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Yeah I figured, but I was more thinking about the definition of declaring war.
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Sep 11, 2014 19:22
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Blake is sounding kind of suicidal. He was reckless before, but he was always worried he'd get damaged, now he doesn't seem to care as long as he can help his friends.
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Sep 11, 2014 20:17
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Namarrgon posted:Yeah I figured, but I was more thinking about the definition of declaring war. This was pretty much what I thought. The answer to 'you're will declare war' is 'liar, I'm just here to eat your face.' Or whatever.
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Sep 11, 2014 22:00
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Happy Yeti posted:Blake is sounding kind of suicidal. He was reckless before, but he was always worried he'd get damaged, now he doesn't seem to care as long as he can help his friends. Honestly, this is the first battle where Blake is the least reckless one fighting. It should be interesting.
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Sep 12, 2014 00:58
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thespaceinvader posted:This was pretty much what I thought. The answer to 'you're will declare war' is 'liar, I'm just here to eat your face.' Or whatever. It would be a minor loss of power for Alister I think because Blake attacking him is not far off from his statement.
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Sep 12, 2014 05:51
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He's certainly gotten better at writing 'fights', that was pretty tense, for essentially what was essentially a bluffing game. You just drew the trap card!
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Sep 13, 2014 08:46
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I'm glad wd saw an adventage to not constantly littering the conversations with 'maybe' and 'you could say'.
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Sep 13, 2014 09:08
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The more we hear about Rose, the less I'm inclined to believe that Blake was actually originally the vestige. Isn't it awfully convenient that all of Rose's belongings were damaged in a flood and thrown out? Why haven't we seen any of her own things? When Blake was thrown into the Drains, his stuff was all still there and the landlord had to throw it all out. If Rose was real to begin with, she should have left some sort of mark on the world.
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Sep 16, 2014 06:29
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blastron posted:The more we hear about Rose, the less I'm inclined to believe that Blake was actually originally the vestige. Isn't it awfully convenient that all of Rose's belongings were damaged in a flood and thrown out? Why haven't we seen any of her own things? When Blake was thrown into the Drains, his stuff was all still there and the landlord had to throw it all out. If Rose was real to begin with, she should have left some sort of mark on the world. My take on that is, her belongings getting "damaged" is just her parents being spiteful but not admitting to it. I'm not saying you're wrong about who is real and who isn't, just that there might be a simple explanation rather than a supernatural one.
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Sep 16, 2014 06:33
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Well, Jacob's Bell had a good run, time to pack it in
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Sep 16, 2014 06:38
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Wow, those were some awfully heavy-handed hints about Blake being unable to create. Don't be a demon, Blake... 
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Sep 16, 2014 10:47
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blastron posted:The more we hear about Rose, the less I'm inclined to believe that Blake was actually originally the vestige. Isn't it awfully convenient that all of Rose's belongings were damaged in a flood and thrown out? Why haven't we seen any of her own things? When Blake was thrown into the Drains, his stuff was all still there and the landlord had to throw it all out. If Rose was real to begin with, she should have left some sort of mark on the world. Thinking pretty much the same thing, Blake had belongings but Rose has nothing to call her own, not even friends or contacts.
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Sep 16, 2014 11:14
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pumpinglemma posted:Wow, those were some awfully heavy-handed hints about Blake being unable to create. Don't be a demon, Blake... He's not a talented creator. He's capable of creation in the same sense that every average schmuck is.
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Sep 16, 2014 13:10
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Well he is almost certainly demon-related at the very least. Considering Old Rose was a diabolist after all.
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Sep 16, 2014 13:11
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Being a reflection cut out by Barbatorum probably makes you something more than a vestige. It's possible that's only partially demonic, or isn't the First Choir. Only the First Choir is completely incapable of any creation - presumably the rest are capable of creation as long as it leads to greater entropy, and doesn't everything Blake do go to poo poo?  Alternatively, he WAS purely demonic and the bogeyman bits are filling up the wounds in the demon bits, and he's becoming a bit of both.
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Sep 16, 2014 13:20
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Tollymain posted:Well, Jacob's Bell had a good run, time to pack it in On the one hand they're seriously competent practitioners who have surely accounted for all of the variables, but on the other hand I think they're going to regret going at Rose and leaving her without any better options. Nobody puts Rosey in the corner!
