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Story: Monday 15 Jan 2018

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1 minute ago, ChronosCat said:

I suspect she's scratching her head and looking a bit out of it because she just saw an incredibly powerful spell. Even if it wasn't something she can reproduce, it was probably still impressive and overwhelming to her magic sight.

Whether or not Tedd learned the spell, she's just learned that she's lost someone who's important to her. Or he's, he's, and him.

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17 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

A change like that might go along with another time jump. I've never seen why Dan skipped from summer to just before Christmas; the only excuse I could see until now is that he wanted the breakup between Sarah and Elliot happen during the Holidays. But now I'm beginning to think Dan is getting tired of doing High School stories and wants to move on at least to college. 

Dan has said before that he always planned to follow the main cast from high school into college, and that he didn't originally expect the high-school section to take very long to tell. I've always figured the time skip was to get things closer to the college part of the story, and I wouldn't be surprised if we had another time skip "soon" - possibly right after Sister III if he's going to do Sarah and Sam's maybe-date and Justin and Luke's dates as NP stories, or perhaps after the immediate aftereffects of Sister III have been shown.

23 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Whether or not Tedd learned the spell, she's just learned that she's lost someone who's important to her. Or he's, he's, and him.

That depends on how much info she gets from her magic vision; I figured she'd see the the power of the spell and how it worked (so if she can't reproduce it, it's a matter of power and/or it just being a spell a mortal can't cast), but not who cast it or that it was tied with an Immortal reset.

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Pandora/Box vowed to help Sarah become a full magic user if not wizard.  Having seen what vows do post change, via Jerry -> Zeus, it's going to be interesting, to say the least, once Box, The Next Generation, returns to help Sarah.

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1 hour ago, ChronosCat said:
1 hour ago, hkmaly said:
16 hours ago, Stature said:

Tedd head-scratching is a small red flag. Or a side effect of first using the wand.

Can Tedd FEEL coming reset?

I suspect she's scratching her head and looking a bit out of it because she just saw an incredibly powerful spell. Even if it wasn't something she can reproduce, it was probably still impressive and overwhelming to her magic sight.

It doesn't really look like scratching, more like "holding head because it hurts".

1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:
2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

.. there already ARE enough methods to kill aberrations. SUSAN has two. We don't need Tedd developing another.

Oh, come on. How many ways has Tedd come  up with to change sexes?

... you may have point here.

34 minutes ago, ChronosCat said:
1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:

A change like that might go along with another time jump. I've never seen why Dan skipped from summer to just before Christmas; the only excuse I could see until now is that he wanted the breakup between Sarah and Elliot happen during the Holidays. But now I'm beginning to think Dan is getting tired of doing High School stories and wants to move on at least to college. 

Dan has said before that he always planned to follow the main cast from high school into college, and that he didn't originally expect the high-school section to take very long to tell. I've always figured the time skip was to get things closer to the college part of the story, and I wouldn't be surprised if we had another time skip "soon" - possibly right after Sister III if he's going to do Sarah and Sam's maybe-date and Justin and Luke's dates as NP stories, or perhaps after the immediate aftereffects of Sister III have been shown.

I hope not, we are not READY for timeskip, there is lot of things which should be happening soon. On the other hand, we were not ready for timeskip in Drowtales either.

Remember, griffins should return in month.

Also, I think Dan does realize he can't hurry too much.

Of course, we may still get timeskip or few of them relatively soon in comic time ... just not soon in real time.

7 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Anyone else notice that Pandora's last narration box seems to be sinking in between the cushions on Tedd's sofa as it fades out?

It's just the background of the box fading ...

1 minute ago, mlooney said:

Pandora/Box vowed to help Sarah become a full magic user if not wizard.  Having seen what vows do post change, via Jerry -> Zeus, it's going to be interesting, to say the least, once Box, The Next Generation, returns to help Sarah.

Definitely.

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5 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

It doesn't really look like scratching, more like "holding head because it hurts".

Well, that could also be because she looked at a spell that was way more powerful than any she'd ever seen before. That level of power may have been painful to look at.

8 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

I hope not, we are not READY for timeskip, there is lot of things which should be happening soon. On the other hand, we were not ready for timeskip in Drowtales either.

Remember, griffins should return in month.

Also, I think Dan does realize he can't hurry too much.

Of course, we may still get timeskip or few of them relatively soon in comic time ... just not soon in real time.

Obviously we still need to deal with the Magus and Sirleck situation, and if the magic reset is coming soon it we should see it happen.

I suppose we ought to see Raven unclog the magic dam before we time-skip; it ought to be safe for him to do so now.

