3251 Oh My Bob
on August 23, 2019
Chapter: Royal Reunion
Characters: Bob the Beholder, Glon Smitharm/Bloodhand, Maula Bloodhand, Meegs, Prince Mauler Bloodhand, Prince Owen Bloodhand, Princess Gaggia Shadowtalker, Princess Glonda Bloodhand, Princess Ibkis Rockjaw, Princess Lucca Bloodhand, Princess Shaija of the Red Orcs
Location: The Goblin Lands
Finally got the next installment out (by playing hooky on the other thing I was doing). More to come! 😀
-Rich
Hope you’re also checking out the Comix Blog from time to time as well. I know I’m still showing repeats at this point, but I have plans for a few more crossovers and the continuation of some stories already started there.
-Rich
Fucking really. Well, the slog fest continues I suppose.
!!! Not sure how to read that.
Alight, so; can I be brutally honest? I would like to explain my reaction to the best of my capability.
Please do.
I think he may have a feeling I have in many of these things; that the back and forth of the evil guys always escaping, pulling another trick out of their ass, and so on… it just gets tedious after a while. It often feels like its just done to make the story last longer, not to actually contribute anything meaningful to the story.
I’m not saying that is what you are doing here, and I can’t be certain that is what he means (not being Charon) but the ‘slog fest continues’ does sound like that is what he means, and it is a feeling I have had.
In reality things are not handled quickly, and a back and forth slog does occur. But from a story perspective, its gets pretty boring pretty quick. Its why you often see the drudgery of a war expressed as a montage, or you get a "six months later" notice on the screen.
On TV you often see them do this to pad out an arc, like the writers can’t actually think of anything interesting, so we’ll just have another major setback that the heroes will have to recover from in some likely improbable way, and the viewer is left thinking "oh for pity sake, just get on with it."
I find the comic book based shows are especially bad for this, they have one primary big bad for the season, but after the first half dozen episodes are done there just isn’t anything interesting to add to the story… but they have the rest of the season that they need to fill up, and thus the bad guy keeps escaping at the last second, the plucky heroes great plan is suddenly ruined by some silliness or another and they are back to square one, etc., etc.
Gets old.
Again, not saying that you’re just filling up space, but I think we were looking for the counter-attack not more of the Raanites being unstoppable.
And the problem with such a powerful enemy is that when the heroes do win… you have to be VERY careful in determining how they win, or else it sounds like the usual "bad guys are all powerful… and the heroes beat them." Wait, what? How? Person of Interest became like that after they introduced Samaritan (made it way too powerful and the people working with it way to efficient, so the ending sounded contrived).
So, like I say, not speaking for Charon, just my thoughts on what he may mean.
I see. Very good. Okay I’ve got a very odd reply for you. I feel EXACTLY THE SAME WAY.
I have been very excited to set up this grand, sweeping storyline with Ranna taking over the world and setting up a dark age. I have always felt (and still kinda feel) that the ultimate resolution will be epic only in proportion to how hard-won that victory is. For example, it would be pretty lame if this mighty goddess rose up and conquered everything just to have somebody poke her with a stick and kill her the end. And so I went out of my way to include as many characters as I could to show the sweeping epicness of it all.
Unfortunately I am now on the declining/wrap-up side of all those sweeping arcs and I am personally obliged to wrap them up ALL up adequately. Even though I too am bored with them. I’m much more excited about what comes next and would love nothing more than to just write a couple of quick strips to end this story and get on with it. But I faced up to the fact a while ago that I would never forgive myself if I did that.
So… yeah. I hear you. I’m really sorry it’s as dull to you as it is to me. I ask only that you please bear with me (sit it out if you must) and as soon as I can to my own satisfaction, I will move on to something that [I hope] will be much much cooler.
Trust me I’m not just filling space here. I’m not making up back-and-forths just to keep to a schedule or anything. This is all tie-ups of things I seeded a while ago. I just wish right along with you that I’d not done it quite this way.
Still. It is what it is. 🙂
-Rich
Arc Fatigue, as Eric literally described it. He spoke for me quite well.
"I’m much more excited about what comes next and would love nothing more than to just write a couple of quick strips to end this story and get on with it. But I faced up to the fact a while ago that I would never forgive myself if I did that."
