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They all had the use of their fingers. Just like that cheesy story about people feeding each other in heaven – they could easily have taken the tape off each other.
That’s a good question actually. Dina taped herself up so I assume she could escape at anytime. Maybe she freed them? Or maybe these two are really incompetent and either they are their equally incompetent hires don’t know how to tie people up with duct tape.
Also also, basically from the moment they were thrown in this storage area all of their hands were behind their back so they could’ve been working on this all this time.
Dina still had the roll on her tape. She probably unwrapped herself, got whoever was closest (I think Dorothy or Sarah,) and they just all set to work on the others. Much easier to work when someone has actual use of their thumbs.
And apparently Blaine was too distracted in realizing how badly he’d fucked up for Toedad to come out of his daze without him noticing, so I’m guessing they had a couple minutes.
I think they had some unobserved time earlier. While Ross was letting Amber go and when Dina first appeared. Blaine had already left, Ross was outside with Amber and some of the goons.
I’d guess they got loose then and were just waiting for the right moment.
It looks like Dorothy still has a loop of tape around her right wrist, and it appears a strip of tape is falling to the floor in front of her…. almost as if she Hulked out and pulled her arms apart, and the duct tape never stood a chance.
My guess was, they ripped the tape partway through. This way it kept their hands together to preserve the illusion they were bound, bit it would only take a minimal effort to rip the rest of the way.
I’d also allude to the scene in Conan The Barbarian when that guard with the warhammer went after Conan and totally failed to faze him. But I’m not that good about it.
Also, maybe Becky inherited the ‘strong enough skull to survive a hammer in the head’ gene, which we’ll totally take!
(The nicest thing we say about the personal familial Blaine is an appreciation for his genes when they’re unattached to Him Specifically. The rest of that side of the family are quite pleasant human beings by and large. I’ve gotten used to the ‘credit where credit is due, your genetic material isn’t garbage, that’s all you.’)
(mostly a reference to the self-preservation advice you hear in job trainings and see on safety posters at schools and such. but then, I live in the US where random acts of violence are heavily normalized and almost expected)
You are likely in the minority on that opinion. Honestly, Blaine killing him is the best possible outcome in my book. He’s dead, but nobody has killing him on their Conscience (Blaine clearly doesn’t have one anyway).
The coma’s to let her gain that power. I think given her long-term goal is actually ‘be a fucking scientist’ and not politics (unless that’s changed recently, and she is so very young,) covering her tracks is entirely doable and wouldn’t be a huge sacrifice on her end.
If Becky runs now, she’ll never stop running. She’ll be looking over her shoulder for him every day of the rest of her life. She needs to face him, take him down, so she can live the rest of her life without fear.
Personally, I’d like to see him realize the err of his ways and then sit in jail for a few years with his guilt. He goes to court, tells the entire truth of what he did, and accepts the sentence given to him. He signs all documents to give legal authority of his estate to Becky as a show of regret and reconciliation. He makes a public apology and Becky takes a long time before visiting him in prison so she can get hear head in a healthy place first.
The difference between Ross and Blaine is, while Ross is bullheaded, self richeous, and won’t accept the possibility that he is wrong, he does have the capacity to care about someone other than himself. Blaine is just has ice in his veins
Debateable, honestly. He certainly cares about an IDEA of Becky, but it’s entirely contingent on breaking her and forcing her into a mold that’s divorced from reality. I don’t know if that really qualifies as caring about her on a practical level.
I still wouldn’t say he deserves DEATH, mind, but only because that’s a pretty big judgment I don’t feel qualified to make.
It’s worse than that, I think. Ross does care about Becky… and that genuine caring has been hijacked and deformed by religious dogma, twisting it into something evil. I’m not going to say he’s the victim, because he’s his own person and his choice to blindly embrace the dogma was his own evil act (just as Joyce’s choice to reject that dogma was a good act), but he seems to have the potential to transform into a decent person with just a few changes.
What is DESERVED here is a “go from Jesus” moment, so to speak, where he breaks free of that sickness. I’m not talking about a redemption arc, since it wouldn’t be about whether we should view him as good or bad. It would be about what would be best for everyone involved, both in terms of their happiest and well-being and also in terms of how they could be their best selves.
As I have said before, my headcanon on Ross is that he wasn’t nearly as bad before Bonnie died. When she died he decided God was punishing him for not being extreme enough.
Ross himself prefers to die if the world will not conform to his idea of it, so the end result is clear. Credit to Willis for making us to be sad for it even when we dislike him so much.
Blaine obviously didn’t learn how to be a decent villain. I know toedad isn’t that smart, but if you lie to him about your plan, and he acts in accordance with that plan, you can’t really blame him.
Blains is just stupid. He wears a mask when people already know him. He complains about his daughter being weak and not fighting back but gets angry when she defeats him. He is the kind of villain you can point at and say “haha” like Nelson from The Simpsons does.
They heard him ranting about his daughter, and the words he exchanged with Amber. Unless the detectives who interview them are unbelievably bad that is going to put them on to interviewing Blaine and checking his movements. And then they’ll observe his injuries and find his limousine on traffic cameras, and get a warrant for his fingerprints and DNA, not to mention noticing that he has injuries corresponding to the description of Captain Ball-Peen.
Blaine’s only hopes are:
(a) that the police are as bad as Sarah and Mike think, and let him off for being a mobbed-up white man;
(b) that he is able to swing a plea bargain in which he sells out Asher’s gramps for a place in Federal witness protection; or
(c) that none of his victims or accomplices tells the police what they saw.
I’m guessing Dina freed them, while she tape herself up, her hands being infront of her and still having the roll attatched put her in a more flexible position to free herself.
You can actually get free of a duct tape wrap like that pretty easy. You just raise your hands over your head (as far as you can) and sharply swing them down to your sides. Should sheer the tape right apart.
That sort of thing sounds like something at least one of them knows. Dorothy or Amber probably knows how to do it.
You should be okay just raising your hands as high as you can. You’re welcome to try it out yourself if you have someone with you while social distancing, but mostly, duct tape doesn’t really do well with that kind of lateral stress and just rips.
At the very least, it should stretch the tape enough that it’s easy to slip out of. Duct tape isn’t really meant to hold up to that sort of force anyways. Give it a google, the top result I found, the guy just sorta wiggles his arms and bam, there’s enough give that he’s freed in seconds.
Duct tape is shitty. It doesn’t last long before the glue degrades into sap-like goop, and it’s not even good for ducts! (No, seriously it’s terrible for ductwork. Use aluminum tape on those instead.) I think it’s just an arts-and-crafts meme at this point.
And gaffer tape is amazing stuff. I have a roll of it that I paid way too much for, but the adhesive went bad after being left in the car too long. (It’s basically all gooey now.)
I’ve noticed gaff tape either turns to goo like duct tape, or it dries out and turns into this weird, funny-smelling dust. There’s no in-between.
Tunnel tape is pretty cool, it’s like wide masking tape with a strip of adhesive on each edge so it doesn’t make your cables all sticky and gross. I also know from experience it leaves bright yellow glue stains all over brand-new light gray office carpeting.
That reminds me of the duel between Lockhart and Snape in Chamber of Secrets, where Ron quipped that the best case scenario is for both of them to knock each other out and fall into a coma for the rest of the year.
…. I don’t think it would take much in the way of high-level, hard-working connections. All it would really take is someone who will help you hide bodies.
It couldn’t possibly work, since Amber’s definitely loose and telling people about stuff, but it makes sense if Blaine’s grasping at straws right now.
I know we have to restrict our Patreon strip votes to characters who’ve actually, you know, appeared, but DAMN when this arc is over do I want to see Asher’s Gramps find out about this whole fucking garbage fire of a scheme.
Just. Trying to comprehend how the money launderer got so unbelievably cocky, and so unbelievably stupid.
