Page Commentary No. 241

Gunwild: This page demonstrates my failure to bring back a reference to this plot point earlier in the story, even though I knew we'd want to use it with the buncha deactivated robots in Dr. Botz's lab. On the plus side, I at least got to re-do the awful table balancing joke from earlier in the comic.

Psu: I admit, this is one of my favorite cliff hangers in our entire webcomic. I know we didn't get to mention it earlier in the chapter but seeing it like this now, I think it's fine. Even though the "table leveler" was years ago since it's last appearance, so was Botz. I think one of the fun things with webcomics is being able to jump back to any point in the story really quickly. And well... I kinda love it when comments are asking each other "wait what was that about" before just realizing what was about to happen. And I think the zoom in on Penny's face is superb.

Gunwild: I also learned the term "beating the devil around the stump" for this page, and while I will probably never use it myself, I enjoy knowing of its existence.

Psu: Generally beating the devil seems like a good thing. But in this context it's a bad thing! Quickly explain!

Gunwild: The context I heard it used in was a way to say someone is avoiding getting on with a task. I'm not entirely sure on the origins, but I think it's supposed to point out that you don't actually have anything more important to do than the task at hand.

Psu: Like our most important task is getting this commentary done and my discussion on what the best kinds of chili are can wait for later?

Gunwild: I feel like in most stories, the devil's harder to beat than some kind of cartoon animal you chase in circles around a tree stump... is he sort of a Sylvester the cat figure at times? At least if you're holy?

Psu: I dunno, now you're making me think of Cuphead. And we're getting into a tangent! Let's talk about the page still. I love the coloring and the drawings on this one. I like how Peia's blaster is shown pointing at the point of impact on the evil drone but not really showing any muzzle flare. I like how the red emergency lights give everything a more dramatic look. I love Botz's multi fingers. But like... I think we should talk about how we decided to use the drone controller. We had a hard time figuring out to use that, I think.

Gunwild: Yeah, I mean even though this is a cool beat (we'll talk about how neat it looks to make them fight on the next page), it could easily have been played kind of boring, seeming like it fixed all of their current problems. If we had a limited page count, it just might have!

Psu: I think I was imagining it like... the team was a full adventuring party right? But Penny's uses were mostly for hacking and or technical stuff. In a fight, she's just the one that should be hiding under a table. But then we thought of something really awesome for her to do that could help even the odds!

Gunwild: I always feel bad in video games or comics or whatever when that one core character doesn't feel like they added much to the adventure... I've never tabletop RPGed like you're talking about, but I imagine if one hasn't crafted a story that has a potential role for each of the characters, it reduces the amount of fun one can have.

Psu: Oh maybe this goes back to my Dungeon Master days. It was part of your job to make sure that everyone at the table could feel involved. Or encouraged to use their skills in creative ways! It's tricky making it natural. But ya know... even though this needed a call back to a joke we made years and years ago, and we didn't mention it in this chapter except to show it in the background of one panel, I think we did pretty good bringing it back. It was fun to bring back Botz's old work!