Future of EGS (mainly pondering story possibilities)

[Scotty 1,061]

I just want to make it clear this isn't really speculation as to what Dan has planned. Just some ideas the popped into my head and make no claims that these will happen.

Right now in the Sister 3 arc, we have several plot threads, almost all have been out there for much of the comic's existence, that seem to be on the verge of being tied or even expanded. We have Magus apparently making another attempt to get back into the mortal realm by way of getting Ellen to zap Elliot, we have Susan about to be introduced to Diane and the ramifications of learning their relation, we also found out that another Immortal (Voltaire) has been interfering in Elliot's life for some time now, and then the big one of the energy clog.

Now, the Magus plot has evolved a fair bit to the point that it's about to get pretty violent, mainly due the Voltaire's interference, but that may or may not get completely resolved. Susan and Diane will have a rough start I imagine, but I think it work out. Voltaire I see possibly being a pain in the arse in future stories, unless Pandora gets a hold of him in this arc.

All that though, is pretty dependent on whether or not Pandora's plan to remove the clog is enough to prevent Magic from changing the system. If the system ends up changing, Magus is probably screwed as Ellen wouldn't be able to zap Elliot, heck Magus' own magic might not work from the spirit realm either. Susan wouldn't be able to teach Diane about their innate talent for vampire hunting, though it's possible that vampires might be affected by the system change as well and revert back to human or just die, dunno. Voltaire might not have a reason to kill Elliot anymore either, though who knows, maybe he wants the system to change because it means he could force a change in the rules for Immortals.

Anyway, that's besides the point, my main thoughts revolve around what might happen if the system changes or not. If the system doesn't change, well, it'd be business as usuall, everyone that has magic can still use magic or eventually get enough energy on their own to cast spells again or maybe some will just think it was fun while it lasted and not dwell on trying to get it back. I'm sure we'll still have magic shenanigans as Pandora helps Sarah exercise her magic. There are also a few other threads that could be revisited, like the Lord Tedd story, Noah's background is still a mystery, and there could be more to learn about Noriko.

If the plan fails though and there is a system change, what then? Well Pandora promised to help Sarah get magic in the new system, so there'll probably still be some shenanigans, but what about everyone else?

Tedd might be key to this.

Consider the fact that Tedd's "dangerous rarity" in part allows him to see magic, and apparently he's one of those rare types of wizards that can quickly learn the new system. He may learn that everyone hadn't actually lost their spells, but that they were just locked because they required knowledge of how the new system worked, so Nanase could get her Fairy Avatar and Guardian form back and Elliot could become Cheerleadra again for a couple examples, after some training. I'm not entirely sure Dan had this in mind way back at the beginning, but I wonder if Lord Tedd's reality experienced a system change and General Shade Tail capitalized on Lord Tedd's ability to see what the new system was and...well...conquering the world might be a stretch but they still likely did enough to get Tedd the reputation of "Lord". Anyway, our Tedd would have a similar opportunity to create a new magic order as DGB and other magic based organizations around the world would be defunct. This would create problems in that if word got out that Tedd could tell them how to get magic back, his life and the lives of his friends and family could be in danger. This might lead to stories about the cast attempting to get their magic back while at the same time trying to keep the wrong people from finding out about Tedd.

 

Again, this is purely in the realm of "what if?" mixed with "it would be interesting to see", and not actual speculation for what Dan might do.

 

[Drachefly 30]

On the other hand, if Magic changes, it might just kick Magus out of the spirit realm onto the physical plane because that's not a place he can be anymore, and everyone including him is caught unprepared.

[Trix Marano 4]

I would be interested to know what people out there have speculated about Luke and who he was calling. He seemed to be looking for magic, but taking orders from the phone guy? The Shiveapedia theories page doesn't have anything on this.

[Scotty 1,061]

Just now, Trix Marano said:

I would be interested to know what people out there have speculated about Luke and who he was calling. He seemed to be looking for magic, but taking orders from the phone guy? The Shiveapedia theories page doesn't have anything on this.

The person he was talking to seemed to be someone he met who was in the same situation, just out of the blue had a spell they could use. Justin had guessed that Luke would have had to see at least 2 people who were marked and 1 person who had magic who did not have a mark in order to see a difference between the two, of course he didn't know the difference between someone who is marked and someone who had a mark and was awakened, but still that means that the group Luke is part of has at least 1 other who is marked and 1 who isn't but can use magic.

