Tom Sewell

Pandora is not wizard, so this wouldn't match the explanation No, Pandora is not a wizard, Pandora is a mother of wizards. Basically, Pandora is a god. Gods trump wizards, generally speaking:)

Here's a really immoderate idea: What if the reason Ellen's beam did what it just did is because that's exactly what Pandora set up the creation of Ellen to do?

Ellen might say that; Sirleck wouldn't. Neither do I, but he won't abandon Ellen as long as it's safer more useful for him to keep attached to her. That does not preclude him from trying to possess Magus-Elliot while his attention is on Ashley. Could he be sure of getting a better opportunity? As do I. Yes, but such hosts are rarely multi billionaires. Now that does fit with many multi billionaires. Wonder if Sirleck ever met Harvey Weinstein? I agree with every point. This is an excellent reason for Sirleck to keep on possessing or repossessing Ellen, or possessing anyone to hold that person hostage. This is the same dodge the King of Terror used at the end of his arc in Oh My Goddess by possessing Belldandy's Keiichi.

It is quite possible that Magus may not be able to separate from Elliot even if he wants to. All we know or think we know about the process Magus wants to complete to have a body of his own is that the Dewitchery Diamond is needed for it. But is that all that is needed? Here are some reasons why Magus may not be able to separate from Elliot: The Diamond Is Unavailable The diamond could have been moved to another secret location. It could have been stolen by someone else. It could have been destroyed by now, either deliberately or by accident. It could be more than adequately guarded. Pandora Is Unavailable Pandora might have to do something to complete the process, something Magus doesn't know about. If Pandora resets, she may (probably won't) remember what that was. Certainly won't remember if she's dead.There may still be a way to separate Magus from Elliot after some research, some work, some danger, and most important, some luck. Pandora's direct participation might not be necessary, only some macguffin(s) that Pandora was withholding knowledge of. Maybe as simple as "Close your eyes and click your heels three times while saying 'There's no place like home'." The Diamond Has Been/Gets Destroyed Well, just get Abraham to make another one, right? Anyway, particularly if Magus really is an alternate-universe Elliot like Second Life Ellen, would it really be so terrible for them to stay blended? Complicated, for sure, especially if Terra comes world-hopping to look up her missing boyfriend.

Unless... Possibly Magus has worked out a justification for retaining Elliot's body--and his powers. Not permanently, but just, you know, until he's cleaned up the mess he's made, or made sure Sirleck really will release Ellen before it's too late, or... Who knows how long it will be necessary? For the greater good, of course... And even if Magus hasn't worked out a justification yet, there's still time for him to work out one. Wonderful opportunity for debates, external, internal, and intramural--the last within Magus-Elliot between the two personalities, or perhaps more than two personalities. Here's an example in canon which could be somewhat similar to how Dan might present such an intramural debate. Or shoulder angels and devils. Or like Susan's Logic, Curiosity, Nature, and Nurture. Or floating heads. Or with avatars in imaginary scenes like the way Dan has so often dressed up instant messaging.

Well, that could have just been a joke at the time. But retconning, perhaps, the real security could have been magical wards which the bribed guard took down. Having missing windows could be intentional, making the place look deserted. Nothing important going on here, nossiree. Could be. But we really don't know if Sirleck has any more magic than his basic powers as a body thief Abberation.. If that's the case, trying to steal the diamond out of any place set up to hold very secret and dangerous magical artifacts would be a very risky thing to try. And, as I believe I pointed out before, measures should have been taken after the incident. And, of course, Edward would have been informed. If Sirleck doesn't already know about Edward by now, it's amazing he's been able to survive this long living so nearby. Or unliving so nearby. Yes, I'm going to keep doing the life-or-unlife bit.

Interesting theory, possibly true. I wonder if Sirleck knows Susan is a Slayer and already where Raven is. And I wonder if Sirleck knows that Pandora is Raven's mother. She's rather interested in Raven, of course, and lately, in Susan and Diane as well. Think she might be hanging at the mall too? If she isn't, think Jerry isn't watching Susan and Diane like his life depends on it?

As opposed to just stealing another body without anyone else around, especially two people with dangerous powers. Well, Sirleck has been stupid enough to target an Immortal's son and think he would get away with it, so, okay, maybe.

Why would Sirleck be really interested in that diamond? Because of a sense of honor to Magus? Remember how Sirleck complained about how big a bribe he had to give a guard for Elliot to get to the Dewitchery Diamond before? Sirleck wants to be rid of Magus, by stealing his body, by killing him, or by simply giving the annoying snot what he wants so he won't have a reason to bother Sirleck any more. The facility where Elliot touched the diamond before has probably updated the security--or the diamond has been taken to another facility by Top Men. Either way, it would be more difficult and more dangerous to get to it now, and Sirleck would know it. Sirleck would only go through with it if he feels that Magus is now too dangerous to cross.

