Naah. This guy was minding his own business on the corner, peeling an apple with a pen knife, see? And then she ran around the corner and just thrust herself into the knife, see? Twenty two times, see? I’m innocent, i tell ya!
Simple “lover death” does not account under the fridge trope. The character’s existence has to be defined from it, it must occur solely to motivate the main character or growth through anguish.
Who killed the Gog in the Gog-Agog TV show, who killed the Gog that was a Gog-Agocrabat?
Who popped the head of the Gog-Agaog in conference, who killed the Gog-fearing minion that was a rat?
Who was that Urge, who made Gog-Agog splurge, fluids from vessels made to serve the urge?
With apologies to Shan Na Na.
Interesting. If I’m parsing this right, Gog’s still of the view that Allison’s the love interest, rather than the chosen heir.
As to Allison’s stated goal – if Jadis’ prophecy is to be believed, she better get started on that. Depending on how literal she’s being, she could start cracking heads now and never finish.
Unrelated, “Hi, Cio (well, probably Cio, or whatever is left of her).
I think Allison was cast in the part of the love interest, but someone (Allison, Zoss, chance, YisUn, the rules of the wheel itself?) complicated the roles or decided that the characters don’t have to stick to their roles.
I don’t think it was as simple as the girl got cast as the chosen heir this time instead of the boy, because that’s so basis that it’s a wet thump of a reason for things being different and doesn’t really fit with all the rest. Because what’s happening this time is people are changing. Not just wearing down but becoming something new.
I’ve always dreaded that Zed was being given an easy road to being the Heir, and the idea of him getting Allison – or losing her, causing him to “win” in the end – was a hugely unappealing. Today we have evidence from Gog that this is what has happened every previous Turn of the wheel.
But something is different this Turn, which is why the story started with the current Allison. Gog has noticed something new, but she hasn’t quite told us what it is yet. My guess is that it has something to do with the Allison/Cio/White Chain triumvirate.
Since the first battle with Jagginoth all three of the triumvirate have transformed themselves. If they ever become the Triumvirate again it will be a transformed version.
My take on all this: Gog thinks that Allison is the TYPE OF PERSON who typically just gets to be a love interest, rather than the chosen heir.
It’s all pretty distorted, of course, because Gog is utterly bonkers, and is dealing with the eternal cyclicality of the world by treating it like a story or a comic book or something designed exclusively for her entertainment. But reading between the lines, and picking up some previous hints that were dropped, it seems like in most cycles, some sort of ambitious person seizes (pen)ultimate power and starts conquering the multiverse before eventually getting offed by Jagganoth.
The difference this time is that Allison ISN’T THE CONQUERING TYPE. At the start of all this, she was just a scared little girl who wanted to go home, and be a normal girlfriend with a normal boyfriend, and not get involved with all this crazy sword and sorcery stuff. It wasn’t until she really faced off against Mottom that she really committed to taking action and seizing control – and even then, she only ever really wanted enough power to save Zaid, no more and no less. And in this world, people without ambition, who just want a peaceful life, typically get crushed. They can never become demiurges, so they’re just “bit parts” or “meat.” That’s what Gog is specifically testing for here, and what she can’t really comprehend yet! If Allison doesn’t want to rule the world, why is she still the protagonist?? What ambition could possibly be driving her?? How can a 27-year-old barista from LA do what countless heroes of old could not??
Turns out 27-year-old baristas from LA are just really, really, pissed about being given the short end of the stick all the damn time. Who knew?
The key difference, of course, is that if Allison ever saw what Guts uses as a sword she would probably laugh so hard she’d hardly even be able to gather enough breath to make the necessary joke about “compensating for something.”
