Messages

31

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 42: Discussion

« on: December 12, 2014, 05:57:18 pm »

Poly makes an interesting point.  If the Marvolo rules are such that someone can always volunteer to take another person's debt under any circumstances, Poly could kill that fellow rather than Bern.

But more interestingly is the idea of guilds.  If a guild existed, then they could all agree to take 10 lashes and spare any individual member from too much punishment.  Say, a baker's guild that had additional benefits, like many medieval guilds did.

The latter idea is interesting. But this isn't a debt. This doesn't pay anything directly. This is just a question of Bern's ranking and where they think she should be placed.

I still enjoy this chapter, though perhaps the pacing is a bit slow. On the other hand, this should be an important moment of crisis for Bern. The reason it may seem melodramatic is that till now Bern is frankly not a very deeply sketched char. She's trained all her life to be a swordswoman, has killed and maimed many people and yet is this sort of blandly pacifistic, sexually inhibited cut out. Hopefully out of this comes a more human character, and one that isn't so two dimensionally dull. She's seen and done many things, and again trained her whole life in a particular discipline that makes her unrealistic.  She needs some hard choices and some sacrifices of her improbable innocence. (I know this was a harsh paragraph, luckily she's a fictional character and won't be reading this, so hopefully haven't hurt her feelings )

I'm quite glad that both May and Bern are facing inconsistencies in their sense of self, Bern with her faux morality and May with her emotional issues. I'm curious to see what is in store for Crest similar as the mostly invisible co-main party member. It'll be nice to see him grow a bit.

32

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 42: Discussion

« on: December 03, 2014, 09:02:23 pm »

All choices suck... I wouldn't want option A, but it's the only one where everyone gets to remain physically intact and alive. But a woman would have to be psychologically strong, or plain callous in some way in order to deal with such an experience for the rest of her life.

I don't think any option should be taken. Bern needs to own the audience's attention- become the main reason why anyone watches. She could offer more than an ordinary fight, and be the misfit that challenges the system. ..But I think I'm thinking too much about the movie Gladiator. I'll have to wait and see how differently this plays out.

It would just be cool to see her become an anomaly that the colosseum has difficulty controlling.

There is this. While I was pointing out earlier that despite some forum posts, the Warden isn't on Bern's side and neither is the administrator. They aren't her enemies. She's just a tool for revenues for them. If she did reject the offer and started working to change her style and make very impressive fights, they'd react whatever they say. Why? Because it's money. If she starts being flashy in dispatching people, or breaks time records to finish fights people will get interested in her and they'll in turn promote her. It's the fans and bettors that drive matchups in fight sports. Become a fan favorite and she'll get her shots at promotion and even bigger fights. I doubt we're going to see her going through months of build up due to demands of plot, but it's IC valid.

33

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 42: Discussion

« on: December 01, 2014, 03:41:54 pm »

What's great is that each of our three 'mains', are separated and on quests that will challenge and change them potentially.

• May has to deal with real emotions and find perhaps something that's been missing in her
• Crest will have to take initiative, make choices and deal with the conflict that Suspiria represents of his heart and the potential harm she may wreak. Plus will have to just rise up to not be a follower but a leader in his own right.
• Bern will have to face up to the fact that choosing to be a warrior means pursuing a path that involves pain and harm for people and that it isn't a world for the squeamish and passive if she wants to be strong.

When and if they all meet again, they may be more interesting and tested individuals.

34

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 42: Discussion

« on: November 26, 2014, 10:57:48 am »

Option B: This option is the only one where the only victim and perpetrator is Bern. It fits in with Bern's willingness to self sacrifice, while not violating her morals. Also it seems like a moment like this was coming since Chapter 10 where Bern wondered if she would be able "mutilate" herself for the sake of May, throw in Polly's fate being tied to Bern's and I think we have the most likely option here.

I agree. It's most likely, just also uninteresting. It isn't a stretching of the character, it doesn't raise any questions of moral conflict. It's just a self sacrifice, which offers no real character growth. It isn't even a sacrifice in this world except temporarily as they can regrow bodyparts. I've enjoyed this chapter so far, I hope there is more of a twist than that. Even if it's somehow a permanent loss, it isn't a very meaningful one in context of a story.

