Not a villain 1.01 somebody had a thread about it? [Archive]

halfeye

2017-03-13, 02:44 PM

I am not a moderator.

Sigh. Different forums, different rules.

Tell me about it (please don't).

If anything, "one thread per comic until it hits 50 pages" seemed to be the rules.

Also, no thread necromancy, no morally justified, no religion and no politics. I probably missed a few. Spaces required after quotes is different too, but it may be usual.

On the subject of Bloody Mary, I mean, Jane, err, Mary Jane, err, Bloody Mary Jane -- that's it. On the subject of Bloody Mary Jane Watson, if she keeps on playing "I must kill" on the same team as our Hero protagonist's "I must prevent kills", will we wind up with a toon-style failure to kill?

I'm about year or too into the comic and haven't yet done an archive crawl, so it's all spoilers to me, sort of.

keybounce

2017-03-15, 12:01 AM

I found the comic, and did an archive trawl in ... 2 days? 3 days? Then went over to the forums to see what people were saying about it.

It's good. Finish the catch up.

Now, new comic:

Into the portal!

keybounce

2017-03-20, 10:45 PM

Update for the 17th: http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-557/

Is that desert rain?

keybounce

2017-03-21, 04:20 PM

Update for the 20th: http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-558/

4 out of 5 party members recommend staying together.

Douglas

2017-03-21, 08:16 PM

Heh, and Danni displays (privately) blatant favoritism. Identical advice, even phrased practically the same, just with different words and different sources, and she thanks one while telling the other off.

Can't say I blame her too much, though. Kleya has been a lot more generally friendly to her than Bandit has.

5a Violista

2017-03-22, 12:46 AM

That favoritism makes a lot of sense:
She sees Kleya as her socially-awkward-but-dependable friend in unfortunate circumstances. She likes her, especially because they helped each other get into the Game, and was willing to risk (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-81/) her chance of ever playing, so Danni had the chance as well. Plus, Kleya codes for her. Danni would have been taken off life support without Kleya, and Kleya still stood up for her (risking her fans' favor) when they were mocking Danni later for getting in while Waterman didn't.

She sees Bandit as that smooth-talking suck-up who always gets his way. She dislikes him, because in her experience he's arrogant, gets everything he has ever wanted, and he created bots that literally tried quasi-torturing them (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-23/), bullied her and her friends (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-29/), and made fun of her old friend for dying (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-21/) and rigging (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-43/) the matches (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-48/) to favor (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-104/) The Bandit; and besides that, he uses his fanbase (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-52/) to unfairly punish others, uses his workplace to force others to forfeit (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-67/), and is too smug (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-49/) for his own good.

Or, in other words, Danni sees Kleya as a caring friend; she sees The Bandit as an opportunistic bully. She doesn't have the benefit of seeing either Kleya's or The Bandit's personalities behind-the-scenes in the real life, like the readers of the comic can, so she can't see the struggle Kleya goes through to be kind, or the fact that The Bandit is mostly a mask for a guy who is at the very least helpful to others.

Ibrinar

2017-03-22, 06:26 AM

I don't think Kleya struggling to be kind would matter (her identity though…) She might be a bit more tolerant of Bandit I guess, but much of why we are more positive towards him than her is that we as readers don't particularly care about the things you have listed not because we know something that would not make you dislike him for them. He has a purpose for acting like that but it isn't some kind of greater good purpose that overrides it, so being a jerk because you decided on that as your public persona probably doesn't change much for people it is directed towards.

keybounce

2017-03-24, 01:41 PM

New page: http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-559/

More Bandit and Dude versus Kat helping Danni.

... And of course, the "I must kill" is no where near the "no you won't".

keybounce

2017-03-28, 11:14 AM

New page: http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-560/

So Bloody Mary Jane Watson is still there. And as leader, she has access to out-of-game info.

halfeye

2017-03-29, 01:38 PM

New page: http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-560/

So Bloody Mary Jane Watson is still there. And as leader, she has access to out-of-game info.

That's a little distressing. They could do with someone more involved with the group as comms co-ordinator.

keybounce

2017-04-04, 11:26 AM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-562/

So Kat is perfectly happy to let Jane be guard while everyone is logged out.

