The EGS Initiative: New and Old Friends

           Arc 5-Flipping Cardboard: Justin is sitting bored at the comic shop he works at, a little ticked that all day the only sale has been a $4 pack of Magic cards. So he calls Nanase, getting her to come over. Her milkshake brings all the nerds to the yard, and he uses her to make them actually buy something. He senses someone coming, and hides. It's Melissa, his ex. Nanase uses an illusion to shoo her off. During the conversation afterwards, one of the local nerds hears that Justin is gay. After work Justin runs into him, who apologizes for using 'gay' in a derogatory sense so often in the shop. The X-Men taught him better than that. (Am I the only one who thinks that's both funny and awesome?)

           Melissa is interesting to talk about. When she first appears, she's Justin's ex-girlfriend. She's still obsessing over him, calling his being gay a 'phase', and still thinking of him as her boyfriend. Basically, she was the most annoying character in the comic. At some point later on, the author made the great decision to develop her more, making her and Justin much more interesting characters as a result.

           Arc 6-Lady Mysterious: This is easy to sum up. Grace has a new form of an asian woman with green hair named Claire that she uses for a civilian disguise. She and Ellen don't go to school yet, so they decide to hang out. Grace is amazing at Super Smash Brothers. Done.

           Arc 7-Squirrel Diplomacy: Very short: SHENANIGANS!

           Arc 8-Lunchtable Revelations: Since Elliot and Sarah are dating now, they think that Tedd and Susan should sit with them at lunch, as a group. The problem: Susan and Tedd don't like each other. Elliot decides that each of them should share something, to put everyone more at ease. Elliot starts by revealing he used to have a problem. He spent all of junior high picking fights with any bullies he could. Despite what he told himself, it was more for being able to fight than protecting others. He hasn't fought since freshman year, when he saved Justin from bullies. Sarah goes next by revealing she draws little comics, one of the characters apparently being Dan, AKA the author of this webcomic. What.

           Tedd reveals he has 20-20 vision, and the glasses are because he looks really girly. He shows them the other functions, like night-vision, picture taking, and video-recording. It used to have x-ray vision, but he recently managed to remove it. When Susan makes a snide remark, he tells her that while he is a pervert, he never used that function because it would have been wrong. Susan reveals her real first name, Tiffany, and that her natural hair color is blonde. She goes by Susan because Tiffany Pompoms sounds like a dumb cheerleader, and she dyes her hair because her parents divorced at a young age when her dad cheated on her mom with a blonde woman. Tedd responds by telling about the fact his parents are divorced too, and his mom is somewhere in Europe. She extends a hand to offer a truce. That day when Tedd is picked on by a jock, before Elliot can help Susan hammers the guy over the head. Yays.

The EGS Initiative: Sisters

           Arc 4-Sisters: At school, a bully named Tony picks on Tedd, who wants revenge. We're introduced to Susan. At Moperville South, the school Justin and Nanase go to, Nanase tells Justin she was never really attracted to Elliot. He thinks she might be gay, to which she vehemently denies. After school, Tedd runs into Elliot's house, saying he's in trouble. He was testing the gun's Girl Form on himself, to see if it would work on Tony, but now the safety is broken and Tedd's stuck as a girl until he fixes it. Elliot comes up to Tedd later, not sure if he's turned back or not because of how girly he looks. Tedd has, and the statement pisses him off, and in his rage he hits Elliot with the gun. (PLOT POINT WAY DOWN THE ROAD.)

            It turns out he'd set the gun to Female Variant Number 5, which makes the person look more attractive, bisexual, and release pheromones making guys and girls attracted to you. And the gun broke. Elliot will be stuck this way for a month. Elliot tells his parents, and they barely react. They're used to weird stuff. Elliot goes to school claiming to be Elliot's out-of-town cousin, Ellen. Grace has done some research, and found a mystical artifact called the Dewitchery Diamond said to cure anyone cursed into another form. And it's being held in a barely watched government warehouse. As they drive to the warehouse, they have Sensei Greg watch Tedd's house to make sure Grace is safe.

             He and Grace discover that the TF Gun has changed how she morphs, before she conserved mass between forms, but now she doesn't because magic. They are then contacted from a Tedd from a different universe. They call him Beta Tedd. He gives her a warning we don't see yet. Meanwhile Tedd and Elliot have reached and easily broken into the facility, and find the diamond. Elliot touches it, and he does become a man. However it also creates a clone of Elliot who is still a girl. She is confused, because she has all of Elliot's memories. Tedd theories that since the form was only going to last a month, she might as well. She kinda snaps, vowing to ruin Elliot's life. (On another critical tangeant, this scene is mostly well done. You really feel for Ellen, and the fight is pretty awesome.) They fight, and she escapes with Elliot's car.

