episode 429: Several Birds, One Hadoken
 

Blllaarrrggg!!!! there has been an error, ze link to today's comic goes to saturday's comic
:bmage: - release the comic or stabbing will happen to fighter, also i want white mage, to be alone with me.
:wmage: - *hits black mage on head with hammer, you already stabbed fighter
:fighter: - thems m'brain meats

Oo

...um yeah. As Brian so thoughtfully noted, the site's gonna be a little strange. Of course I'll be checking the front page and the archives like an obsessed monkey on amphetamines until the comic's up.

...yeah, starting the comic topic IS fun and all, but no need to fight...

EDIT: 12:51
Is it my imagination or is Hadoken looking MUCH cooler?

thats because its building up power. unless you mean its looking cooler than it did the last time BM used it (a couple hundred episodes ago). but thats probably just because Brian's getting better at Photoshop. wouldn't you after making 400+ comics in it?

EDIT:
anyone else wondering what this comic had to do with birds?

Is it my imagination, or are they several variables that can go wrong with this plan.

And if I hadjoined the forums for the introduction of Feather spell, I'd note that this spell isn't destructive at all, and I wanna know why BM would ever learn it.

Aren't there several variables that could have gone wrong with all their plans (many of which did?) ^^;;

BTW, I loved this ep for one simple reason: Shockwave. One of the most underappreciated Decepticons ever graces the pages of one of the best webcomics around. I salute you Brian *bows*

Because Brian said so!!! Do NOT argue with Brian!!! He is GOD!!!

It was introduced when BM and crew were falling from the DeathTrap. I'll post a link to the comic later.... BM was "flung" from the DeathTrap and would've been reduced to a small, robed splotch had it not been for "feather fall"
He needed it to live, be it destructive or not...

Of course you can argue that BM would NEVER have any spell that is "non-destructive" but... as Brian once said, "If continuity gets in the way of a joke, I ignore it."

EDIT: Dang it Fifthfeind... why do you have to be more eloquent AND funnier than me?!

Because after a certain number of massive magical backlashes resulting in being flung into the stratosphere, I imagine even Black Mage would make the practical decision.

The only problem I can see is why BM would kill Thief by the re-entry method instead of just vaporizing him along with the other two. Especially as I imagine that, knowing Black Mage's plan, Thief would just backstab him or some such thing.

---

Starscream: Much respect for the Transformers, but if you're going to name yourself after one, why the whiny guy who was Megatron's bitch?

Blhhhhh, yes, I don't quite understand why Black Mage would bring Thief with him. I assumed he was going to use Thief to break his fall, before I read about the Feather Fall spell. Good comic. Didn't see that coming.

BM is showing his vary own brand of mercy. He wants RM and Fighter to die as quickly as possible and doesn't want to listen to them in there last minutes. Theif he has slightly less hatred for and at points enjoys his company, in his own way. Thus he grants Theif the knowledge of his death and the great honor of sharing his last moments on earth in the presence of BM greatness. That enough for ya.

You people sure do like to support the "Black Mage has a shred of human decency" idea.

Maybe its a require ment for all Black Mages to learn because their magic is so destructive that there weak body's may be flung into the atmosphere at some point or another.

On I side note, I loved how Thief had already predicted how he would die and by whom.

I ment it was what passed as mercy for him. He by no means has any shred of humanity. In fact having Thief with him is more for BM than for Thief. Whats the fun of killing people if you can't see them die. He chose Thief because he was the least stupid/most respected (if you can call it that) of the group.

There's no fun in destroying a volcano if there aren't any witnesses to watch in horror at the utter devastation and their subsequent splatty deaths.

I would grant that this might possibly be the case.

That is to say, possible in a reality in which I were not infused with such limitless superiosity that only fools and madmen could possibly imagine that my words are not the ultimate beacon of goodness and truth.

However, as this is in fact the case in this reality, it is thus that yours was in fact not better, and, in fact, was actually, on the whole, less good.

But take heart -- as I do in fact agree with you on this point, which should, having allowed you to somehow associate yourself with the limitless font of goodness that is me, help to validate your existence in some small way.

You know, it does just get harder and harder to believe, doesn't it?

This is the first sane thing I have read all day.

To quote myself Which is very similar to E.K.dahGeek's statment, and was completely ignored. I assume you must not have read that or it would have been the first sane thing you read all day.

(Note sarcasim was used in the above post. Offense intended. Thats sarcasim too people.)

