Scotty

I'm glad Dan went with what he wanted rather than what he felt was expected of him. I just noticed he made a typo. That irks me for some reason. Yeah, there is a difference between Dan referring to himself as a person, to which he's fine with people using male pronouns, and his avatars in the comic, which would of course vary depending on their form at a given time. It's like referring to Tedd or Elliot with female pronouns whenever they're in female forms. Also, yeah, "currently" is missing the "t".

I know Elliot initially was suspicious of Grace when she first showed up and they found out that she wasn't fully human. But there hasn't been too much interaction between the two aside from group sessions at Tedd's place. I'd say they're friends at the very least, he trusts Grace because her and Ellen are close friends and Grace is Tedd's girlfriend. Where did this happen anyway? I know Diane likes Nanase, but I don't seem to remember this being a thing at all... Maybe I'm just forgetful. Back in Family Tree. And it was shown again in So a Date when Diane was fangirling over Nanase's magic.

I added a bunch for Elliot/Sarah, Elliot/Nanase, Ellen/Nanase, Tedd/Grace and Justin/Susan. Now to clarify the "special bond" for Justin and Susan, they do have a kind of relationship the others don't have. Despite the fact that Justin is gay and Susan doesn't like physical contact and has trust issues when it comes to men (it's probably nowhere near as bad now as it was early in the comic), they still shared the closest thing to a romance than they've had with anyone else, and while they acknowledge they could never have that kind of relationship naturally, they've still become really close, Susan would likely tell Justin things before telling Sarah, and Susan has known Sarah for a lot longer.

I would also think that if someone were to say "I'm triggered by this." then they're more likely to be a troll. Someone who is actually bothered by something should state how and why it bothers them. Just saying "I'm triggered" tends to be followed up with "I'm triggered that you're triggered!" and any sense of there being any real discussion becomes lost.

Oh right, I forgot about the original shrink soda. I was sleepy when I posted.... Prior to Squirrel Prophet, the last time Dan did colour was for the first 4 parts of Sister 2. When he switched to straight black and white, he stated it was because it was faster and would let him stick to 3 updates a week while still dealing with school and possibly part time work. Black and white only lasted for 6 pages then went to grey scale because of problems he had with character designs. Basically Dan compromised, grey scale isn't the fastest, but it's faster and easier than colour. Sure it's not so bad once you have settled on a palette but it's only really good if you stick to a limited number of locations and characters, you start adding more characters and new locations and suddenly you're trying to figure out how to expand the palette to accommodate those. Colour palette selection could be done during an initial planing phase before Dan started actually drawing a story arc, like "these are the locations, 2 indoor settings, and 3 outdoor setting, I'll use these colours for indoor 1, these for indoor 2, etc) but that would likely add time between arcs and then you'd have people asking why there be no updates. Also there is the possibility of changing a location or character design part way through that would require a palette change as well, which would add delays whereas grey scale wouldn't change, it is one less thing to worry about.

Wait a moment, what kind of shrink soda was Sarah expecting it to be? Dan also goofed in the commentary, he said "Ashley, meanwhile, is just very tall." when I'm pretty sure he meant Amanda.

Ok that I can believe.

Edward didn't make Nanase's book, Helena and Demetrius gave it to her when they awakened her.

I can see making a spellbook for someone who already had one making the original useless. It'd be a good safeguard to have if a magic user were to lose their spellbook or get it stolen, just have a new one made and the old one becomes just some random encyclopedia. I think only those who have awakened can read a spellbook properly, back after Grace's birthday when Sarah, Nanase and Justin were at the comic shop, Sarah asked Nanase what the book she had was about, and thought squirrels. We didn't actually see the title on the book but we do know that spellbooks have random titles to hide the fact that their spellbooks, so Sarah probably saw the title as something about squirrels, and I'm wondering if Sarah tried reading it, she'd probably see stuff about squirrels rather than Nanase's spells.

