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Raine Dog | back to reviews |
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It's... weird
Raine Dog is about a dog who can talk... and is kept as a pet... and... she kisses a boy and is neutered.
Yeah.
Whenever I read this thing, it feels like I'm dreaming. Many of my dreams are full of lovecraftian creatures, indescribable concepts and events, and I always feel a bit phased out when I wake up from one of those. And they all make more sense than this comic: it is quite likely the most outright bizarre thing I've ever seen in my entire life. Nothing in it makes even the slightest bit of sense.
It's not bad, per se, but it's not good either. It's just... it's an Eldritch Abomination of web comics. No words to describe it, for good or bad, so utterly alien that it cannot be comprehended by human mind. Its premise, its events and plotlines, aren't just bad writing, not just mere Ass Pulls: with those, unlike with what's going on here, at least I would have some idea of why it went that way. Trying to make any sense of them, the characters, the world itself, is literally making my head ache.
I have no idea what is moving inside the mind of its creator. Maybe he's really Nyarlathotep in disguise. That would make more sense than Raine Dog.
Mark Lungo: Maybe I can explain Raine Dog to you, Potman. At least, this is what I think Simpson is getting at.
You know all those Lions And Tigers And Humans Oh My cartoons and comics where Talking Animals live side by side with humans? I believe Raine Dog is an attempt to deconstruct that trope by exploring what such a world would really be like. The answer? The animals would be second-class citizens at best, because Humans Are Bastards—not all of them, but enough.
What Measure Is A Non Human in Raine Dog's world? Well, we've already seen that animals are treated the same as in Real Life, even though they can talk. If you break the rules, you might wind up neutered, as Raine Dog does. If you're the wrong species, like the cows, you're literally dead meat. When I first read Raine Dog, I wondered if humans would really treat sentient animals that badly—but then I had a Fridge Brilliance moment when I remembered how we frequently mistreat each other. Is it really that much of a stretch to imagine that humans would abuse and exploit creatures who are literally another species?
I hope I've explained Raine Dog (or at least my interpretation of it) to anyone who might be having trouble with it. Thanks for reading!
Mark Lungo
5th Aug 09
Thanks, but... um. That really didn't help much. The whole thing still confuses me.
Potman
6th Aug 09
What's not to understand? It's an exploration of the ramifications of Talking Animals in a realistic contemporary setting, from the perspective of a talking animal.
It's a world where animals have human-level intelligence and the ability to communicate; how, then, does what we consider "normal" human behavior towards animals look? Raine is someone's pet, but she's also a person; more a human with canine characteristics than vice-versa. Raine's progression from puppyhood to adulthood is spent tied to a tree in someone's front yard; it's heartbreaking to consider a dog going through that, but if Raine were a human, it would be unforgivable cruelty.
Sure, it can be seen as a bizarre soapbox, but I like the way it plays with preconceptions. That, and the fact that the "present day" scenes imply a world where these Talking Animals are accepted in human society on a human level; it'll be interesting to see how things get to that point.
Ryusui
16th Aug 09
(edited by: Ryusui)
If animals were that smart, they should have made a civilization of their own. Also a combination of intelligence, dexterity, and the ability to walk upright is the only thing that keeps humans on top. If all of the animal kingdom has that advantage (apparently more due to the fact that the dog can speak to all animals without needing to learn a language and that they have superior senses and strength), humans wouldn't be in the top in the first place.
wallwalk
30th Oct 09
(edited by: wallwalk)