Abel 2007-02-03: The cameo charaters are dead

[willow186129]

Said demon could be Devin's dad.

That's what I was going to suggest *does a woot-ful cheer* I wasn't the only one thinking it! ^^

*edit* Oh, and did anyone notice that, when Kria gave her amulet to Abel, the eyes turned from red to green? I wonder if that means anything...

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Anyone know where I can get a copy of the January donation image?

Didn't get around to copying it.

.. you mean http://missmab.com/Images/January_Counter.gif ?

[Jack McSlay]

I doubt the off-screen demon is Dark Pegasus for one simple fact. From what we can tell against Kria's wing, it has a defined hand. DP has hoof-like claws if you look back at the 'Warrior for Hire' arc.

But, Amber may well make the mystery demon DP, she may not. I rather think that she is planning on Cubi parent or some other new character that may make a come-back later to haunt Abel.

-Nar

cast page:

Dark Pegasus' hooves are very sharp, though he can soften them if he chose to.

DP hasn't shown up with blunt fingers, but judging from the shape of Kria's and Lorenda's hands when not in "claw mode" we could assume his would be similar. so that doesn't exclude him from the suspects list.

it could also be the demon with the game.com on #365

ans I'm not sure if the impaled person in the shadow is Kammi... I can't figure how she'd be posing to result in that silhouette

[Manawolf]

We're a little thrown off in that Glory's eyes are pale blue, instead of grey, which is how most people show that a character is blind.

Blind people's eyes can be any color. Sorry to disappoint those brown-eyed people who may believe they're safe from the possibility of going blind. They do have some more resistance to bright light, but that's all.

And all that speculation is going way too far, in my opinion.

Wait, we do?  I was just saying that I've seen other artists represent blindness by making the character's eyes gray.

[Aridas]

We're a little thrown off in that Glory's eyes are pale blue, instead of grey, which is how most people show that a character is blind.

Blind people's eyes can be any color. Sorry to disappoint those brown-eyed people who may believe they're safe from the possibility of going blind. They do have some more resistance to bright light, but that's all. And all that speculation is going way too far, in my opinion.

Um... actually gabi, I'm not really aware of any sighted people with eyes looking like glory's... We're not talking about what natural color someone's eyes are, but rather how they turn out in blindness... and usually it's depicted with unusual pale colors like that... Which I'm pretty sure normal people don't usually have.

[Gabi]

Yes, Mana, at least accodring to a statistic I've been conducting for years. My guess is that dark-colored irises absorb more light, so not so much of it reaches the retina. On the other hand, I have a better eyesight than most people I've met, so I can't complain.

Aridas, correct me if I'm wrong, but blindness doesn't normally cause the irises to change colors. Unless it was caused by some strange substance falling right on the eyes. >_>

[Aridas]

Why does a comic have to be exactly like real life, then? Blind peoples' eyes are just about always depicted by a faded appearance, so why WOULDN'T this still be true now?

[superluser]

We're a little thrown off in that Glory's eyes are pale blue, instead of grey, which is how most people show that a character is blind.

Blind people's eyes can be any color.

They may be any color, but they'll usually turn grey pretty quickly.  The muscles atrophy, and then the color of the iris turns to grey.  Look up Essential Iris Atrophy (warning: contains images of people with freaky looking eyes).

Now, I know that Amber's not an ophthalmologist, but it does make sense for us to expect that.

I bet 100 brownie points that Abel will head home and will be found by an angry bunch of beings. They will know of the massacre at the outpost, see the demonic charm, and will immediately accuse Abel of the genocide. I doubt that he could fight off their accusations due to the wretched state that he is in.

No.  Kria wants to place the blame on Selev's brother, Abel is walking away from Cantiv, and Zinvth is unlikely to allow trials of Creatures by Beings.

Another possible item against Xander being the instructor--if a shapeshifter dies, what happens to the shape?  Does it revert back to the nominal form, or does it stay in the changed form?  If the former, that's probably the real Xander whom we saw bloodied.  I can't figure out either the means or the motive to alter someone in the ways necessary to impersonate Xander.

[thegayhare]

You know with the demons leaving this would be the perfect time for a wandering  necromancer to stumble on the scene...

Yay hot Xander on Devin zombie action

*giggles*

[Stygian]

... and usually it's depicted with unusual pale colors like that... Which I'm pretty sure normal people don't usually have.

What are you saying? *looks at him with a pair of decidedly grey and somewhat pale eyes*

And why would anyone say that the figure up in the tower is a demon? Though it's shadowed, it most probably is the orange girl from before who's been impaled upon the handle of her own hammer. Icicles don't break with jagged ends like that, wood does.

[Tapewolf]

Another possible item against Xander being the instructor--if a shapeshifter dies, what happens to the shape?  Does it revert back to the nominal form, or does it stay in the changed form?  If the former, that's probably the real Xander whom we saw bloodied.  I can't figure out either the means or the motive to alter someone in the ways necessary to impersonate Xander.

