User talk:93.97.73.15

Lambs to the Slaughter
You're basing this on what? - J.P. Talk  21:37, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

(Sorry - didn't have an account at the time that I edited.)

That question needs to be reversed - what on earth is the evidence for the previous attribution?

"(Like) a lamb to the slaughter" is a phrase that has been around for, literally, centuries. It's from the Bible ("He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." - Isaiah 53:7, King James version). It refers to someone going quietly and often unsuspectingly to their death (or, more figuratively, into circumstances in which they may be significantly disadvantaged); Google it and you'll find plenty of examples predating Dahl's use. And the literal interpretation is a pretty good match for the mission - the Shadow Blades stand around meekly right up to the point that they're ambushed and slaughtered out of hand.

By contrast, Roald Dahl's story has absolutely nothing in common with the quest. A frozen leg of lamb is used as a murder weapon, then, in typically macabre Dahl style, cooked and served to the investigating police while they sitting wondering what the weapon might have been. The story is, from start to finish, a blatant and clever pun on the title - but crucially it's also a pun that makes absolutely no sense unless you're already familiar with the phrase. So unless we've a statement somewhere from a developer actually saying that the story inspired the mission title, the idea that the one is a reference to the other is simply a well-meaning but wrong guess on the part of someone who knew of the story but didn't recognise the title as predating it.
 * The same thing goes for the biblical reference. We can ask for Anet to comment on this to clarify. [[Image:User DrogoBoffin sig icon.png]] Drogo Boffin 18:47, 4 March 2010 (UTC)