El Goonish Shive III - Totally Adorkable!

[Silva Stormrage]

I don't know why but Ellen's facial reactions in the last story comic amuse me greatly

Also ya that plan doesn't sound like it will be very durable. I suppose we shall see

[hector212121]

Y'know, I'd be willing to bet that what actually happens with name affinities is that the affinities CAUSE THE NAME.

Because that makes way more sense.

[Landis963]

Y'know, I'd be willing to bet that what actually happens with name affinities is that the affinities CAUSE THE NAME.

Because that makes way more sense.

Tell Shive that - it just might become canon.

[Yuki Akuma]

It's only been three days since the card tournament?

Holy Jesus

[eschmenk]

It's only been three days since the card tournament?

Holy Jesus

Well, more like two and a half days. Be glad we got this far! Sunday was actually quicker than I feared.

Saturday lasted one year and four months (Feb 2015 to June 2016 - when the Q&A occurred). Grace's dream (Saturday night) through now (Monday morning) only took about half a year.

We're really rolling now!

(EGS:NP is still only one day later, BTW.)

[Rater202]

So... Is Tedd trying to decide which gender is closest to the real him/her... or is s/he thinking about confronting his dad about it.

[Professor Gnoll]

It's only been three days since the card tournament?

Holy Jesus

Dan has... not gotten better at pacing.

[Douglas]

So... Is Tedd trying to decide which gender is closest to the real him/her... or is s/he thinking about confronting his dad about it.

I think the choice is "if magic changes so I can't freely change gender any more, what gender do I want to be stuck in?"

[eschmenk]

I think the choice is "if magic changes so I can't freely change gender any more, what gender do I want to be stuck in?"

Using the comic's terminology, I think it would be, "if magic changes so I can't freely change sex any more, what sex do I want to be stuck in [as a default]?" The comic has redefined sex as being a strictly physical thing and gender as being a strictly mental thing. Ted's gender is fluid. That's why he isn't sure what sex he would choose if he needed to make the choice permanent.

The reason for striking out "any more" and adding "as a default" is because Ted could still use his TF gun even after magic reset. It's really just the abilities from the new spell, which can change his "default" state (what sex he is with no enchantments applied) that could be lost. IIRC, he hasn't actually used the spell that way yet. (IIRC, the spell also lets him more or less duplicate the TF gun's functions without actually using the TF gun, but I don't think that's what he's concerned about.)

Although I think that's the mostly likely explanation, another choice would be: "Do I choose a default sex and stick with it for now or do not worry about it and risk becoming stuck with whichever default sex happened to be in effect at the moment magic reset?" I think he already jumped past that and decided that he needed choose a default sex and stay with it, at least until the risk passed (but permanently if magic did change).

One thing that's a bit ironic is that Ted is the person who's the most upset about the possibility of magic changing, yet other people would be affected much more. He only recently was marked and he hasn't made much use of that yet; he'll still be able to tinker with magic devices; and the new spell he could potentially loose pretty much duplicates what his devices already do anyway.

[halfeye]

Using the comic's terminology, I think it would be, "if magic changes so I can't freely change sex any more, what sex do I want to be stuck in [as a default]?" The comic has redefined sex as being a strictly physical thing and gender as being a strictly mental thing. Ted's gender is fluid. That's why he isn't sure what sex he would choose if he needed to make the choice permanent.

The reason for striking out "any more" and adding "as a default" is because Ted could still use his TF gun even after magic reset. It's really just the abilities from the new spell, which can change his "default" state (what sex he is with no enchantments applied) that could be lost. IIRC, he hasn't actually used the spell that way yet. (IIRC, the spell also lets him more or less duplicate the TF gun's functions without actually using the TF gun, but I don't think that's what he's concerned about.)

Although I think that's the mostly likely explanation, another choice would be: "Do I choose a default sex and stick with it for now or do not worry about it and risk becoming stuck with whichever default sex happened to be in effect at the moment magic reset?" I think he already jumped past that and decided that he needed choose a default sex and stay with it, at least until the risk passed (but permanently if magic did change).

One thing that's a bit ironic is that Ted is the person who's the most upset about the possibility of magic changing, yet other people would be affected much more. He only recently was marked and he hasn't made much use of that yet; he'll still be able to tinker with magic devices; and the new spell he could potentially loose pretty much duplicates what his devices already do anyway.

Do we have any indication that if magic changed Ted's devices would still work? I would assume that devices depend on the current way magic works, but I don't remember any evidence.

[Rater202]

Do we have any indication that if magic changed Ted's devices would still work? I would assume that devices depend on the current way magic works, but I don't remember any evidence.

IT's spell magic that would change, but Tedd's devices run on/imitate Uryuom magic, and the Emissary of Magic said that the inherant magic of species that had it, like the Uryuoms and their shape changing, would remain the same.

[eschmenk]

Yes. link: http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=2274

[Rater202]

I would note, however, that Tedd does have reason to be upset at the idea that he could have cost everyone magic... Even though the Emissary himself said, back in the Squirrel Prophet arc, that nothing Tedd was doing would affect Magic.

Tedd's mother abandoned him because he, apparently, had no magical powers. It's quite apparent that this has screwed Tedd up--he was practically mute for a while, had no friends until Elliot, getting the TF gun was the first time he'd spoken in a while, apparently, and he was crying from the outburst when we next saw him. Even after character development and confidence boosting, in his imagination sequence of "perfect" men that Grace was ignoring in favor of himself, one of them declared that "our mother's love us." Later, when Elliot and Sarah break up, Tedd briefly goes into a panic and mentions people going to Europe and never visiting because "it's too expensive, even if it is Christmas."

