Maybe Nocht does see the changes, but doesn't think they're important enough to affect the basic design? Maybe to Nocht, the changes are all superficial or something.

That's not what I said, nor can it be drawn from what I said.

If he thought the hands were more relevant than the face, and thus the important/"fundamental" parts weren't changed, that's one thing, it just means his values are weird. If he claims it didn't change at all, I'm calling BS. It's not like there's a conspiracy to say Night changed drastically for no reason.

Sure there is. Evil conspiracies.

How would you know if the Mona Lisa is as it was originally and Leonardo didn't just sketch it only to be painted over by someone after his death?

The fact is, that I would trust what he would say on the matter were he here much more than I would all of us who think we know. If he says he didn't... well then I'm not going to argue with him, for one. You feel free to!

What do you mean, how would I know? I wouldn't. How would you know if Nocht wasn't just BSing you all and he really knows Night changed a lot? You wouldn't. That's not that useful though because neither possibility is all that likely.

I'm not claiming that you do know. In fact, my point was precisely the opposite. However, you did claim that people who wrote books are the utmost authority on this matter, which is to be questioned.

Even in modern times, I'm very certain from religion to religion you will find different interpretations of what this or that person did and whether it was good/bad or right/wrong. From country to country, I'm sure you find different versions of historical events.

A good example of this would be the movie 300. While it was lacking in some historical fact, do you have any doubts that that is how it might have been retold to children in ancient Sparta? Just because they told it in such a manner, does that make the persians actual monsters?

Then, let's also assume we have one of these said persians stroll into Sparta only to have the spartans go "No... no. You're a monster. I read about it. You're a liar." I think I will open my eyes and take a look for myself instead of trying to tell someone what they are.

That being said... I think he might be BSing too

Zomg. It's a conspiracy!

If you think he's BSing that's one thing: my assumption would actually been that his values are off, kind of like see-no-evil Viravain.

Regarding the first paragraph: yeah, I meant that you don't know too. But there's not much point in pointing out that you don't because you know very little. That Night wasn't tainted and then she was and that that was a significant difference (it's not even recorded by the same people in every case: pre-taint night is recorded by unbiased gods, for example in the book of clangorum, and post-taint night is recorded by...well, us) is pretty reliable. That Nocht means what he says is also PROBABLY pretty reliable - at any rate I thought you would have considered it reliable since you were arguing for the integrity of his original artistic vision. So with the fact that we don't know acknowledged but dismissed as fairly irrelevant, the "the Mona Lisa wasn't originally tipex-enhanced" comparison seems more useful.

I don't know much/anything about 300 other than TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL and THIS IS SPARTA so I'm afraid that analogy has no effect on me.

"Tonight we dine in Hades" is a perfectly good example of what I was saying! It's changed to match your perceptions which is also why relying on "us" to accurately record things always fails in objectivity.

And before Rika jumps the gun, I would say he is BSing OOCly. ICly, I would say it's most likely chalked up to Night actually being good at what she does... aka not being the type to run up to him with "liek ZOMG, Nocht, you're not going to believe what happened to me" and shrouding whatever might be foreign to him for now.

...you lost me. What's tonight we dine in hades/hell got to do with anything?

Just nod and smile, Shiri.

Imagine Rika walking up to one of the old greek story-tellers and trying to tell them it's clearly supposed to be hell and not hades because she watched it in a movie.

Why is it always me?

Because there's not a person here what can't imagine you kicking some dude into a pit