Book 2 – Page 85

[balder]

New One is up.

[ftl]

Oww, Maggie's face...

[Lukmar]

Indeed, poor Maggie... her own words have already caught up with her.

At least Parson is getting info that he needed to know. Better late than never.

[ftl]

People on Parson's side who withhold info from him are bad and should feel bad when it leaks out at inopportune times.

[ftl]

I like the tumbl, I don't so much get what the twitter icon is doing in the last frame though.

[SpykeMH]

Ouch, she sure trips a lot. Shouldn't be running in heels.

Loved all the social networking refs, linkedin, facebook, tumblr, and twitter for birds spinning around her head.

[Urf]

I like the tumbl, I don't so much get what the twitter icon is doing in the last frame though.

Srsly? Whenever a character gets hit on the head, they comedically see stars, birds, various objects circling overhead.

[Kaed]

Oh for heavens sake. I hope Parson isn't going to start blacklisting Maggie for this. That look on his face suggests he is probably thinking about it.

He's going to need allies now, and he should be unravelling this conspiracy unstead of directing mistrust at it.

[Ilari]

So Stanley and Wanda summoned Parson to save their side, Janis and Marie summoned him to end war, and the Thinkamancers summoned him to defeat Charlie. Just how many causes is he expected to champion?

[DevilDan]

Nice. "tend not to remain standing for very long" followed by the faceplant.

Parson needs to question everything and not trust anyone. Maggie's machinations or her part in those are proof of that; as if Parson needed reminding that Maggie is formidable after her "suggestion" to Stanley.

[Mathamancer]

Wondering if FACEPLANT and TUMBL. are Thinkamancer spell equivalents to "Stop hitting yourself!"

(edit: corrected TUMBL.)

[Zeku]

The art is really shining. A little of the playfulness of the previous style combined with the clarity of Xin.

We got an important detail confirmed, but now there's a new question. Why exactly do the thinkamancers want Charlie beaten? That's apparently what the hippiemancers and the predictamancers want as well, is that just a coincidence?

We also got something I wasn't really expecting, but enjoyed, a counterpoint: Maggie still believes that Parson belongs on the other side of that portal, and that the battle is still winnable.

[0beron]

Awwwww Rob, I are disappoint. No Goggle+ reference? :p

Why exactly [do] the thinkamancers want Charlie beaten?

This is speculation, but I am of the opinion Charlie is also from Stupidworld, summoned in the same fashion as Parson, but by the Great Minds to serve some purpose of their own. Unfortunately for them, he reneged on them and has proceeded to "damage" G-strings by wielding the 'Dish like a metaphorical hammer, and by popping a massive number of Archons.

[gameboy1234]

So Stanley and Wanda summoned Parson to save their side, Janis and Marie summoned him to end war, and the Thinkamancers summoned him to defeat Charlie. Just how many causes is he expected to champion?

I think that's what Stanley thought, but I'm pretty sure Wanda was with Janis and Marie, not Stanley. Or perhaps Wanda summoned Parson because that was her fate. She seems into that.

[Azukar]

Eww. Looks eerily like Maggie has a mouth full of blood in the bottom-left panel. It's not because she fell over, either.

[M.A.D]

I like the tumbl, I don't so much get what the twitter icon is doing in the last frame though.

Classic cartoons have *ahem* tumbled characters have birds tweeting while flying around over their head

[kefkakrazy]

I'm not sure that I lend much credence to the idea that Charlie is a Stupidworlder, but whether or not that's true, he IS an anomaly among Erfworlders.

Charlie is one of the only Erfworlders who doesn't approach things in a direct fashion. Erfworld runs on war, completely; the very concept of a "bubble side" like Faq that does not itself engage in war is an anomaly, one that probably doesn't last especially well (considering how perfectly set up to allow it Faq was, and how rare that confluence of factors is).

Charlie and Parson are, arguably, perfectly opposing forces. The Thinkamancers fear Charlie for the same reason the Hippiemancers protect Parson: Charlie and Parson each represent a force capable of radically altering the very nature of Erfworld.

