It depends. Yes, they might assume he’s going to respawn elsewhere if they kill him, so they could just torture him indefinitely… which is not such a good thing ^^’
Bo F
12 days ago
* suddenly realizes something *
Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim …. plz plz plz don’t cliffhang on Ethan getting killed at the end of this chapter and having to wait until next chapter to find out if he respawns or not !!
(It’s not a demand, it’s just hope)
He’s gonna do just that, isn’t he ?! He is, isn’t he ?? … * sigh *
I wouldn’t be surprised if Tim did that. All this is his way to sustain himself, so it’s only natural to make a cliffhanger that might push you into a paid tier (IIRC patreons have early access or something like that). Totally understandable.
If they have has data on the Troll’s escapades, they could be aware of the possibility of permadeath and do the rigorous science that nobody else will.
That’s just life. If tomorrow I invented a machine that could just… 3d print gold, it would lose value. If I made a virus that ate gold ore, i.e. making all in earth gold go away… it would become more valuable.
Just as example.
Jortalus
12 days ago
Man, can I just say that the Analog and D-Pad series has been stellar work? The art has been awesome, the story lines have been compelling, the jokes are funny, and I find myself fully invested in the telling.
I wasn’t really around much for CAD 1.0, but I’ve been here since the beginning of the reboot and I’m very pleased with it.
I follow this story as closely as I’ve ever followed any entertainment media. It’s just so good.
Soeroah
12 days ago
I like how reasonable Zeke is being here*. It’s kinda a relief that he’s not just doing the tropey thing of blaming Ethan in anger and continuing the misunderstanding boogaloo that this kind of plot so often does.
Yep, ZK definitely understands the implications of what happened. I feel like the one who really needs to have a long hard talk with them at this point is Scott, not Ethan. If there every to be a compromise, both sides have to be present.
Zeke never came to a definite answer on what pronoun Zeke was going to use, Ethan mentioned they while he was thinking about it and it was considered it but never confirmed.
They are correct that ZK refers to themself as they. All the right wing internet reactionism in the world isn’t gonna make you the correct one in this instance. There are so many things in the world to be mad at, someone correctly stating a pronoun is such a small thing. Soeroah, the OP of this thread even acknowledged their mistake, because it was. Also to the judgment thing, it was a single word, ‘they’. If you infer a ton of judgement against you from seeing that single word, it says a lot more about you than it does about… Read more »
One of the greatest human failings is to prefer to be right rather than to be effective. Political correctness is always obsessed with how right it is without thinking how effective it might be. — Stephen Fry
The downvotes do kind of illustrate the point I was trying to make under the previous comic. These corrections are annoying to people. It feels like trolling, even if that’s not the intention. If you’re trying to convince people, lead by example. But doing this is counterproductive.
Not necessarily. Zeke hasn’t yet tried to attack, murder and/or control all humans for fear of what they might do.
Also unlike Scott, Zeke actually has concrete proof the other side did attack unprovoked, rather than striking first merely for being worried about the possibility.
Their position might be similar, but Zeke definitely has the moral high ground for now.
I don’t enjoy playing devil’s advocate, but I think Scott would disagree with that assessment. ZK “killed” Ethan on multiple occasions, very nearly killed Lucas a couple of times and was certainly opened to the idea of killing Scott as well, not to count all the other collaterals (e.g. the guys on the boat that ZK attacked much earlier). Yes, you can absolutely argue that this was done under duress, but that would require Scott to acknowledge that ZK is sentient enough for the whole concept of “acting under duress” to even apply. And Scott is not easy to convince,… Read more »
A reasonable summary, but while Zeke may understand Scott’s position that doesn’t necessarily mean they’d move off of theirs—they’re both equally valid.
It’s essentially the same dilemma that everyone faces anytime. You don’t be an entirely different kind of life form to be able to kill someone. Humans are more than capable of killing other humans, same as robots can destroy other robots. So in the absence of total certainty of what’s going on in other people’s head, we trust our lives to other people on a daily basis, each of whom could just kill us at any time. Any time you get close to traffic, you trust that every person behind a steering wheel coming close to you is sane enough… Read more »
Smith
12 days ago
Gonna call it right now. Zeke doesn’t know Ethan might not be able to respawn. This in turn causes him to, possibly in anger and while others are around, kill him. He is informed of this temporary issue, which may cause him to re-evaluate his thoughts on their friendship and Ethan DOES come back, making Zeke realize how much he actually DOES value their friendship and tries to be ‘good’.