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Sep 16, 2014 15:57
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blastron posted:The more we hear about Rose, the less I'm inclined to believe that Blake was actually originally the vestige. Isn't it awfully convenient that all of Rose's belongings were damaged in a flood and thrown out? Why haven't we seen any of her own things? When Blake was thrown into the Drains, his stuff was all still there and the landlord had to throw it all out. If Rose was real to begin with, she should have left some sort of mark on the world. It's awful convenient that whichever one is in the Mirror cannot practice and assumes they aren't real isn't it?
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Sep 16, 2014 18:01
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My current wild-rear end guess is that both Rose AND Blake existed, that they were twins or something, and that Blake died and became a revenant (there were some interesting reflections Blake had about revenants in an earlier chapter that seemed like foreshadowing). Grandma Rose took the revenant and reformed it using the barber into what Blake is now.
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Sep 16, 2014 18:21
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Tollymain posted:He's not a talented creator. He's capable of creation in the same sense that every average schmuck is. Note that the only bit of art we've seen him make so far was a carving, i.e. an image created through destruction. RIP Blake. Anyway, something's been bothering me about some of Rose's explanations to Blake. The 'little warrior' holds true to a certain extent, and does line up with what Rose Sr. said at the end of Histories 6, but it leaves something lacking. We learned a bit about Rose Sr.'s motivation a while back, and her driving character motivation seems to be change. Aimon seems to have believed that she was the Black Lamb's Blood sort of diabolist, dissatisfied with the current state of demonology as a practice. It's safe to assume that all her machinations were aiming to bring this change to fruition in the next generation. But so far, we haven't seen anything of hers that seems obviously likely to do that. Her children turned into almost caricatures of what you'd think a daemonologist family would be like. Her grandchildren didn't turn out much better. Even Rose Jr., who seems to be the 'real' Thornburn heir, seems to be falling head first into every other daemonologist trap and repeating the cycle. The only other thing she seems to have left behind is Blake. Notice that when Blake is ruminating on the world with Faysel, he latches on to the word change. Notice that out of all the personalities Rose Sr. could have given Blake, she gave him one that hated his family of daemonologist personalities, one that hated her, the person representative of the old generation of daemonologists. Notice that he was usually wary of using demonic powers. Notice that when Blake was done doing his 'little warrior' routine with Conquest, he didn't move on to one of Rose's other enemies, he moved on to fight a demon that wasn't even threatening Rose. I think Blake is Rose Sr.'s gambit for change. Exactly how he's supposed to do that is dependent on exactly what he is, but I'm convinced one of Blake's major intended purposes is to upheave the status quo (how many community leaders has he defeated or is in the process of defeating?). I'm not even convinced that Ur wasn't part of the plan. Is it really reasonable to believe that Rose Sr. was unaware of the big demon (less powerful than one she's already bound) that is mysteriously bound next door in Toronto? I'm still not entirely sure what he is though. Blake has seemed pretty benign so far for something that has been pretty heavy handedly implied to be of demonic origin. Is demonic redemption possible in Pact-verse? Could Blake be a proof-of-concept that it's possible use demonology as a force for good? Whatever it is Rose Jr. thinks he is, I'm pretty sure she hasn't got the whole picture. I've been trying to figure out why she won't tell Blake his nature. If it was just 'you're a demon' then it wouldn't hurt to tell him any more than it would to just wait for him to change. I think whatever it is, it's particularly dangerous for her. I think it's something that, if Blake knew it, he wouldn't want to help her anymore, and might even start trying to fight her. gently caress this story is so fun to analyze. Pavlov fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Sep 16, 2014 |
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Sep 16, 2014 18:26
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I'm guessing at this point that both Rose and Blake are constructs formed via Barbatorum's "help" out of elements of Thorburn family members personalities/psyches, strangers flesh and memories and with a good dose of Grandma Rose and Possibly Aimon Behaim thrown into the mix as well.
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Sep 16, 2014 20:42
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NecroMonster posted:I'm guessing at this point that both Rose and Blake are constructs formed via Barbatorum's "help" out of elements of Thorburn family members personalities/psyches, strangers flesh and memories and with a good dose of Grandma Rose and Possibly Aimon Behaim thrown into the mix as well. Rose seems an awful lot/more and more like grandma rose. I assume that because it's wildbow there's some even more ridiculous plot twist but it seems like it's getting more and more probable. Not sure that helps much with who Blake is though or how that'd work.
