hkmaly

... I think you overestimate Rhoda's self-control.

Also, that "in this state of potential aggression the spines actually get harder and become more like spikes than spines" suggests shapeshifting.

Why would they want to shape shift? They're cats. The most perfect beings to ever dominate this planet. Just ask them. That doesn't mean they couldn't. Also, obviously they are better than cats.

The "camera angle" that Dan used in this page makes it tough to tell, also we don't see enough of Rhoda to get a good size comparison, the shrinking/growing may not have been complete either. As it is, It looks like the size enchants have been cancelled, but we'll see Wednesday. Hence "I think". It's not clear, but I THINK she is smaller. And yes we will see in Wednesday and also get explanation from Pandora. Agree. Disagree. Rhoda grew BEFORE that image and, again, I think Rhoda already lost her foot and half in last two comics. So, either artistic error or their size oscillate or something. Hard to follow, but I see I'm not only one who think Rhoda is smaller than normally.

I think even on last frame they are not at same size. Or rather same ratio to original. Of course, we don't know if that's all ... but to me, it makes more sense for them to end up with same ratio. Now, question is what ratio would that be? I think she is SMALLER than normal in last frame. And that what happened is that the ratio from their resizing enchantments averaged. Not directly related to the disguise, it's just that the disguise connected those two enchantments ...

Well, this is canon. And it's as close as we are going to get, in canon any way. Why do you think so? Sure, I don't expect to get porn or even just the level of erotica from pinups to appear in canon, but we may get something which shows less but suggest more. After all, we got MV5. Which is canon, contains more erotica that I ever expected in canon and suggest even more. Also, Dan might just explicitly declare some pinups canon. Which may either include this or something which would be closer.

I don't think it was explained either, and it doesn't seem like it only applies to Grace, she had asked if her and her brothers aged at an accelerated rate, Dr Sciuridae said no, that he was right about it not working that way. Maybe it's the egg that does this rather than the combination of DNA, because Hedge and Guineas was only created with human and animal DNA, Vladia was various animals, human and Uryuom DNA, and Grace was animal, human, Uryuom and Lespuko. So if all 4 of them age slower than normal then it's likely because of the method of conception, it makes sense that if the egg can guarantee the success of creating a hybrid from seemingly incompatible species, there's probably other benefits of using an Uryuom egg. In commentary, Dan mentioned it's related to shapeshifting ... well, all of them can shapeshift, although not all as good as Grace ... also, this raises question if Max and Jeremy could shapeshift ...

While the idea of Raven and Edward getting "spoils of war" after the attack on the company producing Hedge and Grace is funny, I don't think the timeline fits and Raven is unlikely to be part of such attack force. More likely, Max and Jeremy are results of independent experiments with uryuoms egs. Yes. Or, the same effect which makes Grace age slower (I think it wasn't explained WHY does she age slower, was it?).

Of course Sarah would be upset, but I not so sure about Ashley. Susan, of course, would find it sexy. Sarah might be upset, but considering they did break up, she can't say anything. Ashley might say something but she wouldn't be nearly as much upset. Susan ... I'm not sure, do we have confirmed she finds Elliot's woman form sexy? Also, she definitely likes Catalina more than Carol ... so, she may find it sexy but not as much as the Catalina event. I think this is better ... but comparing pinups gets harder and harder. Like ... this is extremely unlikely to ever be canon. Nanase + Fox? I'm sure it already happened and Ellen was the PoV character.

Makes sense. Jeremy might never be zapped.

Pandora never really finished her statement about it, so we don't know what she meant when she started saying "and now the other enchantments are..." Are they what? Tied to Rhoda's energy pool and she only has the ability to maintain 4 instead of 5? Is there a maximum number of enchantments a person can have and Rhoda and Catalina's close proximity and their enchantments being linked push past the limit so 1 or 2 enchantments need to go away? This is why I was upset that she didn't finished the sentence. Something like "connecting as well" or "starts to interact" would IMHO work better as continuation of that sentence. Note that from story telling standpoint, her not finishing that sentence makes sense only because what we see happening is exactly what she was talking about and we will see what she meant in few strips. Which might unfortunately mean Wednesday or even after that fat-guy-resembling-st.-Nicholas-delivering-gifts-just-after-solstice-is-somehow-making-everyone-think-of-Jesus holiday. Also, in Moperville high ambient magic area, S-rank talent like Rhoda is likely able to power more "easy" enchantments like those transformations. I mean, only the resizing of Catalina seems to be hard, others seem to be easy because they are not breaking physical laws so much.

Note that Adrian might be aware of it and approve it. Hmmm ... fourteen years ... even if he met Pandora before he wouldn't remember much. Technically, Raven might already told him about her, but based on their previous conversation, probably didn't. That scene only proved she believes that. It can still be bad idea and not really helping. However, Raven seems to accuse her she only pretends to him, and I think we can safely say that's not true. If she pretends, she does it well enough to convince herself. Even if she wouldn't do it for him it would still be within the rules. She would be in danger of being reset for rule breaking only if he would successfully convinced her that empowering Moperville doesn't count as "empower and guide" - and even then, maybe "I though it was ok when I was doing it" works good enough.

The might have been farther, when Catalina first transformed, they were in or near the food court, we don't know for sure how far they went to find dressing rooms that didn't have a lot of traffic nearby, they could have ended up on the second floor and the exit they parked near was on the first floor. Yes - it's not like they didn't moved at all, it's just they are not moving in the right direction. That's the thing, I can understand Rhoda's latest enchantment affecting Catalina because of her being in very close physical contact. I just don't get how the other enchantments would get pulled into the mix since they were done separately and there was no contact between Catalina and Rhoda at the time. And I don't see them averaging either, Rhoda seems to be returning to normal size, Catalina might be returning to normal size as well but it could also be the pocket getting smaller for her. We will likely see on Monday if Catalina got bigger. That would also make sense, but wouldn't match Pandora's description.