I hereby dub this thread the "I'm going to be bitchy and whiney thread," for numerous reasons.

Oh, come now -- the "Why I like [insert gender]" thread already took that award, gave its acceptance speech, drove off in its limo and threw up at the afterparty.

You know that old saying, "Killing two birds with one stone"? Brian changed it to killing several birds with one Hadoken.

Oh, and...

Hey, Splatty deaths! Good one! A new form of death to be distributed! *Writes "Splatty death" next to Stabbity death and Hadokeny death*

Wow, yeah, piss and moan does seem to be the theme of the day.
However, I have a definitive answer to all your questions.
Why does Black Mage know a White spell?
Why did he bring Thief along for the ride?

Because this comic has a *storyline*
Check that out.
For further plot developement to ensue, the circumstances must be set acording to Brian's needs.
Simple, eh?

Feather Fall isn't White Magic, it's an Arcane spell from D&D. Arcane Spells are often considered to be Black Magic, at least by the FF terms, so it would make sense for BM to be able to cast it....this also explains why there were so many D&D spells in that one magic shop at the beginning of the comic.

He brought Thief along for two reasons:
1. to witness the destruction
2. to die on reentry

I like the new effect being added to the hadoken in the last pannel. And doesn't it seem like BM is taking longer to charge it up than usual? Perhaps this is a stronger hadoken?

I see one great big glaring flaw in BM's plan: he told his plan to Thief. But he can hardly be blamed for that; as a Bad Guy, he's contractually obligated to blurt out his plan while there is still time to foil it.

I can see this pyrotechnic display Black Mage has planned annoying a certain Fiend, who might come out to see what the hell is going on out there...

You know what's going to happen. Sarda is going to reset reality after Black Mage destroys everyone (I suggest a kerplunk sound effect as a reference to Excel Saga) or Sarda is going to do SOMETHING to keep everyone from dying.

And yes, Black Mage has barely a shred of humanity remaining in him. He runs on pure rage, anger, and lust (his feelings toward White Mage are lust, not love, he desires her for her body, if she wasn't hot, he wouldn't want anything to do with her).

As we know from the other comics, the light warriors are klutzy and their plans often fail. Because a large part of comedy is unpredictability, my guess is that BM will finally succeed.

Or else, maybe, instead of killing his friends, the hadoken will be absorbed into Kary and they'll have a new fight on their hands. Of course, RM and Fighter will still die because it'll be 2 vs. Fiend, and Thief will die because he'll have stabbed BM to death.
Unless he runs away, making room for Deus Ex BB.

That's my theory on the serious version which I'm always wrong about because I am in no way funny. (I am boring though! So I got something going for me!)

Edit: Black Mage has no humanity. The only reason he preserved Thief is for the sake of creativity. He doesn't want to be with Fighter or RM in their last hours, but he doesn't want to suffer himself to kill his friend s all the same way. It'd be too sneaky, and his actual superiority would be at stake. No, it's better that Thief dies a new and extra malicious way, and BM will achieve more satisfaction, not to mention respect from other evil parties, for it.

Because WM is the third LW. BM is Garland. (Oops! Didn't mean to give that away!)

Wait a second? *pulls off Fifthfiend mask* :bmage: BM we told you not to visit the forum anymore. Last time you did we found a pile of noobie corpses in the introdution thread.

Any ways there are 3 reasons Thief is with him.
1) BM will use Thief as a human ( :rmage: elven) elven heat shield so that way he can caste feather fall later and shorten his fall time.
2) BM needed to take some one with him so that way RM, Thief, and Fighter wouldn't wonder where BM is and go looking for him.
3) It was just a reason for BM to add extra funny and give BM someone to explain his plan to.

there are 3 possible reasons the Hadoken is taking so long to charge and looks more powerful:
1. it's being shown in slow motion, and looks more powerful because we can see it build
2. it is more powerful, BM is pouring more MP into the spell to make it even stronger...but that means it takes longer to charge.
3. both of the above

I'd hafta agree with Slackbot on the Thief topic; but I have another way of looking at it. He wants RM and Fighter dead because of their behavior. So he melts them in lava/Haddoken back-wash. Now Fighter, being and elf, (:rmage: and we all know how BM loves Elves.) he might enjoy watching him die from a front row 'seat'. Either way, the last thing you want behind you while you get your Haddoken on is: an Elf, a Thief, or a backstabber. Seems Thief fits all three of these. Uh oh.

I think Brian had to have BM explain the plan to someone, for exposition's sake. But you know the more BM works at something, the less likely it is to work.

