The ability to stick his foot in his mouth and still talk
jack
2 years ago
you know, i wonder if there is some sort of testing they can have done to determine if ethan has unlimited lives, or is burning through a finite supply. seems like that would be helpful information to have if theyre finite, because we dont want to wind up like highlander: the source.
Any testing for that, based on what we have seen so far, would result in inconclusive data until the situation happens when he runs out of lives. Killing him 99 times wouldn’t mean that he would respawn at the 100th attempt. The powers allow him to be more reckless and more sacrificial (ie, pushing another super out of the way of falling debris to save them, killing himself), but not knowing is probably the only thing stopping Ethan from doing stupid, pointless stunts that will probably get him killed. If he did know, he probably wouldn’t be as effective as… Read more »
While being done for selfish reasons, the experiment did prove that he could donate blood without potentially killing a person that received said blood injection. Image if Lucas was in need of a blood transfusion, they now know that Ethan could be a viable candidate without potential risk to Lucas later down the line. It also wasn’t pointless to Ethan as he saw value in what he was doing; I was thinking more along the lines of needlessly jumping off a building and die because it is quicker to reach the ground than taking the stairs.
That might just be Ethan having played enough games to know what happens if the respawn point is after he jumped. Splat, blip, splat, blip, splat, blip, splat, blip, splat… until someone figures out how to break the loop.
Which raises some interesting questions. If the blood from his previous instance remains and a new instance of him has all of its blood, that means matter is either being created, meaning in this universe there is no conservation of matter/energy OR Ethan’s matter is being pulled from somewhere. Then the question becomes where? Perhaps Ethan’s are being pulled from the multiverse, the memories of previous Ethan are imprinted on them and they become new Ethan. Meaning every time he dies in this universe an Ethan disappears from a different universe. Or maybe the matter that makes him up is… Read more »
did you not see the eldritch tentacle monster? our laws do not apply with any sense of severity. they may exist, but exceptions can occur. hell the arrows lucas make disobey that law left and right. for them to have mass enough to hold him would require insane amounts of energy and using them to fly would be denying the laws of attraction heavily. every arrow he makes should be producing a black hole of energy consumption and an emp every time it moves.
Oh god yes. And I’ve met Adrian Paul. Only worse thing he was in was the second season of War of the Worlds. Which pissed ALL OVER the first season I watched religiously as a kid.
I’ve seen it described in old school cartoonists’ comics that drawing things like this “as appropriate” sometimes removes them from the visibility or they become visually disruptive to the comic itself. In this manner, they convey the immediate information to a rapid reader without disrupting the panel’s intention. I see the work of a pro comic artist at play.
What about a chair-ior? Or a chair-iot of fire? Or a chair-grilled chair-iot of fire?
Risky
2 years ago
Right now he thinks he’s on easy mode, but could be he’s earning one ups somehow he’s not aware of. Perhaps eating mushrooms or actions performed in the game before the big static bang.
He starts eating some and then sees a random “+1UP” above his head. At that point he starts to worry, contemplating what just happened and, if he just got an extra life, how many lives does he actually have left.
Stepping in front of someone else to catch a bullet meant for them takes one hell of a cocktail of deep feelings. Big respect for Scott. Also great laugh at Ethan finding the perfect moment for a comic relief that made even Scott roll his eyes and forget about his worries and negative feelings for a moment there. Great family those two. <3
Lord Foxxy Foxington
2 years ago
No, the chair isnt fine, he’s angry and he hates it, he resents that damn chair he’s stuck in, because it makes him feel even more powerless than he was before. Scott has a lot of internal rage he isnt dealing with, he needs serious help.
Or alternatively, the chair is fine, the chair provides mobility and access he wouldn’t otherwise have. But he has a lot of exhaustion, misery and anger around being forced into needing to use it and the ongoing pain is probably also a huge depression drain. (Having mobility issues myself I appreciate aids for actually allowing me to move more easily and do more with my limited reserves – but it doesn’t do the entire job of lifting that feeling of frustration and limitation, and Scott is far earlier in the process, and dealing with it very badly so far, if… Read more »
foducool
2 years ago
and this chair is just fine
see? it got wheels
Cmd1095
2 years ago
As Ethan stops the panic attack through awkward faux paus
Locke
2 years ago
I really didn’t wanna empathize with Scott. I tried oh so hard to emotionally quarantine him into a little box of “You shat in your bed now lie in it”. I almost succeeded too, but that last panel got me. Love your work Tim, never stop.