Well see what Wednesday brings, but the fact that Sirleck didn't immediately jump to Magus(Elliot) might mean that Sirleck's waiting for Magus to touch the diamond. So that would rule out the idea of Ellen being left unconscious with Ashley. Again though it might change on Wednesday. Sirleck may also just wait for Magus not paying attention, but yes, waiting for touching the diamond would be safer - Magus doesn't have anyone who knows him, but Elliot does ; and who knows what would the diamond do when Elliot would touch him possessed by Sirleck. Magus-Elliot already isn't paying attention. He turned toward Ashley to throw that spell and kept talking to her to the end of the page. That's less time than Sirleck needed to get in position to possess the butler--and the butler was looking right at the old man Sirleck had to be possessing up to the time he collapsed. All aberrations have to show their monstrous forms before attacking--but obviously not long before in the case of Sirleck. And I'm still not buying the blonder beam theory. Magus had blond hair in his last body, and he's merged with Elliot. That's just as reasonable a justification for having blond hair. Assuming Magus-Elliot hasn't just made a fatal mistake, what happens next should depend on what his "next step" really is. If he really means the final step is to touch the dewitchery diamond, he's being naive, overconfident, or both. Just naive if he expects Sirleck to just let him go--criminally naive if he expects Sirleck to stop the vampires now. Overconfident to think his magic will be enough to get into a facility for storing dangerous magical objects without Sirleck's wealth and expertise in bribery. Also overconfident if he's sure he can take on Sirleck and the vampires now. Anyway, there are a lot of alternative paths for the plot to proceed on from here. Here's my initial selection: Sirleck possesses Magus-Elliot now and immediately sets for whatever bolt-hole he's prepared. The rest of our heroes have to find him. Sirleck doesn't try to possess yet Magus-Elliot right now and they proceed to Sirleck's next step somewhere else. Meanwhile, of course, the vampires are doing their thing. Magus-Elliot does perceive Sirleck trying to possess him in time, or M-E has some kind of magical force field (like Greg) that Sirleck didn't expect. Sirleck either gets killed or flees. And quite possibly Magus-Elliot sets the Dunkel residence on fire in the process. In that case Magus-Elliot will have to get Ashley and Ellen out if he can't stop the fire and/or the house collapsing. Of course, the Echo is in the garage and is also totaled. This is also an excellent point to switch scenes, leaving us in suspense for more than two days about what happened next.

Yes, but there's another weakness in the fake story OR real sighting (or both): "Ellen" didn't give any reason why Nanase shouldn't call Elliot about it. It could be implied; after all, last week Ellen went solve another mystery with Nanase and was glad Diane was along because she wanted to make sure Diane wasn't at the mall where Ashley and Elliot were going on their first date. Oh, wait. That evening went on into Elliot getting outed as Cheerleadra, Nanase kicking a soccer ball into a flying griffin's head, and Diane getting attacked by a vampire. Maybe Nanase would assume that nothing like that would happen tonight, and that no one is out to get Elliot, like she learned about last Sunday from the third Immortal Nanase ever met in person. Probably just another jerk with a mask. No reason to disturb Elliot. No reason to give Ellen the idea Nanase might think Ellen lied or not given the full story...

"About six" is the closest thing to a mention of a specific time-of-day in all of Part 19. "Thirty minutes after school" is more vague because while Dan may know that the last bell at his hometown high schools sound at 3:10 and likely did when he was still in high school, we don't, and what exactly does "after school" actually mean? After the end of the last class? After you can't get back into the building without key or someone inside to let you in? There's got to be a reason why Sirleck wants Nanase to be at the college at "around six" without Ellen. And Sirleck seems like a schemer and planner. What do you think Nanase did soon after Ellen ran off? She took out her phone and either called Charlotte or brought up Charlotte's forum. Sirleck could have planted a fake story on Charlotte's forum, but even with that, Nanase should have gotten in touch with Charlotte well before six. Nanase or Charlotte would have tried to contact Ellen. If either one can't, guess who else they would call? Elliot. Plus, there/s an excellent chance that Nanase talked to Grace or Justin or both, maybe before leaving Moperville South. Possibly Dan missed that implication; just as possibly he's already built that into whatever plan he has for the story. Oh, that conjectural "Out of Order" sign? Maybe Sirleck put it back on the door as soon as he left, or even left it on the door he was holding open for Ellen to come in.

