I have the same question. I think the eye color might clue us in. Yellow eyes? Have we seen yellow eyes before? I think we saw red, purple, blue, light blue, and yellow is new?
Well, so far, things seem to be working on a color wheel. Red was anger, resentment, whathaveyou. Light-blue is almost the opposite of red on the color wheel, which seems largely related to empathy and acceptance. Yellow is the polar opposite of purple on most interpretations of the color wheel, and we have seen purple. Purple seemed to have meant resentful yet empathetic. Which makes sense, since ZK at the time felt guilty over hurting Ethan’s feelings in regards to Winter-een-mass. ZK was still angry at humans and hated them as a whole, but felt bad hurting Ethan specifically. This… Read more »
Then everything will depend on the next few moments. How Ethan responds. How Lucas and Scott respond. He needs help, desperately, and Scott is likely the only one who can.
There are 2 ways this can develop, and both are well known scenarios in literature:
1)ZK only heard the last part and is wondering why Ethan did that to him
2)And I bet for this one: ZK heard it all and is asking “why you care so much about me”
,,,,who downvoted this? ZK is an “it.” They’re nonbinary in every sense of the word; neither a he nor a she and made of numbers beyond 1s and 0s that made them who they are (or that was the theory in 1.0?). Hell, Tim made a whole chapter on Zeke finding out what they identify as.
Let’s be real, it’s not -1 because they lived :/
They have a penis? They have an XY chromosome? OR they were designed by a super sexist weeb that thinks “huh, if I am going to make a robot that is a fighter and, I am clearly going to make it after a “male” figure”?
I mean, ZK doesn’t have a single feature that looks like a human male.
Oh God can we just stop this. Everyone. It’s just been said over and over. No one’s saying anything new or different that hasn’t been said for years. You’re all just screaming at each other while plugging your ears.
I literally don’t care what you call the robot – it, they, he, she, ey, ZK, or anything else. It’s not like Zeke’s real and has real feelings to hurt.
What I DO care about is this constant trolling and sniping. People care more about treating a fictional character with respect than about treating a human being with respect.
While I strongly agree with everything you just said, it’s somewhat depressing that I do know a small handful of people that deserve less respect than a fictional character. Mind you they proved this to me over the course of a few years, the average person definitely deserves more respect than a fictional character.
People care more about treating a fictional character with respect than about treating a human being with respect. Surprisingly awful take from you, I don’t know how you got any upvotes. Obviously the people who refuse to use the right pronouns for a fictional character are the same people who refuse to use the right pronouns for real people. Nobody cares more about treating a fictional character with respect, we just see the obvious through-line between “I don’t treat a fictional character with respect” and “I don’t treat human beings with respect either” and THAT’S where all the strong reaction… Read more »
With all due respect, I am a living example of the falsehood of your assertion. I couldn’t care less about calling fictional characters by their preference, because they don’t exist and it won’t hurt them to be misidentified. But when it’s a real person, I will absolutely attempt to call them by their preferred reference, because not doing so may very well hurt them. Empathy is understanding how others feel about things. Taking into account a fictional characters fictional desires and fictional feelings when taking real action is not empathy. I don’t know what you’d call it – Conformity? Rigid… Read more »
If you’re going by the rules of English grammar, anything that isn’t a person (i.e. a human) is referred to by the singular pronoun “it”, this includes non-human animals. “They” is a neutral collective pronoun.
Whether you adhere to that rule or not is up to you. Just know that you’re imposing a esoteric rule expecting people to refer to Zeke as “they”.
I think “Zeke” would actually fit as a pronoun and as Zeke’s name. Zeke’s the first of Zeke’s kind, so it would be fitting if Zeke’s pronoun were Zeke’s own name.
Those are not the rules of english grammar. They’re the rules written by prescriptive grammarians funded during the suffragette era. English grammar uses gendered language for thousands of things that aren’t humans. Animals are almost always gendered, not ‘it’. The singular they has been common english usage when gender is unknown or unspecified for centuries. It’s in every major english author’s writings in some form. And this has been documented and proven countless times, so it’s hard to believe that you don’t know this and you’re repeating the lies out of ignorance and not malice. Just call people what they… Read more »
ok, now, I don’t like the way you said this because I often go by “it”. It’s not implying a lack of personhood, it’s a valid pronoun, however it is rude to refer to someone as “it” if they have not explicitly asked for it
It’s unusual for people to go by “it”, but some people do and I see no reason not to respect y’all. I’m kinda curious but I could look it up myself, you don’t owe me any explanation.
You know what non-binary people don’t generally appreciate being called?
