Being an undead monstrosity is not helping her disposition any. And I really wish the Doc had kept his mouth shut until she’d killed that halfling, because he really annoys me.
I suspect a bunch of people have forgotten this page, which is why I’ve been holding out for Maga’s redemption, but as I mentioned last page, it’s a little too late in coming for me.
As I said previous page, by the “beat” of the stereotype she plays her redemption arc (success or failure) closes in the final act. And this ain’t that.
It’s either the next world, or if we’re getting the other trope when they jump back to world 1 because that’s where the ‘real’ solution lies.
I can recall having a dim liking of Maga as the token “grumpy one” in the dysfunctional hero group. She’s pretty much going whole-hog into antagonist, now.
I see her as more of an antagonist that was playing at being a party member for a while. I mean, there wasn’t anything friendly about how she joined the group, which ultimately ended up killing her. She wasn’t ever a team player. The other members of the group may have accepted her to a greater or lesser extent, but she didn’t really accept them.
I get that, for a while, she was threatening the other members of the team less frequently than one of my coworkers had at one point. That statement says more about my former coworker than it does about Maga. That said, my former coworker didn’t actually bring a weapon to work, while these people use theirs on the job.
I’m not a fan of Maga. But I think I can sympathize with her somewhat. If what she knows is true, then every bad thing that’s happened to her lately was scripted out by Jenn.
Was it her idea to steal the diamond that lead to her being caught, or was it Jenn’s? Did she cast the betrothal spell, or did Jenn? Did her beloved Lord Barrex choose to follow her to the first sphere, or did Jenn decide that? Did the gods choose what destiny Maga drew from the “crucible” or was that also Jenn?
Though Maga’s venom toward Humphrey and Weyland, who are also fellow victims of Jenn, is far less understandable.
Given the strip Evil Eeyore linked to above, I’m wondering if Barrex posthumously cast a spell on her to make her paranoid and hostile to her companions. She really started spiraling after that update.
No, I think she’s behaving entirely understandably. Jen sacrificed everyone Maga ever loved, pretty much, to save her own world. She wrote her into a tragedy – Maga had to lose everything and get dragged along to save the people responsible, in order to be the character Jen needed to make the story work (or thought she needed; at any rate, invoked). Barrex told her a bit of the truth, and then Hildegarde gave her the rest, and Maga hates being a puppet, especially of someone who by this point she legitimately regards as her enemy. She’s been reevaluating everything she thought she knew since she found that out, including any friendliness she’d been feeling towards her “allies”.
Also, she’s a bit crazy due to the whole no free will thing – hence the offer to let the thieves get away if they give her the key, I assume. Also, she’s ticked off at Humphrey for killing her, which is not entirely fair given she cast the betrothal spell herself – though if that was actually Jen, it’s fairer, and it’s central enough to the story that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it was – but he did actually kill her (by walking into an anti-magic zone – the spell decided he was dead/it had been severed and killed Maga), though he didn’t realize what he was doing, and she got stuck, again, in a pretty unpleasant situation as a result. She really doesn’t like mind control.
What I’m not entirely sure of is whether she’s also being extremely honest here. We’ve had several hints – most notably Jen’s conversation with Sevasti and Hildegarde, but also some comments from Weyland* – that death is the gate to the sixth sphere. If that is true, Maga is the team member most likely to know it, given her background and current situation. She may genuinely be trying to help in the most antagonistic way possible. It’s really hard to tell with mind control.
*”Humphrey, have you given any thought to what the sixth sphere might be? … I think getting there might be via a less pleasant but more brutally direct route than any we’ve traversed before…”
Being an undead monstrosity is not helping her disposition any. And I really wish the Doc had kept his mouth shut until she’d killed that halfling, because he really annoys me.
There are super evil undead monstrosities out there more pleasant than Maga, so I’m not pinning her… ornery… personality on being undead.
As if she needed any more reasons why she deserves to die alone.
She already did. That is why she be cranky… One of the reasons she be cranky.
Nah, she needs to die (again, finally) surrounded by the people who have killed her.
