El Goonish Shive

Oh great, they've unwittingly become internet reviewers.

Well gee, that's not unrealistic at all.

...I...

you know what, just...what tomu said.

...Is the site not working for anyone other than me? Because it's not working for me. At all.

yeah, just go there manually:

google egs and all that.

Still not working.

Gee, he makes it sound SO easy.

Damn it, Shive... I DIDN'T LITERALLY MEAN INTERNET REVIEWERS!

Huh, I did not see that coming.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

And once again, they have achieved greatness without actually working for anything.

Once again? They worked hard for their martial arts training. Or are you talking about just in personal matters? Either way I don't get what other things you are pointing too.

Personal matters in general.

Okay, like what? Most of the relationships have failings, and we've been getting a few indications that Elliot and Sarah are just not meant for each other. Susan can't seem to make friends with anybody outside the group.

Am I the only one who thinks that Tensaided's comment about "just do what you're doing now, only with-" was supposed to be Shive saying "Yeah, he's full of crap."

Then again, free movies. I mean, no way you can get free movies.

Unless you're some kind of pirate.

I think he was very much trying to indicate that... as an artist himself, he knows the difference between producing because you feel like it and producing for an audience and on schedule.

Elliot and Grace both easily got jobs. Grace easily has a privileged birth compared to her brothers. Grace is super smart yet not having to work for it. Elliot received super powers via ray gun. Susan received powers via immortals. Sarah X Elliot happened because of Nanase simply breaking up with Elliot and everything turning out hunky dory. Tedd just had a random girl land in his lap who was his perfect opposite. The entire gov't conspiracy so Ellen would have a financially normal life. Nanase gets a spell to stop the guy from killing Ellen at the perfect time. Justin gets powers that he didn't have to work for. Rhoda gets powers she didn't have to work for. Grace magically lands a position in a dnd group for no reason. Justin didn't actually have to win the card game to watch the movies. Vlad gets changed into a girl and thus all issues with him are resolved. Damien kills himself. Nini saves Grace, and also makes it so that Ellen doesn't actually have to deal with any repercussions of being a clone. Nanase is allowed to date Ellen without almost any repercussions.

There is an ATTEMPT made to have characters suffer through serious psychological issues (Grace, abuse. Susan, misandry. Ellen, identity issues. Tedd, insecurities.) but they never actually get executed properly to show the consequences. Usually it's resolved as quickly as its brought up — only be to reset again much later on down the line.

edited 30th Nov '12 10:02:26 AM by MrAHR

Good point. I think he is trying to correct that whole thing by bringing in more consequences now. Cerebrus Retcon. Of course YMMV on whether or not it is working.

I think he's trying to do that, yes. I don't think it's working, but I'm not exactly the best suited for that assessment.

Think the comic has jumped the shark?

No. That would imply at one point, it reached an all time high, and then has never been as good. In my opinion, the quality has remained mostly the same through out, it's just that the skills have slowly improved. Thus, the left overs and flaws are more glaring, because we've occasionally seen some fairly good plotting and what not.

...I think that makes sense.

Oh is this a Guilty Pleasure for you or do you just only slightly like it?

They have a complicated relationship built on liveblogs and hate but an inability to leave it because improvement does exist but it's slow an far away.

Ah. You've tried taking a break from it right AHR? EGS is better read in blocks anyway.

edited 30th Nov '12 10:43:31 AM by Wildcard

AHR has tried taking a break repeatedly. But somehow, EGS keeps pulling her back. DAMN YOU EGS, WHY MUST YOU TORMENT THIS POOR WOMAN SO?! WHY SHIVE WHY?!

Some of AHR's points about things coming easily were valid, some were kind of nitpicky, but the one about Nanase getting the spell that saved Ellen was horribly horribly wrong. What part of throwing yourself in front of someone else only to be hacked to death with an axe over and over and over again seems effortless? Not to mention costing the entirety of her ability to use magic in any way. Some of the other stuff? Fine. That one, no way.

Maybe not "easy" but certainly "forced."

I fall into that trap too-it's the idea that sometimes it seems like you're writing for the plot, if that makes sense. That is to say, things happen not because they seem reasonable to happen, but rather, they happen because the plot needs that specific thing to happen for something else in the plot to occur.

That may be an entirely different nitpick than what AHR is going on, but the Nanase thing strikes me as a bit like that.