Head wounds tend to bleed a lot, even if they’re minor. But after a hammer to the skull, there’s an excellent chance of internal bleeding and swelling. And the problem with a swelling brain is, there’s really no place for it to go. So yeah, even if he’s functional for now, he’s likely to be in big trouble if he doesn’t get some medical attention soon.
Seems that the “Beauty and the Beast“ TV show, the lion faced guy ,… well it’s based on a real thing, where the skull continues growing on the outside, getting thicker and thicker. According to the documentary I read about Egill, as in Egill’s Saga, Egill took an ax blow to the head, and went to one knee, got right up and wiped the other guy clear to Valhalla.
Look at the first post in this thread. The hot-link “Egill Skallagrímsson” takes you to an article in Scientific American about Egill and the hypothesis that he had Paget’s disease of bone.
The hammers went away with the reset of Jerry the Immortal. Susan can summon a hammer if it is in one of her marked weapons trunks, but no longer can just any sufficiently pissed-off woman summon them.
Actually, I believe that Susan’s hammers are created out of nothing (Jerry described that spell as being his little joke spell, but only for Susan). It’s her other conjurations (her pixies, swords, et cetera) that need to be stashed in her trunks.
No, Susan learned a spell that’s similiar to the Hammer spell (which Jerry made to encourage sexist jokes, as the hammer are harmless but could only be used when a woman is annoyed at a man). Susan’s spell lets her summon any number of hammers at any time for any reason.
Jerry had nothing to do with Susan’s spell, and is in fact surprised she developed something similiar to the hammers because Susan hated the concept they stood for (and EGS works on a “personality powers” model, she wouldn’t have developed it if the negative association with the spell was all she had. But the spell did save her life)
Yeah, that’s what I meant (stupid tired brain not letting me write things how I mean them). He was surprised that Susan’s spell worked similarly to his creation because of the sexist overtones of his version, and needed Grace and Sarah to explain why she’d create that spell.
God, my sleep schedule is messed up without work to go to.
Those hammers can be summoned by Susan and Susan alone due to their effectiveness on aberrations. It was her trauma taking form into a weapon. Poor Susan.
Susan had an angst induced awakening after Jerry explained his reasons for the Hammers – I’m with her there, btw. For some reason, the first spell Susan got after awakening, was Hammers. So yes, she can still summon Hammers from thin air.
The participants with a really thin motivations are the bozo brothers, a pair of campus bullies to are in this for a shot at Amazi-Girl. Now they are facing life plus 180 years in prison.
I think, realistically, they can talk themselves out of this, if they either run at the first sight of a bloody hammer or plead they were threatened with that hammer afterwards. Signing up for a “masked vigilante non-support group” is fine. “pranking” a few fellow students (as this may believably been presented to them) is slightly different but won’t get you in prison.
Crimes in a criminal conspiracy are like a contagion — everyone around you catches them.
So that’s assault, battery, six counts each premeditated kidnapping, one count each attempted, and possibly felony murder. Oh, and the fire alarm might not rise to the level of a terroristic threat, but it’s still some sort of crime.
Indiana has the felony-murder rule, which means that if you knowingly and willing take part in a felony, and if as a result of that felony anybody dies, you are guilty of murder even if you didn’t kill them or intent for them to be hurt or die.
The bozo brothers knowingly and willing took part is six aggravated kidnappings and a conspiracy. If Ross dies, they will be murderers under Indiana law. But in the Dumbiverse Indiana might be so corrupt that they will get off of a plea of “boys will be boys”.
I think not paying tuition is the rationalization, the actual goal is getting Amber back under his thumb because manipulative sadistic gaslighting abusive dicks gotta have someone to torture.
Tuition but really more so to get Amber back under his control because he is abusive. It is less about the money, more about the horribly entitled and controlling principle.
Welp, in real life Toedad would probably be dead in a few hours unless he got to a hospital quickly. But he might possibly be conscious and fighting until the bleeding pressurized his brain. I hope he does not get to a hospital.
Meanwhile, it won’t take a lot to really mess up Blaine. Hit a cracked rib, puncture a lung, he could suffocate in a few minutes. Better to puncture each lung to be sure.
Yes, I’m feeling extra bloodthirsty tonight. My dad died of COVID last night, hours after POTUS recommended on live TV that people inject chlorine dioxide to cure COVID in a minute flat.
It was people exactly like Ross and Blaine who put that Putrid Orange Turd in office where he screwed things up badly enough to kill tens of thousands of Americans. Yes, I want to see them both die in pain.
In real life, any politicians or states that still support Trump’s politics in November can go fuck off somewhere else – I don’t want to be in the same country as them, and I’d be very happy to see the west coast states secede.
Sorry-not-sorry to bring real life into this comment thread. Ross and Blaine’s kind of shit kills people in real life. We’re just getting started on this pandemic (except maybe NY) and the Trumpublicans may yet kill hundreds of thousands of us.
Chris, I am sooo sorry for your loss. Everything you said is right on the button. We just have to do everything we can to stand against them and make them regret being such SOBs this November. Peace be with you.
Thanks. I wish I was optimistic enough to think that “stand against them” would be enough. Trump is already trying to gain personal control over the post office, and he will likely succeed. What will happen in November when vote-by-mail doesn’t work, and Trump’s idiots are the only people foolhardy enough to go vote in person?
We already have DHS literally stealing mask shipments from hospitals to resell. Doctors are resorting to mislabeled trucks and back-alley deals to try to get PPE through. How long before blue states start supplying armed guards for the shipments? (Red states probably don’t need to.) How long before those guards clash with the Feds and people shoot people?
How long before the governors and residents of states that were thrown to the wolves over and over again decide they can do better by allying with Canada or just going it alone?
I’m not advocating anything illegal here – just predicting it.
Trump’s people – and I use the term loosely – are NOT the only ones who will go out in the face of the COVID virus to exercise their right to vote. I live in Wisconsin and, despite the “shelter in place” order and the Republican-endorsed attempts to disenfranchise as many people as they could, went in person to the polls on April 7th to make sure that a challenger with a ‘D’ after her name ousted the Trump-backed incumbent on the state supreme court.
And if I have to do it again in November, you can bet’cher ass that I will.
I echo Bicycle Bill. I live in a relatively poor, mostly minority area in Milwaukee. Based on comments I heard in line on April 7th, come November if we have to stand outside for hours in a sub-zero blizzard to vote you’d better believe we will. Screw Trump and his Repubturds.
My deepest sympathies. Losing someone under these circumstances would be bullshit WITHOUT the guy allegedly in charge hawking a pseudoscientific ‘cure’, but it really is the bullshit peak of Mount Fertilizer.
(I know he’s a fucking antivaxxer, but I really did not need the reminder that bleach is actually promoted in the deep pseudoscientific fuckery corners as an autism ‘cure’. God, I am full of hatred.)
And I am very sorry, for your dad’s death, and for the president you are suffering right now and the state of your country in turn. No need to feel sorry for posting here.
Fuck, I’m sorry to hear about your dad. And fuck Trump and his brain-dead cultists. My wife is terrified to leave our apartment right now because one of those scum-sucking freaks started screaming at her about how she “brought this disease to America” (because having Japanese parents makes you a Chinese version of Typhoid Mary, suck a railroad spike you conga). And these people aren’t going to stop, because they’ve been indoctrinated that this is the only way for them to act. I’d like to think that things are going to change, that they’re all going to get a hard reality check once that fleeting grasp on power disappears, but it just . . . it doesn’t seem likely right now.
I’m so sorry to hear about your dad. I can’t imagine how awful you must feel. I hope your family and you have as peaceful a mourning process as possible, and I hope Trump gets resoundingly voted out in November. I know it won’t help how you feel now, but it will at least get him out of the position he’s in to hurt so many people this way now. All my thoughts are with your family. I’m right there with you on the anger, up here from Canada. May your dad RIP.