Alandra

2017-04-08, 12:34 PM

If she didn't know what Jane had done, why not? Also, it probably wasn't as random as everyone seems to think it was. Either it was part of the secret plan she seems to have or she had problems with her old group. If they only argued in whispers then nobody even had to know that they had problems with each other. And she had to make a new character because of it. I don't think she'd do it again to this group, not without having a really good reason for it.

Douglas

2017-04-08, 07:25 PM

Wasn't it mentioned somewhere that Jane killing her group was not against the rules and she actually was forced to restart for some other reason? I wonder what that other reason was.

5a Violista

2017-04-08, 07:54 PM

It was mentioned and I assumed the reason was “TENka was mad at her for foiling their plans and wanted to punish her without seeming vindictive“

Remember, Bloody Mary‘s team was losing popularity, and TENka was planing on kicking them out and straight-up replacing them with a team of TENka employees. I believe Bloody Mary (and Sandra?) figured the only way to prevent a complete entertainment monopoly was to have the team kicked out due to permadeath instead of low popularity, as a permadeath situation would require opening tryouts to anyone, instead of just replacing them with an employee team full of specifically-trained team led by Bandit, with The Dude and three other TENka City citizens on the team.

So, I think the motivation of Bloody Mary and Sandra was to keep Outsiders and citizens of less-popular players in The Game, as a constant reminder to TENka that other cities still need help and programmers.

keybounce

2017-04-09, 11:55 PM

What if it was "Kill them all, or we kill your children"?

Alandra

2017-04-11, 12:47 PM

I think Sandra and Bloody Mary want more than just remind TENka that the other cities need programmers - it's not like TENka seems to care what other cities want.
Also, there is definitely something bad going on with TENka. They have much too much power, not only over the game and Kat seems to have a serious grudge against them. I think someone in TENka tricked Kat into doing whatever caused this apocalypse, probably the one who is looking for Kat, possibly her father. (She seems to have a grudge against her father, she doesn't mention him, and while most people think that he is dead, the only thing that indicates this is the fact that the doesn't play his character in the game anymore and an AI took it over.)

keybounce

2017-04-14, 10:31 AM

You mean, maybe the unnamed "He" at the top of Tenka is her dad?

---

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-565/

So the arguing over who should be on watch continues. Apparently, only the two from Tenka qualify, and neither one wants to do it.

Also: Kat is still annoyed at Jakey :-).

keybounce

2017-04-19, 01:34 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-566/

I like how the comments mention that Kat is being a cat-herder here.

Lord Torath

2017-04-19, 03:01 PM

I like how the comments mention that Kat Danni is being a cat-herder here.Fixed that for you. :smallwink:

Kat's been watching out for Danni all along, warning her about altered gravity, keeping Jane at bay (although Jane seems to realize there's something odd about Kat as well).

So, regarding Saisuke: any theories as to who he is in real life? Do you think he's someone we've met? Someone we've heard of? Or someone completely unknown to us at this point?

It's been fun to watch Aneeka's art improve. I started reading at the truck-dodging stage. She's come a long way since then.

keybounce

2017-04-19, 09:10 PM

Keep in mind that the truck dodging was supposed to be low-quality, cheap graphics :-)

Lord Torath

2017-04-20, 07:33 AM

Oh, definitely. But if you look at her early L.i.F.e. (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-12/) work, compared to her later L.i.F.e. pages (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-306/), you can see a real difference.

keybounce

2017-04-25, 09:53 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-568/

So we are seeing Kat prepare with sand, because she doesn't have a bag of holding anymore. Not sure that "sand in your eye" will be effective or not.

keybounce

2017-04-28, 02:00 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-569/

Pockets don't count :-).

keybounce

2017-05-02, 09:17 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-570/

So while a fireball is out, what can sand do?

Douglas

2017-05-03, 03:51 AM

Temporarily blind someone, I'd guess.

keybounce

2017-05-05, 01:34 AM

Bad/pun reference: Kleya wants to be nice, right?

Toy story: "We toys see everything. So play nice".

Just tossing this out ... it's not like her big mecha toys went out of control last time, right?

