30 April 2013: Altsplanation 5 - Reality 98

[CelineSSauve]

You have a point. When I read it, I thought that it was recently after they escaped, but I don't remember any numbers, and I'm too horrified to go back to reread it.

I got that impression when I reread that passage last night. GS implies that it was really simple to track them down. Still, with different events could come a deeper connection between the two faster.

Thunt said in the live stream yesterday

...
Why does this new bloody site not email me when the channel goes live!?

Why is PsiMax not simply leaving the maze?

Because it runs 100% counter to his plans for using the maze to obliviate himself. If he leaves the maze, he'll have to waste hundreds of attempts studying a whole new combination of alternate groups.

If he left the Maze he wouldn't have any alternate groups to study?

[vernes]

EDIT:

Why is PsiMax not simply leaving the maze?

Because it runs 100% counter to his plans for using the maze to obliviate himself. If he leaves the maze, he'll have to waste hundreds of attempts studying a whole new combination of alternate groups.

I don't understand, he wants to obliviate himself why again?
Is he tired of living completely?

Or does he see it as a good deed, removing the maze itself from existence?
Saving others from this gruesome fate?

[Zambee]

That was sad. And kinda sweet really. Minmax 98 want's to be with his Kin or Forgath in the afterlife, or wherever they may be.
Unless that is, he want's to go get Goblinslayer wherever his soul has gone to, like one of the layers of Hell?
I guess he wouldn't be going to see Kin as he won't be in love with here, since our Minmax is the only one that is in love with his Kin.
Either way, it shows a dark, almost emotionally dead side of Minmax, as if he has been emotionally broken and cares little for what seems right and wrong in the pursuit of punishing Goblinslayer.

[Zwums]

Is he tired of living completely?

Or does he see it as a good deed, removing the maze itself from existence?
Saving others from this gruesome fate?

http://www.goblinscomic.com/02222011-2/ I know simply posting a page isn't the best method to answer questions but... seems to me it's the truest escape?

[Liesmith]

When I said he'd have new groups to study, I thought you were suggesting that he leave and re-enter the maze to get away from his current predicament of shoddy calculations.

[CelineSSauve]

I guess he wouldn't be going to see Kin as he won't be in love with here, since our Minmax is the only one that is in love with his Kin.

That's the thing, though. How would PsiMax know? He obviously can't observe MM-98 with Kin-98.

[Reads_Forums]

I think it's pretty clear this minimax is after more time with GS, and where he's going he'll have all the time in the world.

Definitely one of the evil minmax's even if it's in a fallen to the dark side way. Seems like Thunt was having a bit of fun trying out his horror hat. Bit short, a few pages with all the details would have given a better sense of duration of the torture but a nice concept and definitely get the idea that minimax has slipped into a dark, twisted insanity.

As for the idea he'll help our MM out? Unlikely he'd get to the tower room, and if he did, he has one thing on his mind only. Revenge, an eternity of revenge. He's willing to go to hell to spend an eternity torturing GS, I doubt he has the capacity to acknoledge anyone else. This is a dark and twisted Minmax.

[CelineSSauve]

This is a dark and twisted Minmax.

To each their own. I still think he's going to meet up with Kin.

[Matney X]

Path of Blood, Not Tears? Meh, either is epic

No I think MM 98 is done with GS. He wants to go home..to where Forgath and Kin are.

The spoiler contains speculation based on another game system entirely -- It's probably not worth reading, unless you understand the quote.

► Show Spoiler

He's not a martyr, he's on a rampage of vengeance and obviously thinks torture is okay.

So, assuming he's a Vampire, and he's not simply something like Humanity 2 (voluntarily dropping that low for the Freebies would certainly fit Minmax), he could be Path of Bones.

The thing is, he's very close to his Beast right now, but obviously has it in check. He's giving into emotions but in a coldly rational way, and he's not taking pleasure in what he's doing. He's not afraid to kill or torture, and he feels nothing toward his actions, positive or negative. He's meticulous, with obvious forethought into what he's doing, and how he's doing it. He doesn't fit nicely into any Path, but the fact he has his Beast under control leads me to believe he's no longer in the Path of Humanity.

