Tom Sewell

If Van and Tedd are both Noriko's children, it wouldn't be implausible for them to have a side conversation in Japanese. Doesn't seem too likely since I don't think Tedd has ever spoken anything but English, with no magical foreign-language angle brackets, in canon. But, then, he's had very little contact with cousin Nanase and Elliot can't really speak Japanese (if he could, Ellen could.) So Dan could pull this usagi out of his hat if he cares to. Nice ref to William's parents creating the original TFG. Say, if it ever gets into commercial use, royalties?

I can see Sybil eavesdropping on Cranium when she made that sub-rosa call to Edward and reporting it to Arthur. Even if Arthur doesn't suspect Wolf and Cranium of being too loyal to Edward, this is probably a need-to-know situation, even moreso than usual. I think that Arthur thinks he's the only one who should know everything about his plan and the only one who does know. He's wrong, of course.

Yes, but Tedd didn't remember him right away and wasn't really sure. I'm guessing it should have been before Tedd got to play with the TG gun. And we don't know how long it took Tedd to adapt the gun to work well on humans; apparently we weren't included in the target market by the original designer-manufacturer. (Humans? Why would we go for that market? They haven't even made it out of their solar system yet. And they certainly don't need any help with fertility! They breed like womp rats!)

Clandestine organizations aren't big on Take Your Daughter To Work Days.

Keep in mind that Van is still holding on to Tedd, even if Van looked a bit dubious in the third panel. Maybe Tedd's crossing his arm while laying down the law reminds him of Mum?

Gee, you think the man who taught Edward how to lie to the public wouldn't be able to lie to Leifeld? Arthur could be absolutely convinced he's doing the right thing, and if he is and he thinks revealing his real source would hurt his chances of getting that magic reset, he'll lie like the most expensive rug you can imagine, flying carpets included.

Maybe someone told him... someone who likes white suits and fedoras. Take a look back at the meeting between Assistant Director Leifeld and Arthur. Why are they talking in a gym? Arthur works for Leifeld; if he wanted a confidential meeting, why not meet in one of their offices? Looks kind of like this scheme to let magic reset is just between them, doesn't it? Well, them and a that guy who likes white suits and fedoras. If this turns out to be true, and Raven finds out...

Tedd's only had the spell for seven days, and he's used his gadgets to become female an awful lot. I'm pretty sure Edward reported on all the gadgets, but didn't tell anyone at work about his son's frequently becoming his daughter. Partner555 posted pretty much the same thought while I was posting the first edition However, I have an additional thought. I don't think Edward has told Tedd about Lavender.

Where in canon does it say that? I'd appreciate not looking through more than 2400 comics if you can tell me which one to look in.

Another amazing crackpot plot theory? How do I do it? How can you stop me? This one is that what's involved in the magic change will have include a change for Immortals. This whole mess started with Immortals messing around in ways that exposed magic to humans in a way that had to be more spectacular and widespread than the Fire-Throwing Horde that set off the last Change, and it was the Immortals that did the world-wide exposing. Voltaire must be aiming for a change in the rules--but it won't be the change he had in mind. I also think that Voltaire will be joining the debate. And I think by the end of The Fate of Magic, the Will of Magic will take on a perceptible form which will be a very large surprise. But I won't tell you what I think that form will be. True, but I said "just as likely". Anyway, as I posited in the comments for Monday, I don't think that Tedd, Arthur, and Van are "really" wherever they are, in body, and I don't think they are actually speaking with their lips or hearing with their ears. They are perceiving things outside of time and the reality of the material plane, something like Tedd's little talk with the whales. If there is more diversity, I would expect everyone to seem to be speaking English to us. The "Mum" may just be a way to communicate Britishness, or another curve ball from Dan. Or maybe actual subtitles will magically appear. Ellen would really like them when she hears Nanase speaking Japanese. I'll go for the nice(r) explanation.

I think you missed that "getting every Immortal on Earth to enter the material plane and cast a spell to kill all aberrations within several miles" part. I don't think Moperville encompasses the entire Earth. Um, Canada is about the nearest place where "Mum" is in anything like common use, and the nearest Canada comes to Chicago is Windsor, Ontario, across the bridge from Detroit. That's not exactly close. Britain is something like four thousand miles away. Now Van might actually be living in Moperville now, but Dan would have to be pulling another fast one to make Tedd think he was a Brit even if he turns out to be a Brit. BTW, one argument against Van being Noriko's son is "Mum." Noriko's son would be just as likely use "Okaa-san" if he was raised by Noriko. Maybe a British nanny?

