Book 2 – Page 70

[balder]

New One is up.

[mhangman]

welcome back!

[sleepymancer]

So... I may have got this wrong, but is the reason that the tower is taking so long (in story time) to fall because Fate and/or the Titan's are holding it up and waiting for Parson to pass through the portal before letting it tumble? I mean, they are obviously playing with the dice.

Beautiful update, well-worth the wait in my opinion, neck-deep in exposition, plot and action and, for the win, "stack with that ...conceptual crap golem" I laughed and laughed and then I laughed some more

[Selexor]

Jack's hair is alive! ALIIIIVE! Despite his hat's best efforts to hold it down!

Nice to see a little reminder that not every mook the main characters run into is a halfwit, either. Good for you, Antium, for managing to catch even witty Jack out on something. :3 But he's also right, that tower can't stand much longer... unless of course Slately isn't in it when it goes...

[Justin Miller]

So... this is how Erfworld ends.

Parson and his stack break through, and he enters the portal... gets halfway through JUST as the tower falls, the portal closes, cutting him cleanly in half.

Everybody stands there in horror as his (admittedly large) front half falls to the ground, and the final panel is nothing but black with "Fin" written in flowing script.

I love it!

[Kreistor]

Another comic that didn't need to be written. [Edit: COrrection. That should have read "Another comic that didn't need to be drawn".] At this point, did we really need a comic that, besides the one comment on the portal, only clarified Wanda's philosophy? This page could have been a text update, and then drawn for the Book release.

[elecampane]

So... this is how Erfworld ends.

Parson and his stack break through, and he enters the portal... gets halfway through JUST as the tower falls, the portal closes, cutting him cleanly in half.

Everybody stands there in horror as his (admittedly large) front half falls to the ground, and the final panel is nothing but black with "Fin" written in flowing script.

I love it!

Could Wanda rescue the other half from the MK and decrypt him later?

Also, Mysterious-Guy-From-The-Wall-Hanging is back, and we can see him more clearly now. Any ideas on who he is?

And, of course, I must say, this is great update!

[HenningNT]

That was an awesome update!

The guy on the wall hanging reminds me of one of the Doctor Whos...

[Sixty]

Parson will finally get everything together, either rush the portal or convince the Thinkamancers to let him through and right before he enters it, it disappears and he lands in a big pile on the ground.

[mythicfox]

Another comic that didn't need to be written. At this point, did we really need a comic that, besides the one comment on the portal, only clarified Wanda's philosophy? This page could have been a text update, and then drawn for the Book release.

At this point, the comic may seem pointless. But it's possible, if not outright likely, that the clarification of Wanda's philosophy will be a plot point too important to be saved for the print release (given that the text updates are supposed to be 'non-vital' information).

[Dr Pepper]

As Rob throws a double portion of raw meat into the pit, answering questions so thoroughly that even ?beron, Bland, and Associates will be temporarily sated.

Prediction: Parson will parley, offer to permit surviving jetstoners to withdraw, leaving only Tram as hostage until next dawn. That gives Parson plenty of time to arrange the management of the city, which will still be offcially the enemy capital, before returning to GK. At dawn, Tram will be permitted to go the hex edge at the bridge, and then walk away on his turn. After that, Slately can change capitals.

I think that Antium will make a good governor. He'll be the Prince Charming of Spacerock.

[Hatu]

Another comic that didn't need to be written. At this point, did we really need a comic that, besides the one comment on the portal, only clarified Wanda's philosophy? This page could have been a text update, and then drawn for the Book release.

Sadly, I agree. Really, this comic raises more questions than it answers.

I don't get why they're worried about Parson being stuck in the MK; he can just walk back through the GK portal as easily as he could the Jetstone portal. For that matter, if they all knew the Tower could collapse at any moment, why weren't they concerned that Sylvia was already ignoring the plan?

Lastly, the revelation that Portals are an automatic side effect of Capital status makes me question Parson's plan. He knows Charlie is dead set on capturing him. Wouldn't trapping himself in a far-flung city be an obvious invitation for Charlie to try again? I can't believe Parson wouldn't know how Portals work at this point.

-H

[motorfirebox]

Another comic that didn't need to be written. At this point, did we really need a comic that, besides the one comment on the portal, only clarified Wanda's philosophy? This page could have been a text update, and then drawn for the Book release.

Well, that kind of depends on how you define "need". Personally, I do "need" to know more about how Wanda thinks--and about how Jack Snipe thinks, and even about how Antium thinks. And maybe more to the point, it seems to me that such philosophizing is actually kinda the point of the entire comic. Or at least a large part of it.

And to the extent that this comic didn't need to be written, well, you didn't need to read it, did you?

[Infidel]

Yay.

Great update, great art. Nice confirmations,and revelation. Witty banter, and fun.

Now do it faster! hehe,

[BLANDCorporatio]

So... this is how Erfworld ends.

Parson and his stack break through, and he enters the portal... gets halfway through JUST as the tower falls, the portal closes, cutting him cleanly in half.

Everybody stands there in horror as his (admittedly large) front half falls to the ground, and the final panel is nothing but black with "Fin" written in flowing script.

I love it!

Or ditch the flowery "Fin" and just do a black empty panel.

Another comic that didn't need to be written. At this point, did we really need a comic that, besides the one comment on the portal, only clarified Wanda's philosophy? This page could have been a text update, and then drawn for the Book release.

As they say, YMMV. I find this update nice because of the banter, the added info to the Portals-to-Capitals discussion, and a third reason to be expanded below. That said, all of those reasons could have been filled well enough by a Text update. The reason it wasn't, is that Erfworld is a Webcomic and I suspect the authors demand of themselves to not put Text Updates one after the other in quick succession. The Summer of Text being the exception, as there wasn't an illustrator at the time.