Perhaps you're a step or two ahead of me but my theory (which I don't hold much hope for) is that dead Xander has just got up, brushed himself down and admonished Kria for letting Abel go.  So while I suspect that 'cubi revert to their base form when they die, it doesn't really matter here since the theory was that he isn't dead.   

[superluser]

And why would anyone say that the figure up in the tower is a demon? Though it's shadowed, it most probably is the orange girl from before who's been impaled upon the handle of her own hammer. Icicles don't break with jagged ends like that, wood does.

It can't be her hammer; it's too tapered.  Kammi's hammer's handle looks to be roughly cylindrical.  This thing looks virtually conical.  And smooth.  So unless they have a belt sander in there, it's not the hammer.

I still say that the perspective looks too far off to reasonably be Kammi, but I do know that Amber sometimes has problems with perspective...

Perhaps you're a step or two ahead of me but my theory (which I don't hold much hope for) is that dead Xander has just got up, brushed himself down and admonished Kria for letting Abel go.  So while I suspect that 'cubi revert to their base form when they die, it doesn't really matter here since the theory was that he isn't dead.

The way I understand it is that there are two Xander's not dead theories.  One is that Xander was the instructor all along, and the other is that the thing that came back wasn't Xander, and whoever that was really died.  That latter theory is what I was commenting on.  It wasn't very likely to begin with, but this makes it ever so slightly less likely.

[MT Hazard]

Thanks to learch n'n'daCorna and modelincard for the link.

I've been thinking, what would be the weirdest colour for a human eye? What eye colour would make your really stare?

Solid black or solid white are good contenders.

[GabrielsThoughts]

an to think this could have all been avoided if someone had invented the bullet proof vest or phazers instead of aluminum siding.

[Stygian]

Come on... don't you think that it's easy enough for a well-trained cubi to mimick an injured and dead person? A good example for demonstration is that Dr. Ink can transform into entire rooms, complete with furniture and attirailes.

So masking as a dead Xander ought to be not quite that hard...

[thegayhare]

Come on... don't you think that it's easy enough for a well-trained cubi to mimick an injured and dead person? A good example for demonstration is that Dr. Ink can transform into entire rooms, complete with furniture and attirailes.

So masking as a dead Xander ought to be not quite that hard...

I know it's a differnt world but I remember in Madness Season there was a scene where they explained that death was the hardest thing from a shapshifter to mimic correctly.  Since to do it right brings to to the edge of death ourself.  The slightest slip in control and it's all over

[Feather Dancer]

Everyone else has probably long noticed this but I only just did. Devin has tears in his eyes, the last thing he thought about was very interestingly Xander. "Oh Xander, I'm so sorry... I never told you that-"

Yes I've been spending the past 15 minutes or so trying to read a much of that scrawl as I could so sue me

[superluser]

Come on... don't you think that it's easy enough for a well-trained cubi to mimick an injured and dead person? A good example for demonstration is that Dr. Ink can transform into entire rooms, complete with furniture and attirailes.

Once again, it's not exactly a strong point, but it is still a point.

Everyone else has probably long noticed this but I only just did. Devin has tears in his eyes, the last thing he thought about was very interestingly Xander. "Oh Xander, I'm so sorry... I never told you that-"

I'm pretty sure that while you're dying, you can't exactly control your tear ducts.  His tears might have nothing to do with Xander, but just be an involuntary reaction.

[Feather Dancer]

It's generally considered a variable, for a slow death depending on frame of mind and thought. This is of course unless you have one of those absolutely stupid emotional triggers which could indeed set off at any given time.

[superluser]

It's generally considered a variable, for a slow death depending on frame of mind and thought.

No, you're right, for the most part.  I just seem to be in a very contrarian mood today, and it would make little sense to try to infer meanings from those tears in the real world.

[Feather Dancer]

Well we were not the ones who wrote not drew the comic so ideas will appear from the downright bizzare to the very plausible. In that sense it's kinda fun trying to work these things out or spot things you missed previously or overlooked even if just to come up with something that makes no sense. It's like Where's Wally without the hat and shirt

[Anri]

Come on... don't you think that it's easy enough for a well-trained cubi to mimick an injured and dead person? A good example for demonstration is that Dr. Ink can transform into entire rooms, complete with furniture and attirailes.

So masking as a dead Xander ought to be not quite that hard...

I somehow doubt that our mysterious fiend is a 'cubi of some sort. They are hardly the only creatures capable of such dastardly deeds. Not to mention that teaching how to properly rampage would be done within the confines if SAIA where a demon, such as Kria, would proably not be in attendance... or likewise, if a rampaging field trip was in order, again I doubt the students would be anything other than 'cubi themselves.

[NabooruChan]

Has anyone pointed out that the little skull that Kria gave Abel seems to hide any type of wings? Also, the impaled figure inside the building is shadowed, making it hard to tell who it is. Going with the point that the object that is impaling said person isn't the shape of the hammer, and the fact that the person isn't shaped right says that it probably isn't Kammi. But they are obviously female. And as a random theory, maybe Selev was actually a woman pretending to be a male! You never know... He was said to be in the tower dead. And poor Devin...

