There will either be copious amounts of alcohol or enormous amounts of Ethan downplaying this particular revival for Lucas to get over this page. …Maybe both.
@Joey – actually, both. Lucas started freaking out when Ethan didn’t pop back in instantly.
Eldest Gruff
2 years ago
Yeeeaah… Lucas has barely, *barely* come to terms with just how traumatic this is. I love that expression on the last panel. Like… sheer terror and relief, masked by a fake-confident smile, which you *know* is facing his friend who he’s desperately hoping will come out of a panic attack.
I wonder how much Ethan and Carly resemble each other.
Well part of that is he came to a realization that “maybe it’s not infinite lives” but “just a couple” and they used them up already. Which is a valid fear (beyond the whole “KILLING YOUR BEST FRIEND issue)… they don’t really know how many lives he has. It’s not like there’s a counter that shows up next to him or an infinity symbol or something.
I’ve actually went back and read the first issues and you can clearly see the character development. Ethan was less… well, Ethan, back then (less clumsy? a bit more on the point? more or less that), while Lucas was more “jump into action”. Today we’ve got clumsy Ethan and a more serious Lucas.
It totally makes sens, given the new responsibility they have (heroes) and the powers they got accustomed to (especially Ethan with his respawning).
DontBeThatGuy
2 years ago
It does raise the question: How many “lives” does he have? Does he accumulate more through a hidden point system by his actions? Or is it just infinite and he can only die of old age?
Sure, he can die of old age. It’s staying dead that can be a problem. Imagine breathing your last, then respawning in your bed and promptly doing it again, *blip*, dying, *blip*, dying, *blip*, dying… it’s like when a game autosaves in a really bad spot.
They may have actually alluded to that once. I know they talked about his body returning to its “last healthy state” or such when he was trying to amass blood. Its possible he would hit a point at old age where he simply isnt healthy anymore and it always brings him back to the same state. Hopefully he can live more than like, a few mins like that. years would be nice. Im guessing it will never come to this, but his power would slowly fade away at that point.
Well it could also be that old age death is a “plot death” – aka he beat the “game” he was respawning in, so now its end credits and new game+.
If thats the case, then are there “bad ends” that can kill him earlier than old age? Like if Zeke took over the world and enslaved humanity under their robot army, would Ethan get a “bad end” and lose his super power?
Relatively recently he mentioned to Zeke that one of his final thoughts before fading to black and re-spawning is often “what if it doesn’t work this time?”
Maybe he cant even age, and always returns to point where he got the power (eg, the start point) with knowledge held, and spawn location close to death point
That thought has crossed my mind as well. Also the thought of *where* he will spawn. What if he respawns in another city? Continent? In space? What if he dies in an airplane that’s in the air? So many questions. And I love it.
Make you really wonder how much this superpower is affecting Lucas and Scott.
The logical (as logical as you can be with superpowers, at least) is that whatever power is causing him to respawn is somewhat tethered to the existing inertial reference frame and e.g. unless the airplane is performing a very steep bank he’d probably respawn onboard. Otherwise it would be pretty awkward respawning with a different velocity when the Earth is spinning, and moving around the Sun, and the Sun is moving around the center of the Milky Way, and the Milky Way is doing…. something, etc. etc.
Last edited 2 years ago by Extreme
austindorf
2 years ago
what if he has an hidden numbers of “continue”? or a sort of “coin” that he’s spending and not aware of?
My personal headcanon is that every time he dies, his bank account either depletes by $0.25 or $1.00. That’s because 100 coins is a 1UP, but a quarter would be a ‘continue’ in an arcade. And nobody has made this connection because Ethan is irresponsible and hasn’t ever looked at his own bank statements.
Bank Employee: what the hell is this “Respawn charge” on one of our clients bank accounts? Theres a ton of them all for 25 cents… think its some sort of scam or fraud?
Manager: Oh thats Ethans account. The guy is addicted to any video game, just look at all the steam purchases in the last 48 hours. Its probably some mobile game that he’s addicted to.
