El Goonish ShiVe: Look! Squirrel!

[Yuki Akuma]

On an unrelated note, cheesecake is a pie, not a cake.

Indeed. It is, in fact, a custard pie.

[Radar]

Indeed. It is, in fact, a custard pie.

Unless it is not. There are many varieties of cheesecake and at least where I come from none are made from custard to begin with as the key ingredient is quark - specifically those dried varieties. It is also not always a pie as you can bake it without the pastry although it is rare. There are also cooked cheesecakes and ones prepared cold, which would be difficult to classify. Food taxonomy is difficult like that - people just go around mixing thing up and do not think about proper naming.

On that note: if open-faced sandwiches were not sandwiches, how would you name them? I cannot figure out what other word to use to be honest, so I am curious.

[Fyraltari]

Pies are cakes.

[Celestia]

Oh definitely.

Though with Shive at the helm it's even odds whether it lands with Grace, it fails but Grace gives in anyway for a totally unrelated reason (see: Susan meeting Diane), or it fails and plenty more hijinks are required.

Anyone recall how this went in the game?

In the game, you don't fight Reaver. He sends you on an errand he's too lazy to do, himself, and then he joins you once you return.

[Fyraltari]

Well that's a bit extreme a reaction. Whatever it is.

[Kish]

Yin-Yang face...unlike the (from what people here and in the comic have said) cheerfully sociopathic Reaver, Grace Celebrity is apparently literally at war with herself.

[Rater202]

Yeah, I'm gonna assume that Game Grace wasn't speaking metaphorically when she said there were two squirrels in her.

[CrypticUnhlpfl]

Well I certainly didn't call that! Part of why I like this comic so much. Shive has a real knack for throwing curveballs that are just foreshadowed enough to not come from complete nowhere.

EDIT: Actually, I wonder if the reason he's been playing coy with how much of this is cannon is so he can explore the Luspuko (or however it was spelled) stuff. Anyone recall if it's come up other than from the nose beep girl or in Grace's dream that one time?

[Celestia]

Well I certainly didn't call that! Part of why I like this comic so much. Shive has a real knack for throwing curveballs that are just foreshadowed enough to not come from complete nowhere.

I can't tell if he's got everything all planned out years in advance or if he's just really good at improvisational writing. Either way, I guess it doesn't much matter.

[Rater202]

I can't tell if he's got everything all planned out years in advance or if he's just really good at improvisational writing. Either way, I guess it doesn't much matter.

I figure it's some of collumn a, some of the column be, and a little bit of suddenly getting ideas he thinks are cool.

Remember: The TF gun was just randomly introduced with a "hey,, you know that transformation gun you've got int eh basement" with the only foreshadowing being that Sarah assumed that Tedd did something to give Grace squirrel powers.

[CrypticUnhlpfl]

I can't tell if he's got everything all planned out years in advance or if he's just really good at improvisational writing. Either way, I guess it doesn't much matter.

Yeah, that is my take on it, too. Despite this comic having been going for well over a decade (amost two?) at this point, it's remarkably low on retcons. Even then, most of them are behind the scenes (e.g. Elliot's super mode thing). Rather impressive, that.

Considering the stuff he's pulled out of the deep past, I wouldn't be surprised if he really does plan to cover Lord Tedd at some point in the future. Especially with the nose beep girl having been brought up several times by the characters of late.

[Radar]

Long term planning might be one thing, but my understanding (wild educated guess from the commentaries?) is that Dan is first and foremost really good at keeping his characters in character or in a sense thinking as his characters would think. In a lot of scenes he commented that he did not expect this or that dialog and just from putting the characters on the scene everything came naturally. I will not resort to archive binging to find some particular examples as there might be a good day to die, but it is not this one.

[Gez]

I don't think "cloud shapes" work well for fur, it makes the "good squirrel" look blobby rather than fuzzy. I'd pet the bad squirrel. The good squirrel I'd plunge a spoon in it because it looks covered in whipped cream.
https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/parable-186

[CrypticUnhlpfl]

Yeah, I'm with Susan on this one. This seems... odd and moderately disturbing for a character based on Grace. Susan barely prodded her and the poor girl is now literally tearing herself apart. It's like this is the inverse of the happy-go-lucky facade over repressed trauma that Jerry was talking about way back in Hammerchlorians.

At this point I have no idea how much of this is actually supposed to be significant.

