Goblins

[Cen]

I find it ironic that Drow are seen as monsters by GS considering how the Drizzt clones appeared to see Goblins as just being monsters who are there for the sake of helping adventurers to level up.

Well, it may be because Goblinslayer is, ya know, the most radical man in the radical land, and therefore is most radically considering much more races as monsters, than other peple, who ain't as radical as GS ;-)

[Tempest Fennac]

You could be right. I just expected that Herbert was more tollerant towards Drow due to 3 of the PCs in one of his games using them (unless other cities are more tollerant, which could be the case; I'd probably expect them to have similar views on "monster races" based on GS's reputation, assuming he's half as legendry as he claims to be, which could be taken as evidence that it's only Brassmoon which sees him as a hero rather then a sadistic lunatic).

[T-O-E]

"Hello for hi". Love that line.

[Lissou]

I didn't get why you were talking about drows... But do you mean the orc girl?

[Tempest Fennac]

I thought the 1-eyes demale character who wanted the human thrown off the wall was a Drow Elf? She looks like one to me.

[Morty]

I think she's an orc. She has a flat nose and no pointy ears. It would also fit the fact that drow are treated as "cool" bad guys rather than as monsters like goblins and orcs.

[averagejoe]

Maglubiyet works in mysterious ways, I guess.

Kin is starting to kind of annoy me. I liked her at first when she just tended to overthink the things she said, but this thesaurus-speak doesn't really do anything good.

[petersohn]

Kin is starting to kind of annoy me. I liked her at first when she just tended to overthink the things she said, but this thesaurus-speak doesn't really do anything good.

does better.

[averagejoe]

does better.

He doesn't thesaurus-speak at all, he just speaks in a precise and well thought out manner. Kin did this at first too, and it was kind of interesting; it wasn't using big fancy words, she was speaking from the point of view of a person who understands things analytically rather than intuitively, which worked rather well. In many ways I thought it was pulled off better than V. But, now, I dunno, it's disappointing.

[Ganurath]

I think she's an orc. She has a flat nose and no pointy ears. It would also fit the fact that drow are treated as "cool" bad guys rather than as monsters like goblins and orcs.

More importantly, Orclops has a substantially lighter skin tone than the Three Drizzitzes, and fangs. They're hard to see, but if you look close they're visible in the 8th panel. Definitely an orc.

[eee]

Maglubiyet works in mysterious ways, I guess.

Kin is starting to kind of annoy me. I liked her at first when she just tended to overthink the things she said, but this thesaurus-speak doesn't really do anything good.

Well, Kin did say that the more nervous she gets, the more she tends to overspeak. To judge from how much she's been babbling these past two pages, before the rescue party showed up she was close to panic.

[averagejoe]

Well, Kin did say that the more nervous she gets, the more she tends to overspeak. To judge from how much she's been babbling these past two pages, before the rescue party showed up she was close to panic.

Besides the fact that it doesn't really come off that way, thesaurus-speak is annoying on many levels however you justify it.

[High-Chancellor]

Don't quite understand why you're complaining so much about the "thesaurus speak" myself. Unless you're just looking for something to complain about, which is reasonable.

I'd say the only phraseology that really seems forced with it is the choice of the word assail most recently, but that might just be because I'm used to seeing it used differently.

[Ganurath]

Say... Anybody mention the possibility that the hobgoblin on this page is the same one that mercy-killed the owlbear?

[The Linker]

Only about a week ago, when we saw him in the vote-preview and Thunt basically confirmed it was him.

[averagejoe]

Don't quite understand why you're complaining so much about the "thesaurus speak" myself. Unless you're just looking for something to complain about, which is reasonable.

I'd say the only phraseology that really seems forced with it is the choice of the word assail most recently, but that might just be because I'm used to seeing it used differently.

I never "look for" things to complain about. If I'm reading and something irritates me then I bring it up. I kept quiet about this for awhile, but it eventually got to the point where I felt like saying something. I might not have said anything at all, but she was so endeared to me at first, and now I just find her kind of annoying.

It wasn't as bad in the most recent update, but mostly because Kin said less. I don't know about forced, but it is clunky. The sentences don't flow very well and the phrasing is painful. It's also a cheap and easy way to try and make a character "sound smart" which takes very little effort and looks sloppy. Plus, almost no smart people talk like that, so it really doesn't go very far in accomplishing its intended goal anyways. Except in special circumstances it's just a bad technique.

[Lissou]

I see what averagejoe is saying.

V speaks in a very natural, if overly formal way. Kin however, sounds like someone wrote her speech with "normal" words, then looked up synonyms for them and used the bigger words. It doesn't sound natural, and seems to be written by someone who doesn't understand the words that she's using.

It /is/ annoying to read, even when you understand all the words she's using, and it does make her character annoying. But it's possible that when she's nervous, she's not very coherent, and that the effect is meant on purpose.

Or, you know, thunt is trying but it doesn't come to him as naturally as it does for the Giant. Dialogue has never been his strong point, and dialogue for such a character would be even harder.

[Gez]

It /is/ annoying to read

More than annoying, it's hurtful.


Like a sickness.

[averagejoe]

I see what averagejoe is saying.

V speaks in a very natural, if overly formal way. Kin however, sounds like someone wrote her speech with "normal" words, then looked up synonyms for them and used the bigger words. It doesn't sound natural, and seems to be written by someone who doesn't understand the words that she's using.

