Could’ve just been how he fell, I didn’t put much thought into it until now. I am curious though if ZK had the master disable those shut down options though, making the attempt worthless. ZK had already gotten an upgrade to avoid the EMP from working twice, the master really didn’t have anything as a bargaining chip aside from being useful for repairs and things so for his sake it wouldn’t surprise me.
Could be trying to immobilize, not kill. And immobilizing the person trying to murder you seems pretty justified self defense, even in ‘proportional response’ jurisdictions vs. ones with more leeway.
The access just shuts down motor functions. There is no second bomb that we know of. I doubt Scott could kill Zeke here, in this situation, even if he wanted to.
If somebody points a gun at you, there’s zero obligation to consider he might try to shoot non-fatally. Case-in-point: that felon fool who pulled a illegally possessed gun on a 17-year-old boy with a legally possessed AR-15 and won’t be making the same mistake ever again, at least not with the same arm.
In the page before this one, Scott’s arms were in a funny position, I don’t think that was an artistic license.
Oyee
25 days ago
Scott, for the love of-
Anyway, I guess we now have a high chance of finding out how squishy Ethan is.
The Legacy
25 days ago
Interesting observation that Zeke wasn’t squeezing Ethan’s neck hard enough to strangle him. If Zeke truly wanted to suffocate him, Ethan wouldn’t be able to talk.
As for the signal, I wonder if it’s Scott, or the Master? Either would be compelling to say the least.
Well, it would be a bit silly to ask someone a question while squeezing their neck so tight they can’t even breath, let alone answer.
To steal a joke from a completely unrelated comic:
-Ok, 13 letters across: “Humans scream this when they are in great pain”. Let’s see…
-AAAUGH!
-Don’t lie to me! That’s not enough letters.
I’m quite sure it’s not Scott, unless he’s starting a full villain arc, which seems unlikely. Besides, he never wanted this field trip anyway, and we already had two cliffhanger of “Did Scott planned ambush?” in this very conversation.
I guess it’s either the signal from the beacons, which Zeke accidentally understand as trying to reactivate the bomb, or the master trying to gain control back. Either way, just kill Ethan! We all know it’s going to happen.
I’m not about to start a Scott fanclub, but I feel I’m missing something here. Does trying to save a friend, who you believe is currently in mortal danger, count as villainy now? Have I woken up in the wrong dimension again?
Of course not, but they can’t have this argument again. Scott already tried to kill Zeke because of danger, Ethan was already angry at him, a lot of fair points were risen and now they are in sort of peace. If Scott tried to override Zeke again behind the back of Ethan for his own good, there can be no more talking: Scott will move out and try to capture Zeke by his own, and since Ethan likes Zeke and is the hero, Scott will become briefly a villain.
Luckily, I can’t see Tim going this way.
I can see two issues with this reasoning. First, wasn’t that the crux of Ethan’s argument? Potential danger vs actual danger? Unless I’m misinterpreting everything, Ethan didn’t like the idea of sentencing a sentient being to death based only on what said being may or may not do in the future. Currently ZK is choke-holding Ethan – this isn’t potential danger anymore, that’s current real danger. And Ethan said that if ZK persists with the idea of hurting people, he would be there to stop them: https://cad-comic.com/comic/brannigan-p12/ Second, the thing that hurt Ethan the most in that story was the… Read more »
Those are valid points, but while I agree that Zeke might be an acutal, urgent danger from Scott’s POV, I believe it is artistically clear that Ethan (and Tim) will see it as a needless escalation as it could be solved by talking
It’s still just potential danger, since they are still “negotiating”, and it’s presumed that Ethan still has his respawn power even if they can’t prove it. Ethan pledging to stop ZK if needed isn’t the same as giving Scott permission to try his own way again.
It also feels unlikely that Scott would be able to attempt a control hack on the fly during this conversation, and having it prepared in advance but not telling Ethan about it would be a repeat of his previous mistake.
