Keychains 196 through 200

I don't think my opinion would help in any significant way, as it's also extremely personal, but just to elaborate:


The first thing that gave me a bad impression about Nova was my dislike of Alchemicals. Secondly, I didn't like the silly mad scientist archetype, as I generally prefer less pathetic villains. Take Ressonance Ben, for example. He is funny, yes, but not because he is childishly obsessed with something. His jokes are cleaver and witty, and he himself has a reasonable dosage of awesomeness. Then there was the Transformers cat thing. I HATE Transformers with the core of my soul, and the fact that she became a cat further emphasised the impression that everything about Nova was just childish.


Fourth, and this is probably not the consensus, but I think that the plot has derailed for too long. The main plot (the one involving the Keys) is genius! It's not necessary to throw secondary conflicts to keep us entertained. Since they left the manse, just about nothing was said about FaFL, the Abyssals or the saving of Creation. Sure, there was the implicit Ten Winds x Nova relationship, but it was left hanging. Finally, this arc was kept going for way too long, especially the last fight scene, which quickly became boring. I didn't mention anything at the time, but it was during that fight that I found the first element in Jukashi's art that I didn't like: Misho's warstrider. It was monochromatic and not very detailed, making it look a bit like a giant omelet with a sword.


On the other hand, Marena's sister was introduced there, and I really liked that character.
 
Arthur said:
I don't think my opinion would help in any significant way,
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On the contrary, I found it a very interesting read!


I can't really do anything about the dislike of the mad-scientist trope, or of catgirls and robot transformations; those are purely matters of taste. As for Nova herself, I can only say that despite appearances she is more complicated than she appears to be; or I should say, perhaps, deeper. Something I've tried to do with many characters is take simple, even idiotically two-dimensional concepts (such as Marena, who is at least partially based off the "lol sex" sort of character, and the King of Uncloaked Steel, who is a take on rules-bendingly combat-focused characters) and make them more interesting not by simply adding more facets to their personality but rather by exploring what such a character would really be like, what would have made them into such a person, and portraying the other consequences thereof. Marena, for example, as a person who uses her appearance and social grace as an all-purpose tool, (and with much more skill and purposefulness than you would expect from an attractive person in real life) would only have come from an upbringing where she had been actively trained, by a practiced teacher, to maintain and employ such advantages. (I also tried to make her as a female power fantasy, but it doesn't matter whether I succeed there or not since that's just for the purposes of experiment).


So I can tell you that Nova has a reason why she's a mad scientist. However, she isn't going to show up again for a very long time - barring unexpected developments, anyway - and so we won't see these for a while.


As to the delay of the main plot... well, that's just because the main plot won't go on very long by itself! The Lion has one Key, Misho has another; one is unreachable (in their current state) and the second is already in hand. The starmetal Key is in the hands of the Sidereals, who are much better-placed to handle it than the party is. These things the characters know, or reasonably expect in the case of the third. That leaves only two Keys to find. Two "get the Keys" story arcs, plus whatever endgame follows, aren't enough in which to do everything I want to do.


Then there's the question of transit. Take the jade Key for example: it's on the west coast of the Blessed Isle. The party started out in the Eastern Threshold. There's just too much bloody distance for them to go that way without getting embroiled in a half-dozen smaller stories. They are, after all, Exalted, and will make trouble simply by being somewhere at the wrong moment.


Finally: The Keys are the goal of the story. They're not the story themselves. Though I do intend for them to be more than simple MacGuffins, there's an aspect of that there; the story exists not merely to progress but to show off the characters and setting on the way there. The reason I made the comic was to show off the Exalted setting, its history, the stories that could happen there, and the characters I had made to exist in it. The "object" of the story exists to create the conflict and dramatic tension that allows these things to be shown, and the narrative approaches such goals only as rapidly as is required.
 
Well, I really liked the Nova story arc. It was fun.


Although, that warstrider really could have used more detail. And the cape too.
 
Arthur said:
Secondly, I didn't like the silly mad scientist archetype, as I generally prefer less pathetic villains.
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Get the fuck out. Wait, no, stay at home. I know you live somewhere in Brazil. Don't go anywhere for the next 48 hours.

Jukashi said:
The reason I made the comic was to show off the Exalted setting, its history, the stories that could happen there, and the characters I had made to exist in it.
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This is something I support with uncomfortable enthusiasm. Just to let you know. :D
 
Quchu said:
Arthur said:
Secondly, I didn't like the silly mad scientist archetype, as I generally prefer less pathetic villains.
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Get the fuck out. Wait, no, stay at home. I know you live somewhere in Brazil. Don't go anywhere for the next 48 hours.
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Man... you are just an orange.
 
I liked the Nova arc and the character herself, though my favorite is still the King of Uncloaked Steel.


So what if her personality wasn't exactly set up in the deep, emotional, award winning style. We mad scientists aren't exactly social paragons, but we'll do more to change the world than a pretty face or an actor.


Whose name do you recognize first, Albert Einstien, Laetitia Casta or Les Lye?


