egscomics

Parable - 170 - HD

Choose your path.

Commentary

The obvious counter to the previous comic was "you can lose a game".

MY counter is "you ever played the games I'm parodying?" I can't even remember what happens when you die in a Fable game. I'm not sure I've ever seen it happen, and I've beaten the first three games, and played the first two through multiple times.

The third one I played all the way through once. The third one, um... It... It made some choices... But I did beat ...

Parable - 169 - HD

Derailing.

Commentary

I almost don't want to say anything about this one given that I feel it would be stepping on the toes of upcoming comics to say much of anything, but I do have this commentary down here to fill.

Um... Uh...

OH! Susan original said "Grace rants" instead of "Grace-Gamer-Grievances", but I saw an opportunity for alliteration, and I've been jumping on those recently.

I can ALSO say this part of the story is the result of me contemplating the q...

Parable - 168 - HD

Party time?

Commentary

My memory is that this is fair commentary about Fable 2. I think there are a few times when one or more of your allies will be around, but mostly, they just stay behind and do nothing.

Which I imagine is actually preferable, gameplay-wise, but it FELT like a mistake to my judgmental brain who wanted everything in the Fable 2 bag without it getting heavy.

Then again... If a game plays better without companions, but keeps settin...

Parable - 167 - HD

Insurmountable!

Commentary

- Ding!

I don't recall ever needing this much gold to simply progress in any of the Fable games, but were it ever necessary, it'd be doable.

I started a game of Fable 2 and progressed less than halfway through before starting this storyline, and you slowly accumulate gold from owned properties even when not playing.

I don't know when ...

Parable - 166 - HD

 An old grudge...

This was not posted last night due to technical problems on Patreon's end. I was unable to view my own page while logged in, or post anything. It seems to be working now, however.

Commentary

As those who frequent these commentaries may know, I didn't have this all planned from the beginning. I saw an opportunity to do something with Jay in this storyline, and I realized how I could rationalize Grace not being the protagonist in spite of all ...

Parable - 165 - HD

Almost at an answer!

Commentary

Next time, on El Goonish Shive: The explanation for what the heck even.

Well, I mean, enough information to get what sort of happened on a fundamental level in regard to how Grace wound up the Hero of Ranged. The technical specifics, like... Heck, I don't even know those. How would you make a dream situation like this?

I don't know. You don't know. Nobody knows! If someone knew, it would be the basis for the next generation of...

Parable - 164 - HD

Honestly not sure how unexpected.

Commentary

Dun-dun-dun?

There is an explanation for this.

It's not one anyone could reasonably have deduced, as it is an indulgent one that has to do with my own ranting opinions about "a thing", but it's not random, and we'll get to it soon.

Susan't reaction in panel one was pretty much my own until I stopped and thought about it. Even knowing of an infamous marksman adventurer, there'd be no guarantee that they're THE "ranged...

September Poll #2

Mad Scientist Tedd and assistant short curvy femme-Elliot OH NOES!

Can vote for more than one, Halloween-themed to put pressure on to get done by October 31st!

September Poll #1

Vampire Sarah OH NOES!

Can vote for more than one, Halloween-themed to put pressure on to get done by October 31st!

Parable - 163 - HD

Escape Plan

Commentary

- That time the thing happened

Yeah, yeah, I'll put a quarter in the "referenced Star Trek" jar, even if I did avoid mentioning it directly (a holographic simulation of Professor Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories achieved sentience and became an antagonist on Star Trek: The Next Generation, because of course he did).

To be clear, though, it's no...

Parable - 162 - HD

 Fallen Susan

Commentary

- Basically a sequel to this

"But she's looking at her face, not her—"

I'M NOT DRAWING HER LOOKING THERE AND SHE WOULDN'T STARE THERE

NO

FOR SHAME

Parable - 161 - HD

 I am Jay's inner confusion.

Commentary

She doesn't actually have anything close to enough information to figure this out (neither do we), though it can also be argued that she's not smart enough to realize more information is necessary?

Either way, she's being too hard on herself.

IN ANY CASE... I'm not ready to say how canon the whole of this storyline is.

I AM ready to say, however, that anything we learn about Jay's backstory IS canon.

This someh...

Parable - 160 - HD

 The plan! Sort of.

Commentary

There are a few reasons for this twist. One was my decision that, no, this is absolutely NOT something Jay can do!

Which, to be fair, doesn't mean I couldn't make it work somehow. "No, Jay can't do this on her own, but she found the something something of something and did something something, and now this is happening!"

But then a thing occurred to me that I 100% cannot elaborate on yet, but consolation prize, hints at some facts ...

Parable - 159 - HD

Robe up.

Commentary

If it sounds like I'm making this up as I got along, it's because I am.

Well, was.

Some of that's past tense.

Probably not all of it.

I know at least some of what I'm doing.

Parable - 158 - HD

 It's fine.

