Originally posted by Brako Cott
The point is that if the intended message is an entirely literal one: that their bodies were seperated into pieces a single order of magnitude greater than atoms, the distinction between "atomized" and "all but atomized" is so tediously precise, practically meaningless and random that it's an incredibly unrealistic interpretation of the intended message. A less literal intepretation is clearly more reasonable, but opens itself up to relativity; clearly the intended message is that they were seperated into very small pieces but nobody is in a position to define the exact scale of those very small pieces. Essentially, the feat, as a whole, is largely vague in too many ways that we can establish it as a notably impressive feat.
I have six lines that I need to pass: A red line, a yellow line, a blue line, a green line, a pink line, and a black line. I all but passed the black line (which is the last line). Wouldn't you take it that I passed all the other lines except for the black line?
Same way with "all but atomized". Except in this case it's describing how small they were reduced without becoming atoms. Atoms would be the stopping point, kinda like the "black line". They reached the atoms without becoming atoms.
It's really, really obvious what the ability Luceno is trying describe is.
Which is why I laugh at the silly low-balling.
Originally posted by RE: Blaxican
It's really, really obvious what the ability Luceno is trying describe is.Which is why I laugh at the silly low-balling.
To you, maybe. To me it is quite obvious that what Luceno is describing is this, and your interpretation is no better than mine on the matter: