Aug18
Courtney
-to defeat the Huns minions of Skärva.
I drew this whole mess today and my thumb isn’t gonna take it anymore. I really didn’t pay close enough attention to how much Victor wrote for this page. We want this story to be substantial but also not a thousand pages long so there will be some squeezing involved!
A magic absorbing lamp, neat. Would that also work on Blank or is it specific magic based? Can it shoot stuff too?
Well, Blank doesn’t really have any magic of his own, although he has been able to use magic items through the blessing of the gods. I’m sure it can shoot the magic it absorbs! Although I don’t think we’ll see that in action this time around.
It also absorbs dark magic specifically.
Oh, right. I forgot Blank didn’t have magic. I do that sometimes when people have an abundance of magical items.
I just realized why I have that song from Mulan stuck in my head after I read the title again…
TO DEFEAT THE MINIONS
WHA!
Lamps say “Absorb” all the time.
Unlike when dealing with a normal swordsman or alligator, when you hold a Blank down it can still attack you.
Teamwork! It works much better when the hero is using non-sword items.
A puzzle that requires you to have dark magic to solve it is a pretty good idea, though it does keep Derk from getting to parts of the castle. Not as bad as raising a boss monster in a room without any exits it can fit through though.
Derk was raised in a mini-boss room with no exits. The young Skärva would just teleport some bacon in there occasionally. (I kid! How terrible.)
Pockets go “Inventory!” all the time.
That flish with the bat is my favorite. He’s gonna purify Blank.
OH MY GODS
Notice that the ghosts from the last comic have already disappeared.
Oh yes! Ghosts possessing the Skaerva statues, a double-team of the previous final bosses before the New Final Boss. That would be hella classy.
Wait could the Skaervas possess statues of themselves and just like… Walk around as invulnerable stone golems? With magical powers?
Well, the statues would have to be designed to be mobile and have flexible limbs, otherwise it would just be like moving a chess piece around. But I suppose that’s possible…! It would be kind of uncanny though.
For a family of end-bosses that know for a fact that they’re going to be ghosts when they die, it would make sense to have like a storage room of spare ghost bodies built using their vast resources in life for if they need to, say, fight the gods themselves.
…Was that just inventing ghost-powered robots?
Well, who says the gods would even be fought with physical bodies? Plus, you’ll have to remember that the Second pretty much gave up on even encountering the gods towards the very end of his life (and he wasn’t much of a fighter to begin with), and it was never the Third’s intention at all.
GHOSTPUNK
In terms of ‘general planning’, the warehouse of magical robots for ghost assaults would probably be more useful for various evil schemes, or in case there was some sort of foreign invasion of heroes trying to take out the Skaeva family.
Maybe from anything left over after the ‘Old Idenau’ thing/whomever they were at war with?
Panel four: Is Blank wearing Mascara?
Pfft! I dunno what that is. A stray line. Happens sometimes, I don’t know where they come from. I’ll have to remove his rogue eyelash.
Anyway, in terms of ghost-possession logistics, I dunno. Ghosts can only possess things of a certain size, usually up to the mass of their old body (and perhaps less) or they’ll begin to feel strained. Although maybe they could all possess different parts of a Voltron-esque behemoth!
The more important thing to note is that the Third and Second aren’t into fighting their offspring’s battles for him. Their time has passed. BUT the question still stands for other ghosts. I have absolutely no problem believing a ghostpunk robot to be something Blank might face at some point in a journey.
Wow! Look at all that action! I wonder, does the lantern work on a large-scale (like Lord Skaerva’s magic) or is it limited to minor minion battles only?
Do you think the mighty Lord Skärva could be stopped by a lantern?
Well… you’ll see!
A lantern that says “absorb”? I would think they made a vacuum noise like “Vaaarrooooom”…. Maybe this one is special quality.
Overly literal sound-effects have been an in-joke in this comic going back to I can’t even remember when, but I’d like to imagine it actually does say that. Can you imagine if this was a real video game? Every time you make use of the lantern: “ABSORB.” Maybe it also informs Blank every time he’s low on health.
I think this is the first time I’ve seen Blank get pushed to the ground. I think the only other time I’ve seen him get hurt in general was getting splashed with coffee.
Also it looks like the 3rd Statue is just glaring at Blank, like “Why are you here”
It’s like a video game: defeat the baddies and get the princess, LOL!