Well, to be fair, he doesn’t have godlike energy-manipulating powers like our heroine here, so he needs a fuck-off-huge sword to be able to cleave gargantuan freaks such as those he sadly regularly encounters! Imagine him trying to do so with a standard saber or something… good LUCK 😀
Only Jaggs might now what a gun is and have used one. Gog has been a gun, a bullet, and the wielder of the gun too many times over and over and over and over…
Exactly. Also, Oskar used a gun at the end of the Heist and in Broken Worlds (the KSBD TTRPG) 7 of the 9 playbooks (character classes, essentially) can choose the gun weapon proficiency and guns are something that are just available to buy (a pistol is the same price as a crossbow). I did briefly think that the design of the gun was unusually modern, but pistols with slides apparently date back to 1896 so not really.
I think all the demiurges have access to guns, it’s just that martial arts arts are far superior to conventional modern weapons in most cases, so only weaklings should be using guns.
I remember Abbadon said on social media or something at one point that Jagganoth’s people were hoarding most of the really advanced tech in the multiverse. That may or may not have stayed canon, though!
550 White-Hot Skirmish Bifurcates the Skulls of Tyrants
Ah yes, because a semiautomatic handgun is the pinnacle of technology in a world where someone could turn an army into a fine red mist by waggling their fingers in a funny way.
Magic opens the door to technologies that are impossible in our world – whatever results from the scientific process, I reckon would be very unlikely to look anything like what we consider to be ‘high-tech’.
Historically, we’ve proven ourselves very poor indeed at imagining what future technologies might look like…
Books and chapters, being a method of organization which belongs to the novelist and the publisher rather than to the stage, have very little to do with acts. The third act is simply an analysts way of referring to the portion of a play which contains the climax, regardless of how the script itself is actually divided by the playwright.
I guess the other way to read this is that the protagonist is normally motivated by the death of their lover. In this case though, that’s Cio… who is sneakily inserted into this page.
Why is Gog AGog attempting to trigger Alison with her memories of a happier past? Is it an effort to turn Alison into a more normal Heir path in this cycle? Seeking revenge for the murdered love interest?
I’m not sure if Gog is trying to motivate Allison or actually fishing for information on what went right this time. Even if it doesn’t work, maybe they can learn from it for the next run.
Indeed! I mean, Gog’s gone through the play a quite a few times, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she has literally witnessed that question and what it’s done to Maya (or someone like her) in the multitudes of reruns! Gog seems like the type to like pushing buttons to see what reaction she gets..
“i’d like to cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come at too high a price! i want to look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this!”
vir and allison would totally get each other.
This actually makes Gog’s obsession/fan behavior with Allison interesting. Like I thought that Gog just saw her as a means of disrupting the demiurges’ rule and that Allison would make things “fun” again.
But these two scenes (bits?) with Gog show that she is legitimately interested in Allison because she’s not playing the role that she’s supposed to and wants to see where things go. And I think Gog, being her “biggest fan” wants to see how far she can make it. Hopefully even support Allison?
Personally, I never doubted that Gog was genuinely interested in Allison as a “hero”. She’s always seemed more than crazy enough to really think that way. What’s really surprised me in this sequence is that supporting her “heroism” was actually THE MAIN POINT of Gog’s scheming, and messing with the other demiurges was just a happy side effect, rather than the other way around!
I will note, though, that I still think Gog only really wants to “support” Allison in the same way Incubus did. She’s constantly making a lot of assumptions about what Allison should do and/or want, and basing her “support” on that; what she’ll do when it becomes clear when it becomes clear Allison is just going to keep defying her expectations, remains to be seen.
To be fair, her assumptions and expectations so far seem to be “not the exact same thing as the last N billion times”. The question is, how much tolerance is Gog Agog going to have for Allison temporarily going back on script before she decides it’s a lost cause? Or is it already impossible in this cycle because even going back on script will be from such a fresh premise Gog can enjoy it?
The Cosmic Clown Prince
“Wanna know how I got these scars?”
Fishing accident. Got your own hook caught in your cheek. Twice. Super embarrassing.
Naah. This guy was minding his own business on the corner, peeling an apple with a pen knife, see? And then she ran around the corner and just thrust herself into the knife, see? Twenty two times, see? I’m innocent, i tell ya!
