A song about a swarm of flying bugs that nearly distroyed Ponyville...being played in the episode where a swarm of flying bugs nearly distroy Canterlot.
__________________
Well, one time at Bard camp...
Former avatars & Quotes
Spoiler
Former avatar, had it since I started realy posting here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tychris1
Pokonic look what you have done! You fool, you`ve doomed us all!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doorhandle
Oh Pokonic, never change. And never become my D.M.
I'm playing a game of X-com (the turn-based game where you fight an alien invasion) using the names of posters here in ponythread for my soldiers. It's on classic ironman, which is a hard difficulty that doesn't let you take back any mistakes. So I've killed off a good chunk of the thread, but we're still going.
If you're running out of names, I give permission to use mine for the fodder.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aotrs Commander
Twilight said in Winter Wrap Up that Ponyville had been doing it without magic for "hundreds of years". At the moment, there is no concrete evidence in timescale to say whether this is hyperbole and Ponyville is less than [seventy?] years old; or whether Granny Smith is extremely long-lived (with interesting inplications for extended pony-life spans) and that she's not called "granny" because that's a title, but that "Granny" is just her name, and she's not, technically, AJ's grandmother, but her great [times x] grandmother (whom is just referred to by the short version.)
I figured it was hyperbole since Twilight can exaggerate things when she's stressed out. I mean, she did honestly believe she was doomed to Magic Kindergarden in Lesson Zero.
What we need are some solid stated ages for a couple key ponies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Balmas
There are so many details here that make it funnier. For example, the "Forever Alone" trollface on the front, the Twilight Sparkle fold-out...
Yes, I found those details the gems of the comic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diego Havoc
My bad
Spoiler
When you want a muffin, you want a muffin.
__________________ The Arbiters - A Comical Conspiracy Comic
The critics rave about Digo Dragon:
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Succubus
Truly, there is nothing more terrifying than a DM with a sense of humour.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Soras Teva Gee
No pretty sure he thinks he's Digo Dragon.
Custom Avatar by SnowHawk- My OC Pegasus, Ellie Sprocket.
Derby, UK and Bleak Despair battlestation. Species: Spirit-Bound Skeletal Lich (Lawful Evil)
Gender:
Re: Ponythread LV:55 Ponythread learns Agility!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyouhen
Ah, but would the skin overcome standard methods of detecting illusions? Technically it would be a nonmagical disguise, so any spells that pierce illusions shouldn't work. Though that raises the question of if the skin counts as magical....
No idea. To be fair, we only tend to use illusory disguises when detection (e.g. spells or sensors) aren't liable to be involved. Lord Death Despoil or the likes of Lord Yeller might be able to fool them with spells, but not me!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyouhen
Wait, you made Derpy a spellcaster?
'Course! Basic requirement of Aotrs training is learnin' spells! I'm teaching her necromancer and how make muffin zombies!
...
It is going exactly as well as you would expect...
In other news, this IWD2 Heart of Fury mode run may not last very long at all. The difficulty spike is ludicrous.
Spoiler
Seriously, the party is level 17! (Horribly under-equipped, mind, by this point we should be floating in +5 kit, and half the stuff we've got is +3/+4... But as they are coming in off completing the game the first time, so that's IWD2's fault for us not havign the sort of optimised gear we'd have on the tabletop...) The Paladin and the Ranger/Barbarian have, like nearly 250 hits a piece. Guess what, though, it doesn't matter when the monsters are nearly automatically hitting for 30-40 points of damage per attack...
Fer cryin' out loud, my 17th level wizard RAN OUT OF SPELLS before the end of the last fight. After TWO combats. RAN OUT OF SPELLS. And I couldn't even take the deaths of three party members and just grit my teeth, because the remaining ones couldn't even carry the dead one's gear back to town.
So it looks like five minute adventuring day, i.e. rest after each and every combat. And this is the first two fights of chapter one. (And it means setting up the party buffs and summoning monsters every ten minutes or so.)