This might be my favorite explanation for his power, yet. And it could even play into the whole “don’t siphon money through the banking system!” conversation he had with ZK. Imagine if something happened to empty Ethan’s account and he’s accidentally killed in front of ZK and doesn’t respawn, only to have ZK figure out how it works and siphon money into his account to pay for the Continue. It would even play interestingly into the dynamic going on here. The murderous robot who Scott is so afraid of will have acted deliberately to save one of his two best… Read more »
Acher4
2 years ago
“Barely slept” you say?
Ok now their action (murder in front of Scott) makes also a little more sense. 😛
I adore the looks of horror on Lucas face on those in-between moments.
I know, right? Panel 3 gets me. You can practically hear his stomach drop.
7eggert
2 years ago
Even though most people would not admit it to ourselves, 99 % of us would not realize that Scott was about to commit suicide (or even what Scott is really going through) without having the background story – and I’ve seen people who just dismiss it even though they know about someone’s problems. People being bad off is nothing normal people are prepared to accept mentally.
I agree up to a point, and that point went into Ethan’s chest last panel. Most people wouldn’t see Scott struggling to the point of contemplating suicide. Even the piled-up letters isn’t an indication of things going to this level; it is an indication that Scott is struggling to cope mentally if allowing the letters to pile up in this manner is generally out of character. That being said, knowing that Scott witnessed the murder of his partner and probably knowing more details than we, the viewers know, Lucas and Ethan deciding to launch an arrow into Ethan’s chest to… Read more »
Bold to assume that after a whole 8ish hours with this superpower, Lucas has the familiarity/control to pinpoint exactly what part of the body he throws his arrow at… 😉
Imagine how Lucas felt after the first 2 times he did it on accident, particularly the first. And how bad he feels about those still, or doing it again. He cringed hard in the gamestore when he did it.
How many additional (relevant) details would you expect Lucas and Ethan to know at this point? As far as I’m aware they shouldn’t have that much more information than the readers. They also only know what they read or were told about it, they don’t have the exact details either. They weren’t actually there to remember it, and they didn’t get the helpful flashback panels either. While we can (now) see bits of the scene and note the wounds are painfully similar, Lucas cannot. Additionally, while we readers can see inside Scott’s head and know he is having a traumatic… Read more »
Tecnox
2 years ago
What I find interesting is Ethan’s “AAUGH!” He’s confided to Zeke that he feels the full pain of every death. Here you can see he still suffering from the pain of dying. It makes Ethan’s willingness to use his superpower at all an incredible test of willpower. He might not be smart, but he’s driven.
Also, Ethan no longer makes that “AAUGH” sound after respawning. Has he become totally numb to the pain of death? This says a lot about his mental state in the present, and raises so many questions. Has death itself lost all meaning to him? He’s alluded to this already…. Knowing we’re going to die is what gives life meaning and drives purpose for many of us, so is Ethan just going through the motions of living now, keeping up the facade of “Ethan” because he has no other choice? Not to mention the fact Ethan can’t kill himself, unlike Scott… Read more »
Last edited 2 years ago by Daren
European
2 years ago
interesting thought, maybe he has a limit on respawns? might be interesting in a further arc.
It’s been brought up before. Such as when Ethan was discussing mortality with Zeke.
“Like when you catch yourself forgetting what death means… or that moment as everything goes black and you wonder if this is the time the power doesn’t work“
Banjo
2 years ago
You know… Scott’s unwillingness to trust either of these two with big decisions is looking a little more sensible all of a sudden.
some guy
2 years ago
The slow descent into panic – perfectly executed! And it almost made me forget Scott’s troubles for a moment.
tgrizz
2 years ago
I am shocked nobody has mentioned the forced laughter that Lucas just had at the end. He started panicking and immediately “hahahahaha..ha….hahaha… everything is fine…” *starts curling up in corner crying*
i had another epiphany.
What if this is like a “clone” type of thing?
What if every time this is a new life literally, a new ethan with all the memories of the previous, and every single ethan really die?
