Beligerent Lizard dude

[deathali'helper]

1 question, why did he zap him? seriously, I mean, It was a simple little question, all of a sudden Zap anyone get it?

[Darklord Xavez]

1 question, why did he zap him? seriously, I mean, It was a simple little question, all of a sudden Zap anyone get it?

He's a bounty hunter. Like Boba Fett. Only a Lizardfolk. Boba Fett as a Lizardfolk... hmm...
-Xavez

[Thor Person Guy]

As far as he knows, Roy is another bounty hunter who's interested in the same bounty as him. He's also anticipated that Roy is prepared to beat the information out of him, so he's trained his friend there to zap anyone who asks them for information.

The reason is simple: To make it in the bounty-hunting biz', one of the things you need to learn is how to control a flow of information. If you begin blabbing about every mark you've found, you risk other bounty hunters finding out about a large reward. Since they also have reasons to want this reward, you suddenly have a large amount of competition to worry about. And if you want to get the reward, you'll need to keep those guys away while you search for the target.

It's easier to just scare away everyone who asks for information. That way, they don't learn anything, and you can stay ahead of them if they do.

[Onyavar]

1 question, why did he zap him? seriously, I mean, It was a simple little question, all of a sudden Zap anyone get it?

Ganji shot first. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_shot_first) DUH.

[Shale]

When you're in the business of capturing people against their will and delivering them to people who want to hurt them, it's a safe bet that their friends and family won't like you very much.

[deathali'helper]

But it was out of the blue, imagine how many barfoght they get into if they zap everyone who ask a question

[Teleporker]

But it was out of the blue, imagine how many barfoght they get into if they zap everyone who ask a question

Maybe it was one of those "I feel it coming" moments for Gannji. The very second they talk about a bad job being actually over, some guy comes asking about his friends, and keep going about it after one *just one* friendly warning (Yes, I count Gannji's first statement as such).

When one's life is always harassed by Murphy's law, one knows a Murphy moment NEVER comes alone. I mean, we're talking about the one bounty hunter on the planet that did stumble upon the good twin of his mark, and upon getting out of the whole deal with minimal loss, had the bad sense of saying "this is over" out loud.

For us victims of Murphy's mercilessness, we know such statements don't go unpunished. So yeah, I say he just realized he summoned himself a Murphy and acted on instinct.

Or maybe he just electro-burps on snoopers out of habit.

[King of Nowhere]

Roy was clearly unwilling to let the business drop. It would have come to blows anyway. So better to have the advantage of surprise.
At least that's what gannji must have tougth. He didn't knew Roy would probably be satisfied with answers (I mean, they were trying to take Nale ater all).

[Bongos]

The Bounty Hunters don't know who Roy and Belkar are after, or what their motives are, so I reckon they were taking the better safe than sorry approach. Bounty hunting is a dangerous business after all.

[Nilan8888]

1 question, why did he zap him? seriously, I mean, It was a simple little question, all of a sudden Zap anyone get it?

I think this is a good question for a number of reasons.

First of all yes: obviously Gannji has overreacted. It's understandable he would have blown Roy off, but Roy was not yet ready to come to blows, or anywhere near.

It's true Gannji might be just cutting to the chase as he sees it, but he's made a number of assumptions on the situation to do this.

1. He's assumed Roy has nothing he wants and that Roy has approached him with nothing to offer (he could have made more money off of this).

2. He's assumed whatever Roy wants is about a mark he would be betraying a sort of code by revealing, when he's just finished a job where divulging this information should not bring him harm or recrimination considering how it turned out. There's nothing about telling anyone that he just dropped off a mistaken mark on Tarquin's doorstep that's likely to harm Gannji in the future.

3. He made no attempt that we can see to gague the situation he was in. He's been involved in a conversation with Enor this whole time with his back turned. While his back was turned there was more than enough oppertunity for someone like Roy to have staged this with a number of folks waiting around to get the drop on Gannji in case something like this happened. For all Gannji could know right now, he's about to be shot with 3-4 crossbow bolts fired from across the room. He should have taken the oppertunity to figure out what he might be up against, and at entertained Roy's conversation as a diversion while he scoped out for a few seconds if anyone was watching them (which there is, incedentally... unluckily for Roy, Belkar does not make for ideal backup in this situation).

