Sinfest

Wow, wait. The competent, reasonable cop is the one that's destined to die?

I dunno, it didn't really hint at that. I'd wait to speculate on that.

Besides, I think he might get a riot in his own forum if he killed off a perfectly innocent character for "humor."

I think the cop-out alarkhar was talking about earlier has just arrived!

I don't think the riot would be contained to his OWN forum. That would definitely be crossing a line for Tats.

Optimism is a duty.

Well ... according to Tats on several occasions in Sinfest, cops routinely shoot and kill innocent, unarmed black youths. We have a cop; we have a young male Person of Color in the form of Pyro Mc Molotov. My money's on Pyro having the appointment with the Grim Reaper. Why else would he be in the story?

But he has his own little arc now, so he can't be considered an expendable background character anymore. Given the ruckus over Frog Guy, I think its very unlikely Tats will repeat that.

Optimism is a duty.

But he has his own little arc now, so he can't be considered an expendable background character anymore.

But we still don't know why he's in the story. And we still don't know his name.

Given the ruckus over Frog Guy, I think its very unlikely Tats will repeat that.

Tats has given more than one Take That! to his audience ...

Anyway, we'll find out ... eventually.

Did the members of Tats' forum complain about frog guy? I know everyone on this thread hated it, but we're not exactly the audience he's trying to please.

Run away!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKbP-M8vVtw

edited 8th Dec '16 8:17:19 PM by Overlord347

edited 8th Dec '16 8:16:15 PM by Overlord347

@Yamii Denryuu: Did the members of Tats' forum complain about frog guy? I know everyone on this thread hated it, but we're not exactly the audience he's trying to please.

If you check the Sinfest Forum archives for "March 22, 2015 Search 35" you'll see that the only⁕ person who voiced any qualms about the morality of John's punishment was Rothide. The other commenters' reactions ranged from passive acceptance to enthusiastic approval. So the audience over there definitely has attitudes that are quite different from ours, and they rather than we seem to be Tats' target audience.

Note to moderators: I am not "importing drama" from another forum, I'm answering a question about Tats' intent and audience for a specific Sinfest strip.

⁕ Update: I read through the entire discussion thread, and there were a couple of other regular commenters there who expressed discomfort at John's transformation and mindwipe. But the majority were okay with it.

edited 9th Dec '16 2:06:13 AM by Hexapodia

Tats, if you want to make a serious story, we NEED to be able to take your villains seriously. This villain distracted by something silly bit works for Scooby-Doo, but not for what's supposed to be allegory and metaphor of real world events. All it does is make the villains look like complete morons, you heroes look like even BIGGER morons for not having won already, and cheapens the experiences of those who have suffered through or gone through these events.

Standard filler, meh, bored, doing something else.

-goes to read cryptid sighting reports-

God damn it, Tats deserves to be smacked upside the head for this one.

We have already seen this too many times! It's not funny, it's not clever, it's not a satisfying twist whatsoever! It's a random asspull to solve a situation where one of your heroes assaulted a cop with a sword on the level of the infamous "it wasn't loaded" comic.

It wasn't any good the first time, it sure as hell isn't now! Stop it!

Yeah if Tats Really wants to make a compelling story, maybe he should take a look at a good example of a fictional oppressive group. Like the Highland Empire from Suikoden 2. Right off the bat, the moment you see Luca Blight Murdering members of his own country's youth brigade while his troops are disguised as City-states troops, all to incite a war with them, you want to see him taken down. From the get go almost every time Riou and co come into conflict with the bastard it ends with them having to run away because this asshole is a actual threat and actually has KILLED named characters they and the player KNEW. The entire game was building up to the climatic fight against this Death Worshiping Asshole. it did not disappoint. This quote says it all.

edited 9th Dec '16 12:26:51 AM by yamiblade

Can someone explain "It wasn't loaded" to me? Are we referencing a specific strip where that actually happened or...

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

Yeah. One of the fembots tried to murder Slick with a shotgun.

