ChronosCat

It's confirmed, Ellen was able to fight back because she's just that awesome. Er, I mean because she was born from magic. (And yes technically it's just speculation in-comic, but the commentary implies she's right about the "born from magic" idea.)
Meanwhile, Sirleck looks even more creepy than usual in the last two panels, but a lot less imposing. Seen from that angle, he looks like the sort of JRPG monster you can beat in two or three turns at most if you're the proper level for the area. ...Which is rather appropriate since I expect Magus is about to trounce him.

If Elliot's current curse, as interpreted by the Diamond, is being possessed by Magus, then - the unmodified effect - of touching the Diamond would be:
1) A copy of Elliot that
1a) is permanently possessed by Magus,
1b) and can cause other people to be possessed by Magus
AND
2) A copy of Elliot that is can turn "I am possessed by Magus" on and off at will.
I can't see why either Elliot or Magus would consider #1b or #2 desirable.
For that matter, #1a doesn't seem particularly good from Magus' perspective. He doesn't want to possess someone else, he wants his own body. He wants just a copy of Elliot's body, not a complete copy of Elliot's body mind and soul.
But Magus said he intends to modify the effect of the Diamond - possibly shattering the object in the process. And he is a reasonably powerful (and at least somewhat educated) magic-user, in his own world. Perhaps he succeeds in producing different effects.
----
As for the comment of Susan's fairydoll spell looking a lot like Nanase's: that's because Nanase made all the inanimate fairydolls that Susan put in her marked box and summons magical copies of.

It's confirmed, Ellen was able to fight back because she's just that awesome. Er, I mean because she was born from magic. (And yes technically it's just speculation in-comic, but the commentary implies she's right about the "born from magic" idea.)
Meanwhile, Sirleck looks even more creepy than usual in the last two panels, but a lot less imposing. Seen from that angle, he looks like the sort of JRPG monster you can beat in two or three turns at most if you're the proper level for the area. ...Which is rather appropriate since I expect Magus is about to trounce him.

It's confirmed, Ellen was able to fight back because she's just that awesome. Er, I mean because she was born from magic. (And yes technically it's just speculation in-comic, but the commentary implies she's right about the "born from magic" idea.)
Meanwhile, Sirleck looks even more creepy than usual in the last two panels, but a lot less imposing. Seen from that angle, he looks like the sort of JRPG monster you can beat in two or three turns at most if you're the proper level for the area. ...Which is rather appropriate since I expect Magus is about to trounce him.

It's confirmed, Ellen was able to fight back because she's just that awesome. Er, I mean because she was born from magic. (And yes technically it's just speculation in-comic, but the commentary implies she's right about the "born from magic" idea.)
Meanwhile, Sirleck looks even more creepy than usual in the last two panels, but a lot less imposing. Seen from that angle, he looks like the sort of JRPG monster you can beat in two or three turns at most if you're the proper level for the area. ...Which is rather appropriate since I expect Magus is about to trounce him.

He's free! After all these years, Magus is free!

Just keep in mind that kids with actual, documented disorders have a notoriously difficult time getting them recognized and getting the services they need.  I find it a lot more likely that the district was deliberately obstructive and derelict in their duties to kids with genuine need, in order to avoid having to pay a dime more than the state would cover.  When the state raised the percent they'd cover, there were plenty of needy kids waiting, so of course they were able to meet the new limit -- and if the state hadn't had such a low limit, there were many more kids who should have gotten services who were denied strictly for budgetary reasons.
Honestly, which do you think is more likely -- that there's a vast conspiracy between the school district and hundreds of doctors to convince thousands of parents that their kids have disorders they don't really have, or that the state and the district are too cheap and/or financially strapped to pay for services for every kid who should get them, and simply refuse to acknowledge any more of them than they think they can afford?

Arthur wouldn't have had time to get extra agents to the facility, but he might have had time to make a quick call to the security guard. That might explain the lights being on (and would probably mean there are other things different from usual, perhaps some security spells active that wouldn't normally be), but it doesn't explain why there's no car. Unless the security guard's response to the news that the old artifacts were active was to get the heck out of there...