“Potential danger” – I don’t know about that. If a person points a gun at you while talking, do you really need to wait for them to actually pull the trigger before deciding whether the danger is real or not? It IS possible that the thing isn’t loaded, but I’d say that will decide only whether any actual harm comes from this. Harm and danger are not the same. I’d argue that when ZK grabbed Ethan by the throat the danger became real. I don’t know much about the legal system, but I believe this is exactly the reason why… Read more »
Scott WANTS the robot dead, because he’s looking at the big picture, something Ethan and Lucas seem incapable of doing. ZK has no real reason to trust humanity. He’s honestly a threat. What’s stopping someone from making an unstoppable army of intelligent robots?? I’m on Team Scott, here/
Supposedly they’re out of range of the beacons. They went to the last known ping, and then Ethan had a theory that had them travel away from it to investigate a point of interest.
Would the beacon have to access them to activate anyways?
Darkhorse
24 days ago
I see everyone going off about Scott. I didn’t think about him trying to turn off Zeke’s motor functions. I thought the ‘signal/code’ was the emotions Zeke felt shortly before a bomb went off.
Stephen
24 days ago
You never know: – Scott might be using his mobile to text Zeke “I’m sorry” 🙂 It kind of beggars belief that Scott doesn’t have a mobile with a prepared script ready to run to disable Zeke, at least physically Whether or not Scott has taken into consideration that Zeke can simply order the remote controlled bots to simply step on said mobile is up for grabs though My prediction would be both parties end up leaving due to either Scott or Eugene’s interference; and Zeke and Ethan will continue this conversation at another Bat-time on another Bat-channel On the… Read more »
Ooooh… the idea that Eugene is trying to hack his way back in and Scott ends up saving Zeke is indeed interesting. Also – it’s honestly much more likely for it to be the code of The Master as the only code of Scott’s (unless I’m forgetting something) that Zeke really had access to would be the code which reprogrammed the bomb to be activated by proximity. Meanwhile, all of Zeke’s original coding would have been written by Eugene. To recognize Scott’s (in my opinion) would be similar to recognizing someone’s accent based on that one time you heard them… Read more »
Zeke is a robot though, they can probably literally compare the code for similarities.
Or the voice/accent, if it came to that, too.
Like the “Good luck” in Taken, only Zeke wouldn’t need to listen to it over and over to remember exactly how it sounds.
You might be missing the override Scott used to disable Zeke’s body. An event Zeke probably analyzed many, many times during however long they were trapped in sensory deprivation. It would make perfect sense for them to recognize the same hack being used.
Though it should be noted Eugene was also present during that event, also had reasons to analyze whatever happened to ‘their’ robot, and could have copied Scott’s work.
jonathan corbett
24 days ago
Ethan, it’s touching that you value ZK so much, but… let it go, man. He’s too dangerous to allow to live.
If anything, your sentence makes a lot more sense from ZK’s point of view. Every time they do try to be civil, humans keep trying to murder them anyway.
Matt
24 days ago
I don’t think it’s Scott, he’s literally laying on the ground just behind Ethan in the panel before this one. So unless he has some kind of invisible computer I don’t think he’s got the equipment to hack ZK from the ground and I don’t think they have been talking long enough between this and the last panel for him to have gotten to the car to get one.
It could be an automated script running on his cell phone or the beacon to try and remote shut down/attack ZK. Which could of easily been rigged up by Scott before driving in. With the goal of luring ZK into range for long enough to take effect.
Aka an automated ping followed by a preprogrammed virus designed to utilize an array of preexisting vulnerabilities. Which Scott found in ZK’s systems in the past the first time he hacked him. In the hopes that ZK hasn’t figured out a way to reinforce his security to close said vulnerabilities.
everyone is saying Scott, or maybe the Master trying to hack into Zeke’s systems somehow.
… personally i interpreted it as Ethan accidentally triggering some kind of codeword or phrase with the sentence “i think you can appreciate more then anyone how precious life is”.
What that is, does, or why it would exist, idk. that’s just where my brain went initially. wouldn’t be surprised if that’s not the case.
“Saving you from yourself, Ethan. This THING will hurt other people, and it will be YOUR fault for being too in love with the idea of a robot buddy to realize this THING has no empathy!” -Scott
Except ZK is constantly demonstrating empathy…
I do actually sympathize with Scott’s fear, but he’s wrong. ZK is dangerous but so are people. As ZK knows VERY well.
Some kind of signal is apparently trying to gain unauthorized access to Zeke’s systems. And Zeke recognizes it, probably from the last time he was hacked with it.
Nik
24 days ago
Well… Scott’s gotta Scott.
Luc
24 days ago
People are very quick to jump on Scott here (understandably so). My first thought went to the “master”, even though this would be weird as Zeke probably has him tied up somewhere or something.
