Teamkill de la Axe-in-Face, Axetalker McLooseCannon, Psychokiller Qu’estce que c’est Fa-fafafa-fafafa-fa, Mister Has Difficulty Shrugging, Longhair Killshisfriends.
Dualaxe Chopface, Beardy McKillkill, John BLARGHARGHLAGLE, Mellow-Yellow-Murder, Axeslash Blankeyes, Collateral-Damage Jones, Not-Drizzt the Friendslayer, “Foamy”, The Gnome Divider, The Bane of Battlespire, the Brown-eyed Back-Breaker, Byron “Mad-Dog” Hackenslasher, Judas O’killey-you-all, Fantasy Micheal Weston, The Berserker Bear Grylls, Rabies McFoamface, Axe-You-No-More-Questions, Kill-everything McAxington, and, finally, Bad Dog Byron.
EYES, goshdarn it. If a character is at a distance in which we can see its buttons then we should also be able to see their eyes. The eyes are one of the first things our brains focus on. That they are missing, especially in scenes like in the last panel, looks weird. If you can’t see a face at the distance you need glasses thicker than a submarine’s hull.
Yeah, it’s a bothering thing, especially since my current desktop is the one where Byron has the bird on his head. It’s the same in that, and I’ve half a mind to use my poor computer drawing skills and add in my own eyes.
The first two panels, however, were excellent. John, your art is hit and miss, but mostly hit. I feel bad for giving you a a hard time about minor details. Sometimes we as a community are a little too harsh.
Please draw faces in the mid-ground though. Pretty pwease.
It was jarring enough for me that I think it was deliberate. Syr’Nj’s face is all scrunched up, so no eyes and pursed lips could account for it. For Bandit, maybe that’s the way Byron sees her now? Blocking her out just to be able to keep on without loosing his mind?
The lack of eyes is a little off-putting on Syr’nj, but not enough to really bug me. Faceless Bandit, though, is just… *shudder* Makes me think of face-stealers. Or maybe her face actually was stolen?
My mind tends to deregister eyes… because I find them disturbing.
Instinctively I consider eyes to be instruments of judgement seeking to condemn me…
Is one reason I always wear sunglasses in public.
Just saying this to point out that your assessment isn’t all-inclusive.
He wasn’t taking charge of the group, he’s made it clear that it’s not what he wants. He just wants the team to fight better as a unit without him close by, and seeing as Gravedust and Frigg are usually close together during most fights, it just made sense to get them to fight better together as a team. I wasn’t a “Who died and made YOU king?” moment, he just wants to help.
Just pointing out the humor of it. Byron’s feeling in high enough spirits to give orders and lay out the tactics but now he’s getting vetoed.
Honestly though, his directions to Frigg and Gravedust weren’t technically an order but it was a bit more authoritative than is really proper without either a position of leadership or the respect of the person you’re speaking to. His posture, his way of speaking, just about everything about him today looks like a man who’s accidentally slipping back into his old role. Gonna take some adjusting there.
1. Other Tank in the background of panel 2 looks so casual battling the mechanical fighter – he didn’t even bother to put down his cigar. As if there already weren’t enough parallels between he and Frigg, they’re even standing at the same angle. (Also, I like his sword. It reminds me of the high elve’s swords in Warhammer.)
2. The top of that goblin’s head in panel 3 looks like it’s going to fly away on it’s own with those wing-looking ears of theirs. And I can just hear the goblin just below him as he watches his hand being removed: “I did NOT see that coming!”
3. Other Byron nicknames: Crazy McMadnuts, Slashy von Gnomedicer, Teamkillius Maximus.
Must be Ritalin or something… yeah, THAT’S a great idea, take the most powerful asset of a freakin’ berzerker and get rid of it. Now he’s just a fighter. Like the other 100k+ in the Gastonian army. Woo!
WHY would someone design a robot duel machine that dual wields? Most fighters only use single weapons, whether it be a massive greatsword/axe/maul or a one handed weapon and a shield/buckler/etc. Unless the enemy they’re going to fight EXCLUSIVELY dual wields, practicing against a dual wielding murderbot isn’t going to teach you how to fight against most people you come up against. At best it’ll teach you rote repetition to parry swings from two sides which might be good for teaching soldiers, but not for single warriors.
