Goblins XVIII: Being yourself can be dangerous

[Kish]

The "plan" was actually a joke to screw around with Forgath, as MM reveals in the following page; that's why I linked that episode, it shows him being smart enough to understand how to get people riled up.

And then he nearly gets eaten by a tentacle monster because he thought that getting Forgath riled up was a good way to pass the time before their attack on the goblins. So yeah.

[Vinyadan]

And then he nearly gets eaten by a tentacle monster because he thought that getting Forgath riled up was a good way to pass the time before their attack on the goblins. So yeah.

I don't really know what you mean exactly, but it was Forgath who threw him in the pond.

[Lizard Lord]

I don't really know what you mean exactly, but it was Forgath who threw him in the pond.

Because Minmax got him riled up.

[Bobb]

New comic.

You know what's really dumb and probably plot relevant before the end of this comic?

Kin has covered up the string of her obedience collar but not the collar itself.

[Fyraltari]

New comic.

Doesn't Minmax's first sentence lack a second half?

You know what's really dumb and probably plot relevant before the end of this comic?

Kin has covered up the string of her obedience collar but not the collar itself.

Come again?

[Lord Torath]

Doesn't Minmax's first sentence lack a second half?

"Huh? Oh." No, I think those are both complete sentences.

Moving on to the third: "Those are hellstrands this demon deity called The Sacred, but ..."

Yeah, he's missing some bits in there. "Those are hellstrands from this demon..." or something.

[Gez]

The interesting thing is Kin's phrasing: "your world is going to end", not "our world" or "the world".

[Vinyadan]

The interesting thing is Kin's phrasing: "your world is going to end", not "our world" or "the world".

Good point... at first I thought it was because she might have spent conscious years in the Maze and isn't yet back to consider this world her home. Then I thought that maybe it's to underscore MM's lack of self-consciousness. But now I am wondering if she used the Maze to take off to a better world than the Goblins Realm, and she's only back because she really needed to talk to MM. Although she did say that evil was winning on a multiverse scale, so who knows, maybe there simply isn't a place better than this Realm.

[Draconi Redfir]

Minmax is being a bit Verbose for Minmax. At least i think he is, could probably trim that dialogue down a little bit.

"Huh? Oh. Those are hellstrands. There's this Demon-deity guy that's trapped in a prison axe, but the axe broke, and now he's turning our world into a layer of hell so he can escape." would have been my first draft.

Feel like the whole "that's not his real name" bit is more for the audience then Kin, that could probably be left out, since anyone who read the comic up to this point would already know this. and the "torture every living soul" thing seems a bit like padding. context alone probably could have established that. Like how you if you're told an animal is being kept in a zoo, you probably don't need to be told that they're feeding it regularly, that's kind of implied.


beyond that, more or less okay. kind of surprised Minmax forgot about not-walter, but meh.

[The Glyphstone]

He traded his ability to remember useful NPCs for a +1 damage bonus.

[Vinyadan]

It's particularly remarkable, because Grinnorarcen is how he learned about demonic true names the first time. https://www.goblinscomic.com/comic/12042005/

[Draconi Redfir]

He traded his ability to remember useful NPCs for a +1 damage bonus.

a'ight, that's clever. Thumbs up.

[Traab]

I think this was an attempt to play with his character a bit. The dumb guy who randomly will rattle off a complicated set of sentences to explain, say, the entire plot of the story, then goes right back to 3 int barely avoiding drooling on himself behavior. I dont know what its called but im sure its a trope as ive seen it done before. Or maybe minmax has just been fighting so many demons they are starting to blur in his grief addled mind so he honestly did forget about not walter specifically being a demons whose name they know briefly.

[Anteros]

It doesn't really make sense. Literally the only reason he knows anything about true names is from Not-Walter. He can't have forgotten him. He just referenced him a sentence ago. I know "hurr-durr Minmax is dumb" but this is just nonsensical.

[Fyraltari]

It doesn't really make sense. Literally the only reason he knows anything about true names is from Not-Walter. He can't have forgotten him. He just referenced him a sentence ago. I know "hurr-durr Minmax is dumb" but this is just nonsensical.

Do you always remember the context in which you've learned things? Because I don't.

[Anteros]

Do you always remember the context in which you've learned things? Because I don't.

Mostly? Also, for Minmax it was yesterday

[Draconi Redfir]

Mostly? Also, for Minmax it was yesterday

to be fair, it's been a long day.


and again feel like this whole exchange is more aimed at the audience to remind us what's happening, it has been a few comics (and a long time irl) since all that happened.