And there is nothing wrong with the comic (except for the aforementioned blandness of Misho's God Forged Armor of War).


Hmm...


I want to see the Troper Fae in a Glamor Warstrider. You could go all out and make it a kind of glossy clear with the naughty bits fuzzed out and him butt naked in the armor because Fair Folk have different values than humans do. You could make it kind of a 'mood' armor, changing hues to reflect his mood.
 
Arthur said:
I didn't mention anything at the time, but it was during that fight that I found the first element in Jukashi's art that I didn't like: Misho's warstrider. It was monochromatic and not very detailed, making it look a bit like a giant omelet with a sword.
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Very true. I was expecting something more epic, something more like this:


GodGundam.jpg


Jukashi said:
So I can tell you that Nova has a reason why she's a mad scientist. However, she isn't going to show up again for a very long time - barring unexpected developments, anyway - and so we won't see these for a while.
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Knowing that Nova will return someday is awesome, because it means more Blossom as well. :)
 
#199 is one of the funniest strips I have read in a while. Maybe it's just that I like jokes based on animal people acting like... animals. I think when I first play a Lunar, I would have to be forced to not play the character like this.
 
What was that? What wazzit? Was it a ball? What is that ball? What's that ball? Who wants a ball? Who wants it?


Can she get it? Can she get the ball? Is Marena gonna get a ball? Is she gonna get a ball like a good girl? Is Marena the good girl who gets the ball?


Where's that ball? Where is it? Can she find it?


What a good Lunar! Who's a good Lunar? Who's a soft Lunar who finds the ball? Is it Marena? I think it is! I think it is Marena who's a soft and fuzzy Lunar who finds a ball!


I think it might be time for Marena to get a tummy rub after this.
 
I love his muttering about the full moon. So...Curse of the Mother Hen?


Misho is adorable in this strip. I'll bet he (like all Solars with any brains) has got a Socialize penalty in "my Lunar" bouncing around somewhere on his character sheet for times like this...
 
They are both adorable in this strip!


Especially the way he stands up, looking pleased with himself for a moment... Then runs like Resonance Ben, Forgotten Flame, and a magnitude eight unit of the undead are coming his way.


Still, it does beg one question - I get the whole "Our world is governed by strange rules" ability to instinctively understand things like dots of essence or strength and what-not, but wouldn't they still have no knowledge of the Great Curse? Or are you playing it like the Sidereals - everyone knows that everyone else is cursed, but they got away scott-free?
 
Oh, how amusing. The more I look at it, the funnier it gets.


Also, this begs the question as to whether the Solars rode their shape-changing mates into battle.


Or if they trained them into attack dogs.


Three more days to Comic-200!


Oh, and by the way; THAT is a bitchin' background in the first panel.
 
Still, it does beg one question - I get the whole "Our world is governed by strange rules" ability to instinctively understand things like dots of essence or strength and what-not, but wouldn't they still have no knowledge of the Great Curse? Or are you playing it like the Sidereals - everyone knows that everyone else is cursed, but they got away scott-free?
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Or, you know, over a potentially ridiculous span of time a ludicrously intelligent Solar has noticed that his very best friend in the world has a strong tendency towards strange behavior of a particular type on the night of the full moon, without having a great deal of awareness of the whys or heretofores of the matter. Doesn't have to be setting-breaking.
 
Indeed. Just because you understand your friend goes nucking futz under the light of the full moon...because it happens well, every 28 days...doesn't mean you know WHY. You can recognize the symptoms of the Great Curse pretty easilly, without noting the cause. It's like a Dawn I played...Foolhardy Contempt, and it was pretty darn easy to make him limit break at the drop of a hat...with certain situations bringing it on regularly. People were quite aware that if people challenged him to a duel or the like, or challenged his courage, he was very likely to go from his usual gutsy self to completely irrationally fearless. His companions started developing techniques to try and manipulate him away from such situations coming up to regularly. Did they know his actions were caused by The Great Curse? No. They did recognize some of the problems, and develop ways around them. I'm sure plenty of other characters can do the same.
 
krrackknut said:
Oh, how amusing. The more I look at it, the funnier it gets.
Also, this begs the question as to whether the Solars rode their shape-changing mates into battle.
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Desus did but he's a dick.


ISTR him pintle mounting an energy cannon on Lilith for situations where he might want to ride her into battle.
 
Dahak said:
krrackknut said:
Oh, how amusing. The more I look at it, the funnier it gets.
Also, this begs the question as to whether the Solars rode their shape-changing mates into battle.
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Desus did but he's a dick.


ISTR him pintle mounting an energy cannon on Lilith for situations where he might want to ride her into battle.
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Hey, that's a perfectly valid strategy!


...and I have never taken advantage of superior social abilities to persuade another PC to let me do anything similar with their Tyrant Lizard form. Really.
 
This one I found bothered me, perhaps because I'm a Lunar fan. Marena is treated like a simple minded pet by Misho.
 
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