Drasvin

I really hope these three aren't the only eligible seers. In addition to the points you made, all of them are Caucasian or part-Caucasian, and unless Dan throws us a major curve-ball none of them are full-time females. If these three are supposed to represent the world, they're seriously lacking in diversity. Hopefully there are more seers in the discussion, though its possible that they're the only ones due to needing to meet two criteria to be called on. 1) They have used magic(Likely meaning making and using wands and other spell catalysts) 2) They don't know about the second purpose. Many seers might not have used magic due to the general secrecy of the magical community. Tedd came into contact with magic due to her friends and family, but if a seer's wizard parents never Awakened, or purposefully hid magic from them, then the chances of using magic decreases significantly. As for the second criteria, passing on knowledge would certainly fit the "Empower and Guide" rule. Voltaire could try to cull any potential seers that he hasn't manipulated (or believes he has manipulated) by passing on that little secret. Sometimes the curveball is that it's too obvious.

This isn't going to go smoothly is it? And Tedd and Van being half-sibling would be the safe bet. On the other hand, if I bet against that and they turn out to not be siblings, then I would get all those cookies. Decisions decisions...

I think it's partly that she has her love of Blake and Adrian to keep herself grounded, but as hinted at on this page, she can forcibly pull her mind together, though doing so is difficult and tiring. She's likely doing her best to hold her mind together so she can get the information she wants from the Emissary without putting the integrity of Grace's mind in danger. Also the Emissary shows a couple times that he doesn't really know Immortals that well, so he might be misjudging how unstable Pandora is.

This will be interesting, though Dan's commentary has me worried about how things will go bad. That depends on the kind of tournaments. While the main tournament type(Standard) has a rotating card pool, Wizards of the Coast does support a few 'eternal' formats, that they even incorporate into their major events: Vintage (you can play just about any card in the game, but there's a list of cards that are restricted to one of in your deck for game balance purposes and a small list of cards that are banned for non-balance reasons such as being manual dexterity cards or 'ante' cards), Legacy (like Vintage, but no restricted list, just a banned list for balance and stuff), and Modern(you can play cards from the Mirrodin set onwards and there's a ban list for game balance) Now on the other side, villains could still exist, just harder to work around the magical code of ethics. For example, how many people agree to licence agreements without reading all of the fine print, and believe me, some software license agreements are scary. Duping people to initially accept spells with unexpected consequences would still be a thing. Could they opt-out later after the spell is cast? Could a spell affect the ability to opt-out once cast (thinking something mind-control-y perhaps)? Also, spells could be cast on things that create physical effects that couldn't be avoided. Being able to start fires, having claws or strength, etc. Though EULA's are rarely dramatic, and when they are, it typically plays out at the pace of the courtroom, not an action movie. Magic desires to be dramatic and flashy, and seems to want the climatic clashes between 'good' and 'evil' (just not anywhere near where non-magic users might be watching with their smartphones and cameras). A strong, enforced code of ethics would limit that.

Unfortunately, given current circumstances, if Magus and Sirleck are strongly affected, there's a risk of it negatively affecting Elliot and Ellen.

If Adrian is correct about how he and Susan are related, then that is a great number of greats in that relationship.

I doubt it's Voltaire or any other Immortal. They wouldn't be able to force Tedd to sleep without breaking the laws, which would like be counter-productive to most plans. Dan's maniacal laugher might be related to twists and/or surprises of other kinds than the nature of whatever is contacting Tedd. Or it might be the maniacal laughter of a complex plan coming to fruition.

There is a college in the immediate Moperville area. Rhea and Charlotte go to it, and the new years party along with the fight against Not-Tengu happened there. It's close enough to be affected by the ambient energy problem and Cheerleadra, Shade Tail, and Mr Verres were all able to get there fairly quickly from the Verres household.

Being that small is going to make rolling the dice problematic. They're as big as her head!

