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If anything I think he will force all the practitioners into a one sided deal/pact by threatening their or their children's lives. Basically remove all the small fry Behaims and Duchamps from the equation. That would make the contest much more equal, Alister, Johannes, Sandra, and Rose/Blake?
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Oct 25, 2014 17:23
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| # ? May 11, 2024 19:18 |
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God DAMNIT ROSE
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Oct 28, 2014 05:46
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Hahaha god drat if anyone still doubts that she's the bad, unwanted, half of the "pair" they are nuts.
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Oct 28, 2014 06:28
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I'll be completely honest, they're actually a pretty good match.
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Oct 28, 2014 07:00
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Standard Canadian values, do you have it?
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Oct 28, 2014 07:49
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I definitely didn't see that ending coming.
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Oct 28, 2014 09:18
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HiHo ChiRho posted:God DAMNIT ROSE
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Oct 28, 2014 09:29
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Getting your entire midsection degloved sounds horrifying but it probably puts you out of your misery real quick  (seriously though jesus christ)
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Oct 28, 2014 12:41
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Pact: God DAMNIT ROSE
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Oct 28, 2014 13:16
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Tollymain posted:Getting your entire midsection degloved sounds horrifying but it probably puts you out of your misery real quick Green Eyes is working hard to replace Evan as best character. Also I'm not buying this twist for a second. No way is this what it seems.
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Oct 28, 2014 14:12
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Fans posted:Green Eyes is working hard to replace Evan as best character. Only problem is that lying is pretty tough in Pact. It could be a straight up deception but if it is actually Rose and she made any oaths/promises then she's pretty stuck.
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Oct 28, 2014 14:37
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HiHo ChiRho posted:God DAMNIT ROSE
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Oct 28, 2014 15:58
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Yet again, Blake starts kicking rear end and solving problems and Rose brings it to a screeching halt.
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Oct 28, 2014 16:24
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Fans posted:Also I'm not buying this twist for a second. No way is this what it seems. How many times has the bait-and-switch happened so far in Pact? Every time I can remember calling shenanigans on events, it's been played straight by the characters.
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Oct 28, 2014 17:16
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I wonder if it's possible to reconnect Blake and Rose so they reform the original person?
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Oct 28, 2014 21:27
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about as possible as it is to undo anything else a demon does, i'm sure
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Oct 28, 2014 21:28
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Even if it were once possible, I doubt it would be anymore, Blake has just lost too drat much of his humanity at this point.
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Oct 28, 2014 22:15
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NecroMonster posted:Even if it were once possible, I doubt it would be anymore, Blake has just lost too drat much of his humanity at this point. That's probably true. Makes me wonder what the end will be like. What constitutes a happy ending for a boogeyman?
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Oct 28, 2014 23:44
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TOOT BOOT posted:That's probably true. Makes me wonder what the end will be like. What constitutes a happy ending for a boogeyman? Becoming a bogeyman for terrible people and Others like the necromancer? The process involved in making that rot monster was pretty pure evil - arguably more so than summoning a demon (if less stupid, admittedly).
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Oct 29, 2014 08:37
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Grundulum posted:How many times has the bait-and-switch happened so far in Pact? Every time I can remember calling shenanigans on events, it's been played straight by the characters. It's not the bait-and-switch with Wildbow. It's "Yes this did happen, but you're forgetting/don't know that..."
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Oct 29, 2014 11:28
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Well, then. That really is Rose. She really does want Blake's friends safe. She (and Alister apparently) didn't realize how much danger they were in. Question: If Rose is the heir, what is Blake's karmic debt? I could almost believe that Granny Thorburn set things up so that Rose would be in the clear and leave Blake saddled with everything.
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Nov 1, 2014 05:30
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Grandma Rose posted:My understanding of things is simple, Alister. Every Other is, if you trace things back far enough, the fault of demons. Every practitioner is the fault of Others, or, for a rare few, the fault of demons. All of these things, in their way, guide all of existence slowly toward its end. The unlucky few who get in too deep fall into their clutches. I was so loving right about Solomon causing bad poo poo in the long run.  According to a potentially unreliable narrator.
