I would refute you but I’m sure it says that in a magazine somewhere, so what can I do?
Anonymous
He should’ve had a hint of how much of one when he connected back up with Naveed after the destruction of the Daedelus- but hey, he was sure of himself all throughout this.
Someone pass me the popcorn…this got REAL interesting and fun…
Anonymous
buy a different magazine?
Anonymous
also, he’s writing off the empath, big mistake… never screw with a guy who can induce a riot with a thought, or immobilize you with terror…
Anonymous
so with this, and that sketch you posted, I have to ask… how much older than Reona is Zap?
Yeah, I wonder if people have really put together the “Efrem is an empath” with the “Everybody sure seemed to like Efrem a lot at the beginning of the story” and “Reona sure changed her mind about Efrem quickly there in the middle.”
Oh spoilers!! Do your really want spoilers? I will tell you.
Anonymous
I don’t mind, but I don’t want to ruin it for others… on the characters page you list his age as “appears mid 20s” but you could say the same (or younger) for me and I’m almost 33…
A name of some sort
Ah, sorry. Was still seeing the old version then.
Andy Nguyen
“90% of humans are right-handed.”
“That can’t be true! I’m left-handed.”
“Since when is this about you?”
Stereotypes are, at their most basic level, a correlation combined with a value judgment. The correlation portion (e.g., 77% of Asian Americans voted for Obama) is just number-crunching, and while there can be errors/noise in the calculation, the concept of a correlation is perfectly sound. The value judgment portion (e.g., racial minorities add to/detract from the country, voting left is better than/worse than voting right) is the harmful part of the stereotype. As a result, the way to combat a stereotype is not to dispute the correlation, but rather to dispute the value judgment. To give an example from our society, we’ve (mostly) stamped out the value judgment associated with handedness. No one will dispute that there are more right-handed people than left-handed people, but we as a society have come to accept that neither group is “better than” the other. On the other hand, we have basically equal proportions of males and females in our country, yet we are still far from achieving gender equality.
The numbers are not the problem. It’s the value judgments we place on them that make stereotypes so harmful. Disputing the numbers (whether or not they’re accurate) does nothing to fix the root of the problem.
Strider Rider
yeah…..and now efy is scrwed.
Strider Rider
Saith Whaaa? Sooo efraim was looking for ri ri? not for himself but for Zap?dame talk bout a plot bomb on our hands
Me-me
If it makes you feel any better, society is currently undergoing a momentous shift towards the “stereotypes exist because they’re true” mentality becoming obsolete and dying out.
It won’t happen soon but even now this point of view is in the minority in a lot of places and will be soon in even more.
He’s committing a few fallacies and you should know that you’re not the only one to notice.
Me-me
Well we didn’t see much of him being liked, we couldn’t have known there was an emotional response dissonance to notice.
For all we knew, he was legitimately nice to everyone.
Anonymous
I just thought it was because Zap was ‘the one’ for Reona that it kinda pushed any others guys out of her mind.
Also…from the perspective of the reader we haven’t really seen any reason why Efreem would be a dislikable person (unless his hooking up with Zap’s dream girl was just a jerk move that he did to get back at Zap, because honsetly, how do you get back at a guy who see in advance the perfect timing from pranks? (and yes I think that that was indeed how Zap used his future-telly powers. Greatest troll ever.))
Anonymous
After reading this whole conversation I can only say this.
I see your stereotype and raise it,
The real reason men want those big cars, famous names, and power, is so they can get the hottest most desirable female and brag about his manliness to his fellow man-people.
Ah…my apologies, that got more and more stereotypical as I went on.
How about looking at it this way? Those things you mentioned? They all happen to be hallmarks of success. Women look for successful men and how is that even possibly wrong? Just like men don’t want a dead weight dragging them down (and every definition of dead weight is different per person here) so too do women want someone who will help them be secure and advance in life. Those expensive cars and important positions are really saying “I have money so we won’t be poor” “I have power, I can protect you”
A relationship is intended to be a mutually beneficial thing ( and again, what is beneficial in the eyes of some is no in the eyes of others) Men are also looking for women who can give them stability and security in some form.
tl;dr: I just crushed your “stereotype”
(strange…in my school it was the band geeks always getting laid…the band locker room was a nasty place…)
Anonymous
OK, this is my one foray into this argument, and then I’ll stop, because this sort of thing can be frankly toxic.
But, that said, here’s the problem I have. When you say things like:
Many women decide to settle for non-Jocks/Non-Politicians/Non-actors for a variety of reasons. But at some point they’ve likely wanted to be with one. Or ten. Maybe they don’t think they can ‘get’ one. Maybe they’ve been burnt out on them. Maybe they found out that they’re just like every other guy. Whatever.
You are very, very clearly implying (more than, in fact) that these are not *just* stereotypes, but instead the way things are, and that anyone who feels that they really have never fallen into said stereotype is just fooling herself. THAT is massively offensive and outright wrong. You think that by acknowledging that not all women end up with stereotypical powerful men, you’re being inclusive or less offensive or whatever, but you’re not. What you’re really doing is saying “in the world in my head, this is the way things are, and no one really fits outside of this.”
