#650: "That's really, really great."
 

One and a half down, two and a half to go.

The power of peekaboo!!

Is this going to be elaborated on? (the reason, not the peekaboo. Well, both actually)

Half??? you not telling us something
I think RM still not finished or fighters got more then sword skill up his sleeve

My random speculation!:

Fighter unleashes an omnislash like attack that targets the area directly around him. Thief performs some crazy ninja-assassin vanishing trick and upgrades. Black Mage's upgrade is delayed, for nothing other reason that to tick him off.

What a pretty...tiara...

Its most likely a helmet but hey Elrond wore a tiara so anythings possible

X3. Ohhh yeah. Even without the coolness of spikes, peekaboo rules all. Of course, no one comments on the crown.

Black Mage's comment on 'it doesn't look like rain' seems to come out of left feild. I mean, it connects to the last sentence, but usually it's either a joke or a semi plot-furthering comment.

Remember what happens to heroes in capes...

Hm....Perhaps Fighter has aquired some sort of defensive ability?

Anyways, yay, Fighter class change, woo hoo...

The only class change Im worried about is BM. He better not become a bard, which evidence is kinda pointing to, what with the singing and the MC pants hes going to get.

True the Knight Job in most ffs has a cover ability of some sort
maybe he can even counter now

I was thinking that he can now dual-wield like a Ninja, but he's been doing that since the beginning of the strip anyway, so it doesn't matter.

Hey, maybe he's become a Samurai and can use GP Toss. Of course, Thief would never forgive him.

that would easily violate theifs contract besides there is no way he could take theifs money from him

He's broke. Everyone is but Thief. Thief doesn't really share his riches. This isn't an RPG party where everybody has net total of cash.

I just think that he will get the white magic. I mean, what's the point of giving him so random new ability? White magic is already different enough.

True, but that would be too predictable, wouldn't it?

I automatically thought that the 'half' has to do with not having seen Fighter's new 'powers' yet.

Which this peak-a-boo pose seems to be preparing for, if you stop seeing it as a peak-a-boo pose. (Perhaps, for Brian's torment of Black Mage, he will cast a swordoken.)

Anyway, you guys, not to be unnecessarily defensive against your jesting, but it is not a tiara, nor were any of the pieces seen in The Lord of the Rings.

wow, with all the new costumes, its getting to be a different 8-Bit. *sob* I miss them already.
On another note, maybe the half is Fighter recieved a brain. That would be shocking.

It is every student's dream to learn his craft so precisely that he looks exactly like his teacher in every way.

I doubt it'll be white magic. It just doesn't say "Fighter" if he did. Any projectile would be really outside the realm of a fighter as well. So maybe it's like the FFV samurai ability of a one hit KO. All I do know is it'll probably involve swords.

Wow... the thought of sword-doken is exciting. Throw in steal-doken and I believe BM would be thoroughly ticked

Meh, I was really hoping we could avoid the tiara. And all the white doesn't really suit Fighter IMHO.

So does this confirm that the costumes are following what we saw in the "alternate universe" strip earlier(anyone have a link?), with Thief in the ninja outfit and Black Mage with the crescent moon on his hat?

Go, Peekaboo!

Obviously, if he can't see the enemy, then they can't see him. It's the perfect stealth skill.

19 down, 11 to go.



and i'm starting to worry :(

Someone fill me in, what is this about?

If MY experience has taught me anything, he'll only go even more towards the direction of wild and crazyness with offencive moves. Why learn to block something if you don't even have to?

That reference to his master did remind me that his new peek-a-boo related ability might be something concerning the Zodiac. Perhaps concerning the Dragon (makes alot of sense now).

...He didn't use a dragon-zodiac technique yet did he? If he did, then he's probably just gonna use Sight Beyond Sight, With Even More Sight (two swords.)

I'll never get used to the guys' new looks, especially Thief becoming a ninja ><;
PS: thunder now sounds like a city in Poland? XD

He made a prediction 19 strips ago that the class change was 30 strips long. Anyway, Fighter clearly is using 'sword-sight' that let's him do all sorts of funky stuff.

i'd just liked to say:

BOOYAH!! Go fighter! Go fighter! Party like its your birthday! Woooo!

hehe.. sry.. that tiara really had my psyched. mm.. sexiness.

I predict thats the preparation stance to the move of 'Ultimate Ass Kicking Using All Things Swords'

This is a tiara.

