This isn’t even the first time. Remember when Erin first met Kendal and told him to run? He took control away fromt eh void dragon to do that. Granted that time it was only for a moment.
Ooh! I like this interpretation of his actions. It’s not so much that Erin is swallowing his pride, but he is embracing it. He refuses to be a simple cog is someone else’s plan because he believes himself to be way too awesome for that. That’s not a far-fetched theory!
*clap* *clap* *clap*
See Walter, this is why you don’t tell the opposition the plan until after you’ve enacted it. Ozymandius figured that out and he didn’t have eons to scheme.
6. I will not gloat over my enemies’ predicament before killing them.
7. When I’ve captured my adversary and he says, “Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?” I’ll say, “No.” and shoot him. No, on second thought I’ll shoot him then say “No.”
A subreddit poll, before his name was revealed; the person who made the poll randomly put “Walter” as one of the options, alongside other pre-name-reveal nicknames like Golden Eyes. Most of the people voted for the Walter option, I guess because of “lol, it’s so random” and now they WON’T STOP AND IT’S DRIVING ME CRAZY BECAUSE THAT’S MY FIRST NAME
Partly because of that, and partly because I remembered the bit from Hellsing Abridged where Alucard yells Walter’s name. I’m sorry that we’ve co-opted your name for evil.
Didn’t know there was a character in Hellsing named Walter… though that might be due to the fact that I don’t watch a lot of anime (though I’ve watched enough to appreciate your username)
I empathize, but I understand why: the fandom loves nicknames.
I still call Erin the Pompous Nitwit because it’s my nickname of affection for him, and it doesn’t matter if it stops being/ was never entirely accurate.
At the very least “Pompous Nitwit” fits Erin’s personality! (He’s booksmart, but when it comes to emotional intelligence, he’s incredibly stupid.) But the Void Dragon’s nickname has NOTHING to do with him! How would y’all like it if a mysterious, interesting, powerful villain finally got a namedrop, and then because of some random idiot on reddit, a bunch of people started calling that villain by YOUR first name for no fucking reason, and refused to stop?
If I’m being honest… I’d love to share a name with a black dragon who’s intent on eating the sun. It’s good for a confidence boost, makes you feel like you could end the world and beat someone’s ass, you know what I’m saying?
Also, i don’t think there’s any point denying that this name has stuck, whether we like it or not. VD makes him sound like some kind of rapper, while Walter, to me at least, sounds like the perfect mix of cute, random and simultaneously just overall fitting for this character. But like I said, that’s just me.
Idk, i just like the name. But don’t let that get you down Walter/TheUnknownGame. Your name is your own, but I’d personally prefer trying to see that as a positive than a negative.
Not like you share a name with Hubris McGee over here, or the collector, or a character you can’t help but hate (like Umbridge ewwww)
Sorry for the outburst… it’s just, this has become a pet peeve of mine. It could stem from the fact that I’m literally the only Walter I know, and I am not at all used to seeing my name everywhere in a piece of media I enjoy; it could stem from a deep-seated complex I have about my name being used in circumstances that I find embarrassing… it could just be that I take canon very seriously, especially in stories that I really love, like this one.
Whatever the case, I’m just tired of seeing something I see as irksome, especially when I can’t seem to change anything. And I can get a bit emotional and heated when that happens…
Once upon a time my English teacher decided I was a Terminator and kept it up for the rest of the year. The debate got really ridiculous and all her students (not even the ones in my class) were taking sides. So I totally get the feeling of powerlessness.
Also I’ve done some research, and apparently ‘Walter’ means “ruler of an army”, and something about that is both fitting in character, and hilariously contradictory considering his situation.
Have a nice day!
As if I needed a reason to love Erin even more. He is such a badass.
This also addresses an interesting flaw in VD plan. Any human that he would need to posses for his plan would by necessity have to be really powerful and intelligent. As a result this person would not be very likely to just go along with their plan. Even if this person wasn’t a good person they probably wouldn’t be very happy to be under VD’s control
Cannot help but think that A) few monsters are going to tackle a guy who is currently wearing a thunderbolt and B) boy, I bet that crackling’s really easy to hear if you were, say, two heroic types that were trying to find your wacky elemental mage pal in the underdark.
Erin himself said cave-crawlers are averse to light and heat, but I think Erin is either stalling so the others show up or because he really has nothing to lose by trying to screw with VD.
You got yourself straight into Zorg situation, VD, only Erin is much smarter than Zorg. Your plan is to destroy the world. Even the most self-centered, plain evil person will try to stop you, because a) all of their stuff is here and b)no world means no life equals no one to lord over. And c) you shouldn’t take direct control because they will self destruct out of spite and pride, if nothing else, just to deny you.
