Paranatural

Was not expecting they/them Ed to drop today.

Me neither.

Same, saw this and went "Wait, Ed is NB?"

Edit: Wait, is NB still the right thing to say? With how fast the Euphemism Treadmill is going these days...

Edited by Medinoc on Sep 1st 2023 at 7:42:34 PM

NB (or "enby") as short for nonbinary is probably a safe bet, but there are other reasons to use they/them pronouns. Generally speaking it's best not to make assumptions. Just talking about their preferred pronouns without sticking other labels on it is fine.

That said, we did see Ed learning about the concept for the first time back here, three chapters and six years ago. So they're probably trying it on to see how it works for them.

There are some people who see "enby" as infantilizing and dislike its use as a general term but I don't think that extends to "NB"; I'm also not sure how widespread that opinion is? But it's the closest thing to "nonbinary" being treadmilled that I can think of, it's pretty stable as far as I'm aware. It's the usual umbrella term, though as pointed out someone can consider themselves binary (or at least not nonbinary) and still use "they/them" pronouns.

"Genderqueer" is also used as an umbrella term which largely overlaps, but it definitely seems a concept and label of its own, and not something that's going to supplant "nonbinary" or really attempting to, so-to-speak. And I certainly hope it doesn't, I like the term "binary" and I don't want to be expected to switch over to like, what, "genderrigid" to fit a new schema. Needing to clarify that I am trans but not nonbinary comes up more than I would have expected?

That said, yeah, I think it's near-certain Ed's still mainly questioning, and so it would be a bit early to put any more descriptive label on them. I'd imagine being nonbinary is a very likely outcome, but who knows.

Also, uh, ow, am I feeling for Ed and Isabel right now. Not to mention Flipflop...

Yeah I figured this would happen eventually after that page.

Huh. When I first read it, I assumed that Zack had simply slipped into more gender-neutral pronouns while narrating, particularly since they themselves have identified as NB. I didn't consider that it might be Ed's mindframe doing it.

Update

I never caught that that particular death cult member is modeled after a gorilla. Now I'm wondering if they're actually Professor Bigfoot, lol.

Edited by FawfulCrump on Sep 8th 2023 at 4:25:16 AM

RIP Crush

An update.

I love Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Revenants. It's my favorite.

Oh that alt text...

Dude's about to die twice.

Crush is more clever than expected, but uh yeah, probably gonna end up being a case of Too Clever by Half.

Yeah but he also can just. Zoop underground and gtfo at any moment.

On the beliefs and practices of a death cult.

Bad feeling continues to build.

Killing Death always works out great for the people in those myths, why are you worried :p

Update.

Hello new spirit!

Updoot

The punching continues. Huh, Crush really is way more competent than he initially seemed.

I really, really love this comic. Sorry, this update just made that feeling hit me all at once.

I really hope these two get away, back to Master Guerra.

I know what I said before, and I'm really hoping it isn't actually true.

I like that Crush is still trying to educate him. I am getting strong feelings of the anecdotes being what drove Crush, of course.

So it seems Ape isn't th ereal threat in this scene.

Wow, this was awesome. And I agree with Raichu.

Update, and it's a big one.

Theories proven, secrets revealed, technically-not-death, and divorcees! This page has it all!