Powerful words there, for someone like Shadowchild. He seems to be starting to think on his own. And, like all children, the first of his own thoughts are generally antagonizing towards attempts of *imposed* authority.
Hey, Sweetgrass? If you’re really so weakened and stretched out, I’d recommend you start retreating more or less about *now*. The kid’s gonna have a violent tantrum – and this kid is very strong.
this is breathtakingly awesome!
I love that shadowchild gets to look really evil and demon-ish at exactly the moment where he (she?) decides not to be! I knew he’d never eat their shadows. But I just don’t know if he stands a chance against Sweetgrass Voice… I hope shadowchild won’t get hurt!
There is a term for this: Crowning Moment of Awesome. Yeah, Shadowchild may be little and new, but I think Sweetgrass is gonna get bitten someplace unfomfortable even for shadow-demons..
Hot damn! Shadowchild is now angry (which is scary enough, which is amazing since it’s only a child, and SGV is obviously much bigger and meaner-looking, objectively speaking)…! And has come down decisively in the “anti-evil” camp.
Hot damn!
“Do you think answers come free in this world?” That’s a real interesting question. Clearly, many answers don’t come “free” in the sense that you often have to pay money (for previously-acquired expertise of someone else), or time (to aqcuire the required expertise your self), or effort (to seek the answer, or if nothing else, to find and ask someone for it). On the other hand, some answers are expected to be free, such as “who/what am I?” “what are the general details of the environment I exist in?” (i.e., why is the sky blue, what is the sun, etc).
Normally these “free” answers are provided by a parent figure (who knows them, due to being a parent figure), but Shadowchild doesn’t have one. It then usually becomes the responsibility of a surrogate parent to provide these answers– indeed, this is why there is so much effort to provide surrogate parenting, because we assume on some level that it is damaging to a sentient young to not have the “free” answers to the basic questions of existence.
Most interestingly, SC knows (now consciously) that even though Digger didn’t have complete answers to the “free” questions, Digger answered what she could as best she could, and stated that she would go to extra effort to find more comprehensive answers — for free, essentially paying any incurred costs herself. Which strongly implies (to a creature that is trying to learn “everything” from scratch) that the answer to the question “Who/What am I?” is not only extremely important to have answered (because even a stranger who doesn’t need the answer, and doesn’t know it, will search for the answer because it’s that important that SC have it), but that the answer is not only free to the asker, but that the surrogate answerer will even “pay” any unexpected additional costs in time and effort to get that answer, because it’s that important.
And here comes SGV, charging– a quite high price, even– for a basic answer that everyone else gets for free. An answer that all SC’s previous experience suggests that, even though it is somehow an unfortunate exception to the ordinarily automatic nature of receipt of this basic answer (hey, sometimes beings “fall through the cracks” as it were, and if that can be said to have ever happened to anyone, it has certainly happened to Shadowchild), remains an answer that it is its “inalienable right” to have, for free.
No wonder Shadowchild is rather seriously angry. Who wouldn’t be? If SGV has any sense in its “head”, it had better go back to where it stretched out from, because either SC is going to “punch” him in the “nose”, or it’s going to wake everybody up and get them to help punch him in the nose. If I was SGV (“Dammit, I’m a tempter, not a killer!”), I’d get out while the getting was good 🙂 .
Go, Shadowchild! Yeah!
Oh man, oh man, oh man…
Don’t die taking on Sweetgrass Voice, Shadowchild! <:o
I wonder what evil tastes like? I hope it doesn’t make Shadowchild sick…
Hm.. Watching Shadowchild amp up, I think it’s the demon of thistles or bramble roses or something, from the spiky look, combined with its usual tentacle-y sprouted-plant-ish pose.
One of my favorite strips is Wombat Morality, wherever that is. One of the basic moral ideas Digger gave SC was “Always doublecheck your math when you’re dealing with explosives.”
Perhaps SGV just discovered that SC _is_ explosives, so to speak. And somebody didn’t check their math.
Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Shadowchild when your “supply train” is stretched out too far… oh, I guess that’s the same basic blunder, isn’t it? 😀
I don’t think Shadowchild is going to kick anyone’s arse. Shadowchild’s a kid, and Sweetgrass is very old and presumably very powerful, since he was able to manipulate a god. If he’s threatened he’ll probably just snap back to where he came from.
GET HIM! WOOOOO!
Perhaps there are too many barbarian genes in my bloodline, but I’m all for wiping the floor with SGV!
