Dr McNinja III: You Rad Bro?

[ThirdEmperor]

"The Hunting Channel" consisting of shows that look like Teddy Roosevelt going on safari with a SEAL team. Rappelling out of stealth helicopters, liger wrestling, the works.

Rappelling? Oh no no no. Rappelling is reserved for occasions when they have to run up a building doing crazy stunts. When a Radlander jumps out of a helicopter, they don't need no lifeline. They do it guns blazing, shades on, no safety net. If you're rad enough you'll manage to land on someone or something soft enough to cushion the impact.

[Anteros]

I don't think it's really a safe assumption that every edible thing in the radical lands is sentient. If nothing else, there would at least be fruit/milk/etc...and Mountain Dew is apparently their form of water.

Besides, we have seen (presumably) non sentient plant life in the Radical Lands before. http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/15p65/

[Cracklord]

Besides, we have seen (presumably) non sentient plant life in the Radical Lands before. http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/15p65/

It's possible by all means, I'd be the first to admit that this is all speculation, entertaining as it is, due to a lack of empirical evidence one way or another. There's hardly compelling evidence either way. However, when dealing with worlds where 'because it's awesome' is an actually explicate driving force, it's all speculation one way or another, and we're just disposed to one because it's somewhat familiar.

I mean, based on the Most Radical Man from Radical Land here, trying to communicate with what appear to ordinary be trees, it's pretty safe to say that ordinary looking trees do exist that can be communicated with in the Radical Lands, given that he refers to them as Entsmen. That suggests familiarity, and it suggests communication is possible. He also attempts communication with a deer, and a frog, suggesting he's used to everything being able to talk back to him, whatever it looks like.

So yes, they could be ordinary trees, though it would be odd to assume that given what evidence we have about that land suggests there is no such thing. I mean, It's just as possible that those are corpses of what were once individuals with hopes and dreams, that the evil army is standing around, or possibly intending to use for much the same reason a 'throne of skulls' is so evocative. Alternatively those, while appearing to be trees, are actually evil entsmen, twisted by corruption to follow Sparklelord and hate all that is radical, and are part of his army, and you just mistook them for ordinary trees because they, like everyone else in the army, were standing still, for the conqueror shot. Or even that we're both right, and the corruption of Sparklelord is causing some trees to be born without intelligence and the propensity to skateboard, which is one of the symptoms of the land becoming less radical and everyone needing to vacate before the corruption covers everything, causing no more life to be born at all and everything shriveling up and dying which, if you remember, is why Radical is trying to bring them over to a new world instead of going back to his old one.

Or they could be exactly what they appear to be. Speculation, remember? But the thing is, King Radical's world is not an alternate version of our own, it's a universe scratch built with different fundamental laws in play. More then that, it's a world without any obvious dominant species, where sentience that is communicable is spread around to every form of life, if not every single individual representation of it. So even if we assume that there are plenty of examples of flora and fauna who aren't sentient (I'm not going to, but you are free to do so), we can still see how the philosophy I proposed (i.e human life is no more sacred then any other life, only awesomeness matters to make an individual have some sort of worth) would come to exist. It doesn't need to be 'every', though it could well be.

[Forrestfire]

So in Radical Land chef operate like in Toriko?

This is now permanently my headcanon.

A crossover would be epic

[Coidzor]

Any thoughts on whether Sparklelord is connected to Mark Linkous or Sparklehorse?

[Prime32]

Any thoughts on whether Sparklelord is connected to Mark Linkous or Sparklehorse?

Presumably Bad Horse is one of his relatives.

[Cracklord]

…Radical.

[ericgrau]

Oh yeah, that's why he's the most rad. With all this scheming I almost forgot.

[Scowling Dragon]

Yeah. The Radical people are total jerks.

[Luzahn]

Yep. Basically, they've done the classic "corrupt with dark magic" schtick, except with the Radical.

Go Sparklelord.

[Scowling Dragon]

No essentially they have ALWAYS been *****. They find a place and twist it to their Idea of cool.

And instead of changing their ways their continuing doing that.

[Cracklord]

Yeah well, call me crazy but I'm a bit reluctant to trust Sparkledancer's word on the matter, what with the fact that almost everything he has said, now or before, is a lie. Not saying it's not pretty damning, but that doesn't mean I entirely buy his take on the matter.

[Jayngfet]

Yeah well, call me crazy but I'm a bit reluctant to trust Sparkledancer's word on the matter, what with the fact that almost everything he has said, now or before, is a lie. Not saying it's not pretty damning, but that doesn't mean I entirely buy his take on the matter.

He's talking to someone else who WOULD know the truth on the issue. It might just be his opinion on the matter but all things considered it's got to be an approximation of the truth if nothing else.

