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Has Judge Dredd been soft Retconned?

Started by The dude, 08 January, 2017, 09:12:02 PM

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Frank

Quote from: The Adventurer on 10 January, 2017, 12:08:54 AM
Carousel was fine, but ultimately just kicks the football down the road again ... why would Justice Department let any Judge retire to teach at the academy/take the long walk, when they can just deage them?

... there's an interesting story somewhere to solve the problem. One that doesn't involve deaging tech, replacing him, or killing the guy off. A minor epic that leads to a near death Dredd having to have his brain transplanted into a brain dead Rico or something

Why would Justice Department let any Judge retire to teach at the Academy/take the long walk, when they can just transplant their brain into another body. The problem no longer needs solving anyway - they can keep rejuving Dredd indefinitely.


* The problem with brain transplant is the same as rejuvenation; it just doesn't seem like the kind of thing Dredd would do. He doesn't think of himself as anything special.

The dude

Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 09 January, 2017, 11:20:04 PM
I can't help but think that this thread is a whole debate over nothing. Is the Dude's point really that he's miffed that Rebellion are keeping Dredd alive? If so, fundamentally, why?

I like reading Judge Dredd and am happy with the stories and it feels like a gripe without basis. Still, The Internet.
in rebuttal it can be argued that all the threads on this Forum are about nothing! This is afterall a fictional character that has no impact upon anything other than our entertainment. There are obviously enough people who wish to discuss this topic with some attempt at rationalising this whole age issue, because it is enjoyable to just ponder it for its own sake.

TordelBack

#32
Quote from: Frank on 10 January, 2017, 07:06:08 AMThe problem with brain transplant is the same as rejuvenation; it just doesn't seem like the kind of thing Dredd would do. He doesn't think of himself as anything special

Goes a bit deeper than that, even. The ascetic aspect to a Judge's life is pretty critical to the strip and the character: a judge receive no rewards for his service, except the honour of serving. It's about the only thing that makes them even vaguely sympathetic as fascist bastards go. State-funded eternal life seems like a pretty big perk that potentially undermines that principle completely: makes a bit of nookie or a backhander seem trivial.

Although as I think we discussed in the aftermath of Carousel, perhaps an endless life of 24 hour days with no prospect of release is the greatest sacrifice imaginable. Sssstory possibilitiessss galore and all that.

CalHab

Quote from: TordelBack on 10 January, 2017, 09:33:24 AM
State-funded eternal life seems like a pretty big perk that potentially undermines that principle completely: makes a bit of nookie or a backhander seem trivial.

Although as I think we discussed in the aftermath of Carousel, perhaps an endless life of 24 hour days with no prospect of release is the greatest sacrifice imaginable. Sssstory possibilitiessss galore and all that.

Judges seem to have an absurdly high mortality rate.  Rejuve wouldn't be much of a perk.

The Legendary Shark

They can also be "frozen" at the point of death to be repaired and revived and thrown back into the mixer when med-tech's caught up.
[move]~~~^~~~~~~~[/move]




13school

I always had the vague feeling that what stopped the Judges from using all the fancy life-extending technology was that they were basically a fairly conservative outfit, and if something wasn't expressly mentioned as being allowed in ye olde law books they wouldn't take it on board. "Giving crippled Judges giant robot claws and sending them off to the Academy of Law to scare the kids is the way it's always been done!" and so on.

sheridan


TordelBack

#37
Quote from: CalHab on 10 January, 2017, 11:17:08 AM
Judges seem to have an absurdly high mortality rate.  Rejuve wouldn't be much of a perk.

I dunno, Dredd seems to run into surviving Class of '79 alums all the time... Admittedly it's usually about two episodes before he sends them to hell or Titan.

Quote from: The Legendary Shark on 10 January, 2017, 11:21:19 AM
They can also be "frozen" at the point of death to be repaired and revived and thrown back into the mixer when med-tech's caught up.

Now there's the seed of a good story! Contemporary of Joe or even Fargo returns to the streets after 50 years sleeping off a mild decapitation in the drawer next to Slab Tynan...

The Legendary Shark

I've been working on it but it's too long for Zarjaz :(
[move]~~~^~~~~~~~[/move]




The Legendary Shark

[move]~~~^~~~~~~~[/move]




sheridan

Quote from: TordelBack on 10 January, 2017, 01:21:01 PM
Now there's the seed of a good story! Contemporary of Joe or even Fargo returns to the streets after 50 years sleeping off a mild decapitation in the drawer next to Slab Tynan...


But which Slab Tynan?

Frank

Quote from: 13school on 10 January, 2017, 11:59:17 AM
Quote from: TordelBack on 10 January, 2017, 09:33:24 AM
The ascetic aspect to a Judge's life is pretty critical to the strip and the character: a judge receive no rewards for his service, except the honour of serving.

I always had the vague feeling that what stopped the Judges from using all the fancy life-extending technology was that they were basically a fairly conservative outfit ... "Giving crippled Judges giant robot claws and sending them off to the Academy of Law to scare the kids is the way it's always been done!"

It's totally Tommy [1], but I remember being disappointed when Dredd got new peepers in City Of The Damned. One of the reasons his blinding had such impact was we knew all personnel injured in the line of duty were entitled to was a stick and a teaching post.

Fitting Dredd for CCTV struck a bum note because it seemed like special treatment. Unless functional immortality becomes standard for all Justice Department employees, the events of Carousel (Megazine 375) risk falling into the same category.

The idea of presenting Carousel as no big deal was probably (in part) to present it as business as usual, but it wouldn't have hurt to establish the technology and the practice as standard by showing a few pensioners getting a makeover in the months before Oswinvasion [2].


[1] canon

[2] But if Hershey had announced staffing levels meant geriatric Judges were getting compulsory makeovers, we'd all have realised what was happening and started moaning in advance

TordelBack


sheridan

Quote from: Frank on 10 January, 2017, 05:59:45 PM
Fitting Dredd for CCTV struck a bum note because it seemed like special treatment. Unless functional immortality becomes standard for all Justice Department employees, the events of Carousel (Megazine 375) risk falling into the same category.

Doesn't seem like any kind of immortality to me - the brain still ages and (in the real world) dementia is the leading cause of death, at 10% or so.

The dude

Asks that this thread is getting some very interesting discussions going. To the neysayers I think there is some steam left in this topic. I must admit that the senile Dredd brain transplanted into a new body would lent itself to some outrageous comedy and unnecessary deaths of perps!!🤔😵