Erfworld 47 (Page 43)

[Daedalus73]

Too bad we missed seeing the trap. Would have been cool.

Still, an ok filler comic.

[jindra34]

True to true... As we predicted though it got blown away... Apaarently Ansom listened to VInnie...

[I eat Jawas]

so presumably the lack of klog was about the lack of children in erfworld.

[Grug]

ooh, I can't wait to see what antics come out of Parson realizing that noone in the erfworld grows old.

[Legendary]

Still, I feel that Parson has his new best weapon. And he and Wanda are getting along well, which is a good sign. He needs all of them- Wanda, Sizemore, and Bogroll- to stand a chance in defying Stanley, even doing it Wanda's way.

[Lemur]

Charlie's Archons? I think the writer enjoys making pop culture references more than is good for my health.

[Blood]

Well. Interesting.

[ryos]

LOL. I can just imagine Wanda saying, "Are they made out of real Girl Scouts?" Perfect characterization by Parson.

So. Units pop, just like a strategy game. How do they age? Or do they? I suppose we'll have to wait and see...again...

[Khantalas]

So, now we see what's so bad about never having watched the Addams Family. You can't compare Wanda to whomever Parson was talking about.

[Livewire90210]

I'm betting the next Klog either had something to do with Charlie, aging, or the failed trap. Leaning more toward the trap part though - Charlie popped up before the klog, and aging wouldn'tve been a "holy boop don't upload the klog, theres a major spoiler" sort of deal :)

Awesome comic though. Kind of a good thing to know that units won't grow old.

So. Units pop, just like a strategy game. How do they age? Or do they? I suppose we'll have to wait and see...again...

I'm wondering if maybe units have a veteran style deal; the longer they've been around, the stronger they get (Red Alert 2 in a way - the more units they kill, the better they get at killing, but they do hit a maximum).

[Moik]

<[SotN]Dracula> WHAT is a man!

This comic reminded me of that.

[Bogardan_Mage]

So, now we see what's so bad about never having watched the Addams Family. You can't compare Wanda to whomever Parson was talking about.

Sure you can.

He he. Just when he thinks he's got Erfworld figured out, Wanda throws him a curveball. I'm not really seeing much spoilerish stuff that the klog could have covered though, even the failed trap thing. Maybe Tuesday will give us more information. I guess it might also have been a continuity thing, he's got to learn that there are no little baby erfs before writing about it.

[Viridian]

Huh...this REALLY feels like we skipped a comic to me.

[Vreejack]

Huh...this REALLY feels like we skipped a comic to me.

This is not an unusual technique in more sophisticated stories. The battle was apparently anti-climactic, so there was no need to show it except to provide some gratuitous "Pow" and "OMGWTFBBQ" frames. The actual events of the battle do not need to be known in detail to advance the story, so the authors skipped portraying them directly. You would have to be pretty dense not to understand what just happened, after all.

If, otoh, some important and unexpected things did happen in the battle, then there might be a need to portray them, or at least refer to them. It looks like there were no surprises, at least for the reader. Note that even the presence of Charlie's archons is mentioned obliquely, since even though it was a surprise to Parson, it was not to us.

Rob is just treating us like intelligent readers.

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

O_o

That's... Interesting. Especially considering the level of sexual tension we've seen in this webcomic.

[Vreejack]

Thinking about the "child" comment, I suspect that units are bought the same way rations are. There was a reference to it in the first strip, how the marbits were able to afford an extra unit.

There must be more to it than that, however, or Stanley would have bought more troops.

[jindra34]

This is not an unusual technique in more sophisticated stories. The battle was apparently anti-climactic, so there was no need to show it except to provide some gratuitous "Pow" and "OMGWTFBBQ" frames. The actual events of the battle do not need to be known in detail to advance the story, so the authors skipped portraying them directly. You would have to be pretty dense not to understand what just happened, after all.

If, otoh, some important and unexpected things did happen in the battle, then there might be a need to portray them, or at least refer to them. It looks like there were no surprises, at least for the reader. Note that even the presence of Charlie's archons is mentioned obliquely, since even though it was a surprise to Parson, it was not to us.