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Nov 1, 2014 06:24
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It's entirely possible that Grandma Rose is correct, and her plan of action actually could lead to "salvation" but a) we still don't know why Grandma Rose would have used Barbatorum to split X into Blake and Rose, and b) we don't know how the plan is actually supposed to work. Hell, if Grandma was getting an aid from Behaim Divination it's totally within reason that even Grandma Rose didn't really know how these moves and actions would combine to achieve their goals, Similar to how Contessa never really knew how her actions were going to achieve their result through the manipulation of Taylor.
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Nov 1, 2014 06:38
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NecroMonster posted:It's entirely possible that Grandma Rose is correct, and her plan of action actually could lead to "salvation" but a) we still don't know why Grandma Rose would have used Barbatorum to split X into Blake and Rose, and b) we don't know how the plan is actually supposed to work. Contessa didn't either, at least where Zion was concerned. Blind spot, remember? Khepri was a fortunate accident. I'm not sure whether or not to revise my theory after this chapter. Blake strikes me as exactly the sort of heir Grandmother Rose would have wanted for her rebellion--intelligent, a natural hand at magic, and moral enough to find both the Thorburns and the general way of the magic world repulsive. Splitting off the Thorburn-ness from the desired part of the heir and then compelling him to kill said Incarnation of the Thorburns seems like a pretty neat way to wrap things up, really, provided she could identify the right raw material before said splitting. On one hand, Alister is a good insurance policy; give a Chronomancer the ability to ward off a demon and they're pretty well-positioned to gank a diabolist that goes power-mad, and Grandmother Rose seems to take the Black Lamb's Blood philosophy of "only use demons to stop a greater demon-related harm" seriously. On the other hand, if I'm guessing right, then she's already going for a big moonshot with Blake, the world's hosed up enough that one more bad diabolist isn't really that bad, and all indications are that Laird and Alister are the exact same kind of petty power-focused practitioner that she's dedicated to overthrowing. Giving an enemy any assistance at all doesn't help his odds.
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Nov 1, 2014 09:13
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I actually like the idea that Rose is the intended heir and that Blake surviving is the universes way of trying to keep the historical balance. So Blake would actually be the anti revolutionary though not really by his own choice but more how the universe is going to use him. For instance if Rose needed to sacrifice Alexis in order for the 'revolution' to succeed and make the universe better I think Blake would attempt to stop her even if he knew the cost to the world. Lyon fucked around with this message at 11:28 on Nov 1, 2014 |
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Nov 1, 2014 11:25
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Sounds like a drat mess.
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Nov 1, 2014 11:34
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wait roses... heavy use of symbolism and such... seeking to bring the world revolution clearly pact is wildbow's secret utena fanfic 
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Nov 1, 2014 13:40
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caught up on hero historia. are all of these arcs going to have downer endings? 
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Nov 1, 2014 14:14
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It's worth noting that while Grandma Rose is likely correct that Others are a result of Demonic influence, and practitioners are a result of Others (or even, rarely, demons directly), there is every drat chance that she's wrong about the purpose of Others and Practitioners in relation to Demons. She defines them as a cause of demons, rather than a reaction to demons, which, if the hints about the true nature of the "abyss" we've been given read the way I am increasingly interpreting them, could be a big mistake.
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Nov 1, 2014 18:58
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you mean "caused by", right? i don't think she said that practitioners are like, generating new demons
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Nov 2, 2014 05:32
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Of course I mean caused by.
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Nov 2, 2014 07:01
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Einander posted:Contessa didn't either, at least where Zion was concerned. Blind spot, remember? Khepri was a fortunate accident. Personally, I think Blake is the intended "fix", but no one is meant to believe that yet in order to shield him. If granny wanted to wipe out a powerful family, how would she best go about doing that? Direct attack? No. How about sneak a destructive force into their midst? And how better to do that than marry-in such a force during a time of great duress? She's throwing Rose, the collection of undesirable traits, to the wolves as a sort of arcane suicide bomber. She's hoping Rose will go down in flames and take the Behaims with her.
