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You know what would be a great way to get a lot of super powered people killed? Get them to organize together in an effort to fight problems that aren't caused by other super powered people. You know, like that thing that got all those other world changing biodynamic kids killed. Being useful to solve problems. Are we honestly supposed to believe that nobody thought of organizing biodynamic people to solve non-punchy problems?
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Nov 4, 2015 05:39
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Brought To You By posted:You know what would be a great way to get a lot of super powered people killed? Get them to organize together in an effort to fight problems that aren't caused by other super powered people. When you believe yourself to have nothing but a hammer every problem looks like a nail or something to that effect.
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Nov 4, 2015 07:45
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Captain Oblivious posted:When you believe yourself to have nothing but a hammer every problem looks like a nail or something to that effect. When all you have is super strength every problem looks like a punching bag.
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Nov 4, 2015 14:16
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When all you have is endlessly regenerating flesh, everything looks like an organ donation.
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Nov 4, 2015 15:02
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I hope Alison puts together a new super team and Hector turns out to oppose her out of bitterness. He was right all along!
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Nov 4, 2015 15:08
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idonotlikepeas posted:When all you have is endlessly regenerating flesh, everything looks like an organ donation. Well yeah. Think about it. You're hungry? Cut off your own leg and roast it while it grows back. Can't reach the top shelf? Just pile your severed limbs on the floor until the stack gets high enough for you to climb. Need to decorate your home for Halloween? Just pull out random bones and entrails to make it really gory. Want to flirt with that cute person you like? Literally offer them your heart as an icebreaker.
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Nov 4, 2015 16:24
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Cat Mattress posted:Want to flirt with that cute person you like? Literally offer them your heart as an icebreaker. This is important: should you have the heart candied first?
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Nov 4, 2015 17:28
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No, that would be gross.
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Nov 4, 2015 18:27
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Flesh Forge posted:No, that would be gross. Bronzed?
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Nov 4, 2015 18:59
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Oh. It's not a team. It's Alison learns how to use facebook. 
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Nov 6, 2015 09:44
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Hey thanks for the reminder about how awkwardly shoehorned in all the dubious rape statistics are, comic! I'M HAVING AN EPIPHANY RAPE STATISTIC
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Nov 6, 2015 11:08
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QUICK, TO THE SLACKTIVIST-CAVE! e: people should maybe not rape, share if you agree! On a more serious note, who the actual hell is Sierra Steel? Was she the drunk girl at the party? Also "it's just a dumb story that doesn't mean anything"-a story. ManlyGrunting fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Nov 6, 2015 |
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Nov 6, 2015 18:21
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- A story that actually used another story as an explanation for something heinous (torture and murder). It really bugs me that the comic apparently has just forgotten about the "all the supers who could actually change the status quo have been quietly killed" idea. Paladin's inventions absolutely could change the world, dramatically, and could upset a whole bunch of social and economic status quo. So could Patrick although I get the impression he was "missed" whenever the Powers That Be were making their kill list.
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Nov 6, 2015 18:46
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Alison should probably be a little more concerned that the robot just has all her contact information.Flesh Forge posted:It really bugs me that the comic apparently has just forgotten about the "all the supers who could actually change the status quo have been quietly killed" idea. Paladin's inventions absolutely could change the world, dramatically, and could upset a whole bunch of social and economic status quo. So could Patrick although I get the impression he was "missed" whenever the Powers That Be were making their kill list. Neither of them is really on the same level as "cure all disease instantly" and "generate unlimited energy", though. Even without being constrained legally by Templar, Paladin is still dependent on a supply chain, the cost and availability of materials, etc. Patrick also seems like someone who could affect the status quo (especially if this time travel thing goes anywhere), but by his own acknowledgement he's not really been very effective.
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Nov 6, 2015 19:57
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Carrasco posted:Alison should probably be a little more concerned that the robot just has all her contact information. Given that for years her closest friend has been a mind-reader who cannot stop himself from using his powers 24/7, I don't think Allison has a well-developed concept of what privacy is and why it is desirable. At least that thing is consistent with her personality, since after all the story began with her casually unveiling her real identity on live TV.
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Nov 6, 2015 21:02
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Flesh Forge posted:- A story that actually used another story as an explanation for something heinous (torture and murder). Perhaps Patrick is still extremely aware of this and is actively preventing Paladin from selling any of her world-changing inventions so that she isn't killed in the night.