Eh, it’s easy to miss. It’s when Lucas and Scott are discussing Ethan freaking out about The Prestige, which is a film about a magic trick where the “trick” is that the magician is killed and a clone of himself is created elsewhere. Right in the middle of the rescue mission when they recover Zeke.
Oh, thanks! I forgot that part about Zeke’s creator. It seems there’s no duplication of the rfid signal, so Ethan is not cloning hmself everytime he respawns.
This made me remember this sci-fiction story about cloning travelers at their destination and killing the originals to “simulate” space travel: https://readfrom.net/james-patrick-kelly/259822-think_like_a_dinosaur.html
This may have been discussed in previous strips, but the possible connection just clicked for me. Powers often have some relation to the person’s history (they’re gamers, they were gaming – hence gaming related powers). But more than that – did Lucas get directionally based powers because he kind of manages/directs Ethan? And did Ethan get the ability to respawn because of an intense wish that Carly could come back?
If it has ever been asked, it’s been drowned out by the inevitable deluge of “how many lives does he have” variations.
So, arbitrary +1 point for originality, just because! And it’s a damn better quandary, too.
Phoebe
2 years ago
Yup, definitely NOT the one with the brains… 😀 😀 😀
Kevin Greenbaum
2 years ago
Pretty sure Scott’s panic attack isn’t purely because he just ended Ethan for a minute or two.
The Legacy
2 years ago
Lucas’s thought has crossed my mind as well. Also the thought of *where* he will spawn. What if he respawns in another city? Continent? In space? What if he dies in an airplane that’s in the air? So many questions. And I love it.
Make you really wonder how much this superpower is affecting Lucas and Scott.
Would also be interesting if his respawn maintained the original bodies momentum as well. So if he died by hitting something mid swing or fell off a building then his respawn would suddenly reappear flying through the air or hitting the ground over and over until something saved him.
Pyre
2 years ago
Uhhhhh….
I’m not sure that “better late than never” applies when murdering someone in front of an audience who is (even if Lucas isn’t thinking suicidal) have depression issues/PTSD without warning said audience much less coming up with the notion of “limited continues” after the fact.
It’s an understandable gaffe but still kind of a facepalm moment with Lucas.
Namefield
2 years ago
How will they ever figure out whether it’s glitched to infinite lives or on a counter with a limit (and what happens if such limit is reached) ?
While infinite doesn’t exist in the IT flawed checks are a thing, like a counter going negative with only positive values being expected, checking for 1 to go 0 but not any value in the negative. That bothered me right from the start about all of this. Plus: Some games had only lives, others had lives and then also continues that came with an extra stack of lives.
They aren’t sure if it is infinite, which is part of Ethan’s fear about his power.
Smiffwilm
2 years ago
Worried it was Konami Code Contra rules, eh?
John Swift
2 years ago
Oh man Lucus’ face is great. Good job on that one.
Namefield
2 years ago
For something entirely different: Is a comic about Diablo Immortal considered ?
Crias
2 years ago
So this begs the question, if he’s tried it three or four times…
What on earth caused him to try it the first time? Did he just magically know what his power was? This seems like exactly the type of power most people would spend their whole lives with and not know it.
24
There will either be copious amounts of alcohol or enormous amounts of Ethan downplaying this particular revival for Lucas to get over this page. …Maybe both.
scott
@Joey – actually, both. Lucas started freaking out when Ethan didn’t pop back in instantly.
Yeeeaah… Lucas has barely, *barely* come to terms with just how traumatic this is. I love that expression on the last panel. Like… sheer terror and relief, masked by a fake-confident smile, which you *know* is facing his friend who he’s desperately hoping will come out of a panic attack.
I wonder how much Ethan and Carly resemble each other.
Well part of that is he came to a realization that “maybe it’s not infinite lives” but “just a couple” and they used them up already. Which is a valid fear (beyond the whole “KILLING YOUR BEST FRIEND issue)… they don’t really know how many lives he has. It’s not like there’s a counter that shows up next to him or an infinity symbol or something.
