Book 2 – Text Updates 034

[balder]

New One is up.

[Nihila]

So, more dissent within Transylvito. Will Benjamin side with Cesar in a coup?

On another note, is Benjamin one of those multi-skilled Casters? He seems pretty good with his Rhyme-o-mancy, so who knows what else...

[Raza]

That's Benjamin alright.

Are these alternative lyrics to a real-world song?

[oslecamo2]

Hmm, aparently bad spending of your treasury is enough to drop your forces loyalty.

Altough I'm still wondering why exactly the Don is betting so much in Jillian when he cold've easily taken the FAQ cities for himself and then deploy his warlord+bat swarm combo.

[name lips]

There's a certain advantage in resurrecting Faq, if only because their side has access to unique units like Megalogwiffs. Having more options to mix-and-match your armies can be beneficial.

Of course, that's not what he's doing... He's essentially dumping money into Faq and then giving her free reign to do what she wants.

[BCCroaker]

Don King is apparently using Rhyme-o-Mancy to calm internal disputes. From the (very nice) picture it seems to be working as we see a satisfied Benjamin (who presumably provided the poem) looking on. So Rhym-o-mancy is about manipulating emotions in others - not a big surprise.

[Key Lime Pie]

It brings the rhymes of Patchface, Dragonstone's fool from the series A Song Of Ice And Fire to mind. I don't have the book ready here but the "Ho, they know" bears a lot of resemblence to the often repeated words of "Oh, they know my Lord, oh oh oh."

[Almaseti]

Wonderful update. I love how erfworld keeps surprising us with new references. I wouldn't be surprised if Benjamin was a multi-talented caster, since his namesake was quite the renaissance man.

[Alexei P]

Aaaaand... Don King is added to the list.

Must be some obscure rule about female royals and super-strong pheromones. That's the only explanation I see.

[Welf von Ehrwald]

What ho, the kingdom and the King?
They're the same flippin' thing.

He knows: when the King goes mad, then the side goes bad.

Because there are not enough tinfoil hat theories in the world: does that indicate that there's some natural thinkamancy, that influences a units side and makes them susceptible for a ruler's attitude? Makes a mercenary ruler like Don king his subjects mercenary, or a "mentally limited" ruler like Stanley his units "limited"?

[gameboy1234]

Nice update. Not sure I understand what's going on however. I need to think about this one.

[Rowen]

A little shaky in some places but it has some very nice lines. The picture makes this a very good update for me. It underlines the verse so very well.

I mean it is hard to see poetry as being badarse these days but the smirky, snarky caster thinking this stuff up in his head reminds you of the time when young men like John Donne were poets to show how clever they were and how much smarter they were than their peers.

Very badarse.

[gameboy1234]

Because there are not enough tinfoil hat theories in the world: does that indicate that there's some natural thinkamancy, that influences a units

I think oslecamo2 had it:

Hmm, aparently bad spending of your treasury is enough to drop your forces loyalty.

I guess if your cities & units aren't paid, or you don't buy needed upgrades, or if you just spend lots of money (or give it to another side, for whatever reason -- gifts or tribute) you'll be viewed as weak and the likelihood of a coup increases. I guess King Don had a coup already. I'd imagine that alone will increase the likelihood of another coup. Once your morale gets low enough that a coup occurs, I can't imagine your morale will ever rise very high again.

Stanley is an interesting point. But he's been doing well lately. Ansom has been winning, until recently. Despite loosing most cities (which I bet does lower morale too) winning should counter that. That leaves demoting Parson. A mechanic for demoting a successful warlord? Hmm, could happen.

[the_tick_rules]

Entirely pointless update.

[koga305]

YES! Love this update so much. As said, very badboop poetry. Read it out loud a couple times if you haven't already.

[Ansan Gotti]

Entirely pointless update.

Definitely don't agree, and I'm not entirely sure why you'd say that. This is totally setting the stage for a Transylvito coup. Without vignettes like these, you would probably have people cry, "This is totally unforeshadowed" when the coup actually happens. Regardless, it shows Caesar is not the only one thinking Don King has lost it, and that there is great antipathy for good-ol-Jills in multiple corners (and not just forum-land).

In any event, I'm not sure micromanaging the critique (to the level of another poster complaining about alleged misuse of the slip-on-cape PANEL) is all that helpful, but obviously YMMV.

[Godsire]

We waited so long for this ?

Wow this comic is getting so tiresome.... No words for this...

[genuis101]

I have to agree with the_tick_rules and godsire.

This comic updates so slowly and infrequently that I feel almost completely disappointed when a tangentially related text update occurs. I read this comic its plot and the struggles of Parson, not bad poetry. Like a number of the text updates in book 2 (the song one, the one about Ace hardware who we will never meet) this one really serves no purpose. We already knew that a coup was boiling in Translvito, we didn't need a piece of poetry to spell it out for us. I understand that the comics are hard to produce and take time, but when rob suddenly unveils a new project that has already been completed, it really does feel like he does not care for this comic.

To be brief, I am disappointed that I got to wait a week for a 20 odd line piece of poetry that adds nothing to the plot or world. Its filler and I wish the authors would quit using it.

[Knight13]

Have you forgotten that the text updates are bonus pages that Rob does between the actual comic pages? They do not slow down the the production of comic pages in any way and are there purely for additional exposition on the world and characters. If you don't like them, don't read them.

[gameboy1234]

Don King is apparently using Rhyme-o-Mancy to calm internal disputes. From the (very nice) picture it seems to be working as we see a satisfied Benjamin (who presumably provided the poem) looking on. So Rhym-o-mancy is about manipulating emotions in others - not a big surprise.

Hmm, I think that part refers to Ben himself, who used his rhuyme-o-mancy skills to write a rant:

But when circumstances are chancy,
Perchance he enchants,
He incants, he
Cancels the antsy
With a rant
In Rhyme-o-mancy.

"He knows" refers to the author of the poem throughout, a Money-mancer or Math-a-mancer. Not King Don or King Slately, I believe. "With a rant in Rhyme-o-mancy" is the big give away, because that's what the author of the poem is doing, not the king.

Ben is not happy, in other words.

Hmm, Ben Franklin broke away from the English crown and was one of the founding members of the USA. I wonder if the Erfworld version is predisposed to revolt against royal rulers?