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Sep 16, 2014 21:09
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My wild mass guessing idea is still that Rose Jr. is Rose Sr. reborn into a new body somehow. I don't really have any evidence to back it up but it's what my brain keeps wanting to tell me is true.
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Sep 16, 2014 21:42
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Rose Spirit posted:My wild mass guessing idea is still that Rose Jr. is Rose Sr. reborn into a new body somehow. I don't really have any evidence to back it up but it's what my brain keeps wanting to tell me is true. I don't buy that. Rose Sr., at least when she was younger, seemed to have sympathetic and redeeming qualities. Rose Jr. hasn't really shown any. drat it when do we get our Rose chapter! Also, I went back and reread the first chapter, and two things stood out to me: One, I got the sense that Molly knew about the supernatural poo poo even before Rose Sr. died. I'm wondering if that's going to come into play later. Two, when Blake has his private chat with Rose Sr., they end with this bit: Pact posted:“Blake,” she said. For some reason that stood out to me. Why does she focus on that phrase in particular? Any ideas? Pavlov fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Sep 16, 2014 |
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Sep 16, 2014 23:16
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Hawkgirl posted:My current wild-rear end guess is that both Rose AND Blake existed, that they were twins or something, and that Blake died and became a revenant (there were some interesting reflections Blake had about revenants in an earlier chapter that seemed like foreshadowing). Grandma Rose took the revenant and reformed it using the barber into what Blake is now. Yeah I just keep coming back to the idea that Rose and Blake were twins somehow. Plus it's thematically fitting that a diabolist would use a human sacrifice.
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Sep 17, 2014 08:25
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Pavlov posted:I don't buy that. Rose Sr., at least when she was younger, seemed to have sympathetic and redeeming qualities. Rose Jr. hasn't really shown any. drat it when do we get our Rose chapter! Sure but if she's rose sr just continued on rather than reborn? Then she doesn't have to have redeeming qualities and she can still wear her old clothes all the time. That's probably the weirdest bit for me. Why is she always wearing grandma's clothes? And they have the same name too. And she has zero of her own friends. There's obviously something funky going on. I assume it all ties back into the name scheme ("pact") at some point. TOOT BOOT posted:Yeah I just keep coming back to the idea that Rose and Blake were twins somehow. Plus it's thematically fitting that a diabolist would use a human sacrifice. Yeah, a sacrifice like one/two of her grandchildren. 
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Sep 18, 2014 01:22
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I'm waiting for Isadora to make another appearance. She's one of the two characters we've seen who remembers pre-Drains Blake, and I'm really interested to know what she thinks of the "balance" achieved in his absence.
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Sep 18, 2014 01:29
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builds character posted:Sure but if she's rose sr just continued on rather than reborn? Then she doesn't have to have redeeming qualities and she can still wear her old clothes all the time. That's probably the weirdest bit for me. Why is she always wearing grandma's clothes? And they have the same name too. And she has zero of her own friends. There's obviously something funky going on. I assume it all ties back into the name scheme ("pact") at some point. Why she has to wear those clothes is explained in this chapter. It is funky how she has zero friends. From a couple of her lines I seem to remember her being a little bit of a loner and raised to be manipulative. That could be a possible explanation for that. It would be pretty metal if Rose senior was hard hearted enough to sacrifice a couple grandkids.
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Sep 18, 2014 03:25
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packsmack posted:Why she has to wear those clothes is explained in this chapter. It is funky how she has zero friends. From a couple of her lines I seem to remember her being a little bit of a loner and raised to be manipulative. That could be a possible explanation for that. I can't believe Rose junior is actually Rose senior as why would she have let herself end up in this position? I get the impression that Rose senior was scary enough that even the combined Jacob's Bell practitioners would not have attempted to mess with her. Not that they couldn't have theoretically eliminated her but the cost would have been way too high. This is their one opportunity basically because of the oath Rose senior made as a child to not train her descendants which has now left a gap the other practitioners can exploit.
