2015/09/07 [DMFA #1603] - 3 vs lots

[Tapewolf]

There is also the thing that she was intending to slay Dan based on some bogus prophecy from the Oracles, but she does have a point in that Dan's chosen career is quite heavily murder-oriented.
Adventurers often seem to have a kill-first-think-later mentality which is eminently practical if your only chance of taking down a rampaging monster is take them unawares, but is very morally suspect and causes big trouble when the target is actually innocent or within their rights to do what they did.

EDIT: It could also be pointed out that Dan merely killed people, whereas Aary seems to have been taking their souls as trophies from what she was saying to Merlitz while moving in with him.  I'm not sure if Dan is aware of that, mind.

[Lying Foo]

What I find interesting, though - she did suggest before that she was willing to kidnap innocent Beings for target practice.  Yet now, the only folks she's killed were out for her blood.  It makes sense, though, that she'd exaggerate her own danger when in the zone full of folks who'd love to kill her.  Honestly, I'm almost sorry, but all I can think is...

Straight outta SAIA, crazy lil' Cubi named Aary,
From the clan called Hrienth, 'sorbs anythang,
Whatev's shot off, I get my orbs off,
Spread my wings, and the body is hauled off,
You too, boy, if you wanna see,
You adventurers better come get me
In your lap, that's how you're going out
With these punk adventurers that's showin' out
Beings start to mumble, they want to rumble
Mix 'em and cook 'em in in a pot as gumbo
Straight outta SAIA

[MT Hazard]

Arry's response when she gets a prophecy about what happened to her friend? Try to kill someone.

Arry's response when someone gives Dan a way to hide his head wings? Try to kill someone

Arry response when Dan needs training? Suggest finding someone to kill and torture.


So, Arry, not a completely unexpected reaction for Dan there.

[Gabi]

Seriously. Dan had no way to know how many she had actually killed. By the way she spoke and acted it sounded like it had been more, and like she found torturing others - which is not much better than killing - to be a good thing to do (maybe even a hobby).

Anyway, Amber, if you're reading this... I read your rant and loved it.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Here's the interesting thing. "Killed three people" versus "Beings"; I wonder if that is where the discrepancy comes into it.

I also wonder, really. Given this strip, I wonder if Dan killed anyone, either. Defeated, sure. Killed? Perhaps not.

Edit:
Okay, okay. Except for Dead Pegasus. ;-]

[Grey Wolf]

I think what Aary is getting at is, aside from the person who she thought killed her mentor (and, if it's canon, possibly that one being she was going to use to make breakfast for herself and Merlitz), she's generally content to live and let live. But if trouble comes to her, she will destroy it.

Don't start nothing, there won't be nothing.

[Tapewolf]

I also wonder, really. Given this strip, I wonder if Dan killed anyone, either. Defeated, sure. Killed? Perhaps not.

I don't know if this still holds true, but it's interesting:

"Ironically enough, if one wants to go by kill-count, Dan probably has the highest number under his belt of the main Lost Lake cast.  Though yes, Kria probably beats him out in numbers.  Dark Pegasus moreso if one counts responsibility for deaths though not hands-on.  Mab even moreso if one counts responsibility for deaths not in this particular time/continuity.  Destania's deathcount isn't actually all that high, neither is Aarys."
http://clockworkmansion.com/forum/index.php/topic,8729.msg358453.html#msg358453

[jeffh4]

Is it just me, or does the last panel not look like:

"New for 2015! The latest transfer student to enter Monster High! It's Aary!!!!"     

-----

Also, does anyone know if Aary has heard about Merlitz's disappearance and presumed death?  I won't assume that she found out about it off camera.

[Eboreg]

I also wonder, really. Given this strip, I wonder if Dan killed anyone, either. Defeated, sure. Killed? Perhaps not.

You have to realize that in that case, he had a way to end things nonviolently handed to him on a silver platter. Without the fae curse to make everyone avoid him like the plague, he would most likely have tried to do things the traditional way, or as I like to call it, the "Sword, meet heart" way.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I also wonder, really. Given this strip, I wonder if Dan killed anyone, either. Defeated, sure. Killed? Perhaps not.

