That Might Have Hurt More – Chapter 7, Act 4, Strip 80

Well, this one probably hurt as much as the one that hit evil!Mopey, so I’ve mercifully kept the action off-screen. Which was easy, thanks to the “red mist” or “blinded by rage” concept that’s appropriate for a berzerker, anyway. It just didn’t occur to me to tell the Professorian to wash his hands before the next shot, the result of which slightly detracts from the mercifulness…>_>

So, anyway, evil!Snuka is down permanently, thanks to two critical mistakes he made. The first one: his planning relied on facing the Paladin again, who could never have caught him unaware thanks to the inevitable noise levels caused by his metal armor. The Professorian, light-weight and equipped with supple leather and fur, can move quite silently by comparison, if he can keep his grumbling over something or other down.

The second mistake was taunting the Barbessor. Evil!Snuka was a master of taunting, and it had worked to his favor in many engagements in the past…causing his enemies to lose their cool and attack in an uncoordinated, thoughtless manner. Unfortunately, that’s what being a berzerker is about in the first place – so in this engagement, evil!Snuka’s taunts were playing right into his opponent’s hands. Evil!Snuka unwittingly blunders more by choosing a penis-size-based taunt. He probably felt that it would be particularly effective based on the Professorian’s age-related lack of physical development, but he was unaware of the importance of penis size in Viking society. And even if there wouldn’t actually be any Vikings in this fantasy setting, and the Professorian’s ethnic background has never been established, and it’s furthermore never been established how he’d even feel connected to an ethnic background after being turned into a barbarian in an instant…the Professorian automatically gets a Viking cultural background due to his berzerker nature. And the helmet, of course. Any character with horns on his helmet automatically has a Viking background…because, while Vikings actually never wore helmets like that (save, perhaps, for ceremonial occasions), it would be overly pedantic to give them a Sherden background. The Sherden just aren’t as big in popular culture as the Vikings. Too bad for evil!Snuka.

More on Monday.