Compelling Argument – Chapter 7, Act 4, Strip 21

The exorcists have succeeded, score one for their perseverance!

For it was their perseverance that carried the day…their strength of faith probably never quite reached the level were they could have succeeded on that alone. And their perseverance alone possibly wouldn’t have sufficed, either, if it wasn’t for a helping hand stretched out by modern technology. After shouting “The power of Christ compels you” a couple of hundred times, Snuka realized that they could simply record the phrase on his mobile and leave the next few thousand repetitions to it. Perseverance is a lot less of a strain when you can sit around comfortably playing cards while you’re persevering-by-proxy.

And, yeah…my knowledge of the practice of exorcism is pretty superficial, but what I remember from those movies, isn’t it mostly just annoying the demon until it can’t stand it any longer? On the assumption that it is, it comes down to choosing the right phrase – and “The power of Christ compels you” should work nicely, indeed. Mostly because it’s an iconic phrase associated with the movie franchise – and the movie franchise itself is considered as extremely demeaning and unfair by the Demon-American community. The movies portray possession in a completely one-sided way, focusing only on its impact on the person that is being possessed by a demon (or a legion of them) – there’s no attempt at all to consider the deeper meaning the act of possessing a human being has in the traditions, faith and culture of Demon-Americans. It’s sadly obvious that not a single person in the writing/directing/editing team for those movies was actually possessed by a demon themselves – some people who worked on the financing were, admittedly, but they had no input on the creative decisions. When will Hollywood finally make Demon-American voices hear? I mean, apart from a combination of grunts, unearthly wailing and fragments of Mesopotamian chanting…

But for our friends, the key thing is just that they managed to drive the demon out of the Elder. And it turns out the demon in question is no one other than the shadow demon we saw the last time at the end of the first act. Not that possessing the Elder would have been the only thing he was up to in the meantime, but the rest will be revealed only later…

More on Mo…uh, Thursday

4 Replies to “Compelling Argument – Chapter 7, Act 4, Strip 21”

  1. Snuka just lost in a card game. I guess paladins aren’t known for good gambling skills.

    In one of our games the paladin took a level in thief so he could steal our money and give it to charity. No one suspected a thing.

    1. XD That sounds like very creative role-playing on the part of your paladin…although I’d say it would probably only be ethically defensible as long as your party had way beyond enough gold. Which might have been the case, judging by the fact that nobody noticed the missing funds. XD

  2. This comic is amazing. I stopped reading with the quarantine and I am so happy to see so much new content waiting for me. Thank you very much for your hard work

    1. No problem, I do enjoy the work – or at least it gives me some kind of feeling of accomplishment. And when I hear that some people also enjoy the result, it makes me extra happy, so thanks a lot! =D

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