If Inger Støjberg got sacked, kicked out of Parliament and sent down to Den Haag to stand trial for crimes against humanity, I would party for at least a week. But I freely admit I wouldn't expect the American populace to care very much.
Because antidepressants have nothing whatsoever to do with happiness. That is sheer superstition. It is medication prescribed for a biochemical imbalance in the brain that causes depression. It allows those who suffer from clinical depression (such as me) to operate at a level much closer to normal. It takes the edge off the worst depressive episodes so I, for example, don't actively contemplate suicide. What it doesn't do is make me happy. In order to be happy, I need something in my life that would, say, make people who AREN'T subject to depression happy.

Still another way of putting it is that she flooded Ellen with an entire lifetime of memories without her informed consent, which however well intentioned can still only be classified as a violation of her mind and spirit.

I just realised that Voltaire is not even nearly as smart as he thought he was. He had hoped that magic's change would do away with the current crop of magicians. But if it had indeed changed, the doomsday scenario Tedd and the other seers foresaw would have happened and magic would have had to become permanent shortly after -- with two systems loose instead of one. So Voltaire's master plan to render humanity helpless by traumatising Tedd would, had it worked, instead armed the mortals with a hell of a lot bigger arsenal.

That's nothing, through most of the 60s and early 70s (and again in the early 90s and early 00s) Godzilla had roughly one adventure a year! (Well, technically the 80s/90s Godzilla movies were set in an alternate universe from the 50s-70s sequels, and the movies since then have been divided amongst a bunch of different universes, but those first two Godzillas still had long periods with little rest.)
Of course, the long dormant monster awoken by the construction might actually be a different monster... Which would actually mean twice the destruction, as Godzilla almost always shows up to defend his territory when a rival monster attacks Japan.

Nah. He is saying that he is old and only returned to solve this particular crisis. Since the situation has now developed beyond the time where it is 'solvable', he intends to retire again and allow younger people with a fresh point of view to take over. As to who gets to be his replacement, my vote goes to Agent Cranium.
As to the speculation about who could possibly be Van's father, please do not be ridiculous. There is only one possible candidate to fill the position.

Oh, man, now I'm picturing the look on Sarah's face when she tries to cast her spell and it doesn't work.  She'll know it means either the blockage is gone, or at least that she's cleared away enough magic that it can be removed, and she won't be able to use magic any more.  And then when she first hears that Pandora/Box is "dead"....
Yes, this is the DGB, in a comic written by someone who was barely able to kill two characters so far, one of them totally evil and the other only just introduced a couple of comics beforehand.  Dan is not writing that kind of story.
Um....wow.  What can I say, except that your head is a scary place to live.

That depends on the interpretation of "can"...
Is physically capable of? Yes, he certainly CAN say no. For that matter, at present the job offer is conditional, and he could very easily just fail to meet the conditions - thus, no job offer. By, for example, NOT arranging his notes into a suitable format and sending Arthur a copy. Heck, it's theoretically possible he'll TRY to meet those conditions, and fail. (I so do not see that happening.)
And if he decides he doesn't want to work under DGB, no they can't force him. Do they want to try? Maybe kidnap or threaten Grace? Yeah... bring in a genius researcher and seer by convincing him that you're evil and the enemy of what he holds dear. Anger his friends and relatives - they would definitely be concerned about Nanase, Elliot, Ellen, and Edward, possibly about Susan, Sarah, and Justin. Anger Grace's friends and relatives - her three brothers, Edward (again), Vladia, Hedge, Guineas, Raven. They'd all chat with THEIR friends and relatives - Catalina, Diane, Rhoda, Noah, Luke (and, through him, his circle), Mamase (I think she's still keeping significant secrets), Greg, Agent Wolf, Agent Cranium... I don't know how it might spread from there, or how much of that potential growth DGB would be aware of, but it seriously doesn't sound like a good idea to me.
Different interpretation: can Tedd seriously consider saying no? There, I doubt it. It's too good a deal - he gets paid (probably well) to do what he wants to do anyway, he gets equipment and assistance he can't afford on his own, he would have access to (and the necessary contacts to find) whatever relevant expertise DGB may have available which might allow him to get significant results faster...