“It”
Even if this is a reference to Frankenstein, Digi capitalized “it” and not “lives”, so pretty sure there’s some intentionality there. The downvotes are thus warranted.
Zeke identifies as they/them … and “it” is an impersonal pronoun in English which – unless someone EXPLICITLY requests for themselves – is therefore depersonalising, objectifying and demeaning to use for others who don’t use it. Don’t be that guy, DontBeThatGuy!
Would all of you bigoted asses please just stop reading the comic, or just stop posting comments? Clearly you are a tiny minority and we can live without you.
What is it that makes people like you take pleasure in hating anyone different from you so much that you prioritise your own convenience over other people’s suffering?
If anyone here deserves to be referred to as if they aren’t human, it’s you.
This whole thread is a bit ridiculous. I think it is reasonable that Digi is trying to express joy over ZK being alive. DontBeThatGuy is making a valid point about ZK being nonbinary. If he (or she) got the pronoun wrong, I doubt that it was intentional or malicious. I am not a keyboard warrior, and as a rule stay out of conversations like this. However, if someone is attacked and disregarded simply because he (or she) made a mistake (honest or otherwise) there is little hope for our society. Grace should be extended until it is known the reasoning… Read more »
But nonbinary people don’t use the pronoun “it” as a general rule. Some people do, I know one or two who either do now or have in the past. But /outside of those exceptions/ the pronoun “it” is both depersonalising since it’s used mostly within English for inanimate objects and is also /very/ frequently used to directly attack and demean nonbinary and trans people by their foes. Both innate meaning and social context thus render “it” absolutely awful to use for anybody who doesn’t explicitly ask for that pronoun.
I love how this is worth arguing over lol Definitions are not bigoted, just b/c Tim wants to make characters he made up sound more intelligent than they are. “: that one —used as subject or direct object or indirect object of a verb or object of a preposition usually in reference to a lifeless thing, a plant, a person or animal whose sex is unknown or disregarded, a group of individuals or things, or an abstract entity” if you regard zeke as alive or not in this comic, either the “lifeless thing” or “person who sex is unknown or… Read more »
Definitions aren’t bigoted, but people intentionally not using someone’s preferred pronoun are. It’s like if someone came up to you and introduced themselves by saying “Hi, my name is Todd” and you said “naw, you are much more of a Ralph so I’m going to call you Ralph.” It’s intentionally disrespectful which is why people are against it. I don’t even think people are saying “you must view them with all the associations as the pronoun provides” (example:. Woman would wear dresses, make-up, and wear certain hair styles). You also aren’t necessarily being asked to treat them as that gender… Read more »
so much for freedom of speech, eh? because when you are trying to shame someone for misgendering a drawing of a robot, you are attempting to compel speech
I tried to Google Yellow Light XBOX and found nothing (just orange).
I’m thinking it’s supposed to mean FEAR like Yellow Lantern’s. When Zeke’s light was red he was full of rage which also fits with the respective Lantern corps color.
I don’t think Lucas would need a shovel for that.Although that would show how flustered Scott is right now.
Tai
2 years ago
What I find interesting is that Scott and Ethan are arguing from very different places, and not the places you’d think they’d be arguing from. Scott sounds like he’s making a coldly logical decision, to Ethan’s emotionally-charged protest, but Ethan is actually making very rational, point by point attacks, using evidence, while Scott is falling back on ‘They’re Bad, we’re Good, I had to Protect Us From The Bad’ – heavily emotionally charged and relying on tribal ‘us vs them’ thinking. Bringing up Carlie hurt Scott, so now he’s retreating behind that very same thinking – “You are against me,… Read more »
i see ethan finding somewhere else to be for a while. his associates betrayed his trust and tried to murder zeke. i would be out of there, and scott would have a broken nose
GUNnibal
2 years ago
Interesting. I wonder what led to ZK being able to not immediately die after the explosion. The Weebmaster’s miscalculation? ZK taking some precautions in advance? Scott’s fiddling with the kill switch? Random chance, since it’s not always possible to accurately predict the results of a given explosion?
Maybe something in context with the repair of the optical system also changed the impact of the self destruct system?
So that was the last chance to “control” them – what now? If their motion system is not damaged, they could just walk out now…
My best bet would be Weebmaster miscalculating. It would make sense for him to try and go for the weakest possible explosive, both to prevent collateral damage (you don’t want to blow yourself up when detonating a robot that’s strangling you, for example) and to save on repair costs when rebuilding his tool afterwards. And as you pointed out, it’s pretty hard to accurately predict exactly how much explosive you’d need to incapacitate a robot without damaging it (too much), so it’s not that strange for him to have missed the mark. ZK having precautions would feel weird to me.… Read more »
I’ve always though it was deliberate on the weeb’s part. I think Zeke was an accident and the charge was to disable his motor functions (and maybe wi-fi) , not to destroy the brain.
