‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 645

Jerks can be more entertaining at times.

35 Comments

Awww… that awful feeling when you have to either pretend to be someone else or risk never being liked 🙁

By the way, you might want to look up some ear tutorials and references. Your ears look kinda weird a little bit.

or are danny and bandit’s ears weird. or maybe the guy who’s name i forgot what drew their avatars does funny ears

Honestly the ears are usually just fine, if anything needs work it’s character gestures, as well as fixing the weird hair shadows that are so dark, etc.

I love the differing art styles from L.i.f.E. versus the Game though.

Don’t kid yourself, Bandit. You may think you hate it, but you got used to it a looong time ago, you wouldn’t be able to not act like a jerk in the Game even if you wanted to.

I wonder now how long he can not act like a jerk -outside- the game… 🙂

Unfortunate, but true. But people who play jerks have to be careful not to overplay it though (e.g. by blowing Kat up) or else the fans will want to see them fall. Just yesterday I watched an old episode of “The biggest loser” (German version) and right after the one bad guy had to go, they fabricated someone else to become the new bad guy. Also it’s a lot about people saying personal things and crying (including the bad ones), so that the viewers are conflicted whether they should really hate the bad guy (as much). And they fabricate relationships and relationship problems. So all in all I don’t think it’s the jerks people want to see, it’s conflict and drama in general. You just need jerks to cause them and keep them going.

And Danni of all people should know that a good play requires a competent villain. I mean, Ballet isn’t just about dancing. If she really was so famous, then she must’ve been hired to dance in various theaters, operas and whatnot. It’s so ironic that she’s the only one in Jane’s group who tries to play the Game as herself. 🙂

Depends on how old Danni was during her career. She may have been billed as a child prodigy. And one of the things child actors/performers are often NOT called to do… is show character emotions convincingly. That is why so few child “prodigies” continue in the same career as adults. They were too busy performing to practice and perfect the fundamentals.

Oh, and often the “child prodigies” have horrible parents. (Obviously not Danni’s parents tho – they appear to be saints)

Well, they’re saints NOW, but… I mean, an apocalypse is a pretty strong reason to rethink your life.

I don’t think Danni didn’t learn to fake emotions. Ballet is a high art form that is a lot about conveying feelings, not just practicing moves to perfection. Thus it wouldn’t have made sense to focus Danni on the latter only, especially if she had been an impressionable child at the time.

Bandit: And to answer your questions, no, I don’t really enjoy playing The Bandit, but I don’t have much choice. There’s more going on than I’m allowed to talk about. I’m allowed to tell you only so much, and only privately. That’s why I asked you to come here.

I just noticed Bandit’s been consistently waving his left hand around throughout this scene. Neat!

Is Bandit left handed?

Yeah, I wonder about that too.

Maybe he isn’t but keeps it a secret like in Princess Bride. 🙂

Oh g-d please don’t have an arc where Danni tries being a lovable jerk but just ends up being a jerk*ss. That sitcom crap would be beneath your level of writing.

Danni is entertaining for being an incompetent klutz at the Game. 😀

you do realize in some ways Dani is a lovable jerk already

On the bright side, a nice person willing to argue with a jerk rather a lot could start a fun banter feud, and thus make people want to keep you around.

Just to watch you bicker and banter with your jerkface teammate.

Thus comes the Danni-dawn. He really is a jerk… just a very realistic one. And if you wanna stay in this game, you have to be entertaining. Say… knives on your ballet shoes. Steel cockspurs on your calves. Add a bikini and shave half your hair off. Based on television ratings, it’s bound to work. Be the biggest twit in the game– the chef says so! But whatever you do, no matter how well you play, don’t be boring. Or you’ll be kicked off the island.

Yes Danni, that’s how it is. And yes it’s sad, but that’s REALITY TELEVISION! With an extra dose of reality. What Jake is missing though is that one doesn’t have to be a JERK to be entertaining. That was his choice. Which means that it was probably the easiest thing for him to do. Dunno, could be all an act to make the enemy underestimate him. But Kat hasn’t been a jerk and she’s got the whole grid watching what she’s doing.

