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      Welcome!   03/05/2016

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HarJIT

Story Comic for 2016 April 25th

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19 minutes ago, SeriousJupiter said:

Yes! Finally! Elliot should have listened to Tedd when he explained this to him months ago, but it doesn't matter anymore, he finally got there. Elliot has officially become 100% genderfluid and learned to love his girly spells. Heck, maybe this means that his power buildups are finally over too! I can't wait to see what his new spell is. Maybe a cat spell?

Personally, I think it makes as much sense for him and Ellen to be agender or nearly so. The preference for being one or the other sometimes could easily be wanting to experience things differently. 

He doesn't really seem to care about the girl vs boy part of it so much? It seems like what he likes about one or the other form has to do with things secondary to gender or the sex of the body: anonymity, feeling attractive in a particular way, gender roles (how people treat him/what people find acceptable), height/perspective, seeing more colors of red, everything cheerleadra...  Whereas Tedd seems to have a more basic need to specifically be a girl some of the time. He still enjoys much of the other stuff, but it doesn't seem to be the driving force.

I could be wrong, but I would put Eliot as agender, or agender to mildly genderfluid.

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Whew, first exam's done. Back to the internet for a while!

I imagine VWM is a sound and not a strange acronym, although i was a little confused by it being in a box.

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17 minutes ago, Duke of Pretzels said:
30 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

That's one thing I've never understood.  How do you get non-girly spells by making girly spells a part of who you are?

The way I understand it is that if you're a magic person, you periodically get new spells as you learn and grow, based on your needs. Elliot isn't inherently magical - he (or she, at this point in time) was made magic by an outside force (see sister, iirc ) which gave him the magic ability to change gender. He became more powerful, but wasn't happy with his spells, so his magic tried to modify the spell to make him happy with it - from girl form to full shapeshifting to a super form to alter egos, he got better and better variations on his ability to turn female. His magic would continue this pattern until his need to turn female was met, not understanding that he didn't want to be a girl. As of this comic, Elliott is happy to be a girl. Now, his magic will start to fill his other needs, having satisfied his initial, artificial need. 

Tedd theorized that Elliot's magic was flipped around by the Dewitchery Diamond, when Elliot awakened, even though the female morph spell wasn't a reflection of who he was, his magic thought it was, and it kept over thinking what spells Elliot should get, Elliot didn't want girly spells but his magic kept thinking he did. Elliot basically pulled reverse psychology on Magic. ;)

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2 minutes ago, liontari said:

Whew, first exam's done. Back to the internet for a while!

Is VWM an acronym or a sound? What does it stand for?

I hope your exam went well!

I think it's a sound, like "DM" here

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29 minutes ago, liontari said:

Whew, first exam's done. Back to the internet for a while!

I imagine VWM is a sound and not a strange acronym, although i was a little confused by it being in a box.

It's kind of an old joke on Dan's part. At some point he decided to declare War on Vowels and tried to see how many sound effects he could create that didn't have vowels in them. :cool:

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About first part of comics: Actually, it is pretty believable that his phone navigation doesn't have any better option. But, while the "cargo pants full of hardware" should only be done for testing, installing few more useful applications on your smartphone will be very good idea.

5 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

And considering he's just gotten some pretty strong reminders to read his spellbook, hopefully he'll find out about this pretty promptly.  :-)

Let's hope he will be interested in what the book says about him merging with phone.

4 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Is Elliot simply talking back to the GPS, talking to the voices inside the skull

Technically, both: the GPS navigation is likely voice in his skull now.

4 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:
4 hours ago, Circe said:

Is anyone else concerned that the title of the book is now "A Perfectly Normal Book"?

It could be that it's just the way the title has always been, and this is like the "Totally Human" t-shirt gag....but what if it means that the spell book is no longer a spell book, and Elliot is now stuck with only his current spells?

I want to think that Elliot's spellbook was always titled "A Perfectly Normal Book" and the final panel means Elliot got something new.

Definitely. Remember what was the title of Susan's spellbook.

3 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Elliot had to do the opposite of how he felt (i.e., he had to start liking girly spells) in order to get what he wanted (i.e., non-girly spells).

It wasn't "opposite" to anything. Magic simply assumed that the FV5 spell he got from the Dewitchery diamond is part of book's owner's personality.

