Results 241 to 270 of 1477
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2016-02-05, 03:14 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2013
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
When Tiamat is on the phone, the speech bubble has five pointers.
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2016-02-05, 03:23 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
And you can see the five different breath weapons coming through the phone. Now that's fidelity; just like you're really face-to-face with the person you're talking too.
(Really old phone company reference there, don't worry if you don't get it (just get offa my lawn).)
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2016-02-05, 04:53 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2009
- Location
- Birmingham, AL
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
No, you're seeing it that way because you aren't understanding the framework of the story. Again, this is a world where knowledge of dramatic structure translates into real power. Elan could potentially conquer an entire continent as Tarquin did, due to his knowledge of story structure. Tarquin is obviously more intelligent than Elan, yes, but he is not the ultra-competent character you are making him out to be. Hell, a very real possiblity exists that, in OotS world, the only reason he was able to succeed was to give Elan character development. Tarquin outright states that he was able to succeed because every story needs a villain, and he was able to capitalize on this. Compare this to Xykon - one of them is the villain because the story needs a villain, so why not him; the other is a villain because he wants power to exert his will over all others. One is genuine, the other is cheap opportunism. Tarquin was now shown to be foolish in the beginning, but rather his character began to show through as the story went on. Tarquin was able to succeed in spite of his military prowess, not because of it. Hell, the one time we see him personally command an army in battle, his entire battle plan boils down to "bring in a really impressive-looking army so I look cool, and then tell everyone to attack indiscriminately." When it doesn't work, he doesn't adapt. When his friends tell him his tactics suck, his reply is "well it wouldn't if I had more guns." He held off the Order, yes, by fighting defensively. He was able to chase them down after they escaped his military. He's decent to fairly adept at small group battles. He's god-awful at military strategy. If you want to read "everybody try to kill these guys" as the be-all, end-all of military genius, I suppose I can't really convince you otherwise.
Cuthalion's art is the prettiest art of all the art. Like my avatar.
Number of times Roland St. Jude has sworn revenge upon me: 1
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2016-02-05, 08:39 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2013
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
The way I see it, Tarquin is a fairly competent military commander because having brilliant knowledge of story conventions translates into moderate knowledge of military command. Tarquin does have a number of fairly impressive military feats under his belt, leading his first kingdom to conquer a large portion of a continent, and later directing a variety of successful strikes against independent kingdoms to drive them into the grip of his hidden allies.
“Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”
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2016-02-05, 10:31 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2015
- Location
- Canada
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
The way I see it, Tarquin isn't completely incompetent - but he isn't a military genius either. He does appear to understand some concepts of war, at least some such as attrition, and the initial plan to conquer the Western Continent appears to be his own (We only have his word, but there was the flashback sequence where he was explaining it), though his companions were there to keep him on track when he might've risked it.
In small scale combat, Tarquin appears to be rather competent. In his fight against the Order (sans V), sure, he was fighting defensively, but his best friend (who fought beside him for 35 years) knew that he was holding back and was toying with them, and he admitted himself that he wanted to test Elan's fighting capabilities in that fight. His later fight against Julio seemed to be like the two were of about equal strength until Laurin intervened.
In military tactics... it seems to lean a bit more on the side of not entirely competent. On one hand, he managed to conquer himself a kingdom before being overthrown by a coalition of 26 other countries, and that was before he called in his buddies from the Vector Legion. On the other hand, at the pace kingdoms and empires fall in the Western Continent, it might not mean as much as it could. He is described by Malack as a General of at least a certain calibre ("You don't spend time with a general of Tarquin's calibre without learning a few things about attrition."), though as the quote says, it may be just on the subject of attrition. The actual "military prowess" we've seen first hand in-universe are when he orders his legion to rush Roy, Belkar and "Durkon", which turned into a spectacular failure. However, in a world where story knowledge equals to power, and believing himself to be in the position of the main villain with his son as the hero, he may have thought that his son would have been alright, but that those he considered to be "B-list fodder" would have been killed. Without Malack to keep him straight he went off the rails.
Perhaps Tarquin does or used to have some knowledge of military and fighting tactics, but they're overshadowed by his knowledge of the story and his need for the dramatic. I suspect that either: a) whoever his partner at the time had the task of keeping him in line, or b) he and Malack were just that close friends. Hence, the attempted dramatic execution scene after Malack's death that failed, and his story tactics working until he comes face-to-face with the heroes. He's far from being the ultimate tactician and fighter he claims to be and likely wasn't the leader of the Vector Legion, but he isn't entirely incompetent either.
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2016-02-06, 01:01 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2004
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
Orth Plays: Currently Baldur's Gate II
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2016-02-06, 07:20 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2015
- Location
- Italy
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
Me and whoever agrees with me. That's, to say, probably whoever inserts conquerors' and generals' names in history books.
You, of course, think differently. That's fair. But not every group of persons needs you to be a group.
