2013/03/22 [PF #255] ...And then <target> said "No", so I killed them...

[ChaosMageX]

...and then <another target> said "No", so I killed them...and then <yet another target> said "No", so I killed them...

I've been anticipating this page for quite a while, ever since I first read those lines in Future History and the gist of them stuck in my memory, which I've repeated above.  In my opinion (and at least my case), those particular words of Werrew are some of the most memorable (at least gist wise) of the entire story.  

I can't help but wonder how often Daryil clan members tended to get "messy" before their leader managed to get a better handle on them all.

And on another note, this is the last comic page number that can be stored in an unsigned byte.  The next page moves onto 16-bit "short" values, and I have yet to encounter an online webcomic which has exceeded even signed short integers, but then again I haven't really taken the time to look.

[Eboreg]

All I can think of when seeing this page is that Werrew must have been having one h**l of a power trip.

[Tapewolf]

Are they still victims if they were trying to kill him?

[joshofspam]

Werrew's situation kind of reminds me about what some say about the potato chip.

He did all that it seems from the throne too after he killed the king. Certainly came into his tentacle abilities quick.

[ChaosMageX]

Are they still victims if they were trying to kill him?

Good point, so I've changed it accordingly.

Werrew's situation kind of reminds me about what some say about the potato chip.

He did all that it seems from the throne too after he killed the king. Certainly came into his tentacle abilities quick.

You can't kill just one, especially when you're doing a coup d'etat.

Also, I'm not surprised at how quickly he picked up the tentacle thing, considering how fast Dan picked it up and how Aniz, who apparently sucked at combat, was still able to instantly slice Hennya into bits.  Panel 3 of this page actually looks eerily similar to that, so I can't help but wonder if he even left the bodies intact or if there are sliced and diced little pieces of people mixed together like a fruit salad just off screen in the other three panels.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, lucky for Werrew, apparently none of the Beings he went up against were seriously trained fighters, so they were likely all quite incompetent for him to have escaped and killed them all so easily.

[Tapewolf]

Regarding the bodies, I wasn't completely sure what was going on in the line art for all of them so it's possible that what happened is different to what Merlin had in mind.  Also, the general lack of corpses suggests to me that someone was busily removing them.

This scene owes a lot to the 'choosing a champion' scene in Jabberwocky, and rather a lot of it also harks to King Osric in Conan the Barbarian.  (Who was himself called 'King Osric the Usurper' so I guess he went through a similar process)

[Raskahn]

In regards to the "quickly getting the tentacle thing down"

Dan's tentacles seemed to be linked to his subconscious and therefore able to assist (with getting filters)
Maybe their subconscious link causes individuals to learn these things as fast as they do?

[Tapewolf]

While Kamdan didn't have tentacles, he was able to pass on some hints about them which he learned from someone who does.  Kamdan having at least some of the Demon cultural appreciation of badass, he'd be curious about what they're like and what you can do with them.

[mithril]

And on another note, this is the last comic page number that can be stored in an unsigned byte.  The next page moves onto 16-bit "short" values, and I have yet to encounter an online webcomic which has exceeded even signed short integers, but then again I haven't really taken the time to look.

not sure what the threshold is for such, but Schlock Mercenary has been going at a daily schedule for just short of 12 years.. without a missed day. it uses dates to label the comics, but if presented as a pure numerical label, that would put it at around 4380 strips come June 12th. plus a few leapdays.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

And on another note, this is the last comic page number that can be stored in an unsigned byte.  The next page moves onto 16-bit "short" values, and I have yet to encounter an online webcomic which has exceeded even signed short integers, but then again I haven't really taken the time to look.

not sure what the threshold is for such, but Schlock Mercenary has been going at a daily schedule for just short of 12 years.. without a missed day. it uses dates to label the comics, but if presented as a pure numerical label, that would put it at around 4380 strips come June 12th. plus a few leapdays.

Which suggests that in order to "beat" a signed, 16-bit int, you'd have to be posting either daily for something over 89 years, or more frequently for less; if you posted every hour, for example, you'd have to be posting for three and three-quarters years to make this mark.

Since the Internet has only been around since, at the very earliest, 1982 (that being when TCP/IP was standardised), and that's only 31 years ago, I don't think it's entirely possible for anyone to have passed a signed 16 bit int yet. Unless they're a little bit crazy. ;-]

[Daet]

Well at least he's not doing any worse than the old regime. 

Werrew's cuter than I pictured him when I read FH. 

[ChaosMageX]

And on another note, this is the last comic page number that can be stored in an unsigned byte.  The next page moves onto 16-bit "short" values, and I have yet to encounter an online webcomic which has exceeded even signed short integers, but then again I haven't really taken the time to look.

not sure what the threshold is for such, but Schlock Mercenary has been going at a daily schedule for just short of 12 years.. without a missed day. it uses dates to label the comics, but if presented as a pure numerical label, that would put it at around 4380 strips come June 12th. plus a few leapdays.

Which suggests that in order to "beat" a signed, 16-bit int, you'd have to be posting either daily for something over 89 years, or more frequently for less; if you posted every hour, for example, you'd have to be posting for three and three-quarters years to make this mark.

Since the Internet has only been around since, at the very earliest, 1982 (that being when TCP/IP was standardised), and that's only 31 years ago, I don't think it's entirely possible for anyone to have passed a signed 16 bit int yet. Unless they're a little bit crazy. ;-]

Thanks for the doing the math there, llearch, as you saved me the trouble. Anyway, this means that a signed or unsigned 16-bit "short" integer would probably be the most ideal for those who are conservative about storage space.  Then again, compared to the shear size of the comic page's image file itself, or even just the page's title (even if each is limited to a small number of ASCII characters), the page's enumeration is just a tiny drop in the bucket and might as well just be stored as a regular 32-bit integer for the sake of standardization, since I'm not sure which database systems, if any, even allow for integers smaller than 32 bits.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I suspect you could always argue for 64-bit ints, so you can use internet epoch as the marking time. However, that's starting to get a little pedantic. ;-]