“Why would Gog do this?”
Why would Gog agog gog agog gog agog?
Come for the Twin Peaks, stay for the Eric Andre
Curiosity killed the Gog?
Allison escaped the refrigerator fate!
But not Cio
Oh. Crap. Someone had to fill her vacant role.
Someone always has to be fed to The Door.
Cio, or some form of her, is watching!
From the box seats.
Somehow fitting.
Oooh, good catch.
Simple “lover death” does not account under the fridge trope. The character’s existence has to be defined from it, it must occur solely to motivate the main character or growth through anguish.
that doesnt really occur here.
Hell yes!
this comic is so gooddddddddddddddddd
*is so gog
It’s gogtastic
“Who killed Gog?”
“We’re all trying to find the Gog that did this!”
It was Gog-Agog all Gog-Along!
All of this Gog-on-Gog violence is depressing me.
Not a lot of people know this, but L. Ron Hubbard was Gog-Agog!
You never know who is Gog-Agog, until she burst out of them in an explosion of blood and viscera.
“Why are you booing Gog? She’s right!”
Gog is dead.
— Nietzsche
Nietzsche is me!
— Gog Agog
Alles in Vernietzschung! Wir gehen!
Wir gingen!
Wir goggen!
IT WAS MEH
I DID IT LIKE this
WHOOPSIE DOO
(That was a joke, lads)
Who killed the Gog in the Gog-Agog TV show, who killed the Gog that was a Gog-Agocrabat?
Who popped the head of the Gog-Agaog in conference, who killed the Gog-fearing minion that was a rat?
Who was that Urge, who made Gog-Agog splurge, fluids from vessels made to serve the urge?
With apologies to Shan Na Na.
Gog Agog could make me splurge
Reach Heaven Through Violence
So, you think this is funny?
In a cosmic sort of way, yes.
OOhhhhh look who it is! There she is! Looking down from on high!
When they said “RAGE against the dying of the light”, this was not an idle word choice.
Interesting. If I’m parsing this right, Gog’s still of the view that Allison’s the love interest, rather than the chosen heir.
As to Allison’s stated goal – if Jadis’ prophecy is to be believed, she better get started on that. Depending on how literal she’s being, she could start cracking heads now and never finish.
Unrelated, “Hi, Cio (well, probably Cio, or whatever is left of her).
I think Allison was cast in the part of the love interest, but someone (Allison, Zoss, chance, YisUn, the rules of the wheel itself?) complicated the roles or decided that the characters don’t have to stick to their roles.
I don’t think it was as simple as the girl got cast as the chosen heir this time instead of the boy, because that’s so basis that it’s a wet thump of a reason for things being different and doesn’t really fit with all the rest. Because what’s happening this time is people are changing. Not just wearing down but becoming something new.
Allison IS the love interest, not the chosen heir. The chosen heir repeats the cycle, Zoss cannot break the wheel.
Also, Jadis told her what she needed to hear. If there was merit in saving her, it was for things yet to come.
I’ve always dreaded that Zed was being given an easy road to being the Heir, and the idea of him getting Allison – or losing her, causing him to “win” in the end – was a hugely unappealing. Today we have evidence from Gog that this is what has happened every previous Turn of the wheel.
But something is different this Turn, which is why the story started with the current Allison. Gog has noticed something new, but she hasn’t quite told us what it is yet. My guess is that it has something to do with the Allison/Cio/White Chain triumvirate.
Since the first battle with Jagginoth all three of the triumvirate have transformed themselves. If they ever become the Triumvirate again it will be a transformed version.
Her name is Aspected Chaos and she is awesome
My take on all this: Gog thinks that Allison is the TYPE OF PERSON who typically just gets to be a love interest, rather than the chosen heir.
It’s all pretty distorted, of course, because Gog is utterly bonkers, and is dealing with the eternal cyclicality of the world by treating it like a story or a comic book or something designed exclusively for her entertainment. But reading between the lines, and picking up some previous hints that were dropped, it seems like in most cycles, some sort of ambitious person seizes (pen)ultimate power and starts conquering the multiverse before eventually getting offed by Jagganoth.