Erin: “You said we were too far down for my friends to save me, so I’m taking your advice and trapping you down here with me instead.”
V.D: *Confused screaming*
That is one of the most selfless and amazing ways I’ve ever seen someone who’s being possessed do! This is an amazing moment!!! I’m going to freak out about this for the next month!!!
Looking closely, it looks like the next chapter is going to center around The Collector in some way (you can see her smirking face between those two, mysterious large eyes)
Good catch, you have my thanks. (What is it with Red and her panels that are so dark you can barely make out anything?)
If the Void Dragon had hair besides Erin’s, I would have some more grounds for a joke about how non-floofy hair = villain.
I’m mostly curious what those eyes belong to. I feel that as far as the collector is concerned, maybe she somehow discovers the connection that Vash and Kendall have, and try to stymie our protagonists somehow, because I can’t realistically imagine them going any deeper into the caves once they pick Erin back up (assuming that happens).
Potentiality for what the eyes belong to: there’s a page in the sketches which shows a few positions of the head of a character who’s not Erin based off of the miniscule amount of clothing we see, and because there’s already a picture of him in there. This person also has slit pupil eyes but look slightly different. They’re underneath the person with hooves doing some sort of kick.
If Erin walks out of the caves alive, I see potential for a juicy new subplot to open up…
The amount of poorly channeled lightning magic coursing through his body, combined with the hours he’s spent in the caves, might give him three different flavors of mild to moderate elemental corruption, and if there’s a way to cure said corruption, maybe there could be a storyline dedicated to that
I doubt Erin is being selfless here, infact I think the opposite. He is basically saying, “You want to use me in a grand evil plan to destroy the world? I will not be USED, I’m tooo IMPORTANT. F**k you rat with wings.” *Holds up middle finger* it’s not self-sacrificing to stop the enemy, it’s dragging the enemy down with you. He is already dead basically because of the dragon, he’s not a better person, in the next panel or two he calls himself petty, and in one of the previous panels the dragon calls him petty too, he’s acting completely in character.
Looks like Hubris McGee swallowed his pride so that he could hold his lack of hubris in Void Dragon’s face. At least, that’s what I read.
On a side note, Erin must be REALLY powerful if he managed to overcome VD’s control long enough to activate lightning magic.
Congrats!
This isn’t even the first time. Remember when Erin first met Kendal and told him to run? He took control away fromt eh void dragon to do that. Granted that time it was only for a moment.
Erin with the absoloutely epic move against Walter!
*slow clap* My, my, how the tables turn.
Good job, Erin. Now it’s a matter of holding out long enough for Kendal and Alinua to find him.
how the turn tables
aw but i kinda liked the dragon
Nice one, Walter … made the self-absored magus altruistic… sort of XD
Don’t know if it’s so much him being heroic so much as it’s giving the finger to the dragon. “Think you can use me? Imma burn this whole house down!”
I’m tempted to believe about 60% the latter and 40% the former.
Ooh! I like this interpretation of his actions. It’s not so much that Erin is swallowing his pride, but he is embracing it. He refuses to be a simple cog is someone else’s plan because he believes himself to be way too awesome for that. That’s not a far-fetched theory!
Oh now he’s REALLY a protagonist…
*clap* *clap* *clap*
See Walter, this is why you don’t tell the opposition the plan until after you’ve enacted it. Ozymandius figured that out and he didn’t have eons to scheme.
Erin: if I’m dying, you dying with me. Ain’t no choice!
I mean the dragon won’t die, but Erin dying basically screws his plan up and sticks it in the blender, so he’s now even less likely to get out.
“You either kill yourself or get killed.”
*dancing* “What you gonna do? (What you gonna do?)”
You think the dragon would have learned something about hubris, what having set a hubris trap himself, but nope!
I got no context for this like that was 2020?
I don’t experience it like you, & my nostalgia tastes, charred
Live,
Ari
I’m certain there’s a point on the Evil Overlord list that had a point about monologuing before being secure in your plan, but I can’t find it
I’d say the closest are items 6 and 7.
6. I will not gloat over my enemies’ predicament before killing them.
7. When I’ve captured my adversary and he says, “Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?” I’ll say, “No.” and shoot him. No, on second thought I’ll shoot him then say “No.”
Read the list last night, and apart from the fact that it was made in the 1990’s (and is thus VERY heteronormative), I enjoyed it
Which list and did you check the Dungeons?
The list that InezBlue linked to below, and no
Give this one a try. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilOverlordList
This is really good writing. That’s all I have to say. This just makes me happy. 🙂
Erin: “THERE ISN’T ENOUGH HUBRIS IN THIS COMIC FOR THE BOTH OF US!”
Void: “Y O U U N D E R E S T I M A T E M Y P O W E R.”
