New High Priest of Hel - Chat Bubble Color?

[Markozeta]

Is it an error that the chat bubble for the New High Priest of Hel is white with black text (Not the usual vampire Black with White Text)? Or is it a clue? She has black and white text here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1018.html). Just curious.

[Douglas]

Malack had normal speech bubbles for quite a while specifically until his reveal, so it stands to reason that vampires are capable of speaking like living people. I'd guess it just takes a little more effort, like speaking a non-native accent, so they don't usually bother.

[Emperordaniel]

Malack had normal speech bubbles for quite a while specifically until his reveal, so it stands to reason that vampires are capable of speaking like living people. I'd guess it just takes a little more effort, like speaking a non-native accent, so they don't usually bother.

Malack continued to use normal speech bubbles even after his Reveal (see his final appearance here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0906.html)), so yeah, vampires can speak normally if they want to.

[Sunken Valley]

Malack had normal speech bubbles for quite a while specifically until his reveal, so it stands to reason that vampires are capable of speaking like living people. I'd guess it just takes a little more effort, like speaking a non-native accent, so they don't usually bother.

Not only are Malacks speech bubbles not normal (shaky tail), but he has 200 years practice. The new high priest was born less than an hour ago and spoke in black baloons in her other speaking part. There is no reason other than an error for her to speak like that.

[hroþila]

Not only are Malacks speech bubbles not normal (shaky tail), but he has 200 years practice. The new high priest was born less than an hour ago and spoke in black baloons in her other speaking part. There is no reason other than an error for her to speak like that.
Feel free to believe that theory, but it's simply wrong to suggest there's no reason other than an error for it. Malack's speech bubbles were meant to convey his frail and hissing "living-voice", it had nothing to do with how well he could fake a living-voice in the first place.

It's simpler to assume all vampires can do it without great effort on their part, and that Durkon never saw the need or felt the inclination to do so. Perhaps he thought people would expect a vampy voice from him, so that's what he used, as part of his persona. Always good to meet those expectations when you want people to go with the flow, you know.

[Peelee]

Not only are Malacks speech bubbles not normal (shaky tail), but he has 200 years practice. The new high priest was born less than an hour ago and spoke in black baloons in her other speaking part. There is no reason other than an error for her to speak like that.

My, you're confident.

[HeadAcheron]

Maybe it's because she's higher level than any of them?

Malack's Vampire+Cleric level was higher than Durkon's Cleric level, but Durkon's Cleric level was still higher than Malack's Cleric level. Hence, when Malack turned Durkon undead, Durkula's Vampire+Cleric level would've been higher than Malack's Vampire+Cleric level.

If what's-her-face's Cleric level were higher than Durkon's Cleric level, but lower than Durkula's Cleric+Vampire level, then wouldn't the new High Priestess's Cleric+Vampire level be even higher than that for exactly the same reason?

[Peelee]

Malack's Vampire+Cleric level was higher than Durkon's Cleric level, but Durkon's Cleric level was still higher than Malack's Cleric level. Hence, when Malack turned Durkon undead, Durkula's Vampire+Cleric level would've been higher than Malack's Vampire+Cleric level.

If what's-her-face's Cleric level were higher than Durkon's Cleric level, but lower than Durkula's Cleric+Vampire level, then wouldn't the new High Priestess's Cleric+Vampire level be even higher than that for exactly the same reason?

.....your train of logic is correct, but there's no evidence to indicate in either direction, and also what does that have to do with the speech bubble?

[Yendor]

Malack continued to use normal speech bubbles even after his Reveal (see his final appearance here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0906.html)), so yeah, vampires can speak normally if they want to.

Note how he switches on and off. He only uses white-on-black when in full vamp-out mode. Not that I care either way, but maybe not-Durkon's just always on.

[Ruck]

Not only are Malacks speech bubbles not normal (shaky tail), but he has 200 years practice. The new high priest was born less than an hour ago and spoke in black baloons in her other speaking part. There is no reason other than an error for her to speak like that.

You are entirely assuming it works based on experience. There is no evidence that a vampire needs practice to speak this way. It may be an error, but we don't know that.

As an aside, I thought Malack's speech bubble tails were for his Lizard-ness, not his Vampire-ness, but I suppose it's an open question.

[Porthos]

Quoth the Giant (in regards to Malack):


OK, trying not to comment too much on stuff that will be explained in future comics but:

You guys are overthinking the black speech bubble thing. Remember that the speech bubbles are an artifact of the comic strip process, which means they are subservient to the story. Obviously, it was narratively important to hide that Malack was undead, so therefore I decided he only speaks in black speech bubbles when he "vamps out." After all, vampires in fiction have a long history of having traits that only pop out when they feed: their fangs elongate, their eyes turn read, maybe their face gets all demony-looking if you want to go the Buffy the Vampire Slayer route. Changing voice is not outside of that realm.

Also, I already pointed out that Tarquin was able to change his speech balloons (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0849.html) just by adopting a different way of speaking. It's not my fault no one extrapolated that to mean that characters—like the one floating next to him—can disguise/change the visual appearance of their balloons. :smalltongue:

As far as other questions, you'll have to wait and see.

So why didn't "Durkon" speak in non-black speech bubbles? Well, not to speak for Rich (and presuming it's not an error), but having "Durkon" speak all in black is a handy indicator that this is fact NOT Durkon. Yes, I know I know, the skin color and fangs. Every bit helps though when selling a visual story.

If one wants an in-universe reason, think of it as "Durkon" wanting to rub his vampire status in Roy's face all the while pretending that it's no big deal. "Wolfing in Plain Sight" as the Mafia/Werewolf (game) types like to put it. I.e. it's fun (for certain values of fun) to openly act like a bad guy all the while more or less claiming innocence.

