Erfworld thread IV: In memory of King Saline

[Yana]

Did Xin ever even have the opportunity to draw Vinny during her run in the story? I don't think she did.

[stsasser]

Ugh. I'm sure the wording of the contract will turn out to be important at some point, but I just can't be arsed to read through it all.

+1. Legalese doesn't have much appeal on me.

Any fool would know that they're gonna get screwed by that deal. Bad Comic! No cookie!

[Winterwind]

Well, narratively I would assume we will see some of the clauses of the contract come up -- otherwise, why give us all this detail on them?

Indeed.

Though it might be that this whole thing is playing with our expectations, and it is actually going to be Parson who takes advantage of this thing. Especially since none of the penalties would actually be all that terrible for GK - certainly nothing they would want to suffer, but it wouldn't seriously impede them - while the breach of the confidentiality penalty would completely devastate Charlie (making him lose his only city).

Also, I wonder if this "hand over half treasury or 5,000,000 Schmuckers, whichever is lower"-penalty is an indication that Charlie's treasury significantly exceeds 10,000,000 Schmuckers (which, given the numbers we've seen otherwise throughout the story, would be incredible).

[Legato Endless]

Yeah, that's absurd although I can see why. Since we know Charlie spends more than 120,000 and less than 300,000 schmuckers per turn on Archons alone, not including his 700 golems and whatever other incidental expenditures (caster hiring, bounties, ect.), he has to have a vast treasury. Especially since we've seen no indication of the lean season he's being suffering thanks to Royalist propaganda stopping him from actively pursuing a lot of goals with no immediate monetary gain.

[Douglas]

While the breach of confidentiality penalty would be a lot less serious for Gobwin Knob than for Charlie, it's still pretty significant - Charlie would get to choose which city, and we have no idea what contractual transfer of a city might do for/to any units inside that city.

[Anteros]

It could just be filler. I agree that it will probably be relevant at some point though.

Did Xin ever even have the opportunity to draw Vinny during her run in the story? I don't think she did.

I don't think so.

[Kornaki]

What is the point of the confidentiality agreement? On the one hand it kind of makes sense that Charlie can't tell FAQ they have relative impunity to be jerks to Gobwin Knob for 30 turns, but it doesn't really read like that's the intent to me. I wonder if Charlie sticks that in every contract so that when it does serve a purpose people can't get significant information from the statement "Got a deal with Charlie. Can't talk details".

[hajo]

Did Xin ever even have the opportunity to draw Vinny during her run in the story? I don't think she did.

Vinny was last seen in Book1_139,
and last heard of in Book1_Intermission_37

Xin started drawing at the begin of book 2.

Book 2 had most of its action in Spacerock, Thinkspace and MK, and a few bits in GK and with Transylvito spying on the action.

Vinny was sitting in FAQ during that whole time, and that picture is already from the new artist.

[Jasdoif]

What is the point of the confidentiality agreement? On the one hand it kind of makes sense that Charlie can't tell FAQ they have relative impunity to be jerks to Gobwin Knob for 30 turns, but it doesn't really read like that's the intent to me.

Hmm. That agreement also means units of Gobwin Knob can't disclose to FAQ the lengths to which Charlie went to keep Jillian alive.

And the part of the contract about FAQ and Jillian only restricts Gobwin Knob units, not Charlie or Charlescomm. And Charlie says he's protecting Jillian because of a contractual obligation. And there's some aspect of Wanda's NDA that Jack doesn't know about, presumably meaning Wanda has an agreement with Charlie that Jack doesn't know about. And Charlie went as far as wiping Jillian's knowledge of him from her mind at the end of the prequel book. And there's a weird exchange in one of the text updates suggesting Charlie is concerned about Wanda.

I'm thinking there's some type of contract between Charlie and Wanda centered around Jillian, which Jillian herself is unaware of.

[Kornaki]

Hmm. That agreement also means units of Gobwin Knob can't disclose to FAQ the lengths to which Charlie went to keep Jillian alive.

And the part of the contract about FAQ and Jillian only restricts Gobwin Knob units, not Charlie or Charlescomm. And Charlie says he's protecting Jillian because of a contractual obligation. And there's some aspect of Wanda's NDA that Jack doesn't know about, presumably meaning Wanda has an agreement with Charlie that Jack doesn't know about. And Charlie went as far as wiping Jillian's knowledge of him from her mind at the end of the prequel book. And there's a weird exchange in one of the text updates suggesting Charlie is concerned about Wanda.

I'm thinking there's some type of contract between Charlie and Wanda centered around Jillian, which Jillian herself is unaware of.

Ooh, this sounds plausible. The weird exchange is because Charlie is concerned about parson, but doesn't want to tell Jillian about him.

[Bird]

New one is up.

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"Jack croaked me." Decrypting has a way of making awkward conversations with your murderer less awkward.

