The Professorian is the last one among the party going up against his alter (and in his case older) ego.
Or rather, I should say “the Berzerkarian”, for in his current state (of excitement) he identifies as such.
Unfortunately, it’s not as effective on him as it’s been for him in the recent past. This particular confrontation follows the classic pattern of youthful enthusiasm vs. old-man-meanness. And old-man-meanness wins 99 out of 100 of such encounters, that’s just the way of the world. And, irrespective of the age difference, the evil!Professor has the advantage of higher rationality – a trait his younger self is lacking in not just because of his age, but because of his profession as well. Barbarians aren’t generally incapable of higher thought, of course, but they prefer not to engage in it if there’s any kind of way around it.
Employing this higher rationality, the evil!Professor finds the Professorian’s weakness easy to determine and exploit: it’s the lack of reach that comes with having short, stubby limbs. Some might say they make the Professorian cute-looking, but they’re still a handicap in combat against a calculating and ruthless foe. Especially if its a mean old man on top of everything.
All in all, the party really didn’t do well against the anti-party party. What does that prove? That everything was better in the past? That everything is better when it’s evil? Or did they just screw up with tactics? Perhaps we should wait and see how K’ip is doing against DM before trying to come to a definite conclusion on any of that…
More on Thursday.
What.
Yeah, I admit that this strip doesn’t really make very clear what’s going on – it wasn’t actually supposed to look like this, but the idea that I originally had for this strip just didn’t work out at all, in terms of pose and perspective. Hence the somewhat improvised alternative. ^_^;
My god, I’m actually caught up. Now I have to check back Mondays and Thursdays for updates! This feels so… surreal!
Congratulations! By this stage, it’s no mean feat to have read the (long and disjointed) entirety of the B-movie Comic. =D Hope you’ve enjoyed it, though, or at least parts of it.
In fairness, I feel like the current party hasn’t really gotten into their new roles yet. Gregory was trying too hard, Mopey didn’t realize her specialty was defense, Biff got the sneaky-thing right at first but then blew it soon after, Snuka has always seemed like a fish out of water TRYING to do the good thing, and the Professor is straight-up out of his element (Old and intellectual to young and stupid).
Their evil counterparts simply have more experiencing doing what they do.
Yeah, it’s like the old, tired “stay true to yourself, and you’ll win” mantra put on its head – in this case, there’s no denying that Team Evil is much truer to themselves than Team Good. XD Of course, it’s not like Team Good had much choice…Biff and the Professorian, in particular, are constitutionally unable to be themselves, right now, even if they wanted to.
Gosh, it’s almost like DM specifically picked roles for the good guys that work against their strengths and render them largely ineffectual against tremendously competent foes…
Mopey, typically one of the group’s hardest hitters, is suddenly forced to fight more defensively. Snuka, the roguish trickster, is deprived both of the moral flexibility that allowed for him to best utilized his talents, but of the talents themselves (As we saw by his attempt to lockpick a chest). Biff is given powers best utilized for combat purposes by the CUNNING (and the light from Cunnning would take longer than Biff’s lifespan to reach Biff), and the Professor is basically a case of using a mage as a melee tank. Pretty much the only one of the team who I could argue was an improvement was a certain ex-zombie, for while Mopey may argue this point, generally any deviation from death is usually an upwards step.
Yeah, it’s really almost like DM did that on purpose. Which gains some added plausibility from the fact that it’s exactly what most DMs would do in DM’s situation. While cackling evily, just like DM. XD
You’re right, of course – I mapped the characters from the old D&D cartoon onto my established team with the goal to achieve the greatest possible discrepancy to their original characters. Which is, for example, why Snuka is a Paladin instead of a Ranger, since a Ranger would still have been somewhere within striking distance of his original, thievish personality. Gregory was a real problem, in that regard, since he had so little established personality at that point, it was hard to define an opposite – so I went with the magician for him, with some extra helpings of youthful exuberance and sparkling effects, in the hope to establish a sufficient contrast to what he was before. But it’s true he’s definitely lost attractiveness in Mopey’s eyes in the process.