With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

It wasn't the American's, it was the Chinese pretending to be Americans.

 

But think about how many calories burned away - shocking amount of instant weight loss. Should have called it Mr.Slim 9000

 

Don't worry Vae, keep trying and I'm sure eventually you'll understand a sentence.

 

I don't think that can be true. Between fracking and tar sands, the US has plenty of production capacity, and they choose not to use it.

 

Chose, past tense. But that's modern politics.

One can dream.

 

Actually nowadays the USA could be self sufficient but shipping costs keep that from happening. Also fracking is a money losing business unless the petrol oil barrel price is over a hundred dollars in price.

 

I suppose in the heat of the moment, both OL and Diabo can be forgiven for thinking it had hit him fair in the forehead proper. Still, that must be a hell of a shock, having something smack into your face with that much force.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Ironically, that concept of a bullet, the stone from a sling, is the root notion of the gun-fired projectile. Wouldn't be surprised if his shields flickered in the brief moment of fear, though. Sloppy.

Wow, seriously? Talk about informal surroundings. I'm guessing they transported Diabo to a hot springs resort or similar to continue negotiations, since I doubt the politicians would be willing to hang about on the far side of the gate.

Heck of a memento, though, even if you might have to explain to Imperials what it is.

Yes, very good question. Keep on that tack, folks.

I doubt the walls are any sturdier deeper in.

Well, this is all just a fustercluck, then.

Well, tell them first, and make sure they understand this isn't a knock against them specifically.

On the up side, you can be sure this is enemy action, as guns aren't exactly common in Japan.

Boy, you're an Orange Lantern now. You have a duty to resolve situations like this.

Heh. Yeah, I doubt you have time to explain what a record is, and how it can be broken.

Honestly, no. Not short of very obvious heavy weaponry. Most of which need line of sight for effective use.

Any attacker would probably assume he's an ordinary man, and planned accordingly.

Yes, not many countries with an interest in Japanese affairs, especially in this story's setting. It's Team America!

Or are taking the room temperature challenge. And winning...

...Gee, you think?

...Not going by post-war relations.

Oof. Yeah, sometimes it's better not to ask things like that...

Good on OL for trying to lighten the tone with black humour, but I don't think anyone is in the mood.

And to be fair, Diabo is quite a bit tougher than you right now, LT.

Like he has time to learn how to shoot a gun, or is in the mood for destruction pulses?

Yup. 'Silencers' are a movie myth. A suppressed weapon is still fairly loud, if not deafening anymore. Never mind trying to suppress the noise of supersonic ammo or shotgun rounds...

Sadly, I doubt they're so foolish as to be wearing unit patches or flags.

Like a fucking blender. Nice.

...Not that it'll do more than surprise him, given the environmental shields.

What's the bet that's the opposing force, caught by surprise by the glowing buzzsaw shaped like a man and reacting naturally? That or both skirmishing groups were out to deal with Diabo and the little summit. Regardless, he might have to do some more cutting before things calm down... Which might be awkward, but efficient.

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...also dressed in yukata but with their sidearms at the ready.

Broken tags there following the link, though it may already have been fixed...

'Emperor' or 'an emperor', I think.

 

tag

 

If we go by the in universe year for the Gate, then the US is probably not energy independent yet. It's likely the US is net oil exporter by the end of 2023 (at least for some months), functionally so with Canadian oil imports anyways.

 

And if this was any setting but GATE, OL would be right in this assessment...

 

Formatting.

 

Thank you, corrected.

Could you please narrow it down?

 

Gone now
Will do next time.

 

In Gate the Americans are "allies" of the Japanese and both sides know it.

It's implied the plaza accords fell through and the Japanese economy didn't slow down and stagnate, so Japan has become a rival towards the US. The US doesn't tolerate economic rivals in the Gate universe and arguably that is also true in real life.

 

Zoat, you've done a number of spin offs I've liked and wanted to read more of.

But I need more of this.

 

You'd think that after seeing an orange buzzsaw cut through your opposition, you might hesitate before engaging your target.

 

The gods closed the portal.
The americans made their own.

