1077 Red Dawn.

I finished Skyward Sword today. I have to say, all the complaints that people had with the motion controls just weren’t a problem for me. I Knocked the shit out of pretty much every enemy with no trouble. The lazer towers were a pain because I didn’t instantly realize you could slash them, and I often swung the wrong way in a pancic, but that was about it. Oh wait, electric enemies! I hated those. Anything with electric powers was a bitch because I didn’t want to finesse my way past their shit. Except you can’t just wail on them. You have to wait or they will zap the shit out of you.

A large portion of Skyward Sword’s gameplay is directly lifted from Wii Sports Resort. Which is fine because I liked playing Wii Sports, but it was really weird when I realized it. Wii Sports must have been basically a test game for Skyward. Just to work out the bugs or something. Anyway that may have contributed to me already being good at the controls because I played a lot of Wii sports and the skills carry over directly. The controls for swimming were the best for any game I’ve ever played where you had to swim, by the way. It made water levels much less of a chore.

I never needed to grind for money. The world was swimming in it. I bought out Beedle’s shop long before the end of the game. Even though there’s nothing much to buy they keep giving you bigger and bigger wallets. Apparently to carry around the tons of money you’ll never need to spend. Bug hunting alone made me so wealthy I only opened chests hoping there might be a new weapon inside.

I was actually pretty annoyed that I couldn’t just buy the best shield about halfway through the game. Not that I ever had to worry about using them, but still. Once it was available I had the magic one upgraded to the max and was set. Pretty much the second I got any item I was able to max out the upgrades as soon as I was back in Skyloft. Honestly that shouldn’t sound like a complaint. I love games that let me get gear that seems really strong early. Especially if it seems like I’m getting one over on it. It really seemed like I was being rewarded for being super smart and thrifty with stuff and I liked it.

I also really enjoyed the boss fights. Skyward Sowrd is one of the few games I’ve ever played where I felt like the fights were really fair. Like, if you knew how to use the sword it didn’t matter how strong anything was. And there were very few cheap attacks. Not much is unblockable or undodgeable. Not until the last boss anyway. He’s kind of cheap in some ways. Although still not that bad. I actually enjoyed playing the boss rush mode to get the unbreakable shield. I pranced through it like a champ and didn’t mind going back in to get the heart container. I didn’t take it to the end because I assumed the last present was just cash and I didn’t need it at all. I’m sure I could have beaten he whole run though.

The dungeons weren’t particularly annoying. In fact these were the least annoying of any Zelda game I’ve played. Except for a couple of parts I didn’t feel like I was fighting the controls while trying to do puzzles or whatever. They very kindly left save points scattered on the ground like pebbles, so you never had to worry about redoing a bunch of shit. Not that I ever had to, or was in danger of it, but it was nice to be able to walk away if I wanted to. The triforce dungeon was actually really clever in my opinion. I can’t remember ever seeing one like it before.

There was one thing I really hated. The skydiving clown game… I hate games of chance for important gear. To its credit Skyward only had the one, but FUCK. THAT. CLOWN. I almost got that fucking heart container so many times only to have the wheel dick me at the last second. It was the only part of the game that I almost ragequit. The actually part of the game that’s skill based isn’t hard at all. I won a ton of money my first two tries, but once I knew I could get a heart it was torment trying to land on the right part of the wheel.

Skyward Sword is now, easily, my favorite Zelda game with Twilight Princess a close second. I had a lot of fun playing it and would have played hours more if it had been available.

On the topic of the comic, this isn’t the first page I tried adding in animated effects to. I actually went back in yesterday and changed it. I couldn’t actually make the thing do what I saw in my head, but this gets the point across. I don’t have any animation training so it’s just a monkey banging a rock against another rock and hoping for the best. As long as the animation is simple I can make them pretty easily so you can look forward to little treats from time to time now.

