Discussion for comic for 2021-05-03 (Monday) ✣ .
Bored? Looking for something useful to do? There's plenty of wiki editing you can do.
Teaser for Monday: Phil on Twitter:
I guess Agatha will jump or view across world boundaries and see Phil eating cheesecake. (In case you were hoping my edit was announcing the opening of the sneak gate, sorry. And nothing new on Patron yet.) Argadi (talk) 21:03, 2 May 2021 (UTC)
- Well, it's definitely Cheesecake. Doug Relyea (talk) 05:33, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
- Transparent nightgown ... silhouetted by lightning flashes ... um, 'scuse me for a bit -- SpareParts (talk) 15:37, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
Somewhere along the line, Agatha seems to have lost her bloomers. ✣ -- William Ansley (talk) 05:14, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
- This ✣ was the soonest I recall the bloomers definitely not being present. Doug Relyea (talk) 05:35, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
I wonder how Othar will be made relevant again. Prisoner of Dr. Monahan? Doug Relyea (talk) 05:49, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
- I hope not. On his Twitter adventures right now he's battling the The Other in Holfung-Borzoi. --Geoduck42 (talk) 08:59, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
- So that means he'll end up pestering Gil and Tarvek. Doug Relyea (talk) 20:09, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
Ahem. If we're done discussing Agatha's night attire, perhaps we could spare a moment for the last panel? Is Agatha really going to ascend to godhood? Her talk about Albia being lonely doesn't really seem apt, since the available evidence seems to indicate that back in the old days, the queens got along best when widely separated. Even though Albia wants to keep Agatha in her garden (with the recent hint that that means being exploited to maintain Albia's strength), I don't think she wants Agatha as a sister. But you have to admit it'd be an elegant way to tie up all the loose threads; Agatha as god snaps her fingers and everything is put right. Bkharvey (talk) 06:01, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
- The Queens may have been separated map - wise, but with the Queens Mirrors, they were literally next door. Yes, it does look like Albia wants to control Agatha, but Agatha likely has other plans. (Freeing Mechanicsburgh of the time-stop still foremost.) I expect Agatha will ascend, if only to access the power to preserve herself. Doug Relyea (talk) 07:43, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
- Oh, the Queens could meet, but they each ruled a land separated from the others. And they kept their physical locations secret from each other, for good reason. As for Agatha, she's ascended twice that we know about, and came back down both times. Maybe that'll happen again, but if she frees M'burg essentially by magic would be an unsatisfying ending. Bkharvey (talk) 07:59, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
- I wonder if the irony of the separation of queen lands is that they actually siphon some of the brain energy of all their subjects, save a few of the more strong willed ones, in order to power their ascension. Thus, all their lands needed to remain far apart to keep from infringing on another queen's power. Twist: Lucrezia has been fighting a crusade across time to free these unwitting batteries in the matrix and inadvertently spawns a loosely related Movie franchise. Which means any remaining queens will need to die or revert in an epic battle that probably involves Vapnoople and Snackleford. DLcygnet (talk) 19:44, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
- The Science of the Queens is so advanced it merely seems like Magic.Klaus overlay to Gil ✣ Doug Relyea (talk) 12:57, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
- Just remember we've twice seen Agatha in the future after the Other War, with no sign of her being a second-stage Spark. If she does it at some point, it won't be permanent. (Or if the Foglios declare those two stories not to be canon, I will be very annoyed with them.) --Geoduck42 (talk) 08:59, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
- I expect Agatha is young enough that maintaining human normal size won't require much effort.Rakethorn sezs ✣ . Several thousand years on might be a different story. Doug Relyea (talk) 13:05, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
- The final comments in either panel 7 still haunt me, especially after watching Albia reach into all her subjects' minds and bodies a few times and Lucrezia explode Wooster on a whim. The magnitude of the problem & unilateral power the queens must possess is incredible. DLcygnet (talk) 21:53, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
- I didn't mean literally magic, just that the Queens can do things at a glance that might as well be magic for all the satisfaction they give the readers. Imagine if Albia just blew up that island instead of sending Agatha there. It'd close off at least two loose ends, but anticlimactically. (When things get worse by magic, such as Kjarl "fixing" Vapnoople, that's not an anticlimax.) Bkharvey (talk) 22:21, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
Is there any chance this is a bit of foreshadowing? Zeetha is Klaus' daughter and Gil's twin - surely she is a latent spark of some sort? She's had so many brilliant moments, typically in the heat of battle; I just don't think she's been stressed to the point of breakthrough yet due to her extensive combat training and mental discipline. Bang may fall into this self-aware combat genius category too! I mean, we've seen the mechanically, medically, biologically, musically, haberdashery and even bakery inclined sparks... why not combat? DLcygnet (talk) 19:44, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
I've been trying to figure out what she means by "maybe lord Shackleford was right". I've read all of his dialog and it's mostly minutia on dome activities and boilerplate and talking about gaining power and knowledge. It does sound like he wants to be on Albia's good side and show her and the world his new power, but it seems unlikely that is what Agatha is referring to. The cultists speak to bringing things back to a new golden age with sorcerors and kings which might be. construed as Snackies goal but he did murder the other cultists so that doesn't seem likely unless its the age of one sorcerer's or king. Anyway you look at it Agatha bring introspective about Snackied motivations seems like an unwise use of mental energy. Lapointdm (talk) 12:08, 4 May 2021 (UTC)
- I think the mention of Othar was a clue. Othar feels Sparks are responsible for most of the Mayhem in the world, and Snackleford's killing of the cultists eliminated the inevitable conflict that would arise from so many more Queens and Kings being present. Sparks seeking to dominate each other and the world is an underlying theme. Doug Relyea (talk) 14:06, 4 May 2021 (UTC)