My condolences. Yeah, you’re right. Our “leader”‘s stupidity is putting U.S. on the brink of a monster plague. I don’t want Election Day to be cancelled. I want to see these far-right idiots thrown out so bad. Just as bad as I want to see Blaine dead.
Sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine what you’re going through and to be honest, I’m not trying hard to.
Don’t think depressurizing the brain is that bad and I’m actually rooting for Ross to get an actual prison sentence for a few decades and not death. I’m indifferent to Blaines life though. Had not made the connection to your current administration.
And here’s the difference between Ross and Blaine. Ross is a terrible, misguided person who thinks he’s doing the right thing. Blaine just wants to cause misery and thinks of murder as a viable option.
Ross also thinks of murder as a viable option. You don’t bring a gun to meet your family unless – like so many religious fanatics – you are willing to kill them rather than see them escape your control.
And Ross’s actual plan is to cause misery to his own daughter until she breaks.
Ross is not misguided. He is either culpably guilty or dangerously insane.
You shouldn’t bring a gun to something unless you’re willing to kill something. But plenty of people would bring a gun with zero intention of using it, because as long as nobody knows you have no intention of using it, it’s fairly safe to assume they’ll be cowed by it.
Ross was willing to use the gun because he saw it as the only way for things to work, but he didn’t really want to — or at least that’s what he told himself. One of the most telling details about his character, to my mind, is how when he got the gun from his car, he said “Lord, give me strength.” That and the almost pained look on his face when he shot into the air — that was a man making himself pull the trigger. Which is different from Blaine’s “Hey, I’ve got a hammer, let’s bash someone’s head in.” There’s another hint of this in how Ross’ immediate reaction to the idea of killing Mike was “He’s just a boy.”
Ross is delusional enough that these tiny glimmers of sense are quickly overridden, but they’re there.
I doubt we’ll be hearing much from Ethan in all of this. Out of all the kids in that basement he seems like the one who would least likely be interested in joining into a throwdown.
Yeah I just have a question here about Blaine immediately going to murdering six, well seven in total people get him off the hook? Like even in the most optimistic scenario where Amber either doesn’t recognize him under that mask and/or is too terrified to squeal, there’s still at least two guys he hired who will be aware he killed seven people and even if he silenced them there would still be a HUGE investigation into the disappearance of at least seven people and also Becky knows what’s going on now too! So what?!
His plan has never made sense. He might have given a false name to Blaine, the church group, and the bozo brothers, but he told Blaine about Amber being his daughter, and Amber, Amazi-Girl, and Mike were bound to recognise him. Which means that he has never had a plan to avoid recognition, prosecution, and prison.
Ross at least believes that God will see that he comes out okay (in the next life, if necessary). Blaine’s plan has never had any possible outcome in which he wins.
Nothing in this plan has indicated the presence of even a single brain cell. Except maybe buying the body armor, but even that’s outweighed by hiring multiple people and paying a significant bail bond for what he’s claiming is a ‘get out of paying for college’ scheme.
If he doesn’t die here, I’m still SUPER hoping it’s Yuri who does him in.
Blaine stopped thinking a while back. Whatever passed for his plan is in full meltdown, and at this point he’s in pure panic mode. Given what he’s already done, it’s not all that surprising that “kill them all” is his new Plan A.
“When a devil gets caught by a monster, I, as a human being, can only hope that they both die!”
-Fritz Joseph Bittenfeld, Legend of the Galactic Heroes
The end I didn’t see coming: Blaine’s plan explodes under its own weight almost immediately, and everyone escapes, and the police swoop in and arrest him, and the awful tension we were told to expect until late June comes from Amazi-Girl, showing up late and exhausted, getting caught as well
Toedad is probably dying after this… I do feel sorry for the guy, as awful as he could be.
Blaine is losing whatever thread to reality he had a hold more and more that is for sure.
Getting a hole in the skull is a suvivable wound. He should get some help in the coming hours and should refrain from getting more of a concussion. That may cause actual functional degradation.
Ross will die. Whether it’s on the scene, or after, he’s not going to be living long, he will never get the chance to speak to his kid again, she’s going to arrive after it’s too late for him.
BUT…in the meantime, he does perform a ‘big damn hero’ thing. You can argue his motives all you want-he’s stopping Blaine from killing those kids and buying the time for them to escape/survive this.
and odds are he isn’t going to live, or see trial, or incarceration. he’s going to die, and Becky will be very sad because up until JUST RECENTLY he was her DADDY, who took her to six flags, and loved her.
Ross strikes me as a broken man from his first appearance in the comic. Willis doesn’t SAY what broke him, but his behaviours have been those of someone who’s been broken, and broken hard. Maybe pre-dead-wife Ross would’ve taken Becky’s Lesbianism in stride, or been less extreme in his reactions, probably wouldn’t have brought a gun to the school or fallen in with Blaine at all.
but you know, BROKEN. So broken he latched onto that Old-Testament-Religion to try and make his senseless world make some damned sense.
You guys seem to forget that tragedy does things to fuck people up. Some pull into themselves, some turn generous, and some go blitz-raging-nuts, and I kinda suspect Ross is one of that last group.
He has the same mentality as Carol. He isn’t broken, he is just delusional. Sometimes we say someone is broken to sympathize with them, but good and evil are choices, not the result of a mental disease caused by grief.
They are choices, aye. But sometimes the decisions they made to reach that choice can still be totally understandable, and might even be decisions you yourself might have made were you in his exact position. I’m not advocating that people like Ross be excused or exonerated for what they have done, but at the same time we should be careful not to take TOO much schadenfreude over somebody else’s misfortune.
He’s likely made worse by his wife’s death, but the signs are there that he was pretty extreme all along. We’ve had some flashback glimpses of Becky’s childhood and what her aspirations were allowed to be.
He wasn’t taking anything in stride. The Old Testament Religion was there from the start.
Maybe he wouldn’t have gone quite so far – especially if she were still there to influence him, but that still only brings him down to about Carol’s level. Who helped bail him out and wants to pull Joyce out of school for much less than lesbianism.
And of course there’s the strong possibility that living with him helped drive Becky’s mom to suicide.
I don’t get the use of “Old Testament Religion.” Isn’t that just Judaism?
Like maybe this is the wrong thing to be getting a stick in my craw about, but as a non-believing Jew, seeing the abuses of evangelical Christianity blamed on the Talmud rubs me the wrong way. The take on Abrahamic faiths that Toedad and his ilk follow is a monstrous philosophy all their own.
It’s mostly due to God’s wrath really only being shown in the old testament. iirc I never thought about the term having potential anti semitic leanings before. I wouldn’t put the blame on the old testament though, these people are looking for a reason to feel justified in punishing those they see as wicked, ignoring all the times that such arrogance was divinely punished in the bible.
His beliefs weren’t that different than Hank’s. But watching your wife die is traumatic. He could have turned out better but wasn’t drawn that way. He may have been DYW’s reality and Hank may be what he needed.
It wasn’t that big a hammer, and Blaine’s not in the best of shape. You have to hit someone really hard or several times to kill them instantly. Even this weak shot has probably left Ross with a potentially fatal injury, but it’ll take awhile for the intracranial bleeding and swelling to kill him. Given medical attention, he’ll probably survive, albeit with an unpredictable degree of long-term neural damage.
I’m picturing the last panel with all og them wearing newly created masks.
Blaine: “Wait, where did all the hostages go, and where did this lot of heroes come from?”
Personally I think Dorothy, Joyce, etc. Are making a mistake by acting now.
Wait for the 2 of them to fight… With luck both will be incapacitated, or at least severely weakened. Attacking the 2 of them now risks the 2 teaming up again (if only for self preservation)
Underestimating his foes left and right.
Also my obsession with true crime has taught me that killing someone with blunt force trauma to the head can be damn tricky. Check this story out: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Express_Flight_705
From firsthand accounts the gentleman who managed to fly the plane back to the departure airport was half-paralyzed after he had been struck in the head with a hammer and the two men still foiled the villain’s plot and survived.