I never had any interest in power, politics, money, etc. My only interest in fast cars is in driving them myself. I’ve always felt that my life was my own and not something I needed to spend looking for the perfect mate. Though I did in fact fall in love and marry–and married someone who is so totally NOT one the groups you claim women have always at some point wanted. I never did–those types of people tend to repel me, in fact. So what, are you going to tell me that I’m not really a woman, then?
Yes, stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, I won’t debate that part. But thinking that everyone really falls into the stereotype and just won’t admit it is outright wrong.
Listen, he doesn’t care what actual women have to say about what women want.
He heard about women one time, so he knows how they are.
Anonymous
you say that like it wasn’t before… when you read straight through the archive, there’s not really a slow part… it’s just when there’s only 50 some odd updates a year, it takes a while to get to…
I know!! Sorry! I’m really working on getting extra updates. The books end up taking a lot of my time.
Anonymous
hey, that wasn’t meant as a criticism, I meant it as a compliment. the story is actually rather fast paced, but it’s also very compelling; enough that we keep coming back even though it takes time. you two have actual lives that don’t hinge on the comic you guys put on the web for us for free, and I for one appreciate the quality effort you two have put into the comic. it’s kept me coming back for a good long while… back since Grivak
I don’t think he was so much looking for her as he found her and then told Zap where she was. We got a big flashback coming up that I think will put everything in order for people (I hope).
Ori Klein
Waittaminute…did Reona’s hair colour just got redacted or it’s not her?
Err…what?
Ori Klein
Waittaminute…did Reona’s hair colour just got redacted or it’s not her?
Err…what?
She’s looking out through the glass on the bridge of the Excelsior, so it is a bit blue-shifted to show that.
Strider Rider
flash back from who’s perspective Efraim?
Anonymous
You know what that saying means? “Don’t forget your real friends over the ‘new thing’.” And Gunner was never really a friend, more like someone you have to be careful around.
Anonymous
Zap’s. Which Efrem apparently wanted a ‘piece’ of before letting Zap know about.
Anonymous
Gunner doesn’t seem to understand that subtlety can often trump raw power.
Ori Klein
Realistic optical physics, in my comic? Get outta here!
kerrie
he probably thought he was on his side or the mind wipe altered his abilities, since he probably not remember what he saw.
My guess is Zap saw Gunner’s planned future and saw a way to change it, he then confided in Efrem and they set about changing it.
kerrie
imagine if Efrem can induce those people outside to stop Gunner from killing him :) or make Gunner feel sad or something and distracted him then run like hell? hopefully straight to Zap.
But I think this is the end for Efrem :(
stealth
Wow. Really? Yeah…..uhuh. Stereotypes. The bane of my existence. This was a very annoying arguement. Pascalle? I totally understand how you feel. It’s one of the reasons I hate watching most media, because it draws on stereotypes and majority opinion. ANd yet, I am obsessed with tropes. How funny.
stealth
Oh. My. Gosh. So…so…Ephram was ~leading~ Reona to Zap this whole time!??! IS that it!?!? He manipuated her to get her ready for him? Or am I reading to much into this? I mean…empaths have the ability to induce emmotions into others, right? Oh, man, so many theories nwo running through my head! THEY WON’T STOP!@!!! Sorry for typos, using phone and in too big a hurry to fix them.
Megistus
In my interpretation of Zap and Gunner ‘s backstory/motivation. Is that Zap just wanted revenge for the destruction of their world. While Gunner wanted galactic domination and or genocide of mundane humans.
I really don’t think Zap’s personality has changed that much since his mind wipe.
trashbandit
You can’t be fired until the story is finished! And even then it’s questionable!
Speedy Marsh
I’m thinking Efrem is waiting for just the right moment to dump a boatload of empathy into Gunner’s head. To make Gunner feel every bit of the pain and loss he’s caused others.
Shouldn’t it be possible for an empath to not only feel, but also record and play back in someone else’s mind, every feeling, every emotion that a person is experiencing. If so, Gunner’s got a world of anguish coming his way.
Speedy Marsh
Ahhh! I just tried imagining octal and hexadecimal genders. Brain hurting…
I mean, I’ve seen sci-fi with trinary genders, but beyond that… The number of restrooms alone would be a nightmare…
(I know you were talking roles, but this is a sci-fi site, so I started thinking of alien races…)
Speedy Marsh
Hmm… Gunner is in charge, for the moment… Fangirls on this site have admitted to drooling over almost every male character except the “oh, poop” guy…
At the risk of being added to the comic by Pascalle, only to be drawn, quartered, pureed, and fed to the felinian as wet food, I’m gonna have to call this myth Plausible.
jk, Pascalle
Speedy Marsh
You draw the comic, so you have all the power. After the last comic in Chris’s final story arc, just draw one more comic, with all the female characters as leaders of the new Galactic Empire, with all the male characters just standing around drooling.
Speedy Marsh
Emapathy is the ability to feel your way around in electronic maps. Only Excelsior has it, so it is a very seldom used word. xD
See you at Wizard World! - 2014-11-05 Chris and I will be at Wizard World Tulsa this weekend (Novemeber 7-9!) at the Cox Business Center in Downtown Tulsa. Come see us if [...]
Volume 3! - 2014-07-22 Hey! If you’ve been waiting to get Volume 3, wait no more!
Vol 3 from Brainstorm Limited on Square Market
Original Art Sale! - 2014-07-06 HEY! I want to sell a bunch of the original pages from the comic because there are a lot of them and I don’t want [...]
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