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The Starcaster Chronicles 08.19

March 5, 2021 by Tim


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HolyCrap
HolyCrap
3 years ago

First?!

schnozzberries
schnozzberries
3 years ago
Reply to  HolyCrap

so much hate

Atros
Atros
3 years ago
Reply to  schnozzberries

What’s funny is since the downvotes don’t hide it or anything, it’s actually kinda amusing… if I ever catch this comic before anyone comments I’ll prolly do the same.

Fils
Fils
3 years ago
Reply to  Atros

You won’t even try to comment something relevant?

wkz
wkz
3 years ago
Reply to  Fils

People calling out FIRST! usually post even before the comic finished loading… so…

Freddie
Freddie
3 years ago
Reply to  wkz

Definitely relevant then?

will
will
3 years ago
Reply to  HolyCrap

last care!!!!

foducool
foducool
3 years ago

time for a redemption arc

Bob.
Bob.
3 years ago

She’s been blaming him for not living up to her moral code for far too long. Time for her to face the truth – her code and a hunk of cheese is worth the hunk of cheese. Cort isn’t perfect, he’s done bad things, but he isn’t a bad guy.

RblDiver
RblDiver
3 years ago

It’s not your fault Nyrah, it’s the voters’ >.>

Eldest Gruff
Eldest Gruff
3 years ago

Ouch.

I mean, it’s true, but still.

Shecky
Shecky
3 years ago

Flashback incoming!

Calibus
Calibus
3 years ago

Again, Nyrah continues to baffle me. Sure Cort took the bribes, contributed to the corruption of the federation. But Cort jumped into the wolfs den to save her from that corruption, he risked everything for his only chance at redemption. Nyrah continues to just trample on what ever good is left in this man. I honestly think Nyrah is doing more harm to Cort at this point.

rebmcr
rebmcr
3 years ago
Reply to  Calibus

Yeah but that’s surely on purpose. She wants him angry so the Starcaster is able to be used.

Me-me
Me-me
3 years ago
Reply to  rebmcr

No, this is the result of the voters not bothering to risk anything ever. We can’t offend the evil worm alien, he might get angry at us. We can’t accept the help of the high-ranking good guy on our side, by golly he might want us to stay safely in the care of the military he commands.

Nyrah’s had similar reactions to these terrible decisions before. This is not for this situation only.

Cragfast
Cragfast
3 years ago
Reply to  Me-me

The voters have no significant impact on the story.

Cragfast
Cragfast
3 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Good. I knew that, if troll votes hadn’t made Speck try that in-atmosphere hyperjump from the Federation outpost on Eremaxxis Beta, they’d have made it to Ona VI days ahead of the Grin. Nyrah would probably be wearing the Starcaster (inherited it from Dristim you could say) and already starting to regenerate her body.

Karrde
Karrde
3 years ago
Reply to  Cragfast

Voters determined character directions in several of the chapters.

Kenju
Kenju
3 years ago
Reply to  Me-me

I am going to laugh my ass off if the worm guy comes through and ends up saving Cort and Nyrah. Personally I voted to go along with the ‘evil worm alien’ because I always play rogue, and know from past experience that building a working business relationship with the criminal underworld can be very useful in the long run as they have connections and reach spanning whatever world you are in that can have VERY far reaching impact when used properly. As for the high ranking good guy on their side, he is still beholden to the chain of… Read more »

Wut
Wut
3 years ago
Reply to  Me-me

Your only two examples are absolute opposites in terms of risk. Sure, you could consider not offending an evil worm alien the “safe” option, as far as transporting explosives to criminals in a jumpy ship is “safe,” but then wouldn’t that kind of person also accept the help of the high-ranking good guys, the absolute definition of playing it “safe?”
It honestly sounds like you’re just annoyed that your choices didn’t win.

Humsterr
Humsterr
3 years ago
Reply to  Wut

Here playing “safe” means remaining in your “comfort zone”, making no significant changes to the status quo unless these changes are made for you. And here we go, no changes: their ship is derelict, no one is cooperating with them, the only real change is starcaster and that was not the voters choice, because otherwise Cory would have died.

ProNoob13
ProNoob13
3 years ago
Reply to  rebmcr

Personally, hearing this from one of the very few people that still believed in you would just make me depressed, not angry.

Stephen M. Schaefer
Stephen M. Schaefer
3 years ago
Reply to  Calibus

That kind of moralist absolutism tends to have that effect.

I believe strongly in right and wrong, but that’s not the same as believing people are wholly right or wrong. We’re all of us a little bit broken, and that makes it important to view each other with clear eyes, and offer a measure of grace so people have a little bit of room to do good things with their lives instead of perpetually being run down over past mistakes.