Also, I just now noticed that Joyce is gripping her trauma wrist. ie, the one that she had a bracer on and that she grabs every time she’s facing something traumatic.
… but it might be coincidence, because that wrist was just taped up a moment ago.
I’ve been giving Dorothy some shade for her “let Amazigirl handle this!”, which felt insane. I’d give her a lot more if she were still doing that now, but this is decisive and a reasonable time to get out. So pretty good Dorothy, pretty good.
I love how you did the lighting in that last panel, Willis! In particular, the side lighting on Sarah’s right side and Dorothy’s right hand and the tape on her wrist looks really cool.
I hope Ross comes through alive. He is dangerously misguided and in his current state, a threat to those around him but I see him as a patsy more than anything right now. He honestly believes that this will end up well for Becky. I think he is capable or rehabilitation. He doesn’t deserve to die, especially not the kind of death Blaine will give him.
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btw if you're one of those rando bluesky weirdos who doesn't know me but sees me in the wild being sarcastic and don't know i'm being sarcastic because you haven't taken like 30 seconds to, like, maybe look at my user profile or something, keep walking, you're not going to score internet points here
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
wilbur, savvy enough to know he's in a comic strip but still not a great actor, awkwardly lifts a muffin up into frame so that we, the audience, understand that he has a muffin right now, which is very important narratively, but he's not really selling it well as an organic, human action
confirming that the reason there's been no Galaxy Version female characters in Blokees until now is that they felt they needed to make Round Lady Thighs For Ladies
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 15h
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 11d
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well, they DID have a guy with an insanely thick skull (no hyperbole) on Stan Lee’s show back in the day, so this is believable
https://youtu.be/AphxyjrH4SE
I’d been hoping for this clip to be appropriate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMIpVrz7v9k
(From the movie Game Night, a character acts halfheartedly upset by a villain’s horrible death)
Love that movie.
AVENGERS! ….assemble.
You uploaded the wrong clip. Correct one here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5n28hpMFBE
Freshmengers!…Assemble.
The Dad-Puncher!
Bat-woman (currently sans bat)!
The Voice of Reason!
The Savage Raptor!
(and Nightguy)
“Uh, guys? They’re distracted, and we’re free, we should get out of here… WHY IS EVERYONE ATTACKING???”
(No one ever listens to The Voice Of Reason)
I have to admit, those are spot on. Well done!
“Punch Girl” makes for a more amusing reference.
Dina has her pointy teeth in. Always a good sign for our heroes.
How do you think they got the tape off?
They all had the use of their fingers. Just like that cheesy story about people feeding each other in heaven – they could easily have taken the tape off each other.
That’s a good question actually. Dina taped herself up so I assume she could escape at anytime. Maybe she freed them? Or maybe these two are really incompetent and either they are their equally incompetent hires don’t know how to tie people up with duct tape.
Also she has sharp teeth.
Also also, basically from the moment they were thrown in this storage area all of their hands were behind their back so they could’ve been working on this all this time.
Dina still had the roll on her tape. She probably unwrapped herself, got whoever was closest (I think Dorothy or Sarah,) and they just all set to work on the others. Much easier to work when someone has actual use of their thumbs.
And apparently Blaine was too distracted in realizing how badly he’d fucked up for Toedad to come out of his daze without him noticing, so I’m guessing they had a couple minutes.
She still has her hands in that same weird position as before, I think she’s actually still has them tied up.
She’s in velociraptor mode.
I agree.
I think they had some unobserved time earlier. While Ross was letting Amber go and when Dina first appeared. Blaine had already left, Ross was outside with Amber and some of the goons.
I’d guess they got loose then and were just waiting for the right moment.
It looks like Dorothy still has a loop of tape around her right wrist, and it appears a strip of tape is falling to the floor in front of her…. almost as if she Hulked out and pulled her arms apart, and the duct tape never stood a chance.
My guess was, they ripped the tape partway through. This way it kept their hands together to preserve the illusion they were bound, bit it would only take a minimal effort to rip the rest of the way.
Always a bad sign for ToeDad
Dino-mode!
When the Lightning Strikes!
I’d also allude to the scene in Conan The Barbarian when that guard with the warhammer went after Conan and totally failed to faze him. But I’m not that good about it.
Turns out we all should’ve trusted in Ross’ skull! Who knew it was the hero these hapless kidnappees deserved!?
He’s not the hero they deserve or hell even the one they need but right now he’s all they got.
We’re not talking about Ross, or even his brain. Just his skull. Dem bones did a good job and we will remember their service to this comic strip.
Also, maybe Becky inherited the ‘strong enough skull to survive a hammer in the head’ gene, which we’ll totally take!
(The nicest thing we say about the personal familial Blaine is an appreciation for his genes when they’re unattached to Him Specifically. The rest of that side of the family are quite pleasant human beings by and large. I’ve gotten used to the ‘credit where credit is due, your genetic material isn’t garbage, that’s all you.’)
Who have we seen from Blaine’s side of the family other than Amber? Only one I recall is Faz. Or is Faz a stepson?
I think Faz is Amber’s half brother.
RunHide
FIGHTAsgore broke the Mercy button again.
They threatened Becky.
Joyce and Dina, at the least, will fight. And I wouldn’t bet against them.
And if Little Sister is fighting, Sarah’s in too.
(mostly a reference to the self-preservation advice you hear in job trainings and see on safety posters at schools and such. but then, I live in the US where random acts of violence are heavily normalized and almost expected)
I’m really not sure how I feel about Ross at this point. Like, he should be in jail, yeah, but I don’t want him dead
You are likely in the minority on that opinion. Honestly, Blaine killing him is the best possible outcome in my book. He’s dead, but nobody has killing him on their Conscience (Blaine clearly doesn’t have one anyway).
I’m curious how you feel about his being put into a coma.
Acceptable, but it’d have to last a minimum of 5 years, so that Becky can cover her tracks and prevent him from finding her again.
I’d rather she attain enough power that she could reliably deny him access to her, but yours works too.
The coma’s to let her gain that power. I think given her long-term goal is actually ‘be a fucking scientist’ and not politics (unless that’s changed recently, and she is so very young,) covering her tracks is entirely doable and wouldn’t be a huge sacrifice on her end.
If Becky runs now, she’ll never stop running. She’ll be looking over her shoulder for him every day of the rest of her life. She needs to face him, take him down, so she can live the rest of her life without fear.
Personally, I’d like to see him realize the err of his ways and then sit in jail for a few years with his guilt. He goes to court, tells the entire truth of what he did, and accepts the sentence given to him. He signs all documents to give legal authority of his estate to Becky as a show of regret and reconciliation. He makes a public apology and Becky takes a long time before visiting him in prison so she can get hear head in a healthy place first.
The difference between Ross and Blaine is, while Ross is bullheaded, self richeous, and won’t accept the possibility that he is wrong, he does have the capacity to care about someone other than himself. Blaine is just has ice in his veins
Debateable, honestly. He certainly cares about an IDEA of Becky, but it’s entirely contingent on breaking her and forcing her into a mold that’s divorced from reality. I don’t know if that really qualifies as caring about her on a practical level.
I still wouldn’t say he deserves DEATH, mind, but only because that’s a pretty big judgment I don’t feel qualified to make.
There’s a possibility that Mra was talking about Becky’s mom, Bonnie.
It’s worse than that, I think. Ross does care about Becky… and that genuine caring has been hijacked and deformed by religious dogma, twisting it into something evil. I’m not going to say he’s the victim, because he’s his own person and his choice to blindly embrace the dogma was his own evil act (just as Joyce’s choice to reject that dogma was a good act), but he seems to have the potential to transform into a decent person with just a few changes.
What is DESERVED here is a “go from Jesus” moment, so to speak, where he breaks free of that sickness. I’m not talking about a redemption arc, since it wouldn’t be about whether we should view him as good or bad. It would be about what would be best for everyone involved, both in terms of their happiest and well-being and also in terms of how they could be their best selves.
