11 Jan 2014 What are we Watching

[WastesTime]

Why doesn't Minmax just drop the gate and go help? It looks like plenty of room inside for the Goblins. I know he can't win, but still, that's his Brother in Arms out there...

My thoughts exactly. If there are two people fighting Kore it is even less likely that he will shoot at Thaco & Co., plus the bars must gve them at least a bit of protection, so even if he managed to get a shot with his crossbow past Minmax and Forgath, he still wouldn't be able to hurt them that much. Methinks Minmax should definitely drop the bars and run to Forgath's aid although Thunt will make it so he runs to help his dwarf while the latter is close to death or already dying (y'know, to make it more dramatic 'n' stuff)

[thecentaur98]

The best reason I can think of for Minmax saying grey is as in "Greyhill Paladins".

[arpfaust]

The axe head definitely didn't break off, look at the previous comic and compare the angles.

[LooksAndSmiles]

What is with Thunt and marked eyes?

- BE's best friend, One Eye. (had an eyepatch)
- Chief poking his own eye with the stick. (All hail the pointy stick!)
- Thac0 has a cut on his face, likely GS made it, aiming around the eye
- Complains has a marked eye (curtesy of Chief)
- Minmax has his eye damaged (curtesy of Complains)
- Kore has one visible eye

- ... And now Forgath gets a cut over his eye, too.

[ironballs]

what did Minmax meant by IMMA? what's that?

[Liesmith]

what did Minmax meant by IMMA? what's that?

He's saying "I'm a", but very quickly so it runs together. In this context, it means "I'm going to".

[Yamadasan]

AAAAAAAH MINMAX YOU ASSFACEIHATEYOU! Cracked me up hella hard. I'm still laughing from that one. His expression and everything.

[ironballs]

what did Minmax meant by IMMA? what's that?

He's saying "I'm a", but very quickly so it runs together. In this context, it means "I'm going to".

Oh, got it
Thanks!

[Dendr]

What is with Thunt and marked eyes?

You forgot GS's eye from the wooden half of his face. Not exactly a mark, but nevertheless.

[Ulalume]

Wow. All I can say is bravo, Thunt. Not only is this one of the funniest things Minmax has done, but I can only imagine how hard it must have been to plan. For a minute, I thought the dialogue was off between Minmax, the portal, and the floating hand. Another look at the comic proved that I was mistaken.

[willpell]

Cute though this was, I'd rather have had more plot progress. But it looks like I don't have to wait quite as long for the next update? The clock is saying it'll be less than four days, instead of five.

[SGTdude]

Two things: first the title is wrong. It is currently 2014 (seriously how did nobody catch that?)

Second I have an issue with the sword hijinks.

I am not going to get into the details of time travel here because that would be too complicated. For a "simple guide" watch this (be warned, if you havent seen it you will probably have to also watch these after: 1 2 3)

But jokes aside, I just dont see how it is possible. MM throws his sword to Forgath and it should have hurtled through the air to him. Given what we saw, I would have thought that some time later MM drops his sword down a well or something and then goes "I know!" and just reaches back through time to get it again. But he steals it from him self, the intent being formed in his head seconds later. So its the causality that bothers me.

Unless there is something about Oblivious where it can not be held by anyone but its owner (but then how did it end up in the chest?), my question is how does what he decided to do seconds later override what he actually did? Especially when that decision was based on something that future self did? If he had stolen from future self ad infinitum I would have understood it because the causality is clear. I do not see how what happened is possible, even with Oblivious.

I am not saying THunt is wrong, I am saying I am confused. While the sequence is funny, I know for me the humor I could have found in it was at least partially robbed by the confusion over how a thing is even possible in the first place.

Im not expecting an explanation about how Oblivious works, but it sure would be nice.

[Rorrik]

Two things: first the title is wrong. It is currently 2014 (seriously how did nobody catch that?)

Second I have an issue with the sword hijinks.

I am not going to get into the details of time travel here because that would be too complicated. For a "simple guide" watch this (be warned, if you havent seen it you will probably have to also watch these after: 1 2 3)

But jokes aside, I just dont see how it is possible. MM throws his sword to Forgath and it should have hurtled through the air to him. Given what we saw, I would have thought that some time later MM drops his sword down a well or something and then goes "I know!" and just reaches back through time to get it again. But he steals it from him self, the intent being formed in his head seconds later. So its the causality that bothers me.

Unless there is something about Oblivious where it can not be held by anyone but its owner (but then how did it end up in the chest?), my question is how does what he decided to do seconds later override what he actually did? Especially when that decision was based on something that future self did? If he had stolen from future self ad infinitum I would have understood it because the causality is clear. I do not see how what happened is possible, even with Oblivious.

I am not saying THunt is wrong, I am saying I am confused. While the sequence is funny, I know for me the humor I could have found in it was at least partially robbed by the confusion over how a thing is even possible in the first place.

Im not expecting an explanation about how Oblivious works, but it sure would be nice.

So the deal with Oblivious. To begin with, Oblivious was not Oblivious when it was in the chest, it was a sword that copied material and it only became Oblivious when Minmax touched an oblivion hole with it and it copied oblivion. Now that the sword has copied oblivion, it cannot be affected by any force except for the oblivious Minmax who created it (for reasons not entirely clear to me, but we know he is now the only one who can affect the sword). This includes time. The sword does not follow down the time stream while not held by Minmax (who is flowing down the time stream). Therefore, when Minmax throws Oblivious, it ceases to exist until such a time as Minmax grabs it again. This is why he cannot throw it to Forgath. Once it leaves his hand, it vanishes into the hand of his future self, regardless of what he intended.

