Goblins VIII: This Thread Contains An Unexpected Variable

[The Glyphstone]

Discussion of the Goblins Comic. We do it here.

Previous threads:

Goblins Thread 0
Goblins I
Goblins II
GoblIIIns
Goblins IV: Live Free or Die Horribly
Goblins V: It's Hard-Kore!
Goblins VI: How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up?
Goblins VII: I'm TOTALLY Gonna Pee On This Thing!

Edit: I chose this title because I am an iron-fisted tyrant it was voted most popular.

Edit2: Current information on Axe Of Prissan wielders:

Spoiler

Show

Wielders of the Axe of Prissan
Starting with the most recent

Big Ears - Male Goblin Paladin. One of the protagonists of the story and current wielder of the axe.
Saral Caine* - Evil Male Half Stone Giant/Half Human. Ally of Dellyn Goblinslayer and minor antagonist in the Brassmoon arc.
Dri Featherknife - Female Human Rogue/Paladin. She was killed by Goblinslayer and Saral Caine after uncovering their plot to frame the sherrif of Brassmoon for murder.
Flejj Hillmover - Male Dwarf. He fought Kore twice and survived. His family was not so lucky. He shaved his beard in shame.

----

Felsibeth "Soot" Blackbringer - Young Female Human Paladin. Youngest to ever wield the axe.
Kelstride Blackbringer - Male Human Paladin. Soot's Father. Former chimney sweep. Killed by a Kobold stampede.
Drose - Genderless Golem Paladin. Drose passed the Axe to Kelstride Blackbringer to prevent the demon imprisoned within from taking control of his body.
Eled of the East - "Fat, over confident" Paladin. Was given the axe by Myorg.
Mryorg* - Evil Male Ogre. Beat (but did not kill) Vilias Red in combat and took the Axe from her. Used it to cause great suffering before eventually giving it to Elad purely to make the demon contained within suffer after coming so close to freedom.
Vilias Red* - Female Human Rogue. Was friends with Tivoth Fastfoot and took the axe after Tivoth died in battle with the intention of giving it to another Paladin.
Tivoth Fastfoot - Male Paladin. Encountered Vilias Red looting a corpse and assumed she had murdered the man. Once he realized she was innocent, the two became friends and traveled together.

----

Kevitch Gritland* - Evil Male... formerly... Human maybe... Fighter/Wizard. Horribly mutated by an evil swamp. Killed Eldrock Cloudcry and claimed the axe as his own.
Eldrock Cloudcry - Known in name only.

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Cal - Male Gnome Paladin. Egotistic gambler. Had a powerful, icy magic effect.
Jelbin Crae - Male Human Paladin. Gave Cal the Axe willingly. Nothing else is known.

*Confirmed non-Paladin

[Typewriter]

I'm glad this is the Title that got chosen, wasn't a huge fan of the 'ripping you to pieces now" one.

Do you think that if your arm was disintegrated into the hole people would think you were born without an arm? Or if you drained your blood into it would people say things like, "Remember Minmax, and how he never had blood and then died randomly one day - seemingly from lack of blood. Weird that it never bothered him before."

[leakingpen]

no, the blood would have retroactively not existed, minmax would have died in the womb and been never born.

[Traab]

no, the blood would have retroactively not existed, minmax would have died in the womb and been never born.

Biologically speaking, that isnt true, the blood in his veins right now is a lot newer than that. Most likely he would have died inexplicably 3-4 months ago since blood cells only last about 4 months, and these new cells never would have existed.

[The Glyphstone]

I'm glad this is the Title that got chosen, wasn't a huge fan of the 'ripping you to pieces now" one.

Your loyalty to the true powers is noted. When the end times come, you will be eaten first.

I'd question, based on Reality #180, if it was possible for you to only stick your arm in. 180Max didn't slowly slide into the hole and stop existing bit by bit, his entire existence ceased while he was halfway into the hole.

A severed arm, or dripping blood, would just have never existed.

[Dragonus45]

Ok, now your going to give me nightmares, good job at the elder evil thing.

Im still wondering about the way causality could be effected by what goes into the hole. Say the gap was in that dungeon crawl, and the axe of prissan were to fall in. Sine big ears only survived his fight with cain do to the axe, would he die like in the blood questions. Or would the blood lost character survive without that blood for a while untill uhhh my head is hurting now.

[Volthawk]

I think what would happen is that the past would alter in such a way that things reach the way they are there, just without that element.

