Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat

[White_Tiger]

I wonder what the cattank ran on. Was that ever discussed? I know modern tanks aren't super picky about what they can run on - the M1 Abrams' engine will take pretty much anything that's combustible (and liquid, of course) which makes sense to ease the strain on logistics in a warzone. So if the cattank had something similar it could have run on biofuel out of Icelandic greenhouses or something like that.

[Jitter]

The Cattank appears to be electric, as is the Dalahästen train. The battery technology and electric motors in Adventure 1 are greatly advanced in comparison to ours, well within realm of science fiction.

If sufficient number of scientists and engineers have concentrated on the issue, 90 years (well, 80 or so, the Cattank is from the time of the Danish reclamation attempt) is a long while to develop something, although of course even at best the resources they can spend on it are quite meager and a lot ot the existing knowledge should have been lost. Still, Iceland has near unlimited energy from geothermal, so learning to store and use electricity in many ways would make sense.

All and all the technology level doesn’t seem to be 100% coherent. Of course with the enormity of the destruction it was also pure chance what fields endured better than others, depending on the survival of just a few or even single individuals.

I also have some ideas growing from the petroleum discussion: petroleum mines. Say a big harbor where the storage tanks were left, some have exploded but some remain. Work there is dangerous and dirty, but either a) pays very well or b) is done by a slave workforce. I have to say my train of thought is on track b and it’s a very dystopian idea. Maybe it’s somewhere else than in the Known World? Or maybe it takes place between Y0 and the current apparent stability of Y90?

I don’t think I will ever write this, I like SSSS partially because it’s not dystopian despite everything. And if I want to go nasty, I have another idea that’s been in the back burner for years. But maybe someone else is intrigued by the idea? All in all there entire “post-apocalypse junk rat” genre is waiting for the writers, largely untouched.

[JoB]

The Cattank appears to be electric, as is the Dalahästen train. The battery technology and electric motors in Adventure 1 are greatly advanced in comparison to ours, well within realm of science fiction.

Plus its batteries were recharged by "a multifuel engine", again with a wide range of suitable fuels, again limited to liquids.

[Róisín]

It is canon that battery tech is much improved, also that the Tank will run on anything burnable. I have speculated about something like the steam cars of the 1920s, or maybe even something like an improved upscaled version of a present day FlameStower, though the extant versions of those don’t run anything much bigger than a lantern or an iPhone. There was a lot of discussion about that in the early days of the Forum.

[dmeck7755]

I think there was a story (Ao3) about the cat tank that it was steam powered (like an old locomotive engine).

It could use coal, wood etc.

My head cannon, is that They use steam as much as possible for mobile units. Though the biofuel/oil technology would be an interesting thing to pursue.
Water, sun and air for stationary things (Though solar panels are very technical and once they died, I do not think sufficient technology would remain to make more)

Also that the work of scavengers, though dangerous would yield a lot of valuable stuff.

[Jitter]

Also that the work of scavengers, though dangerous would yield a lot of valuable stuff.

Exactly! There seems to be too little scavenging, considering. Of course we haven’t seen much of how everyone else but the team lives, but also we don’t see much evidence of any such loot. Someone could become very rich, looting not just books but various resources. Or maybe Y90 is past that, I don’t know. Just the lack seems conspicuous.

Then again, this is the small peek Minna has wanted to give us into this world. We now have very near all of it to play with!

[lwise]

Exactly! There seems to be too little scavenging, considering. Of course we haven’t seen much of how everyone else but the team lives, but also we don’t see much evidence of any such loot. Someone could become very rich, looting not just books but various resources. Or maybe Y90 is past that, I don’t know. Just the lack seems conspicuous.

Then again, this is the small peek Minna has wanted to give us into this world. We now have very near all of it to play with!

My theory is two-fold.

The first point is that originally scavenging was taboo; it would bring back the technological world that was thought to have caused the Rash in the first place.  It might be possible now, but a lot of what you would want to scavenge has rusted, rotted, or otherwise decayed.

The second point is that Denmark is different from, and much safer than, Sweden and Norway, because the Cure created ghosts which killed off a lot of the trolls and beasts.  Natural animals could detect the ghosts (see how they avoided the ghosty building in Kastellet), but grosslings couldn't.  Finland (the part we've seen) is likewise different and safer thanks to Surma, the Three Bears, and the Kade.  In Sweden and Norway, the areas that haven't been enclosed and cleansed are a whole lot more dangerous than Denmark, so scavenging by individuals is suicidal.