Warning! Incoherent rambling ahead! Possibly uncomfortable and raw on feelings. I started writing this last night but never finished. Tried to pick it up and finish it today but failed to beat the rambling into something readable, so I'm posting it as is...
Oh, there may be some who feel uncomfortable by the use of words like "freak" and "normal". The thing is that neither of these are absolutes, but both are things that a lot of people use in their mind when comparing themselves to those around them. For some being a freak means getting turned on by shoes, for others it might be wanting to have sex with bicycles, but only those with a "ladies" frame. Or it might be that you feel that being gay is enough that you label yourself as a freak. I'm not saying that it's healthy, but it certainly is way more common than it should be.
I've tried to read through it to make sure there aren't any really bad triggers, but I may have missed them. If you find anything really objectionable then drop a PM and I'll see if I can rework that part or I'll delete it all if necessary. Or you can just ask a moderator to nuke the post if it's that bad.
I know I had some idea I thought was important when I started writing this, but now I'n not certain I managed to communicate it in this text...
Just because she likes to play a some what risky game with her friends it doesn't mean she's suddenly some kind of sex fiend.
She probably figured out that she's a "freak" at a very early age. Discovering that you are different from the "norm" can be quite hard on a kid. There are a lot of us here on this board that has gone through this, and a lot of posts has been written about how that has influenced our lives.
We have yet to learn anything about Ashley's parents. Most parents want their kids to be successful and fit into society, and usually this means they should be "normal", because that's what their parents taught them. It's easy to hurt someone unintentionally by assuming that your "normal" is going to fit all. At the same time you should not assume that any time someone is claiming something you consider part of the "normal" range to be abnormal they are doing so because they hate you. There are so many ways to deviate from any definition of "normal" you are likely to run into that it's almost bound to happen to all of us, even those who consider themselves cis normal heterosexual.
What we've seen of Ashley she seems well adjusted and outgoing. She doesn't seem to have many issues with her sexual orientation or gender. She has said she consider herself somewhat bisexual, and she's had fantasies about gender swapping and transformation of herself as well as of others. Of these only the part about being bisexual might have caused much of a negative reaction from others as the transformation and gender swapping are just fantasies as far as most know.
However even if her parents and close friends might not be bothered by her sexuality it's likely she's had enough people react negatively that she's taken to keeping that to her self only trusting close friends and potential boy or girl friends about it.
Secrets like these, as small and unimportant as some of them may seem, can easily cause a kid to classify itself as somewhat of a "freak", and that can put a damper on things like dating or even socializing with people they find themselves attracted to. In Ashley's case it can be as simple as her feeling that she doesn't want to have to choose between a girlfriend an a boyfriend, but that she want it all. Polyamory may be a hurdle for a youth trying to fit in and it's not certain that it would be the right thing for Ashley. Add bisexuality and it doesn't get easier. Now she's met Elliot, and it all started with her seeing him transform into a woman. Elliot ticks off some boxes in Ashley's spec sheet that no one else she's met could touch. Elliot can be both boyfriend and girlfriend without the need for a poly amorous relationship. This probably lowers the threshold significantly.
Her previous relationship was probably not something she went into wholeheartedly. I doubt she told him about her possible bisexuality or wishing she could have both a girlfriend and a boyfriend. She wanted to fit in with the rest of society and she needed to find out if she could be happy in a classical Boy / Girl relationship. Now she had the bad luck of hooking up with a manipulative jerk.
This time she met someone that fit her preferences way better, someone who is genuinely nice, and who is surrounded by family and friends that many would consider weirder freaks than her. Add that she has learned that magic is a real thing, that transformation isn't confined to comic's and fairy tales and suddenly sharing her fantasies and wishes with these new friends feels safe. Exhibitionism might or might not turn her on. Having wardrobe malfunctions in a game about transformations doesn't necessarily mean it's about sex or being sexy. It could just be another part of the game, and for what it's worth they are not likely to look much like themselves at any time after the game has started.

