Erfworld

I think that it simply was a case of Wanda's bonuses to her stack overmatching the Prince's bonuses to his stack.

Erfworld's combat system continues to confound me to no end.

You know,with all these text updates with accompanying illustrations,doesn't it feel like a Light Novel?

edited 25th Nov '09 7:30:05 PM by AckSed

I have been making plot bunnies for fanfics centering on Vinny and certain characters related to him. I've been toying with the ideas while exercising to music, and now they're turning into music videos.

(All in my head. This isn't the first time I've come up with fanvids that lack basic footage from which to take clips.)

This has led to the conclusion that some Erfworld fanart ought to be combined with the soundtrack Enter Sandman by Metallica... for a vid entitled "Transylvito Joins the Fight", a no-holds-barred vampfest attack vid. Swarms of bats. Vampires everywhere. Kind of a "take over one hex, then tackle the next one, rinse and repeat" vid where the enemy (Stanley's forces) are fighting back with Foolamancied dragons (which Vinny realizes at the line "something's wrong").

Not quite canon per se, but my head says such a vid would be awesome. If anybody else cares to listen to the song and try to visualize a basic fanvid, please let me know how it turns out in your head :)

ETA: Oh, and if you have suggestions for songs to tie to specific plot elements, characters, or sides, please post 'em! It would be fun to develop a sort of unofficial soundtrack for Erfworld.

If nothing else, it would make for an interesting You Tube playlist.

edited 28th Nov '09 3:36:09 AM by Kilyle

Not that surprising◊.

Ansom's indignation is amusing, for some reason.

That was so obviously the plan that I was surprised to see him trying to convince his brother to turn first.

edited 3rd Dec '09 6:20:54 PM by Brickman

It looks like Ansom wasn't told that part of the plan, though.

That's a classic Oh, Crap! face in the last panel.

But there's a silver lining to this. I've heard from a lot of people who say they miss the story density of the text updates. So I am planning to start new text updates, which will be in-universe, canon additions to Book 2, running (roughly) concurrent to the story in the comic pages. These will also update every 5 days, so the effect is that you'll get a new update of some kind loading here every other day. (Sadly there's no permalinks for their news updates).

So they're still doing text updates of some sort, intermixed with the real updates. To quote myself on page four:

"As a side note, something gives me this sneaking feeling that our auhtors have realized, much to their horror, how much easier text updates are to write and advance a plot with than graphic novels. They may be trying to put off going back as long as possible. "

Personally I'm for this. Are they losing sight of the goal, which is a good webcomic, or are they honing in on the goal, which is moving the story along so that they have a chance of finishing sometime in their lifetimes? In my opinion, the latter. Text updates are easier than actual comic pages, and can advance the plot and character development faster, and you can do things in each that you can't do as easily in the other. As long as they hold onto both they can sample the best of both worlds, moving things quickly and delving into people's heads in one update while showing us the action and capitalizing on the advantages of a visual medium in the other. Obviously they're going to have to keep the two update types in different scenes/on different subplots to avoid whiplash, and I'm not sure what the proper way to read the archives will be, but it's a good move. Don't let the medium constrain you, you guys!

edited 6th Dec '09 8:37:18 PM by Brickman

So, concerning page 11 of Book 2:

I think it's really interesting that the characters have no idea whether casters can be decrypted. It provides a good storywise reason why Wanda hasn't done so already, while creating an important dilemma up the road if casters do turn out to be decryptable, which I believe will be the case. In short, it leaves the option open for Wanda to do so later, but makes it so she won't try it now. Vewy Twicky...

Bloody hell, she wants to kill and decrypt Jack?

Does anyone ostensibly on her side trust Wanda anymore?

Oh, lots of people. An entire army of them.

Nobody on her side that isn't dressed in a trendy black Evil Costume Switch does, however.

I'm enjoying the text updates as well. It's rather like reading a fanfic, which is kind of an odd sensation given that it's canon.

But since I've been debating about fanfics myself, it's a very welcome sensation nonetheless.

I do hope the text updates won't destroy the webcomic side of the story, because there's a big difference between a webcomic supplemented with text and a text story with occasional pictures. (A couple days ago I ran across a piece of recommended reading, which turned out to be text plus pictures, and I gave up on it the minute I realized it wasn't a webcomic - don't have time for addition text readings at the moment.)

