Erfworld 135 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 122

[kpenguin]

New page is up.

Wanda is... kinky.

[DevilDan]

"Mosh": great sound effect.

[quindraco]

I nominate "Touch me with them." for this page's descriptive TOC entry.

I wonder how good a heal Sizemore can manage?

[spoddington]

Sizemore to the rescue.
Wanda's more intriguing by the strip.
What on erf is she on about?

[shadowdemon_lord]

man, I'm aggravated. No matter how smart Parsons plans get, he always gets crushed by sheer weight of numbers. I don't really see he's got another trick up his sleeve. As for the comic, well I gotta say I like it. Wanda's pretty cool.

[Gez]

Nice bait and switch with the Arkenpliers. Ansom loses them, they fall in GK's courtyard, Wanda falls right next to them, and now Ansom has them back again.

[T-O-E]

Sure she was going to take the pliers and then attune to them.

[Varthonai]

Well, BOOP. If the Arkenpliers really were attuned to Wanda, then Parson just ruined a perfect opportunity to dupe Ansom into giving her Teh Ultimate Powah.

I wouldn't worry about Sizemore and heals though. Even if he can't give a good heal he can take Wanda to Maggie, who probably can. Since we just saw him phase himself and several golems through solid ground, presumably via Dirtamancy, I don't think it's much of a stretch to phase Wanda out of harm's way.

[Whispri]

Aaaannnnnd back to the status quo. Ansom's constant cheating of fate to continue his ineffectual villain routine is getting rather tiresome.

Also, the way he responds to non-lethal force with attempted murder is particularly vile.

Sizemore to the rescue.
Wanda's more intriguing by the strip.
What on erf is she on about?

The whole stealing her girlfriend thing, remember Jillian? Although when she learns of this, well who knows how she'll react?

[Simanos]

Like I said in strip 134 thread... Lame.
I'm losing interest fast. The Archons shouldn't have been able to hit Wanda (she was too low already), she shouldn't have (nearly) died from such a small fall (Ansom fell from higher and after being hit hard), Ansom shouldn't have been able to get out of the enemy surrounding him so fast and easily and he shouldn't have been able to take an item from a zone he can't enter, the defenders should have been there faster, etc...

The only saving grace in this strip is the mild sexual wording of "touch me with them", but Ansom the gay doesn't...
Wanda bitches that Ansom took her barbarian slave-girl, though a sadly optimistic (read: delusional) part of my mind wants Wanda to mean the Arkenpliers too. Do we even know where, when and how Ansom got the Arkenpliers?

[Estelindis]

Go Sizemore! Wanda will live to fight another day... Although her comment about Jillian - if it was about Jillian and not, say, the arkenpliers - shows even more than ever how she lacks any sense of proportion. <sarcasm> Yes, Wanda, it *is* worse to fall in love with someone than to animate thousands of people as undead creatures... </sarcasm> On the plus side with Wanda, though, the art of panel six is just amazing. The look on her face... In spite of finding her to be an evil person (though a cool character), I still felt kind of sorry for her just because she's so crazy-pathetic at that point.

And good for Ansom - I'm glad he chose not to pursue that little vendetta and think more of his alliance. The more I root for sympathetic characters like Sizemore, the more I find myself also wanting things to work out for people like Ansom - someone who looks like he should have pompous arse written all over him, but keeps overcoming it to actually make the right decisions. He does seem somewhat disturbed by the whole thing, though... I guess he came closer to giving in to his rage and just pursuing ego-driven revenge than ever before. Pull baaaack from the abyss, there, Prince!

[AdmiralKit]

Aaaannnnnd back to the status quo. Ansom's constant cheating of fate to continue his ineffectual villain routine is getting rather tiresome.

Quite frankly, if Ansom weren't nearly as good at getting lucky as he was, the battle for Gobwin Knob would have been over 20 strips ago. I'm content with making things interesting. The only thing I find tiresome is the wait between strips, but that's the price to be paid for free entertainment. At this rate I'm fairly certain that I'll be dead before Erfworld ends, but I'll be well-entertained the entire way.

Interesting depth added to the Wanda/Ansom relationship, funny how it seems to mirror the Jillian/Stanley relationship. Makes me wonder if Stanley was actually the one who attacked Faq; it's been heavily implied but never stated outright, and obviously misdirection as a plot-building technique isn't something that doesn't get used in Erfworld.

[timothyx]

At this rate I'm fairly certain that I'll be dead before Erfworld ends, but I'll be well-entertained the entire way.

Haha, you're not the only one who thinks that... Good comic, but way too long inbetween. oh well, maybe if we paid him to do it, he might get it done faster.

[DevilDan]

Aaaannnnnd back to the status quo. Ansom's constant cheating of fate to continue his ineffectual villain routine is getting rather tiresome.

At the risk of stretching a tired point, how do we know who are the heroes or the villains?

Also, the way he responds to non-lethal force with attempted murder is particularly vile.

This is war, after all.

[raphfrk]

... and he shouldn't have been able to take an item from a zone he can't enter

It's his turn, so he would just have had to spend a movement point to swap zone.

[Eldaran]

I like that the rock golem is saying Gabba Gabba Hey.

[Goshen]

Awesome! This strip sure brightened up my evening. Really, really great interplay between the characters inside of a grand plot. Not too many storytellers can weave together hardcore action with heart-wrenching human emotional drama. Brilliant....

[slurpz]

Good interplay, but the whole "move at the speed of plot" thing really is getting a little threadbare.

[Limos]

Goddamit!

Ansom has become such a Jerkass lately. I really wanted him to go down. He wasn't worthy of the Arkenpliers, and the weird time stretch with Ansom is so messed up.

