Goblins VIII: This Thread Contains An Unexpected Variable

[Luzahn]

Is anybody else really looking forward to the world map we've been promised?

It may just be me. I love maps.

[Madara]

Yep, I am definitely looking forward to it

[Marnath]

Is anybody else really looking forward to the world map we've been promised?

It may just be me. I love maps.

Yep, I am definitely looking forward to it

Don't get your hopes up. It'll probably be a long time before he gets to it.

[Dragonus45]

Can I just say I find it hilarious that immediatly after shaking off someone misreading his comic as containing cheap rape drama, he uploads a page containing cheap rape drama thrown into the last few pages?

EDIT: Looks like I'm not the first to post this, but it's still funny.

I wouldn't call it cheap, its expect able that getting pinned down by trees like that would cause a flashback.

[The Glyphstone]

I'm sure Thunt is aware of the irony as we are, and kicking himself for the unfortunate timing.

[The Linker]

Interesting; it's not a true flashback as much as an imagine spot, in the second-to-last panel. Notice she's got the necklace and shirt on. Didn't notice that.

[Seerow]

Actually, for all the irony involved here, the icing on the cake is: If this page had been the one up when the last round of voting had started, there never would have been a outcry from the girl about how Thunt plays rape for laughs, simply because this page couldn't be construed as being related to rape without more information about the comic. In fact, someone who has never read the comic before looking at this page might think that Kin is seeing ghosts, or a spirit is possessing the trees that has now targeted her, or something along those lines.

[Sholos]

I wouldn't call it cheap, its expect able that getting pinned down by trees like that would cause a flashback.

Especially considering that what's-his-face was half tree. I expect that's more of what's causing the flashback, actually.

[Dragonus45]

Interesting; it's not a true flashback as much as an imagine spot, in the second-to-last panel. Notice she's got the necklace and shirt on. Didn't notice that.

It seems like for of a PTSD type flashback then. Shes seeing herself back in the situation that caused the damage.

[Draconi Redfir]

It's worth pointing out that PsiMax's precise language here is "It'd be more efficient to set you free and let you die in the tower room again." It sort of gives the impression that they do, in fact, follow the same path every time.

It's not a total guarantee, though; the tower room might just be a room they've happened to reach many times before and it's so deadly to their specific group that they die pretty much every time.

I think PsiMax's ability to calculate the equation depends on him knowing all the variables, which he's been observing for hundreds of permutations. That suggests to me that it's always the same. But that doesn't mean I'm right.

Both very good points, i had forgotten about that.

Would the tower room be the one with the trees though? or is this altmax not the universe that kills them like Forgath thought? This means they may have either not met, or defeated this universe in previous examples.

I remember

Spoiler

Show

The half tree rapist of Silvermoon city.

Yeeeeess? We all do? He was kinda a big deal?

... He kinda shows up in this EXACT page?

Actually, for all the irony involved here, the icing on the cake is: If this page had been the one up when the last round of voting had started, there never would have been a outcry from the girl about how Thunt plays rape for laughs, simply because this page couldn't be construed as being related to rape without more information about the comic. In fact, someone who has never read the comic before looking at this page might think that Kin is seeing ghosts, or a spirit is possessing the trees that has now targeted her, or something along those lines.

Annother good point!

Sadly it didn't happen, so we don't know if that would be the case...

Quick! Someone round up a freind who's never heard of Goblins before!

[The Linker]

Would the tower room be the one with the trees though? or is this altmax not the universe that kills them like Forgath thought? This means they may have either not met, or defeated this universe in previous examples.

You may be confused about something. I'm not sure which part.

-Psimax says "I'm going to free you, because otherwise Reality 38 will come in here and kill you, when you should go die in the tower room."

-They go into the next room and find what they presume to be Reality 38.

Reality 38 was only ever going to kill them if Psimax had left them pinned to the wall.

[Killer Angel]

I remember

Spoiler

Show

The half tree rapist of Silvermoon city.