           Tedd and Elliot are knocked out by the guard, who ran up after hearing the commotion. When they wake up Tedd has found out more stuff about the diamond, including the fact that Ellen won't disappear in a month. A long time ago a wizard apprentice was good friends with a nobleman, who was cursed to become a werewolf. In order to help his friend, the wizard enchanted a large diamond of the noble's to remove any curse. Sadly, it removes the curse by making a copy of the original with the curse, leaving the original fine. This left a human noble and a werewolf who was wolfy all the time, not just on the full moon. The noble died battling the monster, and the apprentice...well, I can't say. (PLOT POINT!)

           They get let out of jail, and have Elliot use Tedd's old Transformation Belt to turn half-cat, so he can carry Tedd back to Moperville. The next day, Ellen does around trying to ruin "Ellen's" good name (The principal knows the truth and would blame Elliot.) but largely fails. After Elliot is too tired to run, they catch a ride with a guy named Hedge. Greg wakes Grace up from a nightmare, and they get contacted by Tedd who gives them the full story. Ellen hears Tony making fun of Tedd, and she threatens him. She then insults the principal, and notices Sarah staring.

           Sarah confronts Ellen, who breaks down, cries, kisses her, and runs away. Then the Goo from the first story, having regenerated and being more powerful than ever and can talk, attacks. Ellen saves Sarah, and Susan pulls an alarm to evacuate the building. Ellen gets Sarah outta there, and confronts the Goo ready and willing to sacrifice herself to destroy it. Grace and Greg arrive at the scene. Susan calls Nanase about it, saying she should help defeat it. Grace explains that a Tedd from an alternate universe named Lord Tedd is trying to kill all his alternate selves, and the Goo is his monster. Ellen finds out she can shoot a beam from her hand that stuns the Goo. After an infodump, Nanase and Greg join the fight.

          Nanase tells Ellen the truth, that she won't die in a month. Justin and Susan (Who has summoned a katana) join the battle. Grace discovers she has telekinetic powers of some kind, and a powered up form. The Goo, scared by Grace, tries a smaller safer form. Ellen uses the opportunity to destroy the main body, then smashes the core. Mr. Verres gives Ellen a cover story and let's her live with Elliot, his parents accepting there new daughter easily. Nanase acts as Ellen's ambassador to everybody else. Ellen wants to start over new, as if she didn't have any of Elliot's memories. The Main 8 are together, and for the first time seem to act like a cohesive group. The End.

           Tiffany Susan Pompoms is a rich feminist made of sarcasm, cynicism, and wit. She's Sarah's best friend, and has not one but two tragic backstories. She starts out very bitchy, but gets a lot of needed development, and gets over her problems over time. Able to summon certain weapons at will, but the why is covered much later.

           The Dunkels are the most unflappable characters ever made. They are completely calm and accepting about whatever is thrown there way, yet overreact on the small stuff.

The EGS Initiative: Introduction and 3 Arcs

        (Before I start, I'd like to make an update regarding the Brony Bookclub. Due to scheduling conflicts, there will be no show this week. My apologies.)

        I think once before I mentioned that El Goonish Shive is my favorite webcomic by far, and I hold on that front. The problem with the series is that it starts out kinda meh, and takes a while before it gets awesome. So this is why I am making this, the EGS Initiative. The point is to summarize the comic up to certain points, those points being place you could start at and reasonably enjoy. It's going to be a big process, but I hope it will be a useful and fun one as well. I'm going to try and sum up things as they happen, then go into the characters. The first story arc, Introductions, will be skipped as literally nothing important happened. Before we start the real first story arc, we have to introduce the main characters. I'm going to be talking about each character has who they have become, not who they were at the beginning.

        Elliot Dunkel is a goody-two-shoes. He has a bit of a dark past, but not overwhelmingly so. He studies Anime-Style Martial Arts, and is the second best student there. He can't stand bullies. He sucks at perversion.

         Tedd Verres is a mad scientist. He is a pervert, and has a major fetish for transformations. He is also a complete nerd. He doesn't actually need glasses to see, his face is incredible girly and he hides it with them. He has been called 'gay' by bullies his entire life.

