El Goonish Shive

I feel like Grace just made a huge mistake showing him that form given that it's her main one for super-heroing. She has enough forms by now that could have done something totally unrecognisable for more or less the same dramatic effect.

NP:

"Okay, if you really want us to believe you're not evil, what happens to all the people who didn't drink from the spring of friendship or whatever?"

"Well, if someone fails a puzzle, they get three more chances to get it right. Each time they just get teleported back to the start with the puzzle resetting, and in the unlikely event of injuries they get healed up too."

"And if they fail more than three times?"

"Well... I'm sorry to say that I must put them out of their misery."

"I knew it!"

"Yes... I teleport them back to wherever they call home, tuck them into bed with a hot beverage of their choice..."

"... seriously?"

" ...reassure them as best I can not to be disheartened by their failure, and that they would be most welcome to visit again once they feel they are ready..."

"I think I'm gonna puke..."

"and then I sing them to sleep with a sweet lullaby, give them a kiss goodnight, and devour their souls!"

Edited by PapercutChainsaw on Feb 21st 2019 at 4:15:56 AM

for the Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick ending to that one.

"So you're a succubu-"

"Oh, I don't really like labels. I mean, sure, I am a female-presenting supernatural entity who seduces humans in order to feast on their life-force, but I don't like it when people use that to define me as a person, you know?"

Edited by PapercutChainsaw on Feb 21st 2019 at 1:12:28 AM

Dammit, I swear I was about to post this, but thought better of it.

Hmmm!

It's a wizard who isn't Camdin!

Does this mean half a cookie for those of us who figured it was a Wizard but thought that it was Camdin?

Also, did anyone call this?

...okay, that one caught me by surprise, I will wilingly admit to that.

It was also well-presented, so points for Shive.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Feb 22nd 2019 at 8:30:41 AM

Yeah, I’ll give him this one. Good twist, and it makes sense.

Yep, he got me. I was invested with the "Camdin is a wizard" theory. But now who could this be? Another one of his and Luke's friends? A creepy power snatching rando?

Yeah, this was a great page. Panel 1 is a great twist featuring a delicious sandwich, so that's two points in its favor!

In retrospect, I think the biggest clue that Smoke wasn't Camdin is that he's standing upright. I hadn't really thought much about it then because I was already invested in him being Camdin. But it's super-obvious now in 20/20 hindsight.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 22nd 2019 at 8:18:54 AM

Huh, I was wondering why Camdin was acting so different. should have gone with my gut on that one.

I am a bit less impressed with the twist than others, but I think it will work in the long run because it was a rather quick one with not a lot of build up.

Although Grace taking like, 3 panels to exposit this is kind of hilarious, because this is something the readers actually know! We could infer all of this!

Edited by MrAHR on Feb 22nd 2019 at 10:32:37 AM

Also it's kinda funny how we all made the logical connections

• That's Camdin's spell! He must be Camdin!
• He can learn other people's spells! He must be a Wizard!

But never made the jump to "He's a Wizard who learned Camdin's spell!"

What's Camdin's spell again?

Wait, that's not Camdin in the first panel, his posture isn't awful enough.

I'm kind of torn on this semi-reveal. On one hand, it is something genuinely funny. On the other hand, seems like it could have been integrated into the story better. I dunno.

@Ninety: Strictly speaking, we don't know. It's widely been assumed to be something related to smoke, because his original entrance was commenced with a wave of smoke. That said, his power could be absurd flexibility and he might have just used a smoke bomb, and his appearances thus far would have played out the exact same.

Oh hey guys, look, Ashley's being the personification of good and niceness in the NP! What a shock.

I find this hilarious.

"So evil..."

...Is it bad that I kind of want to see that kind of Nanase-Ashley dynamic in the main comic? I don't think the two have canonically met but Nanase just being irrationally suspicious of everything Ashley does could be fun. (Also a nod to the fandom theories).

Ok, I'm getting a massive stoner vibe from Camdin in that first panel (not helped by the fact that he looks a lot like Shaggy). No wonder he has an affinity for smoke powers.

Pretty sure they have met, and Nanase was indeed suspicious of her, although not to the extent of outright calling her evil. Don't remember when that was, though.

It was during "So a Date at the Mall, Part 5." Nanase was taken aback at Ashley's refusal to ask any questions about all the magic stuff she'd witnessed, because she figured it wasn't any of her business and it'd be rude. A bit later, just after Ashley had gushed about how cool and awesome Nanase's fairy spell was, Ellen said, "She seems nice," to which Nanase replied, "Too nice."

Edited by AliceMacher on Feb 23rd 2019 at 8:57:56 AM

Yeah, I'm liking the Nanase-Croft reactions - very reminiscent of the kind of Sustained Misunderstanding Goku would have in DBZ Abridged, especially the "So... evil!" response.

Edited by ironballs16 on Feb 23rd 2019 at 11:26:26 AM

Yes, you overly dramatic twit.

Meanwhile in NP... I had a feeling that'd be the artifact all along. And now that's confirmed, given at least two past Sketchbooks I'm pretty sure what Diane intends to use it for.

I liked this NP. Because I overlooked that possibility too. It's kind of perfect for a nerd like Ashley, actually.

Putting the artifact in the middle of the temple and making you learn how to use it in order to complete the temple is not how you hide ancient macguffins in most media. The idea is supposed to be that you complete the trials and are then rewarded with the Plot Coupon.

No, this is how you do it in a video game. The level serves as a tutorial for how to use the thing. Link enters a dungeon, spends half the level being reminded of how hard life is without the thing he's about to get, then gets the thing, then spends the second half solving puzzles that challenge him to use the thing in a myriad of creative ways.

That is what Ashley did here. And that's great. She built this temple not as a storage vault but as a video game dungeon. That's so character-appropriate.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 25th 2019 at 12:12:59 PM

Given her enthusiasm for archaeology (even though, much as with Lara Croft, what she does isn't really archaeology, at least in the contemporary sense), I wonder how Nanase will react to the reveal that the dungeon only dates back to the nineties. "So, SO evil."

All I really have to say is that I like how the angle shows off Nanase's bulk. She was looking a bit too slim in this comic for the character she's supposed to represent.