Oh, I understand why, which is why I am only mildly baffled. But it's still amusing that someone decided to allocate SORD Croc more points than the one person that remembered Dr. Meowgon Spengler did.
Jack just stabbed John. Then Rose attacked Jack with black magic, and we flipped over to Dave in mourning bickering with Terezi. I think that this comic entitles me to free chiropractic care due to frequent mood whiplash.
Spades Slick is hate-snogging Snowman, Vriska is basically pouring her heart out to John, John is about to resurrect Rose, the surviving trolls that aren't Vriska are very confused, and Doc Scratch is very, very annoyed.
It seems like it wasn't so much fake as it was either Terezi calculating what would happen and preventing it and/or Snowman reverting the timeline to conform to Team English's plans (and hate-snog Jack Noir).
Well, given that there's still over an act's worth of comic ahead, my immediate impression was that either things get really weird after the Scratch or it was one of the alternate timelines from Aradia's demonstration. Now, the former could be true anyway for totally different reasons—nay, it probably is—but the latter was confirmed.
Yeah, I wasn't thinking that she was out of the story completely by any means. But physically speaking, she is quite decidedly dead.
Hmmm. I am torn between feeling sorry for her in her futile but genuine attempts to redeem herself and being relieved that she didn't bring about everyone's certain doom. It is a complicated bit of ambivalence. Well played, Mr. Hussie. Well played.
Tavros's was a big one, because I was hoping against hope that he'd live. By the time that Kanaya died, I had steeled myself against death-related feels so I could, you know, not spend school nights ironing out my emotions instead of doing schoolwork.
Fake!Karket and Fake!Terezi deaths still shook me pretty badly, as did the Dad/Mom death. Bro's as well. At least, with Equius and Nepeta and Fef and whatnot, you could see them coming
^^ Where Jack Noir was concerned, I was pretty certain that he was going to massacre the guardians for the hell of it. And given the lusus situation, this was telegraphed pretty early on. I felt sorry for the characters involved, but a little less upset than with, say, what happened to Tavros (which was horribly sad), Kanaya (which outright horrified me) and Nepeta (which combined the two).
^ I didn't like him as much as some other characters, but I certainly did not dislike him. At the very least, he made for an interesting counter-balance to Vriska's cavalier attitude.
While I doubt that Tavros would have killed Vriska given his nature, even if he were given the chance (and he could have, as Terezi demonstrated), the fact that he was completely willing to stand up to her and take her on was pretty cool.
It seems that Hussie likes to temporarily exile side characters from the main storyline once they fully develop as characters or reach an impasse in further development. Tavros and Vriska both grew up and took control of their destinies (in differing ways), then died in parallel manners; Eridan became someone that could no longer change for the better, and was then killed. The same goes for simpler or more static characters.
Do Equius and Nepeta show up at all later? I miss them. They were a lot of fun. (It might also be interesting to see what Dead!Eridan acts like given how thoroughly he went off the deep end.)
i am pretty sure that there are not a lot of super complex time shenanigans moving forward from where you are now, apart from the resolution of some things that were introduced earlier, such as Jaspers and Jade's pen pal
I knew that there was something more to the Denizens, but I didn't expect that they would be helpful per se. Interesting. Similarly, that another one of Dad's chat buddies survived at least long enough to talk to Nanna is pretty intriguing, if a bit sad in that he seems not to have survived long after.
So, Gamzee's rationale kind of makes sense now. By showing him what he considered a revelation of the falsehood and insignificance of his faith, Dave triggered a regression in him—a return to an atavistic psychosis that he had previously (probably unintentionally) repressed through being constantly high as a kite on sopor slime. By losing his sources of consolation and self-medication, he retreated into a combination of old school fanaticism (the "true faith" of the Subjugglators) and foaming psychosis. In a cruel twist of fate, this perfectly fits his designation as the Bard of Rage.
Still, I think that hints towards his inherent violent streak could have been telegraphed much better. Gamzee's initial appearances came off as too clueless and well-intentioned, rather than an earnest façade for something a bit less cogent and benevolent. I get the feeling that Hussie didn't really know for sure until relatively late in the game that he would be the one to go the craziest, but realised when he did that it would be too hard to straight-up back-write or retcon anything and decided to sew the seeds after the fact through flashbacks and comments by Karkat and others. It's not lazy so much as an unfortunate consequence of writing by the seat of one's pants, so I will forgive him here, but it's annoying that it wasn't set up better given Hussie's usual track record. Then again... shouldn't having such a docile character as the Bard of Rage have been a tip-off?