Even without the "owner"/employer, if a job requires cooperation of multiple people of different specialization, person better at choosing the other specialization people can outperform another who is better at his job but worse at finding the group. That's hard to do if the criteria for high-producing worker are hard to evaluate. Either because noone is doing exactly same thing so you have no comparison or because it takes years to see measurable progress. (Often it's both AND there is luck involved.) Nature is good at finding that level IN LONG SCALE. And species dying out IS one of possible result of nature "finding" the balance. True, however I'm not exactly sure how is this supposed to make me feel better. One jerk can steal LOT of credit. (Although I shouldn't complain so much. The company I'm working for is not exactly producing anything, so while I'm working hard enough I'm likely part of the problem. Not that our competitors produce anything - whole field is useless. But hey, NASA wasn't hiring.)

That's not limited to Moperville. Transformation safety is a whole-universe law.

I think they're still inside. They were inside here, and it had shrubbery. ... actually, that looks like EXACTLY the same place. Which means they didn't get so far ... I am rather confused as to why it would be gradual though, I guess maybe because Catalina's in the pocket still and Magic's giving them a chance for her to get out before any damage is done, but it's still weird that it'd be like that. I'm not. Gradual change make sense if the enchantments are linked and are just averaging.

Ok. So yes the resizing enchantments started cancelling each other. I still hope Rhoda will get cat ears. ... are those trees? Are they already outside?

http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=551 So it's getting even more complicated? And Pandora is getting even more sexy?

Didn't you mean these experts?

Yes. Which I personally don't consider good. Or sustainable. In long term, it will mean that the ability of whole population to generate resources will diminish, and unless scarcity of resources reverts the trend (which is unlikely, people most thriving in such situations are usually the worst scum from the "talkers") the population will die.

I'd hazard he'd do that more as a safety advisory, rather than a simple "uncool, bro, uncool...." (Scooter, BL2) I don't think Adrian is supposed to have fourth wall piercing powers. Pandora on the other hand ... Also, I wouldn't be surprised if she recognize we are looking and deliberately took a fan-service form. And then possibly switch to monster form just to play with us. Any relative size change will result in Catalina being unable to hide in the jacket. But somehow I more expect the catgirl enchantment leaking ... because the size would be too obvious to both Catalina and Rhoda. Remember: empower and guide. She is quite limited in what she can do to you ... at least directly ...

Well, in my case it is of the "dripping onto everything and literally wringing the liquid out of my t-shirt several times per hour" level, which means also that I do not want to do it if I do not have immediate access to showers and change of clothes afterward. Well, I sort of meant "in public or without the way to shower and change clothes before going to public". Dripping is no problem if you take care that "everything" doesn't contain anything electronic and/or impossible to wash. I would challenge the effectiveness of 17th century firearm against elephant or hippo, but neither is predator ... You apparently don't count MRSA and several others which are resistant to most of mentioned "poisons". But, even that is completely different game than we were playing before. It's not our evolution against evolution of diseases. It's our technology against evolution of diseases. Bacteria have ability of horizontal DNA transfer, which used to give them big advantage ... but horizontal DNA transfer is slow compared to technology's ability to develop a substance, send it's composition over Internet, synthesize it and deploy widely. And even the small merchants and service technicians are measured more by their "people" skill than their work itself. Actually, there are still limits how much you can conceal lack in Strength, Constitution and Dexterity. Problem is, that there seem to be no such limits for concealing lack of Intelligence and Wisdom, as well as experience. And that's speaking in terms of DnD. In real life, everything is not divided in only six basic attributes, meaning person can lack in even more areas and still successfully parasite on people actually having those attributes, skill and experience.

I don't see why there would be...? My point is, we already know exactly what rule is preventing Pandora from depowering Moperville herself. That rule is "only guide and empower". We know exactly what she has to do to depower Moperville: she has to get a mortal (or multiple mortals) to do it, by guiding and/or empowering them (or, perhaps, find some other way that qualifies as only guiding and empowering). There's no reason to believe that there's anything more to it than that. I agree with this explanation. Although Dan DID mentioned that empower and guide is oversimplification because he can't see how can having child be counted as either.

We evolved brains capable of inventing such things, and hands capable of creating them, or of creating tools that can create them. That's true, but not the same as evolving the stuff directly. In game terms, human brain is OP on border of cheating. It completely changes the rules. Actually, it completely changes the GAME - rules, objectives, map ... But brains which aren't capable of using and creating new technologies are at a definite disadvantage, and thus less likely to pass on their genes. If only. It used to work that way, then it changed to work by communities, but now we have global world and everybody can take advantage of all technologies regardless if he can understand them. Couch potato can watch satellite programme (satellites wouldn't work without theory of relativity) on his plasma TV (which wouldn't work without quantum physic) and still believe God created word in 7 days and Grand Canyon was created in Great flood after 40 days of rain. Terrorist can use machine guns and explosives and still believe that there is only single book worth reading and all the rest should be burned. Man with brain capable of creating new technologies may be busy working in laboratory and his neighbour is meanwhile working on reproduction with his wife. (Note: those are just examples. I'm sure you can find examples of human stupidity in any religion or non-religious ideology, if you look at extremists version of it. I also don't want to imply woman wouldn't be capable of inventing, it's just much harder to convince her she reproduced when she didn't. She can still be too busy to reproduce.)

I'm going to bet he just looks at her disinterestedly and then goes back to sleep. Oh. The Brownie approach.