35

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 42: Discussion

« on: November 25, 2014, 08:43:05 am »

Option D is valid too. Working it off the hard way, but it won't be 6 months, it'll likely be years, and there's no implication that she's getting those swords if she doesn't step up.

36

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 42: Discussion

« on: November 24, 2014, 10:22:32 am »

I find it interesting that many in the forum were on a similar page to the warden.

Bern has put herself in a tight spot, she's squandered Polly's sacrifice by continuing to be passive and unwilling to do what's needed in her situation. She now has a set of options that will assess her values for what is the least inimical option to help her get free in months instead of years.

Truthfully, I'd find it most interesting if she chose something other than B. B is boring. It's the 'I'm too pure and good and vanilla' choice. I couldn't bear to use my body for sex for a night, and can't actually torture someone, so I'll sniff sniff sacrifice myself.

It would be interesting if Bern has a bit of an epiphany and if she's going to step up, instead thinks, "Losing an eye here could be fatal as there's no reason to think they will heal it and I can't afford to. If I want to see May again, I'll just have to choose..." I'd assume A in that case, but who knows. Now she'll have made a real sacrifice to get out. Sacrificing some of her innocence. That's character growth. An eye is just something to get a healing potion, not a trauma for a warrior, or a vanilla goody two shoes.

We'll see. As I said, I'm enjoying this chapter a great deal. Conflict reveals character.

37

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 42: Discussion

« on: November 20, 2014, 09:42:51 am »

There is simply no parallel in real world history for the barbarism on display here.

Oh goodness no.  The Romans were much harder on their prisoners than this and as systematic.  What about the triangle slave trade - two or more months on a hell ship?  The cruelties of pre-modern China were for decades assumed to be a myth - they weren't.  The Vikings weren't systematic, but were quite a bit more cruel.  And don't get me started on the Harkonnens.

As strange as it sounds, its not that bad.  She seems to have some basic rights, which the folks above did not.  She seems to have the right to choose her fate.  No one is being out and out violated.  She stole, she's in jail.  The punishment of being in jail for years seems unduly harsh to our sensibilities, but the choices she has been offered clearly have been simply stolen from the less powerful in the past.

Pretty much. One night as a prostitute, a painful but fixable injury or something violent and amoral but hurts someone else (which sadly we've seen many people are willing to do.)

It's only shocking in a modern sense, and because Bern is so utterly vanilla and without complex conflicts in her nature. It's why I like this chapter.

38

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 42: Discussion

« on: November 20, 2014, 06:46:37 am »

"Torture and kill someone of our choosing." OUCH! And how would Bern NOT get marks for that? And since it's something that's being seen by "clients," it would be prime blackmail material too.

So far we have...

1.) Hurt yourself psychologically, and maybe physically (depending on how rough the clients like to "play.") As well as hurt your reputation, and destroy your virtue.

2.) Hurt yourself physically, and possibly cripple yourself. (We do not know if the healers would restore the eye afterwards or if she'd remain permanently half-blind.)

3.) Hurt yourself psychologically and destroy your reputation, as well as kill a defenseless individual through torture.

Bonus option: Ignore the "opportunity" and prepare to spend a good decade in jail trying to erase marks through matches at D rank.

There is simply no parallel in real world history for the barbarism on display here.

First, I actually like that Option C wasn't a predictable (Bloody Mary) choice, or a 'here is a special task we want you to do' plot. Woot Brion.

Depending on the person, these are all terrible things, but the sorts of things you hear people doing in terrible times. Sometimes people will sacrifice their self value. There are a lot of people who turn to prostitution/selling their bodies just due to poverty or for protection in jail lets say. Other people will risk injury or actively choose injury (such as selling an organ) to take care of their families. The last is the amoral one, but for someone who doesn't have morals or empathy for others... or who thinks they don't (I could see someone finding torture harder than they expected. But then there is Millgram's experiment.)

This is an abusive situation, but it's also a test of what is important. Is your sexuality important, is your body, are you willing to hurt others to help yourself?

The big question is whether they'd heal your eye. I imagine you'd have to pay for the healing, just like you pay for most things. Though perhaps the arena has a healer on staff to help injured fighters recover so they can fight more. After all, it's how the arena makes it's money too.