Thief won't stab BM.....he's rather afraid of him by now, considering that BM can kill him without really trying, Fighter is the only one immune to stabbity death and RM can heal himself if he reacts in time (and if BM attacks from the front, and if he decides to sacrifice a spell slot and risk being less versatile)

I would think if Thief decided to backstab Black Mage right now, he'd regret it. All that magical energy has to go somewhere, and it could not be good for Thief if he stabbed, or otherwise incapacitated the focus for that energy. Big backlash.

Whiny "that was my idea" and "I said that better" posts deleted. Now grow up. The world doesn't revolve around you folks who posted an idea first, nor does anyone give a rat's ass about who posted it better except you.

Keep that bullshit in PM cause we ain't having it in the main forum.

Lastly, nobody cares who posted first or how close the second person posted. For god's sake, that is so old that my grandma bitches about gokuxx5672 who got the first post on Ye Towne Centre Bulletin for comic #16. Get over it, because it's retarded.

theorizing here, conclude what you will....but, perhaps it's just me...BM's violence has become progressively pointless and more extreme? I mean, instead of just stabbing RM and Fighter, he's going to use his massive Hadoken, distroy the volcano, vaporize them and then have Thief burn up in the atmosphere...isnt that just...overdoing it...just a little bit?

Perhaps this exessiveness means something?

Well, he is planning to blow up the world, y'know. He might as well take this entire chunk out of it now, while he's at it anyway.

Plus, have you ever taken your anger out on something? Say a pillow, or a brick wall (don't try the latter)? The harder you swing, the more anger you can get out of your system. Well, BM probably has quite a bit built up by now, since most of his previous attempts at blowing off steam have failed. It may just be enough to wipe out that chunk of the planet. I mean, getting stuck back in a material body is still probably fresh in his mind too.

Well, imagine you're BM. You have been trying for literally DAYS (go back and count how many night have passed. If I'm not mistaken, roughly a week has passed in the strip's world) to kill these guys, and now you're on the verge of succeeding, and it seems nothing can possibly stop you. Wouldn't you want to take a few minutes to savor it?

My first inclination is that Thief will stab BM, because its the obvious place to go.
My second inclination is that Thief will not stab BM, because it is the ovious place to go. Instead, he will be about to stab him, and something completely different will occur, probably the introduction of another long forgotton running gag that will stop BM from accomplishing his plan.

ok the thing I dont get is why hit the mountain at all. One could say he wants to reach the correct volcano but fact is BM couldn't care less about the fire orb.

To increase the devastation his hadoken will cause.

There's even a graph!

Indeed, maybe he brought theif along to watch him scream as he plummets to his splattery death

I would want to see that too, if I was BM.

Splattery death...the one type of death that seems to be effective.

...Other than the spine breaking thingy. That was pretty effective.

Vaporization is the only way to kill someone, only thing i want to see after their death is a strand of hair. MUAHAHAHAHAHA. Do you think I'm too evil?

Well... that was funny, and it left me with no idea about what's going to happen next... though I'm not really sure that everyone would die, I mean, they've survived nuke-like effects before, and even ended up together, thinking back to the Creep...

In short, awesome comic!

I say the Armoire of Invincibility falls from the sky doors open and covers fighter and RM. Then BM blows the volcano Fighter and RM are safe and Thief grabs onto BM just before he casts feather. BM is then angered when they land and find RM and Fighter waiting.

nah, only Fighter gets protected, and Thief runs away while BM's back is turned....then only RM gets blasted, and WM has to heal him!

Well whatever happens, with so much destruction you can garantee(sp?) there will be a pair of smoking boots and and a rolling wheel.

It's been a lot longer than a week, implied nights and all. I forget where, exactly, but at one point it was referenced that they'd been travelling for a month or so, and I think that was around the time they fought the creep.

Nah, evil would be finding a way to keep someone alive while you disembowl them and then suspend them from something, celing/pillars/etc, and string their organs around them, the person/s still being alive, for easy access and torture until such time as you wish to kill them. On a more important note, I'm glad to see BM back to his evil goodness.

how can you miss a volcanoe? still hadoken is looking way better and cooler than before

It's not called critical failure for nothing.

*sigh*

i know that but still i think it's a little odd to miss a big thing with a little think shooting a gigantic little thing to a big thing and MISS THE F***ING TARGET i mean BM is an odd ball i know that but miss a volcanoe..thats something i thought fighter would do..