Tom Sewell

Umm, I'm still going for Edward being misinformed or covering up. Hospital records can be modified using a cutting-edge technology known as "bribery." There have been only two characters in EGS who've been shown as wealthy, Susan's mom and Sirleck. I'm just saying it's a possibility. If I go on further with the bribery theory without anything to back it up, I'm going to sound like a birther. I sincerely hope that The Shive isn't going to pull a Lucas here. Leia wasn't supposed to be Luke's sister, and even after the "I am your father" twist in Empire, Leia didn't have to be Luke's sister. So why did Leia become Luke's sister in Return? Here's a plausible theory: Harrison Ford is sexier than Marc Hamill. Empire established a serious romance between Leia and Han. How to resolve that conflict? Make Leia and Luke siblings so everything is all sugary-sweet at the end. Ford wanted to kill off Han at the end, but he had to wait for seven more movies and suffer through the Han shot second revision.

Why was Jerry watching Diane at that party? The easy answer: The whole plot of Family Ties depends on Jerry looking out for Susan, Nanase, and Ellen at that party. The definitive answer: Unknown, possibly never to be known. Will happily hear any crackpot theory explaining this as something more than a plot hole.

It's Azumanga Daioh

Neither do I, but why was Jerry at that party? Shouldn't he have been watching Susan? Jerry the Next Generation (JNG) may not have the power or smarts of Jerry the Original Version (JOV) but he's still an Immortal with powers and abilities far beyond those of (most) mortal men. Also smarts. My money still goes on JOV being right about the "long lost sister."

So am I. Scrying the Title Page (Again) Susan and Diane have their backs to each other and are looking at each other over their shoulders. Maybe asking themselves "Who are we to each other?" Possible Foreshadowing of Alternate Universe Diane: Elliot meets Diane Elliot dreams about Mirror-Mirror Diane But remember that Jerry said that Diane was Susan's long-lost sister. Immortals can lie, but I don't think they lie to themselves very often. So my current bet is on Edward not being infallible after all, or Edward lying because he believes it's the right thing to do. Grammar Reminder I just used "its" instead of "it's" before I noticed and corrected myself. "Its" is the possessive or genitive form of the pronoun "it". "It's" is the contraction of "it is". This is one of the many examples of why you should proofread instead of relying on spellcheck. Sorry, fellow slackers.

Or the last two panels will turn out to be hypothetical. Or The Shive has been captured by Alien Space Bats. You know, the same ASBs responsible for Highlander II? The most important part of The Shive's commentary is the title of Part Three: Answer Hazy. Which means in this section we can expect the "suspense" to continue with no guarantee of a resolution. I may have further thoughts on the subject, but I don't want to miss breakfast.

That's the analyses by Noah and Adrian--which could still fit the frame theory. But the pithos is shown throughout the sequence, including the flashback with Dex putting it on. However, in the first page of the current arc, Pandora is revealed to have called herself "Box" for awhile. So it seems if she was going to put a symbol on the pendant, shouldn't it be a box? Assuming she needed to put any symbol on the pendant. Any suspects about who might have put that pithos on the pendant? Gee, how about someone who goes by the name of one of the greatest know-it-alls in human history? Maybe Pandora made the pendant, but maybe she's not the only one who can use it.

Are Ashley's family nine-tailed foxes? Yes, a pretty wild speculation...except maybe that: Ashley's parents haven't told her much about her family origins As soon as Pandora encountered Ashley, she was very surprised. Pandora. Surprised. Very. When asked by Pandora what she would most like to transform into, Ashley chose a fox form Fox-spirits are shapechangers in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese folklore. Nanase is the only person who's shown to be suspicious of Ashley. Nanase, who calls her double "fox". Whose family name means "fox." Whose family lineage boasts an apparently unbroken succession of ridiculously strong magic users. Whose family name is commonly used to indicate fox-spirits. Who better to smell out a fox-spirit than another fox-spirit?

Pandora may not have made that amulet, as covered fairly extensively in the topic Pandora is being framed. And Grace probably turned the amulet over to Edward, and Edward would have been likely to turn it over to DGB as per whatever regulations/directives/secret protocols apply. Unless, of course, Edward had already concluded that Arthur J. Arthur can't be trusted. My impression was that the amulet was more about subverting Dex's will than empowering him. Didn't his mark do the empowering?

