Seriously? That’s it? The ultimate villain is revealed, spends a couple dozen pages blabbing his own abilities and plans, then dies to the most obvious solution to his defenses imaginable? He literally told both of them that each of his forms was only immune to one of their weapons. If this isn’t a fakeout, I’m gonna be massively let down. This is a classic storytelling mistake of not being able to make a character seem smart enough, so you just make their opponent a moron instead. Please don’t tell me this is actually the final climax in this story.
On the contrary. it very accurately reflects real life. Extreme arrogance, and crowing about opponents ‘mistakes’ often leads people to reveal the vary things they should keep quiet.
Just what i am thinking. Gilgamesh so had it coming. In his arrogance he blabbed around. Mebbe he didnt get that alex regained consciousness inbetween and was ready for the stab. Just the little things. I do l7ke this. Its plain and simple. Dont need no elaborate tricksiness to slay the villain at this stage. 😉
Gilgamesh: “Now you must defeat me in my dust form! BWAHAHAHA!”
Consuela: “No, is too dust…” *starts vacuuming*
Gilgamesh: “Noooooooooo!”
Nicodemus; breaking the fourth wall: “What? All you readers thought the nightmare realm stayed this clean by the handiwork of gargoyles and werewolves and such?”
Consuela: “Mister Demus, we out of the lemon pledge.”
Oh Alex, literally everyone figured that out. But we love you for you.
That’d be quite the twist if this was all a trick and the real Gilgamesh was behind a curtain or something. But if his goons don’t suddenly stop doing what they’re doing, how are Nicole (and thus Dan) and the rest of the gang going to survive the next few minutes?
Well, the story is winding down. Sadly. 🙁 I’m kinda looking forward to what happens now that the control center of the nightmare realm is poof. And the story wrap up.
I am going to have to try getting the whole set of books once the last one is out. Now that my finances are better behaved.
Well, think of the 2070 or so previous pages, or the 400 (?) pages since we know the dragon is not the main villain – this took time to evolve, and the solution (a perfect fit to the brothers, brilliant idea!) was not at all obvious until Gil explained his power in the last 2-3 pages.
Gil is babbling too much – perhaps we could improve by having Gil saying less, and Dan guessing/deducting a bit more [so change a bit the dialogs].
But all in all, a very satisfying solution giving room ro both brothers! Brilliant!
Of course, this is not the final end… but still, makes me sad to know we are now really coming to a close – sort of like a “return to the shire” feeling with only one more good chapter… after so many years of dreamland beeing a regular part of my life!
It would be interesting if Nicodemus decides to take over the nightmare realm. Now that the common enemy has been defeated and there is a power vacuum he might go for that move. Given that he’s near death, he may do something awful and drain the kids of their remaining energy to save himself; that would put enmity between the Dreamland people and Nicodemus and set the stage for the Dreamland Chronicles II!
And now…we wait for Nicodemus. Which, frankly, would be AMAZING if he turned out to be the final villain! That said, I’m also hoping for Nic’s redemption.
So torn!!! Love that they defeated Gil, but sad that this is signalling how close we are to the end of this comic. Really want Nic to not be a total jerk and be redeemed instead of trying to live off the kiddos’ energy, but also want there to be a “final boss” type battle involving an irrepressible dragon drunk on human life-force.
Not only that, but it was a war against an invasion force. True, no one else knew about it, but anyone with enough details about the death to put together a conviction, would also understand this.
Technically, this was part of war, wasn’t it? And even if not, what jurisdiction would apply here? Gilgamesh’s? Dan’s? Nastajia’s father’s? I think they are clear.
The thing that makes this work is the set up. It took both brothers. If Alex hadn’t leaped through the portal with Excalibur so that he could be present in Dreamland in his own body, Dan could have done nothing. It’s nothing Gilgamesh could have anticipated. It took the combined – and different- abilities of the brothers to bring it off.