2 hours ago, SeriousJupiter said:

Elliot should have listened to Tedd when he explained this to him months ago

He did. Changing how someone feels is not so easy.

2 hours ago, Scotty said:

Also from the commentary, I'm hoping Dan meant that he decided to not make this the last page in the story, cus I really want to see Elliot and Ashley end their date properly.

I read it as that the last page of the story will be the page he originally wanted to make now.

 

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5 hours ago, jmucchiello said:

So, 6-8 months from now (in comic time), Elliot will remember to look at his spellbook and see he has a new spell, right?

By then he'll look at the book and wonder when a bought an encyclopedia...

3 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:
4 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Actually that is just the short form of the title. The full title is "A Perfectly Normal Book And Not A Spellbook Full Of Profoundly Personal Magical Formulae That In Many Ways Reflect The Personality Of Its Owner."

Some of the formulae would have to reflect the opposite of the book's owner's personality, since Elliot had to do the opposite of how he felt (i.e., he had to start liking girly spells) in order to get what he wanted (i.e., non-girly spells). That is, assuming that the new spell doesn't turn him into a horse or something similar.

Maybe his book has decided now that girl mode is finally fixed, it's time to work on cat mode?

2 hours ago, Roborat said:

Someone forgot the dreaded: "Recalculating".

My phone tends to do that, right before it recommends back alleys and parking garages as 'efficient' routes... Stupid Apple...

 

2 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:
2 hours ago, Scotty said:

Obviously Elliot has a new spell by the way the page shows his spellbook and the link posted in the comment suggests that it should be a non-girly spell. Part of me however thinks that it could be a red herring, and while he does get a new spell based on his accepting that the girly spells he has are cool, cute and sexy, I wouldn't be surprised of the new spell upgrades the cat form into a catgirl form. Elliot probably couldn't care less at this point though. :D

That's one thing I've never understood.  How do you get non-girly spells by making girly spells a part of who you are?

Compensation for the other parts that are being neglected?

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4 hours ago, exterminator said:

A more fitting name would've been "The neverending story". That way Elliot could justify not reading it by saying the book "just goes on and on".:D

If you have both read and watched "The Neverending Story", then you probably think the movie is better. Mainly because the book just goes on and on. The movie covers about the first third, and stops at a good stopping point. The rest of the book, IMHO, has nothing to recommend it.

------------------------------

I've heard of - never encountered - GPS software where if you deviate from the route it plans for you, it works to get you back to the point where you left the planned route going in the right direction. Seems to me this would be extremely unhelpful in the event of a forced detour (construction, bridge out, road blocked by firetrucks, etc.) and would NEVER be BETTER than planning a new route from one's current location.

I once tried some GPS software that plans a route from your starting point to your destination, and has no provisions whatsoever for deviation - or even tracking where you are. It tells you a route from your starting point to your destination. Period. If you want something else, "end" that trip and start a new trip.

For Elliot's current method of travel, I think "walking" mode with intelligent handling of going off-route would be best (since there won't be a "flying without an aircraft" mode). Fortunately the GPS isn't smart enough to wonder how it is that he's walking 500 feet above ground at 80 MPH.

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2 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:

That's one thing I've never understood.  How do you get non-girly spells by making girly spells a part of who you are?

Magic was confused.  Because the first spell Elliot got was the one the Dewitchery Diamond gave him, ie turning into a girl, Magic thought that turning into a girl was *the* spell that most suited him (because that's normally how things work, the first spell being the most relective of who a person is or what they desire).  But the spells kept *not* suiting Elliot, and he kept being unhappy with them, so Magic kept trying harder to make spells that suited him -- but still with the assumption that turning into a girl was the one thing that *definitely* suited him.  Magic just couldn't believe that it was wrong about that, so it wound up being central to all the spells Elliot got.

Personally, I wonder if that didn't turn out to be a pretty good deal -- Magic kept giving him cooler and cooler spells in its desperate search to find one that could make him happy.  He wound up with a superhero spell that has tons of cool add-ons and features, possibly a much more powerful spell than he would have gotten at that point had Magic not been so determined to find a spell he liked.

I wonder if the first non-girly spell he'll get is being able to be a male superhero?