Basically, it looks like, unless you min-maxed your party (and by which I mean from a race/class combo standpoint - the sort of thing I loathe doing, because it's not making the characters I want to play - specifically for (highly limited amount of) SoD spam the first time you run through the game, you're pretty much buggered. And, thanks to the awesome idea of not letting you buy better (i.e. appropriate level) scrolls at the start in HoF mode (but hey, as soon as you have the cash you can buy +5 weapons and stuff), it's not a problem you can even correct.
This could get really old, really fast. I must say, I am very disappointed in Black Isle's ides of "balancing" the monsters for HoF mode, which basically cudgels you into pretty much having to not only play a certain way, but to have made your party a certain way.
Basically, they've multiplied the hit points and damage dealt, and then arbitatrily increased the BAB so that unless you have ACs in the 50-60s or so, the basic monsters always hit. I'm getting my arse completely handed to me by regular orcs, with some archers and a couple of moribund spellcasters, because the party are going down faster than I can do anything about it. Anything less than Heal is useless, and even Heal and Mass Heal don't but you long. And because this is a 3.0 CRPG, a lot of the things I could do are fragged (e.g. Power Attack maximum cap is -5/+5). I know my party may well not be super-optimial, but this is ridiculous.
Heck, I added a few stat points in Dalekeeper (to bring the stat totals to the same as what I use on the tabletop) and I could have given them double the stats nearly, before it made any difference! (I still may do that for their Constituions, actually. If the monsters are going to do arbitarily large amounts of damage, then I will have arbitarily large amounts of hit points, thank you very much...)
On top of all which, the game has the gall to be giving virtually no XP (if any) for the monsters, because the CR has been set waaay to low (I think it was proportedly just a flat plus across the board.)
Edit: Thinking about it, HoF mode is basically the biggest flaw of 3.x (which I've spent such a long time addressing in my own games) - the fighter/wizard disparity - turned all the way up to twenty-four, with an added "kick blasters in the shins" for good measure.
Last edited by Aotrs Commander : 10-21-2012 at 08:32 PM.
I figured it was hyperbole since Twilight can exaggerate things when she's stressed out. I mean, she did honestly believe she was doomed to Magic Kindergarden in Lesson Zero.
What we need are some solid stated ages for a couple key ponies.
I'm putting the WWU vs. FAD conflict solidly in the "unintended retcon" category in my own personal headcanon. On the crazy theory that the production crew and writers don't double check their entire canon to make sure something isn't contradicted by an off-the-cuff remark in another episode
Quote:
Originally Posted by DigoDragon
Yes, I found those details the gems of the comic.
It's also from Sherlock. That might be too obvious to mention but I didn't see anypony mention it yet so... go watch Sherlock if you haven't already. It's really good
__________________
Proof-reading is totally unnecessary in the digital age now that we have spell cheque.
Twilight said in Winter Wrap Up that Ponyville had been doing it without magic for "hundreds of years".
I think she meant the Winter Wrap up, instead of Ponyville. There is a problem since there are unicorns in Ponyville before Twilight, but it could be possible that they are raised in Earth Pony Community.
P.S- I wonder if there are Carrots Ironfoundersson equivalents (like Unicorn raised by Earth Pony or vice versa) in MLP: FIM.
__________________
Pony Minecraft Avatar
Rest in Peace:
Spoiler
Miko Miyazaki, Thanh, Durkon- Order of the Stick
Krunch- Looking For Group
Bill- Left 4 Dead
Soap Mactavish- Modern Warfare 3
Sandman- Modern Warfare 3
Ghost and Roach- Modern Warfare 2
Gabe- Dead Space 2
Dom- Gears of War 3
Carmine Brothers- Gears of War series
Uriel Septim VII- Elderscrolls Oblivion
Commander Shepherd- Mass Effect 3
Ned Stark- Song of Ice and Fire
Apple Jack's parents
Headcanon time! Well, it's more about fanon than canon, so... headfanon? Idk.
So some of the popular pony swears people use are basically taking English swears and replacing "God" with "Celestia" or "Luna." The connections are obvious. However, while this makes sense for Celestia, Luna has only been back for what, a year and a half? Two years? At the very least, ponies swearing by Luna's name must be a recent thing, and a conscious effort on the part of the ponies (Most likely predominantly young ponies, because that's just how slang rolls).