I don’t see why you think it can only be one or the other. You can empathize with him for what he’s going through here, and also think he’s a big piece of crap for what he did with ZK.
Mr_Meng
2 years ago
Personally, when it comes to Scott I’m 100% team redemption. I really like his character, I can empathize with a lot of what he thinks and feels(even if I don’t agree with all of it), and frankly having him do a villain turn at this point feels too easy. While he has grave concerns about Zeke it doesn’t feel like enough has happened to have Scott abandon his friendship with Ethan and Lucas. Having him become a villain before things with Zeke have had time to develop more would feel like it was forced because a vocal part of the… Read more »
Frankly, his reasons and logic weren’t wrong. He stated that even IF he accepted that the killer robot that talks about ruling the world was just joking… governments and supervillains would all want to capture Zeke to start making their own army of self aware robot soldiers. And that’s just opening the world up to various doomsday scenarios due to the mistreatment by large organizations: either we get SkyNet, or we just have powerful forces with destructive-yet-disposable soldiers to wreak as much havok as they wish. While I’d accept that any sufficiently advanced AI should be considered a “person” and… Read more »
His methods were wrong though, that’s the problem. Lucas asked him to expand the perimeter. He implied that he would. Then he didn’t.
Still would have been possible to realize the potential danger ZK might be, even indirectly, but not lie to your friends. Could’ve done what Lucas asked, have a larger perimeter, still had a manual activation for the kill switch at any time too in case of one of those indirect dangers getting close to coming true.
The only issue with that, though, is you can make the same arguments about any superhero. Can’t show off their powers, or a government/supervillain will capture them and break their will until they’re a willing agent.
You don’t think any governments wouldn’t want to strap Ethan to a vivisection table and work until they replicate his respawning ability? Or Lucas’ seemingly-invincible energy barriers?
Why is it ok to let Ethan/Lucas run around using their powers as they see fit?
Kevin Greenbaum
2 years ago
Definitely an awkward situation, and I definitely see Scotts point of view. But given what they’ve recently been through (as far as the flash back goes) I can understand him being hesitant. I would be edgy about it as well if I was in his situation, and I can understand where he was coming from with ZK, but he could’ve handled it in a better way instead of lying to Ethan and not being clear to Lucas.
Thank you. Don’t know why basically everyone else is all “guess I’m not mad at Scott anymore lawl” because of this. You can empathize with him having a terrible time in these new strips while still being mad at him for the horrible thing he did in the previous strips.
WEM
2 years ago
Wait, Ethan said “my sister”, but I thought it was Scott’s sister who died. Isn’t that why he’s traumatized?
I think it was Ethan’s sister who was dating Scott?
omg omg
2 years ago
Scott, pal, listen: you are not powerless. That event was beyond tragic, but think about the last thing Carlie saw: you risking your life to protect her. She left witnessing infinite love from you. You’re the true hero here, the others simply got superpowers and disguises.
Pyre
2 years ago
This whole encounter has been one “Let’s do/say something before we think it through” from the moment Scott opened the door, hasn’t it?
Verdiekus
2 years ago
I like this iteration of Scott much more than the others. He has more character and “life” than he did before. Ethan is still stupid, but in a better way, Lucas has developed in a delightful way. All in all I love how your storytelling has improved, you have come a long way Tim and I’m proud of you. (I’ve been reading since the beginning)
Now give us back our favorite gamer girl, we miss having her around to help temper Ethan.
24
ethan’s real superpower: awkward comic relief.
The ability to diffuse a situation and tension in the most Ethan way possible is def his first super power
The ability to stick his foot in his mouth and still talk
you know, i wonder if there is some sort of testing they can have done to determine if ethan has unlimited lives, or is burning through a finite supply. seems like that would be helpful information to have if theyre finite, because we dont want to wind up like highlander: the source.