This just to close the argument, since it has derailed the original thread already too much.Last edited by Dr.Zero; 2016-02-06 at 07:22 AM.
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2016-02-08, 12:10 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2014
- Location
- A Michigan Far, Far Away
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
I noticed in 315, in the next-to-last panel, you can just barely see that Celia has already been hypnotized by the bug zapper- her eyes have gone blue & swirly, but it's hard to see because they're at the very top of the frame.
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2016-02-08, 01:34 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2015
- Gender
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2016-02-08, 06:14 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
- Location
- Kaeda
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
Kaedanis Pyran, tai faernae.
The LA Assignment Threads: Attempting to Make Monsters Playable Since 2016
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2016-02-08, 07:01 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2009
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
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2016-02-15, 02:00 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2014
- Location
- A Michigan Far, Far Away
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
When Belkar escapes from solitary in the Azure City prison, he slams the guard against the top of the panel when he jumps out of his pit/cell... in other words, the top of the panel is also the ceiling of the room. Wow.
I had never noticed that.
If only there were a thread for posting things I had never noticed.... wait, what?!
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2016-02-15, 06:13 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2013
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
“Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”
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2016-02-15, 06:40 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
- Location
- Kaeda
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
It also appears that some of his helmet is behind the panel border. Hard to tell though.
Kaedanis Pyran, tai faernae.
The LA Assignment Threads: Attempting to Make Monsters Playable Since 2016
My Homebrewer's Extended Signature
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2016-02-15, 12:37 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
- Location
- California
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
In 1021, panel 8 - when Blackwing says his line to V, normally NPCs are spoken by the GM. So - yeah, you could say that's the GM saying that to the player. Which is quite funny when thought of as a "fourth wall break" joke in addition to the regular text.
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2016-02-15, 12:50 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2009
- Location
- Birmingham, AL
- Gender
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2016-02-16, 12:25 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2014
- Location
- A Michigan Far, Far Away
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
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2016-02-16, 12:37 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
I just noticed that dwarves have two livers.
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2016-02-16, 03:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2015
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
Similarly, rereading this strip I also noticed that Miko and Vaarsuvius both take notice of the silliness that potion dosages don't need to be adjusted for body weight.
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2016-02-16, 05:43 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2012
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
Wrecan is a pretty good shot - both the bolts that took down the former CoS usher match his crossbow's.
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2016-02-17, 03:34 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2013
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2016-02-17, 04:16 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2015
- Gender
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2016-02-25, 06:29 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2010
- Location
- France
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
I've just realized something from very early in the comic:
In strip #9, V is casting Identify on the Girdle of Feminity/Masculinity.
Except... the ogre/ogress that was wearing it had returned to her true form after it being taken off. Thus, it should have been quite obvious what kind of magical item it was. That was a complete waste of an Identify spell.
I know failing Spot Checks in the Order's favorite sport, but come on...Spoiler
DM: At the end of the meal, the innkeeper is bringing you the cheese plate. Roll for initiative.
PC: Excuse me, what?
DM: I said, roll for initiative. They like their cheese really ripe in these parts. They have the ooze type.
"Excuse me, but... is it a GOOD or a BAD thing when the DM can't help bursting into laughter every time he hears the phrase 'level-appropriate encounter'? No, just curious..."
Extended signature
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2016-02-25, 06:34 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2013
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
“Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”
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2016-02-25, 08:02 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2009
- Location
- Brazil
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
The Heplion Contingency - Low-tech Cyberpunk with Psychic Powers!
D&D Creations / Homebrewing
The Haliburn Galaxy: D&D Reinvented as Science-Fiction
Book-Learnin' - Extended rules for the Knowledge skill
General Fiction
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2016-02-25, 09:08 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2006
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
One of the reasons Wrecan's parting speech is so powerful; it's not directed at Roy. Wrecan is looking into the camera, addressing the Oots audience, basically telling us 'seize the day, because who knows if there'll be a tomorrow?'
I admit full culpability for Phyrnglsnyx
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2016-02-25, 11:30 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2012
- Location
- Aldain
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
Scientific Name: Wombous apocolypticus | Diet: Apocolypse Pie | Cuddly: Yes
World Building Projects:
Magic: The Stuff of Sentience | Fate: The Fabric of Physics | Luck: The Basis of Biology
Order of the Stick Projects:
Annotation of the Comic | Magic Compendium of the Comic | Transcription of the Comic
Dad-a-chum? Dum-a-chum? Ded-a-chek? Did-a-chick?
Extended Signature | My DeviantArt | Majora's Mask Point Race
(you can't take the sky from me)
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2016-02-25, 04:31 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2012
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
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2016-02-27, 04:38 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2009
- Gender
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2016-02-28, 08:50 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2006
- Gender
Re: Things You Never Noticed V: Your Familiar
I admit full culpability for Phyrnglsnyx