2024-05-13 - DMFA #2124 - Dangerous concepts and deadly words

[Dishonored]

 It's not just the danger of appearing weak, but the danger to everyone around him. Every superhero secret identity in a nutshell. I'm still amazed at how much DP has changed from "Evil bad guy" to "Sympathetic understandable evil guy".

[Tapewolf]

http://missmab.com/Comics/Vol_2124.php

An interesting conversation indeed.  We've seen from Hizell and Siar that something like a town becoming collateral damage in a quarrel between Creatures is a well-trodden path.

However, getting strung up for pointing out that Dark Pegasus is biologically capable of enjoying the simpler things in life, that was a little unexpected.  Treason can take many forms, I guess...

[ProfesseurRenard]

http://missmab.com/Comics/Vol_2124.php

An interesting conversation indeed.  We've seen from Hizell and Siar that something like a town becoming collateral damage in a quarrel between Creatures is a well-trodden path.

However, getting strung up for pointing out that Dark Pegasus is biologically capable of enjoying the simpler things in life, that was a little unexpected.  Treason can take many forms, I guess...

Guess we know how the potential gossips mentioned in previous threads would be dealt with in certain localities. *ulp*

[HaDDea]

I think I get where DP is coming from... as far as he is concerned, this town's original purpose was a place for him to lie low. He values it first for that, and now in addition for at least some of those who have grown up under his covert aegis. And while he does care about the place, to defend it from would-be marauders would defeat that purpose, and would require expending considerable resources to defend it - resources he does not wish to use.

Transferring the lease minimizes the potential damages to Trellda and has the bonus of supporting Regina (and snubbing Malle, who refuses to support his daughter in her up-and-coming passions) and expanding Zinvth's territories (and shutting down the possibility of some other demon using it as their own vanity reserve). Plus, Aliph has never really shown himself (at least until recently) to be very in touch with anyone's emotions, including his own...

I suppose all Demons have to walk this line... after all, caring about lesser creatures or beings or even just things like property or nature means a weakness that can and will be exploited, especially by the up-and-coming. So, do you feign indifference? subtly ward the place out the gills and back (which would be a signal to some)? Keep that which is precious in the borders of your own compound? Spend the resources and keep constantly repelling the waves of would-be-usurpers time and again? Go incognito to some backwater to try and evade detection? What a fascinating set of manacles Demon society has crafted for itself: a passionate race, yet to care too much invites trouble.

[Starcat5]

How does the saying go? The gentleman doth protest too much? Something like that.

[Tapewolf]

It's not just the danger of appearing weak, but the danger to everyone around him. Every superhero secret identity in a nutshell. I'm still amazed at how much DP has changed from "Evil bad guy" to "Sympathetic understandable evil guy".

Hah, I thought you posted your thread after mine - and was then surprised your post floated to the top when they were merged.  Perhaps I should have used your title, but then again mine seems to have had more replies...

[Viking ZX]

It's not just the danger of appearing weak, but the danger to everyone around him. Every superhero secret identity in a nutshell. I'm still amazed at how much DP has changed from "Evil bad guy" to "Sympathetic understandable evil guy".

I just did an archive reread (because yeah, favorite webcomic) and on this latest read I paid more attention to DP, specifically how it's been called out by a few characters that each time he comes back he's "less like the DP they remember" as if death is doing something to him.

Specifically, the ones who say that are demons. Usually when someone "comes back wrong" pop-culture is "Oh crap, it's a Pet Cemetary scenario," but I'm starting to think that it's the opposite. If DP was coming back more and more violent and bloodthirsty, well ... those in the story who've commented about his coming back "different" wouldn't be framing it in a negative light, since they're demons. A negative light for demons would be "empathy." All that weakness they're not supposed to show.

DP's constant dying and coming back, I think, I bleeding over into his life. Whatever he's experiencing after he goes (which he's silent about, if he even remembers), it does seem to be changing him. His whole monologue on the "meaning of life" seems to suggest a lot of thought put into what he's doing and why.

In other words, I think dying and coming back might be slowly but surely making DP re-evaluate his priorities about what's important, even if he still has centuries of experience being a real, awful villain (which he openly admits to). That, and he's aware he can use all those skills and his reputation for whatever he wants to do now.

It's a theory. But today's comic certainly isn't doing much to dissuade it.

Now kiss the bat!

[Starcat5]

I just did an archive reread (because yeah, favorite webcomic) and on this latest read I paid more attention to DP, specifically how it's been called out by a few characters that each time he comes back he's "less like the DP they remember" as if death is doing something to him.

I have a slightly different view. His first appearance in the comic had him acting in ways his pre-death self, and even his first death self, would consider monumentally stupid. You know who doesn't consider those actions stupid? His sister, the one who keeps bringing him back. Now we see him acting more like his old self, but more introspective. What changed? His niece brought him back this time. Correlation does not equal causation, but it is a useful sign post to start from.