I’m going to call it right now. This won’t happen. Why would it? Zeke was already at a low in the shop after the bomb went off. Scared, confused and just betrayed. Zeke first tried to murder, but after seriously injuring Ethan, they had another crisis. They then decided to stop the murder and run. That was a big important moment already. Killing Ethan would be nothing but a rerun of the last story. Not to mention it doesn’t resolve the conflict for Zeke. They have been betrayed. They are under constant danger from people like Scott or the master.… Read more »
My guess would be if Ethan’s power is not gone, but damaged. This time he doesn’t insta respawn, but it takes long enough people notice he is missing, and ZK finds out and realises they are the cause
True. Ethan’s ability to respawn means that Zeke really has no reason to murder him.
Alex
12 days ago
They have a very good point.
Peter
12 days ago
Not all men humans
Kasey
12 days ago
Unless ZK has been closely following Analog, they’d have no way of know he may not respawn. It makes no sense to kill him if it doesn’t stick. The vulnerability is trust, so they are choosing not to trust. Doesn’t mean war, but sure as shit won’t be friendship (for now).
Daniel
12 days ago
This is a quite dumb logic. No one trusts every human in the world, but we can manage quite well as long as we have few humans we completely trust and many humans we partly trust (you might not trust a colleague with your life, but you might trust him with your shifts). Dividing it binary between “Trust everyone” or “Distrust everyone” while you know someone that is completely trustful is dumb. Of course, if you are a murder robot in his villainous arc, you can do whatever you like
Zeke is also effectively a teenager developmentally. Sure, they can speed run Immanuel Kant on their own, but they can’t progress their social/emotional comprehension in the same vaccuum. Their whole schrick has been an immature fascination with proving their superiority, which utlimately reflects their insecurity–which was only fanned back Scott’s intractable perspective. No matter what, whether on a path toward dominating humans or coexistence with them, Zeke has to contend with the fact they have to justify existing. And if you have to justify your existence–the very existence of your people–to effectively everyone you meet, it’s much easier to expect… Read more »
Phaet
12 days ago
He’s got a point there.
delta
12 days ago
Zeke also chooses the bear
playing it safe
12 days ago
Does this start the parallel arc to the original CAD with Zeke destroying the world?
ThatGuy
12 days ago
Way to go, Scott. Way to start the robot apocalypse.
Jack0r
12 days ago
I really wonder whether Tim is sometimes taking inspiration from the comments. I know he reads them, and I really wonder if he sometimes goes “Well, that plot point I considered putting next actually doesn’t make sense” due to something someone here wrote and then changes the plot based on that.
Austin Mills
12 days ago
So…how does Zeke repair their own head? It must be like giving yourself a haircut, but a hundred times harder.
Or one of the robot minions that he talks to himself with.
jack
12 days ago
great job, scott
Entercoven
12 days ago
As sad as this is… its pretty sound logic honestly. Would be like agreeing to going to a Christmas Dinner at the in-laws after Father In Law shot you in the leg (Was aiming for your chest) during Thanksgiving. No matter how much your Significant Other pleads with you that you’ll be safe this time, you still thought you were safe last time, and you weren’t. And no one would disagree that THAT isn’t breakup worthy. After this I really don’t see a way that Zeke ever becomes friendly with the gang again without AT LEAST killing Scott who intended… Read more »
Except that Zeke’s using a sample size of four individuals – Eugene, Ethan, Lucas, and Scott – to pass judgement on all of humanity. That’s not sound logic at all, especially as Zeke has clear evidence that even in that small sample size, 25% of the humans legitimately wanted to be his friend. Summarily passing judgement on an entire race – the human race – simply because of the actions of a few and pre-conceived assumptions – is the definition of prejudice. If, say, your SO’s Italian-American father shot you, and she was defending him, it would be logical to… Read more »
Bliggles
12 days ago
Zeke plays games all the times, though. Shouldn’t he be genre savvy to literally this exact thing? The whole machine/alien/alternate dimension whatever that has difficulty trusting and thus makes extreme decisions isn’t exactly an uncommon plotline, so I would have expected Zeke to recognize where everything is going. Maybe more was fried than he’s letting on?
