NP Tuesday August 23, 2016

[Stature 96]

http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=502

Would it not be odd if everyone in the EGS-verse had an evil twin/twin of opposite personality?

(Do we also know what the citizens of Moperville are called?)

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Quote

From Dan's commentary

And now it's just a matter of time until this decision to make sense of this one moment winds up evolving into a major plot point somewhere down the line. That tends to be how these sort of things go around here.

By calling attention to this plot element, I now expect it to be meaningless in the long run.

Or he is telling us that another immortal could step in and give Ashley a mark for one of those very minor spells?

As for what to call Moperville residents?  I like Mopervillains.

[partner555 170]

3 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

I like Mopervillains

I take issue with that, because it is so easily confused with villains... Actually, what am I complaining about? This could lead to hilarious shenanigans.

[Scotty 1,061]

3 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

By calling attention to this plot element, I now expect it to be meaningless in the long run.

Or he is telling us that another immortal could step in and give Ashley a mark for one of those very minor spells?

As for what to call Moperville residents?  I like Mopervillains.

Maybe now that she's hear about what happened to Elliot and how Ashley helped, Pandora might give her the healing spell? At least it's confirmed healing spells exist. The Main 8 already has a tank and dps, need to fill out that healer slot then just find one more person and it can be a raid.

 

And Mopervillains are just the bad guys in Moperville, the rest are just Mopervillians.

 

Actually, based on this, I don't think Pandora gave marks to the people we saw in the August 10th strip, the spells she could have given them wouldn't have had the effect that she wanted. It's probably likely she's using this "survey" to take notes on people's desires and would later on go mark the ones that fit best. Marking everyone she meets would probably draw too much attention to her so she probably has set a specific number that she'll allow herself for now, like 3-4 so she's hoping she can get the most out of those, but she might have to just settle for whatever she gets.

[Drasvin 123]

So Ashley has the potential to be a White Mage? Nice.

[mlooney 3,417]

Am I a bad person for wanting Ashley to say "yes, I do, why do you ask?" to Pandora's question?

[ijuin 572]

8 hours ago, Stature said:

http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=502

Would it not be odd if everyone in the EGS-verse had an evil twin/twin of opposite personality?

(Do we also know what the citizens of Moperville are called?)

Half of the people would BE the Evil Twins, and thus they would have Good Twins.

Also, "villian" originally meant anybody who lived in a village (as opposed to "civilized" city folk).

I would like to see Ashley get the "magical empathy" spell, myself.

[Circe 32]

Hah!  I totally called the evil twin thing!

From the last episode's discussion:

Quote

Maybe someday we can have an evil version of Ashley running around Moperville on a TF rampage....a girl can hope can't she?  

I have to wonder, though, why Ashley is not eligible for a spell to transform herself. She seemed interested in the idea when she and Elliot talked on their date. Given that she likes a lot of contrast, I'd expect to see her tf would be a big strong male form, possibly of a different race. So basically Greg. :)

[Drasvin 123]

26 minutes ago, Circe said:

I have to wonder, though, why Ashley is not eligible for a spell to transform herself. She seemed interested in the idea when she and Elliot talked on their date. Given that she likes a lot of contrast, I'd expect to see her tf would be a big strong male form, possibly of a different race. So basically Greg.

She might be interested in the idea of being transformed herself, but it might not be a strong enough desire to allow for a magic mark based around that.

[Tom Sewell 268]

This NP continues to have the kind of humor that the others have, but it also has a higher proportion of plot development. Besides the gags and the opportunity for yet more exposition, what does The Shive have in mind here?

Since the establishment of the canon cannon (and yes, they are two different words, people) there have been these canon NP storylines:

1. Playing with Dolls
2. Zombie Plans
3. Question Mark
4. MV5
5. Marker

1. Playing with Dolls

Susan gets more fairy dolls, and maybe the ability to use more than one at once. Tedd explains to Susan more about how she can use her fairies.

2. Zombie Plans

This seems like a gag arc. But why is it canon? Zombies would certainly fit into "bringing hell to Moperville."

3. Question Mark

Sarah gets a very powerful spell and gets to meet Pandora. Grace will see Sarah has power as soon as she meets Sarah again, but they go to different schools and Sarah, warned not to tell Tedd's father, should be reluctant to go to Tedd's house. And Sarah won't be going to Salty Crackers Saturday night because she has a date with Sam. Sarah should also catch on that the floating little girl who gave her the mark is the floating girl who was on TV--but doesn't know it was Pandora.

