Strong Female Protagonist (No Relation to Hark! A Vagrant!)

Given how much the world is pushing her around right now, I could definitely see the story turning into Allison's Start of Darkness.

Huh. I'd forgotten about Lisa and how Templar Industries was dicking her over.

Well, what Patrick is saying is getting increasingly worrying. At least Allison's made it clear that she's aware that many of the things he's doing right now are really bordering on the super-sort-of-villainy side.

And Patrick's possible slip-up in that last sentence reminded me that knowing how to do something (specifically, manipulating people) is not necessarily the same thing as executing it successfully. Unless that "slip" was all part of the plan, too.

Personally, I think Allison has been way too chill up to this point. The thing that gets her mad is how he treats his business rivals?

I think she might've been making a conscious effort to remain chill and now she's starting to slip. But yeah, I'd have thought she'd take more issue with the kidnapped unconscious scientists.

Dammit Patrick, would it kill you to give a straight answer for once?

If this was meant to distract Allison though, it did a great job. But it feels pretty heavy-handed. If it's his honest words...that's a pretty heavy soliloquy.

Pretty daring plan by Allison there in any case, though I suppose it's easier to suggest if you're nigh-invulnerable. Still, there are probably ways to neutralise her. Grab her while she's asleep, stuff her in a rocket and shoot her into space or something. Do narcotics work on her?

So maybe that's why she's willing to let him kidnap scientists. They are still hunting the big bad.

Patrick's words remind me somewhat of the way Sherlock Holmes first introduced the fact of Moriarity to Watson.

Interesting that Patrick seems to have kept count of the bodies, suggesting that he is, at the least, a Well-Intentioned Extremist.

He's being disingenuous at best, unless he really doesn't understand what Alison is thinking, which seems unlikely. Lisa Bradley's accusations had nothing to do with numbers. Also, how many times has he changed the topic?

Patrick seems to be veering dangerously close to Evil Cannot Comprehend Good territory.

He might also be going a bit extreme in an effort to scare her away before his resolve fades in the face of her thoughts.

So, what, exactly is Patrick's purpose here? He wants to take down a corrupt government. But why? On behalf of humanity? But humanity doesn't matter, apparently- or is it that humanity matters even if the individuals don't? Some humans matter, obviously- those with exceptional capabilities, but they only matter in terms of usefulness... but given that there's only been one generation of biodynamics, it's not really for the purpose of preventing it happening again.

Patrick isn't going to make the world a better place by taking out the people responsible, and I don't think he even intends to. I think his principles changed a lot over time, to the point where now he just avenges the world that could have been, rather than trying to improve the world that is.

The "you only do 'good' to serve yourself" argument seems to be distressingly common these days, and it's basically the entire philosophy behind the "SJW" label. I think it pretty much goes without saying that we do "good" things either to experience gratification or avoid a negative personal consequence. I don't see the point in arguing that a good deed is devalued by the psychological benefit to the doer. It doesn't matter what goes on inside someone's head, because our actions are what should define us. And applying the "self-serving" argument to Feral is just sick.

...did...did Patrick just admit to killing a bunch of the people who assaulted Feral, or was he exaggerating? If the former, how did Allison fail to respond to that immediately? I mean yes, she may have killed a number of supervillains and criminals in her time (together with some civilian casualties), but I'm pretty sure the hate-group people fall outside her standard "okay to hunt down and kill" list. (Barring her darker moods which she spoke about to Cleaver.)

(Allison clearly seems close to snapping, yes, but I can't believe that she wouldn't respond to a statement like that.)

Boy, that conversation went south in a hurry. I guess it just demonstrates that a character can read people's minds without possessing a sense of empathy. Interesting.

I don't think Patrick is still trying to bring down the government, or he wouldn't be allowed to operate openly. He's just bringing up the past to make a point (he was morally justified in doing so because the US government has killed so many people).

What puzzle's me is Patrick's purpose in having this conversation with Allison. He must know that he's alienating her. To what end? Doesn't he need her anymore?

Even if Patrick did kill the people who attacked Feral, that would be far from the worst thing he's ever done. Why would Allison react now? She's given him a by ostensibly because they are working together to hunt down someone even worse (Actually, I think the deal was Allison would stop trying to attack Patrick if he gave up trying to overthrow the government, and they would collaborate in tracking down the biodynamic killers).

As for Patrick's espoused philosophy, it only holds water so long as you never place any greater value on one person compared to anyone else. Just as soon as you allow your relationship to someone affect you emotionally, then you have to accommodate their relationships, and pretty soon you have a web of social obligations that include nearly everyone. That's called "society". Patrick wants to hold himself above all that, which makes him a threat to everyone else, much like a sociopath.

Human life is meant to be spent.

And Patrick finally makes relevant his comment about slavery. We also establish that he never used his powers to abuse women, or at least that Nightshadow wouldn't know about it.

I wonder how much Patrick's ranting is persuading Alison, if at all. She hasn't had much of a reaction yet - though I think we can at least say she doesn't adamantly agree with him.

For some reason, I suspect that Patrick is deliberately trying to piss Alison off. I dont know why, time will tell.

Assuming he's telling the truth (albeit being unnecessarily blunt about it), it certainly explains his disdain of Paladin. She's clearly a "save lives at any cost" type, while he's... not.

Patrick claims to have no ideological commitments. Individual life isn't precious because no one is uniquely unique. Love and kindness are fairy tales.

Two thoughts occur to me: 1) Allison needs to watch her back- if the killers of the biodynamic people ever tried to make a deal with Patrick, he's presumably take it. 2) I wonder if Allison ever checked Patrick's "facts" independently? I wouldn't put it past him to make it all up.

On the other hand- this is also how he might act if he wanted to protect her. Get her out of the way before something dangerous happened. I'm just not sure yet which way Patrick will go.

I'm glad I'm not in Allison's shoes.

Dang, now I want that comic mentioned in the alt text to be a real thing.

Allison would certainly be interested.

You know, I'm getting the idea that he's not having the effect on Alison that he really wants to achieve. She's not as easily manipulated?

I still don't know what his goal is with this conversation. I feel like maybe he's trying to drive her away, but that barely makes more sense than trying to recruit her. In the second to last and last panels, you can clearly see his Large Ham supervillain mask slipping for a moment, before he fixes it, so I don't feel like this is just him letting off steam with a good Motive Rant.

Yeah, he started the conversation criticising Lisa for thinking he was evil and saying his means were justified by the ends, and then went into a long rant about how he has no respect for human life and kills people for fun. It's like he saw something in Alison's mind and changed tactics halfway through the conversation.

If he's trying to spook her off with talk of not valuing human life or doing bad things, then he's apparently forgotten that moment when she threatened to murder a crowd of protesters, and has not picked up any memory of when she spoke with Cleaver about her thoughts of mass murder. She's no stranger to the unfortunate implications her powers can have upon others, and while he might be trying to scare her off or dissuade her from continuing their interaction, it'll take a lot more than that.

Yes, I think if you added up the totals, Alison might have killed more people than Patrick. Then again, more people may have died had she not intervened in those instances, but there are definitely a lot of people who died as a direct result of her actions that may otherwise have lived.

Patrick counts every single one of his casualties, but I don't think Alison would have- I think she'd try to remain focused on the good that was done as a means of saying sane.