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Penny Arcade - Comic - Grace, Part Four
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Penny Arcade - Comic - Grace, Part Four
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.
zerzhul on
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I miss the original idea. There are monsters under kids' beds, but only their dads can see them. It was a heartwarming Pixar style story. Now we have the dad too depressed to do it, because his wife died of cancer, so his oldest daughter has to protect his son? It's like a Tim Burton reimagining of a Pixar film.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2015/06/24/nightlight1
Only a mere 136 pins to go!
@ News Update: I'm not sure if it would have helped, but one of the things I found odd about Bulletstorm was the lack of campaign co-op. I mean, it was staring them in the face- they could have dropped the horde mode for it.
Again, it probably wouldn't have helped sales much, but I'm pretty sure I could have gotten at least one to buy it just for that.
Maybe the entire spider/nightlight situation is a conspiracy of Illuminati Dentists ?
tata
Fuck spiders.
I struggled against this at the beginning of Thornwatch development. I wanted Mike and Jerry to define the world: did the villagers mine their own metal? What was their diet? Were they hunter-gatherers, farmers, or raiders? Did they engage in trade? Did they have money, or was it all barter? Do horses or other ridable animals exist in the setting, or is all travel by foot? Is there a written language?
They violently rejected all attempts at such granular definition. And I came to understand that such level of detail--the detail of the old-school D&D Gazeteers--was poison for the setting. The best part of the Eyrewood is its undefined mystery / limitless potential.
So it is with Nightlight. The core conceit of the setting is monsters under the bed. They're scary because *anything* could be lurking under there. Start to define the nature of that threat, or the types of monsters, and you come to know the threat, understand it, prepare and plan for it, and no longer fear it.
Short version: after Anne Rice and Vampire: The Masquerade, we got Twilight.
I feel like they often take this too far. For example, with the current series, I have literally zero idea what's going on. I didn't even understand who Clancy was and that we were seeing a grown up Grace in the "future" comics. I had to read it in this forum. I had a similar problem with the beginning of the Thornwatch stuff. It's not that they don't define the granular aspects of the universe, it's that sometimes they expect us to make really gigantic logical leaps with nothing more than a few panels and sparse dialogue.
you can tell that kind of story effectively but I am not sure it worked here.
This one is just one step to the side from our current reality, and that means they can be a little more vague because "a girl loses her mother and must become the mother" is a known thing, and monsters in the dark are a known thing, and that's a plot in itself, with everything else being extras. I'm really enjoying it (and it looks great obviously).
But, what makes this version of it for me is the artwork. It is absolutely the best that Mike has ever done.
And I want to see Grace beat the ever-loving shit out of that thing.
Steam: adamjnet
Thank you for that explanation. I felt the same frustration with Nightlight that you did with Thornwatch. The first Nightlight strip felt like a vignette or a movie trailer. I wanted an expansion of that idea, or of that story. I had forgotten Gabe's post that stated anybody in the family could be the Nightlight. What really frustrated me about Grace's story was HOW a child could become the Nightlight. I thought it was the parents', or adults' duty.
So, this is my interpretation.
In the first strip we see Grace's dad ask for help killing a spider. At first, I didn't know if he was joking, or was just a wimp. Looking back from "Grace, Part Four" (and only having read up until "Grace, Part Four") I think maybe he was grooming her. He knew the house had "Spiders" but wanted Grace to kill (regular) spiders as a way to prepare her to be a future Nightlight. Grace's mother hugs her tight and says "No, I need Grace." as a way to shelter/shield her for just a little bit longer before she (Grace) has to face those horrors.
After that, I don't really know what to think. I need more story. Grace's mom dies. Her dad falls into despair. She has a little brother to look after. She must become the Nightlight.