We'll want to see Sarah and Sam's maybe-date and Justin and Luke's date, but those could be told in NP while the main story skips over them.

We'll probably want to see the return of the gryphons, but we could skip a few weeks to get to that point, which would count as a small time-skip. Alternately, if not too much happens at when they return, we could always learn about their visit in a flashback after a longer time-skip. (Incidentally it's been a week in-story since they said they'd be back in a month, so it will probably be only 3 weeks at this point.)

Is there anything else that needs to be shown before we can do a time skip?

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1 hour ago, ChronosCat said:

Obviously we still need to deal with the Magus and Sirleck situation, and if the magic reset is coming soon it we should see it happen.

I suppose we ought to see Raven unclog the magic dam before we time-skip; it ought to be safe for him to do so now.

We'll want to see Sarah and Sam's maybe-date and Justin and Luke's date, but those could be told in NP while the main story skips over them.

We'll probably want to see the return of the gryphons, but we could skip a few weeks to get to that point, which would count as a small time-skip. Alternately, if not too much happens at when they return, we could always learn about their visit in a flashback after a longer time-skip. (Incidentally it's been a week in-story since they said they'd be back in a month, so it will probably be only 3 weeks at this point.)

Is there anything else that needs to be shown before we can do a time skip?

How will Raven, Susan and Diane deal with being related ... and Noah.

Tedd talking with Raven - and probably deciding how much can Edward know.

Something with Catalina and Rhoda. We don't know how they fit into everything else, but there MUST be something with Rhoda's power being relevant to it happening before magic reset.

How will Sarah react on effectively loosing her magic (due to ambient magic going down). BTW, if she's going to accidentally find our Sam's secret (or any other secret), it must've already happened.

The reaction of people seeing the immortals.

Not only the magic reset itself (assuming it happens, but it seems it will) but how everyone will deal with it. Tedd likely does something related to reset even before timeskip, although it's possible we will get most results after timeskip.

Voltaire's plan, if not already covered above.

Arthur Arthur's reaction, again if not covered above.

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Well I do expect there will be one or more story after Sister III devoted to reactions to and fallout from Sister III (which would include several of the points you made); if there was going to be a time-skip I wouldn't expect it at least until after that.

I expect some of the reactions to the Magic Reset will occur in whatever story the Reset happens in. Of course there will be a lot of reactions, and in-story the world will likely still be reeling from it for years; Dan can't show all of it. I could see Dan following the main cast dealing with it for several in-story months with only jumps of a few days at a time, but I could also see him deciding that would take too long to tell, and instead skipping over a lot of that and then filling in some of the highlights after the fact.

I'm not so sure Rhoda and Catalina's powers will be important any time soon; Dan might have just given them powers on a whim. Or perhaps their having magic now will make it easier for them to gain access to magic after the reset.

The next stage of Voltair's plan might not even happen any time soon. If this was all leading to a meeting of the Immortals, he won't be able to proceed until the Immortals can all arrange to meet, and who knows how quickly they'll act.

...Thinking about it, reactions to Sister III will probably take several in-story days, maybe even a week or two, and Dan'll probably want to show us a week or two of reactions to the Reset even if he does do another big time skip. Assuming the Reset occurs soon, all of that could easily take us to when the Gryphons return, so the visit could be told in-sequence with everything else... But unless any major new plots have started by that point, we might be clear for a time-skip after that.

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2 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

I expect some of the reactions to the Magic Reset will occur in whatever story the Reset happens in. Of course there will be a lot of reactions, and in-story the world will likely still be reeling from it for years; Dan can't show all of it. I could see Dan following the main cast dealing with it for several in-story months with only jumps of a few days at a time, but I could also see him deciding that would take too long to tell, and instead skipping over a lot of that and then filling in some of the highlights after the fact.

Well, yes, I didn't meant "everyone" literally, but I expect we should be shown more than just main eight ... actually the number of  named characters with magic is not so big we couldn't be shown every one of them.

And yes, it would be like first reaction, the world will be reeling from it till the end of the comic probably.

2 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

I'm not so sure Rhoda and Catalina's powers will be important any time soon; Dan might have just given them powers on a whim. Or perhaps their having magic now will make it easier for them to gain access to magic after the reset.

It's true that the NP story was fun by itself, but still, there was enough hints for that even in main story.

2 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

The next stage of Voltair's plan might not even happen any time soon. If this was all leading to a meeting of the Immortals, he won't be able to proceed until the Immortals can all arrange to meet, and who knows how quickly they'll act.

