Magical Underseas Monster

[ooknabah]

Hey guys- I was just re-reading my copy of Don't Split the Party and one of the bonus comics (572e) has Lien and Elan discussing a mysterious possibly-magical sea monster that scares away the giant crab attacking Lien's mount: it's not really mentioned again afterwards and I wonder if this is a plot point that will be resolved, having only been brought up in a bonus comic. Anyway, all my google-fu could not find any discussion regarding the issue, so I'm wondering if A) any previous discussion has been had about this mystery and if not B)what people's theories are concerning the mysterious monster. Is it the true form of MitD? Does the comic really need more mystery monsters?

Help!

[ti'esar]

It's the ancient black dragon. You can kind of make out the silhouette, and Rich says that part of the reason he cut the "Elan's Underwater Adventure" strips is that they foreshadowed the appearance of a villain who he wanted to be a complete surprise.

[Copperdragon]

In addition, it is a Babylon 5 Reference.

The comments in the book state Rich did not show the underwater-Monster (Mother Dragon) in the online comic as the readers then could have been able to guess the meeting (Dragon/Vaarsvuisus) on the island (right in the ocean) too early.

[NerdyKris]

It's the ancient black dragon. You can kind of make out the silhouette, and Rich says that part of the reason he cut the "Elan's Underwater Adventure" strips is that they foreshadowed the appearance of a villain who he wanted to be a complete surprise.

The reason being that in the book, you'd be reading the Black Dragon reveal a few pages later. Online, the reveal might not have come for a month or more, allowing plenty of time to debate and figure out what kind of creature it was.


Also, OP, you should really read the commentary. It's very insightful, and he doesn't spoil anything that's not in that book. In fact, there are several points where he won't explain something because it would spoil something from several books later.

[Copperdragon]

Also, OP, you should really read the commentary. It's very insightful, and he doesn't spoil anything that's not in that book. In fact, there are several points where he won't explain something because it would spoil something from several books later.

Actually, reading the comments when you do not know the online strip is a very unwise thing - they are about what is in the coming chapter. I always disliked that setup for print-only readers.
But yes, if you know the story (second run, you read online) you really should read the comments.

[NerdyKris]

You're right. I should have specified after reading the comics in the book itself. But the commentary never spoils future books, if I remember correctly. At the very least, there are no spoilers for this current book in any of the previous ones.

[Copperdragon]

No, it is never spoilering coming books and it often does not spoiler what is further ahead in the same book.
But the comments are relatively thorough in spoilering the coming chapter as they shed light on one or three important decisions Rich made for that story (like "I wrote Miko the way I did because..." - which is bad if you read that before she smashes the crystal...

I think a much better option for this would be to put the chapter commets after each chapter instead of before, that'd spoil much less.

So if you know the story already: Do read the comments. Read them.
If this is your very first read through the story: Avoid the comments like the black plague until you at least have finished this book, if you can, avoid them until you have finished everthing that existed up to the point of that book's printing (the books never spoil anything beyond that).