2018-06-15 [DMFA#1845] - An offer you can't refuse

[Tapewolf]

That's not a bad deal, to be fair.  Peace with HollyAnn for the rest of DP's life, in exchange for Regina not going off the rails until she's mature enough to think about what she's doing.

[e_voyager]

Personally I think Dan got the better end of the deal. My guess is that evil or not Dark Pegasus is known for keeping his deals as long as the person he makes a deal with does not break their England. end of the deal.

[Jasonrevall]

I actually like the dynamics Dark Pegasus and Dan have with one another. I enjoy Hero/Villain relationships where they're likely to call a time out for tea time maybe leave the battlefield and do a little shopping only to return later to continue to fight to the death. That kind of dynamic is one of the reasons I enjoy the new Sonic Boom so much. It's also one of the things I enjoyed about the earlier DMFA where the most intense thing we had to worry about for awhile was Dan dancing half naked on the inn roof. Now Abel is laying dismembered in a hospital bed somewhere. Talk about tone whiplash but it's always been a colorful story with a dark backdrop its just now some of that darkness decided to creep to center stage.

Also I do agree that Dan got a much better deal. Dark Pegasus is a much more dangerous force than Regina ever will be if she even lasts to the end of her stay with Pegasus. What are the odds that it winds up being Regina who brings the final downfall of Dark Pegasus by doing something stupid too?

**Edit** Also I may be a bit late to the party on this (life has been super busy) but is DMFA no longer considered PG? I just realized with all the blood and lack of the pg panda thing that it may have changed and I was just oblivious.

[Sabreur]

Talk about tone whiplash but it's always been a colorful story with a dark backdrop its just now some of that darkness decided to creep to center stage.

Strongly agree here. A lot of other webcomics would have retconned the whole "Beings Vs Creatures" thing once it became inconvenient to the story. Instead, the author is seriously exploring the implications, and it's making for a pretty wild ride.

[MT Hazard]

Is Dan realizing the irony that he is talking to (and trusting) a creature about not trusting creatures, the fact he is a creature, or both?

Also, I don't think Dan needs to worry about Regina, Biggs is already hot on her trail.

[Famout]

I mean, we could really test just how Lawful DP is if Bigg's gets involved, the deal was only for Dan after all.

[The One Guy]

Er, this doesn't stop Dark Pegasus from doing bad things at all; he can just change his focus to somewhere new...

[Sabreur]

Er, this doesn't stop Dark Pegasus from doing bad things at all; he can just change his focus to somewhere new...

Agreed, but (so far) attacking the Kingdom of H-Ann is the only outright genocidal thing Dark Pegasus has done. He's still a horrible, unrepentant murderer and needs to die in a fire - but failing that, directing his attention to other pursuits seems like a net win for anybody with a conscience.

[Tapewolf]

I mean, we could really test just how Lawful DP is if Bigg's gets involved, the deal was only for Dan after all.

Biggs has his own problems in that regard.  Right now he seems to have a good thing going with Kria, and I can't see her being too thrilled when she finds out that Biggs is trying to get a hit on Regina.  Strictly Regina is under her protection, after all.

[Nightmask]

I mean, we could really test just how Lawful DP is if Bigg's gets involved, the deal was only for Dan after all.

Biggs has his own problems in that regard.  Right now he seems to have a good thing going with Kria, and I can't see her being too thrilled when she finds out that Biggs is trying to get a hit on Regina.  Strictly Regina is under her protection, after all.

I don't know, when Dan was about to kill Regina when they met at Kria's house Kria was more concerned about feeling old and thinking how that should be her getting the raging oath swearing to kill her.  She just stood watching and wasn't interested in stopping anything until she was bribed with the idea that Dan was her daughter's BF.  She even offered up to Dan next time he killed DP to burn the body to ash if he wanted DP to stay dead since she had the obligation to raise him from the dead only as long as there was a body to raise.  Seems like Kria would leave Regina to her own saving without someone bribing her in some fashion or playing on some trait of hers to get her to protect Regina.  Heck Kria's shown quite a bit of interest in Dan despite knowing he's killed her brother so seems obvious killing her family members isn't much of a deal-breaker with her, not unless you're explicitly breaking a deal with her in the process.  Didn't she even give Biggs that information about DP and Regina knowing Biggs at a minimum was wanting to kill her brother?

[Titanium Dragon]

I don't know, when Dan was about to kill Regina when they met at Kria's house Kria was more concerned about feeling old and thinking how that should be her getting the raging oath swearing to kill her.  She just stood watching and wasn't interested in stopping anything until she was bribed with the idea that Dan was her daughter's BF.  She even offered up to Dan next time he killed DP to burn the body to ash if he wanted DP to stay dead since she had the obligation to raise him from the dead only as long as there was a body to raise.  Seems like Kria would leave Regina to her own saving without someone bribing her in some fashion or playing on some trait of hers to get her to protect Regina.  Heck Kria's shown quite a bit of interest in Dan despite knowing he's killed her brother so seems obvious killing her family members isn't much of a deal-breaker with her, not unless you're explicitly breaking a deal with her in the process.  Didn't she even give Biggs that information about DP and Regina knowing Biggs at a minimum was wanting to kill her brother?