Secondly, the sword arms. Seriously why do people enjoy arms that are blades. It makes no goddamn sense. Look at the stances people use to fight. Very rarely do they fight with their swords positioned as a sword arm would be. Which means training against them doesn’t exactly help much.
And if these robots are just for training, WHY PUT SWORDS AT ALL? BE LOGICAL HERE. Who the hell risks grievous injury during training?
If you’ll excuse me, my armchair internet expertise and incredibly cool self must now slink back into the shadows. Worst. Robot design. Ever.
It’s a brand new invention. Training Robot 1.0. Some design flaws are to be expected.
Also earlier conversations with Rendar’s brother seem to indicate that these weren’t meant for training at all, that’s just all they’re good for right now, which further reinforces the notion that they are far from a perfect creation.
Admittedly the guy’s not a reliable source and he was drunk, but there’s nothing to indicate that the intended purpose he laid out was false and it would make a lot of sense of the situation so I’m inclined to believe it’s accurate.
Rules change when you’re a machine. When you have no bones and organs to worry about blindly charging into a group of enemies with twirling blades suddenly becomes viable.
Take a look at depictions of medieval training dummies some time. They’re suspiciously similar.
Y’see, with that kind of training dummy, the whole point is rote-learning either a parry or a block for a downwards strike. Then you move on to the same thing, but for lunges. Then for side swipes. Counter-intuitive as it seems, you don’t get good at fencing (or any kind of combat sport/style) but practising in realistic scenarios. You get good by mindless repetition of basic movements so that, when you need them, they come without thought.
He’s still quite mortal in his frenzied state, you do know that right?
I imagine what Syrnj is getting at though is that just because they send him to fight away from the team doesn’t mean that’s where he’ll stay. If you’ve ever played this type of character I’m sure you’ve seen how once you lose control they have the darndest habit of running off to exactly where you need them least. Taunting nasty shit that otherwise wouldn’t have known about you, somehow he ends up next to your mage and just won’t stop slashing until the target is dead. Takes more than he can chew and puts you in the difficult situation of having to get your healer over there to treat him without dying or just fucking up whatever the plan was supposed to be. Heaven help them if there’s traps on the battlefield there’d be no stopping him from setting off every single one of those nasties, or at least however many it would take to end him.
We don’t just train soldiers in marksmanship, we train them to take orders. There’s a reason for that. Byron’s platoon wouldn’t make it out the other end of a war unless they were fortunate enough to have him bring about his own destruction early without taking anyone with him. Admittedly my knowledge of real war is limited, but I’d bet money that if I asked a veteran I’d find you don’t survive by not keeping your wits about you. Thought is a necessary component. Even that cliched scene where the grenade lands in the fox-pit and someone tosses it out would require more thought than Byron could muster in that state. A frenzied beast is not an asset out there.
It’s a nice idea in theory but he’d be a liability as he is.
And the higher body count requires more living soldiers for me than for the enemy. True berserkers weren’t warriors. They were weapons. Like the atom of the middle ages. On the top of a hill, there stood the archers, who finished the remaining off, when they turned around. But this army is nothing like this, so they do not need anything required to be shot down after the end of battle, or in the middle.
In addition to Axe-mad Mc Slay-pal:
Frothy McCleavelots, Hack Stubblechin, Fumble Glovedrop, Mood Axeswing, Grit Splitman, Chop Friendgibb, Bob Johnson, Toggle Friendlyfire, Axe Shoulderyoink, Flag Honorkill, Stab Speartroll
It’s awesome the way he spent several chapters warning them repeatedly that he was a killamajig- a fuggin’ professional killamajig, it’s right on his damn business card- and they still got all shocked and bitchy about it when it turned out, WELLLP, he gets kallamajiggy wit’ it sometimes. Gravedust grew up hammering the desert, right? Shouldn’t he at least know about scorpions?
That’s funny, Syr says she knows exactly how dangerous he is, yet calls his class ability a ‘problem’. You’ve got a lot to learn about what makes a berzerker… a freakin’ BERZERKER.