As I have said before, my headcanon on Ross is that he wasn’t nearly as bad before Bonnie died. When she died he decided God was punishing him for not being extreme enough.
Joyce’s dad seems to have always thought he was a jerk, though.
Flawed he is, but I’m sure Becky would be devastated if he was killed. Especially like this.
Exactly. Back in the car chase, one of the things terrifying Becky was the idea of him dying in a hail of police gunfire.
Ross himself prefers to die if the world will not conform to his idea of it, so the end result is clear. Credit to Willis for making us to be sad for it even when we dislike him so much.
Ross dies, Blaine is denied bail because it’s a murder.
Win-win!
Blaine obviously didn’t learn how to be a decent villain. I know toedad isn’t that smart, but if you lie to him about your plan, and he acts in accordance with that plan, you can’t really blame him.
Blains is just stupid. He wears a mask when people already know him. He complains about his daughter being weak and not fighting back but gets angry when she defeats him. He is the kind of villain you can point at and say “haha” like Nelson from The Simpsons does.
The mask isn’t for them. It’s for him. The mask is freeing. It’s fucked up, but not really stupid. It serves exactly the purpose it’s meant to.
… Everything else is definitely stupid, though.
They don’t know it’s him … Only Amber did, and she wouldn’t tell them who it was.
She didn’t but the info she gave might give them an idea.
They heard him ranting about his daughter, and the words he exchanged with Amber. Unless the detectives who interview them are unbelievably bad that is going to put them on to interviewing Blaine and checking his movements. And then they’ll observe his injuries and find his limousine on traffic cameras, and get a warrant for his fingerprints and DNA, not to mention noticing that he has injuries corresponding to the description of Captain Ball-Peen.
Blaine’s only hopes are:
(a) that the police are as bad as Sarah and Mike think, and let him off for being a mobbed-up white man;
(b) that he is able to swing a plea bargain in which he sells out Asher’s gramps for a place in Federal witness protection; or
(c) that none of his victims or accomplices tells the police what they saw.
…wait, what? Why are they suddenly free?
I’m guessing Dina freed them, while she tape herself up, her hands being infront of her and still having the roll attatched put her in a more flexible position to free herself.
Especially as Dina’s hands are still in the position they were when she taped herself up. Did she release everybody, then tape her hands back up?
Dina slipped in with her hands taped in front. Everyone else had their hands behind them.
You can actually get free of a duct tape wrap like that pretty easy. You just raise your hands over your head (as far as you can) and sharply swing them down to your sides. Should sheer the tape right apart.
That sort of thing sounds like something at least one of them knows. Dorothy or Amber probably knows how to do it.
Unless you’re super flexible, how do you raise your hands over your head when they were behind you?
You should be okay just raising your hands as high as you can. You’re welcome to try it out yourself if you have someone with you while social distancing, but mostly, duct tape doesn’t really do well with that kind of lateral stress and just rips.
At the very least, it should stretch the tape enough that it’s easy to slip out of.
Duct tape isn’t really meant to hold up to that sort of force anyways. Give it a google, the top result I found, the guy just sorta wiggles his arms and bam, there’s enough give that he’s freed in seconds.
Duct tape is shitty. It doesn’t last long before the glue degrades into sap-like goop, and it’s not even good for ducts! (No, seriously it’s terrible for ductwork. Use aluminum tape on those instead.) I think it’s just an arts-and-crafts meme at this point.
Gaffer’s tape is superior in every way but cost.
I’ve always heard that the original nickname for the stuff in the military was “duck tape”, as it sheds water.
Then it was commercialized as “duct tape”, despite being horrible for ducts.
And then people corrupted it back to “duck tape”.
And gaffer tape is amazing stuff. I have a roll of it that I paid way too much for, but the adhesive went bad after being left in the car too long. (It’s basically all gooey now.)
I’ve noticed gaff tape either turns to goo like duct tape, or it dries out and turns into this weird, funny-smelling dust. There’s no in-between.
Tunnel tape is pretty cool, it’s like wide masking tape with a strip of adhesive on each edge so it doesn’t make your cables all sticky and gross. I also know from experience it leaves bright yellow glue stains all over brand-new light gray office carpeting.
Also, IIRC if you clench your fists as you’re getting taped up, you’ll have extra slack in the tape once you relax your hands again.
Sounds like if you fail you pop an arm out of socket.
Walky is still chewing his way free in the background.
Blaine nailed him, but toes are used to being nailed so it didn’t work.
Phrasing.
Willis you stop making me root for toe dad this instant, young man
Sometimes I think Blaine is just here to make Ross’s awfullness seem less awful by comparison.
Look at it like this: the beauty of a heel vs. heel match is that no matter who wins, someone you don’t like is getting his butt kicked.
That reminds me of the duel between Lockhart and Snape in Chamber of Secrets, where Ron quipped that the best case scenario is for both of them to knock each other out and fall into a coma for the rest of the year.
Okay, am i seeing this wrong, or is Walky still tied up and gnawing on the duct tape around his wrists?
I think that’s a legit read, but could also simply be him holding hits fists at head height because he thinks it’s a fighting stance.
His hands used to be taped behind his back.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/03-when-it-crumbles/deepcut/
Joyce and Dorothy’s hands were taped behind their backs too, for that matter.
Right, but they are un-taped now.
To me it seems unlikely that Walky’s hands should now be taped together in front.
Maybe Walky’s chewing at Ethan’s hands? We don’t see him here…
jeez how confident in your mafia connections do you have to be to believe that killing all these college students will get you off of the hook?
“Is this turning into one of those plans where we kill everybody who finds out that we’re killing people?”
“And how do those plans always end?”
*Sigh* Evverywun’s ded, the airship is on fire, and Hy’ve lost my hat…
Und any plan vhere you lose your hat is?!?
Und dot iz bad plan. Any plan vhere hyu lose hyu hat iz bad plan.
Any plan where you lose your mask is a bad plan, Blaine.
any plan made by Blaine is a bad plan.
Blaine is now thinking even less clearly than before, and even less clearly than yesterday.
…. I don’t think it would take much in the way of high-level, hard-working connections. All it would really take is someone who will help you hide bodies.
It couldn’t possibly work, since Amber’s definitely loose and telling people about stuff, but it makes sense if Blaine’s grasping at straws right now.
If all the witnesses are dead, who’s going to implicate you?
*Blaine in the Roll Safe meme*
Can’t go to jail if you kill everyone else!
Goddammit, Blaine. Did you learn nothing in mobster orientation? Hit ’em ’til they stay down.
But, uh….yeah, Toedad’s bleeding from the head and I still think Blaine’s got busted ribs. Thiiiiiis probably will end poorly for them.
I know we have to restrict our Patreon strip votes to characters who’ve actually, you know, appeared, but DAMN when this arc is over do I want to see Asher’s Gramps find out about this whole fucking garbage fire of a scheme.
Just. Trying to comprehend how the money launderer got so unbelievably cocky, and so unbelievably stupid.
Maybe if we vote en masse for Asher we can get that reaction.
I don’t really want Asher getting back in contact with Gramps, though! I support the kid in his desire to not be a mobster.
But he might wonder and have a cutaway panel, I suppose. There are options.
He doesn’t need to go back in order to tell him about this shitshow.
Head wounds tend to bleed a lot, even if they’re minor. But after a hammer to the skull, there’s an excellent chance of internal bleeding and swelling. And the problem with a swelling brain is, there’s really no place for it to go. So yeah, even if he’s functional for now, he’s likely to be in big trouble if he doesn’t get some medical attention soon.
Is Blaine just here to make Toedad look better by comparison?
Nah. He’s here to make Amazi-Girl look better by comparison.
It’s working. I merely want prison time for Ross, and a painful end for Blaine
And I thought to myself then:
There is one that I could follow.
