Discussion for comic for 2010-12-17 (Friday) ✣ .
"Jump, little minion! Jump while you can!." --Otilia 17:31, May 20, 1892
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Hmm. Now would be a good time for the castle to come back online. --Rej¿¤¤? 23:41, December 16, 2010 (UTC)
Jump little minion !, and yes the castle could be the answer Agathahetrodyne 00:07, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
I don't think it's the castle. That would be difficult to manifest. What is more likely is that SOMEONE grabs his arm and pulls him to safety. There are a number of people who are unaccounted for who might be available, my top candidate be Othar. (And his sister what Moloch has the hots for.)Baby Rorschach 22:02, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
Ooh, early comic, nice! --Undomelin 01:34, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
I don't know what concerns me the most. Otilia's callus disregard for "artificial" life forms, or von Zinzer's traditional panic attack. I think I'll settle on Otilia's callousness. Life is life, after all. Perhaps there was more accident than design to van Rijn's work. --Billy Catringer 06:41, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
- Hmm, you may have a point. Could it be that she wasn't even aware they fell off? Or if she was aware, maybe she felt sure that they would either survive a fall or manage to grip the side of the chute? I admit, none of my suggestions sound extremely convincing. Between one thing and another we do know she doesn't always manage to do her protection jobs very effectively.
- Oh, I just realized something: On Wednesday's comic there were only as many as seven dingbots in view on Otillia. In the bouncing-off-the-walls panel today, it looks like six fall off. Yet in the final panel, we see at least five of them leaping or clinging to Moloch as he leaps. So did they actually scramble to the top somehow? I'm confused. --Undomelin 08:11, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
- Before Otilla makes her first leap, there could be dozens of dingbots clinging all over. We only see
- seven or eight on the facing side. She goes bouncing up the walls and a few fall off... but I have
- feeling dingbots are almost indestructible; we've never seen a broken one. Would Agatha settle for
- anything less? I'll bet Otilla knows this as well. And besides, Dingbots, or at least some of them,
- can fly. In fact, that's my guess as to Moloch avoids the big fall... a dozen or so little
- mini-copters.Schmott Guy(?) 02:33, December 19, 2010 (UTC)
- As the "Muse of Protection," Otilia must have been instructed to "protect" someone or something. Presumably, Andronicus Valois, or whomever he chose as the target of her abilities to protect. I wonder if R. Van Rijn was smart enough to realize that she would never be able to protect the Storm King from time, and then program her to accept the Storm King's death from natural causes as something for which she should not hold herself accountable. She would, therefore, need to be able to pick the next object of her protective abilities. Presumably, it would have been the Storm King's heir, but does that mean she would recognize Tarvek Sturmvarous? It seems the other muses have, but Otilia may well be different. Remember that we may well be dealing with Salic Law here and that under Salic Law, Tarvek's claim to his ancestor's heritage is not cut and dried. His claim comes through his mother.--Billy Catringer 19:57, December 18, 2010 (UTC)
- The real climax of the series: Agatha, the Baron, the Geisters, the Other, and the Dragon from Mars (and all the followers) join forces to solve the mutual problem of being overwhelmed by the ever increasing number of Dingbots. Argadi 09:40, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
- Or, it might be used as a segue into the next big story. "Agatha Heterodyne and the Dingbot Horde!" Click! Click! Clickety-ding! --Billy Catringer 19:57, December 18, 2010 (UTC)
- The real climax of the series: Agatha, the Baron, the Geisters, the Other, and the Dragon from Mars (and all the followers) join forces to solve the mutual problem of being overwhelmed by the ever increasing number of Dingbots. Argadi 09:40, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
- I think that the same few dingbots are drawn several times to indicate movement. It's a common technique in comics, and doesn't indicate there are actually many of them. Presumably the places where Otilia bounces off the walls are places where she's relatively still, so you can see the dingbots at those points in a strobe-like effect. The dingbots are knocked around, but few if any are actually dislodged at those points, which is why they're still on board at the top. Look at Snaug's left hands in the first panel of November 19: [1]; she doesn't really have three, it just shows the way she's moving. Mskala 11:21, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
- You must be right. So no dingbots were harmed in the making of this installment. (It's looking a little precarious at the end, but I doubt Moloch will come to harm, and as long as he gets out of this intact, the dingbots probably will, too.)--Undomelin 20:31, December 19, 2010 (UTC)
Interesting parallel: Von Pinn pushed Agatha away from the top of the hole to save her, now Otilia is in the same position with Moloch. Argadi 09:40, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
- And, with the Monday page ✣ the same thing happens (with a better attitude). Argadi 09:26, December 20, 2010 (UTC)
i have a comment / question , when Agatha first fired the death ray at the floor you could look down and see many floors , where did they go to ? Agathahetrodyne 15:58, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
- We are seeing a different view of the hole than before. I presume the Professors have a detailed model of the castle, but my guess is that there were several floors but also a large gap of stone between the "visible" castle on the surface and the "hidden" castle down below. Argadi 19:33, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
Mostly true, Schmott Guy. The very first dingbot we saw self-destructed because it was a prototype and Agatha must have made a mistake in its construction. Parts of it struck Doctor Merlot on the side of the head just above his right ear. I cannot now remember if any of them self-destructed aboard Castle Wulfenbach, but they did turn into explosive elements of a Divine Wind during the Battle of the Circus. A number of them were consumed by the geisterdragon in Sturmhalten, which I thought was some sort of gryphon. It looks rather like a chicken with a dragon's tail and a dragon's teeth in its bill. It's weird either way so I guess geisterdragon will do.--Billy Catringer 10:35, December 19, 2010 (UTC)
Question: Is your average non-prime dingbot even sentient? They can't speak, and they seem to live to work building things... usually whatever Agatha wants, even if she doesn't tell them. The only other thing they have done is fight amongst themselves.
- I don't know, Schmott Guy. Is a dog or a cat sentient? I have a Jack Russel terrier, I did not go looking for her she was given to me, that makes me wonder. She uses her forepaws as though they were hands and she names her toys. I am always careful of making extraordinary claims, knowing that I will have to obtain extraordinary proof to back them up, but in this particular instance, I know I'm right. Sassy, the dog, definitely has names for her toys and I can understand which toy she wants when. Of course, she goes "grr" whenever she wants her bright green ball, and she makes a snuffling sound when she wants her stuffed squirrel, but these noises are clearly names. Now, accuse me of being mad, if you like, but that is what I see and hear. She has a very specific sort of growl for her ball and she makes a peculiar snuffling noise for her toy squirrel.
What she does not do is build things. The dingbots build any and everything they need including other dingbots. Are they superior on the sentience scale to my dog? --Billy Catringer 20:15, December 19, 2010 (UTC)
Billy: You mention Otilla's callous disregard for the dingbots... but does AGATHA seem to care for them any more? Seems she builds one, points it at a task, and doesn't worry about them as long as they behave. Other than the muses, are clanks ever more than mechanical slaves? Agatha even builds Queenie to reinforce her control.Schmott Guy(?) 14:33, December 19, 2010 (UTC)
I don't think she will be taking up the cause of "Clank's Rights" any time soon. No more than someone living in the Nineteenth century would have taken up the cause of "The Rights of Locomotives". This story is taking place when people were a great deal less sensitive to such issues. --Billy Catringer 20:15, December 19, 2010 (UTC)