If Edward has put wards on Tedd (and he would if he could) then Edward already knows about all of Tedd's encounters with magical beings--including the interdimensional whales. Unless Edward out-and-out lied to his son, such words weren't operating then and probably aren't now. Unless, of course, The Shive wants a plot device to speed up the involvement of Tedd's dad in the developing crisis. Note that these strictures also apply to wards on the Verres house or parts of that house. And remember that Edward used a spell on Mild-Mannered Elliot to confirm her identity. The only wards I remember in use were the ones that Adrian used at Moperville South and the one on the Hammer Cave. Those were set up by a half-Immortal and an Immortal, so being wholly or partly Immortal might even be a prerequisite for warding magic in the Moperverse. Which might not disqualify Edward. Remember when Edward said "There's a reason why I know so much about immortals"?

If you want to go back to the dawn of the magnetic age, watch The Two Jakes. It's a sequel to Chinatown, set in 1948, and one of it's features is Jack Nicholson using wire recorders to record conversations secretly. I've actually used an ancient radio which had a built-in wire recorder. They were pretty much replaced by magnetic tape by the end of the 1950s. If you really remember audio cassette tapes, you should remember trying to repair one that broke or got twisted up. Some of them were assembled with tiny screws, so as a last resort you could take one apart and actually put it together. And don't forget splicing. Well, at least they worked better than 8-tracks...

It took me a long time to get into EGS, and additional time before I really delved into the NPs. There is so much backstory that you have to know to really appreciate this series. BTW, my favorite NP arc is EGS Con, even if it's not canon. Which brings up another theory: Did Abner the detective steal John Troutman's fedora?

However my last speculations about Sarah's eventual role in the plot, since The Shive has stated in His commentary that “we'll find out where this conversation went after we take a break from Pandora for a bit in the next part” we won't be seeing Pandora for awhile, and probably not Sarah. Or, if we do see Sarah, we won't hear about the Pandora's proposition. I'm hoping to see Susan next. It's been more than two years since Susan's had any panels in the main story. But I guess we'll have to get past the ask-Uncle-Edward bit first, and we don't know if Tedd's dad will be home. He's been called away at dramatically convenient times before. It's also been nearly as long since we've seen any of our high school seniors actually in school, so we might find ourselves at one school or another on Monday. It could be kind of neat if The Shive does another split-page as he did on the next-to-last page of So a Date at the Mall matching up a panel with Susan on one side matching a panel with a panel with Diane on the other side.

So far the only way that anyone has lost magic in EGS is by using guardian spells, and that loss is temporary. It may be an indication that Pandora and other Immortals can't de-power anyone once they've empowered. Pandora's best strategy is unclogging the clog. Even if she can un-mark, how long will it take to do that? And what about marks left by other immortals? For all we know, there is an Immortal convention in Moperville. Lowering ambient energy to normal levels should decrease magic use. Unclogging would also have the happy effect of making Moperville less of a monster magnet. At this point, we don't know if Pandora knows about what happened after the Mall: Vampires in Moperville. Since it's Sunday morning and we don't know how late the cast of So a Date at the Mall stayed out, it's likely that neither Grace nor Sarah have heard from them, Pandora might take some time to get clued in on this development.

Did you forget about The Producers, Prince Myshkin?

Pandora set up a situation in which her son was in real danger. Why? Pandora wants her son to avoid getting into fights. Some lessons are hard. Which doesn't mean Pandora wasn't genuinely furious when she found how badly Adrian was hurt and how close to death he'd gotten. And also, maybe, probably, angry with herself because she'd caused it. Perhaps Pandora's plan was to kill Abraham all along. Perhaps the reason no one can destroy the Dewichery Diamond is that it's linked to Abraham--destroy one, destroy the other. Why would Pandora set up that plan now? How about a fear that she'll become too unstable soon to go on? She could see that giving Adrian a hard lesson (or maybe two) would be the best way to ensure his survival once she herself is gone.

Since even Pandora can't see what Sarah is doing when using her magic, no other Immortal can--including Voltaire. The Assumption: Sarah can perceive Immortals in her created worlds. Sarah is going to be Pandora's ace-in-the-hole for dealing with Voltaire. Remember, Immortals are only supposed to be visible to one another if they want to be.

Look at the ear on the waitress in panel three. Look a little long and pointy to you?