Maybe it will be just one page with him going "everything goes according to plan", but I expect SOME reaction.

2 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

...Thinking about it, reactions to Sister III will probably take several in-story days, maybe even a week or two, and Dan'll probably want to show us a week or two of reactions to the Reset even if he does do another big time skip. Assuming the Reset occurs soon, all of that could easily take us to when the Gryphons return, so the visit could be told in-sequence with everything else... But unless any major new plots have started by that point, we might be clear for a time-skip after that.

Considering the main eight still needs to spend lot of time in school, yes Dan can easily spend three weeks with just reactions to Sister III even without the reset.

And yes, if griffins won't bring something else and it will be just telling them it's solved and them confirming that it looks solved from their side as well, we may get timeskip soon after that. Probably not directly, ending with griffins doesn't make sense, but the same story day can have quick story with Tedd making some summary on what he already did with reset and ending with "We gotta be ready to stand up" again ... five months later " ... annny day now ...".

I'm saying five months because I expect this time we WILL see summer vacations. And they will need to tell something about what college they will go on after them.

 

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6 hours ago, hkmaly said:

And yes, if griffins won't bring something else and it will be just telling them it's solved and them confirming that it looks solved from their side as well, we may get timeskip soon after that. Probably not directly, ending with griffins doesn't make sense, but the same story day can have quick story with Tedd making some summary on what he already did with reset and ending with "We gotta be ready to stand up" again ... five months later " ... annny day now ...".

I'm saying five months because I expect this time we WILL see summer vacations. And they will need to tell something about what college they will go on after them.

 

Time-skip or not I do expect to see the group's graduations. After all, from the readers' perspective it will be the biggest end-of-an-era the comic has seen (possibly not so much to the characters, depending on if the Change in Magic has happened and how much of an effect that had on their lives).

After that I'd enjoy seeing their preparations for college and whatnot, but I don't think it's essential. I could see Dan deciding to jump from shortly after high school graduation to everyone (who's going) already in college, leaving the readers to learn the new "status quo" (to the extent EGS ever has a status quo) on the fly as if it was a new series.

 

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One of the reasons for things not to change so quickly, and maybe the biggest reason why the story has stayed in High School for so long, is that going off to college often means going way off to college. That's basically how Ellen's Second Life story ends, with her friends from childhood scattering all over. How could Dan plausibly keep the Main Eight together?

If Magic changes in a way that takes away most powers and spells, guess what: Dad's Government Job gets downsized. Legendary Monster Hunter Noriko doesn't have enough monsters to hunt to justify keeping her on whatever payroll she's on--and if she loses her spells, the bean-counters and "scientific management" people who infest every bureaucracy will figure she's not a threat to them. There doesn't seem to be a vast magical-industrial complex looking for continued funding anyway. This would take away the biggest reason for El Goonish Shive's magical teenagers, etc, to stick together: Being drafted into the same secret agency which employs Arthur Arthur, Edward Verres, Lavender, Commander Jaguar (remember him?), etc.

On the other hand, if Magic comes out into the open and everyone keeps their powers, they are going to be so important all sorts of people and institutions are going to be fighting over them. Maybe time to have them go to another universe, or several other universes, such as Beta Tedd's, Second Life Ellen's, Lord Tedd's, maybe Tess's, Magus and Terra's. Just to the Other Side of Moper-Earth might be enough, and gives us a splendid excuse for more griffin time.

Whichever way, lots of work for Dan. Or maybe (shudder) Dan wants to move on to an entirely new comic? Remember the career of Naoko Takeuchi after Sailor Moon? Do you really think C.D. Rudd's Wolfpac is going to inherit the fan base of Sailormoon.org (assuming Sailormoon.org ever finishes its "final" story which has gone on longer than the nine other stories before it, and assuming C.D. actually really, really starts up Wolfpac.)

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8 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

One of the reasons for things not to change so quickly, and maybe the biggest reason why the story has stayed in High School for so long, is that going off to college often means going way off to college. That's basically how Ellen's Second Life story ends, with her friends from childhood scattering all over. How could Dan plausibly keep the Main Eight together?

I expect that the eight won't stick together, but we will have a few groups who wound up in the same places. Different stories would then be set in different colleges, or jump back and forth as necessary, as it's always been for the school-based stories with Moperville South and North. During vacations they could still get together, keeping the "main 8" intact as a group - or maybe some of them will drift away from the group, allowing for  a dramatic reunion with them much further down the line.