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Nov 6, 2015 21:33
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Carrasco posted:Neither of them is really on the same level as "cure all disease instantly" and "generate unlimited energy", though. Even without being constrained legally by Templar, Paladin is still dependent on a supply chain, the cost and availability of materials, etc. Patrick also seems like someone who could affect the status quo (especially if this time travel thing goes anywhere), but by his own acknowledgement he's not really been very effective. I dunno, I think "can produce highly advanced and unpredictable new technology" would be pretty on par with the other two things you named, if you're a shadowy plutocrat. Look at the impact things like the cotton gin, mass production, penicillin and whatnot had on world economies in a very short span of time. At the very least you'd grab up such a single source of stuff that will eventually gently caress up your gigantic money machine. blastron posted:Perhaps Patrick is still extremely aware of this and is actively preventing Paladin from selling any of her world-changing inventions so that she isn't killed in the night. Yeah unfortunately there are things like telephones and the internet so leaving her running around loose is just blatantly dumb, if you're One Percentman.
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Nov 6, 2015 22:16
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However powerful they might be in theory, it is nonetheless the case that none of them have actually changed the world despite their best efforts.
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Nov 7, 2015 00:17
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EDIT: Y'know what, nevermind.
Scaly Haylie fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Nov 7, 2015 |
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Nov 7, 2015 00:35
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So is this comic just going to be super heroes against rape from now on?
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Nov 7, 2015 01:02
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Nuebot posted:So is this comic just going to be super heroes against rape from now on? No, only for the remaining 5000+ pages of this chapter.
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Nov 7, 2015 02:59
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To a conspiracy of rich assholes Paladin's just a really smart disruptive tech entrepreneur, and we know how many of those have actually changed the world.
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Nov 7, 2015 03:06
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I'm mainly concerned by Paladin's casual and easy disregard of personal data security and privacy.
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Nov 7, 2015 11:23
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MikeJF posted:I'm mainly concerned by Paladin's casual and easy disregard of personal data security and privacy. I guess Patrick did have a point about how dangerous she is.
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Nov 7, 2015 12:00
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Whenever Alison talks about Feral I end up hating the college girl a bit more and I kinda doubt that's the author's intention anymore.
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Nov 7, 2015 16:29
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Flesh Forge posted:I dunno, I think "can produce highly advanced and unpredictable new technology" would be pretty on par with the other two things you named, if you're a shadowy plutocrat. Look at the impact things like the cotton gin, mass production, penicillin and whatnot had on world economies in a very short span of time. At the very least you'd grab up such a single source of stuff that will eventually gently caress up your gigantic money machine. Right. Whatever Paladin makes, it will definitely have an effect on the economy--it'll be bought and sold. But if you have someone who can generate unlimited power, the very idea of an "economy" suddenly exists only at their whim. (The other two victims we know of had the ability to cure diseases and to control the weather--possibly being responsible for the storm mentioned during the flashbacks in chapter 4--which are both similarly world shattering abilities)
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Nov 7, 2015 17:25
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Way back when I first started reading this comic I was convinced that Patrick's presentation to Allison about the shadow cabal was just a ruse to convince her to let him go since he wasn't the "real" threat. I assumed at some prior point he took off his costume to become a nameless teenager, then got close enough to her to scan Allison's mind. After that he just fabricated a bunch of official looking folders and confirmed all her worst fears. We only have Patrick's word for it that any of these world changing kids even existed, and manipulation is as natural as breathing to him. Tricking Allison into becoming his ally right as she backed him into a corner really seemed to fit. It also fit with what I thought one of the basic themes of the series is: that there's no specific person or group making things bad, just people doing what seems reasonable to them at the time. It's only when it all comes together does it create a bad situation overall for society. If there's actually a secret group controlling the world from the shadows I feel like removing them, with punching, is a plausible plan for global improvement. Yet that is counter to Allison's dilemma about how violence can't solve everything so the conspiracy must not exist. Now I have no idea. Templar is buying up all of Paladin's inventions seemingly out of pure spite because they're a big corporation and that's what corporations do. I want to be charitable and say that Patrick is just subconsciously scared at the idea of a mind he can't read. His aversion to TV and movies seems to support this. To him a empty minded robot should cause the most severe uncanny valley reaction imaginable. And since he's not introspective he doesn't understand why he's afraid, only that he is. As a rational person he must have a good reason for wanting to keep her from making robots. Working backwards from that goal Patrick concluded that Paladin's research is inherently dangerous for... reasons. Deep and plausible ones. But given how Furnace was presented as a strawman, and how all of the rapists were shown to be irredeemable, anymore I don't feel like the motivations in this comic are any deeper than how they appear on the surface. So then it's all as it's presented. Patrick is telling the truth. There is a conspiracy to stagnate the world. Then what's the point of that? It's just so contrary to the basis of Allison's character I can't accept that it's actually true. And yet every other villain in the series is exactly what they seem to be. And ...and I just end up going in circles with this. It's frustrating to me not because I'm being kept guessing, but more because it feels like the story's narrative structure itself is flawed. I also feel more and more that the reason Allison doesn't know what she should do isn't because it's her character, but because the author has no actual answers to give to the audience. He just likes raising issues and letting the audience decide. That seems like a cheap way to appear deep to me.
