El Goonish Shive

Furry pinups no less.

Trump delenda est

Oops, Dan forgot about that one time when Ellen copied Nanase's angel form.

Wasn't that... kinda super plot important? How'd he forget that?

she her hers hOI!!! i'm tempe

I think that Dan gets so bogged down in tiny details he forgets the big picture.

Maybe magic should restart, if only so Dan can simplify his magic system. I like worldbuilding (well, writing it, mostly) as much as the next author, but if I were Shive, I'd be driving myself up the wall.

Writer, or something. And... a button? 🖲️

Some writers are able to balance having a grand vision for their created world while making sure most or all of the bit-by-bit details line up consistently with that vision.

Clearly, Dan Shive is not one of those writers.

edited 20th Jul '17 4:23:27 PM by TotemicHero

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

All this really does is reinforce the exceptional circumstances by which Ellen was able to turn into an angel. The fact that it was actively breaking the rules of her spell to do so disqualifies the mundane answer, leaving only the divine intervention option.

Shive has just conclusively proven the existence of an almighty higher power within his universe. Which isn't that big a deal seeing as the Will of Magic is already an almighty higher power and might be the same f*cking one. Whatever the case, now that its existence is conclusively proven, I assume it will vanish in a puff of logic any second now.

edited 20th Jul '17 7:42:52 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

I believe the word Dan was searching for in the first paragraph was "thicc".

edited 21st Jul '17 12:38:45 AM by Elfive

In which Pandora changes the subject to more productive matters

Apocalypse: Dirge Of Swans.

@25552 You know how Shive notes that stuff in the NP isn't necessarily canon, and in fact should be noted when it does become canon? This would be an ideal time to trot out that idea.

For the record, I have a Hand Wave idea - Ellen's clone beam requires an amount of acclimation with its target's magical energies in order to work. On mundane beings, it's so fast as to be virtually unnoticeable. On spellcasters, it takes much longer. Ellen, however, has spent so much time with Nanase that she's naturally acclimated to Nanase's particular magical energy, and can thus effectively treat Nanase as mundane for purposes of that spell.

I'm not particularly fond of that explanation, and I think an easier way to do it would be to simply retcon out today's NP (it's NP; it's pretty easy to retcon out) and just say Ellen can copy transformed forms; they just burn through magical energy faster than the original caster (which not only makes sense, but makes the battle against Tengu make even more sense, as Ellen did the action most likely to result in a win).

@25553 It's not unlikely that the whole point of this storyline is to basically do a reboot on how magic works.

Only tangentially related, I'm wondering if this storyline is either going to start involving someone's sister or is soon going to be renamed, because it's increasingly feeling poorly named.

Today's comic - eh... I think he could have said all this in fewer panels. Maybe make the panels less wordy and combine a couple (the first two could have been combined pretty easily, and different framing could have combined 3 and 4). This plotline is dragging, and I don't mean because it's a year old.

Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.

the plot is going nicely and the np is getting disturbing

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

In the NP, no Scanning Enchantments, so no Stacking.

Sweet jesus that NP is something out of another board.

Apocalypse: Dirge Of Swans.

Ohhhh shive.

Read my stories!

I think we're almost to the point where the name becomes relevant. Remember, this storyline doesn't just feature the Diane and Susan meeting, it also is the conclusion to the plot of the very first Sister, with the creation of Ellen and the (revealed later) interference of Magus. Once Magus finally shows his hand, you can bet the title will mean something.

Yeah I've not even looked at the NP since testing the spells started because it's getting uncomfortable.

How does resetting work for elves? Do they? If not, are they more 'immortal' than fairies because they don't accumulate power and knowledge at the same rate? Has it ever been suggested that wizards live longer than non-wizard humans?

I've been thinking about Adrian's age, since we know that Pandora is 150 years older than him. Adrian doesn't really strike me as being more than one, maybe two centuries old, which kinda messes with the idea that Pandora is a super anomaly in regards to immortal lifespan. I mean, she's still older than she should be, but when that was first referenced I assumed she would be so by a crazy high margin. She looked like it, as Chaos. But now that we see the Pandora Raven part of the equation, she really does feel more like she's only been dealing with the voices and such for a few decades.

I think with the numbers given he's about 500.

So elves don't go mad? Why aren't they driven crazy by accumulated knowledge or whatever?

Writer, or something. And... a button? 🖲️

Maybe they can forget things?

Elves don't have to reset. The only reason that immortals have to reset is because their power is constantly increasing, and resetting is the only way to stop it. Elves only gain more power through training and study like humans do, so it's not a problem for them.

...Oh. That makes sense.

Writer, or something. And... a button? 🖲️

Which is why Pandora is not only psychologically unstable but also highly dangerous.

Or, at least, she used to be. Her instability's more of an Informed Attribute these days. I describe modern Pandora as "kinda moody".

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

She's had two breakdowns in a few minutes of conversation, not even counting what happened with Sarah earlier. Tedd should be on the phone with a mental health professional, trying not to whisper the words 'butterfly nets' too loudly at this point.

Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.

She's gotten overly excited once and almost cried once, both during what could be considered an emotionally difficult conversation to be having for anyone.

By contrast.

edited 22nd Jul '17 11:58:11 AM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Once again, Shive proves that he can't really envision an evil character as sympathetic (or vice versa). The moment Pandora started to be sympathetic, the moment Shive took away everything that really sold her as a villain. (And honestly, the main appeal of her as a character was her brand of villainy. Now that's gone.)

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

I think turning into a screaming eldritch nightmare of misplaced limbs and claws is sort of at the far end of the scale. She should really have been given a lithium prescription long before reaching that state.

Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.