On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, M J wrote: > > ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- > From: Mark A Mandel <mam at theworld.com> > Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 22:50:43 -0500 > > > [Philip Hart:] > >#>While people are discussing Dragon swordfighting, perhaps someone could > >#>explain something from _TPG_. When we first meet Uttrik, Tazendra > >#>describes him (as he warms up for his duel with Khaavren) as striking > >#>at the air and missing with every third blow. What does that mean? > > >#I always thought it meant that Uttrik was shadowfighting against an > >#imaginary opponent. You know, like a practice dummy that happened to be > >#invisible. You _know_ he's not that good if he's missing every third strike > >#against an invisible practice dummy. He's only, say, three times as good as > >#me, then, as opposed to Tazendra, who is approximately twenty-seven times as > >#good as me. (Or Benedict, who is a bajillion million times better.) How can he miss an invisible, agile target? > > [Jeff Gibbons:] > >#Or perhaps he is stopping the attack as if he hit his opponent on the first > >#two strikes, and on the third he acts as if he misses and then carries the > >#move through to his next attack. I have done the same thing while shadow > >#boxing. > > > >I like that! > > Ditto, but if in that case, why would it have been pointed out to > Khaavren as something he shouldn't worry about? I'd interpreted the > whole scene as Tazendra and Pel denigrating Uttrik's abilities to > Khaavren, a la high school buddies roaring each other up before a fight > in the parking lot. "You can totally take him, dude, he jabbed at that > shadow and MISSED!" or the like. I have to note that I'm still confused, apparently in concert with M J. > (Although Vlad, much less Pel, would never ever say "dude," and this > makes me sort of sad.) Way off topic, but I recently saw a picture of a cartoon bunny with a tear in its eye saying, "You suck, and it's sad". I completely failed to convince my gf that it was hilarious. No accounting for taste.