Byron demonstrates quite well why people in my family try to find peaceful outcomes to disagreements: There’s a fairly high percentage of my bloodline that tends to ‘lose it’ when the adrenaline flows and the blood’s pumping. My little sister, all 5’3″ of her, physically TOSSED her husband out of the way to get a clear running charge at someone, and he’s a 6’1″ Marine.
Heavy bones, bad tempers… yeah.
Even today, berserking has negative connotations for a lot of people, however useful it may be to crunch your antagonist into a fine chewy pulp.
However!
Syr’nj needs to help him embrace whatever it is in himself that causes berserking, allow him to harness it, not just drop the leash and let it rage, nor keep his abilities in a cage (accidental Suess there). He’s skilled, strong, and fast. Develop it. Give him clarity whilst carving, and Frigg will be jealous of his Awesome Chopomancy.
So when do those mechanical fighters lose their training wheels?
Hey kids, how many names can YOU come up with for Byron?
Teamkill de la Axe-in-Face, Axetalker McLooseCannon, Psychokiller Qu’estce que c’est Fa-fafafa-fafafa-fa, Mister Has Difficulty Shrugging, Longhair Killshisfriends.
And #6
Stubbledy Axecrack.
Bezerky McKillface, the Axis of teamkill, Diaxial-fuck-up-your-friendsian, The axe-o-matic-ally-reducer, and my personal favourite: the Axecutioner.
Too soon?
Cheers,
Cote
PS Looking back on those, I have to say that not too much beats “Byron Hackenslasher”. Foiled by the writers again!
Dualaxe Chopface, Beardy McKillkill, John BLARGHARGHLAGLE, Mellow-Yellow-Murder, Axeslash Blankeyes, Collateral-Damage Jones, Not-Drizzt the Friendslayer, “Foamy”, The Gnome Divider, The Bane of Battlespire, the Brown-eyed Back-Breaker, Byron “Mad-Dog” Hackenslasher, Judas O’killey-you-all, Fantasy Micheal Weston, The Berserker Bear Grylls, Rabies McFoamface, Axe-You-No-More-Questions, Kill-everything McAxington, and, finally, Bad Dog Byron.
How about Axe-a-Lot Al?
DeCaptainator Ronnie P K Axelove-Teamgank Esquire the 3rd
Trisector Sharpshoulders
Next up: Mechanical Whores!
Ack, now I’m hearing RevCo’s “Hookerbot 3000” in my head…and Sundar singing, “This is the future, baby!”
EYES, goshdarn it. If a character is at a distance in which we can see its buttons then we should also be able to see their eyes. The eyes are one of the first things our brains focus on. That they are missing, especially in scenes like in the last panel, looks weird. If you can’t see a face at the distance you need glasses thicker than a submarine’s hull.
Yeah, it’s a bothering thing, especially since my current desktop is the one where Byron has the bird on his head. It’s the same in that, and I’ve half a mind to use my poor computer drawing skills and add in my own eyes.
I know something worse than not having eyes where they should be.
http://muppetswithpeopleeyes.tumblr.com/
That’s kinda … scary. Sort of.
Less detail is acceptable for the background, but not the mid-foreground.
Even for the sake of deadlines, why neglect facial expressions? There are much less important corners to be cut.
The first two panels, however, were excellent. John, your art is hit and miss, but mostly hit. I feel bad for giving you a a hard time about minor details. Sometimes we as a community are a little too harsh.
Please draw faces in the mid-ground though. Pretty pwease.
There’s a hidden subplot about a ethereal filcher stealing people’s eyes, it just hasn’t come up yet.
It was jarring enough for me that I think it was deliberate. Syr’Nj’s face is all scrunched up, so no eyes and pursed lips could account for it. For Bandit, maybe that’s the way Byron sees her now? Blocking her out just to be able to keep on without loosing his mind?
Just a theory.
Cheers,
Cote
It’s been a persistent part of the art style for a few strips now, so I don’t think that really holds – given it’s been in byron-less scenes too.
