Page 1248…
Well? Hope you enjoyed this week.
Next week will will be explosive.
Can’t wait for you to read it.
Thank you again for reading along, posting comments, checking out our advertisers, and everything else you do.
We (my family and I) all appreciate it so much.
Have a wonderful weekend.
And don’t forget to check out Ed’s Terrestrials…and some of our advertisers.
🙂
Of course not today. It takes weeks to arrange for a transfer of power.
Wow…
Just spent the day reading this from page one.
Yes, I have nothing better to do.
I must say I’m completely hooked, and the Princess Bride references helped a lot.
A wonderful story and unique artwork for a webcomic.
Bravo
Hmmmm…. Gotta say this.
MORTAL COMBAT!
Welcome, fellow Dreamer!
dun, dun, dun, dun, dun DUN, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun dun ….
(Hey, you implanted that song in my head; I had to get it out somehow!)
😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWnJyKQACXA
😉
Slight bit of ambiguity there, Scott – Does Nicodemus mean “It shall not be this [human]” sitting on the throne of Dreamland one day, or does he mean “It shall not be this [day]” that a human sits on the throne of Dreamland?
If not today, then when? Did Nic just admit his own defeat? Can’t wait for monday!
I think Nick’s saying he’s okay with the idea of a human on the throne, just not Alex.
Nicodemus has indeed grown older, but he had never grown up…..
I think Nicodemus is saying a human will sit upon the throne one day, but not while he is still alive.
I would love to see Alex say something along the lines of, “I agree. That’s why we’ve been working out a way for my brother to come here, since he is the older one, and thus the rightful ruler.”
I bet Nick is still holding a grudge against Alex for slashing at his eye…
Yeah, looks like “one day, but not this one” to me. Though there’s indeed room for confusion. SCOTT! Cleanup on aisle 1248! :p
I believe when he said “But not THIS one” he might be referring to the fact that he doesn’t wish Alex to be the ruler. Also may be referring to the day itself, or both…..hah
We know it won’t be today, Nicky. And it won’t be tomorrow, either, because tomorrow’s a Saturday.
So come Monday and you might just be out of a job. 🙂
Could he possibly mean that since Alex wasn’t the first born that he isn’t the rightful ruler and thus “This One” means that Alex won’t rule because Dan is the next in line?
I lol’d XD
Just stab him while he’s monologuing, Alex! Come on!
In a way, that he himself probably does not realize ,ol Nic is right….
I thought along similar lines as well, but I want to see what Nic does next.
It sounds to me like Nic’s taking lessons from Aragorn.
“A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of Fellowship, but it is not this day!”
That’s it, Nic! Positive role models! … Either that or he really just doesn’t want Alex ruling…
Crap, is he gonna turn Omnicidal Maniac on us?
The problem is… if I remember correctly, both Alex and Dan cannot be in Dreamland at the same time. If that’s the case, and Dan is to rule, what becomes of Alex and Nas?? (from the od bat man seris: Stay tuned that that bat channel)
Actually, I’ve been wondering what is happening with Dan. Those wraiths can travel to earth. They attacked Merlin. I don’t see why they can’t go after Dan and Nicole.
Funny…I read it like “It shall not be this Dreamland you know”…as in the peaceful Dreamland that is only occasionally visited by Nightmare Realm characters who are trying to kidnap kiddos. I figured that Nic was referencing an all out war between the realms.
I’ve been worried about that, too…
*snort*
I need a more humorous avatar.
Thank you Ferrret.
And welcome.
🙂
This is when we all remeber that we are talking to a giant, fire breathing lizard who would be more then happy to kill everyone.
It’s Friday, right?
Ahh, bring on Monday!
Nice cliff-hanger Scott!!
My take on Nic’s parting comment is not this day. I would guess he would say something denigrating about Alex if he meant him, such as ” … not this boy.”
This isn’t that confusing. When taken in account all of the dealings Nic has had with Alex, and as Alex is the only Human in the room, it’s obvious he means that Alex will not rule Dreamland. Hence he will attack Alex.
Of course if someone wishes to read the panel a half dozen times and implant other meanings in the phrase, it could be seen to mean that a human will rule Dreamland but not ‘today’. This means that Alex, as the only human in the room, will not be the one to take the throne if Nic can help it.