       Sarah Brown is very normal. She's an artist, and always trying to improve her skill. She's a very casual nerd. She is envious of other characters for their powers. Surprisingly brave. Up until the Hammerchlorians Arc she was able to summon giant hammers.

       Arc 1-The Goo: Elliot and Tedd are in science class. The assignment is to make goo, and Tedd's becomes alive. Tedd repeatedly claims he was not responsible, nobody believes him. They're forced to stay after school to catch it. The goo grows huge and monstrous. They try activating the sprinklers, but their principal didn't actually install real ones, because they'd be too costly. Instead Elliot blows it up.

       Arc 2-Shade: Elliot and Tedd end up in the newspaper for the events of the previous arc, and a mysterious woman wonders if they could help her. Elliot, Sarah, and Tedd go to the movies, and when they return they find a woman waiting for them. Her name is Grace, and she wants to stay with Tedd and his father for protection. Tedd's father knows her already, but by the name Shade Tail. Grace and Sarah go shopping for clothes, and when a mugger attacks Grace turns into a anthropomorphic squirrel. That scares off the mugger. She reveals to the group that she and her 'brothers' were the result of a secret operation. They were trying to make super assassins by making part animal people that could morph between full human, half animal, and full animal. The experiment ended when a being named Damien killed the scientists and took the experimental children as his warriors. Grace is a pacifist, and escaped. They agree to help Grace.

       Grace Sciuridae is a half-squirrel teenager. She's had easily the most art and character change, but at her core she has stayed roughly the same. She is a naive, kind, and caring girl. She knows nothing of social customs, having grown up in a lab. She is a pacifist, though when the time comes that she's enraged enough to fight she goes absolutely berserk. She is adorable.

       Edward Verres is Tedd's dad. He's also a high ranking member of the FBI, and his job is keeping Aliens and Magic a secret from the public. He's also one of the strongest wizards alive. He's gruff, but cares for his son. He overreacts to many things. When you are allowed to hear about what he has to say, getting him to stop may be tough.

       Arc 3-Relations: Elliot realizes Sarah is interested in him, and invites her to his martial arts class under the pretense of her almost getting mugged. Tedd and Grace start dating. Sarah goes to the class, and meets Elliot's martial art friends Justin and Nanase. Elliot talks with his teacher, Sensei Greg. He sets up a sparring match between Elliot and Nanase, the two highest ranking students. Sarah and Justin watch. If I may take a critical aside, the fight is very well done, the fighting looking cool and being funny in it's parodying of anime fights. Nanase wins, and kisses Elliot. He brought Sarah there to make her understand that he is dating Nanase. Sarah runs out crying, and when Elliot tells Nanase that he brought Sarah to tell her about the situation, not show her, Nanase rightly smacks him. She tells Elliot that since he and Sarah have known each-other for a long time, and she reacted that way, this isn't some crush to let down, and he should talk with her. They do, and Sarah reveals she loves Elliot. She walks away, and when Elliot tells Nanase she breaks up with him so they can be together. Plus, it was mostly a 'friends with benefits' relationship anyway. (The following is technically another story arc, but it's related enough to count it as part of Relations.) Sarah shows up at Tedd's to find that Tedd's Transformation gun can add more forms to Grace, and that now she has cat and hedgehog/cat hybrid forms. Grace has nightmares that night, and Tedd comforts her. (Not in that way. Pervert.) Tedd reveals that he's been bullied a lot in his life. He and Elliot met when Elliot beat the crap out of a bully tormenting Tedd.

           Justin Tolkiberry is a nerd who is somewhat good at martial arts. He's also gay. That is barely relevant to his character, and the only way it is is that he really likes Elliot. Who is straight. He works at a comic book shop. His only real development is pretty recent, so I won't cover it in this initiative, or at least not for a while.

         Nanase Kitsune is a badass. She is easily the strongest of the mane cast, as well as the best magically. She is intelligent, and very kind. Her mother controls most of her life, trying to get her to go down a certain path. She has very major development, but I'll get to that somewhat soon. She's also Tedd's cousin.

        Sensei Greg is the founder of the Anime-Style Martial Arts style. He discovered it after being dumped, by watching anime for an insane amount of time. He combined his knowledge of the medium with his already extensive martial arts training to create his own style, that suprisingly works. He doesn't show up much because at his power level he's basically a walking Dues Ex Machina.

        I'll be back tomorrow to cover the Sisters Arc. Laters.