Comic for September 23rd, 2017

[Hayate]

Anyway, Tom later stated that it would be easy since Nora can't be killed. How exactly can't she be killed? Is it something within the world, or just simple plot armor?

Nora can't be killed because she's already dead. She went to sleep the same way Littlefoot's mother went to sleep. Tom was just trying to be PG about it.

No... You aren't allowed to say that

[NiWo21k]

Oh i wouldnt get Zen angry... even if he isnt the best assassin out there he is still a very protective brother and they are very capable of giving you a lot of pain if you try to provoke them with their siblings.

And it looks like Raine has an idea to get them out of this small problem.

[Taxouckk]

Enemy Carver uses misgender!

It's not very effective...

Zen's attack raised! Zen's special attack raised! Zen's speed raised sharply!

[Neutral Smith]

That magic rod looks very unstable... And very uncomfortable.

[BadJoke]

I'm going to assume the specific mention of the use of "her" could either mean removing the bond between Zen and her, thus making her essentially comatose, or exploiting the fact shes a female.
I know Clovis is a misogynistic playboy and all, but considering that he now has a lovely set of breasts, I doubt he'd try anything of that sort. It's obvious Clovis could try to torture Natani through humiliation by making her act like a woman or something before breaking the spell, but is Tom implying he'd order somebody to actually rape her?

That would be literally the worst thing that could happen to her, more so now considering shes in a relationship with Keith. If Tom's really is implying that, Clovis is the dirtiest [censored] to come up in this comic so far.
I'd love to see him get beat to a soundtrack by Zen losing his metaphorical [censored].

Well, back in TDM, even before anything bad happened to him he came right out and admitted in his internal musings that after they brought back the crystal he intended to expose Natani and then "take her for myself". And I highly doubt he intended or expected any consent to be involved. And then, at the end of TDM, not only was his plan foiled but he himself was cursed to live indefinitely as the thing he most hated, and this happened at the hands of the "women" Natani and Nora. He's had to hide his transformation for *years* now, and he probably woke up every single morning of every one of those years cursing Natani and Nora's names for his 'humiliation'.

And now he apparently thinks he's in a position to get revenge. Whatever that amulet is he bargained his services to Braun for, I doubt it's merely some valuable bauble. I don't think I'm alone in guessing it's probably enchanted to restore his original form, with the effort of weeks of "a team of (the templar's) best mages" needed to counter Nora's magic. And it sounds like Carver was *specifically* assigned to track down not only Zen, but Natani as well, and Clovis shared Nat's secret with him - that sounds like the workings of a plan, not mere taking advantage of happenstance.

It's not like Clovis could never have tracked down Natani and Zen before. They were part of the assassin's guild, they went on missions and bragged about them in bars. With his position in the underworld he could have found them. So, he must want something more than to simply kill them. He wants revenge. And what would *Clovis*, prince of greed and misogyny, consider an 'appropriate' revenge on the 'weak woman' who he considers responsible for his years of humiliation? I would consider it entirely in character for him to be planning on torturing Natani by having him raped (or doing the job himself with his newly restored male body). He'd find it *delicious* to have Natani forced into being a sex slave.

Remember, Clovis is a *villain*, and not a nice one. Some villains are sympathetic, but some aren't.

Yup. Seems awfully possible. Let's not forget that the world of Twokinds is actually a pure crapsack-world. We're just not directly exposed to its darkness. But remember: our adorable hero is an ex genocidal maniac, keidran wolves treat their women like utter trash, the Master Spy who protects group A make a quite nice guy explode like a pinata because he got in the way, Keith's mother was beaten to death by a drunk man, Kat is the fruit of generations of selective breeding aiming at producing living sex-toy which left her infertile...

And considering the extract Qwe304 posted it's also possible Clovis may not be a beginner when it comes to rape.