Either way means that Nic will not accept Alex as the human ruler, which he would in fact be due to the simple fact that he has the sword. Hence next week “When dragons attack!” for your regularly scheduled viewing pleasure. 🙂
a cliffhanger!?
Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu~!
*shakes fist at the sky*
I need to read moreeeeeeeeee~! It is so good and now its friday and I have to wait! Whyyyy?~
So much dialogue. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Felicity snoring in the next page, then wake up and say “Huh? What? Are we fighting now?”
Did nobody catch the blatant LOTR referance? (or is that just my obsession playing tricks on me?)
To quote comedian Dara O’Briain;
“It’s a monarchy- YOU don’t get to pick!”
I didn’t realize Nic may not be referring to “not today” until i read the comments… but I’m still confused as to why Nic would concede that humans may rule one day, regardless of if he meant “not today” or “not alex”.. or even “not this dreamland”…
And does Bognok mean that they’ve already done all the preparations necessary to put a human on the throne? Since he says “seen to that” in the past tense? Or just in terms of taking over Astoria?
Dan can’t actually even enter Dreamland. He has tried, and gone through extremely obscure methods that make sense to him to do. Every single one has failed him so far. Alex can only enter Dreamland now because of the sword. Alex being the only adult who can get to Dreamland is the ruler by default. Combine that with the fact that way back in chapter 1 he pulled the sword out of a stone and Arthurian legend law says he is the king. Dan never got to do any of this stuff because he can’t even enter Dreamland. In midieval times if the eldest son was unable to rule, then the responsibility fell to the second eldest, being the second in line for succession, in this case that would be Alex.
fight fight fight fight !
im going to go with a bet that the dragon had a back up plan but i could be wrong he is arrogant after all.
I bet you thought this up when Bush was stepping down for Obama, right? There were some people that were expecting this exact confrontation, maybe even verbage.
My old D&D group was notorious for pulling this stunt.
Me encantan los anuncios de M & M en español
Nicky turns around and hits the big red button saying, ‘PANIC’. Several beeps. Connection click.
Voice: Dear Valued Customer! Bottomless Pit Customer Support is pleased to greet you.
Nicodemus: Put me through to Abaddon.
Voice: Your call is very important to us.
Nicodemus: It’s urgent!
Voice: Please stay on line. Your call will be answered in [click] two [click] days [click] seven [click] hours and [click] fifteen [click] minutes.
Nicodemus: AAARGH! (To Bognok.) See what your precious humans did to Nightmare Realm?
Bognok: What? Sounds like a decent nightmare to me.
I guess I’ll drop the grammar bomb this time.
“Next *week* will be explosive.”
You can get me on the next one, Scott.
I got it! Nic quoting Aragorn, no less…
Man! Nic just has to have the last word! Famous last words, I figure…
I see a lot of people are caught up and confused on Nic’s ambiguous phrasing there. I noticed it too and, well, I figure it’s possible that the double/triple meaning was intentional. I mean, why settle for a phrase that exclusively means one thing when you can be vague and include more than one meaning, both/all of which are relevant? 😉
Hmm… for me it was somehow clear that it was “this day”, as in as long as Nicodemus is still there/alive – and I didn’t even realize that it is a bit ambiguous before I read this post. Well, I guess, since so many different people have different opinions, we can agree that it’s not clear at all. 🙂
If there was a “flag as inappropriate” button in these comments, this is where I would click it.
No offense intended, but this level of political vitriol is best left elsewhere, in my humble opinion. Some of us come to sites like this to get away from that sort of thing …
😉
At first I wondered if I should try and predict what is going to happen. But I guess I just wanna see how it plays out. You go and blow us away Scott! 😉
I hope Alex kills Nic.
Yeah, Nick, we get it. Allex IS a bit of a goofball, but he’s getting there. I mean…I know Dan was supposed to be kind and he’d be a great leader and all, but give the kid a chance. He’s trying and…oh wait. You just hate him, right?
Never mind.
