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Ivan's just about out of juice so there's not much he can do, but Claud should be nearly full given he's barely done anything today. What's a Dollamancer capable of in close quarters? I'm assuming every caster is OP in their own special way. Janis can prevent all engagements hex-wide as a Grand Abbey, but she'd need a reason to blow all her juice like that. She's already cast a few spells this turn as well, so juice availability might be in question. Marie is... doing whatever the hell she's doing with Jillian. Best guess is some sort of contractual exploit, but we don't have the necessary knowledge of all the contracts in play to see it. Isaac is a wildcard, for all we know he's still got the power to cut strings at a distance. If the proverbial luckamancy golem called Fate takes the wheel, who knows what's gonna happen.
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# ? May 24, 2017 09:01 |
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# ? May 8, 2024 23:50 |
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We just got a story involving Etsies, cheap, hit-absorbing creatures that a dollmancer can make. And Parson's idea, lots of updates back, for dealing with guns was to pit them against bats, a cheap, hit-absorbing creature and let the financial damage do the work. Not sure how fast he could make 'em, though, or if they would still cost a full turn's juice like it does for novices.
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# ? May 24, 2017 12:27 |
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Yeah I was thinking maybe he could just whip out a cloth and give it just enough Motion to count as a unit or something, but presumably Charlie's order to get to point blank would have the intention of negating that sort of thing. We'll find out next update, I guess.
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# ? May 24, 2017 16:14 |
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This is also a good view on how Charlie sees the playing field. Charlie doesn't make deals he can't benefit from, and he could see that Wanda having half-archons was not something he ever could ever turn to his benefit. In short, the deal is impossible in his mind. And this goes back to what I've said in the past. Charlie's end-goal for Erfworld is not to 'win' it's to 'live' He wants an unbreakable army with unparalleled weapons with absolute loyalty and no chance of leadership stabbing him in the back. That is his Grand Strategic Plan.
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# ? May 24, 2017 17:32 |
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Were there any previous references to Bonnie and Tondelayo's (mutual?) antipathy?
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# ? May 24, 2017 19:24 |
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What happens exactly as far as the contract or the DoaL if Wanda turns to Faq right before getting shot?
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# ? May 25, 2017 17:07 |
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NihilCredo posted:Were there any previous references to Bonnie and Tondelayo's (mutual?) antipathy? No, but Tondelayo's always been characterized as hyper-protective and possessive of Charlie, so it's natural for her to view all other Archons as competition for his affection.
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# ? May 25, 2017 17:20 |
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DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:No, but Tondelayo's always been characterized as hyper-protective and possessive of Charlie, so it's natural for her to view all other Archons as competition for his affection. Bonnie also has a very different personality type in that she's focused on rules and regulations and seems to be more loyal to Charlescomm than to Charlie personally.
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# ? May 25, 2017 17:33 |
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If I had to work with Bonnie I would probably hate her too tbh. I really like Tondelayo, too bad she's probably not going to survive the day.
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# ? May 25, 2017 22:53 |
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Onmi posted:This is also a good view on how Charlie sees the playing field. Charlie doesn't make deals he can't benefit from, and he could see that Wanda having half-archons was not something he ever could ever turn to his benefit. In short, the deal is impossible in his mind. And this goes back to what I've said in the past. Charlie's end-goal for Erfworld is not to 'win' it's to 'live' He wants an unbreakable army with unparalleled weapons with absolute loyalty and no chance of leadership stabbing him in the back. That is his Grand Strategic Plan. Everything we know points towards immortality being his endgame, and I'd bet that he rigged his own death like Jojo rigged Sylvia's. With Parson being the one destined to take him down I'd bet the deal is something like "He can not be croaked by any unit of erfworld".
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# ? May 26, 2017 02:34 |
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this bit is gonna get pretty neat
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# ? May 27, 2017 03:36 |
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Wizard of Flaws, Nice. Looks like Charlie was the one who ended up overplaying his hand. He could have won it all here if he had just left the thinkamancers alone.
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# ? May 27, 2017 03:44 |
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It would be interesting if Tondelayo is decrypted and turns immediately back to Charlie. She seems to know and love him as a person in the way that lower-ranking Archons don't.
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# ? May 27, 2017 04:28 |
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Can't say I didn't see something like this coming, but still neat. Deiform is really, really insanely dangerous and probably has to die.