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Nov 8, 2015 07:48
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Galvanik posted:it feels like the story's narrative structure itself is flawed. Galvanik posted:That seems like a cheap way to appear deep to me. Bingo.
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Nov 8, 2015 15:39
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Flesh Forge posted:Hey thanks for the reminder about how awkwardly shoehorned in all the dubious rape statistics are, comic! You know she's quoting the e-mail her doctor sent her right?
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Nov 9, 2015 23:01
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Sure yeah it's totally just the character really doing that and the writer is off smoking a fatty  I also really enjoy reading my emails aloud especially on this particular topic.
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Nov 10, 2015 00:36
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The last four pages: "not..." "... alone." "I'm a superhero! We're not alone! We don't have to wait for one person to save the world single-handedly!" "The email! I did save a lot of lives! Here let me read from DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STATISTICS.PDF... Hurray we're not alone! I have to make a call. Not alone."
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Nov 10, 2015 00:53
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Galvanik posted:I want to be charitable and say that Patrick is just subconsciously scared at the idea of a mind he can't read. His aversion to TV and movies seems to support this. To him a empty minded robot should cause the most severe uncanny valley reaction imaginable. And since he's not introspective he doesn't understand why he's afraid, only that he is. As a rational person he must have a good reason for wanting to keep her from making robots. Honestly I'm baffled that Allison has been completely uninterested in pursuing any relationship with someone she has saved until just this moment. I don't expect her to be chatting it up with anyone but even Feral get's videos from the people she's donating too. You'd think there would be more than drunk idiot with Trash can lids talking about how she saved them. (And I guess Paladin too). And nice jab at Feral. The only great chapter the series has and now we're going to poo poo on it so Allison can figure out what she should have figured out a long time ago. But I guess she gets the privilege of finding the "clean" way of solving a problem.
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Nov 10, 2015 02:56
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I also have to kind of shake my head at "But Feral was wrong too!" What she's doing, while horrible and whatever, is totally selfless and has a 100% positive net effect on the world, although at a great cost to herself. The only thing wrong with what she's doing is she should probably get somebody to figure out how to block her pain nerves while surgery is being done (but that would interfere with the martyr metaphor Mulligan has going on). e: Seriously Patrick works just way, way better if he genuinely has Asperger's Syndrome, not joking one bit. Flesh Forge fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Nov 10, 2015 |
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Nov 10, 2015 03:10
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Brought To You By posted:And nice jab at Feral. The only great chapter the series has and now we're going to poo poo on it so Allison can figure out what she should have figured out a long time ago. But I guess she gets the privilege of finding the "clean" way of solving a problem. Yeah, when the Feral chapter happened I kinda figured her whole "No, Feral, you're only treating the symptoms, no the cause!" deal was just Allison being conflicted since Feral's doing something she should be 100% behind on some rational level, but her gut feeling is that she'd throw hundreds if not thousands of people on organ donor lists under the bus if it means that her friend doesn't have to suffer even if it's at odds with her whole life philosophy. Her whole college freshman logic rebuttal to Feral was basically her avoiding dealing with that inner conflict and putting a band-aid on it. Of course now it seems like I saw too much nuance in Allison's character. Shame, really.
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Nov 10, 2015 07:40
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It's not even saying Feral was "wrong" that gets me. The question of how to have a big, long lasting impact on the positive growth of humanity; trying to "Save the world". Has no single or "right" answer in the first place. It's too complex to be handled the way Allison had been trying to rationalize it for years.
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Nov 10, 2015 08:38
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Yes, just because a particular deed does not solve a systemic problem permanently does not mean it's not worth doing. Just because we can't cure cancer doesn't mean we shouldn't bother to do whatever we can to treat people dying of cancer. Feral is absolutely doing a lot of objective good for a vast number of people.
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Nov 10, 2015 08:51
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Feral herself made that exact argument. It was even illustrated to drive the point home: Alison thinks she's wrong, but I'm not 100% sure that the comic does. On the other hand, what if Feral were working with other heroes who could enhance or share her abilities in some way? It might be possible for her to save even more people. That's the kind of path Alison's thinking might start heading down now that she has this Team Social Justice thing going on.
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Nov 10, 2015 09:18
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They're gonna name the team Social Justice Warriors, aren't they?
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Nov 10, 2015 09:20
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No, it's even more pander-y than that Wow, subtle is just not something this comic does. At all. Welcome back to Team Good Guys, Mary (you were never really bad) e: I mean of course, not that that's a bad goal, but wow, so ... SPECIFIC.
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Nov 10, 2015 10:52
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Oh god Allison's going to convince Feral to join her isn't she "Hey Feral you know this organ donation life saving thing you've been doing, it's dumb, come stab rapists with me and Mary"
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Nov 10, 2015 11:13
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