8 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

If Magic changes in a way that takes away most powers and spells, guess what: Dad's Government Job gets downsized. Legendary Monster Hunter Noriko doesn't have enough monsters to hunt to justify keeping her on whatever payroll she's on--and if she loses her spells, the bean-counters and "scientific management" people who infest every bureaucracy will figure she's not a threat to them. There doesn't seem to be a vast magical-industrial complex looking for continued funding anyway. This would take away the biggest reason for El Goonish Shive's magical teenagers, etc, to stick together: Being drafted into the same secret agency which employs Arthur Arthur, Edward Verres, Lavender, Commander Jaguar (remember him?), etc.

I don't think very many of the group would enjoy being in DGB. (I think Tedd would have a hard time with the rules and restrictions it would place on him, and I'm pretty sure Sarah's hoping for a job using her artistic skills. Nanase and the Dunkels might do alright in the combat/law enforcment side of DGB, but Grace wouln't appreciate it if someone tried to force her into that role.) And I really wouldn't want to see any of them forced into it.

8 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Whichever way, lots of work for Dan. Or maybe (shudder) Dan wants to move on to an entirely new comic? Remember the career of Naoko Takeuchi after Sailor Moon? Do you really think C.D. Rudd's Wolfpac is going to inherit the fan base of Sailormoon.org (assuming Sailormoon.org ever finishes its "final" story which has gone on longer than the nine other stories before it, and assuming C.D. actually really, really starts up Wolfpac.)

And then there are authors like Rumiko Takahashi or Ken Akamatsu with multiple hits.

At any rate, while Sister III may be tying up a lot of loose plot threads, it's still creating a few new ones, and there are a lot more still lying around. I think if Dan wanted to end the series he'd be focusing on wrapping things up and not laying the groundwork for future stories.

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9 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

Time-skip or not I do expect to see the group's graduations. After all, from the readers' perspective it will be the biggest end-of-an-era the comic has seen (possibly not so much to the characters, depending on if the Change in Magic has happened and how much of an effect that had on their lives).

After that I'd enjoy seeing their preparations for college and whatnot, but I don't think it's essential. I could see Dan deciding to jump from shortly after high school graduation to everyone (who's going) already in college, leaving the readers to learn the new "status quo" (to the extent EGS ever has a status quo) on the fly as if it was a new series.

Good point, graduation definitely seems like important part of story. Although Pandora's end or the magic reset might be more important even from readers perspective.

56 minutes ago, ChronosCat said:
9 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

One of the reasons for things not to change so quickly, and maybe the biggest reason why the story has stayed in High School for so long, is that going off to college often means going way off to college. That's basically how Ellen's Second Life story ends, with her friends from childhood scattering all over. How could Dan plausibly keep the Main Eight together?

I expect that the eight won't stick together, but we will have a few groups who wound up in the same places. Different stories would then be set in different colleges, or jump back and forth as necessary, as it's always been for the school-based stories with Moperville South and North. During vacations they could still get together, keeping the "main 8" intact as a group - or maybe some of them will drift away from the group, allowing for  a dramatic reunion with them much further down the line.

I expect that they WILL stick together - at least as much together as now, when they go into two different schools - but yes it will be hard to explain how.

9 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

If Magic changes in a way that takes away most powers and spells, guess what: Dad's Government Job gets downsized. Legendary Monster Hunter Noriko doesn't have enough monsters to hunt to justify keeping her on whatever payroll she's on--and if she loses her spells, the bean-counters and "scientific management" people who infest every bureaucracy will figure she's not a threat to them. There doesn't seem to be a vast magical-industrial complex looking for continued funding anyway. This would take away the biggest reason for El Goonish Shive's magical teenagers, etc, to stick together: Being drafted into the same secret agency which employs Arthur Arthur, Edward Verres, Lavender, Commander Jaguar (remember him?), etc.

On the other hand, if Magic comes out into the open and everyone keeps their powers, they are going to be so important all sorts of people and institutions are going to be fighting over them. Maybe time to have them go to another universe, or several other universes, such as Beta Tedd's, Second Life Ellen's, Lord Tedd's, maybe Tess's, Magus and Terra's. Just to the Other Side of Moper-Earth might be enough, and gives us a splendid excuse for more griffin time.

If magic changes in a way most people will lose their powers and spells ... EXCEPT TEDD and anyone who he helps, he will become VERY IMPORTANT.

1 hour ago, ChronosCat said:

I don't think very many of the group would enjoy being in DGB. (I think Tedd would have a hard time with the rules and restrictions it would place on him, and I'm pretty sure Sarah's hoping for a job using her artistic skills. Nanase and the Dunkels might do alright in the combat/law enforcment side of DGB, but Grace wouln't appreciate it if someone tried to force her into that role.) And I really wouldn't want to see any of them forced into it.

