[2924] "That... That IS selfish!"

[imaginaryfriend]

"Shellfish" says the text below the comic.

[crater]

There is a version of Kat out there who tore through time and space to save Annie. Maybe Robot knows more about this causality loop than others. Kat is fated to kill Robot like Annie is fated to kill Loup.

[arf]

You tell him, Shadow!

[Nika]

I very much agree with Shadow and I feel so bad for him.
I am aware we have known Robot was like this since very early in the comic, but somehow it hadn't quite actually hit me yet and honestly seeing it all laid out like this along with the ridiculous image of Kat as inhuman and Robot's obsession with "being the first to die" makes me dislike Robot quite a lot.
I hope he gets some comeuppance (that doesn't include execution ofc), maybe he can go to therapy or sth idk and I hope Shadow doesn't back down from his new conviction, he really deserves better.

[guntherkrieg]

"Nah fam, if it's all leading to my death and punishment then it all balances out. I'm karmic neutral!"

[philman]

Apr 5, 2024 9:22:15 GMT Nika said:

I very much agree with Shadow and I feel so bad for him.
I am aware we have known Robot was like this since very early in the comic, but somehow it hadn't quite actually hit me yet and honestly seeing it all laid out like this along with the ridiculous image of Kat as inhuman and Robot's obsession with "being the first to die" makes me dislike Robot quite a lot.
I hope he gets some comeuppance (that doesn't include execution ofc), maybe he can go to therapy or sth idk and I hope Shadow doesn't back down from his new conviction, he really deserves better.

I am thinking we may be learning of the reason Robot's chip was in quarantine in the first place when Annie broke it out, and why he is known for all the trouble he causes.

[Igniz]

Robot has been acting shellfishly for a long time now.

Apr 5, 2024 9:22:15 GMT Nika said:

the ridiculous image of Kat as inhuman and Robot's obsession with "being the first to die" makes me dislike Robot quite a lot.

Being a Seraph, fanaticism for "an angel" and prophetizing since a long time before meeting Kat, being branded as a heretic, being disassembled and dumped in a box, being isolated, the extra part in his CPU, obsessed with "being the first to die"...

Does it have to do with Diego, Kat, Robot from the future? I hope we're about to see a big revelation regarding all of this.

[Hatredman]

Apr 5, 2024 7:04:09 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

"Shellfish" says the text below the comic.

Oh my Loup, Tom likes a Granpa Joke now and then, doesn't he?

[morrahadesigns]

Apr 5, 2024 12:55:36 GMT Igniz said:

Robot has been acting shellfishly for a long time now.

Apr 5, 2024 9:22:15 GMT Nika said:

the ridiculous image of Kat as inhuman and Robot's obsession with "being the first to die" makes me dislike Robot quite a lot.

Being a Seraph, fanaticism for "an angel" and prophetizing since a long time before meeting Kat, being branded as a heretic, being disassembled and dumped in a box, being isolated, the extra part in his CPU, obsessed with "being the first to die"...

Does it have to do with Diego, Kat, Robot from the future? I hope we're about to see a big revelation regarding all of this.

I made a comment about boxbot the other day and someone carried it into the wild speculation thread wondering if boxbot was designed to carry all of Diego's shame so the other robots could go on being functional. They all flocked to see Jeanne and carry the "she died and we did nothing" line. But Robot is obsessive. It made me wonder if perhaps Robot was given Diego's obsessive nature, and now that someone has come along who loves robotics the way Diego did the obsessive programming has ramped up tenfold.

[morrahadesigns]

Still feeling tons of sympathy for poor Shadow. I love seeing him speak up like this. I wonder if he's going to give us the moment where he gets through to Robot and we see him shift into a more normal form.

[Hatredman]

We are now [2924] pages deep.

On the "Cool things on reread" thread, we discussed how maybe Robot wants to be a Martyr based on the treatise in [1452]. Weel, it's been 1472 pages and frigging TEN YEARS since that treatise, and now it is finally and officially canon. Talk about foreshadowing!

I'm still craving the closure on the Shadowmen stuff, and how Jeanne and Kat are associated with them. But this part of the story - the Cult of the New People and their Ethet Christ - is absolutely thrilling!

EDIT: I mean Ether Christ.

Link to treatise:
www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1452

[Per]

Typo: "besides" the point

[blahzor]

Apr 5, 2024 13:19:06 GMT Hatredman said:

We are now [2924] pages deep.

On the "Cool things on reread" thread, we discussed how maybe Robot wants to be a Martyr based on the treatise in [1452]. Weel, it's been 1472 pages and frigging TEN YEARS since that treatise, and now it is finally and officially canon. Talk about foreshadowing!

