Yeah, the beginning is the worst, art and characters, but from the first actual arc on, Shive establishes the basis for extensive world-building. With an enormous art evolution, the characters and story develop and with them the strength of EGS; once the characters' issues get tackled instead of laughed off, it's SO good. They're deep and multi-faceted, plots are fascinating (like the "Sister" arcs), and while comedy can be nice (some well-executed Brick Jokes), emotions are the real strength of Shive's writing.
Until it gets drawn out. The pacing has come to a crawl. Interesting storyline have been abandoned - what about Lord Tedd, Tony's conflict with Elliot, Noah's story, Diane and Raven, Tedd's mom, Grace's suppressed issues, Nanase's royalty, Grace's brothers, Kaoli, the energy build-up? Instead we get another fetish party with inconsequential transformation games. If it would build the characters, but we're stuck with magical Techno Babble and fanservice. I know that fanservice is part of EGS, furries and Wardrobe Malfunction etc. But when that's all we get? I prefer the fantasy arcs.
More recently, I'm unhappy with how some characters are handled, i. e. Susan. Diane and Tedd explicitly made a point of how awful they were, apologize and make amends. Susan? Gets praised as the most selfless and kind person ever. She was running around insulting everyone! Yes, the beginning of the comic was the worst, but everyone else lampshades it in some way regarding their characters which serves continuity. Susan, not so much.
Justin has developed towards stereotypes; he's become an attention whore, his interests seem to be reduced to the superficial, his mannerisms are more affected now. It's annoying. He was the only gay male character who was not just introduced for a throwaway gag, and now he's kinda falling flat.
Then Ellen gets ever again called more introspective that Elliot. For all I see, she's a selfish, inconsiderate, immature brat. Which I wouldn't mind because she's a teenager, if only it was acknowledged sometime. But it doesn't matter much; she and Nanase have begun to merge into one being anyway. Synchronized thoughts, behavior, only scenes together - they hardly exist outside their relationship anymore.
I'm disturbed by the attempt to sell Magus as a sympathetic character. He took hostages and possessed someone against their will. Everywhere else I've seen this trope, it was treated as serious abuse. Here, not only Ellen defends her kidnapper; the readers are expected to forgive him as well. What even.
Lastly - I don't know where this is going with Ashley. So far, she's merely a flat Purity Sue, a blushing fangirl for the rest of the cast and a shrieking Damsel in Distress. Other characters are complex and interesting; why is she written so poorly? Her relationship with Elliot seems to be only them providing fetish material for each other. Elliot's love confession wouldn't bother me so much if it was treated as an issue in-comic, but apparently it's peachy that he claims to LOVE a girl he has spent an entirety of three dates with.
Altogether - I'm a fan of EGS, and I know it can be great. But right now, I see problems that aren't taken on and character writing going into a direction I don't like. I think it can still all be pulled off if Shive focuses on his strengths and goes back to writing actual plot instead of going a year without any development ot anything of consequence happening.
I want my quality comic back
Spoilers ahead!
Yeah, the beginning is the worst, art and characters, but from the first actual arc on, Shive establishes the basis for extensive world-building. With an enormous art evolution, the characters and story develop and with them the strength of EGS; once the characters' issues get tackled instead of laughed off, it's SO good. They're deep and multi-faceted, plots are fascinating (like the "Sister" arcs), and while comedy can be nice (some well-executed Brick Jokes), emotions are the real strength of Shive's writing. Until it gets drawn out. The pacing has come to a crawl. Interesting storyline have been abandoned - what about Lord Tedd, Tony's conflict with Elliot, Noah's story, Diane and Raven, Tedd's mom, Grace's suppressed issues, Nanase's royalty, Grace's brothers, Kaoli, the energy build-up? Instead we get another fetish party with inconsequential transformation games. If it would build the characters, but we're stuck with magical Techno Babble and fanservice. I know that fanservice is part of EGS, furries and Wardrobe Malfunction etc. But when that's all we get? I prefer the fantasy arcs. More recently, I'm unhappy with how some characters are handled, i. e. Susan. Diane and Tedd explicitly made a point of how awful they were, apologize and make amends. Susan? Gets praised as the most selfless and kind person ever. She was running around insulting everyone! Yes, the beginning of the comic was the worst, but everyone else lampshades it in some way regarding their characters which serves continuity. Susan, not so much. Justin has developed towards stereotypes; he's become an attention whore, his interests seem to be reduced to the superficial, his mannerisms are more affected now. It's annoying. He was the only gay male character who was not just introduced for a throwaway gag, and now he's kinda falling flat. Then Ellen gets ever again called more introspective that Elliot. For all I see, she's a selfish, inconsiderate, immature brat. Which I wouldn't mind because she's a teenager, if only it was acknowledged sometime. But it doesn't matter much; she and Nanase have begun to merge into one being anyway. Synchronized thoughts, behavior, only scenes together - they hardly exist outside their relationship anymore. I'm disturbed by the attempt to sell Magus as a sympathetic character. He took hostages and possessed someone against their will. Everywhere else I've seen this trope, it was treated as serious abuse. Here, not only Ellen defends her kidnapper; the readers are expected to forgive him as well. What even. Lastly - I don't know where this is going with Ashley. So far, she's merely a flat Purity Sue, a blushing fangirl for the rest of the cast and a shrieking Damsel in Distress. Other characters are complex and interesting; why is she written so poorly? Her relationship with Elliot seems to be only them providing fetish material for each other. Elliot's love confession wouldn't bother me so much if it was treated as an issue in-comic, but apparently it's peachy that he claims to LOVE a girl he has spent an entirety of three dates with. Altogether - I'm a fan of EGS, and I know it can be great. But right now, I see problems that aren't taken on and character writing going into a direction I don't like. I think it can still all be pulled off if Shive focuses on his strengths and goes back to writing actual plot instead of going a year without any development ot anything of consequence happening.