Grace calls him by name, in her house, and refers to her father as "Dad" to him
I'm having a bit of trouble with the idea some people are putting forth that the way Tycho and Gabe are presenting this is somehow esoteric and impenetrable given that books, comics, TV shows, and movies all use similar techniques
Yes. Yes it is. We have no idea who is talking to Clancy in the second strip because she's drawn as a plausibly older woman, a woman old enough to have a son named Clancy. Neither of the earlier-in-time strips (1 and 3) make any reference to a younger brother. An equally valid interpretation (at this point) is that Dad remarried and has a son named Clancy with his new wife.
I definitely did not get every aspect of the story right away either, but given that the title is Grace and the girl in the first strip is Grace, it was a pretty easy jump to "teenage Grace" in the second strip even if I didn't know what else was going on.
Part 1 (past) - Grace is a little girl with her mother and father.
Part 2 (present) - Grace's mourning Father paints pictures of his deceased wife while an older Grace puts her younger brother (Clancy) to bed.
Part 3 (past) - Grace's dying mother is reassured Grace will help her father kill the spiders after she (the mother) is gone.
Part 4 (present) - older Grace sees spider, tells Clancy (her brother) to stay busy.
The father didn't re-marry, it isn't a new family, all the characters are exactly who they've been from the start.
Sorry to quote everyone, but this little debate (both sides) sums up my reaction to Part 2 pretty well.
It was quite a jump from one to the other, both in terms of chronology and style. The dad looked different enough that I didn't recognize him immediately. I admit I thought Grace might be all grown up and Clancy, who wasn't even hinted at previously, and who entered the story rather abruptly, might be her son. It was all very confusing... at first.
Then I decided to try to figure it out. I kept going between the two comics and comparing characters and images, scouring the panels for hints. The biggest was the studio (and the father's emotional state at the time), which was filled with paintings of the mother. Couple that with a few more obvious details, and it becomes apparent what's up. But we all know that now. My point is that, for the less observant or industrious, those first two comics were less than transparent.
That said, there should no longer be anyone having a problem with understanding the story at this point. Even if you missed the prototype comic some time back, it is still fairly obvious what's happening here. The themes are simple, and there's more than enough going on to clue in the reader without blatantly stating: "THERE ARE MONSTERS UNDER THE BED. THEY ARE KEPT IN CHECK BY A CHOSEN MEMBER OF THE FAMILY. GRACE IS NOW THAT MEMBER, THE RESPONSIBILITY PASSED ON TO HER BY HER LATE MOTHER. IT WAS SAD, BUT SHE CAN HANDLE IT BECAUSE SHE IS STRONG."
Seriously, it's not that hard.
"There's a spider in the hall, I need Grace"
"No, I need Grace"
"Please please, there's enough Grace for everybody!"
so it seems like Grace is always what kills the spiders or makes it so they can kill the spiders and the mom is not a part of that at all, or rather the father and the mother can do it while she is present.
but then Grace is at her mom's death bed and her mom wants her to "say it" but they never say what "it" is, as if that's some sort of promise or phrase that needs to be said to pass something on - which doesn't jive with Grace already being the thing that kills monsters.
I just read that as "it's time to say goodbye" and Grace not wanting to.
Did you read the news post that explained where some of the ideas came from? Though that is a cool idea.
I don't have anything to add regarding the confusion over the story; I think alvindraper hit the nail on the head and that's how I've been following it from the beginning.
Uh
edit: The claim that the girl in comic 2 could be anyone else than Grace? Really? She has the same colored text bubbles/speech as Grace from the 1st comic, and the entire run of comics is titled Grace. Like...man.
Looking merely at comics 1 and 2, if Grace had aged enough to have children her father would have also aged proportionally.
if the father had remarried i sincerely doubt he'd be in a studio filled with paintings of his deceased wife sobbing without at least the new wife there in some fashion to comfort him
there are potential other scenarios that could explain this turn of events depicted in the comics, true, but people over the last couple of days act like everything is completely disjointed and fragmented and that seems silly
why would a father be asking his elementary aged daughter to kill a real spider.
this is what I'm talking about. if in the creator's head the thought is oh this is a real spider and the other is just saying a spider but really they mean monster so that etc., you have to be sure you actually relay that information and don't keep it in your head. because it isn't actually clear.