After that quick analysis -- this character is unplayable, and best left as an NPC. He has a single driving goal, to see GS dead, and in his own reality he would become an empty shell without the Teapot. Once he figures out that there are MANY Goblin Slayers (and probably more than a few in the Maze), he would look for ways to jump from reality to reality simply to destroy them.

[Lee]

You have a point. When I read it, I thought that it was recently after they escaped, but I don't remember any numbers, and I'm too horrified to go back to reread it.

I got that impression when I reread that passage last night. GS implies that it was really simple to track them down. Still, with different events could come a deeper connection between the two faster.

-snip-

In the fourth paragraph it says it's been 3 weeks since MinMax threw him out of the tavern window. Plus Fourth Paragraph up from the bottom MinMax says he spent days looking for Forgath. So I would say they maybe had 2 weeks together tops. Which doesn't seem like a lot of time but as I'm guessing that's about as much time out Kin and MinMax have had together with the added emotional factor of being on the run from GS they might have fallen in "love".

This is a dark and twisted Minmax.

To each their own. I still think he's going to meet up with Kin.

+1 (I'm a romantic fool, what can I say)

[Zambee]

Reading this kinda makes me want to read more. Am I the only one who thinks it'd be sweet to have several novella based on the comic? Much like the Doctor Who or Star Treck books. Each one giving a little more depth and Lore into the Characters and their personal histories.

[Mytical]

Matney X
Ah, wrong game then. . There is a game called Might and Magic : Heroes VI which has the path of blood and path of tears. One is seen as the darker side, one the 'nice side' neither are really that simple but meh.

[Rooks]

Reading this kinda makes me want to read more. Am I the only one who thinks it'd be sweet to have several novella based on the comic? Much like the Doctor Who or Star Treck books. Each one giving a little more depth and Lore into the Characters and their personal histories.

Yes and no. I like reading the Altsplanations, but we want more GOBLINS!

[Matney X]

Matney X
Ah, wrong game then. . There is a game called Might and Magic : Heroes VI which has the path of blood and path of tears. One is seen as the darker side, one the 'nice side' neither are really that simple but meh.

And I've never played that, so I didn't get it, either. I was like, "Path of Tears?!," which lead me to an old Angelfire site referencing an old Dark Ages Vampire book.

And, with that, I could go into a huge off-topic discussion about how I would love to see Willpower, Nature/Demeanor or Virtue/Vice, and Humanity in D&D.

[CelineSSauve]

Reading this kinda makes me want to read more. Am I the only one who thinks it'd be sweet to have several novella based on the comic? Much like the Doctor Who or Star Treck books. Each one giving a little more depth and Lore into the Characters and their personal histories.

Yes and no. I like reading the Altsplanations, but we want more GOBLINS!

I'm with Rooks here.

Though if Thunt is looking for something to do once Goblins is done...

[LooksAndSmiles]

I think that the MinMax of that reality has some deep, deep (but delicious) issues. Kind of like the protagonist of the Dexter series...

[Kore]

This minmax has a commendable determination to finish what he starts. Unfortunately he has been infected by evil so that determination is wasted.

Minmax tortures when not needed, so inefficient waste of time. Minmax wants to use teapot to leave to afterlife (and thus die), so I may not need to spend time hunting him.

[Liesmith]

Reading this kinda makes me want to read more. Am I the only one who thinks it'd be sweet to have several novella based on the comic? Much like the Doctor Who or Star Treck books. Each one giving a little more depth and Lore into the Characters and their personal histories.

Yes and no. I like reading the Altsplanations, but we want more GOBLINS!

Yeah, I would love to read it, but I don't think Thunt has the time to burn at the moment with spinoffs. Maybe he could con Danielle into doing it with a combination of accusatory shouting and covert tantrums: the PantsMax Maneuver.

[T-RexWithTourettes]

Well, so maybe Minmax does have high charisma...
Anyways, I was reading this again, and thought it was awesome again, and thought of THE BEST idea EVER.
After Goblins is over. Thunt goes backs and redraws it over and over. To show the path. Of each reality. Endless Goblins.