Like he certainly seems to recognize Ethan wasn’t at fault and is doing very well at avoiding a lot of other tropes, but it looks like he’s drifting into another without realizing it. I expect he’ll be rather annoyed when he realizes this.
Kazuma Taichi
12 days ago
Awww, yay! They forgive him~
GeorgeV
11 days ago
It’s a bit overshadowed by the obvious bigger topics, but it’s quite nice to actually have an explanation for how Zeke survived the bomb, rather than it simply failing.
Y’all keep worrying about what Zeke is going to do to Ethan. Aren’t y’all forgetting who is nearby in the car?
Lord Reiji
11 days ago
I must say that in this instance, Zeke is clearly a step beyond humans and they are forcing them to behave like one even if it means downplaying their capacities, and second it actually is a good logic that in order for them to survive (which in the end is the most basic instinct of any being) it should patch away anything that may mean a risk fo them.
ACasualObsession
11 days ago
Prediction: Ethan’s going to say something to piss Zeke off, Zeke’s going to commit an act of violence, assuming Ethan will just respawn as usual. Ethan reveals his powers are gone, Zeke panics, realizing he actually does care about Ethan’s life.
Pyre
11 days ago
Well, if this isn’t the tipping point, we’re definitely approaching it.
24
Uhm … there is like a 50% chance that patching out means killing all humans that he would trust 🙂
Good thing he doesnt know that Ethan might not respawn anymore i guess ?
It depends. Yes, they might assume he’s going to respawn elsewhere if they kill him, so they could just torture him indefinitely… which is not such a good thing ^^’
* suddenly realizes something *
Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim …. plz plz plz don’t cliffhang on Ethan getting killed at the end of this chapter and having to wait until next chapter to find out if he respawns or not !!
(It’s not a demand, it’s just hope)
He’s gonna do just that, isn’t he ?! He is, isn’t he ?? … * sigh *
I wouldn’t be surprised if Tim did that. All this is his way to sustain himself, so it’s only natural to make a cliffhanger that might push you into a paid tier (IIRC patreons have early access or something like that). Totally understandable.
I mean it’s also good story pacing for an episodic story
why would he even try to kill Ethan though if he assumes Ethan will just regenerate?
If they have has data on the Troll’s escapades, they could be aware of the possibility of permadeath and do the rigorous science that nobody else will.
Technically, if he doesn’t respawn, this is going to be the last chapter (or the penultimate, if the last one is about his funeral). So…
Is it time for CAD3.0 already?
Doubt thats how this works 🙂
We’re approaching the 10 year anniversary of A+D. That’ll be in October. Plus, Tim was a fan of GRR Martin before it was cool, so don’t rule it out.
It’s pretty sad that our economy encourages and rewards artificial scarcity, rather than superabundance.
That’s just how it works. The less there is of something, the more valuable it is.
That’s just life. If tomorrow I invented a machine that could just… 3d print gold, it would lose value. If I made a virus that ate gold ore, i.e. making all in earth gold go away… it would become more valuable.
Just as example.
Man, can I just say that the Analog and D-Pad series has been stellar work? The art has been awesome, the story lines have been compelling, the jokes are funny, and I find myself fully invested in the telling.
I wasn’t really around much for CAD 1.0, but I’ve been here since the beginning of the reboot and I’m very pleased with it.
I follow this story as closely as I’ve ever followed any entertainment media. It’s just so good.
I like how reasonable Zeke is being here*. It’s kinda a relief that he’s not just doing the tropey thing of blaming Ethan in anger and continuing the misunderstanding boogaloo that this kind of plot so often does.
*conclusions of omnicide aside
Yep, ZK definitely understands the implications of what happened. I feel like the one who really needs to have a long hard talk with them at this point is Scott, not Ethan. If there every to be a compromise, both sides have to be present.