[sarcasm]Oh, and thank you again Nora for the funny karmic punishment. That was totally efficient and without any terrible consequences on the long term any responsible individual concerned by others' security could have seen coming. Really wise decision indeed.[/sarcasm]
(Note that I'm not complaining about Tom doing so. It's good from time to time to see the almost immortal creatures of immense magic powers be able to do mistakes, dumb choices or just be irresponsible buffoons.)

[Cyon]

Anyway, Tom later stated that it would be easy since Nora can't be killed. How exactly can't she be killed? Is it something within the world, or just simple plot armor?

Nora can't be killed because she's already dead. She went to sleep the same way Littlefoot's mother went to sleep. Tom was just trying to be PG about it.

No... You aren't allowed to say that

WHAT

please tell me that's not true, my whole understanding of the story is now shattered

[IHeartMaeve]

Anyway, Tom later stated that it would be easy since Nora can't be killed. How exactly can't she be killed? Is it something within the world, or just simple plot armor?

Nora can't be killed because she's already dead. She went to sleep the same way Littlefoot's mother went to sleep. Tom was just trying to be PG about it.

No... You aren't allowed to say that

WHAT

please tell me that's not true, my whole understanding of the story is now shattered

Uh, not to continue to be off-topic, but Nora's actually just (in best terms here) "recharging", so to speak. Dragons are beings of magic, and the blast at the end of Chapter 11 drained all mana on the island, thus incapacitating her for an unknown period of time.

As for this page, I wonder what Carver's planning to do when he says it's time to "wrap this up." Is he going to deactivate the barrier or what?

[MuonNeutrino]

The reason I was skeptical on the rape thing is because as much as Clovis hates Natani, hes still a she, he wouldn't be getting any pleasure of doing it himself, unless he just gets off to that kinda stuff. I can see him ordering others to do so, but not himself unless he got his body back. Speaking of which...

Theres no way hes doing this because he wants his body back. He wants revenge, nothing more. As far as he knows, Natani and Zen had nothing to do directly with the curse. He probably just figured that with the war going on it'd be easy to find and them. Them accidentally running across Nora and changing his sex certainly wasn't intentional, but he still probably blames them for it anyways, I don't think he'd try to get them to reverse it.

I wasn't trying to imply that Clovis is going after Natani and Zen *in order to* try to get his body back. He knows that it was Nora who did that, not them. He almost certainly *blames* them for it, at least partially, but he knows they wouldn't be able to reverse it. I think it's more that he's going after them *because* he's now gotten his body back and no longer has to worry about getting exposed (i.e. under the assumption that the amulet is intended to reverse Nora's transformation). Ironically, if that's indeed true it would imply that Clovis is actually making an unwarranted assumption that Nat and Zen know what happened to him and could potentially expose him. It'd be amusing if the only reason he's stayed away from them all these years is that he's afraid of them doing something they couldn't actually have done.

And I could *totally* see him specifically wanting to 'punish' Natani that way, even if he wasn't doing the actual deed himself. It wouldn't be about him getting pleasure from it, it would be because he *knows* it would be probably the worst possible way he could torture Natani. (And for that matter, Zen knows as well as Clovis does how bad that would be for Nat - it'd be a hell of a torture for *him* too, knowing he'd been unable to protect Nat from something like that.) It'd be exactly the sort of thing he'd love.

On the topic of the wand/rod:

I too enjoy getting lore. It makes it seem like there's more to the world than what we've seen so far. It also gives us something to talk about; like when it says “can only cast one spell” does that mean it could only cast (for example) Squirrel Transformation on Target, or it's only good for one shot?

It almost has to be reusable, judging from Carver's actions in the current comic. He says he "could just keep refreshing this barrier all day", which certainly implies the wand is good for more than one shot, but also he's *reaching for the wand and pulling it back out* - why would he be doing that if it were already drained by the first casting?

Going back to the D&D comparison for a moment...

I'd be wary of trying to draw too close of comparisons with D&D. There's some obvious broad parallels, but assuming similarity on the details seems to me to be quite risky, as we already *know* that the comic's overall magic system doesn't work the same way.