The difference this time is that Allison ISN’T THE CONQUERING TYPE. At the start of all this, she was just a scared little girl who wanted to go home, and be a normal girlfriend with a normal boyfriend, and not get involved with all this crazy sword and sorcery stuff. It wasn’t until she really faced off against Mottom that she really committed to taking action and seizing control – and even then, she only ever really wanted enough power to save Zaid, no more and no less. And in this world, people without ambition, who just want a peaceful life, typically get crushed. They can never become demiurges, so they’re just “bit parts” or “meat.” That’s what Gog is specifically testing for here, and what she can’t really comprehend yet! If Allison doesn’t want to rule the world, why is she still the protagonist?? What ambition could possibly be driving her?? How can a 27-year-old barista from LA do what countless heroes of old could not??
Turns out 27-year-old baristas from LA are just really, really, pissed about being given the short end of the stick all the damn time. Who knew?
Yeah, it’s probably going to take her killing six billion demons to get them all or something! No idea why that number just popped in my head, though.
Given her stated goal and the size of the multiverse, 6 Billion seems like it’s low balling things… by a lot.
allison’s guts vibes just become more and more potent with every passing panel
The key difference, of course, is that if Allison ever saw what Guts uses as a sword she would probably laugh so hard she’d hardly even be able to gather enough breath to make the necessary joke about “compensating for something.”
Guts would, of course, stoicly ignore such a childish comment, while Isidro would drive himself crazy trying to prove Allision wrong.
Well, to be fair, he doesn’t have godlike energy-manipulating powers like our heroine here, so he needs a fuck-off-huge sword to be able to cleave gargantuan freaks such as those he sadly regularly encounters! Imagine him trying to do so with a standard saber or something… good LUCK 😀
Gog canonically most technologically advanced demiurge.
Only Jaggs might now what a gun is and have used one. Gog has been a gun, a bullet, and the wielder of the gun too many times over and over and over and over…
Didn’t soldiers from Mottoms army use guns in that battle at the vault?
They also tried to use them against Maya.
There were gun-witches back in the early books. Lot of people on Throne have guns.
Exactly. Also, Oskar used a gun at the end of the Heist and in Broken Worlds (the KSBD TTRPG) 7 of the 9 playbooks (character classes, essentially) can choose the gun weapon proficiency and guns are something that are just available to buy (a pistol is the same price as a crossbow). I did briefly think that the design of the gun was unusually modern, but pistols with slides apparently date back to 1896 so not really.
Gog Agog having a gun isn’t weird, y’all.
They had a whole WWI vibe going, with trenchcoats, pointy helmets, and gas masks.
Don’t forget the Gun Witch!
Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about those. They have a monopoly on guns or something iirc? Not that it applies to demiurges and anyplace outside throne.
I think all the demiurges have access to guns, it’s just that martial arts arts are far superior to conventional modern weapons in most cases, so only weaklings should be using guns.
Theres litterally a group of people called “gun witches” in the verse
I remember Abbadon said on social media or something at one point that Jagganoth’s people were hoarding most of the really advanced tech in the multiverse. That may or may not have stayed canon, though!
didn’t incubus have a rotary phone on his desk while playing secretary? i might be mistaken please correct me.
also what about the chainsaw spear guards and jadis’s literal computer?
Ah yes, because a semiautomatic handgun is the pinnacle of technology in a world where someone could turn an army into a fine red mist by waggling their fingers in a funny way.
Magic opens the door to technologies that are impossible in our world – whatever results from the scientific process, I reckon would be very unlikely to look anything like what we consider to be ‘high-tech’.
Historically, we’ve proven ourselves very poor indeed at imagining what future technologies might look like…
People talk about guns technological level, but she has a motherfucking MICROPHONE in front of her!
