‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 755

It's official: The Dude is deathly afraid of pink. 😉

In case you forgot: Iemis and his island

41 Comments

So apparently Iemis was Keiko’s dad, and Mani was his Thing; Keiko’s mom was into Herbana. Keiko’s special place…I’m guessing that’d be a Demoli stronghold (’cause everything goes boom!), so who would have been in charge up of the Kesti island? Kim maybe??

I really hope I won’t have to make a chart to keep all this straight…

A chart to keep all this straight really would be nice.

Aw, and here I was hoping that the Erbana Island’s leader (who is presumably Kat’s mom) would be a super nice character similar to Belldandy from “Ah! My Goddess”. I hoped to see that this A.I. would eventually demonstrate to Kat how to be an Erbana who doesn’t force their alignment on everyone else and who’s actually nice.

But I’m suspecting that she might be more along the lines of Olive Branch from Erfworld, i.e. someone who forces pacifism on those around her with her magical chill-axe and drugs them with a highly addictive flower (a Heroine Bud) to get information. Also she poisons food.

Orange is Kesti though, and they’re headed for the Kesti route, so Dude is reacting to the whole revelation of where the routes go, and maybe specifically to the orange one they’re about to take (or the pink one, but taken in whole context with the previous page, he’s probably not looking forward what’s on the orange route, and definitively doesn’t want to take the pink one).

Yes, I know where they’re going to go and that orange is Kesti.
I find that the last panel makes it as clear as day that he’s referring to the pink one as the one he definitely doesn’t want to choose, while casually proposing that they should take orange.

Remember he’s playing up the speech bubbles for the audience. Subtext tells us the two are using the banter to make it seem like they arrived at the decision to follow the party through roleplaying.

Remember that in the very last text box he explicitly says that it’s not just the RPG banter why he doesn’t want to go there.

So are Kat and Dani on their way to the island of Sasuke (however his name is spelled?) And would the pink cave go to the island controlled by the ghost of Kleya’s mom?

Yes, Saisuke and “almost certainly exactly that island and yeah it’s probably controlled by her mom”. 😉

I don’t understand what was implied.

Same, I even went back a bit to try and understand. I dont mind slow updates, but this reveal fell a little flat for me because I just was like “Okay… that means… what again?” Some kind of summery or explanation would be nice.

Did you follow the link in the comic’s description? It says that Mani island is controlled by Kat’s Dad’s A.I.

Can you explain more? Still don’t get why Dude is flipping out.

Also, doesn’t the Mani cave NOT lead to Iemis’ island? It leads to the island they were teleported to, right?

Kat was an 100% Erbana.

Mani was an 100% Mani user as a Dead One, but still a pretty powerful A.I. – turned players into trees.

A pacifist on Kat’s level…may not be a force anyone wants to deal with, especially if it drags Kat into join as well and now you’ve got 2 potential 100% Erbanas “Pacifying for control of the island.”

I actually had to look this one up myself. Turns out the entire island they were teleported to IS the hub, not just the cave system. The Mani cave leads to the portal leading to Mani island.

Kat says regarding this hub island that the map doesn’t say anything:
http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-560/

The island to which they teleported appears to be a terminal of some sort leading to portals that take to to the destination of the alignment of your choice. This would imply that if you know the island and have no done, you can reset your alignment to whatever you choice. This could radically change the way The Game gets played.

( ?° ?? ?°)

This page doesn’t really resonate with me. It has been weeks and weeks, but as I recall Iemis’ island was island #1. They used an unmarked portal to get from there to here island #2. Sandra never explained (because the party is dysfunctional) what Paddy found out about island #2 other than that it is Morto. So “leads straight to Iemis’ island” actually means that the other paths leads to a portal that leads to an island with that alignment. That bland statement shouldn’t make that much of a reaction since there is no reason they would have to go through a portal even if they went through the pink cave to investigate.

The main thing is that this appears to be a “hub world” of sorts where new characters can easily go to an island with their preferred alignment. The problem is that this kind of thing isn’t supposed to exist in the game. It seems to be some sort of hacked-in tool by whatever organization Sandra and Jane belong to that allows them to easily set up new characters, possibly for spying purposes. Dude knew about the entry portal so he appears to have access to some of that organization’s information, but Sandra/Jane don’t know he’s part of it, and he doesn’t seem to be in very deep.

Note that you need max 1 esone to enter, but you can leave with any amount. This is a place to farm esones of whatever alignment you want.

I don’t think you could farm esones using this system. I mean if the intention was a character goes to Hub world then uses the portal to Iemes’ island to get esones there, he or she couldn’t then return to Hub world since they would have more than one esones.

