Tom Sewell

Simplest way: make the Immortals mortal. They don't have to have special restrictions regarding humans if they are human.

But can EGS get insurance? Or that Pandora was so powerful she could force him to take part in that extermination. And don't forget, I said plenty of other Immortals will be all for doing something special to him when they find out it was all his fault. Gee, kind of like all those older, cooler Magic: The Gathering cards you can't use in tournaments any more.

"Mamase" is a surname, not a personal name. "Manase" is a confirmed personal name for women. If you want to refer to Nanase's mom in Japanese, say Nanase-haha. Her father is Nanase-chichi.

Only if Anastasia wasn't bayoneted to death in the Moperverse.

From her mom's side. The other woman was over when her mom was out of town visiting her sister (Susan's aunt). Very unlikely Susan would have anything to do with her dad's family.

.... ehmmm ... how? It's not like that woman is her mother. If she got half-sister from that affair, that half-sister might end up being strong ... You got me. Senior moment. Although if Susan's dad carried on with that woman, I suppose Susan might still have a powerful half sister somewhere. Certainly some half-siblings aren't out of the question, and since her dad seems to be completely out of the picture (although Zeus might know something about him), Susan not knowing about them wouldn't be a surprise. And if Susan has two half-sisters, that's another way to fit the title, Sister 3. Well, maybe.

Yes, indeed, but Susan is the only one who's ever stated that she's never been ill, at least since she started working for Tensaided. And she's been going to a public high school with an enrollment of thousands (over 3,000 in Dan's actual old high school). Pretty good arguments that Susan should have ridiculously high natural resistance to infectious diseases. As for the probability that Susan shares the planet with lots and lots of similar descendants from the original birth that connects her with Mr. Raven, it could also explain why Susan remembers that the woman she caught her father with looked like her. And that could help explain why Susan's magic potential is so strong. I'm not sure Dan is going to ever let us see that woman again or even explain The Other Woman With Susan's Face.

Actually, there's something to support this immunity in canon; look in the last panel.

That Q&A is from seven years ago, and I think Dan has just established a splendid excuse for that retcon; there could easily be dozens of living descendents from that long-ago relationship besides Susan and her dad. However, Dan also established a way to spoil that excuse: Noah doesn't resemble Raven, whereas we now now that Diane, Susan, and Susan's dad all are close spitting images aside from small details like hair color and gender. Anyway, leaving Noah the way he is could be better for the story. How is Noah going to feel when he learns that Diane is Raven's actual daughter, especially when Dan made a point of showing us how Noah actually feels about Raven? Diane, of course, should be going into similar turmoil learning about her biological father and deciding whether or not to tell her adoptive family--and how much to tell them. ------ Given that The Bane happened all over the planet, there's a chance that the incident at Moperville Mall won't get wide or deep coverage. So, even with the Magic Change provoked, Susan, Diane, and Raven might not have their cover blown. I kind of think this is what will happen since otherwise it's hard to see how our teenage protagonists could stay in high school for the rest of their final semesters. I still want to see if Susan goes to the prom, and with whom.

There's no guarantee that Magus' magic will work any better after The Change than any other human mage on Moperverse Earth. And if the change changes the enchantment on the Dewitchery Diamond, Magus may not be able to separate from Elliot at all...at least in the Moperverse. Remember, Nioi used another Dewitchery Diamond to create Kaoli. Maybe the next arc will feature some crossworld travel. After all, Dan has been talking about other universes for fifteen-odd years now, so it's kind of overdo for the gang to pay at least one of them a visit that isn't a dream. (Incidentally, Kaoli's name really should be Kaori; no "L" sounds in Japanese.)

I wonder how it might affect the Dewitchery Diamond? Magus and Sirleck (and Ashley) haven't gotten to it yet...

Voltaire still might find work as a UC Santa Cruz mascot. It's a banana slug. They're all over Santa Cruz and vicinity.

Wombats and chipumunks are far too cute. Lets talk slug.