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Nov 3, 2014 15:54
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Welp, it sounds like Pact will be winding down before long and then he's working on something he's calling 'Twig' and then back to Worm.
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Nov 4, 2014 10:25
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What the hell just happened? I'm not sure if I understand. e. So what I gather from the comments, Blake got temporarily possessed by Molly. Molly is rather hesitant to go for deals with the Behaims so she stabs Alister, breaking the possibility for a truce and fueling her desire for revenge (Alister knows it was Molly and he doesn't even necessarily blame Molly or Blake but he can't look weak in front of his family). The goblins tearing Blake apart where a vision from Molly's last moments and Maggie Holt isn't actually there; it is Molly's mind imagining it. Namarrgon fucked around with this message at 10:39 on Nov 4, 2014 |
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Nov 4, 2014 10:26
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Namarrgon posted:What the hell just happened? I'm not sure if I understand. That was my take on it as well. I have no idea how this is going to wrap up soon in a satisfactory way.
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Nov 4, 2014 16:03
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Namarrgon posted:e. So what I gather from the comments, Blake got temporarily possessed by Molly. Molly is rather hesitant to go for deals with the Behaims so she stabs Alister, breaking the possibility for a truce and fueling her desire for revenge (Alister knows it was Molly and he doesn't even necessarily blame Molly or Blake but he can't look weak in front of his family). The goblins tearing Blake apart where a vision from Molly's last moments and Maggie Holt isn't actually there; it is Molly's mind imagining it. I read this like 5 times and still didn't get it until I read the comments. It needs better transition markers to make it clear what's happening.
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Nov 4, 2014 16:28
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Well, I'm not quite sure this is as bad as it can get for Blake, but it's pretty close. 
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Nov 4, 2014 17:02
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...and then you remember how bad poo poo got for Skitter and wonder just how much worse Wildbow is going to make things.
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Nov 4, 2014 18:05
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Saros posted:...and then you remember how bad poo poo got for Skitter and wonder just how much worse Wildbow is going to make things. You know, this chapter has let me articulate what I'm finding a bit unsatisfying about Pact so far. Wildbow just doesn't ever let Blake's situation ever stray much beyond "and then everything went wrong and Blake is scraping out subsistence against ludicrous odds." To some degree this has been the entire plot, Blake chased by monsters in the snow in chapter 2 and moving on to be menaced by the Hyena and Conquest and the Abyss and an army of Others and now the Behaims and a dozen other more minor encounters. I guess personally it's because the most enjoyable parts of Pact for me have been either the world building, or when you have people playing off each other talking through a problem or enemies negotiating. The best part of the rules established for the world is to force all the players to be scrupulously honest, and that leads to a lot of great situations where the conflict takes place in the conversation. All that stuff tends to take a back seat when the stakes rise and Blake ends up fighting for what's left of his life, again. At this point I just see the overall plot like a man who is drowning, fighting for air before sinking beneath the waves, before crashing back up again for a few moments. Then sinking. Then rising. Then sinking. Over and over again, no growth, just continuation. It loses it's impact. See, I was mostly through this chapter and I was totally into the notion of some kind of uneasy alliance with the Behaims and Blake interacting a bit more with Rose (the bit where they're talking about their own relative existences was great) and then bam, forced betrayal, forced combat, Blake running through the streets bereft of most of his allies and chased by all his enemies. The very first thing to pop into my mind was oh not this poo poo again.
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Nov 4, 2014 19:17
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| # ? May 11, 2024 19:18 |
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Yup. I'm pretty unhappy about the direction pact has taken as well. It's just unceasing conflict, all the time, and any opportunities for character development get dropped for more crises, all the time. It's kind of comical that the biggest "character development" we've had since Blake started his coven is when the various Thorburns are being chopped up by monsters, that's how bad the pacing is.
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Nov 4, 2014 19:46
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