Comic for Thursday, June 15th

Jun15

by PastUtopia on June 15, 2017 at 8:06 pm

Chapter: Chapter 9

Location: Far Side of Utopia

Oops, sorry guys, didn’t realize I didn’t have it queued up. Sorry 🙁

Still sick.

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Discussion (27) ¬

RG2Cents

June 16, 2017, 9:29 pm | # | Reply

New reader here! Really interesting concept! Glad to see such original style applied to the art! It draws one in, is clear, and easy on the eyes. It may take awhile to get caught up in the archives, but I plan to be a regular.
- Amaranth
  
  June 16, 2017, 10:01 pm | # | Reply
  
  Reading the archive is a good summary of how the art got to where it is. I know @PastUtopia hates the old art, but I like how you can see it evolve over time.
  
  Welcome to the comments. They are good. No wild theories here. Nope. Not biased on that.
- PastUtopia
  
  June 18, 2017, 9:36 pm | # | Reply
  
  Hey, thanks. I have a tumultuous relationship with the art for the comic, but it’s sort of hashed into something at this point. Still got a long ways to go, there’s always room to dream 🙂
  
  Hope to see you around! 🙂
Gok2Gud

June 16, 2017, 8:20 pm | # | Reply

Hey, long time lurker, first time commenter. Sorry to hear you are sick @pastutopia. Get well.

When you’re better, I would mind a site avatar if you still give those out. Any character is fine. Surprise me.
- Amaranth
  
  June 16, 2017, 10:05 pm | # | Reply
  
  Be careful what you wish for… “any” character covers a lot of territory at this point.
- PastUtopia
  
  June 18, 2017, 9:37 pm | # | Reply
  
  Righto. Will dig one up in a bit. Will be a surprise. I promise.
Stonefoot

June 16, 2017, 1:39 pm | # | Reply

I think that as far as ‘starting a war’, the IDS position would be ‘we have made a binding agreement, if you break it (by not turning over the technology) YOU are starting a war’. Of course that’s the type of statement often made by those who are about to start a war. If you win the war, that becomes ‘historical truth’; if you don’t, someone else writes the history.

@xpacetrue very good point.
- Delta-v
  
  June 17, 2017, 5:49 am | # | Reply
  
  Hey, welcome. Feel free to advance your theories on any subject–we love theories here! ^^
  
  The understanding between the I.D.S. and everyone else is that the I.D.S. monitors and polices inter-dimensional gates in return for being the sole authority over them. Tyler’s detector proves that the I.D.S. not only isn’t keeping it’s end of the bargain, but is actively abusing it’s position. A certain amount of outrage is inevitable….
  - PastUtopia
    
    June 18, 2017, 9:40 pm | # | Reply
    
    “Accountability is for other people”
    Signed,
    The IDS.
xpacetrue

June 16, 2017, 12:27 pm | # | Reply

Panel 8: “Director, even our detector can’t cover a whole country.”

Were such a fact made known, it would make Biana’s claim that the technology was stolen from IDS sound even less convincing.

Is the detector design Peter gave Tyler superior to that of the IDS? It sounds like the IDS version does not involve the use of satellites.
- PastUtopia
  
  June 18, 2017, 9:42 pm | # | Reply
  
  There are really blase about what the babble off about in their own language, aren’t they? Would be a real shame if that particular code got broken. 🙂
  - Djitt
    
    June 19, 2017, 1:29 am | # | Reply
    
    Even if no one there can speak it, someone there MUST be recording it – and getting it translated either immediately after the meeting or via an earpiece.
aline1

June 15, 2017, 9:26 pm | # | Reply

Wow… hitting some special level of diplomatic stupidity on so many levels it sort of takes my breath away on the part of the IDS at the meeting.

Clearly a nerve was struck hard.
- Delta-v
  
  June 17, 2017, 5:54 am | # | Reply
  
  The I.D.S. has never developed any abilities at diplomacy, since no one has challenged them at this level before. 🙂
  - PastUtopia
    
    June 18, 2017, 9:43 pm | # | Reply
    
    IDS diplomacy is something that Malsa has fortunately yet to truly experience.
EmperorArthur

June 15, 2017, 8:35 pm | # | Reply

Did the IDS just threaten to attack a foreign ambassador? There’s starting a war, and there’s letting the entire world know that you’re perfectly willing to smash anyone who doesn’t agree with you.
From a diplomatic standpoint the IDS is done. Anyone who goes along with them can be accused of being nothing more than IDS vassal states.

The thing is, the IDS is going to have some major internal issues. This is the equivalent of an ambassador threatening to shoot up the diplomatic talks if they don’t get their way. Here in the US the word treason would be tossed about, along with other crimes carrying significant jail terms. It doesn’t matter if they’re right about stolen tech, doing something like this is insane.

I expect Arron is going to go get answers straight from the horses mouth. That or he’s going to go be a diplomat. Given that he’s perfectly willing to have his personnel stop IDS aggression he should be able to at least avoid getting kicked out of the country all together.
- Amaranth
  
  June 15, 2017, 9:20 pm | # | Reply
  
  I think a lot of countries outside of a few of the really big ones (like Orin) are PACT Vassal states more or less, and therefor indirectly IDS vassal states.
  
