Maplestrip

You say this like it's a bad thing...  

On an unrelated note, Diane seems to be into magic, and Elliot, but not the kind of magic Elliot tends to get, and seems unsure about trying to compete with Ashley now that they've met...
Magus' plot-line seems to be drawing to a close soon (though soon in this comic's world could easily equate to two or three years our time) if the escalation on the aberration front is anything to go by, and the more we see of him the more Magus reminds me of a jaded version of Elliot...
What are the chances of Diane falling for a post-restoration Magus?

I really feel we need a split thread between "likely theories and speculation" and "wild theories and speculation". This clearly falls into the latter camp for a variety of in-story, out-of-story, and meta-story reasons (plus, any time a person has to go to "well, we're told anything is possible!" it likely means there isn't much for the speculation to stand on). There's been several times in this thread where this kind of divide has broken down discussion, and having two distinct spots for each of them would give a better idea about what the discussion should be about.
I propose that this thread title be changed to "Wild Theories and Speculation" or maybe "Unusual Theories and Speculation" or something to that effect, and that a separate thread titled "Likely Theories and Speculation" or "Less Wild Theories and Speculation" be created. I don't want this to be the split we had previously, between "Wild Theories" and "Mundane Theories", which just ended up being "Wackadoo ideas!" and "Too boring to discuss ideas!".

I accept the challenge!
 

 

It's weird... fourteen years of shrinking being a non-canon tradition, and it still hasn't happened in canon yet.

Hi, folks! My first post, and my first slay.
 

Diane, Susan, and Nanase go out to lunch together. The title of the arc is "Mange à 3".
 
(I originally typed "Natani" rather than "Nanase". Now THAT would be interesting!)

It technically hasn't been ever brought up, though the characters do know about magic's flair for the dramatic. Knowing Moperville North (the school), characters might already not take the world "entirely serious", so I think most characters automatically don't really worry about it like we would in real life? It's like they know they are in a cartoon. Knowing the fourth-wall breaking aspects of the very early days, this may even technically be true.
I don't think discussing whether the characters know that they are "perfectly safe" from the "dangers" of magic is a valuable discussion, other than philosophical "meta" discussions
Characters would be more worried about being "stuck" in a form than about magic changing their brain or resulting in physical damage.
I just realized Vladia falls completely out of this idea. I blame "the early days of the comic" again.

"We aren't up w......." is what I thought, though "we fill'r up while you wait" might make more sense. There's a good chance that that guess is accurate, and if so, in the words of Strider:
DAVE: thats a hell of a mystery no one thought was a mystery and didnt even really need solving 
DAVE: but damn if it didnt just get solved so nice work 

Wild Theory of the Day: Diane and Susan had to be separated for magical reasons.
The idea of twins developing their own private language is well-known.  Twins often share talents and encourage each other to develop them.  Well, what if, together, Susan and Diane started manifesting their magical talents at a very early age?  Neither one on their own was able to do it, but together they could create magical objects.  And, like most toddlers, they had very little sense of what is and isn't appropriate behavior in public, so they started making magical objects appear in public whenever they were together.
It might even have become dangerous -- again, toddlers don't know *what* not to summon as well as *when* and *where* not to summon.
So, for the twins' own safety, they had to be split up.

Just had an epiphany about Helena and Demetrius' role in this story. Way back in "In the Shadows" we see Edward, Wolf and Cranium discussing their investigation into the disturbance in the forest and getting that warning from Pandora about the "Egg", they didn't get any more information about it so Edward takes them off the case and states his intent to "enlist the assistance of some friends"  following it up with "let's just say there's a reason I know so much about Immortals".  Remember how Jerry said that Edward was a VIP in the world of the paranormal.
I've stated my belief that Helena and Demetrius have been following Elliot around because they were asked to, it's also been very strongly implied that Magus is the "Egg" that Pandora mentioned, and Magus knew that Helena and Demetrius had an improper death. I'm now thinking that Helena and Demetrius are the "friends" that Edward spoke of, they would be better suited to investigate the activity of another Immortal and if they did uncover anything important, their improper deaths might have been caused by Pandora to prevent them from reporting that back to Edward. Part of that info would have been the plan to use Elliot to get Magus back into the mortal plane but their memory only just mentions "blah blah follow blah blah Elliot blah" so they just assume that he needs to be watched but not sure why.

Isn't his expectations as to how his other forms think and act shaping them into being more like that? They likely have basic natures, i.e. Mild Mannered is, well, well mannered and unlikely to go to extremes, but probably can range approaching Velma levels of SRS BSNS inspired by Tedd on a quest, all the way to Fluttershy levels of social anxiety. It's unlikely she's cripplingly timid since magic is way more convenient than that... Although, saying that, do the characters in-continuity know the "It's More Fun That Way" rule we know from outside continuity periods?
 
