Story Wednesday March 21, 2018

[Vorlonagent 442]

1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:

A question I've asked before. My guess was that Sirleck doesn't have to enter the physical plane between hosts, only before he "attacks" in taking a new host. That would also explain how Sirleck was able to sneak up and possess Ellen in the tight confines of a high school lavatory--remember, there would be mirrors along one wall.

I blame the murals or if Moperville South has no murals the lack of murals.

 

1 hour ago, The Old Hack said:

Pffft. Colonel Sanders barely registers as a speed bump. No, the final boss is whatever Lord Tedd is getting ready to fight.

General Shade-Tail would be the Big Boss among the bad guys we know about. 

[The Old Hack 2,448]

27 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

General Shade-Tail would be the Big Boss among the bad guys we know about. 

Not a bad bet given that he was genetically engineered to take down Damien.

But really, I am not sure that whatever EGS is confronting is necessarily an entity, alive or dead, physical or non. The villains of EGS have always tended to be tangential to the real impetus of the story, which is character development and interaction as well as life in general. I am not sure I can really phrase this in a way that makes sense, but the closest parallel I can think of is Season Six of Buffy about which Joss Whedon was supposed to say, "In this season, life is the Big Bad."

[Vorlonagent 442]

7 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

Not a bad bet given that he was genetically engineered to take down Damien.

But really, I am not sure that whatever EGS is confronting is necessarily an entity, alive or dead, physical or non. The villains of EGS have always tended to be tangential to the real impetus of the story, which is character development and interaction as well as life in general. I am not sure I can really phrase this in a way that makes sense, but the closest parallel I can think of is Season Six of Buffy about which Joss Whedon was supposed to say, "In this season, life is the Big Bad."

Agreed.  The conflicts serve to bring things out in the characters.  they are means not ends.

[Tom Sewell 268]

General Shade Tail is bad news, but from what little we've seen of him, he doesn't seem to be the sharpest pencil in the box. We know that our Grace was created by substituting a blood sample from the first Grace for a beefy soldier's. So Grace got the human part of her DNA from a brilliant scientist and his wife rather than from some would-be Rambo.

[Vorlonagent 442]

1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:

General Shade Tail is bad news, but from what little we've seen of him, he doesn't seem to be the sharpest pencil in the box. We know that our Grace was created by substituting a blood sample from the first Grace for a beefy soldier's. So Grace got the human part of her DNA from a brilliant scientist and his wife rather than from some would-be Rambo.

Most special-forces types tend to be at the very least bright and definitely cagey and resourceful.  You may be underestimating both Rambo and Special Forces soldiers.

[hkmaly 490]

17 hours ago, Scotty said:

Ok while this doesn't prove that Ellen's forgiven Magus for his actions, she at least knows his intentions and is willing to work with it.

Plus she would at least figure he'd be the best person there that can deal with Sirleck.

She wants to kill Sirleck and just punch Magus.

Also, I think that her "wasn't much I could do at first" ... like, I think she wasn't able to stop him zapping Elliot yet. It's not like she would be telling Sirleck limits of her control is it? She only got more control later, and possibly tested it with that raccoon.

17 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Does this mean that mean that after years in limbo and now in a duplicate body that, while similar, is not exactly the same as his own, Magus is already back in Magic Dueling form?

Nah, he doesn't need to be in his full form to battle Sirleck ... he had no problem putting Ashley into sleep just few seconds after getting ANY body, so he likely is quick to recover.

5 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

5 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

The final boss in this RPG is Voltaire.

Pffft. Colonel Sanders barely registers as a speed bump. No, the final boss is whatever Lord Tedd is getting ready to fight.

Agree.

Just now, Vorlonagent said:

1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:

General Shade Tail is bad news, but from what little we've seen of him, he doesn't seem to be the sharpest pencil in the box. We know that our Grace was created by substituting a blood sample from the first Grace for a beefy soldier's. So Grace got the human part of her DNA from a brilliant scientist and his wife rather than from some would-be Rambo.

Most special-forces types tend to be at the very least bright and definitely cagey and resourceful.  You may be underestimating both Rambo and Special Forces soldiers.