Specifically, the one we coined the Fan Nickname "Maverick" for, AKA the first Fembot to have her Devil Tech programming broken, by accidental exposure to the Reality Zone.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I...

I vaguely remember this.

Didn't she storm the factory?

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

Yes, she grabbed a shotgun and was on her way to kill Milton, but ran into Slick and Squig who where just finishing their shift and heading out of the factory. She recognized her old owner and then some stuff happened, she had him on the ground with the barrel in his face, then... she tells him it wasn't loaded. Biggest friggin copout ever.

No. She was captured by Devilteck and taken to one of their facilities.

As for the wasn't loaded, there's a bit more to it than just a shotgun being pointed at Slick. Right after she was captured, Slick started freaking out about having a shotgun pointed at him (Though oddly enough he was holding together quite well until Xanthe came out of nowhere) going on about how his life was in danger only for Xanthe to reveal that the shotgun wasn't loaded.

The problem being that the Sunday comic preceeding this had Maverick clearly pointing the gun at an oncoming vehicle, making it rather apparent that at the very least Maverick THOUGHT it was loaded.

Basically, the whole thing came off as Tats trying (badly) to cover his ass after making Maverick look too muck like a psychopath. Doesn't help matters that one of his later Sunday comic showed Maverick's memories of the event and showed her unloading the gun.

Tl;Dr, It was the most blatant attempt at trying to cover his ass Tats has ever pulled.

edited 9th Dec '16 8:15:33 AM by Metalix

No, I think she dropped it and ran off or something. Xanthe showed us it wasn't loaded.

d

edited 9th Dec '16 8:00:20 AM by Elfive

Which one? The original Fembot manufactory, or the drone manufactory where Slick and Squig work at?

If the former, not quite: She entered it sometime after the Sisterhood ruined it with a computer virus that replaced the standard programming with an abridged version of The History of Patriarchal Oppression of Womankind (which may or may not have been loaded with a "Rage Virus" as many here call it, who blame it for the sudden rampage of those affected Fembots), found a pile of dismantled Fembots and accessed the memory bank of one such Fembot, saw the aforementioned datastream (and may or may not have been infected with the "Rage Virus"), and developed her now-characteristic hatred of The Patriarchy.

If the latter... well, I believe the above posters have explained this one sufficiently.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Rogue linker to the rescue!

The expression "the X wasn't loaded" come from here:[1]

It indeed happens after Fem Bot #1 (Maverick in that website) comes to the drone factory (probably to shoot Milton) as seen here [2] but then got sidetracked after seeing that Slick (the guy who bought her and brought her to the reality zone, effectively freeing her) is working in the factory too. She decides to confront him (with her gun)[3], and after a pretty tense and weird confrontation, got detected and capture by security drones [4]. Xanthe then shows up to make the aforementioned comment before driving away.

I only linked the biggest points here, so if you want a complete view I suggest you read all pages between my second link and my first.

Also, this page [5] gives you a resume of Maverick story arc after she got freed (I don't remember her meeting Xanthe, but apart from that: meeting Nana, going back to the factory, uploading the Rad Fem virus, going on a rampage, getting attacked by an assassinbot, trying to kill herself, getting saved by Tange and Lil'E, taking one of their guns and going to the factory). It also show her pulling out the bullets before confronting Slick.

The main problem I have with that Retcon (and the reason why I agree this must be a retcon in the first place) is that the whole confrontation between Slick and her make very little sense that way: the only reason I can find as to why she would be so agressive yet restrained toward him is that she hesitate between killing him (due to him working for The Man) or not (due to him technically freeing her). In that light, it would make no sense to her to remove her first option before the confrontation.

However, while I appreciate a running gag just like anyone else, I do not think that such retcon-induced plothole have appeared yet in the current story arc (not that the narrative was faultless, far from it, but at least it is somehow consistent).

Rogue linker awaaayyyyy...

edited 9th Dec '16 10:21:56 AM by jaff

Robots shall be the second load of fertilizer dumped upon the human race -Clippy-