"...But Let's Find Her A Sink first!" (March 17 2013 Update)

[Orzahn]

Minmax has what I believe the tropers call "Plot Armor." There's just too many things we need him to do yet.

Well, We thought the same thing about Chief, and look where it got him.

And yay, Signature and Avatar back again woot.

[willpell]

Yeah, yeah..but where is the reality where all females (including Kin) come from the honey realm? ((This is a joke people ))

As much as I would appreciate that reality, I suspect the geas that they're under would rather significantly hurt their chances of winning the Maze....

In the middle side panel, your topless 'LadyMax' is looking a bit more ripped than I personally prefer in my females.

Yeah, I saw the lack of shirt in this update and realized I was probably mistaken about this being a FemMax. Was an amusing thought, but t'was not to be. Maybe we'll see one in the Alts game.

[fouljack]

The alt Forgath ropes, when cut, are bleeding.
i don't think this will be relevant in the future, but it's one of the little things that make the comics very enjoyable

[Changes_everything]

My question is why did Minmax grab Oblivious left handed? He's always been right-handed, and we know it wasn't a mistake, because here we see the left glove grab the sword. This was planned ahead. I wonder what Thunt is up to...

Very nice catch!!!

[stevedj]

This is an awesome page - I too like the full-page effect, while still framing the top as frame 1. It worked for me, and just looks really cool to do it that way.

And all the different alts here, amazing work! The upcoming shading is going to really make this one creepy scene...!

But, alas, there is one aspect here that just bugs me. I mean really, really bugs me. It is the feeling that "nobody can die" in this battle. What, you say? Well, consider the state of things here, when we first see the battle. Actually, think even before then, where FMK hear the sounds of battle. Certainly, some alts should have died then. And when we see that first scene, there are not just one, but two alts falling from the tower (and judging by the scale, falling from likely fatal height).

Then we have a number of rounds pass as Kin and MM talk, then he jumps down, grabs keys and throws them up. Finally, readies his stance and rage. A number of rounds pass. Certainly much battle has ensued.

Finally, we get this amazing scene of the battle closing in on MM. And again we see another alt falling to what should be death. ...implying that climbing isn't easy, and the characters do fall - and die when they do so.

Yet (and this is what really bugs me), there are NO DEAD BODIES! The floor should be littered with them. And the base of the tower should be ringed with more! But I cannot find a single one.

So as I say, it really bugs me. It is what breaks the mood for me, and makes the battle feel almost pointless, like nobody can die.

[Changes_everything]

There are several dead bodies in the various panels of the past updates.

[BuildsLegos]

What if they decide to hit your face instead?

That's what I'd ask women who're into muscle-heads if I didn't feel the same way about them; the thing is, the most practical and therefore popular definition of sexiness is perfect health and that includes chizeled muscles for BOTH genders. Of COURSE it's all for nothing if your ripped partner of either gender abuses you.

[Rorrik]

But, alas, there is one aspect here that just bugs me. I mean really, really bugs me. It is the feeling that "nobody can die" in this battle. What, you say? Well, consider the state of things here, when we first see the battle. Actually, think even before then, where FMK hear the sounds of battle. Certainly, some alts should have died then. And when we see that first scene, there are not just one, but two alts falling from the tower (and judging by the scale, falling from likely fatal height).

Then we have a number of rounds pass as Kin and MM talk, then he jumps down, grabs keys and throws them up. Finally, readies his stance and rage. A number of rounds pass. Certainly much battle has ensued.

Finally, we get this amazing scene of the battle closing in on MM. And again we see another alt falling to what should be death. ...implying that climbing isn't easy, and the characters do fall - and die when they do so.

Yet (and this is what really bugs me), there are NO DEAD BODIES! The floor should be littered with them. And the base of the tower should be ringed with more! But I cannot find a single one.

So as I say, it really bugs me. It is what breaks the mood for me, and makes the battle feel almost pointless, like nobody can die.

We can see people being beheaded, impaled, and head-shot. I don't think they're surviving that. It could just be a lack of detail that we don't see any bodies, or the more eventual fulfillment of your complaint. We know the dead will return for another try at the maze, so they really can never die. The only risk here is WINNING with a serious wound or something. Better to lose. I can see how that could make the fight feel meaningless.

EDIT: I meant to say it is possible bodies vanish once they are no longer relevant. We haven't seen any evidence for this, but it would explain the lack of bodies despite the ranks being thinner.

[CelineSSauve]

I just noticed one colouring issue: pink/white Kin's two colours flip between the Tower shot and the other panels.

I really can't spot anything else.

And there are some small pools of blood and a body in the Tower shot (looks like a MinMax's legs).