Nyrah’s lost sight of this. And to some extent, I think our world has, also.

Kenju
Kenju
3 years ago
Reply to  Calibus

Part of me thinks she was hoping Cort was a victim like herself so that she wouldn’t feel so alone, like he understood her and what she had been through. I could be wrong, but that’s the feeling I get, that while she knew he wasn’t perfect or the most moral of people, that she wasn’t ‘alone’, you know, given that she is the last of her race and little more than a few organs in jars with a robot body at this point.

7eggert
7eggert
3 years ago
Reply to  Tim

We all are the victims of the culture we grow up in. Also we all are protagonists of that same culture. What’s our blame in being like everybody around us?

We need to sometimes face the truth: We are not the perfect heroes, and neither is everybody else. Even Jesus (when being called “good Rabbi”) asked: “Who is good?”

Our part is to try to be better each day – and to allow (and to invite) others to do the same.

Scott
Scott
3 years ago
Reply to  Tim

& here I was thinking Nyrah was just a bit of a bitch…

Leon
Leon
3 years ago
Reply to  Calibus

Nyrah has kind of a selfish sense of justice

HappyWyvern
HappyWyvern
3 years ago
Reply to  Leon

Oooh that is an interesting statement, please could you elaborate?

Leon
Leon
3 years ago
Reply to  HappyWyvern

Remember when she admonished Cort for dealing with the Sun Devils, saying ‘you always have a choice’? Thats true, and not true. Choices in life usually come down to ‘the best thing’ and ‘the right thing’.

Karrde
Karrde
3 years ago
Reply to  Calibus

Part of it is that she’s only remembering what he’s done right now. She’ll remember the rest of him err too long, but its an example of her moral structure, and Cort’s human (not meaning species) moral failures. Now, she’s presented with the fact that an ordinary man is the bearer of the super-weapon of her people. She could pretend he was a moral, heroic figure, but when he directly thrusts the hard fact of his personal failings, it forces her to content with the reality of the matter, and that matter is that he’s got a lot of growth… Read more »

Michael
Michael
3 years ago
Reply to  Calibus

While said wolf’s den had a bear infestation, no less.

ScubaStimpy
ScubaStimpy
3 years ago

To be fair, he had outright told her multiple times he wasn’t the paragon of good she thought he was.

mecklejay
mecklejay
3 years ago

Nyrah: Makes Cort angry to see if an emotional response will set off the Starcaster again

Cort: Has an emotional response and sets off the Starcaster again

Nyrah: *surprised Pikachu face* how cud u do dis how dare u

Kenju
Kenju
3 years ago
Reply to  Tim

This does make me wonder though, just how much of what he told her was a lie. When he said that he was framed, he also said that he left the Marshal’s by choice because he couldn’t stand how bad things were. He *seemed* pretty genuine when he made those two statements in the same breath, but a good liar is a good liar.

Vandril
Vandril
3 years ago
Reply to  Kenju

It’s very possible that none of it was a lie. He could have taken bribes before, he could have been framed as the fall guy for bribes he didn’t take, and he could have left out of disgust. It could be that the reason he didn’t seek his partner’s help is because he either felt guilty for taking the bribes in the past or he knew the bribes he did take would come to light in an investigation anyway. There’s still a lot of flexibility in Cort’s backstory. I very highly doubt it’ll be as straightforward as it seems at… Read more »

Last edited 3 years ago by Vandril
blake
blake
3 years ago

Fucking Nyrah! People who want to pretend that everything can and should meet their expectations, and then get passive aggressive when they don’t… Your expectations are your issue, don’t make them other’s standards.

Charles
Charles
3 years ago
Reply to  blake

Isn’t that exactly what she’s doing word for word? Is it also her responsibility to coddle Cort’s (your) feelings while she deals with her own emotions?

HappyWyvern
HappyWyvern
3 years ago
Reply to  blake

Yeah fucking Nyrah, how dare she get lied to about a fundamental part about why Cort is the way he is and now has to process it. Its not like it influenced her decision to bolt a superweapon onto him that she spent decade’s being tortured to protect or anything…

Arcatus
Arcatus
3 years ago

What bribes are we talking about here?

Leon
Leon
3 years ago
Reply to  Arcatus

Oh shit, its a fllashback

Eldest Gruff
Eldest Gruff
3 years ago
Reply to  Arcatus

Pre-Starcaster bribes. Back when Cort was a Marshall, before he joined up with Speck and the previous captain of their ship (Jack?). Quel didn’t help Cort out, because he couldn’t help Cort out, because the accusations against him were true – he DID take bribes.

