Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2017-05-06
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2017-05-06

by shaenon on May 6, 2017 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Fun for Some
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Discussion (37) ¬

  1. Towering Barbarian
    May 6, 2017, 12:07 am | # | Reply

    The Baron’s got a point. ^_^

    • D. Walker
      May 6, 2017, 9:41 am | # | Reply

      Too bad it’s an irrelevant one.

      Nick (presumably) isn’t objecting on the grounds of it being weird per se, but rather based on the fact that he simply isn’t interested, and being that Aimee is himself, assumes that she isn’t either (which is highly likely).

      It’d be really bad and pretty sexist writing if Aimee was suddenly inexplicably interested in the Baron when Nick never was, just because Aimee is female. Consider the reverse – if the Baron suddenly became the Baroness, it would be completely out of character for Nick to suddenly become interested out of thin air.

      • Hielario
        May 6, 2017, 1:35 pm | # | Reply

        Don’t you mean “for the baroness to suddenly become interested”?

        • D. Walker
          May 6, 2017, 8:04 pm | # | Reply

          Either or.

          I went with Nick because we’re talking about Aimee, who the comic has beaten us over the head to remind is -IS NICK-, and thus is the personality and set of tastes that primarily is important here.

          If what we know of regular Nick tells us that he wouldn’t want to be in a relationship with a female Baron, why would a female Nick want to be in a relationship with a regular Baron?

          • Nobody
            May 6, 2017, 10:41 pm | #

            Well to be fair, the Baron has been acting a lot less dickish ever since he saw her. So she may have a slightly skewed perception of him.

          • Towering Barbarian
            May 7, 2017, 12:36 am | #

            I referenced Nick’s self-loathing elsewhere because self-loathing people do shun healthy relationships in favor of bad ones quite often so let me offer a more positive reason here. Nick and Baron are friends. They hang out together by choice because they like each other’s company. So quite obviously each is attracted to the personality matrix of the other. This being the case a better question might be why would either *not* think a female version of the other to be attractive? o_O

      • Towering Barbarian
        May 7, 2017, 12:29 am | # | Reply

        “It’d be really bad and pretty sexist writing if Aimee was suddenly inexplicably interested in the Baron when Nick never was, just because Aimee is female.”

        Biological reality is a very sexist thing by definition. ^_^

        “if the Baron suddenly became the Baroness, it would be completely out of character for Nick to suddenly become interested out of thin air.”

        We are talking of someone who has proclaimed his self-loathing nature so I’m not sure you are correct on that one either. And even if that were not the case do not overlook the influence of both glands and pheromones on the way that living creatures, including humans, behave.

        • D. Walker
          May 7, 2017, 3:29 am | # | Reply

          “Biological reality is a very sexist thing by definition.”

          It is blatantly wrong notions like this which cause sexism to persist in the modern age.

          You are confusing the effects of gendered culture and societal behavior conditioning for some sort of instrinsic sexual dimorphism, which is absolutely not the case.

          • Towering Barbarian
            May 7, 2017, 6:16 am | #

            Sure. You bet. Honest. But all the same, the universe does not care what anyone thinks and will continue to not do so. ^_^

        • Hielario
          May 7, 2017, 7:42 am | # | Reply

          Glands and pheromones can’t compensate for the fact that Nick barely stands Baron.

          • Towering Barbarian
            May 7, 2017, 5:13 pm | #

            I dunno about that. They’re gaming buddies and friends and seem to get along pretty well to me though perhaps it is I who am mistaken on this one. Is there a particular comic that caused you to form that impression? o_O

          • bitflipper
            September 13, 2017, 12:29 am | #

            Nick barely stands anyone. That’s one of the things he needs to face and grow out of before he can be happy in a relationship with anyone, like, say, Dr. Lee.

      • jdreyfuss
        January 29, 2020, 1:48 pm | # | Reply

        Not necessarily. Yes, she is a gender swapped clone of Nick, which means she started out essentially as Nick in a (metaphorical) dress, but she’s also been a fully sapient being for however long she has existed independently of him. She may have predilections that he doesn’t.

        Also consider that Nick does seem to genuinely like Baron Mistycorn. Despite his irritating real world persona, Nick has remained friends with him for several years and apparently lets him win at video games.

    • Robert Nowall
      May 6, 2017, 9:54 am | # | Reply

      Maybe a very tall hat…

      • Pygar
        May 7, 2017, 12:07 am | # | Reply

        Yes, someone “got” that!

  2. Clifton
    May 6, 2017, 12:39 am | # | Reply

    I really like Aimee’s pose in panel 1; it reads as, “Stand back, lest I blast you with the power of my Mind!”