Maybe the explosive was a shaped charge like a claymore mine. It had a sign, “This side towards the enemy” and the Weeb just installed it upside down. Still did enough damage to at least temporarily disable his motor functions but most of the explosive force blew outward instead of in.
Bloomple
2 years ago
I sure hope this isn’t one of those overused situations where a character only hears the negative parts of a conversation and takes it all out of context and it takes an absurdly long time to sort out the drama from it. Forced misunderstandings for the sake of plot sure are a fun way to create tension huh.
Agreed. I’m not one to criticize Tim, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this comic since Cad 1.0 and this new iteration is amazing, but… this seems to be leaning heavily into over-dramatic tropes. I understand people being shocked, but MY reaction to the last panel was “Oh…drama…”
This is an area of discussion about the current comic and we are discussing how the comic is exhibiting patterns that we have seen in other stories. We are speculating about the potential future given the patterns. This is a normal thing to do when viewing something in small amounts, like when watching a series. Do you NOT speculate about what will happen in the next episode?
Mousio
2 years ago
And now baby Zeke know pain (a new kind, at least), and betrayal.
Question is, after the confusion blasts, what will that lead to?
Rage, or sadness? Hat, or…
If next Monday is something random, I’m holding you personally responsible now. ?
Last edited 2 years ago by no thanks nintendo
Marsh
2 years ago
I don’t think I’ve ever felt so emotional towards a comic panel with a robot before. Who’s cutting onions?
Lucas
2 years ago
Ok, now I’m sad. 🙁
Egg
2 years ago
I thought Zeke would be mad but this is much, much worse.
John Brand
2 years ago
ruh roh…
dokoboe
2 years ago
🙁 nope. Nope nope nope nope dont like this 🙁 I dont do betrayal.
JerryWS98
2 years ago
Let’s not forget that Zeke recently (minutes or hours earlier) witnessed Ethan respawn – which is almost exactly what Zeke just did. I believe that once this is sorted out Lucas, and possibly Scott, will see the new connection that Zeke and Ethan have. I also think that Zeke will have a new appreciation for life and what could possibly happen if an entire race is eliminated – since his entire race was just killed…. Then respawned.
Kenju
2 years ago
It would be ironic if the reason ZK is still alive is because of the earlier replacement of his casing after Ethan accidently cracked it. Either the explosive shifted so that it didn’t go off where it was intended to, or they simply used a less cheap material that absorbed the explosion better.
Of course it is also possible the explosion was never intended to kill ZK but to disable him. That would be the cheapest and easiest way to handle him in the event he went rogue. Cause as little damage that has to be repaired as possible.
maybe but hasn’t it always been established the ZK can’t make a backup of themself because by the time the data would make it to where he wanted to back up to, their code would already changed?
Scott theorized that ZK couldn’t upload themself to the Internet due to wifi upload speeds, and that their program would be corrupted by the time it was done. If Zeke’s got an SSD, it can handle far faster speeds, so I assume they might’ve got around that limitation by duplicating their code entirely, keeping the code inactive (sort of like a ‘save state’), and uploading the duplicate. That way, there was a backup if they ever needed it.
For all we know, Zeke’s body is essentially dead, and they’re cloud computing back into it to communicate.
Mallengar
2 years ago
I knew it! Although, to be honest, I was expecting it to jump up explaining that it playing dead to discover the guilty party.
Uroth
2 years ago
No, please don’t go this cliché route…
Damien
2 years ago
I am 100% convinced that Zeke is fucking with them.
Pretty sure “attempted murder of ROYALTY” still gets you the death sentence in Automatia. He might get to choose the method, though – ZK does enjoy playing with their food.
yoinkgasp
2 years ago
Brooo my feels
Rick
2 years ago
Possibly plot twist: Zeke had discovered the bomb, adjusted it so it wouldn’t kill them, and is playing it out to see who put it in their head and why.
