Seconded, well except I’m a pessimist cynic so I figured something like this was bound to happen and make my crappy summer just a bit worse -_- murphy’s law
I was thinking he’d eventually remember his past life but be a better person on account of his experience as WAV. Best coming back, violently rejecting everything WAV was, and acting like an even bigger asshole than before… well.
I mean, the only character anywhere whose sadistic and sticky end, drawn out over several updates and rendered in loving detail, would delight me more than that of Best would be Bangladesh duPree.
Except that Bangladesh DuPree is hilariously malleable, which is why the Wulfenbachs keep her around. I don’t like sadistic killing machines, but if you need to have one around, one that you can manipulate is better than one you can’t influence.
I was just going to bring that up myself before my internet crashed and I had to futz with my router. Namely didn’t Best used to have to drag that thing around everywhere? What now he just wills it appear and there it is.Man I hope WAV busts out of Best like one of those old Russian wooden doll toys wher you keep removing the lids.
Yeah, ok, that IS Weo. I suspected when I saw the beard’s ear-loops in the last panel, but since Weo is nowhere ELSE in the strip, and Weo is tagged, that has to be him.
It also explains why Best is so pissed, too. He thinks Weo’s pulling a prank or joke. It does kinda look that way, but I wonder if Weo is actually the Oracle anyway; just because the group all expects some grand, awe-inspiring oracle doesn’t mean it’s not actually just going to be a goofy little elf who likes to have fun while doing his job.
Weo reminds me of that elf that used to appear every Christmas sale at Hills. Best should respect him for that elf knew where the toys were.
I must admit the winter elves aren’t as cryptic as Syr’Ng described back in that letters to Adventurers strip, but then again that’s what she thought they were like.
Assuming everything other than “we are the mist” is legit, and not the winter elves putting on a dumb show for the tourists (I’m excluding the mists because “being everywhere and nowhere,” while clearly expressed, is still pretty cryptic)
I begrudgingly admit, Best keeps the comic real. Rarely do you have a team of talent that doesn’t have a rabble rousing, I-don’t-play-well-with-others butthead in it.
You could also argue that in his own way, he’s great. Hated, yes, but you ain’t neutral on him – you either love him or detest him. He’s not the Browns; he’s the Cowboys. He’s not fish sticks, he’s raw oysters on the half shell. Love ’em or hate ’em, but you’re not “meh” on them. As it is with most great things.
Not to sound contrarian, but…”meh” would probably sum up my opinion of Best. He can be entertaining, but mostly he seems to Inspector Gadget his way into fame and then lacks the same name character’s false humility, so I certainly don’t love him, and as for hate, well, I don’t have time for hate.
I will say one thing for Best though, he does seem to polarize those around him, which does generally bring additional inter-personal conflict into the story, but some of it would probably come up eventually anyway due to it being a necessary step in character development. I consider Best to be a Catalyst.
Most people wouldn’t be “neutral on” Best hitting Weo, causing him to explode with a fury 9000 times that of the basin, destroying both worlds and thus ending the story, but that would make the staff trolls, not great authors.
Gotta admit, I hate the idea that a talented team has to have an anti-social dickhead in it. If you’re smart enough to be talented, you’re probably smart enough to learn the minimum basic skills to get along with people (I’m not talking about being awkward and bad at reading social cues, but actively and consistently only considering your own needs), and society’s way too in love with the “genius arsehole” meme and so we let people get away with it.
I kinda want Best to turn out to be not actually that good at fighting, because he’s made a career out of traveling around sucker-punching things that happened to be scary but had no real interest in fighting, so all of his bluster is just that. Like, Best is going to lose it, and Frigg’s just going to catch his axe with ease. I want it, so bad.
Spoiler- No one comes back from seeking the winter elves, because the Weo always uses his precog to kill them, one by one. This bunch is going to be easy. *evil grin*
This is one of several reasons why I always thought Best would eventually be revealed to always have been a winter elf. Besides a lot of the typical tropes concerning this type of reveal, there was his mention of his skin being on fire, and the fact that he’s been without a shirt for the entire trek back to the elf village.
Of course, the appearance of the other winter elves dressed for the cold has been kind of poking holes in that…
_Unless they’re not really winter elves at all…_
Yes, that’s the really bad part here. Best was never more than a minor annoyance, but then they wrote an actual sympathetic character…who turned out to just be a mask Best was wearing.