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# ? May 27, 2017 05:41 |
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The scariest part of it all is if you look at how it's all routed: 1. Isaac is in front of Bonnie, and can see whatever it is left behind between the Charlie/Wanda battle for control (Charlie needed physical contact, Wanda was at distance but had ownership and the Pliers in hand) 2. Isaac follows the strings to Wanda, no physical contact apparently needed 3. Isaac can see Charlie's Thinkagram through Wanda's eyes (!) via her string connected to Bonnie 4. Isaac can follow Charlie's Thinkagram (which goes off-hex!) and then follow strings back to the Archons surrounding Wanda 5. Isaac then cuts the strings of multiple Archons simultaneously, after at least four or five layers of remoteness The action figure may also still be alive? There's seven dead Archons and seven string dolls in the center panel.
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# ? May 27, 2017 06:52 |
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isndl posted:The action figure may also still be alive? There's seven dead Archons and seven string dolls in the center panel. I suspect Isaac did that on purpose, so that Charlie could watch his beloved Archons keel over like the stringless puppets they now are.
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# ? May 27, 2017 06:54 |
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uh holy poo poo that was pretty excellent
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# ? May 27, 2017 07:55 |
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A bit of a deiform ex machina, though.
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# ? May 27, 2017 07:58 |
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It isn't an ex machina when the comic spends a lot of time and several strips setting this up. I mean you could argue it's an abrupt or unsatisfying answer to the problem of being surrounded by a ton of archons with guns but it's not an ex machina by definition.
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# ? May 27, 2017 08:02 |
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There's also no telling what the deiform wants from Wanda and Gobwin Knob yet.
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# ? May 27, 2017 08:45 |
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That's a massive gain. Guns and Archons for decryption. Charlie can send more Archons in, but is he going to want to?
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# ? May 27, 2017 09:34 |
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JuniperCake posted:Looks like Charlie was the one who ended up overplaying his hand. He could have won it all here if he had just left the thinkamancers alone. Unlikely, as the Great Minds would probably have interfered as well. Their ultimate purpose may have been nebulous, but having Charlie win the war clearly wasn't it.
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# ? May 27, 2017 11:04 |
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NihilCredo posted:Unlikely, as the Great Minds would probably have interfered as well. Their ultimate purpose may have been nebulous, but having Charlie win the war clearly wasn't it. Yeah but they were constantly crippled by indecision. Also they had no idea what was taking place under the bedrock. They had stopped using their abilities to spy on it because of the MK agreement and they had no reason to believe that Archons could get down there either. Even if they got the inkling, they still probably wouldn't have been able to act fast enough to do anything because of that indecision. Charlie would have been able to either convert or destroy Wanda right here and now if it weren't for Isaac. That would have been a huge win for him, and absolutely a game changer. So yeah, creating the deiform is a pretty bad blunder on his end. Deiform Isaac is a far more dangerous and unpredictable enemy than the great minds ever were. JuniperCake fucked around with this message at 11:26 on May 27, 2017 |
# ? May 27, 2017 11:23 |
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Well hell. I've been fruitlessly speculating all this time and now Isaac shows up and this changes everything holy poo poo.
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# ? May 27, 2017 15:53 |
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Zoe posted:Well hell. Yeah, I wasn't expecting that kind of power or any kind of directed purpose at all for some time. Also, Charlie is down to two Archons that are allowed to see him in person. He's gonna need some time to cry. ArgumentatumE.C.T. fucked around with this message at 16:54 on May 27, 2017 |
# ? May 27, 2017 16:34 |
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Question: why didn't Deiform cut Charlie's string directly? Potential answers: 1) He can follow magical links at any range, but he still has a limited range for cutting strings 2) He didn't cut their grandiocosmic strings (the ones that every Erfworlder has), rather he cut their connection to the Arkendish, and they dropped dead nonetheless. This would strongly suggest that yes, killing Wanda would destroy all the Decrypted. 3) He can't or won't actually kill Charlie for reasons of his own (maybe he knows Parson is Fated to do so and doesn't want to go up against that particular Luck-golem?)
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# ? May 27, 2017 17:01 |
Poor Tondelayo. We are losing a lot of side characters with backstory. Duncan, Marie, Tondelayo. Basically the leiutenants of each side.
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# ? May 27, 2017 17:16 |
Donkringel posted:Poor Tondelayo. We are losing a lot of side characters with backstory. Duncan, Marie, Tondelayo. Basically the leiutenants of each side. Yeah, but there's a good chance that Duncan and Tondeyalo are coming back DeCrypted anytime now.
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# ? May 27, 2017 17:39 |
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I don't think he actually followed strings and went all the way to Charlie and back. I think he "followed" them in the sense that he saw which direction they led, and saw the other strings coming from the same place. But also yeah, it isn't clear whether he actually intended to kill all those archons, or just slice through the ties that bind them to Charlie. It's interesting if it's an accident, because it'd imply some things about the nature of Archons, but that might be a layer of complexity I'm just dreaming up. I think he avoids being the bad kind of deus-ex-machina because (1) his origin was significant to the story already, and came with costs and (b) he might end up being a dangerous threat in his own right, or at least a problem.