God I hate myself for bringing up that movie…
Any testing for that, based on what we have seen so far, would result in inconclusive data until the situation happens when he runs out of lives. Killing him 99 times wouldn’t mean that he would respawn at the 100th attempt. The powers allow him to be more reckless and more sacrificial (ie, pushing another super out of the way of falling debris to save them, killing himself), but not knowing is probably the only thing stopping Ethan from doing stupid, pointless stunts that will probably get him killed. If he did know, he probably wouldn’t be as effective as… Read more »
“not knowing is probably the only thing stopping Ethan from doing stupid, pointless stunts”
Didn’t he drain all of his blood multiple times to have money for a game, or something like that, a few chapters back?
While being done for selfish reasons, the experiment did prove that he could donate blood without potentially killing a person that received said blood injection. Image if Lucas was in need of a blood transfusion, they now know that Ethan could be a viable candidate without potential risk to Lucas later down the line. It also wasn’t pointless to Ethan as he saw value in what he was doing; I was thinking more along the lines of needlessly jumping off a building and die because it is quicker to reach the ground than taking the stairs.
That might just be Ethan having played enough games to know what happens if the respawn point is after he jumped. Splat, blip, splat, blip, splat, blip, splat, blip, splat… until someone figures out how to break the loop.
He’s already figured out that he can pick the respawn point though, within a certain area.
Which raises some interesting questions. If the blood from his previous instance remains and a new instance of him has all of its blood, that means matter is either being created, meaning in this universe there is no conservation of matter/energy OR Ethan’s matter is being pulled from somewhere. Then the question becomes where? Perhaps Ethan’s are being pulled from the multiverse, the memories of previous Ethan are imprinted on them and they become new Ethan. Meaning every time he dies in this universe an Ethan disappears from a different universe. Or maybe the matter that makes him up is… Read more »
If he respawns, the currently-lost blood disappears but the donated-and-already-replaced-by-the-bod blood will remain.
did you not see the eldritch tentacle monster? our laws do not apply with any sense of severity. they may exist, but exceptions can occur. hell the arrows lucas make disobey that law left and right. for them to have mass enough to hold him would require insane amounts of energy and using them to fly would be denying the laws of attraction heavily. every arrow he makes should be producing a black hole of energy consumption and an emp every time it moves.
Well, he is still Ethan. From his point of view it is far from pointless 🙂
Ah yes, the halting problem 🙂
I had to google for that movie, never had even heard about it. Now I know why, that plot sounds even worse than Highlander 2’s (and that’s a feat).
What are you guys talking about there was only one Highlander movie
There can be only one!
There is only one?
I mean, how do you test for that?
Oh god yes. And I’ve met Adrian Paul. Only worse thing he was in was the second season of War of the Worlds. Which pissed ALL OVER the first season I watched religiously as a kid.
so are those glasses wraparounds or what?
They do seem rather angled based on panel 2. You’d expect to see behind the glasses from that angle given typical glasses.
I’ve seen it described in old school cartoonists’ comics that drawing things like this “as appropriate” sometimes removes them from the visibility or they become visually disruptive to the comic itself. In this manner, they convey the immediate information to a rapid reader without disrupting the panel’s intention. I see the work of a pro comic artist at play.
It looks like someone doesn’t know how to draw glasses. In a later page than this they look like normal glasses
Leave it to Ethan’s comedic awkwardness to snap Scott out of a panic attack.
What about a chair-ior? Or a chair-iot of fire? Or a chair-grilled chair-iot of fire?
Right now he thinks he’s on easy mode, but could be he’s earning one ups somehow he’s not aware of. Perhaps eating mushrooms or actions performed in the game before the big static bang.
oh god, I can see him chugging containers of portabella mushrooms. **hurk**
He starts eating some and then sees a random “+1UP” above his head. At that point he starts to worry, contemplating what just happened and, if he just got an extra life, how many lives does he actually have left.
He’d grow fat from eating mushrooms.
Stepping in front of someone else to catch a bullet meant for them takes one hell of a cocktail of deep feelings. Big respect for Scott. Also great laugh at Ethan finding the perfect moment for a comic relief that made even Scott roll his eyes and forget about his worries and negative feelings for a moment there. Great family those two. <3
No, the chair isnt fine, he’s angry and he hates it, he resents that damn chair he’s stuck in, because it makes him feel even more powerless than he was before. Scott has a lot of internal rage he isnt dealing with, he needs serious help.
