Christmas Day
And with that the Christmas arc ends.
I know it is a bit of a downer. No doubt some of you will love it and some will hate it but this arc means a lot to me and sets up much of what is to come this year in d20Monkey. I’m really trying my hand at long form story threads and I hope you’ll stick around to see what happens. We have not seen the last of Brett, Clive (Higgins) or the King of Seasons. That being said, don’t worry, I am still going to offer up plenty of short, to-the-point arcs and jokes. It’s time to get the group back around a table rolling dice and we’ll get to see how this arc affects the group as you know it.
Thank you all so much for your patience during my injury, recovery, and this arc. It means the world to me to make this comic and knowing that you are out there enjoying it (or sticking around through parts that may not float your boat). I am excited for what comes next but next week we’ll cleanse the palette a bit and get us back up to normalish time, season-wise.
Thank you all again and have a great weekend.
HOVER-TEXT: Brett’s loss of beard was symbolic and also necessary. He had large gashes taken out when he went through the silos. SPOILER ALERT – IT WILL GROW BACK
I’m still very curious about why they went down on Brent so hard for having a romantic partner. Isn’t Brent’s mother an average human? It could be because Brent’s father was in some sort of relationship with her before and when the elves found out and told him it was out of the question Brent was already on his way. A sad thought but then why would they have let her back into the Pole if that was the case? So many questions I doubt Brian will answer because spoilers ; P
What’s great about this is that since the Christmas arc was late this year, there’s less time between the end of this one and the beginning of the x2014 arc. Yay jerk knee 🙂
I think it’s a fairly obvious note that Brett’s mom and dad hadn’t seen each other in many years during the first arc, and he retired the moment Brett took over the mantle, which meant he was no longer bound by the same rules (I think).
And I don’t think this is entirely about Jeannie. This is about Brett being Brett. He might have a love for Christmas and all of that, but look at his personality most of the time. He’s been changing a little recently, but he’s still a spoiled manchild most of the time. Hardly Santa behavior. While the comic doesn’t focus specifically on Brett, we don’t see him doing much related to his abilities, and seeing as it’s a fairly intensive job that he seems to have delegated to a retiree, aside from checking the list. This isn’t so much about Brett and Jeanie’s relationship, it’s about Brett taking this seriously.
A lot of people were giving the king of seasons a lot of crap in the last comic, but as several people (and he himself) pointed out, the King of Seasons’ powers are tied to the season it is currently. And with Winter close to its end (possibly an in-joke by someone because Winter had been a little overextended) he had run out of patience for the dead and harsh season, and had even little patience for Brett’s usual ‘You’re going to listen to me because I’m right and I’ll yell and shout and punch until you agree with me.’
I imagine the off-scene trial was probably a result of Brian’s injury, judging from the podcast I was listening to before he’d had it, but it was still handled well. Just because it happened off screen and without Brett present does not mean that it wasn’t a fair trial, which many people seem to be assuming. We need to wait and see how this goes.
A trial where the defendant can’t defend himself is an unfair trial by definition. And as so many others have pointed out, if he was shirking his duties as mantle bearer, neither we nor he were told about it. I’m pretty sure that the deal offered by Kris when he was given the mantle was “I’ll handle things for the next year, then show you the ropes next Christmas”. And now he’s being slammed for not doing things he was specifically told he didn’t need to bother about yet? Fuck that noise. I don’t care if people hate Brett, injustice doesn’t become just just because it’s happening to someone you don’t like.
They didn’t have a problem with him having the relationship, it’s that he was shirking the mantle’s duties and responsibilities in order to maintain the relationship and game with his friends.
On another note…
Shaving off that beard with a swollen and broken jaw and banged up face must’ve hurt like a B!
Goddammit, Brian.
I think I got something in my eye…
What if Brett didn’t intend to give up the Mantle? What if it was his last stop so he could break it to her softly?
I think she took the missing beard the same as a number of the other responders, that the beard being gone meant he’d given up the mantle.
Damn you good sir.
Amazing, amazing work.
I, for one, am really looking forward to the group rolling dice around the table. Those are some of my favorite comics — not really the in-game ones, but the ones of the players at the table.
That being said, this was a powerful arc. How do you go from this back to DICK FAIRY?