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# ? May 27, 2017 17:59 |
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Had a browse through the thread on the Erfworld forums and it's cute how a bunch of them are confused and angry because I guess they never noticed Isaac before or forgot about string cutting and all the established ways strings are connected or idk maybe just don't read very well. I knew he'd get involved at some point during this turn and do terrifying things, I just wasn't sure what side he'd be on (if he wasn't aware of who'd destroyed the Temple) or if he was even sane enough to be on a side at all. I'm still not quite sure what the limits of his powers are--he has a physical body which right now, along with his mind is probably not in the best of health, so this trance fusion might not be sustainable. Doesn't seem he can follow strings outside the hex either or I'd have assumed he'd have dealt with Charlie in a more straightforward manner. Either way he seems too OP to stick around in this state for long. ...is the doll still alive? Charlie's still watching all this?
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# ? May 27, 2017 19:02 |
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Onmi posted:That's a massive gain. Guns and Archons for decryption. Charlie can send more Archons in, but is he going to want to? Getting the pliers back to Wanda for decryption, that's going to take some work. Zoe posted:...is the doll still alive? Charlie's still watching all this? We think the doll is still alive as there were 7 'figures' made out of strings whose strings were cut and there were 7 archons present, but if it's alive it's at the bottom of the cart so the only things that'd be seen are the archons toppling over. The rest is out of sight. khy fucked around with this message at 19:39 on May 27, 2017 |
# ? May 27, 2017 19:33 |
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Isaac severed these strings specifically to blind Charlie, so if the doll is still active, it's sloppy work from Mr. Deiform.
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# ? May 27, 2017 20:26 |
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Cat Mattress posted:Isaac severed these strings specifically to blind Charlie, so if the doll is still active, it's sloppy work from Mr. Deiform. Do we know -exactly- what he means by "blind"?
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# ? May 27, 2017 22:26 |
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Wanda is going to be even more insufferable about Fate after this. Also doesn't this invalidate Marie's current gambit? I suppose she might turn alone, but Wanda would lack motivation at this point, and the time factor is gone.
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# ? May 28, 2017 02:34 |
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I suppose that it's possible that Deiform can't sever a unit's G-string the way the trance-fusion could, but can only sever one unit's connection to its overlord/artifact, but due to the relationship between the Archons and the Dish that kills them.
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# ? May 28, 2017 02:40 |
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DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:I suppose that it's possible that Deiform can't sever a unit's G-string the way the trance-fusion could, but can only sever one unit's connection to its overlord/artifact, but due to the relationship between the Archons and the Dish that kills them. This seems needlessly complicated
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# ? May 28, 2017 02:57 |
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DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:I suppose that it's possible that Deiform can't sever a unit's G-string the way the trance-fusion could, but can only sever one unit's connection to its overlord/artifact, but due to the relationship between the Archons and the Dish that kills them. He is a bunch of master class thinkamancers crammed into one. We already know that working as a group Thinkamancers can sever a unit's G-string remotely. So I'm pretty sure that's what he did here. It wouldn't surprise me if an archon's G-string is tied to the dish/charlie the same way other tool units might be tied to theirs. But I suspect at the heart of it, what Isaac did here is what Roger is going to try to do to Parson.
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# ? May 28, 2017 04:14 |
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quote:Also doesn't this invalidate Marie's current gambit? I suppose she might turn alone, but Wanda would lack motivation at this point, and the time factor is gone. On the other side: TheDemon posted:Wanda is going to be even more insufferable about Fate after this. If Marie convinces Wanda that she is indeed Fated to return to Faq, this is a very good moment to tell her "darling, come along quietly and to do whatever
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# ? May 28, 2017 07:38 |
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Parson promised Bunny would be uncroaked. Marie promised the top units of Faq would be uncroaked. There's a bunch of dead Archons that are extremely valuable. Someone is not getting what he wants. Wonder who? Also I always read the strings as something from the Greek myths where the Fates weave your life on a loom. When your thread was cut, that was is. That's why I didn't read the strings leading to Charlie, they lead to Titans or something like that. Dons string certainly didn't lead to Charlie.
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# ? May 28, 2017 13:03 |
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# ? May 8, 2024 23:50 |
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Jesus the official forums are bad. It's just a bunch of angry people yelling at each other over what is or isn't an 'rear end-pull' at this point. Never again.
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# ? May 28, 2017 16:08 |