» Wed Sep 01, 2010 5:02 pm And as for the Dwemer confirmation, there is a difference between "Character believes A and that seems more likely than B" and "This is fact." The latter means that under any circumstance, discussion is over because the answer is nown for a fact. The former means that while at the moment it seems reasonable, that dosen't mean that new perspectives may be added to change the opinion. And aside from which, once a work of art is released to the public, the intentions of the creator are rendered moot. Even though Shirly Jackson's "The Lottery" was written with no symbolism or deepetr meaning, it does have them because that's what the reader's see.
And let's face facts: if anyone else had said it but MK, you'd be miffed too. Or at least you wouldn't mind my complaints about his (sorry, His) removal of any valid discussion on the subjects he choses to confirm beyond "noob asks question, someone gives answer).
And let's face facts: if anyone else had said it but MK, you'd be miffed too. Or at least you wouldn't mind my complaints about his (sorry, His) removal of any valid discussion on the subjects he choses to confirm beyond "noob asks question, someone gives answer).
It hardly served to stifle discussion, if anything it livened it. If you'll recall discussions on concerning the Dwemer were nothing short of fruitless, that "they got stuck in Oblivion or the Outer Realms" or that "they were killed by the daedra for insolence" was about as worthwhile as they got, this is mainly due to the fact that almost nobody actually cared to look deeply into the matter at all (myself included for a long time) and those that did were often ignored.
Even without the confirmation, for anybody who is seriously looking into the disappearance, it is the only option with any credence whatsoever and with ample texts to support it, not to mention the only one that it flows seamlessly into and serves to liven the overall metaphysics of the world. Even without using obscure texts you can come pretty damn close, you'll just have to take a roundabout way and will have to make up your terms. The confirmation didn't make it the only viable option, it already was, it just gave it the final stamp.
Now, when I say that it served to liven discussion, what I mean is that we're no longer squabbling in circles over boring and surface-level explanations of what the Dwemer were doing and what happened to them, we can move on. The mystery of the Dwemer is still present, we've simply secured one rung in the ladder to help us climb further up; as paws noted, there are still various factors that we don't know, factors which before we didn't even bother looking at because we were too busy trying to figure out the basics... now we know the basics and can try and figure out the rest, but you'd rather we go back squabbling about whether Azura banished them instead of actually deepening our understanding of anything...
Trust the Imperials :rolleyes: 