*sets up cheering section for Shadowchild*
*makes popcorn*
Please Ursula you’ve gotta make t-shirts of that last panel ’cause it’s just too awsome. It kind of reminds me of a “Calvin & Hobbes” (i think that’s the english name) (I’m swedish) with Calvin with a similar grin saying “Today I’m dangerous” or something like that.
I also have to express a long tormented “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” ’cause I caught up. I tried to take it slow just to not catch up too quick, well well “the greatest plans of mice” and all.
Oh! and also keep up the good work with the comic, this is among top three of webcomics (IMHO)
I don’t foresee a combat here, though. I think it’s more likely that there’s a hasty retreat in SGV’s near future; it’s not a stupid creature by any means, and I’m sure it can see the score.
I see SGV retreating back to where it’s stretched from: the liver of He-Is, where SGV is anchored and still partially trapped. (IMHO, of course.)
Ohhhh my. Sweetgrass Voice did the one thing it should not do in this fragile circumstance: [i]insult[/i]. SC does not feel like an idiot, just lacking knowledge. Asking question upon question of Digger, the reaction once pushed “too much” was her being a little tired and asking to think to get the answer later. SV gets testy and loses patience. Digger never talked down to SC, but SV just did, and SC realises its intentions are not the same as Digger’s… and that its answers may not be worth the price.
So the fence sitting stops and the smackdown begins.
And yes, SV does have experience that needs less force to have effective results, so if there is combat, it will be ugly and unpredictable.
I know I accused Sweetgrass Voice of tactical stupidity two pages ago, but now I’m wondering if it isn’t actually playing the Deeper Game. By baiting and taunting the Shadowchild into aggression, is it bringing out Shadowchild’s inner demonic nature? Maybe Sweetgrass Voice is reenacting the Palpatine/Vader/Luke scene from “Return of the Jedi” (only with more subtlety and skill), and Shadowchild is about to “give in to the Dark Side.”
‘Course, if I were playing the odds, I’d say Sweetgrass Voice is about to beat a hasty retreat, so as not to have its rear end handed to it.
Oh MAN! I’ve been having so much fun eagerly reading through the archives, it’s both exciting and saddening to suddenly get to the current page. I love Digger’s honest cynicism, the slug’s cheeky charm, the hyenas constraining but amazing culture, and Shadowchild’s naive sensibilities. All of the characters have such depth and background! I’m totally going to buy hard copies of all the volumes so that I can read them over and over before bed! 😀
motub summed things up quite nicely, but forgot one important cosmic rule: “There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Free Lunch’.” Still, I agree to the point s/he makes, and will be cheering ShadowChild on as well.
I wonder… is ShadowChild = He-is before SGV took over?
=========================================================================
p.s. to Ursula: I have an avatar at Gravatar — see my brother’s blog at http://www.waynewirs.com — but it’s not showing up here. *scratches head*
Shadowchild may be trying for scary but I want to cuddle him.
Heh, *someone*’s in trouble now~!
Go shadowchild, even though you’re looking kinda scary and creepy! Just don’t gaze into the abyss too long.
Go shadowchild!
Ooooh crap. Here’s hoping demoncombat is instinctive rather than experienced based.
Go Shadowchild! Grow those teeth!
wow,
that’s the last thing i expected to happen lol
Oh it’s to bad that i go in vacation, i will think the entire week of what will happen next 😆
“But *I* think”
Powerful words there, for someone like Shadowchild. He seems to be starting to think on his own. And, like all children, the first of his own thoughts are generally antagonizing towards attempts of *imposed* authority.
Hey, Sweetgrass? If you’re really so weakened and stretched out, I’d recommend you start retreating more or less about *now*. The kid’s gonna have a violent tantrum – and this kid is very strong.
Sweeeet.
AHAHAHAH GO SHADOWCHILD!
I knew there was something about him I liked.
Answers do come free, sometimes. As Hawk said in the comments for the previous strip, Digger never asked for anything in return.
Wow. That’s like finding out a three year old (human) is more BA than you. And will eat you.
Oh hell yes. 😀
Ooh ooh! Is Shadowchild gonna eat Sweetgrass?! 😀 *hopeful*
AWESOME i got chills reading this i just hope shadow child doesn’t end up getting hurt
someone’s about to get their demon ass kicked!
this is breathtakingly awesome!
I love that shadowchild gets to look really evil and demon-ish at exactly the moment where he (she?) decides not to be! I knew he’d never eat their shadows. But I just don’t know if he stands a chance against Sweetgrass Voice… I hope shadowchild won’t get hurt!
