ChronosCat

So, Pandora has taken steps to try to Refresh, and she believes they can work even with a forced reset. I was hoping that would be the case, but I wasn't sure. I look forward to seeing how it turns out. I saw Susan being a "distant descendant" a long ways back, but I expected Diane to to be one as well. I guess Raven still has sexual relations these days (or a couple of decades ago, which to someone his age might as well be "these days"). I wonder, was he married? Not that I personally think it wrong for people to have sex without being married, but it would still give us some interesting insight into his character to know his views on the matter. ...Would it ruin the somber tone if I cheered for the starburst background? Maybe if I do it as quietly as possible... Yay for starburst background in panel eight! Pandora called Susan Adrian's "distant descendant" which rules out daughter, and in my opinion granddaughter and probably anything without more than a couple "greats" in it.

Well, if Pandora's previous-self's memories of the last magic change reflect what's to come, all full-blooded Humans will loose access to their spells. This suggests that either the old spells don't work any more and new spells need to be learned, or that the means of accessing those spells is changed. Disco Wizard says that seers wouldn't be affected "because they don't get spells in the first--[place]" but that doesn't necessarily mean that Tedd would be able to put an old spell into a wand and have it work without any modification. I also don't think that needing to see someone accidentally use a spell before they could create new wands or teach others the new magic system would completely make the Seers pointless; just because one person used magic accidentally wouldn't mean that person would know how they did it or how to cast other spells. The Seer, being able to see under the hood, would be able to figure out how the magic system worked much faster than the ordinary user, and could teach others how to get new spells or unlock the new versions of old spells. Still, it does sound like there's more to being a Seer than that. From what Heka and Pandora said, it sounds like just by experiencing the magic change they'll automatically have some idea of how the new system works (which means Tedd could start helping his friends relearn magic without anyone needing to cast any magic first). And while there's no in-story evidence to suggest it that I can see, based on Dan's interests and his tendency to be nice to the main characters unless the plot demands otherwise I expect that Tedd will eventually be able to figure out how to translate those old spells he knows the workings of into spells that work in the new system; the only question is how long it will take him.

Tedd will prepare a nice simple romantic event with Grace (possibly a dinner at home if his father will be out) then get insecure and go overboard on some aspect of the event (cooking too much, perhaps?) Elliot and the Dunkels will put together a traditional birthday party for Ellen (possibly a surprise party, if she already celebrated on Elliot's birthday), probably with the rest of the main 8 invited. Of course unless something happens relevant to the ongoing plot-lines we'll be lucky to even hear about these things in passing. (We've only heard about a couple of Grace and Tedd's dates, and the only birthday that we've seen celebrated is Grace's.)

Thanks. That's one question answered. As for how proper a reset this will be, I imagine part of the problem for most immortals would be they weren't prepared. Pandora has been thinking about Resetting anyway, so she might have already done most of the preparations. (I'm assuming it was never said that a forced reset is automatically an improper one; if I'm forgetting something, someone please direct me to the relevant info.)

In light of Tedd's ability to make a wand based on his mark, Tedd shouldn't have any difficulty changing sexes even if he looses his mark; you're right that even if he looses that wand he can just make another. However, I think it would be a different matter if magic changed. Pandora said Tedd would retain his ability to see how magic spells worked and share spells with others (and he would also retain other abilities). However I believe spells and abilities are different in this context, and I didn't see anything about him retaining the use of the spells he's learned after a change. I'm fairly certain that when magic changes, all old spells will become ineffective, so a new wand enchanted with an old spell would be just as ineffective as an old wand. Tedd might be able to reproduce the effects of spells from the old system in the new system with enough work, but first he'd need to figure out how the new system worked and modify the old spells to fit with the new system. (Much like how programs usually need to be modified if you want to use them on a different operating system than they were designed for.)

I had forgotten that was the spell Tedd put on his first "proper" wand. That's convenient... Almost a little too convenient. With an author with a more traditional storytelling style, I'd be almost sure that was a Chekhov's Gun. Of course that wand probably won't be of much use when (if) Magic changes, so there's still a chance of Tedd accidentally winding up with his default form stuck at female for a while...