Even never using the sword again would not be enough to get the sword to Forgath. The sword would still disappear, but no hand would grab it. Minmax could live forever now if he only refrained from ever saying "grey," he just couldn't use the sword ever again. (Assuming the universe is unwilling to allow paradoxes. )

[Tofu]

Oblivious is also not subject to applied force/gravity unless MinMax is holding it.

MinMax should wrench the cage to broken with the sword, then do the long forcast Kore battle - one option might be throwing goblins at Kore ... There are some handily available. They might do damage even.

Hanging plot reminder : artifact that is a character - +7 sword or Hammace?

[warrl]

Can't minmax hold open the portal by Oblivious? I thought it could not be moved except by him?

He could hold it open with Oblivious rather than his own hands.

But then his own hands would have to be holding Oblivious - because as soon as he releases his hold on the sword, Future-Him grabs it and takes it into the future.

The technique would be useful if there were some reason that touching the gate with his hands was a bad idea, or to obviate repeated strength checks to *continue holding* the gate open. (It wouldn't help on the strength check to open the gate in the first place.)

Edit: As far as I have found, they haven't tried Minmax *handing* Oblivious to someone else. They know that nobody else can affect it while Minmax is holding it, and that it gets grabbed into the future if nobody is holding it; but what if someone else is holding it when Minmax lets go? It's possible that this would permit any of the goblins to hold the gate open. (Minmax would then need to borrow a weapon. Unfortunately the best weapon the goblins have is near-useless against Kore.)

[Kamos]

Yeah Oblivious isn't subject to Minmax's will, just his hand. I'm fairly confident it can only be wielding by by him and even if he somehow got it into the hands of someone they couldn't move it.

On another note seems Forgath could have been trying to sunder Kore's weapons since he isn't likely to actually bring him down. If you can't beat them, limit their effectiveness.

What is with Thunt and marked eyes?

- BE's best friend, One Eye. (had an eyepatch)
- Chief poking his own eye with the stick. (All hail the pointy stick!)
- Thac0 has a cut on his face, likely GS made it, aiming around the eye
- Complains has a marked eye (curtesy of Chief)
- Minmax has his eye damaged (curtesy of Complains)
- Kore has one visible eye

- ... And now Forgath gets a cut over his eye, too.

It' easily visible no matter what the character is wearing. And since this is a comic they will almost always have their faces revealed.

[spiderwrangler]

It looks like the GAP has made their first move, mountain to the right.

Does that create a 'win' in less than 10 moves?

[RedwoodElf]

It looks like the GAP has made their first move, mountain to the right.

Does that create a 'win' in less than 10 moves?

Nope. Smallest I see is 13 with that opening move
Mountain Right
Glove Down
Eye Down
Key Left
Star Up
Eye Right
Key Down
Star Left
Eye Up
Mountain Up
Glove Right
Key Down
Tree Right

[vector010]

It looks like the GAP has made their first move, mountain to the right.

Does that create a 'win' in less than 10 moves?

Nope. Smallest I see is 13 with that opening move
Mountain Right
Glove Down
Eye Down
Key Left
Star Up
Eye Right
Key Down
Star Left
Eye Up
Mountain Up
Glove Right
Key Down
Tree Right

Possible with 11 actually.

1. Mountain Right
2. Glove Down
3. Star Left
4. Key Down
5. Eye Right
6. Star Up
7. Key Left
8. Mountain Up
9. Glove Right
10. Key Down
11. Tree Right

[spiderwrangler]

Possible with 11 actually.

Yes, I should have said 'ten more moves'... that was the best I could see.

[rayearth]

Just a thought

Forgath screwed himself over.

The axe of racism is currently being wielded by Forgath's hammer and not Forgath. Thus instead of getting a bonus of +7 vs dwarves it is currently getting a +7 vs weapons as it is technically being wielded by a weapon.

This would explain why Forgath hit and wounded Kores axe and not Kore himself.

[kida]

Possible with 11 actually.

Yes, I should have said 'ten more moves'... that was the best I could see.

At this rate Forgath will be gone way before the ten moves are over...

[SGTdude]

What is with Thunt and marked eyes?

- BE's best friend, One Eye. (had an eyepatch)
- Chief poking his own eye with the stick. (All hail the pointy stick!)
- Thac0 has a cut on his face, likely GS made it, aiming around the eye
- Complains has a marked eye (curtesy of Chief)
- Minmax has his eye damaged (curtesy of Complains)
- Kore has one visible eye

- ... And now Forgath gets a cut over his eye, too.

THunt menthined this on the stream. I remember it from when I was in Afghanistan. But I was in Afghanistan so I don't remember what was said. It does have some kind of sgnificance in the comic though and is not just a weird reoccurring theme.

Ps - I'm always surprised that people leave goblinslayer of that list. His right eye was marked too.

[lonely_cube]

At this point, I'm actually fairly confident that Forgath will survive. Why? Because this whole scene has been surprisingly light and humourous. There have been some serious pages, but between Minmax and Forgath's hug, Big Ears being yelled at, and of course this goofiness (which is great, but undoubtedly goofy), the scene just doesn't feel serious enough for Forgath to die. The scenes where the last three main characters died were all very serious. I know it's a weird thing to base my guess on, and I can't think of any reasonable way for Forgath to survive, but I still don't think Forgath will die here.

Anyway, about the actual page, it was pretty fantastic. It's been too long since we saw Minmax do something so utterly moronic. He should probably stop distracting the goblins though.

[Kamos]

Just a thought

Forgath screwed himself over.

The axe of racism is currently being wielded by Forgath's hammer and not Forgath. Thus instead of getting a bonus of +7 vs dwarves it is currently getting a +7 vs weapons as it is technically being wielded by a weapon.

This would explain why Forgath hit and wounded Kores axe and not Kore himself.

Thing is weapon isn't a race and items don't wield things.