Erfworld 157 - tBfGK 144

[Oslecamo]

As for the suggestions that Wanda could try to rebel against Stanley now, just to offer a bit more evidence in that direction: Stanley's obvious coup against Saline IV would have to have been a breach of Loyalty as well, so it seems likely that the Arkentools offer some sort of resistance to the innate Thinkamancy-like effects of Duty.

I must protest:
1-We still don't know if Stanley made the coup. Yes it looks supicious, but it isn't really obvious. Stanley is hardly the kind of guy to make complex plots like persuading the gobwins to betray Saline and then killing them to keep the good looks. I believe it was indeed a gobwin revolution, and they did it when Stanley was away so he couldn't stop them from taking Saline's head, being the strongest warlord in town and all.

2-Wanda is not an heir to her side. Stanley was.

Nenec:Out of curiosity, why do you think he deserves to be betrayed? Like I said above, there's really no proof that he betrayed anyone, and all of the other sides seem to be at least as evil as he is. Like TV now wanting to force Jillian to take them to FAQ. Or Charlie manipulating the situation to increase his profit.

[Jeivar]

So, what do y'all think Wanda is ultimately up to here? Is she on some quest to forever change the status quo in Erfworld as the Hippiemancer suggested, or is she just a power-hungry psycho? She just seems rather too twisted to have good intentions.
And bringing Ansom back: Procuring a powerful servant, or finding another way to screw with Jillian. I recently voiced a theory that Jillian is somehow a part of the prophecy that Wanda is apparently guided by, which explains the Croakamancer's reluctance to see her dead, and now she might somehow use Ansom to bring the barbarian back under control.

Hm. If it does happen that way, I can see Jillian's life getting even worse, trapped in a love-hate situation with Wanda.

[Welf]

I don't believe Wanda wants to have her own empire, I think she is just a very devoted necromancer (and very enthusiastic torturer). As long as Stanley let's her play with her new toy she is happy.

[HandofShadows]

Battlespace is a reletively new term used by the US Military. The concept is a full intigration of all aspects of war from troops to intelligence to weather and even such things as radio and information warfare. Parson would know the term, but this kind of broad thinking is outside of the thinking patterns for Erfworlders. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlespace )

What is Wanda up to? That is a Million Smucker question. At this time she really does seem to be out to change Erfworld. I don't think she has a real hope for total peace as Janis does, but she is out to change the world for the better. Her last line on the last page clearly shows that.

The next question (for me at any rate) is why would someone from a small side that had been poped in a Utopian Bubble be so hot to change the entire world? Such high goals offten are born of a tramatic experience. Was the destruction of Faq what triggered Wanda's current course of action?

[BLANDCorporatio]

So the Archenpliers can make a new type of unit. Croak Knight sounds like a good term until we know more. There is a chance we may get to see Scarlet again. (I don't see Bagroll being brought back though).

Much like Bogroll redivibus, I'd file that under "too-good-to-be-true therefore won't be".

But, not all is doom and gloom- Stanley's back! (almost) And while he's a bit of a jerk I found him a rather sympathetic character.

Also, Jack has a certain sense of humour and will probably be allowed some more, badly needed, screen time in book 2. Here's to hope!

Oh yeah, Ansom. I think the Warlord formerly known as Prince is a sufficiently awesome monicker, so whoever suggested that a few strips back, kudos.

What is Wanda up to? That is a Million Smucker question. At this time she really does seem to be out to change Erfworld. I don't think she has a real hope for total peace as Janis does, but she is out to change the world for the better. Her last line on the last page clearly shows that.

The next question (for me at any rate) is why would someone from a small side that had been poped in a Utopian Bubble be so hot to change the entire world? Such high goals offten are born of a tramatic experience. Was the destruction of Faq what triggered Wanda's current course of action?

Or, such goals are born from tremendous ambition, and if you happened to live in a Discworld novel, they would inevitably lead to bad things. Road to hell, paved with, etc.