I honestly never notice these lack-of-eyes things until people point them out to me. It’s clearly not the first thing my brain focuses on.
I notice it, but I’m focusing mostly on the dialogue and then the picture, so it doesn’t bother me. I’m good with the art either way. :)
The lack of eyes is a little off-putting on Syr’nj, but not enough to really bug me. Faceless Bandit, though, is just… *shudder* Makes me think of face-stealers. Or maybe her face actually was stolen?
Maybe you guys just have prosopagnosia. I see the eyes just fine.
I think they look like Brock from Pokemon
My mind tends to deregister eyes… because I find them disturbing.
Instinctively I consider eyes to be instruments of judgement seeking to condemn me…
Is one reason I always wear sunglasses in public.
Just saying this to point out that your assessment isn’t all-inclusive.
Axe-blocked!
Hey, green peace, that’s the whole point of having a Berserker!
Also, love the third panel.
-high five-
Aww, can’t I go and play, please?
*puppy eyes*
Syr’nj is getting right bossy…
No actually I think she’s kind of pissed and that’s why you can’t really see her eyes, she’s got the evil squint going on.
Props for My Little Spinnerette. Was totally thinking Slepnir ’til I recognized the color scheme.
Lol. He tries to take charge again but too late. Syrnj ain’t giving up the mantle until she’s done with it.
Should be fun to watch her come up with cure.
He wasn’t taking charge of the group, he’s made it clear that it’s not what he wants. He just wants the team to fight better as a unit without him close by, and seeing as Gravedust and Frigg are usually close together during most fights, it just made sense to get them to fight better together as a team. I wasn’t a “Who died and made YOU king?” moment, he just wants to help.
Just pointing out the humor of it. Byron’s feeling in high enough spirits to give orders and lay out the tactics but now he’s getting vetoed.
Honestly though, his directions to Frigg and Gravedust weren’t technically an order but it was a bit more authoritative than is really proper without either a position of leadership or the respect of the person you’re speaking to. His posture, his way of speaking, just about everything about him today looks like a man who’s accidentally slipping back into his old role. Gonna take some adjusting there.
1. Other Tank in the background of panel 2 looks so casual battling the mechanical fighter – he didn’t even bother to put down his cigar. As if there already weren’t enough parallels between he and Frigg, they’re even standing at the same angle. (Also, I like his sword. It reminds me of the high elve’s swords in Warhammer.)
2. The top of that goblin’s head in panel 3 looks like it’s going to fly away on it’s own with those wing-looking ears of theirs. And I can just hear the goblin just below him as he watches his hand being removed: “I did NOT see that coming!”
3. Other Byron nicknames: Crazy McMadnuts, Slashy von Gnomedicer, Teamkillius Maximus.
Sundar The Sunderer is/was Rendar the Renderer’s brother?
http://guildedage.net/webcomic/chapter-2/chapter-2-page-15/
handy throwback, there, thank you!
Is she planning to de-berserk him? Science goes too far.
Must be Ritalin or something… yeah, THAT’S a great idea, take the most powerful asset of a freakin’ berzerker and get rid of it. Now he’s just a fighter. Like the other 100k+ in the Gastonian army. Woo!
Without the extra feats, every second level. :D
Hope he still counts as a barbarian instead of a warrior, or his HD drop from d12s to d8s.
Stupid NPC classes.
Look, sorry but I’ve got to be picky.
WHY would someone design a robot duel machine that dual wields? Most fighters only use single weapons, whether it be a massive greatsword/axe/maul or a one handed weapon and a shield/buckler/etc. Unless the enemy they’re going to fight EXCLUSIVELY dual wields, practicing against a dual wielding murderbot isn’t going to teach you how to fight against most people you come up against. At best it’ll teach you rote repetition to parry swings from two sides which might be good for teaching soldiers, but not for single warriors.
Secondly, the sword arms. Seriously why do people enjoy arms that are blades. It makes no goddamn sense. Look at the stances people use to fight. Very rarely do they fight with their swords positioned as a sword arm would be. Which means training against them doesn’t exactly help much.
And if these robots are just for training, WHY PUT SWORDS AT ALL? BE LOGICAL HERE. Who the hell risks grievous injury during training?
If you’ll excuse me, my armchair internet expertise and incredibly cool self must now slink back into the shadows. Worst. Robot design. Ever.
It’s a brand new invention. Training Robot 1.0. Some design flaws are to be expected.
Also earlier conversations with Rendar’s brother seem to indicate that these weren’t meant for training at all, that’s just all they’re good for right now, which further reinforces the notion that they are far from a perfect creation.
Admittedly the guy’s not a reliable source and he was drunk, but there’s nothing to indicate that the intended purpose he laid out was false and it would make a lot of sense of the situation so I’m inclined to believe it’s accurate.
Rules change when you’re a machine. When you have no bones and organs to worry about blindly charging into a group of enemies with twirling blades suddenly becomes viable.
Maybe rules change when you’re a machine, Jean-Luc. (Do they ever.)
But when I’m a machine, people expect business as usual.
Take a look at depictions of medieval training dummies some time. They’re suspiciously similar.
Y’see, with that kind of training dummy, the whole point is rote-learning either a parry or a block for a downwards strike. Then you move on to the same thing, but for lunges. Then for side swipes. Counter-intuitive as it seems, you don’t get good at fencing (or any kind of combat sport/style) but practising in realistic scenarios. You get good by mindless repetition of basic movements so that, when you need them, they come without thought.
Surely someone else remembers “wax on, wax off”?
On the plus side, they’re very skilled at keeping the flat side of the blade pointed towards the viewer
I’m clearly the only one who sees the value in an axe swinging psychopath not controlling himself during wartimes.
You want him to kill his enemies, but you don’t want him to do it too well. Might make everyone else look bad.
My love for you is like a truck!
He’s still quite mortal in his frenzied state, you do know that right?
I imagine what Syrnj is getting at though is that just because they send him to fight away from the team doesn’t mean that’s where he’ll stay. If you’ve ever played this type of character I’m sure you’ve seen how once you lose control they have the darndest habit of running off to exactly where you need them least. Taunting nasty shit that otherwise wouldn’t have known about you, somehow he ends up next to your mage and just won’t stop slashing until the target is dead. Takes more than he can chew and puts you in the difficult situation of having to get your healer over there to treat him without dying or just fucking up whatever the plan was supposed to be. Heaven help them if there’s traps on the battlefield there’d be no stopping him from setting off every single one of those nasties, or at least however many it would take to end him.
We don’t just train soldiers in marksmanship, we train them to take orders. There’s a reason for that. Byron’s platoon wouldn’t make it out the other end of a war unless they were fortunate enough to have him bring about his own destruction early without taking anyone with him. Admittedly my knowledge of real war is limited, but I’d bet money that if I asked a veteran I’d find you don’t survive by not keeping your wits about you. Thought is a necessary component. Even that cliched scene where the grenade lands in the fox-pit and someone tosses it out would require more thought than Byron could muster in that state. A frenzied beast is not an asset out there.
It’s a nice idea in theory but he’d be a liability as he is.
That sounds like Ladytalk to me! Everyone knows the real point of war is getting a higher body count than the other guy.
And the higher body count requires more living soldiers for me than for the enemy. True berserkers weren’t warriors. They were weapons. Like the atom of the middle ages. On the top of a hill, there stood the archers, who finished the remaining off, when they turned around. But this army is nothing like this, so they do not need anything required to be shot down after the end of battle, or in the middle.
He’s still quite mortal in his frenzied state, you do know that right?
You have no proof of that. None! The only time he’s died so far it’s been outside of frenzy.
Alt-text win.
guess we know who wears the pants in that family
In addition to Axe-mad Mc Slay-pal:
Frothy McCleavelots, Hack Stubblechin, Fumble Glovedrop, Mood Axeswing, Grit Splitman, Chop Friendgibb, Bob Johnson, Toggle Friendlyfire, Axe Shoulderyoink, Flag Honorkill, Stab Speartroll
I rarely comment, but I fucking lost it when I read the alt text and got to ‘Axeshit Murderfucker’. I love you guys.
In the second panel it looks like “pull of” should be “pull off”. And I too noticed the facelessnes in the last panel. Spooky!
Thanks for the typo catch. Fixed.
It’s awesome the way he spent several chapters warning them repeatedly that he was a killamajig- a fuggin’ professional killamajig, it’s right on his damn business card- and they still got all shocked and bitchy about it when it turned out, WELLLP, he gets kallamajiggy wit’ it sometimes. Gravedust grew up hammering the desert, right? Shouldn’t he at least know about scorpions?
Seriously, all your berserker rage needs is to triple its vocabulary:
“Kill!”
becomes the landshark-level
“Kill those guys!”
That… There might be some merit to that line of thought actually. Just a couple extra point into that int stat would make a world of difference.
That’s funny, Syr says she knows exactly how dangerous he is, yet calls his class ability a ‘problem’. You’ve got a lot to learn about what makes a berzerker… a freakin’ BERZERKER.
Whoops. Tried to make it as a comment on its own! D: DAGNABBIT.
Ah well…
Oh, and Byron has a fairly high Int stat, considering he knows a lot about combat tactics and whatnot. And I like my Gravatar. :3
Zerked Byron doesn’t really have much of an int stat at all though. If he could retain just a couple points more we’d be pitching and bitching.
Byron demonstrates quite well why people in my family try to find peaceful outcomes to disagreements: There’s a fairly high percentage of my bloodline that tends to ‘lose it’ when the adrenaline flows and the blood’s pumping. My little sister, all 5’3″ of her, physically TOSSED her husband out of the way to get a clear running charge at someone, and he’s a 6’1″ Marine.
Heavy bones, bad tempers… yeah.
Even today, berserking has negative connotations for a lot of people, however useful it may be to crunch your antagonist into a fine chewy pulp.
However!
Syr’nj needs to help him embrace whatever it is in himself that causes berserking, allow him to harness it, not just drop the leash and let it rage, nor keep his abilities in a cage (accidental Suess there). He’s skilled, strong, and fast. Develop it. Give him clarity whilst carving, and Frigg will be jealous of his Awesome Chopomancy.
Seeing red. So much better when it’s not a metaphor.
Guys, there’s a good reason that they don’t have eyes that far.
They have the detail rendering on their game turned way down in order to squeeze in more fps.
Gold Star.
next: Byron gets a shrink
I would have gone with “Can’ttankerous” for the nested pun, even if it looks stupid in print.
It’s appreciated.
Every pun is sacred. Every pun is good.
So sayeth the Lord, Amen.
Puns are bad, and you should feel bad for writing them.
Every pun is needed, in you neighbourhood!
There are those that will read
Little Guardians
Some read Goblins or OOTS
There are those that read Looking For Group BUT
I’ve never been one of them
I’m a GA reader
And have been since September ’09
And the one thing they say about Guildies is
If you make puns you’ll do just fine
You don’t have to read every comment
You don’t have to get a Gold Star
As long as you read every update and
Make bad puns then you will go far
Because…
Every pun is sacred
Every pun is great
If a pun is wasted
Phil gets quite irate
(repeat)
Let the heathens waste theirs
On Digg or Google+
Phil shall make them pay
For each pun not just for us
Every pun is wanted
Every pun is good
Every pun is needed
In your neighborhood
Social media users
Spit puns just anywhere
But Phil loves those who treat their
Wordplay with more care
Every pun is sacred
Every pun is great
If a pun is wasted
Phil gets quite irate
Every pun is sacred
Every pun is good
Every pun is needed
In your neighborhood
Every pun is useful
Every pun is fine
Phil needs everybody’s
Gangler’s, Lockes’, and mine
Let commenters waste theirs
On Reddit and 4chan
Phil will show no mercy
And they shall all be banned
Every pun is sacred
Every pun is good
Every pun is needed
In your neighborhood
Every pun is sacred
Every pun is great
If a pun is wasted
Phil gets quite irate
(the original)
Gold. Fucking. Star.
No, don’t cure the battle-rabies, Syr! IT’S TOO AWESOME.
I just want to know whether that flat-edged blade the sister is wielding actually has ruler markings on it.
Don’t forget Sir Slayalot