Standing Her Ground 2013-01-15

[TlalocW]

I think what some of us - okay... you - aren't considering is that the panels of yesterday and today's comic are happening within milliseconds of each other. Monica perhaps poited in front of the vamps while Phix was coming out of her "wind-up." Monica saw it coming (initial fear); Monica realizes she can take it (stiff-upper lip), and pow (splortch). On Phix's hand/claw, she was already out of her wind-up and about to make contact with the vamps and couldn't stop her swing in the space of time Monica poited in, went through her horror and stiff-upper lip expressions, and took the punch.

Or perhaps I'm wrong.

My thoughts/questions on this are:
1. Lilly got some Monica in her mouth. Suzie perhaps did as well. She at least got some on her cheek, and it's probably common nature for a vampire (no matter how restrained they are) to just lick it off. What happens to vampires when they consume Phoenix blood/Jaguar Girl blood? (Personally, I'm hearing the Popeye's spinach-eating theme music)
2. It's about time for Monica to "upgrade." She apparently nicked herself shaving on New Years Eve (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/monica-new-year/) so she's got a scar (small scratch) to heal through regeneration.
3. Naked Monica time!

[Dave]

This one is a gory episode, but in my opinion not as bad as Bud punching M's heart out. Anyone else feel that way, why or why not?

The two incidents are different enough that I'm having trouble comparing them on a straightforward good/bad/worse axis, and we don't yet know what this one is all about.

Bud's sucker-punch-to-the-heart was deliberate, calculated, very intentional, and intended for a speciic purpose... to shock Monica out of her denial. Bud saw it as part of her assigned duty ("tough love" of a sort) and knew that it wouldn't actually damage Monica. (Well, actually, she was only kinda somewhat mostly sure of this... she was taking Shelly's word for it to some extent). It was still a somewhat risky thing to do (Monica had never actually regenerated from death before), it was very manipulative (its only purpose was to rattle Monica's state of mind) and Monica resented the hell out of it afterwards for these reasons.

What Phix just did... we really don't know the "why" of this. We don't know if this is yet another training koan etched in blood, or a very genuine rage on Phix's part (and, if the latter, why Phix hates vampires so much). We don't know for sure that Phix actually was knowingly directing that blow at Monica, or whether M just get in the way of a vampire-shredding swipe. We don't know if this is some sort of setup by Brandi, or (if so) whether Tsillah was in on it or was just duped into inviting the vampires to the Library.

M's death here could have real meaning (genuinely intervening to save two vampires from being genuinely slaughtered by a genuinely furious sphinx, in an attack nobody saw coming) or it could be yet another manipulative sucker-punch.

If this is "real", then it's "less bad" than what Bud did, in a way (it wasn't cynically manipulative, and Monica might just possibly have saved two not-entirely-evil vampires). But, it would be "more bad" because of what it would say about Phix, her rage, how much her rage can control her, and what this will mean for her relationship with Monica and the others.

There. Glad to clarify situation. Zathras would not want you to be confoosed.

[Anubis]

Wonder what happened to Monica's instinctive poit-defense powers? Considering they were able to poit away bullets, explosions, and shrapnel in the past, why didn't it defend against Phix's paw here?

I suspect that Monica intentionally did not poit to evade the strike - she took it, full on. Now... for whom the meesage behind this display of fortitude is for? The Vampires? Phix? An final act of acceptance of her new status on the supernatural totem pole? Who knows?

I want to think perhaps its a little of All of the Above...

[sheik]

Unless I missed something here in the posts, I seems to me that this just may be an impromptu act to impress the "shitty mosquitoes".
Next come the riddles while Monica reconstitutes.

[sonicthunder]

Except that Brandi is now the boss of our vamps...and she seems to also be working in conjunction with Tsillah...which puts M as a not-yet-aware-of-it member of the MiB squad Brandi runs...

Tsillah said she was sent to serve as M's liason by her father Charon ( http://wapsisquare.com/comic/your-liason/ ) and that she's a member of the MiB ( http://wapsisquare.com/comic/you-guys/ ). Tsillah and by extension the vamps seem to be assigned as support personnel for Monica. Again, that could support either case for Brandi. If Brandi is fully aware, Tsillah and company can be Brandi assigning additional support to Monica due to her awakening. If Brandi is intentionally forcing herself not to know, Tsillah and company can just be assigned to substitute for Brandi as M's support.

As Euryale said a while back, the MiB is aware of and cleans after Monica, but between her power over MiB's founding members (Bud and Brandi) and Monica's own abilities, the MiB just lets Monica do her thing. Using Tsillah to indirectly assign Monica (Brandi's inherent boss) to a squad that answers to Brandi seems counterproductive and doomed to fail.

... so she should be well aware of what's going on right now (at least to an extent...she might not know that this introduction was going to happen in the Library).