We'll see how Erfworld behaves.

[ChowGuy]

I cannot but notice that most of the posters here, in the gerneral rush to vindacate their own theories and/or write their own continuation to the current espisode, are overlooking the Word of God posted elsewhere on this board. to wit:

Book 1 is called The Battle for Gobwin Knob for a reason. Obviously that battle is taking place now, and the story will be finished when the battle is settled. Book 2 will be its own story, with some narrative distance from Book 1. (No, I won't explain that. It's spoilery. )

Erfworld per se is not a game in isolation, as Wanda's comment to Hamster that "This world wished for you" should make abundently clear.It would seem Erfworld itself is if you will to be a Campaign World in which many games may be played out, by many sides, some of which might have carried over from previous campaigns, or intto subsequent campigns. This is no surprise - we already inferred as much from Charlies comment about "The Great Western War implying that there could easily be other wars elsewhere, and from Parson's observation that the Library was mainly filled AAR's of previous campaigns. That no opposition units remain "in the battlespce" effectively means this battle is decided, and thus this campaign is ended. Any loose ends, such as what Jillian does next, or for that matter what Ansom's status is, are merely hooks upon which some subsequent campaign may depend, not things which "must be" resolved before this one does.

Hardly being in a position to speculate on how the overarching sga may proceed, all I can note is that the term "some narrative distance" normally implies exactly that - a distance either in time or space, if not both, between the end of one story and the start of the next. It might, but does not necessarily imply (as some in the quoted thread sugest) imply a whole new set of characters, but it does imply their actions and intervening events will be related, if at all, as "backstory" only. A "distance" in time though will give both Jillian and Stanley time to have rebuilt and reasserted their respective sides, and for Charlie to stirred the pot of alliances and counter-alliances among the remaining fragments of the RCC, with or without Parson's calcs. The world as we see it next may be much different from what we see now, even if some or all of the players are still in it.

In this sense, and given the author's penchant for pop culture references, I think the most important line in this update may be Wanda's "Something new. Something.... glorious" which is rather evocative of Bowman's enigmatic message line from 2010 "Something is going to happen. Something.... wonderful." I rather suspect that in the rapidly approaching Book II DecryptAnsom, whatever he is, is going to be shown to be, and have been far more then a toy soldier in anyone's hands.

After all Wanda herself admits she doesn't know what he is, only (we assume) that his resurrection is in some way a fulfillment of prophecy "as predicted."

ETA: Sheesh, twenty minutes to get two page updatea?

[Ellye]

Stanley can be so cute when he's not upset...
I hope that Parson and Wanda stay loyal to him.

[DigoDragon]

At first my answer to "What is Ansom?" was going to be "screwed", but thinking about a little more, this could actually be a really good story plot if Parson can win Ansom over for a greater cause...

...now, for just the right cause... :D

[Strengfellow]

One word, SPANKY!

[Lamech]

That sucks for everyone not a member of GK. Hey if that sword gives a leadership bonus and Ansom has his ablities intact what would happen if Ansom ended up with that sword. Most powerful warlord ever?

Well GK has a lot to rebuild. That should keep them busy for a while. I wonder where this new story will take place.

[Chicken Little]

Has anyone else noticed that Wanda has not once referred to Parson as warlord, lord, hamster, etc. since getting the pliers?

The only time she's addressed him specifically she called him by his name, which I can not recall her ever having done before.

Coincidence or am I just being paranoid?

She's always called him by name. Only addressed him 5 times in total, so I don't feel so bad for having missed it.

[Guru_jake]

Poor opposition

WW2 American Officer: *on a group of nazis* They got us surrounded, poor bastards.


Actual Post: I'm gonna say Ansom Knows what he is, it was more of a "What kind of monster have I become?!?!" kind of thing. My guess is that he's perfectly Sentient and has the same personality as before but the only difference now is that he is 100% perfectly, and unquestionably loyal to Wanda, with no chance of that changing as long as she has the Pliers.

