That Looks Like it Really Hurts – Chapter 7, Act 4, Strip 79

Well, this starts to look like it might develop into something like a trend, but of course n is still too small to allow for any kind of statistical significance. And it would be irresponsible to speculate, of course. Hihi. >_>

Whether statistically significant or not, it’s clearly another victory for Team Good ™. Biff succeeds where Mopey herself failed…ooooh, that’s going to burn. Violently, and for a long time. But sacrifices have to be made in service of the greater good, and I’m sure Mopey will prefer the pain of this humiliation to seeing the whole world plunged into eternal darkness – barely prefer, perhaps, but still prefer. Evil!Mopey, meanwhile, experiences a considerable amount of physical pain on top of the humiliation of being defeated by Biff, of all people – and she wouldn’t even have minded seeing the whole world plunged into eternal darkness. So, for her, it’s a truly abysmal day…a typical Monday, if you so will.

Biff’s route to success involves a compromise between his old character traits and her new ones. The violence is purely old!Biff, but while he had a strong inclination toward mindless violence, new!Biff takes a more cerebral approach and brings her newly acquired skills as a rogue with an invisibility cloak into play. She pay for this by having the sweet taste of triumph somewhat soured by ethical considerations, though, something that old!Biff never experienced. And he particularly wouldn’t have experienced it in the context of hammering Mopey, who he would have felt to have had that coming for a long, long time. But, alas, new!Biff has no mental access to that simple wellspring of joy that is fulfilling an act of revenge long delayed, and instead has to bother with all kinds of mixed feelings.

So, today’s take-away lesson: Don’t think too much, it’ll only make you unhappy. Oh, and another victory down for Team Good ™.

More on Thursday.

4 Replies to “That Looks Like it Really Hurts – Chapter 7, Act 4, Strip 79”

  1. Now I’m curious what happened with the casting for evil!Mopey. Is this a stunt-double? Dress is a different color (red/dark-brown to blue-ish), eye color changed (purple (in the imagine spot) to red), and the beard is missing. I could understand if there was a scene change but this is all still the same fight scene.

    Poor Biff doesn’t have the “female touch” that makes mallet hits non-fatal as Snuka can attest (though he also survived a similar fate from falling head-first into this world so maybe he’s just a professional*).
    This does bring up an interesting question: Can a woman have 2 hyperspace mallets? I imagine if a guy stole it it’d just disappear after the screen transition but can a gal steal another woman’s mallet permanently? This opens so many metaphorical doors…

    *Duh, it’s Snuka, of COURSE he’s a professional; what am I saying?

    1. Hah, funny thing about those differences. ^_^; As far as the beard is concerned, I simply forgot. ._. I was tempted to let that mistake stand as another example of an ‘authentic’ continuity fault, but ultimately I felt it would be too confusing, so I’ve altered the strip and retroactively added the beard. Thanks for pointing that out! As for the dress…that’s actually another oversight by me. Mopey’s dress had a red pattern earlier, which I then toned down and colored blue for the last chapter…and now, when ‘reactivating’ that outfit, I just mixed that up. ^_^; But I’ll leave it like it is, I think it’s not that confusing to the audience. The red pupils were on purpose, though – just because it’s more evil. XD

      Hyperspace mallets aren’t necessarily restricted to female characters – a male character can have one, too, as long as he’s sufficiently prudish/concerned about appropriateness. In this case, it’s more of an issue of competing special abilities – Mopey’s ability to access her mallet whenever she needs it versus thief!Biff’s ability to steal anything and everything at any time. In such cases, a coin is tossed to break the tie…which will always land on the side that works better for the plot. XD

  2. Prediction: good!Mopey is going to fight DM. His shadow sword would do shit against her ultimate defense.

    I wonder if team evil even realize they were fighting against alternative versions of themselves. And if they do, can they recognize anyone but their own twin? It’s a good bet evil!Mopey didn’t even know she was defeated by Biff, especially considering that good!Biff wears a cloak of invisibility all the time.

    1. I would think that the enmity between Mopey and Biff transcends all possible limits, even metaphysical ones. So, while evil!Mopey would mostly be hating evil!Biff, she’d also experience an inexplicable, overwhelming feeling of revulsion when meeting good!Biff, even if she probably wouldn’t be able to explain where that feeling comes from. The underlying reason is that she’s not hating Biff’s appearance or gender, but the very essence of Biff. Evil!Mopey never saw that mallet coming, and never actually saw good!Biff in this scene…and yet, her final nanoseconds were tormented by the realization that she had been defeated by some force that she hated with every fiber of her being. XD

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