It /is/ annoying to read, even when you understand all the words she's using, and it does make her character annoying. But it's possible that when she's nervous, she's not very coherent, and that the effect is meant on purpose.

Or, you know, thunt is trying but it doesn't come to him as naturally as it does for the Giant. Dialogue has never been his strong point, and dialogue for such a character would be even harder.

More or less. I mean, don't get me wrong, this exchange was brilliant. It establishes her analytic way of thinking by showing that she thinks of social interactions on a rational level instead of an intuitive one, as well as being somewhat funny. "Exponentially redundant vocabulary," is kind of weird but it was otherwise fine. That's part of my point-this is something that one can do much more effectively using relatively common words.

[The Linker]

I thought the whole point was exactly what Lissou said -- she only starts blabbering with 5-dollar words when she's nervous, right? Instead of strenuous moments making her LOSE some sense of volcabulary ("Aaaaah! People! Bad people! Outside! Crap crap crap help!") the semi-reverse happens. Her volcabulary becomes 'exponentially redundant', but she's just as incoherent.

On a purely objective level, devoid of context... yeah, it is annoying to read. But I think it suits her and makes sense, is all.

[Selene]

Well, Kin did say that the more nervous she gets, the more she tends to overspeak. To judge from how much she's been babbling these past two pages, before the rescue party showed up she was close to panic.

That's how I took it, too. And remember, we're not talking about a human or elven adventurer here. Yuan-ti have their own language. I suspect they don't get to practice their common as often as a regular PC race person. Maybe the longer words are easier for them to remember. So when Kin gets nervous, it just comes out in a common-is-not-my-native-language kind of way. I think it works ok whether it was intentional or not.

I may be biased, though, because I really like her.

[Gez]

It still bereaves like an affliction, though.

[Johnny Blade]

Kin has been Goblinslayer's pet for a while and can be expected to have high or very high intelligence. Even if she wasn't raised bilingual, she should know Common quite well - if anything, she shouldn't know the big words she's using.

I don't really mind it that much, though, it's just somewhat overdone in the last two pages.
I mean, "unobstruct"?

[averagejoe]

That's how I took it, too. And remember, we're not talking about a human or elven adventurer here. Yuan-ti have their own language. I suspect they don't get to practice their common as often as a regular PC race person. Maybe the longer words are easier for them to remember. So when Kin gets nervous, it just comes out in a common-is-not-my-native-language kind of way. I think it works ok whether it was intentional or not.

But they don't come off in a common-is-not-my-language sort of way, they come out in a I-am-trying-hard-to-sound-more-intelligent-than-I-am sort of way.

I may be biased, though, because I really like her.

Funny, I was thinking the same thing.

[Castel]

It's not so much that Kin is using fancy words, but the fact that she uses words in a way that looks forced.

"Those Guards are going to assail!"... Who speaks like that?

The funny thing is that I know people in real life who do the same thing, and its just as annoying, if not more.

[Ganurath]

"Those Guards are going to assail!"... Who speaks like that?

A snake-person with a forked tongue.

[Stillthunt]

When I wrote Kin, I wanted her to have a personality quirk in which her way of speaking would become more ridiculous, the more frightened or nervous she became. The dialogue is meant to sound unnatural and to become more unnatural as time piles more stress onto her. In other words, an exponentially redundant vocabulary.

If her dialogue was natural and flowing, then her claim of a redundant vocabulary would have been a big, fat lie. Of course nobody says "unobstruct", technically that one isn't even a word ("unobstructed" is in the dictionary, but not "unobstruct").

I was going for the opposite of those poorly portrayed dumb dialogues. No intelligent people say "Those guards are going to assail", just like dumb people don't actually say "Me smash you good!". Both sentences are technically correct and can be understood, but no one would use those words like that.

However, I didn't count on it being annoying to read.

"Or, you know, thunt is trying but it doesn't come to him as naturally as it does for the Giant. Dialogue has never been his strong point, and dialogue for such a character would be even harder."

Seriously, Avi?

[averagejoe]

Fair enough. However, while I can see that, and it did occur to me that this might be the case, I felt that the purpose of the text was too ambiguous to be sure. Perhaps it's just because it's something that I see writers do a lot in order to portray smart people, but I wasn't sure how well thought out or intentional it was.

Anyways, I do hope that my general good opinion of the comic is well established. Despite the fact that I can be found, on occasion, posting in the Dominic Deegan thread, I do not, in general, look for things to complain about. There are just certain writing conventions that I have strong opinions on.

[F.H. Zebedee]

Out of curiosity, about the "Over the top vocabulary", how would people feel about such a thing used as a sign that a character is basically feigning intelligence? Just a question that struck me while reading this.

I have to say that I'm enjoying the climax of the Brassmoon City arc greatly. It seems to be moving a bit choppy-fast, but that's due to how much stuff that Thunt has to juggle here, while updating at speed.

I especially like what was done with Thaco, forcing GS to see him almost as an equal (in a way, its own victory against the bigoted freak), though I'm hoping for at least a little bit more from him before he dies, if he does.

[Kyouhen]

I don't have a problem with the way Kin talks. I think it might be a little off though based on how she looks. Back here when she really starts going off she's most definitely nervous. In the latest page she looks more angry or annoyed. Or at least for the first two panels she does. Maybe that's why her needlessly advanced vocabulary seems off in this one.