That’s fair. I can understand wanting to wrap up the loose ends, no matter how tired of them even you are.
I am in fact heartened that you are tired of it as well. And Charon agreed – its not just me! 🙂
I’m not to the point where I am going to drop the comic because its dragging on (I have dropped comics for such, Erfworld for example) and I’m gladdened to hear you are heading for the home stretch. Just that when Charon made his comment, I figured it a good excuse to express a pet peeve I have.
Arc Fatigue. Good name for it, will have to remember that.
From another perspective: I have plans to binge reread this arc after it’s over. I think the concept was really awesome and has been extremely well executed, but because of the nature of the medium, I’ve missed and forgotten things as a reader. Which, that’s ok. You haven’t forgotten them and and you do always the up your loose ends. It’s appreciated.
I feel like the only suitable resolution for the Ranna arc is to rescue and awaken Chthier, or perhaps another god(dess); everyone else is just in the wrong league.
Okay, Charon, you have been validated. And politely.
Now, don’t you owe Richard something, too?
t!
Err, what about the orc guard standing behind them? Isn’t he going to notice Bob just blasted the royal family? I sure hope he just stunned them, because you can tell he feels really guilty about doing it.
The guard got blasted too. I meant to show that, but didn’t. Oops.
Ha! I knew Meegs was evil. I don’t recall how she mixed back in with the orcs though.
As I recall she only revealed herself to Grell, who is immune to gaze attacks.
I wonder if a Gorgon can be petrified by a Beholder, or a Beholder by a Gorgon… I am suspecting not. I sure hope Bob has something up his entirely proverbial sleeve.
I wonder how the Drow and all the creatures with them are doing?
It was established very early that Gorgons can’t petrify Bob. https://yafgc.net/comic/0017-gorgon-my-dreams/ I’d guess it goes both ways.
that actually caught me by surprise. I did remember then something about Gren being held captive, but that was so long ago. 😉
Bob, NO!!!!!
*sniff* I really hope you’ll get an opportunity soon to blast some Rannites, my poor, courageous beholder.
Given all the foreshadowing, pretty much exactly what I expected. I hope he used a reversible eye power, and that the grell is ready with his plan.
Oh, Bob. The mark this will leave on your conscience, your reputation, and possibly even your relationship with Gren is one I would not wish upon anyone.
Yes, everyone will know what you were thinking…why you felt you had no choice. But I have a feeling that your existence is about to get lonelier and bleaker. The Rannites aren’t about to give up that which gives them leverage over you…and you’re going to have a hell of a time convincing anyone to help you liberate Gren, when they learn you’ve punked your friends.
You are, in some ways, one of the more innocent folks in the YAFGCverse. I truly believe you haven’t really thought this through, and I truly believe that you’re going to be broadsided by the consequences of your Lando deal with the Empire.
For what it’s worth, I mourn for you. You who were our first glimpse into this world…you through whom we learned the faces of the former Black Mountain. (You, through whom we forgave ourselves for noticing the glorious variety of breasts in the YAFGCverse.) A part of you died today, didn’t it? The part of you that wanted to be only "sort of evil" lost more of its foothold. You accepted a casualty of "the cost of doing business," and…I doubt it’ll pay off.
I’m sorry. For your pain, and for theirs. I’m sorry today happened, in your life. I’m sorry this night is so long, so dark, and full of so many terrifying things.
But I’m with you — all of you — through the sunrise.
Sigh ((
Back to square one… It wasn’t a huge problem in the archive binge, except maybe that it took more time to read through, which was more of the good stuff.
But right now, it just seems like there’s no good way out of the situation. If you go on, it’s going to take a while to complete this arc and it will really seem like there’s no need for it. If it turns out the Orc royals were *in* on Bob’s plan and they will become unstunned as soon as they’re out of sight and out of earshot, but that would be stretching it badly in the other direction…
It’s like I want to sit this one out and wait until the arc is complete so that the story can go on.
The Royals were definitely /not/ in on Bob’s plan. But I have no plans to drag this out longer than I have to. I’m also bored with the whole Rannite thing but I’ve got to see it to the end.
Then things should start getting fun again.