There's a college in Moperville. The one that Rhea goes to and where the New Years party and the events with Not-Tengu took place. I don't know what it's accreditations are like, but I don't think anyone of the main characters have stated a desire for trying to get into any really high end college. And the college in Moperville does have the advantage of being in a city that they know and is close-ish to family and friends that aren't going to college. Also the cast knows people that already go to that college, like Rhea and Charlotte and presumably Luke.

Where exactly did the Emissary of Magic mention that? It fits with Elliot's assertion that the WoM must choose between keeping the same strict rules which won't really keep humans from learning about magic again quickly, or modifying them--perhaps by biving all humans more natural resistance to magic, which is what Tedd hoped to do. He was mentioning it here before something Grace said distracted him. Is it sapient, though? I was under the impression it had awareness and a personality (and obviously a will), but that doesn't mean it thinks like a person, or in a way that would allow it to formulate words and sentences. I meant sapient in that it's capable of formulating decisions based on abstract concepts like drama and humor, instead of a basic logical process. Besides what would be the point of having an emissary if it can't communicate it's needs and wants to that emissary? It might not be 'words and sentences,' but the purpose of language is to convey meaning and concepts, and Magic is certainly capable of conveying it's meaning and concepts to Disco Wizard, at least as much as it cares to convey.

Seems Magic wants to consult at least one, if not more, Seers on what it should do. Also on the last page, I thought Tedd looked like she had just awoken from a nap, though apparently she was struggling to stay awake instead. The Will of Magic likely can commune with mortals if it wants to (it is a sapient, reality-bending entity/force after all), it just likely doesn't want to most of the time. Disco Wizard did mention that WoM's attempts to avert the reset felt half-hearted, like doing so out of some obligation instead of an actual desire to prevent it. But it needs a serious talk for Tedd's perspective. So an emissary might not be sufficient. I'm not sure her hands are covering her eyes. To me, it looks like her hands would be under her head, which is a very common depiction of someone sleeping that doesn't have a pillow handy(Though with the angle, it's difficult to be certain), and the panels leading up to it don't look sad. They look drowsy and a little confused.

Actually, they fail on mass manufacturing too ; Tedd THOUGH that they can be made automatically but in reality he was necessary for putting spell in them. While he wouldn't be able to get the volume of a fully automated assembly line, he could still mass produce the watches (if he wanted to that is. He probably doesn't at the moment due to the risk of magic system change). He would just need his glove to make the process easier and a conveyor belt full of watches going by. It would be like older assembly lines, where the only automation was the belts moving pieces around.

Also, I imagine Adrian needs all the hugs right now. Maybe he doesn't have a spell to summon magical weapons, but instead has a spell to infuse a physical weapon with the bane. Would, theoretically, take less energy (meaning he could fight for longer) and the weapon would be more durable. Unfortunately, it means he needs a weapon in the first place, which he doesn't have here at the mall.

I think the connection Zeus mentioned is the connection between the two halves of the EGS-universe, the dam she set up. She couldn't remove the dam herself, because that would be depowering Moperville, but since she's breaking laws anyway...

There's also "Those watches of yours wouldn't work anywhere else in the world". From that page: "Spell catalysts that small should require a lot of energy to use. Regardless of whether the caster is aware of it, the surrounding magic makes it easier." Combined with the Q&A about spell catalysts, there's nothing to suggest that a person with sufficient personal energy couldn't use the watch outside of Moperville. But Tedd didn't want a way to simply give magic users more spells, they already have wands for that. He wanted a simple and safe way to change the world, which means he needed a device that could be mass manufactured, appear technological, and usable by anyone, regardless of the person's personal power level. While the watches fulfill the first two criteria, they fail on the most important one, because most people don't have enough personal energy to cast spells.

