Wapsi wrote:I felt very VERY shitty doing this comic, there is a reason, though.
..as You should.
No, wait, that sounds more harsh than intended (damn language-barrier) .
There is no doubt in my mind that there's a waaaaay more important layer here. "Gratuitous" violence has never, ever been part of Wapsisquare. Cheesecake? Oh yes, Slapstick? Absolutely, stuff blowing up in glorious ways? Oh, yess!
But, whenever violence was involved You have consistently portrayed it as something nasty, something stomach-churning. A part of the human animal that hasn't got any redeeming value( except for setting demon's asses on fire)There's a reason that veterans, more often than not, become quite ardent peace-nics.
Violence, the urge to overpower is part of our make-up. However, The worth of humanity, contrast to, say, the animal kingdom, is our conscious ability to surpress those urges.
Running "on instinct" is far easier than in a conscious manner stating:" no. I will not act on my urges (demons) i refuse to answer violence with even more violence. It's the hardest stance someone can take. It's a lesson he Jesus-character (if he existed or not...but that's another discussion better left out) tries to teach when stating "turn the other cheek"
The thing that intrigues (and frankly fills me with trepidation) me the most here, is this : Will Monica lash-out in anger, full jaguar-girl, or not. That will be quite crucial. Will there be "revenge" or not.
This is a bit hard for me to explain, but that is something that worries me. I don't want to go all politics, but there's a rather distinct difference between us "old country" folk in (mainland!) Europe -in it's current incarnation, mind You- and the USA. The USA has very often used it's might in full to try and cull extreme violence, and thusly used violence to stop violence allover the globe. With the added bonus of a lesser risk that the mentioned violence hit their coasts. Violence as a solution, is more an accepted part of the American psyche -and society- than the European. I take óne peek at the little texts people put under comments, and that becomes abundantly clear.
Europe, on the other hand, has been engulfed in flames twíce the last century, and thanx to Yugoslavia, almost for a third time. Europeans are thusly véry wary of violent solutions. Not because we are inherently more peaceful, but because we have experienced the results of escalation, and stíll find mines in our seas, and bombs in our soil.
Please do not see this as some partisan attack, or something, but afa violence goes, Europe has a distinctly different view on violence as a tool to "punish" or "taking revenge" (No death-penalty, as the clearest example). Yet, that doesn't mean we are less inclined to lash-out in anger and violence, but we are more inclined to take a few breaths before using violent take-overs -so to speak- to fix an escalating situation becáuse it has escalated in a major way, twíce, and we had to call on the USA to keep our quarreling nations from obliterating each other.
My little diatribe is a mess, I know. And I bèt that which I feared, will be happening : Angry Americans stumbling allover my musings. So be it.
A better way of showing the differences in mentality between Europe and the US is given by Jeremy Rifkin in his exellent "The European Dream"
The above looks like some Macro example, but on a smaller scale the same works.
Someone mentioned Marvel. Well, Marvel comics show violence in a way more palatable way than You do. Marvel -despite their habit of trying to put a message down- dóes glorify might&violence. You don't, and quite decisively so.
Dammit! I júst cannot find the words for what I am trying to say... That's frustrating... Maybe this : there's a difference in mentality between Europeans and Americans, and I am afraid that, despite the obvious messages of WS, there will be yet, another violent solution.
Ugh! No! Stíll a mess, my comment.. *sigh* I give up... Brain's all mushy now...