[Schrodinger]

On the topic of the wand/rod:

I too enjoy getting lore. It makes it seem like there's more to the world than what we've seen so far. It also gives us something to talk about; like when it says “can only cast one spell” does that mean it could only cast (for example) Squirrel Transformation on Target, or it's only good for one shot?

It almost has to be reusable, judging from Carver's actions in the current comic. He says he "could just keep refreshing this barrier all day", which certainly implies the wand is good for more than one shot, but also he's *reaching for the wand and pulling it back out* - why would he be doing that if it were already drained by the first casting?

Could also be that Carver is reaching for a second artifact. One with a different effect now that he's cornered his prey. We already know that the Prince of Greed collects magical artifacts since he sent Natani and Zen to steal one in TDM. Bringing out his treasure trove to track down the Magi Brothers seems like something Clovis would do.

[GaySailors]

It isn't reusable.

[Ddraig]

On the topic of the wand/rod:

I too enjoy getting lore. It makes it seem like there's more to the world than what we've seen so far. It also gives us something to talk about; like when it says “can only cast one spell” does that mean it could only cast (for example) Squirrel Transformation on Target, or it's only good for one shot?

It almost has to be reusable, judging from Carver's actions in the current comic. He says he "could just keep refreshing this barrier all day", which certainly implies the wand is good for more than one shot, but also he's *reaching for the wand and pulling it back out* - why would he be doing that if it were already drained by the first casting?

I believe it's for something else. "I could just keep refreshing this barrier all day, but I think it's time to stop fooling around and wrap this up already," he says just before withdrawing it, implying he doesn't intend to use it to refresh the barrier.

And Foxy here now has an aussie accent for me, probably because that next-to-last panel.

[AndreRhineDavis]

Anyway, Tom later stated that it would be easy since Nora can't be killed. How exactly can't she be killed? Is it something within the world, or just simple plot armor?

Nora can't be killed because she's already dead. She went to sleep the same way Littlefoot's mother went to sleep. Tom was just trying to be PG about it.

No... You aren't allowed to say that

WHAT

please tell me that's not true, my whole understanding of the story is now shattered

I don't think so... it's not like TwoKinds is PG... Tom has never shied away from death and other mature themes before.
I think it's more likely that Tom wanted Nora out of the story because she was too OP. And the easiest way to do that is to force her to "need to sleep to recharge her magic".
I think we definitely won't be seeing her again, except maybe at the very end of the story, like once the war is over and everything. But this "need to sleep" thing is a good way to keep her out of the story for an indefinite amount of time. However long you need, be it weeks, months, years, decades, etc, you can keep writing the story without the plothole "but if nora were here she could fix this"

[NickR23]

Tom, you missed a great opportunity for a "Press F5 to refresh barrier" headline!

[Foxx Trotter]

Hmm...it makes me wonder where the name "Carver" comes from with such an item in his possession, based on its jagged appearance, although I expect there is another purpose for that magic rod as some have already mentioned.

[Dadrobit]

Anyway, Tom later stated that it would be easy since Nora can't be killed. How exactly can't she be killed? Is it something within the world, or just simple plot armor?

Nora can't be killed because she's already dead. She went to sleep the same way Littlefoot's mother went to sleep. Tom was just trying to be PG about it.

No... You aren't allowed to say that

WHAT

please tell me that's not true, my whole understanding of the story is now shattered

I don't think so... it's not like TwoKinds is PG... Tom has never shied away from death and other mature themes before.
I think it's more likely that Tom wanted Nora out of the story because she was too OP. And the easiest way to do that is to force her to "need to sleep to recharge her magic".
I think we definitely won't be seeing her again, except maybe at the very end of the story, like once the war is over and everything. But this "need to sleep" thing is a good way to keep her out of the story for an indefinite amount of time. However long you need, be it weeks, months, years, decades, etc, you can keep writing the story without the plothole "but if nora were here she could fix this"

^^^
Very much this, I was just giving FoMo a hard time.