All we can say is:

-Radical dudes came into the forest
-They saw a unicorn they didn't think was rad enough
-They changed him

[Lix Lorn]

Still doesn't justify murder.

[Tebryn]

Our BoringWorld rules don't apply to Radical Land. If corrupting and ravaging a land doesn't cause a brutal and bloody Kill Bill-esque rampage I'd be sorely disappointed.

[Anteros]

Yeah well, call me crazy but I'm a bit reluctant to trust Sparkledancer's word on the matter, what with the fact that almost everything he has said, now or before, is a lie. Not saying it's not pretty damning, but that doesn't mean I entirely buy his take on the matter.

Considering that it's basically the exact same thing that Radical is now trying to do to Doc's dimension I'm inclined to believe him.

Still doesn't justify murder.

Perspective. From Sparkledancer's viewpoint he's a freedom fighter, not a murderer.

So far I am tentatively sympathizing with the Pony...but I think it's more likely that both sides are jerks.

[Giggling Ghast]

Yes, yes, Sparkledancer was transformed into the monster he is today by the cruel Radical Knights, just as Darth Vader was "stolen" away from his mother and treated with suspicion by the cruel Jedi Council. That surely justifies all the genocide and whatnot.

[Scowling Dragon]

I wouldn't say SparkleLord is justified in realmacide. I just think that the Radical men brought this on themselves.

But the Jedi council are either insane sociopaths, or the Force is a Malevolent.

[Luzahn]

Perspective. From Sparkledancer's viewpoint he's a freedom fighter, not a murderer.

So far I am tentatively sympathizing with the Pony...but I think it's more likely that both sides are jerks.

I'm going with this. They're still all jerks, but the unicorn is still more sympathetic.

What I'm getting out of it is that there are no redeeming factors to King Radical, and he kinda just needs to get ninja'd.

[Coidzor]

Considering that it's basically the exact same thing that Radical is now trying to do to Doc's dimension I'm inclined to believe him.

It mostly just raises questions about the nature of the dimensions and our knowledge of them which we obtained from King Radical.

Perspective. From Sparkledancer's viewpoint he's a freedom fighter, not a murderer.

So far I am tentatively sympathizing with the Pony...but I think it's more likely that both sides are jerks.

Kind of invalidated by the part where he was banking on ascending the throne. And then decided that he was fine with just killing everyone. A bit capricious, that, I'd say.

I'm pretty sure we already know that they're both jerks.

I'm going with this. They're still all jerks, but the unicorn is still more sympathetic.

What I'm getting out of it is that there are no redeeming factors to King Radical, and he kinda just needs to get ninja'd.

A jerk's a jerk.

There's no redeeming features to Sparklelord either.

[Cracklord]

He's talking to someone else who WOULD know the truth on the issue. It might just be his opinion on the matter but all things considered it's got to be an approximation of the truth if nothing else.

All we can say is:

-Radical dudes came into the forest
-They saw a unicorn they didn't think was rad enough
-They changed him

Yeah, unless he's one of those 'needs to justify to themselves' type, and the account is so highly colored that it's completely wrong. I find certain elements of his statements suspect, to say the least. And even if it is the truth (from a certain point of view), that still leaves plenty of room for alternate readings of events. Now we are told that the use of magic to control and transform the woodland dimension into radical forms was forced on them.

For one thing, when did this happen? Did it happen a dozen generations ago, the changes were all welcomed (I mean, being bipedal has it's ups and downs, but I'm pretty happy to have articulated joints and opposable digits capable of fine-motor functions, allowing me to do things like handle power-tools and play the bass), and Sparkledancer is one of those fundamentalist nuts you see on occasion who thinks that everyone has to revert to a class-based system and destroy all technology? Or was he fine with the changes early on, then changed his mind and decided to take it out on everyone rather then accept that he made his bed and must lie in it? Is his transformation nobodies fault beyond the natural (magic is natural, right?) force that replaces evolution in this world, and Sparkledancer is the equivalent of a man screaming defiance at the universe because he wanted to be born a fish, and didn't ask to be sentient? Or is he genuinely a victim? Hard to say. In this conflict, however, he is certainly the aggressor, and his words fit a formula that I'm sure everyone knows well:

"Remember the atrocity that was done to us that will excuse the atrocity we are trying to perform today!" Or, in the abridged format "It's your fault!" And lets face it, as excuses go they make you a jerk, at the very best, more or less by definition.

And then, as I said, you'd have to trust Sparkledancer's account. And from what I've seen, he's a liar, one who is always looking for justification, and the sort of egoist who needs to see himself as the hero, and as an unjustly persecuted victim. He's always in the right, when he hits you it's perfectly understandable, and when you hit him it's a terrible betrayal.