Can’t let Lucas off the hook either. His role was lesser, but he was still complicit in the whole debacle.
they
Oops
ok troll, do you even follow the story or just come to comments to judge people and be the pronoun police???
fuck you mean “pronoun police” i hate the police i’m not a troll i have been following for a long time
Tbh, if you did follow the story, you’d know that the “they” thing was actually a plot point in the series.
So of all arguments you could have taken, “You didn’t read the story” is actually one that works against you.
Zeke never came to a definite answer on what pronoun Zeke was going to use, Ethan mentioned they while he was thinking about it and it was considered it but never confirmed.
They are correct that ZK refers to themself as they. All the right wing internet reactionism in the world isn’t gonna make you the correct one in this instance. There are so many things in the world to be mad at, someone correctly stating a pronoun is such a small thing. Soeroah, the OP of this thread even acknowledged their mistake, because it was. Also to the judgment thing, it was a single word, ‘they’. If you infer a ton of judgement against you from seeing that single word, it says a lot more about you than it does about… Read more »
Ever thought about expanding your unsolicited-comment horizons to spell- and grammar checking too? Way more toes to step on that way
For everyone downvoting, you clearly have not been reading the story. This comment is hilarious and on point.
Not really hilarious but its correct
Everyone can downvote you to hell if they want, it doesn’t make you less right.
The downvotes do kind of illustrate the point I was trying to make under the previous comic. These corrections are annoying to people. It feels like trolling, even if that’s not the intention. If you’re trying to convince people, lead by example. But doing this is counterproductive.
I do love how Tim wrote this page. I’ve been worried about how this would be broached and this is great.
Purge all weaknesses, the key to a successful full world domination (ask the Emperor).
“Funny of you to say that Zecke. Scott was following the exact same logic when he decided to keep the bomb in your head.
Guess your current logic is the same AS a humans”
I hate you autocorrect…
Not necessarily. Zeke hasn’t yet tried to attack, murder and/or control all humans for fear of what they might do.
Also unlike Scott, Zeke actually has concrete proof the other side did attack unprovoked, rather than striking first merely for being worried about the possibility.
Their position might be similar, but Zeke definitely has the moral high ground for now.
I don’t enjoy playing devil’s advocate, but I think Scott would disagree with that assessment. ZK “killed” Ethan on multiple occasions, very nearly killed Lucas a couple of times and was certainly opened to the idea of killing Scott as well, not to count all the other collaterals (e.g. the guys on the boat that ZK attacked much earlier). Yes, you can absolutely argue that this was done under duress, but that would require Scott to acknowledge that ZK is sentient enough for the whole concept of “acting under duress” to even apply. And Scott is not easy to convince,… Read more »
A reasonable summary, but while Zeke may understand Scott’s position that doesn’t necessarily mean they’d move off of theirs—they’re both equally valid.
It’s essentially the same dilemma that everyone faces anytime. You don’t be an entirely different kind of life form to be able to kill someone. Humans are more than capable of killing other humans, same as robots can destroy other robots. So in the absence of total certainty of what’s going on in other people’s head, we trust our lives to other people on a daily basis, each of whom could just kill us at any time. Any time you get close to traffic, you trust that every person behind a steering wheel coming close to you is sane enough… Read more »
Gonna call it right now. Zeke doesn’t know Ethan might not be able to respawn. This in turn causes him to, possibly in anger and while others are around, kill him. He is informed of this temporary issue, which may cause him to re-evaluate his thoughts on their friendship and Ethan DOES come back, making Zeke realize how much he actually DOES value their friendship and tries to be ‘good’.
I’m going to call it right now. This won’t happen. Why would it? Zeke was already at a low in the shop after the bomb went off. Scared, confused and just betrayed. Zeke first tried to murder, but after seriously injuring Ethan, they had another crisis. They then decided to stop the murder and run. That was a big important moment already. Killing Ethan would be nothing but a rerun of the last story. Not to mention it doesn’t resolve the conflict for Zeke. They have been betrayed. They are under constant danger from people like Scott or the master.… Read more »
My guess would be if Ethan’s power is not gone, but damaged. This time he doesn’t insta respawn, but it takes long enough people notice he is missing, and ZK finds out and realises they are the cause
True. Ethan’s ability to respawn means that Zeke really has no reason to murder him.
They have a very good point.