Did you perhaps mean this evil overlord list:
http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html
I meant that as reply to KSClaw, about evil overlord lists.
F*** YES, ERIN! Show him who’s boss!
Side note: why are people continuing to ignore the Void Dragon’s name?
Why are people calling him Walter?
A subreddit poll, before his name was revealed; the person who made the poll randomly put “Walter” as one of the options, alongside other pre-name-reveal nicknames like Golden Eyes. Most of the people voted for the Walter option, I guess because of “lol, it’s so random” and now they WON’T STOP AND IT’S DRIVING ME CRAZY BECAUSE THAT’S MY FIRST NAME
Partly because of that, and partly because I remembered the bit from Hellsing Abridged where Alucard yells Walter’s name. I’m sorry that we’ve co-opted your name for evil.
Didn’t know there was a character in Hellsing named Walter… though that might be due to the fact that I don’t watch a lot of anime (though I’ve watched enough to appreciate your username)
I empathize, but I understand why: the fandom loves nicknames.
I still call Erin the Pompous Nitwit because it’s my nickname of affection for him, and it doesn’t matter if it stops being/ was never entirely accurate.
At the very least “Pompous Nitwit” fits Erin’s personality! (He’s booksmart, but when it comes to emotional intelligence, he’s incredibly stupid.) But the Void Dragon’s nickname has NOTHING to do with him! How would y’all like it if a mysterious, interesting, powerful villain finally got a namedrop, and then because of some random idiot on reddit, a bunch of people started calling that villain by YOUR first name for no fucking reason, and refused to stop?
If I’m being honest… I’d love to share a name with a black dragon who’s intent on eating the sun. It’s good for a confidence boost, makes you feel like you could end the world and beat someone’s ass, you know what I’m saying?
Also, i don’t think there’s any point denying that this name has stuck, whether we like it or not. VD makes him sound like some kind of rapper, while Walter, to me at least, sounds like the perfect mix of cute, random and simultaneously just overall fitting for this character. But like I said, that’s just me.
Idk, i just like the name. But don’t let that get you down Walter/TheUnknownGame. Your name is your own, but I’d personally prefer trying to see that as a positive than a negative.
Not like you share a name with Hubris McGee over here, or the collector, or a character you can’t help but hate (like Umbridge ewwww)
Sorry for the outburst… it’s just, this has become a pet peeve of mine. It could stem from the fact that I’m literally the only Walter I know, and I am not at all used to seeing my name everywhere in a piece of media I enjoy; it could stem from a deep-seated complex I have about my name being used in circumstances that I find embarrassing… it could just be that I take canon very seriously, especially in stories that I really love, like this one.
Whatever the case, I’m just tired of seeing something I see as irksome, especially when I can’t seem to change anything. And I can get a bit emotional and heated when that happens…
*pat pat* Poor Walter. I understand.
Once upon a time my English teacher decided I was a Terminator and kept it up for the rest of the year. The debate got really ridiculous and all her students (not even the ones in my class) were taking sides. So I totally get the feeling of powerlessness.
Also I’ve done some research, and apparently ‘Walter’ means “ruler of an army”, and something about that is both fitting in character, and hilariously contradictory considering his situation.
Have a nice day!
I call him Iccorus Mchubris! We all have weird nicknames for our favorites
YES YOU LOVELY POMPOUS NITWIT! UNLEASH YOUR HEROIC MOMENT OF AWESOME! I WILL GIVE YOUR HUBRIS THE ENCOURAGEMENT IT DOESN’T NEED! WOOOOO!
Oh, and please tell me someone noticed the pun I belatedly added to the last comments section. I’m proud of that pun.
Found it. Yeah, it was a good one.
You could even say it was…….out of this world.
I’m sorry.
Don’t be sorry.
Wow, all it took was one exposition dumb for Erin to become a total madlad.
As if I needed a reason to love Erin even more. He is such a badass.
This also addresses an interesting flaw in VD plan. Any human that he would need to posses for his plan would by necessity have to be really powerful and intelligent. As a result this person would not be very likely to just go along with their plan. Even if this person wasn’t a good person they probably wouldn’t be very happy to be under VD’s control
Cannot help but think that A) few monsters are going to tackle a guy who is currently wearing a thunderbolt and B) boy, I bet that crackling’s really easy to hear if you were, say, two heroic types that were trying to find your wacky elemental mage pal in the underdark.
Erin himself said cave-crawlers are averse to light and heat, but I think Erin is either stalling so the others show up or because he really has nothing to lose by trying to screw with VD.
Minions:
-Competent
-Evil
-Loyal
Pick any two (Or in Erin’s case, one. COMPETENT).
I think VD might want to renegotiate control of the body and his future existance in the world.
