#489 - "So, we gonna make out or what?"

[Kei_Shugojin]

Originally Posted by pggmilltn

Am I the only one who see's the possibility that BM could be the Nuklear Power equivilent of Darth Vader if he had wound up joining the Rebellion? There is good in him, but it takes a whole lot of stuff to go down before it can manifest itself, perhaps culmonating in BM's death?

YOU STOLE MY IDEA!!!!!

You now owe me approx. $921,643,613.54 .... not including taxes.

[Vanir]

Looks like it's WM hammer time!

[OLE]

Black Mage is simply amoral he doesn't think he's doing anything wrong he's definatley not evil he just commits acts based on the benifit to himself. Also, there is one good thing he did. He massacred old people thus lessoning their burden on the populous as a whole he should be given a medal. BM understands his actions and their possible ramifications, but only in the sense of their affect on himself, typical psychopath. As far as WM goes their is an inherent innocence and gulibility in her world view. Her skema is of a world that has good in everything. Accepting a change to one's skema is very difficult especially when it's at the core of your belief system, so her previous overlooking of BM's actions is just a molding of things to fit her world view and thus protect her self-esteem. Okay that's enough. Except, the characters aren't all black and white if things were ever that simple, well, we'd be bored.

[Chargos]

I agree with the people saying that there are three sides to BM's concious(y'know, what Jimmney Cricket was for Pinochio) his bad side, his REALLY bad side, and his good side, the really bad side is his chaotic powers manifest into a persona all their own, crying out to be let loose upon the world to ravish it as they feel it should be. His bad side is the dark side of his being, its no where near as...hardcore as the darkest side. His good side I'd say is, like someone else said earlier, sitting in a corner somewhere licking its wounds, possibly plotting revenge against the two bullies inside BM's head, akin to the tormented teen that finds his dad's gun and takes it to school to make the bullies pay. I can easily see BM becoming something of an extremeist for good, one that would make WM look like a cheap harlot in terms of purity.

[Klyco]

Originally Posted by Vanir

Looks like it's WM hammer time!

As I told Shiny when he made a joke

:bmage: -10 :rmage: -8/-8 :fighter: 8- :thief: -10 (you owe me 10 dollars for that)

[Orestes]

Originally Posted by Cicero

Why is BM such a popular character? Because he's immoral and violent? Perhaps that's one reason, but surely there's something more. If BM were nothing other than a single-minded killer even an amusing single-minded killer, the readers would be appalled by him, and would wis him a nasty end.

Actually, I disagree. I think it's precisely BM's status as an amusing killer that makes him popular. His apparenty willingness to more or less sort of work with the others does help, but don't go so far with that that you forget that he's attempted to murder Fighter repeatedly and has even stabbed the others as well. He just can't actually manage to kill any of the other main characters, but it hasn't been for lack of trying (maybe he hasn't tried his hardest, but he's certainly made at least token efforts). Were they as killable as the random townsfolk who've been unlucky enough to wander into the paths of the "Light Warriors," they'd all be dead except for White Mage.

I'm really not sure that we can even call the other Light Warriors properly evil, just self-interested.

I didn't say they WERE evil, although willingly participating in mass-murder, even if it wasn't specifically your idea (and actually, for Thief, murdering countless dwarves WAS his idea), certainly DOES count as not just evil but in fact arguably incredibly evil. But be that as it may, it's not my main point here. You can call them whatever you like -- call them "Bob" if it suits you. All I said is that save for White Mage, you'd be hard-pressed to find a single GOOD character in the comic. I didn't say there weren't self-interested characters.

Anyway, it just seems to me that a number of you take this way too seriously. There are certainly Web comics out there that have deep, angsty, intricate storylines and tons of "will they/won't they" romantic couplings, but 8-bit has always felt to me like sort of a BREAK from those types of comics. Don't overthink it. Just let it ... be.

[shiney]

Originally Posted by Orestes

Anyway, it just seems to me that a number of you take this way too seriously. There are certainly Web comics out there that have deep, angsty, intricate storylines and tons of "will they/won't they" romantic couplings, but 8-bit has always felt to me like sort of a BREAK from those types of comics. Don't overthink it. Just let it ... be.

Again he gets it right. 2/2 so far.

Edit: wrong name in the quote. Hoshit.

[Just a guy]

sometimes it seems that BM IS using his power for good but is executing the punishment in evil ways. whilst killing the oldmen he was looking for the oldman who lied about the armor being in the giants forest in the cave of no return, and lieing is a sin so BM punished him with justice..but thats when his powers come in and he gets out of control. Also when he basically killed almost all the dwarves he did it in a time of almost war (it was a kill elves on sight but not actually war thing) and he had the permission of prince and one day king thief. he also saved the LW's on the way to elfland the first time by using his hadoken to speed up the travel even though RM still tried to keep the fire arrow and it did blow up pravoka..and he saved himself and fighter in giants forest when he first introduced the power of the hadoken.the only really bad times hes used them is...probably the onion kid.., and a few guards.., and a guy with a ladder, etc. nothin special

[Cicero]

Originally Posted by Orestes

He just can't actually manage to kill any of the other main characters, but it hasn't been for lack of trying (maybe he hasn't tried his hardest, but he's certainly made at least token efforts). Were they as killable as the random townsfolk who've been unlucky enough to wander into the paths of the "Light Warriors," they'd all be dead except for White Mage.

I'm not so sure. If Black Mage really, REALLY wanted to kill his commerades, I'm sure he could have done that by now. However, he seems to find their company preferable to (or at least less irksome than) that of the rest of the morons that populate the earth. Indeed, the only time he actually makes attempts on his companions' lives is when they do something to particularly annoy him.

I didn't say they WERE evil, although willingly participating in mass-murder, even if it wasn't specifically your idea (and actually, for Thief, murdering countless dwarves WAS his idea), certainly DOES count as not just evil but in fact arguably incredibly evil.

Granted, but Thief's actions were not so much motivated by a desire for cruelty as they were a flaring up of the ancient feud between the Elven and Dwarvish nations. As we saw, the dwarves would just as readily slaughter any elves if given half a chance. Of course, it's still hardly an admirable action...

Anyway, it just seems to me that a number of you take this way too seriously. There are certainly Web comics out there that have deep, angsty, intricate storylines and tons of "will they/won't they" romantic couplings, but 8-bit has always felt to me like sort of a BREAK from those types of comics. Don't overthink it. Just let it ... be.

While 8-bit Theater is certainly not a serious comic, it is a character-driven comic. Our heroes are not simply one-dimensional devices for setting up and delivering jokes, but are multi-faceted individuals with well-defined personalities and (often conflicting) motivations. The fact that so many people speculate not about what Black Mage will do, but why he does what he does is a testament to this.

[Klyco]

Actually, BM can kill them anytime he wants to. He's done it twice already when they were at Sarda's remember? They would of stayed dead if Sarda didnt fix everything.