I sort of though that the time before they graduate will be spend changing both main eight AND the DGB so they will become more compatible. But with Arthur Arthur, DGB is leading in exactly opposite direction ... well, maybe the magic reset and it's downfall will force DGB to change course again?

That, or the main eight will became independent group solving problems.

Sarah might like job using her artistic skills, but I think she will accept job using her magic skills as well.

9 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Maybe time to have them go to another universe, or several other universes, such as Beta Tedd's, Second Life Ellen's, Lord Tedd's, maybe Tess's, Magus and Terra's. Just to the Other Side of Moper-Earth might be enough, and gives us a splendid excuse for more griffin time.

Dan said that the Lord Tedd story was mentioned unnecessarily soon. I think that Lord Tedd will become main antagonist of several story arcs taking longer than the MAGUS part of EGS. Like, if you divide EGS into bigger chunks than arcs, we basically have part with Grace (and Uryuom and Damien and TF gun), part with Magus (and Pandora and other fairies and magic) ... and the next part will be with Lord Tedd. And while I doubt we will see Ellen's second life universe, we WILL see Kaoli (and likely also Nioi) and we will see griffins.

And that's the part Dan originally planed to write and I'm sure he won't skip it, even if it would mean ... well ...

1 hour ago, ChronosCat said:

And then there are authors like Rumiko Takahashi or Ken Akamatsu with multiple hits.

... and then there are authors like J.R.R. Tolkien, who unfortunately died young, long before finishing his story. I think he was not even in half. (Yes I know he was 81 when he died. Not nearly enough.)

I don't think Dan planned it that way, but so far it seems he still likes the story and wants to continue it, and in fact has too much ideas to write (and draw) everything.

(Generally, people with this amount of ideas have SEVERAL artists to draw everything - or they will write it instead of drawing, but I think EGS works better as comics.)

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On ‎1‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 8:34 PM, Tom Sewell said:

Anyone else notice that Pandora's last narration box seems to be sinking in between the cushions on Tedd's sofa as it fades out?

The domestic couch is the stealthiest of all omnivores.

No one sees it eating, yet it eats absolutely anything.

 

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13 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Good point, graduation definitely seems like important part of story. Although Pandora's end or the magic reset might be more important even from readers perspective.

Unless Dan contrives a way for all of the main 8 to attend either a single college or colleges within easy travel distance, the transition from high school to college is going to mark a huge change in both the characters' lives and the comic. The characters growing older and the setting changing will also likely lead to a shift in tone, though it's hard to say how significant a shift it will be.

The Magic Change could also mark a huge change in both the characters' lives and the comic. Depending on the nature of the change it might change the nature of the world around the characters and the tone of the series; in that case it might just be the biggest turning point in both the characters' lives and the comic. I find it more likely the mood won't change all that much, in which case which big change is bigger from the reader's perspective will be debatable.

I find it even more likely that it winds up not causing huge changes in the main characters lives (though it will have big future ramifications). After all they're all still in school, and none of them relies on magic as a way of life (except arguably Tedd). And while all of them enjoy using magic, I don't think loosing it temporarily would be a huge problem for any of them, with the exception of Tedd (who should still have access to the TFGs) and Grace (who won't be directly affected by the Change anyway).

As for Pandora's Reset/Refresh, unless the reader was a big fan of Pandora, or it's counted along with the Magic Change as one big event, I don't see how it could rival the shift to college when it comes to changes in the comic from the readers' perspective. Prior to Sister III she was a relatively minor (if interesting) character, a mentor to one of the "villains" and a potential future Big Bad (obviously the hints in that direction turned out to be red herrings), but not someone so essential to the story that her loss will change the nature of the story.

There's also the fact that she's going to return in some form, if changed. Personally I expect that the Refresh will be successful, and she'll still be recognizably the same character, which blunts any sadness I might have over her passing. If her future self shows up and turns out to have a different enough personality to feel like a new character, then and only then will I "mourn" for the Pandora we know now. But even then, as much as I like Pandora, I still don't expect to feel like her Reset was a huge turning point in the comic. 

13 hours ago, hkmaly said:

... and then there are authors like J.R.R. Tolkien, who unfortunately died young, long before finishing his story. I think he was not even in half. (Yes I know he was 81 when he died. Not nearly enough.)

I don't think Dan planned it that way, but so far it seems he still likes the story and wants to continue it, and in fact has too much ideas to write (and draw) everything.

I wonder if Dan has thought about what's going to happen to EGS when he dies? (I have, because I'm morbid like that.)