Charlie represents a side with extreme "control" capability, making him virtually impossible to attack. Just getting to his capital undetected would be borderline impossible, and assaulting his absurd defenses, backed with that many Archons, would be more or less suicide for even a force the size of the first Royal Crown Coalition. From the sounds of it, an allied force the size of the first RCC is both rare and prone to not lasting longer than its initial purpose; the first RCC army was held together pretty much entirely by Ansom's charisma, and I doubt you're likely to find a warlord with the charisma to keep a force that big together on the march against Charlie.

Thus you have one guy who has an absurd amount of defensive capability, who can also find and sneak-attack and raze anything you leave without a huge garrison, who can also exert an incredible degree of influence over the course of events in a gigantic area with just the Arkendish and maybe a couple Archons to serve as focal points. This is an incredible, incredible amount of power, enough that Charlie arguably could eventually "win" at Erfworld. Make no mistake: the Thinkamancers are not in error here! Perhaps the only other "destabilizing" force this significant are the Arkenpliers, and while those are powerful, their power is only great within the bounds of standard Erfworld combat. They don't allow one to break free from the standard paradigms of Erfworld combat and fight the entire damned world on a field of their own making like the Dish does.

On the other side, you have Parson... literally the only person on Erfworld who would be able to figure out a way to break Charlie's power, and the only person on Erfworld other than Charlie who stands a chance at breaking the "game" enough to bring an end to the constant wars on Erfworld.


In my estimation, based on what has been shown of Erfworld mechanics, it is literally impossible for a Side to expand beyond a certain point, and the "rules" of Erfworld are engineered to make it impossible. Which is why Parson's talent-breaking the rules-is so incredible here.

[Lamech]

Thus you have one guy who has an absurd amount of defensive capability, who can also find and sneak-attack and raze anything you leave without a huge garrison, who can also exert an incredible degree of influence over the course of events in a gigantic area with just the Arkendish and maybe a couple Archons to serve as focal points. This is an incredible, incredible amount of power, enough that Charlie arguably could eventually "win" at Erfworld. Make no mistake: the Thinkamancers are not in error here! Perhaps the only other "destabilizing" force this significant are the Arkenpliers, and while those are powerful, their power is only great within the bounds of standard Erfworld combat. They don't allow one to break free from the standard paradigms of Erfworld combat and fight the entire damned world on a field of their own making like the Dish does.

The dish doesn't let Charlie fight the whole world. The whole world gathered together would almost certainly put an end to him. His archons would wither without upkeep, and his traps exhausted eventually. The arkenpliers on the other hand let someone break the very important upkeep problem. Set up relays to ferry corpses to your capital and hunt units in the wilderness and one can become exponential too. More importantly Charlie cannot "win" Erfworld. At least not with creating mind controlled dummy corps. Even if he wipes out every other side in one fell swoop then what? He can't settle every city, so his forces dwindle. His forces dwindle and he can't watch everything. He can't watch everything and new units pop. Erfworld starts anew. The arkenpliers DO have the ability to rewrite the paradigm of Erfworld.

[hajo]

It is correct that Charlie is incredible strong, but he has some disadvantages:
* only 1 city - maximum defense, but only limited income
* Archons - good, strong units, but costly
* they also allows him to run his merc-business
* Arkendish allows to run his telco-business for extra income

This means he depends on extra income, coming from other sides.
Without that, he can only maintain a very small fleet of archons.

So, the most dangerous 'attack' against Charlie is do deny him income from other sides,
e.g. by conquering them, or spreading peace, so they have no need for mercs, etc.
We have already seen that the RCC2 not hiring him is making him nervous...

That telco-business depends on trust - if it gets out that thinkagrams are not secure,
and/or Charlie is listening and keeping notes, that would likely kill a lot of his revenue...

Also, we haven't seen any competition in that area, e.g. the MK could organize a cheap postal service using the portals, thinkamancers-for-hire, selling/renting out message-hats, etc.

[jkosta]

I like the tumbl, I don't so much get what the twitter icon is doing in the last frame though.

Classic cartoons have *ahem* tumbled characters have birds tweeting while flying around over their head

There's also "a little bird told me" and the whole social networks leaking private information. Which, I guess, is why Google+ is not on there.