4. MV5

Exactly when this takes place isn't exact, but it does take place before Sarah meets Sam. It's reasonable to assume there may be some link here. And maybe it will be useful when the gang visits that sex-reversed universe we all know is coming up eventually.

5. Marker

This is the first canon NP storyline that might be directly co-ordinated with the on-going main storyline. Managing these two storylines at once is kind of like an army advancing in two columns to the site of a battle: It's very important that each column doesn't get too far ahead or fall too far behind. Since the fanbase of EGS glomps onto the most miniscule new detail as soon as The Shive reveals it and are ever-ready to point out any seeming inconsistancies, it would be wise not to stand too close to The Shive in case His head explodes.

[Don Edwards 548]

40 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

3. Question Mark

Sarah gets a very powerful spell and gets to meet Pandora. Grace will see Sarah has power as soon as she meets Sarah again, but they go to different schools and Sarah, warned not to tell Tedd's father, should be reluctant to go to Tedd's house. And Sarah won't be going to Salty Crackers Saturday night because she has a date with Sam. Sarah should also catch on that the floating little girl who gave her the mark is the floating girl who was on TV--but doesn't know it was Pandora.

I don't recall Grace having the ability to spot people with power. Luke has that ability, Greg can measure power levels, and Tedd has the ability to analyze spells when he sees them being used. Edward relies on somewhat-conspicuous instruments for the task.

[Scotty 1,061]

3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

1. Playing with Dolls

Susan gets more fairy dolls, and maybe the ability to use more than one at once. Tedd explains to Susan more about how she can use her fairies.

No maybe, the last page of the arc clearly shows that Susan summoned multiple fairies before going to bed. The question was her being able to take full first person control of one the same way that Nanase does with her fairy avatar.

3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

2. Zombie Plans

This seems like a gag arc. But why is it canon? Zombies would certainly fit into "bringing hell to Moperville."

It's canon because Dan basically used it to explain how zombies in the walking dead sense would be impossible, but zombies in the sense of mind control would be, also Lavender was in it.

 

2 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

3. Question Mark

Sarah gets a very powerful spell and gets to meet Pandora. Grace will see Sarah has power as soon as she meets Sarah again, but they go to different schools and Sarah, warned not to tell Tedd's father, should be reluctant to go to Tedd's house. And Sarah won't be going to Salty Crackers Saturday night because she has a date with Sam. Sarah should also catch on that the floating little girl who gave her the mark is the floating girl who was on TV--but doesn't know it was Pandora.

I don't recall Grace having the ability to spot people with power. Luke has that ability, Greg can measure power levels, and Tedd has the ability to analyze spells when he sees them being used. Edward relies on somewhat-conspicuous instruments for the task.

I keep saying that Grace doesn't have any special power for mark detection, it's all just mental triggers that were set up by Grace and Disco Wizard in her dreams. it's no different than when Grace had a sense of deja vu when watching Harry Potter and thinking she'd had a dream about being in a classroom talking to a wizard.

 

3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

4. MV5

Exactly when this takes place isn't exact, but it does take place before Sarah meets Sam. It's reasonable to assume there may be some link here. And maybe it will be useful when the gang visits that sex-reversed universe we all know is coming up eventually.

I think it's more likely we'll be seeing Lord Tedd's universe rather than Beta Tedd's or the one Ellen's second life took place in, though there's no really need to visit the second life universe because the real Kaoli is with Nioi in Lord Tedd's universe (the Kaoli in the second life universe was just Nioi's alternate that she used to age Kaoli's soul like second life Ellen was Elliot's alternate for Ellen's soul).

 

3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

5. Marker

This is the first canon NP storyline that might be directly co-ordinated with the on-going main storyline. Managing these two storylines at once is kind of like an army advancing in two columns to the site of a battle: It's very important that each column doesn't get too far ahead or fall too far behind. Since the fanbase of EGS glomps onto the most miniscule new detail as soon as The Shive reveals it and are ever-ready to point out any seeming inconsistancies, it would be wise not to stand too close to The Shive in case His head explodes.

Playing with Dolls ran pretty much simultaneously with the card tournament portion of Squirrel Prophet, such that at one point Dan had to hold back information in Playing with Dolls because the NP took place the day after the tournament and Dan hadn't finished dropping bombs in Squirrel Prophet yet.

[hkmaly 490]

15 hours ago, Stature said:

Would it not be odd if everyone in the EGS-verse had an evil twin/twin of opposite personality?

Diane is not evil - although there may be something on that "opposite personality" ...

No twins for anyone else.