The watches only worked because of the high ambient energy in Moperville, if the system changed, that high ambient energy could be gone (well even if the system didn't change, the clogs going to be removed and the ambient energy will still fade) the watches will no longer work for anyone but Tedd (because he doesn't need ambient energy). Yes Tedd could potentially take any item and turn it into a wand, but there's no guarantee that any wand created this way would work for anyone else but Tedd (or other Seers of course) So that's where my idea of maybe Seers have a sense that tells them what's best for making wands with came from, but maybe they don't and the first wands they make are just temporary until they can magically create proper wands. I think you might be confusing the watches and Tedd's glove. Pandora was talking about his glove when he told him it wouldn't work for anyone but a seer. No one else would be able to use the glove to enchant things, but she didn't mention anything about the watches not being able to be used by others. (And where does it state Tedd doesn't need ambient energy? He has a lot of personal energy as a seer, but he would still subconsciously draw on the ambient energy like everyone else) Also, it states right in the Q&A that "Basically? Tedd's watches don't have batteries. Whatever energy is being used is provided by the caster." Anyone with sufficient personal energy should be able to use the watches. The ambient energy build up just provides additional energy to make up the difference and cut down on the user's personal energy consumption, similar to how it helped Not-Tengu push his magic beyond what he could achieve on his own and how Sarah can use her mark spell despite not having enough personal energy to be able to use it yet.

If I had to guess, increased strength and a more authoritative stance, posture, and such

It was a stick that was made to look like a wand, but Pandora could have been simplifying things as well, don't know for sure if any piece of wood is enough. For Tedd maybe, but a wand made out of anything might not hold enough energy to be usable by others after a system change, but it might be enough for Tedd to put a creation spell that would make a proper wand "blank". The watches functioned as a wand, or spell catalyst for the general technical term, they just couldn't store any energy because they were too small, so would depend entirely on the user's energy. Based on this Q&A, size is a major factor in a spell catalyst's energy storage, though materials and craftsdwarfship how well crafted it is can improve the efficiency of the catalyst. Seemingly anything could be made into a spell catalyst if Tedd wanted to, with the energy capacity being determined first by the size of the catalyst, followed by materials and quality of the object's design. He could even make the Wii Motes into spell catalysts, though I suspect they might still be a little on the small side. As an aside, I wonder if Grace could use a wand if it was large enough to supply all the power for the spell.

This is not a good way to learn all this information, though it is arguably better than not learning it at all.

Jerry was going to offer Sarah a magic mark, so I would say that the magic marks don't count as part of the Immortal's power as Jerry wouldn't want to mess up his reset(His next life wouldn't be a very useful ally to Susan if he messed it up). Though an Immortal might run into trouble if they try to give a mark in the same moment their reset finally triggers, as I imagine it take some of their power to bestow the mark, even if the mark itself isn't part of their power. Besides, as Kazzellin points out, Immortals gather their power when doing a proper reset, which a forced reset is not.

So, Pandora might not be powerful enough to resist all Immortals forcing her to reset, but is she powerful enough to perform a Refresh instead of a Reset while being pressured into resetting? On the fly? Having never done it before and no preparation (that we know of)? For many reasons, I would say highly unlikely to impossible, but obviously I am hoping she does. If anyone could do, it would be Pandora.

Just an tangentially related note. Companies can and some times do let Copyright violations fly. Trademarks, on the other hand, have to be defended tooth and nail against all violations. In that case, Xerox would be more dangerous than Paramount ... wait. It is trademarked. CBS Studios Inc. Still, this was apparently let be. The Xerox trademark wouldn't be a concern, as trademarks are for specific uses and kinds of trade (though it is possible to file a trademark with a wide set of applications), though the CBS Studios Inc trademark would be relevant. As for the phaser website there, either CBS's lawyers haven't heard of it, or don't believe there is sufficient overlap with their trademark, which is possible, as the CBS trademark is for "handheld toy energy weapons" while the phaser website is a HTML5 gaming framework.

Mr. Koala is having a bad day, and it doesn't look like it's going to get better. Also, Susan really should get herself a warhammer or even just a sledgehammer to put in her chest. Though the stun hammers might have a significantly different weight to them, as they don't need to be heavy to be effective. Hmm.... I wonder if a toy hammer would be useful against vampires if summoned by Susan.

I agree with one of the commenters on Patreon. Sarah's form in the final panel reminds me of the aurin from Wildstar. Even though the only actual similarities are the ears, the tail, and the short stature.