I still find my main grievance is how shocked Polly is. Polly is essentially a cop. The Arena is the local for profit jail/punitive system. Cops are very aware of what happens in jails, because there is tons of talk on the street about what happens inside. She'd hear folk talking at the bars regularly about how it works. She'd also have been sure to prep Bern better, even as a sometime spectator.. knowing that it's how you fight as much as how well that impacts a fighter's popularity. (Ie, all the top ranked fighters are flashy/aggressive, while equally skilled but boring ones are lower ranked.)

Polly had a plan, she was exactly the sort who'd know what sort of stuff goes on in the arena. Her constant shocked expressions and Bern's passivity coming in are out of place. I suspect webcomics and the stories don't get an editor though, so it's all forgivable Now, where this might work is if Polly is working another angle, and is actually secretly gathering information about abuses in the arena that go beyond the law after the scandal with the last overseer, and thus is playing up her innocence. I don't imagine that's what's happening though. Still, a resolution of her clueless behavior.

Working around that issue, I find the test posed by the warden interesting. We know May sacrificed a finger and would have sacrificed a breast for Bern. I'd think given her presentation she might choose to lose an eye. That said, and horrific as a night of unwanted (and likely unpleasant) sex would be, it would likely leave her in a better position to survive and thrive and thus exit the arena. I don't see Bern as she's been portrayed choosing in however, nor torturing someone. Thus B or D would be my guess.

39

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 42: Discussion

« on: November 15, 2014, 11:43:09 pm »

And back from my hiatus after my dismay from the 'reveal' in last chapter about Suspira and her parents.

This is an interesting chapter. In response to the comments above that the Warden is a fair player or likes Bernadette/sees her value, if she was being fair she'd have graded her above D when she landed a couple perfect counters. No one else in the testing even touched her. If she was being objective about skills, she'd have done something like 'Make her B... you've got the skills for an A rank, but you can't be so passive. You need to show a bit of aggression.' Note, I'm not complaining she left Bernadette as a rank D. Just saying, she's not an objective/friendly advocate. She's a part of the arena too, thus this entire current scene to get Bern to do something that will create value for them, possibly in part because she knows Bern has some real skills.

I do agree Bern had multiple chances to do what she needed to do. I can't imagine Polly who is a long time local wouldn't have given her more explicit instructions on what would be expected of her and how to perform to get out fastest. The only really odd thing is how surprised Polly has seemed in many scenes and how unprepared Bern is. When Polly decided to go to the arena with her, you have to assume they spoke a good bit off screen about Polly's plan and reasoning.

Overall, a good chapter so far Brion. Thanks for the entertainment.

40

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 41: Discussion

« on: September 03, 2014, 11:50:58 am »

I've been upfront in the past where I liked where the story was going, and where I didn't groove with it, and at the same time have tried to be clear 'let the author tell their story' whether I particularly liked it or not. The main time I balked was Mayday's utterly unfunny confession to being sociopathic at the comedy competition. But again, I felt to give a pass.

I do like QTalda being alive. If nothing else, she'd made clear she was immune to her own magic. I don't like this post cliff hanger switch out of the parents being alive. I especially don't find myself interested in the needless switch out, or Suspira's 'affecting' the Conclavers. It would make even less sense with Q'Talda having an illusionary doppleganger. How would you psychically control Q'Talda from a distance? Truthfully though? I don't even care. It's too cheap a twist. This arc just makes me feel blah about Crest as well, which is a shame as he's a core char we've seen too little of.

I'll be back in a couple months when this has advanced a bit, which is the best way for a reader to deal with a story they aren't as interested in.

41

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: October 23, 2013, 09:15:56 pm »

It is curious that Qtalda didn't do anything when the spell was turned on her given this page's final panels:

http://flipside.keenspot.com/comic.php?i=1969

42

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: October 17, 2013, 08:23:56 pm »

That had been my assumption before this shepherd was mentioned. Qtilda had already made clear he/she had arranged protections against that spell and wasn't vulnerable to it.

43

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: October 16, 2013, 11:08:57 pm »

Remind me who the invisible watcher/shepherd is? I'm forgetting.

44

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: October 14, 2013, 10:08:13 am »

Aww. Now some fun stuff is coming. I forget, does May know about Suspiria?

As a side note, while I assume she'll heal as Crest did, I sort of like flesh eating cancer survivor Suspiria look. And Bryon! You almost had boobage! What's the world coming to when Flipside gives up that opportunity?