I took it as the force of impact from being run through by Excalibur. If that was the escaping energy, it was over way too quickly.
Honestly I expected a more spectacular display, somewhere up there with Raiders of the Lost Ark or Sauron in Lord of the Rings. A dazzling light show. Violent bursts of energy erupting from Gil and reviving the kids. All the minions disintegrating one by one. and finally it all ends with poor stupid Gilgamesh slumping over and crumbling into dust. I’m just saying the way the fight ended was pretty underwhelming.
I had a feeling it would play out this way, I mean two sword forged in two worlds in the place? Who didn’t see that coming? Anyway, I get the feeling that even though he’s dead it’s not gonna be that easy to beat him.
I think it was perfect just because of that. For all his arrogant ranting, Gilgamesh wound up as nothing more than a quick poof and a pile of dust. That’s how things work: the bad guy rarely dies in a massive drama build-up and explosion– except in Dirty Harry movies. And there is no theme music when he bites the dust. (Hmmm dat a unintentional pun. My dwagon powers must be strong today!) 😀
While this may seem odd and “obvious” (wasn’t obvious to me. I only a dwagon)… this is pretty much how things work. Bad guys usually perish by being stabbed in the back, shot when they least expect it, or rot in jail. I know this is a fantasy novel, but the typical Hollywood ending (almost there… almost there… BOOM!) just doesn’t happen all that much. Usually the bad guy doesn’t go out in a blaze of glory, but rather a very quick reaping of consequences. STAB! Gone!
But what does this mean for those monsters in the real world? Did Alex and Dan just save Nicole by obliterating the unifier of the ABADDON? Seems like shit is about to wrap up once and for all. Nik is currently considering eating the souls of the children to save his own life, so is he really going to force them to kill him? That said, this will be only the 2nd web comic I’ve ever seen come to an actual conclusion. The other one was Red String, which I started reading around the same time as this, but it finished years ago. I guess it didn’t help there was years worth of gap in this story.
TBH I’d kinda like the whole thing redone in this style. That 3D model style I always considered to be kinda butt ugly and if I was ever to buy a printed omnibus I’d want it to be consistent start to finish. Not trying to be overly critical, I don’t usually stay with things I find to be ugly, so that’s just how invested in the story I was. I hope you can contract your artist to go back and redo the rest of it.
i don’t see anyone mention it buti think Gil only vanished in his earth form. To me that means he’s not longer a vulnerable large guy, but still somehow has his dream body. you know the one with the full armor that could prove a challenge still.
He died in dreamland and has the ability to switch at will. I’m confident that this isn’t over yet. surely nic will have to play a part in this too
Consider reading Redtail’s Dream. It is a complete story start to finish and is still high on Top Webcomics. It was done by the same artist that now writes Stand Still Stay Silent.
He used most of that energy just to leave his magical life support system. Don’t worry about the kids we still have Nic running around-and one thing Nic’s good for is showmanship!
I’m still lovin it… but please PLEASE! Don’t end this without Gils backstory… I mean more of it… was the chapter art just a tease? How did the first king of humans and dreamlanders go bad? How did he discover he could prey on children’s nightmares? Was Nic around? Was the sword of kings around? Or created to stop anyone else. Must. Know. Backstory.
Dan mentions in this page that Gilgamesh couldn’t be in both forms at once. Gilgamesh was still one person, that could switch between forms at will, but since each sword was harmless to one form, but lethal to the other, he couldn’t survive being hit by both at once. If he did switch to his dream form, he would immediately be suffering a fatal blow from Dan’s sword, instead.
So, dying in his earth form, means his consciousness, and thus his will, is gone, so he can’t change forms at will. If he’d tried to do so to avoid death, Dan would have been able to finish him off immediately.
Him turning to dust shows that he didn’t transfer somewhere else to be in his dream form, and is reverting to what should have happened to him if he weren’t draining life from the kids for thousands of years to sustain himself.