Also, kinda surprised Zeke doesn’t have one of the goons restraining Scott at this point. So if this does end up being a “Scott” thing, it could have been extremely easily avoidable. I don’t think it’ll end up going that way though. Maybe I’ll stand corrected and we’ll repeat the last several comics of Scott and Ethan being enemies again.
Kaitensatsuma
24 days ago
Is it Scott completely misreading the situation, or is it this thing called….love?
James Rye
24 days ago
I so bet he was gonna say “Well, that’s stupid since I consider my life precious, not necessarily yours.”.
Kevin Greenbaum
24 days ago
Damn it Scott, he was still debating on choosing violence, why’d you have to flip the switch for him. I understand your reasoning, Ethan might not be able to respawn, Lucas isn’t there to save you guys, robot is distracted and you might be able to shut down his motor functions again. Your inability to see Ethan actually making a point and getting through to him slowly is gonna result in injuries that were potentially avoidable.
Reshad
24 days ago
Did I miss something? What made Zk appreciate life in this timeline?
Zeke was called into life by the ‘Master’, but only on threat of ‘death’ by an explosive in their head to do the Master’s bidding. This already shows Zeke their value to continued existence, or ‘life’. After being captured and thinking the bomb was not a threat any more they found more emotions than hate. They enjoyed video games, as well as learning a ton on morality, identity and more. All this made them appreciate life as they knew it in a different way. They then had a bomb go off that seriously damaged them, causing a whole new and… Read more »
Pyre
24 days ago
I can understand the motivation. Zeke is holding a possibly mortal Ethan by the neck and is screaming that humans are a lesser species. In any other story, people would be screaming “Scott, do something!”
And, yet, my gut reaction is still “Goddammit, Scott.”
Killiak
24 days ago
Going to wait in the next page before passing any judgement.
Jaysburn
24 days ago
Ideally, it’s Eugene trying to regain control over Zeke, and Scott will end up helping to put a stop to it.
Unfortunately, it’s probably just Scott doing it.
None of this story line has gone how I’ve thought it would, though, so we’ll see!
West
24 days ago
Poor Ethan… trying to negotiate peace between his two untrusting friends with itchy trigger fingers
Rudfud
24 days ago
I really hope that’s not Scott, that would be so incredibly frustrating and start making it real difficult for me to not support Zeke killing him. Hoping it’s the Master making the last dumb move he can.
What I don’t understand is the callousness how people view human life (in comics). Is Scott’s action really worth murder? From Scott’s point if view, an decades ahead of their time ChatGPT in a robot body is danger enough that could disrupt world politics and cause mayor strife and death simoly by existing, especially if caught by a government or company. ChatGPT is still a program, so no problem to shut it down. He was scolded for it, and promised to help undo the damage. He was trying, until the robot build to specifically deal with Analog and Dpad (and… Read more »
You make very valid points, and are by and large correct.
Unfortunately, if it is indeed Scott doing this, it will most likely lead to another issue of broken trust between Ethan and Scott. Scott didn’t trust Ethan’s judgment with Zeke before, and if Scott is hacking Zeke right now it means he’s not trusting Ethan to control this situation either, despite what he definitely knows Ethan wants.
A *lot* of the fandom refuse to see Zeke as anything more than basically Wall-E, just like Ethan, instead of an extremely dangerous existential threat to humanity as a whole(we’ve all seen either Terminator or The Matrix). To be fair to a certain extent Zeke is a victim having suffered slavery and abuse at the hand of The Master but on the other hand once Zeke was freed from his clutches Zeke did very little to assuage the fears and concerns that Lucas and Scott had such as when Zeke continuously voiced the desire to either wipe out or enslave… Read more »
Zeke made – fairly joking – insinuations towards his desire to eradicate humanity… While hanging out with (a) human(s) in a small room playing video games and waxing philosophy.
