Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat

[ZanarNaryon]

So, it looks like it's a giant, again. Confronting Emil and Lalli, again. Like the very first live grossling we saw. Last encounter of the expedition, like, circular reference/book end?

That's a pretty good point

[Elleth]

About that... Minna's hinted (I think she's said, but then again I don't trust anything Minna says anymore) that there are going to be other missions after this one. What I've been wondering is... how? Where are they going to get the funding for another mission after the first one was such a disaster? (The books, maybe, but they had to leave a lot of them behind and those few they have with them might barely be enough to get the Västerströms out of debt...)

This is why I'm thinking we're going to have a miracle rescue on our hands at some point before the comic is over. None of the organizers knows about Tuuri yet, and with the ideas that have been discussed (here? in disqus? I'm not sure) about a bite maybe not being invariably fatal... they might believe she's okay. If someone busts her out of Tuonela, her not getting infected might get adopted as the official narrative - or "we're so awesome we brought one of our team back from the underworld, anything else is going to be a piece of cake after this". And who knows - the books might not be all that valuable, but the news about the cure might be, if the missing component is magic that the Y0 researchers had no way of knowing about.

[yung_chrysanthemum]

it's pretty terrifying to think about what these grosslings might have looked like when they were first formed

didn't we see a failed troll transformation in an early chapter, that still had its face? what if trolls keeping their faces when they first come into existence is normal? 

[wavewright62]

it's pretty terrifying to think about what these grosslings might have looked like when they were first formed

didn't we see a failed troll transformation in an early chapter, that still had its face? what if trolls keeping their faces when they first come into existence is normal? 

It's true that we tend to react more viscerally to horror when it still looks human, and particularly when it's a good-looking human.  (Boo Radley, call your office.)  Every time we see another grossling, we have to remind ourselves in print that these were once humans, and whenever the grossling is small, we surmise they were once children.  It would be horrible in all senses of the word were they to keep their faces for some time.  (Some of the skulls are not malformed - I assumed these were victims.)

[Sunflower]

it's pretty terrifying to think about what these grosslings might have looked like when they were first formed

didn't we see a failed troll transformation in an early chapter, that still had its face? what if trolls keeping their faces when they first come into existence is normal? 

Are you talking about the one in Chapter 3 that the fandom calls "Miss Hearty Earrings"?   I'm not sure we know enough yet about troll transformations (and troll biology in general) to say whether keeping some vestige of a human appearance marks a "failed" transformation.  We've certainly seen a vast range of troll shapes.

Hopefully we'll get definitive answers on how trolls work someday. 

[JoB]

Are you talking about the one in Chapter 3 that the fandom calls "Miss Hearty Earrings"?

No, I think the reference goes to Ceiling-Face.

[wavewright62]

No, I think the reference goes to Ceiling-Face.

That was my assumption.  Artistic license, having all the body decay away to the skeleton, but the skin and sinew on the face is more or less intact in its death rictus. *brrrr*

[LooNEY_DAC]

That was my assumption.  Artistic license, having all the body decay away to the skeleton, but the skin and sinew on the face is more or less intact in its death rictus. *brrrr*

As I see it, it didn't decay: the restraints were so strong and tight that the skeleton pushed itself out, leaving the mass of the flesh in a bulge below the restraints. So even more horrifying.

[Sunflower]

That was my assumption.  Artistic license, having all the body decay away to the skeleton, but the skin and sinew on the face is more or less intact in its death rictus. *brrrr*

Ohhhh yeahhhh.  *brrr*  I think I blocked that out of my memory self-protectively! 

I suppose we consider that a "failed" troll transformation because it (apparently) died of its own accord?  While I don't think we've had a consensus on whether trolls and Rash-Beasts ever die "naturally" (Cthulhund seemed at the end of its rope, but who knows what might have happened if Emil hadn't intervened), my thought is that they're probably more or less immortal until or unless some external condition intervenes -- freezing, lack of nutrition, getting shot/flamed, etc.  (This is based on my headcanon that the Rash was started by an ill-thought-out attempt to overcome aging by trying to strengthen cell telomeres; the formula worked in some ways, so infected cells are essentially deathless, but they've gone very wrong indeed...)

[MR_PLINKETT]

I'm getting more and more convinced every day that The Rash was created by Loki to initiate the beginning stages of Ragnarok.

[Ilral]

Ohhhh yeahhhh.  *brrr*  I think I blocked that out of my memory self-protectively! 

I suppose we consider that a "failed" troll transformation because it (apparently) died of its own accord?  While I don't think we've had a consensus on whether trolls and Rash-Beasts ever die "naturally" (Cthulhund seemed at the end of its rope, but who knows what might have happened if Emil hadn't intervened), my thought is that they're probably more or less immortal until or unless some external condition intervenes -- freezing, lack of nutrition, getting shot/flamed, etc.  (This is based on my headcanon that the Rash was started by an ill-thought-out attempt to overcome aging by trying to strengthen cell telomeres; the formula worked in some ways, so infected cells are essentially deathless, but they've gone very wrong indeed...)

It seems to me that they don't need to breathe or eat, unless sjodraugs have gills and the original sleiptroll had 90 years worth of feed in its stall(it was restrained)

[Grade E cat]

It's funny reading this page so soon after the French airing of the latest Game of Thrones episode, because falling in icy water happens to one of the characters, and later they get stripped out of their wet clothes onscreen. Now I'm probably expecting to see a stripped down Emil in the next few weeks much more than I should. Or a body heat sharing scene (didn't happen in the Game of Thrones episode, but I'm probably not the only one with a semi-fantasy of these two ending up in such a scenario).

[Windfighter]

It's funny reading this page [...]

Can I agree with just this part of your quote? I'm having a blast with this page because two weeks ago I killed Emil by throwing him into an icy river and during the weekend I almost offed him with a slight case of hypotermia! Mikkel and Lalli heated him up tho, no harm done!
#sorryemil

I'm really hoping it'll turn out well tho, plz no killing of Emil, Minna, that would feel horrible after all I've put him through D:

[JoB]

Now I'm probably expecting to see a stripped down Emil in the next few weeks much more than I should.

The only two ways that that could possibly happen are a) that Lalli goes out of his mind and tries to kill Emil outright, or b) they make it to some ruins the squiddies cannot get to for whatever reason and that aren't already occupied by other grosslings and some of the incendiaries Emil carries can be used without a bang that attracts attention to them. Without either, Emil would stand a better chance only taking his clothes off for a quick, strong wringing, I guess.

[wavewright62]

Can I agree with just this part of your quote? I'm having a blast with this page because two weeks ago I killed Emil by throwing him into an icy river and during the weekend I almost offed him with a slight case of hypotermia! Mikkel and Lalli heated him up tho, no harm done!
#sorryemil

I'm really hoping it'll turn out well tho, plz no killing of Emil, Minna, that would feel horrible after all I've put him through D:

Perhaps it's a good thing that Minna generally does not note fanworks, because she'd be taking notes from you and from Lazy8, for sure!