Though I admit, the accusations do bear a resemblance to what King Radical is trying to do now. Maybe that's the irony, Sparkledancer was in the wrong, but his mad play for vengeance at a completely imagined slight ended up turning King Radical into what Sparkledancer always believed he was.

[Jayngfet]

For one thing, when did this happen? Did it happen a dozen generations ago, the changes were all welcomed (I mean, being bipedal has it's ups and downs, but I'm pretty happy to have articulated joints and opposable digits capable of fine-motor functions, allowing me to do things like handle power-tools and play the bass), and Sparkledancer is one of those fundamentalist nuts you see on occasion who thinks that everyone has to revert to a class-based system and destroy all technology? Or was he fine with the changes early on, then changed his mind and decided to take it out on everyone rather then accept that he made his bed and must lie in it? Is his transformation nobodies fault beyond the natural (magic is natural, right?) force that replaces evolution in this world, and Sparkledancer is the equivalent of a man screaming defiance at the universe because he wanted to be born a fish, and didn't ask to be sentient? Or is he genuinely a victim? Hard to say.

All the characters are speaking as if the change happened to him specifically, in his own lifetime, and as if he was around in some prior form long enough for him to remember it, so he probably at least spent the first decade of his life as whatever he was previously. Likewise, we have to remember that even though there's clearly some bias against him, given King Radical's "You're a HORSE" crack managed to fly with no opposition, he clearly managed to get pretty far. He's obviously no raving lunatic so we can't really just dismiss him so easily.

In this conflict, however, he is certainly the aggressor, and his words fit a formula that I'm sure everyone knows well:

"Remember the atrocity that was done to us that will excuse the atrocity we are trying to perform today!" Or, in the abridged format "It's your fault!" And lets face it, as excuses go they make you a jerk, at the very best, more or less by definition.

And then, as I said, you'd have to trust Sparkledancer's account. And from what I've seen, he's a liar, one who is always looking for justification, and the sort of egoist who needs to see himself as the hero, and as an unjustly persecuted victim. He's always in the right, when he hits you it's perfectly understandable, and when you hit him it's a terrible betrayal.

I'm not saying he's right. I'm saying nobody is right, and that obviously, they're all kind of in the wrong here. Every perspective is rather blatantly flawed.

Though I admit, the accusations do bear a resemblance to what King Radical is trying to do now. Maybe that's the irony, Sparkledancer was in the wrong, but his mad play for vengeance at a completely imagined slight ended up turning King Radical into what Sparkledancer always believed he was.

I'd prefer to believe that King Radical is pretty much always the way he is now. Remember, he isn't exactly a nice person and he's willing to sink pretty far from what we've seen. His trying to change other parts of his homeland is perfectly in character.

Yes, yes, Sparkledancer was transformed into the monster he is today by the cruel Radical Knights, just as Darth Vader was "stolen" away from his mother and treated with suspicion by the cruel Jedi Council. That surely justifies all the genocide and whatnot.

The Jedi Council who was totally ineffective at doing...

...well literally anything on their own? I mean they only managed to fight the separatists because a convenient army pops up. Half their successes are more or less based on pure happenstance and the other half orchestrated for their eventual death. I mean let's be honest here, they could certainly have done more than they did. I mean even just going back and helping his mother after they got back would probably have done a world of good.

I mean all things considered that's probably where the Imperials actually shined. I mean Tattoine may have still been a corrupt slave pit, but they got at least marginal results actually stationing people there and stopping smugglers.

[Coidzor]

All the characters are speaking as if the change happened to him specifically, in his own lifetime

Point of order, he's the only one really talking about it. King Radical's statement is ambiguous and just as easily interpreted as referring to the knightly order.

We've only got one strip and one character, really, to go on.

He's obviously no raving lunatic so we can't really just dismiss him so easily.

Nor should we uncritically believe what he's saying on the basis of a single page of comic given that we're being lead to believe that this is Sparklelord who was introduced manipulating Dr. McNinja into committing senseless murder.

I'd prefer to believe that King Radical is pretty much always the way he is now. Remember, he isn't exactly a nice person and he's willing to sink pretty far from what we've seen. His trying to change other parts of his homeland is perfectly in character.

Mostly, as I said, it raises questions as to his interpretation of the metaphysics of the three dimensions if Radical-dimension had non-radical components that were made Rad.

