>expedition of 201 men and women
>only 6 come back alive
>suffered no consequences
>the nigh immortal atlanteans have somehow forgotten everything they knew, including their writing system, despite having been alive when it was still common knowledge
>packed mortars, hot air baloons, machine guns, several dozen mini-airplanes and rifles for some reason
>>84366475
Wasn't he just the financier? Why would he be liable for anything that happened on the actual mission?
I don't think it was common knowledge when the city sank. Plus, a ton of people died, so a lot of general knowledge probably went with them. Tack on a couple thousand years, and more is lost.
They brought a giant tunnel boring machine, why not a balloon and mini-planes?
>>84366598
>They brought a giant tunnel boring machine, why not a balloon and mini-planes?
But they're going underground, a tunneling machine at least makes SOME sense.
>>84366475
I thought only the royal family were super long lived. All the atlantean peasants had hundreds of generations to forget everything.
>>84366687
the way milo was talking about the crystals made it seem like they gave all the atlanteans long life
>>84366475
>machine guns
Forget those old aircooled Brownings. All the faceless gasmask mooks carrying Enfield Mk III rifles and Rorke's Webley made me rock hard. Mignola knows his shit.
>>84366475
>suffered no consequences
Because he was the guy financing the project, and had no say or control in who went or who died. He was doing it as a favor to his old friend who died. His friend would understand the losses that went into solving this mystery.
>the nigh immortal atlanteans have somehow forgotten everything they knew,
When you're depressed because you think your lives are gonna just go on forever in a dark, depressing cave, then it's natural if you don't care about continuing your history.
>packed mortars, hot air baloons, machine guns, several dozen mini-airplanes and rifles for some reason
Because if you run into savage beasts down there, some of which may be completely undiscovered by mankind, you're not gonna sing them to death with a love song, Shirley.
>>84366475
The loss of literacy actually happened to at least one Bronze Age civilization (the then-Greek one); the thing was that while it was technically a literate society the writing system was hard as fuck and most people were peasants so very few people were actually literate (specialty scribes/cleks), they all tended to work in the palace complex, etc. One good sack and you could actually lose everybody in the city state that could actually read shit.
>>84366930
>savage beasts
It still seems excessive. Remember that they lost several trucks worth of supplies on the journey to the City itself, and that's not counting what was on the other three escape pods that didn't make it. What exactly did they expect to find down there? The Kaiser's army and air force?
>it's natural if you don't care about continuing your history.
I'm not convinced. Even IF none of the Atlanteans other than the royals were long-lived, the Royals themselves could be expected to know how read and write. Why didn't they teach their citizens, or at least the higher ups in their government?
>>84367106
The king for one willfully suppressed all that stuff from his end because he considered their tech and hubris to be the reason for their fall, and Kida was too small to be properly educated at the time of the sinking.
The air stuff in the expedition was likely there for crossing large voids and setting up bridges. Caverns even at the surface can be stupid big. A balloon and a couple small planes is a good compact backup for that likely encounter, especially when your expedition is actively seeking a massive cavern in a natural cave system. They would have certainly needed it in that one cavern if the huge column hadn't been there to make into a convenient bridge.
>>84366846
Long life but not immortality
>>84366475
When we're supposed to be rooting for the crew, hoping they survive, they're dressed in turn of the century sailors' outfits.
When they decide to steal the thing keeping Atlantis alive, they suddenly become gas-masked Death Corps of Krieg soldiers, so we can forget that our heros are slaughtering the people they struggled to save earlier the same day.
If only the life giving gems had been flowers instead, then there would be no problems stealing it from their traditional owners.