I still read that as their insight coming from their knowledge and experience... Though I suppose the "clairvoyance" may partially be a result of their power. Either way, I think they'd need to abandon most of their memories to get rid of enough of the insight to be safe from the boredom and instability. I forgot to mention in my earlier post that Pandora will need to get rid of her power too. I thought that was just a requirement of resetting, but rereading that comic I now see it would probably also be necessary to get rid of the clairvoyance. Reading that strip again raised a new question for me: Jerry said to reset properly he needed to gather all of his power. Do Magic Marks count as part of an immortal's power? Sure, Susan was still able to use her mark after Helen and Demetrius reset, but they didn't reset properly. If the marks do count, Pandora has the choice of taking the marks away from a lot of people (something many of them will not be happy about), or not resetting properly. If Pandora does have to undo the magic marks, I hope Tedd is in his male form right now, or he'll have to use the TFG (or his watches or some other "wand") regularly if he wants to keep his public identity "male".

Comparing the two versions of the comic, I think I prefer the first. I figured out everything in the first panel on my own, so seeing it all be spelled out in such a wordy fashion reminds me of those poorly done Anime dubs that feel the need to constantly explain the obvious, as well as fill up any silent moments with talking. The shadows to emphasize Susan's figure are probably necessary, as having people think Susan is still a kid is really not good under the circumstances, but I do mourn the loss of "realism". I really hope that if Dan does another Goonmanji, he goes over the play-through details thoroughly looking for errors before he starts writing. While Dan has been able to write around them so far, I worry that Dan might run into a error that's not so easy to write around. Also, back when he moved Ashley's piece the wrong number of spaces, Ashley's justifications for her choices didn't feel as natural in the revised version as the original, so even if Dan does come up with a last-minute solution, it's not necessarily going to be as good as if he had discovered the mistake early enough to replay the affected sections (or at least take his time thinking of a fix).

As Kazellin alluded to, there can be a delay of up to a minute before the reset occurs. I'm assuming that the count only started when she actually intervened. This comic reads to me like the events only took a few seconds, most of that in the last two panels. So she could still have almost a minute left. (My guess is she'll have at least most of one strip, maybe even close to two strips, depending on how the comic is paced and if she gets her full minute.) I wonder if Pandora can use her magic to write super fast, and/or divide her attention enough to write while keeping an eye on the battle? I'm imagining her writing a letter to him (not necessarily a long one, but saying more than she could in a minute) at some point between when she noticed the Aberrations and when she had to stop Scarf. The insanity is connected to her ability to predict things, which I believe comes from her vast knowledge and experience. This means she'll need to loose most of her memories. Of course, Immortals always keep some of their memories when they reset properly, and I think Pandora will be aiming to keep a bit more than most do (including many memories of Adrien, and enough knowledge of Tedd and Sarah to pick up where she left off with them). Referring back to this strip again, Pandora seems to expect to have a different personality; apparently that's normal and she's willing to accept that so long as she remains "herself", though she doesn't exactly spell out what would be enough for her to consider it still herself. She'll definitely want to keep her emotional attachments (she's said as much), but I wouldn't be surprised if the nature of those attachments changed somewhat. For instance, if she acknowledges that at least in some ways she's a new person, she might think of Adrian more like a brother or close uncle rather than her son.

One possibility is that she is powerful enough to resist the reset, but chooses to merely modify the reset instead. More likely she doesn't have enough power to completely resist, and doesn't know if she can pull off refreshing, but is going to try anyway. It's also important to note that Pandora's greatest asset isn't magical strength, it's how intelligent she is. Altering how the reset works is probably not so much a matter of brute force but careful modification of the reset magic; all she needs is an idea of what to change and just enough power to make those changes. And it's not necessarily with no preparation; she's had most of the day to think about what to do and start getting ready. Granted, that's not much time, but it's better than nothing. ...A new thought: I wonder what Voltair was hoping to happen here? I think it would be pretty cool if he expected her to resist the reset and thus force the Immortals to gather together to re-asses both their laws and how to enforce them, only to have those plans dashed when she accepts the reset. (Whatever he expects, I hope it's not what he gets; there are some villains I'll root for up to a point, but Voltair is the sort of villain I much prefer seeing being thwarted.)

