I think this is the first time I’ve felt the plot has become legitimately contrived or “railroad-y”. If he was disabled enough for her AND Xan to get out, would he not have been disabled enough to be shot?
Struggling to do the deed is understandable up to a point but this is getting a little implausible.
Indeed. I was pleasantly surprised that she was able to get the one shot to his leg off, honestly. If she couldn’t follow up when he was grabbing at her gun, killing just isn’t an option running through her brain, for better or for worse.
And as also discussed before, self-preservation instincts tend to take over in most (if not all) people. When a huge mustachioed man is stabbing someone and then shambling towards you menacingly, you generally don’t take the time to ponder the abstract value of a man’s life.
Or you do until you get that first shot off. How or why you’d stop yourself after that is beyond me. So… Fiaryn is right. This outcome seems implausible.
I feel that Sandra is far too scared to kill him, not because of some moral debate but because shooting someone with a gun is just a bit nerve wracking. I think she did try to kill him though, and missed, hitting him in the leg. For me the indication of the fact that this is nerves and not some philosophy is earlier when she keeps telling herself to shoot him, but can’t because she is paralyzed with fear. Because of that, I think her reaction is entirely plausible, and something akin to what I’d end up doing in the same situation, except I’d probably manage to shoot *myself* in the leg.
Again, she froze up when she walked in on him and Xan, and somehow managed to shoot (to kill, no less). As countless news stories about homeowners shooting burglars half a dozen times have shown, after that first shot the dam usually breaks and you’re squeezing again and again as if in a frenzy. I’d never heard of paralysis being broken for a moment, and then setting back in even stronger. I don’t think our brains are capable of functioning that way.
Most of those news stories turn out to be involving people who are anything but paralyzed with fear, but instead very often people who spend their lives looking for an excuse to shoot someone legally.
What’s more, even disregarding the matter of her not shooting him, this entire transition doesn’t make any sense. Hitting him in the wound on his leg disabled him enough that she could get Xan up off the ground, then take the time for him to get a duffle bag (apparently), and flee? But not shoot him? Given how he shook off a gun shot, I’m having a hard time imagining him doing whatever it is that would enable this transition to be possible.
Xan is paranoid, remember? He must have a duffel bag packed and convenient to grab as he runs out the door. He could hardly claim to be prepared otherwise.
Further more, if the landlady comes by tomorrow and finds a corpse in Xan’s room…
THE POLICE WILL GET DEEPLY INVOLVED.
What as meant to be a quiet snoop becomes a manhunt as cops everywhere are looking for the missing persons to find out what is going on.
Oh, and more than likely Carol gets the news that JJ is dead and gets to send an actual assassin after Shanna now that she’s shown she has the stones to kill someone sent after her.
I think someone will be by a lot sooner than that. Gunshot in an appartment building should get at least a few 911 calls. And there will be two people’s blood around. JJ won’t have *much* time to clean up, either, even if he decides to let them go for the moment.
Having been in a similar situation, at some point there is so much adrenaline pumping in your system that you switch to binary: fight or flight. You’re not acting rationally. You’re not in control. You’re doing SOMETHING and it may not be the best course of action, but at least you’re acting. In some cases it’s better than not acting at all.
Shanna switched to flight, which is working out better for her than what she tried before.
She seems to have been expecting to only have to fire the gun once for some reason, and acts as though doing it again is just more than she could bear.
I’m kind of wondering if maybe she’s got a few mental walls built from some past incident or experience, against either killing or firing.
Shanna, no, no, no. If you’re going to steal an assassin’s car then don’t leave the assassin alive. Basic adventuring. You’d know this if you were a gamer.