Even before Word of Rich, I was pretty sure the Royals were not in on this — Maula wouldn’t put the grandkids in the line of fire even as a ruse; too much can go wrong — but I take heart in the fact that the Grell knows about the situation, and thinks they need a plan.
https://yafgc.net/comic/3040-happy-11th-anniversary-yafgc/
This one seems more relevant https://yafgc.net/comic/3032-grells-surprise/
Damn…
Honestly, I hope that all the people corrupted by Ranna can somehow be restored to normal, even if only just mentally (since it’s pretty clear that the transformation involves at least some amount of mind control/manipulation) but seeing them win more and more, I want Ranna to suffer.
Maybe I’m too emotionally invested in the fate of fictional characters, but that’s because I’ve been checking daily for about 13 years now 😛
So kudos Rich on creating comic characters that are compelling enough to get at least one person emotionally invested for almost half their life.
13 years!! You’ve been with me since the beginning! Bless you, Kogan! 😀
Now, can the same stuff Cadagun and Lucas used to un-stone from a gorgons gaze be used on them for a beholders?
I hope they saved some.
I’m wondering now what Meegs’s plan is. Have we seen her use teleportation spells? Without them, she and Bob can’t easily schlep the royals back to the Rannite lines — there are a lot of angry orcs in between — so maybe the Rannites are on their way here instead. Wait for the signal from Meegs that the Bloodhands are all out of commission, then swoop in and try to press-gang the confused and leaderless orcs into their service.
If that is their plan, they might regret that they left a key leader standing, in Hogga. Come to think of it, they left a LOT of potential wildcards standing. Aren’t Ain, Sittica, Yapp, and (most worryingly, if I were a Rannite) Bob2 all still with this group of orcs?
https://yafgc.net/comic/3028-up-to-the-task/
Maybe just like we saw in the halfling lands, this is a moment for a new generation of heroes to take the spotlight.
Ah, nicely observant. 🙂
For whatever it’s worth, Rich, I had the same problem when I wrote my fan-novel not long ago. It had three distinct arcs in it (three novellas) and my test-readers were getting arc fatigue. It’s easy when you care about the world and characters you create, and you want to tell the story in a way that doesn’t give them short shrift. It’s a terribly delicate balance between "cardboard cutout characters that just exist to move the plot" and "arc fatigue" and I haven’t mastered it despite writing for years.
TL;DR: I appreciate what you do for us, to see your labor of love, and know that I feel your pain quite literally when it comes to trying to keep the fans happy.
I thought it was a good twist.
I mean, yeah, it’s a sickener. But good narrative art should have the odd sickener.
Thank you nick!
Yes, very much agreed. I don’t feel fatigued, myself, by the Rannites. There’ve been moments of light, moments of darkness, and in my opinion at least, splendid balance between them. The pacing, and the narrative flow through dark themes, seemed spot-on to me.
Count me among those who are… not ‘eager,’ but say ‘quite ready’ for the current War to end.
I loved the triumph of The Little Librarian, and Force of Hobbits was delightful, etc, but they’ve always felt like interludes within the scope of the larger conflict. There’s a purity to some of the belly laughs pre-2015, because it’s an era of peace.
You’d want an Age-ending conflict to be enormous in scope, so this is fine – on its own. But the ‘fatigue’ is complicated not only by number of strips. I thought to myself, "Surely other narratives have been this long," so I did some digging:
Lich Of The Rings: 236 strips
Jone Half-Orc: just under 200
This arc has just passed strip #500. So it’s obviously longest by a huge percentage. BUT:
Lich took 8 months to complete.
Jone took around 7.
We are now well over 4 YEARS in. That’s more than twice as long as would have been proportionate for the story to date.
Nothing to be done about that; we can expect more frequent updates when Rich’s kids are old enough to drive themselves to places (although Halifax isn’t that big). If this War is still ongoing by then, well, I think our biggest problem will have become not the story, but its creator’s sanity.
t!
Interesting. I see the point you’re making, I certainly note that your premises are correct, and I can absolutely see how you came to your conclusion, and agree, it’s a perfectly legitimate one to form from the premises. I guess I was likening it more to an age, less to an arc…much in the way that the story of the Drow presence under the mountain took place over multiple arcs, having chapters of more direct focus, and chapters of less direct focus. I felt the tone variety from chapter to chapter, and it’s helped keep my fatigue levels in check.