So what?
I would be surprised if someone didn't immediately recall GS...

[Gez]

He's had this planned for years though. It's just a coincidence of timing.

This argument kinda annoys me. It's not like he wrote the entire storyboard ten years ago, and now slavishly adheres to it, without any tweak or revision.

[Killer Angel]

This argument kinda annoys me. It's not like he wrote the entire storyboard ten years ago, and now slavishly adheres to it, without any tweak or revision.

While I agree with the sentiment, I believe Thunt programmed the sequence of the strips for this fight, so this particular event was already on schedule.
Probably, the next dozen of strips (a month drawing?) are already planned too with only the details yet to be defined.

[Surfing HalfOrc]

This argument kinda annoys me. It's not like he wrote the entire storyboard ten years ago, and now slavishly adheres to it, without any tweak or revision.

What if this is Kin's "Breakthrough" moment? She is terrified of men (or at least males. I would be hard pressed to call Goblin Slayer a man. I can think of a LOT of things to call him, but I would be banned afterwards for breaking the board's censor-bot), but is slowly coming to feel affection for MinMax.

Thunt had already started the "Trees pressing down" story line, which led up to Kin's PTSD moment before the whole blow up on Twitter.

Slavishly devoted to a script, or just couldn't come up with a second storyline where trees suddenly pin Kin down in a threatening/potentially violating way? Where Kin then overcomes her fears and is able to find... something else? Some reason for living besides the survival instinct?

[Othniel Edden]

And even if Kin had not been raped she had still been beaten and assaulted and abused by GS in other ways. The "man" is a complete sadist, and bound to bring on this type of reaction to those he captured. I mean look at Thaco's reaction to not only being in Brassmoon city but to GS, and Fumbles reaction after being tortured. GS is a major cause for character trauma. Its going to be brought up again and again for its surviving characters. Its practically a subtheme of the comic!

[Flickerdart]

I wonder...

If you get out of the dungeon when you beat it, why was a pit fiend still hanging around? Just how high level are the alternate universe parties anyway?

[Draconi Redfir]

I wonder...

If you get out of the dungeon when you beat it, why was a pit fiend still hanging around? Just how high level are the alternate universe parties anyway?

Random chance and chaos are always a facotor. And all that needs to happen is for Minmax to die and walter goes free, could be that escaping to annother world just causes a copy of you to be created at the next respawn.

[John Cribati]

I wonder...

If you get out of the dungeon when you beat it, why was a pit fiend still hanging around? Just how high level are the alternate universe parties anyway?

There is a party of Paladins in there; I wouldn't bet against PaladinMax having a ludicrous amount of extra smite damage.

[teratorn]

This argument kinda annoys me. It's not like he wrote the entire storyboard ten years ago, and now slavishly adheres to it, without any tweak or revision.

Well, he introduced the trees for some reason. They sort of looked pointless at the time. Still not sure what good they are, dungeon wise. They can't be there just to make Kin freak out.

[Gez]

Well, he introduced the trees for some reason. They sort of looked pointless at the time. Still not sure what good they are, dungeon wise. They can't be there just to make Kin freak out.

Do they have to have a reason to be there? Thunt loves his nonsensical dungeons. Who builds these places? Who had the idea of a giant engulfing egg? Or an ice monolith bridge over red and blue beetle robot chasm? Who bound a demon and her court? Or the whirring clockwork arena? Or the confusion door, or the mimicking wall and the hole? Or the whole premise of a dungeon that summons alternate universe copies of yourself and pits you against them, rebooting you until you succeed? Not all these examples are from the Kin/Forgath/Minmax dungeon either, some are from the Dies/Fox/LizardDude/WhoCares dungeon too.

In neither case do they make any sense at all. The rooms are challenges for the sake of challenges, without any justification for having been created. The closest thing approaching an in-universe justification is that they exist out of DM fiat, since DM fiat can make things exist (e.g., Not-Walter's introduction, the crippled orc, the various player characters).