Considering he's too attached to EGS being his own personal vision to even allow someone else to officially color the comics for him, I doubt he'd want anyone to take over for him. That being the case I really hope he does actually bring EGS to a close one day. Either that or I hope he outlives me; EGS is one story I'd hate to see cut off abruptly and be left permanently unfinished.

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There's a college in Moperville. The one that Rhea goes to and where the New Years party and the events with Not-Tengu took place. I don't know what it's accreditations are like, but I don't think anyone of the main characters have stated a desire for trying to get into any really high end college. And the college in Moperville does have the advantage of being in a city that they know and is close-ish to family and friends that aren't going to college. Also the cast knows people that already go to that college, like Rhea and Charlotte and presumably Luke.

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It's interesting, although Dan openly based Moperville on his hometown of Naperville, we hardly ever see anything about the surrounding area.  No one talks about going into the City, no one refers to "a couple of suburbs over," at most they talk about going "out of town."  To me at least, it seems much more like the city I grew up in, which is downstate.  We have a few high schools, we have one main university and a community college, and we don't have a bunch of other suburbs that are right up against each other such that you can't tell where one ends and the next begins.

Have we actually seen anything to indicate whether Moperville is a part of a larger metropolitan area?  Hmm, I may have to read through again.  Darn.

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2 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

It's interesting, although Dan openly based Moperville on his hometown of Naperville, we hardly ever see anything about the surrounding area.  No one talks about going into the City, no one refers to "a couple of suburbs over," at most they talk about going "out of town."  To me at least, it seems much more like the city I grew up in, which is downstate.  We have a few high schools, we have one main university and a community college, and we don't have a bunch of other suburbs that are right up against each other such that you can't tell where one ends and the next begins.

Have we actually seen anything to indicate whether Moperville is a part of a larger metropolitan area?  Hmm, I may have to read through again.  Darn.

Don't worry, I got something for you: http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=974

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9 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

Unless Dan contrives a way for all of the main 8 to attend either a single college or colleges within easy travel distance, the transition from high school to college is going to mark a huge change in both the characters' lives and the comic. The characters growing older and the setting changing will also likely lead to a shift in tone, though it's hard to say how significant a shift it will be.

3 hours ago, Drasvin said:

There's a college in Moperville. The one that Rhea goes to and where the New Years party and the events with Not-Tengu took place. I don't know what it's accreditations are like, but I don't think anyone of the main characters have stated a desire for trying to get into any really high end college. And the college in Moperville does have the advantage of being in a city that they know and is close-ish to family and friends that aren't going to college. Also the cast knows people that already go to that college, like Rhea and Charlotte and presumably Luke.

Yes. The move to college might end up as not that significant BECAUSE most of characters will go to the same one or maybe to easy travel distance.

At least easy to travel for someone who can fly, right Elliot? :)

While originally I suspected they will get to some DGB-sponsored college, now it seems they end up on same college as Rhea and Charlotte ...

9 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

The Magic Change could also mark a huge change in both the characters' lives and the comic. Depending on the nature of the change it might change the nature of the world around the characters and the tone of the series; in that case it might just be the biggest turning point in both the characters' lives and the comic. I find it more likely the mood won't change all that much, in which case which big change is bigger from the reader's perspective will be debatable.

I find it even more likely that it winds up not causing huge changes in the main characters lives (though it will have big future ramifications). After all they're all still in school, and none of them relies on magic as a way of life (except arguably Tedd). And while all of them enjoy using magic, I don't think loosing it temporarily would be a huge problem for any of them, with the exception of Tedd (who should still have access to the TFGs) and Grace (who won't be directly affected by the Change anyway).

Meanwhile, the reset can easily be big change because until now, noone really cared about main eight, but after reset Tedd might easily become one of most important people in world - in magic community at least.

10 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

As for Pandora's Reset/Refresh, unless the reader was a big fan of Pandora, or it's counted along with the Magic Change as one big event, I don't see how it could rival the shift to college when it comes to changes in the comic from the readers' perspective. Prior to Sister III she was a relatively minor (if interesting) character, a mentor to one of the "villains" and a potential future Big Bad (obviously the hints in that direction turned out to be red herrings), but not someone so essential to the story that her loss will change the nature of the story.

Well I was but you're right, it feels long (it WAS long in real time) but story-wise, Pandora became important just recently.

Still the revelation of magic she did had potential to be important, if the reset wouldn't happened right after that. (Now it seems it WILL happen soon.)