This said, that’s a totally personal matter, and I by no means want to suggest that it’s wrong for you to be ready for it to end. When I find myself a statistical outlier — which is often, even usually, the case — I like to compare notes. I see that a great many people, Rich among them, are feeling the weight of the Age of Shadows, and I would certainly not ask him to continue it beyond the point of his own necessity, for my sake…even as I note that I’m rather enjoying the darkness. There’s an epic sunrise coming, and I think it may be all the more meaningful for the care Rich has taken demonstrating how dark the night has been.
Again, just two bits, and offered in contrast, but not criticism.
> I by no means want to suggest that it’s wrong for you to be ready for it to end.
Dude; you’d never.
> There’s an epic sunrise coming, and I think it may be all the more meaningful for the care Rich has taken demonstrating how dark the night has been.
Yeah.
That seems to have been lost on a few people.
t!
I am so looking forward to the complete defeat of the Rannites and to that epic sunrise.
I love you guys. Yeah, this one’s going on a bit long. And while I feel the /weight/ of the Darkness (as Justin so eloquently put it) is proper, I’m discouraged by the time it’s taking to tell it. Though I’d have it no other way. I naturally feel discouraged by the people who are suffering from ‘arc fatigue’ (is that a phrase coined here or is this a term previously used elsewhere?) and letting me know it, I’m reminded of a previous experience when people were writing me to complain about how poorly Clover was being treated in the story and if things didn’t improve for her they’d stop reading. (Very polite of them to warn me, I thought.) I only hope that the Age of Darkness’ sunrise will work as well as Clover’s romantic turn of fate. But right now is the worst for the characters, and for the writer/artist. I’m tired of Ranna and her Dark Mistresses. But the stuff coming up after…. eee.
> I love you guys.
Right back atcha.
> Yeah, this one’s going on a bit long.
Strip quantity? Real time?
… all of the above?
> Though I’d have it no other way.
Good!
> I naturally feel discouraged by the people who are suffering from ‘arc fatigue’ (is that a phrase coined here or is this a term previously used elsewhere?)
It’s popularised on a website for children.
> (Very polite of them to warn me, I thought.)
HAH!
> But right now is the worst for the characters, and for the writer/artist. I’m tired of Ranna and her Dark Mistresses.
This strip in particular does feel rushed. I’m not feeling the depth of Bob’s conflicts, and as discussed in the next strip it’s not clear what in fact he did to the Bloodhands.
BUT! although you may be of a different opinion, I would rather you take more real-time to nail the strips rather than just get ’em out, and give this story the conclusion it deserves. And you deserve, too.
t!
Rich,
I definitely feel you on arc fatigue, and I’m glad (?) you feel it too. Though I’ve never done anything this epic before or published, previous times where I’ve done stories or campaigns by the end you just want it to finish.
I think you’ve created a fantastic world and roster of characters and I’m glad to hear we’re working towards a resolution to this epic.
I had to check it now… The Rannites started their rampage in 2015, April… It surely felt to be a long arc, but still not that long. But again, the last few years passed way too quick for me…
And thinking of it, there are still a number of characters, whose fate is not cleared yet, like the Chimera, Nike, Anancy, Tara, without the list being complete. I also would like to know where were Safana and her crew during the entire mess, or how is the situation in Drostardy…
Thing is, I think the pacing of the story feels slow, because it is spread across a long time period in real life. But if one binge reads it, it still feels okay, at least for me. Nothing compared to, lets say, binge reading all 7 Harry Potter books… Its a good story… But seriously, don’t do that. 😉
As far as I can remember, there are only two "named" characters (Hogga’s father and uncle) that have been *confirmed* dead by the Black Mountain explosion.
It seems to me that it will be hard to get confirmation for any people that were killed inside the pretty much obliterated top part of it.
I just hope he was smart enough to just petrify them.
Well, -I- am NOT bored!
Tho I lost my spot (in a device crash) years ago, so I'm rereading some of it until I find my spot… (but then, you see, I also am known to read 1000 page books occasionally, which most people don't have the patience to handle…)
Thank you Rich, for sharing these stories with us!