xkcd

by **Bright Shadows** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 6:43 pm UTC

Spoiler:

by **Triangle_Man** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:54 am UTC

Let me be the first to say that the most recent update came as a shock to everyone.

by **cephalopod9** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 5:37 pm UTC

I have no idea which update you are referring to.

Their hoods have little buttons to wrap around their horns. It's so cute!

by **The Great Hippo** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 6:35 pm UTC

Okay.

Spoiler:

by **Triangle_Man** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 8:26 pm UTC

Spoiler:

by **The Great Hippo** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 8:07 am UTC

LID FLIPPING.

COMMENCING.

by **Bright Shadows** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 12:31 pm UTC

You know what this means, don't you?

Spoiler:

by **cephalopod9** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:14 pm UTC

Well, "code". I think that's ecto-DNA, by way of "ecto-biology", probably not unlike the other non-living things that were used in the sprite protyping process.

This is a very confusing story.
Also

Spoiler:

by **Triangle_Man** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 10:05 pm UTC

Spoiler:

by **ameretrifle** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 10:14 pm UTC

Triangle_Man wrote:
Spoiler:
And now Slick has just wandered in and started hitting Scratch over the head with a horse hitcher repeatedly.

He broke into a God's house.

And his trying to crack his skull open.

There's a reason why we missed you, Slick.

Spoiler:

by **Triangle_Man** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 1:10 am UTC

Spoiler:

by **Bright Shadows** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 8:14 pm UTC

Spoiler:

by **ameretrifle** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 9:39 pm UTC

Bright Shadows wrote:
Spoiler:
Poor Rose. She just got a bombshell dropped on her.

This could be fantastic, it really could, but we'll see.

I'm worried-- the last thing I want to see is a

Spoiler:

by **Triangle_Man** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 3:49 am UTC

Spoiler:

EDIT -

Spoiler:

by **ameretrifle** » Tue Mar 15, 2011 7:52 pm UTC

Oh god damn. :/

Spoiler:

by **Triangle_Man** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 8:49 pm UTC

Spoiler:

by **Bright Shadows** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 5:49 am UTC

Dat flash. It was so good.

Spoiler:

by **ameretrifle** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 12:40 am UTC

That. Was a thing. That happened.

Spoiler:

by **Triangle_Man** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:36 pm UTC

Spoiler:

by **ameretrifle** » Mon May 16, 2011 9:56 pm UTC

Spoiler:

by **Belial** » Mon May 16, 2011 11:59 pm UTC

I think one place to adjust your expectations is the part where, like, 800 pages later you're still not considering the trolls as a subset of "the characters".

by **ameretrifle** » Tue May 17, 2011 12:05 am UTC

Belial wrote:I think one place to adjust your expectations is the part where, like, 800 pages later you're still not considering the trolls as a subset of "the characters".

That's not exactly what I meant, but might've been Freudian enough, so.

by **Triangle_Man** » Tue May 17, 2011 12:15 am UTC

I did not see that coming.

It'll be interesting to see where the story goes from here. We will be able to learn a lot about Doc Scratch based on the events he focuses on and the tone he takes to the events.

While I would've liked to see all the remaining events played out straight, this is the coolest possible way to abridge the rest of the act.

by **Jorpho** » Tue May 17, 2011 1:11 am UTC

Triangle_Man wrote:We will be able to learn a lot about Doc Scratch based on the events he focuses on and the tone he takes to the events.

Oh, really now! We will see whatever bits Mr. Hussie feels are the bare minimum to keep the story moving along adequately, because it should now be extremely evident that even he's getting a little weary of this nonsense.

by **ameretrifle** » Tue May 17, 2011 7:25 am UTC

See, the thing is, like 6 pages in and I don't know how much of this insufferable prick I can TAKE. Bleh.

I hope there's more of the relatively-straight-summarization like the last couple pages and less of the bullshit posturing, because I just. Do not like the bullshit posturing. It rubs me the wrong way. I know it's a personal issue rather than a failure of the narrative, don't get me wrong, but there's a certain character type that makes me feel violent. >_<

by **Okita** » Tue May 17, 2011 3:42 pm UTC

Jorpho wrote:
Triangle_Man wrote:We will be able to learn a lot about Doc Scratch based on the events he focuses on and the tone he takes to the events.
Oh, really now! We will see whatever bits Mr. Hussie feels are the bare minimum to keep the story moving along adequately, because it should now be extremely evident that even he's getting a little weary of this nonsense.

