I didn't understand the concept of the trap.
Sorry, I know I'm probably being a bit of a spaz here, but how did the trap work?
shareI think it went like this... the master sacrifices a few thousand strigoi, luring the humans into a sense that they made a great victory and also divert all their forces to this task (some character mentions how they diverted police forces to this operation). Obviously there must have been more strigoi than thought.
shareBut why sacrifice anyone when the whole advantage of the plan is to have more manpower than the enemy? It is not like anything would have changed if the bomb had not been activated.
shareYeah. Especially when the sun went down.
The Master could've cleared out the nest, and when Fet got there, they'd all be above ground killing people along with the rest of the vampires.
Hell, use a fraction of those nest vampires to kill Fet in the tunnels since he's been a pretty effective thorn in The Master's side.
^THIS
i don't even get how the Master could have that many strigoi hiding out so well
and why didn't Fet and others attack the nest during sunlight?
They left at the crack of dawn which I do not know why it took ALL DAY to get to the tunnel Fet had found! That aspect I thought was bad writing. Fet should have been able to find his way back to where he had been in a hour two tops. The great tunnel rat didn't know where he had been when he found the nest?? And why find themselves in the Zack cell hideaway??
*sigh*
Good point. Didn't Fet make it through the tunnel on his own like in less than an hour when he found the nest? They took so long with the group.
shareRogers also asked him where they were at one point, and he said he didn't know, when they stumbled on The Master's lair.
Did they cut out a scene where Fet's way of getting in was caved in and they had to take an alternate route or something?
Maybe, but there is clearly other faster ways. Gus, Angel and that girl made it not far from the nest when they met Fet. They had not been underground for long either. I think Fet was just lost or as you said maybe a scene was cut.
shareEph and Dutch also made it down to the room where Zach was staying right after Fet called.
So Fet took from dawn to afternoon to get to Zach's room, and that took 5 minutes for Eph and Dutch.
Did they cut out a scene where Fet's way of getting in was caved in and they had to take an alternate route or something?
No they didn't cut a scene. This kind of thing is what makes The Strain so frustrating - bad writing. It would be too easy for them to reach the nest during daylight hours because then the so-called 'trap' wouldn't have worked. Then to have Fet call the doc and tell him to 'get right down here' was where I rolled my eyes at the screen. Why the heck would he want the doc down there when Zak had already gone? Plus, it took the doc and what's her name about five minutes to reach the place it took Fet and the rest all day to get to.
Another thing that the writers probably feel would be 'too easy' is if they were to use UV lights. All they had to do was stand at the checkpoints and turn them on the strigoi, but no.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Morgana0x share
That's a legit criticism, but easily explained--The Master is intentionally slowing them down. Fet had a relatively easy time getting to the nest before, because he was supposed to find it. The Master simply kept throwing obstacles in their path this time. The Master wanted Eph to reach Zack's room, so Eichort could confront him--so they could just go right in there, with no opposition.
Yes, it's contrived.
As any story like this would be.
Actually, this is something that happens in military strategy. You lure your opponent in by making a part of your army vulnerable--then crush him.
The key is to have more forces available to you than your opponent knew about--and that's not hard in this case. How do you do a strigoi head count, when they're moving around hunting at night, and dormant during the day? There were obviously thousands of smaller nests. With almost nine million people in New York before this began, he could have untold numbers of soldiers available to him. No way for Ferraldo's people to know how many New Yorkers have been turned. They can't do a census of the living in this situation.
What didn't make sense was The Master putting so many of his troops into one spot like that--it bothered me. There's no need to have them all together like that.
He had many times more, and he clustered this group together to serve as a lure--it had to be a whole lot of them, to lure Ferraldo's people in.
And of course he lured Fet in with those tunnels.
A trick from the very beginning.
Actually, this is something that happens in military strategy. You lure your opponent in by making a part of your army vulnerable--then crush him....Pretty much that. If half of the army would have went with Fet, it would have made sense. But sacrificing thousands of vampires just to get a small team to a place where Fet has been before and then let him escape? He is worth sacrificing all the vampires but for some reason not important enough to let those vampires actually hunt him down?
What didn't make sense was The Master putting so many of his troops into one spot like that--it bothered me. There's no need to have them all together like that.
Also the strategy is not to make part of your army vulnerable but to let it *appear* that way. There is no military advantage in letting the enemy crush a big chunk of your army without using their force. Quite the opposite: the vulnerable part will act to bind the forces and prevent a retreat long enough for the others to attack the flank or back. How does a tunnel full of dead vampires bind anyone? share
Pretty much that. If half of the army would have went with Fet, it would have made sense. But sacrificing thousands of vampires just to get a small team to a place where Fet has been before and then let him escape? He is worth sacrificing all the vampires but for some reason not important enough to let those vampires actually hunt him down?
They didn't let him escape. As you'd expect, he was too tough to kill. The Master sent a bunch of strigs after him. The Master didn't count on Gus being there too. That was the wild card in the deck. Even the greatest generals must deal with the unexpected.