Also, I agree that the characters have alignments, but I don’t think the esones do have alignments.

I think there is a way to farm esones, i.e. you bring a bunch of these things to the portal’s entrance and then pass them through one by one. The limitation is probably only there to prevent high-level people from finding the portal at all.

As stated this is a hub world that links to islands of specific alignments. However, I think the key detail here is that the hub world didn’t just lead to any mani island. It led to one of the most infamous mani lands of one of the big names related to creating of the Game itself. The other linked islands likely are similarly created by big name moves and shakers in the world. Were talking the first and best known individuals of the alignment in the game, the people who define the alignment.

By context that means that the pink island is likely one created by Kat’s mother, and the demoli island is likely kat’s own island, as she implied that was her favorite alignment before the collapse. I don’t think we know who the defining characters for cardesto or kelsi islands are, so it’s harder to anticipate where those hubs lead to. Someone suggested Saisuke may be the creator of the Kesti island, which could make sense as he is the best known Kesti player we heard of.

Dude’s response implies the idea of going to the Erbana island, almost certainly created by Kat’s mother, is a scare prospect. Maybe that means Kat’s mother’s AI/ghost is just as scary as her dad’s is. Though alternatively maybe D protects the island of Kat’s mother since Kat is so defensive of her and so their afraid of what D will do to anyone trespassing on her island.

I think the main implication is this was the personal warp hub of Kat and her family and friends back in the day.

Surely Jake/Bandit would have recognised it alot quicker then?

LOl dude’s face is awesome!

“Going down a pink rabbit hole” has GOT to be a euphemism.

If Kat’s mom was as stone-cold as her daughter, then that rabbit hole will lead to Winter Wonderland. 😉

Am I to understand that Mr. The Dude assumes that the route used by the AI leads to a Demoli island? Is that why he protests against that route?

What am I missing?

Is he scared of the Kesti island?

What is scaring him?

Please disregard the above comment.

Does the purpose of this place have to do with some war or competition between the different alignments? Was this place designed as a gathering place?

What am I missing?

As I understand it, it was made as a cheaty way to go around the different islands.

But why would that scare Mr. The Dude?

He’s scared of the thought of going to Erbana island.

After re-reading from about page 300, I think I’m piecing this together.

It is possible that this island was created by “the underground” much like the portal was added by a spy. This island, being able to link with locations based on their alignment, could be a cheat for a member of the underground to get powerful in the game very quickly without others being able to stop him. That TENka wants it explored and Sandra doesn’t is very interesting. Maybe Sandra doesn’t want TENka to see this island. Maybe Sandra doesn’t want to upset the plans of the “underground” (regardless of her knowledge of said plans).

Some very interesting possibilities now.

Even if “the underground” didn’t create the island, that they were first to discover it is both clear and interesting. I am really looking forward to Keiko discovering where the group is. If she has any knowledge of it, it might have been designed as an Easter egg early in development.

don’t forget that Kat is believed to have killed her mother so her going to that island could be complicated

I really hope we get to see that at some point. I can only imagine that she would have a panic attack.

I’ve said before that I think Kat is being controlled by an AI, and not Keiko or D.

Page 371 shows Keiko instructing D to “make sure Danni stays safe.” Note that Keiko does not elaborate in any manner. She does not say how, from what, or for how long. My theory is that D selected that AI that is running Kat and gave it specific orders where Danni is concerned.

For those wondering how scary an erbana could possibly be… consider. We have that flashback where kleya showed her dad how to control what plants grow on his island, making him as “invincible” as her mom already was on her own. This suggests that even with full mani on an island designed and optimized for your own use, if a top tier erbana player has access to the right plants you’d still lose. Conversely, a top tier erbana on their own, custom designed island is completely invincible. Small wonder that whatever AI is playing kyela’s mom nowadays is a thing to be feared. You’d likely end up unable to harm anyone, ever… forever, in short order.

Okay, I think I get it now. Dude is saying that the portal on the floor is the normal path *into* this weird, multi-choice place, and that the cave that they came through would normally be traveled the opposite direction, with the final destination the island of the Mani super-AI that they managed to escape. So there’s no telling where the other end of that portal may be, but any other direction almost certainly leads to another aligned island, ruled by an AI just as powerful as Keyla’s Dad’s AI, and not an island with an alignment that is favorable to Dude’s alignment. Dude’s alignment is Mani, correct? So if he’s afraid to go back and risk encountering the AI on a Mani island, he’s pretty much screwed no matter where else he might end up.

Dude is a Cardista.

I love how good they are at playing it all into RP for the audience.

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 755