Best friends aren’t TRULY best friends unless you want to kill them every once in a while! And vise versa. Lol
Oh, he’ll be fine, what’s another disability added to the list
Mental disabilities don’t count anyway. PTSD²
(Yes, this was a joke)
I’ve actually went back and read the first issues and you can clearly see the character development. Ethan was less… well, Ethan, back then (less clumsy? a bit more on the point? more or less that), while Lucas was more “jump into action”. Today we’ve got clumsy Ethan and a more serious Lucas.
It totally makes sens, given the new responsibility they have (heroes) and the powers they got accustomed to (especially Ethan with his respawning).
It does raise the question: How many “lives” does he have? Does he accumulate more through a hidden point system by his actions? Or is it just infinite and he can only die of old age?
What if he can’t die of old age either?
Sure, he can die of old age. It’s staying dead that can be a problem. Imagine breathing your last, then respawning in your bed and promptly doing it again, *blip*, dying, *blip*, dying, *blip*, dying… it’s like when a game autosaves in a really bad spot.
LOL! Break out the popcorn. We’d need an audience chamber for that one. At least for a little while.
They may have actually alluded to that once. I know they talked about his body returning to its “last healthy state” or such when he was trying to amass blood. Its possible he would hit a point at old age where he simply isnt healthy anymore and it always brings him back to the same state. Hopefully he can live more than like, a few mins like that. years would be nice. Im guessing it will never come to this, but his power would slowly fade away at that point.
When he respawns, it’s back to his most recent state of optimum health, so…yeah…dunno if that means he’d de-age.
Well it could also be that old age death is a “plot death” – aka he beat the “game” he was respawning in, so now its end credits and new game+.
If thats the case, then are there “bad ends” that can kill him earlier than old age? Like if Zeke took over the world and enslaved humanity under their robot army, would Ethan get a “bad end” and lose his super power?
we could always just call a certain silver haired plot device killer. certain kill there.
The question has been raised before, and the answer so far has been a fairly disturbing ‘we don’t know how it works or will keep working’.
wasn’t it also ethan himself saying that, too? I recall that being a fairly sobering panel.
Relatively recently he mentioned to Zeke that one of his final thoughts before fading to black and re-spawning is often “what if it doesn’t work this time?”
Been brought up pretty much ever page that Ethan revives from something.. (it’s kinda old)
Maybe he cant even age, and always returns to point where he got the power (eg, the start point) with knowledge held, and spawn location close to death point
That thought has crossed my mind as well. Also the thought of *where* he will spawn. What if he respawns in another city? Continent? In space? What if he dies in an airplane that’s in the air? So many questions. And I love it.
Make you really wonder how much this superpower is affecting Lucas and Scott.
The logical (as logical as you can be with superpowers, at least) is that whatever power is causing him to respawn is somewhat tethered to the existing inertial reference frame and e.g. unless the airplane is performing a very steep bank he’d probably respawn onboard. Otherwise it would be pretty awkward respawning with a different velocity when the Earth is spinning, and moving around the Sun, and the Sun is moving around the center of the Milky Way, and the Milky Way is doing…. something, etc. etc.
what if he has an hidden numbers of “continue”? or a sort of “coin” that he’s spending and not aware of?
My personal headcanon is that every time he dies, his bank account either depletes by $0.25 or $1.00. That’s because 100 coins is a 1UP, but a quarter would be a ‘continue’ in an arcade. And nobody has made this connection because Ethan is irresponsible and hasn’t ever looked at his own bank statements.
Bank Employee: what the hell is this “Respawn charge” on one of our clients bank accounts? Theres a ton of them all for 25 cents… think its some sort of scam or fraud?
Manager: Oh thats Ethans account. The guy is addicted to any video game, just look at all the steam purchases in the last 48 hours. Its probably some mobile game that he’s addicted to.