45

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: October 11, 2013, 10:08:40 am »

I think this is pretty much the sensical approach. She really is scary now, and prior examples of Thin Man work center on Mary which doesn't set a great precedent. On the other hand, she was right and never actually 'attacked' the Phalanx members. She just set up a trap if they decided to attack her. If they'd decided to discuss it, they'd all still be alive.

Hopefully for both Suspiria and Crest something positive can be at the end of this rather than sacrifice and one or both of them being the ever melancholy and unlucky in love symbols for the strip. I suspect there is a good bit to come though, and look forward to reading it.

46

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: October 06, 2013, 03:10:31 pm »

Nah I think its obvious...well 'implied obvious' that Crest must have stabbed her with the blade first to cure the infection... and then himself.

'heh'...now to stab her again... only sweet-like, with a different weapon..! {Lascivious Grin }

I dunno she's that horny, she's only got 20 or so of them.

47

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: October 04, 2013, 09:16:58 am »

I don't think so. Remember, she was asking for 'his help'

http://flipside.keenspot.com/comic.php?i=1947

We haven't yet seen why he's there and what help, but this is so far exactly according to her plan. I think precisely because of Kin, she is going to be more likely to have planned for once rather than just have gone in brash and overconfident in her abilities, and we're seeing that planning so far despite her anger.

48

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: October 03, 2013, 08:51:44 pm »

Uh-oh... this isn't looking good for Crest.

True, but again she's a Class 4 sorcerer now and a prodigy. This is what she planned for. She likely had a plan, it may even be why Crest is there.

I'm still wondering what Qtalda is. Just air under those clothes and bandages so far. Does she keep her actual body elsewhere? Is that what she meant by having safeguards against the spell?

49

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: October 02, 2013, 01:02:56 pm »

Personally.. I agree with you 100%!

Halcyon even when Qtalda confessed to her crime and then EVEN told her cronies to search the woods for any witnesses to 'erase'... Halcyon STILL did not speak up or take action to oppose her directly or even condemn her actions! 

Sounds like collusion to me... even if the silent Roman Catholic Church [1940's] assent at Nazi brutality and murder of Jews - "quiet approval".  No less reprehensible!

Perhaps if he would have acted to try and oppose Qtalda... Susprina would have acted to protect him from the spell backlash?

Whoa.

Collusion implies some ongoing turning of a blind eye. This seems to be a momentary shock, 'You did what?' while Qtalda and others have a plan they are executing. He just found out he was a 'figurehead' and there was this whole conspiracy under him, and < a minute passes as his world view is shattered.

Not that I'm invested in him as a char, but just calm down on equating lack of immediately challenging half a dozen of his peers, who now are a threat to him too, when he finds out something terrible... to people turning an ongoing blind eye to WWII atrocities.

50

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: September 30, 2013, 10:11:15 am »

Qtalda revealed that the "Spell" is not a D&D "disintegrate" spell, but in fact summons a rather nasty bacterium that eats all organic elements. As Pru of "Charmed" once said about the "Nothing," "Good, bad it all tastes the same." This bacterium spread through the grass and weeds along the ground and got everyone in attendance, except for Suspira who is airborne because Qtalda did not have a containment "box" placed around her beforehand.

Though he has used it before. I suppose he may have some sort of 'autoclave' spell to sterilize the cube. I admit I thought about whether it was just the spell spreading naturally in the grass, but that doesn't quite mesh with what Suspira claimed her false dummy did, which was reflect a spell on the person who cast it. Of course, she could have just lied but they were already afflicted.

As for Halcyon, even if he is somehow not liable for the actions of his subordinates, he is still guilty of extreme criminal negligence in Suspira's case, as a simple contact attempt with Suspira's parents (for counselling if nothing else) would have quickly shown something was wrong. Further, since Qtalda's story clearly shows that Suspira's parents attempted to pull her out of school, and were quite adamant, their sudden "acceptance" and years-long silence should have been blaring alarm bells that Halcyon ignored.

The really scary thing about this is how thoroughly Suspira thought this through. To date she's been way too impulsive to pull something like this off. I just hope she's got some kind of plan to keep Crest from getting infected. Seeing how she may not know the true nature of Qtalda's spell, however, I consider the chances slim.

