Page 1483…
Sorry today’s page is going up so late.
The render times are just too much. And since I was at MTAC this weekend (and then Easter with family) I really couldn’t monitor the renders as I should have.
I’ll hopefully still get all 5 pages up. But thank you for your patience nonetheless.
It’ll be interesting to read his response.
Happy Belated Easter btw ^-^
Well, it’s still Monday here in California.
This might be a good time for Dr. Swordopolis to chime in…
I’m surprised this wasn’t explained to her before… but that would also explain why she was treating Dan the way she did.
…
…
I just can’t shake it… I still can’t believe they hadn’t told her. After all, they had to tell her enough of their story for her to know who Dan was, so why not tell her everything she needed to know?
Odd…
Good story, of course, but odd nevertheless…
Of course, that criticism applies to Alex and Nastajia, who failed to fully inform Niviene, rather than to Scott, who is ‘merely’ showing us what happened… 😉
This is the test for Alex to see if he’s been paying attention all this time.
TELL HER WHAT’S UP, YOU STUPID SWORD!
Wait, why does Alex have the sword? I thought Niviene gave it to Dan.
She gave him excalibur. not the sword of kings.
He’s there because sometimes a stupid king is better than a weak king.
I’m pretty sure Excalibur is the sword of kings.
I feel some heavy tension here.
Yikes O_o
Meanwhile, on TWC: we’re #7 with 4,353 votes, leaving #8 with 3,531 safely behind (good job, fellow Dreamies, good job!) and #6 has 6,170 (uh oh).
Do you like this story and its wonderful graphics? Vote!
See, there was this dragon that wanted to be king (it’s good to be the king, by the way) and so he cursed all firstborns (that could be kings) from entering dreamland, and so the Arthur Pendragon, which was captured magically, still was the king. But I am king material and because I am the young twin I got around the curse. And so now we can have kings again! Did I mention it’s good to be the king?
I don’t like guys (or gals) who are unable to question their convictions. Self-reflection is a virtue.
what’s with her change all of a sudden… Like Alex is a usurper or something
Way to cut to the chase Niviene …
There are two swords. And I doubt the one Alex has is going to take time out of it’s busy schedule to explain things to her. Alex, you are on your own! Unless Alex gets some help from his girlfriend.
Caught in an awkward moment and Alex should explain that he and Dan are twins.
Meanwhile, I’m curious as to what Dan is going to do with Excalibur. That thing’s not exactly inconspicuous. On top of that it would be an object of extreme covetousness in the human world if recognized, possibly even more so than in Arthur’s time. Be carefu, Dan, be prepared to say it’s a movie prop.
Not quite. Excalibur is the sword Niviene had forged by the Elves and Dwarves and gave to Arthur as a symbol. And now she’s given it to Dan. The Sword of Kings is the sentient blade that has been around since the creation of Dreamland and which Alex wears on his back.
Well, it IS a complicated story, they may not have given her all of it. Or as a mage she might be asking for technical details; good luck on getting THOSE from Alex. But more interesting and exciting, it is possible Niviene may be familiar with the rules of Dreamland secession and entry, she may know a way Dan CAN enter Dreamland, and be wondering why they’re not using it…
My thoughts exactly…
LOL…That sounds like Alex to me! 🙂
I don’t think her feelings are that strong. I think she’s just confused as to how this all played out.
Really? I imagine Alex’s answer to have more “I don’t know”s in it. Not sure if Alex really likes to be king or even thought about the matter much.
More like: “Uh… I don’t know… It just happened. I put on the sword necklace one day and I was just here.. I don’t know… and Dan just, I don’t know, was never able to enter Dreamland, even as a child. Oh! And I think the sword and Nicodemus said something about Arthur being trapped so Dan couldn’t come or something like that. Right, Nastajia?”
Why? Because it’s great to see someone who wasn’t destined for the job rise up and accept responsibility anyway. Because he needs Dreamland to help him grow up in the real world. Because it’ll be a nice break in tradition if a king of Dreamland never made the history books in the real world but he was a great man nonetheless. Because Nastajia needs him around so she won’t revert back to being an ice queen. That’s why.
actually it sounds more to me like she is being sardonic. she knows the details, but why you and not him?
Same here!