Nyrah used his relationship with Quel and that fact to try to anger him, because she thought that it was an example of how Quel was untrustworthy and they were in this situation because of him. Instead, it triggered Cort’s anger at himself for having done the deed.

Robert Loughrey
Robert Loughrey
3 years ago
Reply to  Arcatus

The bribes Cort admitted too, just before firing the starcaster a few pages ago.

Charles
Charles
3 years ago

Both Cort and Nyrah are progressing in this. Nyrah’s learning that maybe there isn’t an ideal world out there to fit the image she’s built up in her mind. Cort’s finally coming to grips with his own guilt. Something he apparently felt so badly about that’s he’s constructed an entire alternate reality around himself where he’s the victim railing against the corrupt establishment when he (at least partially) is the one responsible for his own situation.

XYZ
XYZ
3 years ago

Ok, let’s think for a while: While they were locked in that cell, Speck stated that Cort is again playing a “knight in shining armor”, while pretending it’s all about the money. We can assume then that while he poses as a guy only interested in his own gain, he still can, and will, act in a noble way. Also, bribes. Is being corrupted ex-sheriff enough reason to brand him “the most dangerous criminal, neutralize on sight” like during that failed capture attempt (one Federal officer ordered his soldiers to eliminate Cort, not to capture him)? I suspect there’s something… Read more »

Eldest Gruff
Eldest Gruff
3 years ago
Reply to  XYZ

Oh yeah. I think that most of us expect that there’s far more to the story than meets the eye, especially as how it’s been revealed in little bits and pieces. It could have been a simple case of corruption for personal gain – or it could’ve been a gray decision to try to achieve something good, which backfired. None of that matters in this situation, though. Regardless of his reasons, Cort is still the guy who did the thing. And even if he sat down with Nyrah right now and said, “Actually, you don’t know the full story, I… Read more »

XYZ
XYZ
3 years ago
Reply to  Eldest Gruff

He already proved he’s way more than an opportunistic smuggler and ex-cop. Od course he’s in darker shades of gray than he should, as he’s a con man and pathological liar, but he had few occasions to leave Nyrah on her own, or even ransom her, as he suggested the first time when he saw her in stasis chamber.
But because he isn’t a noble paragon of good, that would obey classical code of honor, he will remain a scoundrel not worthy of the Starcaster in her eyes. For Nyrah, there are clearly no shades of gray.

nealithi
nealithi
3 years ago
Reply to  Eldest Gruff

Here’s the thing. Cort took bribes. Others we have seen seem so dirty the sewers would spit them back out. Does it make his actions equal to theirs? The officer ordering the attack on Cort seemed to want to kill Cort not out of a sense of justice, but because it would please him. I don’t think Cort is a saint. But this seems like Gotham PD here. They are all corrupt to some extent or another. Those that try and be clean have accidents. And the politicians think everything is hunky-dory. I dislike her reaction though it might be… Read more »

Eldest Gruff
Eldest Gruff
3 years ago
Reply to  nealithi

The goodness or badness of Cort’s actions, I think, rest entirely on what he was bribed to do, and what the result of his actions were. That’s the difference between being an accomplice for murder and keeping quiet when your brother swipes an Oreo.

nealithi
nealithi
3 years ago
Reply to  Eldest Gruff

Fair enough. But I want to continue the line of thought. Did you by chance read the comic Star Power?

southpawfrenzy
southpawfrenzy
3 years ago

“The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant.”
― Doctor Who

“Pobody’s nerfect!”

The Good Place

yoinkgasp
yoinkgasp
3 years ago

What a dumb reaction from Nyrah.

Kenju
Kenju
3 years ago
Reply to  yoinkgasp

People who have suffered as much as she has, tend to cling/bond with people as a survival mechanism when said person saved them. It’s very similar to Stockholm syndrome in many ways. She was alone, desperate, and hurting, Cort was the first person in over a hundred years to help her or show any form of compassion, so of course she latched onto him, especially after he saved her again. Now though she has have time to think, to calm down, to reflect and observe him. She came from a very strict background with black and white views of the… Read more »

7eggert
7eggert
3 years ago
Reply to  Kenju

I’m wondering about Stockholm Syndrome: Maybe it’s a way to dismiss the good parts people see in sb if they were forced to experience them for some time while an outside accuser would happily ignore them, and the thus-perceived-unfair accusations tend to induce a counter-reaction perceived as too much sympathy?