Killing that particular someone would negate te need to steal their car. Or bring Xan along, for that matter. He could have stayed home, dialed 911, explained how JJ broke in and tortured him for some info he didn’t have, then he wrestled the gun away from him somehow and shot him in self-defense, case closed.
oh…look. the quest guy dropped a dagger and a mount! (and its a 310% speed one to boot)
wait…Shanna basically got Rivendare’s deathcharger on her first run….:grumble grumble grumble:
Yes, hello, Ohnstarr? My car was just stolen. Can you track it? Wait – no, don’t send the law, just tell me where – ah, ma’am, NO police – ahem. You know what? Just forget it. YES. FORGET IT. Thank you. … **SHEESH!**
Oh JJ, I hope you have a contingency plan for this, much like any self-respecting assassin would. I know you can stop the menace bent on destroying the game-space!
I just have to say that (A) frame one, Shanna’s gun pointed right at the viewer (!), and that (B) JJ is drawn really beautifully in that last frame, drama aside. Kudos.
No-one’s mentioned that one of the two had to pull out the knife. Trying to get the key off the knife seems like it would simply take way too long when you’re trying to haul out of there. If it was me, I’d want to pull the knife out myself… but I’d probably pass out no matter who took a knife out of my hand.
So did she yank the knife out to start it, or do they just have his hand over by the ignition all awkwardly because they’re too afraid to pull it and deal with the bleeding?
Ever tried taking a key off a keyring under pressure? At some point at work I had to remove a key off a keyring so I could squeeze it under a comically multilocked door so whoever was outside could use it to deal with an emergency ASAP.
Well, doing it didn’t saved much time (nail chipped to the flesh, complete with the ring edge ripping it further), and I wasn’t exactly running away from The Big Show with a knife wedged on my hand/gun in hand and trying to pick a key from knifehand guy.
Yes! This! I was trying to decide if I would spare my compatriot and try the harrowing key-ring maneuver while JJ was stomping down on us or if I would yank the knife out (against all my first aid training) and gogogogogo.
For by the sword I mean the sensible.
For by the word I mean the dead.
For by the sword I mean preceded by a sigh.
For by the word I mean preceded by a wolf.
I really, really hope that Xan didn’t wank the knife out. Yanking it out would be bad enough. Wanking it out would likely require him to switch to the Eunuchs operating system. That’d defeat the purpose that Phil suggested for the hole in Xan’s hand, about couple of pages back.
Yeah, they did that thing I said last comic I couldn’t believe if it happened. He never let go of that gun for that light weight, poorly leveraged rounded object hit. Even if it did hurt that bad he would have pulled her down with him. Everything we’ve seen of him before demands this be true but… it wasn’t…
Luckily I am old enough book reader/tv-movie-watcher/webcomic viewer to have seen all kinds of way crazier logic so I’ll sail past this and make something up in my head as to what ACTUALLY happened.
I mean if I can take all the times the Japanese Anime industry has tried to pretend that space travelers can, even briefly, take the full vacuum of space sans suit and not only live but continue to kick ass both in space and immediately after getting back in the air lock (maybe after taking a few deep breaths to get their center… LOL TT ) then this is nothing. (I always thought some day science would seep into enough heads over there that this bizarre space version of skinny dipping would stop but as it turns out this crap is showing up on our side of the ocean now and then. :O WHY!?!! )
NOTHING I SAY! (but please don’t do it again… pretty please? )
He mustache himself some deep questions, that JJ Berten.
It was a close shave, that escape.
I guess he better find something with a handlebar to chase after them with.
Hope he wasn’t to a’tached to that car of his.
I wonder if he’s stached another vehicle nearby.
Mo’stache, mo’problems.
It’s probably a Lamborghini Coun’tach.
Well, you’re the genius who keeps his stabbing knife on a keychain. You were kind of asking for it.
And then he proceeded to leave his stabbing knife and keys in the hands of a person he’s trying to destroy.
“…in the hands…” I see what you did there.
I think this is the first time I’ve felt the plot has become legitimately contrived or “railroad-y”. If he was disabled enough for her AND Xan to get out, would he not have been disabled enough to be shot?
