Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat

[Tindveden]

... you oughta know better than to tempt me ...

OK, OK, you win. Peace, and food for everybody

[Vulpes]

and i wonder

why is Kade using three bears as protection, when it could just as easily be vibing around Surma.
conclusion: Surma can and would harm Kade.

Perhaps Surma is too erratic, always haring off after sharp/loud sounds. Onni describes the Kade as "weak", I know he meant mentally or in magic powers or something, but it may also be incapable of keeping up with Surma.

I know it's unlikely -- she was immune, so even if she didn't get taken into the kade it seems unlikely she could trollify -- but I've still got the idea stuck in my head that Surma might be Grandma, having managed to fight the kade off enough not to get subsumed but not enough to have remained fully herself. In which case, I'd think the kade would most certainly want to stay well away from her.

I think there's just something about those hands that strikes me as an exaggeration of a thin old woman's hands.

Yikes. That is an interesting and unsettling prospect. As you say, unlikely, but it would be quite the plot twist. But shouldn't Onni be able to sense his grandmother? Or maybe he's just assuming... and we all know what happens when you assume something, right?

Right?

Spoiler: show

You make an ass out of u and me!

I'm sorry, I'm leaving now.

[Róisín]

Peace and food sounds good to me! I knew how to do oldstyle gingerbread, but the fig rapé recipe is different to mine.

[Tindveden]

Peace and food sounds good to me! I knew how to do oldstyle gingerbread, but the fig rapé recipe is different to mine.

As long as we don't get the blueberry cake from Recipe swap (and other food related stuff)

PS: FYI for the rest of you: That was a silly "recipe". And in Norwegian too.

[thorny]

And Surma does have a roughly human-shaped form, no? looks like a human was the original that Surma formed from?

And what is that bright light behind the bear?

Oh well, we might find out in three weeks. Or not. I think I am going to have to keep reading long enough to get that question answered, if it's going to be.

[wavewright62]

The human-shaped form does give credence to the view that Surma is a troll. My bad, I thought Surma was a mythological creature embodied.
I think the light behind the bear is just her (and consequently our) focus on the top of the cliff.   She's coming back up, and she'll be loaded for bear, as the expression goes.

[Róisín]

thorny and Wavewright, I think both are correct. The seagull mage Vaino, if I remember correctly, refers to Surma as a troll, that is, the base form from which it developed was a human. But the name of Surma, given by humans referring to it, refers to the symbolic embodiment of violent death. There seems to be a usage of giving individual personal names to the really heavy-duty monsters, as was done for the bear beasts?

[lwise]

thorny and Wavewright, I think both are correct. The seagull mage Vaino, if I remember correctly, refers to Surma as a troll, that is, the base form from which it developed was a human. But the name of Surma, given by humans referring to it, refers to the symbolic embodiment of violent death. There seems to be a usage of giving individual personal names to the really heavy-duty monsters, as was done for the bear beasts?

The seagull mage called it an "exceptionally nasty critter", but didn't say either beast or troll (page 167).

[Róisín]

I sit corrected!

[thegreyarea]

Anyway from what we can see Surma looks very anthropoid, and it seems unlikely that another animal would take that shape... Unless it was an ape. (perhaps a gorilla? I wonder if there could be any on a zoo in Finland, or nearby Russia. Maybe a monkey on a lab...)

Therefore between beast or troll I'm still betting on troll!

[JoB]

Anyway from what we can see Surma looks very anthropoid, and it seems unlikely that another animal would take that shape... Unless it was an ape. (perhaps a gorilla? I wonder if there could be any on a zoo in Finland, or nearby Russia. Maybe a monkey on a lab...)

Therefore between beast or troll I'm still betting on troll!

Aye. It's a biped now, and thus very likely has been before its infection as well. Other details (arrangement of leg joints and spine on the hip, lack of tail, ...) support a biped/human blueprint as well.

No sign of opposable thumbs, though, but except for the partially hidden right hand, it's four digits on every end, apparently. Might be Swedish.

[JoB]

Well, would you look at that. In recent news, it seems that a contagious disease has appeared that turns bears into monstrosities with totally aberrant behaviour, eventually causing brain death.
Extra, extra, read all about it ...

Spoiler: show

Can't decide whether it's an April Fools, or the entire outfit's a joke.

[thegreyarea]

Well, would you look at that. In recent news, it seems that a contagious disease has appeared that turns bears into monstrosities with totally aberrant behaviour, eventually causing brain death.
Extra, extra, read all about it ...

Spoiler: show

Can't decide whether it's an April Fools, or the entire outfit's a joke.

And there's this...
A bit hard to take that as a serious source...

Spoiler: show

(and a quick search found no other instances of that episode, so I'll go for April fools)

[Vulpes]

I don't know about the 'time traveller', but the bear thing seems to be legit - I found it covered in a number of places. Here's one that's considerably less over-the-top (zombie bears, pfft).

[thegreyarea]

I don't know about the 'time traveller', but the bear thing seems to be legit - I found it covered in a number of places. Here's one that's considerably less over-the-top (zombie bears, pfft).

Oh, but that one is written in a completely different tone! Now I can believe in the story! (thanks!)

(and of course the "time traveller" is real, but we cannot and will not believe in it because if we did the future from which it came wouldn't become real, so he would not come at all and his story could not exist... Unless we go to the "multiverse" option, where those paradoxes can fit without great trouble. )