I can’t help but think we’ll find out exactly what the monster in the dark is right after we learn V’s sex.
The monster in the dark and V are going to have sex? :eek:
I can.
In Go, you can capture your opponent’s stones by surrounding them on all sides. That is, if one black stone is surrounded by four white stones, one on each side, the black stone is removed from the board. However, if two black stones are adjacent, white would have to surround them at the same time. And so on, with bigger formations.
Now, white can’t put a piece into self-capture, unless it would capture other stones first. That means, if black has a large formation, and there are two holes in it, both completely surrounded by black, that formation is uncaptureable. Such a formation is referred to as having ‘two eyes’, an eye being a hole surrounded by stones all of the same color.
So, the MiTD has made two eyes in the dark, thus the pun in the title. Now, what O-Chul is saying is that the MiTD is like that formation. That is, he’s captured, surrounded by forces that want to control him. But, if he could keep his spirit and his mind, those would be his two ‘eyes’ that keep him from capitulating. Only O-Chul is saying that the MiTD has covered his mind, or placed a stone on one of his eyes, thus allowing Team Evil to capture and control him.
So, in the actual game on the board there (as opposed to the metaphorical game), O-Chul cannot currently play in either of the “eyes”, but Monster-san can. And if Monster-san played in one of those two eyes, then O-Chul would be allowed to play in the other, and in so doing capture a whole heap of Monster-san’s stones. Is that correct?
Hmmm…so there must be two eyes? Why wouldn’t one be just as effective?
The Monster is a god.
A Greek god, to be precise. Probably Hades: son of Saturn/Chronos, the Titan who ate his children.
When the Snarl destroyed the Gods of the East, maybe one survived, his memory and most of his mind gone. He wanders mindlessly through the jungle for millenia, until Xykon finds him and figures out what he is. It explains everything - including why Rich mentioned the Greek pantheon in the first place.
Too crazy?
In Go, a group of stones with only one eye is, with the passage of time, essentially doomed to capture. To ensure its survival you definitely need two. Take it from Go players and Go theory.
You capture stones by surrendering them with your own. In this example, the “X” is surrounded by the “O” and is captured:
O
OXO
O
Now… Usually you cannot play your stone in such a way that your stone would “commit suicide” (that is, it would be immediatly captured because it would be surrounded by stones all around). In the following situation, “X” cannot play in the position marked with “#” because it would be instantly captured by “O”:
O
O#O
O
HOWEVER… That rule changes IF you can CAPTURE enemy stones with that particular move. In this case, the move is allowed. As an example, in the following situation, “X” can play in the position marked with “#” because, although it is surrounded by “O”, it captures the “O” stone right to the right of the “#” position:
OX
O#OX
OX
Now… When you have only one “eye” (that is, one empty position in the middle of your group of stones), with time it can be proven that you will be able to capture those stones by surrendering them with your own and forcing the enemy to fill the inside up until you are able to play your stones in such a way that you end up capturing everything.
HOWEVER… if the enemy is able to keep two “eyes”, that is, two empty positions physically disconnected from each other, that gives “breathing space” to all the stones in the group, and it becomes impossible to capture that group, no matter what. The following “X” group is impossible to capture:
OOOOOOO
OXXXXXO
OX X XO
OXXXXXO
OOOOOOO
“O” cannot play in any of the two “eyes” because the “O” stone would “commit suicide”, and no “X” stone would be captured (the “breathing space” is considered to benefit any stones in direct connection with it).
It can be proven that two eyes will always allow a group to survive, whereas a lonely eye dooms a group to capture.
Hope it helps!
</hijack> 
It has to do with free spaces adjacent to the structure. The only way you can play a stone in a space where it would be immediately captured is if playing the stone there allows you to capture all of the stones surrounding it. So let’s say you have a board that looks like…
+++++++++
+@@@@@@@+
+@OOOOO@+
+@O+O+O@+
+@OOOOO@+
+@@@@@@@+
+++++++++
There are two empty spots adjacent to the middle stone structure. This is protected.
But with just one:
+++++++
+@@@@@+
+@OOO@+
+@O+O@+
+@OOO@+
+@@@@@+
+++++++
There’s only one adjacent square and then a play like this can be made:
+++++++
+@@@@@+
+@OOO@+
+@O@O@+
+@OOO@+
+@@@@@+
+++++++
Which results in:
+++++++
+@@@@@+
+@+++@+
+@+@+@+
+@+++@+
+@@@@@+
+++++++
And a heavy deficit for the player who lost the stones.
FWIW, the monster has severely overbuilt it’s structure in comic and in Go that costs the player points. At the end of the game your score is the amount of territory you surround minus the captured stones and a handicap if you’re the first player. The monster has filled in its own territory deeply and consequently cost itself quite a few points. This was clearly done to make the eyes in the structure more obvious but I can’t help looking at it and saying “Yeah, I could beat him.”