Struggling to do the deed is understandable up to a point but this is getting a little implausible.
Sandra didn’t have the guts to shoot him, as shown previously.
What I’m curious about is, if Xan doesn’t have a license, who’s the car registered to?
The car likely belongs to JJ Berten, since he’s been seen driving it in a few strips.
Oh right, that’s the BAD GUY’s car keys, attached to the pocket knife which he drove through Xan’s palm. Duh.
-shudders- Bescpierl still gives me the creeps.
Who is Sandra?
Shanna
Well, as discussed before killing doesn’t come easily to most people.
Indeed. I was pleasantly surprised that she was able to get the one shot to his leg off, honestly. If she couldn’t follow up when he was grabbing at her gun, killing just isn’t an option running through her brain, for better or for worse.
And as also discussed before, self-preservation instincts tend to take over in most (if not all) people. When a huge mustachioed man is stabbing someone and then shambling towards you menacingly, you generally don’t take the time to ponder the abstract value of a man’s life.
Or you do until you get that first shot off. How or why you’d stop yourself after that is beyond me. So… Fiaryn is right. This outcome seems implausible.
I feel that Sandra is far too scared to kill him, not because of some moral debate but because shooting someone with a gun is just a bit nerve wracking. I think she did try to kill him though, and missed, hitting him in the leg. For me the indication of the fact that this is nerves and not some philosophy is earlier when she keeps telling herself to shoot him, but can’t because she is paralyzed with fear. Because of that, I think her reaction is entirely plausible, and something akin to what I’d end up doing in the same situation, except I’d probably manage to shoot *myself* in the leg.
Good analysis. I think her freezing up is entirely plausible
Again, she froze up when she walked in on him and Xan, and somehow managed to shoot (to kill, no less). As countless news stories about homeowners shooting burglars half a dozen times have shown, after that first shot the dam usually breaks and you’re squeezing again and again as if in a frenzy. I’d never heard of paralysis being broken for a moment, and then setting back in even stronger. I don’t think our brains are capable of functioning that way.
Most of those news stories turn out to be involving people who are anything but paralyzed with fear, but instead very often people who spend their lives looking for an excuse to shoot someone legally.
I don’t think people are looking forward toward shooting home invaders.
I dunno, man. There are all kinds out there:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/prosecutor-minn-homeowner-lay-in-wait-for-teen-burglars/
What’s more, even disregarding the matter of her not shooting him, this entire transition doesn’t make any sense. Hitting him in the wound on his leg disabled him enough that she could get Xan up off the ground, then take the time for him to get a duffle bag (apparently), and flee? But not shoot him? Given how he shook off a gun shot, I’m having a hard time imagining him doing whatever it is that would enable this transition to be possible.
Xan is paranoid, remember? He must have a duffel bag packed and convenient to grab as he runs out the door. He could hardly claim to be prepared otherwise.
Further more, if the landlady comes by tomorrow and finds a corpse in Xan’s room…
THE POLICE WILL GET DEEPLY INVOLVED.
What as meant to be a quiet snoop becomes a manhunt as cops everywhere are looking for the missing persons to find out what is going on.
Oh, and more than likely Carol gets the news that JJ is dead and gets to send an actual assassin after Shanna now that she’s shown she has the stones to kill someone sent after her.
I think someone will be by a lot sooner than that. Gunshot in an appartment building should get at least a few 911 calls. And there will be two people’s blood around. JJ won’t have *much* time to clean up, either, even if he decides to let them go for the moment.
Here’s a thought: maybe it’s morally wrong to kill a human being unless it’s absolutely necessary, and it wasn’t absolutely necessary.
Having been in a similar situation, at some point there is so much adrenaline pumping in your system that you switch to binary: fight or flight. You’re not acting rationally. You’re not in control. You’re doing SOMETHING and it may not be the best course of action, but at least you’re acting. In some cases it’s better than not acting at all.