No, not Tengu didn't. Nanase made no attacks at all. Ellen zapped him, but to no effect, and humans don't seem to have any forbidden magic anyway. That is, they can use anything they can get. But since Adrian follows the same restrictions as full Immortals, any I believe Immortal could lawfully attack not-Tengu once he started using magic to attack. And not-Tengu has to be a big reason why Magic Itself wants to change the rules--no more average jerks becoming not-Tengus for a century or a millenium.

"Sharing feelings" could be magically-enhanced empathy (knowing what others are feeling), or projecting her feelings on to others. This isn't exactly telepathy, but it is potentially quite powerful--very powerful if she could project feelings she isn't really experiencing herself, at least as powerfully, and potentially lethal if she can project amplified pain or pleasure. Projecting pleasure dangerous? How would you like to be in a plane when the pilot experiences multiple orgasms. Since Ash doesn't seem to pick up on Liz's disinterest when she tells her about making her date or Nanase's suspicion (and perhaps jealousy) while she's kissing Elliot, doesn't look like she got a spell like that. But maybe healing...especially puppie booboos.

This NP continues to have the kind of humor that the others have, but it also has a higher proportion of plot development. Besides the gags and the opportunity for yet more exposition, what does The Shive have in mind here? Since the establishment of the canon cannon (and yes, they are two different words, people) there have been these canon NP storylines: Playing with Dolls Zombie Plans Question Mark MV5 Marker 1. Playing with Dolls Susan gets more fairy dolls, and maybe the ability to use more than one at once. Tedd explains to Susan more about how she can use her fairies. 2. Zombie Plans This seems like a gag arc. But why is it canon? Zombies would certainly fit into "bringing hell to Moperville." 3. Question Mark Sarah gets a very powerful spell and gets to meet Pandora. Grace will see Sarah has power as soon as she meets Sarah again, but they go to different schools and Sarah, warned not to tell Tedd's father, should be reluctant to go to Tedd's house. And Sarah won't be going to Salty Crackers Saturday night because she has a date with Sam. Sarah should also catch on that the floating little girl who gave her the mark is the floating girl who was on TV--but doesn't know it was Pandora. 4. MV5 Exactly when this takes place isn't exact, but it does take place before Sarah meets Sam. It's reasonable to assume there may be some link here. And maybe it will be useful when the gang visits that sex-reversed universe we all know is coming up eventually. 5. Marker This is the first canon NP storyline that might be directly co-ordinated with the on-going main storyline. Managing these two storylines at once is kind of like an army advancing in two columns to the site of a battle: It's very important that each column doesn't get too far ahead or fall too far behind. Since the fanbase of EGS glomps onto the most miniscule new detail as soon as The Shive reveals it and are ever-ready to point out any seeming inconsistancies, it would be wise not to stand too close to The Shive in case His head explodes.

Okay, maybe the Will of Magic is an office like Santa Claus in The Santa Clause or Death like in Incarnations of Immortality. I totally don't buy Pandora being the Will of Magic now but I can see her becoming the Will. Maybe the old Will of Magic is sick and tired of the office. WILL OF MAGIC: You don't like the way I'm doing my job? You think you could do better? PANDORA: It's pretty obvious that's exactly what I think! WILL OF MAGIC: Okay. Good Luck! Have fun storming the castle! (Cosmic zap. When the smoke clears, the WILL is gone and Pandora is wearing whatever ridiculous uniform the WILL OF MAGIC has to wear) PANDORA: Whoops. Actually I think there's merit in this kind of plot twist. Crazy as she can be, Pandora seems to have a pretty moral core. She could be the safest Immortal to take over. Plus we get the story benefits of wild powers not getting taken away from our main characters, which would pretty much end the series, wouldn't it?

Pandora's words in this strip are "I can't actually give her any of them." "Them" could mean any spells at all, or it could mean spells about transforming others. And "can't" can also be read ambiguously. Does it mean it's impossible for Pandora to mark Ashley because it's a violation of Immortal law? Because it's the way Magic Itself has set up how giving marks to mortals works? Or because Pandora can't bear to do something that will have really bad consequences for a good person?

Gee, you think maybe Pandora gave her a spell to help her find that one person?

Male toads and frogs don't have penises, something Miss Piggy apparently didn't discover until her wedding night.