Text articles attached to a webcomic can work quite well in some cases, but I think it's probably not a good idea with continuity-based strips. Ideally, this might work out as making Book 2 into something like a light novel.

edited 11th Dec '09 12:14:54 AM by EricDVH

-*blinks*

Did Stanley just grow a pair? Or is Wanda so far over the edge that even the eternal font of cluelessness picking up on it? Wow. Character development for Stanley of all people O.o

Naw, Stanley's been feeling insecure in relation to Wanda for a while now. Remember Parson's big dragon-taming scheme? He got Stanley to buy into it by pointing out that the dragons would be loyal to Stanley, and not to Wanda. And that was the whole point of getting building his Gobwins/Hobgobwins back up. Stanley knows as well as anyone that most of his army is obeying Wanda rather than himself and is just as uncomfortable with that fact.

Yes, the WMG has placed Wanda as the new Big Bad for quite some time. I wonder if Book 2 won't have a showdown between Stanley/Parson and Wanda/Ansom++

I'm... actually impressed by the possibility that Stanley might be undergoing character development.

Consider the possibilities if, a book or three from now, he's not the stupid and utterly annoying jerk he starts as. Consider if he's become one of the guys we actually root for - and not merely because those against him are even worse.

I don't mean that he needs to be made over into a shining hero, but a few steps in that general direction would, until recently, have been out of left field... and I welcome the possibility that they might head in that direction.

Of course, I'm mostly here to see my man Vinny be awesome. And I'm looking forward to more development on his side as well. So the Stanley thing, while welcome, isn't my main focus at the moment.

edited 13th Dec '09 3:38:46 AM by Kilyle

Stanley is the epitome of the Pointy-Haired Boss. He wants to feel in control even though he's an idiot, and he patronizes all of his employees like he's the smart one.

He actually likes Jack. He doesn't like anyone else. Even Wanda, his favorite, is just a tool to him, and he's getting uncomfortable with her, too. He likes Jack not because of his talents, but just for the hell of it.

So he tentatively tests the air, seeing if his advisors think his sentimental idea is a good one, not wanting to sound stupid in front of them. And he's got the right idea. There's hope for him yet.

Huh. King Saline IV crops up again. I recall him being mentioned early on ("something I may have heard in a hospital room"), and I'm busy trying to find out which strip that was.

I love how Parson earns the trust of those around him, simply through treating them as people, being reasonably honest, and courting their advice.

ETA: Found it! Right here◊.

edited 19th Dec '09 5:27:45 AM by Kilyle

Jillian's Character Development is very interesting. I always thought that, besides Parson, the Jillian-Wanda dynamic was the most interesting part of Erfworld's story. Now we shall see that dynamic put to the test.

I'm still trying to see where Book 2 is going. Certainly, Wanda's force of Decrypted is being set up to be The Virus, but we haven't really seen anything of her motives so far. I hope that's going to change soon.

edited 21st Dec '09 7:59:31 AM by Fighteer

Oooh... Vinny's been taken offstage in the text updates.

I wonder if that means he's going to be away for a while (bridge-dropping style), or if it's more like reserving him as a Chekhov's Gun?

I vaguely wonder if they're going to at all deal with the sexual subtext in this threesome. Vinny was Ansom's close friend, and Jillian was Ansom's lover; they both thought he was dead, and it's mentioned in one of the text updates that Vinny and Jillian had "comfort nookie."

There's gotta be some fanfic plot bunnies in there somewhere. Also, if it were a little more to the comedic side, I could just see the sort of after-nookie conversation they might have had involving Ansom. Or even during-nookie conversation. ("Do you think he really loved me?" "Look, he loved you and I loved him, but for the love of anything would you not talk about him right now?")

You think they're headed for a pattern of text update, comic update, text update, comic update?

Man, it's taking forever. I think I'll swear off them for a month and come back later.

edited 21st Jan '10 7:11:21 PM by Kilyle

You think they're headed for a pattern of text update, comic update, text update, comic update?

They said they were doing exactly that in one of the news posts. There's one text update every five days and one comic update every five days.

Well now.◊ I've never heard a We Can Rule Together coming from a 'good' side before.

Also - <3 and PSL to Jillian. Chaotic Neutral done right.