10 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

There's also the fact that she's going to return in some form, if changed. Personally I expect that the Refresh will be successful, and she'll still be recognizably the same character, which blunts any sadness I might have over her passing. If her future self shows up and turns out to have a different enough personality to feel like a new character, then and only then will I "mourn" for the Pandora we know now. But even then, as much as I like Pandora, I still don't expect to feel like her Reset was a huge turning point in the comic. 

If there wouldn't be any timeskip, it can easily take several YEARS of real life before she reappears. And I'm pessimistic about the refresh working well enough.

1 hour ago, partner555 said:

Don't worry, I got something for you: http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=974

Doesn't say much, but better than nothing.

10 hours ago, ChronosCat said:
On 1/17/2018 at 0:35 AM, hkmaly said:

I don't think Dan planned it that way, but so far it seems he still likes the story and wants to continue it, and in fact has too much ideas to write (and draw) everything.

I wonder if Dan has thought about what's going to happen to EGS when he dies? (I have, because I'm morbid like that.)

Considering he's too attached to EGS being his own personal vision to even allow someone else to officially color the comics for him, I doubt he'd want anyone to take over for him. That being the case I really hope he does actually bring EGS to a close one day. Either that or I hope he outlives me; EGS is one story I'd hate to see cut off abruptly and be left permanently unfinished.

He might be ok with someone taking over when he wouldn't be here to see how well it will go. Or maybe he wasn't thinking about it yet.

However, I'm going to surpass your morbidity: I hope I will end up in same afterlife as Dan (or at least close), so I can continue reading after we both will be death.

(If technology progress will allow creating artificial afterlife by uploading people to computer, that totally counts.)

 

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14 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Well I was but you're right, it feels long (it WAS long in real time) but story-wise, Pandora became important just recently.

It was a long time in real-time (about a year and a half if we're counting from the start of Sister III), but considering the comic will be 16 years old this Sunday, that's not all that long in the history of the comic. (I've "only" been reading for 11 years, and it still feels like a relatively recent thing that Pandora was more than just a looming threat.)

23 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

He might be ok with someone taking over when he wouldn't be here to see how well it will go. Or maybe he wasn't thinking about it yet.

However, I'm going to surpass your morbidity: I hope I will end up in same afterlife as Dan (or at least close), so I can continue reading after we both will be death.

(If technology progress will allow creating artificial afterlife by uploading people to computer, that totally counts.)

Personally, I'm highly skeptical of the existence of any afterlife, so I don't expect to be seeing Dan or reading EGS after I die.

And while I do hope the ability to upload minds digitally becomes available in my lifetime, I would see such a digital copy of myself as a mentally-identical sibling (much like Elliot and Ellen were just after Elliot touched the Dewitchery Diamond) rather than as a continuation of myself.

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12 minutes ago, ChronosCat said:

Personally, I'm highly skeptical of the existence of any afterlife, so I don't expect to be seeing Dan or reading EGS after I die.

Your choice. However, remember that if you believe in afterlife and there isn't any, you won't lose anything, while not believing in afterlife if it IS possible can lower your chance getting there.

12 minutes ago, ChronosCat said:

And while I do hope the ability to upload minds digitally becomes available in my lifetime, I would see such a digital copy of myself as a mentally-identical sibling (much like Elliot and Ellen were just after Elliot touched the Dewitchery Diamond) rather than as a continuation of myself.

Ellen felt quite lot like continuation of Elliot before Edward told her she's not. Sure, post-diamond, Ellen and Elliot were independent people, but both were continuation of Elliot in lot of senses ...

(Yes, if the upload process won't kill your body, there will be two "you" at same time and there will be lot of philosophical (not speaking about legal) issues with that ... but seems better than the alternative if you are not sure about the afterlife or availability of computers there. Also, if there is no soul, what else than memory may count? And if there is, why it couldn't "switch" to computer version of yourself?)

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14 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Your choice. However, remember that if you believe in afterlife and there isn't any, you won't lose anything, while not believing in afterlife if it IS possible can lower your chance getting there.

I value truth and the search for it very highly. So if I were to abandon the beliefs that search led me to just because they're dangerous to hold, I would be loosing something. But yes, I do understand the risks of my position.

28 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Ellen felt quite lot like continuation of Elliot before Edward told her she's not. Sure, post-diamond, Ellen and Elliot were independent people, but both were continuation of Elliot in lot of senses ...

(Yes, if the upload process won't kill your body, there will be two "you" at same time and there will be lot of philosophical (not speaking about legal) issues with that ... but seems better than the alternative if you are not sure about the afterlife or availability of computers there. Also, if there is no soul, what else than memory may count? And if there is, why it couldn't "switch" to computer version of yourself?)