If Susan was still in Kid form, I'd think the "Jail" referred to "jailbait". As she seems to have regained her normal age, though, the only thing I can think of is maybe the Police card has mental effects, including throwing references to law enforcement into your speech. (Or Susan could just be joking around, but it doesn't look like she would be in the mood for that.) I've had a hard time correctly predicting Dan recently, but I'll try again anyway. I think the reason Police canceled out Kid is because it's specifically a sexy police costume, and rather than have the costume be modified for Kid, Hanma just had the costume override Kid. Seeing as Susan didn't know it was a sexy outfit, though, I don't know why Susan would have expected Police to replace Kid. (She could have simply forgotten the rules, but then it's quite a coincidence that it actually worked out.) I'm also still hoping for an explanation for why Hanma made almost all the outfits so far sexy, but not Nurse.

I agree with what Critter Keeper said; this was the bullet Sirleck dodged, which means Pandora didn't kill all of the Aberrations in the world, just in the area (possibly even just those in the mall). As for Pandora's reset, whether or not she is capable of fighting it, I expect Pandora to go along with the reset - she was planning on resetting soon anyway. However, even with what little time she has left I expect her tell Adrian he's fathered children, and to try to make it her reset a refresh.

Except that when the monsters are good at hiding, their numbers are unknown, and new ones can be born at any time, there's really no good way to kill all of them (or to know if you got them all). And if the ones that survive know you're hunting them, you just made yourself and your family that much more of a target. Also, you're much more likely to find something if you're hunting for it - and even for a Hunter any encounter with an Aberration is a chance for them to kill you. Those who hunt Aberrations, evil magic users, and other "monsters" are doing a public service. But if the goal is the safety of oneself and one's family, the best option is to be ready for anything, but not to go looking for trouble.

I'm not sure if that "Cowgirl!" is supposed to be what the card is, or what the end result is on Ashley. Ashley doesn't actually read the card out loud, and whenever Dan or Hanma talk about it, they say "Cow Form" (at least, in the handful of strips and commentaries I bothered to check; I could have missed something). Still, if it was specifically a "cowgirl" form that would solve the problem. As for "busty", it wouldn't necessarily have to change the sex of male-bodied players; men can have breasts. On the other hand, Dan does like his sex-change TFs, so I could see him using the card as an excuse for one...

It does seems a little out of character for Hanma. The only thing I can think of is this game isn't supposed to be just for girls. If the card was specifically "sexy nurse", finding a male equivalent to the typical sexy nurse outfit might be hard; this way either gender can wear the same thing. (Though that theory does raise the question of how certain other cards would work on a guy. Would the busty card result in man undergoing a sex-change or just a busty man? And what sort of effect would the "+ 1" to "attract" have on a cow guy (the first thing that comes to my mind would really be more appropriate for a horse)?)

First of all, I don't think it's a matter of conventional weapons always beating magic, so much as they're equally effective in the hands of a skilled or lucky user. As far as Susan goes, she's never been hunted before, so everything in her chest was just a precaution. She probably never saw the need to have a gun before. Also, a lot of people are uncomfortable about owning guns or having them around; Susan may not want a gun, or she may know that she'll get in a lot of trouble if her mother realizes she has one. Finally, why would Aberrations want to raze Moperville to the ground? This particular group are hired assassins, and their contract encouraged them to limit how many people they killed besides the target. And Moperville isn't exactly the only place where Hunters and other magic users live, so it's not like they could kill off all their enemies by blowing up Moperville.

I don't know if it's different with another accent, but in my accent, noise and toys rhyme. Dan even called it a poem in the commentary.