“the chef says so!”
Yes, the cook told her to do it, because he provides her with food.
I know you meant chief. 🙂

Why stop at adding knives to her shoes? How about guns?
But in her current weaponless state her enemies might want to end up getting kicked by her, because the enemies’ viewers will want her to flash her underwear at them. 😀

Why stop there. Give her a special that let’s her summon a monster based on how undressed she is. Turn her character into complete fan service.

Well, interestingly there hasn’t been any group so far that uses fan service for fame. Saisuke’s, Snowman’s, Aza’s, Bloody Mary’s and now Jane’s group, they’re all dressed properly, some even abundantly (like Danni and Dude). The only skirt I’ve seen so far is Mina’s, who shortened it in the first few pages for the purpose of becoming more famous when standing up there on the stage. 😀
So, all jokes aside, I believe there is a reason why fan service seems to be not among the things that give you fame in this world, aside from the general family friendliness of this comic. It makes me wonder if that reason will ever be revealed, because NAV is very consequent in completely avoiding that topic aside from the example above. Of course Danni could ask Bandit right now why he doesn’t provide fan service instead of being a jerk, because Danni seems to be the only person in this world who doesn’t know anything about the Game, but otherwise I don’t see an explanation happen anywhere in the near future.

Bandit DOES kind of do fan service though, in the Game Trials, when he first (almost) beats Kat, he has the announcer let his fans vote on how he will eliminate Kat. Fan service is definitely present, but maybe there’s just a rule against nudity(there are definitely underage children in LIFE and possibly the Game), or the characters we’ve seen so far don’t want to sink that low.

Could just be that Aneeka doesn’t want half-naked people in her comic.

Also, Danni’s costume has leggings, so it doesn’t matter HOW high she kicks. No underwear for you!

Bayonetta reference just flew past you there. I was making a joke about you recommending putting guns on her feet and enemies wanting to get kicked.

For note:
Nope, I meant “chef” not “chief”… as in TV’s (very rude jerk) chef.

Also, in my reference to Danni wearing a bikini I was kidding. That’s what OTHER comics do to make up for poor storyline. Fan service totally not needed nor desired here.

Although it might be kinda hilarious to see Dude running around in a bikini. Then we could ALL go “AAAAAaaaaaaagggghghhhhh!!!!” 8D

Don’t hate the player, hate “the game”

No !!
Don’t hate the Game… Kleya and D might take that personally!

RIP Sen. We will miss you. “The Virus” claims another soul…

Roman Colosseum, bread and circus.

I think it would be better if he said it’s like playing actors in a movie. No one is ‘themselves’ in a movie. There all acting out a role, a character rather it be someone whos a jerk or not.

Dani just seems to think everything is more real and true to person and not understand that the game is more like a TV show for viewers.

re: people saying he’s playing Bandit because he’s a jerk IRL

Jake is playing Bandit, a villain character, at least for the sake of Dr Grace’s questionable “take control of the Virus” plan. There may be other reasons too (he told Brandon about the existence of other conspiracies, and wants to maintain Villain group status).

Jake is trying to not reveal Dr Grace’s plan, or anything else, to Danni. He’s not (currently) choosing to say “I can’t talk about it” or something along those lines either where he makes it obvious he’s hiding something. He is doing the following:
1) Giving Danni advice about needing to be entertaining (which happens to be true)
2) Providing a reasonable sounding explanation on the surface for why he’s acting like a jerk (jerks are entertaining)
3) Hoping he can shut down that “why are you playing a jerk” inquiry without further suspicion.

Counterexample that Danni can bring up: Saisuke is absurdly popular and plays a Hero alignment, and Bandit has demonstrated a lot of knowledge about the game and can probably play it really well. Jake may have a response about that though.

Also, Jake is a… Demoli ? I think ? And from their inner dialoguse during the newbie quest, it seems he deliberately chose that route because it was Kat’s favorite: see this page and the next: http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-291/

He chose it because he’s trying to trick The Virus. It’s all part of Dr. Grace’s plot.

His explanation that this is only a role he’s playing is not entirely unreasonable. But, as Danni may point out on the next page, it would have been nice if all of his co-actors had been informed about this part of the show.

And from what we’ve seen, I’m pretty sure he does get a good deal of enjoyment out of playing a “jerk” character.

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 645