Oh gods, he’s gonna diiiiiiie! I can’t look! I must look! Wake up, everyone! >_<
Goh, and I thought the last one was a cliffhanger and was so pleased it happened on a Tuesday, now this, THIS, on a Thursday!
I am so proud of Shadowchild, last strip he was so anguished, this strip he is empowered.
There is a term for this: Crowning Moment of Awesome. Yeah, Shadowchild may be little and new, but I think Sweetgrass is gonna get bitten someplace unfomfortable even for shadow-demons..
Hot damn! Shadowchild is now angry (which is scary enough, which is amazing since it’s only a child, and SGV is obviously much bigger and meaner-looking, objectively speaking)…! And has come down decisively in the “anti-evil” camp.
Hot damn!
“Do you think answers come free in this world?” That’s a real interesting question. Clearly, many answers don’t come “free” in the sense that you often have to pay money (for previously-acquired expertise of someone else), or time (to aqcuire the required expertise your self), or effort (to seek the answer, or if nothing else, to find and ask someone for it). On the other hand, some answers are expected to be free, such as “who/what am I?” “what are the general details of the environment I exist in?” (i.e., why is the sky blue, what is the sun, etc).
Normally these “free” answers are provided by a parent figure (who knows them, due to being a parent figure), but Shadowchild doesn’t have one. It then usually becomes the responsibility of a surrogate parent to provide these answers– indeed, this is why there is so much effort to provide surrogate parenting, because we assume on some level that it is damaging to a sentient young to not have the “free” answers to the basic questions of existence.
Most interestingly, SC knows (now consciously) that even though Digger didn’t have complete answers to the “free” questions, Digger answered what she could as best she could, and stated that she would go to extra effort to find more comprehensive answers — for free, essentially paying any incurred costs herself. Which strongly implies (to a creature that is trying to learn “everything” from scratch) that the answer to the question “Who/What am I?” is not only extremely important to have answered (because even a stranger who doesn’t need the answer, and doesn’t know it, will search for the answer because it’s that important that SC have it), but that the answer is not only free to the asker, but that the surrogate answerer will even “pay” any unexpected additional costs in time and effort to get that answer, because it’s that important.
And here comes SGV, charging– a quite high price, even– for a basic answer that everyone else gets for free. An answer that all SC’s previous experience suggests that, even though it is somehow an unfortunate exception to the ordinarily automatic nature of receipt of this basic answer (hey, sometimes beings “fall through the cracks” as it were, and if that can be said to have ever happened to anyone, it has certainly happened to Shadowchild), remains an answer that it is its “inalienable right” to have, for free.
No wonder Shadowchild is rather seriously angry. Who wouldn’t be? If SGV has any sense in its “head”, it had better go back to where it stretched out from, because either SC is going to “punch” him in the “nose”, or it’s going to wake everybody up and get them to help punch him in the nose. If I was SGV (“Dammit, I’m a tempter, not a killer!”), I’d get out while the getting was good 🙂 .
Go, Shadowchild! Yeah!
Soooooo, if Shadowchild eats Sweetgrass Voice, does it get the answers? Personality disorders? Indigestion?
Oh man, oh man, oh man…
Don’t die taking on Sweetgrass Voice, Shadowchild! <:o
I wonder what evil tastes like? I hope it doesn’t make Shadowchild sick…
Hm.. Watching Shadowchild amp up, I think it’s the demon of thistles or bramble roses or something, from the spiky look, combined with its usual tentacle-y sprouted-plant-ish pose.
One of my favorite strips is Wombat Morality, wherever that is. One of the basic moral ideas Digger gave SC was “Always doublecheck your math when you’re dealing with explosives.”
Perhaps SGV just discovered that SC _is_ explosives, so to speak. And somebody didn’t check their math.
That last panel was amazing. Chills and cheers for Shadowchild!
Shadowchild! You go, girl/boy/whatever.
Ursula, thanks for some of the greatest moments in comics….speaking as one who has read and collected them for over 30 years.
“So….you want to mess with my friends do you? I’m thinking……….NOT!”
Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Shadowchild when your “supply train” is stretched out too far… oh, I guess that’s the same basic blunder, isn’t it? 😀
Go Shadowchild! This is amazing. I love the progression in the last three panels.
I don’t think Shadowchild is going to kick anyone’s arse. Shadowchild’s a kid, and Sweetgrass is very old and presumably very powerful, since he was able to manipulate a god. If he’s threatened he’ll probably just snap back to where he came from.
GET HIM! WOOOOO!
Perhaps there are too many barbarian genes in my bloodline, but I’m all for wiping the floor with SGV!