Is it just my perception, or does Best seem to be a turbo a-hole since returning? Sure he was egocentric before, but now he’s just pissed off at everything all the time. If he becomes any less popular he’ll have to run for President of the USA.
People used to give him the respect he felt he deserved, for the most part. And remember how he died – the other oracle didn’t tell him what he wanted, so he flipped out and wrecked it, and things went way south from there.
I think what makes this even better is the fact that Weo, having precognition, knows full well this will do nothing but enrage and bait Best into actions, and still does it anyways. It is like he has seen how much of a jerk he is, and is just ramping up the crushing of his hopes and dream and delusions by way of this farce. And it seems he gets a kick out of it too.
Soooo…how is Best not frostbitten to hell? His nipples should have turned purple and fallen off by now, along with the rest of his exposed extremities.
“Well, jeez, sorry. Just trying to weed out the silly tourists with questions like ‘What will I have for breakfast tomorrow?’ The oracle hates that crap.”
Sadly, since Best didn’t even think twice about using chained up children as an anchor, I would have no problem believing he is actually planning on chopping the kid in two.
Interestingly, his callous behavior reminds me of players in a role-playing game. Totally ignoring moral or social norms because there is no repercussions. My belief that on some level Best knows/believes this is a game keeps growing.
You are aware that there needs to be evil characters in a role-playing world, or otherwise your do-goody-shoe paladin will have a pretty boring life?
I mainly play evil characters in RP, but not because I’m a heartless person that enjoy harming others, but because I find them interesting. And no, stereotypical egomaniacs are boring as well. Evil characters can be just as multifaceted as normal characters.
Best, on the other hand, IS a typical egomaniac. He only cares about himself. At least now. He got worse.
Actually, no, there don’t have to be evil characters.
Just characters with deeply held convictions.
Throw in the occasional egotist, and you’re all set : Tragedy ensues.
Sure, villains are doing that, but there are plenty of amoral gaming parties out there, too. The sort that are only “good” because the story is from their perspective. They are the sort of adventures Harky despises – the sort to raze a village because they want to, who kill and murder and attack everything on sight – who don’t care about the world a GM makes, just that they can run around and engage in power fantasies for a couple hours.
I don’t include you in that – you sound like you work harder on your characterization than what I am talking about. I mean, the sort of player who skips all the dialogue on a quest, or zone out when the GM describes things, because they just want to get to the stabbing and the loot.
Evil characters can be very interesting. But I don’t think Best is evil.
I think Best, on some level, knows he is playing a video game. He reminds me of a gamer who goes to all of the towns in a fantasy video game and kills the villagers so he can have more xp & loot.
The gamer in this situation isn’t evil. He’s not actually hurting anyone. Just playing a video game.
Tossing a chain of children over the side of a boat for a video game quest is simply a means to an end. And splitting in twain an NPC that just aggravated you is stress relief.
Best might be a jerk. But I don’t think he is evil.
And, as it should be well known, the Finns are helluva race drivers. Especially when the going gets rough (and wet and cold). Even young kids (in their early teens) drive races in rally cars (ok, very cheap ones).
That face in the fourth panel. Best now can have the “Triggered” meme.
like this: http://imgur.com/a/gcmK8 ?
#nailedit
YES!
/twitch
I suspected Weo was the oracle, but I did not expect him to go full Merlin. Very nice! :D
Considering what happened to Frigg, the possibility exists that he is indeed making a mockery of them all.
Christ Best.
Bestus Christ.
Poor Weo.
He just wanted some laughs.
Can something of truly awe-inspiring horffyingness happen to Best? Please?
Can something of truly awe-inspiring horffyingness happen to Best? Please?
Seconded
Frig kicks his ass out of nowhere, followed by a flashback of her spirit quest?
It’s funny how everyone was wondering when we’d get Best back until we remembered what Best was like.
Calling it, Frig falls through upper panel, refuses to say what transpired, kicks Best ass.
I never wanted Best back. I really hoped Penk was Best.
But do the plot gods listen to me? Nooooooo
Seconded, well except I’m a pessimist cynic so I figured something like this was bound to happen and make my crappy summer just a bit worse -_- murphy’s law
I, for one, never wanted nor expected WAV to revert to his previous form.
I figured he’d just keep cycling through new personalities without revisiting old ones.
I was thinking he’d eventually remember his past life but be a better person on account of his experience as WAV. Best coming back, violently rejecting everything WAV was, and acting like an even bigger asshole than before… well.
I’m going with Rana calmly shooting him in the neck, and walking inside.