This is a circlet.

It is/was rather common for men as well as women to wear circlets. Even the hypermasculine World of WarCraft knows this.

A tiara is disctinctly feminine in its use.

Hell, what Fighter is wearing does not even look like either, but more like an incomplete helmet done for aesthetic purposes as anime and a fair amount of science fiction makes common. [Shrugs.]

Expansion and contraction (along with circles and straight lines) are how you to generate power, with a weapon in particular. A wild guess on my part is that he's going to bring his swords around and strike in an X motion to make some kind of energy wave.

FFXI SAMs can compare Tachis Enpi and Jinpu. Enpi isn't very well executed, the initial strike, while in a circle, does not travel in a straight line on the horizontal, it wavers ~ while being swung and thus looses power, and at the end of that attack the body is expanded. The thrusting attack afterwards is a contracting motion of the body, but does not make the tip of the G. Katana travel in a straight line either, thus loosing power.

Tachi Jinpu is very smooth, the initial strike begins with expancion and ends with contraction while in contact with the target, giving you a starting point to swing the sword around, expanding as it reaches the midway point, and contracting on the downstrike, and the sword itself does not waver allowing maximum power to be delivered. This is why Enpi would be inferior to Jinpu even if they were both level 10 weaponskills.

I'm not saying Fighter is now a FTR/SAM, I'm just saying it's not peek-a-boo. :sweatdrop

Well, yes, Black Mage just hates him and is beginning to feel more than a little jealous. You know Thief will have to be next.

Strange, PvP also had the "krakow" sound effect for a mysterious flash of light. O.o

Strip 666 huh? I can see Thief also getting class changed by then, and BM going around being enormously jealous for at least 30 strips after that. :)

Fighter is A knight of the Zodiac? =P

God darn it he is a WEAPONS MASTER! Weapons... master...

he can use any weapon (swords) in anyway his body can take!

Weapons master!!

Anyway... i just hope that Thief wont become a Ninja!

The resemblance is uncanny.

Fighter sure is awesome, though the lack of spikes is a tad bit dissapointing.

But for his class-change, it seems to me that he became somewhat like the "mystic knight" from FFV. The combination of sword-play and thunder could be the sword ability (imbueing a sword with black magic) of the mystic knight.

I don't think this peek-a-boo pose is his new technique. I think that he's actually powering up for some super cool technique that leaves BM uber jealous.

Black mage
 

hmmm just seeing BM annoyed with fighter (again) made me think of something
BM not done any stabbing recently that might set off his class change

oh yeah Knight rocks can't wait to see what hidden power he has
and when RM mimes it rofl :D

What are you talking about? BM stabbed Fighter about 6 comics ago. But, if you mean recently as in a few seconds or minutes recently (like BM thinks), then no he hasn't done anything stabbity.

What's going on with Fighters tiara/circlet/anime helmet/brain parasite in the last panel of the second line? Either his head thing is flesh coloured or it's a really weird shape and he's partially bald.

I don't really think it looks like a tiara or a circlet. It looks to me like the part of a helmet that you can put up or down to protect the face.

I don't think so. I think it is a symbol of respect personally. See a circlet provides little protection. It is normally used to show high staus. I.E a knight.

Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight!

Actually contributing, I have to wonder why the "krakow". RM's class change didn't have a sound effect. He simply fell from the sky and when he got up he class changed.

I also wonder if there will be newer

:fighter: :rmage: :thief: :bmage:

at some point as well.

The Wandering God

Yeah, Fighter has used a Dragon zodiac skill. Right here. Apparently Dragon's Fire is "Invincible", but all it did against a Crinos was to produce "another tink" Stike that, it never hit at all.

silly BM, that's not Fighter, it's Vargus pretending to be Fighter. lol.

Isn't it obvious? Fighter has become the HIGHLANDER.

Hahahahaa, you people are awesome. Higlander Fighter would be the best thing in the universe.

And hey, maybe when thief becomes a ninja he could be less of a weasly wuss and spend more of his time using ninja majic to shank peoples in the back.

I really can't wait to see BM's class change. Here's hoping for some kind of uber-hadoken.

I don't think so. The mods hate them too much to make new ones.

Did anyone think that maybe he now has the armor of invincibility?

Heeeeere we belong
FIGHTING to survive
in a woooorld with the daaaaarkest powers...