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Sep 18, 2014 03:37
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packsmack posted:Why she has to wear those clothes is explained in this chapter. It is funky how she has zero friends. From a couple of her lines I seem to remember her being a little bit of a loner and raised to be manipulative. That could be a possible explanation for that. That is an awfully convenient explanation from when she was a mirror person (and compare to Blake's clothes in the mirror) and then now given that she's had time to go to Toronto and return and then presumably go shopping as she doesn't have Blake's issue with showing up at walmart and fighting everyone. Of course they're just clothes but then there's the name too which is also awfully convenient and the fact she is awesome at being a practitioner (because otherwise how's she going to do that stuff with barbarotorem dead man's trigger?). Finally, she puts the smack down and is cold and distant much like everyone else. On all due respect, that whole interaction seems pretty meaningful. I'm sure there'll be an ah ah moment later on that ties it all together.
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Sep 18, 2014 04:06
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I can't help but feel neither Rose nor Blake are 'real' as such and they're two different people made out of an original Rose/Blake. There's just too many dangling threads about both their backstories that neither really makes sense. Sure Granny hosed it all up with magic but wouldn't Rose have had difficulty existing when cut off in the mirror world like Blake is now? Also fitting in Blake for Rose had to take some serious magic since none of the other practitioners really spotted that and I find it hard to believe she was that wily. I don't expect Rose to be Grandma just because that seems too obvious for Wildbow.
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Sep 18, 2014 15:25
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It'll be interesting if, in trying to drive out and isolate Rose, the rest of the town just added more Thorburns into the mix. Exactly the sort of twisted, backstabbing people you don't want knowing about magic and demons.
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Sep 20, 2014 07:29
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I don't know how likely it is, but I want to see Blake trick some junior Duchamps or Behaims into revealing magic to the other Thorburns. Getting your enemies to show a bunch of psychos how to mess with reality while also making them responsible for whatever terrible things said psychos unleash is ... pretty sweet.
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Sep 20, 2014 09:35
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So... did Rose just admit that she thinks Blake is "family" without Blake actually catching onto that fact?
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Sep 20, 2014 18:41
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I caught that, too. I'm more intrigued by the mention of the arc title in this chapter. Suddenly I'm wondering how this all is going to turn against Blake & Co. (because it's Wildbow, come on). Maybe we'll get to go back to Toronto after all.
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Sep 20, 2014 20:12
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I miss the Lawyers.
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Sep 21, 2014 01:04
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NecroMonster posted:So... did Rose just admit that she thinks Blake is "family" without Blake actually catching onto that fact? The sad fact of the matter is, she probably has a better relationship with him than any 'real' member of her family. Even if he's not technically 'family' by blood or by marriage, he's close enough that the universe accepted him as a Thorburn heir, which is probably all that matters when it comes to magic.
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Sep 21, 2014 04:50
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Hey, quick Pact question - how long does it take to get good? I tried reading the first few chapters awhile ago and now I'm gonna give it another go, but I'd like to know how long of a slog I'm in for. \/\/\/\/\/\/ Edit: ... It takes nine arcs to get good? Remora fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Sep 21, 2014 |
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Sep 21, 2014 20:23
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There are a couple Toronto chapters that are pretty good. Then it dragged on a little too long. This last arc and a half has been loving fantastic with no end of greatness in sight.
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Sep 21, 2014 20:29
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Remora posted:Hey, quick Pact question - how long does it take to get good? I tried reading the first few chapters awhile ago and now I'm gonna give it another go, but I'd like to know how long of a slog I'm in for. Sorry I guess? Worm started pretty slow as well, in my opinion. I never would have finished it if I hadn't originally thought it was novella-length, rather than 50-loving-novellas length. There's definitely quality stuff happening almost all the time in Pact, and you might end up enjoying it more than we did since when you hit a mediocre chapter you can immediately move on, whereas we all had to wait and reflect and think "boo I hope the next chapter is better than that one."
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Sep 21, 2014 21:00
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Hawkgirl posted:Sorry I guess? Worm started pretty slow as well, in my opinion. I never would have finished it if I hadn't originally thought it was novella-length, rather than 50-loving-novellas length. There's definitely quality stuff happening almost all the time in Pact, and you might end up enjoying it more than we did since when you hit a mediocre chapter you can immediately move on, whereas we all had to wait and reflect and think "boo I hope the next chapter is better than that one." Yeah, I thought it was a lot better when I read through and didn't have to wait for new chapters. Some of it dragged otherwise.
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Sep 21, 2014 22:13
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