Really fun poem, and I love Scarf's grin in panel five. As an added bonus, we have technology triumphing over magic, which is a theme I'm always a fan of. ...Wait, I seem to be forgetting something... Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be rooting for Pandora's team, including her son! ... Oh *bleep*. This could be bad.

Well, I'm no layer, but based on what I've read, if a main character was regularly using a functional weapon that looked like a Phaser and was called a Phaser, it would be copyright infringement. As EGS is a for-profit work of fiction, I believe Fair Use would only come into play if the story/stories the Phaser appeared in was/were parody. (Of course, whether Paramount/CBS would ever find out, or care enough to sue is another question. EGS is relatively obscure after all, and companies sometimes let people get away with little things like this.)

So Ashley did put her clothes back on, and there wasn't even a joke or big reveal about it. I guess our not being able to see much of Ashley the last couple of strips was coincidence after all. (This is probably the third or fourth time I've been wrong in my predictions regarding the comic in the last few weeks. I'm not quite sure what to make of this; usually I'm pretty good at predicting where things are going in fiction. True, Dan doesn't fall into standard tropes as often as most writers, but I don't think he's surprised me this much in a long time. Either Dan's writing is more unpredictable than usual, or I've been making too many predictions lately.) In theory Skunks don't smell bad, they just spray other animals with a foul perfume. This is just speculation, but I suspect that when they spray others they may sometimes get some of the scent on themselves as well. Of course, they try not to spray when they can avoid it, so most skunks would still smell fine most of the time. So perhaps instead of Repel, the game mechanic should have been that when a player lands on the same space as her she could "spray" them and cause them to back off several spaces (and maybe then the sprayed person would have a temporary Repel effect...).

Perhaps more importantly, they might not be happy with Dan making use of an item from Star Trek as more than a quick gag.

So apparently Koala isn't that much of a coward, he just didn't want to face Raven. Either that or he has a grudge against Susan after the first time she hit him with a hammer. ...And, another starburst background in panel three. Yay. She can't summon another Sword right now, as Dan states in the commentary: So she's currently unable to kill any vampires whether she wants to or not, besides, she's already killed one in this battle so that should negate the question of her being squeamish. It also might be a matter of strategy. With the caped dragon she stunned it first then struck the finishing blow, and she could be following a similar strategy here. She might have some other more deadly weapon she can summon now as well (like that axe she used on her first vampire back in France), but being more familiar with the hammers wanted to stun Koala first before she attempted the harder-for-her task of killing him.

Huh, I was so busy looking at Diane's shirt (the blue really stands out against her white gi) I barely even noticed the background until now. Either that dojo has a very strange choice of wallpaper, or we're seeing the triumphant return of the bubbly background of attraction. Personally, I prefer the old flowery backgrounds, but it's still a nice touch. Yay for bubbly background!

Well, if you look at the previous strip, all the players seem to be in the same positions they were in before (with Ashley across the board from Susan). Also, it's hard to be sure of anything in fourth panel of the 27th's strip, but we don't see her collar in that panel and it looks to me like we should. And I don't see why she would have taken the collar off unless she was taking everything off. Also, if she really hasn't put her clothes back on, one would assume part of the reason is the discomfort of wearing clothing over fur; shoes themselves probably wouldn't be a problem, but unless they're fairly loose socks would probably be among the more uncomfortable articles of clothing to wear over fur.

My guess for what the Skunk's effect are is (as someone suggested on Patreon) that it is (game mechanically speaking) the reverse of attract. If going in the default direction would cause the player to move closer to Susan, they'd go the other way instead. I suppose that's possible. If so, I hope it's directly called out next strip. (Actually, come to think of it, it's interesting that players are able to use more cards than they need to.) For one thing I find it somewhat suspicious that all the other players and/or their pieces are seen in this strip. Perhaps more importantly, if panel 1 had had a background, from that angle we'd likely be seeing at least some of her (at least one knee and the other foot if she's sitting cross-legged, maybe more). Granted it's not proof Dan's continuing the whole "make it unclear if Ashley is wearing clothes" thing past the Dec 27th strip, but it's more evidence - and I thought the 29th's strip was pretty strong evidence on its own.