She saw Alex’s immaturity (interrupting her story for example), then met Danial, intelligent and mature. who couldn’t keep from wondering why did we get stuck with this brother as king?
Buuuuurrrrrn!
I’m actually surprised that she knew enough about Dan, to deduce that he is the true King of Dreamland. Yes, it does make you wonder what they told her.
Also, Alex and Dan and the others don’t fully understand themselves why circumstances are what they are, so I don’t know if Alex could come up with an adequate answer.
Of course, on Earth there were the laws of succession, that determined who was rightfully king when a king died. And then there was the reality of politics and such: some heirs were not really qualified, being too young, or having a disability of some kind, some were simply not fast enough, and found their throne gone when they tried to take it, and so on.
Having the younger brother crowned could cause problems down the line (consider England’s War of the Roses), but it did happen sometimes.
Damn straight.
“SPEAK! Pointy thing, speak and be heard damn you!” 😛
Also, very late happy Easter Scott. 😉
Man, unfortunate angle in the third panel. Alex’s collar looks like a continuation of the sword’s hilt (difference in shading looks like the hilt is escaping shadow), putting it so far over his shoulder as to be awkward. But fourth panel shows it correctly behind him. It took me a minute to realize there wasn’t a problem (just my color-insensitive eyes + perfect alignment of edges).
Alex: “Who told you that?”
(Coming into view) Nick: “I did”
Actually I agree that this contradicts all of last week. How could all of that happen without them having explained this first?
That’s what has made me suspicious all along…we don’t know what Niviene was told by Nastajia (Alex having awakened before they could say much), but she seems to know a lot, and her questioning of Alex today gives me that creepy feeling again, like Nicodemus paid her a visit and gave her information he wanted her to have.
well, he did pull the sword of kings out of the stone, which is odd though, since only the destined king could pull the sword out, should only dan could of done it?
“I didn’t do it !”
It just occurred to me today, while working (yes, I was thinking of the Dreamland Chronicles while I was driving a bus…), that because of Nicodemus, there has been one person per generation since Arthur, who never was able to dream AT ALL, and would not have the faintest idea why, or be capable of understanding what the other people around him would be talking about, whenever they talked about a dream they had…
Thanks a lot, Nic…
Man, Niviene, no need to be mean! (Unless you’re testing him. That’s cool.)
It is a good question, and one Alexander will have to answer in any case,
if and when a formal proclamation of him as King is ever to take place.
As well, Niviene is one of the few people who has been around long enough to remember when Dreamland had human kings, and may have met Arthur. Alexander has yet to impress her, I suspect.
Alex: Well, we were going with this whole dragon usurping the crown thing with some touches of magic and curses…
Niviene: But that’s not it?
Alex: Well… It’s part of it sure…
Niviene: Out with it, boy.
Alex: Well, the truth is, I have an elf fetish and Dan likes black girls…
Niviene: You… You chose the king of Dreamland position based on that?
Alex: Who are you to judge me? Woman-who-based-her-entire-everything-on-a-random-beardy-guy?
Niviene: Touché…
Alex: Oh, can I ask you a question now?
Niviene: *sigh* Yes.
Alex: What products do you use?
Niviene: What?
Alex: You’re like a billion, but you look not a day over thirty.
Niviene: I’ll take that as a compliment and not turn off the anti-sea monster spell.
Alex: But seriously, my mom would love to have whatever you’re using.
Niviene: It’s a spell based on the drippings of the Path’kar’thom.
Alex: Okay then! My mom will just enjoy aging gracefully! *cringe*
just found this today and let me say WOW! this is so well written i couldn’t put down my lap top. can’t wait for the next post!
Hey all!
Sorry. render issues still.
Hopefully the page will be ready in the morning.
Off-Topic: With *that* avatar, your name should be “Too Cool to Be Old”. 🙂
Thank you so much, Sabrina!
I hope you continue to enjoy reading Dreamland!
Make sure to take time to read the comments, as well… They’re not overly numerous per page, but can be both insightful and funny. It’s worth the extra time.
What about a new numbercruncher for the rendering stuff? *gg*
Besides: That’s way of a frown od disdain Niviene is giving Alex in the last panel.
maybe we should get a kickstarter going for Scott to get another computer! Maybe two, that way on long renders, you can do two at a time … not that I’m inpatient or anything 🙂
I actually find it a relief that Niviene informs Alex of how she feels. Her conversation with Daniel last week left me with a feeling that she was being hypocritical to Alex.
