Ok…….. I can see where the “madness” might return. After all, at the point, Byron has never actually been close to death. If he gets close to death here…….. it might be all bets off.
I think the vast majority of trolls would be too suspicious to change sides in the hopes of a cure, and Gastonia seems unlikely to accept any that do, but it could be useful when the war is over.
Oh, you sweet summer children. Everyone knows the one true king is eternal stick-in-the mud, Stannis “Grump-Face” Baratheon. That man’s going to take the iron throne or die trying. (And by this point, I sincerely doubt even death will stop him.)
In all seriousness though, that alt-text made me make this weird laugh-crying noise.
My ideal resolution to the whole Song of Ice and Fire plot is all the various pretenders coming together and bonding over a good session of kicking Joffrey in the face. Too late for that though. (And you have no idea what I mean by that so don’t cry spoilers.)
i only read book 1. to much murder of characters i liked. was joffrey the price brat who had the one princesses wolf executed because the other stopped him from murdering the other princesses friend? followed by many more acts of jerkdom? he is one of the two characters i still feel strongly for after a year or so not reading. the other being the princess who learned to sword fight. i hope she lives happily ever after, and he dies in a way that is convenient and useful for all the characters who are decent people
Well, GRRM did a fine job of writing a reprehensible villain, is all. The more you read into the stories, the more you’ll find that he’s pretty good at twisting the sympathy dial to and fro on you. Never much bothered with Joff’s dial, though. /offtopic
Yeah, he’s actually apparently the nicest guy, so all the other actors are quick to jump to his defense. Sansa’s actress thought so too, which made the scenes with him pretty bad for her since, as you said, he’s pretty good at playing a wildly psychopathic villain.
Yep, against a thrusting weapon chainmail really wouldn’t do much of anything. The speartip would puncture the loops and slide in like it was cheesecloth. It’s only useful as a defense against slashing. Chain is fairly useless as armor, heavy as hell, and really cramps your shoulders. Get some plate!
Plate is heavier, less flexible. It depends what kind of use you have : I mean, Byron is emphasizing on speed and lots of lethal blows, so he has to go for “light protection”. As a knight or paladin, he would have a totally different combat style, and totally different protection too.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but plate and chain each have different advantages/disadvantages, and often, knights would wear a light chain shirt under their plate to combine the two, I think.
Having worn both chain with a few plates and near-full plate into melee combat (though with sticks, not blades) I can tell you that while it is indeed very tiring it’s not as hard to move in as you might think. Depends on your build, of course; I was a weightlifter in high school and built tall and broad anyway so it’s a bit easier for me.
This does not cover full mounted knight’s plate, though, in which falling over is a disaster you’ll not likely survive as getting up is very difficult.
Also FALSE! A good suit of Plate weighs only about 40 lbs (the same as WWII combat gear, so a fit individual isn’t really slowed by it) and, if made properly, allows for full range of motion to the extent that it can be worn while doing acrobatics and pose no real hindrance aside from, well, being 40 extra lbs. Also, when worn, it would be tied to arming points all over the body, meaning the weight was distributed far more evenly than chain (or WWII gear) meaning that it felt even lighter!
FALSE! That is a myth perpetrated by the promulgation of modern, butted maille. Proper riveted or welded maille resists puncture just as well as plate of all blades larger than the rings- which is most of them. Its downsides are weight, weight distribution (all hanging on shoulders, instead of through an arming jacket) and that it does nothing against blunt force! (which, honestly, most swords are, after a day on the battlefield.)
Awwww, see? Harky dosnt want to kill people, at least at first. Panel 3 shows hes just performing the sacred ‘STOP! Speartime.’ dance of his people. And Byron didnt high-five him like he was supposed to.
Pull it together, Byron. You’re inside his spear range, left hand raised, neck of foeman exposed. Just bring the axe down, let’s see him regenerate his jugular.
This may seem like a dumb thing to bring up but…what happened to Byron’s pauldrons? I thought maybe they were confiscated by the axe-hating Elves, but realized he didn’t have them in Chapter 17…I guess I thought about it because he’s used them to his advantage in combat before.
Hmm. Trolls are affected by berserking to the point that it’s a major problem for their society and they recognize it on sight. Byron is affected by berserking to a lesser degree. No other humans have been shown to be berserkers. When Byron went berserk in the troll arena, no one on his team really fully recognized what was going on until it was too late – they clearly didn’t really know what berserking meant. But all the trolls realized it immediately.
Conclusion: Byron is not fully human.
This isn’t the inevitable conclusion, but it’s the one being foreshadowed.
