Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. You see, in the first panel, Bandit really fell to the left. But in this gag comic, she’s shown falling to the right! Ha! April Fools!
Seeing your Gravatar I have this horrible vision of Braggadocio still chewing and going like: “Oh. Yes. A joke. I totally didn’t really eat Rabbit’s face.”
I’m not sure if it’s wise for Syr’Nj to turn her back on Bandit like that while Bandit is still fully armed. She’s weak from the drug, but she may be able to muster enough strength for one more desperate attack. I wouldn’t trust her in the mental state she’s in.
i’m more worried about how this looks from syr’s point of view.
bandit stabbing byron, screaming “just stay dead, this is all your fault”
byron was originally killed with a knife, and bandit uses knives.
it’s potentially gonna look like byron berserked(alive) and bandit killed him.
especially since no-one knows any better. i think she’s out of the guild, and out of luck. syr’s gonna f*ck her up, diplomat style.
That would be quite a dick move from Syr’nj, in my opinion. Bandit got killed once by Byron, along with the rest of the gang, it’s obvious he was going berserk again this time, you can’t fault Bandit for being “annoyed” at Byron’s going on a rampage again. Sure, not his fault, all that, but still, Syr’nj can’t just look over the whole berserker issue just because Byron’s her lover, that would be insulting to all the people who died there, not only wouldn’t give her a good image as a political figure that supposedly is not like the rest of the politics…
But you can very much fault the guys that came up with the brilliant plan of “Hey, let’s send the berserker after the cultists and not after the beast, he’s got a great track record against them. And let’s keep the alchemist home politicking uselessly, I bet we won’t even need her syringes and crossbownurses.”
Well, Byron actually kind of…does? Like, while the cultists originally made him berserk, he’s been hunting them like, ever since he became a berserker, and nothing like THIS ever happened.
Except for that one time when he got them all killed, you mean?
Byron doesn’t have any special skills to use against the cult ether, he intends to hit them with his axe. Frigg’s mace would work equally well, and she (presumably) wouldn’t be immune to the serum that the cult/HR had brewed especially for him.
Byron had every reason to believe that his medication had his craziness under control. What should have concerned Byron and Syr’nj is that the cultists were very obviously setting a trap for them. A smarter move might have been to have Byron speak with the Gastonian leadership while Syr’nj led the team in the field.
That time he got them all killed had practically nothing to do with cultists, if I remember correctly. They were Peacemaking with the so-called Savage Races, and Harky’s right hand bird lover ushered them into the Death Pit.
… and then Madness came over him. Yes, they probably would have died even if it hadn’t, but it still led to him chopping up Bandit.
I know they thought they had it well in hand now, but there’s no excuse for sending him (and Bandit) off to field-test the serum without Syr’nj monitoring the results.
Yes but point is is berzerk state hadn’t been cultist activated that time. e went berzerk because he got impaled and passed out, so he couldn’t keep calm.
He knew cultists could activate the Madness, but the one time Brother Tom tried he was able to hold it at bay and carry Syr’nj outside. And that was BEFORE he got the antidote. Since getting the antidote he didn’t went berzerk even once. This mission wasn’t a field test, Byron has gotten in a lot of fights since.
I’m pretty sure the only reason he went berzerk his because Brother Homon injected him with a counter-cure
Spoken like someone who has absolutely no idea what’s actually going on. At least we – the viewers, – know that it’s those freaky digital devils (heh) doing the crazing. c:
Though she doesn’t have the audience’s perspective on matters, Bandit does have a point. Byron is dangerous and if another cult or HR get their hands on him again, there’s going to be another slaughter. How long till the men who rule Gastonia hear about this person of mass destruction and demand that he be used to infect and destroy the World’s Rebellion in a plague of rage? While Byron is probably my favorite character, I can also understand Bandit’s fears.
Just cause Brother Homon got Brother Tom to believe Byron was an essential spell component (playing into Brother Tom’s sense of the dramatic and religious with the symmetry and guilt aspects of making Bryron be a part of this crap again) doesn’t necessarily make this so. For all we know they could have used Bandit or anyone else.