14 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Quote

From Dan's commentary

And now it's just a matter of time until this decision to make sense of this one moment winds up evolving into a major plot point somewhere down the line. That tends to be how these sort of things go around here.

By calling attention to this plot element, I now expect it to be meaningless in the long run.

Or he is telling us that another immortal could step in and give Ashley a mark for one of those very minor spells?

It's like double negative: he's called attention to it, so now it will be surprising plot twist if it actually will appear.

10 hours ago, Scotty said:

Maybe now that she's hear about what happened to Elliot and how Ashley helped, Pandora might give her the healing spell? At least it's confirmed healing spells exist. The Main 8 already has a tank and dps, need to fill out that healer slot then just find one more person and it can be a raid.

After Ashley have been shown that there are people who LIKE being transformed she may actually be markable with the transformation spells.

10 hours ago, Scotty said:

Actually, based on this, I don't think Pandora gave marks to the people we saw in the August 10th strip, the spells she could have given them wouldn't have had the effect that she wanted. It's probably likely she's using this "survey" to take notes on people's desires and would later on go mark the ones that fit best. Marking everyone she meets would probably draw too much attention to her so she probably has set a specific number that she'll allow herself for now, like 3-4 so she's hoping she can get the most out of those, but she might have to just settle for whatever she gets.

Pity but yes, seems she only had them on list.

I don't think it's question of attention. But for giving the marks, she needs to go invisible and do the explanation stuff - which probably takes some time and it make sense to get some list first and then mark "best" targets on that list to avoid switching to and from invisible form multiple times (which MIGHT draw some attention).

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

This seems like a gag arc. But why is it canon? Zombies would certainly fit into "bringing hell to Moperville."

It's canon due to Lavender.

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

This is the first canon NP storyline that might be directly co-ordinated with the on-going main storyline. Managing these two storylines at once is kind of like an army advancing in two columns to the site of a battle:

Remember the part of "playing with dolls" which directly said we can't recapitulate what is Tedd just saying this as it would be spoiler for main storyline?

(EDIT: Noticed it was already said, don't care.)

[wanderingmagus 15]

Heart is an AWESOME power, I don't know what Pandora is going on about. Can you imagine the sort of things emotion sharing, pain dulling and minor healing powers can do? How does Magic define "minor" anyhow? Cataracts are "just" thin layers of milky tissue clouding the lens, but a minor spell later, and suddenly a blind man can see. A lot of back pain problems can be solved with a "minor" adjustment to the arch of the foot. Pain dulling can help others or yourself push beyond the normal "safe" limits of the human body for superhuman strength and endurance in exchange for long periods of bed rest and a shorter length of time before arthritis and other problems set in. Muscle mass is built up by healing "minor" tears in the muscles. Imagine what emotional sharing can do in building up confidence on one hand, or utterly tearing someone apart in an interrogation on the other.

[hkmaly 490]

11 minutes ago, wanderingmagus said:

Heart is an AWESOME power, I don't know what Pandora is going on about. Can you imagine the sort of things emotion sharing, pain dulling and minor healing powers can do? How does Magic define "minor" anyhow? Cataracts are "just" thin layers of milky tissue clouding the lens, but a minor spell later, and suddenly a blind man can see. A lot of back pain problems can be solved with a "minor" adjustment to the arch of the foot. Pain dulling can help others or yourself push beyond the normal "safe" limits of the human body for superhuman strength and endurance in exchange for long periods of bed rest and a shorter length of time before arthritis and other problems set in. Muscle mass is built up by healing "minor" tears in the muscles. Imagine what emotional sharing can do in building up confidence on one hand, or utterly tearing someone apart in an interrogation on the other.

It's not "minor wounds", it's specifically "minor scratches", so probably just skin. I would guess she might get stronger healing spells later, but stuff like healing minor scratches wouldn't generate anything newsworthy, so it has no use for Pandora. Similarly, sharing feelings probably isn't cross between Vulcan mind meld and hald-Betazoids empathy but something considerably more limited.

[chridd 31]

Someone should put an evilness spell on Ashley, then get her to touch the Dewitching Diamond.  Then give her new evil twin a mark.

(...although that would give her the power to make people evil, and I'm not sure if one could get a mark as well as the spread-the-curse power...)

(...unless the conflictedness already is the result of a curse, and it's possible to get a pure-good and a pure-wanting-to-transform-everything version of Ashley from that...)

[hkmaly 490]

6 minutes ago, chridd said:

Someone should put an evilness spell on Ashley, then get her to touch the Dewitching Diamond.  Then give her new evil twin a mark.