ETA: Hurray for Go diagrams!
I think that’s the point. The MitD is supposed to be playing poorly, and very poorly, at that. He is, after all, not the sharpest bulb in the box.
Not too crazy, but this part makes less sense once you read Start of Darkness, our first encounter with the Monster in the Dark is that he’s in a circus (a freak show, it seems), his job every night was basically to reveal himself and it completely horrifies/grosses them out. (the rest are plot spoilers, but since this is open I’m not boxing it) Eventually Redcloak and his extended family rescue him and Xykon (after being missing for about a year or so) decides to show up, enslave the entire village of peaceful Goblins Redcloak accidentally led him to AND recruit the monster, this Jungle angle is pretty new AFAIK.
A minor nitpick, but it’s CitD not MitD. Burlew refers to him as the Creature in the Darkness.
The jungle bit is towards the beginning of Start of Darkness.
O-chul complimented the monster on picking up the game quickly before but it’s very possible that he was being polite.
Most likely that’s the case. Or he was considering the fact that our dear CitD’s intellect is not precisely … stellar.
Incidentally, I can’t help but look at the disposition of the stones and think that they make an almost recognizable drawing. Would that perhaps be a “portrait” of the CitD? 
Dirty lies, I tell you, all lies.
And the Monster playing poorly is perfectly consistent with the Monster picking up the game quickly. He’s only been playing it for a few months now, and even if you could beat him right now, honestly, could you have beaten him when you had only been playing for a few months?
Of course, it’s also possible that O-Chul was deliberately maneuvering Monster-san into a position like that, for the sake of making the analogy he did. The outcome of the game is much less important to him than the outcome of the Monster. This probably implies that O-Chul is very good at the game, to be able to deliberately maneuver into positions like that, though.
whatever CitD is, it doesnt necessarily have to be a jungle dwelling creature. IIRC when he is first encountered it is mentioned that it is unusual to find his species in the jungle. wasnt he on vacation? it’s been a long time, i forget.
and working out the identity from any of the source books might be a bit tricky because rich doesnt exactly limit his storytelling based on them. he has mentioned many times that when drawing up the comic if D&D rules conflict with what is funny, what is funny wins out. so, for example, while CitD needed to have an earthquake stomp attack to advance the plot and bring the funny, whatever species he belongs to doesnt necessarily have to have one.
all we really know directly from rich’s mouth is that it is possible to guess what the monster is and that people will recognize the creature. he’s never said the CitD is in the monster manual or that it isnt some kind of home-brew cribbed from another source. my pet theory, strictly going by physical appearance, is that he is a grue
Heh.
What we’ve seen of O-Chul indicates that he is pretty much made of awesome, so I don’t see why he wouldn’t be a brilliant Go player. He’s brave and tough as hell, almost frighteningly patient, and smart.
I just had a thought. Is it possible for a wizard to lose his/her ability to perform spells? Because if there’s one fate worse than death for Vaarsuvius, it might be if Xykon or Redcloak were to destroy V’s magic capability, leaving V with none of the skills s/he’s relied on for so long. II mean, s/he’s never had to fight at all, has s/he? When V used up all the spells back in the battle of Azure City, V had no way of contributing and had to escape. It might be interesting to see him/her so humbled, and perhaps in need of some basic tutoring in self-defense. (Would be extra interesting if said tutoring came from Balkar or Elan.)
I’d have to dig out the book to check on that. A grue isn’t a bad guess but I’m still betting on it being something that D&D players will go “Oh it’s one of those! I can’t believe he used one of them!” Which would mean:
[ul]
[li]Something official[/li][li]Something ridiculous[/li][li]Something powerful[/li][/ul]
A trarasque is one of the obvious for overpowered monsters so naturally it’s the first place people go and it won’t be one of those. That’s why my money remains on giant fire breathing space hamster but there’s plenty of crazy stuff that it could be.
Why we haven’t even argued about the Fiend Folio yet, let alone Monster Manual 2!
Chronos, the eyes in the monster’s formation were very badly formed and placed. If O-Chul was playing to set up the monster’s eyes then they would have either been part of a smaller formation of stones or larger eyes. I’m a horrible player myself and I still could see how bad the monster’s set up was.
The real answer, of course, is that the board was set up to make the explanation easier for the reader. A large formation is easier to see than a small one and having the eyes as just one square each simplified the example…
(Oh my god. We’ve found another game to be overly geeky about in OotS.)
It’s a flumph! Oh, wait…that’s official and ridiculous, but not powerful.
Perhaps some kind of mutant flumph out for revenge?