Now, I think that Luna actually secretly likes the fact that ponies do this, because it shows that they consider her to be Celestia's equal.
If you're running out of names, I give permission to use mine for the fodder.
Heh, the ponythread response to things is always massive and enthusiastic, isn't it? With all the OCs and additional volunteers, I'm going to have to hire an entire additional platoon of soldiers (or kill off a whole bunch more of you...)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eakin
On the crazy theory that the production crew and writers don't double check their entire canon to make sure something isn't contradicted by an off-the-cuff remark in another episode
That's crazy! How could you suggest something so insane?
__________________
Lawyer Pony Avatar by Dirtytabs, exalted as an Eclipse by Elemental, now with a fancy robe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
Anarion's right on the money here.
Quotes
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Anarion Mori?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
You just highlandered an entire city block into a glass-filled storm by road-runnering down it in your underwear.
Headcanon time! Well, it's more about fanon than canon, so... headfanon? Idk.
So some of the popular pony swears people use are basically taking English swears and replacing "God" with "Celestia" or "Luna." The connections are obvious. However, while this makes sense for Celestia, Luna has only been back for what, a year and a half? Two years? At the very least, ponies swearing by Luna's name must be a recent thing, and a conscious effort on the part of the ponies (Most likely predominantly young ponies, because that's just how slang rolls).
Now, I think that Luna actually secretly likes the fact that ponies do this, because it shows that they consider her to be Celestia's equal.
Oh, man, there was a fic where Celestia could actually hear all the ponies who swore in her name and what they were swearing, and it drove her completely 'round the bend, and I can't remember the name of it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anarion
(or kill off a whole bunch more of you...)
Like you weren't going to do that anyway
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anarion
That's crazy! How could you suggest something so insane?
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"
-Trixie, according to Pixelkitty
__________________
Proof-reading is totally unnecessary in the digital age now that we have spell cheque.
In other news, this IWD2 Heart of Fury mode run may not last very long at all. The difficulty spike is ludicrous.
Spoiler
Seriously, the party is level 17! (Horribly under-equipped, mind, by this point we should be floating in +5 kit, and half the stuff we've got is +3/+4... But as they are coming in off completing the game the first time, so that's IWD2's fault for us not havign the sort of optimised gear we'd have on the tabletop...) The Paladin and the Ranger/Barbarian have, like nearly 250 hits a piece. Guess what, though, it doesn't matter when the monsters are nearly automatically hitting for 30-40 points of damage per attack...
Fer cryin' out loud, my 17th level wizard RAN OUT OF SPELLS before the end of the last fight. After TWO combats. RAN OUT OF SPELLS. And I couldn't even take the deaths of three party members and just grit my teeth, because the remaining ones couldn't even carry the dead one's gear back to town.
So it looks like five minute adventuring day, i.e. rest after each and every combat. And this is the first two fights of chapter one. (And it means setting up the party buffs and summoning monsters every ten minutes or so.)
Basically, it looks like, unless you min-maxed your party (and by which I mean from a race/class combo standpoint - the sort of thing I loathe doing, because it's not making the characters I want to play - specifically for (highly limited amount of) SoD spam the first time you run through the game, you're pretty much buggered. And, thanks to the awesome idea of not letting you buy better (i.e. appropriate level) scrolls at the start in HoF mode (but hey, as soon as you have the cash you can buy +5 weapons and stuff), it's not a problem you can even correct.
This could get really old, really fast. I must say, I am very disappointed in Black Isle's ides of "balancing" the monsters for HoF mode, which basically cudgels you into pretty much having to not only play a certain way, but to have made your party a certain way.
Basically, they've multiplied the hit points and damage dealt, and then arbitatrily increased the BAB so that unless you have ACs in the 50-60s or so, the basic monsters always hit. I'm getting my arse completely handed to me by regular orcs, with some archers and a couple of moribund spellcasters, because the party are going down faster than I can do anything about it. Anything less than Heal is useless, and even Heal and Mass Heal don't but you long. And because this is a 3.0 CRPG, a lot of the things I could do are fragged (e.g. Power Attack maximum cap is -5/+5). I know my party may well not be super-optimial, but this is ridiculous.