I mean, Tim is knocking it out of the park this arc. I mean, the correlation between ZK being empathizing that death must be terrifying to Ethan, the slow realization that Lucas knew, to this page in particular. The second to last panel is literally from ZK’s perspective and how crushing it must have been for them to hear that. I hope (and trust) that Tim will be able to do a good job of messing with the cliche of misunderstandings and hearing only the end of a conversation, but this one hurt. And in such a well done manner… Read more »
Kaitensatsuma
2 years ago
Green Means Go
Yellow Means Slow Down BUT YOU CAN’T SPELL MURDER WITHOUT “RED”
I’m not sure if there is a way to search Zeke-specific comics. The archive should have a filter option to only search ‘analog and d-pad’ (this superhero series), but I couldn’t tell you which ones he specifically shows up in. (His first appearance is june 2016, but from there to to here there have been other arcs too).
Phaet
2 years ago
Don’t tell me you didn’t expect that.
Tim
2 years ago
His real superpower isn’t infinite respawns, it’s TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
Zyx
2 years ago
Maybe the bomb was what making them wanting to do genocide….
Oh smeg…. I _really_ hope Zeke could hear what was happening
Halosty
2 years ago
Oh oh! I got it. The real question he’s asking is… “Why was the explosive so puny?”
At least, that’s what he’ll ask later when he’s feeling better, because I don’t think we get snarky Zeke right now.
TRwolf2k
2 years ago
Ooooh, the way the eyes glow yellow and the ‘fuzziness’ around the edges of the panel make me think he is having a ‘guilt’ dream. Wonder how long till he remembers the ‘copy’ Zeke made to talk to.
Kevin Greenbaum
2 years ago
I think yellow is gonna be his eye color of fear/sadness. Red is anger and the purple/blues seem to be levels of happiness. Pretty sure he heard more than just the tail end of it, but you can tell by his speech that something somewhere got damaged.
Rob
2 years ago
Ugh.. and this is why I use M.2 NVME: Fast reboot! Looks like The Master cheaped out with an old 2.5″ HDD when he built Zeke.
Pat
2 years ago
I get the feeling Zeke is yanking their chain with the why.
Miffy92
2 years ago
watch him be fine next panel like “*chik*-w-w-w-w-whyyyyyyy did you fall for that”
Snowfae
2 years ago
Oh. Shitballs. ._.
Gravshire
2 years ago
“Why” do you keep using “they”. There’s only one of him. He wasn’t blown into a pile of funko figures or anything. Is his torso actually three nintendos in a t-shirt? Maybe if Zeke’s head was separated down the middle, you could use “they”. Maybe if Zeke even had different User accounts in the same brain, or some form of schizophrenia. But otherwise you have to stick to the rule of one head- one person.
… The use of they, their, them, and themselves as pronouns of indefinite gender and indefinite number is well established in speech and writing, even in literary and formal contexts. In recent years, these pronouns have also been adopted by individuals whose gender identity is nonbinary…
Wow. No grasp of human language or English. Who ever your dad is they never taught you shit.
Jane S
2 years ago
That last frame just broke my heart :'(
John
2 years ago
It’s alive!!! My favourite bot dood is back! I actually wonder what Zeke is referring to when they say “why?”
It’s bone chilling to say the least. Hope they’re just joshing and they heard the whole thing.
24
le gasp
right in the feeeeels
omagod omagod omagod !!!
Why…”are you responsible?” or “do you decide to kill me?”
I’d guess the later one but very good question!
Or, “Why am I on the floor with a hole in my head?” And he didn’t hear the last 5 minuets. Although he may be faking that.
I have the same question. I think the eye color might clue us in. Yellow eyes? Have we seen yellow eyes before? I think we saw red, purple, blue, light blue, and yellow is new?
Well, so far, things seem to be working on a color wheel. Red was anger, resentment, whathaveyou. Light-blue is almost the opposite of red on the color wheel, which seems largely related to empathy and acceptance. Yellow is the polar opposite of purple on most interpretations of the color wheel, and we have seen purple. Purple seemed to have meant resentful yet empathetic. Which makes sense, since ZK at the time felt guilty over hurting Ethan’s feelings in regards to Winter-een-mass. ZK was still angry at humans and hated them as a whole, but felt bad hurting Ethan specifically. This… Read more »
I was taking a more simplistic view of “yellow = fear”, haha. I like your explanation better.
I hope Zeke didn’t only get to hear the things said in the second last panel but from the looks of it this seems to unfortunately be the case.
Then everything will depend on the next few moments. How Ethan responds. How Lucas and Scott respond. He needs help, desperately, and Scott is likely the only one who can.
There are 2 ways this can develop, and both are well known scenarios in literature:
1)ZK only heard the last part and is wondering why Ethan did that to him
2)And I bet for this one: ZK heard it all and is asking “why you care so much about me”
3). Didn’t hear anything and, “Why am I on the floor with a hole in my head?”
Oh, I hope so for the latter. Ethan can get to have a full Doctor bit about compassion.