The main reason that Luke's friend wanted Luke to contact Justin though, was to see if there was any way they could meet Cheerleadra, so while Luke's group does have magic, they appear more like a Cheerleadra fan club.

 

[Trix Marano 4]

2 hours ago, Scotty said:

The person he was talking to seemed to be someone he met who was in the same situation, just out of the blue had a spell they could use. Justin had guessed that Luke would have had to see at least 2 people who were marked and 1 person who had magic who did not have a mark in order to see a difference between the two, of course he didn't know the difference between someone who is marked and someone who had a mark and was awakened, but still that means that the group Luke is part of has at least 1 other who is marked and 1 who isn't but can use magic.

The main reason that Luke's friend wanted Luke to contact Justin though, was to see if there was any way they could meet Cheerleadra, so while Luke's group does have magic, they appear more like a Cheerleadra fan club.

 

However, there was the intersting part that Luke seemed to be specifically looking out for magic-users in general, as opposed to simply Justin, who was a confirmed associate of Cheerleadra. It would also be the case that Luke would not have needed to use his aura-seeing powers, as the goal in your scenario is to meet Cheerleadra, and there also would have been no need for him to have been sent in the first place. The phone guy also showed that he didn't care about Luke getting to know Justin, which would have been a priority in the Cheerleadra mission. Luke also prioritised finding and talking to powerful magic users - Grace, Tedd - and so Cheerleadra may have been on the list, but not a sole priority.

It was speculated somewhere on these forums that phone guy had one of the two unconfirmed magic marks on the magic-mark montage comic (contrast and cloud marks).

[Scotty 1,061]

33 minutes ago, Trix Marano said:

However, there was the intersting part that Luke seemed to be specifically looking out for magic-users in general, as opposed to simply Justin, who was a confirmed associate of Cheerleadra. It would also be the case that Luke would not have needed to use his aura-seeing powers, as the goal in your scenario is to meet Cheerleadra, and there also would have been no need for him to have been sent in the first place. The phone guy also showed that he didn't care about Luke getting to know Justin, which would have been a priority in the Cheerleadra mission. Luke also prioritised finding and talking to powerful magic users - Grace, Tedd - and so Cheerleadra may have been on the list, but not a sole priority.

It was speculated somewhere on these forums that phone guy had one of the two unconfirmed magic marks on the magic-mark montage comic (contrast and cloud marks).

Luke directly asked Justin about the fight with the fire golem and then took a look at whether he had magic, I don't doubt that Luke and his friends were curious if Justin had magic, but it seems like it was an optional task, Luke taking notice of Grace's aura got him even more interested and then the way George looked at him and the flash he got from Tedd was basically the tipping point of "how many people here possibly have magic?" In the end, it only turned out that Justin and Grace only had aura's and Tedd had something unexplainable. Interestingly enough he never got a chance to look at Sarah who obviously had been marked earlier, and I'm pretty sure Dan did that intentionally so they he could hit us with that bombshell at the end of the arc.

[Trix Marano 4]

Fair enough...

But here's something I've been pondering: Vlad(ia). We know that Grace can shift between (and mix) all the forms she's been zapped with, and that she can reverse Ellen's V5 beam's effects. Ellen did zap Vlad(ia) with her beam. Vlad(ia) is perfectly capable, therefore, of reverting to his human male form. Is it because of this, this, or more like this?

We may never know...

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

1 hour ago, Trix Marano said:

Fair enough...

But here's something I've been pondering: Vlad(ia). We know that Grace can shift between (and mix) all the forms she's been zapped with, and that she can reverse Ellen's V5 beam's effects. Ellen did zap Vlad(ia) with her beam. Vlad(ia) is [theoretically] perfectly capable, therefore, of reverting to his human male form. Is it because of this, this, or more like this?

We may never know...

Fixed that for you.

Vladia has been quite clear and consistent about her reasoning here.  His first and only attempt at transforming almost killed him, and he hated the form he was stuck in.  The beam he was hit with was not a normal CMD beam, and its effects weren't normal either (no facial tentacles).  She does not know for certain that she can transform safely, and she likes this form a heck of a lot better than her old one, so she does not want to take the risk of attempting it, and possibly wind up either dying or ending up in a less-normal form.