Why "evilness"? Some sort of weakening of inhibitions might be enough. (In fact, we still can't be sure Ashley wouldn't get on transformation rampage when drunk. I know, goodness core, but she might be vulnerable to alcohol ...)

9 minutes ago, chridd said:

and I'm not sure if one could get a mark as well as the spread-the-curse power

I would say no ... then Tedd got mark. I'm not so sure now.

10 minutes ago, chridd said:

unless the conflictedness already is the result of a curse, and it's possible to get a pure-good and a pure-wanting-to-transform-everything version of Ashley from that

... hmmmmm ... pure good person with ability to make other people good ... sounds dangerous. Although not as much as the evil variant.

[Scotty 1,061]

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

It's not "minor wounds", it's specifically "minor scratches", so probably just skin. I would guess she might get stronger healing spells later, but stuff like healing minor scratches wouldn't generate anything newsworthy, so it has no use for Pandora. Similarly, sharing feelings probably isn't cross between Vulcan mind meld and hald-Betazoids empathy but something considerably more limited.

While I certainly agree that a healing spell like that wouldn't be worthy of evangelist television, papercuts sting like a mofo.

Sharing feelings as I understand it might entail boosting a persons moral, like sending happy vibes at a depressed person.

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

... hmmmmm ... pure good person with ability to make other people good ... sounds dangerous. Although not as much as the evil variant.

Dangerous? I'd say make it happen and send the twin into the US congress building.

[Tom Sewell 268]

"Sharing feelings" could be magically-enhanced empathy (knowing what others are feeling), or projecting her feelings on to others. This isn't exactly telepathy, but it is potentially quite powerful--very powerful if she could project feelings she isn't really experiencing herself, at least as powerfully, and potentially lethal if she can project amplified pain or pleasure. Projecting pleasure dangerous? How would you like to be in a plane when the pilot experiences multiple orgasms.

Since Ash doesn't seem to pick up on Liz's disinterest when she tells her about making her date or Nanase's suspicion (and perhaps jealousy) while she's kissing Elliot, doesn't look like she got a spell like that.

But maybe healing...especially puppie booboos.

[RainbowWizard 35]

On 23 August 2016 at 8:32 AM, Stature said:

http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=502

Would it not be odd if everyone in the EGS-verse had an evil twin/twin of opposite personality?

(Do we also know what the citizens of Moperville are called?)

... Seperated into South and North Moperville, perhaps? Like Springfield and Shelbyville...

[hkmaly 490]

20 hours ago, Scotty said:

21 hours ago, hkmaly said:

... hmmmmm ... pure good person with ability to make other people good ... sounds dangerous. Although not as much as the evil variant.

Dangerous? I'd say make it happen and send the twin into the US congress building.

To see the danger, think: if, say, Putin, Kim Jong-un or Xi Jinping would have this option, what would they do? I see it clearly: Step 1: send twin to US congress. Step 2: do something US would normally answer with weapons. Step 3: observe how US congress choose to answer by diplomatic note.

Of course, deploying the twin on some international conference where most of world leaders are present might work. But changing the balance of power would be dangerous. Too many people see being good as being weak, and too often it really works that way.

The people on Crimea for example might already prefer little more evil US congress.

19 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

"Sharing feelings" could be magically-enhanced empathy (knowing what others are feeling), or projecting her feelings on to others. This isn't exactly telepathy, but it is potentially quite powerful--very powerful if she could project feelings she isn't really experiencing herself, at least as powerfully, and potentially lethal if she can project amplified pain or pleasure. Projecting pleasure dangerous? How would you like to be in a plane when the pilot experiences multiple orgasms.

Projecting vertigo might also be deadly. But the "sharing" itself suggest she won't be able to project feelings she isn't experiencing, and also I suspect there will be additional restriction - either on how strong she can project or maybe her ability will be touch-based.

19 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Since Ash doesn't seem to pick up on Liz's disinterest when she tells her about making her date or Nanase's suspicion (and perhaps jealousy) while she's kissing Elliot, doesn't look like she got a spell like that.

Actually Ashley might be picking Liz's disinterest is just pretended. Or she doesn't really care. Also, the spell may not be "always on" - in fact, probably won't be.

Regardless, if the "magical girl" didn't get supernatural attractiveness, why should Pandora mark Ashley with healing and/or emotion sharing?

(I think the magical girl would be so far most likely to generate news: she may become singer or something and be famous thanks to her spell. Of course that's not the kind of news Pandora hopes to generate ...)