I asked "Where's Grace?" in my last post. But looking through Part 19 and Part 20 again, I began to think about the chronology. It goes something like this: Part 19, #2395 - It's morning at North High. Ashley wants a lazy movie at Elliot's; Elliot agrees. #2396 - Scene shifts to South High. Diane interrupts Nanase (sitting next to Ellen) to ask about Susan. Francine the janitor is in the background. This is the only scene in Part 19 where none of the characters have packs or coats. #2397-2398 - Back at North High, Susan and Elliot, both wearing packs (Susan has either a light jacket or an open shirt worn like a jacket), walk and talk about Diane until the spilled soda incident. #2399 - Ellen and Nanse, with packs like other students, walk and talk--and Francine is in the background again. Nanase would like a movie at Ellen's place, but Ellen tells her Elliot and Ashley will be there, and that their parents will be out. As Ellen says this, Francine seems to have changed course. #2400 - Arthur and Sybil talk at their secret hideout. Or maybe just an office. #2401 - Ellen and Nanase both have packs, as do passing students. Ellen tells Nanase a lie about Elliot going out and needing the car, and about something she said she saw on Charlotte's forum about an inhuman voyeur at the college. Nanase agrees to drive her own car and meet Ellen. <strong>Ellen says to meet her at about six.</strong>. This should be after dark in Greater Chicago in January. #2402 - Thirdy minutes after school at South High, fellow janitor Brad is looking for Francine. Francine seems to be in poor shape in one of the women's restrooms Part 20, #2403 Susan arrives outside the mall. It doesn't seem to be dark yet, but maybe the parking lot is well-lit. #2418 Ashley has just arrived at Elliot's home. Ashley is just taking off her coat, so they just arrived. The window over the door looks pretty dark. I don't know if Dan did any research about when it would be dark in the Chicago vicinity in mid-January, but I found out sunset on the next January 17th will be at 4:47. Should be quite dark by "about six." Anyone want to bet that it's not "about six" right now in Moperville? How about a bet that the Vamp Brigade isn't going to go into action at six or thereabouts?

Yes, having Sirleck-Ellen give Nanase that BS story just before dashing off at the end of school would make sense, and Francine waking up in a panel on the same page might mean that Sirleck ambushed Ellen in the restroom just moments before, perhaps with Magus suggesting the sudden need for a pee break to Ellen to get her in the same restroom. Francine is a janitor, and Sirleck-Francine could have put a "Temporarily Out of Service" sign on the restroom door to make sure it was unoccupied, taking off the sign just before Ellen showed up. S-F could have then gone into that stall, dropped left Francine unconscious or so disoriented she wouldn't be conscious of what was happening, and dived on Ellen--from above and behind, of course. Well, whether or not it really happened like that or some other way we may never know. And Grace... Where is Grace, anyway?

Probably later. Maybe much later. Very possibly in another Q&A following the end of Sister III. Remember how long the last Q&A was? And speaking of Q&As, I think it's been a long time since we saw Dr. Gehrmann. Did he get eaten by a Big Mouth Vampire?

Now that's one possibility I didn't consider. And it intrigues me. It would probably be easier than emplanting false memories because more work would be involved creating those memories. Sirleck seems smarter than any other Aberration we've been shown, and with an ability like that, it could make it easier to juggle hosts, which in turn could make it easier for him to keep a low profile. And since Immortals despise body thieves more than any other type of Aberration, low profiles would be high priority in the keeping of that "unending" part of their unending lives (or unlives).

Possibly no physical damage at all. Aberrations, vampires, body thieves, whatever you call these jokers, they're all former humans who are being kept alive (or maybe undead) by stealing life energy from the species they've abandoned. That's magical/metaphysical/whatever-type energy, not limited to the polite suggestions that are the physical laws of the Moperverse. However, stealing enough energy will kill anyone they feed on. So I'd say the best we can expect of any of Sirleck's possessions is that some people recover from them. If Francine just doesn't remember, she may have a hard time convincing herself she's not crazy. The same could apply to Ellen, although Ellen's greater experience (in two universes) will make her more open to alternative explanations.