That being said, I agree with some of the other comments: how did she know Daniel was the true King and not why Alex was the one currently occupying the post? I’m having a hard time picturing a conversation with Nastajia or Alex where they would tell her Daniel was the true King and not a glimmer of an explanation for Alex being there in his stead.
Which leaves me wondering, where did she get her information if not from Alex and Nastajia? And she also seems to have a very strong preference for Daniel despite having spent very limited time with either. Where’s that coming from? Maybe she’s just strongly opposed to less than intellectually superior rulers. And if that’s the case, how did she feel about Nicodemus?
I’m really over thinking this again.
That might not help. Movie props are pretty coveted too.
Or maybe she’s just a really big proponent of the whole “rightful heir” thing. 🙂 If that’s true, then she would have definitely been anti-Nic…which I would expect to be the case since she would know that Nic was against other humans entering Dreamland due to her interactions with Merlin…and she was the one who put Merlin in his tree (which I’d assume was after the attack that “killed” Arthur).
It is a little odd for her to know that Dan is the rightful ruler without knowing how Alex came to be there instead though…unless she just knows by virtue of her magic or something…I got nuthin’!
That’s a thought… 🙂
Something is fishy here. I guess only time will tail what she is swimming at here…..*crickets*
Seriously I think she sees the the maturity in Daniel and knowing that he is the true king means that she has that much more respect for him. Also she has the pool to see things. She probably has the ability to see who the true heir is but does not know all the history behind what happened to Arthur because of how Nic interfered. Just my 2 cents though
nice page scott i STILL love her hair
48 hours and still not done rendering Tuesday’s page.
Sigh.
Seems like I’ve drained the last bits of energy from these old workstations.
My sincerest apologies for this week, guys.
Unfortunately, the project we had coming in (contract and all) that would have allowed us the luxury of buying new computers, went away yesterday.
Hasn’t been a very good week, sad to say.
I’ll see where we are with the renders in the morning.
If things continue to go bad…I’ll figure out another solution.
Scott
A watery tart in a pond throwing swords is the foundation of good government. At least according to one version of Arthurian legend. If you assume that someone had to identify the correct target for the sword then the foundation of good government would be something else. In this case commentary from deep sea divers. I suppose both could be called a “farcical aquatic ceremony”.
I think it is reasonable to assume that either Niviene or Excalibur know who the right king without asking Natasha or any bi-weekly meeting.
Completely offtopic but I just noticed your last name is Eastern European. Any roots there? 🙂
I’m surprised that the lady of the lake hasn’t asked this before =/. It does kind of seem like the first thing she’d say after being told of the situation.
Hang in there, Scott. We’ll be here 🙂
All these angles on her hair and all I can think of is: “How easily could I imitate that with caulk?” And then I ponder for some time.
Why is her hair super pink in this? when it is usually more red.
Hello Scott,
Not so good news, i hope you find some other ways to get money. Otherwise you can add a donation button on this site, then i will pay a small part.
I love this webcomic, and i dont want that the workstation breaks before you have get a new one.
greetings
Niels
Oh, Scott. That truly stinks. I’m so sorry to hear the bad news. We keep praying that something good will happen for you and your family. Hugs
Since Alex looks washed out, I’m assuming it’s really bright lighting.
No problems Scott. Would be happy to donate to the cause, and as someone already suggested – why not put up a donate button?
I’d offer you one of my old PC’s, but they probably aren’t much better than what you have now. Couple of dual core systems with 2-4Gb of memory.
I’d be happy with a less watery version for now, that was eventually replaced with a fully rendered one.. :/
My thought this morning was, “Hm, no new page. I really hope there’s nothing wrong with Scott’s computers. I’ll check the comments.” 🙁 Sometimes it’s not fun being right. And I’m sorry to hear about the contract falling through! I hope it all works out!
I think it’s supposed to be underwater light: very blue-green, with almost no red. Actually, the effect is quite realistic
Ah… the two most dreaded words in a student’s vocabulary: POP QUIZ!
Because he’s the King Dreamland deserves, but not the one it needs? ;P
Except that The Doctor was left with Daniel, I thought….
Okay, if that’s the case then ignore my comments from earlier. But, I thought they were one and the same….