[White_Tiger]

So perhaps Surma dying was a bad thing? I don't thing it ever would have killed all the rash creatures around, or even most of them, but it still did a lot of housekeeping so to speak.

Not to sound too much like a Jurassic World villain but it might even have been very worthwhile to weaponize Surma. All Old Man Seagull needs to do is use a few of his seagulls to lure rash creatures into a kill zone (far away from the border, in case things go awry) and have them drop bits of sheet metal or just scream a lot and wait for Surma to arrive and duck shit up. Or, for maximum precision, have a gull personally find Surma and lead it there. If a team wants to move in and scavenge with minimal resistance, the gulls find Surma again and lead it away while the team does its thing.

[NightMareMage]

There's 4 pages left in the whole comic. I have to wonder not just how the Sentinel Mage will pay off but if it will be good for an ending for something that is (almost certainly) a conclusion to the whole series, while still leaving things open to possibly be continued in the future.

Maybe it will be like the She-ra reboot ending, where you're supposed to imagine for yourselves what happens to the character next? While not really my cup of tea, I get it.

Whatever it could be, four pages does not seem like enough time for some new important thing to happen but we shall see.

[Jitter]

Also the extended epilogue was not supposed to have any new important thing happening. The open possibility for further plot was the letter from Sweden.

[NightMareMage]

Maybe the later and the mage will connect somehow? I don't think that will be the case but still.

On the other hand, if it's just gonna end on a light note, it could just be fluff.

[JoB]

Water, sun and air for stationary things (Though solar panels are very technical and once they died, I do not think sufficient technology would remain to make more)

Good photovoltaic panels are high tech. Thermal collectors are essentially black pipeworks under glass, and if you want to power "a steam engine", those (and a collector fluid with a low steam point) might work just as well. Either will, however, suffer from the Nordic's latitudes.

Not to sound too much like a Jurassic World villain but it might even have been very worthwhile to weaponize Surma. All Old Man Seagull needs to do is use a few of his seagulls to lure rash creatures into a kill zone (far away from the border, in case things go awry) and have them drop bits of sheet metal or just scream a lot and wait for Surma to arrive and duck shit up. Or, for maximum precision, have a gull personally find Surma and lead it there. If a team wants to move in and scavenge with minimal resistance, the gulls find Surma again and lead it away while the team does its thing.

It's established that "normal" grosslings are attracted by manmade noises, too, just not as fast as Surma. So, set up a remote-controlled Dune-style thumper in the middle of an ancient city and watch the town square troll-fill in the time Surma needs to arrive at the banquet ... ?

Whatever it could be, four pages does not seem like enough time for some new important thing to happen but we shall see.

"Important" can be done within half a page, just let the sentinels get off their snowmobiles and say "there's a giant the size of a mountain coming, we fled here because there's nothing we can do against it on our own!"
"Fleshed-out storyline carrying an entire upcoming adventure" is a different beast (pun intended).

[Jitter]

Of course there’s “time” for anything still, a panel showing Lalli signing up as a new sentinel, a panel of Sigrun and Mikkel’s wedding (I fear Lalli and Emil’s wedding is off the cards now), Reynir getting a huge omen, the Finnish capital in flames, a major volcanic eruption in Iceland…

Still, she specifically said these extra pages are just something light-hearted and fun. So I don’t think it’s something big like that. Then again, she obviously has every right to change her mind. We’ll see, very very soon.

[tehta]

JoB, your Surma-suggestions are good ones. The team has had so much experience of 'surviving while the monsters fight' (long before Surma vs Bears, there were Dusklings vs Duskling-killer, Barbie-leg trolls vs Giant, etc.) Surely they must be aware of this as a strategy?

Jitter, I like your unserious predictions.

[Suominoita]

JoB, your Surma-suggestions are good ones. The team has had so much experience of 'surviving while the monsters fight' (long before Surma vs Bears, there were Dusklings vs Duskling-killer, Barbie-leg trolls vs Giant, etc.) Surely they must be aware of this as a strategy?

Jitter, I like your unserious predictions.

That doesn't mean it's easy to get Surma to kill a bear beast cub, cue the mother bear-beast killing Surma (and getting herself killed in the process). Sure, "make them fight each other and stay out of their way" is a good strategy -- if you can manage to pull it off and not have them team up against you instead.

So... what sort of "vacation" does Väinö Väänänen like? Studying perhaps? Or training of some sort? Required to meet people out of work? Why the air quotes here?