Since Sirleck comes equipped with four tendrils, one for each ear and one for each nostril and inserts them into his hosts, and the tendrils are long enough to penetrate into the brain of the host, It seems a reasonable possibility that he might be able to access the host's memories and/or skills. But we don't have any idea if this is true or if it is, how much access and how long it lasts, and if there is a transfer rate. And, of course, how much damage he does to the host in the process. Since Francine was still alive when we saw her last, the process can't always be fatal...unless, for course, Francine's dead body turns up. Are the hosts aware of Sirleck's presence while he is in control? Something else we don't know. We do know he can leave a host and return to the same host, but maybe he leaves the abandoned host unconscious. That would fit Francine's last scene, when she might be just waking up on a toilet. Does she have any memory of what Sirleck made her do? Any memory of seeing Sirleck before he possessed her? Leaving Francine alive with inconvenient memories doesn't strike me as a loose thread Sirleck would fail to cut off. However, being able to convincingly play the part of Ellen even for a few moments doesn't seem likely. Possibly Sirleck starts out by using suggestion, like Magus, and only gradually builds up total control. Then the same series of suggestions I posed for Magus to get Ellen to once again zap her brother as a good joke could still apply. Ellen could still be thinking she's still Ellen. Although the expression on Ellen's face doesn't exactly give me total confidence that this might be true.

Indeed she is. And there is an excellent reason to use exactly the first spell she got: That is the only spell she had when Magus tried to get her to zap Elliot at Grace's birthday party. Anything more brings up the possibility of unwanted side-effects or total failure.

I don't think it's quite clear that "just blonder" is one of Ellen's options without blending, but, okay. It still doesn't mean that Panel 4 Being is really a blonde now. Besides the fun of arguing every point I can get away with, what really matters about Panel 4 is that it suggests something like "AT LAST!" or maybe "IT'S SLAUGHTERIN' TIME!" and how or whether Ashley or even Sirleck perceives this--assuming we aren't looking at Sirleck. And, of course, the ambiguity I have just told you in my previous post that I'm pretty sure Dan put in deliberately.

I don't think so. Ellen can mix characteristics of two different targets; but so far changing hair color has been limited to Tedd, Cranium, and Elliot. Ellen didn't really change Susan's hair color when she FV5'd Susan in the sleepover; the FV5 simply made Susan's naturally-long blond hair grow out. Then when unzapping Susan, the blue-died parts of each hair disappeared, leaving her hair it's former length, but not dyed. The colorless hair and the flaming aura around whatever is in Panel 4 pretty much resemble Elliot the Bully smasher, so that may be Dan's only intention. Or not. It doesn't mean the hair is actually a different color. I am pretty sure at least one part of Dan's intention in making Panel 4 the way he has is to keep all of us guessing what it means at least until the next comic. I wonder if Dan has ever read David Gerrold's The World of Star Trek. He was the guy who wrote The Trouble With Tribbles. One of the things he talks about in the book is how the original series' scripts always put in some kind of cliffhanger before each of the four commercial breaks. Yes, there were only four commercial breaks back in those days, hard as it must be for you kids to believe.

Yes, Pandora did jerk Magus around. And she overdid it. When has Pandora not overdone anything? And, yes, Magus was showing his very best when he refused to kill Abraham, even if it might mean he would never get his body back. But that was as good as he ever got. He realizes his team-up with Sirleck is going to hurt or kill innocent people, but it seems to be going ahead without Magus doing anything more than asking Sirleck to minimize the death toll and bemoaning that he has to do this thing. I'm giving Magus a break by assuming he doesn't know that Pandora's son is supposed to be killed. That's taking revenge against Pandora a bit too far, don't you think?

Responding to hkmally and Scotty about Elliot's gender identity vs. Magus' (Can't seem to get your quotes in without a lot of other stuff.) The way I interpret Panel 2--and I know that Magus is considerably frustrated, with reason--is that he sees Nanase as the way he viewed Terra: A female stronger and more forceful than females are supposed to be. You can see back in Hidden Genesis Terra is actually concerned about Magus—maybe even fond of him—but not willing to submit to him, just as Nanase won't. And, also, Magus may have had feelings for Terra—if only she wasn't so darned unladylike in competing with him. So he may see another Terra in Nanase. But suppose Magus really wants to be a woman and is doing this because, consciously or unconsciously, he's jealous of Terra and Nanase because of that. He's still being a jerk. And that is why Pandora might take especial pleasure in acting like a jerk to Magus--although she did kind of admit she'd gone to far when she lashed out at Magus when he refused to kill Abraham. Compare Magus to Adrian, Pandora's son. He's had centuries of frustration and real danger. There's no evidence that Magus, a young man, maybe Elliot's age or younger, was ever in any real danger until Pandora really lost it with him. I think Magus would look at him the same way as I do: a spoiled brat with huge potential and some conscience who needs to learn a hard lesson or three.

Panel 2: More evidence of Magus being a jerk.

Or maybe the material Magus was groundbound and Terra wasn't. I used to have the Blu-ray edition of The Incredibles and early in development a standing gag was going to be all the other members of Mr. Incredible's family could fly but he couldn't.