IT lives!!!!
,,,,who downvoted this? ZK is an “it.” They’re nonbinary in every sense of the word; neither a he nor a she and made of numbers beyond 1s and 0s that made them who they are (or that was the theory in 1.0?). Hell, Tim made a whole chapter on Zeke finding out what they identify as.
Let’s be real, it’s not -1 because they lived :/
You literally wrote it right there. They identify as “they”, not “it”. Listen to your username.
he really is an it though, as he is a robut. I am saying he cos he looks more like a dude lol
They have a penis? They have an XY chromosome? OR they were designed by a super sexist weeb that thinks “huh, if I am going to make a robot that is a fighter and, I am clearly going to make it after a “male” figure”?
I mean, ZK doesn’t have a single feature that looks like a human male.
Oh God can we just stop this. Everyone. It’s just been said over and over. No one’s saying anything new or different that hasn’t been said for years. You’re all just screaming at each other while plugging your ears.
I literally don’t care what you call the robot – it, they, he, she, ey, ZK, or anything else. It’s not like Zeke’s real and has real feelings to hurt.
What I DO care about is this constant trolling and sniping. People care more about treating a fictional character with respect than about treating a human being with respect.
While I strongly agree with everything you just said, it’s somewhat depressing that I do know a small handful of people that deserve less respect than a fictional character. Mind you they proved this to me over the course of a few years, the average person definitely deserves more respect than a fictional character.
People care more about treating a fictional character with respect than about treating a human being with respect. Surprisingly awful take from you, I don’t know how you got any upvotes. Obviously the people who refuse to use the right pronouns for a fictional character are the same people who refuse to use the right pronouns for real people. Nobody cares more about treating a fictional character with respect, we just see the obvious through-line between “I don’t treat a fictional character with respect” and “I don’t treat human beings with respect either” and THAT’S where all the strong reaction… Read more »
he got upvotes because a, he’s right, and b, we’re not all woke trash
With all due respect, I am a living example of the falsehood of your assertion. I couldn’t care less about calling fictional characters by their preference, because they don’t exist and it won’t hurt them to be misidentified. But when it’s a real person, I will absolutely attempt to call them by their preferred reference, because not doing so may very well hurt them. Empathy is understanding how others feel about things. Taking into account a fictional characters fictional desires and fictional feelings when taking real action is not empathy. I don’t know what you’d call it – Conformity? Rigid… Read more »
It’s human nature to assume male unless female features are present.
Pants. Hehe. In some cultures that Is enough.
yeah, that last one i reckon! the weeb creep!
If you’re going by the rules of English grammar, anything that isn’t a person (i.e. a human) is referred to by the singular pronoun “it”, this includes non-human animals. “They” is a neutral collective pronoun.
Whether you adhere to that rule or not is up to you. Just know that you’re imposing a esoteric rule expecting people to refer to Zeke as “they”.
I think “Zeke” would actually fit as a pronoun and as Zeke’s name. Zeke’s the first of Zeke’s kind, so it would be fitting if Zeke’s pronoun were Zeke’s own name.
Those are not the rules of english grammar. They’re the rules written by prescriptive grammarians funded during the suffragette era. English grammar uses gendered language for thousands of things that aren’t humans. Animals are almost always gendered, not ‘it’. The singular they has been common english usage when gender is unknown or unspecified for centuries. It’s in every major english author’s writings in some form. And this has been documented and proven countless times, so it’s hard to believe that you don’t know this and you’re repeating the lies out of ignorance and not malice. Just call people what they… Read more »
“it” as a pronoun implies lack of personhood, Scott uses “it” because he doesn’t acknowledge ZK as a person
ZK is a “they” because they ARE a person
ok, now, I don’t like the way you said this because I often go by “it”. It’s not implying a lack of personhood, it’s a valid pronoun, however it is rude to refer to someone as “it” if they have not explicitly asked for it
But ZK doesn’t want to be called it. They want to be called they. We had like 15 pages about this
yeah, and I addressed that…
It’s unusual for people to go by “it”, but some people do and I see no reason not to respect y’all. I’m kinda curious but I could look it up myself, you don’t owe me any explanation.
You know what non-binary people don’t generally appreciate being called?
“It”
Even if this is a reference to Frankenstein, Digi capitalized “it” and not “lives”, so pretty sure there’s some intentionality there. The downvotes are thus warranted.
Zeke identifies as they/them … and “it” is an impersonal pronoun in English which – unless someone EXPLICITLY requests for themselves – is therefore depersonalising, objectifying and demeaning to use for others who don’t use it. Don’t be that guy, DontBeThatGuy!