Possibly this nap time for Tedd has to do with that second, secret function Heka wanted him/her to be eligible for. If the Will of Magic can give a mission to an Emissary who doesn't remember anything about it when he wasn't in Grace's dreams, the Will of Magic can appoint a Seer--or maybe a board of Seers--to decide on how magic will change without them knowing they were going to do it or doing it after they do it. Or maybe just to recommend how to change it.

Also, I don't think Diane has much of an appetite right now. It now occurs to me that instead of heading home, Diane may go to the college. Why? Well, maybe to see Nanase, if she even knows Nanase went there. More likely to talk to either Charlotte or Rhea. Charlotte seems the most likely because Diane made a deep connection with her on Saturday night, and Charlotte knows about magic. Rhea doesn't know about magic at this point (although it's possible she might have already asked Charlotte about those lights in the sky or even seen an Abberation getting a free cremation service.) Having Rhea overhear what Diane and Charlotte are talking about would be a way for Dan to bring in the issue of Diane's adoptive family without actually making character designs for her adoptive parent or parents. Anything like that looks down the road a ways to me, though. Looks like the action at the mall has wound up unless Dan wants to (finally) bring in eyewitnesses who actually say more than "Eek! A Monster!". My bet is that we'll be going back to Magus' quest for a body all his own (or all her own--these things have been known to happen in EGS.)

The moment we've all been waiting for is for Voltaire to get what he deserves. Maybe something like the WoM turning him into a mere mortal.

I think you're right about lying on her hands because her chin looks like it's a little bit over her wrist. But it all depends on perspective, and as Dan said a long time ago, perspective is hard. But while I'm not as sure about weeping, I'm not ready to rule it out, and it really doesn't affect my mind-dump assertion much. 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.

Tedd's my hero, too, but I doubt she's just taking a nap. Take another look at her pose in the last panel. Do you sleep with both hands covering your eyes? Tedd is weeping. And I don't think just because magic is changing. He knows that Pandora is gone. Both possibilities, but more remote than Pandora, I think. I've forgotten who brought up the "memory dump" idea on a previous comic's commentary, but I thank whoever it was. I think that maybe Tedd was rubbing his head after waking up after a memory dump that happened before Pandora did her worldwide-vampire-vacuuming. Why holding his head? Remember the headache the whales-thingies gave him after less than a second? Tedd might be just putting together the implications of that memory dump and the feeling of a disturbance in the force, and that could be the way he knows that Pandora, or at least the Pandora he finally met this morning, is gone now. Hence the weeping.

"Your perspective... is needed." Is that Tedd thinking? Or is that someone else's voice in his mind? Remember who said that line about a disturbance in the Force? He's also the same one who said "Run, Luke! Run" in Luke Skywalker's mind right after the duel with Darth Vader. Anyway, whoever's voice that was, it was really Dan's, and it makes me think magic is going to change. --- And on a less Force-ful note, I think we really need a scene with the family that raised Susan now. Diane is obviously going home, and her family are going to ask her questions. I know Dan can be stingy with new characters and even with old ones (Sarah's invisible dad, Ashley's invisible mother, Nanase's barely visible father) but I hope he'll make an exception here for the story's sake.