Low grade sadism for not much return? Well, what makes one think that "Durkon" doesn't trade in small pettiness or minor mind games? Nothing that I've seen, that's for sure. :smallwink:

EDIT:::

There's also the bit where "Durkon" claimed that he was The-Durkon-Roy-Knew-And-Loved, just going through some difficult changes. He even made a big song and dance about "relearning" to breath, for heavens sake. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0982.html) Perhaps paradoxically not speaking in a normal speech balloon might have helped Roy still think of "Durkon" as Durkon.

Suddenly being able to talk normally without "learning" how to talk like everyone else again might have raised Roy's suspicions a bit. Instead, here "Durkon" was acting like he was trying to come to terms with being something new as opposed to flipping on a dime (as Belkar was arguing).

[ti'esar]

Honestly, I suspect this is likely an error, just because there was no other change to her appearance and it seems like an easy one to make now that all of the other vampires are gone.


As an aside, I thought Malack's speech bubble tails were for his Lizard-ness, not his Vampire-ness, but I suppose it's an open question.

No other lizardfolk talks that way, but I think it was less because he was a vampire and more because he was (or rather pretended to be) frail and sickly. Similar shaky speech bubble tails have often been used by injured characters, as recently as Blackwing in 1021. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1021.html)

[Gift Jeraff]

But Malack's more snakey than other lizardfolk, and his voice has been described as hissing (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0894.html).

[theasl]

But Malack's more snakey than other lizardfolk, and his voice has been described as hissing (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0894.html).

I always thought of Malack as a yuan-ti (or something related) - half snake half humanoid.

[Rift_Wolf]

There is no reason other than an error for her to speak like that.

And now for a less contentious sentence;

Did Miko's Balrog shoot first?

[Bulldog Psion]

The most likely explanation is that it's supposed to be white-on-black and just got overlooked for the time being.

Nevertheless, it's possible that Macey Shadows (love that name :smallbiggrin:) is speaking more normally, too. After all, she's trying to appear semi-reasonable, and that's probably a bit more convincing in a normal voice than in the hollow, menacing tones of the undead.

[Pyrous]

Not only are Malacks speech bubbles not normal (shaky tail), but he has 200 years practice. The new high priest was born less than an hour ago and spoke in black baloons in her other speaking part. There is no reason other than an error for her to speak like that.


I agree that it could be an error, but didn't the Giant say something about "no reason" claims?



Also, as a general rule of thumb, no one should say the sentence, "There's no (or no other) possible narrative purpose for Rich to have done X!" until the story is completed. Because there's always a narrative purpose, you just haven't thought of what it is.

[littlebum2002]

It's simpler to assume all vampires can do it without great effort on their part, and that Durkon never saw the need or felt the inclination to do so. Perhaps he thought people would expect a vampy voice from him, so that's what he used, as part of his persona. Always good to meet those expectations when you want people to go with the flow, you know.

TBH I'm kind of agreeing with the other poster here. Speaking involves air entering and exiting your lungs, and we've seen how difficult it is for a new vampire to get used to that physical effect, so I don't think a vampire is going to be speaking "normally" for awhile (unless sounding like a broken accordion is normal)

EDIT: To clarify, I mean that an undead, when they are first created, speaks using negative energy, like Xykon or Durkula did, which uses the black background. In order to use a white background, they first must get used to expelling air, which takes awhile to get used to (and in fact might be impossible for someone like Xykon who doesn't have lungs)

[factotum]

Speaking involves air entering and exiting your lungs

That clearly isn't true for undead--Xykon can speak just fine despite not having lungs (or lips, or vocal chords). In fact, it seems likely that "black background" speech from an undead indicates they're specifically *not* speaking using simple physical means.

[HeadAcheron]

.....your train of logic is correct, but there's no evidence to indicate in either direction, and also what does that have to do with the speech bubble? That more powerful vampires are better at faking non-vampire voices than less powerful vampires of the same age.

[littlebum2002]

That clearly isn't true for undead--Xykon can speak just fine despite not having lungs (or lips, or vocal chords). In fact, it seems likely that "black background" speech from an undead indicates they're specifically *not* speaking using simple physical means.

Right. The only undead (except for the New High Priest of Hel lady) who we have seen talking in "normal" voices are those who are ancient and have had daceds, even centuries, to get used to it. Also, it was clearly stated in SoD that the black background is due to their speech being carried by negative energy instead of exhaled air. Which still leads to the conclusion that the white background text is talking normally.

In fact, your post pretty much agreed with me exactly, so I'm not sure why you sounded like you were correcting me? Maybe I wasn't clear: for an undead, "speaking normally" means using air (which is, in my experience, pretty normal) and has a white background, whereas the black background is "speaking using negative energy", which at least around my group of friends isn't very common.

[DaggerPen]

TBH I'm kind of agreeing with the other poster here. Speaking involves air entering and exiting your lungs, and we've seen how difficult it is for a new vampire to get used to that physical effect, so I don't think a vampire is going to be speaking "normally" for awhile (unless sounding like a broken accordion is normal)

EDIT: To clarify, I mean that an undead, when they are first created, speaks using negative energy, like Xykon or Durkula did, which uses the black background. In order to use a white background, they first must get used to expelling air, which takes awhile to get used to (and in fact might be impossible for someone like Xykon who doesn't have lungs)

This is how I interpreted it as well - black bubbles for negative energy powered speech, white for speech using actual breath.

While it's totally plausible that Macey Shadows is just speaking with a 'normal' speech bubble, given that speech bubble colors are a common error, that we've seen her speaking with a white on black speech bubble before, and that there's no clear reason for her to switch "modes" here, I think this was probably done in error.