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2 hours ago, Duke of Pretzels said:

The way I understand it is that if you're a magic person, you periodically get new spells as you learn and grow, based on your needs. Elliot isn't inherently magical - he (or she, at this point in time) was made magic by an outside force (see sister, iirc ) which gave him the magic ability to change gender. He became more powerful, but wasn't happy with his spells, so his magic tried to modify the spell to make him happy with it - from girl form to full shapeshifting to a super form to alter egos, he got better and better variations on his ability to turn female. His magic would continue this pattern until his need to turn female was met, not understanding that he didn't want to be a girl. As of this comic, Elliott is happy to be a girl. Now, his magic will start to fill his other needs, having satisfied his initial, artificial need. 

 

That makes sense, but Magic reflects who the magician is.  If "female" doesn't apply to Elliot, it would seem to me that *disliking* female-oriented spells would be the way to eventually make the point.

Your answer leads me to wonder if Magic insisted on girly spells because it *was* reflecting who Elliot was/is even though Elliot didn't know it.

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57 minutes ago, Stature said:

How many people will observe that Cheerleadra is flying?

Fly too fast/far, and it will be a big mistake.

Considering there are likely multiple videos online with Cheerleadra flying AND being called Elliot, I'm not sure how could the flying be problem. Unless he will fly high enough to meet airplanes.

47 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

If you have both read and watched "The Neverending Story", then you probably think the movie is better. Mainly because the book just goes on and on. The movie covers about the first third, and stops at a good stopping point. The rest of the book, IMHO, has nothing to recommend it.

There IS Neverending Story II movie ... also III.

47 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

For Elliot's current method of travel, I think "walking" mode with intelligent handling of going off-route would be best (since there won't be a "flying without an aircraft" mode). Fortunately the GPS isn't smart enough to wonder how it is that he's walking 500 feet above ground at 80 MPH.

There MIGHT be flying mode for paragliders or something like that.

... and I doubt he is flying that fast, without shield and with eyes open.

41 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

Personally, I wonder if that didn't turn out to be a pretty good deal -- Magic kept giving him cooler and cooler spells in its desperate search to find one that could make him happy.  He wound up with a superhero spell that has tons of cool add-ons and features, possibly a much more powerful spell than he would have gotten at that point had Magic not been so determined to find a spell he liked.

Possibly. Or not. Magic might have something like a mind on it's own, unlike gravitation, but the power of spell likely doesn't depend on what magic thinks about you, but stuff like how much you train (remember Elliot was transforming every night).

So ... I wouldn't think the POWER of Cheerleadra spell is due to trying to find spell he liked. The COOLNESS, on the other hand ...

(It's also possible that normally, he would get several smaller spells instead of one big.)

 

11 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

If "female" doesn't apply to Elliot, it would seem to me that *disliking* female-oriented spells would be the way to eventually make the point.

Disliking and NOT CASTING them, maybe. Casting them every night despite not liking them? I would be confused too. (Elliot was forced to do that because of energy buildups, which are not supposed to happen when awakening normally ... and, would possibly not happen ANYWAY if not for the higher levels of ambient magic.)

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12 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Possibly. Or not. Magic might have something like a mind on it's own, unlike gravitation, but the power of spell likely doesn't depend on what magic thinks about you, but stuff like how much you train (remember Elliot was transforming every night).

Magic does have a mind of its own...

 

12 minutes ago, hkmaly said:
18 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

If "female" doesn't apply to Elliot, it would seem to me that *disliking* female-oriented spells would be the way to eventually make the point.

Disliking and NOT CASTING them, maybe. Casting them every night despite not liking them? I would be confused too.

Casting with reluctance and/or annoyance ought also make the point...

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So Tedd thinks that Magic was confused about what was a reflection of Elliot's self, but we know that Magic has a flair for the dramatic, and may even have a trolly side. So what if Magic knew that Elliot deep down didn't hate the idea of changing into female forms, but wanted him to accept that before it gave him spells that he was hoping for.

I think Magic got it right when guessing the reflection of Elliot's self though, that being a protector, which is why he got the superhero form.

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1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

I wonder if the first non-girly spell he'll get is being able to be a male superhero?

I dunno. The fact that Elliot now likes it might just mean it goes into an entirely different direction. Might just add on heat vision or something else onto the package. 