Wouldn't a 'Highlander' Fighter mean that he'd have to go hunt down anyone else that used swords?
'Cause there can only be one.

Edit: I sense the coming of an omnislash type of move.

Well I doubt that is what Brian is trying to do. I don't think that Brian was trying to make a "higlander fighter" Fighter just upgraded to a "Sword master" With cool armer. The armer still needs spikes though =)

It was a joke. Fighter is a knight. He looks like Vargus and that is probably what class he is. So..um...Brian, What was Vargus? C'mon you can tell me.

but what will they start calling him? Knighter?!

If Fighter is only going to be a highly defensive character, for all intents and purposes, call him a Paladin. He may even bust out some White Magic in the process. Now THAT would be crazy :P

Finally, another class change! Sure it wasn't Black Mage (and knowing my luck and BM's uncanny knack at having good things happening to him last), but on the bright side it was in all rights a class change. I couldn't help but notice that the characters with the red/white clothes format changed first. Sure, it is probably unrelated to the actually changes, but I notice this kind of stuff and then I need to point it out.

So let's see. Red Mage may or may not have changed classes due to the hadoken, and Fighter changed classes practicing the art of putting the sword's pointy end into things (not literally doing it, but you get what I mean). Now what I wonder is that if the class change is triggered under set circumstances (which we can't be sure of unless we're specifically told) then what will have to happen for Thief to change classes? What about Black Mage? Guess we'll see soon enough.

Well, that's all of my random thoughts. I'm going to go grumble to myself at how BM will probably be the last to class change now.

I don't think so. it was in the possesion of Matoya. And they probably won't be going to see her again (willingly) any time soon.

Has anybody thought that Thief might be last? I think it would be kind of funny to see him try to manipulate everyone when they're 10 times as powerful as he is.

I was just surprised no one plugged Highlander before me. It was just soooo easy.
Why is everyone thinking that's what Fighter is about to do? I'd predict the Blade Beam, or whatever it is Fighter used against those Ninjas in his 3-comic miniseries. It makes no sense and it's devastating.

There's nothing really special about Omnislash anyway. It's just a merciless string of blows, topped off by an explosive downward vertical slice. Fighter essentially already has that. Remember the two-fisted monkey style attack? Shizaam.

Blade Beam somehow became the signature SOLDIER move.. It was used with no subtlety in AC, and a few times by Zack in Last Order. You don't go around using Omnislash everyday, yanno. Sin Bahamut only got so much as a Climhazzard.

Way I see it, the class changes are triggered by an action appropriate to the new class. Mimes are potent by someone else doing somethin' fantastical n' stuff. The first thing fantastical done after Bahamut's silly incantation was...? Yes, the Hadoken. And Fighter whipped out his swords, which provoked the Knight/Paladin/SOLDIER/Highlander's trademark. They're all pretty swordy.

If Thief is indeed becoming a Ninja, he could possibly reveal his new true colors when employing some stealth. I have no clue in the dark how it'll work out with BM, though. Who knows, maybe he's going to become a Necromancer?

Has nobody seen all the comics? *raises his hand* Yeah, I have. In one of the earlier episodes, they showed a picture of all the characters as different classes. Which are the following: Red Mage FF1 becomes Red Mage FF3, Fighter FF1 becomes Knight FF3, Black Mage FF1 becomes Wizard FF3, and Thief FF1 becomes Ninja FF3. So far, Brian's done exactly that, except changed the sprites to be shorter and be more original to the FF1 style sense (like Red Mage having a mask over his mouth). Duh!! Obviously BM's going to get a goofy moon hat and Thief is going to get dressed up in a snazzy ninja suit! I have my doubts about the classic overalls for BM and I don't think Thief will get a red garb.. I think it'll be that brown color. But the class changes are obvious, guys...

Whee! Fighter's officially classed up! And I believe that is no peekaboo move...I think he's up to something...but exactly what is he up to? It looks defensive, as someone way earlier had stated, but perhaps it is a pose of preparation...

And yet... hold it... your intelligence and awesomeness is too awe inspiring... I can't do anything because you're so smart...

Okay, away from mercilessly assaulting you for being arrogant. Everyone who has been on the forums for a week has seen someone link to episode 300. It's the most linked to episode of all time, simply because there was once a lot of people who didn't believe in class change or the ever favorite, "They can't class change, because then you see BM's face!!"