“Constance” is speaking Japanese in the last panel there if you want to go bablefish it. She’s basically saying Whoa! It’s been a long time! I think… My friend Amber helped me with it because I hardly remember any of what little Japanese I ever learned.

104 Comments

Constance may very well have a pleasant-sounding voice, but I’ll bet to Thomas it sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

……..I have no idea what I’m supposed to feel here…… You built her up like she was supposed to be this god-awful woman……and we get an otaku. DAFUQMain?

AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Welcome to the magic of drama!

NOOOOO. Otaku Girls are the Good Guys, not the enemy.

Watch your fire man. You’re hitting friendly forces.

Hey, even otaku can be jerks. Nobody is not capable of being a jerk at one point or another. Though I understand not wanting a jerk amongst your ranks. Doesn’t do the culture justice.

Personally, everyone I’ve ever known that talks like that has inspired that same murderous reaction in me WITHOUT any deep emotional entanglements. My first response to this page was “how did he ever put up with her in the first place?”

It DOES paint an interesting layer on his “anime queers” insult waaaaaaaaaaay back in the great Battle Beasts battle of #54, though.

Carol’s going to destroy her, isn’t she?

And then Nina and Jo will help her hide the body.

for some reason even though its Thomas looking at her, i hear the fight from Jay & silent bob strikes back where constance & what’s-her-name are talking about how they’ll beat each other. specifically the part where Constance says something like “***** my man aint yo’ baby’s daddy.’ idk why since i dont THINK either of them have gotten preggers, but yeah…

There’s a character named Constance in J&SBSB? Man, it’s been a long time since I saw that… I don’t remember that at all.

Wow I was so tired when i wrote that, I don’t even remember writing that this morning. I was wrong btw, the character’s name that i was thinking of was ‘Justice,’ Shannon Elizabeth’s character. <.< the movie at least was on vevo until last month, which is when I saw it and is the only reason I actually thought of it

I’d just like to say that, unless Constance is part Japanese or something, or Thomas also speaks Japanese and they spoke it to each other a lot, she has no reason to be speaking Japanese right now. But she is.

And I hate her for that.

I was just about to say that. It makes her seem like one of those girls who thinks it makes them adorable just by parroting phrases.

That and demonstrating a possibly obsessive fixation on a culture you are not a part of just comes across as inappropriate and creepy.

OMG BAKA BAKA DESU~!

or maybe she and Thomas once shared a dream of living and working in Japan for a while…

Like I said, unless they have a shared background that makes it relevant for her to be speaking Japanese to him, specifically.

Carol is smoking hot compared to her. Thomas will be juuuuust fine after his shift and ice cream later this night :)

When I’m looking at that animation, I can’t help but think of those scenes from “Kill Bill” when she meets one of her targets. That look of sheer rage, hate, and a murderous impulse…but how could that possibly apply to this scene AT ALL?!

** plays the Theme From Ironside **

@Too Old To Be Cool, I think you and I are the only commenting readers old enough to even remember that show! The theme music is still pretty popular, though. I used to work with a guy who was on the production team for Perry Mason, Raymond Burr’s previous series.

“sheer rage, hate, and a murderous impulse”

Ya think?
B{)}

I was expecting Constance to be something along the lines of a blood sucking succubus with how Thomas has described her, now I just want to hug her. Either Thomas just really has to hate her, or there is more to Conny then meets the eye.

Agreed. My initial impression is one of “Got any good animes you can share? Here’s some good ones I know.”. There has to be something deeper here. . .

So it looks like I’m not the only one who’s seeing a resemblence slightly between Carol and Constance (Same hair and eye colour, though Constance looks like a combination of Brooksie and Nina as well as Carol. Carol’s hair and eyes, Brooksie’s height and energy, Nina’s somewhat refined manners and way of carrying herself.)

Is that just me over-analyzing?

… whut? Not what I was expecting.
It would appear that the hostility goes… one way.

She’s kinda cute.

Or she’s just better at hiding it.

