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Bongo Bill
Jan 17, 2012

Vice principal ominously looming.

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Probably Magic
Oct 9, 2012

Looking cute, feeling cute.
Nah, it's Jaffar. http://www.paranatural.net/comic/chapter-5-page-193

Podima
Nov 4, 2009

by Fluffdaddy
Just what this "find the body-snatching spirit" plot needed, another new character!

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002


I'm glad we spent the last 5 pages / 2 weeks on a conversation of no consequence that can be summed up with the final line.

Oxxidation
Jul 22, 2007
Someone really needs to sit Zack down and tell him that his side cast isn't nearly as interesting as he thinks it is.

oddium
Feb 21, 2006

end of the 4.5 tatami age

go back to johnny and ed

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002


Like I love the comic but right now we have the following things happening simultaneously:
- Isabel / Spender chasing after ms Baxter (last seen: January, 2017)
- Ed following Starchman / recruiting Johnny
- Isaac following Garcia (last seen: August, 2016)
- Max doing... I don't even remember what he's supposed to be doing. He ended up spending forever at the school store / bar to just meet a side character that just wanted to say hi? Oh yeah he's just meant to be resting and not doing anything.
- Whatever Hijack is meant to be doing at the school and which teacher has he taken over? (hijack possessed a teacher back in FEBRUARY 2016)
- Zaeri and Cupid lady meeting for lunch (last seen October, 2016)

Like even if we stick to the main plot (Hijack) we haven't seen any of the 3 teachers we're supposed to be following in close to a year. June (Starchman) August (Garcia & Baxter)

It's been 2 1/2 years in this chapter and hilariously the archive page is 73 pages behind (last link is for 120, we're up to page 193)

Happy Noodle Boy fucked around with this message at 14:00 on Apr 21, 2017

Splicer
Oct 16, 2006

from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Oxxidation posted:

Someone really needs to sit Zack down and tell him that his side cast isn't nearly as interesting as he thinks it is.
The issue is that they're all being introduced at once at the expense of things Zack has done a good job if making us care about. Weird student council? Sounds good. Some kind of school shop slash speakeasy run by an existing Good Side Character? Yup. Girl who thinks they're an alien club? Yes please. More Johnny and Suzy time? Always. All of these in the form of multi page arcs that are explicitly being called out in the text as getting in the way if the main chapter arc? Nooo.

I mean I'm sure these continuous interruptions and the PoV character's increasing frustration with them will be hilarious when read as a completed work, but as a twice weekly webcomic? Nope.

Drunk Theory
Aug 20, 2016


Oven Wrangler
Yah, hate to echo a beaten down point, but Paranatural has gone off my standard reading list.

Still a great comic, and not the worst paced I've followed. But it really is a "check every other month" comic these days.

A Wizard of Goatse
Dec 14, 2014

Oxxidation posted:

Someone really needs to sit Zack down and tell him that his side cast isn't nearly as interesting as he thinks it is.

remember in the ghost train arc when Isaac and Ed went off and had that whole goofy anime sideplot with the wacky characters that lead to nothing and was summarized in a couple panels

did you ever wish you could see what they were really up to that whole time

Mystic Mongol
Jan 5, 2007

Your life's been thrown in disarray already--I wouldn't want you to feel pressured.


College Slice

Oxxidation posted:

Someone really needs to sit Zack down and tell him that his side cast isn't nearly as interesting as he thinks it is.

How many posts did you make in the Homestuck threads?

Mazerunner
Apr 22, 2010

Good Hunter, what... what is this post?
hey its local business man, here to support his community by making a charitable donation to the school, cuz he values education

what a swell guy

Morbi
Aug 7, 2013

CONTRABAND

A Wizard of Goatse posted:

remember in the ghost train arc when Isaac and Ed went off and had that whole goofy anime sideplot with the wacky characters that lead to nothing and was summarized in a couple panels

did you ever wish you could see what they were really up to that whole time

It's a shame we'll never see Isaac and the Deer Princess' wild ride in the Kingdom of Kindness, Zack's best arc

an_mutt
Sep 29, 2010

I was,
I am,
and I remain a soldier!

Sworn to dedicate my heart and soul to the restoration of human kind!

Splicer posted:

that are explicitly being called out in the text as getting in the way if the main chapter arc? Nooo.
I'm also gonna jump into the shrieking piss hurricane that is "what the gently caress is this webcomic doing", and point out that this is easily the worst part of what's been happening over the last bunch of pages. The last few months have basically been a waste of time at this point, with introduction after introduction of fun yet worthless side-character, followed by Max pointing at them and yelling about how goddang crazy this dumb school full of nerds is. We loving get it, man. You don't need to keep doing this, what with the literal years' worth of plot and backstory just sitting there waiting to be addressed.

