I recently finished rereading Le Morte d’Artur, which is where the comment came from. Lancelot accounts for more deaths of Knights of the Round Table than (I think) *every other source put together* named in the book.
… Also, are the Jersey Devils intelligent? I thought they were ‘non-sentient but not malicious unless provoked’, which isn’t quite the same thing.
Ah, fair enough then, I didn’t realise that. (Never actually read La Morte all the way through; thought I’d got the highlights from other sources.)
You’re probably right about the Jersey Devils; I had a vague idea they’d communicated with the cobras, but no. And of course, all the knights of the Table went hunting harmless creatures all the time.
Agreed. For all we know that is precisely what he is and his employment by the government is merely a “Suicide Squad” type of thing. There’s little in his conduct that would preclude such a view. @_@
I don’t know, the Red Knight strikes me more as Chaotic Neutral (willing to work for a ostensibly good goal, but wants to do it his way, rather than by-the-book, and not too concerned with morality otherwise) to Dr. Lee’s Lawful Neutral (works within a large agency, prefers to follow the rules whenever possible, and doesn’t question the morality of her organization).
And if we’re going to frame this in D&D terms, let’s not go into how the Red Knight (demigoddess of Oerth, patroness of strategy and chessmistress) would react to this yahoo stealing her name.
So I can’t understand why Red Knight is so evil. Can someone explain it?
I mean, he’s a jerk, and has been this entire time, ever since we first saw him. But jerkdom does not equal ‘must be destroyed’, especially not ‘must be horribly killed’… what has he actually done other than ‘defend himself against attacks’, and then continue doing this when told he was defending himself against attacks by mind-controlled, apparently non-intelligent beasts, not evil monsters?
When the character was first introduced he was portrayed as having killed unarmed nonvenomous lizards with the intention of reporting to his superiors that the lizards were armed and venomous. Given the capabilities of his weaponry and the probable strength of his armor (an upgrade from that which just protected Virginia from a blast that ripped Hitty open), this was the equivalent of mass murder in the Skin Horse universe. I’m still hoping the real Jersey Devil eats him.
I’m… not entirely sure why that was the equivalent of mass murder?
I mean, killing / beating up (I don’t remember if it was ambiguous) nonsentient animals is bad, sure. But I thought they were nonsentient animals. Were we ever told that they were sentient people-animals? Did we see them talking? I assumed they were ‘just animals, not people’ and saw that as ‘slacking off on the job’ and ‘being a jerk’, not ‘an act of ruthless evil that makes you hope the real Jersey Devil eats him.’
To me, “being a jerk” isn’t an adequate description for someone who kills things for fun, and appears to have no regard for the feelings of those around him.
Unfortunately, he works for an organisation where they don’t question that sort of behaviour.
Ehh… the idea of someone who enjoys *fighting* for fun, even fighting lethally, is pretty common. Unity is a clear example of a character where that’s played for laughs as a minor, excusable flaw, despite the fact that her body count is enormously higher than his is. And I would use the term ‘is a jerk’ to mean ‘has no regard for the feelings of those around him.’ Just in a straightforward ‘yeah, that’s about the meaning of the word’ sense.
The things Unity is reported to have done get quite a lot worse than anything she is actually shown doing. Even with the mirror Unity in the last chapter, you could get some insight into why she chose to do the things she did. Not so with this guy.
There is no karma police in any case, so we’ll just have to see what happens.
Talking cobras. Talking lions, tigers, birds, squirrels, hamsters, gerbils, bears ,pandas and zombies. Talking swamps. Skin horse universe. It is OK if a character has a funny approach to mayhem, like Mell or UNITY. This guy strikes me as not so much funny. So he should be eaten. Or maybe not. Maybe he becomes funny later. Right now he is too lopsided. I don,’t see him saying “have at you robot” and taking on a huge machine gun firing robot with his bare hands just to get Dave’s car back.
He’s actually still a lot better than Lancelot.
Which version?
Probably means the original.
Young Percival fresh out of his ghast forest doesn’t look a lot better either. RK hasn’t taken any ring nor kiss from her, still.
Eh, Lancelot was the greatest knight of his generation, with but one sin on his conscience. (Of course, that one was a doozy…)
Anyway, he never attacked a group of intelligent creatures after being told talking to them was an option, that I remember.
I recently finished rereading Le Morte d’Artur, which is where the comment came from. Lancelot accounts for more deaths of Knights of the Round Table than (I think) *every other source put together* named in the book.
… Also, are the Jersey Devils intelligent? I thought they were ‘non-sentient but not malicious unless provoked’, which isn’t quite the same thing.
Ah, fair enough then, I didn’t realise that. (Never actually read La Morte all the way through; thought I’d got the highlights from other sources.)
You’re probably right about the Jersey Devils; I had a vague idea they’d communicated with the cobras, but no. And of course, all the knights of the Table went hunting harmless creatures all the time.
Hey, Lance tried his best. (Mostly.) It’s not his fault he was born as the chivalric version of the Hulk.