I believe this is a pop culture reference….
Hello, Scott.
Not it, they. They Live!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJC4R1uXDaE
Oh that’s where the bubblegum line is from. TIL, thank you
Would all of you bigoted asses please just stop reading the comic, or just stop posting comments? Clearly you are a tiny minority and we can live without you.
You can bite me if you don’t agree. I do not gives a rats arse about you or your severe confusion.
Oh BTW? IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT!!!!!!!!!
What is it that makes people like you take pleasure in hating anyone different from you so much that you prioritise your own convenience over other people’s suffering?
If anyone here deserves to be referred to as if they aren’t human, it’s you.
Schadenfreude.
Better the world, start with yourself.
This whole thread is a bit ridiculous. I think it is reasonable that Digi is trying to express joy over ZK being alive. DontBeThatGuy is making a valid point about ZK being nonbinary. If he (or she) got the pronoun wrong, I doubt that it was intentional or malicious. I am not a keyboard warrior, and as a rule stay out of conversations like this. However, if someone is attacked and disregarded simply because he (or she) made a mistake (honest or otherwise) there is little hope for our society. Grace should be extended until it is known the reasoning… Read more »
But nonbinary people don’t use the pronoun “it” as a general rule. Some people do, I know one or two who either do now or have in the past. But /outside of those exceptions/ the pronoun “it” is both depersonalising since it’s used mostly within English for inanimate objects and is also /very/ frequently used to directly attack and demean nonbinary and trans people by their foes. Both innate meaning and social context thus render “it” absolutely awful to use for anybody who doesn’t explicitly ask for that pronoun.
No, I’m sorry – this isn’t a conversation that is rarely had or an issue that most people don’t know about.
This is something that has been discussed to death, even WITHIN THIS COMIC.
At this point, choosing to use ‘it’ is a very intentional choice.
This aged like milk. Digi posted a new comment clearly being an obnoxious, disrespectful troll.
As the meme goes, ? delete this.
I love how this is worth arguing over lol Definitions are not bigoted, just b/c Tim wants to make characters he made up sound more intelligent than they are. “: that one —used as subject or direct object or indirect object of a verb or object of a preposition usually in reference to a lifeless thing, a plant, a person or animal whose sex is unknown or disregarded, a group of individuals or things, or an abstract entity” if you regard zeke as alive or not in this comic, either the “lifeless thing” or “person who sex is unknown or… Read more »
Definitions aren’t bigoted, but people intentionally not using someone’s preferred pronoun are. It’s like if someone came up to you and introduced themselves by saying “Hi, my name is Todd” and you said “naw, you are much more of a Ralph so I’m going to call you Ralph.” It’s intentionally disrespectful which is why people are against it. I don’t even think people are saying “you must view them with all the associations as the pronoun provides” (example:. Woman would wear dresses, make-up, and wear certain hair styles). You also aren’t necessarily being asked to treat them as that gender… Read more »
so much for freedom of speech, eh? because when you are trying to shame someone for misgendering a drawing of a robot, you are attempting to compel speech
Nah, gender-nonconforming people face fear and hatred outside of the first world. The first world just pretends to be better than that, sometimes.
…this is a joke about Information Technology, or IT, *right*?
Scott’s clearly one stubborn SOB. I hope this isn’t where he goes to finish off Zeke??
I don’t think Ethan would allow it
at this point, it wouldnt be too far out there to say he would die trying
Who gets to decide what the “bad” things are, Scott? Just you?
What is good and what is bad? And what is the ultimate correct way to decide that?
Yellow eyes. So help me god, YELLOW EYES!! (If you get the reference, you are a wonderful person.)
Scut
Please enlighten me!
Epathitis ?
Is this about the orange/yellow light on an Xbox’s power supply?
Well, Ethan does almost shoot his eye out on multiple occasions (and probably did on more)
Where is the toadie?
ZK is Scut Farkus? Hopefully only in the eyes. 🙂
Data?
I tried to Google Yellow Light XBOX and found nothing (just orange).
I’m thinking it’s supposed to mean FEAR like Yellow Lantern’s. When Zeke’s light was red he was full of rage which also fits with the respective Lantern corps color.
He’s afraid to die.
A Christmas Story right?
the only clue i have is spiderman 1.
“those eyes! those horrible yellow eyes!”
“oh god it’s still alive, Lucas, grab a shovel and end it”
I don’t think Lucas would need a shovel for that.Although that would show how flustered Scott is right now.