There is one I could call President.
Ross is doing well to still be standing after a solid hit to the head with a twelve-ounce hammer. But there is always Egill Skallagrímsson.
I’m thinking it’s a two pound hammer.
That’s not much better for Ross.
blunt force trama like that could kill someone, and he didn’t even lose consciousness
Seems that the “Beauty and the Beast“ TV show, the lion faced guy ,… well it’s based on a real thing, where the skull continues growing on the outside, getting thicker and thicker. According to the documentary I read about Egill, as in Egill’s Saga, Egill took an ax blow to the head, and went to one knee, got right up and wiped the other guy clear to Valhalla.
Look at the first post in this thread. The hot-link “Egill Skallagrímsson” takes you to an article in Scientific American about Egill and the hypothesis that he had Paget’s disease of bone.
Blaine probably didn’t hit him very hard. His injuries must leave him pretty weak.
If only Sarah had access to Hammerspace! (where’s Susan from El Goonish Shiv when you need her? Oh, wait, is that power gone now? Can’t remember.)
Susan has it as her own personal spell
Excellent.
The hammers went away with the reset of Jerry the Immortal. Susan can summon a hammer if it is in one of her marked weapons trunks, but no longer can just any sufficiently pissed-off woman summon them.
Oh, right. *Now* remember Jerry and the boxes. Gracias!
Actually, I believe that Susan’s hammers are created out of nothing (Jerry described that spell as being his little joke spell, but only for Susan). It’s her other conjurations (her pixies, swords, et cetera) that need to be stashed in her trunks.
No, Susan learned a spell that’s similiar to the Hammer spell (which Jerry made to encourage sexist jokes, as the hammer are harmless but could only be used when a woman is annoyed at a man). Susan’s spell lets her summon any number of hammers at any time for any reason.
Jerry had nothing to do with Susan’s spell, and is in fact surprised she developed something similiar to the hammers because Susan hated the concept they stood for (and EGS works on a “personality powers” model, she wouldn’t have developed it if the negative association with the spell was all she had. But the spell did save her life)
Yeah, that’s what I meant (stupid tired brain not letting me write things how I mean them). He was surprised that Susan’s spell worked similarly to his creation because of the sexist overtones of his version, and needed Grace and Sarah to explain why she’d create that spell.
God, my sleep schedule is messed up without work to go to.
Those hammers can be summoned by Susan and Susan alone due to their effectiveness on aberrations. It was her trauma taking form into a weapon. Poor Susan.
Although Susan didn’t actually need them for that. She has access to other magically-created weapons from her fist spell.
Susan had an angst induced awakening after Jerry explained his reasons for the Hammers – I’m with her there, btw. For some reason, the first spell Susan got after awakening, was Hammers. So yes, she can still summon Hammers from thin air.
WAIT
I just realized
This *whole* thing is just a ploy so that he doesn’t have to pay child support
That is…depressingly believable. Blaine has already proven himself to be HORRIFICALLY petty.
Yup. That is correct.
Tuition, rather than child support, but same deal, yeah.
In state tuition or out of state?
In state.
The participants with a really thin motivations are the bozo brothers, a pair of campus bullies to are in this for a shot at Amazi-Girl. Now they are facing life plus 180 years in prison.
I think, realistically, they can talk themselves out of this, if they either run at the first sight of a bloody hammer or plead they were threatened with that hammer afterwards. Signing up for a “masked vigilante non-support group” is fine. “pranking” a few fellow students (as this may believably been presented to them) is slightly different but won’t get you in prison.
Crimes in a criminal conspiracy are like a contagion — everyone around you catches them.
So that’s assault, battery, six counts each premeditated kidnapping, one count each attempted, and possibly felony murder. Oh, and the fire alarm might not rise to the level of a terroristic threat, but it’s still some sort of crime.
Indiana has the felony-murder rule, which means that if you knowingly and willing take part in a felony, and if as a result of that felony anybody dies, you are guilty of murder even if you didn’t kill them or intent for them to be hurt or die.
The bozo brothers knowingly and willing took part is six aggravated kidnappings and a conspiracy. If Ross dies, they will be murderers under Indiana law. But in the Dumbiverse Indiana might be so corrupt that they will get off of a plea of “boys will be boys”.
Wow that’s.. Zealous
I don’t think he will be paying her tuition after this.
So, mission accomplished!
I think not paying tuition is the rationalization, the actual goal is getting Amber back under his thumb because manipulative sadistic gaslighting abusive dicks gotta have someone to torture.
Tuition but really more so to get Amber back under his control because he is abusive. It is less about the money, more about the horribly entitled and controlling principle.
And also vengeance on Amazi-Girl for beating him up.
Welp, in real life Toedad would probably be dead in a few hours unless he got to a hospital quickly. But he might possibly be conscious and fighting until the bleeding pressurized his brain. I hope he does not get to a hospital.
Meanwhile, it won’t take a lot to really mess up Blaine. Hit a cracked rib, puncture a lung, he could suffocate in a few minutes. Better to puncture each lung to be sure.
Yes, I’m feeling extra bloodthirsty tonight. My dad died of COVID last night, hours after POTUS recommended on live TV that people inject chlorine dioxide to cure COVID in a minute flat.
It was people exactly like Ross and Blaine who put that Putrid Orange Turd in office where he screwed things up badly enough to kill tens of thousands of Americans. Yes, I want to see them both die in pain.
In real life, any politicians or states that still support Trump’s politics in November can go fuck off somewhere else – I don’t want to be in the same country as them, and I’d be very happy to see the west coast states secede.
Sorry-not-sorry to bring real life into this comment thread. Ross and Blaine’s kind of shit kills people in real life. We’re just getting started on this pandemic (except maybe NY) and the Trumpublicans may yet kill hundreds of thousands of us.
Sorry about your dad. Yeah, a lot more people are going to die who could’ve been saved, in the States.
Chris, I am sooo sorry for your loss. Everything you said is right on the button. We just have to do everything we can to stand against them and make them regret being such SOBs this November. Peace be with you.
Thanks. I wish I was optimistic enough to think that “stand against them” would be enough. Trump is already trying to gain personal control over the post office, and he will likely succeed. What will happen in November when vote-by-mail doesn’t work, and Trump’s idiots are the only people foolhardy enough to go vote in person?
We already have DHS literally stealing mask shipments from hospitals to resell. Doctors are resorting to mislabeled trucks and back-alley deals to try to get PPE through. How long before blue states start supplying armed guards for the shipments? (Red states probably don’t need to.) How long before those guards clash with the Feds and people shoot people?
How long before the governors and residents of states that were thrown to the wolves over and over again decide they can do better by allying with Canada or just going it alone?
I’m not advocating anything illegal here – just predicting it.
Trump’s people – and I use the term loosely – are NOT the only ones who will go out in the face of the COVID virus to exercise their right to vote. I live in Wisconsin and, despite the “shelter in place” order and the Republican-endorsed attempts to disenfranchise as many people as they could, went in person to the polls on April 7th to make sure that a challenger with a ‘D’ after her name ousted the Trump-backed incumbent on the state supreme court.
And if I have to do it again in November, you can bet’cher ass that I will.
^This^
You can do it May 12th if you live in the 7th Congressional District.
Sorry for your loss.
I echo Bicycle Bill. I live in a relatively poor, mostly minority area in Milwaukee. Based on comments I heard in line on April 7th, come November if we have to stand outside for hours in a sub-zero blizzard to vote you’d better believe we will. Screw Trump and his Repubturds.
I am very sorry that happened. And I agree.
My thoughts are with your family, Chris, that’s awful, and your anger is a righteous and just one here.
I’m very sorry for your loss.
So sorry for your loss, Chris.
My deepest sympathies. Losing someone under these circumstances would be bullshit WITHOUT the guy allegedly in charge hawking a pseudoscientific ‘cure’, but it really is the bullshit peak of Mount Fertilizer.