[willpell]

This is a dark and twisted Minmax.

To each their own. I still think he's going to meet up with Kin.

More likely Forgath IMO, but I agree, assuming that he plans to keep torturing Goblinslayer is giving him more credit for viciousness than is necessarily implied. This is still Minmax, even if it's an alternate universe version of him; I'm not going to automatically figure that he's that "dark" without more evidence than we've seen.

And, with that, I could go into a huge off-topic discussion about how I would love to see Willpower, Nature/Demeanor or Virtue/Vice, and Humanity in D&D.

+1. For that matter, I wouldn't mind Alignment in World of Darkness...not as the crutch it's sometimes used as for kick-in-the-door type games, where you get to kill Evil things and stay Good, but with the implications of objective morality being fully explored Planescape-style. (Planescape was, after all, specifically inspired by VTM...they put the Factions in because they wanted to mimic the way Vampire players got passionate about their various Clans.)

[Feytala]

Mmmh... Maybe I am sorta jaded, but... I read the text. While it was a cool new altersplanation - And I roll with the "He wants to meet Kin again"-idea - It wasn't "horrible" for me. In fact, I found the text to be quite harmless. I played worser in greater detail... Still like it, but I am not so "oh my god" about the text as others here... It is a quite soft description of "torture", while HOW MinMax does it, is cool

Also... Well... I think this MinMax did right. I always thought GS came away to easy. The only mistake "Torture"MinMax made, was that he made it last not long enough.

[Snowy_One]

This was pretty dark. Seriously disturbing. Like, horror-movie level stuff. If we ever stumbled on this Minmax he'd probably look like Leatherface or something. However, I actually do feel a tiny pang of sympathy for him... Losing Kin and Forgath like that.

Disturbing thought: What if Psymax completes his machine and douses the whole maze into oblivion? Maybe the whole reason that these altplanations are even happening is to make us have some attachment to these characters for when the oblivion comes.

[Veya]

Well... dark, yet I read it with a smile growing on my face, there is just something about torturing bastards that deserve it that turns a completelly inhuman situation into perfectly acceptable...

I am pretty sure there would be worst ways to kill someone though, I always sort of dreamed on deboning a human's hand while the person is still alive an awake...

[Elvors]

Well done, Minmax #98. But I do hope you have your humanity left in you.

Not much. That kind of calculated torture means he is waaay beyond humanity.
The idea that he's going after Dellyn in the afterlife is delightful for the justice that's about to be dealt, terrifying for the horror that's going to happen, and making me sad for TortureMax's loss of joy and humanity, all at the same time.

And no, he's not going to reunite with Kin. It's what the panel's we've been seeing indicate, but remember that this is the only reality where they fell into true love. As has been noted, Psimax wouldn't notice that true love, so maybe MM is still after Kin. Maybe not, so I'll leave the following train of thought stand as a what-if scenario:
In #98, MM and Kin didn't fall in love; at best, they were buddies, and Forgath has been MM's buddy for a much longer time, so MM is doing this in memory of Forgath. The Kin images were just the appetizer.
Oh. And I bet MM still has the crystal ball and will conjure up all the other torture sessions that GS had. GS is in for a whole world of pain. Which, again, is even more horrifying and delightful at the same time.

Great storytelling.
I'll also need to leave some light on tonight and cuddle with my teddy bear.

[Krulle]

And no, he's not going to reunite with Kin. It's what the panel's we've been seeing indicate, but remember that this is the only reality where they fell into true love.
In #98, MM and Kin didn't fall in love; at best, they were buddies,

We don't know.
"Ours" is the ONLY Minmax/Kin relationship that has fallen into trueseeing that PsiMax knows about.
But TortureMax only ever went into the MoM alone, without Kin #98.
So, there's no reason why PsiMax would know if they fell in love before entering the MoM.
And their love wouldn't mess up any equations, because their love does not cause any interaction between members in the MoM, as Kin #98 is not in the MoM.