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  1. - Top - End - #121
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    BlackDragon

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Or, they just want to keep the Pa'anuri from controlling the core generator? Seems to me that's by far the simplest explanation.

  2. - Top - End - #122
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    Or, they just want to keep the Pa'anuri from controlling the core generator? Seems to me that's by far the simplest explanation.
    One of the Pa'anuri plugged enesby into the Andromeda core generator.
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    Rockphed said it well.
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  3. - Top - End - #123
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    So does Schlock share Thurl's sentiment that Petey cannot be trusted with the core generator, or does he just want an infinite food source?

  4. - Top - End - #124
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by JavaScribe View Post
    So does Schlock share Thurl's sentiment that Petey cannot be trusted with the core generator, or does he just want an infinite food source?
    If I had to guess, I suspect that Schlock wants to be sure he gets paid before he gives the generator back.
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  5. - Top - End - #125
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    I am pleased to see (at least some of) the extragalactics intend to return. It makes it far less likely that someone will declare war on Petey, who just lost all his capital ships. Granted there is a lot of battlefield salvage, by which I mean the Pa'anuri vessels. Unfortunately, that usually means more fighting over who gets the loot, since it may be turned to a permanent advantage in power.

  6. - Top - End - #126
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    So that's -three- plot-critical epic story threads that were left on cliff-hangers and resolved entirely off-screen. I'm getting a bit pissed off here. Can we get less "let's listen to people post-hoc narrate the important bits"?
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  7. - Top - End - #127
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    BlackDragon

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    What's annoying me slightly is that Schlock eating them in the Milky Way, and Ennesby blowing up their long gun in Andromeda, appears to be all that's needed to have ended the war. This is a war that's effectively been going on for thousands of years, ever since the Pa'anuri plotted to help the Gatekeepers make a core generator that would blow up the Milky Way, it seems it ought to have been a bit harder to resolve than that.

  8. - Top - End - #128
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    What turned the tide in Andromeda is Ennesby taking over their core, not the blowing them up. They lost the super weapon and the power source for most of the stuff they did.
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  9. - Top - End - #129
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by HandofShadows View Post
    What turned the tide in Andromeda is Ennesby taking over their core, not the blowing them up. They lost the super weapon and the power source for most of the stuff they did.
    Yup, that. Both of the core generators are now securely in the control of the Milky Way baryonics, which means their full output can be turned to carrying out the war in Andromeda and the Paanuri no longer have anything capable of responding on the same scale of energy. That's game; the basic options for the Paanuri at this point are try to negotiate for lenient terms of surrender while they still have some fighting capability they can use as leverage (ie, 'be nice to us in our defeat or we'll force you to spend the next x-ty many years dealing with a guerilla war') or drag out an impossible war until they've been destroyed to the point that terms can be dictated to them. ..or hope that some miracle happens and gives them back the Andromeda end generator, but I'm pretty sure the Toughs have 'random off-screen BS resolutions' locked up here.

    (Ennesby just randomly getting connected to the Andromeda core really feels like Taylor just didn't want to deal with things any more, and I would have liked to see how the exogalactic diplomatic mission managed to convince the impressively paranoid survivalists in charge of Boloceade to even begin to consider returning to the galactic center.)

  10. - Top - End - #130
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by Windscion View Post
    Unfortunately, that usually means more fighting over who gets the loot, since it may be turned to a permanent advantage in power.
    Which is when the Third Option comes into play.

    All that loot? Dismantle the items and turn them into intergalactic commons. We're not talking a Credomar situation (put a city into a working gun to keep someone from firing it). We're talking dismantling a Credomar situation and turning them into actual buildings. Another sphere for virtual life. Or whatever.

    Quote Originally Posted by tyckspoon View Post
    (Ennesby just randomly getting connected to the Andromeda core really feels like Taylor just didn't want to deal with things any more, and I would have liked to see how the exogalactic diplomatic mission managed to convince the impressively paranoid survivalists in charge of Boloceade to even begin to consider returning to the galactic center.)
    As I recall, their sims said that only ONE path of their predictions would result in their survival. All other paths saw them destroyed by the pa'anuri.