“What the hell did you do?”
“It was that or get the flagstones dirty.”
At which point, they all go inside for tea and smores.
Except Best, who’s busy dying.
I mean, the only character anywhere whose sadistic and sticky end, drawn out over several updates and rendered in loving detail, would delight me more than that of Best would be Bangladesh duPree.
Except duPree would enjoy that!
Hey Bang is WAY less annoying that Best!
*than
Except that Bangladesh DuPree is hilariously malleable, which is why the Wulfenbachs keep her around. I don’t like sadistic killing machines, but if you need to have one around, one that you can manipulate is better than one you can’t influence.
Did Best just apparate his weapon out of nothing?
I think he did! Looks like he did some leveling up while away in his WAV form
He did mention in earlier comics that is was a Sky Elf artifact. Maybe it has a bonding power that lets you summon it. Definitely a bard thing
That explains it. I was confused at first, wondering how he had obtained glowy hammershit as well, but it looks like it was just summoned is all.
I was just going to bring that up myself before my internet crashed and I had to futz with my router. Namely didn’t Best used to have to drag that thing around everywhere? What now he just wills it appear and there it is.Man I hope WAV busts out of Best like one of those old Russian wooden doll toys wher you keep removing the lids.
I could approve of WAV and Best doing the Incredible Hulk dance
Stop! Hammer Space!
Pffheheeheehe Weo’s so damn adorable. I fully admit I was fooled for a second, well done guys.
Best really is the HAMMERHEAD of this bunch, huh?
totally but Hammerhead is more cuddly and more intellectual
And reasonable.
HAMMERHEAD is a philosopher. He’s done a lot of thinking and he practices what he preaches. He’s a shark of action.
*inches closer to random whatever, but the theme to Jaws playing from a place untraceable betrays his motives*
Hug? ;)
Yeah, ok, that IS Weo. I suspected when I saw the beard’s ear-loops in the last panel, but since Weo is nowhere ELSE in the strip, and Weo is tagged, that has to be him.
It also explains why Best is so pissed, too. He thinks Weo’s pulling a prank or joke. It does kinda look that way, but I wonder if Weo is actually the Oracle anyway; just because the group all expects some grand, awe-inspiring oracle doesn’t mean it’s not actually just going to be a goofy little elf who likes to have fun while doing his job.
Or the snow elves are all the Oracle. Or any of them can become the Oracle at will.
Or whoever is wearing the costume is the Oracle (magic vestments sort of deal) and everyone else saw Best coming, and said “F! this S!, I’m out!”
This is most likely. You have to be a snow elf to see the temper-tantrum that is coming.
Well, Weo DID say that only one of them needed to be the Oracle. He DIDN’T say that the Oracle was a full-time job for any of them in particular.
;)
How many times can you kill Best?
How many Bests best a bester best, if a bester best best Best?
A bester best best as many Bests as a bester best, if a bester best best Best.
Best you.
Let’s find out.
One…
Two-HOO…
Three…
*chomp*
So, you have to kill him three times to get to the chewy center? I’d bet Hammerhead would like to know that.
Weo reminds me of that elf that used to appear every Christmas sale at Hills. Best should respect him for that elf knew where the toys were.
I must admit the winter elves aren’t as cryptic as Syr’Ng described back in that letters to Adventurers strip, but then again that’s what she thought they were like.
I know Weo’s an elf, but he could easily double for that online travel site gnome.
Assuming everything other than “we are the mist” is legit, and not the winter elves putting on a dumb show for the tourists (I’m excluding the mists because “being everywhere and nowhere,” while clearly expressed, is still pretty cryptic)
Best’s already short fuse has been blown. Alright, time to dogpile on him before he kills somebody.
I begrudgingly admit, Best keeps the comic real. Rarely do you have a team of talent that doesn’t have a rabble rousing, I-don’t-play-well-with-others butthead in it.
You could also argue that in his own way, he’s great. Hated, yes, but you ain’t neutral on him – you either love him or detest him. He’s not the Browns; he’s the Cowboys. He’s not fish sticks, he’s raw oysters on the half shell. Love ’em or hate ’em, but you’re not “meh” on them. As it is with most great things.
Not to sound contrarian, but…”meh” would probably sum up my opinion of Best. He can be entertaining, but mostly he seems to Inspector Gadget his way into fame and then lacks the same name character’s false humility, so I certainly don’t love him, and as for hate, well, I don’t have time for hate.