[Kish]

Significant to understanding the personality of main-world Grace? I suspect very little. It probably has a lot more to do with (as Susan put it) Grace-gamer-grievances, in this case specifically involving Reaver.

[RowenMorland]

Yeah, I'm with Susan on this one. This seems... odd and moderately disturbing for a character based on Grace. Susan barely prodded her and the poor girl is now literally tearing herself apart. It's like this is the inverse of the happy-go-lucky facade over repressed trauma that Jerry was talking about way back in Hammerchlorians.

At this point I have no idea how much of this is actually supposed to be significant.

I've been wondering if Susan is also Grace in this. Since Grace was supposed to be the central character in the spell Jay thought she had cast. But if it isn't a shared dream then Grace's mind is running all of the characters that aren't Jay so she doesn't have to play herself and the conflicted pirate Grace represents her fear of being out of control while her Susan self is playing a similar role to the one in Elliot's dream where she offered introspection and good advice. It might also be a result of Pandora having left some safeguards on Grace's dreams that Jay has tripped.

Ramble aside I think Grace is getting a dream logic look at a version of herself she's afraid of being and 'Susan' is her logical hero archetype for confronting why it is just a fear.

[Kish]

I don't think Susan is Grace in any way there.

Grace is the Reaver equivalent because whatever Jay did made Grace the most important character--not the protagonist.

[Celestia]

I don't think Susan is Grace in any way there.

Grace is the Reaver equivalent because whatever Jay did made Grace the most important character--not the protagonist.

I mean, in the original game, Reaver is not particularly "important," at least, not anymore than the other two heroes.

[Rater202]

I mean, in the original game, Reaver is not particularly "important," at least, not any more than the other two heroes.

Dan seems to feel like he is, overall, treated as being more important than the PCs in the game franchise.

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

Dan seems to feel like he is, overall, treated as being more important than the PCs in the game franchise.

I mean, he comes back in the sequels. I've only ever played Fable 3 but Reaver is there, serving as the representative of the Mean Choice every decision time. His iconography is everywhere. Faceless Heroes come and go, but Reaver is still here, still leaving an impression on the world.

[Kish]

Dan seems to feel like he is, overall, treated as being more important than the PCs in the game franchise.

Yes, this*. You can disagree with Grace on the subject (I've never played Fable so I have no opinion either way), but it doesn't make any sense to act like the belief wasn't stated.

*Mostly this. You could also believe that Dan is giving one of his characters a perspective he doesn't share; that would strike me as unlikely in this instance but it would also strike me as unimportant: Susan stated Grace having complained that Reaver is treated as "more important than the protagonist" and Jay's eyes bugged out as she got the answer to her earlier question, and it ill behooves us here in the discussion thread to ignore that answer and act as though the question was still a big mystery likely to be explained by Susan and Grace having merged somehow.

[RowenMorland]

I don't think Susan is Grace in any way there.

Grace is the Reaver equivalent because whatever Jay did made Grace the most important character--not the protagonist.

That's based on what the characters think is happening going by the information they have.

[Celestia]

I guess Diane is specifically into tall girls.

[Fyraltari]

Who could blame her?

[Gnoman]

The last panel there really suffers from the lack of tone. I can visualize it as a scene, but it feels flat on the page to just have the line repeated three times.

[Mith]

The last panel there really suffers from the lack of tone. I can visualize it as a scene, but it feels flat on the page to just have the line repeated three times.

Diane could have had some sort of italicised emphasis or something similar to show that she is stressing the phrase.

[Radar]

Diane could have had some sort of italicised emphasis or something similar to show that she is stressing the phrase.

The difficulty is that Diane saying it in a completely flat tone actually works. Maybe a strategic pause here and there would be warranted. This is the limitation of the medium as it is not that easy to convey subtle details of speech.

[Mith]

The difficulty is that Diane saying it in a completely flat tone actually works. Maybe a strategic pause here and there would be warranted. This is the limitation of the medium as it is not that easy to convey subtle details of speech.

Fair. I was more thinking something that stresses the incredulity that Diane was expressing. Italics is how I often do it, so that's my default.

[Maat Mons]

Two of those chopsticks could plausibly be in holes made previously to fasten hinges, but what about the other two?

[Radar]

Two of those chopsticks could plausibly be in holes made previously to fasten hinges, but what about the other two?

Either there will be drilling involved, or those doors are prepared for being mounted from both sides. Considering that they have a mirror on one side, it is not unlikely.