.
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Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
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09-13-2016, 07:54 AM | #19 |
☣
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: bending stereotypes
That's the definition of mercenary, but I was thinking of the fictional stereotype. In fiction, a mercenary is one of two things: a) the guy who will stab his nominal comrades in the back for pocket change, or b) the guy who claims to be "not in this for your revolution" and takes his reward and leaves only to come back and help save the day in the finale. The subversion of the fiction trope is that he instead fits the reality trope.
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RyanW - Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats. |
09-13-2016, 08:09 AM | #20 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: bending stereotypes
Historically most mercenaries have a strongly preferred side but do care about pay and for various reasons don't serve in the main military forces. I think Kaff Tagon from Schlock Mercenary actually manages to both be the stereotype (the man is obsessed with getting paid twice for the same job) and bend it (very loyal to his men, and friends, has a few sides he won't double-cross, and a well developed but non-standard sense of honor).
The unpopular but loyal vizier. The Usurper who actually runs the kingdom better than the king
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