Comic Discussion > ALICE GROVE

Alice Grove MCDT - May 2015

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Method of Madness:

--- Quote from: pwhodges on 15 May 2015, 01:26 ---
--- Quote from: de_la_Nae on 15 May 2015, 00:43 ---We don't always have to like a protagonist.
... Sometimes they fail.

--- End quote ---

Light Yagami.

--- End quote ---
Ugh, don't remind me that season 2 exists.

mikmaxs:

--- Quote from: Method of Madness on 15 May 2015, 01:17 ---
--- Quote from: mikmaxs on 14 May 2015, 20:58 ---I don't like Alice.
--- End quote ---
She's not boring, though!

To be fair, I'm pretty sure she only used this tactic because she knew it was the only way to convince him.

--- End quote ---
How can we be sure, though? All I know about Jebediah is that he's a guy who's worried about his town and distrustful of Gavia. We just have to take Alice's word for it that she knows him best, and she knows how it's best to treat him, since we're not given a chance to see things any other way.

If we had seen her try to explain Gavia's perspective, then get shut down with a 'That doesn't matter, the demon is evil', and THEN Alice went all 'I'm-superior and you-don't-matter,' she'd be a lot better off, but as it is we have only assumption and her (unreliable) opinion that this was the best course of action.

Method of Madness:

--- Quote from: mikmaxs on 15 May 2015, 01:44 ---How can we be sure, though?
--- End quote ---
We can't! That's half the fun.

BenRG:

--- Quote from: mikmaxs on 15 May 2015, 01:44 ---How can we be sure, though? All I know about Jebediah is that he's a guy who's worried about his town and distrustful of Gavia. We just have to take Alice's word for it that she knows him best, and she knows how it's best to treat him, since we're not given a chance to see things any other way.

If we had seen her try to explain Gavia's perspective, then get shut down with a 'That doesn't matter, the demon is evil', and THEN Alice went all 'I'm-superior and you-don't-matter,' she'd be a lot better off, but as it is we have only assumption and her (unreliable) opinion that this was the best course of action.
--- End quote ---

All that would have done is use up a few strips for no real narrative advantage. The comments on this thread show that the readers get the points of this conversation:

* Alice is way older than she looks and has likely known all the town's residents from birth;
* Alice already knows that Jebediah isn't the sort to listen to sweet reason; he'll only respond to the threat of physical pain and/or humiliation in front of the town (the latter being more likely).In the end, how can we be sure? We can be sure because that's the path Alice took. At least with the town, its residents and the surrounding lands, I think that we can be sure she's more likely to be right than wrong. Any holes in her knowledge (and the resulting fun of her being dramatically wrong) will come when she's dealing with something from "up" that is out of her normal area of expertise.

With a two-strip-per-week update rate, Jeph can't afford to waste strips on verbiage that can just as easily be taken as read. I think that he made the right call here.

FWIW, I'm more and more sure that Alice is a reliable source and rather enjoys people telling themselves that she's lying or exaggerating when she's actually told them the unvarnished truth.

mikmaxs:
An extra single line of dialogue would have done it. One panel. It doesn't take a lot to establish stuff. Just have Alice say something like "That was a miscommunication, she didn't intend to hurt anyone," and have Jeb cut her off saying that he didn't care. One panel. Easy.

You're assuming that Alice is correct because Alice says she's correct... Without bothering to try and explain the situation peacefully. Her immediate first resort after someone dared ask a legitimate question was to threaten physical violence and humiliation. (Because again, expressing concern over letting a firey demon walk around your city is a fair thing to do.)

Besides: It doesn't matter if she's certain that's the only way to get through to him either: Using vast intellect to manipulate and push around weaker and stupider people is not an admirable trait. It's something bad guys do.

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