‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 657

Danni is so not impressed.

Repeated news: I'm gearing up for the Kickstarter for NAV's Book 5 and hope to launch it in May. The main problem is that I'm out of NAV 1 (I have just enough for Phoenix Comic Con in May, but that's it). It's awkward to run a Kickstarter and not be able to offer the first book of the series so I would like to raise the funds to reprint them during the Kickstarter. Alas, that's going to require a minimum of $20K, an amount none of my Kickstarters have reached before, so I'm a tad terrified of attempting it.

There are three ways to go about this:

Option A: Set the minimum for printing both books ($20K) and hope we make it. If we don't make it, then I'll get no money and neither book will be printed.

Option B: Set the minimum for printing only Book 5 ($10K) and put Book 1's reprint as a stretch goal at $20K. Come up with stretch goals in between that don't cost any money (since all the money will be consumed to print the books). If we fail to make $20K, but at least reach $10K, then Book 5 can be printed and Book 1 will have to wait for another time. But this makes it difficult for me to attend cons since I won't have Book 1 to sell. Also, I won't be able to offer a full set during the Kickstarter since there will be no Book 1 to give.

Option C: Set the minimum for reprinting Book 1 ($10K) and put Book 5 as a stretch goal at $20K. This is awkward since not everyone might want another Book 1 if they already have it and there's nothing really new to sell which could make it hard to raise the initial $10K.

I would love your input. If you could fill out this survey, it would help me immensely in making this decision!
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Thanks so much!!

23 Comments

Well, at least he admits to having messed up. I still think it’s a stupid thing to do, because in a post-apocalyptic world NPCs should be stabilizers like in the Apple Seed movie, but realistic characters are expected to make stupid mistakes here and there, especially when they’re under constant pressure and have a tendency to pull all-nighters so that they have to be ordered to rest.

But it’s good that that secret is finally out. The comic started on 10/10/10, so that means you’ve been sitting on that for almost exactly 7 years now, right? 🙂

As for stretch-goals: Are you going to publicize the ideas sent to you, so that people can voice their opinions on them before you decide which ones are feasible?

Other way around probably – Aneeka needs to decide which ones are feasible and THEN tell us an overly-long list of options so we can vote on the fun ones.

Oh, and nice deflection there about “are you Saisuke”. He totally could be. (Except he is probably far too busy for that)

I mean, it’s most likely to me that Saisuke is related to Kat in some way (father, mother, scientist that outfitted her, etc) and if he isn’t… well, that’ll be interesting if he ever shows up and isn’t just some random famous guy. Which I guess he totally could be.

Congratulations, Bandit! Not only did you f*** up to the level of ’caused someone to die’, there’s no one alive you can try to make proxy restitutions to.

She died alone and afraid and hurting because you were a thoughtless a**hole and that’s going to be on your conscience forever. I recommend you take the hint and start thinking about the consequences to other people more so that maybe you can avoid doing it again.

Thank you, yes. The Bandit has really grown on me as a character, but the one thing he absolutely fails at time and again is thinking through the consequences of his actions. He keeps assuming that he’s the smartest person in the room, so he’s justified in acting unilaterally on a first impulse. And he lets his personal obsessions harm people in reality.

Well he did grow up with Proto Kleya and of course is in love with her

ya know I was just thinking of something as I saw the comic and then your post.
Jake/bandit are very much alike in their base personalty, I think this is why they got along so good when they where kids, they where both able to see so much of themselves in the other it’s like they where soul mates. I also think it’s part of why he still wants to help. but I think another part to this, and why they seem like such different people despite everything I said, is that both have had quite different experiences both slightly before and after they split up. And it’s a fact that your life experiences play a much bigger role in shaping how you interact with everything then any other factors that make you. Still I think that’s another part of the reason, he’s trying to understand what her motivations where what she was trying to do

I don’t know why everyone keeps hating on Bandit. I mean he IS an arrogant, mouthy punk, specially designed to be the most popular player in the game (besides Saisuke, of course), but that’s just the persona. Remember he’s really Jake – the nicest guy around and not at all stuckup about being the best player/programmer out there. Plus he has Brandon being a quadruple agent, so he also has some plan to overthrow Tenka and start rebuilding the world.

g-d this conversation is making me so happy
characters TALKING
like, having actual conversations where they share their feelings, opinions and information???? I LOVE THIS

I know, right? ^^ Aneeka just loves to sit on tons of secrets for forever, up to the point where I was wondering if our life-spans (and hers) are long enough to witness the end.

A small ebook with some additional lore might be a good idea for kickstarter stretch goals. E.g. a user manual for the Game which Danni for some reason refused to read. Or a map. Or character profiles of Aza’s group. There are soooo many secrets and so little money with her, so trading one for the other might be a good idea. Of course it depends on how much stuff is actually already mapped out, but has been difficult to convey in comic format.