Perhaps Brother Homon just has a Brother Hardon for The Five?
I want to live in a world with lots of people like Syr’Nj. And Spock. I want to live in a world with lots of people like Syr’Nj and Spock. (And that’s not a pointed ear thing.)
I suspect Byron isnt getting up a 3rd time i think he’s really dead is what Syr’ is trying to say and its all that little slut bandits fault she is nothing but trouble and has a i am better than you attitude i dont like
So much uncalled-for hate on Bandit lately…
Bandit’s nothing but trouble even when there’s a berserker right here with a track record of killing his friends? Sure, it’s not his fault, but that still sounds like a whole lot more trouble than simply being.. well whatever Bandit is, which isn’t a slut. (If anything, Frigg’s closer to being a slut than Bandit is)
Perfectly understandable. She was killed. She didn’t like that. Now those she feels responsible for as field leader are being killed – horribly and we know she’s a little sensitive about her leadership skills. Byron’s been present for most of her worst moments in recent times and “responsible” (in a visible cause and effect kind of way anyway) for a couple of THE worst.
I think she only swallowed her feelings on it this long because she is really THAT insecure and desperate for acceptance into the group. And NOW she feels guilty that she let her hang-ups hold her back from being more honest and pushy about how she felt about Byron earlier and preventing all this horror. (that wouldn’t have worked out that way but maybe she thinks so and feelings aren’t all that rational anyway… )
I like Bandit. Always did. Still do. Why shouldn’t she be upset? She has been clear about not trusting Byron from the beginning, and she has plainly stated her reasons, which are justified. No one on the team has ever faulted her for her position. And now all the evidence (from what they know) points to her having been right all along.
We have the advantage of knowing a little more than the characters do, because we get to watch what’s happening, instead of having to find it out a step at a time like they do.
Yeah, I don’t get what the hell is going on. Bandit snaps and starts acting completely out of character, and suddenly there are folks going “Ha! Called it! This is so like her! I knew she would do this, because I always disliked her!”.
Bandit is usually pretty easy going. She has a great sense of humor and doesn’t take things too seriously…except when it comes to allowing a potential berserker to run around with the team. This is atypical behavior for Bandit, but completely understandable considering what she is going through right now.
. . . and she is the team leader and just watched her entire team get nearly wiped out by the cultists. She is probably feeling the responsibility and likely blaming herself for what happened. Not to mention, one of her team members, Byron, who has been nothing but supportive of her as a team leader, led the attack and practically ended the entire world. So yeah, tough day.
None of this hate on Bandit makes any kind of sense. The last time Byron the Berserker lived up to his namesake, he slaughtered everyone except Syr, starting with Bandit herself. She has experienced firsthand what she could deem treachery, even though it’s not of his own will. She’s very understandably distraught by the very sudden turn of events. When he showed up, her first words were something along the lines of “No NO NO NOT AGAIN”. What do you people think it’s like to be killed by someone you trusted, and then lay dying as he killed the rest of your friends? Her actions and words are entirely justified.
While I totally agree everything else you write I’d say it makes a lot of sense in a way: A sexist way. While Syr’Nj is totally nerding out and Frigg is a tank, Bandit is drawn as a cute and (as often commented on) sexy blonde. So she gets a lot of hate for not acting like she is supposed to in the minds of some sexist readers. (Case in point: “she is nothing but trouble and has a i am better than you attitude i dont like”)
As with Nicky Nick’s “bossy” five pages ago, “slut” can’t really be called anything but a sexist insult.
And the pubertal aggression (“honeslty i hope Bandit dies she’sa tool to begin with” 36-33, “Called it Bandits nothing but trouble and baggage DEATH TO THE CHIBI!!!!!!!!!!!!” 36-37) really weirds me out.
That’s certainly one possible interpretation. Personally I was working under the theory that the people who think so poorly of Bandit for this are the ones who haven’t actually bothered to read the whole story and so missed out on the fact that Byron’s gone berserk before and Bandit’s been this story’s version of Cassandra about him with regards to his berserking habits.