Or just as likely she has no clue about what she did to him due to being a sociopath?

Keep in mind that when Thomas breaks up with somebody, they are DEAD TO HIM, and his hatred is proportional to his former feelings of love on approximately a 1 to 1 scale.

He must have been head over heels for this girl.

Point is, there are a lot of people who can break up and still be friendly. Constance is apparently one of those people. Thomas absolutely is not.

By the build up, one would think she’s like Envy Adams…instead she’s a weeaboo. This should be interesting.

On a side note for Skyward Sword, GODS DAMN THAT FUCKING CLOWN! >.<

I don’t know why everyone is hating on Constance. From what I remember reading the only thing she did wrong was succeed. He only hates her because she is a reminder of his own lack of success. Personally, If I’m remembering things correctly, (and I might not be) I think Thomas just needs to grow up and deal with his own feelings of inadequacy instead of hating someone who obviously feels no animosity towards him what so ever.

That makes for a really boring story though…

Once upon a time two people fell out of love and they were both okay with it.

The end.

Yeah, I wasn’t saying that you need to change your story or anything like that. I like Thomas because of his flaws as well as his good points. I just think it’s dumb that everyone else is hating on his ex simply because he is.

Really? Best controls in a game where you swim?

I’ll take some megaman in that field… if there’s anything I actually enjoyed about MM’s design over others, it was water. Bubble Man’s stage was great, heh.

Sonic… Sonic’s OK… as long as he’s got spindash… Labyrinth can go eat sharp… glass, or something. blech.

I guess neither really swims… Tails does, I suppose…

I’m… I’m going to stop before I go into full-on rant-mode. I haven’t picked up skyward sword because I hated everything since ALttP (that is, I loved the original three and most of the handheld stuff, but the fact that OoT was designed heavily by Aonuma, who didn’t like the original, and has never managed to beat it, he took the series in a very different direction…).

But, if ALttP2… the actual LoZ4 I’ve been waiting for since I beat ALttP… is what I want it to be? Yeah… I’ll but it… and TP, again, for good measure.

A different direction doesn’t matter if its still fun

It can if it’s not the game you want to play.

Like, the Metroid Prime games are fun in their own right, but in the series they stand as my least favorite(not counting Other M) cause they aren’t the games I wanted to play when I picked up a Metroid title.

The new Kid Icarus game is a good game in it’s own right, but I wanted to play a game in the same vein as the original Kid Icarus(tower climbing, not a beat em up), so I don’t care to play it.

One of the most vocal complaints about some of the latest Resident Evils were that they were more action/less horror.

A different direction might be fun, but you seriously risk losing long time fans if you get rid of the elements that made the original fun in the first place. We typically want improvements to the game, not a totally different one from what we were playing.

While it is perfectly possible that in future comics, I might end up hating this character but my first impression so far is… She’s got that whole adorkable librarian vibe going for her.

THOMUS! WHY YOU LIKE MINI-CAROL BEFORE LIKING FULLSIZED CAROL! BAAAAAAAAKKAAAAAAAA!!
Hehe, sorry, it just seemed so….appropriate.

A. They are not similar.
B. What’s wrong with her? At least from the one panel we’ve seen and ignoring Thomas’s story.

Though, +1 for the “Baka”, heh

so, I’m the Only one here who has NO idea whatsoever of what this girl has said?

Really?

then maybe, just for me, could you please tell me what was said?

’cause i really feel way out of the loop here.

So J. Thomas has a thing for chubby redheads? Where did that come from? Oh, wait — we’ve met his mother

(Maybe she could show up for the signing — for Mothers’ Day — she probably liked Constance.)

His mother’s hair is the same color as his. Since when am I the only one who can see color properly?

This is the internet and lots of people have cheap monitors and couldn’t be arsed to set the things up correctly.

