‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 526

Colors by Audrey with edits and everything else by me.

In that tree

An understanding

Breaking down

Yes, she changed the phrasing a bit.

I personally really want a wall scroll AND a mug. Anyone with me on that?

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23 Comments

She has altered the understanding. Pray she does not alter it further.

I feel for Dude.

Jake is burning, burning down, burning down, burning down.
Jake is burning, burning down, my fair Du-ude.

What happens when you take the most dangerous person on the planet, attack her, and then have an open rivalry with someone else in the group who threatens to kill said person’s friend? Yeah…

Jake is burning, burning down, burning down, burning down.
Jake is burning, burning down, my fair Du-ude.

And before someone comments, no it doesn’t fit perfectly, but it gets the point across.

Haha that’s so true though. And just plain great.

I am thinking Jane respects Kat, maybe even likes her because she realizes Kat is earnestly trying to help everyone… something that no one is doing for Jane. It could be she just sees Kat as an opportunity– but Kat is (to our knowledge) the only one Jane has ever whispered to, and definitely the only person Jane has ever confided in.

Maybe in Kat she sees a glimmer of hope in an otherwise cruel world.

I actually think there is also a deeper connection between Jane and the manager(s) of our group. Maybe they know each other outside of the game, maybe they got some kind of “plan” going on, and if they do they need Kat for it.

Can’t wait for the story to go on 😀

Yeah, Sandra & Bloody Mary-sorry, Jane, first secretly chatted here, then few pages later Paddy joined in as well, wanting her to join them for something. Reprogram their city perhaps? Either way they’re trying to gain Kat’s trust, despite getting Jane to “try” & kill Danni…

I doubt that Jane and Sandra know each other outside of L.i.f.e. (and they don’t know each other in the Game, cause Sandra isn’t even a player). I doubt that Jane is even really a candidate for immigration from outside, I’d guess they have some other kind of understanding.

Jane respects Kat because Kat is neither ‘sane’ nor a Citizen. The “helping other people” schtick is mostly just irritating to her, maybe she once wished for someone to do that for her, but she’s repressing that and Kat doing it for others doesn’t help. But her understanding with Sandra involves getting Kat’s cooperation, so she’ll do it.

Or kill the entire party again.

Why is Dude hiding behind Bandit from Jane? Of the two of them, Jake has made multiple and more serious attempts on Dude’s life. In fact, thinking back, Jake has mostly done nothing except let him down the entirety of the comic.

Jake… er… defended him once when Dr. Grace wanted to fire him. So there’s that…

Just how bro friendships work, really. A dudes best friend is usually absolutely f***ing savage about light to medium stuff, but absolutely heavy stuff (Shanghai, for The Dude) they’re on point to help you out when you need it. Keep in mind Jakes “Letting him down” includes helping him get into the game (despite the fact that his skill is clearly subpar, not reasonable that nobody else in Tenka is better suited), and keeping him informed (literally the only person in the world he confided in) about his attempts to redeem a living calamity. Sure, he’s not always the dudes first and greatest ally, but both of them know “The Bandit” is a persona, to be used in a conspiracy, not “him”.

I think that the game probably favors people who were still in their teens (at oldest) when they first became regular players. Human brains lose plasticity rapidly in the twenties, and after about thirty it’s basically impossible for the average human to unlearn their basic intuitions about how ‘reality’ works (even genius and higher intellects lose plasticity, though the loss isn’t as total). Leaving aside the massive social engineering implications of this biological fact, it also explains a lot of why most older people have real trouble adapting to new technologies.

The Game is both a novel technology AND a virtual environment that obeys fundamentally different rules than reality. So being the right age to have started playing it earlier in life probably gives someone a definite edge, while those with enough mental capability to offset that are probably in demand for other tasks.

The Trouble is breaking down, breaking down, breaking down
The Trouble is breaking down, Good bye Bandit.

that was what went through my mind when I read it.

I have never liked Bandit, and am seeing no reason to change my opinion of him. He is arrogant, self-absorbed, and seems an ‘ends justify the means’ type of guy (I detest that type of thinking).

Dude is comic relief but otherwise harmless – as is the usual case with comic relief sidekicks.

Mary/ Jane… I think I might be becoming sympathetic of her.

AHAHAHA!!! I found this and started reading a few days ago and I’m finally caught up! I made it!

Jake is saying he has an understanding with someone who tends to speak in gibberish at the best of times, and is outright terrifying the rest of the time. Jane is a complete wildcard as far as I am concerned… you don’t control her, you just hope she doesn’t decide to kill you for fun and giggles.

I know that ‘Bandit’ is a persona he puts on, but dang it he is really irritating when he does it. I know he has his fans both in universe and among readers, but to me it’s all X-Pac heat.

The main thing about Jake that is so annoying is that he is absolutely self-righteous. Most people empty that term of any meaning when they use it (generally, it’s mostly used by people who are actually the ones being self-righteous to describe everyone else). In the original meaning, it refers to someone who refuses to acknowledge any standard of “right” outside of their own current behavior, who never thinks that maybe they are to blame for what is wrong and they are the one who might need to change.

Kat is constantly wallowing in doubts about whether she’s doing the right thing or even capable of doing right. Most of the other characters (despite not being deep POV for any scenes) seem to also accept that “right” and “what I need to do to get what I want” are only accidentally similar (even Mina, the most annoying character other than Jake, is a distant second in blind assumption that “whatever Mina does to get what Mina wants” is the absolute standard of all morality).

Jake wants something, so it is unquestionably right and everyone who gets in the way is wrong. Jake thinks of a ‘clever’ way to get what he wants, so it is totally morally justified even if it might kill everyone in the known world (I bet Kat isn’t the only hacker living outside of TENka’s influence, but Jake doesn’t seem to acknowledge the implications of this even though he should know it). Jake is never the one that needs to change his behavior to deal with a situation.

Jake needs to learn a lesson, but merely killing him out of the Game won’t be enough to teach it to him.

Oh no, I caught up! I found this webcomic recently and have been reading it throughout the week. I’ve been so immersed, I didn’t want the feeling to end. Thanks for writing and drawing such a compelling story! Now I have some updates to look forward to during the week! 🙂

It was the same for me!! This is also the page I caught up on

…….my, fair…lady.

(You are all fired as commenters for nobody having said anything about London Bridge yet.)

Pretty sure a couple of us made our own versions of London Bridges based on the comic though 😀

My personal favorite was “Good-bye, Bandit!”

I want to see Jake burn really badly, and soon!

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 526