Commentary

- Susan pouring a potion on herself

I mean, realistically, the bottle would probably be dropped prior to reaching normal size, and I'm not sure how she actually held it above herself to begin with a t 1:12 size, buuuuuuuuut I wanted to draw a bottle falling on Jay's head.

So I did.

Parable - 157 - HD

Moral Evaluation

Commentary

In fairness, Jay demonstrated the ability to throw magic fireballs around in spite of her shrunken size. If she was to be interrogated as a likely enemy, keeping her arms restrained would not be entirely unreasonable.

Of course, we then get into the question of whether treating her this way was justified

We, as an author and audience, have inside information. The hero of magic, "Jack" (Jay), is 2020-09-15 03:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Parable - 156 - HD

 Possibly not an approved interrogation tactic.

Commentary

- Double Tech

It was a super cool Chrono Trigger reference, SUSAN!

...

Well, it was.

Parable - 155 - HD

Interrogation!

Commentary

Make no mistake, Jay is, herself, a total dork.

Whether or not "dork" is an insult depends entirely on whether it's said with affection. I've called Elliot a dork plenty of times, and it's almost always been meant as a positive thing (when it's been negative, it's been due to him being ignorant about something while being a dork).

Of course, these days, I don't really hear it said without affection. Like, if you're actually trying to insult ...

Parable - 154 - HD

Safe and Whoops

Commentary

I fretted a whole bunch over where exactly they were going to be after fast traveling, and how I was going to do the background.

Then I realized that, with "Jack" at 1:12 scale, there'd be basically no details worth having, rendering it moot.

Oh well. It's not like I spent hours considering whether they'd be in one of the inns Susan owns or something and was contemplating research into medieval architecture or anything ha ha ehhhhhhh...

Parable - 153 - HD

 Reprise.

Commentary

- "I'm a guard!"

When I first drew this guy, I figured every guard would be dressed exactly like him.

Then I came up with this moment, and realized I needed it to be possible to tell he was the ship guard.

THANKS, SHIP GUARD.

Parable - 152 - HD

Escape!

Commentary

I just really like how this one turned out visually and am suffering the sin of pride.

I'm sure I will look at it a year from now and cringe, but for now, YAY! SELF ESTEEM!

Parable - 151 - HD

Keep it down!

Commentary

- ♫ The guards are alerted with the sound of magic ♫

Staying quiet is SUPER IMPORTANT until it's not.

In most games I've played that allow fast travel, the lore implication is that your character is actually making the journey to that location in some manual way, and is not teleporting. It's just you, the player, doesn't have to experience i...

August Poll #2

 Sarah has accidentally messed up some magic with a wand and wound up shrunk and furry!

(Can vote for more than one)

August Poll #1

Jay with horse pony ears, a tail, and...

(Can vote for more than one)

(I'm focusing on working ahead a bit, but once EGSNPs are being done a bit faster, which I am already sorting out, sketchbooks will return with more regular frequency)

Parable - 150 - HD

Bwoing!

Commentary 

Oh, like I could pass up the chance to make a Chrono Trigger reference. And I guess a Mario World reference, what with the spin jump.

For anyone not aware, Chrono Trigger was a Super Nintendo RPG in which you could have up to three characters in your party at a time, and could do Single, Double, and Triple techniques, AKA "Techs".. For example, the scientist character could set the katana-guy'...

Parable - 149 - HD

Tiny... But FIERCE. 

Commentary

I hope it's clear just in context that it's Jay saying "nope", but just in case there would've been fist fights arguing over it, word of Dan is "it was Jay".

I would say "if you've played The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, that first line will sound familiar", but I never actually heard "stop right there, criminal scum!" while playing that game.

Because I was a GOOD Hero of Kvatch.

...And never got around to the ...

Parable - 148 - HD

The greatest plan.

Commentary

I would love to claim that I made Jay smaller to set this up, but nah. I just thought it would be funny if Susan made Jay smaller than herself.

It was only after that decision that I considered the various problems with that and solutions to those problems. It was fun.

As for why the heck Jay did that to her shirt, I sketched panel three first, and the default top looked really bland, so... Yeah. How this makes ANY sense i...

Parable - 147 - HD

All you had to do was be quiet in the darn dungeon, Susan!

Commentary

Stealth section... FAILED.

Fortunately, this amalgamation of games has options that allow the continuation of play even if stealth fails! Could you imagine playing something in which you had to keep restarting at the most recent checkpoint every time an enemy detected you?

Ha ha ha HA HA HA HA

Parable - 146 - HD

Of course.

Commentary

Susan is about 1:8 scale, while Jay is 1:12.

Some wondered if it was Susan's halo that made the "clang" noise after the previous comic. Honestly, I'm not sure myself the physicality of the halo.

For comedic purposes, I've had it interact with what it touches, but I don't think there's much in the way of tangible mass to it. I think it will essentially just move out of the way of whatever touches it without much force, while always...

Parable - 145 - HD

Whoops.

Commentary

Okay, so maybe this plan wasn't without flaws.