So Weak 2012-08-13

[Dave]

I'm not sure it is a sphinx. I t doesn;t appear to have wings.

Sphinxes are sometimes depicted without wings. The Great Sphinx at Giza is the obvious example. According to
this page, there was a lot of variation in how sphinxes were portrayed, and many of them were wingless.

The sphinxes in the Time Forest may or may not have wings... there doesn't seem to be enough of their bodies portrayed to be certain.

[Yamara]

I'm not sure it is a sphinx. I t doesn;t appear to have wings.

Maybe it was part troll.

[Fairportfan]

I'm not sure it is a sphinx. I t doesn;t appear to have wings.

I think the male apos don't have wings.

[Bathorys Daughter]

I can't believe how much rationalization is being used here to justify murder. So she is allowed to kill anyone simply because she has had an especially bad day? She didn't kill a cow or bull, she killed another sentient being. That's not unlike the shoguns of old. It was immoral then and it is immoral now. Would you be so quick to excuse her actions had she killed a regular, like Kath, for example. She can be really blunt. What if she was talking to Phix and said the wrong thing and was disintegrated for it? I guess that would have been ok too. Who knows what is the wrong thing to say to Phix right now. Heck, she is supposed to be teaching restraint. And she has had thousands of years to prefect that ability yet she still does this? What hope does Shelly have? It wasn't "suicide" and she wasn't protecting anyone or the library. I can't believe I'm alone on this.

I also find this to be a disturbing new trend Paul is taking here.

[Arjay]

my... thats gotta sting.....

Can't imagine it stung long.

[Mark N]

I can't believe how much rationalization is being used here to justify murder. So she is allowed to kill anyone simply because she has had an especially bad day? She didn't kill a cow or bull, she killed another sentient being. That's not unlike the shoguns of old. It was immoral then and it is immoral now. Would you be so quick to excuse her actions had she killed a regular, like Kath, for example. She can be really blunt. What if she was talking to Phix and said the wrong thing and was disintegrated for it? I guess that would have been ok too. Who knows what is the wrong thing to say to Phix right now. Heck, she is supposed to be teaching restraint. And she has had thousands of years to prefect that ability yet she still does this? What hope does Shelly have? It wasn't "suicide" and she wasn't protecting anyone or the library. I can't believe I'm alone on this.

I also find this to be a disturbing new trend Paul is taking here.

If you are 20 years old or ten thousand years old, emotions are still hard to control, especially when it involves our children
No one is saying that Phix's actions are good, just understandable from the facts that Paul has always placed at our feet.
First off, we do not know that the Sphinx is dead. It is not human and human norms do not apply here (Also it could have been a projection of the Library or another being to give her a target other than her hand).
Second, Phix was in an agitated state at the time (She just learned that she was TRICKED into giving up her son and lying to her grand daughter by her (unknown at the time) daughter-in-law). In legal circles this can be considered a window of temporary insanity
Third, Phix and the other supernaturals have said from the start that none of them are domesticated and can turn on others at the tip of a hat.

Put all of this together and we see the pattern has been there from the start, Paul is just showing us that the consequences of these facts are more drastic than we are used to by the old examples of Bud in a tutu that used to be a WWII submarine.

[Bookworm]

I'd like to point out that you can't really dictate morals to the characters in the strip - at least, not the non-human characters. Morality is a set of guilt complexes that are built by a society to promote or discourage specific behaviors. In the US, our society would generally consider hacking body parts off as punishments to be immoral. In several other cultures, it's the expected punishment for thieves, both to make it harder for them to steal, and to make them more obvious as thieves to those around them.

It's the same with caning, crucifixion, and lots of other punishments. To many warrior cultures, 'might makes right' was more of the way to go. If you ended up killing someone who offended you - well, you took your chances.

It's not "Right" or "Wrong", it's "Different".

[Dave]

Congratulations on an observation/pun/commentary of Epic Proportions! As soon as I can get my hands on a mint condition 1906 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, it's going in the pun vault for ya, buddy!

Thank'ee kindly, sir! I'm sure the Vault will appreciate it!

May I sit in the driver's seat for a few minutes before you envault it? I don't think I've ever even seen a Silver Ghost up close

[Dave]

It's not "Right" or "Wrong", it's "Different".

Good point. For all we know, Phix's action might be just what the sphinxly equivalent of Emily Post would call for under those circumstances...