Rob is just treating us like intelligent readers.

Yeah for us the intelligent readers...

[Imrahil]

I wonder if Wanda's comment lends credence to the 'Erfworld is a new creation' theory floating around on the boards?

[Erk]

Now one wonders if they even have sexual organs, or if they are just barbie dolls under the clothes. That puts a bit of the sexual ambiguity of Wanda and Jillian's relationship into light!

Oh, and it smashes the "sisters" theory flat for good, thank goodness.

But if there are no children, how are there nobles and royals? I wonder how noble houses are determined?

Also, re:OP
"filler comic"?! Wtf? A bit of gratuitous violence would have been much more of a filler than this was.

PS: another thought. It's possible that the failed trap was not of interest anymore to gobwin knob, because it has failed to accomplish its goals, and therefore doesn't need showing from their perspective. It might still have impact for Ansom's side, though, in which case we will probably hear and/or see more of it when the perspective switches back to them.

[Demented]

Rob is just treating us like intelligent readers.

Still, when there's a significant and abnormal time gap in a story, something about the scene usually signifies this, such as a panoramic view, scene shot, or just a little text saying "24 hours later...". It can get more subtle, but the point is that there's some unambiguous indication of the gap. This isn't to pander to unintelligent readers, it's to maintain the quality and flow of the plot.

As it is, it did feel like a comic was skipped and it felt like the plot hit a speedbump, which is vaguely uncomfortable. To further illustrate: If there had been such a comic, the current one could have remained unchanged and it wouldn't have been any detectable difference in flow.

Parson's off-hand statement of saying "I'm just trying to imagine how that could have gone any worse" (emphasis added) doesn't immediately state what "that" is. For a moment, I thought he was referring to the discussion with Stanley back in #43, simply because that was the last scene with Parson that I remembered. Even as the conversation continued, it was still lingering in my mind that he was somehow referring to A conversation with Stanley, rather than the past battle.

Also, there's still other details unexplained. Such as....




But if those details get explained in Parson's next Klog, that would be excellent.

[Casinodwarf]

Parson boobing rules with his "Wednesday Addams" analogy. I can only imagine what he is thinking now when Wanda questions "What is a "child?""

I thought it was odd when the battle was just glossed over, but when I read the comic a second time it made sense not to show it, i.e. the intelligent reader. I must admit I am starting to really get into this comic. Good stuff so far.

[Moik]

As an aside, when I started reading page 43, I hit the "previous" button to check what I had missed. If this was a real book I had bought, I would have started checking online to see if other people had encountered printing errors.

While some authors may skip certain details in order to advance the story, it is a jarring gap when considering the author and illustrators existing pace of depiction.

It now specifically feels like they author and illustrator are "rushing" the story. It's as though we're losing completeness in order to reach the end. I would hope the author and illustrator go back to insert a page there in the future.

[ryos]

Re: the pacing: holy sacred cow! Rob really can't win here.

He must have made some decision to pick up the pace a bit, because it's been like this ever since page 41. Ever since then, he has been telling quite a bit by implication.

It may be that this is what he planned to do all along, once the exposition was complete enough (the klogs have helped with that).

Personally, I like it. Honestly, if I were writing the story, I would have glossed over the battle too. However, I can see that there is a disjoint, and like Demented I also initially thought Parson was referring to the conversation with Stanley. I like the idea of a splash panel to smooth such discontinuities caused by needing to gloss over something while still having enough space for what you need to tell.

A panel like final panel of page 40 would have done wonders.

[Nemo2342]

Intelligent reader or no, I also felt pretty jarred when I read today's comic. It really feels like there should have either been something leading into this comic, or else it needs to lead in to some kind of flashback.

[Pheldagriff]

Perhaps there was something about the trap that Rob doesn't want us to know yet.

