ChronosCat

I do not expect the reunion between Tedd and Noriko to be a pleasant one, at least at first. Tedd has a lot of pain over her abandoning him, and he's likely to either shut down or take it out on her. And if she tries to reconnect with Tedd and Tedd has any reason to believe she knows that he has magic, he may believe that she only cares about his magic, not him. Unless I'm completely misreading things, that story will be one of intense drama and angst. Meanwhile, I was hoping and expecting Title Pending to have just as much fun in it as drama and to be upbeat overall, much like Grace's Birthday Party. So, this is another "no". Cake is Truth.

Out of curiosity, do you normally say "in TV" in your area/language? I've only ever heard it phrased "on TV" in American English... Though actually, given what it looks like, "in" does make more sense. I'm not sure how aware of that Dan is, but it clearly isn't enough to stop him from giving characters that ought to be side characters tons of development, to the point where some of them border on being main characters themselves. I'm not saying this expansion of the cast is a good thing, I'm just predicting what seems most likely based on Dan's writing style. I'd call eight "plenty" (particularly as Dan has a hard enough time juggling the current 8)... Also, I didn't actually work out what characters were potential main character candidates when I made that statement; I based my statement on the fact that that there have been a lot of times over the years where it's seemed to me like I was looking at a potential future main character or at least important supporting character. Some of those times were probably for the same characters. And some of those characters don't seem like main character candidates any more (for instance, after the way things ended between Justin and Melissa, it would cause too much friction to bring her into the group, and it's been so long since we've seen Grace's siblings they'll need a re-introduction just to return to important supporting character status).

Well, I'm certainly not waiting for it. He's well behind Rhoda and Catalina, but I suspect that Noah will one day be part of the main cast. In fact, between the big deal Dan made of him when he was introduced, and the fact that he was made to be Elliot's friend, I suspect that Dan has always intended him to become a major character if not one of the main group, it just hasn't worked out that way (yet). Charlotte has all the makings of an important character, particularly if we get more focus on Ellen and Nanase's adventures. Liz seems okay being outside the group, but between how much she cares about Ashley and her having been implied to have magic, I expect her to get more focus in the future, and after that who knows. If Diane and Rhoda are both main characters, it would be strange for Lucy to be left out; besides, romantic partners have a tendency to be drawn into the main group (or at least it worked that way with Ashley). Luke and Sam are on my list because they are in relationships with main characters. But yes, they're nowhere near ready to be main characters; this is why I specified they would be candidates if the relationships got serious (if the relationships get serious they will likely get lot more panel time and spend more time with the current main characters, but if the relationships don't go anywhere I expect them to fade out of the narrative once their plotlines are complete). Other characters I can think of off the top of my head that I expect to get more panel time and who might far in the future become main characters (or at least get their own storyline) are Rhea, Akiko, and (together) Kitty & Felix. (And also the Germahn Labs crew, but besides a few cameos we haven't even seen them in canon yet.)

I'm not talking about Mr. Verres' "keep everything to you eight and there won't be any problems" (or whatever the exact quote is), I'm talking about how the characters see themselves, and how us readers see them. And I don't think either the group or we need Mr. Verres permission to think of Ashley and Diane as part of the group. That said, I don't think it will end with just ten. Too many characters are close to the "eight" and/or are given a lot of attention by the narrative. I think it's only a matter of time until Catalina and Rhoda join, and if their relationships with Jusin and Sarah get serious it would make sense for Luke and Sam to eventually join. Plenty of other characters have potential as well. However, I don't expect any of that any time soon (and certainly not during this story line).

So, this is more to do with this storyline in general than this strip in particular, but this strip brought it to mind and it doesn't seem worth creating a new thread in General Discussion for... The main eight all interacted during Sister I and Painted Black, but it was Grace's Birthday Party that really solidified them as a group rather than just a network of friends. Now, it looks like another party is going to see Ashley and Diane truly brought into the group after having spent quite some time as important satellites. ...Thus was the "Main Eight" upgraded to the "Main Ten"? No, no. The Ghost Shark is the Space Shark's one true love; that's how it fits into the OTn. ... Oops, almost missed it! Yay for starburst background in panel six!