Er…correct that…”Dan was supposed to be king…” Although he’s pretty kind, too. 😉
I think Nic is just scared of Alex and of what he can and/ or might do. From the begining hes been saying that humans are bad and shouldnt be allowed in dreamland even as kids let alone be king and ruler of dreamland. Why would an all powerful dragon not even want kids in dreamland? Simple hes just scared and afraid to admit it and now hes trying to bully everyone because of it. Alex give him a giant wedgie! So to speak. 🙂
Don’t we have to get him to wear a costume with a cloak first?
Oop.
Fixed it.
Thanks!
I’ve been wondering what the wraiths were doing also. I have a little theory on what they might do. Yes they can travel to earth but they can’t physically harm anyone. What they can do is pull someone into the Nightmare Realm and possibly trap them there. Not sure if that would work on Dan or not but I think it might since the Nightmare Realm is not Dreamland. Just a little theory that I came up with.
Actually Nic hasn’t said that all humans are bad. He’s seen good kings and bad kings in his lifetime. Nic doesn’t like humans because they can be evil and he doesn’t want evil in dreamland. I think the wraiths have used this to twist Nic around their little fingers and Nic doesn’t even realize it. Also since the wraiths can travel to earth what’s to stop them from whispering in people’s ears and twisting them around to make them evil? Maybe someone will clue Nic in on this and he’ll be furious at being manipulated like that. That would be interesting to see.
Gasp! Nic’s a rasist! 😛 No, just kidding. hehe. 🙂
To those guys who are wondering what Nic means: Why don’t we wait until the next installment to find out, hmmm…? 🙂
use mine 😀
Actually to quote a famous hobgoblin “I’m not a racist, I hate all races of humans equally.”
Dang, where’s a witty Silverwolf comment when you need it? (This is what I look forward too after the comic!)
And I thought I was the only one who was thinking that line. “But it is not this day!” Such an awesome movie.
Nicodemus had an interesting back history, and I cannot say unwarranted reasons for wanting to usurp the throne. Arther was idealistic, but I do not think that bringing more people to dreamland was a good idea.
Since then though it seems like the power has gone to his head. Nicodemus is certainly not ruling dreamland for the good of dreamland anymore. It seems to be more for his own interests now. Power corrupts, right?
Sometimes I wonder if Nicodemus is just lonely and needs to find a female dragon friend…
i thought he meant this day as well, or else he’d be pointing at alex or at least looking at him instead of the elf king. plus, it sounds better in my head
It appears to me that Nicodemus is actually well spoken, with a firm grasp of the English language (which seems to be the lingua-franca of Dreamland). Therefore, if he had meant “not this day, but another day”, he would have said “not today”.
On the other hand, since “A human” is the main/primary subject of his sentence, it would seem to imply that “not this one” is again referring to the human (in this case, Alex).
So, in character, the only way I see to interpret the sentence, is to say that he is saying that Alex is not the human who may rule Dreamland some day. He may have various reasons to say so, such as an undeclared intent to breathe fire on Alex, or some other military strategy that would prevent Alex from capitalizing on his new control of Astoria, or some other reason altogether.
The only reason I see that would make that sentence ambiguous, would be the meta reason of the author wanting to keep us in the dark. As far as in character, the character of Nic is well versed enough in the language to read it as “not this human”, for whatever reason he has in his mind.
Add to that the fact that he does seem to harbor contempt for Alex, viewing him as below par, not good enough, and that would encourage that reading, in my mind. I.e. some human may very well manage to reclaim the ruleship of Dreamland, some day, but this puny, insignificant guy right here just doesn’t have what it takes to do so.
My two cents worth, anyway…
hats this? A very distant relative of the pun?
Actually, I think Nic might mean all 3, or at least 2 of them (if latter, my bet is that he means not Alex and not this day).
You win an internet.
And absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I agree, it makes little sense to insist that it’s one or the other when they can ALL be equally applicable. Here here.
Or maybe they can only mess with someone if they have the potential for magic, or when they’re working magic.. or.. well stuff like that. Perhaps there are only certain circumstances they can interfere with our world.
You make a very well-reasoned argument, but I have to disagree slightly.
From a grammatical viewpoint, Nicodemus’ words are ambiguous. In the second to last panel, Nick starts a sentence with “A human may very well rule Dreamland one day … ”
Your analysis of this part of the sentence is accurate, as far as it goes: “A human” is the subject of the sentence. Going beyond that, “may rule” is the verb, “Dreamland” is the object, and “very well” and “one day” are modifiers.
