about live blogs add a live blog
The Great Nitpicky Live Blog of El Goonish Shive
Mr AHR
- Page:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- 65 [66]
- 67
- 68
- 69
- 70
- 71
- 72
- 73
- 74
- 75
- 76
- 77
- 78
- 79
- 80
- 81
- 82
- 83
- 84
- 85
- 86
- 87
- 88
- 89
- 90
- 91
- 92
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- 97
- 98
- 99
- 100
- 101
- 102
- 103
- 104
- 105
- 106
- 107
[table of contents]
Strips 541-550 (Super Kinky Bondage Arc)
Oi ve. Talk about real life, eh? How y'all been? I've been reading Moby Dick. Lots of fun. My homework has been reading like liveblog entries interestingly enough, I guess I can only rage at one thing at a time.
Whelp, lets get down and dirty and start to wrap up the craptastic shitstorm that is the one, the only, El Goonish Shive!
No need for applause.
—
Sketchbook Strip 050904
Happy Mothers Day. Now all females better put on yer aprons and get back in the kitchen.
—
Strip 541
Art:
Content:
Art:
Content:
Art:
Art:
Art:
Art:
Art:
Uhm...Shive, you ALREADY overpowered it by being able to alter forms to make them into girls. Cats or no cats, it's been done.
—
Strip 550
Content:
Happy Mothers Day. Now all females better put on yer aprons and get back in the kitchen.
—
Strip 541
Art:
- You know, I still have no idea what that fwoosh is from in the second panel. Can anyone tell me? I've looked at this strip far too many times to be comfortable with it, and yet I still have no idea.
- For that matter, how Mr. Dreads got that wound fixed. I think I missed something.
- Heh, looking at the crotch area of Mr. Flameguy, it's so oddly high up and lacking in a penis.
![[lol]](http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]")
- He came from the window, Ellen. Don't worry though, things like backs breaking are a silly myth.
Content:
- All right, lets get down to the nitty gritty here. No more waiting. Now. We ponder what the fuck is with this shit.
- Now, lets be blunt here. Shive did this so he wouldn't have to make Grace kill Damien. He jumped through every hoop and did every pirouette so his precious Grace could be the hero, but not have to have blood on her hands.
- So, we have this whole god identity based around a religion we know nothing about, and what it means to be a god in it, and how the laws of godliness work in it. This pretty much he could have Damien wear socks on his head and justify it as uryuom religion. Much like that prophecy, it's there because. And much like before, it's to set up a flimsy set of coincidences so that Grace does not have to kill, and Damien doesn't do any damage.
- And why can Grace fly? Because Shive needs to get the explosion to happen far away. Everything is so awkwardly put together and badly foreshadowed, and it's just BAD.
- And the problem with Grace trying to help Damien is that it does NOTHING for the plot. She never really grows from it, she isn't really affected by anything, it's sorta tacked on. In fact, what's even more tacked on is how apparently that form made her go all whacko. Why? BECAUSE. Yeah she's supposed to be peaceful, but her methods of trying to reason are never actually mentioned, and only brought up later. Shive had way too much on his plate for this one.
- That's not even getting into how rushed his decision was, how both people could suddenly fly in a straight spit in the face to any attempt at science Shive has tried to put in his series, and also the fact that the guy built up to be the end all be all of evilness decided to go kamikaze because he was having a hard time winning. Dude, you have minions, use them!
- OK, so Grace is fireproof! You know who isn't? Her friends! Basic villain logic dude, basic villain logic.
- And of course, just to show how little characterizes her, all she can think of is how much she loves Tedd. A father figure? Brothers? Mr. Verres? Who are they?
Art:
- That was a pretty spherical ball of smoke.
- What? No debris?
- Aliens. They do crazy shit. DON'T QUESTION IT.
Content:
- That's right Nini, just say you support the creepy guy that tried to kill Tedd and co. It's gonna get retconned away anyway.
- EGS, everyone, where the villains are major pussies. They blow themselves up and are nice and huggable and have willing sex slaves!
- Also, these misconceptions certainly will take a long time to clear up. They STILL haven't been cleared up. That is how bad this pacing is. 7 years. 7 goddamn years. Even if this is the best plot in the world, good god man, good god.
- You know, it's never explained why Nini here can fly either.
- Or how she can generate shields.
- You'd think that would help with the whole shadetail thing. Just make tiny little shield, and suffocate the guy.
- In general, this is just one of the many cockteases of EGS. The pace is so slow that even stuff that might be remotely interesting just ends up being aggravating.
- And, OF COURSE, we end on a joke scene. Because what just happened is heel-arious.
Art:
- Whilst mastering the art of gradients, Shive still fails to grasp basic torso to leg ratio. Good to see some things stay constant.
Art:
- Circles! Oh how I have missed thee!
- Chair blowing up? Shrapnel? Glass being broken? No shrapnel! Broken through a ceiling? No shrapnel! Guy blows himself up with intense heat? No shrapnel!