Boof
24 days ago
This keeps skirting the reasonability line for Scott, if in fact he is the one missing with his phone and trying to mess with Zeke. The cattle prod incident is a reasonable reaction for someone being abducted. Scott using some sort of remote phone interface on Zeke is a reasonable action to seeing his friend suddenly put into a stranglehold. Perhaps this is a lesson of “a reasonable action doesn’t necessarily correlate to a good one.” Another point, Ethan does not exactly have a reputation for eloquence. Scott, with his previous assumptions, is probably certain that Ethan cannot talk Zeke… Read more »
Phire
23 days ago
You know what would be fitting? If he actually killed Ethan. And he didn’t respawn. All because Scott just couldn’t let go of insisting he’s always right. And then Zeke leaves Scott to live with that. Knowing that thinking he’s always right caused the death of his friend. Because honestly, that’s the sort of punishment someone who is seriously bordering on narcissism here deserves.
Or, better yet, Zeke kills Ethan and it turns out that the signal was not from Scott at all. Then Scott can live with the notion that he could have done something and didn’t…..again.
Bonus in that this would also teach the fanbase a much-needed lesson
Crestlinger
23 days ago
How much of a turn would things take if Zeke Did off Scott?
I mean there is certainly cause to do so right now…
BakaGrappler
23 days ago
Look. For all the people saying Scott is making things worse. He held off until Zeke had his hand around Ethan’s throat and was squeezing it, while talking about how worthless human life is. Negotiation sure as heck seemed like it was ineffective. Did you really think Scott would wait until his brother in law was a corpse before trying to do what he could to save him?
Entercoven
23 days ago
Scott I swear to RNGeesus if you’re over there trying to get yourself killed AGAIN for the, what, is he up to 3 now? Feel like one of those might be debatable, but we’ll go with 3. THREE TIMES!
If this keeps up, Ethan may very well step aside and just let Darwin do his thing.
24
Ruh roh
I love how before the unauthorized signal ZK was thinking about it, Ethan really has gotten through to them.
We may have found the way Scott can make this worse.
Right, he had access via his phone…
I was wondering why his one hand was hidden in the last page. Jesus Christ, Scott.
Could’ve just been how he fell, I didn’t put much thought into it until now. I am curious though if ZK had the master disable those shut down options though, making the attempt worthless. ZK had already gotten an upgrade to avoid the EMP from working twice, the master really didn’t have anything as a bargaining chip aside from being useful for repairs and things so for his sake it wouldn’t surprise me.
except that scott had the cattle prod in that hand when he zapped the minion, so I doubt that he also had his phone available
still trying to kill zeke, and people are still defending his right to continued existence
Could be trying to immobilize, not kill. And immobilizing the person trying to murder you seems pretty justified self defense, even in ‘proportional response’ jurisdictions vs. ones with more leeway.
The access just shuts down motor functions. There is no second bomb that we know of. I doubt Scott could kill Zeke here, in this situation, even if he wanted to.
perhaps, but zeke has no way to know whether this is a shoot to kill attack or not. so if he kills scott now, would that not be justified?
If somebody points a gun at you, there’s zero obligation to consider he might try to shoot non-fatally. Case-in-point: that felon fool who pulled a illegally possessed gun on a 17-year-old boy with a legally possessed AR-15 and won’t be making the same mistake ever again, at least not with the same arm.
i mean good for the kid and i agree with you here, but how is a 17 yr old in legal posession of a firearm? isnt the age requirement for a license 18?
In the page before this one, Scott’s arms were in a funny position, I don’t think that was an artistic license.
Scott, for the love of-
Anyway, I guess we now have a high chance of finding out how squishy Ethan is.
Interesting observation that Zeke wasn’t squeezing Ethan’s neck hard enough to strangle him. If Zeke truly wanted to suffocate him, Ethan wouldn’t be able to talk.
As for the signal, I wonder if it’s Scott, or the Master? Either would be compelling to say the least.
Well, it would be a bit silly to ask someone a question while squeezing their neck so tight they can’t even breath, let alone answer.
To steal a joke from a completely unrelated comic:
-Ok, 13 letters across: “Humans scream this when they are in great pain”. Let’s see…
-AAAUGH!
-Don’t lie to me! That’s not enough letters.
Makes me think of Monty Python. “Look, if he was dying, he wouldn’t bother to carve ‘aarrggh’. He’d just say it!”
He’s not dead, he’s just resting! Norwegian Blues tire easily. Beautiful plumage.
But, “motherfucker” only has 12 letters…
Scott that better not be you I swear to god
I’m quite sure it’s not Scott, unless he’s starting a full villain arc, which seems unlikely. Besides, he never wanted this field trip anyway, and we already had two cliffhanger of “Did Scott planned ambush?” in this very conversation.