Also, I like to piece together the story a little bit by myself. ^^

[SteveMB]

aging wouldn'tve been a "holy boop don't upload the klog, theres a major spoiler" sort of deal :)

Actually, I suspect that's exactly the (would have been a) spoiler in the next klog -- it's the sort of observation of "Parson learning about Erfworld" that naturally fits in the klogs, and if we'd read it in advance that last panel would have had all the impact of a strand of wet spaghetti. As it was, it was a "Holy boop" followed by a "Hmmm... that does fit with this being a world that works by turn-based-strategy-game rules"....

Thinking about the "child" comment, I suspect that units are bought the same way rations are. There was a reference to it in the first strip, how the marbits were able to afford an extra unit.

That seems logical.

There must be more to it than that, however, or Stanley would have bought more troops.

Not necessarily; it may be that creating new units takes more time than Stanley had available, and he couldn't or wouldn't hire existing units because he didn't get along with anybody who might have hired them out to him (like the Charlie example in the current page). Or it could just be that 500k schmuckers worth of unit builds would clearly not be enough to make a real difference against the enemy coalition.

Now one wonders if they even have sexual organs, or if they are just barbie dolls under the clothes. That puts a bit of the sexual ambiguity of Wanda and Jillian's relationship into light!

If so, one also wonders what Ansom was hoping for if Jillian had taken him up on his invitation -- a round of gin rummy?

OTOH, if Erfworlders don't have sex as such, but do have the same basic emotional drives as real-world humans, a close snuggle may be "going all the way" by their standards.

Oh, and it smashes the "sisters" theory flat for good, thank goodness.

But if there are no children, how are there nobles and royals? I wonder how noble houses are determined?

It's possible that certain leaders are defined as "nobles" and "royals" in the mechanics of the world.

[Ave]

Charlie's Archons? I think the writer enjoys making pop culture references more than is good for my health.

I start to feel the same, though my fuse burnt out a bit later, when Parson mentioned Wednesday Addams to Wanda. Parson should already know that Erfworld is totally ignorant of Earth culture. So that reference was told solely to us, the Earth audience. (The reference could still fired at us with a thought bubble, instead of telling).

[SteveMB]

This is not an unusual technique in more sophisticated stories. The battle was apparently anti-climactic, so there was no need to show it except to provide some gratuitous "Pow" and "OMGWTFBBQ" frames.

That's assuming that there was any battle. Given that Team Stanley has better intel (Lookamancers and dwagon air recon), it's possible that they discovered the strength of Ansom's forces (including Charlie's Archons) in time to scrub the ambush -- and scrubbing the ambush was the only sane thing to do once it was clear that it was likely to turn into a real battle (Stanley can't afford to fight a battle in the open -- even if his side inflicts two or three times as many casualties on the enemy as they take, it's a net loss for him under the circumstances) rather than an overwhelming trap.

[Moik]

I start to feel the same, though my fuse burnt out a bit later, when Parson mentioned Wednesday Addams to Wanda. Parson should already know that Erfworld is totally ignorant of Earth culture. So that reference was told solely to us, the Earth audience. (The reference could still fired at us with a thought bubble, instead of telling).

I know alot of people from all types of cliques that will make an obscure reference with the hope of being prompted to explain it. Some people take pride in their trivia and seek to assert it at any opportunity.

[Erk]

I start to feel the same, though my fuse burnt out a bit later, when Parson mentioned Wednesday Addams to Wanda. Parson should already know that Erfworld is totally ignorant of Earth culture. So that reference was told solely to us, the Earth audience. (The reference could still fired at us with a thought bubble, instead of telling).

I dunno, parson is exactly the kind of guy who loves making references verbally that nobody but him will understand. I do it all the time in my english classes, quote song lyrics or novels or whatever knowing full well my students will have no idea what I am referring to. I'm not talking to an audience, I am just amusing myself. It's a good way of relieving stress in a difficult class, too, and Parson is certainly in a stressful situation.

Steve: good point that there might not have been a battle. Really good point! Wow. That is very possible. Once stanley saw the archons show up he knew the game was over and ordered the attack cancelled.

Regaring nobles, I would think that the leaders qualified as nobility except then how can Jillian be a royal without being in command of a tribe?

(also, regarding ansom's tent, I was picturing him just wanting to cuddle and smooch, yes. Which is really cute.)