However, RM has displayed abilities that are not granted to the RW in the original FFI (seem to be those of a mime). The new theory is that the LWs will get an extra ability of a different class in the FF series upon class change. So the arguing of classes is really what is their secondary class or abilties that they are going to get.

So really, do your research. Actually know what you're talking about before you act arrogant. Then it might be forgiven.

We've all seen it, trust me. You'd be surprised how many times that comic has been linked in these discussions. And this is a shining example of how looks aren't everything. We know how they're going to look, sure. But we can only guess (very poorly) about what their powers will be.

*sigh of... you know... the thing when you're kind of sad, but happy, but also regretful? wait.. is there even a word for that?* Okay, I'm sorry... I should say in my sig or something that my "arrogance" is just a highly-overrated speeded comical appeal. If you would've heard me speaking it, it would sound nothing like what you probably read it as. and I'm sorry.... *bows and hugs everyone that's willing to hug without stabbing, maiming, or bodilly hurting me in some form before, during, or after the hug*

Oh, and... http://www.nuklearforums.com/showthread.php?t=12363
A link to sprite sheet. It shows a bit of custom-made stuff and it also shows the light warriors in their new class forms. I was wrong, Thief does get red robes.

as for discussing the class changes themselves... Red Wizard, Knight, Wizard, and Ninja would be right, wouldn't it?
I'm sure Thief will just get insanely fast.. Maybe BM's going to get a huge powerup of the hadoken, or maybe finally be able to kill Fighter, lol. Now that would be a power.

Y'know, I'm having trouble figuring out this last part of the comic... What is Black Mage trying to do? "Oh, spare me." From what? Is he trying to deny that Fighter class changed before him? Is he trying to stop Red Mage from getting smug? Is he denying the class change all together? But no, that doesn't make sense, he seemed to be accepting it to some degree in the last comic. He's clearly trying to deny Fighter's upgrade, but WHY? Is he specifically talking to Red Mage? Himself? Both RM and Thief? My brain hurts.


See, I figure that is an attempt at shading; the circlet is slightly...whats the word... I dunno. Think of it in three dimensions. Half of that circlet part is just in shadow.

wow he look excactly like vargus now

From Fighter in general.

Essentially.

Whomever will listen.

Correct.

Why do I have that horrible feeling that Fighter will end up like Red Mage and become part Mime or something. . .

Let's hope he'll become something cool like a Dragoon.

You know maybe Fighter is preparing to do an Awesome attack and it requires a weird sword stance

Oh, if only...
 

Blue Magic might result in BM getting hurt. That actually makes me think it's quite likely.

The Wandering God

One other theory on BM has been necromancer.

As for fighter right now, I'd say he's wearing a circlet/headband kind of thing that says, "I'm so cool, why the hell would I have to protect my head?" Conan the Barbarian also wore a headband to show that level of coolness. As for the power he's trying to show, I'm going with the current pose being a pre-ass-kicking pose from Crouching Tigher, Hidden Dragon. Much like the pos-ass-kicking pose from CTHD Evil Princess Sara showed after whomping on a giant (re-reading the comic right now, old comics are funny cause I haven't read them in a while). Of course, the power of peek-a-boo is very funny as an insult.

As for Thief, he will be a ninja of some sort, but then Fighter also hates the ninja (he hates the robot first), so I'm expecting some kind of conflict on this point. I also suspect Thief to become a little like his law ninja minions - a ninja of legalese and string clauses and such.

I am Immortal! I have inside me blood of kings!
YEAH! I have no Rival! No man could be my equal!

Yeah, that defently sounds like Fighter ALL OVER....

And doesn't it seem like Fighter is using proper grammer all of a sudden?
Oh noes! Fighter has become more intellegent then 3/4th of the people that use the internet!

black mage's new class?

Let's look at his upgraded sprite.

Big Baggy Pants? check!

Big silly hat? check!

What this mean? CLOWN!

Brian may be crazy at times with some stuff in his comics but no
BM will not become a clown
If he he did he would become so P***ed that he would destroy the world.
But imagining it is still pretty funny.

But everyone loves a clown.

but one of the jokes of the comic is that the world hates BM and likes to screw him over

Sword-o-vision.

He will be a Master of ALL kenshidos. Vargus' zodiac, Drizz'l's spider, etc.

Highlander sounds cool. Imagine him and Drizz'l trying to cut each other's head off. Priceless.