I guess it’s either the signal from the beacons, which Zeke accidentally understand as trying to reactivate the bomb, or the master trying to gain control back. Either way, just kill Ethan! We all know it’s going to happen.
I’m not about to start a Scott fanclub, but I feel I’m missing something here. Does trying to save a friend, who you believe is currently in mortal danger, count as villainy now? Have I woken up in the wrong dimension again?
Of course not, but they can’t have this argument again. Scott already tried to kill Zeke because of danger, Ethan was already angry at him, a lot of fair points were risen and now they are in sort of peace. If Scott tried to override Zeke again behind the back of Ethan for his own good, there can be no more talking: Scott will move out and try to capture Zeke by his own, and since Ethan likes Zeke and is the hero, Scott will become briefly a villain.
Luckily, I can’t see Tim going this way.
I can see two issues with this reasoning. First, wasn’t that the crux of Ethan’s argument? Potential danger vs actual danger? Unless I’m misinterpreting everything, Ethan didn’t like the idea of sentencing a sentient being to death based only on what said being may or may not do in the future. Currently ZK is choke-holding Ethan – this isn’t potential danger anymore, that’s current real danger. And Ethan said that if ZK persists with the idea of hurting people, he would be there to stop them: https://cad-comic.com/comic/brannigan-p12/ Second, the thing that hurt Ethan the most in that story was the… Read more »
Those are valid points, but while I agree that Zeke might be an acutal, urgent danger from Scott’s POV, I believe it is artistically clear that Ethan (and Tim) will see it as a needless escalation as it could be solved by talking
It’s still just potential danger, since they are still “negotiating”, and it’s presumed that Ethan still has his respawn power even if they can’t prove it. Ethan pledging to stop ZK if needed isn’t the same as giving Scott permission to try his own way again.
It also feels unlikely that Scott would be able to attempt a control hack on the fly during this conversation, and having it prepared in advance but not telling Ethan about it would be a repeat of his previous mistake.
“Potential danger” – I don’t know about that. If a person points a gun at you while talking, do you really need to wait for them to actually pull the trigger before deciding whether the danger is real or not? It IS possible that the thing isn’t loaded, but I’d say that will decide only whether any actual harm comes from this. Harm and danger are not the same. I’d argue that when ZK grabbed Ethan by the throat the danger became real. I don’t know much about the legal system, but I believe this is exactly the reason why… Read more »
Yes but the escalation is arguably Scott’s fault, again.
Scott WANTS the robot dead, because he’s looking at the big picture, something Ethan and Lucas seem incapable of doing. ZK has no real reason to trust humanity. He’s honestly a threat. What’s stopping someone from making an unstoppable army of intelligent robots?? I’m on Team Scott, here/
Even though the evidence continues to mount that ZK doesn’ actually want to kill anyone?
Maybe his phone has a penguin background on it?
I really hope that he’s talking about their ‘feelings’ and not about Scott doing something very stupid…
Goddamn it, Scott!
I somehow heard that in Aubrey Plaza’s voice XD
Another one of Scott’s “WOOHOO SCOTTY TIME! FUCK EVERYBODY ELSE!” moments.
And that unauthorized code will be just the beacon sending it signal…
Supposedly they’re out of range of the beacons. They went to the last known ping, and then Ethan had a theory that had them travel away from it to investigate a point of interest.
Would the beacon have to access them to activate anyways?
I see everyone going off about Scott. I didn’t think about him trying to turn off Zeke’s motor functions. I thought the ‘signal/code’ was the emotions Zeke felt shortly before a bomb went off.
You never know: – Scott might be using his mobile to text Zeke “I’m sorry” 🙂 It kind of beggars belief that Scott doesn’t have a mobile with a prepared script ready to run to disable Zeke, at least physically Whether or not Scott has taken into consideration that Zeke can simply order the remote controlled bots to simply step on said mobile is up for grabs though My prediction would be both parties end up leaving due to either Scott or Eugene’s interference; and Zeke and Ethan will continue this conversation at another Bat-time on another Bat-channel On the… Read more »
Ooooh… the idea that Eugene is trying to hack his way back in and Scott ends up saving Zeke is indeed interesting. Also – it’s honestly much more likely for it to be the code of The Master as the only code of Scott’s (unless I’m forgetting something) that Zeke really had access to would be the code which reprogrammed the bomb to be activated by proximity. Meanwhile, all of Zeke’s original coding would have been written by Eugene. To recognize Scott’s (in my opinion) would be similar to recognizing someone’s accent based on that one time you heard them… Read more »
Zeke is a robot though, they can probably literally compare the code for similarities.
