Khaos Komix

It's NOT OK, if you are not a trans woman, to portray a trans woman raping someone. I went from liking this comic to hating it in about five strips.

Meh. Khaos pretty much feeds on drama and angst.

What better way to do so with all the important loose ends tied up?

In the end, it's just a webcomic; you should really just relax.

edited 6th Oct '12 3:34:30 PM by IWasJustPassingBy

And you know, I'm pretty sure it's not just going to end here. Tab will most likely address waht's going on.

Now that the dust in my mind has cleared, I kind of figure this is going toward All Just a Dream. I somewhat doubt Tab would do this to one of his main eight, especially right after centering a merch item on her, and he's endorsed shock tactics before. Plus the quiet hints of "psst, wait it out"... how else could the situation improve? Either Charlie is condemned as a rapist, or the narrative belittles rape; I can't imagine the latter, and the former is about where we are now.

It's kind of the difference between "shitty twist" and "unbelievably shitty twist" at this point, though.

Maybe the comic will end with one of the commiting suicide from guilt.

...God, I just depressed myself...

I hope it's Jamie. I'm fucking tired of his angst.

Tab comments on the forums:

see, I told you he wasn't going to ignore this. Ya'll act like he's condoning this or something.

So you don't think it's a LITTLE BIT PROBLEMATIC that of all the characters, it's the trans girl who Tab makes into the irredeemable monster.

The revised page that was posted about an hour ago addresses a LOT of my problems with the situation. Charlie and Jamie are still in a fucked-up, mutually sexually abusive place, but Charlie isn't clearly the villain anymore, nor is Jamie clearly the victim - they're back to being fucked up kids who are screwing with each other's heads in a rather bad way. I don't mind this. This is better.

And how is this better, exactly?

Honestly, no. Even if s/he is trans, Charlie is still a person. And people, given certain circumstances, can throw away their morality and become complete monsters. What does being trans have to do with it?

edited 7th Oct '12 11:13:27 AM by IWasJustPassingBy

Not understanding that someone isn't completely consenting = irredeemable monster?

Yeah, she should have known better. But she's angry, young and horny. That doesn't mean she's not guilty, but it's not out of malice.

[ed.] also, Tab is upholding a stereotype of trans women as rapists? 1. I've only heard of that stereotype after this strip came out, so maybe it's not as prevelent you think it is 2. you forget that Jamie's molester is presumably a cis-man 3. Steve and Mark's first time was also rather dubious.

edited 7th Oct '12 12:26:38 PM by JethroQWalrustitty

I don't know how I feel about Tab editing the script.

But then I've never had a popular webcomic centered around LGBT characters...

This is better, but I'm concerned about the implication that Tab's original plan was just to dismiss it as "yeah, she raped him, but she didn't know any better." Unless I was wrong in my initial assumption that she was going to town in the last... however many it was... panels, and it was just the reaction that got her to back off spread out for effect.

I don't know. The fact that it was changed so quickly tells me that Tab didn't have enough confidence in the new direction the story was going to go through with it anyway.

It could been like "Fuck you, this is happening." And I'd respect Tab all the more for it.

Each chapter has been getting darker and I don't see why Tab feels like now it the best time to back out.

edited 7th Oct '12 4:32:53 PM by IWasJustPassingBy

Darker, yes. Rape and abuse have become running themes - committed in some cases by close friends, relatives, trusted peers - but not the heroes themselves. The problem with one of the heroes suddenly doing something so extreme, right at the eleventh hour, isn't that it's "dark," but that it retroactively destroys a big part of the appeal of the story, as well as the social justice issue.

edited 7th Oct '12 4:52:55 PM by TwinBird

So what you're saying is that the reason that Charlie raping Jamie is unacceptable is because their both main characters?

No - because she is. When a fair chunk of the comic has been spent trying to build your sympathies for - oops, right at the last minute it turns out she's an irredeemable monster! That can work, sometimes. Not here. Not in this comic whose darkness has heretofore existed to build a connection to people one of whom it would now be impossible to make oneself connect with. That's a very different kind of darkness you describe, one that doesn't bear introduction a few pages from the final curtain.

Uh-huh...

Wouldn't it be better to see this whole thing through before deciding whether it worked out or not? Keep in mind that this is Jamie's story, so we don't know what going through Charlie's mind to help make sense out of all this. And Jamie actually gets off on this sort of thing. I'm thinking that because it's Charlie is why he's freaking out.

I'm just going to plug the phrase "young, dumb, and full o' cum."

I know we're not supposed to make exuces, but irredeemable, really?

Charlie's recent actions have really uncorked a big can of worms, and we need a central place where all the nuances of the problem as specifically relating to Charlie and Jamie can be discussed. This thread is already starting to look like a version of the original pg.83 comment thread, and recent edits to the main article threaten to do the same there.

I propose making an Unfortunate Implications page specifically for Khaos, mentioning it on the main article (with the warning that it contains spoilers), and moving all further discussions there.