*DM says roll for save vs democable felels* dice roll fails, gonna miss the big guy for a while
Thanks auto correct, dem feels^
Who the hell authorized you to have good writing and character development and emotions and god dammit Patterson.
You have ruined everything with your excellence. I’m filing a complaint.
Great arc. Ending almost makes me glad it is finishing late, so we’re that much closer to the next Christmas arc!
You magnificent bastard. :'(
Yes Damn you for your good writing this is 1 and a half Seamore’s
Seamore is the scale for sadness created in El goonish shive one Seamore is equal to the Futurama episode Jurassic bark end of time part 2 is roughly a 4
BRIAN FUCKING PATTERSON YOU ARE GROUNDED FOR WHAT YOU JUST DID TO MY HEART.
BUT RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTH!
Wow i guessed it wrong. The world needs Christmas more than we need our gaming friend. Will his seat be filled? will they even have theheart to fill it? Maybe they’ll just put a d20 next to a bucket with his face drawn on it to hold his place in our hearts…
You give my that’s in this computer a bad feeling. I don’t like it, stop this beautifulness before I become human again. It’s scary.
It’s honest, and that’s hard to do–the temptation is to make everything come out okay. Everyone did the right thing, no matter how much it hurt.
Maybe Brett could show up at gaming tables as a small webcam transmitting from the Far North…
Oh, wait, it’s been done.
Sigh. I rolled a 1 on my save vs. the feels.
You know… you could always cut back to Brett on his way to the northpole and how he first looks back very beat-down, but then turns his head towards his destin(y)ation and starts to get the fire back into his eyes.
I’ll present you with the appropriate music for it too:
Yeah, this was great. Not just good storytelling, not just good character development, but the fact that you care more about the story you’re telling than the characters you would be synthetically preserving if you kept them static, even if it’s unpopular or makes the telling difficult. Brett has been abig part of the story, so I know this wasn’t easy, but it’s going to make for some great story with the other characters following this.
I thought this might be where it was headed. Didn’t think Jeannie would let him give up the mantle…
A very well done story arc, could have used some more dick jokes though 😛 (I kid, I kid).
I’m not crying. Just… sweat. From my eyes 🙂
I just re-read the arc, and… damn. It was an excellent storyline, and it goes to show that great power does carry great responsibility (damn, that Responsibility guy is a pushy little fucker…)
Things will be different, but can’t wait to see where they go.
Don’t worry, I will continue reading. I didn’t suffer through your dick jokes just to stop because of a bit of sadness. But I will be very, very cross with you if Jeanie doesn’t get this https://d20monkey.com/2014/02/16/no-jeanie-just-no/ and that little snotty wannabe-elf for Christmas this year. 😛
Congratulations on your PT victories and on getting through a very grown-up Christmas arc. Flex that Narrative! Looking forward to see what you’ll come up with the rest of 2014.
First I think the arc was cool.
Second I thank you Mr Patterson for this awesome fun comic. It’s a hell of a good story.
But at the risk of being a party proper I’m glad to be moving off Brett as the focus. He’s something like siracha. Great as a support and a background element, but as the most prominent flavor it’s too much.
Thank you, Sir and I agree that a little Brett goes a long way. Change is coming.
Damn this comic for making me tear up. This arc just grabbed my heart and squeezed every drop of emotion out of it. Hell of a read Brian, hell of a read.
Catching up on the series. Got me shedding tears here, you dick. How dare you get me emotionally invested! You produce amazing stuff – thank you!
wow… holy shit… crawling my way through the archives the last few days, and trying to hold back my comments until i caught up… but trevor’s comment… just wow… i legit cried… good job brian. that was on-par with a certain line from the regeneration scene at the end of matt smith’s run as the doctor. i’ll avoid saying it bc spoilers, but i’m certain you know the one.
He really cares about Christmas too much for his own damn good. The smart thing to do would be to pass on the mantle, see how that asshole king likes having Santa Klaus in charge of Christmas for a bit. It would be totally sweet to see him come crawling back to Brett to beg him to be Santa again.
Good arc, especially on an archive dive, but it does leave begging one question: if the King of Seasons (Vegata-Conan, ha!) has the ability to hand out sentences with Star Chamber finality…how exactly is Brett to blame for Klaus still being around? All the Mantles and such are only illusions of power, control, authority, and responsibility…in the end, only Vegata-Conan’s word or thought matters.