One of the reasons for things not to change so quickly, and maybe the biggest reason why the story has stayed in High School for so long, is that going off to college often means going way off to college. That's basically how Ellen's Second Life story ends, with her friends from childhood scattering all over. How could Dan plausibly keep the Main Eight together? If Magic changes in a way that takes away most powers and spells, guess what: Dad's Government Job gets downsized. Legendary Monster Hunter Noriko doesn't have enough monsters to hunt to justify keeping her on whatever payroll she's on--and if she loses her spells, the bean-counters and "scientific management" people who infest every bureaucracy will figure she's not a threat to them. There doesn't seem to be a vast magical-industrial complex looking for continued funding anyway. This would take away the biggest reason for El Goonish Shive's magical teenagers, etc, to stick together: Being drafted into the same secret agency which employs Arthur Arthur, Edward Verres, Lavender, Commander Jaguar (remember him?), etc. On the other hand, if Magic comes out into the open and everyone keeps their powers, they are going to be so important all sorts of people and institutions are going to be fighting over them. Maybe time to have them go to another universe, or several other universes, such as Beta Tedd's, Second Life Ellen's, Lord Tedd's, maybe Tess's, Magus and Terra's. Just to the Other Side of Moper-Earth might be enough, and gives us a splendid excuse for more griffin time. Whichever way, lots of work for Dan. Or maybe (shudder) Dan wants to move on to an entirely new comic? Remember the career of Naoko Takeuchi after Sailor Moon? Do you really think C.D. Rudd's Wolfpac is going to inherit the fan base of Sailormoon.org (assuming Sailormoon.org ever finishes its "final" story which has gone on longer than the nine other stories before it, and assuming C.D. actually really, really starts up Wolfpac.)

Anyone else notice that Pandora's last narration box seems to be sinking in between the cushions on Tedd's sofa as it fades out?

Whether or not Tedd learned the spell, she's just learned that she's lost someone who's important to her. Or he's, he's, and him.

Oh, come on. How many ways has Tedd come up with to change sexes? And why wouldn't Tedd need a way to handle aberrations that could kill him or steal his body? Plus, an abberration-killing wand would make just the perfect gift for Grace on her next birthday. That would make for a very interesting world. Lot of work for Dan, though. It sounds something like the world at the end of Ken Akamatsu's Negima. But Akamatsu-san had a staff to help him. Like I said, a lot of work. A change like that might go along with another time jump. I've never seen why Dan skipped from summer to just before Christmas; the only excuse I could see until now is that he wanted the breakup between Sarah and Elliot happen during the Holidays. But now I'm beginning to think Dan is getting tired of doing High School stories and wants to move on at least to college.

Or it might be too much. While he was comforting Tedd, Elliot told him "...we live in a world where even I have a video camera in my pocket. If Magic wants to keep playing, it's gonna have to compromise eventually." I abridged your quote, although I encourage anyone who reads this first to click on the reference to read the whole thing. I think it's a really good analysis of Voltaire and the nature of politics among Immortals. The point I'm making is that when the other Immortals find out Voltaire set up Pandora so she did this to all the Immortals (including Voltaire, unless he has a get-out-of-trouble card we don't know about yet), they are going to be angry with him. In fact, the jerk is likely to tell them, monologueing like a villain right out of The Incredibles about how perfectly his plan turned out. And then all the others are liable to agree on doing something special about Volty. And that might even be what Pandora planned for him.

"a spell not mortal could learn with a range of a few miles". So how could Tedd learn that? Or, for that matter, Tedd's mom? Or Nanase, who is also quite likely to be inside that range of a few miles. Well, Tedd is kind of different from most mortals, isn't he, even more different than his mom or his cousin Nanase or Susan. Noriko has that affinity for magic weapons, so she might be another distant descendant of Pandora like Susan. And Tedd is not just a Seer but a Seer so exceptional Heka knew about him. In the case of Tedd, I think there's a chance he is an Immortal; he just doesn't know it yet. But it's more likely that while Tedd can't learn the cover-the-Earth version of the spell (I'm tempted to call it the Sherwin-Williams spell but that's a trademark) he can learn enough about it's nature to make dandy Aberration-detecting and slaying wands. Kind of like a single Sidewinder heat-seeking missile compared to an Ohio-class submarine with a full load of Trident ICBMs: much more limited in range and effect, but more cost-effective and with much more manageable collateral effects. I detect some irony here. Tedd, like Lord Tedd, has such a device. I'm wondering if Lord Tedd used his glove and the Sher--pardon--Cover the Earth version of a similar spell on his own world. It does seem kind of post-apocalyptic, doesn't it? Does Lord Tedd live in a castle, a fortress, or a big fallout shelter?