Annotated 27-12
There’s a theory that humor is funny because of overlapping but incompatible frames of reference. If that’s true, sometimes the Venn overlap is more comfortable than others, and sometimes it seems a bit pinched. Looking back, I think panel 3 is a bit pinched. Like, someone’s straining a little to make that connection.
But maybe that makes it more charming? Frigg is going to get this back to being about her, no matter how much of a logical reach she has to make to get there? I dunno. Best part about being done with the series is that I don’t have to worry about it any more, and you folks can make your own judgments.
It’s probably true that the cultists don’t get a whole lot of sex. They seem to be all or almost all male and keep to themselves, and not to be an eraser, but significantly fewer of them are likely attracted to their own sex than not. And even on top of that, intimacy between two, or a few, is considered a trifle to be sacrificed to demonstrate loyalty to the Cult. Ashok found that out.
Thinking on it, the various Cultists we’ve seen seem like they’re all very sincere in their beliefs. Ok, yes, a number of them felt kind of flat, but, even then, I don’t really recall any of them who seemed like they were just doing it to, say, get back at an ex-girlfriend or to bilk money out of other cultists (though, ok, some of the people at Armageddacon might fall into that second category).
But it still seems like the vast majority of Cultists do, honestly and sincerely, want to watch the entire world burn.
Which, on the one hand is kind of refreshing. It’s nice to have a group of people who are gleefully amoral and trying to tear down the world to use as “the real bad guys” for when you want to take a break from the grey on grey morality of Gastonia vs the World. On the other hand….I do kind of have to wonder just why so many people have joined the Cult. I suppose we get skewed population numbers just from who shows up in the comic, but it always seems like there’s more cultists out there and there were definitely enough of them to fuel a pretty significant convention.
I guess I just wonder why so many people seem to have embraced cheerful nihilism so totally and what that says about their world. Or is it an artifact of HR always needing more “mook cultists” for the game? Or is that on us, because it means tons of gamers signed up to be Cultists instead of taking one of the other sides.
Hmmm…. something I’m only really appreciating in retrospect is that, aside from the Five and their immediate friends and allies, you never really tell us who is a “PC” and who is an “NPC.” Nearly any character in this series might be controlled by a being from another dimension at any given time and we can’t tell. That’s interesting.
The cultists seem pretty unlikely to be a faction people can play as. It seems like you have Gastonia, World’s rebellion, and generic mooks that either of them can fight (or even have a brief team up against). Very World of Warcraft.
To be fair, that’s also true of 2020.
I always thought that people that wants to see the world burn just because would know how to appreciate a good orgy. oh well.
Is…. is Frigg’s mace hovering at the side of panel two there?
Yeah I’m inclined to agree. Doesn’t look like it’s stick in the ground, or at least not well enough. Will probably fall to the ground the instant she realizes it shouldn’t ala Scooby Doo style.
IS dream world. Physics no apply.