Concerns About the Progressions of the Goblin Plot (@Rich)

[Ionathus]

If that is all it’s saying, and it’s just a minor nudge, then I would agree with you. I’ll state again, a lot of my comments could be addressed and fixed with reasonable ease. The issue I have is the specific counter to Roy saying it’s hard to interrogate inner reasons while you’re fighting, and then Durkon brings up an EXTREMELY manipulative example of when he did just that but which doesn’t disprove Roy as I’ve explained before. The comic would have been served better by being more clear and avoiding Durkon’s snide insults if that really is what Rich is going for.

Eh, "extremely manipulative" is putting it strongly, I'd say. I still think you're reading too much into it. This feels like nothing more than somebody calling a close friend on their BS: Roy made an excuse, and Durkon pushed on it, maybe getting a little too snarky but hey, they're good friends, he's allowed to do that. Roy isn't on trial here: Durkon's just throwing shade because he had a crappy conversation with his god, he's had Implosion attempted on him today, and (most importantly) it's the final panel of the update and there needs to be a punchline!

As someone else recently said, I also think this exchange won't feel so harsh when it has another strip coming after it. Gary Larson once talked about a controversial Far Side comic he drew called "Tethercat", where several dogs bat a cat around a tetherball pole. People got mad, and he wondered why, when Tom & Jerry cartoon violence has been on the air for decades. But the thing about Tom & Jerry is that it's transient: you watch Jerry crush Tom with an anvil, and then he walks it off and is back to chasing Jerry thirty seconds later. But if you set down the newspaper with "Tethercat" in it, go for a walk, and come back an hour later, those dogs are still playing Tethercat. There are also some good arguments to be made about punching down vs. punching up, but even in that regard you can argue that Durkon is almost always punching UP! (#shortjokes)

And thank you everybody else in the comments. I feel many of you who lean towards my side have addressed critical points and issues with the comic as a whole have been arguing very reasonably, putting a lot of effort into evidence and explanation. I haven’t been chipping in because I’m trying to keep my comments directly related to my post as much as I can but I think your dialogue is going fantastically. Thank you all, both people who agree and those who don’t, for making this the most reasonable thread discussing this topic I’ve seen on this forum.

Much of which I'd credit to you. Thank you for your incredibly polite discourse throughout!