Not his wishes: Nick has made it clear he thinks of himself as a cyborg nowadays, and was offended when his psychic overseer made his mental image take on human form.
Okay, this is probably just my own personal problem, and I don’t believe casimir or Towering Barbarian intended their comments to be read this way, but I have to say that, as the person who added Nick to the TV Tropes “Sci-fi metaphors for being trans” page, all this “Hey, maybe he’s realising he’d be happier in the body he was born with after all” stuff makes me super unforfortable. Sorry.
Be neither uncomfortable nor unforfortable. I’m just floundering around trying on reasons that Nick showed up as his former self. Any and all are welcome and valid. Only Shaenon, Jeff, and Time will tell.
Even if we are to assume that Shaenon and Jeff intended for Nick’s situation to be a parallel for transgender(-ism? -ness? what’s the appropriate suffix?), the possibility that he manifests as a human as a form of wish fulfillment doesn’t necessarily contradict this.
Compare Tip: he dresses in a conventionally female fashion, but neither considers himself female nor expresses any wish to be. His attire does not determine who he is as an individual, he’s just more ‘forfortable’ in dresses and suchlike.
Ooh, I’m going to have to check out that TVtropes page. It’s not a perfect matchup, but I tend to view Nick’s situation as a metaphor for being trans* too. There are some definite, if strange, similarities. Of course, I also tend to view Tip as genderqueer. It’s nice for me to find characters I can identify with, even if it might not be intentional on the authors’ part.
Sounds about right to me. Let’s hope that this experience helps Nick become more comfortable with having a human body once more so that he and Ginny can get together. ^_^
Rachel: Neither do jeans or t-shirts with logos on them. I wouldn’t have guessed “knight” for Lovelace with the weapon-but-no-metal-armour thing, but Baron’s the expert.
The next question is, though, can either of them ride a unicorn?
And in fairness to Pliny he was doing his best to sift a lot of information at second and third hand. There were a few occasions when he was skeptical about things that turned out to be true as well but all in all he did a decent job.
He also got the catoblepas a bit wrong. Real catoblepases look NOTHING like how he described them, and they can turn the gorgon-stare on and off at will.
Yeah, it looks like the area below the line to the left of Lovelace’s headband was intended to be light blue, but got colored as part of the background.
Which is another company’s product using licensed characters. Whimsy would still have to license it from the SQENIX analogue before they could use the property, and that’s unlikely to have happened this early in development.
I could have sworn Shaenon did a colored doodle of him with curly red hair long, long before the colorization of the main comic. Might be my bad memory.
I’m disappointed. I would have bet that Nick would look at least a little like an iron golem, if not a full hunter/killer drone. How exactly does a gamer geek fit into this setting?
Perhaps, seeing as Aimee’s brain was patterned off of Nick’s, his attire is just made to fit how he saw himself when the copy was made (i.e. pre-helicopter). Or also how Aimee sees herself, by extension.
Makes me wonder what Aimee looks like! Also always nice to see human Nick again 🙂
woah woah, why’d nick virtual body turn human!!
Whimseyworld makes wishes come true.
Not his wishes: Nick has made it clear he thinks of himself as a cyborg nowadays, and was offended when his psychic overseer made his mental image take on human form.
That may be true of his mental self-image, but in his heart of hearts I think he would rather be able to hold Dr. Lee in his human arms.
Or a human being shows emotions better than a helicopter. Helicopters are rather lacking in showing expression department, even cute, adorable ones.
Yes, but that’s the only reason he would want to be human again, and she’s not here, is she?
Okay, this is probably just my own personal problem, and I don’t believe casimir or Towering Barbarian intended their comments to be read this way, but I have to say that, as the person who added Nick to the TV Tropes “Sci-fi metaphors for being trans” page, all this “Hey, maybe he’s realising he’d be happier in the body he was born with after all” stuff makes me super unforfortable. Sorry.
Apparently, so uncomfortable (or “unforfortable”), I can’t even write coherently or notice a red line under a word…
Be neither uncomfortable nor unforfortable. I’m just floundering around trying on reasons that Nick showed up as his former self. Any and all are welcome and valid. Only Shaenon, Jeff, and Time will tell.
Meanwhile, in Purgatory, where everyone is Jesus…
Nick isn’t trans. He’s a helicopter. Being trans would actually make you LESS weird by Skin Horse standards.