    And it was a slim chance that required specific things to happen - things with a very low chance of probability - to escape that fate.

    Guess what Schlock and Ennesby managed to do...
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  11. - Top - End - #131
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by Godskook View Post
    So that's -three- plot-critical epic story threads that were left on cliff-hangers and resolved entirely off-screen. I'm getting a bit pissed off here. Can we get less "let's listen to people post-hoc narrate the important bits"?
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  12. - Top - End - #132
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by Gez View Post
    I'm hoping at least we get a flashback back to virtual Tagon. I feel like that could happen. Though I will be disappointed when it doesn't.
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  13. - Top - End - #133
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by tyckspoon View Post
    (Ennesby just randomly getting connected to the Andromeda core really feels like Taylor just didn't want to deal with things any more, and I would have liked to see how the exogalactic diplomatic mission managed to convince the impressively paranoid survivalists in charge of Boloceade to even begin to consider returning to the galactic center.)
    Yeah, that's two of the three things I'm complaining about :(

    (The third is Schlock actually fighting the Panuri in the core. Last we saw him, he was telling Petey he was -going- to that fight)
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  14. - Top - End - #134
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by tonberrian View Post
    i'm hoping at least we get a flashback back to virtual tagon. I feel like that could happen. Though i will be disappointed when it doesn't.
    vindication!
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  15. - Top - End - #135
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by tonberrian View Post
    vindication!
    One of the things I liked about Massively Parallel was that we got hints about where the other stories were going to go before we saw them which made every pass through the month interesting. I am glad that we get to see both Tagon say "you should come back" and that he got such a reaction from the Senechator.
    Quote Originally Posted by Wardog View Post
    Rockphed said it well.
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  16. - Top - End - #136
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by Rockphed View Post
    One of the things I liked about Massively Parallel was that we got hints about where the other stories were going to go before we saw them which made every pass through the month interesting. I am glad that we get to see both Tagon say "you should come back" and that he got such a reaction from the Senechator.
    It's worth noting that the existence of the core generator(s) drastically changes what 'coming back' entails. We just saw Sorlie get sent back, effectively instantly, across a distance that took the exodians literally tens of millions of years to cross. Physically bringing the worldships back is not a thing that's actually happening, but the beings living in those worldships can now return instantly something that was impossible only a few years ago.

    And, of course, it's possible for the exodians to simply send copies of themselves back, they don't actually have to incur any existential risk at all to their current membership if they don't want too (forking does weird things to storytelling).
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  17. - Top - End - #137
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by Mechalich View Post
    It's worth noting that the existence of the core generator(s) drastically changes what 'coming back' entails. We just saw Sorlie get sent back, effectively instantly, across a distance that took the exodians literally tens of millions of years to cross. Physically bringing the worldships back is not a thing that's actually happening, but the beings living in those worldships can now return instantly something that was impossible only a few years ago.

    And, of course, it's possible for the exodians to simply send copies of themselves back, they don't actually have to incur any existential risk at all to their current membership if they don't want too (forking does weird things to storytelling).
    Isn't that giant meeting taking place in an "infosphere", such that also-Sorlie wasn't physically sent back?
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  18. - Top - End - #138
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by Max_Killjoy View Post
    Isn't that giant meeting taking place in an "infosphere", such that also-Sorlie wasn't physically sent back?
    But so are the worldships. The exodians don't physically exist as flesh-and-blood - which is why Boloceade had to build a special space to meatjack the Toughs into - they're entirely data creatures. Each worldship is basically an All-Star, simply constructed around a specially-designed star and give propulsion somehow.
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  19. - Top - End - #139
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by Mechalich View Post
    But so are the worldships. The exodians don't physically exist as flesh-and-blood - which is why Boloceade had to build a special space to meatjack the Toughs into - they're entirely data creatures. Each worldship is basically an All-Star, simply constructed around a specially-designed star and give propulsion somehow.
    Not entirely accurate, as the worldship contains an area for flesh and blood sophonts who want to enjoy it by default. Having a star as a power source is a lot of power and the volume does give a lot of space.
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  20. - Top - End - #140
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Ugh, another jump forward. Let us experience the story in a linear fashion Howard.
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  21. - Top - End - #141
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by Battleship789 View Post
    Ugh, another jump forward. Let us experience the story in a linear fashion Howard.
    Frankly I don't mind non-linear time so much as I mind telling us what happened instead of showing us.
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    Rockphed said it well.
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  22. - Top - End - #142
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    BlackDragon

