Longest Set Up In Webcomic History (8-Bit Theatre)

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Dave

Dave

Staff member
Now that was some amazing foreshadowing. I would never have picked up on that one myself.
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

I had to check their forums to see it too, at first i just assumed he was reading a walk-through or something... though it did look familiar.
 
S

Soliloquy

Is it sad that I immediately picked up on the reference the moment I read the comic? Because I think it's sad.

---------- Post added at 05:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:58 PM ----------

Didn't remember that second comic, though. Interesting...
 
Calleja

Calleja

I don't know.. I don't think it should even count as a "set-up" if even those that read the comic regularly can't really remember it.
 
phil

phil

Man I haven't read 8bit in so long. I may need to spend a weekend catching up sometime. The last time I even read any was when everyone thought it might kinda be ending maybe? Before that it was around strip like 1,100 or so.
 
CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Calleja said:
I don't know.. I don't think it should even count as a "set-up" if even those that read the comic regularly can't really remember it.
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Dude's well into 1000+ comics, you can't expect anyone to remember that many details regardless. The thing is he planned that far ahead. I think it's pretty awesome. How many webcomics even have a weekly buffer or story, let alone years' worth?
 
Frank

Frank

It seems like every time I read 8-Bit Theatre the site has gone through a redesign. I apparently do not read 8-Bit Theatre very often.
 
Shannow

Shannow

Staff member
I did a big...meh, when I read it. I have been regularly reading this damn thing since about number 100, and this whole neding really fell flat to me. It almost seems not planned ahead, and then cobled together to make an ending, though I know thats wrong.

What was funny was looking at the people hanging off Cleginger's nutsack on his forums.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Shannow said:
I did a big...meh, when I read it. I have been regularly reading this damn thing since about number 100, and this whole neding really fell flat to me. It almost seems not planned ahead, and then cobled together to make an ending, though I know thats wrong.

What was funny was looking at the people hanging off Cleginger's nutsack on his forums.
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I try an avoid the forums, though it's less for the mass adoration than how much I hate looking at white text on black background, and it's somehow so complicated visually. Most times it's impossible to tell the difference between the posts they're making, stuff they're quoting, and stuff in their sigs.
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

Shannow said:
I did a big...meh, when I read it. I have been regularly reading this damn thing since about number 100, and this whole neding really fell flat to me. It almost seems not planned ahead, and then cobled together to make an ending, though I know thats wrong.
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But that's the brilliant thing, he set up the ending from the first strips, but in such a way that it allowed him to do almost anything in between, except kill of WM for real.
 
Shawn

Shawn

It was a good payoff, and really does fit incredibly well with the overall plot of the comic. These guys were never the heroes. Everything they did was either destructive or inconsequential. It's even their fault that Chaos appeared in the first place. The only person among them that had any good potential was Fighter and unfortunately for him he was dumb enough that the others could pretty much get him to do anything they needed. So while it seems, at first, to be a very "blah" method of dispatching the villain because the main characters had absolutely nothing to do with it, it actually makes perfect sense for the series. And the fact that it's four white mages that did it just rubs more salt into the wound. While it's not brilliant, it's still poetic and hilarious.
 
Gusto

Gusto

Whenever I see stuff like this, I always wonder how much of it was actually set-up, and how much was him feigning set-up. It's kinda easy to take a minor innocuous detail from an early strip and suddenly develop it into a relatively major point. It's much harder to know where you're gonna be in a couple thousand strips.

I think this reeks of the former, and I think Rich Burlew is a good example of the latter. He's also a master of taking fan expectations and completely lampshading them.
 
S

Soliloquy

Gusto said:
Whenever I see stuff like this, I always wonder how much of it was actually set-up, and how much was him feigning set-up. It's kinda easy to take a minor innocuous detail from an early strip and suddenly develop it into a relatively major point. It's much harder to know where you're gonna be in a couple thousand strips.

I think this reeks of the former, and I think Rich Burlew is a good example of the latter. He's also a master of taking fan expectations and completely lampshading them.
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I'd say the same if not for the second foreshadowing comic, which is far too specific to be a coincidence.
 
Gusto

Gusto

Maybe. I'm not saying for sure that it's a hack move or anything. But if those are the only two references to it (and I'm sure someone on the 8BT forums is scouring the archives), then I'm more inclined to call it a callback to a "recurring gag" that happened twice in the span of the first 20 or so comics. )I've only read a handful of pages of 8BT and seen those two.)

It's like if Scott Kurtz brought back the gaming fez or something that he hasn't mentioned in YEARS. Not necessarily a setup, just reviving an old bit.

Again, just my opinion.
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

Soliloquy;345111][QUOTE=Gusto said:
Whenever I see stuff like this, I always wonder how much of it was actually set-up, and how much was him feigning set-up. It's kinda easy to take a minor innocuous detail from an early strip and suddenly develop it into a relatively major point. It's much harder to know where you're gonna be in a couple thousand strips.
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I'd say the same if not for the second foreshadowing comic, which is far too specific to be a coincidence.[/QUOTE]

There's also the thing that he didn't need to know where the strip was going to be at any one time...

And the 2nd comic probably also refers to WM cleaning up after the "Light" Warriors... another thing which requires no knowledge of exactly what happens in between.
 
Shannow

Shannow

Staff member
Planned or not, still just a "meh" gag for me. And I love the comic, but this did fall flat. oh well.
 
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