As a storytelling device I kind of appreciate this. I'm not as big a fan of the trolls as most people. So having Doc Scratch comment on the proceedings means more "stuff" will happen and we'll get more updates to the story at the cost of not being able to see a lot of it happen. So I'm guessing there's going to be much more text and less comic which isn't terrible once in a while. Glad that they got rid of the white text though, because that was absurdly annoying, especially when trying to view it through a phone.

by **Triangle_Man** » Thu May 19, 2011 5:56 am UTC

Jopho brings up something that a friend and I discussed the other day. Personally I think this narrative device is a way for Andrew to speed along the monstrous act 5 as quickly as possible so that he can get to the last two acts and finish the comic before he gets sick of the whole thing. Having Scratch narrate seems to just be an attempt at making it cool or something.

Personally, I can't wait to see how this comic will play out.

by **ameretrifle** » Fri May 27, 2011 10:19 am UTC

please god let this mean he's shutting up

One thing I'll give him, this fucker does dull the pain of

Spoiler:

Please let this mean he's going away. Even for just a few pages. Even if it's for a Vriskadventure! I am tired of seeing new pages and going >_> instead of

.

Also: didn't he say Eridan was one of his "mentees" too at some point? If so, maybe some of his epically stupid douchetacular actions were actually caused by Cueball McRichWhiteStereotype?

by **Jorpho** » Fri May 27, 2011 1:13 pm UTC

I think the difference between you and I is that I see these pretentious ramblings not as the output of a smug, unlikeable character, but as the pretentious ramblings of an increasingly unlikeable author. Like some twisted version of Inception, he's gone five layers deep and there's evidently no graceful way whatsoever to escape from Limbo.

I suppose I should at least give him some credit for trying rather than giving up in disgust.

by **ameretrifle** » Sat May 28, 2011 3:13 am UTC

Jorpho wrote:I think the difference between you and I is that I see these pretentious ramblings not as the output of a smug, unlikeable character, but as the pretentious ramblings of an increasingly unlikeable author. Like some twisted version of Inception, he's gone five layers deep and there's evidently no graceful way whatsoever to escape from Limbo.

I suppose I should at least give him some credit for trying rather than giving up in disgust.

Well... can't deny there's a possible connection there. >_> Self-insertion is not exactly the most well-regarded literary trick, and for oh so many good reasons. Additionally, there's the whole thing with the explicitly deliberate trolling. But, if it's mostly the character (or even if it just shows up most blatantly in this character), that means that things might improve once he goes the hell away. And I want it to improve. I like most of the characters, I got invested in the story, I'm hoping... shit, now I'm thinking a reset button might actually be an opportunity to improve things. That just isn't good. The only successful reset buttons I can think of offhand (other than one-off time-loop episodes and the like) were when the storyline/plot had gone straight to where sense goes to die, the characters were nearly unrecognizable, and a reset actually made much more sense in comparison. I take what I said about it sometime before back, it may BE a good idea in this scenario. Fff. :/

At any rate, I wouldn't argue against that, as the lines between author and character there are incredibly blurred, and he's got no one but himself to blame for that.

Anyway, I am liking the new take on it (in relative terms, anyway) because it makes Cueball much more ignorable (I didn't even notice he was there until I tried to figure out why the latest page was called "bonk"), and also he is currently being hit repeatedly on the head. I am 0k with that.

by **Triangle_Man** » Tue May 31, 2011 5:41 pm UTC

Jorpho wrote:I think the difference between you and I is that I see these pretentious ramblings not as the output of a smug, unlikeable character, but as the pretentious ramblings of an increasingly unlikeable author. Like some twisted version of Inception, he's gone five layers deep and there's evidently no graceful way whatsoever to escape from Limbo.

I suppose I should at least give him some credit for trying rather than giving up in disgust.

I know. I suspect that he set up so many plot threads that, by the time he realized what he'd gotten himself into, he was in a situation where continuing the comic without the abridging help of a narrator who continues to reveal himself as a smug, self-satisfied tool would've meant continuing it for another year or five, and I'm not sure anyone could continue a serialized comic at the pace he'd set up for himself for that long without really, really wanting to get to the end and moving on to something else.

Andrew has stated in the past that this comic is partally a learning experience for him, and hopefully he will learn something from this particular experience. And the fact that he isn't just giving up in disgust shows that he does care about the readers to some degree (even if that doesn't usually show through).