On the Dragon Popping, Stanley probably sent it to the Queue when he decided to head back last turn. He was Running away and not looking back, why would he try saving what he thought was a doomed city by producing a valuable dwagon? There was no real rhyme or reason to it, he just did it.

Perhaps because of the hammer, he gets free Dwagons (perhaps just a certain number of free Dwagons?) but can only pop one a turn? Perhaps all of the Arkentools can do a super unit once a turn, which means Wanda would have to wait until tomorrow to do another Croaked Knight. (Which would also be a reason why Charlie would be a tad attached to his Archons. If time is money, then in Erfworld, a turn wait must be extremely valuable.)

Also, on the subject of the Previous Uncroaked Warlords having different emblems... It seems like any warlord can have their own emblem, as Lord Manpower had his bullseye emblem after being uncroaked... Wanda probably gave them (the uncroaked Jetstones) all the Hamstard logo because he was the only leader in the city.

[AngryAngel]

A few comments:

Evil Wanda: love that smile, but evil? Nah, just ruthless. I have a soft spot for 'the "evil" necromancer turns out to be the hero' stories. I can see Wanda helping Parson and Stanley change Erfworld for the better.

The Arkenpliers: I doubt they're a one-shot item. In panel eleven they're probably hanging at Wanda's hip.

Ansom (uncroaked): "Something...glorious." An intriguing and (ahem) 'cryptic' remark. It'll be interesting to learn just what Ansom is now, and how his relationship to Wanda and his new side works.

[Anias]

A couple quick comments:
1 - Amazing comic
2 - Great details
3 - A lot of questions answered : Dwagons pop, Wanda can uncroak with all the memories (and presumably intelligence, skills, etc) of previous life
4 - Wanda's smile = scary, though I'm not sure if it's more or less scary than her smile when she picked up the pliers
5 - Well, Ansom is alive/dead/uncroaked/none of these things; no one seems to know what he really is.
6 - Since Ansom is uncroaked (of a sort) does that mean that on top of all his previous power he gets the HUGE bonus that Wanda gives to uncroaked? That would make him...incredibly powerful, and if Wanda worked with him, boosting him with her bonus and spells (and decrypting any fallen friends/enemies)...well, that would be a truly deadly fighting force.
7 - Wow. Just wow.

[CelebrenIthil]

Wohoo!

Lets see here.
1. Ansom has been resurrected by the use of powerful McGuffin.
2. He looks pretty much like he did in life except ominous red glow (as she powered him up) and new "evil-ified" imagery.
3. He's not a vampire (since erfworld vampires are special).
4. Drama-logic tells me he's not going to decay.

I don't 100% know what Ansom is, but 20 schmuckers that Ansom is now a Deathknight.

That's pretty much what I tought when reading the comic: DeathKnight anyone? (or more like... Decryptknight? Or, Croaknight?)
Betting the same as ya. XD

[Wakky]

Yeah, it looks like Wanda now has a Deathknight, and a Duncan Idaho to boot.

[kreszantas]

For those who are getting on Stanley about him remembering names you should review a few of the earlier strips, Wanda and Sizemore were the only 2 casters not in the link. Stanley could NOT CALL "Misty, Maggie or Jack" by their name while linked up (review recent magic kingdom strips) and he is at least attempting, he DOES call Wanda by hers so it is not like he is totally forgetful. The only one he does NOT get a pass on is Sizemore, yet there is a fallable excuse, if you never SEE that unit very often and dont have 3D glasses they will blend in just like the rest of the nameless cannon fodder.

Wanda has her own unit, skulls yea I would say it is a product of her, however she says its OUR turn so defection is not YET in the cards, if she DID attack the Parson the Dwagon would auto-attack. So she even with the 'half-life' Ansom would be hard press to take it from the rest and she relates with them enough not to commit a coup right now, she needs to kill Stanley for that to be of any advantage to her, yet he knows of the will of the titans so..... DUN DUN DUN... until next time folks same Erf channel same Erf time.

