Literally falling at the first hurdle and smacking his face into the asphalt. Pretty sad.
Well, I'm glad for the empathy at least. Thank you friend!
But it does take me back to the internet in 1990s when so many weird dudes had incredible one-sided rage-beefs with the entire concept of the Lady of Pain (not at all connected to her gender of course, mmmm definitely not lol) and just wrote elaborate and definitely not at all troubling fantasies about how they were going to kill her.
This isn't as bad at that but it's definitely taking me back.
Aw, I'm glad it isn't as bad.
I'm really baffled/amazed about how and why this thread got resurrected! 10 years later! Was someone googling "slay the Lady of Pain" or what? Or was someone tracking down all my ancient posts for some arcane reason unknown to humankind-at-large? Oh well, in any case, I don't mind discussing this ancient topic.
My OP, and my subsequent posts, were written in the gonzo over-the-top tone of a handle-bar-moustachioed Dungeon-Crawl Classics hero. I feel sorrow that at least one person experienced this jesting tonality as poisonous / toxic. I don't want any dear person to feel ill.
And I admit and apologize: it was one-sided of me to not include "unlady-like" alongside "unmanly." Or better yet, "unheroic" or "ungamely" (is that a word?) -- I mean in regard to the meek mindset which 2E's "unbeatable gods" inculcated into players.
My point wasn't about gender. In a following post, I called the same wrath down upon the High God of Krynn, Lord Ao of Toril, and the Dungeon Master of the Cartoon Show. All of whom have been portrayed as male-ish figures, so far. I singled out the Lady of Pain because she was (in the 2E cosmology), literally the Center of the Multiverse.
I was also making some other points, such as how gray snarky nihilism was placed at the center of the 2E Multiverse. When I posted that in 2012, I didn't want to see that "unquestionable gray nihilism" to be central in 4E and 5E. I'm vindicated by the turn toward "hope punk" in the Radiant Citadel.
I remember when 2E Legends & Lore came out, and it now said that you couldn't fight or slay gods anymore. It was part of 2E's "niceness." (No demons, no devils, no assassins, no slaying deities.)
I mean, up until then, there were entire products devoted to that! Namely, AD&D Deities & Demigod stats and BECMI Immortal-level boxed set. It was part of the game.
Then came Zeb Cook's cold, heavy, "nice" boot in 2E which tamped down the D&D players, with a tonality like: "Puny punks...now you're not allowed to fight the gods. How dare you!"
And that cowed mindset has continued in some segments of D&D fandom. It'd be like having a Marvel RPG that said that you simply couldn't play at the Cosmic level anymore, and no longer allowed to fight and defeat Cosmic opponents. That's what I mean by lame and meek.
Yeah, 3E statted out the gods, thankfully. But 3E didn't get around to statting out the Lady of Pain.
I agree with most of the points Vaalingrade made.