Again, you're missing the point. The Master, unlike a normal general, can MAKE more troops while he's attacking--many of Ferraldo's people are part of his army now. He may have gained as many as he lost, but even if not--he clearly didn't sacrifice nearly as large a part of his forces as Fet and Ferraldo believed. They just didn't realize how many he had, because he was holding them in reserve. Again--good generalship.
It had to be a lot of strigs in one location, or they wouldn't be willing to tie up so much of Ferraldo's forces to go after them. It had to look good--it had to seem too good to be true, and of course it was.
Generals can and do GENUINELY sacrifice very large numbers of troops--sometimes for no advantage at all. You never read about the Battle of the Somme? That's bad generalship. But it's the same attitude--the point of cannon fodder is to feed the cannon. The Master would cheerfully sacrifice his entire army if it would get him what he wants. But it was probably not even a tenth. share
They didn't let him escape. As you'd expect, he was too tough to kill.Haha, they did not even attack. Why not attack with hundred vampires instead of three or four? I don't see the point.
Again, you're missing the point. The Master, unlike a normal general, can MAKE more troops while he's attacking--many of Ferraldo's people are part of his army now.When he has unlimited forces, what is the point of setting a trap. Why not accumulate more forces and simply attack? Because he does not have unlimited forces: he just has as much as he can get in a certain time. It is not like many people move to New York.
Again--good generalship.Ehm, nope. A general accomplishes his goals. He lost hundreds of vampires in a futile attempt to kill two main characters, each of them so stupid that a gang of semi intelligent schoolkids would have killed them several times in the first season. He achieved his goals by brute force. Just attacking at any given night would have had the same effect, and maybe even reduced the losses, as humans are less efficient in smaller groups and also can be infected more easily without killing each other.
It had to be a lot of strigs in one location, or they wouldn't be willing to tie up so much of Ferraldo's forces to go after them.But nobody saw the location. He had to have them in one location at one time: when Fet saw them. After that it was just stupid to keep them there. Why didn't he add them to the force attacking the police forces? What would have been the downside of having Fet standing at the abyss not seeing a single vampire?
You never read about the Battle of the Somme?That was a battle with great losses and no alternative to the losses except not attacking at all. It has to be seen in the bigger picture of that war: machine guns stalled the war in a way unforseen. This lead to a paradigm change which obviously is not possible without making tactical mistakes.
But we are talking about a trap here. Two different things. The vampire forces had alternatives. The moment the opposing troops were in the tunnels.
But it's the same attitude--the point of cannon fodder is to feed the cannon.That is nonsense. The point is to bind opposing troops at whatever cost and to stall their advance. No general gets his troops killed just to see them die.
There is nothing nifty about the trap. It made 0% sense in the world the story is set and 100% for the tv screen. The master could as well have broken the fourth wall and directly talked to the audience. share
Haha, they did not even attack. Why not attack with hundred vampires instead of three or four? I don't see the point.
The point was to win the battle. And he did.
When he has unlimited forces, what is the point of setting a trap. Why not accumulate more forces and simply attack? Because he does not have unlimited forces: he just has as much as he can get in a certain time. It is not like many people move to New York.
I didn't say unlimited forces. You made that up. But he can, in fact, make new soldiers out of his enemy's forces. They were saying thousands had been infected. Meaning The Master made good a lot of his losses in his counterattack.
Ehm, nope. A general accomplishes his goals. He lost hundreds of vampires in a futile attempt to kill two main characters, each of them so stupid that a gang of semi intelligent schoolkids would have killed them several times in the first season. He achieved his goals by brute force. Just attacking at any given night would have had the same effect, and maybe even reduced the losses, as humans are less efficient in smaller groups and also can be infected more easily without killing each other.
His goal was never to kill Fet. You are really really dumb if you think that.
Erasing the rest, because you have a childish simple intellect, roughly equivalent to Zack's new playmate.
share
The point was to win the battle. And he did.Point is: the trap was not needed except for the audience as the master obviously has the numbers to win any battle. And still he lost a whole nest.
It is the same artificial tension like with the worms: there is no concept, in each situation the writer simply goes for the solution which he needs for his outcome. Enough to impress silly little fanboys like you, but obviously looking flawed to pretty much everyone else writing here. share
But sacrificing thousands of vampires just to get a small team to a place where Fet has been before and then let him escape? He is worth sacrificing all the vampires but for some reason not important enough to let those vampires actually hunt him down?
Yeah.
By the time Feraldo's forces were diverted from their posts and sent into the park, the mission was accomplished. The only possible reason to allow them to kill that nest of vampires was to be a dick.
He sacrificed hundreds of vampires, who could possibly be useful in future battles, just to be a dick, so the humans had a minute or so believing they won, only to reveal that it was a trap. There was no actual strategic value.
He could've used those nest vampires to kill Fet, who had been doing some effective killing of his vampires. He could've used those nest vampires to kill more cops and take over more checkpoints above ground, crippling Feraldo's operation even more. But no, he sacrificed them needlessly, simply to be a dick. share