Since they haven’t read the story, they’ve got nothing but generic, non-applicable insults to throw out there. Regardless, you’re probably correct with respect to what their choice of insult says about their character.
Yes, this could be a reason, too. It’s just that Lazy J reads (and comments) for a long time now.
Thinking poorly of a character is one thing – wishing them to die is something different. It’s quite gruesome what some people reveal about themselves.
Of course they do, they don’t have any character development bogging them down. that’s the nice thing about being plot devices. It minimizes the potential for angst.
I was just going to say the same thing. Seriously. If you think about what they walked in on, with Scipio and the last survivors basically trapped on a roof. They are just freaking efficient.
If someone can recover Rachel form the digital ether or rebuild her with sepia soul in place maybe Bandit will chill out a bit as she gets some of the happy overflow from her sepia “other” over getting their sepia comrade back in the game.
I was half expecting to come here and find Syr’NJ using science to suck all of Bandit’s health into Byron or Bandit suddenly going super-unartificial-berserk and stabbing everyone in the head or maybe even Byron getting back up and suddenly there is a dolphin and………………………..
So when the tranquilizers that drop Berserker Braggadocio only make Bandit woozy and slur her words, I can assume she still has that Trolls blood or something keeping her suped up?
It’s also slightly implied that Chrissie just ghost ran back to Bandit’s corpse.
But yeah, whatever injury allowed the berserkers’ infection is now being felt by the tranqed zerkers. Some of them are likely going to just drop dead, like Brother Tom did.
Thanks, GA crew, for not interrupting this HUGELY HEAVY STORY SEQUENCE with a dumb April Fools joke.
Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. You see, in the first panel, Bandit really fell to the left. But in this gag comic, she’s shown falling to the right! Ha! April Fools!
The deleted 6th panel is Syr’Nj saying, “April fool”.
http://ardusk.net/rnd/dj24wu.jpg
I cry everytime.
And then Byron, the medics, the cultists and adventurers all take off their masks and wipe off the fake blood and laugh at Bandit.
I don’t know if I would laugh or cry.
Maybe both.
I’m just happy I have enough weight around here that my threats of leaving this silly comic directly influenced in Bandit NOT dying.
Do not… I repeat, do NOT say that on April 1st.
Seeing your Gravatar I have this horrible vision of Braggadocio still chewing and going like: “Oh. Yes. A joke. I totally didn’t really eat Rabbit’s face.”
Bye bye Byron.
Yup. Not gonna happen, ’cause he’s dead.
He’ll get better again though, right?
He’s been dead before. He got over it last time.
Yeah. Last time he was turned into a newt. Wasn’t he? Oh no. Wait. Wrroooooong universe! Right village though!
I was expecting bandit to put up more of a challenge 0.0
That’s what I expected too, until I remembered the needle in her neck.
Seriously, this gives, “pushover” a whole new meaning. She looked all scary and menacing, then literally got pushed over.
I suspect that between getting shot right in the neck and not having much body mass to begin with, she’s a little sedate at the moment.
Plus Syr is using a Swiftness Potion, don’t forget.
Welp, if Byron is dead then his body should be donated to science. Although it already was when he was alive *wink wink nudge nudge*
I’m not sure if it’s wise for Syr’Nj to turn her back on Bandit like that while Bandit is still fully armed. She’s weak from the drug, but she may be able to muster enough strength for one more desperate attack. I wouldn’t trust her in the mental state she’s in.
i’m more worried about how this looks from syr’s point of view.
bandit stabbing byron, screaming “just stay dead, this is all your fault”
byron was originally killed with a knife, and bandit uses knives.
it’s potentially gonna look like byron berserked(alive) and bandit killed him.
especially since no-one knows any better. i think she’s out of the guild, and out of luck. syr’s gonna f*ck her up, diplomat style.
