Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat

[thegreyarea]

Or so vile they will appear in your nightmares, and Emil’s (yes, Tooth Scary I am indeed calling you vile. Sorry not sorry.)

You're 100% right! To me that nightmerish vision that Lalli had in the train is still the worst (managing, at the same time, to be beautifully drawn).

grey, you are spot-on with your personal rant.

On another note, I don't think we've had a double-cliffhanger in a while!

Thanks. And you're right about the cliffhanger, but as Jitter said the cartoonish style softens the visual impact, making our heroes situation almost comic instead of terryfying. In line with my rant, I get the feeling that the script is well done, but the picture doesn't do justice to the text quality.

Spoiler: more personal ranting • show

Sometimes on reading the actual SSSS I get that "Game of Thrones season 8" feeling, as if the story is much richer and complex but the production didn't want to develop it with the same detail and quality used in the beginning.

[Maple]

Agreed! Compare with that sequence in the hospital on the first adventure (when Mikkel pushed the archive into the troll's open mouth). Less critters, but a lot more frightening.

Spoiler: personal ranting • show

My theory is that our dear author decided to tune her (considerable) talent to "good enough", while we are used to "excellent", and in the beginning it was set to "outstanding". This would make easier to keep the four updates a week rhythm and free some time. I'd very much prefer two or three pages per week, but done with more passion. Of course that would extend this adventure for a longer time... It's true that even in "good enough" mode Minna is very good, way better than the average webcomic, but it's also true that I miss those pages so beautiful that could be made into a poster and hang on the wall.

I think you're right.

Spoiler: responding to rant • show

Minna has clearly indicated that she wants to move on to other projects. So I'm pretty sure she's rushing through the last bit of Adventure 2 in order to get to those other projects more quickly. Could she take more time and make the pages better? Yeah, she could. But I don't think she wants to at this point. The sooner she can finish SSSS and move on to other things, then better (for her).

It's disappointing, especially knowing what those 'other things' are going to be. But I guess that's her choice to make? I'm sure fandom can take whatever we get and make it better, but I'll still be over here feeling disappointed.

[thorny]

Spoiling, more ranting:

Spoiler: show

And what is with this last page? Is that supposed to be funny? Because it isn't.

It's not funny; it's not scary; it's not horrifying; it doesn't advance the characters; and I doubt it's necessary to advance the plot. It's just gross.

I am not impressed with the 'let's see how much we can gross out the reader' school of writing.

[thegreyarea]

Spoiling, more ranting:

Spoiler: show

And what is with this last page? Is that supposed to be funny? Because it isn't.

It's not funny; it's not scary; it's not horrifying; it doesn't advance the characters; and I doubt it's necessary to advance the plot. It's just gross.

I am not impressed with the 'let's see how much we can gross out the reader' school of writing.

I would very much prefer less action and more thriller/horror. Also I can't wait to move to the dreamworld, to the (supposed) epic battle between Onni and the Kade.

Spoiler: about the ranting, and a little more of it • show

I wouldn't go that far about the page. It's a bit funny. Could be more, no doubt. Emil could be saying "Uff, I think we're safe for..." before the floor colapses. Or Mikkel could awkwardly drop/push something that hits the ground, making it fall...
However I must agree that it's not scary or horrifying at all (as Jitter mentioned before, the lack of detail/cartoonish style doesn't help) and that it adds very little to the plot, just another action sequence in a long series. And if the idea is to gross out the reader it misses by a long shot.

Returning to my previous point, I can't help but feel that this absence of dialogue, constant use of small panels and fast pace are all reflecting the author's desire to make the plot move fast. "If I can tell this part with one page, why use two?".
And here I am again at that "GoT 8th season" feeling... I should take a quick jump to TWC and find a handful of very lazy comics (no shortage of that). Maybe that would help me apreciate the current SSSS a bit more. But I don't feel (yet) like making that kind of sacrifice.

[lwise]

However I must agree that it's not scary or horrifying at all (as Jitter mentioned before, the lack of detail/cartoonish style doesn't help) and that it adds very little to the plot, just another action sequence in a long series. And if the idea is to gross out the reader it misses by a long shot.

