ChronosCat

Another thought: When Susan says she wants to look in the mirror because of "curiosity", I suspect she actually means "Curiosity". Or at least that's going to be my head-canon. Under normal circumstances I'd agree with this completely. However, the non-canon versions of the characters seem more uninhibited than the canon ones (well, except for Ashely; I suspect this is normal for her) and I think as she gets into the game Susan is lowering her inhibitions even more. Ashley's invitation was pretty open ended. This being Susan she'd probably want to make completely sure before hand, but I'm betting the other three wouldn't mind her watching while Rhoda and Catalina pet Ashley, and under the circumstances I wouldn't put it past Susan to do so.

Why does she need a parent figure? Zeus didn't need anyone to raise him. Just because Box chose to look like a child wouldn't mean she was any more immature than any other newly reset Immortal.

If by "natural" you mean humans with stone-age technology, yes. (Seeing hominids have been using tools since before homo sapiens evolved, a human culture without any tools would be unnatural.) However, developing and using tools, and adapting to new environments and situations is part of human nature. So really, modern technology and society isn't all that unnatural for humanity. At any rate, people who are well off and are safe and secure enough to reasonably expect their children to make it to adulthood tend to have fewer children. So the solution to the problem of overpopulation is to spread wealth out more evenly and improve living conditions for as many people as possible. It probably has, we just haven't heard anything from them in a long time (probably because Dan's focus is on Magic and Immortals now, not aliens and other sci-fi themes). I wonder if Tedd has had any visits from them off panel since the last time the readers saw them?

I'm talking about both. Tedd's sex at birth was male, but his gender has always been fluid (and now thanks to the TFG and Pandora's mark, her sex can change too).

As far as I know, Dan hasn't elaborated on that yet. Having a bit of a delay would allow the player to spend some time in their final form and still have all the transformations end when the game does. I think the way I would do it would be after a player reaches 8 points, give the other players one more round to knock that player's points back below 8. If they fail, the game ends and the player in question wins. If they succeed, the game continues until someone else is able to hang on to 8 points for a round. While I don't want to see the game end any time soon, I am looking forward to finding out how Dan handles it.

After a few minutes of research consisting of skimming one Wikipedia article, I can't find any evidence that there is currently anywhere where it is illegal for second cousins to marry. However, there are places where first cousins once removed cannot marry, and the Eastern Orthodox Church does not allow second cousin marriages. As for the idea that such marriages are frowned upon, upon further reflection I don't have any evidence for that, just a general impression. That said, I suspect some people will frown upon any relationship where both parties can trace their linage back to a common ancestor. Heck some fans of the Archie Sonic comic objected to Knuckles and Julie-Su hooking up because Knuckles' 14th great-grandfather and Julie-Su's 2nd great-grandfather were brothers (I think that makes them 4th cousins 12 times removed) (there was an alternate reality where time moved at a different rate involved).

It could be her, but without seeing her face it's hard to say. The possibility never even occurred to me before today, and if Dan ever said anything about it I missed it.

So, I've been studying the board and the player's points, and as of Susan's next turn, she'll have the possibility of winning if she lands on a 3-space and has the cards to buy it. And of course there are a few different ways she could win in two rounds. Meanwhile, if Ashley can buy whatever space she lands on in her next turn, then the round after that she'll also have the possibility of winning depending on what space she lands on and what cards she has. (EDIT: Of course, all of this assumes no one lands on one of Susan or Ashley's spaces and takes it away from them, which would result in the player loosing the space to loose the corresponding points as well.) Speaking of buying a space to win the game, I wonder if the winning player will need to stay in their final form for a little while? With all the other transformations lasting at least until the next player's turn, it doesn't seem fair to win the game by accepting a transformation only to have it undone a second later because the game is over.

I thought that might be the case, which is why I asked, In addition, looking over the thread again, I see that I was reading a bit too fast, and thought some statements were supposed to be related to one another when they probably weren't.

Well, yes, I figured that much out. I just don't see how that has anything to do with the child of Nanase and Ellen having a child with the child of Tedd and Grace.

But what does that have to do with the disguise Raven created for Grace looking like Susan? Or did the conversation move on from that point? Also, the children of Tedd and Grace would be second cousins of the children of Ellen and Nanase. Marriage between them may or may not be legal depending on where they live, but in much of the US it would be frowned upon. Let me try again. Tedd was designated male at birth, but is gender-fluid.

It never occurred to me it might be set at the college one or more of the cast was going to; I just figured it was some random sorority Pandora snuck into in the "present day" (probably weeks or months before Sister III). Also, I'm pretty sure that like NP the Pinups aren't canon unless Dan specifically says they are.