(I know he’s a fucking antivaxxer, but I really did not need the reminder that bleach is actually promoted in the deep pseudoscientific fuckery corners as an autism ‘cure’. God, I am full of hatred.)
And I am very sorry, for your dad’s death, and for the president you are suffering right now and the state of your country in turn. No need to feel sorry for posting here.
Fuck, I’m sorry to hear about your dad. And fuck Trump and his brain-dead cultists. My wife is terrified to leave our apartment right now because one of those scum-sucking freaks started screaming at her about how she “brought this disease to America” (because having Japanese parents makes you a Chinese version of Typhoid Mary, suck a railroad spike you conga). And these people aren’t going to stop, because they’ve been indoctrinated that this is the only way for them to act. I’d like to think that things are going to change, that they’re all going to get a hard reality check once that fleeting grasp on power disappears, but it just . . . it doesn’t seem likely right now.
I’m really sorry for your loss.
I’m so sorry to hear about your dad. I can’t imagine how awful you must feel. I hope your family and you have as peaceful a mourning process as possible, and I hope Trump gets resoundingly voted out in November. I know it won’t help how you feel now, but it will at least get him out of the position he’s in to hurt so many people this way now. All my thoughts are with your family. I’m right there with you on the anger, up here from Canada. May your dad RIP.
Oh god, I am so sorry for your loss.
My condolences. Yeah, you’re right. Our “leader”‘s stupidity is putting U.S. on the brink of a monster plague. I don’t want Election Day to be cancelled. I want to see these far-right idiots thrown out so bad. Just as bad as I want to see Blaine dead.
Sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine what you’re going through and to be honest, I’m not trying hard to.
Don’t think depressurizing the brain is that bad and I’m actually rooting for Ross to get an actual prison sentence for a few decades and not death. I’m indifferent to Blaines life though. Had not made the connection to your current administration.
That’s horrible. I am so sorry for your loss.
My condolences on your loss.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
I’m so sorry. I agree with everything you said.
Please accept my condolences and virtual hugs. Take care of yourself.
I’m so sorry about your dad.
This makes me nervous
Same. At least the students are ready to take flight. And they’re not tied up either???
And here’s the difference between Ross and Blaine. Ross is a terrible, misguided person who thinks he’s doing the right thing. Blaine just wants to cause misery and thinks of murder as a viable option.
Ross also thinks of murder as a viable option. You don’t bring a gun to meet your family unless – like so many religious fanatics – you are willing to kill them rather than see them escape your control.
And Ross’s actual plan is to cause misery to his own daughter until she breaks.
Ross is not misguided. He is either culpably guilty or dangerously insane.
You shouldn’t bring a gun to something unless you’re willing to kill something. But plenty of people would bring a gun with zero intention of using it, because as long as nobody knows you have no intention of using it, it’s fairly safe to assume they’ll be cowed by it.
Ross was willing to use the gun because he saw it as the only way for things to work, but he didn’t really want to — or at least that’s what he told himself. One of the most telling details about his character, to my mind, is how when he got the gun from his car, he said “Lord, give me strength.” That and the almost pained look on his face when he shot into the air — that was a man making himself pull the trigger. Which is different from Blaine’s “Hey, I’ve got a hammer, let’s bash someone’s head in.” There’s another hint of this in how Ross’ immediate reaction to the idea of killing Mike was “He’s just a boy.”
Ross is delusional enough that these tiny glimmers of sense are quickly overridden, but they’re there.
“There’s another hint of this in how Ross’ immediate reaction to the idea of killing Mike was ‘He’s just a boy.'”
And… then Ross hit Mike with a car.
I love how everyone look badass inte last panel… except Walky
IT’S MORPHIN TIME!
Gotta admit… part of me expected Ethan to shout “Autobots Roll Out!”
I doubt we’ll be hearing much from Ethan in all of this. Out of all the kids in that basement he seems like the one who would least likely be interested in joining into a throwdown.
Joyce and Dina: “Can we just punch Ross real quick?”
Dorothy: “No, we go NOW”
Joyce and Dina: “awwwww”
Yeah I just have a question here about Blaine immediately going to murdering six, well seven in total people get him off the hook? Like even in the most optimistic scenario where Amber either doesn’t recognize him under that mask and/or is too terrified to squeal, there’s still at least two guys he hired who will be aware he killed seven people and even if he silenced them there would still be a HUGE investigation into the disappearance of at least seven people and also Becky knows what’s going on now too! So what?!
Yeah, Blaine’s an idiot.
His plan has never made sense. He might have given a false name to Blaine, the church group, and the bozo brothers, but he told Blaine about Amber being his daughter, and Amber, Amazi-Girl, and Mike were bound to recognise him. Which means that he has never had a plan to avoid recognition, prosecution, and prison.
Ross at least believes that God will see that he comes out okay (in the next life, if necessary). Blaine’s plan has never had any possible outcome in which he wins.
For “Blaine”, read “Ross”.
Ross’s plan has never had any possible outcome in which he wins.
Nothing in this plan has indicated the presence of even a single brain cell. Except maybe buying the body armor, but even that’s outweighed by hiring multiple people and paying a significant bail bond for what he’s claiming is a ‘get out of paying for college’ scheme.
If he doesn’t die here, I’m still SUPER hoping it’s Yuri who does him in.
When he says “everybody” he has to include Mike, Amber, Amazi-Girl, Becky, and the bozo brothers, not just Blaine and his five hostages to hand.
For “Blaine” read “Ross”.
So he’ll just have to kill them, too.
And the people who would realize they’re missing.
And the people who would realize those folks are missing.
Jeez, this situation just keeps snowballing!
Minsk: Gorb. Dis iz turnink into vun of dose plans… Hyu know – de kind vere ve keel everybody dot notices dot ve’s killin’ people?
Gorb: It is?
Minsk: Uh huh. And how do dose alvays end?
Gorb: De dirigible iz in flames, evryboddyz dead an’ I’ve lost my hat.
Minsk: Dot’s right. Und any plan vere you lose you hat iz?
Gorb: A bad plan?
Minsk: RIGHT AGAIN!
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20031017
Blaine stopped thinking a while back. Whatever passed for his plan is in full meltdown, and at this point he’s in pure panic mode. Given what he’s already done, it’s not all that surprising that “kill them all” is his new Plan A.
She had a lot of get up and go!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amiBTezWKqQ
Are they all standing on top of Ethan?
He’s always been a bit of a doormat.
“When a devil gets caught by a monster, I, as a human being, can only hope that they both die!”
-Fritz Joseph Bittenfeld, Legend of the Galactic Heroes
So Blaine with a hammer is roughly 3/4 as dangerous as Joyce with her bare hands?
I’ll buy that.
Cracked ribs may well affect the amount of power he was able to put into his swing of the hammer…
Thick skull; glass jaw.
(people with strong points can have different weak points)
Ross had just crawled out of a car crash, and was already a bit groggy when Joyce punched him. He was at full health when Blaine hit him.
Sounds about right.
Stubbing your toe doesn’t kill you, it just makes you upset.
The end I didn’t see coming: Blaine’s plan explodes under its own weight almost immediately, and everyone escapes, and the police swoop in and arrest him, and the awful tension we were told to expect until late June comes from Amazi-Girl, showing up late and exhausted, getting caught as well
Well, good news is, I was right about Toedad’s skull.
Bad news is Blaine is now officially Not All There.
I gotta say, it doesn’t look to me as though Joyce, Dana, or even Sarah is prepared to go. They seem more prepared to bring it.
Toedad is probably dying after this… I do feel sorry for the guy, as awful as he could be.
Blaine is losing whatever thread to reality he had a hold more and more that is for sure.
Getting a hole in the skull is a suvivable wound. He should get some help in the coming hours and should refrain from getting more of a concussion. That may cause actual functional degradation.