Shanna switched to flight, which is working out better for her than what she tried before.
She seems to have been expecting to only have to fire the gun once for some reason, and acts as though doing it again is just more than she could bear.
I’m kind of wondering if maybe she’s got a few mental walls built from some past incident or experience, against either killing or firing.
When did his Charger suddenly become a convertible?
His car’s always been shown as a convertible.
Camaro
Maybe it’s a hardtop convertible Chamero
Its a new X-type chamertable.
^^^I wish I could upvote you with my BRAIN.
Ahhh, yes, I forgot that the Camaro has a similar looking front…
Speaking of similar fronts: Do you have a special email-adress, with which you get this “Oops, my mistake, sorry”-Gravatar?
Shanna, no, no, no. If you’re going to steal an assassin’s car then don’t leave the assassin alive. Basic adventuring. You’d know this if you were a gamer.
Exactly. Plus killing him gives extra XP :/
Killing someone then stealing their car.
That isn’t going to attract any suspicion or get you locked away at all.
Killing that particular someone would negate te need to steal their car. Or bring Xan along, for that matter. He could have stayed home, dialed 911, explained how JJ broke in and tortured him for some info he didn’t have, then he wrestled the gun away from him somehow and shot him in self-defense, case closed.
No, that’s great from a gaming viewpoint! Look who just netted a rival instead of just a boss fight.
oh…look. the quest guy dropped a dagger and a mount! (and its a 310% speed one to boot)
wait…Shanna basically got Rivendare’s deathcharger on her first run….:grumble grumble grumble:
(golf clap) Well done Da Amron
Also, you have no idea how much farming I did to try to get one of those mounts.
Oh noooo, how dare they not want to work with the person who stabbed a guy just because he was being inconvenient.
And next JJ calls AAA and activates the LoJack.
Unless he accidentally left his cell phone in the car.
We’ve all done it at some point!
Would not be surprised if his cell phone also has a knife on the keychain as well.
It’s a chevy, so it has On-Star. All he has to do is call them and the ignition is dead in 20 minutes.
Yes, hello, Ohnstarr? My car was just stolen. Can you track it? Wait – no, don’t send the law, just tell me where – ah, ma’am, NO police – ahem. You know what? Just forget it. YES. FORGET IT. Thank you. … **SHEESH!**
Well his pocket are jammed full of stuff I guess something had to give.
Oh JJ, I hope you have a contingency plan for this, much like any self-respecting assassin would. I know you can stop the menace bent on destroying the game-space!
Looks like he managed to write down some of the contact info, a few pages back. He’s still got leads, even if he lost his edge.
Stupid people with their stupid sense of self-preservation. Why do they always want to do it the hard way?
To be fair, JJ does always vehemently offers the peaceful way out first.
A Rachel multiple-personality moment like this is exactly what I needed.
Yosemite SamJJ Berten: “Oooooooooo… I hate that rabbit!”I just have to say that (A) frame one, Shanna’s gun pointed right at the viewer (!), and that (B) JJ is drawn really beautifully in that last frame, drama aside. Kudos.
As a person who still wore a ponytail as his hair was thinning on top, I have to say that’s a wonderfully done detail!
No-one’s mentioned that one of the two had to pull out the knife. Trying to get the key off the knife seems like it would simply take way too long when you’re trying to haul out of there. If it was me, I’d want to pull the knife out myself… but I’d probably pass out no matter who took a knife out of my hand.
Aww…goodbye, Shanna’s hat. We’ll miss you.
So did she yank the knife out to start it, or do they just have his hand over by the ignition all awkwardly because they’re too afraid to pull it and deal with the bleeding?
Probably took them off the keyring.
That’s the problem for me, here.
Ever tried taking a key off a keyring under pressure? At some point at work I had to remove a key off a keyring so I could squeeze it under a comically multilocked door so whoever was outside could use it to deal with an emergency ASAP.