 

I’m gonna chalk this up to poor timing rather than malicious action. If he’s been moving through an active combat zone theirs a high chance that due to the lack of coordination, he’d get hit by something meant for the Chinese.

 

That is so wrong. And yet I can't stop laughing.

 

Gate is weird Japanese militarism propaganda, in this universe the America is cartoonishly evil.

 

GATE U.S.A is pretty terrible as far I remember. Everyone is fucking awful actually. The guy that made it has strong feelings towards Imperial Japan and their "non" crimes, so everyone of note is fucking flanderized and evil, there is little nuance, even "good guy" Japan is awful when looked objectively, the only way to be a good country is to be irrelevant enough to not show up in the original narrative at all.

Edit: I remember reading translated moon runes (Japanese fan translation) of an interview. The justification in regards to the hostile relationship between Europe/US and Japan being that the US failed to "sabotage" the Japanese economy and by the time the gate opened Japan was regarded as a rival by the US and Europe rather than a regional ally.

In short if Mr. Zoat hasn't changed the original narrative the Japanese soldiers killed in this encounter likely died with NATO bullet holes on their backs and the lesser Chinese men tried to use the opportunity created by the US troops as the lesser scoundrels they are.

 

Yeah the guy who wrote Gate comes across as the type who is disappointed that the future isn't going to be a cyberpunk dystopia where Sony-Mitsubishi rules the world.

 

Wow that is a weird view to take on history and geopolitics. Japan is heavily reliant on import food to sustain their population. So a theoretical Superpower Japan either needs a lot more territory, alternative trade alliances, or futuristic farming technology. I say alternative because apparently the UN, USA and China are all hostile forces. Then you have to remember a lot of 1st world countries use American weapons systems, which implies this Japan is either sourcing them illegally or has been making their own equivalents, which is difficult to effectively do for any single nation.

So basically everyone else is stupid evil, and Gate! Japan are the “good guys” because it’s modern japan with 1940 views. When I first read Zoat’s Gate chapters, I thought Japan was a standin for America or something.

 

No, it's the same as the canon explanation: America blackmailed the Japanese Prime Minister with evidence of corruption and the soldiers got called off.

Wait, are you saying they actually want a tribute in flour?

 

Food production was actually a pretty major component of imperialism in the real-world albeit with a bit more nuanced system of exploitation than just demands for tribute. This is the origin of the term "Banana Republic". Fruit and chocolate production were both particularly significant examples and arguably still are. It would make sense for this pattern of behavior to be repeated in regards to the Gate world.

Creating a puppet-state in the Gate world that is tasked with only providing food products would make a great deal of sense for Japan. It wouldn't require nearly as much infrastructure investment for them to provide innovations that can massively increase the food production of the region. This would also remove the risk of the puppet-state eventually leveraging their superior resources and population (after decades of growth) to turn the tables on Japan as they would only need to share a limited level technology.

 

In a roundabout way …maybe?

Having more land to produce food would make them more self-efficient and save them likely billions of dollars. The latest statistics show Japan spent around 70.2 billion dollars on agriculture products in 2022. They import roughly 60 percent of their food each year, with 12% of that being from America. 70 billion is about 8% of their total GDP as a nation. The ability to produce their own food and one day actually begin exporting it would save them billions of dollars.

Though such an economic development would take years to implement and are wholly reliant on the portal remaining open. But it would give them a darn good reason to be interested in going to the other side to build those farms.

I’m uncertain if a year or monthly tribute of flour and food products would be big enough to even make a dent in the city the portal is in. Let alone the rest of the country. But frankly building massive farms on the other side and driving food trucks back through make a lot more sense than resource mining, at least in the near future.

 

I don't think anybody in GATE Japan is making those kind of good decisions.

 

The simple fact that a stable treaty, even if in favor of this Japan, would result in no more chaos or similar interactions for the Gods to derive entertainment from, ultimately means that they would close the Gate in a relative short amount of time. So even with good decision making on the part of this Japan, it wouldn't amount to anything. It would be like building over a glass bridge, suspended over a swamp. No stability plausible at all.

 

The God's can't close the Gate.