Maybe Ashley doesn't like fairies as much as she likes squirrels. Maybe Nanase is coming on too strong. Or maybe, like me, Ashley's not a fan of that outfit. I guess we'll find out Wednesday!

http://egscomics.com/egsnp/parable-016 "Hey, listen!"

Sure he does! He wears spats (without any shoes...).

The way I understood it is: Being embarrassed and being aroused both (can) cause blushing and elevated heart rate, thus under the right circumstances the brain can come to associate one with the other. (I know I've experienced this sort of association, though not with embarrassment.)

Actually, if you walk into that section of the fair slowly it's pretty easy to avoid her; I've even managed to swerve around her while running before. Of course, as with finding the pendant the story won't progress until you run into her. I think "actions you need to take if you want to progress the story" aren't quite the same thing as "false choices", though.

I've encountered this before, but the example you give is particularly poorly designed; if they weren't interested in giving you a choice there they should have just taken control of the PC or done the battle in a cutscene, or at least railroaded you into fighting a little better. My personal least favorite false choice was in Dragon Quest/Warrior III. You have been fighting with a band of thieves, and after killing all of them but the leader, the leader begs you to let him go (not just spare him, but let him go free). I think he promises to be good, but he'd already proven to be treacherous and there's no reason to believe him. However if you say "No" to letting him go, he'll just ask again, and again, and again until you give in and let him go. (Oddly enough, shortly after this there's a situation that looks like another false choice - but if you choose the option you're not supposed to take a few times, it works and you're able to skip a small section of the story.) On the other hand, sometimes a false choice can be done in such a way that it makes sense within the story and doesn't take away your control of your character's actions. For example, in Chrono Trigger, early on in the game you are put on trial. Depending on your actions earlier on in the game and how you answer questions during the trial, you can either be sentenced to execution, or to just a few days jail time - but either way when you get to the jail the Chancellor tells the prison guards you are to be executed. Later on in the game, this turns out to be a plot point...

It only has a similar flavor if you assume that there are likely to be bad consequences for freeing the villagers, and Dan didn't give any indication that was the case. In fact, it sounds to me like Dan's complaining about the opposite to what you're suggesting: that the morality of Fable is too simplistic, giving you the only "completely good" and "completely evil" choices with no shades in between. While the inability to kill the slaver and take his money rather than selling the villagers to them is an oversight on the game creator's part, I wouldn't say that selling the villagers into slavery is stupid (unless there's a significant chance of the Player Character facing consequences for it), just highly immoral.

How so? The way I've always heart it Runaway Trolly test is about whether it's better to kill one person or allow multiple people to die.* The scenarios in the comic and in the commentary are about whether the person is willing to allow bad things to happen for some cash. * The version The Old Hack mentions ruins that question, as it instead becomes at least partially about what you think of fat people. I wonder, are there versions where the race or gender of the person to be tossed on the tracks are mentioned, too? I know this scenario (as a hypothetical question) has been used in sociological studies; I hope the people doing the studies realized how important the phrasing is to what question you actually get the answer for...

If her clothing transformations only happened when expected, she never would have discovered them. As for at the Nest, are you referring to Painted Black? Because in that it was Elliot who escaped ropes by transforming into a smaller form; Grace broke her ropes (and the chair she was tied to) when she transformed to Omega and went berserk. (If you weren't referring to Painted Black, I don't remember what you're talking about.)

A pretty minor thing, but I still feel like complaining: Why is it that on my current computer (I'm assuming it's the operating system's fault; Windows 8.1 if you're curious) when I click-and-hold on a scroll-bar, scroll down quickly, and then release with the cursor having gone too far below the end of the track, the bar bounces back up to the top-most position? I don't know how many times I've had to scroll down twice because I wasn't careful not to go too far the first time.

