‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 653

Human nature: If someone/thing does something bad, let's blame everyone/thing related to it!

NEWS (repeated)

At long last, the third book in my Chaos Gods series is ready for its grand debut:

Releases March 27th!

It is currently on pre-order for $4.99.

To celebrate the release, the first book in the series, The Wanted Child, is on sale for $0.99 for a limited time!

Yep, new cover

Fifteen-year-old Ki doesn't care what half of the nine gods say. She will not let her parents die to save the Four Lands. Tavk, the trickster god, agrees to protect her parents as long as she completes his missions. For the promise of a happy ever after, Ki evolves into an infamous demonic fighter and tries to ignore her fading humanity and growing loneliness.

Then she meets De: the gods' new Hero. The gods need him trained fast and Tavk is only too happy to sign her up for the job. Two years older -- and distractingly handsome -- De practically worships Ki and wants to be both her best trainee and her best friend. But he doesn't know who she really is: The Wanted Child. The one the new Hero, De, is destined to kill so the gods can finally destroy her parents.

Great time to try the series if you haven't yet!

25 Comments

“Just blame The Dude’s City.”

@mouse-over: Yeah, picturing someone who gets baffled in the middle of a rant is quite difficult.

It is all too rare that we get to see someone who is both willing to reconsider their perspective while also holding resolutely to their principle point, and it is harder because we probably missed a bunch of times when we were getting people to do that.

Holy s***, this is a major game-changing moment: Bandit admitting he made a mistake.

I am liking this character growth.

Me too. I was surprised by such a direct assumption of responsibility. I think he’s just made a good point.

He’s certainly being Jake here and not the Bandit persona. I’ve always thought Jake was very weighed down by his post apocalyptic responsibilities, his agency that has made him a target for those respected seniors in Tenka who want to use him, and his empathy for all the people suffering across the globe in a holocaust that he feels he failed to prevent. (But we haven’t really seen enough of his irl side to really confirm all this so it could still go either way, I just think it is leaning that way; and of course Bandit is a very different aspect of him, more like who he could indulgently be if the Ending hadn’t happened, or maybe some necessary part of Tenka’s plan to influence the other survivors.)

He’s always been Jake. I’m surprised at how many readers don’t like him. Bandit is the persona that tenka created that they determined would be the most popular.

Hmmm… That begs the question of WHY they wanted him to be so popular? What secret plans do they have for him? I guess this goes back to the Dude being a quadruple agent and he and Jake talking about the ”plans”.

He could point out the fact that Outsiders have lots of non-game opportunities in Life to earn money. And probably irl too – just checking in probably earns them food.

As far as human nature is concerned, I would argue that failing to learn from past experiences is borderline suicidal. If pain and hardship are regularly caused by a certain type of people (how that type is defined is irrelevant), it is only natural that one would be wary of this group, especially if this person has not had any good experiences with this group of people. In this instance, Danni is perfectly right and Jake should absolutely feel ashamed of his behavior.

Typo? Should Bandit’s opening phrase be “Even after all that…”? Makes more sense (to me at least) than “Ever after all that….”

Thanks for the new strip! Love seeing these two interact!

D’oh! Thanks for catching that!

Typo fixed.

Wait wait, that doesn’t make sense – shouldn’t it be TENka, not the cities?

Danni’s own personal problems lie more with her city, not with TENka. Admittedly TENka and the Game are obstacles to her survival, but it’s her city that wants to take the resources from her, yet it’s also the city that thinks the Game is enough of a reason to let her live, versus bringing in Outsiders at great effort & the expense of precious resources. So she understands the Outsiders’ complaints, even as she herself desperately needs the Game to survive, despite living in a city and not being an Outsider…and she’s probably heard excuses right and left from city officials on why it’s cheaper to keep her alive rather than bring in Outsiders, except they could get 2 for the price of one Danni, or whatever…

Her situation is really, seriously effed up, squeezed between a rock, a hard place, and some really pointy sharp things as well. Some people might view her as selfish (and in some ways she is; survival of the self is, by definition, selfish), but she’s far more complex and full of depth than I think even Danni herself realizes.

Well we don’t really know Dani’s situation outside of how dire things will be if she doesn’t earn enough money. I’m guessing her and her family are still being treated as more of an outsider that just lives inside or next to one of the cities as opposed to being one of the regular citizens. in either case she has seen actual outsiders suffer because people like bandit make all sorts of assumptions that turn out to be wrong. And since he did cause the death of her best friend which given how few close friends she has it felt more like he caused the death of her sister. so she’s blaming him for everything, which he did at least cause some of it.

I don’t think she’s being treated as an outsider. She just isn’t able to work the fields and live a normal life which is why she needs the escape and freedom of movement the game gives.

She does understand the outsiders, but not in an intimate way as such (mainly just from hearing from her previous partners would be my guess):
http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-83/

I love the subtle touch of Bandit reversing the flow of responsibility diversion: normally people like to blame everyone else other than them, but here it’s the other way round: hey, don’t blame OTHERS for MY f***up
<3 <3 <3

I also love Danni getting mad on behalf of a group she herself doesn't belong to <3 <3 <3
these characters are all good people and this is just. making me happy

Bandit just made another mistake. He’s all but admitted to being pretty high ranking in TENka. He created the AI’s that thin the herd of prospective players of the game, and hes got the ear of the even higher-ups to make such a suggestion. He’s also explained that he was there, in Tenka, when the ending happened, which means hes got a good deal of seniority as well.
Trouble is, Bandit has been lauded as the hottest rookie sensation While its not unheard of that a high-ranking senior TENka employee had not been a part of the game before…it is highly unlikely. This would raise ALOT of questions……if Danni starts thinking about them.

presumably not a lot of moving around happens post ending so Him being in Tenka is not surprising. he already said he made the programs when he first met the two. just because he made the suggestion and it was done does not mean he has high access just that the higher ups approved it. not sure new character equates with new player anymore.

Nah, that doesn’t sound right re: high ranking. He’s admitted to having had his pet project approved, true, but that doesn’t necessitate high rank.

Now, taking full responsibility for it DOES reveal some things about his personality 😀

Bandit just made a big mistake. “Don’t blame every city for _*MY*_ mistake.” He’s just admitted to being the top programmer in TENKA. I wonder if Danni’s expression in the last panel means she got that. She’s pretty smart.

No, he did not admit to being the top programmer, but to being the one ultimately responsible for the creation of the AI’s being used to cull the numbers trying to enter the DeathMatch. And the fact that one of the culled was her partner before Kleya (and that Nanea died through over-training to get past the bullies) is (as I see it) why Danni is royally torqued with TENka in general and Jake in particular.

Just wanted to say, long time reader, really been enjoying this story and I picked up The Wanted Child. Absolutely loved it, bought The Servant Lord and eagerly awaiting the third installment!

I bought all three e-books, and have a quick question for you. Above, “The Wanted Child” is listed as first in the series, but the e-book itself says that it is 2nd in the series. Am I starting with the right book? Thanks!

The Wanted Child is the first book. Where does it say it’s the 2nd in the series?

The 2nd page reads:
THE WANTED CHILD
CHAOS GODS: Book 2
BY: ANEEKA RICHINS

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 653

NEWS (repeated)