It's entirely possible that that his lack of magical powers is a big freaking deal for him and, consciously or not, is a contributing factor to his desire to give magic to everyone. Upon finding out that... Yeah, here come some aggravated issues.

Not to mention that Tedd does not know that his mage sight wouldn't be taken away and he literally just got a magic mark--he finally has something special about himself. Magic all of his own, to himself that doesn't come from something else, something that might make his Mom love him... and he could lose it. Even if he doesn't consciously realize it...

[eschmenk]

That's true. If you remember Tedd's backstory, it makes a lot more sense. Thanks.

[Rater202]

Yeah, Tedd is a woobie. You must take this into account when reading his reactions to bad news as woobism breeds woobism.

I honestly hope that something good happens to him soon. I'm personally hoping that Edward is going to find out about Tedd being gender-fluid and, after taking a moment to confirm, suddenly being incredibly relived because he thought Tedd's gender bending was for perverted reasons instead of gender identity reasons.

I mean, this guy's secretary is a shapeshifting extra-terrestrial without biological sex and he deals with magic and aliens on a daily basis. Transgender stuff isn't really that weird by comparison.

[eschmenk]

New comic

Dan has... not gotten better at pacing.

Are you sure about that?

[Vinyadan]

Are you sure about that?

Well, he now even has a spell in the comic that has characters wonder off without time passing...

[Professor Gnoll]

Back when I was first figuring out Sister 3 and how the heck everything was going to fit together, I considered a scene like this for re-introducing Sarah's spell.

Honestly, this quote from the new comic commentary really shows how bad the pacing is and the reasons it's so bad.

It was so long since the spell was last shown that it needed to be re-introduced.

But the scene itself is long and drags out.

Increasing the time between concepts being visited.

Meaning those concepts will have to be re-introduced.

It's been a three days since the card tournament.

The card tournament ended in 2014.

[eschmenk]

Well, he now even has a spell in the comic that has characters wonder off without time passing...

Yeah, I know! I didn't want to whine about Dan's slow pace, but this page in particular just seemed so static in so many ways that I thought it was funny.

I think we can imagine why Dan would think a character would think this spell was so great. He enjoys stopping time and exploring the feelings and motivations of this character and the feelings and motivations of that character and the nuances of this spell and the nuances of that spell and the interactions between characters and so on. He can stop time and explore things as much as he wants since he's the author of the comic. It would be easy for him to assume that his characters would want to do stop time and explore things for themselves. It even goes beyond that. As the author, he gets to manipulate the characters. Sarah can also manipulate characters with the spell to some extent.

Time hasn't completely stopped, btw. A few seconds are passing in Sarah's real world while Sarah is wandering around inside her simulation. What are the odds that the car in front of her has slammed on the brakes in the meantime?

[Landis963]

Tell me Sarah's not stupid enough to cast this spell while she's driving.

[John Cribati]

Tell me Sarah's not stupid enough to cast this spell while she's driving.

It's a spell that stops time, or at least slows it down enough that it may as well be stopped. It isn't going to hurt her.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

It's a spell that stops time, or at least slows it down enough that it may as well be stopped. It isn't going to hurt her.

It doesn't stop time. Her time perception is accelerated while casting the spell (i.e. she might feel like she has been in the spell for an hour, but it's actually been just a minute), but time does continue to move while she is in her trance.

Hopefully she's the passenger. Because even if she had come to a complete stop before casting the spell, that's going to annoy anyone behind her when the traffic moves/light turns green, and she's just sitting there in a stopped car.

GW

[Douglas]

I really, really, doubt Sarah's stupid enough to use this spell while driving. I expect she's a passenger, whether in a friend's car or on a school bus.

[John Cribati]

... it effectively stops time.

[Professor Gnoll]

... it effectively stops time.

It effectively stops the comic, yeah.

[Yuki Akuma]

... it effectively stops time.

It really doesn't. It takes a snapshot of the surrounding area, then puts Sarah into an accelerated-awareness trance where she can interact with a simulation of the snapshot.

Time keeps moving while Sarah's in that trance, even if her perceptions are sped up. So it would be really stupid to use it while driving, considering at highway speeds a car can move upwards of ten yards every third of a second.

[eschmenk]

From the previous comic's commentary:

Wait a moment. Sarah, you're not simulating stopped time while driving, are you? I mean, you wouldn't, obviously, that would be absurd. Ha ha

Seriously, though, you're not, right?

Remember, kids: Don't magically simulate stopping time while driving.

Three takeaways from that: Yes, it would be dangerous; My thought wasn't as original as I thought it was; Apparently Dan isn't sure how much common sense Sarah has.

Obviously, I just assumed that Sarah cast the spell while driving. Yes, that would be pretty stupid, but teen drivers sometimes do stupid things and I don't get the impression that Sarah has much going on upstairs. Having her wander around for pages doing little more than saying. "Wow!" isn't helping helping matters much.

[Professor Gnoll]

Having her wander around for pages doing little more than saying. "Wow!" isn't helping helping matters much.

Dan's tendency to have characters exposit everything they're thinking can get a bit stupid when there's nothing to exposit.

[eschmenk]

...I don't get the impression that Sarah has much going on upstairs...

That was overstating things a bit, actually. I could easily be forgetting things, but I think that until recently (well, recently in-comic) Dan just didn't do much with Sarah. She was the normal person surrounded by OP people, so there just didn't seem to be anything much to her. That doesn't mean she is particularly stupid, though. More recently, she was fine Friday night.

[Vinyadan]

You know what I think would be cool? A series focused on Nanase and Ellen, working as mystery detectives. Ted could be a nice scientific referent/Q (from 007). It would be a nice NP. It would also give some insight into how Nanase and Ellen are seen/see themselves now.