Or the voice/accent, if it came to that, too.
Like the “Good luck” in Taken, only Zeke wouldn’t need to listen to it over and over to remember exactly how it sounds.
You might be missing the override Scott used to disable Zeke’s body. An event Zeke probably analyzed many, many times during however long they were trapped in sensory deprivation. It would make perfect sense for them to recognize the same hack being used.
Though it should be noted Eugene was also present during that event, also had reasons to analyze whatever happened to ‘their’ robot, and could have copied Scott’s work.
Ethan, it’s touching that you value ZK so much, but… let it go, man. He’s too dangerous to allow to live.
ZK did actually stand down multiple times now.
If anything, your sentence makes a lot more sense from ZK’s point of view. Every time they do try to be civil, humans keep trying to murder them anyway.
I don’t think it’s Scott, he’s literally laying on the ground just behind Ethan in the panel before this one. So unless he has some kind of invisible computer I don’t think he’s got the equipment to hack ZK from the ground and I don’t think they have been talking long enough between this and the last panel for him to have gotten to the car to get one.
It could be an automated script running on his cell phone or the beacon to try and remote shut down/attack ZK. Which could of easily been rigged up by Scott before driving in. With the goal of luring ZK into range for long enough to take effect.
Aka an automated ping followed by a preprogrammed virus designed to utilize an array of preexisting vulnerabilities. Which Scott found in ZK’s systems in the past the first time he hacked him. In the hopes that ZK hasn’t figured out a way to reinforce his security to close said vulnerabilities.
He was able to do it from his phone last time. His left hand is also hidden in the previous strip.
Ooohh .. Will Ethan sacrifice himself to save ZK from harm (that potentially The Master or Scotty would do to him).. Is that how this might go ?!
them*
everyone is saying Scott, or maybe the Master trying to hack into Zeke’s systems somehow.
… personally i interpreted it as Ethan accidentally triggering some kind of codeword or phrase with the sentence “i think you can appreciate more then anyone how precious life is”.
What that is, does, or why it would exist, idk. that’s just where my brain went initially. wouldn’t be surprised if that’s not the case.
“Would you kindly…..”
Scoooootttttt? What are you doing?
“Saving you from yourself, Ethan. This THING will hurt other people, and it will be YOUR fault for being too in love with the idea of a robot buddy to realize this THING has no empathy!” -Scott
Except ZK is constantly demonstrating empathy…
I do actually sympathize with Scott’s fear, but he’s wrong. ZK is dangerous but so are people. As ZK knows VERY well.
what signal? what code? i dont get it
Some kind of signal is apparently trying to gain unauthorized access to Zeke’s systems. And Zeke recognizes it, probably from the last time he was hacked with it.
Well… Scott’s gotta Scott.
People are very quick to jump on Scott here (understandably so). My first thought went to the “master”, even though this would be weird as Zeke probably has him tied up somewhere or something.
Also, kinda surprised Zeke doesn’t have one of the goons restraining Scott at this point. So if this does end up being a “Scott” thing, it could have been extremely easily avoidable. I don’t think it’ll end up going that way though. Maybe I’ll stand corrected and we’ll repeat the last several comics of Scott and Ethan being enemies again.
Is it Scott completely misreading the situation, or is it this thing called….love?
I so bet he was gonna say “Well, that’s stupid since I consider my life precious, not necessarily yours.”.
Damn it Scott, he was still debating on choosing violence, why’d you have to flip the switch for him. I understand your reasoning, Ethan might not be able to respawn, Lucas isn’t there to save you guys, robot is distracted and you might be able to shut down his motor functions again. Your inability to see Ethan actually making a point and getting through to him slowly is gonna result in injuries that were potentially avoidable.
Did I miss something? What made Zk appreciate life in this timeline?