This depends on how much Tsillah has informed Brandi of her plan by this point. It seems a rule of thumb in Wapsisquare for EVERY character to enact their plan first, then explain/brag/apologize after the fact under the pretense "you wouldn't have believed/followed me if I told you the plan beforehand". Why should Tsillah treat Brandi any different?

[MrFireDragon]

Anyone else think M is going to lose her head after this?

I mean, me on her situation, I would be out of my mind....

And I wonder if that is going to leave a mark.... at least a pounding headache I bet.

this panel really blew my mind away....


"ploop, ploop, ploop".... drops 3 coin shaped pieces of brain to the pun jar....

[Dave]

And I wonder if that is going to leave a mark.... at least a pounding headache I bet.

this panel really blew my mind away....

I have a piece of brain stuck in my head... oh my head hurts!

(John Cleese, in Monty Python's "Gumby Theatre")

[bmonk]

I have to admit, my first thought was of bad 4th-grade leper jokes: Why did the lepers stop their hockey game? There was a face off in the corner.

Drops a goaltender's mask and a hockey puck in the pun jar for a couple of the stinkers here.

[shadowinthelight]

Too bad the Bibliothiki appears to be self cleaning. It would be fun to see Phix and Nudge arguing like this. (nsfw)

[thecoffeeguru]

<Blink>

I think I am in the camp that thinks this was an accident. If you go back a page you can see Phix already raising her paw. Then Monica poits infront of the Vamps. Then Monica..... loses face.

[BikerScum]

There is one thing I'm absolutely certain of.....

I have no idea what's going to happen in tomorrow's strip, no idea how this will resolve.

And that's what keeps me reading every day.

[displaced]

I'm not exactly sure what I'm seeing here but it was a shock. Monica definitely did not poit out of the way on purpose. I'm personally under the impression that she thought she could stop Phix. It didn't happen. I'm now under the impression that she will see Phix as an animal and will NOT be angry about it. She may be upset by Phix's behavior but no more upset than anyone else would be upset with their dog. we will see.

[Fairportfan]

<Blink>

I think I am in the camp that thinks this was an accident.

An accident on Phix's part? Yes.

On Monica's part? No way.

This is the girl who poited bullets away after they'd pierced her clothing but before they had time to do more than slightly burn her skin. Without knowing she was doing it.

This is the girl who twice instinct-poited herself and Jin out from in front of two massive explosions, one of them that happened about six inches from her face with no warning. (Well, no warning someone as drunk as she was could perceive, anyway.)

The only way it happened is because Monica, for some reason, consciously let it happen.

Unless Paul comes up with a reason it doesn't work that way at all.

[Kingmaker]

<Blink>

I think I am in the camp that thinks this was an accident.

An accident on Phix's part? Yes.

On Monica's part? No way.

This is the girl who poited bullets away after they'd pierced her clothing but before they had time to do more than slightly burn her skin. Without knowing she was doing it.

This is the girl who twice instinct-poited herself and Jin out from in front of two massive explosions, one of them that happened about six inches from her face with no warning. (Well, no warning someone as drunk as she was could perceive, anyway.)

The only way it happened is because Monica, for some reason, consciously let it happen.

Unless Paul comes up with a reason it doesn't work that way at all.

She has a "spider sense"... Or a Jaguar sense.

Maybe she is just in tune with the force and can see just that far ahead in the future instinctively?

[jwhouk]

First of all - Going back to yesterday, it appears that Monica didn't just poit in front of the vampirettes - she poited them out of the way and herself into the direct "line of fire" of Phix.

And yes, today's very gory strip was essentially the slo-mo instant replay. I bet Phix never even saw the sudden poit-out of the Vamps as she took her swipe.

Doesn't make it any less gory, though.

Secondly - We've bandied about the thoughts of "what happens if vampires taste Phoenix Blood?" I have the thought that instead of it turning them into Super Vamps, they turn into... normal people. IOW - demi-titans like Monica. Can't be killed, but aren't "undead bloodsuckers".

Third - What does this mean for Phix, anyways? Banning her to live in the snowy climes of Minneapolis for a decade or two, and limiting her access to only the annex on Stevens?

[Fairportfan]

Third - What does this mean for Phix, anyways? Banning her to live in the snowy climes of Minneapolis for a decade or two, and limiting her access to only the annex on Stevens?

Wedding bells for Monica's boss?

[DilyV]

I almost cried... I was like WTF?????

I think its safe to say Lily and Suze need to change their britches....

Phix is probably out of her head right about now.

Dily

[jwhouk]

So's Monica.

[TlalocW]

Remember how this merging of separate storylines all began - with Monica playfully trying to fart rainbows?

Oh, it seemed a more innocent time then. I remember children playing more, and people laughing and singing.

Now it's all extreme heart surgery and face-slicing...



TlalocW

[Lee M]

Monica may have stood her ground, but she did lose face nonetheless.

THE PUN JAR DEMANDED IT, I TELL YOU! BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!