Now, the second part of the sentence, in the last panel, is where things actually get ambiguous: ” … but it shall not be this one.” Subordinate clause, with “it” as the subject, “shall [not] be” as the verb, and “this one” as the object. The preposition “it” is actually where the ambiguity lies; “it” could refer to “a human” or “one day”. Either would be a valid interpretation, grammatically and logically.
Ironically, though, “this one” (on which everyone else has focused) is less ambiguous grammatically, but is the better choice for clearing up the ambiguity of the sentence. Either “this human” or “this day”, depending on Scott’s intentions, would perfectly clarify the sentence. Replacing “it” with either “Alexander” or “today” would also clarify the sentence, but it wouldn’t sound as good.
[pedantic mode = off]
😉
This is where you’re going to kill off somebody, right?
Bognok: There will be a human on the throne! We’ve seen to that!
Nik: How do you know about this?!
Bognok: I asked a fortune teller. She told me everything we needed to know.
Nik: NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CURSES TO YOU FORTUNE-TELLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yes.
dear Scott, please get the guy who played the Sicilian to play Nicodemus.
He also plays Rex in Toy Story.
Sincerely,
A fan
Sadly, we don’t have any Andre the Giants, men seeking revenge against their father’s murderer, rats that live in fire-swamps, sicilians betting when death is on the line or Dread pirates. But! We do have some assortments of giant green men, dragons, dwarves, fae, elves, and mer-folk. Oh, and a magick sword!
I agree that the second part of the statement can be considered ambiguous, because of the use of “it”, rather than a more defined subject, but only on a meta level, because the author chose those words to leave us in the dark. My point is that “this one” seems to me to be a demonstrative clause (for lack of a better word), wherein one points to that which is being referred to (too bad we can’t see Nic pointing at Alex, or anything…)
My point is that, while grammatically acceptable (barely), “this one” would not normally be used to designate a time frame, but rather to point to an object, a place, a person. And since Nic is decidedly well versed in the language he speaks, he would not use “this one” to designate a time frame, but something he can point to (regardless of whether he is actually pointing or not), hence referring to the original subject “A human”, with Alex being the only candidate of the sort in the room.
This glib ‘power corrupts’ thing gets up my nose. Maybe it often does, but not always. Also, nobody has ever had ‘absolute power’ and likely never will so that bit is nonsense.
he lost sight of why he became king and now hes suffering for it as with any that abuse there power.
Logically, and out of context, I would tend to agree with you: “this one” is not typically used to refer to a unit of time.
However, in context, when I (and apparently about half of the other readers) read the line, I assumed Nick was referring to “today”, and didn’t even think about it until seeing the debate in the comments. So maybe the disparity between the contextual cues and the literal norms is as much responsible for the ambiguity as the grammar itself.
(And I’m ignoring “demonstrative clause” … well, not completely: grammatically I believe it’s a prepositional phrase.
But that’s okay; I just realized that I called “it” a preposition when I meant pronoun … *lowers eyes in shame*)
Maybe we’ll get clarification tomorrow. Either way, though, I suspect tomorrow’s page will feature lots of fire …
😉
Did… Did you just quote the Order of the Stick comic? We’re all absolute nerds here, are’nt we?
Somebody’s ANGRY!
Lol
I’m thinking that the fact that Scott has deliberately not said anything about the grammar discussion means there’s something important there.
Indeed, tomorrow will be “interesting”…
As for the “demonstrative clause”, I actually came up with that term on my own, as it seemed to describe more or less accurately what I wanted to convey, though I admit I have no idea if that is a correct nomenclature… I am, after all, originally French speaking… I happen to be quite proficient in the English language, but it is still not my mother tongue.
That would be Wallace Shawn who played Vizzini in the movie.
I think I would rather enjoy playing with your D & D group.
Nicodemus: “A human may sit upon the throne of Dreamland someday, but it shall not be this one! Tomorrow’s not looking so good either!”
Alex: “Is next Thursday okay?”
Nicodemus: “Let me get my schedule…” *flip flip flip* “No, I have a lunch then. Friday?”
Alex: “Sounds good.”
Yes. Yes, we are.