[I'mBob]

I wonder if the Klik-MinMax arm is going to posses him. That would be interesting.

[CheeseToastofDeath]

Ah, that's Minmax for you, trying to seem all cool and badass, botching it due to his being a doofus, but somehow managing to pull it off anyway. First Oblivious, now what could have been the perfect pre-battle one-liner.
I'm more than half suspecting that the next page will switch back over to Forgath and Kin, but I am frequently wrong about such things. It just seems one of those moments.
Also, holy crap the detail. It will, of course, look even more stunning with dramatic lighting, but wow. Hopefully Thunt survives this story arc with his sanity intact, although I suspect the crowd is going to thin out a bit over the next few pages.

[wrecan]

It is the feeling that "nobody can die" in this battle.

03/02/13: I see five dead bodies: one visible over FatMax's shoulder, one partly obscured behind the central pillar, one behind the rightmost pillar (this body is also visible in the last frame of the 03/16/13 strip), one next to the rightmost pillar, and one in front of the rightmost pillar. I also see one MinMax and a Kin falling to their presumable deaths.
03/08/13: Since this is an overhead view, it is difficult to see if the characters are dead or not, but in frame 5, I see a dead MinMax near the top of the frame, a dead Forgath near the top left corner, and at least two dead Kins. (A Forgath is also falling to his presumable death in this frame.)
03/16/13: A Forgath (with a polka dotted armor and hemet) is beheaded in the last frame and a MinMax wearing lynx-fur armor took an arrow to the brain (which, admittedly isn't a vital area for MinMax). In that frame, IceMax just knocked two Forgaths and a Kin off the tower, and Prissan/Forgath knocked a MinMax and Forgath off the tower.

So there seem to be a quite a few bodies and by my count 19 deaths so far, and that's in 3 rounds.

I count 82 alts in 03/08/13, which wouldn't include those alts to MinMax' back (about 12, including the corpses, by y count in 03/08/13). I count 64 alts in 03/16/13. I gonna ballpark it to about 105 alts in the room with our MinMax. At a rate of 6 deaths per round, MinMax has to survive 15 more rounds. Of course, what he has going for him is that he's uninjured and just started raging. Plus, he's not their only target, so it's not like its 86 alts against MinMax. It's a free-for-all. Also, once some of the alts realize the mouth is shut and the keys are gone, they may just stop fighting. What's the point of fighting when the game has become unwinnable? You might as well just sit around and play cards while you wait for the Maze to reset. (MinMax might not immediately realize this, but I think a lot of the alt Forgaths and Kins will.)

So I don't think MinMax is necessarily in a lot of trouble.

[stevedj]

It is the feeling that "nobody can die" in this battle.

03/02/13: I see five dead bodies: one visible over FatMax's shoulder, one partly obscured behind the central pillar, one behind the rightmost pillar (this body is also visible in the last frame of the 03/16/13 strip), one next to the rightmost pillar, and one in front of the rightmost pillar. I also see one MinMax and a Kin falling to their presumable deaths.
03/08/13: Since this is an overhead view, it is difficult to see if the characters are dead or not, but in frame 5, I see a dead MinMax near the top of the frame, a dead Forgath near the top left corner, and at least two dead Kins. (A Forgath is also falling to his presumable death in this frame.)
03/16/13: A Forgath (with a polka dotted armor and hemet) is beheaded in the last frame and a MinMax wearing lynx-fur armor took an arrow to the brain (which, admittedly isn't a vital area for MinMax). In that frame, IceMax just knocked two Forgaths and a Kin off the tower, and Prissan/Forgath knocked a MinMax and Forgath off the tower.

So there seem to be a quite a few bodies and by my count 19 deaths so far, and that's in 3 rounds.

I think I might have been slightly misunderstood. I agree we have seen lots of DEATH. 19 so far? yea I can agree with that.

My issue is that here in this supersized frame of today's strip, I cannot see any of those dead still on the floor ... wait, I found one! ...perhaps the one you mentioned, that is almost behind the flame tower, on the far right of the frame and near the back -- one single body laying there. But that is one -- only one - corpse. From a count of 19 (well, maybe 12 or so before today), I'd expect to see a couple corpses lying on the floor next to the tower (from the earlier falls), and a couple others elsewhere.

Now, perhaps it is that they 'disappear' - as seems to be common in many movies, too - but for once I'd like to keep the realism that with so much death going on, it is going to make the rest of the battle that much more difficult (having to step over the dead, and with the volume falling off the tower, just getting a start at climbing is now going to be a challenge).