I think Justin would have to be given a spellbook. Edward had to order spellbooks for Elliot and Ellen after they awakened, Helena and Demetrius gave Nanase her's, Jerry saved Susan a trip to "ye olde magic shoppe" by making her one, so Pandora could have just as easily made a spellbook for Justin and hidden it on a bookshelf or something and at some point we might be seeing Justin rifling through books trying to find it Or Pandora didn't bother and Edward might have to get another one ordered. It also does sound like spellbooks have to be linked to a person before they start loading up with the person's spells, for an Immortal it should be easy, but I imagine Edward would have to do something ranging from either simply putting the magic user's name in it, or attuning it to their aura.

It hasn't really stopped Nanase from fantasizing about both Grace and Elliot, though I guess Ellen doesn't mind as long as she can tease someone about it.

Abraham is certainly a wizard, Adrian's half immortal which is something completely different, although Abraham did refer to Adrian as "also a wizard" I think he just used that term loosely to describe the fact that Adrian is also a magic user. But yeah I can see casting spells verbally being more the norm back in Abraham's day. I kinda wonder if verbally casting spells was developed more as an aid rather than a necessary component of a spell. Like I said before it's clear that spells can be cast without words, but using words seems to allow better focus, so people could have figured that at least for learning spells, it was better to verbally cast them, while masters of certain spells didn't have to. Later on it could have developed into "It makes you look cooler if you verbally announce the spell you're casting".

I'm not sure...but in my first attempted to find out, I clicked the Urban Dictionary link google gave me and whoooo boy at all the examples given. A lot of which pertain to what these comics talk about, but there are mentions of stuff like PTSD so I can understand that the term would have originated in reference to actual victims of traumatic events so it's likely been around for decades, but obviously social media has made it easy to toss it around for any people consider offensive whether it's related to something traumatic or just something a person just doesn't like. That's basically what the whole issue is about, the fact that a term used for a serious mental condition is watered down by people using it to describe their negative opinions about an all female cast of a reboot movie, or a non asian being cast in a role that's been historically asian, or heck, a victory pose in a video game.

http://www.egscomics.com/?id=2191 That answers that, Sirleck's going to get his aberrant arse handed to him. And confirmed, he's the one pulling the strings with the vampires in town, and using up a lot of money to do so apparently.

Nanase asking God for help in Sister II can certainly be seen as that, whether or not it was actually necessary is unknown, though Ellen certainly believed in it enough to do the same in Family Tree. Though it is noteworthy to mention that Nanase didn't say anything to invoke her guardian form the second time.

The callouts used for the martial arts stuff being incantations is kinda debatable. I don't see them being incantations in the general casting a spell sense, but I certainly see how they'd be helpful in focusing a person's power, just like when you grunt while lifting something heavy or when people curse out loud when they stub their toe on thing to try to minimize the pain. In terms of Adrian and Abraham calling their spells, it's probably a similar reason. Saying the spell you want to cast would ensure that spell is cast. Just thinking about the spell might be harder to do if you're in the middle of combat and unable to fully concentrate on a particular spell, there could be errors if something interrupt your though process, Adrian's Murder Shroud may have ended up being a flight of seagulls that just pooped all over Abraham. Incantations usually imply some elaborate phrasing, like an actual code for what the spell is supposed to do. The closest thing I could find in the archives would be these sketchbook pages, but those aren't canon and can't with any certainty say that incantations would be in pig latin, but the general idea is there.

I dunno, but I've already got a colourized version of Fairy Nanase from the previous page ready to post once Dan removes the exclusivity from Patreon.

As far as I know, yeah, I mean mosquito bites are probably the only thing that gets me. But I could roll around in poison ivy and not be affected.

That would certainly make Voltaire a very bad moderator. Like one of those that would ban anyone that didn't take their word as law.

I'm honestly afraid everyone here would hate me if I tried contributing to this discussion.