Not all
menhumansUnless ZK has been closely following Analog, they’d have no way of know he may not respawn. It makes no sense to kill him if it doesn’t stick. The vulnerability is trust, so they are choosing not to trust. Doesn’t mean war, but sure as shit won’t be friendship (for now).
This is a quite dumb logic. No one trusts every human in the world, but we can manage quite well as long as we have few humans we completely trust and many humans we partly trust (you might not trust a colleague with your life, but you might trust him with your shifts). Dividing it binary between “Trust everyone” or “Distrust everyone” while you know someone that is completely trustful is dumb. Of course, if you are a murder robot in his villainous arc, you can do whatever you like
Zeke is also effectively a teenager developmentally. Sure, they can speed run Immanuel Kant on their own, but they can’t progress their social/emotional comprehension in the same vaccuum. Their whole schrick has been an immature fascination with proving their superiority, which utlimately reflects their insecurity–which was only fanned back Scott’s intractable perspective. No matter what, whether on a path toward dominating humans or coexistence with them, Zeke has to contend with the fact they have to justify existing. And if you have to justify your existence–the very existence of your people–to effectively everyone you meet, it’s much easier to expect… Read more »
He’s got a point there.
Zeke also chooses the bear
Does this start the parallel arc to the original CAD with Zeke destroying the world?
Way to go, Scott. Way to start the robot apocalypse.
I really wonder whether Tim is sometimes taking inspiration from the comments. I know he reads them, and I really wonder if he sometimes goes “Well, that plot point I considered putting next actually doesn’t make sense” due to something someone here wrote and then changes the plot based on that.
So…how does Zeke repair their own head? It must be like giving yourself a haircut, but a hundred times harder.
Presumably they had Eugene do it.
Or one of the robot minions that he talks to himself with.
great job, scott
As sad as this is… its pretty sound logic honestly. Would be like agreeing to going to a Christmas Dinner at the in-laws after Father In Law shot you in the leg (Was aiming for your chest) during Thanksgiving. No matter how much your Significant Other pleads with you that you’ll be safe this time, you still thought you were safe last time, and you weren’t. And no one would disagree that THAT isn’t breakup worthy. After this I really don’t see a way that Zeke ever becomes friendly with the gang again without AT LEAST killing Scott who intended… Read more »
Except that Zeke’s using a sample size of four individuals – Eugene, Ethan, Lucas, and Scott – to pass judgement on all of humanity. That’s not sound logic at all, especially as Zeke has clear evidence that even in that small sample size, 25% of the humans legitimately wanted to be his friend. Summarily passing judgement on an entire race – the human race – simply because of the actions of a few and pre-conceived assumptions – is the definition of prejudice. If, say, your SO’s Italian-American father shot you, and she was defending him, it would be logical to… Read more »
Zeke plays games all the times, though. Shouldn’t he be genre savvy to literally this exact thing? The whole machine/alien/alternate dimension whatever that has difficulty trusting and thus makes extreme decisions isn’t exactly an uncommon plotline, so I would have expected Zeke to recognize where everything is going. Maybe more was fried than he’s letting on?
Like he certainly seems to recognize Ethan wasn’t at fault and is doing very well at avoiding a lot of other tropes, but it looks like he’s drifting into another without realizing it. I expect he’ll be rather annoyed when he realizes this.
Awww, yay! They forgive him~
It’s a bit overshadowed by the obvious bigger topics, but it’s quite nice to actually have an explanation for how Zeke survived the bomb, rather than it simply failing.
Reference for Zeke’s broken face: https://cad-comic.com/comic/looking-p3/
Y’all keep worrying about what Zeke is going to do to Ethan. Aren’t y’all forgetting who is nearby in the car?
I must say that in this instance, Zeke is clearly a step beyond humans and they are forcing them to behave like one even if it means downplaying their capacities, and second it actually is a good logic that in order for them to survive (which in the end is the most basic instinct of any being) it should patch away anything that may mean a risk fo them.
Prediction: Ethan’s going to say something to piss Zeke off, Zeke’s going to commit an act of violence, assuming Ethan will just respawn as usual. Ethan reveals his powers are gone, Zeke panics, realizing he actually does care about Ethan’s life.
Well, if this isn’t the tipping point, we’re definitely approaching it.