To the confessed murderer, Qtalda and her merry band of collusionists, I say "payback's a bitch, bitch! Hope YOU like being 'erased.' It's for the good of the country, after all. We can't have the Conclave go 'rogue' and start slaughtering citizens without trial now can we?"

I wasn't really questioning whether Halcyon or anyone else was liable. I was more trying to picture how the effects of the flesh eating microbes afflicting everyone indiscriminately represented the 'reflection' of the spell back on the caster.

I'm still curious what will show up under Qtilda's robes, as unlike everyone else there isn't any decaying meat there, it's just empty. Hmm.

It's amusing, but it's fun to finally have bad things happen to what seem to be bad people. Nice cathartic.

51

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: September 30, 2013, 12:38:26 am »

Interesting.

A few questions:

• In panel 5, is that supposed to be the mage lifting his hand and seeing it being eaten away?
• If it's a retribution trap and only the caster has the spell reflected, why are people other than Qtilda getting eaten away? Wouldn't it actually just put a box trap around the other casters?
• Halcyon wasn't involved in the casting at all, so why would any spell reflect on him?

And not much there under Qtilda's clothing. I think another reveal is still due

Fun times.

52

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: September 25, 2013, 07:49:04 am »

Well things are interesting then.

So some interesting questions that come up then are:

Does the spell do what Qtilda thinks it does? Perhaps it isn't simply a flesh eating disease, but something that disassembles and reassembles people elsewhere. Since we now have nano-magico machines floating about it's possible.

Was Qtilda perhaps an earlier experiment of the Thin Man? Is that why his/her face is covered and judgement is more extreme?

Where did the spell even come from?

Where are the 3 Marys, as obviously they are still getting fed people so not being held by an 'altruist'.

Fun times, fun times.

53

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: September 21, 2013, 03:33:54 pm »

Kind of on the edge of my seat.

I am too. I imagine there is more to Suspiria's plan than to be a sacrifice as she couldn't have known he would confess. It does undermine the whole Conclave if they were using those projection gems to broadcast it, but again there wasn't any reason to know Qtilda would have confessed so easily.

So I'm curious. I admit as well I hold out hope of Blood Mary. Why? Because in any work of fiction whether a TV show or book or otherwise, there are certain chars which catch the audience's attention far more than expected. It's why you see certain chars intended only for a single episode or arc take off and become major parts of a show's story. The same happens in comics and elsewhere. Sort of pre-web virality. When an author stumbles onto a char that resonates like that, it's worth expanding on it because it isn't so common. So cross fingers in that regard.

That of course is a whole separate issue from what Suspiria's plan is and what's happened to her. Perhaps she's simply learned to co-opt those tiny little machines to hold her essence until she decides to return her body now that she's a magical savant? The body itself was a construct to fool Qtilda? I don't know. I suppose she could be dead, but that would indeed seem a bit bleh, particularly as ties back to Crest too. Look forward to seeing how it all plays out though.

54

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: September 16, 2013, 09:17:28 am »

Qdilda: This trap will stop even a class 4 sorcerer
Suspiria: ....
Qtilda: *faceless smug expression*
Suspiria: The trap would indeed stop a class 4 sorcerer, it's a shame I'm a class 5 sorcerer
Qtilda: Whut?
Suspiria: Or perhaps that was just a distraction so my boy there could wallop one of your friends from behind. Suck it!

55

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 38: Discussion

« on: September 15, 2013, 10:48:37 pm »

Qtilda: Why yes, it is Grey Poupon

56

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 36: Discussion

« on: April 25, 2013, 09:19:48 am »

I'm not really getting this either.

1. We're experimenting to perfect this avenue of magic
2. Everyone volunteers because we offer them the changes they want after getting them to trust us
3. Even when we fail, we put people back out there to commit horrible crimes as superpowered monstrosities. Things that would horrify them to do. In Mary's example, we didn't tell her what her issues were or offer to send her somewhere with fewer people, we just put her back with her family to eat them with no warning, setting off a whole horrible chain.
4. We've already made clear we'll hold thing back and try and manipulate people in order to get them to volunteer. We just want people willing, we're not actually trying to protect them or look out for their interests.
5. We used magic to figure out Mary was a good target and how to approach her to get her willing.
6. We probably used this painting oracle magic to find out May is a good target and how to approach her to get her willing too.
7. May our clever cynic and manipulator of people's reactions somehow reads into this 'they're trying to be truthful'.