I suspect that Dan was planning on Vladia playing a role in some final climactic battle, possibly choosing to transform in order to save someone's life.  

Personally, I'd like to see what Vladia's reaction would be to an offer to transform her with the TFG.  If it was an outside force changing her instead of her own (questionable) powers, and the change was to a perfectly normal form, would she find that more of an acceptable risk?  Or would she still consider it to be risking too much for the limited potential gain?

That last link in your post looks like a guest strip, but I still like it.  She may claim she never considered herself a man anyway, but it seems right that it would take a little time for her to adjust, and for her family to adjust too.  This scene shows her starting to enjoy her body, even though Hedge snickers at her and embarrasses her into making threats.  My imagination can't help coming up with images like Hedge escorting Vladia down the aisle at her wedding.  :-D

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

My imagination can't help coming up with images like Hedge escorting Vladia down the aisle at her wedding.  :-D

I thought Dr Sciuridae would handle Father-of-the-Bride duties for both Vladia and Grace.  If Vladia asked Hedge, I'm afraid Guineas would be quite hurt and jealous.

[Scotty 1,061]

1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

I suspect that Dan was planning on Vladia playing a role in some final climactic battle, possibly choosing to transform in order to save someone's life.  

Dan mentioned in the "PB special feature" that Vlad went trough several possible endings before the one we got, which did include dying to save Grace. I dunno if Dan would ever bring back that idea, I suspect considering trouble he's had with killing off good characters, killing off Vladia in some way wouldn't sit well with him.

1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

That last link in your post looks like a guest strip, but I still like it.  She may claim she never considered herself a man anyway, but it seems right that it would take a little time for her to adjust, and for her family to adjust too.  This scene shows her starting to enjoy her body, even though Hedge snickers at her and embarrasses her into making threats.  My imagination can't help coming up with images like Hedge escorting Vladia down the aisle at her wedding.  :-D

Yeah it's a guest strip, but you can't help but wonder if Vladia tried to pull an Ellen and just embrace being female, considering Vladia never knew what it was like to be a human male to begin with it would probably be easier for Vladia than it was for Ellen.

9 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

My imagination can't help coming up with images like Hedge escorting Vladia down the aisle at her wedding.  :-D

I thought Dr Sciuridae would handle Father-of-the-Bride duties for both Vladia and Grace.  If Vladia asked Hedge, I'm afraid Guineas would be quite hurt and jealous.

You know, it is possible for Vladia to have both Hedge and Guineas escorting her if Dr Sciuridae is unable to.

[Tom Sewell 268]

Maybe Vlad was always female. How do you tell with a bat-bat-bat-hawk-leopard-Uryuom hybrid? Vlad never successfully took human form before Ellen zapped her.

[Scotty 1,061]

41 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Maybe Vlad was always female. How do you tell with a bat-bat-bat-hawk-leopard-Uryuom hybrid? Vlad never successfully took human form before Ellen zapped her.

Probably DNA testing showed it, I would imagine the scientists would have done numerous tests to figure out why Vlad wasn't able to transform.

[ijuin 572]

Vladia also knows that her old form was horrifying to many people, while her new form is kinda-sorta-beautiful. The idea of people actually finding her attractive was definitely a novelty. The only large drawback so far is the issue of Vlad(ia)'s subjective gender identity, and the claim of "I was never a man" seems to imply that being "human" is higher on the priority list than being male if it were an either/or issue. We haven't seen enough of Vladia yet to know if her preference runs to male or female partners (or both).

[mlooney 3,417]

7 hours ago, ijuin said:

The idea of people actually finding her attractive was definitely a novelty. The only large drawback so far is the issue of Vlad(ia)'s subjective gender identity, and the claim of "I was never a man" seems to imply that being "human" is higher on the priority list than being male if it were an either/or issue.

That does seem to be the case.  As to her preference male/female, it might not have come up yet.  Let's face it, very few humans would want Vlad.

[Scotty 1,061]

12 hours ago, ijuin said:

We haven't seen enough of Vladia yet to know if her preference runs to male or female partners (or both).

Well we know Vladia has some Uryuom DNA in her so it's entirely possible she's like Grace and that only mental connections matter, or she might even be asexual.

She certainly didn't seem the huggable type though but that might be more nurture than nature.