I think both Sakuya and Gryphon recognized that Remilia was deliberately fishing for that reaction, and chose not to indulge her. :)

>I see trolling family members is now practically a household rule,

The impishness level is sometimes a useful mutual-comfort metric, if nothing else. :)

>though I think I'm nearly as confused as Flandre is about the ring
>business (right now it seems a sort of sibling jealousy and schoolgirl
>crush on the teacher sort of thing maybe?)

Not so much the former, possibly some of the latter, and the rest, even Flan's not entirely sure of at present, except that it feels like it's important.

>So, that scene was the endcap of the episode huh? Well if nothing
>else, you can tell the tale is well crafted when you want to hug the
>fictional characters to console them. It had some punch when shared
>elsewhere in these forums but gains potency from context.

Well, when I went to build that scene into the episode, I didn't specifically set out to end on it, but when I got there it seemed the logical thing to do. (The little stinger with Meiling is partly there as a nod to the classic "character forgotten in the setup scene" gag in anime, and partly to take the edge off that ending a little bit.)

>"I probably shouldn't follow that with a joke about 'laying pipe',
>but the unused (unintended I expect) innuendo is right there and the
>12 year old in my brain is not quiet about it."

It was certainly unintentional on Meiling's part. As for me, I just like that there's a character in this cast who can say something like that and just literally be talking about installing water conduits. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.