It's good in a way that May isn't just outsmarting people. Bryon has clearly listened to critiques about her super banter and body language powers. But mostly it just seems impossible that anyone who has now seen the repercussions of the Thin Man's experiments, whose been abducted, etc.... would in any way trust him period. Especially knowing he uses his powers to figure out how to pick targets and best appeal to them to get their willing participation.

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Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 31: Discussion

« on: December 12, 2011, 02:54:28 pm »

Brion,

I wouldn't worry about it. If you were a great comedy writer to match Maytag you'd have a nice side job

Like others I found the set up and detailing of her being on the verge of schizophrenic to be anything but 'funny material'. It goes back to what I said at the end of the last chapter at not getting her approach. (I know I'd be staring at her after such a reminiscence much as folk rubberneck at disasters. It attracts attention, but isn't something you want to get closer to.) However, I'm happy to suspend disbelief for the reasons you stated and because 'it is the way it is'

I certainly enjoy the comic as a whole. If this reveal comes off awkward or people critique it a bit, it is likely because you set high standards with your storytelling. Keep on keeping on

58

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 30: Discussion

« on: October 27, 2011, 01:40:37 pm »

My main issues (and I presume some will be mitigated by upcoming strips) are:

1. It isn't funny. Someone's costume dissolving, their being a bit uncomfy is funny in the classic "It is funny if it happens to someone else sort of way), especially if she rallied and started telling jokes about it. Talking about conditions, being sabotaged, and a tale of her background might get shock, pity, horror, sympathy, but it isn't setting the mood to be sidesplitting funny which is her goal. Why is she even having this monologue even if it is true? If she isn't affected she should have turned the event to benefit.

2. It is a let down, since others have pointed out there have been situations in the past where she either hadn't expected to interact with people outside her costume where the persona was consistent, and times where maintaining that persona was out and out dangerous, where here it would just be a bit awkward.

If she didn't want to risk the personal when people's health was in danger, why risk it now for a random impulse to have a show? And if you're going to, why engage a monologue that sets a very non-humor atmosphere. Comedy is about context and mood. That is why you have folk whose job it is to get the audience in the mood and receptive before main acts come on stage. She's a pro. Just seems pretty improbable that if her claim is true, she'd respond in this manner.

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Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 30: Discussion

« on: July 25, 2011, 01:42:58 am »

Just to tackle the money problem one last time:

Through much of medieval europe, before the 1800s, Silver was more valuable than gold, so a silver coin was more valuable than a gold coin by about 15:1 on average through the years.

Platinum, while expensive today, was actually used for many years to create false/fake coins as its a metal often found in rocks containing gold and it also alloys with gold.  Which is why it is less valuable than even Gold.  Its also why people used to bite gold and silver coins, because platinum is much harder while gold and silver is softer.

However Platinum never really became a popular metal for coinage because it was more difficult to work with as a harder metal.  Its only in the last century that they've started to use it to create collectable coins.

In Iscariot (not sure about Marvollo exchange rate) the monetary values are roughly:
$1 = 1 Platinum
$10 = 1 Gold
$100 = 1 Silver
$1000 = 1 Electrum

Most fantasy writers generally don't bother going to the old medieval values of silver being more valuable than gold and gold more valuable than platinum because it confuses readers who are accustomed to the modern valuation of silver < gold < platinum (or because they don't know).

This isn't correct to my understanding.

Here are a small # of references that would refute this:

Peter Spufford's very pertinent book: Money and its use in Medieval Europe

UC Davis Professor's Richard Cowen's essay from one of his classes, Medieval Silver and Gold

Senator John Jones' Treatise - Scroll to bottom to the heading HISTORY OF THE RELATIVE VALUE OF GOLD AND SILVER.

Further, I can't find any medieval period references to platinum. Wikipedia's discusison of the history of platinum puts its European discovery/discussion at 16th century and then it wasn't used as currency:
History of Platinum

In short, I think the above is simply incorrect and inconsistent with accepted historic fact. It can be true in this world, but not the real one. Certainly I can find numerous additional texts which reference a 12-14.5:1 ratio of value of gold to silver depending on the century. I can't find any which show the 10:1 silver to gold ratio you purport.