That would be quite a dick move from Syr’nj, in my opinion. Bandit got killed once by Byron, along with the rest of the gang, it’s obvious he was going berserk again this time, you can’t fault Bandit for being “annoyed” at Byron’s going on a rampage again. Sure, not his fault, all that, but still, Syr’nj can’t just look over the whole berserker issue just because Byron’s her lover, that would be insulting to all the people who died there, not only wouldn’t give her a good image as a political figure that supposedly is not like the rest of the politics…
But you can very much fault the guys that came up with the brilliant plan of “Hey, let’s send the berserker after the cultists and not after the beast, he’s got a great track record against them. And let’s keep the alchemist home politicking uselessly, I bet we won’t even need her syringes and crossbownurses.”
Well, Byron actually kind of…does? Like, while the cultists originally made him berserk, he’s been hunting them like, ever since he became a berserker, and nothing like THIS ever happened.
Except for that one time when he got them all killed, you mean?
Byron doesn’t have any special skills to use against the cult ether, he intends to hit them with his axe. Frigg’s mace would work equally well, and she (presumably) wouldn’t be immune to the serum that the cult/HR had brewed especially for him.
Messed up that last sentence, but you get my point.
Byron had every reason to believe that his medication had his craziness under control. What should have concerned Byron and Syr’nj is that the cultists were very obviously setting a trap for them. A smarter move might have been to have Byron speak with the Gastonian leadership while Syr’nj led the team in the field.
That time he got them all killed had practically nothing to do with cultists, if I remember correctly. They were Peacemaking with the so-called Savage Races, and Harky’s right hand bird lover ushered them into the Death Pit.
… and then Madness came over him. Yes, they probably would have died even if it hadn’t, but it still led to him chopping up Bandit.
I know they thought they had it well in hand now, but there’s no excuse for sending him (and Bandit) off to field-test the serum without Syr’nj monitoring the results.
Yes but point is is berzerk state hadn’t been cultist activated that time. e went berzerk because he got impaled and passed out, so he couldn’t keep calm.
He knew cultists could activate the Madness, but the one time Brother Tom tried he was able to hold it at bay and carry Syr’nj outside. And that was BEFORE he got the antidote. Since getting the antidote he didn’t went berzerk even once. This mission wasn’t a field test, Byron has gotten in a lot of fights since.
I’m pretty sure the only reason he went berzerk his because Brother Homon injected him with a counter-cure
Syr’nj was monitoring the results when the serum was field-tested. And then they had sex.
I think Syr’Nj is smart enough to figure out what happened and isn’t going to make any rash decisions.
Spoken like someone who has absolutely no idea what’s actually going on. At least we – the viewers, – know that it’s those freaky digital devils (heh) doing the crazing. c:
Though she doesn’t have the audience’s perspective on matters, Bandit does have a point. Byron is dangerous and if another cult or HR get their hands on him again, there’s going to be another slaughter. How long till the men who rule Gastonia hear about this person of mass destruction and demand that he be used to infect and destroy the World’s Rebellion in a plague of rage? While Byron is probably my favorite character, I can also understand Bandit’s fears.
Just cause Brother Homon got Brother Tom to believe Byron was an essential spell component (playing into Brother Tom’s sense of the dramatic and religious with the symmetry and guilt aspects of making Bryron be a part of this crap again) doesn’t necessarily make this so. For all we know they could have used Bandit or anyone else.
Perhaps Brother Homon just has a Brother Hardon for The Five?
Well there is the thing where he believes that for him to release the Five from their perma-sleep, their characters have to die in the game. o:
I want to live in a world with lots of people like Syr’Nj. And Spock. I want to live in a world with lots of people like Syr’Nj and Spock. (And that’s not a pointed ear thing.)
It’s the initial, right?
Oh, he will be allright. I´ll see to it that´s not going to happen. Hand me the bone saw.
Second cultist from the right seems like he’s still having a blast.
Looks more like a “Hands up, don’t shoot” pose to me. Which, according to the fourth panel, didn’t work out that way.