… kind of a little harsh, dude.

Ditto, this is so d*** good. So satisfying.

Seriously, don’t tell us that he’s secretly Saisuke!
…that would ruin the surprise!

Woah! I totally missed that he deflected that question! Suspicious!!!!

I already suspect this the moment he did her favorite path.

Until shown otherwise, my money’s on Saisuke being her father

Danni: “Oh, and by the way, after she was declared legally dead and her stuff was transferred to me, you went back after me and taunted her despite the fact that she was legally dead.”

Bandit: “Wait, then who was in her avatar?”

I see what you’re implying, but I don’t think we will see a dramatic reveal next week.

Danni: “Kat”
Bandit: “Why wasn’t she using her own.”
Danni” “Because it was badly drawn”
Bandit: “Heh! Yeah, it sure was.”

In all fairness, Jake’s idea isn’t all that bad when you think of the circumstances he’s had to work with. He needed something to cull the waiting list for his superiors, and he wanted something to draw Kat out of hiding. In this sense, the Angus Twins *did* do their job, and extremely well. Kat is an intelligent person that can usually either bluff her way out of trouble, or find a way to lay low–but her mask slips much more easily when she’s upset, or smug–making her angry is a good way to do both. Those that are less willing to give it all to get into the game are probably also discouraged, and pursue other options–this culls the waiting list.

It does of course have the drawback that this same anger would be directed at him. Perhaps Jake was hoping that once he got to Kat, he could talk his way out of the hole he was digging. It’s not a bad assumption, considering his ability to out fence nearly every other character we’ve seen, and even when Kat does figure that Jake is the Bandit–it’s not the Angus Twins that make her turn her back on him…it’s what happened before the Ending, that he was purportedly against her then.

Man, I haven’t really kept up with this comic for a good long while. Excellent time to take a quick look though, because the Twins are something I have wanted to know more about.

Did a reread of chapter 1. and, with the new information, it’s clear on how those two bullies were designed to hit Kat’s buttons, now. His plan worked perfectly too, except that she managed to just barely keep herself restrained enough to avoid giving away her identity. If Danni hadn’t been there, I wonder if they would have succeeded.

Would I be correct in guessing that when Kleya faced off with Bandit the first time, and noticed that his program leaked, that the “leak” was deliberate, in order to goad her into hacking his program? I assume Kat was right in that he was hacking in order to get her within 5 hp points, and stopped to, again, goad her into hacking? The MOMENT Kat beat his bots Bandit was suspicious. I had assumed, previously, that Bandit only became suspicious after she beat him, but it seems clear I was wrong.

Honestly, I really wanted to paint Bandit as one of Kat’s antagonists. I hated him when I first saw the character, and I had really hoped that I could keep him firmly in the villain box, but it seems we can’t have the guy just be an asshole, he just didn’t know about how rotten those NPCs of him were. No, no, he’s not a bad guy. He was just looking for Kat to help her out and stuff, and just didn’t realize what was going on.

Why can’t you just give me someone to hate, Aneeka? Do you realise that here is literally not a single person in this entire story that I can point to and say that “yes, THIS is the bad guy, no questions”? You destroy the villain narratives I had going for Bandit, Bloody Mary, and TENka. Who is even left? Some nebulous hacker group that barely shows up? I mean, her dad threw Kleya under the bus, so maybe he could be bad, but there just isn’t enough information to say, especially since he did try to cover for Kleya initially. I have the feeling that there are more misunderstandings at work.

I just want some bad guys for Kleya to go beat, is that too much to ask? It’s like you’ve taken the title of the story, and, instead of just using it to refer to Kat, you make it the overriding theme of the entire story. Everytime you think there is a villain, whoops, turns out they aren’t. 🙁

I still not accepting him becoming Kat’s love interest though. I know that narrative conservation practically screams that is the only available option (should the story ever goes in such a direction, which it might not), but I don’t like him, even if he isn’t a villain. I just don’t care for that smarmy, annoying, arrogant, bullying, jackass. Go to rot, Bandit!

On another note. I was looking through the archives. I remember a fan comic that had an absolutely gorgeous fan rendition of Kat in the Game, and how all the characters thought it looked so great. I think it used Paddy’s original design. Can’t find it though. Can someone point to me where it is?

Actually, as far as I understand, Kat’s first Special was triggered by hacking. Which means that she DIDN’T restrain herself, and Danni had nothing to do with that.

And the comic’s in the extras.

Yea, you are right. That was a failsafe Kleya put in.

No, actually I think he’s more like naruto. ;P

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 657