[sorry for the language – been reading a bit too many British comics of late]

That, and about 25% of males suffer from colorblindness, in a form or another, yet a very low percentage actually knows that. That coupled with the fact you’re constantly altering your memory + having a lot of people, yet singling a group that match a bias, and you “witness” this ;)

I… I don’t know what to feel here. I figured her to be some uber hot snob but… she looks normal?! I think my brain just melted and is seeping out of my ears.

Wow. Not what I expected at all. I hate to be shallow, but I can’t help it. Carol is way better looking than her. In fact, every girl in the store is better looking than her. What gives Thomas?? At the time, she must have had a personality that made Thomas swoon. Or something like that.

I dislike how she hasn’t seen Thomas in years, they clearly parted on bad terms (as we can surmise from Thomas) and she acts like nothing happened. The whole “We’re friends, I like your hair, I’mma gonna talk in cute Japanese” makes me wish a God from up on high splits the heavens open and strikes her down.

Also diggin Thomas’ look in the last couple pannels. If looks could kill she would be nothing more than a smoking pile of ash…

They may not have parted on bad terms at all, from her point of view.

Thomas’s hatred is born of resentment, festering for years deep within his heart. If she left him, how could she possibly have loved him as much as he loved her? Did she ever love him? She took his heart–and ripped it apart from the inside out.

From his perspective at least.

The resentment may be entirely one sided, but I still find it surprising that she acts as if nothing changed in the intervening years. If you ended your relationship with someone, you can never assume that their sentiment regarding the breakup is the same as yours. It is as though she had either no consideration for Thomas’ feeling or is so completely self-centred that she didn’t even consider it. The fact that she specifically requested that Thomas be there either shows that she wants Thomas to see what he missed out on or wants to gloat in a very public fashion.

Let me say that the last girl I broke up with ended fairly calmly but we are by no means friends nor do we act “friendly” whenever our paths cross.

“The fact that she specifically requested that Thomas be there either shows that she wants Thomas to see what he missed out on or wants to gloat in a very public fashion.”

…or she simply wants to see a person she hasn’t seen in years and that used to be a really close friend?

I agree that it appears she has a totally different view of their breakup than he does. Maybe it is due to negative personality traits on her part, I wouldn’t know. I do think it’s a bit of a stretch at this point to claim that she’s deliberately staging some sort of showdown with Thomas to humiliate/challenge him. It could just as easily be that she has good/friendly intentions in wanting to see him and doesn’t understand that her actions are causing him such aggravation.

I see what you mean.

I kind of figure Thomas as a guy that doesn’t tell his ex how he felt about the breakup, though. So instead of letting her know he doesn’t ever want to see her again, he bottles it up.

She may have left the area and lost contact, but wanted to stay friends, and since he never said anything, she assumed he also was at least not hateful.

The problem is that he knows how he feels, and (probably subconsciously) assumes she feels similarly, and that her motives are spiteful rather than friendly.

HA! Good show! Nice feint with the famous ex. Have I brown-nosed enough about why I come here? It’s this. Thanks for telling stories, man. You’ve got a great handle on humans and thier interactions.

I’d say it’s the -second- best swimming controls (in which you actually swim and aren’t just “walking in water”) in a game where you swim, with Majora’s Mask winning by miles and miles and miles. Gods, that game had such awesome swimming…

Also, wasn’t all that bothered by the cannon minigame. Didn’t feel like luck to me, just a matter of catching all the bonuses and then figure out where the purple rupee spot would be when you landed, checking how far it went as soon from as the last bonus (which also slows down the wheel, therefore is the main benchmark) is grabbed, and then taking it from there. Once I had the bonuses down, it only took a few tries to get the piece of heart.

I’m wondering if she’s sedentary or pregnant. ‘Cause that would be the whole Tom-dissing trifecta right there. Something like “Hi I’m you ex who since leaving you…

Published a book like you wanted write
Built the relationship you wanted to have (with someone else)
Am starting a family (see above)

Aren’t I cute?”