- Shive, if you're gonna pay attention to detail, don't just do it for rule of drama. This is why I can't take you seriously. You pull the drama flairs but just ignore it for every other reason.
- That Nini is so convenient. She just goes to fix everything and leaves. It's almost like she doesn't have any other motivation other than to move along the plot!
Art:
- So much text, so little art.
- Hey look. Exposition. You know, after reading Moby Dick, suddenly this seems a lot less tedious.
- HAH! Just kidding.
- So, what does Nioi-Nini say in short version? Ellen is baby soul, and now she needs a new one! So Nini here is gonna mind rape her with a new personality and life!
- Not creepy at all!
- And somehow, this is better than her just being a clone, because now she can be her own person!
- Or...something.
Art:
- More attempts at chins and upwards glances. They are still not well done..
- Magic nose beep, how I hate thee.
- Ellen is still Elliot, even if she still wants her own personality, that doesn't mean she should be overwritten by a completely new life.
- And Nini didn't even ASK if Ellen wanted it. Well, not formally anyway. She just did. Lousy meddler.
- Seriously, this is a morally horrible thing to do. Why is she allowed to get away with it.
Art:
- Even by EGS standards, Vlad's eyes are weird. They're huge, all lighty, and still mad awkward on the face.
- Behold, Shive's form of a happy ending. Giving a male a body of a female, and never planning on turning her back, because transexuality does not exist in this world. Hope you like menstruation, you bat bugger.
Uhm...Shive, you ALREADY overpowered it by being able to alter forms to make them into girls. Cats or no cats, it's been done.
—
Strip 550
Content:
- Annoyance at lack of gender implications aside, I really do think that Vlad would be better as a protag than any of the lot Shive came up with.
- Because unlike Grace, Vlad here has some angst people can feel sorry for, to a certain degree.
- Hell, even commander Jaguar is more interesting than this guy. He looks like he would have an interesting backstory. Never seen again, naturally.
- Oh look, Nanase is back. It's not like anyone would actually be in danger of dying, now would they? Nope. They just get head injuries that have no long term effect on them so Grace can get all worried that she hurt someone.
comments
First thought, with the mother's day strip: I didn't notice at the time, but who's in that pic? Is that Ellen and TG Elliot? Why are they different heights and sizes?
Also, going through this has been a freaking eye opener. I'd mostly forgotten a lot of these plots. And to think, I have it in writing on this website that Painted Black was the HIGH point of the series...
...
Actually, that's still true.
God, I was dumb in 2002.
BobCat
10th Feb 11
Thanks for the comment, I kinda wrote this review badly just to get back in the groove, and it feels good to still get some agreement with it.
MrAHR
10th Feb 11
No problem. This has been really helpful to me; see, I was shocked that nowhere online could I find this comic's badness mocked. There wasn't an equivalent to XKCD sucks, or an entry on the Bad Webcomics Wiki. So this was a godsend.
The biggest surprise was how, in retrospect, I've been dumb. For years I've wished that the focus would go back to Ted and Grace, who I thought were fun. Having reread it now...
http://www.egscomics.com/sketchbook/?date=2011-02-03
Shivae intends for her to be cute. That expression, however, just makes me want to smash her with a brick. I'm also getting sick of her YEARS LONG "oh no history is full of awful things" kick. Y'know what this implies to me? That nobody has actually given her any guidance on the subject! They're just letting her read and read and read and read without giving context. Like, the Holocaust seems senseless until you see the idiotic psychology of Hitler and his dumbass racial theories. Grace of all people should understand that, having known her Damien! Or, I don't know, MAYBE SHE KNOWS THAT SHE WAS RAISED BY THE GOVERNMENT TO KILL PEOPLE. She shouldn't be so SHOCKED that "oh hey, people is sometimes not kind!" But no! She's just getting to be a poor little lost lamb for Tedd to comfort!
...With his penis. Which he prefers not to have.
Shivae intends for her to be cute. That expression, however, just makes me want to smash her with a brick. I'm also getting sick of her YEARS LONG "oh no history is full of awful things" kick. Y'know what this implies to me? That nobody has actually given her any guidance on the subject! They're just letting her read and read and read and read without giving context. Like, the Holocaust seems senseless until you see the idiotic psychology of Hitler and his dumbass racial theories. Grace of all people should understand that, having known her Damien! Or, I don't know, MAYBE SHE KNOWS THAT SHE WAS RAISED BY THE GOVERNMENT TO KILL PEOPLE. She shouldn't be so SHOCKED that "oh hey, people is sometimes not kind!" But no! She's just getting to be a poor little lost lamb for Tedd to comfort!
...With his penis. Which he prefers not to have.
BobCat
10th Feb 11
- Page:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- 65 [66]
- 67
- 68
- 69
- 70
- 71
- 72
- 73
- 74
- 75
- 76
- 77
- 78
- 79
- 80
- 81
- 82
- 83
- 84
- 85
- 86
- 87
- 88
- 89
- 90
- 91
- 92
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- 97
- 98
- 99
- 100
- 101
- 102
- 103
- 104
- 105
- 106
- 107