Annotated 15-21
Rachel and Scipio may be seemingly unflappable in their cheeriness and mildly disdainful disinterest, but at least E-Merl is a worthwhile target when Frigg needs to troll somebody to take the focus off her own discomfort.
Three years in, even Phil was starting to feel a little distanced from the 4chan-circa-2010-style dialogue that had inspired Frigg in the earlier chapters. I don’t think she ever came off as honestly homophobic, but even so, E-Merl in panel 2 probably speaks for us.
As I gear up to deal with some problems with my older sites, I’ve rarely identified more with HR staring at the epic fantasy world that is purely theoretically under his complete control. I’ve forgotten way too much of the little I learned about PHP…
HR just wanted to make a short game, but his characters made it impossible to wrap it up and it just kept going and going.
In the end the loss of control began to eat into his mental health.
They are the ones smoking it but HR is the one getting the munchies.
I recall an artist gal named Queensimia commenting that 4chan is something you outgrow.
It was a more insightful comment before the site’s racist and sexist elements metastatized. Even 20 year old me wouldn’t have touched the place as it is now.
4chan is a good source for materials of dubious providence. It is not a good place for anything else.
I believe there is a difference between “dubious” and “utterly suspect”.