I meant more along the lines of doing what Elliot said he'd do and figure out how she really feels and find someone she'd want to spend time with. I actually think it was better that Diane met Elliot the way she did though and him asking Ashley out before Diane tried, because we already know that Elliot had considered possibly asking Diane out but decided it'd be awkward because she was too much like Susan whom he'd already decided there was no chance of dating her. Can you imagine what kinda of emotional damage that would have done to Diane if Elliot told her "Sorry, I can't date you because it would feel too much like dating my friend Susan." ? He probably wouldn't say it exactly that way but the possibility of Diane coming to the conclusion that he'd compare her to Susan might have given Diane a negative view of her even though she'd realize Susan was her sister. With things having gone the way they did Diane's probably looking forward to meeting Susan and learning more about her. It's a shame I can't say the same about how Susan would react though.

Arguing is...well...I dunno, I mean there are debates where two sides discuss issues with facts or differing opinions, which is fine. Arguing is a debate with raised voices and emotions start becoming a factor, not ideal but one could still step in and calm the situation without too much trouble. Flame wars, at least from what I've seen of them, usually involve trolls stoking an argument with things that get both sides even more aggressive or defensive about their positions. I'm still convinced that a few of the biggest social media keruffles of the past few years were largely fueled by trolls trying to obstruct any kind of calm discussion of real issues. Also, I'm not sure if Dan intended this, but he kinda had the makings of a flame war in "So a Date" between Tara and Elliot, they both had differing facts and Tara wasn't interested in listening to Elliot's side of the story until Ashley (The Moderator) stepped in and attempted to calm things down, suddenly Voltaire (The Troll) appears and attempts to undo what Ashley had done and stir the flames again. Or maybe Ashley was just a third party attempting to calm things down and Helena was The Moderator?

I think Derek was just her then latest target. Basically most of her growth as a character that we've seen has been after the 6 month time skip. First we saw her overhearing Sarah and Nanase talk about Elliot and her scheming to make him hers. Then we see her presumably after she had asked Rhoda if she knew anything about Elliot and while she initially still had the "use Elliot as a stepping stone until I find the right wealthy guy to take care of me" plan but we see her start to soften after she sees a bunch of the review show videos, like "hey, this guy is actually pretty nice, funny, and good looking." We see further proof of that change of view at New Years when she's talking to Lucy and states that maybe she "wants a real relationship for once". She also felt bad when she learned about Sarah and Elliot's breakup and cared enough to decide not to swoop in and seduce Elliot, though that was sidlined by finding out Elliot had already asked someone else out. Still it's a pretty good indication that Diane had developed an actual crush on Elliot rather than just thinking of him as some new toy. Although actually seeing Elliot and Ashley together and learning about Elliot's abilities probably cracked that crush, so who knows what she'll do next, whether she still tries to pursue Elliot or go back to her old ways of using men for attention or just chill and try to find someone she actually likes. Throughout the comic's lifetime we have seen that Diane had the capacity to care about people, she looked out for Rhoda on several occasions, but it wasn't until "So a Date" and her interactions with Charlotte that we see her really care about how her actions affected people, and despite how she treated Charlotte, Charlotte still considered her enough of a friend to tackle a spidervampire for her. I'd say Diane's been through a whirlwind of emotions the past couple weeks and the whirlwind isn't even done yet, because through all that, she also learned she has a flesh and blood sister that she'll likely be meeting soon.

I wonder if hybrids like that are possible as well, maybe they wouldn't be as powerful as they would if they were just one or the other, but they could still both gain spells tailored to their personality and learn some from others. They might never get high ranking spells like a guardian form or maybe their rate of learning is slower, but they could be potentially more versatile.

Technically, it's not the full page, it's the enlarged top 4 panels that Dan released on patreon a while back. I figured it was OK because no one had mentioned anything about Vagabond's full page colourizations. I doubt I'd get too deep into doing this to warrant needing fancy tools. I was just in one of those moods where I wanted to do something different for a change. I have spurs of inspiration like that sometimes, my mind gets going and such and just gotta get it out there (hence the theories I have, hehe).