Bandit ain’t byron what Syr is selling anymore.
I am so sorry, Captain. I tripped over that sentence five times before I finally realized what you were doing. :(
My work here is done.
I suspect Byron isnt getting up a 3rd time i think he’s really dead is what Syr’ is trying to say and its all that little slut bandits fault she is nothing but trouble and has a i am better than you attitude i dont like
…”Slut”?
I’ve never seen Bandit act slutty except in my dreams.
It means ‘The End’ in Swedish. c:
So much uncalled-for hate on Bandit lately…
Bandit’s nothing but trouble even when there’s a berserker right here with a track record of killing his friends? Sure, it’s not his fault, but that still sounds like a whole lot more trouble than simply being.. well whatever Bandit is, which isn’t a slut. (If anything, Frigg’s closer to being a slut than Bandit is)
Perfectly understandable. She was killed. She didn’t like that. Now those she feels responsible for as field leader are being killed – horribly and we know she’s a little sensitive about her leadership skills. Byron’s been present for most of her worst moments in recent times and “responsible” (in a visible cause and effect kind of way anyway) for a couple of THE worst.
I think she only swallowed her feelings on it this long because she is really THAT insecure and desperate for acceptance into the group. And NOW she feels guilty that she let her hang-ups hold her back from being more honest and pushy about how she felt about Byron earlier and preventing all this horror. (that wouldn’t have worked out that way but maybe she thinks so and feelings aren’t all that rational anyway… )
“closer to being”
That’s a funny way of saying “is”.
I was trying to be polite. :P
I like Bandit. Always did. Still do. Why shouldn’t she be upset? She has been clear about not trusting Byron from the beginning, and she has plainly stated her reasons, which are justified. No one on the team has ever faulted her for her position. And now all the evidence (from what they know) points to her having been right all along.
We have the advantage of knowing a little more than the characters do, because we get to watch what’s happening, instead of having to find it out a step at a time like they do.
… “Slut”?
What’s the opposite of gold star?
black hole?
Brown Star
Oh dear, not THAT one. D:
HAH that’s perfect lets go with that one.
the Phil Kahn Official Rusty Sheriff’s Badge
Boot to the head?
Yeah, I don’t get what the hell is going on. Bandit snaps and starts acting completely out of character, and suddenly there are folks going “Ha! Called it! This is so like her! I knew she would do this, because I always disliked her!”.
*smh*
She’s in character. We’ve seen the stress fractures in her “usual” behavior for some time that were waiting to crack into this crazy.
I’m not saying it’s unrealistic, just that this is in no way typical behavior for Bandit.
Bandit is usually pretty easy going. She has a great sense of humor and doesn’t take things too seriously…except when it comes to allowing a potential berserker to run around with the team. This is atypical behavior for Bandit, but completely understandable considering what she is going through right now.
. . . and she is the team leader and just watched her entire team get nearly wiped out by the cultists. She is probably feeling the responsibility and likely blaming herself for what happened. Not to mention, one of her team members, Byron, who has been nothing but supportive of her as a team leader, led the attack and practically ended the entire world. So yeah, tough day.
If only, amirite?
Dem shortstacks, doe.
…that gravatar.
Eric.
None of this hate on Bandit makes any kind of sense. The last time Byron the Berserker lived up to his namesake, he slaughtered everyone except Syr, starting with Bandit herself. She has experienced firsthand what she could deem treachery, even though it’s not of his own will. She’s very understandably distraught by the very sudden turn of events. When he showed up, her first words were something along the lines of “No NO NO NOT AGAIN”. What do you people think it’s like to be killed by someone you trusted, and then lay dying as he killed the rest of your friends? Her actions and words are entirely justified.
While I totally agree everything else you write I’d say it makes a lot of sense in a way: A sexist way. While Syr’Nj is totally nerding out and Frigg is a tank, Bandit is drawn as a cute and (as often commented on) sexy blonde. So she gets a lot of hate for not acting like she is supposed to in the minds of some sexist readers. (Case in point: “she is nothing but trouble and has a i am better than you attitude i dont like”)
As with Nicky Nick’s “bossy” five pages ago, “slut” can’t really be called anything but a sexist insult.