    • Nobody
      May 6, 2017, 8:46 am | # | Reply

      Well it IS a Mind-Control hat…

    • Shadowmehr
      May 6, 2017, 8:37 pm | # | Reply

      She is trope-savvy. Aimee’s probably doing it deliberately to emphasize her point to them.

  3. Kyle
    May 6, 2017, 1:15 am | # | Reply

    Hey, the multiplayer is alright. In small doses.

    • Imperator
      May 6, 2017, 2:03 am | # | Reply

      That the multiplayer, of all things, is the highlight of a BioWare game, of all companies, is absolutely heartbreaking.

  4. BarGamer
    May 6, 2017, 1:33 am | # | Reply

    Meh, could be worse. I woulda gone with Skyrim or Fallout 4, at least you can mod those.

    • Anson
      May 6, 2017, 2:40 am | # | Reply

      They could probably mod Mass Effect. I seem to recall Nick making some pretty extensive mods to Mario Kart in an earlier strip.

      • Trivena
        May 6, 2017, 11:59 pm | # | Reply

        Aimee’s only based on his personality, though. She doesn’t have the extensive wetware interface that gives him that control.

        I mean, she could probably mod it anyway, but not the same way he does.

  5. Freezer (@allhailfreezer)
    May 6, 2017, 3:33 am | # | Reply

    So which Mass Effect would be “new” to Aimee?

    • D. Walker
      May 6, 2017, 10:29 am | # | Reply

      That’s an interesting point. How old is the “backup” of Nick that they used to make Aimee? And how much of his memories does she possess?

      Does Aimee have memories of, and an inexplicable attraction to, a certain Dr. Lee whom she has never actually met? Does Aimee know about Skin Horse? How far back do or don’t the memories go?

      I find it a bit hard to imagine that Aimee could have been created without any of Nick’s memories being involved. Lifting only a person’s personality by itself seems unlikely to work, because inventing a different past which meshes with that personality’s quirks would be really difficult. The first bit of self reflection would expose flaws that couldn’t be reconciled, and might even drive one mad.

    • Moor
      May 7, 2017, 9:26 am | # | Reply

      I mean, I assume Mass Effect 3, because it’s only being used for this one joke…

      On that topic: was Mass Effect specifically picked to reflect any larger themes and/or foreshadowing of the story? (She didn’t need to pick Mass Effect, after all. No Man’s Sky would have still worked with the joke, and also [second-hand spoiler alert] gone with the theme of virtualization and simulated reality.)

      Like, are the Reapers standing in parallel to some sort of organization that we have yet to meet? What are the chances she’s foreshadowing by referencing the Indoctrination Theory or something? (Probably some other thing — I haven’t played Mass Effect…)

      • waytoomanyUIDs
        May 10, 2017, 5:47 am | # | Reply

        Mass Effect Andromeda. It’s apparently kinda pants, worse than Mass Effect 3.

        • The Crimson F*cker
          May 15, 2017, 7:21 pm | # | Reply

          That’s still a very high bar, considering how good ME3 was.

  6. Anson
    May 6, 2017, 5:27 am | # | Reply

    …Baron’s a robot/AI, and one created by a prudish corporation. Why does he have a freak to get on in the first place?

    • Daibhid C
      May 6, 2017, 6:09 am | # | Reply

      Whimsy was also a madboy. If one of his creations didn’t have not-entirely-logical goals that go against the very purpose for which he made them, it would be weird.

      • s854
        May 6, 2017, 9:16 am | # | Reply

        If Baron’s statements about what you can do in skin-horse.com/comic/pull-the-intake/ are correct, there’s more than just his personality standing in the way of whatever it is he wants to do.

  7. Robert Nowall
    May 6, 2017, 9:55 am | # | Reply

    A non-weird way to get his freak on. But isn’t that true of pretty much everybody in “Skin Horse?”

  8. commodorejohn
    May 6, 2017, 12:35 pm | # | Reply

    This is oddly reminiscent of my own internal debate at times.

  9. casimir
    May 6, 2017, 7:57 pm | # | Reply

    You know, it used to be that I could count on the good people at Skin Horse/Narbonic to bring me my daily dose of madscience, conspiracy, and world domination. Now I find them veering off into themes of inter-entity relationships and getting one’s freak on. All I can say is…keep up the good work.

  10. Persona
    May 6, 2017, 11:01 pm | # | Reply

    Wait, Baron is purple?

    • Robert Nowall
      May 7, 2017, 6:51 pm | # | Reply

      Well, they’ve already had a character named Violet…

  11. Knuckles
    February 3, 2022, 12:05 pm | # | Reply

    I always thought Baron was more blue-ish than purple.

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