Lord Torath

2017-05-05, 07:47 AM

New comic is up (http://navcomic.com/). Aneeka's mouse-over-text mentions falling sand. Anyone see any falling sand?

Spojaz

2017-05-05, 08:50 AM

Kat is using the sand as she logs out in the last panel.

Lord Torath

2017-05-05, 10:09 AM

Okay, I see it now. I missed that as shading somehow.

keybounce

2017-05-23, 04:01 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/pause-2/

A second sketch comic, with updates to resume friday.

keybounce

2017-05-26, 08:07 PM

Lord Torath

2017-05-30, 10:29 AM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-575

So, we see WHY Tenka called for a forced logoff. Sounds like something is going on here.

And ... is the mystery person being referenced here our Dancer, or our Leader, or someone else?Mystery Person being the spy? Or being the person who put the portal in?

Also, no mouse-over text this time.

Did we ever find out what happened to Kleya's dad?

Any guesses on who plays Saisuke?

keybounce

2017-05-30, 11:49 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-576/

So here's an odd thought: Did Brandon/Dude find the same portal on both runs, or did he find a different one the second time?

If not, as the comments on the comic indicate, chances are that the portal was not tied to a specific location, but only to the "fleeing without esones" condition.

keybounce

2017-06-02, 11:30 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-577/

"The programmers were killed for exactly this reason"?

... I'm not following. Anyone understand that?

Ibrinar

2017-06-05, 05:33 AM

He suggest that since them being killed leaves Tenka in an advantageous position (since they rely on computer system but killed off most everyone able to handle them beside Tenka) they might have something to do with them all getting killed. Or what is your question?

keybounce

2017-06-06, 06:31 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-578/

Trust issues.

keybounce

2017-06-09, 12:48 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-579/
Don't involve the president.

Lord Torath

2017-06-09, 02:50 PM

This is the second time they've opted not to inform the predisent. Does he have a history of over-reacting to things? Is it the President of TENka, or the President of the World? Is there some reason to assume that the Deconstruct Me group was targeting him directly? I get the idea that he rose to power on the back of the Hacker Hunts, and also that he knew Kleya personally. Maybe he's the one who threw Kleya under the bus, laying the blame of the hacker attacks on her?

keybounce

2017-06-13, 11:25 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-580

Kim really hates Kleya. Has already convicted her.

keybounce

2017-06-17, 07:36 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-581/

D is on the radar, and Tenka seems to think that D and the Virus are one and the same.

I don't think they understand either D, the Virus, or "their" anti-hacker system.

keybounce

2017-06-23, 01:44 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-583/

Finishing up with Kim, and then Dr. Grace. Good morning, err, Evening :-)

Whose son do you think they are referring to? Grace's?

Lord Torath

2017-06-23, 02:32 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-583/

Finishing up with Kim, and then Dr. Grace. Good morning, err, Evening :-)

Whose son do you think they are referring to? Grace's?Yes.
http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-156/
http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-157/

keybounce

2017-06-30, 07:40 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-585/

We find out about the spy. And a hint of a resistance group.

keybounce

2017-07-07, 01:29 AM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-586/

Just how (dys-)functional are the cities, anyways?

keybounce

2017-07-14, 04:50 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-588/ and 589:

So Tenka's plan: Pretend to be the missing cyborg girl, take actions that she would take, and convince the AI/Virus that they are its creator/owner, and gain control of it.

Of course, with Kleya actually around, that won't work.

Not that the virus won't be confused. Bandit is doing the Kat-favorite choice of demoli, and Kat is doing the Herbana route. So ...

===

Can Kleya remove that exo-spine she has? We saw, in her childhood, when she got it to work, and all the pictures of her since then have had it being worn. Is it a permanent fixture now?

keybounce

2017-07-19, 12:09 AM

Re-reading the last 15 pages. Going back to http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-581/ we see the idea floated that Kleya's pet AI is controlling the virus, and Kim's response that this means the only thing between life and death for them is a fickle AI that thinks the hacker war is still going on.

Then, Kim comments that the reduced activity of the virus (we get confirmation that it is the virus on http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-589/ ) means that Grace's plan is working.

So, the virus seems to think that Bandit is the person that the virus should pay attention to. D, the AI, knows (or should know) better. D seems to be able to control the virus, and Kleya almost certainly can, at least when she's not jacked-in and under observation.