I'm still craving the closure on the Shadowmen stuff, and how Jeanne and Kat are associated with them. But this part of the story - the Cult of the New People and their Ethet Christ - is absolutely thrilling!

Link to treatise:
www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1452

the "moon" on Kat's side could also be the star ocean with the way the lines are on it

[Hatredman]

Apr 5, 2024 14:25:25 GMT blahzor said:

the "moon" on Kat's side could also be the star ocean with the way the lines are on it

Good catch!

I always saw that as the scan lines on a computer monitor or TV, but the Star Ocean makes a lot of sense.

[ctso74]

Personally, I'd be using a different word than "selfish", but yeah.

[Hatredman]

Apr 5, 2024 14:48:47 GMT ctso74 said:

Personally, I'd be using a different word than "selfish", but yeah.

Tom wanted the dad pun.

[Runningflame]

Apr 5, 2024 7:04:09 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

"Shellfish" says the text below the comic.

I laughed out loud when I saw that. (Literally, and for quite a while, not in the LAUGHING ON LINE sense.) I love how Tom can use the page comment to lighten the mood for readers while not undercutting the seriousness of the actual comic at all. Although now I'm wondering whether the choice of barnacles as a visualization for Robot's shame was actually a stealth pun all along...

[pyradonis]

Yeah, you tell him, Shadow!

Apr 5, 2024 14:48:47 GMT ctso74 said:

Personally, I'd be using a different word than "selfish", but yeah.

The way I see it, "selfish" is not the correct word to describe the incorrect assertion that doing bad deeds is okay as long as one gets punished for this. But doing bad deeds to further one's personal goals and inventing a twisted logic to justify them, I think that can be called selfish.

Unless you actually meant to say that you would have used a stronger word, in which case my detour into discussing linguistics was rather pointless.

[Gemminie]

With metallic wings and barnacles in the background now, Annie continues her interruption of Robot's self-pity party to tell him that Kat wouldn't order him executed – she'd be hurt, as Annie is, but she wouldn't see it as a reason to have him killed.

But then Shadow takes a stand! Robot's justifying all the bad things he's done by claiming that his life is worthless, says Shadow, and besides being invalid that is selfish. He's not considering that his life may be worth something to someone else. Robot's been pursuing a course of action that he thinks will get him killed (whether it really would or not) without considering how that would affect Shadow.

Yes, the barnacles are in the lower right corner, right behind Shadow's "That ... that IS selfish!" dialog balloon. And Tom's comment is "Shellfish." Oh dear.

[keef]

Shadow cures Robot's Messiah Complex with three words.

[0xkruzr]

ok. I've been going back and forth over the last ten pages or so and I still can't figure it out. WHAT exactly did Robot do that was so terrible?

[imaginaryfriend]

Apr 6, 2024 6:59:04 GMT 0xkruzr said:

ok. I've been going back and forth over the last ten pages or so and I still can't figure it out. WHAT exactly did Robot do that was so terrible?

Welcome to the forum! Robot was behind the Seraphs' actions back in Chapter 49; they hijacked the cruise for the benefit of and with the avid participation of the cruise ship. People may be forgetting but the Seraphs did physically restrain kids as well as magically bind those with disruptive powers when they ordered Kat to continue her work. The distortion they created was potentially dangerous to kids because of the Nobodies, spooders, and psychological effects of Zimmingham. Robot was then a prominent figure in the rescue mission. I'm waiting for him to finish talking before I critique what he's been saying but he apparently manipulated the beloved Angel to accelerate the robots' Real Boy plan, risked the safety of a bunch of kids, which puts into question what exactly the Angel means to him as opposed to what he's been preaching.

[morrahadesigns]

Apr 6, 2024 10:49:19 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

Apr 6, 2024 6:59:04 GMT 0xkruzr said:

ok. I've been going back and forth over the last ten pages or so and I still can't figure it out. WHAT exactly did Robot do that was so terrible?

Welcome to the forum! Robot was behind the Seraphs' actions back in Chapter 49; they hijacked the cruise for the benefit of and with the avid participation of the cruise ship. People may be forgetting but the Seraphs did physically restrain kids as well as magically bind those with disruptive powers when they ordered Kat to continue her work. The distortion they created was potentially dangerous to kids because of the Nobodies, spooders, and psychological effects of Zimmingham. Robot was then a prominent figure in the rescue mission. I'm waiting for him to finish talking before I critique what he's been saying but he apparently manipulated the beloved Angel to accelerate the robots' Real Boy plan, risked the safety of a bunch of kids, which puts into question what exactly the Angel means to him as opposed to what he's been preaching.