  The IDS has yet to demonstrate any real hesitation to kill local officials… Remember Nick Otte? He basically told Tyler that Tyler was was on their list of people to get rid of, so he’d just go ahead and take care of it early.
  
  The important distinction is that a lot of the ground level IDS people are reluctant to fight what they view as bystanders or civilians, but outside of Arron the leadership’s motto seems to be step on faces first, ask questions later.
- Jindra34
  
  June 15, 2017, 11:07 pm | # | Reply
  
  To answer your first question, No. They threatened to start a war over what they perceive as stolen technology. The day after they just ‘contained’ a situation at Avon into something that covered many city blocks.
  
  Arron seems to be the only reasonable person in charge there.
- The Aussie Bloke
  
  June 16, 2017, 12:14 am | # | Reply
  
  The problem is that Biana and her immediate colleagues/supporters seem to think that the IDS is the 800lb gorilla of any political landscape.
  
  The Keplers seem to be the only ones who realise it’s not.
  - xpacetrue
    
    June 16, 2017, 12:16 pm | # | Reply
    
    ” …seem to think that the IDS is the 800lb gorilla of any political landscape. “
    
    Why do I get the impression that this situation is a form of political satire on the foreign policies of a certain real-world superpower?
    - Gok2Gud
      
      June 16, 2017, 8:05 pm | # | Reply
      
      I think it’s a theme that the IDS is sort of an Imperialistic force. Malsa is technologically and magically advanced, but the IDS views them as the primitive locals (and likely are compared to the IDS they are). To IDS sensibilities, they are protecting countries like Malsa from the big bad’s out there (like Kor’s World) and giving them technology (at an IDS approved trickle, mostly through corruption it seems like), so the countries should set down and be happy.
      
      Seems like a commentary on world history to me…
- xpacetrue
  
  June 16, 2017, 12:06 pm | # | Reply
  
  Aside from the girl with glasses, Biana and her team seems to have taken leave of their senses. Not even the strongest nation in the world – or two worlds – should be stupid enough to start violence in a hall of diplomacy, especially on foreign soil and with more than one nation in attendance. Word would get out and, likely, the whole world stands up against them.
  
  At the very least, it would ruin their reputation. Nobody would trust them enough to meet with them, for either diplomacy or business.
  
  Someone may point out that the Malsan noble in panel 6 made a threat. But, really, it’s not. She merely revoked their privilege to operate inside their country. As a representative of their goverment, it’s their sovereign right.
  
  The IDS agent in panel 7 is scary. She’s not even the leader of the group and she was making threats to start a war right then and there. And even if these IDS agents are civilian instead of military, it boggles my mind that a director or any sort of boss or leader would not have a problem with one of their subordinates starting something like that without permission. This feels more than a little surreal.
  - EmperorArthur
    
    June 16, 2017, 7:53 pm | # | Reply
    
    We see her preparing to cast. This is roughly the equivalent of a major head of state’s bodyguard pulling a gun in a UN meeting and threatening to shoot a foreign leader.
    
    Given that, the most surprising thing is she wasn’t full of bullet holes the moment she started casting. It’s what would happen in real life if someone attempted something like this.
    - Gok2Gud
      
      June 16, 2017, 8:19 pm | # | Reply
      
      It’s not well established who can actually see the glowy dots, I don’t think. It’s possible that only other mages can see that.
      
      Also this the same girl that called the monster hunters that engaging Kally idiots, so there is a chance that she understands the various power levels at play, and is just way stronger than the rest. And has the typical IDS gift for negotiation equivalent to iron boot on a bear. My money is on this being one another witch (like Kally being the Red Dragon Witch and there being Witch Hunters). She just has a witchy look.
    - Tgape
      
      March 15, 2018, 7:20 pm | # | Reply
      
      I’m pretty sure I missed this comment when I first saw this one. If you look at panels 5 and 6, you can see Ms. Family Mages also has glowy dots. Given their words and posture, I saw this more as a “presence” effect. “You should listen to me because I can *do* stuff.” It still has no business in political posturing… just like all of the unpleasant threats that go on in this world’s politics really don’t have any business being there. It still happens… a lot.
  - PastUtopia
    
    June 18, 2017, 9:48 pm | # | Reply
    
    The IDS is not really a populated by statesmen. The situation would probably be a good bit different if the Civil Service had a presence on this world, but the IDS endeavors to avoid that almost as much as they endeavor to make an arse of themselves in every negotiation.
    
    Of course, the IDS has a very sweeping mandate for a reason, even if their use of it in the current day and age is increasingly dubious.
    - xpacetrue
      
      June 19, 2017, 4:36 am | # | Reply
      
      ” …but the IDS endeavors to avoid that almost as much as they endeavor to make an arse of themselves in every negotiation. “
      
      That sounds like IDS logic, all right. But how moronic do their leaders have to be to not realize that to successfully negotiate you need negotiators? Instead, it seems they’ve sent hot-heads and hair-trigger loose cannons with big mouths and even bigger egos.