It will not be unnecessary if events flow like this: Sigrun, Mikkel, and Emil just fell on top of a bunch of the trolls summoned by the Kade, so they are now in the position to defend the mages.  Meanwhile, Mama Bear, who would not know that this has happened, would run into BlobBlob, with the resulting battle weakening both and possibly defeating one.

[thegreyarea]

It will not be unnecessary if events flow like this: Sigrun, Mikkel, and Emil just fell on top of a bunch of the trolls summoned by the Kade, so they are now in the position to defend the mages.  Meanwhile, Mama Bear, who would not know that this has happened, would run into BlobBlob, with the resulting battle weakening both and possibly defeating one.

Yes, there's that possibility (that I find too optimistic) and several others that can make that fall really useful. I don't believe they landed on the kitchen, but droping back to the lower floor may allow them to avoid facing mama bear right now and, after finding their way out of the trash compactor room, move to help the mage squad.
As for mama bear x bloblob, if they meet I think she will cut through it as she would to a soap blob. (where do we place the bets?)

Maybe it's just that I'm a little tired of the constant running, jumping, falling, climbing, etc... And even that may be just subjective, since I didn't go back counting pages/weeks of this or that.

[thorny]

It will not be unnecessary if events flow like this: Sigrun, Mikkel, and Emil just fell on top of a bunch of the trolls summoned by the Kade, so they are now in the position to defend the mages. 

Possible as far as falling through the floor goes; but dumping them into a batch of splashy goo is still, IMO, just in the 'let's gross out the readers' category.

When she did something similar to Emil, way back near the beginning, (if I remember right she dropped a very dead and squashy troll on top of him), it at least seemed to have to do with Emil's character in particular, as he started out way too concerned with looking neat and attractive; it was both mildly funny for that particular reason, and a way of presenting a wake-up call that, hey, Emil, that's not going to work out here. But this seems to be just gratuitous.

[Vulpes]

What baffles me is how they went from dropping feet-first through the floor to landing head-first into what is a fairly substantial pile of goo, so given fairly normal ceiling heights, that flip must've happened within 1 m/3 ft or less.

[thorny]

Yeah, that's also strange. Why wouldn't they have gone in feet first? Both in terms of the time involved to do anything else, and in terms of how you'd want to land in goo if you had to land in goo, that would make a lot more sense. I suspect Minna just wanted to dunk their faces in it because she thought, somehow, that would be funnier; which is a pretty unpleasant form of humor.

[catbirds]

Is Sigrun breaking the fourth wall in today's page? Does anyone else get the feeling she's talking to an audience somewhat?

When she did something similar to Emil, way back near the beginning, (if I remember right she dropped a very dead and squashy troll on top of him), it at least seemed to have to do with Emil's character in particular, as he started out way too concerned with looking neat and attractive; it was both mildly funny for that particular reason, and a way of presenting a wake-up call that, hey, Emil, that's not going to work out here. But this seems to be just gratuitous.

The thing that I've noticed is that the characters' individual quirks don't really take the stage at any point anymore, but I wasn't sure how to interpret that. Sigrun's much less stubborn and energetic, Mikkel's less of a mystery, Emil's a bit less particular about his appearance now, Lalli's less "catlike" in behaviour (as I've heard people describe him), and Reynir is less clueless, though that last one is justified. Did they just get better at working with each other? Or did the author forget about their quirks?

[Suominoita]

Well.. Sigrun is in Finland now, and has gotten to know them better, particularly Mikkel. Lalli has more human contacts now, he doesn't have to fill in for a cat because they actually have a trained one now, and he's not nearly as sleep deprived - not to mention he's back in his own country, and this time he does know what's going on.

[Groupoid]

...

The thing that I've noticed is that the characters' individual quirks don't really take the stage at any point anymore, but I wasn't sure how to interpret that. Sigrun's much less stubborn and energetic, Mikkel's less of a mystery, Emil's a bit less particular about his appearance now, Lalli's less "catlike" in behaviour (as I've heard people describe him), and Reynir is less clueless, though that last one is justified. Did they just get better at working with each other? Or did the author forget about their quirks?

I think the last scene where the personalities were shown significantly was at the lehto. Since then there just hasn't been much dialogue and gestures other than exclamations or "technicalities". Except planning how the chain is used at Koli, but that was also rather free of emotion (at least as I recall).