That was somewhat anticlimactic. What happened to all the accumulated energy inside Gil that was sucked out of the children?
He used that to survive.
also, the comic is obviously nearing its end.
So saaad.
Mondays page, in the background ……. “Noooooooooooh,” from nick ” i was not ready, why”.
Then how did Arthur exist in between for some long?
Err, … “so long” (autocorrect–)
Seriously? That’s it? The ultimate villain is revealed, spends a couple dozen pages blabbing his own abilities and plans, then dies to the most obvious solution to his defenses imaginable? He literally told both of them that each of his forms was only immune to one of their weapons. If this isn’t a fakeout, I’m gonna be massively let down. This is a classic storytelling mistake of not being able to make a character seem smart enough, so you just make their opponent a moron instead. Please don’t tell me this is actually the final climax in this story.
It’s not over… no way is it over…
On the contrary. it very accurately reflects real life. Extreme arrogance, and crowing about opponents ‘mistakes’ often leads people to reveal the vary things they should keep quiet.
To me, the story line works perfectly.
Congratulations, kids! You are now murderers!
Okay, it was definitely legitimate defense and the person had no legal existence anyway, but yeah.
I expected some final words. Oh well.
Classic Hero Mistake #140
Celebrating too early after defeating the boss.
Ummm…. I don’t think you’re gonna be able to prove that in any Court… I mean- among other things- there’s no Body! 😛
Just what i am thinking. Gilgamesh so had it coming. In his arrogance he blabbed around. Mebbe he didnt get that alex regained consciousness inbetween and was ready for the stab. Just the little things. I do l7ke this. Its plain and simple. Dont need no elaborate tricksiness to slay the villain at this stage. 😉
Gilgamesh: “Now you must defeat me in my dust form! BWAHAHAHA!”
Consuela: “No, is too dust…” *starts vacuuming*
Gilgamesh: “Noooooooooo!”
Nicodemus; breaking the fourth wall: “What? All you readers thought the nightmare realm stayed this clean by the handiwork of gargoyles and werewolves and such?”
Consuela: “Mister Demus, we out of the lemon pledge.”
Nicodemus: “Just use the other stuff.”
Consuela: “No, no, we need the lemon pledge.”
Do they? I dont see it that way. Just a blip of Astonishment on Alex side.
Too easy…
Now Nic’s going to do something stupid, is he?
Oh, this SO needs to be a page! Even if it’s fan art. Love your sense of humor, Exxos! =)
Agh, you just had to say that, din’tcha. You’ve heard of Murphy’s Law, right?
Oh Alex, literally everyone figured that out. But we love you for you.
That’d be quite the twist if this was all a trick and the real Gilgamesh was behind a curtain or something. But if his goons don’t suddenly stop doing what they’re doing, how are Nicole (and thus Dan) and the rest of the gang going to survive the next few minutes?
Or maybe they won’t. *insert ominous music*
Don’t stand there talking, go help your friends. Then get out. Bad Things are likely to happen as soon as the dust settles.
Well, the story is winding down. Sadly. 🙁 I’m kinda looking forward to what happens now that the control center of the nightmare realm is poof. And the story wrap up.
I am going to have to try getting the whole set of books once the last one is out. Now that my finances are better behaved.
“Now you must defeat me in my dust form! BWAHAHAHA!”
I swear I had that exact thought.
It was followed by the thought that one of these brothers sets a pretty low bar in the IQ department.
Also, we only even KNEW he was the ultimate villain for a pretty short time..
Well, think of the 2070 or so previous pages, or the 400 (?) pages since we know the dragon is not the main villain – this took time to evolve, and the solution (a perfect fit to the brothers, brilliant idea!) was not at all obvious until Gil explained his power in the last 2-3 pages.
Gil is babbling too much – perhaps we could improve by having Gil saying less, and Dan guessing/deducting a bit more [so change a bit the dialogs].