I'm a little dense. How about telling us at least some of all of those obvious reasons? Also, how about listing those 131 names? My guess is there are maybe half that many, averaging out to around four names per year. Even at 131, Dan is pretty darned stingy with names. Off the top of my head: Tedd Elliot Sarah Principal Verrucht Susan Tony Grace Ellen Phil (at the gas station) Sandy Catalina Damien Hedge Guineas Vlad(ia) Commander Jaguar Edward Wolf Cranium Lavender Minion (not canon) Tess (not canon) Beta Tedd Lord Tedd General Shade Tail Nioi Kaoli (Kaori) Principal Washington Adrian Raven Pandora Magus Sirleck Helena Demetrius Rhoda Lucy Diane Liz Ashley Gerald Gary Derek Carol Brown Rich Larry Kitty Tensaided Justin (how could it have taken so long to get to Justin?) Nanase (ditto) Noriko (two appearances) Matthew Cohen Bad Tom Good Tom Voltaire Abner the detective Francine the school janitor Charlotte Rhea Rick Assistant Directer Leifeld Arthur Arthur Sybil (knew a Sybil back in the Sixties, BTW) Greg Archie (Second Life) William Gillian Mr. Guyar Noah Melissa Heidi (it's a name, isn't it?) Luke Sam (Samantha?) Kevin (always to blame) Akiko I didn't cheat and look any of these up. I know I forgot the name of Rick's boyfriend, the snotty teacher who didn't care that Francine was missing. I also didn't list Mr. & Mrs. Dunkel, Mr. Brown, or Mama Kitsune because they haven't gotten any names that weren't already created for their kids. I think the Moperville South Physics teacher is Mr. Bluel, but I'm not sure of the spelling.

What is (are) the reason(s) you don't think Van is Dan's sibling? I've already enumerated two reasons I think Van is, and here's another: Dan designed Van as a new character and gave him a name. How many characters has Dan bothered to name in the last sixteen years? And here's another: the kid is now hiding behind Tedd and holding on to her, just like he would his mom.

Central USA Time is GMT minus 7. You're right. I live in Pacific Time, so I'm used to working with GMT-8. Moperville would be at GMT-6. Or UTC-6, now. It was Zulu time back back when I was in the Navy. Had to work out the differences when I got messages as part of my watch; they were always Zulu time.

No, his last name is obviously "Helsing." I'm kidding (maybe), but I actually know a guy whose given name is "Van". Some of you may be related to him. Lets just say that he was a sailor who docked in an awful lot of ports.

Dan has not revealed much of what Edward has done over his career, and it is not unheard of divorced couples to still produce a child. Don't count Ed out just yet. Actually British Time is nine hours later than Central Time, which Chicago and Moperville are in. So it would be somewhere between three and five in the morning in Britain. Of course, Van might not have actually come from Britain, but that's another matter. Not if you remember what Not-Tengu said about Noriko's children.

Arthur may not have known he was a seer, or even if he did, he didn't know about his possible role now. But Voltaire almost certainly did. Looking at the way events have unfolded since the appearance of Pandora and Magus in the story, Arthur's power to influence things have increased while Edwards have diminished. Voltaire seemed quite satisfied at Tedd becoming demoralized and uncertain. Therefore, Tedd would be less likely to make an effective argument for how magic will change vs. Arthur. This isn't vital to my argument, but take another look at when Magus tried and failed to stop Abraham from trying to kill Ellen. This happened just before Pandora woke up Nanase and provoked her into fighting Abraham and, eventually, her gaining her guardian spell. Now if Magus had succeeded, Nanase wouldn't have been injured, and Edward wouldn't have gotten angry enough to attack Abraham. Isn't it convenient for Voltaire's plans that Edward made that attack, which led to Arthur replacing him? Maybe Voltaire was reinforcing Abraham's resistance to Magus' power to influence. Also unrelated to my "Voltaire set this up" theory but relevant to the outcome is Van. The kid is hugging Tedd in only four panels, a gesture that demands that Tedd defend him. Tedd is going to respond to that, and that response might also rouse his will to defend his own position on how magic should change. I think either Voltaire didn't expect Van to show up, or discounted him as just a kid. What can a kid do? That may have been Goliath's last thought about David.

The fact that Van ran to Tedd kinda suggests that Tedd might look like his mom. On the other hand, Van's eyes don't look right, although they're so wide open it's hard to tell. And on the gripping hand, Tedd is female at the moment, and a kid of nine is liable to prefer a non-threatening young woman to a scary old man. Additional Hand My metaphorical Motie has a fourth hand, so it must be a Warrior. The fourth arm of Larry Niven's bred-for-war alien sub-race is tipped with a talon. And that is appropriate because Van said "She'll cut you up!" Remember the only time Noriko's attack has been shown? I've run out of hands for the moment unless I move on to the Hindu pantheon, but if Van is Tedd's little brother, Tedd is (at the moment) Van's big sister. Maybe Van will call Tedd Oneesan.

I agree. If Edward is about misdirection, Voltaire is about indirection. He seems to be pretty careful most of the time to distance himself. That time he revealed himself to gloat in the basement and harass Elliot may turn out to be a big mistake yet.

