The current story arc started with this strip: A New Adventure.
Update (18 April 2011): I changed the dialog in the second and third panel so that the joke is easier to understand.
- Sandra: Thanks for coming along, friends.
- Cloud: One for all, and all for one!
- Larisa: Not so fast, Athos and Porthos!
- Cloud: Before the oak, we have to go east for a while.
- Larisa: That’s quite a detour. What’s wrong with walking straight through that valley?
- Cloud: Well, apart from the descent full of pricky shrubs and poison ivy, the pack of fierce wolves, and the 30 meter high steep face at the other end … probably not much.
- Larisa: Uhh…
- Cloud: New rule: Never follow Larisa into uncharted territory.
- Sandra: Make that our new Rule Number One.
- Larisa: Hey!
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Edit by Novil: All comments until AmbiValent’s comment on Monday, 11 April 2011 at 22:50, are dealing with the first version of this strip which has been completely rewritten in the meantime. Most of these comments are therefore no longer relevant.
Rule number 2: Never leave Larisa alone with anything that can make a fire. That’s what happened in Chicago in 1900…
Rule Number 3: Larissa is confirmed a Black Mage specialized in fire, having low STAMINA but high in INT and RES.
Color me ignorant, but what’s wrong with going through the meadow?
The only things that come to mind are the need for landmarks to find their way back or perhaps a need to not be seen by the eagle they are chasing.
Regardless, neither are immediately obvious to me.
@ Unclever title:
Don’t Go Into The Long Grass!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9p5IVPr784
@ Unclever title:
Me ether but another possibility is not being able to get out again.
also don’t post to many comments I’ve got wireless and it still makes unreadable pages from oversizing.
@ Unclever title:
Awww you Combo Breaker’d the Rules game.
Safety in numbers.
@ Unclever title:
They can’t walk in tall grass kuz they don’t have their pokemon with them
@ Unclever title:
I don’t get it either… If it isn’t a JP or Pokemon reference, I just don’t understand. Seems to me like they’re just leaving poor Aramis out… 🙁
sorry…but..WHAT???…Yeah…call me stupid..but I could not understand
There is no meadow is the joke.
Something serious is up with larisa that sandra and cloud don’t know about.
The only problem the two apparently know larisa has is diabetes.
Long grass can conceal all kinds of dangers. Everything from predators to ankle-breaking potholes or even sinkholes. Similar to deep snow the grass would slow them down too.
My thinking – and I thought I was probably just being silly, but no-one seems to have come up with a better thought – was that she has missed the perspective and mistaken the forest or cliff for a meadow? I thought it was pretty tenuous, even if she was tired and sweaty, but ThatOneChick reminded me she does have something going on…
I’m not entirely sure what the deal with the meadow is either. But you know what? I’d just go where Cloud says, ‘cos come on, it’s Cloud!
I didn’t get it either.
But in my opinion, since Cloud is an RPG freak, an probably so is Sandra, they both want to go the hard way so they can have fun exploring it and everything?
Either that or Larissa just mistook something for a meadow. But I can’t see anything on the drawing that could be mistaken as a meadow, neither something that actually IS a meadow…
I highly think Cloud and Sandra would be playing at a moment like this, so my theory is probably wrong.
Still, can’t think about any other reason.
Depending on how high the grass is it could hamper their movement plus all kind of animals including poisonus snakes could be hiding in there. (And they might get some tick-bites…)
That’s where pokémon got the idea with the “high grass” from after all.
Also the eagle might see them comming from there. (In case it’s important)
Dunno if there was a similar scene in the three musketeers to which this is referring…
Oh, sorry to double-comment, but I think I just got it!
I think that Unclever Title got it right:
Cloud says “Never follow Larissa in UNCHARTED territory”
They are going through “uncharted” territory, which means they have no map and would probably get lost there. Larissa wants to go though a meadow, with no landmarks whatsoever. That’s the worst idea possible, because they would never find a way back.