You have to realize that in that case, he had a way to end things nonviolently handed to him on a silver platter. Without the fae curse to make everyone avoid him like the plague, he would most likely have tried to do things the traditional way, or as I like to call it, the "Sword, meet heart" way.

In that case, yes. I wonder, though - my take on Dan is that he would prefer not to kill anyone if he didn't have to. I could well be wrong on that, mind, but that's my perception.

[Tapewolf]

In that case, yes. I wonder, though - my take on Dan is that he would prefer not to kill anyone if he didn't have to. I could well be wrong on that, mind, but that's my perception.

I'd like to think so, but I'm not convinced...

[Eboreg]

In that case, yes. I wonder, though - my take on Dan is that he would prefer not to kill anyone if he didn't have to. I could well be wrong on that, mind, but that's my perception.

Just because he prefers it doesn't mean he actively seeks it, what with having his life on the line most of the time. There's also the fact that there may be a sense of honor involved so that he does not backstab someone after they surrendered, which they're going to do after someone with a fae curse barges in looking for a fight. After a few weeks of this he starts exploiting this behavior more and more leading to the kind of trolling you see in that comic.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Just because he prefers it doesn't mean he actively seeks it, what with having his life on the line most of the time. There's also the fact that there may be a sense of honor involved so that he does not backstab someone after they surrendered, which they're going to do after someone with a fae curse barges in looking for a fight. After a few weeks of this he starts exploiting this behavior more and more leading to the kind of trolling you see in that comic.

I dunno. I think you're conflating two problems - one, what would Dan do if he knew about Fae curses and got one, and two, what is Dan like in normal adventurer mode.

I like to think he's a bit of a troll at the best of times - remembering that the only times we've seen him adventuring are either after he retired, with a bunch of friends to look after, or alternatively on his very very first trip out. I don't think either gives us a valid view of his skills.

[Amber Williams]

Truth be, one of my regrets was forgetting about that jar Aaryanna claimed she trapped a soul in as I had planned a script where Dan was going to open it to find it was just full of licorice jellybeans.  But that was before I had to quick shuffle scripts to bump Merlitz and Aaryanna apart due to RL stuff.

[Delian Williams]

First: Aary's reaction to Warp aci jive is much like Amber's reaction to Fluffy jive.

Second: Finding out about a body count in a PG environment isn't easy in itself...
While we're at it, I wonder if Wildy has ever slain an opponent. After all the knuckle sandwich delivery service hates losing customers.
And maybe there even is something in the shaman codex against taking life. At least I hope there is.

[Howl]

On one hand, this entire comic is basically why "Always Chaotic Evil" is a really stupid trope in most situations (this is what we in the business call a "deconstruction")

On the other, considering the capacity for her peers to be really awful people (Not just her own race, even), you can't expect that kind of stigma to NOT come up.

I had a chance to make this topic, by the way, I just didn't because I couldn't come up with anything decent to say other than that.

[SteelWings]

Only three? with how eager she was to help Dan rip apart some poor innocent in order to learn how to use his cubi powers I find that doubtful :p

[Hariman]

I would very much enjoy Dan coming back with both an apology, followed by an accounting of the people he's had to kill, and their crimes too.

Given what we've seen already, it's probably a short list too, unless you count Dark Pegasus multiple times.

[ZacAttac21]

I also wonder, really. Given this strip, I wonder if Dan killed anyone, either. Defeated, sure. Killed? Perhaps not.

I don't know if this still holds true, but it's interesting:

"Ironically enough, if one wants to go by kill-count, Dan probably has the highest number under his belt of the main Lost Lake cast.  Though yes, Kria probably beats him out in numbers.  Dark Pegasus moreso if one counts responsibility for deaths though not hands-on.  Mab even moreso if one counts responsibility for deaths not in this particular time/continuity.  Destania's deathcount isn't actually all that high, neither is Aarys."
http://clockworkmansion.com/forum/index.php/topic,8729.msg358453.html#msg358453

Nooo, not our sweet, innocent Mab!