There's a few things worth noting here.

First off, Kria plays the role of being completely flipping nuts, and is, to some degree. She had fun when the undead were trying to assassinate her during her diplomatic mission and was thrilled by the fact that they almost (but did not quite) take her out, and talked about the bargain being good for another fifty years.

That being said... as Dark Pegasus himself has noted, Kria plays a role, and plays up her "I am a heartless rampaging monster" thing. She appears to be that so that people won't actually suspect that she's anything beyond the obvious, and while she enjoys playing around with people and fighting, she's definitely got a streak of something brighter inside her. She used to be a teacher, she's raised a couple of kids who she clearly loves, she cares about Abel's well-being...

I think the real key to Kria is realizing that most people don't matter to her at all save for amusement, but she isn't evil for the sake of being evil. She always has a purpose in what she's doing, even if that's nothing more than amusing herself, but she actually does care about some people, and towards those people, she's actually capable of being considerate (even if she is a bit bad at it, or at least, takes her own, shall we say, unique approach). And for all we've heard of her being horrible, I'm not sure if she's actually killed anyone who she didn't see as "wronging" her in some way or as being her foe somehow (even if her view of such is twisted).

Regina is, I think, a responsibility, but I don't think that Kria actually cares about her in any sort of meaningful way, whereas Devin and Abel and her own daughter are all people she has more protective feelings towards. And I think she doesn't really like hurting hapless noncombatants; while she would say it wasn't fun, I think she actually does have a conscience, however twisted. As such, she has more protective feelings towards Abel and Devin, who are both kind of hapless.

I think there's another angle as well, which is that, as a demon, Kria culturally believes that might makes right. In other words, if you can kill someone, well, you were clearly better than they were, and they kind of deserved what was coming to them for messing with you or getting in your way. As such, if Dan killed Regina, well, then, she was the weaker one, and from Kria's perspective, Regina started it (and frankly, if she knew the story, then she'd probably be fine with Dan offing Regina if he could - a proper roaring rampage of revenge to show why no one should mess with you and yours sounds like exactly the sort of thing that Kria would approve of).

Same goes for Dan and her brother - Dan has beaten Dark Pegasus repeatedly, so clearly is the superior of the two. Moreover, Kria seems to think that there's less and less of her brother coming back every time, and that there's something wrong with him - his whole "killing tons of people indiscriminately" thing is messed up even to her, I think. So if Dan kills DP, and DP doesn't come back, well then... why should she hold emnity towards him for that? DP's business is his own, it isn't her place to interfere, and if he does stupid shit that gets him killed by people who are more powerful than he is because he has been kicking the wrong beehive, isn't that his own fault?

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I think the real key to Kria is realizing that most people don't matter to her at all save for amusement, but she isn't evil for the sake of being evil. She always has a purpose in what she's doing, even if that's nothing more than amusing herself, but she actually does care about some people, and towards those people, she's actually capable of being considerate (even if she is a bit bad at it, or at least, takes her own, shall we say, unique approach). And for all we've heard of her being horrible, I'm not sure if she's actually killed anyone who she didn't see as "wronging" her in some way or as being her foe somehow (even if her view of such is twisted).

Does that include Lorenda's gardener? I'm just curious, here.

[MT Hazard]

I think the real key to Kria is realizing that most people don't matter to her at all save for amusement, but she isn't evil for the sake of being evil. She always has a purpose in what she's doing, even if that's nothing more than amusing herself, but she actually does care about some people, and towards those people, she's actually capable of being considerate (even if she is a bit bad at it, or at least, takes her own, shall we say, unique approach). And for all we've heard of her being horrible, I'm not sure if she's actually killed anyone who she didn't see as "wronging" her in some way or as being her foe somehow (even if her view of such is twisted).

Does that include Lorenda's gardener? I'm just curious, here.

Pretty sure it was Jyrras's gardener. Also I do wonder how much of the early strips are considered cannon.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Does that include Lorenda's gardener? I'm just curious, here.

Pretty sure it was Jyrras's gardener. Also I do wonder how much of the early strips are considered cannon.

Sure, but Lorenda was staying at Jy-Jy's place, so same diff, right? And as far as Kria knew, it was Lorenda's gardener, and Lorenda's pizza guy - at least until after she spoke to Lorenda.

[Hariman]

Talk about tone whiplash but it's always been a colorful story with a dark backdrop its just now some of that darkness decided to creep to center stage.

Strongly agree here. A lot of other webcomics would have retconned the whole "Beings Vs Creatures" thing once it became inconvenient to the story. Instead, the author is seriously exploring the implications, and it's making for a pretty wild ride.

I'm enjoying this aspect of the story too.

A lot of webcomics with predator/prey issues either leave it as the horror in the background too. It's really creepy when that happens too, as some characters just get introduced to die for a joke.

It's good to see just how much time and effort Ambaaargh is putting into actually resolving that in story, and much appreciated.