I was looking back at the archive and noticed that the spear Harky is using is the same one seen in the fortune teller’s prophecy in Chapter 7, so that’s pretty interesting I guess. http://guildedage.net/webcomic/chapter-7/chapter-7-page-13/
I dunno…in chapter 8, Byron put Harky’s spear completely through his chest. (After Harky put it through his…) Harky just pulled it through and his chest sealed up. While still talking. :-P
Ummmmm…. oh no.
Ok…….. I can see where the “madness” might return. After all, at the point, Byron has never actually been close to death. If he gets close to death here…….. it might be all bets off.
spoiler alert: in next strip we meet byron the oh-so-formerly-ber-now-re-serker
Not again!
It’s all his tunic color fault. It seems to work as a red shirt.
Huh. So this is a real problem for his people, and Syrnj has the solution. Seems to me like she just won Gastonia a new ally that could turn the war.
…Yeeeeeah no.
Truly, I think that it cannot work that way. Harky and crew shall not rest until humans are wiped from the face of the world.
I think the vast majority of trolls would be too suspicious to change sides in the hopes of a cure, and Gastonia seems unlikely to accept any that do, but it could be useful when the war is over.
Well, obviously his people are susceptible to catching condition created by the dark deity they serve.
Byron. The death of Harky is your quest, and you’re cutely shooting your mouth off. You shouldn’t shoot first and axe quests later.
To be fair Harky seems to be the only guy besides Srynj who has any idea as to what his ‘beserking’ actually is.
Also, Tyrion Lannister for king. That is all.
King in the South. All hail Rob Stark, King in the North!
Rob Stark! King of the North! Down with the Lannisters! Hail the wolves!
DAKINGINDANORF!
Oh, you sweet summer children. Everyone knows the one true king is eternal stick-in-the mud, Stannis “Grump-Face” Baratheon. That man’s going to take the iron throne or die trying. (And by this point, I sincerely doubt even death will stop him.)
In all seriousness though, that alt-text made me make this weird laugh-crying noise.
And someone, SOMEONE kill Joffrey, please. (No spoilers, only up to third book)
My ideal resolution to the whole Song of Ice and Fire plot is all the various pretenders coming together and bonding over a good session of kicking Joffrey in the face. Too late for that though. (And you have no idea what I mean by that so don’t cry spoilers.)
i only read book 1. to much murder of characters i liked. was joffrey the price brat who had the one princesses wolf executed because the other stopped him from murdering the other princesses friend? followed by many more acts of jerkdom? he is one of the two characters i still feel strongly for after a year or so not reading. the other being the princess who learned to sword fight. i hope she lives happily ever after, and he dies in a way that is convenient and useful for all the characters who are decent people
Joffrey is so universally hated that they even avoided doing any interviews with the boy who played him in the HBO series. Just terrible.
Well, GRRM did a fine job of writing a reprehensible villain, is all. The more you read into the stories, the more you’ll find that he’s pretty good at twisting the sympathy dial to and fro on you. Never much bothered with Joff’s dial, though. /offtopic
Wait, really? That’s kinda sad for that actor, considering that he does a pretty good job of being joffrey
Yeah, he’s actually apparently the nicest guy, so all the other actors are quick to jump to his defense. Sansa’s actress thought so too, which made the scenes with him pretty bad for her since, as you said, he’s pretty good at playing a wildly psychopathic villain.
The greatest thing on the Internet ever is that 10 minute video of Tyrion slapping Joffrey to “Achilles’ Last Stand” – Believe me I thought of this clip a lot when considering a certain Gastonian brat who likes gnomish war toys … !
This…this is ART.
fuck all yall, others’ll turn you into chum soon enough.
I think Byron got the point.
And just when he was about to offer Harky a tip, too.
Harky doesn’t know about Syr’s cure. Clearly, Byron is on the bleeding edge of SCIENCE!
Well, he did axe the question. XD Great minds think alike.
“Haha, joke’s on you, sucker, we found another cure! But now you don’t get it because I’m dea-” *dies*
*gravy-rez* “…ad. Okay, that’s going to get old, fast. Did we win?”
I can’t help but think that using Byron’s blood as a biological weapon would be the most tragic and possibly symbolic way to win a war.
Assuming The Madness even works like that, of course.
Well, could always go all arcane on ’em. Melf’s Acid Chaingun, anyone?
I can’t really think of any other way you could “share” a fact, Harky, but keep working on that combat banter. You’ll get there.
Harky is a firm believer in Digital Rights Management. And since they live in a video game, everything is digital.
Getting stabbed: How Gastonian.
I thought the Gastonian thing was stabbing, as in backs.
The chain mail – it does nothing!
Also, to paraphrase a Queen song, “Waiting for the axes to fall”
Yep, against a thrusting weapon chainmail really wouldn’t do much of anything. The speartip would puncture the loops and slide in like it was cheesecloth. It’s only useful as a defense against slashing. Chain is fairly useless as armor, heavy as hell, and really cramps your shoulders. Get some plate!