[DevilDan]

He's still a pretty boy, huh? I disapprove. I wanted to quote Moe: "He's not so gorgeous no more."

Ansom could simply have been decrypted as a GK unit, not necessarily under some unholy bondage to Wanda. His question suggests two things: he has some memory of who he was before and he has been changed in some deep ways...

[Sieggy]

Whoo-ha-ha!! Love it . . . Wanda has a new boytoy (literally), Parson has the satisfaction of having pulled off probably the single greatest (and most expensive) victory in Erf history, Stanley has a city to come back to (though he's going to scream when he sees the state it's in), Sizemore has become one with the mountain (and has many new sparklies), the only down side is that Bogroll is still dead.

At this point, I doubt very seriously if anyone other than the survivors or Stanley knows that GK didn't actually fall. Charlie may be a hell of a Thinkamancer, but he has to have eyes there to see. TV is going to be occupied with locating FAQ, and TBRH, I don't think they gave a cwap about Stanley to begin with; that was all Vinny. Once Jack is there, I suspect that all anyone will be seeing until Stanley is ready to start kicking boop again will be a smoldering caldera.

Of course, Erfworld in general and Charlie in particular are going to be in for a seriously major shock when they discover that Stanley and GK are back . . . As far as they know, GK is lava, everyone on Stanley's side is croaked, and Stanley himself is a barbarian. They're going to fweak when what they see as an entire uncroaked army led by their uncroaked former Prince coming forth from an uncroaked city. Wanda is going to have the most awesome reputation of any caster ever . . .

Given GKs new wealth, they ought to be able to pop one hell of an army, too. And pretty quickly.

Other than a resolution scene, I think Jillian is out of it for the remainder of this book - unless she sneaks away from Caesar with Vinny to verify that Ansom is really, really dead, in which case things will get very interesting very quickly. Wanda will see her coming long before Jillian gets close, and will have a welcome laid out for her. Probably Ansome standing there with open arms, or worse, Ansom standing there with Wanda in his arms.

The smiles are VERY unsettling - Wanda is obviously running a series of increasingly evil plans through her mind and is grinning in anticipation, and Parson is looking like a proud father. He, too, realizes what an asset they have, and is reveling in the irony of his foe being reduced to a minion. Not under his personal control, but at least no longer a threat. And Stanley's delight at Ansom's fate should be a sight to behold.

Great strip, and I'm going to be very sad when it ends . . . so, what's the timeline for the next book?

[Fez]

You know, the more I think about the strips, I don't think the Stanley coming back is the same Stanley that left, that the setup for the next arc will thus differ a bit from expectations.

Stanley left with a particular belief and assumption set:

1. I'm the 'tool' of the Titans and destined to succeed
2. Thus any failures, are failures of my workers, not myself
3. Thus failures show my underlings are inept and not to be valued

So he took the mighty dragons the Titans gave him, and the least inept of his underlings and went to start over in Faq, because when you're destined by the Titans to succeed all you need is yourself. Let the incompetents who lost him his last kingdom get wiped out, heck let them get captured. They are so useless, who cares.

Instead?

He was forced to re-learn Jack's name, and that might have been symbolic of remembering his past and a bit of his own humanity in that everyone, even his underlings are people too.

He, and all his dragons, lost to a small squad of TVs and Jillian. His vaunted destiny failed.

The 'useless' squad he left to die against unimaginable odds, won.

When he comes back?

Wanda will will have attuned an arkentool too.

Sizemore will have killed thousands of enemies nearly singlehandedly in the tunnels, unearthed an inestimable fortune, and will have a new confidence to him.

Parson will be Parson, a super gamebreaking warlord, who might have some more tricks (one would think).

Basically, he will have been a failure, who is rediscovering empathy for others (as shown by the sitting and talking with Jack, naming Maggie) who is feeling a bit lost as his core belief takes a beating. And he'll be coming face to face with another hit to his megalomania, that his prior underlings are very competent and able to do unimaginable things, which will imply the past failures are indeed his fault.

