Dr. Moosen McMoose, Chief Spymooster of the Moosad
You can tell how much her people’s society has suffered. Their interior design aesthetic is stuck in Mid-Century Modern!
Griffin
I mean… They COULD have just set her loose to see what would actually Happen too. Not an intended consequence, but more of possibility. See how much chaos she could sow. Because it’d be funny.
Nomi
Choan DOES really like funny. Maybe it’s hereditary.
Maybe Choan’s parents tried to make her *not* the same type of monsters they were- with the capacity to love and be happy with their own works- Ofc. achieving these aims artificially would have ‘unexpected’ results until the method(s) are fully refined — 😐 — Wait a moment…
Arcanestomper
I actually don’t quite get the focus on Choan. I mean yeah she killed the princess. But it was still this Guhah guy who actually assassinated the king and queen. Sure you can assign blame to Choan but you can’t call her the key factor just because of that. Or else why not assign blame to the king and queen for exiling her, or the princess for wooing Guhah. Or even Choan’s parents because apparently they had a hand in it if the last few panels are anything to go by.
Of course I know it’s because Choan is the main character in this arc, and the only one alive for people to focus on. But even when they were reading the news the police officer assigned blame without even knowing it was her.
Dr. Moosen McMoose, Chief Spymooster of the Moosad
It’s typical, when assigning blame for a loss, to follow the chain of causation back to the individual or entity that took the first proactive step in bringing about that loss and place all the blame upon them. Think of the folktale about Ms. O’Leary’s cow and the Great Chicago Fire.
Efogoto
Or even Guhah for being wooable by the princess. If he’d told her, “Hey, I like you and all but I’m already in a relationship,” maybe everything is fine. Or Not. The real problem seems to be that the whole society was at a tipping point and only needed a small trigger to go over … and the necessary first step of analyzing a problem (pointing fingers and laying blame) pinpointed Choan.
russell
So they designed her to be brilliant, and an unexpected side effect was a total lack of empathy. Or maybe a result of a twisted family life.
I guess I still don’t really understand what happened back when the Princess died.
Efogoto
Not sure what you’re missing. The princess stole Choan’s man Guhah, Choan killed the princess for that, Choan was exiled for it, Guhah killed the king and queen in revenge, society fill apart (the details are absolutely lacking here … is this the confusion?), disease hit and killed most, so there’s now dying population of a couple hundred left. Other than the whole of society caving in, it’s all very straightforward.
Pete Rogan
So now we are confronted with the possibility that Choan is not a natural-born sociopath, but a construct. I’m sorry, the implications of deciding between the two don’t seem that important to me.
The origin of Choan’s very obvious sociopathy is not as important as what she does with it — which, frankly, to this point has been to milk as much personal pleasure from it, escape the consequences and, at every retelling, cackle. Never mind her technical accomplishments — she still certifies as little more than failed gene plasm, an organism of the same caliber and usefulness as bubonic plague.
Her failure to come to grips with her own origin does no more than underline how without useful reflection and self-knowledge she is. I mean, this is one of our basic definitions of a criminal personality, the inability to sympathize, the utter lack of fellow-feeling that leaves her outside even her own emotional reactions, never mind those of her victims.
Born or made this way, Choan shows no interest in why she is the way she is and no inclination toward self-improvement. Her quest for ‘wisdom’ now stands revealed as a sham, another quest for tech she can exploit and suckers she can cheat and better. She’s a danger to individuals and, as we see with her own people, entire civilizations. It doesn’t matter where she came from. Our only real concern is where she shall be cast.
I’m all for sending her into stasis that lasts as long as the Draak-Sim rotates, or forever, whichever is longer. She’ll only wreck the universe that frees her. I have to think the Bupillions know this about her, which now makes me deeply keen on what they plan to do with her once she appears in their realm. I think whatever they do will be very, very interesting.
…and the plot thickens. In fact, it’s one step away from from congealing rock hard.
Thick as Nordic pea soup. It’s less the spoon stands up in it, more that it grabs the spoon and smacks your hand for being too rough.