Close to six years ago in our time, but just before the Christmas break in Moperville, Tedd was having one of his basement talks with Elliot, Susan, and Justin which included a flashback to his conversation with his dad about the whales and the magic buildup the previous July. Edward seemed to tell Tedd the whales were nonsense. And on the next page, he asserted that while he might avoid answering some questions, he would never lie to Tedd. In that flashback, Tedd didn't come out and say he actually saw the whales and communicated with them, and didn't say anything about that gauntlet--a gauntlet that looks very much like Lord Tedd's. So Edward gets a pass, maybe, for not believing Tedd. But it also means that Edward didn't actually tell Tedd there weren't any whales; he just made a statement about wikis which didn't mention the whales. So it could be misdirection, something Edward's been doing his entire adult life. Another factoid buried in this December conversation is that Tedd's dad has tested the watches outside Moperville and knows that magic is "all sorts of crazy" by that time. Gee, wouldn't you be suspicious that maybe there was something to what Tedd was saying back in July? There's another question that no one seems to have asked yet. Tedd found out Magic was about to change on Sunday. It's Friday now. Did he tell his dad? If Tedd did tell his dad, Edward would have talked to either Arthur or his boss, the musclebound guy we last saw at the gym. But there's no indication in canon that he said anything to them, or that they told Edward anything. And since they've been anticipating the Change for at least six months, either Edward never told Tedd it was coming or Edward didn't know it was coming. So how could they have known something Edward, "basically Dumbledore" according to his son, didn't know? A source Edward didn't have. And the most obvious source is Voltaire. Voltaire's been very interested in Tedd and set up the incident that provoked The Change. Getting Edward out of the way could have been part of the plan. That would make Arthur and Assistant Director Leifeld two more catspaws.

And that would be when Tedd finds out Nanase doesn't know where Ellen is and that he can't reach Elliot. Magus has been observing long enough to know what mobile phones are for so he would know it wouldn't be best to answer any calls, and given that the Dewitchery Diamond is stored way out in the boonies somewhere, Elliot's phone is probably out of service range (especially if he uses Verizon.)

They're aware Tedd made all those marvelous mods on the TF gun

And confiscating the wand maker, even more important. "Soon" in Moperverse time; not necessarily that soon in our time. I think the events in Part 23 will all take place in effectively no time at all, pretty much like Tedd's conversation with the whales or the download from Nioi's nose beep. So the Feds could actually be entering the basement now, but we may not know about it until April or May. The pattern for EGS has usually been some shorter arcs, then a long arc, and then another short arc or two. But the pattern seems to be broken for the last three arcs. Squirrel Prophet. Together they've taken thirty-four (34) months to cover just eight Moperverse days, and neither the current Moperville day nor the current story arc is finished. And if this is the final part of Catspaws, of course, we'll need a month or so for Q&A#8 before the next story. So, maybe the Fourth of July. Or, for our European members, Bastille Day. Possibly I may be joking. But even I'm not sure about that.

As far as I know, no one has ever asked these questions: Does Arthur Arthur know the first purpose of Seers? Does Arthur Arthur know Tedd is a Seer? Does Arthur Arthur know the second purpose of Seers? I arranged these questions in the order of probability that each has a "yes" answer. Arthur Arthur almost certainly knows that Seers will be able to restore the use of magic to at least a few people after a Change. My reasoning is that he knows what the Change is and what will provoke it, and that he's part of a secret organization that wants to control magic. What better way to control magic than to have control of the only people who will be able to use magic after a Change and teach others how to use it? So why doesn't Tedd's dad seem to know Tedd is a Seer? If he knew about Seers at all, he should have been able to guess why that Magic Analyzing wand couldn't read Tedd. This is where I'm beginning my latest amazing crackpot plot theory: Arthur did suspect Tedd was a Seer, and acted to make sure his extremely powerful and dangerous parents didn't find out with an eye to co-opting Tedd so he could use Tedd after the next Change, which I now suspect he has been working for a long time to bring on. Possibly Arthur may have tried to deport Raven to keep Raven from influencing Tedd, and even had a hand in breaking up Tedd's parents. Gee, kind of sounds like the kind of thing Voltaire's been up to, doesn't it? With that in mind, take another look at Arthur Arthur's last appearance to date and think again about what he says in the last two panels. If I'm right about this, expect some Feds to show up looking for Tedd very soon. Probably not Wolf and Cranium, because if Arthur has half a brain, he should know they're really Edward's people.

What I had in mind were the Capital-I Immortals, that is, beings like Pandora who used to call themselves Fairies, but not other immortal beings like Heka. That is, if Heka is really immortal. Possibly he might just be holding an immortal office. Ever read any of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series? Essentially, Immortals would become human wizards. They might remain unaging, but they'd lose their excessive intelligence, memory, and power, the things that make them crazy and dangerous. An attractive part of this option is that Pandora could come back and live as a more or less normal human, and not turn into a formless blob every time she takes a nap. I hesitate to bet any cookies on this one, but I think it's an interesting alternative.