Esc
Esc
3 years ago

Nyrah’s justified in feeling that way. Cort keeps lying to her. Remember we have the benefit of being omniscient, Cort doesn’t lie to us.

Maybe if he just, y’know, was truthful with her she’d respect him more? Using that sob story about being run out of the Federation because he wouldn’t take bribes and now it turns out he did? Does *SPECK* even know?

Eldest Gruff
Eldest Gruff
3 years ago
Reply to  Esc

We don’t even have that. We’ve got a third-person limited perspective, just like Nyrah. We judge Cort by his words and his actions, too.

The only difference is, sometimes, God pops up in the comments section every so often and gives a few tidbits about what’s going on in the universe. Pretty sure that doesn’t happen to anyone else.

7eggert
7eggert
3 years ago
Reply to  Esc

He just a few minutes/hours ago was truthful.

Maybe even the story about not taking bribes is some truth: He rejected the bribes to cover up the one thing his superiors needed him to cover up.

Karrde
Karrde
3 years ago

“Oops, I thought I had a Gawain, but instead I have Morgan”

Richard II Weatherfield
Richard II Weatherfield
3 years ago

There is more to his taking the bribes than we’re being told, methinks.

Dizzy D.
Dizzy D.
3 years ago

A bit uncalled for, I think. Yeah, he did some stuff he’s not proud of, but he’s making amends, and is a sight better than the ones still doing said stuff with zero shame. And she also seems to be forgetting that he rescued her back when she got cornered at the Federation HQ, when he could have flown off with morals as the only immediate consequence.

Chris
Chris
3 years ago

The interesting thing will be to see what the bribes were, and what they were for. Was he paid in cash, food, or maybe favors? Was he supposed to overlook something, feed information, or maybe leave a door open? As several have pointed out, we don’t have the full story and shouldn’t judge too harshly until we do. Maybe he was given the option to take cash and bring them X in the evidence room, or they’d go in shooting to achieve the same goal. People can do good things for bad reasons, and bad things for good reasons. I’m… Read more »

Lily
Lily
3 years ago

I honestly feel like she comes across as pretty whiny. With all the stuff that has happened up until now, him taking bribes years ago and feeling sorry for it, is her breaking point?

7eggert
7eggert
3 years ago
Reply to  Lily

With all that happened to her, she has every right to be as whiny as she likes. Everybody here has been whiny for much less.

Anon A Mouse
Anon A Mouse
3 years ago

While I can agree with most people that Nyrah is justified in her anger, I have a serious problem with what she’s saying. First she painted Cort as “Good” and now she sees him as “Bad”. F**K NO “That’s all there is to say on the matter”. “…here we are” because of the idealistic bullshit you’ve been dropping on Cort since he got the Starcaster. You want him to be a moral paragon? Why not try treating him like a person?

Pyre
Pyre
3 years ago
Reply to  Anon A Mouse

The thing is that Nyrah is an absolutist. With her, there is pretty much no Grey. This doesn’t make her a bad person but it does limit her thinking a lot. Going back to her original plan of just handing the Odrossian Starcaster over to the Federation, she fails to think about the long-range consequences. Even if the Federation outpost hadn’t been corrupt, that would have caused a power imbalance in the standoff with the Dranglaex which would have caused the Cold War to go hot regardless of whether or not the Drang were planing to abide by the ceasefire… Read more »

Paweł Zdanowski
Paweł Zdanowski
3 years ago

When do normal comics come back? Does someone know?

Michael
Michael
3 years ago

Starcaster is always shown to us un-paying plebs one whole chapter at a time 5 pages a week until it’s over.

Also Starcaster Chronicles is hardly any less “normal” than Console Wars or The Campaign; in fact, that it’s so exotic is exactly why I love it.

Kasumitan
Kasumitan
3 years ago

I find it weird that Nyrah seems to draw her moral line in the sand at “cop who took a bribe and then lied about it”. I’m pretty sure he’s got darker secrets so this is kind of a low bar to already be hitting.

Doom
Doom
3 years ago

I rather enjoy this story. Kudos He’s officially a corrupt ex-marshall who gets drop kicked out of local federation hqs with a stern telling off and a petty fine when he gets caught being a petty crook She’s a naive paladin who’s given her people’s holy relic to, lets face facts here, what she thinks is a low level grifter who’s saved her life and her life’s mission several times over now and almost died for it It’s a match made in Hell So, who was Jack? For that matter, who is Cort? Why did a local federation precinct (pre-starcaster)… Read more »

Crestlinger
Crestlinger
2 months ago

‘Last’