This might be my favorite explanation for his power, yet. And it could even play into the whole “don’t siphon money through the banking system!” conversation he had with ZK. Imagine if something happened to empty Ethan’s account and he’s accidentally killed in front of ZK and doesn’t respawn, only to have ZK figure out how it works and siphon money into his account to pay for the Continue. It would even play interestingly into the dynamic going on here. The murderous robot who Scott is so afraid of will have acted deliberately to save one of his two best… Read more »
“Barely slept” you say?
Ok now their action (murder in front of Scott) makes also a little more sense. 😛
I adore the looks of horror on Lucas face on those in-between moments.
I know, right? Panel 3 gets me. You can practically hear his stomach drop.
Even though most people would not admit it to ourselves, 99 % of us would not realize that Scott was about to commit suicide (or even what Scott is really going through) without having the background story – and I’ve seen people who just dismiss it even though they know about someone’s problems. People being bad off is nothing normal people are prepared to accept mentally.
I agree up to a point, and that point went into Ethan’s chest last panel. Most people wouldn’t see Scott struggling to the point of contemplating suicide. Even the piled-up letters isn’t an indication of things going to this level; it is an indication that Scott is struggling to cope mentally if allowing the letters to pile up in this manner is generally out of character. That being said, knowing that Scott witnessed the murder of his partner and probably knowing more details than we, the viewers know, Lucas and Ethan deciding to launch an arrow into Ethan’s chest to… Read more »
Bold to assume that after a whole 8ish hours with this superpower, Lucas has the familiarity/control to pinpoint exactly what part of the body he throws his arrow at… 😉
Call me crazy, but I think watching another friend die is going to be horrific for someone in Scott’s shoes regardless of how they die.
Imagine how Lucas felt after the first 2 times he did it on accident, particularly the first. And how bad he feels about those still, or doing it again. He cringed hard in the gamestore when he did it.
How many additional (relevant) details would you expect Lucas and Ethan to know at this point? As far as I’m aware they shouldn’t have that much more information than the readers. They also only know what they read or were told about it, they don’t have the exact details either. They weren’t actually there to remember it, and they didn’t get the helpful flashback panels either. While we can (now) see bits of the scene and note the wounds are painfully similar, Lucas cannot. Additionally, while we readers can see inside Scott’s head and know he is having a traumatic… Read more »
What I find interesting is Ethan’s “AAUGH!” He’s confided to Zeke that he feels the full pain of every death. Here you can see he still suffering from the pain of dying. It makes Ethan’s willingness to use his superpower at all an incredible test of willpower. He might not be smart, but he’s driven.
Also, Ethan no longer makes that “AAUGH” sound after respawning. Has he become totally numb to the pain of death? This says a lot about his mental state in the present, and raises so many questions. Has death itself lost all meaning to him? He’s alluded to this already…. Knowing we’re going to die is what gives life meaning and drives purpose for many of us, so is Ethan just going through the motions of living now, keeping up the facade of “Ethan” because he has no other choice? Not to mention the fact Ethan can’t kill himself, unlike Scott… Read more »
interesting thought, maybe he has a limit on respawns? might be interesting in a further arc.
This has been brought up in the comic like 5 times now.
Closer to 5 to the 5th power. Nearly ever page Ethan dies to something at least two people pipe in with something like “this begs the question…”
Yeah, *this*, and the previous page, and the page two before that, and nearly a whole week’s worth a month prior, for nearly a year now. O_o
Uh oh. Tim just teed up the idea that Ethan has a limited pool of lives.
99 perhaps?
It’s been brought up before. Such as when Ethan was discussing mortality with Zeke.
“Like when you catch yourself forgetting what death means… or that moment as everything goes black and you wonder if this is the time the power doesn’t work“
You know… Scott’s unwillingness to trust either of these two with big decisions is looking a little more sensible all of a sudden.
The slow descent into panic – perfectly executed! And it almost made me forget Scott’s troubles for a moment.
I am shocked nobody has mentioned the forced laughter that Lucas just had at the end. He started panicking and immediately “hahahahaha..ha….hahaha… everything is fine…” *starts curling up in corner crying*
I definitely noticed. ?
