Let's see here... Point by point...TheOtherOne wrote:Yep, as I thought. Paul's going for ratings. When someone does that they go either of two ways (or both). Sex or/and slaughter. Paul has done the sex thing to death lately, so he's changing gears and going for slaughter. It seems guards come out of the woodwork in these things. And they are always totally inept. They just stand there waiting to be attacked instead of spraying bullets right off. Do they ever get any actual training? Doesn't seem like it. One would think they would be paranormals in this case, but they appear to be the usual ineffective humans. Makes you wonder why guys sign up for that sort of "work". And, of course, there will be the "workers" to kill as well. There is usually no shortage of soon-to-be-dead bodies in these situations. And, of course, to really do the job, reader wise, the killings have to be gruesome to boot. No simple being shot will do. Still, you got to wonder, why isn't she using a gun? And why don't the guards have a helmet capable of withstanding a blade? But then they never do. Like the total body armor in Star Wars. It does no good whatsoever. Why wear it?
Gotta wonder if this is a suicide mission though. What happens when she presses the "button?" Could be everyone dies regardless so she just hurries things up for some. And will hubby show up at just the right moment to save her life? That's what also usually happens. At the least, pick up the mantle and finish what she started.
Stay tuned fans, the action has just started.
1. Paul's going for Ratings: So? Isn't that the idea behind these webcomics? Why read them if there isn't some action every now and again? Would you read a book about the minute to minute, day to day goings on of say, your own life?
2. Paul has done the sex thing to death lately: Not so. I'm not sure Paul has really addressed the sex thing much in this Comic... Specific references I can remember... Mon straddling Kevin with her pixie haircut, Shelly talking about banging the brains out of her boy toy... Sexual situations but not exactly sex includes Mon and Jet's kiss and Atsali kissing both Nadette and Berdine. All of this was spread out over fifteen years of strip so far. As far as I can remember, there has been no overt sex in this strip.
3. Badguys being totally inept: That's a standard foil for light hearted stories like this that include this kind of action... The baddies in Austin Powers and yes, even Star Wars have gotten this treatment. To be honest, if I were the Empire in Star Wars, I'd go back to Clone Troopers... they were much better trained. I'll address the Storm Trooper's armor here as well... it's not meant to be ARMOR... it's meant to be scary and intimidating...
(Joke... A Star Wars Storm Trooper and a Star Trek Redshirt shoot at each other... do either survive? Of course not! The Redshirt always hits something before he dies (and he always dies), and the last thing through the Storm Troopers mind (before the phaser blast) is "wow... I finally hit something!")
4. Leucoisa is an adult Siren. As a Paranormal, she has survival instincts hard wired into her genome. Throughout the ages, Paras have had to defend themselves when stumbled upon by outside (norm) entities. Depending on her age, maybe the knife is what she's best trained at fighting with. Remember Obi-Wan's disgust at having to use the blaster to kill General Grievous. "So uncivilized." When you've been trained since child hood to use a blade (light saber or otherwise) guns would seem uncivilized... though I assume she is well versed in their use.
5. Young Atsali was told to go in the family room and push the red button and read her books... I'm not so sure that red button is a kill all scenario. It sounds an awful lot like a safe room to me... the red button activation seals the room, protecting Atsali while leaving mom to deal with the nastiness outside. Granted, this does feel like a suicide mission on Leucoisa's part, but she's not going down without a fight. In the words of one of the A-Team sergeants describing Captain Nihm's death in camp A-107 in the movie The Green Berets: "He didn't make it but he took a lot of 'em with him."
There has been violence in this strip from time to time... Mon's "Face Off" Bia shredding some Egyptian looking dude's guards, Phix eating Medea and Phix discussing taking Shelly our for a "rack'o'ribs"... Paras aren't annoying little shits like tinkerbell in Peter Pan... they tend to be alpha predators. Civilized Alpha Predators, but capable of horrible things when pushed to it.
IMO, Paul does a really good job of balancing the different aspects of the story. Sometimes it gets a little long in the tooth, but there is the limitation of telling a story in strip form that sometimes takes a long time to get everything across that you feel is important in the story. In the end, it all fits and you've had fun along the way. Look at Grrlpower... That's been going on a few years yet only two days or so have passed in the strip. (Loves me some Harem... hehehe)
) is that Paul had a lot of this basic plot sequence roughed out in his head long ago... perhaps even before Atsali was first introduced over three years ago.
) is an always ongoing thing, renewing each month, so it can't be that (particularly since you would want to take advantage of all the votes you can, by starting such a story arc near the beginning of the month, I think). So what else is there? Is there some sort of Spring Ratings Sweep somewhere, or something? That just don't make sense to me. 