Add to that his continued lying and manipulation in the background this whole time. And doing so KNOWING how harmful and hurtful it was to others. 

[morrahadesigns]

Apr 5, 2024 13:19:06 GMT Hatredman said:

We are now [2924] pages deep.

On the "Cool things on reread" thread, we discussed how maybe Robot wants to be a Martyr based on the treatise in [1452]. Weel, it's been 1472 pages and frigging TEN YEARS since that treatise, and now it is finally and officially canon. Talk about foreshadowing!

I'm still craving the closure on the Shadowmen stuff, and how Jeanne and Kat are associated with them. But this part of the story - the Cult of the New People and their Ethet Christ - is absolutely thrilling!

EDIT: I mean Ether Christ.

Link to treatise:
www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1452

I've always been intrigued that Renard stands with Kat in these images. He is Annie's companion 1000% But he is also bound to the court now. I know it isn't some big mystery or deep plot point to ooh and ah over. But it just always catches the corner of my mind and makes me go "hmm". 

[Runningflame]

Apr 6, 2024 14:10:41 GMT morrahadesigns said:

I've always been intrigued that Renard stands with Kat in these images. He is Annie's companion 1000% But he is also bound to the court now. I know it isn't some big mystery or deep plot point to ooh and ah over. But it just always catches the corner of my mind and makes me go "hmm". 

Your comment made me curious, so I looked at Renard's position in all ten treatises:

• Does not appear: 1, 5, 8
• Opposite Ysengrin: 4, 6, 9
• Opposite Coyote: 2
• On the bridge: 3
• With Paz: 7
• With Annie: 10

So I would conclude that Renard is near Kat not because he's associated with her specifically, but because he's presented as a foil for either Ysengrin or Coyote. That tends to put him on the Court side, since they're obviously on the Forest side. Treatise 3 seems to suggest he has affinities with both the Forest and the Court, while also calling back to the Bridge Incident. Treatise 7 pairing him with Paz is an interesting one. They are sort of opposite from Ysengrin, but it's not a clear correspondence like in the other treatises. Possibly they represent "Annie's companion" and "Kat's companion"? It may also indicate that Renard has gotten comfortable living in the Court. And then of course treatise 10 finally reflects Annie and Renard's familiar bond.

[morrahadesigns]

Apr 7, 2024 17:37:34 GMT Runningflame said:

Apr 6, 2024 14:10:41 GMT morrahadesigns said:

I've always been intrigued that Renard stands with Kat in these images. He is Annie's companion 1000% But he is also bound to the court now. I know it isn't some big mystery or deep plot point to ooh and ah over. But it just always catches the corner of my mind and makes me go "hmm". 

Your comment made me curious, so I looked at Renard's position in all ten treatises:

• Does not appear: 1, 5, 8
• Opposite Ysengrin: 4, 6, 9
• Opposite Coyote: 2
• On the bridge: 3
• With Paz: 7
• With Annie: 10

So I would conclude that Renard is near Kat not because he's associated with her specifically, but because he's presented as a foil for either Ysengrin or Coyote. That tends to put him on the Court side, since they're obviously on the Forest side. Treatise 3 seems to suggest he has affinities with both the Forest and the Court, while also calling back to the Bridge Incident. Treatise 7 pairing him with Paz is an interesting one. They are sort of opposite from Ysengrin, but it's not a clear correspondence like in the other treatises. Possibly they represent "Annie's companion" and "Kat's companion"? It may also indicate that Renard has gotten comfortable living in the Court. And then of course treatise 10 finally reflects Annie and Renard's familiar bond.

Thank you for the research. I have been reading this comic for over ten years now and things get a bit hazy in memory. I agree, when he appears on the court side it is obviously because he does not currently align himself with the forest. 
I don't think he really aligns himself with the court either. He simply is there because Annie is there, and because he doesn't currently agree with what Coyote is doing. I'm willing to bet that if Annie had ever chosen to live in the forest he would be there by her side even without the familiar contract between them. 

[ctso74]

Apr 5, 2024 15:47:26 GMT pyradonis said:

Yeah, you tell him, Shadow!

Apr 5, 2024 14:48:47 GMT ctso74 said:

Personally, I'd be using a different word than "selfish", but yeah.

The way I see it, "selfish" is not the correct word to describe the incorrect assertion that doing bad deeds is okay as long as one gets punished for this. But doing bad deeds to further one's personal goals and inventing a twisted logic to justify them, I think that can be called selfish.

Unless you actually meant to say that you would have used a stronger word, in which case my detour into discussing linguistics was rather pointless.

I was indeed thinking something stronger and more damning, but linguistical detours are rarely pointless.