I will say one thing for Best though, he does seem to polarize those around him, which does generally bring additional inter-personal conflict into the story, but some of it would probably come up eventually anyway due to it being a necessary step in character development. I consider Best to be a Catalyst.
Most people wouldn’t be “neutral on” Best hitting Weo, causing him to explode with a fury 9000 times that of the basin, destroying both worlds and thus ending the story, but that would make the staff trolls, not great authors.
That’s actually Frigg’s gig. I mean, she’s out of frame, so someone must bring the jerk, but, still. Best is getting Friggy with it
Gotta admit, I hate the idea that a talented team has to have an anti-social dickhead in it. If you’re smart enough to be talented, you’re probably smart enough to learn the minimum basic skills to get along with people (I’m not talking about being awkward and bad at reading social cues, but actively and consistently only considering your own needs), and society’s way too in love with the “genius arsehole” meme and so we let people get away with it.
I could see Hugh Laurie playing his part in a Guilded Age movie, with his Best House manners.
“You dare make a mockery of me…? That’s MY job!”
I kinda want Best to turn out to be not actually that good at fighting, because he’s made a career out of traveling around sucker-punching things that happened to be scary but had no real interest in fighting, so all of his bluster is just that. Like, Best is going to lose it, and Frigg’s just going to catch his axe with ease. I want it, so bad.
Oh, we’ve already seen him fight. He’s beaten Byron in a no-holds-barred brawl before. He’s got the stuff.
He’s kinda Bardserker. Think he picked up The Rage while in WAV’s dimension?
Don’t worry, guys! Syrinji brought Frigg around for the explicit purpose of–
Oh.
Eh. She’s got more tranq darts, I assume.
Behold, it is I! Weo, Oracle of the Arctic Peoples!
Exactly.
W.E.O.
Winter Elf Oracle.
*facepalm*
Brilliant!
Who would have thought of it? Definitely not I.
Me neither…But obviously, your question was answered by Nebulous, even before you asked it.
;)
Is it me or does this guy remind anybody of Kurt Cobain?
To me he looks like Iggy Pop.
Ted Nugent
Hey now! Best isn’t that bad.
Spoiler- No one comes back from seeking the winter elves, because the Weo always uses his precog to kill them, one by one. This bunch is going to be easy. *evil grin*
*cue twilight zone theme*
Apparently Best is able of staying angry enough to not feel his nipples falling off and developing their own cases of hypothermia.
His RAGE keeps him nice and toasty.
This is one of several reasons why I always thought Best would eventually be revealed to always have been a winter elf. Besides a lot of the typical tropes concerning this type of reveal, there was his mention of his skin being on fire, and the fact that he’s been without a shirt for the entire trek back to the elf village.
Of course, the appearance of the other winter elves dressed for the cold has been kind of poking holes in that…
_Unless they’re not really winter elves at all…_
Um, can we have Wav back now?
Yes, that’s the really bad part here. Best was never more than a minor annoyance, but then they wrote an actual sympathetic character…who turned out to just be a mask Best was wearing.
Is it just my perception, or does Best seem to be a turbo a-hole since returning? Sure he was egocentric before, but now he’s just pissed off at everything all the time. If he becomes any less popular he’ll have to run for President of the USA.
Dying and being reborn as a boring (but nice and decent) weirdo probably wouldn’t sit too well with any egomaniac.
People used to give him the respect he felt he deserved, for the most part. And remember how he died – the other oracle didn’t tell him what he wanted, so he flipped out and wrecked it, and things went way south from there.
“Heh. Can you imagine if he actually won?” *vote* “Oh, hell… He won… What have I done?”
I guess that’s why we have impeachment – the “mourning after” pill for screwed up elections. >.<
Is it even possible to make a mockery of someone who already is pretty much a living punch line?
“Best, your destiny is to forever be the mockery of yourself that you’ve always been.”
“Wait… If I’ve always been -”
“NO! It’s not a paradox!”
don’t tell me he didn’t see that one coming?
This clinches Weo as one of my favorite side characters now.
Best holds on to his delusions of grandeur with the desperation drowning man surrounded by a ring of sharks.
I think what makes this even better is the fact that Weo, having precognition, knows full well this will do nothing but enrage and bait Best into actions, and still does it anyways. It is like he has seen how much of a jerk he is, and is just ramping up the crushing of his hopes and dream and delusions by way of this farce. And it seems he gets a kick out of it too.