[ORione]

Somebody in the last thread suggested that Minmax might try to pee in the hole. My thoughts on what would happen then: The pee would have never existed. Since it never existed, Minmax wouldn't have needed to pee, so he didn't. He'd just wonder why he had taken his loincloth off.

[Occasional Sage]

Ok, now your going to give me nightmares, good job at the elder evil thing.

Im still wondering about the way causality could be effected by what goes into the hole. Say the gap was in that dungeon crawl, and the axe of prissan were to fall in. Sine big ears only survived his fight with cain do to the axe, would he die like in the blood questions. Or would the blood lost character survive without that blood for a while untill uhhh my head is hurting now.

More to the point, would the AoP unexisting take the demon with it? Because that's sounding like a solid deal right there!

Now if it were just the Axe, then the demon would never have been imprisoned. Not such a good deal that way. More study needed, clearly.

ETA:

Somebody in the last thread suggested that Minmax might try to pee in the hole. My thoughts on what would happen then: The pee would have never existed. Since it never existed, Minmax wouldn't have needed to pee, so he didn't. He'd just wonder why he had taken his loincloth off.

Really? You think he'd wonder that? I'm picturing something more like Elan's "Woooo, I'm naked!" scene, somewhat restrained by his crush on Kin.

[Corneel]

Maybe what made things go awry in reality 158 is that after Minmax throws his pants in the hole, Kin has to construct memories of him not wearing pants, but with her trauma this causes a DOES NOT COMPUTE.

[Typewriter]

I don't think that the holes change the events in history, just the way they took place.

For example, if the belt buckle was to be destroyed then the corpses of the other party would still be there, and appear to be crushed but no one would know how/why they got crushed.

Otherwise you get into paradoxes. Let's say that Minmax is going through a chilly dungeon and he's warm because he has pants on. His pants then get destroyed, so he retroactively remembers not having pants. If he remembered being cold in the dungeon then he probably would have bought pants at some point. This would result in him having a new pair of pants even though he just threw a pair in the hole. Instead he was inexplicably warm, thus preventing the need for pants.

This is my interpretation and I think it's somewhat supported by the statement, "Minmax has always had one boot". If Minmax had one boot from the beginning of the comic then wouldn't he have wanted to get new boots? Or at least a second foot covering of some kind? He would be hurting his feet, walking crooked, etc. etc. But since none of those things were issues, he didn't need a second boot therefore it's remembered as him having one boot being the same as him having two boots.

[Douglas]

The holes do not do full retcons with adjustments. If they did, Kin would not remember saying that MM had only one boot, as evidenced by her correcting herself - that sentence would have been retconned when he threw the second boot in. Objects and creatures that fall in get removed retroactively, along with maybe a few of the most immediate direct interactions with them (Forgath #180 seems like he doesn't remember yelling "Minmax, hang on!"), but I think their general effects in the past remain, however little sense the resulting memories might make.

Toss the Axe of Prissan in? Big Ears and company suddenly start wondering how the hell they got that rope to go through Kore. Depending on the details of the imprisonment, either the demon wonders why he's been doing nothing for so long or historians are baffled about what killed all those powerful paladins so long ago.

[TheEmerged]

Noting the new post.

For the curious, I was forced to change the name of my Goblin hunter in World of Warcraft from DiesHorribly when someone reported it for being in violation of the naming rules. I take some solace that, at last count, there were still 117 people with that name in the game.

[Occasional Sage]

Toss the Axe of Prissan in? Big Ears and company suddenly start wondering how the hell they got that rope to go through Kore. Depending on the details of the imprisonment, either the demon wonders why he's been doing nothing for so long or historians are baffled about what killed all those powerful paladins so long ago.

"Hey, it was a really good nap, OK? I feel great now!"

[Brother Oni]

For the curious, I was forced to change the name of my Goblin hunter in World of Warcraft from DiesHorribly when someone reported it for being in violation of the naming rules. I take some solace that, at last count, there were still 117 people with that name in the game.

Out of curiosity, what naming rules does DiesHorribly break in WoW?

[Dragonus45]

The being cooler than your name rules.

[ORione]

Really? You think he'd wonder that? I'm picturing something more like Elan's "Woooo, I'm naked!" scene, somewhat restrained by his crush on Kin.

Heh. You're probably right.

[Gez]

Out of curiosity, what naming rules does DiesHorribly break in WoW?