Hopefully Humphrey, so she can die knowing the “worthless one” outfought her.
I suspect a bunch of people have forgotten this page, which is why I’ve been holding out for Maga’s redemption, but as I mentioned last page, it’s a little too late in coming for me.
http://www.useswordonmonster.com/?comic=2016-04-14
Also we should remember this page, http://www.useswordonmonster.com/?comic=2017-02-03
… and that’s it’s been just about a year and half since Jen’s eureka moment and the “Choice” and I’m dying to see what comes of it:
http://www.useswordonmonster.com/?comic=2019-12-16
As I said previous page, by the “beat” of the stereotype she plays her redemption arc (success or failure) closes in the final act. And this ain’t that.
It’s either the next world, or if we’re getting the other trope when they jump back to world 1 because that’s where the ‘real’ solution lies.
Looking forward to seeing how wrong I am.
I can recall having a dim liking of Maga as the token “grumpy one” in the dysfunctional hero group. She’s pretty much going whole-hog into antagonist, now.
I see her as more of an antagonist that was playing at being a party member for a while. I mean, there wasn’t anything friendly about how she joined the group, which ultimately ended up killing her. She wasn’t ever a team player. The other members of the group may have accepted her to a greater or lesser extent, but she didn’t really accept them.
I get that, for a while, she was threatening the other members of the team less frequently than one of my coworkers had at one point. That statement says more about my former coworker than it does about Maga. That said, my former coworker didn’t actually bring a weapon to work, while these people use theirs on the job.
I’m not a fan of Maga. But I think I can sympathize with her somewhat. If what she knows is true, then every bad thing that’s happened to her lately was scripted out by Jenn.
Was it her idea to steal the diamond that lead to her being caught, or was it Jenn’s? Did she cast the betrothal spell, or did Jenn? Did her beloved Lord Barrex choose to follow her to the first sphere, or did Jenn decide that? Did the gods choose what destiny Maga drew from the “crucible” or was that also Jenn?
Though Maga’s venom toward Humphrey and Weyland, who are also fellow victims of Jenn, is far less understandable.
Given the strip Evil Eeyore linked to above, I’m wondering if Barrex posthumously cast a spell on her to make her paranoid and hostile to her companions. She really started spiraling after that update.
No, I think she’s behaving entirely understandably. Jen sacrificed everyone Maga ever loved, pretty much, to save her own world. She wrote her into a tragedy – Maga had to lose everything and get dragged along to save the people responsible, in order to be the character Jen needed to make the story work (or thought she needed; at any rate, invoked). Barrex told her a bit of the truth, and then Hildegarde gave her the rest, and Maga hates being a puppet, especially of someone who by this point she legitimately regards as her enemy. She’s been reevaluating everything she thought she knew since she found that out, including any friendliness she’d been feeling towards her “allies”.
Also, she’s a bit crazy due to the whole no free will thing – hence the offer to let the thieves get away if they give her the key, I assume. Also, she’s ticked off at Humphrey for killing her, which is not entirely fair given she cast the betrothal spell herself – though if that was actually Jen, it’s fairer, and it’s central enough to the story that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it was – but he did actually kill her (by walking into an anti-magic zone – the spell decided he was dead/it had been severed and killed Maga), though he didn’t realize what he was doing, and she got stuck, again, in a pretty unpleasant situation as a result. She really doesn’t like mind control.
What I’m not entirely sure of is whether she’s also being extremely honest here. We’ve had several hints – most notably Jen’s conversation with Sevasti and Hildegarde, but also some comments from Weyland* – that death is the gate to the sixth sphere. If that is true, Maga is the team member most likely to know it, given her background and current situation. She may genuinely be trying to help in the most antagonistic way possible. It’s really hard to tell with mind control.
*”Humphrey, have you given any thought to what the sixth sphere might be? … I think getting there might be via a less pleasant but more brutally direct route than any we’ve traversed before…”
I don’t think it was a spell, as much as his influence on her, coupled with her existing distrusts.