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    I don't have a problem with the jump forward either. As I said earlier, what I have a real problem with is the overly easy and anti-climactic resolution of a war on an intergalactic scale. I'm sure Howard used to know how to write satisfying resolutions to his storylines, what happened to him in the last few years?

  23. - Top - End - #143
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    "Epilogue"?

    At least I don't think I'm the only one that doesn't really feel like this story was resolved.

    Ending was better than Game of Throne's ending. But ... no where near what I got used to expecting from books 8-14 or so.
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  24. - Top - End - #144
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Honestly I think the theory that he lost interest and just started skipping telling the details because he just wanted to get it done is still the one that makes the most sense to me.

    Well giant schlock was fun for some chapters until the rest was skipped.

  25. - Top - End - #145
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by Ibrinar View Post
    Honestly I think the theory that he lost interest and just started skipping telling the details because he just wanted to get it done is still the one that makes the most sense to me.
    He really doesn't want to get into that habit...otherwise he could end up like D&D and the last couple of seasons of Game of Thrones!

  26. - Top - End - #146
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    If you follow Howard more broadly, it comes across as if he's worn out and dealing with health issues... he's been working on this thing non-stop, without a break, for years now... he was late with an update one day, because the server caught fire, and that's it. If the strip had been 6 or 5 days a week, or he'd given himself a week off each year, I think we'd see less of this undertone of him wanting to get it done by a certain date.

    Really, this "wrap it up with a tell instead of a show" seems to have begun at the end of the first Oafan arc, when Enesby and Chinook came back from dealing with the ancient station AI and summarized what had happened.

    And maybe that intersects with one of the internal problems of the strip, dealing with the increasing capabilities of the AIs and how they could easily have overshadowed the flesh and blood characters.
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  27. - Top - End - #147
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    It is a slightly depressing way to end all of this.
    I really would wish Howard had taken, i dont know, a months vacation, before writing his final arc.
    There were really a lot of stuff i would have prefered to see play out as it unfolded.
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  28. - Top - End - #148
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    BlackDragon

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Today being a case in point: "Oh, your dark matter version fixed the orbit of Othlin yesterday. You didn't need to see that or anything, right?".

  29. - Top - End - #149
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    Today being a case in point: "Oh, your dark matter version fixed the orbit of Othlin yesterday. You didn't need to see that or anything, right?".
    Part of that is trying to tell a story of this scale with this many events and this many players, in a daily comic strip format.
    It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.

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  30. - Top - End - #150
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary X: The Mundivore, or, "Eat it"

    I think in general Howard has decided that this part of the story isn't really what he wants to be focusing on, and is just getting it done.

    Science fiction writer David Brin had a similar thing with his Uplift series -- he started a second trilogy in that universe, and did some really good storytelling with the crew of his human/dolphin-crewed spaceship Streaker, as well as the antagonist ships chasing it (much as a good part of the first trilogy was). But then by the last book in the second trilogy, he had to tie a ribbon around the big interstellar plot/conspiracy/whatever that was the background event upon which the Streaker's escapades were set and... he just kinda wrapped it up with a dull wet whimper.

    I suspect that when Howard gets back to doing what he wants to be doing with his characters (in whatever format that takes), his writing skills will once again rise to the challenge.

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