As Rob throws a double portion of raw meat into the pit, answering questions so thoroughly that even ?beron, Bland, and Associates will be temporarily sated.

Alas no. Observe-

Sadly, I agree. Really, this comic raises more questions than it answers.

I don't get why they're worried about Parson being stuck in the MK; he can just walk back through the GK portal as easily as he could the Jetstone portal. For that matter, if they all knew the Tower could collapse at any moment, why weren't they concerned that Sylvia was already ignoring the plan? -H

Hammer hit, that. Those were my exact thoughts as I was reading this. There was Jack and Wanda, and supposedly other Warlords present, when the plan to attack the tower was cooked up. One of those people should have voiced a thought to the tune of "hey, one team's going downstairs to secure the Portal for Parson, but if the other team is super-efficient, there won't be a portal to secure!".

I'll ignore Sylvia. She just wants to see the world burn, so I doubt Parson getting stuck in the MK would be a deterrent for Bashy-Smashy time. Let's say Jack was too in love with his plan (it was his suggestion) to notice the flaw. But what about anyone else? Like Wanda, a master caster with some knowledge, I expect, of how Portals work? Or like Antium, considering he was there at the time, and knew that the Portal room was going to be attacked while the Tower would be besieged?

(Btw., this is reason nr. 3 why I find this update interesting, as it provides an insight into the creative process. At the time when Jack put forth the Siege the Tower bit, let's just say that not only capitals could have MK portals.)

[BLANDCorporatio]

Hold on... Something fishy is going on here.
In book one, GK lost their tower and still had a fully functional portal, yet now apparently portals close when a tower is destroyed?

No, that thing is all-kosher. The problem is not the Tower, per se, but the fact that if the Tower falls, Slately croaks (or so GK units assume) therefore ending Jetstone.

Whereas, while GK was destroyed by the erruption, its leader was never in danger ... mostly ... and therefore GK continued as a side.

EDIT:

On the chronology of the plan and the deviation therefrom, which threatens to strand Parson.

Parson lays out the plan, and informs Maggie of his intention to go to Spacerock.

Jack makes an off-hand comment that gets transformed, with glee, into a plan by Wanda and Sylvia.

It's a text update that tells us only Wanda knew Parson was coming. But in that Text Update, the fact that Parson is on his way is made public to Jack, Antium, Lacrosse etc.

SONIC BOOM!

More than adequate time has passed for Parson to make his way to Spacerock, and yet no sign of Parson. Antium uses this interval to reflect on the tactical implications of waiting for an L2 unit. The danger of the portal closing is not mentioned. Btw, this is when Jack has enough and pops into the MK for a bit.

Finally, today's update has Antium finally crossing the i-s, whilst managing to deflect the "ha-ha stupid" on poor Jack.

So that's the chronology. Let the discussions commence.

[atteSmythe]

Hammer hit, that. Those were my exact thoughts as I was reading this. There was Jack and Wanda, and supposedly other Warlords present, when the plan to attack the tower was cooked up. One of those people should have voiced a thought to the tune of "hey, one team's going downstairs to secure the Portal for Parson, but if the other team is super-efficient, there won't be a portal to secure!".

Well, if the plan had executed as they thought it would, Parson would've been through by now. They didn't anticipate him being held up in the MK...there's a a skill to recognizing when the constraints that made a plan feasible have been changed. I'll cut them some slack since they're all new to this 'lateral thinking' thing.

[badninja]

I feel this comic has its merits but with it almost rehashing old news it feels almost useless. The important point is Wanda's new units re doubting Her and not fawning over her as much. During the summer updates and some of the text updates from Sylvia plus what we got from Ansome we found neat total loyalty. Look at the new units they doubt, refute, and still are showing issues pertaining to what happened in their past lives.

Look at Oss, look at the only other units of Jetstone since the battle began that Wanda has raised something is off and Rob is trying to show us something so we do not get totally blindsided when he pulls it. Yes some of us can see it and do not like having it happen again and again but have faith that we will see some sort of outcome (before the new year ). Good have the comic back now can Parson finally get to the battle please.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Well, if the plan had executed as they thought it would, Parson would've been through by now. They didn't anticipate him being held up in the MK...there's a a skill to recognizing when the constraints that made a plan feasible have been changed. I'll cut them some slack since they're all new to this 'lateral thinking' thing.

I think we can all agree some decisions were sub-optimal. There was a danger that the Portal would take longer to take, or the Tower would fall faster. It's just not the kind of risk you'd put one of your best assets- the smart CWL- in.

Where we'll be split is at how glaringly suboptimal those decisions were. And it's worth to remember one thing-

when the plan to siege the Tower happened, I was among the forumites who were in support of this allocation of resources (EDIT: Purples attacking the Tower). The thought that it could cancel the Portal didn't cross our minds, seeing as how we didn't know that detail at the time. The question is, how obvious would this be to a native Erfworlder. I'd expect the answer to that to be, "pretty obvious". (And to further deflect the "ha-ha stupid" from me, ahem, I'd like to point out that as forumites with incomplete knowledge of the rules, the Erfworld natives' judgements are our best insights- not the best quality at that, it seems. If they didn't detect such an obvious flaw, I think we stupidworld people can be excused for not imagining it at the time.)

Maybe it slipped Wanda's mind when she authorized the Tower strike. How can it slip everyone's mind when they're sitting around waiting for Parson though?

[the_tick_rules]

I guess only capitals can have portals after all. there was a debate on that.