Or alternatively, the chair is fine, the chair provides mobility and access he wouldn’t otherwise have. But he has a lot of exhaustion, misery and anger around being forced into needing to use it and the ongoing pain is probably also a huge depression drain. (Having mobility issues myself I appreciate aids for actually allowing me to move more easily and do more with my limited reserves – but it doesn’t do the entire job of lifting that feeling of frustration and limitation, and Scott is far earlier in the process, and dealing with it very badly so far, if… Read more »
and this chair is just fine
see? it got wheels
As Ethan stops the panic attack through awkward faux paus
I really didn’t wanna empathize with Scott. I tried oh so hard to emotionally quarantine him into a little box of “You shat in your bed now lie in it”. I almost succeeded too, but that last panel got me. Love your work Tim, never stop.
I don’t see why you think it can only be one or the other. You can empathize with him for what he’s going through here, and also think he’s a big piece of crap for what he did with ZK.
Personally, when it comes to Scott I’m 100% team redemption. I really like his character, I can empathize with a lot of what he thinks and feels(even if I don’t agree with all of it), and frankly having him do a villain turn at this point feels too easy. While he has grave concerns about Zeke it doesn’t feel like enough has happened to have Scott abandon his friendship with Ethan and Lucas. Having him become a villain before things with Zeke have had time to develop more would feel like it was forced because a vocal part of the… Read more »
Frankly, his reasons and logic weren’t wrong. He stated that even IF he accepted that the killer robot that talks about ruling the world was just joking… governments and supervillains would all want to capture Zeke to start making their own army of self aware robot soldiers. And that’s just opening the world up to various doomsday scenarios due to the mistreatment by large organizations: either we get SkyNet, or we just have powerful forces with destructive-yet-disposable soldiers to wreak as much havok as they wish. While I’d accept that any sufficiently advanced AI should be considered a “person” and… Read more »
His methods were wrong though, that’s the problem. Lucas asked him to expand the perimeter. He implied that he would. Then he didn’t.
Still would have been possible to realize the potential danger ZK might be, even indirectly, but not lie to your friends. Could’ve done what Lucas asked, have a larger perimeter, still had a manual activation for the kill switch at any time too in case of one of those indirect dangers getting close to coming true.
The only issue with that, though, is you can make the same arguments about any superhero. Can’t show off their powers, or a government/supervillain will capture them and break their will until they’re a willing agent.
You don’t think any governments wouldn’t want to strap Ethan to a vivisection table and work until they replicate his respawning ability? Or Lucas’ seemingly-invincible energy barriers?
Why is it ok to let Ethan/Lucas run around using their powers as they see fit?
Definitely an awkward situation, and I definitely see Scotts point of view. But given what they’ve recently been through (as far as the flash back goes) I can understand him being hesitant. I would be edgy about it as well if I was in his situation, and I can understand where he was coming from with ZK, but he could’ve handled it in a better way instead of lying to Ethan and not being clear to Lucas.
Thank you. Don’t know why basically everyone else is all “guess I’m not mad at Scott anymore lawl” because of this. You can empathize with him having a terrible time in these new strips while still being mad at him for the horrible thing he did in the previous strips.
Wait, Ethan said “my sister”, but I thought it was Scott’s sister who died. Isn’t that why he’s traumatized?
Ethan’s sister. Scott’s fiance.
I think it was Ethan’s sister who was dating Scott?
Scott, pal, listen: you are not powerless. That event was beyond tragic, but think about the last thing Carlie saw: you risking your life to protect her. She left witnessing infinite love from you. You’re the true hero here, the others simply got superpowers and disguises.
This whole encounter has been one “Let’s do/say something before we think it through” from the moment Scott opened the door, hasn’t it?
I like this iteration of Scott much more than the others. He has more character and “life” than he did before. Ethan is still stupid, but in a better way, Lucas has developed in a delightful way. All in all I love how your storytelling has improved, you have come a long way Tim and I’m proud of you. (I’ve been reading since the beginning)
Now give us back our favorite gamer girl, we miss having her around to help temper Ethan.