So, I had been assuming Grace would shrink out of her clothes. This would mean that when she resumed humanoid form she would be naked. If she went straight to human Dan would have needed to skip to after she'd gotten dressed, or call in the Angelic Tweeting Bird. On the other hand she might have chosen to go to part-squirrel form; this would not only allow her to show Ashley her birth form but also remove the need for any censorship. She might even have chosen to stay squirrely and naked for some time, which I think would have been cool. However, all this save the skip-to-when-she's-dressed option rely on Dan's feeling comfortable right now with non-explicit nudity in the comic. And what with Grace's already stated views on nudity, I can see how Dan could have written himself into a position where the direction that was most natural for the story to go in would be counter to what he was comfortable with. Reading the commentary, I have to wonder if any of this has anything to do with the "future things" Dan talks about in the commentary; at the very least I'm guessing the post-transformation-nudity is where the awkwardness he mentions would have come in. (Incidentally, I personally don't like how that outfit looks on squirrel Grace. It looks nice enough on humanoid Grace, but in this form it looks incredibly dull. Of course it doesn't help that I've never been a fan of non-humanoid animals wearing clothes; it almost always winds up looking silly and out of place to me.)

On the other hand, too much realism can make a game not very fun... Obviously not every game with fighting needs non-lethal means of victory, but most games are going to have enough other departures from reality that safe non-lethal take downs would not really be out of place.

Yay for highly concentrated blizzard background in panel three!

Grace's Birthday Party is my favorite storyline, and I have re-read it many times. I think the fact that I forgot Helena and Demetrius had appeared again after Magus left goes to show exactly how (un)important they were to the rest of the story. And just like the bit with Magus, the bit with Grace's siblings was over before the party began (as you mention). So unless you're suggesting there might be party crashers that only show up for a short time then leave the party early, I'm not sure how Grace's siblings (or Magus) are relevant to the issue of the story potentially winding up with too many characters that need panel time. This might just be a matter of semantics, but Immortals technically don't have precognition. Jerrry's term was virtually clairvoyant; I can't remember where else this ability has been mentioned, but I'm pretty sure there were always qualifiers. My understanding is that they their predictions are based entirely on information they already know, they just know a lot of information and have the ability to process it in ways humans (and modern computers) can't. I'm not following you here. Why would Jerry have needed to know about Diane? The point where Zeus presumably would have told Pandora what he knew (if she hadn't already figured out the connection between Diane, Susan, and herself) was in Sister III, while the first encounter between Zeus and Diane that we know about was back in Family Tree. Also, while we don't know how Zeus found out about Diane, the fact that he was wrong about what her relationship with Susan was suggests it was after he reset.

Magus, Helena, and Demetrius were in all of one scene, which was over before the party properly got started. Matt Cohen was in exactly two strips, with one more strip talking about the incident, after which the only affect of his appearance was that they had pizza. Only the Demonic Duck actually stuck around for long. However he still didn't get much panel time, mostly lurking in the background and only being focused on when he was relevant to the story arcs of the main 8. I can't see Dan treating most of the characters I've heard proposed as party crashers that way (particularly since anyone the main 8 don't know will require introductions, and anyone who doesn't know much about magic is going to have interesting reactions to learning about it).

So, some people deserve some cookies for predicting this. Personally, not only did I not expect any party-crashers, but once the party stared without her I was figuring Susan probably wouldn't show up either. I do hope that we don't get any other party crashers; the more characters in the story, the harder it is to balance pacing versus giving everyone the attention they deserve.

I assumed it was a creature with snake and jaguar features, similar in concept to creatures like badgermoles or platypus bears.

Nah, tentacles are for hardcore porn. Panty-shots, on the other hand, are family friendly fanservice!* * Or so certain anime/manga creators seem to think.

She's grown quite a bit since then.

If you're referring to the "sound effect" in panel six, it says "adorn", not "acorn".