Meanwhile, what is going on in Grace's mind, with the new one: http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-590/ -- Grace wants Jake to make friends with Kleya, after Jake's Bandit has caused serious harm to Kleya's Kat.

What is Grace expecting?
Would you want to befriend someone that has just caused you serious harm in a major-investment online RPG?

Just imagine if someone managed to destroy your EVE corporation / take over your 0-space zone; would you want to be friends with them?

keybounce

2017-07-21, 03:16 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-591/

"I haven't exactly been friendly to her" / "So fix it. One lone outsider should be easy" / "Why?" / ...

Geez, Grace here is not under pressure :-)

Lord Torath

2017-07-28, 09:41 AM

New Strip (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-593/)

Dr. Grace is not really the nicest guy.

halfeye

2017-07-28, 10:34 AM

A plan that convoluted is bound to bite them.

Delicious Taffy

2017-07-28, 05:15 PM

I ducked out of this one shortly after the big trial where Kleya did the good-girl route. At least, I think that's when it was. Did the weird garden-gnome art start around that time?

keybounce

2017-08-01, 02:13 AM

I ducked out of this one shortly after the big trial where Kleya did the good-girl route. At least, I think that's when it was. Did the weird garden-gnome art start around that time?

Garden-gnome art?

There's three different art styles for the three different "locations" in this world.

Delicious Taffy

2017-08-03, 09:37 AM

Garden-gnome art?

There's three different art styles for the three different "locations" in this world.

I'm quite aware, thanks. The garden-gnome art I'm referring to started when the real-life segments became more frequent, or at least during one of the longer ones. I don't remember when that was, timeline-wise, but it put me off the rest of the comic.

Lord Torath

2017-08-03, 10:56 AM

I'm quite aware, thanks. The garden-gnome art I'm referring to started when the real-life segments became more frequent, or at least during one of the longer ones. I don't remember when that was, timeline-wise, but it put me off the rest of the comic.Somewhere around here (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-318/)? That was right after Kleya freaked out (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-308/) after finding out her group was a Villain group (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-300/).

Some of her proportions are off (heads are a bit large (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-316a/)), yes, and Walter's beard looks odd sometimes. She's still getting better, though.

keybounce

2017-08-22, 09:47 PM

Jane wants to meet Kleya.

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-600/

An interesting thought was raised in the comments for 599: What if Jane is Ms. Lilly? An Outsider, with children at risk of dying ... the scary thing is that it fits.

Lord Torath

2017-08-22, 10:47 PM

If Jane was Mrs. Lily, Mina would be her manager, instead of trying to manage an upstart like Kleya, and the family would be much better off. Look how Mrs Lily wears the same starter clothing as Kleya. Mae wears the same clothes, with a slight color change. Only Mina, their main money-maker, gets custom clothing. No, there's very little chance that Jane is Mrs. Lily.

Plus, I'm pretty sure Mae would know if her mom were Jane/Bloody Mary, and wouldn't be asking Kleya (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-600/) about Jane's identity.

Edit: Fun fact: Kleya is what, 16? 17? Mae is "practically 16" herself.

Lord Torath

2017-08-28, 03:25 PM

New strip (601) (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-601/) is out. And no, we don't get to find out what Jane wants to talk about.

More info on the state of Brandon's city.

OK, so Kleya was 13 the ending started (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-335/) (comments under the strip). It's been what, two years since the ending? Which makes Kleya roughly the same age as Mae.

keybounce

2017-08-29, 02:57 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-602/

More on the state of Tenka city vs the rest of the world.
And, what is Brandon / The Dude's real game here?

Lord Torath

2017-08-30, 01:36 PM

OK, according to this strip (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-396/), Kleya's dad is a "Dead One". What are the chances that he's really the President? We've never seen Kleya's dad's mouth, and we've never seen Chipped-Tooth's (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-374/) upper face ("Hello, Wilson!")