Soooo…how is Best not frostbitten to hell? His nipples should have turned purple and fallen off by now, along with the rest of his exposed extremities.
Shawn Ogg, if Shawn Ogg were a (non-Disc) elf.
*sigh* I miss WAV. :(
We just got him back, and we’re done with him already :D
“Well, jeez, sorry. Just trying to weed out the silly tourists with questions like ‘What will I have for breakfast tomorrow?’ The oracle hates that crap.”
Why is Best wearing jeans?
And boots to boot… eh…
Best’s shirt was torn and his armguard came loose or broke, when he fell into the void. Therefore, they were designated lost/destroyed.
He’s had his pants and boots on under his WAV skin, for all these years. They must smell pretty ripe, by this point.
It’s Axemas Time!!!!!
WEO Wellll, since you axed so nicely……
This… is awesome sauce. I almost feel sorry for Best… Almost.
Guys be nice. Payet’s doing his best.
Oh best. Everyone else may hate you but i find your hilarious
Sadly, since Best didn’t even think twice about using chained up children as an anchor, I would have no problem believing he is actually planning on chopping the kid in two.
Interestingly, his callous behavior reminds me of players in a role-playing game. Totally ignoring moral or social norms because there is no repercussions. My belief that on some level Best knows/believes this is a game keeps growing.
You are aware that there needs to be evil characters in a role-playing world, or otherwise your do-goody-shoe paladin will have a pretty boring life?
I mainly play evil characters in RP, but not because I’m a heartless person that enjoy harming others, but because I find them interesting. And no, stereotypical egomaniacs are boring as well. Evil characters can be just as multifaceted as normal characters.
Best, on the other hand, IS a typical egomaniac. He only cares about himself. At least now. He got worse.
Actually, no, there don’t have to be evil characters.
Just characters with deeply held convictions.
Throw in the occasional egotist, and you’re all set : Tragedy ensues.
Sure, villains are doing that, but there are plenty of amoral gaming parties out there, too. The sort that are only “good” because the story is from their perspective. They are the sort of adventures Harky despises – the sort to raze a village because they want to, who kill and murder and attack everything on sight – who don’t care about the world a GM makes, just that they can run around and engage in power fantasies for a couple hours.
I don’t include you in that – you sound like you work harder on your characterization than what I am talking about. I mean, the sort of player who skips all the dialogue on a quest, or zone out when the GM describes things, because they just want to get to the stabbing and the loot.
Evil characters can be very interesting. But I don’t think Best is evil.
I think Best, on some level, knows he is playing a video game. He reminds me of a gamer who goes to all of the towns in a fantasy video game and kills the villagers so he can have more xp & loot.
The gamer in this situation isn’t evil. He’s not actually hurting anyone. Just playing a video game.
Tossing a chain of children over the side of a boat for a video game quest is simply a means to an end. And splitting in twain an NPC that just aggravated you is stress relief.
Best might be a jerk. But I don’t think he is evil.
My bedsheets have that pattern! They’re my favourite :P
I starting to believe Best is a Finn.
For those not in the know, the people of Finland are very resistant to cold weather. Or as (one version of) the joke goes:
15°C / 59°F: People in Spain start wearing coats. The Finns are suntanning at the beach.
5°C / 41°F: Italian cars won’t start. The Finns cruise around in convertibles.
-5°C / 23°F: People in California almost freeze to death. The Finns have their final barbecue of the summer.
-30°C / -22°F: People in Greece actually freeze to death. The Finns start drying their laundry indoors.
-50°C / -58°F: Polar bears migrate south. The Finnish army postpones their winter survival training, awaiting real winter weather.
-195.8°C / -320.4°F: Nitrogen turns into a liquid. The Finnish cows complain that the farmers’ hands are cold.
-273.15°C / -459.67°F: All molecular movement ceases. The Finns start saying “Perkele, it’s cold outside!”
And, as it should be well known, the Finns are helluva race drivers. Especially when the going gets rough (and wet and cold). Even young kids (in their early teens) drive races in rally cars (ok, very cheap ones).
That is magnificent.
Thank you. :D
He can’t make a mockery of Best! Best is an expert in making a mockery of himself!
Hey, he’s the Best at what he does. But what he does isn’t pretty.
Well, it’s something Wolverine might say.
Best was stunned and seeing stars. Now he has something to axe the oracle. But does he have a handle on things, is he attuned to the situation?
It would be a tall order for Gravedust to best explain Payet in the short time available.