And the pubertal aggression (“honeslty i hope Bandit dies she’sa tool to begin with” 36-33, “Called it Bandits nothing but trouble and baggage DEATH TO THE CHIBI!!!!!!!!!!!!” 36-37) really weirds me out.
I concur
That’s certainly one possible interpretation. Personally I was working under the theory that the people who think so poorly of Bandit for this are the ones who haven’t actually bothered to read the whole story and so missed out on the fact that Byron’s gone berserk before and Bandit’s been this story’s version of Cassandra about him with regards to his berserking habits.
Since they haven’t read the story, they’ve got nothing but generic, non-applicable insults to throw out there. Regardless, you’re probably correct with respect to what their choice of insult says about their character.
Yes, this could be a reason, too. It’s just that Lazy J reads (and comments) for a long time now.
Thinking poorly of a character is one thing – wishing them to die is something different. It’s quite gruesome what some people reveal about themselves.
Goddamn, gotta say for a bunch of faceless grunts those blue-shirts get shit done!
Of course they do, they don’t have any character development bogging them down. that’s the nice thing about being plot devices. It minimizes the potential for angst.
I was just going to say the same thing. Seriously. If you think about what they walked in on, with Scipio and the last survivors basically trapped on a roof. They are just freaking efficient.
Yes, it is a neat inversion of the “red-shirt” trope.
But the redshirt is lying on the floor bleeding to death…
That is because they are not Faceless Grunts so much as The Cavalry.
Exactly.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheCavalry
Oh, get over yourself, Bandit. Plenty of people like YOU too. Just not when you’re stabbing party members.
If someone can recover Rachel form the digital ether or rebuild her with sepia soul in place maybe Bandit will chill out a bit as she gets some of the happy overflow from her sepia “other” over getting their sepia comrade back in the game.
Byron was just stabbing party members too.
An April 1st posting?
I was half expecting to come here and find Syr’NJ using science to suck all of Bandit’s health into Byron or Bandit suddenly going super-unartificial-berserk and stabbing everyone in the head or maybe even Byron getting back up and suddenly there is a dolphin and………………………..
“That’s not going to happen because you already killed him!”
Pretty much.
Well, actually, Homon killed him. But neither of them know that.
Not really byrons fault this time though is it. the crazies were unleashed and put into people. way to go blaming the victim.
Yeah, but Bandit wasn’t there when Byron’s body got stuffed full of crazies. She doesn’t know it’s not Byron’s fault.
Well, she did see endless hordes of demon monsters fall out of him. So there’s that.
Fair enough, but she doesn’t know that part’s not his fault either. As far as she knows, Byron went nuts again.
So when the tranquilizers that drop Berserker Braggadocio only make Bandit woozy and slur her words, I can assume she still has that Trolls blood or something keeping her suped up?
The berserking folks were injected with the same anti-berserking stuff that Byron’s been taking regularly. It’s not tranquilizer.
It’s also slightly implied that Chrissie just ghost ran back to Bandit’s corpse.
But yeah, whatever injury allowed the berserkers’ infection is now being felt by the tranqed zerkers. Some of them are likely going to just drop dead, like Brother Tom did.
Me: “Uh, determination is nice and all, but I think you’re being a little too confident, there, Syr…”
“Oh.”
“He’s…”
“Oh.”
“…”
I like that li’l buckler Syr has. c:
Gotta say, I really like Syr’s utilitarian combat medic outfit. It seems updated with armoring.
Uh, except for the buckler shield, that’s the same combat outfit she’s been wearing since the first page of Guilded Age.
Look at ch 1-14 (definitely a different uni). and Ch 2-11 (no chain mail).
Didn’t she have some sort of shield in the beginning? o:
He’s dead, Jim.
Or “OH NO! She killed Byron!!! You bastard!”
RIP in pepperinos
Rippy Pepps
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