Somehow Ansom had time to read a contract, object, agree, blow **** up, get his carpet back, fly down to the courtyard, taunt, and finally grab the pliers.

Wanda hadn't even managed to fly down to the courtyard in that time. In the time it took ansom to get his carpet and fly down she wasn't even able to move the six inches to grab the pliers.

[PePe QuiCoSE]

crumbling wall, no artifact, dieing caster, lost airspace...
what's next?

So... let's see. Wall falls, retreat is in order to the tower or dungeon where if the alliance can't flank and GK has a choke they could last quite a long time with their uncroaked if boosted by Wanda's direct bonus. This, of course, as long as Ansom is not on the front. Maybe Parson facing Ansom for this?
I think it'll probably be the tower since the dungeons were collapsed and wouldn't make a good battleground.

[mustaju]

At least now we have the exact number of losses Jetstone has suffered and an approximate number of how many uncroaked there could be. Also, I feel that I've been let down. So god damn many threads regarding Wanda and the pliers... And now more are sure to come.
That is one of those things I'd like to know, whether the Pliers really turn into a deus ex machina or whether the real victory comes from a more satisfying source. I feel optimistic, though.

[Tweed]

Aaaannnnnd back to the status quo. Ansom's constant cheating of fate to continue his ineffectual villain routine is getting rather tiresome.

Could not agree more.

Because honestly? This is not an interesting, poetic way of drawing out the narrative. I am not on the edge of my seat with anticipation. What I am is frustrated. If this were truly a battle of wits and strategy between Parson and Ansom, or Parson and Charlie (though I loathe Charlie as a plot device and think the comic was far better before he arrived on the scene), then this plot would maintain my interest.

But as is, all that ever happens is (a) Parson comes up with an ingenuous plan, which is (b) ruined by Ansom's dumb luck. I'm beginning to think that nothing Parson does will be successful and that he'll only "win" in the end through some stupid deux ex machina, as opposed to his fairly brilliant tactics.

[quindraco]

<sarcasm> Yes, Wanda, it *is* worse to fall in love with someone than to animate thousands of people as undead creatures... </sarcasm>

Actually, I think that's a really interesting point.

Note that Erfworld has no concept of children and, therefore, no concept of parenting. You can have a mentor, and even be the heir to someone's throne, but you pop fully formed - you're not reared by anyone.

That also means there are no brothers, or sisters, or cousins, or anything, except in the *metaphorical* sense. There's no true family, not literally.

This does really interesting things to morality! When you kill someone, for example, you may be killing someone's friend or even lover, but you KNOW you're not killing anyone's mom or dad. There are no orphans.

Are you really sure about your assessment of who was harmed more, Ansom or Wanda?

[Limos]

At the risk of stretching a tired point, how do we know who are the heroes or the villains?

Ansom is a tremendous Douche and happens to be attacking the city. That makes him the villain as far as I am concerned.

God I wanted someone to finally curbstomp his smug little face.

[BRC]

I wouldn't exactly call this a Win for Ansom, considering what he had to sign over to Charlie for help. I have a feeling it's everything short of his soul and/or pants.

[The_JJ]

Yeah, I disagree that tuning people into undead is inherently evil. Killing people, I can see. Using thier corpses? More ambigous.

I wouldn't exactly call this a Win for Ansom, considering what he had to sign over to Charlie for help. I have a feeling it's everything short of his soul and/or pants.

Hell, I bet Charlie took all of the Jetstone treasury, the Coalition's joint fund (if it exists) and the Arkenpliers to boot.

[obazavil]

Like I said in strip 134 thread... Lame.
I'm losing interest fast. The Archons shouldn't have been able to hit Wanda (she was too low already), she shouldn't have (nearly) died from such a small fall (Ansom fell from higher and after being hit hard), Ansom shouldn't have been able to get out of the enemy surrounding him so fast and easily and he shouldn't have been able to take an item from a zone he can't enter, the defenders should have been there faster, etc...

The only saving grace in this strip is the mild sexual wording of "touch me with them", but Ansom the gay doesn't...
Wanda bitches that Ansom took her barbarian slave-girl, though a sadly optimistic (read: delusional) part of my mind wants Wanda to mean the Arkenpliers too. Do we even know where, when and how Ansom got the Arkenpliers?

EXACTLY my thoughts... I was really into the story, but with this 2 last comics I'm like... yawn.... The all-powerful Charlie, and now the arkenpilers are lost.... cmon.... is getting tired that Parson can't do even 1 nice thing...

whatever...

[Eugenitor]

So when does Charlie's next turn happen? I don't think it's until the Coalition's next turn... namely, after Parson.

If Ansom doesn't finish off GK this turn, and Stanley comes back, Stanley might actually be able to save the day here, taming some fresh dwagons with his hammer before blasting the archons to their doom (with the help of two casters in the tower), reaming Ansom, and then going to Charlie's base and jacking the Arkendish.

...I can hope, can't I?

[Finwe]

<sarcasm> Yes, Wanda, it *is* worse to fall in love with someone than to animate thousands of people as undead creatures... </sarcasm>

How do you know that there is anything inherently bad about re-animation in Erfworld? All we have is Ansom's opinion on the subject, which is incredibly biased. For all we know, dead bodies are dead bodies, and just another resource, with no attachment to the person that once inhabited it.

[The_JJ]

1. Parson needs to put that sword to use. Eat unstated giant commander.
2. Is Ansom begining to doubt? In this recent comic he avoids touching Wanda with the arkenpilers. Is it a. because of the golems, b. because of his stated reason (he's need on the walls) or c. because he know that that would be a bad idea. Facial expression in panel nine, plus the fact that he knows Stanley was attuned says c. to me.

Relevance? "My will is the Titan's will," he says, just before his beat down. If he's doubting that...