I'm reading an extract of it now. It is most certainly peculiar. I like the art style, even if it is a bit hard to follow at times. (Never let it be thought that Andrew Hussie cannot draw technically well.) The concept behind Gamzee and his ancestral cult does seem to draw on that world, albeit from a more... sane perspective, I guess? Whistles simply accepts how bizarre his world is; those who come into contact with Gamzee at first find him absurd, then horrific.
In that case, I still think that he could have foreshadowed that shift better. I mean, the whole thing with the sopor slime and the Bard of Rage thing were clever hints, but it could have been smoother. I guess that he wanted it to be particularly shocking, but it until it started to get explained after the fact, it just came off as a little too out of character.
Eridan's turn felt incredibly fluid, however; in retrospect, it was almost inevitable that his frustrations and internal contradictions would destroy him, more so than Equius' more blatant issues. And let us not forget that, practically speaking, they are young adolescents fighting for their lives, and for someone as conflicted and whacked out from the start as Eridan, that is the kiss of death for any rationality whatsoever.
On a tangentially related note, as creepy and weird as that exchange was, the idea of Dave and Gamzee's feud culminating in an epic rap battle still made me laugh rather heartily. It was refreshing.
Eridan has struck me as the most human of the troll villains.
Vriska and Gamzee only make sense in the context of troll culture, which force you to jump through more loops to actually comprehend them. Eridan, on the other hand, can be understood in human contexts. He's drawing from inadequacy, rejection from a lover (and subsequently almost every human and troll female in existence), and generally being misunderstood. Mind you, he's misunderstood because he's a stupid jerk, but you can still see where he's coming from.
I knew that there was something more to the Denizens, but I didn't expect that they would be helpful per se. Interesting. Similarly, that another one of Dad's chat buddies survived at least long enough to talk to Nanna is pretty intriguing, if a bit sad in that he seems not to have survived long after.
This was dad's friend who after loosing his family and most his hat collection attempted to make a water filtration system out of pee and hats. Oddly, he became something of an ensemble dark horse, his reappearance was one of many, nods to the fans.
Before assuming he met his end at the end of that chat-log, you may need to reread the nature of what he chose to rest on after being wounded.
^ I was thinking that! But what would that make him after the fact...?
This is going to be most interesting.
^^ Well, Vriska and Gamzee's issues do make sense as logical extremes of human problems, but they are a bit less straightforward in their issues than Eridan, with the Spartan nature of troll society serving as an additional layer of distortion. That said, Eridan is still the most human and, well, pathetic of them.
^ I was thinking that! But what would that make him after the fact...?
According to Andrew Hussie, when Fedora Freak dies in his Quest Hat, he will ascend to the god tier and become the Gent of Piss. It should be noted that Andrew said this on Formspring, and that he liked to say outlandish, ridiculous things on Formspring. However, this was stated some time before the scene where Fedora Freak finds his quest bed was posted, so this appears to have evolved into an ascended meme.
Oooh, Doc Scratch is telling the tale of the Signless and Andrew Hussie is breaking the Fourth/Fifth Wall! This is legitimately exciting! It's like I'm a little kid being read a really cool bedtime story all over again!
Comments
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Enjoy. There's a bit of stupidity coming up, but also a lot of awesome.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
So..you're already through the false section, right?
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Fake!Karket and Fake!Terezi deaths still shook me pretty badly, as did the Dad/Mom death. Bro's as well. At least, with Equius and Nepeta and Fef and whatnot, you could see them coming
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
My problems with Gamzee are based largely on his later appearances, so I'll get to that when that gets there.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Vriska and Gamzee only make sense in the context of troll culture, which force you to jump through more loops to actually comprehend them. Eridan, on the other hand, can be understood in human contexts. He's drawing from inadequacy, rejection from a lover (and subsequently almost every human and troll female in existence), and generally being misunderstood. Mind you, he's misunderstood because he's a stupid jerk, but you can still see where he's coming from.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
^^ Well, Vriska and Gamzee's issues do make sense as logical extremes of human problems, but they are a bit less straightforward in their issues than Eridan, with the Spartan nature of troll society serving as an additional layer of distortion. That said, Eridan is still the most human and, well, pathetic of them.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis