November 29th, 2016
29 Nov 2016 · page 655 of 1306
Cast: Harriet Barber, Jack O'Malley
Comments (49)
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Damn...and here I am with nothing clever to say.
Well, great work as usual!
The O'Malley is having an adventure.
Which is
1} Someone i don't know
2} Far away
3} Having a truly rotten day.
{thank you, Terry Pratchett}
There's always Tolkein's description of adventure:
"We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!"
Speaking of Terry Pratchett, I just listened to an audio book of "The Wee Free Men" and it occurs to me that a swarm of Nac Mac Feegles head-butting Wrath would definitely be helpful for Mal right now.
There are few situations where a feegleswam would not be useful, or at least entertaining
Entertaining if they're swarming someone ELSE.
I feegleswarm in my daily life would probably just end with me Noping all the way to the next town over.
"This isn't easy, y'know! Can't just wave me hands an-"
Evidently it is just that easy...sometimes things just happen when you stop trying so hard.
And why does that last panel remind of the loony tunes:
O'Malley: It's Wrath Season!
Wrath: It's O'Malley Season!
O'Malley: It's Wrath Season!
Wrath: It's O'Malley Season!
O'Malley: It's O'Malley Season!
Wrath: It's Wrath Season! FIRE!!!
That's all folks!
You're dithhhpicable.
Do you want to desummon him here, or wait till you get home?
Wonderful! XD
Quick! It's Wrath! Murder it!
...Now, is this the universe where "Shoot! Shoot the demon in the head!" always makes things better, or the one where it always makes things worse? I can never remember these things.
This brings to mind Maxim 12: ' A soft answer turneth away Wrath. Once Wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head.'
Leave the circle! Fast, you both! Then think what to do.
good idea!
Hm Harry ? I'm not sure there's an actual brain where you're aiming, seeing that's not a mortal being.
Ms Harriet should have listened to her Grandmother's wise words in the readers questions after 'Find the Lady'.
I made the comment about an earlier strip that this adventure is making these two appreciate the wizards in their life more, but for me this strip hammered that home in a way that made me hurt a bit for Mal. Harry generally works alone because that's pretty much all she's ever needed, and when she does call in backup it's someone who at the least is like Verity, who she clashes with but knows they're competent. And the wizard she's used to working with is Sidney, who seems to complement her skill set at every turn. For Mal, he's gotten used to first the steady, solid presence of Wolfe at his back and then here lately he's had Ben, who if nothing else has an idea of what to do and boldly strides forth to do it and at best genuinely cares about Mal's well being. And here he has none of that. I mean, the last time Mal faced Wrath Ben was there doing the incantation and giving instruction while Wolfe lent them calm and support. This time he's got a stranger trying to use a gun he's probably not even sure will work while expecting him to figure out what to do about the large, scary monster getting right in his face.
And it's not like he even knows how to be proper witch yet! He's only just been told that's what he is, after a lifetime of hearing stories vilifying witches, and is being expected to jump right in and do some witchery. He has no idea how to do what everyone is expecting him to do without even a wizard to try to talk him through it, just a grumpy hunter with notes and a gun. If he flounders a bit, it's only to be expected and he shouldn't be blamed.
In fact, if everything manages to work out, everyone else in the main cast should buy him a drink.
And this is part of what I love about Team Buggerup's friendship. Canon leads me to believe that most people react to Mal's powers with either hostility/fear or they try to figure out how to use him for their own gain. Wolfe just accepts and tries to help Mal work around the drawbacks. Ben is curious and attempts to help him explore it, which (considering his insecurities and the fact that Wolfe seems to be encouraging it) I can't see as any thing other than his awkward way of trying to be nice.
That's what I like about the dynamic between the two of them - it's dysfunctional and borne out of necessity, and likely to humble them both if they want to succeed. Mal is difficult, unserious, and in way over his head. Harry is curt, unsympathetic, doesn't respect him and basically treats him like a tool. I commented a while back that I'm slightly more with Mal on this, but Harry's motivations make sense given what she knows and what's happened recently.
Totally agree. And very much looking forward to seeing the character development over the rest of the chapter.
It would be nice if mountain witch and island witch had gotten here early enough to give him some pointers before the big scary monsters started to show up. This doesn't look like the easiest thing to figure out by the seat of your pants.
Mal starts to get angry; Wrath immediately shows up. Coincidence?
I'm not sure if that's wrath so much as... irritation.
I'm trying to picture what the Spirit of Irritation would look like and for some reason the first image that came to mind is a white rabbit wearing a vest and looking at his pocket-watch and muttering, "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late".
I was picturing something like a jagged green pug with orange tiger stripes.
In my mind it would be a grey and white hare, standing upright and nippling on a carrot...
"Eh... What's up, doc?"
I dunno, Bugs Bunny always seemed fairly calm to me.
I'm surprised Ben didn't see it in the mirror back in Chapter 5 tbh
Like the one from Alice in Wonderland? He strikes me more as Panic personally, or Stress. But I can see how he could be irritated as well if you don't go by the canon rabbit.
I'm thinking Irritation would be something like a spiky badger with a permanent scowl. In Mal's case it might be a honey badger. XD
The White Rabbit of Anxiety (Panic Attacks Included). ;)
And, yeah... The Rather Loud Ratel of Irritation. You hear its continued argument over everything and everybody before you see it. ;)
Abracadabra.
Wratch can't get no respect. Nobody summons him properly, nobody takes him serious, and as a soon as he manages more than a small house fire, he gets dragged around by the most unimpressive person in the hero set. I mean, really. Collared by Mal? Humiliating!
No wonder he's always so angry :D
It's been six years and I just discovered I misspelled "Wrath."
"Any day now" Careful what you wish for Harry.
"I can't just wave my hands an..."
<waves hands>
Wrath appears
Huh. Sonofabitch. That actually worked.
"Well, I can't just pull a magical desummoning talisman out o' me ear!" Absentmindedly digs in his ear a bit, and pulls out a magical-looking stone set into a gold chain. "...Well, it's not like I can just make money outta thin air in here..."
<A number of unfamiliar coins appear>
"Tibetan money! How predictable."
"Well, I din't say anything about real money"
Now would be a good time to hit 'Save Game'.
In my experience, this would actually be the worst time to hit 'Save Game'. If you needed to do some more grinding or obtain a key item or better equipment before fighting the boss, saving in the boss chamber is literally the best way to make sure you can never complete a save file.
Of course, if you have multiple save slots, then you can keep one just before the fight and one back before you committed.
Remember when all you had were floppy disks, and the agony of trying to figure out which saved game to save over when there was no more room?
Definitely with you here. (Oh, how bitter that particular pill is to swallow! But never one you need to take again.) Now is a good time to quicksave (if you have that feature); five minutes ago would have been the point to save.
Yes Harry, shoot it!
Now would be a good time to deploy those blue rays of binding.
Harry, did you seriously just pull a gun on the ten-foot-tall spiritual embodiment of pure rage?