The "don't name your avatar after a character from a work of fiction" rule.

It's so that you don't pretend to be playing as Darth Vader or Gandalf.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

So, the aim of the game is to pick the most obscure piece of fiction you can, and name your character after a character in that?

[TheEmerged]

Actually, the first email said it *wasn't* a fantasy name. I then pointed them toward the site and then to their own Armory, pointing out the number of Goblin characters named after characters in the comic.

Then they came back and said it violated a rule about names that could be considered sentence fragments, chided me for trying to defend the name by saying other people had it (even though I'd carefully worded it so I didn't think it could be read that way)... and then let me know it had actually been reported as offensive, and they were letting me off easy.

Not too happy about it, but obviously I'm still paying for the game I actually spent about 1/5th of the WotLK era preparing for the character (buying BoA legacy items, creating a character for the express purpose of holding items hordeside since all my other characters are alliance, reserving the name the moment I found out Goblins were going to be playable, etc).

[Traab]

Technically it violates several naming rules, you cant have phrases or partial phrases for a name, so Dieshorribly is no good, just like naming your Tauren, "Iliketomooveit" Its also taken from a work of fiction, so you are no more allowed to use dieshorribly than you would darth vadar, or merlin. And yes, these types of names exist, hell, I have a warrior named Rendalthor (I love bleed effects lol) that doesnt make it ok. It just means that noone has decided to be a jerk and reported those names yet. But until that happens, me and my rogue, StabbyMcgee and my tauren druid Mooveondotorg will play until they get reported.

[Flickerdart]

This is my interpretation and I think it's somewhat supported by the statement, "Minmax has always had one boot". If Minmax had one boot from the beginning of the comic then wouldn't he have wanted to get new boots?

No, because Minmax is dumb. if that doesn't cut it, he'd have probably traded away the ability to wear a boot on his right foot for Endurance or something.

[Marnath]

Well, now we can probably guess how they'll be denied all those magic rings. A rift will form and swallow them.

[petersohn]

So, the aim of the game is to pick the most obscure piece of fiction you can, and name your character after a character in that?

Or simply name him Bob (or something similar, but you get the idea) .

[Strawberries]

Aww...no update till the 20. I hadn't noticed.

Still, it's very sweet that he took time off to be with his mate and his sons. Thumbs up, Thunt.

[MammonAzrael]

Well, now we can probably guess how they'll be denied all those magic rings. A rift will form and swallow them.

Almost certainly. They won't spend time trying to move the giant stone slab of belt buckle, especially now that MinMax doesn't need a belt. They may have time to grab Kin's rings and open that treasure chest though, depending on how fast the void moves.

[Qwertystop]

Any idea what the unexpected variable was?

[Jimorian]

The "don't name your avatar after a character from a work of fiction" rule.

It's so that you don't pretend to be playing as Darth Vader or Gandalf.

What if the fictional character name is based on your own real name?

(I've explained it before, but my user name here is one I use just about everywhere now, including WoW, and it comes from a chat typo that an author friend of mine used in her fantasy trilogy.)

[The Glyphstone]

What if the fictional character name is based on your own real name?

(I've explained it before, but my user name here is one I use just about everywhere now, including WoW, and it comes from a chat typo that an author friend of mine used in her fantasy trilogy.)

What the rule boils down to is "If it's not obscene or a famous religious/political/pop culture figure, they don't care, and if it is, they still don't care unless someone complains about it". Someone I know had "Obamacare" as their priest and got a forced name change within a few weeks, someone else managed to level their rogue "Swettybalz" all the way to 80 before it got caught and name-changed. So it's entirely random and arbitrary.

[Traab]

What the rule boils down to is "If it's not obscene or a famous religious/political/pop culture figure, they don't care, and if it is, they still don't care unless someone complains about it". Someone I know had "Obamacare" as their priest and got a forced name change within a few weeks, someone else managed to level their rogue "Swettybalz" all the way to 80 before it got caught and name-changed. So it's entirely random and arbitrary.

Yep, totally random. I have on my play list a ton of characters that I made on a whim and gave silly names to, several of which have since reached high levels

Grrsnarlgrr - human warrior
Stabbymcgee - gnome rogue
Healymcgee - dwarf priest
Mooveondotorg Tauren druid
Rendalthor orc warrior
Imatanker blood elf paladin

I probably have more but its been awhile since ive gone through my fairly extensive list of characters.