.
“You were GROWN in some lab to be a monster.”
“I still don’t get your point.”
Evil. Mad. Scientists. Rut Row!
Uh-Oh.
Ha-ha-haaa!
I think we’re close to a break through?
You can tell how much her people’s society has suffered. Their interior design aesthetic is stuck in Mid-Century Modern!
I mean… They COULD have just set her loose to see what would actually Happen too. Not an intended consequence, but more of possibility. See how much chaos she could sow. Because it’d be funny.
Choan DOES really like funny. Maybe it’s hereditary.
Maybe Choan’s parents tried to make her *not* the same type of monsters they were- with the capacity to love and be happy with their own works- Ofc. achieving these aims artificially would have ‘unexpected’ results until the method(s) are fully refined — 😐 — Wait a moment…
I actually don’t quite get the focus on Choan. I mean yeah she killed the princess. But it was still this Guhah guy who actually assassinated the king and queen. Sure you can assign blame to Choan but you can’t call her the key factor just because of that. Or else why not assign blame to the king and queen for exiling her, or the princess for wooing Guhah. Or even Choan’s parents because apparently they had a hand in it if the last few panels are anything to go by.
Of course I know it’s because Choan is the main character in this arc, and the only one alive for people to focus on. But even when they were reading the news the police officer assigned blame without even knowing it was her.
It’s typical, when assigning blame for a loss, to follow the chain of causation back to the individual or entity that took the first proactive step in bringing about that loss and place all the blame upon them. Think of the folktale about Ms. O’Leary’s cow and the Great Chicago Fire.
Or even Guhah for being wooable by the princess. If he’d told her, “Hey, I like you and all but I’m already in a relationship,” maybe everything is fine. Or Not. The real problem seems to be that the whole society was at a tipping point and only needed a small trigger to go over … and the necessary first step of analyzing a problem (pointing fingers and laying blame) pinpointed Choan.
So they designed her to be brilliant, and an unexpected side effect was a total lack of empathy. Or maybe a result of a twisted family life.
And she has the mad scientist cackle!
I guess I still don’t really understand what happened back when the Princess died.
Not sure what you’re missing. The princess stole Choan’s man Guhah, Choan killed the princess for that, Choan was exiled for it, Guhah killed the king and queen in revenge, society fill apart (the details are absolutely lacking here … is this the confusion?), disease hit and killed most, so there’s now dying population of a couple hundred left. Other than the whole of society caving in, it’s all very straightforward.
So now we are confronted with the possibility that Choan is not a natural-born sociopath, but a construct. I’m sorry, the implications of deciding between the two don’t seem that important to me.
The origin of Choan’s very obvious sociopathy is not as important as what she does with it — which, frankly, to this point has been to milk as much personal pleasure from it, escape the consequences and, at every retelling, cackle. Never mind her technical accomplishments — she still certifies as little more than failed gene plasm, an organism of the same caliber and usefulness as bubonic plague.
Her failure to come to grips with her own origin does no more than underline how without useful reflection and self-knowledge she is. I mean, this is one of our basic definitions of a criminal personality, the inability to sympathize, the utter lack of fellow-feeling that leaves her outside even her own emotional reactions, never mind those of her victims.
Born or made this way, Choan shows no interest in why she is the way she is and no inclination toward self-improvement. Her quest for ‘wisdom’ now stands revealed as a sham, another quest for tech she can exploit and suckers she can cheat and better. She’s a danger to individuals and, as we see with her own people, entire civilizations. It doesn’t matter where she came from. Our only real concern is where she shall be cast.
I’m all for sending her into stasis that lasts as long as the Draak-Sim rotates, or forever, whichever is longer. She’ll only wreck the universe that frees her. I have to think the Bupillions know this about her, which now makes me deeply keen on what they plan to do with her once she appears in their realm. I think whatever they do will be very, very interesting.
We’re going to have to go for “forever” because Dimitri stopped the rotation of the Draak-Sim.