Heck, I added a few stat points in Dalekeeper (to bring the stat totals to the same as what I use on the tabletop) and I could have given them double the stats nearly, before it made any difference! (I still may do that for their Constituions, actually. If the monsters are going to do arbitarily large amounts of damage, then I will have arbitarily large amounts of hit points, thank you very much...)
On top of all which, the game has the gall to be giving virtually no XP (if any) for the monsters, because the CR has been set waaay to low (I think it was proportedly just a flat plus across the board.)
Edit: Thinking about it, HoF mode is basically the biggest flaw of 3.x (which I've spent such a long time addressing in my own games) - the fighter/wizard disparity - turned all the way up to twenty-four, with an added "kick blasters in the shins" for good measure.
Ah IWD2, that takes me back. I think my party had 4 sorcerers (1 with a level of paladin), a specialist wizard (with a level of thief), and a cleric. When I entered a combat area I had all my characters take turns being buffed past their eyeballs, running around like Leroy Jenkins, blast AoEs till they went dry or risked having their buffs time out, greater invisibility away, and take their turn as buff monkey. It was effective, and I found it hilarious, but I'm sure it could be horrible if that wasn't your thing. I think I lampshaded it as a group fresh from magic college that got on the wrong boat for the gratuitous use of evocation and necromancy convention and couldn't figure out how to leave.
Heh, the ponythread response to things is always massive and enthusiastic, isn't it? With all the OCs and additional volunteers, I'm going to have to hire an entire additional platoon of soldiers (or kill off a whole bunch more of you...)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eakin
Like you weren't going to do that anyway
Oh, I'm sure Anarion won't. The Aliens will do it for him. Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Anarion Mori?
Edit - Tried the X-Com demo on the X-Box. Not terrible. Don't think it's something I'd pay full price for, but when it eventually comes down in price (and if I ever clear my backlog of games) I may give it a try.
Last edited by Tiki Snakes : 10-21-2012 at 09:28 PM.
Oh, man, there was a fic where Celestia could actually hear all the ponies who swore in her name and what they were swearing, and it drove her completely 'round the bend, and I can't remember the name of it!
In other news, this IWD2 Heart of Fury mode run may not last very long at all. The difficulty spike is ludicrous.
Spoiler
Seriously, the party is level 17! (Horribly under-equipped, mind, by this point we should be floating in +5 kit, and half the stuff we've got is +3/+4... But as they are coming in off completing the game the first time, so that's IWD2's fault for us not havign the sort of optimised gear we'd have on the tabletop...) The Paladin and the Ranger/Barbarian have, like nearly 250 hits a piece. Guess what, though, it doesn't matter when the monsters are nearly automatically hitting for 30-40 points of damage per attack...
Fer cryin' out loud, my 17th level wizard RAN OUT OF SPELLS before the end of the last fight. After TWO combats. RAN OUT OF SPELLS. And I couldn't even take the deaths of three party members and just grit my teeth, because the remaining ones couldn't even carry the dead one's gear back to town.
So it looks like five minute adventuring day, i.e. rest after each and every combat. And this is the first two fights of chapter one. (And it means setting up the party buffs and summoning monsters every ten minutes or so.)
Basically, it looks like, unless you min-maxed your party (and by which I mean from a race/class combo standpoint - the sort of thing I loathe doing, because it's not making the characters I want to play - specifically for (highly limited amount of) SoD spam the first time you run through the game, you're pretty much buggered. And, thanks to the awesome idea of not letting you buy better (i.e. appropriate level) scrolls at the start in HoF mode (but hey, as soon as you have the cash you can buy +5 weapons and stuff), it's not a problem you can even correct.
This could get really old, really fast. I must say, I am very disappointed in Black Isle's ides of "balancing" the monsters for HoF mode, which basically cudgels you into pretty much having to not only play a certain way, but to have made your party a certain way.
