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Guilded Age
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Odd. I was thinking that Penk was a player, and Harky wasn’t. I know Harky thinks he’s talking about Tectonicus, but… maybe there are players who control the leadership on both sides, too? Like those hybrid RTS/FPS games, or even a classic MMORPG where guild leaders might be more administrators than players.
It would depend on what kind of setting we’re looking at. Is the world of Arkerra purely a creation of Giger and Hurricane? Are these characters who think they’re real actually just ones and zeroes? Or, did Giger build a game but somehow tap into a *real* world out there? Are players creating people out of the game’s mechanics or are they taking over or riding along the experiences of people native to this demesne? AFAIK, I don’t think we’ve even figured this out yet. :-\
Even more questions. If Arkerra is a real world and the game is only a gateaway to it, are the players been there for all their characters life?, I mean, were they born as their characters or they took their bodies and memories?. If it’s the fist, that could mean that next players have been there all the time. It’s difficult to say at this point what it’s real and what not.
Just wanted to say I’m happy to know there are others here who associate the initials “H.R.” with the last name “Giger” above anything else.
but that means….. Hammerhead could also be a player.
Someone, somewhere, write an MMO where I can play a giant hammer headed shark warrior… NOW!
Champions online. I had a character named Carcaradon- essentially a mashup of a Street Shark and The Everlovin’ Blue Eyed Thing, with a bit of Hulk mixed in. Most fun I ever had playing that game- and there’s Hammerhead cosmetic options too.
Little quips like this are what remind me that the PCs had lives before this, nice touch.
Someone please correct me if I am wrong here but: Tectonicus is kinda your classic destroy/burn the world and all in it old god right? He doesn’t care, but kinda wants everything burned to the ground.
Harky is fighting for the creation of a nation of the outcast and beast people, but is also the Avatar of Tectonicus. Is Harky duping Tectonicus to gain his power, but in the end wont destroy the whole world as Tectonicus plans?
I see Tectonicus rather like an elemental fire god. He doesn’t really have inherent intent or plan, like world destruction. I think it’s more like he IS fire, that consumes whatever it touches and constantly needs fuel to go on. But fire can be tamed to, say, heat a boiler. Inside Harky, Tectonicus’ power seems pretty tightly controlled, doesn’t it ?
I see it more as a righteous fury myself. fire god, check. head on destruction and rebirth cycles, check. burn the world…well sorta…more like burn anyone who defies Tectonicus’ will;D
I really, really, really get the feeling Harky was just like Penk when he was younger- or that Penk, for all his fears, insecurities, and weaknesses, is going to gain Harky’s strenths and bravery once he becomes champion.
Which means we’ve got to expect Harky dying sometime soon so that the avatardom can pass onto Penk
Maybe we’ll get some touching scene where Harky reveals that being Tectonicus’ avatar consumes you prematurely and that passing down the role of avatar to Penk is hardly a favor he’s doing him but more of a necessary curse that Penk in turn will have to bear for the good of his people…
All in all, these last few pages have made me love those two guys.
Agreed
Definitely.
Huh. I wonder if Harky means that.
You know, we’ve assumed all this time that Byron and co are the five, but what if they aren’t?
Means HR has been wrong this entire time; he has never had control.
Since the attack on the Wood Elves, I always assumed the Champions and such were “Players” like Bandit and E-Merl and such.
Also, I think we can assume that HR never had control regardless.
But then again I like to pretend the HR tank-people story-line doesn’t actually exist, mostly because I think it’s kind of lame (sorry, just how I feel, really good comic otherwise though).
I tend not to like counterpoint stories either, Tales of the Black Freighter comes to mind which seemed pretty disposable in Watchmen.
I especially don’t like stuff that cheapens or provides an escape from the ‘world’ like Star Trek holodecks and Assassin’s Creed office drone segments.
I get the need for drama and gravitas to counter the ‘lol gamer comic’ origins of this comic but a story like the one on this page is wonderful and provides all the weight you need without Sepia World just waiting to go POOF: “and it was all just a dream”.
