04 September 2013: Two...

[Liesmith]

Ruby: "I wear one collar that can control my actions. You wear two."

Kin: "How appropriate, you fight like a cow."

Sick burn delivered.

[BreaksGlasses]

Ruby: "I wear one collar that can control my actions. You wear two."

Kin: "How appropriate, you fight like a cow."

Sick burn delivered.

Or even better yet

Kin: I am rubber you are glue!

[Corpsificus]

Kin alludes to the cause of Sara's puke by speaking of fighting alternates and directing her guilt and self anger at them to cleanse herself emotionally. This has clearly helped her develop effective coping strategies for her trauma. Additionally the dimwitted and brutish, yet supportive and sweet-hearted Minmax has also helped her through her torment by saving her from her tormenter both literally and symbolically. The first time was her rescue from her tormentor Dellyn, which was initiated because Dellyn bragged about his activities with Kin and Minmax took exception. The second time was during the 'growing down trees' room where she PTSD imagined Dellyn attacking her as the trees. Minmax came to her rescue in blood red armor. I consider the armor to be a reference to Minmax as her "Knight in Shining Armor" but also an allusion to his fight with Dellyn where he was covered in blood. He has shown his willingness to bleed for what he believes in and has shown that he believes in Kin. In combination with the fact that according to Kin her happiness holds importance for him, she has grown to trust Minmax and likely views him as her sweetheart. A lovable, brutish moron with an eye of purple and a heart of gold.

Ruby on the other hand seems to want to protect her alternates instead of purging herself of inward hatred and guilt. She was not rescued from Dellyn by Minmax and Forgath. She killed all three when she finally got the chance to act on her own out of chains. Ruby has formed Kinship as a way for her to cope. She did not have her Minmax to restore her faith in humanity by saving her and finding her happiness important. She did not find another male who was not a vile creature in her opinion. Thus she feels as though all human males are potential rapists and not to be trusted. Considering her circumstances this is understandable as her frame of reference is different from our Kin's. This is a necessarily mistaken point of view as we know that our Minmax would not only never intentionally harm Kin but would put the smack down on anyone who tried. (I know he accidently stabbed Kin trying to help. That is why I wrote "intentionally")

In conclusion, Kin has used the MOM to develop effective coping methods for her trauma by projecting inner anger and guilt on her alternates. She also has Minmax providing with support and love that the other alternate Kins do not. He has also helped her cope with her trauma by showing her an example of the best human males have to offer. Ruby on the other hand has only seen the worst and thus has formed Kinship out of distrust and hatred for others who may very well treat her as Dellyn did. After all, if you can't trust yourself who can you trust? Given her circumstances her point of view is understandable, but our Minmax and Kin are in love and Love conquers all.

[warrl]

All the Kins are acting reasonably based on their own experiences, with the exception of one detail.

That detail is that their experiences include learning, through conversation and observation, that their experiences are not the same.

Our Kin and Ruby are the two extremes of their experience in regard to Forgath and Minmax.

Ruby needs to be brought to recognize that it's perfectly legitimate for the different experiences to cause them to have different reactions. It isn't as if anyone is asking HER to love Forgath or Minmax. In fact it's perfectly okay for her to continue hating them, as long as she hates *this particular set* in a peaceful manner.

[AntMac]

In fact it's perfectly okay for her to continue hating them, as long as she hates *this particular set* in a peaceful manner.

No. No it is not.

What you are saying is "perfectly okay" is just collective punishment. Punishing Minmax and Forgarth because they are males, and some OTHER male raped her. How would it look if some man said he hated every female because ONE FEMALE tricked him out of his life savings?. We would say he was demented.

And it is also not even a sensible thing for anyone to do, ever, it doesn't help them deal with their trauma.


OK, she has every reason to be unable to trust them, just like the man would be unable to trust women.

But the "Hate" you are talking about presupposes that Minmax and Forgarth have earnt hate because of SOME OTHER males crime.

[Krulle]

A lovable, brutish moron with an eye of purple and a heart of gold.

"Why do you insist on carrying your beard in your backpack?"
"THE THING IS HEAVY, OKAY?"

These quotes are just two examples why I love this community.
YMMD. Thank you.

While I still don't really get the "more dense" thing (it's healed, so it should be a comparative density as the original tissue), there is no indication of it in the comic, or is my altzheimer stronger again?
I've read in the discussion threads for this and last update, but I just don't see it.

Kin alludes to the cause of Sara's puke by speaking of fighting alternates and directing her guilt and self anger at them to cleanse herself emotionally. This has clearly helped her develop effective coping strategies for her trauma.

I agree that Kin found an effective way of emotional therapy (Sara pukes), but exactly this is why the discussion with Ruby can create a very hefty bounce on her psyche. She's still battling herself and her experience. And she herself gives her a very low blow. One, she apparently has not seen before.
I wonder if Kin is currently asking herself, if Minmax enchanted the necklace, or if the necklace was enchanted for a certain Ken, and was just handily in Minmax' backpack pants pockets and he used it against her.
And if so, is she under a spell to like others around her, especially Minmax who gave her the necklace?
This is a very corrosive question to sit inside Kin's head, and even after she takes of the necklace, she will never be sure if the spell doesn't continue to work after the necklace has been taken off.

Ruby may have hurt Kin very much more than she thinks she would ever have been capable of hurting another being.

I am curious to see how THunt follows that up, or whether he takes a shortcut by starting action again.




(Why are we seeing the treasure room with that weird statue right now? Will the countdown activate the statue to force someone to become a "winner"?)

[cyco]

Oh and the art is somehow different, better. It makes me think that Thunt's favorite character to draw is Kin.

It's not yet shaded. That may be the reason. (I like it unshaded too, better than shaded. Shaded is better for the background, but especially the characters I like in the "flat" naive style better.

No i don't think it's the shading. I think it's the many different expression on the same face, as if he really enjoys experimenting with that character.

[DrinksTooMuchCoffee]

While I still don't really get the "more dense" thing (it's healed, so it should be a comparative density as the original tissue), there is no indication of it in the comic, or is my altzheimer stronger again?

http://www.goblinscomic.org/08252013-2/
P7 Sapphire: "It looks like the newly created matter is much more dense."

Diamonds are very hard, but no where near as dense as gold, which is very soft. I'm going to guess the problem here is that just saying "a much higher strength" doesn't sound technical enough, even though that is how we talk about material strength.

[stevedj]

I was just thinking back to a much older blog post made by THunt. I seem to recall some event he talked about, I think when he was going to propose to Danielle, and just at that critical moment... their dog jumped on him, knocking him over and spoiling the moment.

Did we just witness that type of spoiled-moment here in the comic these last couple of strips?

[Krulle]

I was just thinking back to a much older blog post made by THunt. I seem to recall some event he talked about, I think when he was going to propose to Danielle, and just at that critical moment... their dog jumped on him, knocking him over and spoiling the moment.

Did we just witness that type of spoiled-moment here in the comic these last couple of strips?

I see you.

So I was down on one knee. I said Danielle, will you marry Then I was tackled by a VERY excited lady. Yes, my 70 lbs dog Ember had taken my one knee stance to mean Its time to play and jumped on top of me. I quickly regained my composure and re-asked my question. By this point, Danielle was already crying.

[David Argall]

Postby RidcullyJack ┬╗ Wed Sep 04, 2013 1:59 pm
"Leading into "When the serpent becomes your prey, friends will become enemies and love will fuel hate"...

That last panel is heartwrenching. Kin will have a beautiful answer for Ruby on the next page, though. Right? Right??"