Okay, here's "Dad's" smile (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-428/). Note the lack of chipped teeth. Could have happened later, though. Kat tells Danni that her mom's dead, and she doesn't have a dad, implying (to us) that they are estranged, or she just doesn't want to talk about him.

keybounce

2017-09-01, 01:04 PM

Latest: http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-603

Someone needs to give Dude the same lesson that Hat and Cloak gave the quintuple agent in HP:MoR.

Lord Torath

2017-09-07, 03:23 PM

OK, so Kleya was 13 the ending started (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-335/) (comments under the strip). It's been what, two years since the ending? Which makes Kleya roughly the same age as Mae.How long did The Ending last? Here The Dude (http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-197/) tells us they have video of a 15-year-old Kleya destroying an army with her mind. That puts Kleya around 17 years old. Still pretty young to have the world on her shoulders.

keybounce

2017-09-15, 12:17 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-607/

So we are going to get the details on the new Hakido, and perhaps why that implant in Kleya is messed up?

Lord Torath

2017-09-19, 07:29 AM

Getting there: http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-608/.

Maybe next comic we'll find out exactly what she did to it. And how. I mean, once it's implanted, it's had to do modifications to the hardware yourself. Especially if it's implanted in the back of your neck. Or we'll just get Jakey getting defensive about Dude calling Kleya "evil".

keybounce

2017-10-03, 12:09 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-612/

Things are looking up.

Lord Torath

2017-10-03, 12:36 PM

Things always look up on Payday! :smallsmile:

She could pay both Danni and Mina back double! And then be out of money again.

keybounce

2017-10-24, 03:16 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-617/

So it looks like Mary Jane wants Kat to wipe out the dead ones, the "players" controlled by AI's, because those AI's are killing people.

As one person said in the comments, the new all-female ghostbusters :-).

It's also interesting -- what is Kat's old character doing?

Lord Torath

2017-10-24, 04:21 PM

The way the Virus works, I could almost imagine that players would be forbidden from even approaching her previous character.There's also the "Who does Jane think Kat used to be?" question.

Jane's probably right about the NPCs killing people. Jake's "girls" killed two of Danni's partners. Maybe. There's no way to really know why they died. Prossibly a lack of real-life food and/or water, and a decision to stay logged in as long as possible when they knew they were out. Or a partial cave in that killed them while they were logged in, but didn't destroy their Kido/headset.

Operating under the Kleya's Dad = President theory, I wonder if there are other reasons than "retribution" for wanting her dead. She could probably give a lot of incriminating evidence against the Prez, and any "co-opting" he may have done with the Deconstruct Me movement.

keybounce

2017-12-03, 01:17 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-626/

Jane is finishing up her discussion.

Lord Torath

2017-12-08, 12:01 PM

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-628/

I wonder if Jane asked what Sandra thinks she asked Kat to do. Sandra might have thought Jane was only asking about fixing the dolls' code, not talking about killing the game. Sandra, after all, lives in a City, and might not be as eager for the Game to die. She would like more programmers sent to fix other things in her city, though.

keybounce

2018-01-14, 01:29 AM

And the current book comes to the end.

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-636

Lord Torath

2018-01-19, 03:20 PM

Douglas

2018-01-19, 03:27 PM

Anyone know where the text-game version of the Tutorial is hidden? It's the version we readers can play (if we can figure out the right commands). I came across it a couple days ago, but my history is gone, and I can't remember what strip it was linked from.
Found via the wiki (http://notavillain.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Tutorial), it is here (http://navcomic.com/nav-tutorial).

Lord Torath

2018-01-22, 08:23 AM

Thanks, Douglas!

Time to see if I can score a 100% Erbana!

keybounce

2018-03-04, 06:40 PM

Bandit and Danni are currently talking to each other.

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-648/

They have been pretty much since the book started

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-637/

Alandra

2018-04-06, 07:59 AM

Do you think Bandit/Jake really is Saisuke? He doesn't deny it, just changes the topic and we know that he's an experienced player.

Lord Torath

2018-05-16, 03:30 PM

I've always suspected that Saisuke = Mr. President = Kleya's father. No one at TENka has ever hinted that Jake was Saisuke, and if he were, you'd think Dr. Grace and crew would know.

Aneeka's launched a Kickstarter for Book 5 (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2105962765/not-a-villain-book-5). Looks like she's making decent progress, but still has a ways to go.