Intolerant

January 12, 2015 Steve 6 Comments

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6 Comments

NOOOO I WAS SHIPPING THEM!!!

This webcomic used to be interesting. Things *happened*. Then the author decided a months-long axe-grind on objectification of women would be more interesting than kobolds and liches. I’m out.

I’m sorry you feel that way. However, you might be heartened to know that this strip marks the end of the current arc, and we’ll be returning to kobolds and liches and dungeons shortly if you’d like to stick around. 🙂

While I’m tired of stupid “WOMEN ARE OPPRESSED, CIS WHITE MEN ARE EVIL. STOP BEIN MEAN 🙁 :(” bullshit that’s being injected into comics as of late, I’d consider the fact that this dude becomes a lich,committing horrible rituals and literally damning himself to an eternity as a living skellington for power means he probably isn’t the most sterling of characters.

The arc did lay it on a little thick, though. Yes, we get that he’s horrible at women, yes we get that he’s a self-centered prick. He’s a lich, that’s sort of assumed. The first 3 strips would have probably been enough to show that he’s a hypocrite and an asshole.

First of all, thank you for the feedback. I really mean that, I’m interested in hearing what people think of the comic and what I do with it. In return I’d like to offer a (hopefully not too rambling) explanation of the thoughts/intent/reasoning behind the latest Dungeon Grind arc. It’s stuff I’ve wanted to say while writing this arc, so thank you for the opportunity to do so.

To address your initial point, I suspect sexism/feminism as a common theme in comics recently is a direct response to recent events in geek and mainstream culture, and I maintain that it’s an issue worth addressing.

You’re right, Xyziax isn’t the most ethically upstanding of characters. His overall role in the comic is That Asshole In Charge; it takes a certain personality type to embark on the path to lichdom, which is reflected in his behaviour toward those around him. Of course he’s going to be sexist douchebag, among other things.

As an author (or artist or cartoonist or whatever) this gave me an additional opportunity to riff on the Pick-Up Artist scene – yet another horrible manifestation of sexism in our culture, in which women are viewed as sexbots whose free will can be bypassed and overriden by means of certain psychological techniques. Think about the kind of person who would believe that’s an OK thing to do to another human.

Pretty much everything Xyziax and his sidekick said over the course of the arc is drawn directly from the PUA movement, and I didn’t even need to exaggerate for comedic effect. There are actual humans who unironically subscribe to this toxic worldview. It’s gross, and it really bothers me.

So that was the axe, I didn’t particularly refrain from grinding it, and I’m not about to apologise for that. Yes, the arc probably went on longer than it should have done, but I can only attribute that to the massive abundance of material I had to work with. Mea culpa. I’ll try and keep things more concise in future. In hindsight I also realise that I failed to flesh out Mordrina as a character in her own right rather than just a generic female figure for Xyziax and his brud to objectify. Again, mea culpa, I’ll strive to do better in future.

As a final thought: if you’re tired of reading about cis white men being terrible, how tired are the women who have to experience it?

Thank you for reading my comic and caring enough to get in touch. 🙂

Having met people who exhibit this type of behavior and having read some of their ‘literature’, I’ve personally been enjoying this thread. Calling out a particularly gross group that needs to be called out more is never a waste. And it was funny; a multi-comic build up to the two dude-bros making out was a great pay-off. Spending something like a dozen comics in a flashback may seem like a lot right now when we only get a couple updates a week, but when viewed as a whole within the course of a comic that’s currently over 300 pages, it’s really not that long.

Also I can’t get enough trilby wizard hats.