AWKWARD ZOMBIE

You would have to be the worst person ever to bomb a chocolate factory.

I didn't think we were actually fighting per se. I wasn't trying to force you to like it, and I am sorry if it came across that way; I just wanted you to see there are two sides to the coin.

Quite a memorable scene is here:

My friend got me into Ozy and Millie, and I find it adorable and pretty witty. I haven't finished it, but I like it so far.

Raine Dog, we talked about the symbolism here with this strip. And I understand what she's trying to say about it.
Which doesn't really make it less creepy.

"Everybody must disappoint my parents."

However complicated, a completely idiotic way to make a story go on.

He could have made his brother SAVE her from being raped or executed in a multitude of ways, but he saves her by RAPING HER?
Goddamn, how ever you put it, it's disturbing.

It's a very insensitive outlook to think "on exceptional times rape can totally save lives dur hur".
Rape DESTROYS lives. No matter the intention. Especially since this girl was, what, 14?
Whatever reason you have to like this story is fine by me, but trying to justify that whole rape issue really disturbs me.

Also, yiffyiffyiff

And it did.
...you did actually read the story, right? You're not just commenting on the non-descript things other people said, right?


We're not trying to say "rape is good", or anything like that, we're trying to say "rape exists, you shouldn't just pretend it doesn't". Using rape as a plot point isn't some big evil thing to do in a story!

Well, it's not meant to justify rape in anyway, its a back setting to how corruption effects innocent lives and how those lives can carry on after growing up too fast. There was corruption within both tribes and the innocent children were exploited out of nothing more than amusement and an attempt to teach the boy a lesson in knowing his place. ((They didn't expect him to go trough with it, but they didn't find any negative repercussions that he did, a win/win for them.)) The leaders knew that it would come to this and did nothing to stop it; this is the "true" crime, ((I say true crime because that is what Mookie was conveying all along, again, no justification for rape.)) The-hero-comes-to-save-the-day case is nonexistent in this scenario, and to play any part of it to the effect would be contrived as all hell. There was no Deus Ex Machina to save her, or him for that matter, from their fate. ((She's an only child by the by, so no "brother" could have helped.))

Now when you put it that way, I understand the concept and the meaning behind to whole mess a little more.

But I seriously don't understand why he made them fall in love.

They didn't, really. Melsheena, the girl in question, just had to get it off her chest about it all. After her exile, Stonewater was forced to go on with his life and he has a love of his own. Melsheena "fell in love" with him because he respected and upheld the rights and laws of her deceased father, who would be seen as their Solomon from a biblical sense, which included treating women as equals, something the other tribes refused to believe in. So it was a father issue in the end, more than an actual love story on either end.

Rape is a storytelling taboo if ever there was one. There are precious few settings where it could be considered appropriate, and even then it's nearly impossible to pull it off well. Even experienced authors prefer to stay away, and yet these people who write webcomic stories seem to love it. Is it really worth the attention?

Actually, judging from what I've seen, it isn't worth enough attention by itself. Pedophilia and cancer also seem to be rather popular with the webcomic crowd, for some incomprehensible reason.

It really depends on your reading preference, as attempted rape is prevalent in almost all the horror/suspense/thriller novels I read in. But I wholeheartedly agree that it is taboo, which is what intrigues most people about it. Like looking a car wreck going down the highway; you can't help but turn your head and look even if its out of disgust worry or malignity.

They think they're being "serious business" and "heartfelt" when they talk about taboo topics like that, when they probably don't have much experience with it and tend to make the whole idea fall flat on it's face when applied to a comic.



Now I'm seeing things a bit more clearly although I'm still partial to the idea that it's silly to make her fall in love with him.

Which is probably why the idea didn't fly, so to speak. It had hints here and there, but then it went on a completely different turn instead of having a love triangle or something indeed silly happening to them.

Well I read Raine Dog anyway, because I'm a sucker for metaphor comics.

It's certainly not bad... but it's not any good either. The whole metaphor simply does not work; there's absolutely no way that, if animals were sapient, they'd still be treated the same way. At worst, they'd be treated as slaves, not as perfectly regular animals (and a metaphor of being a slave would have been far better).
Plus, dogs aren't given vegetarian diets... because it's unnatural? Yeah, you can see that the metaphor is just ridiculous now.

And someone needs to tell Batbro that bestiality does not refer to facebattling an anthropomorphic animal!