*sets up cheering section for Shadowchild*
*makes popcorn*
WHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! GO SHADOW CHILD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Holy Sh*t! That literally gave me actual goosebumps! Good work Ursula!
Please Ursula you’ve gotta make t-shirts of that last panel ’cause it’s just too awsome. It kind of reminds me of a “Calvin & Hobbes” (i think that’s the english name) (I’m swedish) with Calvin with a similar grin saying “Today I’m dangerous” or something like that.
I also have to express a long tormented “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” ’cause I caught up. I tried to take it slow just to not catch up too quick, well well “the greatest plans of mice” and all.
Oh! and also keep up the good work with the comic, this is among top three of webcomics (IMHO)
Oh be careful shadowchild. Sweetgrass is weak, but a lot older and more powerful.
So what happens when a demon eats the shadows of another demon? My guess is it’s not good.
To paraphrase pretty much everyone else: woohoo!!
I don’t foresee a combat here, though. I think it’s more likely that there’s a hasty retreat in SGV’s near future; it’s not a stupid creature by any means, and I’m sure it can see the score.
I see SGV retreating back to where it’s stretched from: the liver of He-Is, where SGV is anchored and still partially trapped. (IMHO, of course.)
🙂
hooray for ShadowChild, a natural 20 on Discernment!
//does a little happy dance//
there is rejoicing, much rejoicing. possibly some Demon blood on the side, but still much rejoicing.
Ohhhh my. Sweetgrass Voice did the one thing it should not do in this fragile circumstance: [i]insult[/i]. SC does not feel like an idiot, just lacking knowledge. Asking question upon question of Digger, the reaction once pushed “too much” was her being a little tired and asking to think to get the answer later. SV gets testy and loses patience. Digger never talked down to SC, but SV just did, and SC realises its intentions are not the same as Digger’s… and that its answers may not be worth the price.
So the fence sitting stops and the smackdown begins.
And yes, SV does have experience that needs less force to have effective results, so if there is combat, it will be ugly and unpredictable.
Yes! Go little ShadowChild!
Unfortunately, it’s very possible that this could not end well for ShadowChild.
I know I accused Sweetgrass Voice of tactical stupidity two pages ago, but now I’m wondering if it isn’t actually playing the Deeper Game. By baiting and taunting the Shadowchild into aggression, is it bringing out Shadowchild’s inner demonic nature? Maybe Sweetgrass Voice is reenacting the Palpatine/Vader/Luke scene from “Return of the Jedi” (only with more subtlety and skill), and Shadowchild is about to “give in to the Dark Side.”
‘Course, if I were playing the odds, I’d say Sweetgrass Voice is about to beat a hasty retreat, so as not to have its rear end handed to it.
Oh, I want Digger to wake up to hear what Shadowchild just said! She’d be so proud! In her grumbly wombat way, of course.
Argent Stonecutter- hah! I saw that movie yesterday (at least some of it)!
And to go with David- I also am feeling a bit like Sweetgrass Voice is pulling an Emperor Palpatine.
Still, I’m cheering all the way for Shadowchild- and also for a possible t-shirt.
Go, Shadowchild! I cannot wait to see what happens now…I do hope Digger wakes up soon.
YES!
That last panel is both terrifying and wonderful. Good luck, Shadowchild!
Oh MAN! I’ve been having so much fun eagerly reading through the archives, it’s both exciting and saddening to suddenly get to the current page. I love Digger’s honest cynicism, the slug’s cheeky charm, the hyenas constraining but amazing culture, and Shadowchild’s naive sensibilities. All of the characters have such depth and background! I’m totally going to buy hard copies of all the volumes so that I can read them over and over before bed! 😀
Awesome. I don’t care if Shadowchild gets curb-stomped here; this moment is made of awesome.
Yes! I am happy! I am thrilled! I am also a bit scared of Shadowchild!
motub summed things up quite nicely, but forgot one important cosmic rule: “There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Free Lunch’.” Still, I agree to the point s/he makes, and will be cheering ShadowChild on as well.
I wonder… is ShadowChild = He-is before SGV took over?
=========================================================================
p.s. to Ursula: I have an avatar at Gravatar — see my brother’s blog at http://www.waynewirs.com — but it’s not showing up here. *scratches head*
YAAY! For all the bad news I’ve had today, this at least makes me very happy. *joins the mantra* GO SHADOWCHILD GO!
Go, Shadowchild, go! Wooo! *The tiger forms a cheering squad, complete with pompoms, horns, and leaders for the Wave.*