Level 13: #46
Chapter: Level 13 — That Old Elvish Spirit
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‘Anything the humans can do, we can do better’, huh?
Except learn from your mistakes, apparently.
..Is she gonna disguise herself as Roxy?
I suspect that she’s just stealing the same idea. I really would not put it past her to basically be saying, “I can pull this look off better than she [Roxy] can.” I *also* would not put it past her to basically be lumping Roxy in with “the humans” in saying that.
She’s trying to clean up the mess from freaking out the ghost with her indifference.
But in doing so, she copied her hairstyle. All she’d need to disguise herself as Roxy is some hairdye, makeup and a lute.
… except gnomish baseball, apparently.
Wait, did any humans actually win in gnomish baseball? Were any humans even playing?
Robespierre is human. Check the Cast page (and scroll way, way down!).
https://rustyandco.com/frequently-asked-questions/cast-page/
He may be built like a mountain giant, but Robespierre is very much human, and not only did he win the Games, he helped defeat an eldritch monster while he was at it.
…The Elvish afterlife is just a house of mirrors, isn’t it?
Only for GOOD elves.
For bad elves, the mirrors are pointed at someone else.
…So one elf’s heaven would be another elf’s hell. That tracks.
I am so glad that the fate of the world slash universe lies in hands so capable…
At least no more complications! Yeah team! Enjoy the triumph while it’s fresh!
What kind of Adventurer leaves lute behind?
.
.
I’ll see myself out, but first a comment: Roxy’s lute will be important in the future. Hopefully though it’ll be because Chekov is handing it back to her, not because it’s being used against the team..
Depends. Does Chekhov stoke boilers?
And again, Mimic tries to be helpful, and Roxanne just gives him lip. She’s so good at juggling the sympathy and jerk balls that I think she could make it in the Derro circus. She hates the other elves, and yet there are times when she acts just like them.
We have to remember that Roxanne’s first interaction with Mimic was him tricking her into putting her ass against him for hours. She’s got good reason to hold a grudge.
He didn’t even say she had a beautiful body, but she’s still holding it against him.
In Mimic’s defense, can you blame him? Who doesn’t love a good pineapple?
Which she punished by slapping him, then siccing her brother on him after he helped rescue said brother. Then, when Grinner captured him, Rusty, and Cube, she was willing to let Grinner have them until Madeline persuaded her to help. When it accidentally happened again while Petey was recruiting for the Games, she beat Mimic much more viciously (then he stupidly tried it deliberately during said Games, which is on him). And during this past chapter, despite Mimic’s sincere efforts to help, she’s been dismissive of him (and okay, yes, he tried that same stunt with Rue, and at this point he should know better). He did try to apologize after she strung him up as part of their bait tor Skippy, and she told him to try again when he wasn’t under coercion. Which for all she knew he was trying to do here, but she was still going to cut him off anyway.
Somehow, the story is making me feel more sorry for Mimic than the elf he harassed a few times, and I think it’s because of the way they’re written. Mimic’s a pervert, but he doesn’t come off as mean-spirited or sadistic, and pervert though he may be, he cares about his friends and tries to help them when they’re down.
Whereas Roxanne has in the past acted rather two-faced, talking smack about her own foster brother in front of an audience to embarass him (way to set the moral high ground there) then acting all meek and subdued the moment authority bears down on her (not so funny when you’re the one being punished, is it?). She comes off as fake, selfish, sadistic, and even a bit hypocritical. In short, she’s acted worse than Mimic, and is far less apologetic about it.
Sigh…sorry everyone, didn’t mean to turn that into an attack on the character. Sometimes, I hate being passionate.
I respect people who stand up for their truths, and respect those who honour hindsight more. From my perspective, Roxanne’s antipathy to mimic was probably never intended to be more than a recurring gag, but you are seeing these characters with real depth. That’s good for all kinds of reasons, and one of those is that when Mike reads this he might see Roxanne as needing more character depth.
Remember this comic has a vein of ‘loony’ and ‘zany’ running through it. Sometimes the characters are structured around the joke, rather than the other way around. But if they are to be believable they will need real people reasons. Don’t hate being passionate – repression is not healthy! Instead work at turning it to the good, as with your hindsight you already are.
Deep or not, there’s a pattern of most non-monster folks not really liking Mimic. The princess has stuck up for him, and Robespierre eventually gave him some grudging respect, and that’s about it. (We could also count Maddie, but I think she’s nice to everyone.)
My truth is that anyone who uses the term “their truths” doesn’t understand what the word “truth” means. There’s too many people using “their truths” as excuses for their delusions.
What is true to one person is not necessarily true for another. It might be true that someone really likes sweet things, while someone else might really like savoury things. I meant it like that.
It is a sad truth that the more truth-empowering the phrase, the more likely people will try to twist it with lies. Liars, the biased, will attack truthfulness to try and lower the standard of expression, to try and normalise a lesser standard they are comfortable with. But I’m not giving the phrase a ‘their truths instead of mine’ usage. As should be evident from context, I’m supporting that a passionate point of view is vallid, not stating that my perspective is the only correct one or even the best one.
Hope that facilitates understanding.
I think “sadistic” is a step too far, but the rest of the rant holds up.
I mean… How would you behave after being continuously sexually harassed by a shapechanger?
Well obviously I wouldn’t like them very much, and would keep them at a distance from me at all times. Thing is, Roxy doesn’t act the way you’d expect a victim of such to either; no talks with authorities, no protective company, no mandated warnings from the guilty party, etc. And chances are we won’t see any of that because it’s hard to make that kind of thing funny. But as a result, it comes off less as “sympathetic victim giving her harasser what they deserve” and more “anime girl exercising double standard abuse as ‘comedy'”. Which really isn’t funny either.
Honestly, I think the best thing to happen in story would be for Mimic and Roxy to go their separate ways. I don’t think he can make up to her at this point, and any future interactions between them are going to just perpetuate the cycle of Mimic acting like a perverted idiot and Roxie using that as an excuse to visit any amount of abuse on him in turn. Hate to say, but it’s a toxic relationship. I don’t think that’s what the writer had in mind way back when, but that’s where it’s gone.
No you can’t
Yes, we can.