On the other hand, Jack, Wanda and Ansom are casting each other mighty fishy looks.

Also, Parson just gained 20 pounds back and has a different face.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

New one is up.

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"Jack croaked me." Decrypting has a way of making awkward conversations with your murderer less awkward.

On the other hand, Jack, Wanda and Ansom are casting each other mighty fishy looks.

Also, Parson just gained 20 pounds back and has a different face.

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He just has is armor on now. Before that was his tshirt.

[Bird]

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He just has is armor on now. Before that was his tshirt.

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You're right that shirt vs armor makes a difference. It's not just body, though--his face looks more rotund to me in panels 3 and 4.

But I was really just making an unnecessarily snarky dig at consistency in the art. Look what happens to Ace's nose between panels 3 and 4.

[Radar]

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Art issues aside, Parson and Stanley have finely found somethig to bond over. I really like that.

[Killer Angel]

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Grand strategy, eh? I'm curious to see if also Parson knows how to exploit a contract...

[Yana]

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Grand strategy, eh? I'm curious to see if also Parson knows how to exploit a contract...

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I should hope he does, because I'd be shocked if Charlie didn't try to pull something here.

[ryuplaneswalker]

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Art issues aside, Parson and Stanley have finely found somethig to bond over. I really like that.

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I have been saying forever that Stanley and Parson will end up being the best of Buddies by the end of this through some real fun Character growth through Stanley.

[Bird]

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I have been saying forever that Stanley and Parson will end up being the best of Buddies by the end of this through some real fun Character growth through Stanley.

I've quite enjoyed Stanley's character growth, too, and we've had great evidence that he's made a conscious effort to change--including his effort to learn his underlings' names. I think that's only part of the story when we consider his changing behavior, though.

It's worth noting that Stanley was incredibly stressed throughout Book 1, when we also saw his jerkiest behavior. His position has been relatively secure since then. I wonder if his growth will backslide if/when he gets put under similar long-term stress. (I wouldn't count something like his recent scuffle with Jillian; Stanley likes fighting, which is a very different sort of stress than inevitably losing all your cities one by one.)

((Arguing against the idea that Stanley will backslide: when things got iffy towards the end of Book 2, Stanley did get grouchy, but he went out of his way to help Parson with the capital relocation in the end.))

Also, some of the increasing trust he puts in Parson has been/will be due to his fear of things becoming "All Wanda All the Time" again. Look at that room he's in--of the nine characters present, five of them are either Wanda or decrypted.

[ryuplaneswalker]

Well, IMO nobody with half a brain trusts Wanda fully.

I would trust Charlie more than Wanda.

[Bird]

Well, IMO nobody with half a brain trusts Wanda fully.

I would trust Charlie more than Wanda.

How much does Jack trust Wanda, do you think? (That's not a rhetorical question.)

Also: in Stanley's case, I think not trusting Wanda is part of the problem, but so is the feeling like she's more important than him on his own side.

[ryuplaneswalker]

Seeing as he is Decrypted i doubt it matters unless something breaks the connection to the pliers like Ossomer did.

However I am not sure jack has an attachment that powerful.

[Legato Endless]

I wonder if strategy time includes obtaining new natural allies, or if Parson will consider them too great a security risk after what Charlie just pulled.

[Welf]

It seems Ansom doesn't enjoy the story about how his father got murdered in the family throne room as much as the others.

[Aquillion]

It seems Ansom doesn't enjoy the story about how his father got murdered in the family throne room as much as the others.

Meanwhile, Ace seems positively happy to report that Jack killed him here. I think he's enjoying working for Parson more than he did working for Slately.

[NEO|Phyte]

Meanwhile, Ace seems positively happy to report that Jack killed him here. I think he's enjoying working for Parson more than he did working for Slately.

I should imagine so, his love of making 'real' use of dollamancy is practically tailor-made for Parson to employ.

[Morty]

Yewch, I still can't stand the new art. I keep reading because I'm interested where the story will go, but the new artist isn't getting better.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Lets hope for some art evolution to come along. Even the great Penny Arcade started off looking like crap before Mike Krahulik (Gabe) really found his stride.

[Gez]

Lets hope for some art evolution to come along. Even the great Penny Arcade started off looking like crap before Mike Krahulik (Gabe) really found his stride.

And now it looks like crap again because he doesn't care about it anymore, the other PA projects are more interesting.

[Anteros]

It seems Ansom doesn't enjoy the story about how his father got murdered in the family throne room as much as the others.

I think it's also the fact that Wanda is glaring at him. There's still a lot of tension there.

[Legato Endless]

I do wish the art style weren't quite so minimal. Scenes like the Ansom-Wanda aside really leave me grasping. There's a couple of possible explanations for what's happening there, but the expressions and body language are so vague we're left guessing.