A trap room where the challenge is that you must make your way through dense vegetation without cutting through it is certainly as justifiable as anything else we've seen so far.

[Anteros]

I wonder...

If you get out of the dungeon when you beat it, why was a pit fiend still hanging around? Just how high level are the alternate universe parties anyway?

Well, it took Kin all of 2 minutes to get rid of him. It's a dungeon where he's competing against infinite variations of Kin. I doubt ours is the only one to have that idea. He probably gets released every time.

[Dragonus45]

Do they have to have a reason to be there? Thunt loves his nonsensical dungeons. Who builds these places? Who had the idea of a giant engulfing egg? Or an ice monolith bridge over red and blue beetle robot chasm? Who bound a demon and her court? Or the whirring clockwork arena? Or the confusion door, or the mimicking wall and the hole? Or the whole premise of a dungeon that summons alternate universe copies of yourself and pits you against them, rebooting you until you succeed? Not all these examples are from the Kin/Forgath/Minmax dungeon either, some are from the Dies/Fox/LizardDude/WhoCares dungeon too.

In neither case do they make any sense at all. The rooms are challenges for the sake of challenges, without any justification for having been created. The closest thing approaching an in-universe justification is that they exist out of DM fiat, since DM fiat can make things exist (e.g., Not-Walter's introduction, the crippled orc, the various player characters).

A trap room where the challenge is that you must make your way through dense vegetation without cutting through it is certainly as justifiable as anything else we've seen so far.

Wow, its almost like this is a Dungeons and Dragons game. It would suck so bad to have to face so many creative traps challenges. I don't think i could ever enjoy a DM so startlingly devious and creative. And i mean its not like anything important is at the end of those dungeons, i mean who tries to defend something with deadly interesting traps. I prefer to flood the dungeon with tribbles and hope everything works out.

[teratorn]

A trap room where the challenge is that you must make your way through dense vegetation without cutting through it is certainly as justifiable as anything else we've seen so far.

Well, given the precedent I expected something deadlier.

[TheSummoner]

Well, given the precedent I expected something deadlier.

Trees that constantly grow until they crush you aren't deadly enough?

[Qwertystop]

Trees that constantly grow until they crush you aren't deadly enough?

The only reason that they constantly grow is because of the fire. If there hadn't been a fight in there to cause the first bit of growth, they probably wouldn't have even grown enough to be a minor annoyance.

[teratorn]

Trees that constantly grow until they crush you aren't deadly enough?

If it were not for the fire they wouldn't be much of a problem.

[Marnath]

This argument kinda annoys me. It's not like he wrote the entire storyboard ten years ago, and now slavishly adheres to it, without any tweak or revision.

I heard it directly from Thunt himself in the Ustream chat, so

[Morquard]

I wonder...

If you get out of the dungeon when you beat it, why was a pit fiend still hanging around? Just how high level are the alternate universe parties anyway?

That's actually a good question. I see the following options:

1) This is actually BlondeMax' first run (or at least one of the first), he just got in as replacement for whoever won last round. From now on he's screwed since he lost his pet.

2) No matter what, he can't REALLY leave. But then, what happened to him? Maybe he died instead of porting out? Who knows. Unfortunately instead of beating the dungeon he always accepts a deal like that from one Kin or another and reset again.

3) So far NotWalther always died before BlondeMax. If he'd die after him, he'd be free after all to just go. Somehow I doubt this option though.

The problem is, if its possible for NotWalter to really leave, then he must have had chances like this before. Our Kin or another Kin would have thought about this. At some point BlondeMax would have died and NW would have ported home. So if thats the case it must be one of the very first runs for them.
But maybe we'll never find out

[The Glyphstone]

This argument kinda annoys me. It's not like he wrote the entire storyboard ten years ago, and now slavishly adheres to it, without any tweak or revision.

Ten years? All he would have to do is plot a month ahead for this situation to happen, considering the whole issue blew up and settled down in less than a week.