And Amitrifle, I agree with you on the reset button thing. It will probably be an opertunity to change/pair down the scope of the story somewhat and serve as a welcome change to the situation we are currently seeing in Act 5. Lord knows that I enjoy and love this series to death, but that means that you can have negative opinions about the comic too, and to be honest I'm sorta getting worn down by this comic just because of the sheer length of it and the way it sometimes feels like there's no end in sight (which has been aliviated somewhat by the narrative shift, but only by a little bit).

Then again, he's been established to be an unlikable character already. Maybe his narrative style is meant to make him more unlikable?

Crap, I don't know anymore. It's all so...

by **Belial** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:20 pm UTC

I know. I suspect that he set up so many plot threads that, by the time he realized what he'd gotten himself into, he was in a situation where continuing the comic without the abridging help of a narrator who continues to reveal himself as a smug, self-satisfied tool would've meant continuing it for another year or five

Actually, he pretty much said in the formspring that, after his momentum was broken repeatedly by RL events, this was a way to keep the story moving without losing interest himself.

by **Triangle_Man** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:00 pm UTC

Belial[spoiler] wrote:
I know. I suspect that he set up so many plot threads that, by the time he realized what he'd gotten himself into,[/spoiler] he was in a situation where continuing the comic without the abridging help of a narrator who continues to reveal himself as a smug, self-satisfied tool would've meant continuing it for another year or five

Actually, he pretty much said in the formspring that, after his momentum was broken repeatedly by RL events, this was a way to keep the story moving without losing interest himself.

Really?

I mean, if he has to do it this way then that's fine, but I would've liked to see all those events real time and such.

I dunno. Like happens, I guess.

I other news -

Spoiler:

by **Belial** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:36 pm UTC

Really?

Yeah, it was in the midst of a bunch of long essays about how this comic has basically been 24/7 his entire life for the past two years, and how the only reason he's able to maintain that is that he never ever breaks his momentum ever, so it kindof sustains itself.

And then his momentum broke like 3 times in a row, and he's trying to pick up the pieces, shake off the immense inertia, and get all the plot machinery chugging again.

by **Triangle_Man** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 10:28 pm UTC

Well, if this is the only way for him to get back on track I can't say I disagree with it entirely.

Still, I'm starting to doubt this particular story-telling method, especially given that it's sorta taken me out of the story and I just feel a vague sense of despair rather than any strong emotions reading it now. And as someone who spends way, way too much time on the MSPA forums, I can tell you that their is a lot of frustration over this recent development and the effects it has on the story, especially given the way that the most recent events have been handled within the format.

It's basically like...I guess this format shift, if it was necessary at all, could've been handled better?

I'm going to stick with this thing to the end, but I'm not sure I like it 100% right about now.

by **ameretrifle** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 10:48 am UTC

I have a longer post somewhere musing about any number of things, but at the moment I just want to say about the top panels:

Spoiler:

To try and remember one serious thing I've been pondering... there's a team for art. There's a team for music. There's people who help with the store and the flash games and the fora. Unless I am vastly mistaken, the only thing there isn't a team for is writing (and/or planning). Is writing just that different from everything else? Might it have been better to try to split the responsibility for that somewhat, too, or is there a genuine reason that wouldn't work? I'm not sure I know the answer to this question; it's just something Ive been considering and if anyone has thoughts I'd like to hear them.

by **Belial** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 11:57 am UTC

As I understand it, the art team is only for assets during the flash animations (like that beautiful dragon portrait from [s]Make Her Pay) not for the actual art of the day to day comic. The comic, by my understanding, is all Hussie.

by **Jorpho** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 1:17 pm UTC

I find that all these albums coming out kind of severely diminishes the significance any particular piece might have had. Are any of you still buying them?

by **Triangle_Man** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:48 pm UTC

I haven't really gotten any albums, to be honest.

I just don't buy things over the internet.

And yeah, the banners right now?

It turns out his house can really, really burn.

by **ameretrifle** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 1:09 am UTC

Belial wrote:As I understand it, the art team is only for assets during the flash animations (like that beautiful dragon portrait from [s]Make Her Pay) not for the actual art of the day to day comic. The comic, by my understanding, is all Hussie.

So you're saying that since the teams only help with the flash animations, there isn't any room for planning/writing help? I suppose that's sensible enough. I'm still not sure it wouldn't've helped, though. ;D

I never bought the albums either... I've listened to the first 4, maybe 5 once? There was a lot of good music, but I never felt the need to buy it. And I agree, the growing ratio of music-not-in-the-comic to music-used-in-the-comic hasn't really been making me check out the new ones.

Also. fire.

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