[wrecan]

My issue is that here in this supersized frame of today's strip, I cannot see any of those dead still on the floor ... wait, I found one! ...perhaps the one you mentioned, that is almost behind the flame tower, on the far right of the frame and near the back -- one single body laying there. But that is one -- only one - corpse. From a count of 19 (well, maybe 12 or so before today), I'd expect to see a couple corpses lying on the floor next to the tower (from the earlier falls), and a couple others elsewhere.

The issue is that we don't see much floor, which is where most of the corpses would be lying. It's a pretty tight close-up on the central pillar. The only floor we see is behind MinMax, where we've identified only a few dead bodies that would be back there.

I see two corpses, by the way. One is mostly a splotch at this point behind a one-horned Forgath at the very back-center of the room and the other appears to be a purple-booted MInMax behind a sickle-weilding MinMax over on the right.

As far as I can tell, there may be up to three corpses potentially visible in the shot we see. And I see two of them.

I think the issue is not that corpses disappear but that Thunt is framing the point of view so he doesn't have to draw a lot of corpses.

[Marnath]

Hey all, long-time reader, first-time poster here. Just registered to post the following observation: all the drama and speculation about whether Minmax will survive this fight? It's all pretty much moot. We already know, FOR A FACT, that he survives. How? From the last panel on this page. Although the person saying that line is off-panel, it's pretty clear that it's Minmax, as he's the only one who's ever referred to Complains-of-Names as simply "Names". And furthermore, in the panel just before it, the speaker appears in a flash of green light -- presumably by way of the Jade Teapot. So unless Thunt plans on ret-conning away those last two panels, it's a safe bet that Minmax will be getting out of this scrap alive.

(On a side note, that page is also the last page to feature the Goblin Adventuring Party. You remember them, right? The supposed "stars" of this comic? That's right, we haven't seen them in OVER TWO YEARS. Scary, ain't it?)

I've seen this assumption stated as canon law a lot of times in the years since that page went up. It bothers me that everyone assumes that it could only be Minmax. You know who else has a green IME? Dies Horribly. We don't know what he calls Complains of Names, because Names only ever spoke to him a few times, and Dies was more concerned with Fumbles at that time. Dies does not currently have an object that can teleport him, but it is not inconceivable that he will find something. For example, his new hand could conceivably be capable of anything.

Also on that subject, compare the flash of light from the teleport on that page to the glow coming from his arm here. White center with green coming off it.

In short, if Minmax is not the person who teleported in on that page I will be very happy, and you'll all get to hear that I called it. If he is then well, I'll be wrong.

[CelineSSauve]

You know who else has a green IME? Dies Horribly.

If that were the case, I would certainly hope Thunt would have gone back to the GAP. I suppose it could be someone other than MM and Forgath (and hopefully Kin soon after, once she drops the teapot with her people), but that would mean that Kin didn't keep her word and let them use the teapot. And she's too honourable to not select the artifact to return to her people. After all, she's still in denial about her feelings for MinMax.

[Marnath]

You know who else has a green IME? Dies Horribly.

If that were the case, I would certainly hope Thunt would have gone back to the GAP. I suppose it could be someone other than MM and Forgath (and hopefully Kin soon after, once she drops the teapot with her people), but that would mean that Kin didn't keep her word and let them use the teapot. And she's too honourable to not select the artifact to return to her people. After all, she's still in denial about her feelings for MinMax.

Acquisition of the Teapot is not 100% likely yet either, oh by the way.
They do not have it yet, so anything could happen between now and then that could result in them leaving without the teapot.

[willpell]

I wonder if the Klik-MinMax arm is going to posses him. That would be interesting.

Two Juniors, that would be just what we need. Not that this one could probably leave the Maze into our world, of course. But if it did - yikes!

[wrecan]

I wonder if the Klik-MinMax arm is going to posses him. That would be interesting.

Two Juniors, that would be just what we need. Not that this one could probably leave the Maze into our world, of course. But if it did - yikes!

Well, maybe in Klik-Max' world, Klik is evil and Junior would be good!

[Rorrik]

You know who else has a green IME? Dies Horribly.

If that were the case, I would certainly hope Thunt would have gone back to the GAP. I suppose it could be someone other than MM and Forgath (and hopefully Kin soon after, once she drops the teapot with her people), but that would mean that Kin didn't keep her word and let them use the teapot. And she's too honourable to not select the artifact to return to her people. After all, she's still in denial about her feelings for MinMax.

This. If we weren't waiting for the other story arc to catch up with the GAP, I don't think we would have followed it so long at the GAP's expense. It could be Dies Horribly, as we spent a lot of time on his since leaving the GAP, but this long run of MFK seems to suggest it is necessary to return to the GAP and the main plot. I would go so far as to say that falling in love with Kin before meeting Kore was necessary for the main plot, and that is why this arc has gone on so long.