Don’t think we haven’t noticed that there still hasn’t been a camera angle showing off the skimpy metal briefs.
Shaenon is probably making a nice Sunday or desktop image… she knows us so well, yet somehow still likes us…
I’m sure it will be worth the wait. And the fact that Shaenon and Jeff put up with us shows their great characters.
Their great characters being: Sweetheart, Tip, UNITY, Ginny, Konstantin, Gavotte, Moustachio, Hitty …
I can still read by my sunny optimism that some fan service awaits, but I have to wear reading glasses.
I love the classics, I just prefer the instant variety.
Only five? Guess that’s a timing hint.
“everybody knows grimdark is more realistic!”
Really, they’re better off just treating RK as a supervillain.
Agreed. For all we know that is precisely what he is and his employment by the government is merely a “Suicide Squad” type of thing. There’s little in his conduct that would preclude such a view. @_@
“I was an asshole for the US secret government.”
Hm. In D&D terms, wouldn’t you say this was Lawful Evil versus Lawful-Evil-in-the-process-of-defecting-to-Chaotic-Good?
I don’t know, the Red Knight strikes me more as Chaotic Neutral (willing to work for a ostensibly good goal, but wants to do it his way, rather than by-the-book, and not too concerned with morality otherwise) to Dr. Lee’s Lawful Neutral (works within a large agency, prefers to follow the rules whenever possible, and doesn’t question the morality of her organization).
And if we’re going to frame this in D&D terms, let’s not go into how the Red Knight (demigoddess of Oerth, patroness of strategy and chessmistress) would react to this yahoo stealing her name.
I thought the gang all pretty much agreed beforehand that they wanted to hurt him…
…so this means that Red Knight is going to get eaten by dogs or something, right? Pleeeeaaaase?
Perhaps Sweetheart will bring her litter mates by for a little nosh….
Don’t feed him to the Canadian pack – we don’t know where he’s been.
So I can’t understand why Red Knight is so evil. Can someone explain it?
I mean, he’s a jerk, and has been this entire time, ever since we first saw him. But jerkdom does not equal ‘must be destroyed’, especially not ‘must be horribly killed’… what has he actually done other than ‘defend himself against attacks’, and then continue doing this when told he was defending himself against attacks by mind-controlled, apparently non-intelligent beasts, not evil monsters?
I mean, and fight people who he was pretty sure were Anasigma. But since Anasigma is The Bad Guy Of The Story, I’m not sure that’s morally wrong.
I don’t think anyone wants to kill him. Virginia wants him to stop hurting others, and the others out here are just there to support her.
As for why he is the way he is, that may be more Tip’s area.
When the character was first introduced he was portrayed as having killed unarmed nonvenomous lizards with the intention of reporting to his superiors that the lizards were armed and venomous. Given the capabilities of his weaponry and the probable strength of his armor (an upgrade from that which just protected Virginia from a blast that ripped Hitty open), this was the equivalent of mass murder in the Skin Horse universe. I’m still hoping the real Jersey Devil eats him.
I’m… not entirely sure why that was the equivalent of mass murder?
I mean, killing / beating up (I don’t remember if it was ambiguous) nonsentient animals is bad, sure. But I thought they were nonsentient animals. Were we ever told that they were sentient people-animals? Did we see them talking? I assumed they were ‘just animals, not people’ and saw that as ‘slacking off on the job’ and ‘being a jerk’, not ‘an act of ruthless evil that makes you hope the real Jersey Devil eats him.’
Sorry, I see what you mean now.
To me, “being a jerk” isn’t an adequate description for someone who kills things for fun, and appears to have no regard for the feelings of those around him.
Unfortunately, he works for an organisation where they don’t question that sort of behaviour.
Ehh… the idea of someone who enjoys *fighting* for fun, even fighting lethally, is pretty common. Unity is a clear example of a character where that’s played for laughs as a minor, excusable flaw, despite the fact that her body count is enormously higher than his is. And I would use the term ‘is a jerk’ to mean ‘has no regard for the feelings of those around him.’ Just in a straightforward ‘yeah, that’s about the meaning of the word’ sense.
I guess I’m saying that I feel as though he’s earned karmic humiliation, but not karmic being-fed-to-the-wolves.
The things Unity is reported to have done get quite a lot worse than anything she is actually shown doing. Even with the mirror Unity in the last chapter, you could get some insight into why she chose to do the things she did. Not so with this guy.
There is no karma police in any case, so we’ll just have to see what happens.
Talking cobras. Talking lions, tigers, birds, squirrels, hamsters, gerbils, bears ,pandas and zombies. Talking swamps. Skin horse universe. It is OK if a character has a funny approach to mayhem, like Mell or UNITY. This guy strikes me as not so much funny. So he should be eaten. Or maybe not. Maybe he becomes funny later. Right now he is too lopsided. I don,’t see him saying “have at you robot” and taking on a huge machine gun firing robot with his bare hands just to get Dave’s car back.
On the plus side, Virginia took his best shot and is still, um…sitting.
Personally, I prefer to think of a certain Spanish knight-errant over the members of the Round Table.