Well, doing it didn’t saved much time (nail chipped to the flesh, complete with the ring edge ripping it further), and I wasn’t exactly running away from The Big Show with a knife wedged on my hand/gun in hand and trying to pick a key from knifehand guy.
Yes! This! I was trying to decide if I would spare my compatriot and try the harrowing key-ring maneuver while JJ was stomping down on us or if I would yank the knife out (against all my first aid training) and gogogogogo.
Option 3: Do the awkward hand-knife-key in ignition for a few miles, then stop and get the key off the keyring and keep going.
Always keep your car keys on hand.
Check out how mildy annoyed JJ here is.
“Why do people have to be this way” ?
Is he really complaining that she did not kill him ?
Muscle for brain, that one.
No, she’s complaining that she didn’t just roll over and give up, or let him kill her.
And by she I meant he..
And by he I mean we,
and by we I meant me,
and by sweet I meant dirty.
For by the sword I mean the sensible.
For by the word I mean the dead.
For by the sword I mean preceded by a sigh.
For by the word I mean preceded by a wolf.
…Is that not what we’re doing?
Yup, like I said…handy.
So…in panel 2 the knife is still wedged in Xan’s hand.
When they get out to the car did they just wank it out? If so I think JJ should try picking up the trail at the nearest hospital.
They could have also just taken the key off the keyring…
Well, it’s not canon, but yes.
The worst part was trying to steer.
*slow clap escalating to thunderous applause*
I really, really hope that Xan didn’t wank the knife out. Yanking it out would be bad enough. Wanking it out would likely require him to switch to the Eunuchs operating system. That’d defeat the purpose that Phil suggested for the hole in Xan’s hand, about couple of pages back.
Dude got his ass beat, and all he is is mildly annoyed. I love it.
This comic is like Mcdonalds lately..
I’m lovin’ it.
Who is that Marvel bounty-hunter character who is always repeating “don’t make this personal” when a “mark” gets away?
Seem appropriate here.
I wanna say Death’s Head?
I think you are thinking of Deathstroke, but he’s DC.
Death’s Head is a bounty hunter in Marvel. Giant robot dude.
Yeah, why people gotta run in fear of their lives? What’s up with that?
He’s the kind of villain I can’t help liking.
That’s not to say I’d like to meet him in a dark alley. Or in a brightly lit hall full of people.
Anyone else get a Goblaurence vibe off Xan? His know-it-all attitude would translate easily into Gob’s smart arse-ry quite easily as a gamer.
I’ve got him pegged as Rendar.
..Or, you know, maybe both? With his set up, multiboxing would be pretty tempting.
My money is STILL on a grown up Gordito from Dr McNinja
Shanna is now Sandra, to confuse JJ’s inquiries.
Yeah, they did that thing I said last comic I couldn’t believe if it happened. He never let go of that gun for that light weight, poorly leveraged rounded object hit. Even if it did hurt that bad he would have pulled her down with him. Everything we’ve seen of him before demands this be true but… it wasn’t…
Luckily I am old enough book reader/tv-movie-watcher/webcomic viewer to have seen all kinds of way crazier logic so I’ll sail past this and make something up in my head as to what ACTUALLY happened.
I mean if I can take all the times the Japanese Anime industry has tried to pretend that space travelers can, even briefly, take the full vacuum of space sans suit and not only live but continue to kick ass both in space and immediately after getting back in the air lock (maybe after taking a few deep breaths to get their center… LOL TT ) then this is nothing. (I always thought some day science would seep into enough heads over there that this bizarre space version of skinny dipping would stop but as it turns out this crap is showing up on our side of the ocean now and then. :O WHY!?!! )
NOTHING I SAY! (but please don’t do it again… pretty please? )
Panel 2 – Xan’s grin as he hits the button on JJ’s key fob, to locate JJ’s car – Priceless!
I think he just made himself one of my favorite characters.