Plate is heavier, less flexible. It depends what kind of use you have : I mean, Byron is emphasizing on speed and lots of lethal blows, so he has to go for “light protection”. As a knight or paladin, he would have a totally different combat style, and totally different protection too.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but plate and chain each have different advantages/disadvantages, and often, knights would wear a light chain shirt under their plate to combine the two, I think.
and then would move about a foot every two minutes or so.
Having worn both chain with a few plates and near-full plate into melee combat (though with sticks, not blades) I can tell you that while it is indeed very tiring it’s not as hard to move in as you might think. Depends on your build, of course; I was a weightlifter in high school and built tall and broad anyway so it’s a bit easier for me.
This does not cover full mounted knight’s plate, though, in which falling over is a disaster you’ll not likely survive as getting up is very difficult.
Light and laughter,
SongCoyote
Again, FALSE! See above.
Also FALSE! A good suit of Plate weighs only about 40 lbs (the same as WWII combat gear, so a fit individual isn’t really slowed by it) and, if made properly, allows for full range of motion to the extent that it can be worn while doing acrobatics and pose no real hindrance aside from, well, being 40 extra lbs. Also, when worn, it would be tied to arming points all over the body, meaning the weight was distributed far more evenly than chain (or WWII gear) meaning that it felt even lighter!
FALSE! That is a myth perpetrated by the promulgation of modern, butted maille. Proper riveted or welded maille resists puncture just as well as plate of all blades larger than the rings- which is most of them. Its downsides are weight, weight distribution (all hanging on shoulders, instead of through an arming jacket) and that it does nothing against blunt force! (which, honestly, most swords are, after a day on the battlefield.)
oh my god shut up
I prefer his comments to your spitefulness, Sir Logos.
Continuing proof that hitpoints are red coloured.
Byron was going to land in Gangam Style before Harky stabbed him.
Actually, there is one other cure?
There is?
Nah, I’m just Trollin’ you.
If I turn around and put my hands in the air will that make it easy enough?
Bah, you just don’t care.
Mental note: awesome pirouette fails to temporarily dazzle Harky; will only use in future if battling opponent with appreciation of fine arts
Awwww, see? Harky dosnt want to kill people, at least at first. Panel 3 shows hes just performing the sacred ‘STOP! Speartime.’ dance of his people. And Byron didnt high-five him like he was supposed to.
Pull it together, Byron. You’re inside his spear range, left hand raised, neck of foeman exposed. Just bring the axe down, let’s see him regenerate his jugular.
don’t worry if Byron dies he will be resurrected as Cold Hands Mk II
This effectively kills the idea that Harky might be a berzerker.
Nice continuity, there. Ripped the back of his tunic in the first panel, it’s even still there in the last.
Harky made a good point to the question Byron axed.
On another note, Harky follows the villain stereotype. Dude should have watched more Batman or something.
This may seem like a dumb thing to bring up but…what happened to Byron’s pauldrons? I thought maybe they were confiscated by the axe-hating Elves, but realized he didn’t have them in Chapter 17…I guess I thought about it because he’s used them to his advantage in combat before.
Hmm. Trolls are affected by berserking to the point that it’s a major problem for their society and they recognize it on sight. Byron is affected by berserking to a lesser degree. No other humans have been shown to be berserkers. When Byron went berserk in the troll arena, no one on his team really fully recognized what was going on until it was too late – they clearly didn’t really know what berserking meant. But all the trolls realized it immediately.
Conclusion: Byron is not fully human.
This isn’t the inevitable conclusion, but it’s the one being foreshadowed.
what i got out of gravy’s spiritual analysis was that the berserking was a curse.
http://guildedage.net/webcomic/chapter-13/chapter-13-page-19/
“I have broken your spear, so since you can no longer attack me I shall dance!”
You say broken spear, I say dual-wielding sword and long staff.
I was looking back at the archive and noticed that the spear Harky is using is the same one seen in the fortune teller’s prophecy in Chapter 7, so that’s pretty interesting I guess.
http://guildedage.net/webcomic/chapter-7/chapter-7-page-13/
No one seems to see Byron`s axe is inside Harky too! A cut to the Heart will be hard to regenerate.
I dunno…in chapter 8, Byron put Harky’s spear completely through his chest. (After Harky put it through his…) Harky just pulled it through and his chest sealed up. While still talking. :-P
Ribs – who needs ’em.
Not me! I get around pretty damn fine without them.
comeon you know every halfway popular character is coming back as a tree, fire resurrection or coldhands zombie for endgame in the last book
What the hell did he think he was doing in Panel 4 anyway? Taking a time-out to do a pirouette in the middle of the fight?