TLDR: I believe his personality is influenced by whomever brings him back. Not a complete overwrite, but a subtle yet cumulative nudge.

[Dishonored]

Hah, I thought you posted your thread after mine - and was then surprised your post floated to the top when they were merged.  Perhaps I should have used your title, but then again mine seems to have had more replies...

Yeah, I'm not one of the popular kids.   Besides, yours has more thought put into it, and I forgot the link. No worries.

[Titanium Dragon]

I just did an archive reread (because yeah, favorite webcomic) and on this latest read I paid more attention to DP, specifically how it's been called out by a few characters that each time he comes back he's "less like the DP they remember" as if death is doing something to him.

I have a slightly different view. His first appearance in the comic had him acting in ways his pre-death self, and even his first death self, would consider monumentally stupid. You know who doesn't consider those actions stupid? His sister, the one who keeps bringing him back. Now we see him acting more like his old self, but more introspective. What changed? His niece brought him back this time. Correlation does not equal causation, but it is a useful sign post to start from.

TLDR: I believe his personality is influenced by whomever brings him back. Not a complete overwrite, but a subtle yet cumulative nudge.

I think he was rewritten/fleshed out as a character, as Mab has become a better writer over the years. If you look at him in Abel's story and Dan's flashback about him, he is much closer in personality to how he is now than he was in that original arc, when the comic was way less serious about IC stuff than it is now.

It's also worth remembering that he and Kria don't get along and barely interact, so she only sees him when she resurrects him pretty much, which would cause her to interpret his personality changing as he gets older with, you know, the resurrections doing it, when it could just be that he is growing up and maturing as a person.

[Starcat5]

I just did an archive reread (because yeah, favorite webcomic) and on this latest read I paid more attention to DP, specifically how it's been called out by a few characters that each time he comes back he's "less like the DP they remember" as if death is doing something to him.

I have a slightly different view. His first appearance in the comic had him acting in ways his pre-death self, and even his first death self, would consider monumentally stupid. You know who doesn't consider those actions stupid? His sister, the one who keeps bringing him back. Now we see him acting more like his old self, but more introspective. What changed? His niece brought him back this time. Correlation does not equal causation, but it is a useful sign post to start from.

TLDR: I believe his personality is influenced by whomever brings him back. Not a complete overwrite, but a subtle yet cumulative nudge.

I think he was rewritten/fleshed out as a character, as Mab has become a better writer over the years. If you look at him in Abel's story and Dan's flashback about him, he is much closer in personality to how he is now than he was in that original arc, when the comic was way less serious about IC stuff than it is now.

It's also worth remembering that he and Kria don't get along and barely interact, so she only sees him when she resurrects him pretty much, which would cause her to interpret his personality changing as he gets older with, you know, the resurrections doing it, when it could just be that he is growing up and maturing as a person.

Oh, we agree on all points. I am just trying to give an in-universe explanation to the "Early-Installment Weirdness", using Mab's current explanation as a base.

[Liatai]

A glance back through the archives made me want to bring this up -- as a point of how much Ambargh has grown as an artist as well as a writer. I love how much wings are used naturally as part of a character's body language now! As the comic's progressed and the artist's skills have improved, they've gone from just the occasional back accessory to being an intrinsic part of how the characters express themselves and interact with the world. Aliph's wing partially hiding his face here, the way Abel includes his wings when he hugs Jyrras in the dream world, 'cubi headwings moving and becoming animated with their emotions -- it's so good.

[Hariman]

Heh.  Is it wrong that my second guess is that Aliph really wants to hurl her across the lake?

My first guess is there will be some need to go there for or with Regina.

My third guess is that they'll both end up in conflict for some reason, or fighting something in the future.

Still, it's interesting to note that Aliph isn't as soulless as he makes himself out to be.  I wonder if that's the resurrection magic taking the dark parts of his soul, or if it's the influence of having a family to care about, like Lorenda, Regina, and even Kria?


EDIT:  Also, I sympathize with Aliph a bit here.  I've been in conversations where the other side has a conclusion they can't be altered from.  It's as unpleasant in real life as it is for Aliph.

[Titanium Dragon]

EDIT:  Also, I sympathize with Aliph a bit here.  I've been in conversations where the other side has a conclusion they can't be altered from.  It's as unpleasant in real life as it is for Aliph.

Yeah, but she's actually right. Aliph DOES care about people. He just pretends not to, because he sees it as a weakness (and wasteful), but also (I suspect) because he doesn't really want to face up to the conclusions that caring about people would actually lead him to.

He is actually already aware of those conclusions. Indeed, he's been acting on them for some time now.

He just doesn't want to fess up to it - even to himself.