You got yourself straight into Zorg situation, VD, only Erin is much smarter than Zorg. Your plan is to destroy the world. Even the most self-centered, plain evil person will try to stop you, because a) all of their stuff is here and b)no world means no life equals no one to lord over. And c) you shouldn’t take direct control because they will self destruct out of spite and pride, if nothing else, just to deny you.
And Erin is far from evil.
Even Collector would stop at ending the world. Basically, that could only end in villain team up situation as the best case scenario: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gONKf0s0e3c&t=2m05s
Dark Floof: Why would you want to save the world?
Erin: Because I’m one of the idiots who lives in it!
Erin: “You said we were too far down for my friends to save me, so I’m taking your advice and trapping you down here with me instead.”
V.D: *Confused screaming*
Erin just did the ultimate power move.
He’s making the wrong choice.
well well well how the turntables
That is one of the most selfless and amazing ways I’ve ever seen someone who’s being possessed do! This is an amazing moment!!! I’m going to freak out about this for the next month!!!
Yeah. This is why you don’t trap people in a corner. They forget their ego and try something desperate to stop you.
See, this is the reason you do not explain any more of your grand plot than is absolutely necessary.
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeet
Oh and now we have a lovely new chapter cover, wonder what’s gonna happen.
Looking closely, it looks like the next chapter is going to center around The Collector in some way (you can see her smirking face between those two, mysterious large eyes)
Good catch, you have my thanks. (What is it with Red and her panels that are so dark you can barely make out anything?)
If the Void Dragon had hair besides Erin’s, I would have some more grounds for a joke about how non-floofy hair = villain.
I’m mostly curious what those eyes belong to. I feel that as far as the collector is concerned, maybe she somehow discovers the connection that Vash and Kendall have, and try to stymie our protagonists somehow, because I can’t realistically imagine them going any deeper into the caves once they pick Erin back up (assuming that happens).
Potentiality for what the eyes belong to: there’s a page in the sketches which shows a few positions of the head of a character who’s not Erin based off of the miniscule amount of clothing we see, and because there’s already a picture of him in there. This person also has slit pupil eyes but look slightly different. They’re underneath the person with hooves doing some sort of kick.
If Erin walks out of the caves alive, I see potential for a juicy new subplot to open up…
The amount of poorly channeled lightning magic coursing through his body, combined with the hours he’s spent in the caves, might give him three different flavors of mild to moderate elemental corruption, and if there’s a way to cure said corruption, maybe there could be a storyline dedicated to that
“I have become the most dangerous type of man – one with nothing to lose.”
What’s that quote from? I like it
*hehehe’s in old hermit*
I love how Erin was the one to make the creepy-possession-arm-whap!
E No. 7 is still locked. it’s not being revealed yet.
Do you mean element? If you want to see it, the password is spoilers
Otherwise, don’t look. I have a feeling something about it will be revealed soon.
(V.D. plays on Erin’s hubris to possess him)
(Erin uses V.D.’s hubris to trap them in the caves)
V.D.: (surprised Pikachu face)
Serious talk, outstanding move on Erin’s part. You can just feel the panic in V.D.’s voice and the new resolve in Erin’s.
This is my favourite page I’ve read so faaaarrrrr Erin is mah boi
Dragon reminds me of Aaravos. High praise from me.
TL;DR: Narrator mcNerdman is not a fan of Walter’s plan, decides to self-sacrifice like any self-respecting protagonist.
*Il Vento D’oro starts playing in the background*
BIG. FRICKIN’. BRAIN.
further proof that Erin is the smartest character
alt text: yea rookie villain mistake tbh
So Erin is awesome. Good to know.
Image source: mistake
His electric shock lights up the caves and their dark
It seems Erin hasn’t quite yet lost his spark!
sacrificing yourself becomes a whole lot easier when you’re gonna die anyway
That’s some Harry Potter logic right there
I doubt Erin is being selfless here, infact I think the opposite. He is basically saying, “You want to use me in a grand evil plan to destroy the world? I will not be USED, I’m tooo IMPORTANT. F**k you rat with wings.” *Holds up middle finger* it’s not self-sacrificing to stop the enemy, it’s dragging the enemy down with you. He is already dead basically because of the dragon, he’s not a better person, in the next panel or two he calls himself petty, and in one of the previous panels the dragon calls him petty too, he’s acting completely in character.
Also I would like either panel 4 or the last panel with “and you gave me nothing to lose” on it as a poster
pettiness saves the world
OH
THAT’S SO AWESOME
Hell, yeah!!
…this is the SECOND time I’ve read a book where the hero has managed a slight victory against Ruin by sitting through his gloating
I love it
It was on this page, that I irrevocably imagined The Void Dragon as being voiced by Kellen Goff.
i looove when a villain’s hubris is used against them