Truthfully, I'm just enjoying the strips as I've said before so probably shouldn't be worrying too much about predicting Rob and Jamie.

[Caledonian]

I have just one thing to say:

Spoiler

Show

KING LEAR

You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave:
Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
Do scald like moulten lead.

CORDELIA

Sir, do you know me?

KING LEAR

You are a spirit, I know: when did you die?

[T-O-E]

Sentient uncroaked Ansom?

Yes!
As it was predicted (in the forums)!

It does seem so long ago.

[teratorn]

Parson is looking like a proud father.

I see it differently, it looks like he is going for his sword.

[Gez]

Battlespace is a reletively new term used by the US Military. The concept is a full intigration of all aspects of war from troops to intelligence to weather and even such things as radio and information warfare. Parson would know the term, but this kind of broad thinking is outside of the thinking patterns for Erfworlders. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlespace )

Sometimes a cigar is a cigar, and a battlespace is just the area surrounding all GK units. Think of it as the map in a game. There's stuff outside the map, but it doesn't matter as long as it stays outside the map.

This process allows to have two warring sides have each one half a day, without having to take into account the turns of other sides far away which aren't involved in their local conflict.

[Sethram]

I disagree with Ansom still being a pretty boy. In the last panel his eyes are sunken in. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw his cheeks sunken in in other perspectives.

It's funny, Ansom was the only Leader one I considered good. He was the only one you've seen really caring for his troops, to the point where he fights amongst them to prevent their casualties.

Now he appears to be workin for GK's side. If he retains some of his personality, such as his value of his troops lives, I'm wondering if Parson will start to pick up on that. We've already seen Parson's reaction to the aftermath, so I don't consider it too far fetched. It'd be even more likely to happen if Parson uses him to find out more about Erf.

[raphfrk]

This process allows to have two warring sides have each one half a day, without having to take into account the turns of other sides far away which aren't involved in their local conflict.

I wonder if days can pass at a different rate in different battlespaces. If you were in a battlespace with lots of combat, turns could take much longer than if you are the only unit.

One issue would be that cities would end up having a higher production rate in battlespaces with a faster turn rate. Maybe "night" is really to allow resyncing.

[chefsotero]

I suddenly see the Master dancing through the ruins of Gobwin Knob, swinging the Akenpliers overhead.

"I can't decide whether you should live or die..."

If Wanda kisses Parson I'll have an doctorgams

And now wanda, there is another warlord begging to be Decrypted, is the lil cute one in the red armor just behind you.

What's with dwagons popping? It said that dwagons were "tamed" by the hammer. Also, is that a gloating smile Parson has? Maybe a nervous smile instead. I don't think he'd be inclined to gloat at the moment.

And Untammed dwagons may just be an flying unit, Tammed ones count as mount (like only heroes could fly with dragons in Warlords - Oh boy anyone here even remember warlords I?)

[Draz74]

Anyone else worried that Wanda's treatment of Ansom's body isn't primarily for the sake of GK's military power, nor even for the sake of furthering Croakamancy research, but because she wants revenge on Ansom for stealing Jill's heart?

I don't know if she even knows that he was the reason Jill ditched her. But if she does ... ooh. Hell hath no fury like a Croakamancer scorned.

[Kreistor]

I don't know if she even knows that he was the reason Jill ditched her. But if she does ... ooh. Hell hath no fury like a Croakamancer scorned.

But Jillian didn't leave Wanda: she only broke the Suggestion spell. Later, she went to GK ona rescue mission. Jillian clearly still cares for Wanda, and Wanda knows it.

[DevilDan]

We have a sort of de-facto definition of "battlespace": no one is actively moving against GK: Each conflict is its own battlespace. That said, I'm not going to worry about defining that huge a concept.

We cannot possibly guess Wanda's motivations or her next actions: her actions are grounded in a prophecy, one whose accuracy has been recently revalidated.