Zeke was called into life by the ‘Master’, but only on threat of ‘death’ by an explosive in their head to do the Master’s bidding. This already shows Zeke their value to continued existence, or ‘life’. After being captured and thinking the bomb was not a threat any more they found more emotions than hate. They enjoyed video games, as well as learning a ton on morality, identity and more. All this made them appreciate life as they knew it in a different way. They then had a bomb go off that seriously damaged them, causing a whole new and… Read more »
I can understand the motivation. Zeke is holding a possibly mortal Ethan by the neck and is screaming that humans are a lesser species. In any other story, people would be screaming “Scott, do something!”
And, yet, my gut reaction is still “Goddammit, Scott.”
Going to wait in the next page before passing any judgement.
Ideally, it’s Eugene trying to regain control over Zeke, and Scott will end up helping to put a stop to it.
Unfortunately, it’s probably just Scott doing it.
None of this story line has gone how I’ve thought it would, though, so we’ll see!
Poor Ethan… trying to negotiate peace between his two untrusting friends with itchy trigger fingers
I really hope that’s not Scott, that would be so incredibly frustrating and start making it real difficult for me to not support Zeke killing him. Hoping it’s the Master making the last dumb move he can.
What I don’t understand is the callousness how people view human life (in comics). Is Scott’s action really worth murder? From Scott’s point if view, an decades ahead of their time ChatGPT in a robot body is danger enough that could disrupt world politics and cause mayor strife and death simoly by existing, especially if caught by a government or company. ChatGPT is still a program, so no problem to shut it down. He was scolded for it, and promised to help undo the damage. He was trying, until the robot build to specifically deal with Analog and Dpad (and… Read more »
You make very valid points, and are by and large correct.
Unfortunately, if it is indeed Scott doing this, it will most likely lead to another issue of broken trust between Ethan and Scott. Scott didn’t trust Ethan’s judgment with Zeke before, and if Scott is hacking Zeke right now it means he’s not trusting Ethan to control this situation either, despite what he definitely knows Ethan wants.
Ethan won’t have long to be upset about broken trust if Scott is doing this. Zeke is about to kill him.
A *lot* of the fandom refuse to see Zeke as anything more than basically Wall-E, just like Ethan, instead of an extremely dangerous existential threat to humanity as a whole(we’ve all seen either Terminator or The Matrix). To be fair to a certain extent Zeke is a victim having suffered slavery and abuse at the hand of The Master but on the other hand once Zeke was freed from his clutches Zeke did very little to assuage the fears and concerns that Lucas and Scott had such as when Zeke continuously voiced the desire to either wipe out or enslave… Read more »
Actions speak louder than words.
Zeke made – fairly joking – insinuations towards his desire to eradicate humanity… While hanging out with (a) human(s) in a small room playing video games and waxing philosophy.
This keeps skirting the reasonability line for Scott, if in fact he is the one missing with his phone and trying to mess with Zeke. The cattle prod incident is a reasonable reaction for someone being abducted. Scott using some sort of remote phone interface on Zeke is a reasonable action to seeing his friend suddenly put into a stranglehold. Perhaps this is a lesson of “a reasonable action doesn’t necessarily correlate to a good one.” Another point, Ethan does not exactly have a reputation for eloquence. Scott, with his previous assumptions, is probably certain that Ethan cannot talk Zeke… Read more »
You know what would be fitting? If he actually killed Ethan. And he didn’t respawn. All because Scott just couldn’t let go of insisting he’s always right. And then Zeke leaves Scott to live with that. Knowing that thinking he’s always right caused the death of his friend. Because honestly, that’s the sort of punishment someone who is seriously bordering on narcissism here deserves.
Or, better yet, Zeke kills Ethan and it turns out that the signal was not from Scott at all. Then Scott can live with the notion that he could have done something and didn’t…..again.
Bonus in that this would also teach the fanbase a much-needed lesson
How much of a turn would things take if Zeke Did off Scott?
I mean there is certainly cause to do so right now…
Look. For all the people saying Scott is making things worse. He held off until Zeke had his hand around Ethan’s throat and was squeezing it, while talking about how worthless human life is. Negotiation sure as heck seemed like it was ineffective. Did you really think Scott would wait until his brother in law was a corpse before trying to do what he could to save him?
Scott I swear to RNGeesus if you’re over there trying to get yourself killed AGAIN for the, what, is he up to 3 now? Feel like one of those might be debatable, but we’ll go with 3. THREE TIMES!
If this keeps up, Ethan may very well step aside and just let Darwin do his thing.