11/15/2011 [TANP #3] Truly it is the end

[justacritic]

Angels, just as much as a jerk as demons except they're snobbier about it.
Really saying "for the last time" and ending up killing the man, and acting like you regret it?
Hey Angel

[Tapewolf]

Talking of fail, I accidentally updated the rant to say that 'Dark Angel' had updated this morning instead of this story.  I guess I was still half-asleep...

[justacritic]

Don't worry it happens to the best of us

[joshofspam]

Let's see the Angel PR speech that away from his record.

There's one reason why Azlan is into being and creature peace. I wonder if mister angel is going to try for anymore reasons?

[Tapewolf]

Let's see the Angel PR speech that away from his record.

It's not one of his better days, no.

[Raskahn]

This reminds me of a story from my childhood.

I was 3 (give or take) and whacked a bug. It was still alive. Well, sort of. And then I hit it again, it stopped twitching at that point and, I apparently made the "Oh" face.

[Surzsha]

You cry rape and before you know it someone's gonna have a sword through their stomach.

I'm sorry, but the sword's clean tip makes me think Lucian pulled it up instead of out.

Lucian: Oh I'm sorry, let me pull that out for you. *slice!* Woops, I just cut your chest and head in half! Silly me!

Accident my tail...



I'm sorry, the page is fine. I'm just being a doof.

[techmaster-glitch]

I saw that the blood was only on the middle of the blade and not the end of it, too. Seems off to me as well, wondering how that happened.

Otherwise, very interesting, can't wait to see where this is going.

[Tapewolf]

It seemed off to me as well, but none of my proof-readers remarked upon it.  I should probably go back and change that.

You cry rape and before you know it someone's gonna have a sword through their stomach.

Attempting to chop at a trained warrior with a sword isn't a great idea either.

[Merlin]

I'm really digging TANP, a few pages in and I'm already hooked into the story
Also the sidestories are ripe with violence this fortnight

And Lucian? Smoooooth move.

[Tapewolf]

I'm really digging TANP, a few pages in and I'm already hooked into the story

Thanks.  I do feel that some of it strays a little close to Abel's Story, but there you go.

Also the sidestories are ripe with violence this fortnight

Yes, it's weird how that happened.  Fortunately the worst is over... well, for Jakob and co, at least.

[Surzsha]

You cry rape and before you know it someone's gonna have a sword through their stomach.

Attempting to chop at a trained warrior with a sword isn't a great idea either.

Well yeah, that's just common sense in a world full of regular sword-wielders.

I do feel that some of [TANP] strays a little close to Abel's Story, but there you go.

If you think about it, the whole 'true origins popping up in the middle of your life' plot is a little overdone in the fantasy genre, but people can still weave different images around it. At least Lucian hasn't shown similar characteristics to the 'antagonist' of Abel's Story so far.

[Tapewolf]

If you think about it, the whole 'true origins popping up in the middle of your life' plot is a little overdone in the fantasy genre, but people can still weave different images around it. At least Lucian hasn't shown similar characteristics to the 'antagonist' of Abel's Story so far.

I dunno, he pops up and accidentally kills someone... That said, you're only going to see the interesting stories.  Cassandra Daryil's backstory would be completely uneventful and consist largely of her leading a mostly normal childhood, being told she was a succubus and then studying at a dance school and finally SAIA for a couple of hundred years.

Anyway, the sword should be fixed now, though you may need to force a refresh to see it.

[Surzsha]

I dunno, he pops up and accidentally kills someone... That said, you're only going to see the interesting stories.

Oh. I forgot that it was sort of an accident in A.S., too. Nevermind, then.


True. The unorthodox always grabs the traveler's curiosity, as little the change is from a normal life. I'm guilty of reading some stories that only have one or two changes, myself.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Attempting to chop at a trained warrior with a sword isn't a great idea either.

Yeah, although a trained warrior would, one expect, know how to at least deflect one or two shots before being forced to kill. I mean, heck, I was faffing about with my brother over the weekend with a couple of training staves, doing some spearwork as a demonstration for my nephews and nieces. Neither of us were serious about it, but then, I'm only a beginner, really, and I still managed to defend or block most of the strikes he was doing.

I should point out that he's not done any of the training at all; he is, however, a few years older than me, and a nidan at Aikido (ie, second dan black belt; he's been doing that for the last fifteen years or so, as I recall, three or four times a week) so it's not like he _totally_ didn't know what he was doing. ;-]

I can understand how some of the standard responses are aggressive, and likely to result in stabbing the person who is trying to attack you, but... for any attack, you'd usually have two or three responses, and you get to select from that based on how likely you think the attacker is going to need to be ventilated. In this case, a couple of block-only type responses first would have been more appropriate, to my mind. However, that's all just my opinion, I guess... and it'd make the story a lot more difficult to draw. :-/ So... pretty much a wash.

[ChaosMageX]

Attempting to chop at a trained warrior with a sword isn't a great idea either.

[...]

I can understand how some of the standard responses are aggressive, and likely to result in stabbing the person who is trying to attack you, but... for any attack, you'd usually have two or three responses, and you get to select from that based on how likely you think the attacker is going to need to be ventilated. In this case, a couple of block-only type responses first would have been more appropriate, to my mind. However, that's all just my opinion, I guess... and it'd make the story a lot more difficult to draw. :-/ So... pretty much a wash.

Honestly, Lucian is an angel.  I'm still surprised that he took any action against a being like Erwin in the first place.  I mean, he's in fancy full body armor, and on top of that he has the natural ability to make any part of his skin diamond hard in less than a heartbeat.  If he hadn't already drawn his sword, I would have thought he'd stand there like a statue until Erwin either broke his sword and/or ran out of energy.

I mean sure, a being who has adventurer training and an above average (and possibly magically enhanced) weapon could probably know where and how to strike an angel or demon to bring them down.  However, judging by Erwin's attire and the size and general appearance of his home, I'd be surprised if he had either and was anything more than a lower class laborer.

On the other hand, Lucian may not be that much of an experienced warrior himself.  Honestly, the fact that he's even wearing full body armor might indicate that he doesn't even know how to use his own skin as armor very well, if at all.  He could be a very well-to-do person with almost no combat experience, which would explain his impulsive and aggressive response to Erwin's swordplay and his rather expensive looking armor.

However, there's really no way to be sure without knowing about both combatants' pasts.  The way they're holding and using their swords is really more of a measure of how much the artist knows about sword combat than the actual characters, really.  Like llearch said, making either one of them better fighters would have probably made the comic a lot longer and harder to draw.

In the end, if nothing else, Lucian's actions might have been nothing more than a plot device.  If Lucian were to defeat Erwin without lifting a finger, that wouldn't make much of a dramatic story afterwards; although having that much control over a situation would have probably made Lucian look like a better villain though.  The story might have gone in an unwanted direction if Erwin were left alive.