Basically, they've multiplied the hit points and damage dealt, and then arbitatrily increased the BAB so that unless you have ACs in the 50-60s or so, the basic monsters always hit. I'm getting my arse completely handed to me by regular orcs, with some archers and a couple of moribund spellcasters, because the party are going down faster than I can do anything about it. Anything less than Heal is useless, and even Heal and Mass Heal don't but you long. And because this is a 3.0 CRPG, a lot of the things I could do are fragged (e.g. Power Attack maximum cap is -5/+5). I know my party may well not be super-optimial, but this is ridiculous.
Heck, I added a few stat points in Dalekeeper (to bring the stat totals to the same as what I use on the tabletop) and I could have given them double the stats nearly, before it made any difference! (I still may do that for their Constituions, actually. If the monsters are going to do arbitarily large amounts of damage, then I will have arbitarily large amounts of hit points, thank you very much...)
On top of all which, the game has the gall to be giving virtually no XP (if any) for the monsters, because the CR has been set waaay to low (I think it was proportedly just a flat plus across the board.)
Ewww...
Spoiler
This is why I don't really bother with computer games based on D&D. A lot of it just doesn't carry over properly. More difficult enemies in tabletop D&D would be as simple as giving them better tactics and have them start adapting to the players' tactics. In a video game that's really hard to pull off properly. That and last time I tried playing a caster on NWN I decided to be a gnome illusionist because those things are always good for a laugh. Until I remembered just how utterly useless illusions are in games like that. Took me a whole 10-15 minutes out of the tutorial to get myself killed.
Actually, the game kind of has a collapsing difficulty curve. There are a couple opportunities left for me to blow it completely, but if I can keep my current squad alive until I capture a berserker and get titan armor and plasma snipers, the game becomes incredibly easy.
Quote:
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"
-Trixie, according to Pixelkitty
But we haven't eliminated the impossible. Bleakbane already suggested the possibility that you can reconcile the statements in canon by inferring that ponies have extremely long lifespans and that Granny Smith is actually a few hundred years old.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
Oh, I'm sure Anarion won't. The Aliens will do it for him. Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Anarion Mori?
Edit - Tried the X-Com demo on the X-Box. Not terrible. Don't think it's something I'd pay full price for, but when it eventually comes down in price (and if I ever clear my backlog of games) I may give it a try.
Aw, sorry to hear you didn't like the game as much. I think the demo doesn't do it justice as the base management and research is a lot of the incentive, not just the tactics.
Oh, and can I sig that bit of latin? That's awesome.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyouhen
Ewww...
Spoiler
This is why I don't really bother with computer games based on D&D. A lot of it just doesn't carry over properly. More difficult enemies in tabletop D&D would be as simple as giving them better tactics and have them start adapting to the players' tactics. In a video game that's really hard to pull off properly. That and last time I tried playing a caster on NWN I decided to be a gnome illusionist because those things are always good for a laugh. Until I remembered just how utterly useless illusions are in games like that. Took me a whole 10-15 minutes out of the tutorial to get myself killed.
There are interesting tactics in computer D&D games, even if the monsters do tend to charge directly at you more often than is the norm in a tabletop game. I recall Baldur's Gate being soloable by a ranger because of the way it handled range mechanics and offscreen enemies.
__________________
Lawyer Pony Avatar by Dirtytabs, exalted as an Eclipse by Elemental, now with a fancy robe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
Anarion's right on the money here.
Quotes
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Anarion Mori?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes
You just highlandered an entire city block into a glass-filled storm by road-runnering down it in your underwear.
IF this is the first time you have read this post
THEN thank you for doing your part
ELSE IF you didn't read this post I am sad
ELSE IF you read this post more than once I thank you again
ELSE Null
IF this is the first time you have read this post
THEN thank you for doing your part
ELSE IF you didn't read this post I am sad
ELSE IF you read this post more than once I thank you again
ELSE Null
Wait does quoting you screw this up?
Oh well
*pays attention to*
__________________
Proof-reading is totally unnecessary in the digital age now that we have spell cheque.