I think that's broadly right, but trying to figure out how Tedd's statement could have been better phrased I think I figured out what she really meant. The term "rules" has been used in this chapter and on the forums as shorthand for "set of rules" (or at least that's how I interpreted it), but I think when Tedd says "if the rules were all ideal" what she meant was "if each individual rule was set to it's individual ideal setting".
So adjusting the rules of magic is sort of like when you're adjusting the colors on a picture; you don't want all the colors at max or you'll wind up with solid white, or at minimum as that'll be black, and keeping everything in the middle doesn't change anything. (Another example that comes to mind is adjusting the sound on a sound system / program that allows you to play around with multiple characteristics of the sound.)

I'd much rather something like Incarnations of Immortality, where magic and technology work equally well, with no cross-interference.

Tedd could produce one-day transformation wands with pointed ears, cat ears, cat whiskers, puppy tail, green skin, etc. (just one small transformation per wand) for vaccination purposes....we could have play groups with every grade-school child showing a different trivial transformation.

Greater power causing a person to see those without power as less significant is something that happens in humans as well, but only when empathy is lacking or missing all together, and there are examples of Immortals at the end of their life showing empathy. Pandora certainly did, at least when she was putting forth the effort to keep her mind coherent, and I would argue that Jerry should quite a lot of empathy towards people. Even when he made the hammer to encourage inappropriate comments(which was done when he was considerable younger), it was due to guilt from women being offended by the comments.
I doubt power is the reason for Magic's thinking and difficulty with humans as much as perspective. Every piece of magical energy across the globe is apart of the same gestalt entity. It is simultaneously a single entity, a collective of countless number, and an empty set. It doesn't perceive the world like humans do. The solid, singular, squishy bags of water that are humans are just as alien to Magic as Magic is to them.
Magic required the Seers to convince it not to make major changes, because the cycle of change and secrecy had persisted for thousands of years, since the dawn of man. It simply didn't understand why this time would be any different. Sure the world was more crowded, but from Magic's perspective that wasn't really a significant difference. The same basic patterns, just more of them. The major thing that was different this time was technology, more specifically the internet, which was something Magic had little to no knowledge of. Without that important context, the argument that secrecy is doomed to fail seems illogical. That's why Magic said the logic was insufficient. The logic it was presented simply didn't add up from its perspective.

Well, that answers the question of if people can use their own transformation magic in-game. With that one detail Hanma has shown more foresight than the creator of the original Goonmanji game. (Incidentally, my head-canon is that the Shop-Troll was both the creator of the original Goonmanji game and Hanma's previous incarnation.)
And now to the real reason I'm making this post: Yay for starburst background in panel two, and smoke-and-starburst background in panel three! (Interesting there's so much smoke again. I thought the last time it was just because it was a genie transformation, but apparently not. Maybe Dan felt like trying out something new? Or maybe the board's overheating and starting to smoulder; I hope someone has a fire-extinguisher handy...)

I'm really hoping Tedd has more to add to this, because at the moment if I were the WoM, I'd be questioning if humans can be trusted to handle magic at all and decide to make even more drastic a change based on that.

Silly map-maker.  Should have used blue for Prussia!

Didn't we already said this? Anyway, seems pretty likely to me as well.
Well, maybe he IS too young. What do you think he would be able to do if Arthur and Tedd both decided for reset?
Probably not, and the explanation would be that seer powers are not spell.
I would totally agree with it except one thing: I don't think Voltaire KNOWS about Lord Tedd or all the details necessary for his plan to succeed. But, yes, Lord Tedd would be what he wanted ... and possibly what alternative Voltaire in THAT universe wanted and got.
Also, remember what Pandora almost called Elliot? I mean, she only said he's Tedd's-- ... but I'm sure whatever the missing word was, it was referring to his role as LordTeddPreventer.
(Also, yes ; Nanase would never get into Tedd's inner circle if not for quite improbable sequence of events involving Susan and Ellen. And the Goo sent by Lord Tedd ...)
I totally understand anyone who just put cloak over comfortable clothing. Especially if that person have lot of magic and the comfortable clothing is clearly made in high-industrial society. Also, would YOU tell the Archmage he dresses funny?
 

Watched the opening ceremony.  Am I the only one who saw the first bit, where the lightning hits the bell in the center, saw it take on a bluish color with a couple of rows of lights at the top....and thought it looked like the TARDIS?