Even if we are to assume that Shaenon and Jeff intended for Nick’s situation to be a parallel for transgender(-ism? -ness? what’s the appropriate suffix?), the possibility that he manifests as a human as a form of wish fulfillment doesn’t necessarily contradict this.
Compare Tip: he dresses in a conventionally female fashion, but neither considers himself female nor expresses any wish to be. His attire does not determine who he is as an individual, he’s just more ‘forfortable’ in dresses and suchlike.
Ooh, I’m going to have to check out that TVtropes page. It’s not a perfect matchup, but I tend to view Nick’s situation as a metaphor for being trans* too. There are some definite, if strange, similarities. Of course, I also tend to view Tip as genderqueer. It’s nice for me to find characters I can identify with, even if it might not be intentional on the authors’ part.
Wild guess? Helicopters don’t fit the medieval milieu.
Sounds about right to me. Let’s hope that this experience helps Nick become more comfortable with having a human body once more so that he and Ginny can get together. ^_^
Rachel: Neither do jeans or t-shirts with logos on them. I wouldn’t have guessed “knight” for Lovelace with the weapon-but-no-metal-armour thing, but Baron’s the expert.
The next question is, though, can either of them ride a unicorn?
It may also be that as the only organic human mind of the trio, the system sees Nick as a guest, rather than a cast member.
LOL. Someone else worked for Disney?
+1
In a medieval fantasy setting, ‘heavily armed intelligent flying transport’ should translate to ‘dragon’. But there was a dragon in the last story.
I can think of one thing about this that would make Nick happy. Tell him to check inside his pants.
Make that two things. See if he can swear.
If Aimee is based on Nick,she could look like Nick with “chesticles”
If the Computer Gawds are nice she’ll look like Dr. Lee.
They may not look any more alike than Tip and Boob-Tip did. We’ll see.
Actually Nick, the Baron is really a rhino. ^_^
https://www.wired.com/2015/02/fantastically-wrong-unicorn/
And in fairness to Pliny he was doing his best to sift a lot of information at second and third hand. There were a few occasions when he was skeptical about things that turned out to be true as well but all in all he did a decent job.
He also got the catoblepas a bit wrong. Real catoblepases look NOTHING like how he described them, and they can turn the gorgon-stare on and off at will.
Seems to be a coloring error on panel 3: it makes it look like Baron Mistycorn is some sort of weird armless biped with teeny feet.
Yeah, it looks like the area below the line to the left of Lovelace’s headband was intended to be light blue, but got colored as part of the background.
Yeah, there’s a thick line there. Definitely a character outline.
Hopefully it’ll get fixed before the book version…
Yay! She fixed it!!!
I was expecting the Baron as a proper unicorn. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting Nick to look like, but “ordinary human Nick” wasn’t it.
Baron IS a proper unicorn. Proper medieval unicorns are tall, willowy goats with lion tails and one less horn.
I was hoping for Princess Nick again.
I’m guessing Aimee is Princess Nick.
That would be something awesome
Shirt: Kid Icarus?
Cue the Girins attempting to eat Nick’s face?
If the Baron keeps this up, Nick may turn this story into The Late Unicorn.
Maybe it’s based on one of those”sent to another world” stories.
Is Baron M a boy unicorn or a girl unicorn?
Male fersher. The Baron is stoked. He’s gone from plushy to studly.
Well, except for the beard, he doesn’t look particularly macho…
I don’t get what everyone’s so worried about. All they did was stop playing Whimsey Infinities and start playing Schmingdom Hearts.
Which is another company’s product using licensed characters. Whimsy would still have to license it from the SQENIX analogue before they could use the property, and that’s unlikely to have happened this early in development.
Nick’s a virgin?
Maybe he’s one of the 144,000.
He does hang out with a unicorn.
Also, Dr. Lee stole his junk.
She also took his heart. 😛
I thought Nick was a ginger for some reason.
Well, his VR image has appeared a few times before now…even in the living color sequences…
You’re not alone in that. I think Nick might have first appeared before the strip was in color. I’ve permanently headcanonized him as a ginger.
I could have sworn Shaenon did a colored doodle of him with curly red hair long, long before the colorization of the main comic. Might be my bad memory.
I’m disappointed. I would have bet that Nick would look at least a little like an iron golem, if not a full hunter/killer drone. How exactly does a gamer geek fit into this setting?
Besides the obvious, thank you.
Perhaps, seeing as Aimee’s brain was patterned off of Nick’s, his attire is just made to fit how he saw himself when the copy was made (i.e. pre-helicopter). Or also how Aimee sees herself, by extension.