"No man [or snakegirl] can serve 2 masters." Ruby may just have told Kin that she is [partly at least] free because she can select which of her masters she obeys. Somebody grabs her collar and tries to order her around, she may be able to use any "order" from her boyfriend to counter that, allowing her to do any action that obeys at least one of the commands. It will probably not be that simple. Maybe she will be paralyzed and in agony when the two conflict, and she may have to find a way that obeys both, or ... But she may have found a weakness in the bounds on her.

[Krulle]

Interesting theory. We'll see how it plays out...

[willpell]

Is Thunt planning on shading this one? Not that I especially mind if the answer is no, I'm just wondering.

[Moroser]

Shading is done!)
My first thought when I saw the shaded background - isn't it the one we see when Minmax pulls Oblivious wearing a green glove?.. But I was wrong - it's way darker. Though you newer know what light effects could happen with all the magic items around...

[Sleeping Bear]

Another random, stupid thought (those seem to be my trademark )

Since the machine thing can already negate the effects of oblivion holes (forgath regained his beard) maybe when the countdown reaches zero all the stuff that has fallen into oblivion holes would come back.

I don't know about you, but I'd laugh if Minmax #180 ( http://www.goblinscomic.org/12092011-2/ ) suddenly appeared in the room and we'd have the four last panels of http://www.goblinscomic.org/08062013/ this page all over again

[spiderwrangler]

Shading is done!)
My first thought when I saw the shaded background -

My first thought was that the 'invisible key shadow' people have been going on about is still there (dark mark on the floor on the right side of the door), but that I think the lighting 'proves' that it is something else entirely. Shadows cast by the frame of the door are much lighter in color, so whatever the mark is, it's not some shadow cast by some invisible key that's already in the lock. Your idea is

[JustRight]

Shading is done!)
My first thought when I saw the shaded background -

My first thought was that the 'invisible key shadow' people have been going on about is still there (dark mark on the floor on the right side of the door), but that I think the lighting 'proves' that it is something else entirely. Shadows cast by the frame of the door are much lighter in color, so whatever the mark is, it's not some shadow cast by some invisible key that's already in the lock. Your idea is

In the THuntiverse an invisible key has to cast a shadow - otherwise you couldn't tell it was there. Real optical physics be damned. Throughout the history of visual arts invisible objects had to be indicated to the viewer in some manner - either barely visible edges, shadows or by observing their effects on other objects. I appreciate THunt's choice, creating the idea that perhaps a key already in the lock exists with such a minimal indicator.

[Glemp]

Shading is done!)
My first thought when I saw the shaded background -

My first thought was that the 'invisible key shadow' people have been going on about is still there (dark mark on the floor on the right side of the door), but that I think the lighting 'proves' that it is something else entirely. Shadows cast by the frame of the door are much lighter in color, so whatever the mark is, it's not some shadow cast by some invisible key that's already in the lock. Your idea is

In the THuntiverse an invisible key has to cast a shadow - otherwise you couldn't tell it was there. Real optical physics be damned. Throughout the history of visual arts invisible objects had to be indicated to the viewer in some manner - either barely visible edges, shadows or by observing their effects on other objects. I appreciate THunt's choice, creating the idea that perhaps a key already in the lock exists with such a minimal indicator.

I wonder if that accidentally leads to the Kinship fighting FMK - Ruby gets angry and slams Kin 156 against the door, for example, and the key stabs her in the side.

[Moroser]

After all the dramatic and touching moments. After the fight against Goblinslayer, prism weed, birthday party, growing down forest, Psimax's interrogation, true-seeing(?), tower room and other events. After all the character development of both Minmax and Kin... I would hate it if Ruby would manage to ruin everything with a single goddamn phrase which I don't even consider to be correct!

[sunphoenix]

"You gotta be - Cruel to be Kin...
In the right measure!"

"Cruel to be Kin,
its a very good sign!"

"Cruel to be Kin,
Means that I Love You!"

"Baaaabbyyyy"

"You go to be Cruel..."

"You got to be Cruel to be Kin!"



PS: I know... cheesy but I couldn't rest until I had inflicted upon you all! Many thanks... lol!