Otherwise Elliot's magic is terrifying, since he rewrites his brain chemistry to alter his personality every time he transfoms, and that can't be good!

Dangit. You beat me to the Underthing. Also, h0I!!!!!!!
I think the "Rad Squirrel" NP arc lends itself perfectly to Undertale slays. BEHOLD!

Sweater with two darker stripes? Coincidence? ...probably.

"You are an... interesting child."

I have no idea why Alphys is holding a gun. Just roll with it.

I put waaaaaay too much work into this one. (ignore the purple square on Chara's head in panel 9; I distinctly remember deleting that like three times, but nooooo. I'll try to fix it later. Maybe. probably not.) [Edit 4/1/2017: Fixed the purple square]
(Undertale sprites courtesy of the Spriter's Resource, with occasional edits and recolors done by me as needed)

I guess I should post my oldies too, so here goes!
Remember when Elliot was suddenly Spanish?

Remember when they all went to dinner in an underground cavern in New Mexico?


I'll admit, it does sound unbelievable.

Remember when glue slays were funny? Yeah, me neither.

Ashley's not in on the in-joke.

The day Susan broke Ashley.

Half a WHAT!?

Remember when Justin slays were funny? Yeah, me neither.

Remember when Navi was not annoying? Wait what am I saying I never even played that game.

This may apply to some people. Only they can decide who they are.

I've always wondered, was Martia-Kirk's hair real or did she shapeshift a toupee?

The real reason Elliot and Susan didn't work out.

The real reason Elliot and Susan didn't work out.

And now we know: they were both wrong.

You guys do realize something is going to go down in the next page, right? I mean, an entire page focusing on the Cheerleadra landing and getting ready to transform into Elliot? I have a feeling we're going to find out what his spell does earlier than expected :3

I kinda realised immediately that with this setup, something was bound to happen.

You guys do realize something is going to go down in the next page, right? I mean, an entire page focusing on the Cheerleadra landing and getting ready to transform into Elliot? I have a feeling we're going to find out what his spell does earlier than expected :3

Say, I know I am about two weeks late, but if I may refocus the discussion on the page initially under discussion again: I hate that this page doesn't show the title of Elliot's book. Looks rather blank, based on panel 2. This may, of course, be a mistake by Dan, but it creates more doubt that the totally normal book really is Elliot's spellbook. (Maybe it really is a totally normal book?)
And, to weigh in on the whole gender discussion; I feel like this page further confirms that Elliot could be agender or gender-neutral in some form, which I have been suggesting since back when this page came out. I am happy ^_^
If Elliot got a new power, may it be "turning other people into men"? That would be amusing, knowing Ashley's comment on this page. It would be the cutest non-binary relationship :3

You guys do realize something is going to go down in the next page, right? I mean, an entire page focusing on the Cheerleadra landing and getting ready to transform into Elliot? I have a feeling we're going to find out what his spell does earlier than expected :3

Ohhh! A new spell for Elliot...
If I were Magic I'd give him an awesome autopilot... that followed the GPS instructions to the letter including obeying speed limits, traffic lights, and always stopping for pedestrians crossing the road. I'm not sure if I'd make him follow the roads at a height of six feet, or fifty, either way he'd be at the mercy of traffic, the spell having him follow the rhythm of road bound traffic while paying no attention to birds, drones or anything else that flies. I can visualize the look on her friends faces when they learn that Cheerleadra is stuck in traffic and can't figure out how to disengage the autopilot...
It's probably a good thing that it's Dan writing this comic and not me... 

Personally, I think it makes as much sense for him and Ellen to be agender or nearly so. The preference for being one or the other sometimes could easily be wanting to experience things differently. 
He doesn't really seem to care about the girl vs boy part of it so much? It seems like what he likes about one or the other form has to do with things secondary to gender or the sex of the body: anonymity, feeling attractive in a particular way, gender roles (how people treat him/what people find acceptable), height/perspective, seeing more colors of red, everything cheerleadra...  Whereas Tedd seems to have a more basic need to specifically be a girl some of the time. He still enjoys much of the other stuff, but it doesn't seem to be the driving force.
I could be wrong, but I would put Eliot as agender, or agender to mildly genderfluid.

Today's the first time I noticed the imaginary jock on this page saying "Our mothers love us!" and I'm kinda sad for seeing Tedd being hung up about that aspect of his life and the connection that this would make him "generally unwanted."
But I'm happy Grace's love is unconditional and he experiences that so yeah, awesome attention to detail Dan!