[Cracklord]

All the characters are speaking as if the change happened to him specifically, in his own lifetime, and as if he was around in some prior form long enough for him to remember it, so he probably at least spent the first decade of his life as whatever he was previously. Likewise, we have to remember that even though there's clearly some bias against him, given King Radical's "You're a HORSE" crack managed to fly with no opposition, he clearly managed to get pretty far. He's obviously no raving lunatic so we can't really just dismiss him so easily.

It felt fairly ambiguous to me, though I suppose the dialogue can be interpreted that way. He said 'you' (which can refer to both an individual and can be used to refer to a group or faction an individual represents), and 'us' (which again, can be pretty nonspecific).

However, I disagree about his stability (or lack thereof). Here he is, having just ruined his cover by confessing to regicide for no benefit whatsoever (the opposite if anything) saying he's going to destroy the entire world, while complaining he didn't become king of the land he's trying to destroy. If that doesn't make you a lunatic, then what does?

I'm not saying he's right. I'm saying nobody is right, and that obviously, they're all kind of in the wrong here. Every perspective is rather blatantly flawed.

Well, as Stannis said in Game of Thrones (HBO version, at least), how do you argue with a miracle? It's fine for us, in our stable universe with no magic that can be determined or quantified to criticize how it works in the Radical Lands, but, and I quote:

Spoiler

Show

So everything is necessary. Every least thing. This is the hard lesson. Nothing can be dispensed with. Nothing despised. Because the seams are hid from us, you see. The joinery. The ways in which the world is made. We have no way to know what could be taken away. What omitted.

We have no way to tell what might stand and what might fall.

(CORMAC MCCARTHY)

Now presumably their universe has had an entire civilization to argue the justifications and eventually fall in favor of this way of life, to support it and write (using Fireworks and biplanes leaving trails, of course) how awesome and right this is, and how every individual has a moral imperative and personal responsibility to perpetuate it, and furthermore in observing some part of our history (say, the cold war), without much context would come to the conclusion that both sides are comprised of jerks (rather then people on both sides just trying to do the best they can) and neither perspective holds water (which is a pretty reasonable argument). Well, they'd likely rather play Tennis or something, but the argument only has to stand in principle.

The problem is, unless you understand their world, it's not your place to criticize it. That's the equivalent of paternalism, something that has fallen out of favor since colonization went out of fashion. Consider, for example, the coronation. Think of the ramifications of divine right of kings being not a convenient fantasy but an actual quantifiable determined process, and your world is already so fundamentally different from ours that conventional morality doesn't encompass it. I'm not even going to mention quantifiable magic. It's like King Radical said, I can't explain our culture to you. Well from what I've seen, their culture really doesn't make a lot of sense to us.

I'd prefer to believe that King Radical is pretty much always the way he is now. Remember, he isn't exactly a nice person and he's willing to sink pretty far from what we've seen. His trying to change other parts of his homeland is perfectly in character.

It would make it easier to hate him. But I feel the series has enough flat villainous characters, and it might be more interesting to avoid that here.

[Anteros]

I agree that it would be more interesting if Radical wasn't just a flat villain. It's a shame that he is one. No one said that Sparkle isn't an evil jerk...but that doesn't mean he can't have a sympathetic motive for his evil jerkness.

[kpenguin]

Did Radical just rad his way through those helicopter blades

[Loki_42]

So, I just finished reading this comic...

Why did it take me so long to find it? This is exactly what I've been trying to do with my own writing for years! And it does it so beautifully. I'm reluctant to call it my favorite webcomic (especially on a forum for OotS), but damn if it isn't fantastic.

[Starbuck_II]

The Jedi Council who was totally ineffective at doing...

...well literally anything on their own? I mean they only managed to fight the separatists because a convenient army pops up. Half their successes are more or less based on pure happenstance and the other half orchestrated for their eventual death. I mean let's be honest here, they could certainly have done more than they did. I mean even just going back and helping his mother after they got back would probably have done a world of good.

I mean all things considered that's probably where the Imperials actually shined. I mean Tattoine may have still been a corrupt slave pit, but they got at least marginal results actually stationing people there and stopping smugglers.

The Force and Luck are highly related.
Pure happenstance is the way of the force.

[Giggling Ghast]

I was being sarcastic with the Jedi Council thing. The genocide was not proportionate with Anakin's treatment.

In truth, the list of justified reasons for genocide is pretty short. "My superiors were reluctant to promote me" isn't on it.

So, I just finished reading this comic...

Why did it take me so long to find it? This is exactly what I've been trying to do with my own writing for years! And it does it so beautifully. I'm reluctant to call it my favorite webcomic (especially on a forum for OotS), but damn if it isn't fantastic.

Welcome to the fold, bwutha.

[Hydranova]

Did Radical just rad his way through those helicopter blades

Chunky salsa only happens to bad guys, remember?