[Tapewolf]

The fort has two towers.  The tower on the left was given the ice-treatment by Devin.  Kammi could have been killed in the right-hand tower.

[superluser]

The fort has two towers.  The tower on the left was given the ice-treatment by Devin.  Kammi could have been killed in the right-hand tower.

Why would she be in the other tower?  We are postulating that there are four creatures: Selev, his brother, Kria and the instructor.  The instructor should be near the students, so if the second tower were occupied, there would have to have been two instructors.  If there were two instructors, the other one would have to be Selev's brother, and that just smacks of conflict of interest.

Of course, there could be another creature who was the other instructor.  In which case, it could be the other creature, not Kammi, who is dead in the tower.

It is possible that Glory's party went to the other tower to set up an attack, and Selev's brother followed them there, but I think Ockham's Razor suggests that it's the same tower and an icicle.

[Stygian]

A powerful demon does not need to babysit other demons that hard, or want to, evidently. So there is no need for more than one instructor. Flawed.

Occam's Razor does not aid you in this, twit. Consider just a bit.

[superluser]

A powerful demon does not need to babysit other demons that hard, or want to, evidently. So there is no need for more than one instructor. Flawed.

How, exactly, can an instructor evaluate the performance of his pupils without watching them in action?  It may be pass/fail, but unless that were the final, the instructor would be expected to give feedback.  In addition, if it were the final, the instructor would probably want to observe, just to make sure that no one's cheating.  (If the targets aren't fighting back, then maybe someone's holding their kids hostage)

[thegayhare]

How, exactly, can an instructor evaluate the performance of his pupils without watching them in action?  It may be pass/fail, but unless that were the final, the instructor would be expected to give feedback.  In addition, if it were the final, the instructor would probably want to observe, just to make sure that no one's cheating.  (If the targets aren't fighting back, then maybe someone's holding their kids hostage)

Your thinking on this seems to be to structured on a classroom type lesson,  This is something more akin to the training missions shown in Naruto.  the instructor doesn't have to be physicly near a student to evaluate there preformance.  Pluss in a combat situation like this clusting together is a real bad move.  I'd say the students own choices of there defensible positions and there opening targets would all be part of the lesson. 

In fact having the teacher absent from the actual location would be important to my thinking.  One with the teacher gone it leaves the student with no illusions,  "I'll be okay Professer Warren is here watching my back".  And two it protects the teacher from the students screw ups,  If the student picks a bad location, or chooses the wrong target and draws down more fire then he can handle having the teacher absent prevents losing valuable teaching staff because of a rookie's mistake and prevents unworthy students from passing simply because the teacher was forced to step in to save there own life.

The instructor can still critique those who pass the lesson,  He mearly neededs to observe from a deacent vantage point.  He can discuse the merreits of there choices of location, the timming of there attacks, the coardination between the fighters, target choices and selection of spells.  All this can be don by a detached observer watching the battle from a safe distance.  The instructor doesn't have to watch every move the student makes,  plus being forced to stay with the student would hinder his ability to critique the student.  By distancing himself from the actual student he can see no just what the student does but how the enemy reacts, and how the student addapts to the situation.

[Zedd]

How, exactly, can an instructor evaluate the performance of his pupils without watching them in action?  It may be pass/fail, but unless that were the final, the instructor would be expected to give feedback.  In addition, if it were the final, the instructor would probably want to observe, just to make sure that no one's cheating.  (If the targets aren't fighting back, then maybe someone's holding their kids hostage)

Your thinking on this seems to be to structured on a classroom type lesson,  This is something more akin to the training missions shown in Naruto.  the instructor doesn't have to be physicly near a student to evaluate there preformance.  Pluss in a combat situation like this clusting together is a real bad move.  I'd say the students own choices of there defensible positions and there opening targets would all be part of the lesson. 

In fact having the teacher absent from the actual location would be important to my thinking.  One with the teacher gone it leaves the student with no illusions,  "I'll be okay Professer Warren is here watching my back".  And two it protects the teacher from the students screw ups,  If the student picks a bad location, or chooses the wrong target and draws down more fire then he can handle having the teacher absent prevents losing valuable teaching staff because of a rookie's mistake and prevents unworthy students from passing simply because the teacher was forced to step in to save there own life.

The instructor can still critique those who pass the lesson,  He mearly neededs to observe from a deacent vantage point.  He can discuse the merreits of there choices of location, the timming of there attacks, the coardination between the fighters, target choices and selection of spells.  All this can be don by a detached observer watching the battle from a safe distance.  The instructor doesn't have to watch every move the student makes,  plus being forced to stay with the student would hinder his ability to critique the student.  By distancing himself from the actual student he can see no just what the student does but how the enemy reacts, and how the student addapts to the situation.

Wow just wow...How much tea do you drink hun? Or you just..Witty and smart

[Damaris]

Stygian, there is no need to call names.  Unless you've been talking to Amber yourself and KNOW what is going on, other people's thoughts are just as valid as your own.