Cloud says that they should go EAST after the OAK, the Oak being their landmark reference. They are building themselves a trail, so they can follow it when heading back to the river. Imagine like this, they are coming back and reach the oak tree. If they followed the rest of the steps back, if they went left on the oak, they will need to go to the right when they reach the tree then. It as simple as that.
It was a little hard to get, because we had no notion they were marking the places they were passing though (and because, fortunately, most of us have never been on the same situation).
I hope this explains the strip, and that I’m not mistaken here, of course.
I’m guessing either Jim is right, or…
…Cloud and Sandra are too much like my friendlies and myself. Why take the easy way when the hard way is so much more fun?!?
But since Woo is on the line, the whole ‘landmark’ theory is probably more correct. 😀
@ Jim:
Hmm… That makes sense as a logical reason, but not as a punchline.
That was certainly random… Honestly, changing the names of the characters like that without a legitimate excuse like time travel or Larisa being an amature folklorist being set up for the audience. It makes her look and sound like like a crazy person.
@ Gabrielsthoughts:
Can’t tell whether or not you’re kidding, but just in case:
She’s referring to the Three Musketeers. (Their names are Athos, Porthos and Aramis.) No doubt Cloud’s famous quote reminded her of that novel.
Sandra and Cloud don’t want to follow Larisa’s path since it’s full of picky bushes, poison ivy, hornet nests and probably a hole to hell.
I’m very surprised that so many readers were not able to make this mental connection. I don’t think I’ll change the strip, though, since it works well *if* you get it.
And here I thought it was an FF8 reference, with all the open spaces like meadows on the world map being chock full of those random encounters, usually at just the wrong time. :p
And…does this make Woo our intrepid crew’s D’Artagnan?
Two reasons for the meadow comment I can figure out= one, there is no meadow. Two, even if there is, so what? That’s not the direction that eagle and Woo are heading in.
@ Unclever title:
If she is Ina meadow, a fire will coincidentally start. She just wants to see it happen
@ Wolfen:
“can’t tell whether or not you’re kidding”. That hasgot to be the greatest statement ever. Deserves anobligatory “lol”, and I’ll even throw in a “rofl”.
@ Wolfen:
‘or Larisa being an amateur folklorist’ – He knows about the Three Musketeers, hence that line.
@ ghostkeeper:
Being that the Oak is seen across the meadow then it stands to reason that the meadow is in the direct they want to travel.
Aside from the Jurassic Park reference, going across the meadow would be much quicker than picking your way through the brush.
I think it’s a Kung Pow reference. “avoid the meadow”
All this talk about random encounters and refrences sparked an idea:
I would so pay for a Sandra-and-Woo-RPG
Cloud would (obviously) weild a sword
Larisa would be a mage as stated above, capable of multiple elements but strongest being fire.
Sandra is a healer/mage.
Any other ideas?
You know… even though Novil explained “why” they didn’t want to go through the medow (which by the way to people saying they don’t see it, that is because it’s not featured in the pictures… its to the right of the scene) I gotta say, I still don’t get the joke. I mean, yeah I get why they wouldn’t want to GO through the meadow, but I sill don’t get why they were making fun of Larisa for it.
I thought not to go into the meadow because of what happened to Bambi’s mom when they got close…
Okay THIS one I don’ get. O_o”
What’s wron with that meadow?
AckAckAck wrote:
Ya sure aboot that high INT? XD
Uh oh… it looks like Sandra and Cloud still have plenty of reserves, but Larisa is near her limit. Even her speech bubble looks shaky. And knowing Larisa, she won’t tell the others she’s got problems. I hope for the best, but I think the outline of the story’s future is already written…
@ Hrmm:
Among the trees leaf litter keeps the grass from growing so you can see and dangers on the ground. In the meadow the grass can conceal many dangers. Cloud and Sandra both know this and are joking on her because she’s a noob in the woods. Basically new guy jokes.
I got the joke from the very first panel — it’s obviously a reference to Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers.
And once again Larisa has her stamina limit met…. when are we going to learn her backstory?
Pack of fierce wolves and i was “you should listen to cloud, he knows his deal”
Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend. I do find I get lost more frequently with one, however.