Another question I have is: even if Elliot gets the ability to transform into a male superhero, will it get used? Or will Elliot keep going back to the Cheerleadra form because of a preference for it?

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19 minutes ago, Scotty said:

So Tedd thinks that Magic was confused about what was a reflection of Elliot's self, but we know that Magic has a flair for the dramatic, and may even have a trolly side. So what if Magic knew that Elliot deep down didn't hate the idea of changing into female forms, but wanted him to accept that before it gave him spells that he was hoping for

Look again. Did you see the flash? Tedd doesn't just THINK that magic was confused. Tedd used his dangerous rarity to get this information.

(Although otherwise it sounds very logically.)

6 minutes ago, BurntAsh said:

I dunno. The fact that Elliot now likes it might just mean it goes into an entirely different direction. Might just add on heat vision or something else onto the package. 

Agree. His new spell won't have ANYTHING to do with changing gender. Either the cat form will be revisited, or something else he need ... hmmm ... maybe he will now get some hiding spells? Although considering he already have plenty of transformation-based options, maybe not. Frankly, I'm not sure what Elliot is missing now ... I don't think there is any reason for him to get heat vision.

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5 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

I don't think there is any reason for him to get heat vision.

Is there any reason for him not to?

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Just now, hkmaly said:

Look again. Did you see the flash? Tedd doesn't just THINK that magic was confused. Tedd used his dangerous rarity to get this information.

(Although otherwise it sounds very logically.)

Tedd has to see a spell being cast to know how it works, all the times he's used the spell (even when he didn't know it was a spell), he only reacted to the moment the spell was cast, never when someone already enchanted went to him. Tedd might have theorized the "maybe magic's trying too hard" from the number of times he's seen Elliot transform, but the flash wasn't a part of it, the flash was more of an epiphany, I say that because we have 4 instances where Tedd's glowed, first was at Grace's birthday when he realized why Grace wanted the transgender theme, second when Elliot assured him that Grace loves him and he didn't have to worry about any guys at MSHS stealing her away. Third was when he came up with the theory of why Elliot was getting girly spells, and fourth was when he used his insight on his insight and it became clear how he was able to accurately see how magic worked.

The first two cases were clearly based on Tedd's love for Grace, the third Tedd wasn't even looking at Elliot when he came up with the theory, it was quite literally a lightbulb going off when get got the idea, and the fourth was based on the realization that he's had a form of magic for a long time and didn't realize it. I want to say that the glow effect is a separate ability that works off of Tedd's emotional state, he might have even glowed when he found out about genderfluid being a thing if not for the fact that he was in public and didn't likely want to make a scene.

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29 minutes ago, Arcanimus said:
34 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

I don't think there is any reason for him to get heat vision.

Is there any reason for him not to?

He doesn't train enough to get all things for which there is no reason for him not to. Think about it this way: If he HAD heat vision, he wouldn't use it in this story anyway. So, he doesn't NEED it. It would make more sense for him to get teleportation based on his travelling. Or permanent GPS, independent on the phone. Or windshield, to fly faster.

(For record, I still thinks the reasons for these things is weak and he likely got something else. But it's more likely for him to get something from this list than heat vision.)

17 minutes ago, Scotty said:

we have 4 instances where Tedd's glowed, first was at Grace's birthday when he realized why Grace wanted the transgender theme, second when Elliot assured him that Grace loves him and he didn't have to worry about any guys at MSHS stealing her away. Third was when he came up with the theory of why Elliot was getting girly spells, and fourth was when he used his insight on his insight and it became clear how he was able to accurately see how magic worked.

All 4 instances was when he realized something. The love for Grace was red herring.

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Showing Elliot's spellbook glowing and making noise suggests that whatever happened is significant. It's a callback to when Nanase got her angel spell, though not quite as dramatic.  Elliot, without realizing it, has leveled up. 

I tend to think Elliot has opened the door to getting a wider range of spells that reflect on who he is.

Edit: the only reason for Elliot to get heat vision is because Superman has it and the hero fixation that created Cheerleadra is based in Superman. Magic would simply be filling out more of the motif. I don't see Elliot's new spell as anything minor as heat vision. I have no idea what it is. Just that it's some kind of Big Deal. Maybe having to do with the Cheerleadra form...Maybe.

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