Hehehe, just gave that a read. Few typos in there but otherwise that's an amusing little story. Got a few good laughs out of me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anarion
There are interesting tactics in computer D&D games, even if the monsters do tend to charge directly at you more often than is the norm in a tabletop game. I recall Baldur's Gate being soloable by a ranger because of the way it handled range mechanics and offscreen enemies.
I cleared out a lot of dungeons in the second one earlier than I should have with the following tactic:
1) Cast that floating eyeball spell
2) Have the wizard hurl fireballs at max range
3) Retreat, locking the door behind me. Then retreat again and lock a second door for good measure.
4) Rest, lather, repeat.
Tried the X-Com demo on the X-Box. Not terrible. Don't think it's something I'd pay full price for, but when it eventually comes down in price (and if I ever clear my backlog of games) I may give it a try.
Get it on your computer. It's MUCH better on computer.
__________________
The good comes with the bad and the trick is always seeing both at once.
Actually, considering getting it eventually when the price comes down means that to a degree I liked it more than I expected to, so there is that.
And no, not interested in getting it for my PC. Not given the condition of my PC, at any rate. Controls work fine on the X-Box, so really no reason to.
IF this is the first time you have read this post
THEN thank you for doing your part
ELSE IF you didn't read this post I am sad
ELSE IF you read this post more than once I thank you again
ELSE Null
Quote:
Originally Posted by gooddragon1
Damn, on second thought I should have asked for hugs. Is it too late to do that?
*hugs powerfully*
__________________
Allons-y!
"Everything I see is total, unblemished reality...Except for the flying carrots. Those are probably fake." ~Trixie
Damn, on second thought I should have asked for hugs. Is it too late to do that?
Spoiler
__________________ Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.
Does anybody know about My Little Pony parody (cartoons or comic strip) that came out before Friendship is Magic? I mean Dexter's one of them but kinda want to laugh when looking back.
__________________
Pony Minecraft Avatar
Rest in Peace:
Spoiler
Miko Miyazaki, Thanh, Durkon- Order of the Stick
Krunch- Looking For Group
Bill- Left 4 Dead
Soap Mactavish- Modern Warfare 3
Sandman- Modern Warfare 3
Ghost and Roach- Modern Warfare 2
Gabe- Dead Space 2
Dom- Gears of War 3
Carmine Brothers- Gears of War series
Uriel Septim VII- Elderscrolls Oblivion
Commander Shepherd- Mass Effect 3
Ned Stark- Song of Ice and Fire
Apple Jack's parents
Ponythread: I am am an unfathomable eldritch being that thinks of destruction in every waking moment and dreams in color taste and pain of destruction beyond the scope of their waking thoughts. Whether I will it or not everything I touch falls apart. This is background, what I just realized is that I have a weirdly intense love of muffins and a condition that I'd forgotten and usually suppress subconsciously that causes my left eye to dart to the side of my face unless kept under muscular control: I am to an unusual degree a clouded mirrors embodiment of Derpy and never realize it before. I am not sure how to take this.
Last edited by Mabn : 10-22-2012 at 12:25 AM.
Reason: spelling fail
So I'm reading FiM's TVTrope's page (and I have you all to blame for that), and noticed this:
Anachronic Order:
"One brony tried to order the first season's episodes correctly, but goodness knows whether he's even close. Some key points stand out:"
"Pinkie Pie's rant about Rainbow Dash in the beginning of "Griffon the Brush Off" seems remarkably similar to Rainbow's Sonic Rainboom during the episode of the same name, an event that happens a full ten episodes later."
She could have been talking about anything, and the fact she glues herself to Dash for the rest of the episode, she probably JUST saw it and was in so much awe she had to be like a rabid fangirl. Plus, she never mentions anything close to the Sonic Rainboom she did in the episode of the same name. Also:
"The Sparkle World story The Magic of Friendship implies that "Sonic Rainboom" takes place when Twilight and Spike were still new to Ponyville. The story states that Twilight and Spike hadn't lived in Ponyville very long and refers to the rest of the mane six as their new friends, yet later in the story Rainbow Dash performs a Sonic Rainboom for what would have to be at least the third time, placing "Sonic Rainboom" early in the series' chronology."