I saw Rambo. However, you are probably right about special force soldiers in general. Still, not AS intelligent as scientists.

[Vorlonagent 442]

Just now, hkmaly said:

I saw Rambo. However, you are probably right about special force soldiers in general. Still, not AS intelligent as scientists.

Certainly not abstract reasoning.  But their thinking would be finely honed for quick situation assessment, problem solving and lateral thinking.

[Scotty 1,061]

7 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Also, I think that her "wasn't much I could do at first" ... like, I think she wasn't able to stop him zapping Elliot yet. It's not like she would be telling Sirleck limits of her control is it? She only got more control later, and possibly tested it with that raccoon.

I had mentioned it in a twitter response that maybe Ellen noted she could retake control after the raccoon incident, like it wasn't Sirleck using Ellen's muscle memory to avoid the raccoon but Ellen herself reacting to it and then thinking "Hey, that was actually me that did that." while Sirleck couldn't really explain it so he went with the muscle memory excuse.

The question is though, did Magus take that as a cue that Sirleck didn't have as much control over Ellen's body as he thought? Or did he expect that because of the nature of Ellen, she'd have a greater change at fighting Sirleck's control over her. Or as someone else tweeted, maybe Magus got lucky that Ellen was able to fight back when she did, Dan's response to that was"

Magus could still have assumed that the raccoon incident meant something and took a chance on Ellen being able to fight back though. ::shrug::

[Tom Sewell 268]

Grace is very, very smart but she's not mastermind material. Masterminds think strategically; they plan for the long term. A mastermind may not have read Sun Tzu or Machiavelli, but operates on the principles the two sages set down. I wouldn't even rate Napoleon as a mastermind. Now, Cardinal Richeleu, Bismarck, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Stalin, and FDR all had chops and were probably as close to a Bond-level masterminds as the real world can produce.

[hkmaly 490]

21 minutes ago, Scotty said:

The question is though, did Magus take that as a cue that Sirleck didn't have as much control over Ellen's body as he thought? Or did he expect that because of the nature of Ellen, she'd have a greater change at fighting Sirleck's control over her. Or as someone else tweeted, maybe Magus got lucky that Ellen was able to fight back when she did, Dan's response to that was"

Magus could still have assumed that the raccoon incident meant something and took a chance on Ellen being able to fight back though. ::shrug::

I think Magus just hoped he will recover quickly enough.

19 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Grace is very, very smart but she's not mastermind material. Masterminds think strategically; they plan for the long term. A mastermind may not have read Sun Tzu or Machiavelli, but operates on the principles the two sages set down. I wouldn't even rate Napoleon as a mastermind. Now, Cardinal Richeleu, Bismarck, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Stalin, and FDR all had chops and were probably as close to a Bond-level masterminds as the real world can produce.

True mastermind doesn't NEED to read Sun Tzu or Machiavelli, as everything in those seems obvious to him

And yes, Grace didn't shown much of strategical thinking ... unless you count this one which might've been influenced by Magus. On the other hand, noone else in this comics shown much either ... even Voltaire's plans are somewhat lacking.

 

[Tom Sewell 268]

3 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

And yes, Grace didn't shown much of strategical thinking ... unless you count this one which might've been influenced by Magus. On the other hand, noone else in this comics shown much either ... even Voltaire's plans are somewhat lacking.

Actually Pandora has come closer than Voltaire in terms of long-term plans fulfilled.

[Scotty 1,061]

35 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

I think Magus just hoped he will recover quickly enough.

Dan responded to our tweets about it:

 

[hkmaly 490]

2 minutes ago, Scotty said:

38 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

I think Magus just hoped he will recover quickly enough.

Dan responded to our tweets about it:

 

Ah, the "I shouldn't say anything because I will be saying it later" response ...

[Nayl 13]

Just wanted to comment on the level of art that Dan is putting out these days.   What jumped out at me from this particular strip is the composition and flow of the first four panels, as the focus and perspective shift to emphasize the interchange between Ellen and Sirleck.  I'm always impressed with the way Dan draws, but this set of panels was just something else.