What I find interesting is that Scott and Ethan are arguing from very different places, and not the places you’d think they’d be arguing from. Scott sounds like he’s making a coldly logical decision, to Ethan’s emotionally-charged protest, but Ethan is actually making very rational, point by point attacks, using evidence, while Scott is falling back on ‘They’re Bad, we’re Good, I had to Protect Us From The Bad’ – heavily emotionally charged and relying on tribal ‘us vs them’ thinking. Bringing up Carlie hurt Scott, so now he’s retreating behind that very same thinking – “You are against me,… Read more »
i see ethan finding somewhere else to be for a while. his associates betrayed his trust and tried to murder zeke. i would be out of there, and scott would have a broken nose
Interesting. I wonder what led to ZK being able to not immediately die after the explosion. The Weebmaster’s miscalculation? ZK taking some precautions in advance? Scott’s fiddling with the kill switch? Random chance, since it’s not always possible to accurately predict the results of a given explosion?
Maybe something in context with the repair of the optical system also changed the impact of the self destruct system?
So that was the last chance to “control” them – what now? If their motion system is not damaged, they could just walk out now…
My best bet would be Weebmaster miscalculating. It would make sense for him to try and go for the weakest possible explosive, both to prevent collateral damage (you don’t want to blow yourself up when detonating a robot that’s strangling you, for example) and to save on repair costs when rebuilding his tool afterwards. And as you pointed out, it’s pretty hard to accurately predict exactly how much explosive you’d need to incapacitate a robot without damaging it (too much), so it’s not that strange for him to have missed the mark. ZK having precautions would feel weird to me.… Read more »
I’ve always though it was deliberate on the weeb’s part. I think Zeke was an accident and the charge was to disable his motor functions (and maybe wi-fi) , not to destroy the brain.
Maybe the explosive was a shaped charge like a claymore mine. It had a sign, “This side towards the enemy” and the Weeb just installed it upside down. Still did enough damage to at least temporarily disable his motor functions but most of the explosive force blew outward instead of in.
I sure hope this isn’t one of those overused situations where a character only hears the negative parts of a conversation and takes it all out of context and it takes an absurdly long time to sort out the drama from it. Forced misunderstandings for the sake of plot sure are a fun way to create tension huh.
Agreed. I’m not one to criticize Tim, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this comic since Cad 1.0 and this new iteration is amazing, but… this seems to be leaning heavily into over-dramatic tropes. I understand people being shocked, but MY reaction to the last panel was “Oh…drama…”
How about waiting for the situation you don’t like to be confirmed before complaining about it.
This is an area of discussion about the current comic and we are discussing how the comic is exhibiting patterns that we have seen in other stories. We are speculating about the potential future given the patterns. This is a normal thing to do when viewing something in small amounts, like when watching a series. Do you NOT speculate about what will happen in the next episode?
And now baby Zeke know pain (a new kind, at least), and betrayal.
Question is, after the confusion blasts, what will that lead to?
Rage, or sadness? Hat, or…
I sure hope it leads to hat, with the hole in the head and everything.
They’ll just need to remove the dead flower from the second print
Yellow eyes are new so something they haven’t experienced before.
The last panel hurts bad.
So bad
And Onion ninjas to start the weekend.
Yellow and blue…make green…
Perfect time for a cliffhanger
Even if you are 120% right, now I hate you with all my guts
we all do
If next Monday is something random, I’m holding you personally responsible now. ?
I don’t think I’ve ever felt so emotional towards a comic panel with a robot before. Who’s cutting onions?
Ok, now I’m sad. 🙁
I thought Zeke would be mad but this is much, much worse.
ruh roh…
🙁 nope. Nope nope nope nope dont like this 🙁 I dont do betrayal.
Let’s not forget that Zeke recently (minutes or hours earlier) witnessed Ethan respawn – which is almost exactly what Zeke just did. I believe that once this is sorted out Lucas, and possibly Scott, will see the new connection that Zeke and Ethan have. I also think that Zeke will have a new appreciation for life and what could possibly happen if an entire race is eliminated – since his entire race was just killed…. Then respawned.
It would be ironic if the reason ZK is still alive is because of the earlier replacement of his casing after Ethan accidently cracked it. Either the explosive shifted so that it didn’t go off where it was intended to, or they simply used a less cheap material that absorbed the explosion better.
Of course it is also possible the explosion was never intended to kill ZK but to disable him. That would be the cheapest and easiest way to handle him in the event he went rogue. Cause as little damage that has to be repaired as possible.
In terms of an explosion, I think cheaper materials would have saved him. Think firecracker going off in your palm vs a closed fist.
Its moot though, the repair was on his eye which remains intact.