Dorothy’s rallying cry makes it sound like she wants them all to bail…but none of the other faces in that scene look like “Time to Bail” –
they all say “LET’S GET DANGEROUS”.
Well, except maybe Walky.
Walky finally reached his breaking point after trying not to be traumatized.
Kill Blaine!!!
How do you post an image here? I’m sure I’ve seen other people do it …
I’m pretty sure they just post links to images elsewhere! Or change their avatar.
The only person I’ve ever seen post an image here was Willis, and I think he has super-admin rights to do it.
I knew this was going to end like in Glass. Blaine already has fragile ribs right now, so Toedad can do what the Horde did to Mr. Glass.
Philip Glass? Ira Glass? Or Seymore, Franny, and Zoe Glass? It’s not clear which one you meant….
The movie with the taxi driver from 5th Element and God in it. The taxi driver was unbreakable, and God was a glass figure…
Predicted likely outcome:
Ross will die. Whether it’s on the scene, or after, he’s not going to be living long, he will never get the chance to speak to his kid again, she’s going to arrive after it’s too late for him.
BUT…in the meantime, he does perform a ‘big damn hero’ thing. You can argue his motives all you want-he’s stopping Blaine from killing those kids and buying the time for them to escape/survive this.
and odds are he isn’t going to live, or see trial, or incarceration. he’s going to die, and Becky will be very sad because up until JUST RECENTLY he was her DADDY, who took her to six flags, and loved her.
Ross strikes me as a broken man from his first appearance in the comic. Willis doesn’t SAY what broke him, but his behaviours have been those of someone who’s been broken, and broken hard. Maybe pre-dead-wife Ross would’ve taken Becky’s Lesbianism in stride, or been less extreme in his reactions, probably wouldn’t have brought a gun to the school or fallen in with Blaine at all.
but you know, BROKEN. So broken he latched onto that Old-Testament-Religion to try and make his senseless world make some damned sense.
You guys seem to forget that tragedy does things to fuck people up. Some pull into themselves, some turn generous, and some go blitz-raging-nuts, and I kinda suspect Ross is one of that last group.
He has the same mentality as Carol. He isn’t broken, he is just delusional. Sometimes we say someone is broken to sympathize with them, but good and evil are choices, not the result of a mental disease caused by grief.
They are choices, aye. But sometimes the decisions they made to reach that choice can still be totally understandable, and might even be decisions you yourself might have made were you in his exact position. I’m not advocating that people like Ross be excused or exonerated for what they have done, but at the same time we should be careful not to take TOO much schadenfreude over somebody else’s misfortune.
He’s likely made worse by his wife’s death, but the signs are there that he was pretty extreme all along. We’ve had some flashback glimpses of Becky’s childhood and what her aspirations were allowed to be.
He wasn’t taking anything in stride. The Old Testament Religion was there from the start.
Maybe he wouldn’t have gone quite so far – especially if she were still there to influence him, but that still only brings him down to about Carol’s level. Who helped bail him out and wants to pull Joyce out of school for much less than lesbianism.
And of course there’s the strong possibility that living with him helped drive Becky’s mom to suicide.
I don’t get the use of “Old Testament Religion.” Isn’t that just Judaism?
Like maybe this is the wrong thing to be getting a stick in my craw about, but as a non-believing Jew, seeing the abuses of evangelical Christianity blamed on the Talmud rubs me the wrong way. The take on Abrahamic faiths that Toedad and his ilk follow is a monstrous philosophy all their own.
Yeah, sorry. I’m usually better about that terminology, but I here I just echoed the person I was replying to.
It’s mostly due to God’s wrath really only being shown in the old testament. iirc I never thought about the term having potential anti semitic leanings before. I wouldn’t put the blame on the old testament though, these people are looking for a reason to feel justified in punishing those they see as wicked, ignoring all the times that such arrogance was divinely punished in the bible.
His beliefs weren’t that different than Hank’s. But watching your wife die is traumatic. He could have turned out better but wasn’t drawn that way. He may have been DYW’s reality and Hank may be what he needed.
I wonder if this is leading to a redemption arc for Ross. I’m not gonna say it’s likely, but it is possible. Wouldn’t bet on it, though.
Went for the skull. Wrong move Blaine. Fundies can function without that.
“Avengers, skidaddle!”
I’m kinda surprised Ross is still alive after getting hit in the head with a hammer.
It wasn’t that big a hammer, and Blaine’s not in the best of shape. You have to hit someone really hard or several times to kill them instantly. Even this weak shot has probably left Ross with a potentially fatal injury, but it’ll take awhile for the intracranial bleeding and swelling to kill him. Given medical attention, he’ll probably survive, albeit with an unpredictable degree of long-term neural damage.
There’s a lot of blood on that hammer.
True, head wounds bleed a lot, but not usually enough to splatter blood on the thing that hit them, unless it was really bad.
well that went well
I’m picturing the last panel with all og them wearing newly created masks.
Blaine: “Wait, where did all the hostages go, and where did this lot of heroes come from?”
Ooh, masks made of the duct tape that’s no longer on their hands?
(Taped over itself so as to be non-sticky, not taped to their faces!!)
Personally I think Dorothy, Joyce, etc. Are making a mistake by acting now.
Wait for the 2 of them to fight… With luck both will be incapacitated, or at least severely weakened. Attacking the 2 of them now risks the 2 teaming up again (if only for self preservation)
I don’t think she intents to attack, but to get the hell out of there. Though Sarah looks like she‘d rather attack.
Underestimating his foes left and right.
Also my obsession with true crime has taught me that killing someone with blunt force trauma to the head can be damn tricky. Check this story out: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Express_Flight_705
From firsthand accounts the gentleman who managed to fly the plane back to the departure airport was half-paralyzed after he had been struck in the head with a hammer and the two men still foiled the villain’s plot and survived.
THIS TOE DON’T STUB
I think Ross can win ever if injured.
Also, I just now noticed that Joyce is gripping her trauma wrist. ie, the one that she had a bracer on and that she grabs every time she’s facing something traumatic.
… but it might be coincidence, because that wrist was just taped up a moment ago.
Well observed
…and given that like half of the time she feels that Trauma, she attacks, this might not be a good day for ToeDad.
My reaction to this one was basically the Metal Gear Solid “!” sound.
Callback to fighting the Soggies. Dorothy has looked like Leslie throughout this.
I’ve been giving Dorothy some shade for her “let Amazigirl handle this!”, which felt insane. I’d give her a lot more if she were still doing that now, but this is decisive and a reasonable time to get out. So pretty good Dorothy, pretty good.
Ross cant be stopped with a hammer, yet an 18-year old girl can knock him backward so hard it puts him in the hospital?
Blaine better wish that Joyce doesn’t get a clean shot at HIM.
I honestly still think he would do better with Joyce than with amber.
I mean, he would still loose like the big looser he is, but there is a higher chance of Joyce stopping when he’s down.
Skull of iron, jaw of glass.
Ross hasn’t been thrown out of a car driving full speed down the highway recently.
He still had all his Hit Points this time.
Seriously though, he wasn’t in good shape when Joyce landed the final blow.
Wait, where are all the goons that brought them here to begin with ?
(and blanie looks so crazy and out of his depth in panel 2…)
They went with Amber/AmaziGirl to make sure she didn’t backtrack to free the hostages and got lost.
I love how you did the lighting in that last panel, Willis!
In particular, the side lighting on Sarah’s right side and Dorothy’s right hand and the tape on her wrist looks really cool.
“So! You finally show your true colors, Ball Peen!”
“I, uh… haven’t really been hiding it.”
oh phew, it might actually be okay if amber/amazi-girl just passes out on the floor then
I hope Ross comes through alive. He is dangerously misguided and in his current state, a threat to those around him but I see him as a patsy more than anything right now. He honestly believes that this will end up well for Becky. I think he is capable or rehabilitation. He doesn’t deserve to die, especially not the kind of death Blaine will give him.