[raaabr]

-snip-
Also, once some of the alts realize the mouth is shut and the keys are gone, they may just stop fighting. What's the point of fighting when the game has become unwinnable? You might as well just sit around and play cards while you wait for the Maze to reset. (MinMax might not immediately realize this, but I think a lot of the alt Forgaths and Kins will.) So I don't think MinMax is necessarily in a lot of trouble.

However, we have to remember that, according to Kin, the multiverse is predominantly evil. http://www.goblinscomic.com/02182011-3/
There's no guarantee that they won't attack, assuming that some of them are evil. Also, people can sometimes have a "If I can't win, then you can't either!" mentality, and even though Kin and Forgath have the keys, none of them (to our knowledge) knows that winning means that everyone in that group survives. So they might just want to take some petty revenge.

[RocketScientist]

I'm calling Minmax as 100% guaranteed to live, because of something Thunt blogged back around the time he & Danielle got married.

► Show Spoiler

He was quoting a line from the comic that hadn't yet been written, and the line was "I see you."
http://www.goblinscomic.com/01132012/ Extrapolate.

After much time crawling through the archives, I've found it: http://www.goblinscomic.com/she-said-yes/
Given the context, it's very likely that that was what he meant, but it may not be either of the characters saying it.

Hey, thanks for finding that! That must have a taken a super long time.

[Svafnir]

It is the feeling that "nobody can die" in this battle.

03/02/13: I see five dead bodies: one visible over FatMax's shoulder, one partly obscured behind the central pillar, one behind the rightmost pillar (this body is also visible in the last frame of the 03/16/13 strip), one next to the rightmost pillar, and one in front of the rightmost pillar. I also see one MinMax and a Kin falling to their presumable deaths.
03/08/13: Since this is an overhead view, it is difficult to see if the characters are dead or not, but in frame 5, I see a dead MinMax near the top of the frame, a dead Forgath near the top left corner, and at least two dead Kins. (A Forgath is also falling to his presumable death in this frame.)
03/16/13: A Forgath (with a polka dotted armor and hemet) is beheaded in the last frame and a MinMax wearing lynx-fur armor took an arrow to the brain (which, admittedly isn't a vital area for MinMax). In that frame, IceMax just knocked two Forgaths and a Kin off the tower, and Prissan/Forgath knocked a MinMax and Forgath off the tower.

So there seem to be a quite a few bodies and by my count 19 deaths so far, and that's in 3 rounds.

I think I might have been slightly misunderstood. I agree we have seen lots of DEATH. 19 so far? yea I can agree with that.

My issue is that here in this supersized frame of today's strip, I cannot see any of those dead still on the floor ... wait, I found one! ...perhaps the one you mentioned, that is almost behind the flame tower, on the far right of the frame and near the back -- one single body laying there. But that is one -- only one - corpse. From a count of 19 (well, maybe 12 or so before today), I'd expect to see a couple corpses lying on the floor next to the tower (from the earlier falls), and a couple others elsewhere.

Now, perhaps it is that they 'disappear' - as seems to be common in many movies, too - but for once I'd like to keep the realism that with so much death going on, it is going to make the rest of the battle that much more difficult (having to step over the dead, and with the volume falling off the tower, just getting a start at climbing is now going to be a challenge).

Well, where did you think all the zombie other us's came from? Clearly anyone who dies in the tower room gets teleported to a undead animation hub.

[zort]

Hey, thanks for finding that! That must have a taken a super long time.

In the interests of making your life easier: https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&sour ... e%20you%22

While I'm registered, here's something which has been slightly perplexing to me but which I haven't seen anyone comment on: how the FUCK are those people climbing the tower? Especially the ones holding weapons! One's holding a sword and shield and just holding on by his toes (shirtless MinMax just below the upper left panel, to save you some time)! One's climbing while holding a wound in his side (shirtless MinMax just below the upper left panel, again)! The blue Forgath about a third way up the tower looks like he's (she's?) just stuck there like a gecko sticker on a window! Is this a D&D thing?
At least we know how TentacleGath (if that's his nickname) is climbing: he's using his tentacles like ice picks, leaving cracks going up the tower. Though oddly the cracks only start just above the blue Forgath. Guess he extended his first tentacle really far and from then on had to take it in smaller steps.

[CelineSSauve]

While I'm registered, here's something which has been slightly perplexing to me but which I haven't seen anyone comment on: how the <bleep> are those people climbing the tower?

Not sure if it helps, but I do not share your observations on people not holding onto the Tower. They, in fact, appear to be all (with the except of those at the very bottom, who might be leaping up to get their first hold) holding or stepping onto the...threads(?) of the Tower itself.