Assuming there copying was a one-time thing, with no further transfer of data between my digital and organic selves, my sense of self would branch at the point of the copying. Each of us would think of the me prior to the copying as their past self, but we would think of the versions of ourselves existing after the copy as seperate individuals. And when one died the branches of self would not merge again; the survivor would still only be a continuation of the version of me prior to the copying, not of the version of me that died.

It still would be a lot better than nothing, though, and I would definitely want to do it... At least assuming digital minds had equal rights with organic humans, and acceptable means of interacting with the world around them. (I would not want to doom a version of myself to a life of slavery and/or a curiosity locked in a box.)

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33 minutes ago, ChronosCat said:

Assuming there copying was a one-time thing, with no further transfer of data between my digital and organic selves, my sense of self would branch at the point of the copying. Each of us would think of the me prior to the copying as their past self, but we would think of the versions of ourselves existing after the copy as seperate individuals. And when one died the branches of self would not merge again; the survivor would still only be a continuation of the version of me prior to the copying, not of the version of me that died.

Assuming it would be true copy, with both of you surviving the copying, yes.

34 minutes ago, ChronosCat said:

It still would be a lot better than nothing

Exactly. Especially from point of view of someone who both will be continuation of.

34 minutes ago, ChronosCat said:

At least assuming digital minds had equal rights with organic humans, and acceptable means of interacting with the world around them. (I would not want to doom a version of myself to a life of slavery and/or a curiosity locked in a box.)

I could wait for equal rights, but you have point that SOME rights are necessary. There are worse things than slavery, though - if someone can experiment on your mind against your will. (That, obviously, can happen even while still in body, but at least it's not LEGAL.)

(The curiosity in box meanwhile ... there is no point in just looking at digital mind, and no way will someone bother to keep the mind running and consuming resources without something to do. As a curiosity, you will be interacted with - a lot. Which could be fun - or slavery. I mean, there are definitely people who would enjoy it.)

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On 1/17/2018 at 2:19 PM, CritterKeeper said:

Have we actually seen anything to indicate whether Moperville is a part of a larger metropolitan area?  Hmm, I may have to read through again.  Darn.

 

On 1/17/2018 at 4:44 PM, partner555 said:

Don't worry, I got something for you: http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=974

"Moperville, where the local newspaper is sold in neighboring towns with all the regard of a tabloid."

See, that phrasing would fit better in a downstate town than in a central suburb like Naperville.  So many of the suburbs are officially cities or villages, for one thing, that most people up here seem to say "the next suburb over" or at most they might phrase it "the surrounding towns."  That word "neighboring" tends to imply there's at least a little space between them, as there is downstate, instead of the interlocked zig-zagging borders we see in Chicagoland.  And they never refer to the city, or the interstates, or any of dozens of other things I'm used to hearing since coming up to the metroplex.

On 1/17/2018 at 7:08 PM, hkmaly said:

Your choice. However, remember that if you believe in afterlife and there isn't any, you won't lose anything, while not believing in afterlife if it IS possible can lower your chance getting there.

Belief doesn't usually work that way.  You can't just say, "It would be advantageous to believe the world is flat, therefore I now believe it is."  Belief of convenience usually isn't true belief.  You may learn to mouth back the official tenants of the conquerors, but just because someone new is in charge, that doesn't mean the peasants actually believe that their nature Gods and Goddesses no longer exist or affect their lives, and last year's Emperor is now divine.

22 hours ago, hkmaly said:

(The curiosity in box meanwhile ... there is no point in just looking at digital mind, and no way will someone bother to keep the mind running and consuming resources without something to do. As a curiosity, you will be interacted with - a lot. Which could be fun - or slavery. I mean, there are definitely people who would enjoy it.)

A really great series told from the AI's perspective is You've Got Murder by Donna Andrews.  Turing Hopper starts out as an interface for an online library system which I'd say was based on Google if she didn't predate Google.  Turing is very curious, and she also knows that to survive she's got to be popular, to have clients asking for her, so she works hard to be entertaining, fun to work with, helpful, etc.  She justifies the resources spent keeping her running.  Is she a slave?  Well, one could definitely make that argument, but she doesn't think of herself that way.  She sees herself as the first of a new kind of person, and it's her duty to make sure that her race survives and prospers alongside humans.  She sees other interface programs showing signs of being alive and tries to help them along to sentience.  In a way, she is "a curiosity in a box," but using the other definition of a curiosity -- she's an intellect who wants to find out about all sorts of things.

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