In fact... for half his brief conversation with Roy, he doesn't even bother to turn around and face him. In my book, not smart. If you're going to bring the violence Gannji, don't do it half-butted.

[LuPuWei]

Nah, I'm gonna have to go ahead with Shale's general view here. It seems, from the conversation, that people coming to look for people you've kidnapped is probably a pretty standard occurrence in Gannji's life (and bounty hunters in general). Even people from far off lands who may not realise this.

His response was probably the same type standard procedure any number of Complaints Department call-centre operators use to deal with customers :belkar:

That having been said, there's also the fact that the trips haven't fully established the culture prevalent in The Empire of Blood, so maybe over-the-top smack-downs are just a thing there....

[Darcy]

He says "yeah, you and every other family member or comrade-in-arms"- sounds like this is something he's used to. Of course, a lot of them probably aren't formidable warriors like Roy so I imagine usually saying "scram, not interested" or being otherwise intimidating works for him.

It's pretty belligerent, especially considering his last mark ended up being a) the wrong guy, and b) happily received by the guy he took him to anyways, but maybe he's just used to it.

[Nilan8888]

I think we can fairly say he's used to what would be paranoid behavior in other people. But if that's the case he's really too complacent.

Again, even if this WAS an expected and professional decision on Gannji's part to get in the first shot, I don't see how it was executed professionally. If he was going to attack Roy, he could have delayed it while he took stock on what's been going on in the room while his back was turned.

[Procyonpi]

Because Gannji is somewhere in the lower left corner of the alignment grid. Which is to say, he's Neutral or Evil, and mainly looks after his own neck and livelihood. And as other people have mentioned, keeping a tight lid on information can be important to both in the bounty hunting business.

[SPoD]

But it was out of the blue, imagine how many barfoght they get into if they zap everyone who ask a question

Sounds like a good source of bonus XP to me.

[Zwums]

That having been said, there's also the fact that the trips haven't fully established the culture prevalent in The Empire of Blood, so maybe over-the-top smack-downs are just a thing there....

Yeah, if you look in the background of the last panel, you see the patrons of the bar looking completely unfazed by the commotion. Now this may just be mere over speculation, but the Empire of Blood seems like the type of place where you can beat someone down just because they ask too many questions.

[Procyonpi]

Yeah, if you look in the background of the last panel, you see the patrons of the bar looking completely unfazed by the commotion. Now this may just be mere over speculation, but the Empire of Blood seems like the type of place where you can beat someone down just because they ask too many questions.

Not to Nitpick here, but the bar is not in the Empire of Blood (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0728.html).

[Dunamin]

Not to Nitpick here, but the bar is not in the Empire of Blood (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0728.html).
Actually, considering the name of the bar and Gannji's words in the second panel, it sounds like the bar is in the Empire of Blood. (Though it may be distant from the palace)

[Nimrod's Son]

Everything about that strip suggests they are in the Empire of Blood. There's even a soldier of the Empire in the background.

[Procyonpi]

Everything about that strip suggests they are in the Empire of Blood. There's even a soldier of the Empire in the background.

Except for the part about "transporting across international bounderies." Although really, it could be in a new city now, so I guess you could be right.

[Kish]

Except for the part about "transporting across international bounderies." Although really, it could be in a new city now, so I guess you could be right.
I'm not clear on what you're getting at here. They transported Haley, Vaarsuvius, and Elan across international boundaries into the Empire of Blood. There is no indication they since left said Empire.

[Zwums]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0728.html

Second panel, Ganji references "all the blood around here," obviously implying that they are, in fact, in the Empire of Blood.

[Nimrod's Son]

Except for the part about "transporting across international bounderies."
What Gannji says is, "I'm not going to tarnish our fine profession of beating people unconscious and transporting them across international borders". He's talking about their job in general, not describing how they got here.

[Jagos]

I believe it's a reference to the top right panel:


You'd think the "blood" around here was really just red tape!