Change of pace and all that. I agree that the hospital or the other indoor-troll-scenes of the first adventure had a very different atmosphere.

[thorny]

I've been thinking recently about one thing about the characters' behavior at the lehto; which I took for coincidence at the time, but am now reading more (maybe too much) into: which is that Sigrun and Mikkel took sauna separately from the other three.

As I've said elsewhere, part of what attracted me so strongly to SSSS in the first place was the depiction of a mixed-gender group of people working together without any sign that anyone was paying any particular attention to their gender; which in my experience is a thing that can and does happen, but which is rarely shown in fiction. During most of adventure 1, they were all living together in the cat tank, sleeping in the same space, taking baths in the presence of each other (this was shown explicitly at one point, Lalli takes a decontamination bath outside the cat tank with everyone else wandering around.) There pretty obviously isn't any nudity taboo for bathing, and it wouldn't make any sense for there to be one for the sauna.

And on adventure 1, we started out with a group of single people, not paired off, two apparently female (plus Kitty), and three apparently male.

But in adventure 2, what we seem to have is something more like an older paired couple, travelling and working with three younger men. Which can be seen as a different social dynamic entirely. I didn't see it that way until Lovely People, but now I'm having trouble un-seeing it -- especially when the couple used the sauna as a couple, but Sigrun didn't share it with the crew as a whole.

[Tarnagh]

I'm not sure there's another thread I should be posting this in ... there are just SO MANY! Which is fine of course but I'm still wandering around a bit lost.

I received the hardcover Books 1 - 3 in today's mail and YAY! for that but it's also a bit sad? I'm looking at Minna's art from 2015 and comparing it to the most recent pages and it's pretty obvious looking at them side by side that something vital seems to have been lost. Her commentary in Book One and her obvious love for the story she was telling is just ... gone.  :'(

[Vulpes]

I'm not sure there's another thread I should be posting this in ... there are just SO MANY! Which is fine of course but I'm still wandering around a bit lost.

I received the hardcover Books 1 - 3 in today's mail and YAY! for that but it's also a bit sad? I'm looking at Minna's art from 2015 and comparing it to the most recent pages and it's pretty obvious looking at them side by side that something vital seems to have been lost. Her commentary in Book One and her obvious love for the story she was telling is just ... gone.  :'(

I was moping about similar thoughts over in the Comfort Corner, and there have been similar discussions in the Future of our Fandom thread. But here is good too! I'd forgotten about all the bonus stuff in book 1, thanks for the reminder. It may make me a little sad to read it, but it's also interesting.

thorny, I also noticed (before All That about LP) the shift from them functioning as a team, with all the varied dynamics that requires, to the current setup of Mikkel and Sigrun (who seemed to be gravitating to one another at the end of A1), and the "young 'uns". And Onni and TuuriBirb, but they're both outsiders in various ways.

Also the original command structure has fallen apart, because they're doing this on their own time. They each decided to follow Onni for different reasons, so Sigrun isn't technically in charge, and often leaves decision-making to others, particularly Mikkel. Which to me is a more traditional and thus less interesting dynamic - the eldest male is in charge, ho-hum. I found Mikkel more interesting when he was subtly steering things from the background, as he was through much of A1.

I suppose you could chalk all of that up to character development, and it certainly wouldn't make sense to simply have an exact repeat of A1, but still... It's hard to put a finger on it, but it just seems off. I hope that feeling will go away, I'd really like to enjoy the rest of this story arc! I'm especially keen to know how Onni deals with the kade.

Ooh, as long as I'm blethering on... re Onni vs the kade: I was thinking it would be really interesting if he picked it apart mage by mage, like peeling layers off an onion, until he gets to the unknown mage (who probably didn't know that's what they were) who was the first to get consumed. Unfortunately, I think that's unlikely, for two reasons. First, the info page about kades says that mages can be rescued "under ideal circumstances" and in "the initial stages of corruption"... although that would suggest that Onni's plan is doomed, as it's been quite some time since Ensi was taken over. Second, Onni was very dismissive of the first person so I doubt that he would be much interested in helping them. But still, I can hope!