Tetracube
Feb 12, 2014

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN
It's baffling to me that people can be in webcomics, spend 10 hours slaving over each individual page for virtually no benefit, on a project they know will take many, many years, and then end up with "too little happening in too many pages" as a problem.

Fecha
Nov 4, 2006

Did I... did I miss anything important?
I guess I'll dogpile--this chapter has seen maybe a dozen new plot threads added but the plot was already loaded with ongoing things and perfectly engaging as it was! I was eager to learn more about the consortium and the secret of the town, Forge's story and who he's working for, Ed's backstory, Max's possible ghost mom, etc. There was plenty more than that waiting to be developed. Now the pot is way too full.

Pants Donkey
Nov 13, 2011

Tetracube posted:

It's baffling to me that people can be in webcomics, spend 10 hours slaving over each individual page for virtually no benefit, on a project they know will take many, many years, and then end up with "too little happening in too many pages" as a problem.
It probably doesn't seem that bad when you're in the thick of it, and I imagine there's an eagerness to show off a cool character or concept you came up with. You don't want to wait a year+ for this neat idea rolling in your head, so it gets kinda awkwardly crammed into the current chapter.

Countblanc
Apr 20, 2005

Help a hero out!
i have to imagine it's sorta weird marathoning this chapter now since basically every other page ends in an ominous cliffhanger for some other plotline. it sounds jarring. i obviously can't talk from firsthand experience though

BravestOfTheLamps
Oct 12, 2012

by FactsAreUseless
Lipstick Apathy
The journey is no longer its own reward.

Dolash
Oct 23, 2008

aNYWAY,
tHAT'S REALLY ALL THERE IS,
tO REPORT ON THE SUBJECT,
oF ME GETTING HURT,


More like Paracraptural, am I right?

smug n stuff
Jul 21, 2016

A Hobbit's Adventure
Update
There's someone we haven't seen in a while!

Axiem
Oct 19, 2005

I want to leave my mind blank, but I'm terrified of what will happen if I do
...the plot?

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002


Holy poo poo we're back to the A plot????

Tetracube
Feb 12, 2014

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN
I don't know, he says he detects two unrelated spirits so we're probably going to see them now instead

girl dick energy
Sep 30, 2009

You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?
It could be our two favorite characters, Skulldog and Horrifying Homonculus

Countblanc
Apr 20, 2005

Help a hero out!
It'll be Max and we'll finally meet his second, also-evil spirit.

RandallODim
Dec 30, 2010

Another 1? Aww man...
I can't wait for this cliffhanger to resolve itself anticlimactically next page.

Splicer
Oct 16, 2006

from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

PMush Perfect posted:

It could be our two favorite characters, Skulldog and Horrifying Homonculus
It's just Horrifying Homonculus. He's two people.

That was my initial thought, but they're stuck outside the barrier.

Akett
Aug 6, 2012

The two spirits are likely Issac's ninja squirrel pals. Also calling it now that Garcia doesn't have Hijack but he is extremely important.

Calaveron
Aug 7, 2006
:negative:
Calling it now to be revealed in two years

smug n stuff
Jul 21, 2016

A Hobbit's Adventure
This is the only page we'll see of this scene until 2020.
All the intervening pages will be Zarei's date.

betamax hipster
Aug 13, 2016

smug n stuff posted:

This is the only page we'll see of this scene until 2020.
All the intervening pages will be Zarei's date.

If only.

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002


smug n stuff posted:

This is the only page we'll see of this scene until 2020.
All the intervening pages will be Zarei's date.

I'll allow this.

Bell_
Sep 3, 2006

Tiny Baltimore
A billion light years away
A goon's posting the same thing
But he's already turned to dust
And the shitpost we read
Is a billion light-years old
A ghost just like the rest of us

Akett posted:

The two spirits are likely Issac's ninja squirrel pals. Also calling it now that Garcia doesn't have Hijack but he is extremely important.
I considered that but discounted it because they are likely in the same faction.

Calaveron
Aug 7, 2006
:negative:
Now it's going to be Isaac running into all those wacky classmates and his reactions to them on his way to the fireworks factory

Cat Mattress
Jul 14, 2012

by Cyrano4747
I kinda hope that there's a digression where some irrelevant characters do visit a fireworks factory.

oddium
Feb 21, 2006

end of the 4.5 tatami age

the two spirits... are forge and muse whom king c does not like i guess. :hai:

Fecha
Nov 4, 2006

Did I... did I miss anything important?
A-actual main plot development...?!!!!!

Bell_
Sep 3, 2006

Tiny Baltimore
A billion light years away
A goon's posting the same thing
But he's already turned to dust
And the shitpost we read
Is a billion light-years old
A ghost just like the rest of us
Yeah, exactly! I like it too.

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Tenebrais
Sep 2, 2011

RJ riding Johnny's back so they could line up at the door

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