... and the sphinxes might consider some of our normal, everyday interpersonal behavior conventions to be strange, inferior, barbaric and crude, immoral, etc.

We (speaking of people in the U.S. right now) can't even all agree whether spanking of children (to use one example) is an essential tool in child-rearing, or criminal child abuse, or somewhere in between the two, or where the dividing line actually lies.

[Wapsi]

Sphinx are vicious creatures, and their society is brutal.

(edited by Bookworm. Assumption that Sphinx don't flow slowly)

[Fairportfan]

I can't believe how much rationalization is being used here to justify murder. So she is allowed to kill anyone simply because she has had an especially bad day? She didn't kill a cow or bull, she killed another sentient being

That is what sphinxes do.

Sphinxes killed people for getting a riddle wrong.

Phix killed people for giving the wrong answer.

Unless i'm mistaken, she wound up locked in the Library for millennia partly because she didn't kill someone when she was supposed to.

That. Is. What. Sphinxes. DO.

[Fairportfan]

Sphinx are vicious creatures, and their society is brutal.

(edited by Bookworm. Assumption that Sphinx don't flow slowly)

Ummm - Paul?

Does Shelly's maternal great- grandmother have anything to do with Shelly's preferences in exotic drinks?

[Dave11]

(edited by Bookworm. Assumption that Sphinx don't flow slowly)

The edit comment is full of win and covered in awesomesauce.

[Yamara]

(edited by Bookworm. Assumption that Sphinx don't flow slowly)

The edit comment is full of win and covered in awesomesauce.

True-- but be careful! I hear that awesomesauce has a nasty bite.

[Fairportfan]

(edited by Bookworm. Assumption that Sphinx don't flow slowly)

The edit comment is full of win and covered in awesomesauce.

True-- but be careful! I hear that awesomesauce has a nasty bite.

So do sphinxes.

[Julie]

I'd like to point out that you can't really dictate morals to the characters in the strip - at least, not the non-human characters.

My thoughts exactly.

[Wdot]

I can't believe how much rationalization is being used here to justify murder. So she is allowed to kill anyone simply because she has had an especially bad day? She didn't kill a cow or bull, she killed another sentient being. That's not unlike the shoguns of old. It was immoral then and it is immoral now. Would you be so quick to excuse her actions had she killed a regular, like Kath, for example. She can be really blunt. What if she was talking to Phix and said the wrong thing and was disintegrated for it? I guess that would have been ok too. Who knows what is the wrong thing to say to Phix right now. Heck, she is supposed to be teaching restraint. And she has had thousands of years to prefect that ability yet she still does this? What hope does Shelly have? It wasn't "suicide" and she wasn't protecting anyone or the library. I can't believe I'm alone on this.

I also find this to be a disturbing new trend Paul is taking here.

mur·der   [mur-der] Show IPA
noun
1.
Law . the killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder), and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder).
Phix did not kill a human. Therefore not murder. She is a Sphinx and not bound by our laws or morals What is morally correct and right, has a tendency to change depending on what culture you are presently in. That's just human culture. In case you haven't noticed, Phix is not human, though she plays human on occasion. You might just as well call her an alien. So as I was taught in my Cultural Anthropology class you can't judge a culture by your cultures standards. I don't always like it, because it can lead to moral relativism, but there you have it. Paul does do dark stuff once in a while. That is why I never get upset with his light stuff like some do. It balances out and I like that.

[bmonk]

(edited by Bookworm. Assumption that Sphinx don't flow slowly)

The edit comment is full of win and covered in awesomesauce.

But no molasses. Because then it would be viscous.

[Fairportfan]

(edited by Bookworm. Assumption that Sphinx don't flow slowly)

The edit comment is full of win and covered in awesomesauce.

But no molasses. Because then it would be viscous.

ssssssss

[Bathorys Daughter]

That is what sphinxes do.
Sphinxes killed people for getting a riddle wrong.
Phix killed people for giving the wrong answer.
Unless i'm mistaken, she wound up locked in the Library for millennia partly because she didn't kill someone when she was supposed to.

I'll have to go back and find the comic, but I'm pretty sure Phix did not kill anyone for getting a riddle wrong. As I recall it, she said it was her first day on the job when she shredded the law book and got banished to the Library. I think she said she didn't believe in killing people to get at the demon. Given how brutal the sphinx society is, I'm surprised all she got was banished for letting Nudge get out and not killed by other sphinxes. I guess they needed a new librarian more than they needed to have her killed and eaten.