O_O I was completely unprepared for the possibility Susan might be okay with the form. In fact, I still don't entirely believe it. I'm sure everything she says is true, but I strongly suspect she's being nice to make Ashley feel better seeing as Ashley's clearly distressed. Obviously she disliked the ditzy and furry cards more than she let on, so there's an element of "this is better than the form I was in" too, but that doesn't mean she actually likes the form. Finally, after all of those transformations (both to herself and those around her) in such a short time, her tolerance for transformation is probably higher than usual; if she was zapped into that form without warning outside the game* I still think she'd be pretty upset about it. Oh, and anyone paying close enough attention knew this was coming: Yay for starburst backgrounds in panels one and four! * Or if someone else had transformed her early in the game before she'd had a chance to transform herself.

Dan specifically says in the description that's a disguise. (Also, what makes you think that's set after her reset?)

Well, at least this Aberration doesn't look silly. I'm fairly sure it's the latter. As for Zeus resenting Jerry, it's a lot like children and teenagers resenting the rules their parents set for them. Hopefully, when he's a bit older he'll realize those rules helped prevent him from doing something he would have regretted, and he'll be thankful for them. (At least, I've heard such things can happen; personally I didn't have a problem with most of my parents' rules a young child, then as a teen I just ignored the rules I didn't agree with.) But that line turned out to not be entirely true. Tedd may have male parts between his legs in his default form, but mentally she's gender fluid.

I remember that. The most tedious part of that sequence was reading all of the complaints in the forums about the pacing. I did find the title "Trapped in the Basement" amusing, though. Edit: One thing I discovered during my time away from the forums is that the comic's pacing works a lot better if you wait a few weeks between reading the comic, then read everything you missed at once. Of course, that's not exactly conductive to commenting on the comics in the reaction threads... I'm guessing the "they" is the other Immortals (or perhaps some sort of ruling council of Immortals if they have such a thing). Perhaps he wants to convince them to change Immortal Law to be less restrictive and allow more interference in human affairs? As to why the other Immortals would care about magic changing, it affecting how magic works for them too would be the most obvious explanation.

While we're on the topic of Pandora's reset, I wanted to mention I'm really hoping that when she does reset, her "Box" (little girl) form becomes her default form. Not only would I hate to see that form go, but it would help signify the fact that she's young again.

I wonder just how common Elves are? What if Adrian is the only one alive, and there haven't been any other Elves since the knowledge was suppressed? Alternately, if there have only been a handful since that time, the female ones could have all died young or decided to be celibate (though that would be quite the coincidence). Then there's more paranoid theories like someone actively hunting down and killing Elves before they can reproduce, though that would require someone willing to gain the wrath of Immortal parents... Which leads to the thought, maybe there's a personal reason why some Immortals seem so intent on hunting down Aberrations...

My guess would be that the transformation actually "rises"; this would sort-of explain why Ashley's hair (and to a lesser extent Susan's hair) is lifted up. Susan's breasts likely look the way they do because the panel has captured things just as they start to fall back down again.

You might have something there. When Catalina bought the space she and Rhoda were on by transforming Rhoda, Rhoda's piece got down on her hands and knees. I had thought that was just it acting dog-like, but it would also be consistent with your idea of only the owner of the space getting to stand there. (On the other hand, Rhoda's piece is still on hands and knees despite owning her current space.)

He might not think Susan and Diane are descendents of Raven - he might think they're descended from relatives of Blaike. Alternately, he might "know" that Elves can't have children, but be more willing than Pandora was to think that bit of info is wrong.

I was more focused on Susan and her piece at first, but now this is starting to bug me. Why is Catalina's piece in a "begging" position in this strip? She's not even in dog form anymore! (For that matter, in the strip from the 15th, the piece is kneeling, which I also don't really get, unless it's an unusual way of showing her appreciation for Susan's transformation.)

<bored voice>Yay for starburst-of-shouting-something-you-wanted-to-keep-secret in panel six.</bored voice> (I mean, I like special backgrounds and effects, but couldn't Dan throw in a few other things besides starbursts?) My guess is that if Susan (or Raven or Diane) is in danger of dying, Pandora intends to step in and deal with the vampires even if it means breaking Immortal Law. ...Of course, if she's forced to reset that's going to put a damper on explaining everything...

Okay, so let's start with the formalities: Yay for starburst backgrounds of transformation in panels 2 and 4! Now that that's over with, I have to say, I'm a little disappointed the card only switched their transformations, not their appearances. On the other hand, if it had we wouldn't be able to compare how the same transformations manifest on different characters. I'm pleasantly surprised to see that Dan actually designed different furry fox faces for Susan and Ashley, rather than just having one generic furry fox face. I also didn't expect to like the cow-girl look on Susan as much as I did on Ashley, but actually it looks pretty good on Susan too. ...Not that I expect Susan to feel the same way. She was really taken off guard by Ashely's choice to use the Switch card. (Plus, her "What?" is before the switch takes place.)

Yeah, I don't think Susan's going to be too happy about this. For her sake, hopefully Susan'll get a reset card or an animal-form card she likes better, or lands on a space she owns (which also allows you to remove transformations) fairly soon. I do wonder however whether this is merely "exchange transformations" or a full "exchange appearance" (i.e., the visual effects of "body swap" achieved through transformation rather than moving minds/souls). That could be fun.