Last year I brought a card game to Kickstarter, and with the help of over 2600 backers we made it a reality! Fulfillment on that project is finished, and now the game is available for purchase, both on Amazon and on axolotlgame.com!
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Well, guess Ethan didnt know what Scott came for … 🙂
No, that’s a reasonable response to getting dragged out of your car by a robotic duplicate that has a grudge against you. They brought it for defense and used it for that purpose.
It was even communicated beforehand, Ethan told him to bring it.
reasonable or not, all ZK seeis is Scott wieldinbg a weapon that can kill a robot. He knows nothing of the intervening gaming events and will see Scott armed to Kill. Pretty sure Scott is going to run out of chances with ZK.
Guess Scott can finally find out what Carlie thinks of his self-loathing and anger.
Does Scott use they as his pronoun?
And now to explain that the taser was not for them, but for Ethan
Don’t see why he would need to explain/justify the tazer at all. It is a non-lethal weapon that’s perfectly acceptable to carry around.
I’m so glad I don’t live in the US
Pepper Spray, Tasers, guns….. flamethrowers
It’s all the ingredients as promised by apocalyptic movies.
😁
well, criminals are still a thing, and they dont care what the laws say you can have.
aw, did i hurt some poor lib feelings?
Well, It is obvious that Scott had not planned to fight before been dragged from his car, and I really doubt that this taser can do something to Zeke, for having shielding.
But it was quite a gun in the first act, and I didn’t see it until it was too late. Well done, Tim. Now let the thing escalate until Ethan is finally dead
Scott, when Ethan start blaming him for plotting to hunt Zeke, after he himself dragged Scott into the search and told him to get the taser with them: “Hang on, this whole operation was your idea!”
You come to help, but you’re not stupid. You’re going to help an advanced AI ninja murder bot that has a good reason to try to twist your head off. Having a way to fend off is not a bad thing.
Ethan told to bring the cattle prod, but they might have more up their sleeves just in case.
I bet the reason why the bot couldn’t dodge in time is exactly the same as the one Eugene had trouble with originally – network latency:
https://cad-comic.com/comic/analog-and-d-pad-04-23/
But this time it’s ZK who can’t control the bots fast enough for proper combat.
Probably, but that’s really just the drones (still) being poorly designed. It’s not really up to Zeke that the drones use an inefficient remote control system (probably through some central computer) rather than individual built-in computers (like their own improved model).
https://cad-comic.com/comic/analog-and-d-pad-01-20/
The bots are already capable of fairly complex actions like combat, so I doubt they need constant micro-management. This bot probably has a dodge protocol too, it’s just not great at it due to latency. It’s less Zeke being unable to control the bot fast enough, and more the bot simply being too slow at dodging.
*sigh*
Scott, your odds of talking your way out of this may have been small, but the fact that the droid let you go probably meant they weren’t zero.
Your odds of FIGHTING your way out? Those actually are zero.
You chose poorly.
I get the feeling that Tim simply hates Scott. He got a bad deal in CAD 1.0 as well.
Scott was kind of one-dimensional in 1.0, less a character and more a plot device. This iteration is a real character with motivations, backstory and relationships. If Tim simply hated Scott, he’d either make a proper hate-sink and then kill him off, or write a better character to replace him. You don’t keep characters you dislike, and let’s face it – Tim has had plenty of chances to kill this Scott off.
Wait, are you a DIFFERENT Tim, or is this a weird third-person thing we’re doing?
Scott was dragged out of a car, tossed to the ground and had an angry robot descending on him. And you all want Scott to sit there and do nothing like “maybe he’s just reaching in to straighten my collar, I should see how this plays out” XD
My impression of the third panel was that the robot let him go once Ethan said Scott came to help, so… apparently I got the wrong impression.
Your correct that in the third panel it let him go, however in the fourth its leaning over him with its hand headed for his head or throat. Scott literally couldn’t have hurt it if it had just stood up straight by his feet. He couldn’t have reached it if it wasn’t coming at him.
What Koobah said.
Yeah – the drone was reaching down for Scott at the time the prod came into play. It is definitely not an aggressive attack from Scott. It’s a defensive response to an attack (or at least what can very reasonably be perceived as an attack).
I don’t know though … was the drone ‘angry’? 🙂 Seems more like the drones would just be brainless chunks that follow orders rather than having any motivation or emotion of their own.
The drones don’t have intelligence of their own. They’re just Zeke’s tools – not even part of them. There’s a chance, however small, that Zeke will see this *not* as attempted murder, but more like an attempt to disarm them.
Yeah the comments have all been astonishing to me lol. “Way to go Scott, you really screwed this up.” Like really? It’s amazing haha.
I think you illustrated these panels really well. I think most viewers know Scott had a killer robot on top of him, about to, you know, kill him.
Huh, Chekov’s Cattleprod. Neat.
the playwright was “Chekhov”… The helmsman on the Enterprise was Chekov. 🙂
In any other universe, the explanation for why Scott had a cattle prod in his possession would not be at all believable. In this one however…
came to help with his stun baton
As much as I want to be mad at Scott here, that was a reasonable response.
The man thought his friend was in danger and tried to help, got pulled out of his car by a murder robot, and he is paralyzed from the waist down so running is not an option. The cattle prod for self-defense was the right call here.
I doubt Zeke will see it that way though.
There is no reason to be angry with Scott. He was always right. Even if you can talk Zeke down for a while, it will always be a loaded gun. The slightest incident can cause the situation to blow up. There can be no long-term coexistence between a superior killer robot with no human value system that feels threatened by all humans and fragile human beings who wouldn’t stand a chance in a fair fight. Only the one who strikes first can survive. It’s an ethical dilemma. There is no right decision. Tim has done a great job. You can live… Read more »
Brings new meaning to, “Scott, that’s not helping.”
… but he made the right call, given the situation.
Ok, this could be interpreted as self-defence – the bot was clearly reaching out for Scott.
On the other hand, that card game you made look really neat. 🙂
Scott can’t possibly make it worse again, right…? 🫤
You know, I’m really not sure if this is setting up Zeke or Scott for being a villain… and being a long-time reader and knowing the original story doesn’t really help either.
At any rate, good story!
Shout out for Axe-a-lot-l. The kids love playing it. It’s one of those rare 20 minute card games where all the rules are actually in the rulebook – you won’t end up Googling the FAQ every game. It’s light-hearted and good fun.
Ah, he did wait until the robot reached down to him again. He wasn’t going on the offensive. I wonder if ZK will notice that.
I don’t think people need to be too concerned. Zeke isn’t dumb, they’re going to know what Scott did was reasonable even if Zeke is going to be annoyed by it.
Zeke is angry and in a bad place mentally but they’re still Zeke.
Zeke, in the last few comics, has been talking about how they are “choosing the bear”.
Plus, in 1.0, they did decide to exterminate humanity in one timeline.
AND the comic is called Tipping Point. That’s usually not a good sign.
Ultimately “They’re still Zeke” is not a very reassuring argument.
I didn’t realize until I read this on my computer that the bot Scott was stabbing *wasn’t* Zeke. Silly phone screen being small.
That kinda changes the context in my brainspace a lot.
Scott, you are my hero. In this universe I’m like you, I don’t trust Zeke. The logic and reasoning they use lacks common sense.