[Vinyadan]

In this case, I wonder if "I forgot all" means "I did not think of Grinnorarcen lately, and of how he relates to the current situation". Not that it would have mattered for MM, since the name was whispered to Kin, and he probably couldn't hear it when she used it.

Other options are a parody of players forgetting stuff from previous quests/sessions, or MM's tunnel-vision brain that remembers mechanical advantages but not most other things.

By the way, that against MM38 and Grinnorarcen was a very good-looking fight. It was just people hitting each other and thinking up clever countermeasures, instead of torture, gore, pain, and anguish. https://www.goblinscomic.com/comic/02212012

[Typewriter]

Kore: Origins

[Kish]

By the way, that against MM38 and Grinnorarcen was a very good-looking fight. It was just people hitting each other and thinking up clever countermeasures, instead of torture, gore, pain, and anguish. https://www.goblinscomic.com/comic/02212012

This is counting Kin's rape flashback as happening after the fight, I'm guessing.

(On an unrelated note, declaring the "I forgot all about not-Walter!" line "just nonsensical" is the biggest stretch I've seen here since the last really big stretch I've seen here.)

[Vinyadan]

This is counting Kin's rape flashback as happening after the fight, I'm guessing.

Well, yes. But even that is followed by MM saving Kin, and by Kin overcoming her horror towards physical contact.

Actually, I think that's GS's final defeat: first against Thac0 as the city's hero, then against MM and Forgath as a villain, and then in Kin's mind as the trees that pin her like he did are smashed and she gets over some of the damage he did to her as her rapist.

[Draconi Redfir]

New comic is out!


Who's cutting onions?

[Typewriter]

Spoiler: New Comic Spoilers

Show

I've got to say that I enjoy moments like this in the comic - it's one of the few things that causes me to keep reading. But I think if the payoff for this is just to kill one or both of these characters in gruesome ways to build tension/dramatic effect that it would probably be the thing that made me finally remove it from my bookmarks list. I hate that that's where my expectation sort of goes to at this point but I'd be lying if I said that wasn't what my first thought was upon reading it.

[Kish]

I don't think you have anything to worry about there.

Count the number of protagonists who have actually died, not just been mutilated in grotesque ways. I count...one. Chief.

[Keltest]

I don't think you have anything to worry about there.

Count the number of protagonists who have actually died, not just been mutilated in grotesque ways. I count...one. Chief.

Two. Fogarth died, and while its like 99.9% likely that he did genuinely get better without anything more complicated than that, he hasnt actually had any screen time to confirm that yet.

Also, Minmax has that prophecy thing hovering in the background involving "the serpent becoming his prey", whoever "his" means in this case, so i think theres SOMETHING that has a high chance of ending tragically in the near future. Well, comic time near.

[BaronOfHell]

Spoiler: New Comic Spoilers

Show

I've got to say that I enjoy moments like this in the comic - it's one of the few things that causes me to keep reading. But I think if the payoff for this is just to kill one or both of these characters in gruesome ways to build tension/dramatic effect that it would probably be the thing that made me finally remove it from my bookmarks list. I hate that that's where my expectation sort of goes to at this point but I'd be lying if I said that wasn't what my first thought was upon reading it.

Isn't it a good thing to believe the characters you're invested enough in, that you'd be willing to quit their universe, is in a real enough risk that you'd even make such a consideration, and on the same time be able to enjoy their good moments?

[Gez]

I don't think you have anything to worry about there.

Count the number of protagonists who have actually died, not just been mutilated in grotesque ways. I count...one. Chief.

Didn't Klik die as well?

[Typewriter]

Isn't it a good thing to believe the characters you're invested enough in, that you'd be willing to quit their universe, is in a real enough risk that you'd even make such a consideration, and on the same time be able to enjoy their good moments?

I get what you're saying but at a certain point I feel like there is no longer a point to continuing to invest myself in the characters. The comic has always sort of towed the line between a legitimate narrative and torture porn - if it decides to dunk this entire arc for 'emotional impact' I think I'd just be done - unable to find reason to continue caring.

[Anteros]

We've been chasing a prophecy about "love fueling hate" and "the serpent becoming prey" all comic. Plus we know something bad is in store for Minmax from Fumble's. It's not a matter of if they get fridged. It's a matter of when.

Also, this wasn't much emotional payoff for a supposedly emotional plotline that's been building for 8 years. Maybe the next update will add to it, but "wall of text at each other and it's better now" is not great.

[remetagross]

Didn't Klik die as well?

Oh man. He did. That was heartwrenching.