The worst part is is she could be intentionally putting the screws to Tom, not, or anywhere between.

Just checked the Japanese and;
????

?????????

Translates to;

What’s this

It’s been a while

Also, I find it weird that book girl look surprised to see Thomas there when she was the one that requested him to be there in the first place.

Sorry for the question marks in the post. Put what book girl said in actual Japanese characters and it seems like the site did not like them that much.

The thing that weirds me out the most about this comic is that I actually know someone who Constance reminds me of.

RL person I know just got her doctorate and is a librarian. She’s also been married since her bachelor’s degree.

Also, I’ve known girls who are plenty cute, but carry what fat they do have exclusively in their bellies. So, they look skinny, but have a lady beer belly for some reason.

Ah, she’s got a jacket on! I’m not even sure if she’s got pudge anymore! It might just be a bad angle. Guess we’ll find out later.

So… what KIND of book did she write? Has that been said? Because I’m suddenly very curious.

I honestly can’t remember anyone ever saying it. I know I wrote parts earlier where they went over it, but I have a vague memory of shelving them in favor of moving the story along a little quicker.

OK, since nobody else mentioned it, decent job for a simple animation. Keep practicing, I am sure it’ll get better.
I only know how to add animation to web pages, not art, but http://www.greensock.com/ is a great one for that. Not sure if it’s applicable to adding it to your art, but if you have time, check them out, and see if it’ll work that way. Can be fun and addictive.

Ok I was expecting some long haired pretty blonde with a somewhat stuck up attitude and instead you present us with this cute little nerdy (in a good way) kind of girl? I’m conflicted right now. Very.

Sheesh! What a poser. She’s like those phonies who are always spouting French thinking it makes them seem sophisticated. Thomas seems so mature compared to her. He’s done some significant maturation since he and Carol. Have been together.

Watch Carol grind her to powder if she thinks it’s worth the effort.

Oh God no, it’s a weaboo. I have absolutely no idea as to her personality aside from Thomas’ frankly biased view, and there is always the possibility that she’s actually a decent person, but I already hate her.

she doesn’t appear to be packing a lot of ill will toward Thomas. Whatever happened, she has moved on, and so should Thomas.

wait… what? im sorry with the portrayal to the “she look like his sister” thing you gave my head whiplash

This comment is kind of garbled, but I feel like I should respond to it if for no reason other than to get some clarification.

Just to be sure, am I the only one hearing the theme song to Damien:The Omen II during that one panel fading to read? Just seeing that face I hear “Hah…He…He He Hah…He He Hah…Hah He He!” And it’s directed at someone acting so happy and friendly that apparently can’t detect TOXIC amounts of spite and disdain when it’s staring right at her from point blank range. This is seriously going to be one of my favorite pages, great job!

This comic and the previous one totally remind me of me and my ex RIGHT NOW. Like almost a perfect replica.

To those who keep saying Thomas should just get over it:

It’s been only a few years.

I’ve at this point been divorced longer than I was married… For me it’s never gotten easier.
I would far rather not have to think about my her than have to deal with her face to face.

Of course she always did insist on calling me on the phone whenever.

according to some psychologists, the ability to “get over” a relationship is often twice the length of how much you were involved in it. There is no hard evidence and there is multiple exceptions noted, but there is also a lot of cases where it seems fairly accurate. It’s one of those things that “sounds right” until its not.

I actually am having fun reading the comments on this one. I don’t remember my feelings when I first read this comic, but right now I’m reflecting how its important to get two sides of a story, not just the one. It’s easy to side with our friends or even just a knee-jerk reaction to a situation. Some people tend to get quite angry and turn you into as bad as a perpetrator or worse if you don’t automatically condemn them. Mob mentality is a scary thing :S (also I apologize to crave and anyone else that has to try to decipher how my thought process flowed through this comment, but it was logical in mind)

Leave a Reply to Trout Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.