[Tuyu]

Is it just me, or does the last panel not look like:

"New for 2015! The latest transfer student to enter Monster High! It's Aary!!!!"     

I was just randomly thinking..."What if cubi faces actually do that sometimes in the middle of conversations?"  What with them being shapeshifters and all...

...probably not true; nevertheless, I shall be seeing them that way from now on...every time Amber draws a chibi cubi, I will be thinking the cubi actually looks like that to the other characters.   

[Pvblivs]

The earlier strips seem to contradict the idea that Aaryanna was never looking for trouble.  And, of course, as everyone here knows, Dan has seen her jump to violence.  This particular strip suggests either an unreliable narrator or an attempt to shoehorn the idea of "cubi are not necessarily violent."  And there have been better fits for the idea than that character.

[VAE]

Here's the interesting thing. "Killed three people" versus "Beings"; I wonder if that is where the discrepancy comes into it.

I also wonder, really. Given this strip, I wonder if Dan killed anyone, either. Defeated, sure. Killed? Perhaps not.

Edit:
Okay, okay. Except for Dead Pegasus. ;-]

Yeah, dead beings don't count is a very possible interpretation there. Though, I wouldn't necessarily take it as Aary having a huge body count either - after all, souls are a fairly powerful resource and as such you don't need many of them to get up to interesting things.

And yeah - given that adventurer is pretty much euphemism for hired thug, their respective kill counts skewing heavily towards Dan wouldn't surprise me. Of course, that's hardly something to bring up against him alone (as it's who you kill that's most important, hence why an executioner, say, isn't a murderer) but by the looks of it, Dan seems to have fallen for that argument.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Nooo, not our sweet, innocent Mab!

Well, look at it this way. In an immortal lifetime, you can spare a lot of time for accidentally killing people or getting them killed, spending years in remorse over each one, and eventually moving on. Mab has been around for a very very long time. Besides, perhaps she might include people who died of old age in that count. :-/

And yeah - given that adventurer is pretty much euphemism for hired thug, their respective kill counts skewing heavily towards Dan wouldn't surprise me. Of course, that's hardly something to bring up against him alone (as it's who you kill that's most important, hence why an executioner, say, isn't a murderer) but by the looks of it, Dan seems to have fallen for that argument.

Maybe. Maybe he just doesn't want to bring up his body count, or spend time comparing the "evil deeds" of the people he's had to put down to stop; after all, just maybe he feels that's a little gauche. ;-]

[AzureEdge]

You know, all this talk about death counts and that, we honestly do not know the number of kills he has. We know it is, at the very least 2, since we know he has killed Dark Pegasus once in the past before the time we saw him kill him. What if Dans ONLY kills are Dark Pegasus since he seems to be on pretty friendly terms with most creatures he seems to meet save for those in Flashbacks.

[VAE]

On one hand, this entire comic is basically why "Always Chaotic Evil" is a really stupid trope in most situations (this is what we in the business call a "deconstruction")

On the other, considering the capacity for her peers to be really awful people (Not just her own race, even), you can't expect that kind of stigma to NOT come up.

I had a chance to make this topic, by the way, I just didn't because I couldn't come up with anything decent to say other than that.

Eh, Always Chaotic Evil isn't that much of a stupid trope, which is obvious to anyone who raises goats.

[Eboreg]

Considering how Aary "took down" Merlitz, I'm kind of thinking that the way she took down those three other adventurers was not exactly done in the most saintly way.

[Lying Foo]

Truth be, one of my regrets was forgetting about that jar Aaryanna claimed she trapped a soul in as I had planned a script where Dan was going to open it to find it was just full of licorice jellybeans.  But that was before I had to quick shuffle scripts to bump Merlitz and Aaryanna apart due to RL stuff.

Hey - who doesn't want a jellybean golem?