Sidekick Girl

12 responses to “Another World XLI”

• wright1 on March 5, 2014 at 3:02 AM

  Found your comic via a link at the Phoenix Project forums; can’t believe it took me this long! Tight writing, clean art, utterly human characters. Consider me hooked.

• Syncline on March 5, 2014 at 11:54 AM

  Yay! comic.
  That having been said…

  BRVal: so sad being the local equivalent of a vampire.
  Too bad your soul died.

• Spliced on March 5, 2014 at 6:31 PM

  Huh, I never looked at it that way/ But yeah, seriously.

• The Wyrm Ouroboros on March 5, 2014 at 9:35 PM

  *laughs* It is truly amazing how instantly and thoroughly you judge people, Syncline, and on the smallest fragments of conversation. What a mockery.

• Syncline on March 6, 2014 at 10:16 AM

  Indeed.
  Perhaps actions spoke louder than a conversation with an imaginary character. I can only judge on the basis of my own life experience.

  Ever placed yourself between a hazard and an innocent, worm?

• Hitokiri Akins on March 9, 2014 at 9:28 AM

  Spare us the self righteous indignation, syncline. You’re no hero, you never were, and you never will be, despite your claims in the last comic. The world, ours nor the world in the comic, is not black and white, and to insinuate that you are the only champion of the white shows you only think in absolutes shows that you’re more of a tyrant than the one you look down upon.

  I honestly think that, after reading your comments over the last few days, you are trolling us, no how much you may deny it.

• The Wyrm Ouroboros on March 7, 2014 at 2:29 AM

  That’d be ‘Wyrm’, but yes. And you know what?

  I’ve learned that in many situations, one cannot reliably make a snap judgement about who is an ‘innocent’. I’ve learned that ‘serve and protect’ and the racial urge to protect a perceived innocent can put you in life-threatening danger from the supposed innocent. I’ve also learned that even then, knowing what I know, I would still do the same thing.

  I’ve learned that a casual insult in one part of the world is the worst of death threats in another, because cultural context and local laws are more critical than the blind self-assured self-righteousness that I’ve seen most Americans (and to be entirely honest, most other people, because Americans aren’t the only assholes in the world) carry along with them – people who ‘judge on the basis of (their) own life experience(s)’.

  Because you know what else?

  I’ve learned, most of all, not to judge until I had all the facts – and often not even then. I allow actions to speak in the context of the world in which they happen – whether that’s Beirut, Bagdad, or Boston – and I seek to understand, not judge. I pay close attention to the facts – all of the facts, not just the ones I want to have support the way I think – and I seek comprehension, not condemnation.

  You judge Val-the-Dark as a monster with a dead soul because she killed a guy. I see a woman with ten or more names tattooed on her arm, who by her statements (and the lack of disagreement on the part of the on-lookers) acts as a superpowered protector with tight restrictions on when she is allowed – or possibly required – to kill, and I try to understand the world in which she has lived. I also try to understand the terrible things that she’s very clearly survived, all the loss she’s experienced, and realize that despite all that, she still serves and protects.

  Spare me your ‘I’m the only hero here’ snottiness. Learn to read, and not to judge.

• Princess Puffy Pants on March 8, 2014 at 6:09 PM

  When the subject was blood splatter, you were an expert on blood splatter. When it was about stained glass, you were an expert on glass work. When the comic was about ferrets, you have owned ferrets. Now that it’s about the definition of a hero, you are an expert on heroics. In every instance, you either state or strongly infer that you have professional experience on the matter at hand. And, quite frankly, you also strongly infer that people that disagree with you don’t know what they’re talking about.

  When it comes right down to it, you make a lot of pretty big assumptions based only on your own opinions. You’re talking about Dark Val like this blowing away villains thing happens every day. When really, this could have been the ONLY time it’s happened. You can’t make sweeping generalizations on the morality of an entire setting (and character) because of one event. Unless you have some kind of inside knowledge of the comic that the rest of us don’t have, you’re jumping to a lot of conclusions.

  To a point, I agree with you. I think Dark Val acted wrongly. I think she used his refusal to surrender as a technicality to justify killing him when she shouldn’t have. People have rights, and criminals need their rights protected just as much as others. The law says fair trial, so that’s what has to happen, and her “he’s coming right at me!” excuse doesn’t fly with me.

  However, the notion that she’s an inhuman monster and killing people left and right for her own backwards villainy is a BIG stretch. And the idea that the whole future society is this horrible police state where there are no separation of powers is pretty silly. Our own world has a very firm (if flawed) legal system, and there are still situations where lethal force is acceptable. More importantly, Prime Val’s world has lethal force, and since it’s her story, hers is the bar by which we should be measuring this other place.

  Finally, Wyrm (BTW, spelling it as Worm? Below the belt, and juvenile.) is not a hero who has stood between an innocent an imminent threat, and NEITHER ARE YOU. You know why? Because the kind of heroes and villains that we are talking about here are imaginary. We can use fiction to talk about real world issues, but it’s ultimately not any more real than trying to talk about the ethics of vampires eating people. If you’ve served overseas, that’s awesome, but military =/= heroism. Ditto law enforcement. Putting on a uniform does not automatically confer a noble heart, self sacrifice, or valor. It certainly doesn’t make you an authority on the definition of being a superhero in a fictional setting.

  Unless you actually have donned a mask and cape and stood in front of the orphanage shielding it from laser death-beams. In that case, hat’s off to you.

• The Wyrm Ouroboros on March 9, 2014 at 12:46 AM

  Never said I was a hero; definitely didn’t mean to imply it. Won’t argue about the definition of a hero; I think what you’re using as a definition, P3, is more accurately that of a superhero. (Technically, a hero is the mortal offspring of a god, and no, I ain’t one o’ them.) Putting myself between a hazard and an innocent? Yes. Between an imminent threat (read: lethal force directed by an intelligence, whether intended (such as weapons) or not (such as someone not paying attention in a vehicle)) and an innocent or perceived innocent? Yes. Is this heroic? I dunno. Some would say so; some would say not. I’m of the general ‘not’ leaners, because it’s six parts training, one part inclination, and one part what I’d call social genetics (i.e. in any lasting society, ‘save the child/preserve the heritage-future’ is a major thrust, whether consciously or not).

  I also agree that putting on a uniform by no means confers a noble heart, self-sacrifice, or valor. Being in a uniform often leads to more opportunities for such to be displayed – but it also leads to maaaany more opportunities for the worse qualities to be displayed as well.

  In any case.

• Kit on February 20, 2017 at 2:35 AM

  I think it’s amazing and sad what Dark Val did… turning her own body into a shrine to the ones she loved. On one arm, her friends. Her super family, including descendants it seems. Isauro gets an elaborate tattoo on the other.

  It’s so messed up, but anyone is going to be after this long. Is this how she keeps any degree of sane? Using cryosleep to escape the reality of everyone she knew and loved being dead, carving each new name onto a tally that only two people know the meaning of, one of them being her?

  I feel sorry for her.

• Khlovia on September 21, 2017 at 5:22 AM

  SG Val, *look* at her. She is wearing her heart on her sleeves.

• Greywolf1963 on February 16, 2021 at 5:21 AM

  One of the details people seldom think about when they express the desire to live forever. How painful it must be to lose person after person you love. How it tears a little piece of you with each death or lose. How soon until you start pushing everyone away to keep from emotionally bleeding to death, even while you live on?