Ha Ha, I totally didn’t just commit murder
99 lives of Ethan in the room, 99 lives of Ethan.
Shoot one down with a golden arrow
98 lives of Ethan in the room.
…Take my like and get out! ?
That’s a good consideration……..
i had another epiphany.
What if this is like a “clone” type of thing?
What if every time this is a new life literally, a new ethan with all the memories of the previous, and every single ethan really die?
This has ALSO already been brought up in the comic. Have you guys even read this story?
I want to re-read that part because I don’t remember it ¿Where can I find it?
Eh, it’s easy to miss. It’s when Lucas and Scott are discussing Ethan freaking out about The Prestige, which is a film about a magic trick where the “trick” is that the magician is killed and a clone of himself is created elsewhere. Right in the middle of the rescue mission when they recover Zeke.
I don’t think anyone’s ruled it out, iirc.
Oh, thanks! I forgot that part about Zeke’s creator. It seems there’s no duplication of the rfid signal, so Ethan is not cloning hmself everytime he respawns.
This made me remember this sci-fiction story about cloning travelers at their destination and killing the originals to “simulate” space travel: https://readfrom.net/james-patrick-kelly/259822-think_like_a_dinosaur.html
Also: Schlock Mercenary (IIRC)
This may have been discussed in previous strips, but the possible connection just clicked for me. Powers often have some relation to the person’s history (they’re gamers, they were gaming – hence gaming related powers). But more than that – did Lucas get directionally based powers because he kind of manages/directs Ethan? And did Ethan get the ability to respawn because of an intense wish that Carly could come back?
Again – sorry if this has already been discussed…
If it has ever been asked, it’s been drowned out by the inevitable deluge of “how many lives does he have” variations.
So, arbitrary +1 point for originality, just because! And it’s a damn better quandary, too.
Yup, definitely NOT the one with the brains… 😀 😀 😀
Pretty sure Scott’s panic attack isn’t purely because he just ended Ethan for a minute or two.
Lucas’s thought has crossed my mind as well. Also the thought of *where* he will spawn. What if he respawns in another city? Continent? In space? What if he dies in an airplane that’s in the air? So many questions. And I love it.
Make you really wonder how much this superpower is affecting Lucas and Scott.
Would also be interesting if his respawn maintained the original bodies momentum as well. So if he died by hitting something mid swing or fell off a building then his respawn would suddenly reappear flying through the air or hitting the ground over and over until something saved him.
Uhhhhh….
I’m not sure that “better late than never” applies when murdering someone in front of an audience who is (even if Lucas isn’t thinking suicidal) have depression issues/PTSD without warning said audience much less coming up with the notion of “limited continues” after the fact.
It’s an understandable gaffe but still kind of a facepalm moment with Lucas.
How will they ever figure out whether it’s glitched to infinite lives or on a counter with a limit (and what happens if such limit is reached) ?
While infinite doesn’t exist in the IT flawed checks are a thing, like a counter going negative with only positive values being expected, checking for 1 to go 0 but not any value in the negative. That bothered me right from the start about all of this. Plus: Some games had only lives, others had lives and then also continues that came with an extra stack of lives.
Well, if one day Ethan doesn’t respawn, that’ll be a way they figure out that there was a limit. ?
He has infinite continues, I thought?
They aren’t sure if it is infinite, which is part of Ethan’s fear about his power.
Worried it was Konami Code Contra rules, eh?
Oh man Lucus’ face is great. Good job on that one.
For something entirely different: Is a comic about Diablo Immortal considered ?
So this begs the question, if he’s tried it three or four times…
What on earth caused him to try it the first time? Did he just magically know what his power was? This seems like exactly the type of power most people would spend their whole lives with and not know it.
It was an accident, Lucas waved his hand and created arrow by accident, killing Ethan. Real question is what caused them to try *second* time
If I remember right Ethan stabbed or cut himself with a broken bottle the second time to test it out
Mmmm, PTSD… The gift that keeps on giving…