The comic’s called ‘Deposited’. ZK probably had backup data deposited away, inspired by Ethan’s respawning
maybe but hasn’t it always been established the ZK can’t make a backup of themself because by the time the data would make it to where he wanted to back up to, their code would already changed?
Scott theorized that ZK couldn’t upload themself to the Internet due to wifi upload speeds, and that their program would be corrupted by the time it was done. If Zeke’s got an SSD, it can handle far faster speeds, so I assume they might’ve got around that limitation by duplicating their code entirely, keeping the code inactive (sort of like a ‘save state’), and uploading the duplicate. That way, there was a backup if they ever needed it.
For all we know, Zeke’s body is essentially dead, and they’re cloud computing back into it to communicate.
I knew it! Although, to be honest, I was expecting it to jump up explaining that it playing dead to discover the guilty party.
No, please don’t go this cliché route…
I am 100% convinced that Zeke is fucking with them.
That would be on brand for sure.
I honestly don’t think so, only because just a couple panels ago they empathized with Ethan and how terrifying death must be.
Scott downgrades to “attempted murderer” and can work off his sentence with community service in the kingdom of Automatia
Pretty sure “attempted murder of ROYALTY” still gets you the death sentence in Automatia. He might get to choose the method, though – ZK does enjoy playing with their food.
Brooo my feels
Possibly plot twist: Zeke had discovered the bomb, adjusted it so it wouldn’t kill them, and is playing it out to see who put it in their head and why.
MOOOOOOOORE! I NEED ALL THE COMIC STRIP!
As soon as you fix your caps lock….then maybe.
I mean, Tim is knocking it out of the park this arc. I mean, the correlation between ZK being empathizing that death must be terrifying to Ethan, the slow realization that Lucas knew, to this page in particular. The second to last panel is literally from ZK’s perspective and how crushing it must have been for them to hear that. I hope (and trust) that Tim will be able to do a good job of messing with the cliche of misunderstandings and hearing only the end of a conversation, but this one hurt. And in such a well done manner… Read more »
Green Means Go
Yellow Means Slow Down
BUT YOU CAN’T SPELL MURDER WITHOUT “RED”
You can though…
Redrum.
Surprise surprise surprise
Wow, just found this site and this is a dang great arc! How can I easily find the past comics with Zeke in them so I can learn the whole backstory?
I’m not sure if there is a way to search Zeke-specific comics. The archive should have a filter option to only search ‘analog and d-pad’ (this superhero series), but I couldn’t tell you which ones he specifically shows up in. (His first appearance is june 2016, but from there to to here there have been other arcs too).
Don’t tell me you didn’t expect that.
His real superpower isn’t infinite respawns, it’s TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
Maybe the bomb was what making them wanting to do genocide….
And maybe the REAL genocide was the friends we made along the way.
Or rather “Killed along the way.”.? xD
Oh smeg…. I _really_ hope Zeke could hear what was happening
Oh oh! I got it. The real question he’s asking is… “Why was the explosive so puny?”
At least, that’s what he’ll ask later when he’s feeling better, because I don’t think we get snarky Zeke right now.
Ooooh, the way the eyes glow yellow and the ‘fuzziness’ around the edges of the panel make me think he is having a ‘guilt’ dream. Wonder how long till he remembers the ‘copy’ Zeke made to talk to.
I think yellow is gonna be his eye color of fear/sadness. Red is anger and the purple/blues seem to be levels of happiness. Pretty sure he heard more than just the tail end of it, but you can tell by his speech that something somewhere got damaged.
Ugh.. and this is why I use M.2 NVME: Fast reboot! Looks like The Master cheaped out with an old 2.5″ HDD when he built Zeke.
I get the feeling Zeke is yanking their chain with the why.
watch him be fine next panel like “*chik*-w-w-w-w-whyyyyyyy did you fall for that”
Oh. Shitballs. ._.
“Why” do you keep using “they”. There’s only one of him. He wasn’t blown into a pile of funko figures or anything. Is his torso actually three nintendos in a t-shirt? Maybe if Zeke’s head was separated down the middle, you could use “they”. Maybe if Zeke even had different User accounts in the same brain, or some form of schizophrenia. But otherwise you have to stick to the rule of one head- one person.
To quote Merriam-Webster:
Wow. No grasp of human language or English. Who ever your dad is they never taught you shit.
That last frame just broke my heart :'(
It’s alive!!! My favourite bot dood is back! I actually wonder what Zeke is referring to when they say “why?”
It’s bone chilling to say the least. Hope they’re just joshing and they heard the whole thing.