But all in all, a very satisfying solution giving room ro both brothers! Brilliant!
Of course, this is not the final end… but still, makes me sad to know we are now really coming to a close – sort of like a “return to the shire” feeling with only one more good chapter… after so many years of dreamland beeing a regular part of my life!
ow, and PS: I hope Nick did something good like saving all the kids from the evil base crumbling; I want to believe that dragons cannot die evil!
It would be interesting if Nicodemus decides to take over the nightmare realm. Now that the common enemy has been defeated and there is a power vacuum he might go for that move. Given that he’s near death, he may do something awful and drain the kids of their remaining energy to save himself; that would put enmity between the Dreamland people and Nicodemus and set the stage for the Dreamland Chronicles II!
This does seem a little too easy. Don’t let your guard down yet guys!
That’s what I’m thinking. Nic still has something up his sleeve now that he knows where Gil’s power came from.
I know I’m totally sponging off @Kailunn from yesterday’s comments for this, but you should have written that as:
Bad things are likely to happen as soon as…
( •_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
…the dust settles.
Though people were predicting Gilgamesh was “the dreamer” ages ago.
Well, and the alternative is a potentially bloody kill, and this is a family comic.
And all the nightmare creatures they killed wasn’t murder?
And now…we wait for Nicodemus. Which, frankly, would be AMAZING if he turned out to be the final villain! That said, I’m also hoping for Nic’s redemption.
Poor Gilgamesh–he wasn’t a bad guy, he was just drawn that way…
You mean the energy that we saw escaping him when he was stabbed by Alex? 🙂 We’ll probably find out next week.
Arthur was existing between worlds…not in two forms at once. 🙂 It’s a little different I’d guess.
BAHAHAHAHA!!! Consuela defeating Dust Gil was good, but “Mister Demus, we out of the lemon Pledge” made me choke laughing. 😀
YEEEEAAAAHHH!!!
XD
So torn!!! Love that they defeated Gil, but sad that this is signalling how close we are to the end of this comic. Really want Nic to not be a total jerk and be redeemed instead of trying to live off the kiddos’ energy, but also want there to be a “final boss” type battle involving an irrepressible dragon drunk on human life-force.
Thus marks the demise of the Dreamer…..or is it too early to celebrate????
Not only that, but it was a war against an invasion force. True, no one else knew about it, but anyone with enough details about the death to put together a conviction, would also understand this.
Technically, this was part of war, wasn’t it? And even if not, what jurisdiction would apply here? Gilgamesh’s? Dan’s? Nastajia’s father’s? I think they are clear.
You fools! Now you face my FINAL FORM!
The thing that makes this work is the set up. It took both brothers. If Alex hadn’t leaped through the portal with Excalibur so that he could be present in Dreamland in his own body, Dan could have done nothing. It’s nothing Gilgamesh could have anticipated. It took the combined – and different- abilities of the brothers to bring it off.
I took it as the force of impact from being run through by Excalibur. If that was the escaping energy, it was over way too quickly.
Honestly I expected a more spectacular display, somewhere up there with Raiders of the Lost Ark or Sauron in Lord of the Rings. A dazzling light show. Violent bursts of energy erupting from Gil and reviving the kids. All the minions disintegrating one by one. and finally it all ends with poor stupid Gilgamesh slumping over and crumbling into dust. I’m just saying the way the fight ended was pretty underwhelming.
Scott, you’re a genius.
I had a feeling it would play out this way, I mean two sword forged in two worlds in the place? Who didn’t see that coming? Anyway, I get the feeling that even though he’s dead it’s not gonna be that easy to beat him.
WOOHOOO! Victory! Now were they in time?….
OF COURSE THEY WERE! 😀
… and a follow-up, as a dwagon I’m just gonna say that if Nik doesn’t turn out to be a good guy I’m gonna bite someone in da HINEY BUTT!