Allson just begame the Joger…
Third act/book was the bank heist. Cio writes a good fix fic, it seems.
Books and chapters, being a method of organization which belongs to the novelist and the publisher rather than to the stage, have very little to do with acts. The third act is simply an analysts way of referring to the portion of a play which contains the climax, regardless of how the script itself is actually divided by the playwright.
I can’t help but keep thinking 6 Juggernaut Star Scours the Universe is the ultimate reason for this cycle being so different.
I guess the other way to read this is that the protagonist is normally motivated by the death of their lover. In this case though, that’s Cio… who is sneakily inserted into this page.
Why is Gog AGog attempting to trigger Alison with her memories of a happier past? Is it an effort to turn Alison into a more normal Heir path in this cycle? Seeking revenge for the murdered love interest?
I’m not sure if Gog is trying to motivate Allison or actually fishing for information on what went right this time. Even if it doesn’t work, maybe they can learn from it for the next run.
“Oh, I’m sorry? Were you trying to psyche me out or something? I’ve already had my dark night of the soul, thanks.”
“I’ve already reached the inmost cave bozo”
This seems remarkably similar to the ‘what then’ question Maya was asked.
Indeed! I mean, Gog’s gone through the play a quite a few times, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she has literally witnessed that question and what it’s done to Maya (or someone like her) in the multitudes of reruns! Gog seems like the type to like pushing buttons to see what reaction she gets..
Anyone tell me the hover text? Mobil never let’s me click them like a link or copy them.
Great page
It’s a link that takes you to a youtube video that’s not available anymore.
It’s “20 Minutes of We’ll Be Right Back” from the Eric Andre Show
Thanks
Gog watched 5 billion years of TV and decided the Eric Andre show was peak comedy. Honestly I’m not inclined to disagree.
That or Eric Andre is gogged
These ideas are not mutually exclusive.
Allison really just saying lines that get me (metaphorically) rock hard
Ahhhhhh- Gog’s wants to know if she’s going to break the Homeric cycle. If she has the Will to keep going.
Also, Eric Andre with real guns goes hard. Best practical effects on the market.
Gog is billions of years old, Eric Andre came up with that bit in less than one human lifetime.
Gog is Morden, but Alison is Vir.
ooh, i like that take
“i’d like to cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come at too high a price! i want to look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this!”
vir and allison would totally get each other.
This actually makes Gog’s obsession/fan behavior with Allison interesting. Like I thought that Gog just saw her as a means of disrupting the demiurges’ rule and that Allison would make things “fun” again.
But these two scenes (bits?) with Gog show that she is legitimately interested in Allison because she’s not playing the role that she’s supposed to and wants to see where things go. And I think Gog, being her “biggest fan” wants to see how far she can make it. Hopefully even support Allison?
Personally, I never doubted that Gog was genuinely interested in Allison as a “hero”. She’s always seemed more than crazy enough to really think that way. What’s really surprised me in this sequence is that supporting her “heroism” was actually THE MAIN POINT of Gog’s scheming, and messing with the other demiurges was just a happy side effect, rather than the other way around!
I will note, though, that I still think Gog only really wants to “support” Allison in the same way Incubus did. She’s constantly making a lot of assumptions about what Allison should do and/or want, and basing her “support” on that; what she’ll do when it becomes clear when it becomes clear Allison is just going to keep defying her expectations, remains to be seen.
To be fair, her assumptions and expectations so far seem to be “not the exact same thing as the last N billion times”. The question is, how much tolerance is Gog Agog going to have for Allison temporarily going back on script before she decides it’s a lost cause? Or is it already impossible in this cycle because even going back on script will be from such a fresh premise Gog can enjoy it?
“Pop pop pop”
– Steel Cylinder speaking truth
Character: “What’s your goal, Alison?”
Alison: “Meh, I’ll figure it out when they’re all dead.”
Great page!
YESSSS ALLISON
YEEEEEESSSSSS!!
Shes got my vote.
Something something movie title.