Playing through Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, I have to agree the office sections are dry, but otherwise I think that counterpoint stories can do a lot to enhance the character and world building of a story.
I liked the Tales of The Black Freighter segments from Watchman. Well not so much the comic within a comic itself, to me it was all about the interaction of the News Vendor, and the Boy. They are street level views of what’s going on in the world, and reflect the views of the average citizens of the world. They are mostly concerned with making enough money to get by, and escaping from the reality of the world by reading comics. The ongoing interaction makes their final scene together all the more poignant, and while you can say the comic doesn’t necessarily need it, I believe Watchmen is all the better for it.
My initial gut reaction to the reveal of the world of Guilded Age being a “video game” (if that’s what it really is) was negative. It was a little bit of “been there, seen that” mentality, there’s been a lot of fiction that have explored the same ideas, albeit for the most part they do it shallowly. However, in the time hence, I have been won over by writing and am really looking forward to the pay off. I really hope there’s an extended epilogue, or resolution, so that the consequences of everything that has happened can be examined in depth. Will the characters have to cope with PTSD after everything that has happened? How do you continue your life when you were in essence two separate people(in the case of Bandit/Best 3 people or so my theory goes), and have two sets of memories. Can you return to real life after that?
If anyone’s still skeptical and wants an example of this idea done well look no further then John Scalzi’s Red Shirts. It’s a funny and thought provoking piece of fiction.
Can you elaborate on your theory concerning Bandid and Best?
I’m intrigued.
How do we know that they’re not both sides?
My guess after this thread (including Thinker’s response below) is that the players in the tubes were usurped by the ‘game’ at/following the ‘Heroes’ deaths.
Think: after their respawning, the ‘good’ guys have largely quit with the adventuring and heroics and are now doing government drudgery, whilst the ‘savages’ are gaining the momentum, and many commenters are noting parallel traits in the new champions.
It’s why H.R. felt he had lost control – the program noticed the heroics of the PCs and has now stolen that moxy and reallocated it for its own purposes. H.R.’s countermove was the addition of the new team members (E-Merl, Rachel, Scip).
Didn’t HR order at least one additional tube? Perhaps there’s already someone in there.
It was a rhetorical question Penk.
“Tell me Penk… why do your eyes keep disappearing like that?”
ironic comment/avatar combo is go
I’m here to serve.
Ow my heart
So… I’m still convinced that all this is just an elaborate setup, the punchline being something along the ways of Penk providing the beat and HAMMERHEAD starting off the rap to “Can’t touch this”.
One day Penk, all that the sun touches will be yours…
Unfortunately for Penk, the Sun only directly touches empty vacuum. That, or highly radioactive space dust. Well, good luck!
Love the alliteration on Penk’s swearing
“Great. Here you go then.”
*rips Fireseye out, shoves it into Penk’s belly*
“Good luck!”
Graphic violence is the only proper way to pass on leadership.
Can it be? Is this strip powerful enough to defeat the punning threads?
Are the landsharks all-male, or are they one of those mono-gender races (i.e. identical except for under the loincloth)? It would be badass if Hammerhead was a female landshark.
Given the sexual dimorphism in most fish and sharks, the hammerhead is most likely female.
Darn them savage races for making have empathy for them…
I’m thinking more like Rudy in Log Horizon.
We have nothing to fear except fear itself! And that shark guy following us. Oh crap I think it’s getting closer!
Dangit! You’re not supposed to like the bad guy! You got me liking the bad guy!!
Eh, at this point I dont think they’re the bad guy they were made out to be early on with the player ‘deaths’ and the attack on the capital of wood elves. Its just cultists now, isnt it? And they have both sides in their ranks
Okay, not sure what Harky was asking Penk
At first, thought H was asking P if he would still be a little drummer troll, but is he asking if he would rather be the leader?
Well, we already knew Penk had giant stones, but to say to Harky’s face that he wants his position just grew those stones into bo(u)lders