Gotta realize too: the KING makes the law and has the right to pass judgement. So as King… YOU DIE, TOAD! That’s all it takes. 😀
I think it was perfect just because of that. For all his arrogant ranting, Gilgamesh wound up as nothing more than a quick poof and a pile of dust. That’s how things work: the bad guy rarely dies in a massive drama build-up and explosion– except in Dirty Harry movies. And there is no theme music when he bites the dust. (Hmmm dat a unintentional pun. My dwagon powers must be strong today!) 😀
While this may seem odd and “obvious” (wasn’t obvious to me. I only a dwagon)… this is pretty much how things work. Bad guys usually perish by being stabbed in the back, shot when they least expect it, or rot in jail. I know this is a fantasy novel, but the typical Hollywood ending (almost there… almost there… BOOM!) just doesn’t happen all that much. Usually the bad guy doesn’t go out in a blaze of glory, but rather a very quick reaping of consequences. STAB! Gone!
But soooo deserved! 😀
“Noooo I can’t be defeated this way… noooo….” *boop*
But what does this mean for those monsters in the real world? Did Alex and Dan just save Nicole by obliterating the unifier of the ABADDON? Seems like shit is about to wrap up once and for all. Nik is currently considering eating the souls of the children to save his own life, so is he really going to force them to kill him? That said, this will be only the 2nd web comic I’ve ever seen come to an actual conclusion. The other one was Red String, which I started reading around the same time as this, but it finished years ago. I guess it didn’t help there was years worth of gap in this story.
TBH I’d kinda like the whole thing redone in this style. That 3D model style I always considered to be kinda butt ugly and if I was ever to buy a printed omnibus I’d want it to be consistent start to finish. Not trying to be overly critical, I don’t usually stay with things I find to be ugly, so that’s just how invested in the story I was. I hope you can contract your artist to go back and redo the rest of it.
Gilgamesh shoulda went on the offensive more instead of talking crap.
Huh. No last villain speech? Curse you all, I’ll be back? No? Oh well.
Sic transit gloria mundi 🙂
i don’t see anyone mention it buti think Gil only vanished in his earth form. To me that means he’s not longer a vulnerable large guy, but still somehow has his dream body. you know the one with the full armor that could prove a challenge still.
He died in dreamland and has the ability to switch at will. I’m confident that this isn’t over yet. surely nic will have to play a part in this too
Consider reading Redtail’s Dream. It is a complete story start to finish and is still high on Top Webcomics. It was done by the same artist that now writes Stand Still Stay Silent.
Could you say he was drawn to the dark side?
……
I’ll show myself out.
He used most of that energy just to leave his magical life support system. Don’t worry about the kids we still have Nic running around-and one thing Nic’s good for is showmanship!
I’m still lovin it… but please PLEASE! Don’t end this without Gils backstory… I mean more of it… was the chapter art just a tease? How did the first king of humans and dreamlanders go bad? How did he discover he could prey on children’s nightmares? Was Nic around? Was the sword of kings around? Or created to stop anyone else. Must. Know. Backstory.
Also a prediction: Nic’s totally going to heroically save the kids as a final act of redemption
I would say that Nic will take over as King of the Nightmare Realm, because it needs to exist, “Keeping the balance” and all that.
Dan mentions in this page that Gilgamesh couldn’t be in both forms at once. Gilgamesh was still one person, that could switch between forms at will, but since each sword was harmless to one form, but lethal to the other, he couldn’t survive being hit by both at once. If he did switch to his dream form, he would immediately be suffering a fatal blow from Dan’s sword, instead.
So, dying in his earth form, means his consciousness, and thus his will, is gone, so he can’t change forms at will. If he’d tried to do so to avoid death, Dan would have been able to finish him off immediately.
Him turning to dust shows that he didn’t transfer somewhere else to be in his dream form, and is reverting to what should have happened to him if he weren’t draining life from the kids for thousands of years to sustain himself.
Its Mega Maid! She’s gone from suck to blow!!!