Websnark: Otherwise, the Metalocalypse episode was a little disappointing.

« It's the Tuesday Action Banter Latte Roundup Now with Nougat! | Main | State of the Banter Latte address »

Eric: Otherwise, the Metalocalypse episode was a little disappointing.

(From Home on the Strange! Click on the thumbnail for full sized Jesus, that drink would taste horrid.)

We're putting off the Banter Latte update until tomorrow -- the end of September wasn't great to writing, and I want to be sure you get your money's worth out of the updates. Though it does include the end of what's probably the most popular thing on B-L so far, so, you know. There's that.

But in the meantime, I need to call attention to something Steinmetz and Pare did over on the magical land of Home on the Strange. Because it's something that seems easy and isn't: they executed the full on, hardcore, one hundred percent dick move.

The dick move does not refer to genitalia, for the record. It refers to a move in fiction or in life that takes one or more people, regardless of their status previously, and moves them firmly into the category of dick. This past weekend, Metalocalypse covered this territory briefly, as Murderface gave several other band members lessons in the art of being a full on dick. (The best quote on the process? "See, I'm not angry, but he is angry. That's being a dick.")

Tanner is, ostensibly, Karla and Tom's friend. But he knows that he needs to get the two of them "out of the way" until "Izzy was ready." Whatever that means. Karla and Tom, in the meantime, knew that Tanner -- whenever he has one of these parties -- ends up having a monumental meltdown, and so they were sticking close to Tanner to try and prevent the horror. (The horror.)

Tom was distracted by the prospect of infused vodka. Hell, dissolving a peep in vodka might as well be Tom's kryptonite. And then he sent in his new friend -- the one he's thrown Tom over for -- to "distract" Karla. By playing a Buffy trivia contest with her. And Rayvyn beat her in the one area Karla truly believed she wouldn't ever lose in. Only not really, because they cheated to do it.

Now, Tanner's clearly worried here. This is supposed to be some kind of special night for he and Izzy -- a night that... I dunno. A night. And now one of his allegedly closest friends has been drunk into absolute submission in a game where they cheated. Which is pretty crappy to do to someone, any way you look at it.

That's not the dick move.

The dick move is in the first panel. From the transcript:

TANNER: Rayvyn, what the hell did you do? You were supposed to distract Karla until Izzy was ready, not destroy her!

KARLA: WHa? Distragt? Izzeh?

RAYVYN: I bested her in the drinking game. But she's apparently no Marion Ravenwood?.

Stop and consider this. Rayvyn "bested her in the drinking game." Only he didn't really, because he flagrantly cheated. And Tanner was the guy who helped him cheat.

Cheating and getting a person absolutely blotto in the process? That's mean and being a jerk. Then bragging about it and describing it as "besting" them? That's a rarified kind of jerk. But doing it to the guy who knows you didn't do jack shit?

The only possible response is "wow. What a dick." And really, Tanner moves into the same column, because he doesn't respond with "dude, you didn't beat her in anything. We cheated to distract her -- what are you proud of this?"

Honestly, whatever mind-bogglingly horrid thing happens to Tanner and Izzy after this -- and it will -- is nothing less than Tanner deserves. And you have to imagine Izzy will be pissed. I mean, Karla's one of her closest friends -- her Work Geek Friend -- and this was supposed to be some kind of special night for Izzy, and now Karla's totally trashed for it, and you know it's going to come out what Tanner's role in it was.

Mmm. Conflict. It's that delicious kind of sweet and salty that comes from making candy out of tears. And the great thing is, when it all crashes and burns, I don't need to feel badly for Tanner.

Because that guy? He's a dick.

Nicely done, guys.

Posted by Eric Burns-White at October 2, 2007 9:50 AM

Comments

Comment from: Benor posted at October 2, 2007 10:56 AM

Weeeell....I don't agree with that final assessment.

I agree with most of it-Tanner's got something up his sleeve, he seems to be doing things that go over the line to accomplish whatever he has planned-but the idea that his response to Ravyn's "I bested her" line should have been "No, I helped you cheat" seems off. Mostly because the rest of Tanner's dialogue seems to be concern for Karla's current condition, which does take priority over putting a little leech of a man back into his place. In fact, if he had responded by calling out Ravyn on his lie, then that's a dick move, because he's insulting the person who just helped him in his scheme for trying to take some of the credit.

Comment from: Trevel posted at October 2, 2007 11:13 AM

I'm with Benor on this -- Tanner not calling him out on his dickness is fine, since his concern was for Karla. That is, to me, acceptable.

Not to mention that tone matters -- was "I bested her in the drinking game" said as a "Check me out, I triumphed mightily!" or a "What do you mean? I bested her in the drinking game -- you know, your plan? How did you expect a drinking game to end, with everyone sober?" sort of thing.

The guys still a dick, mind. A creep at best. Tanner, I think, is just an idiot. He's got a good heart, but assumes everything will work the way he wants and then when it doesn't, doesn't know what to do. Good at being muscle, so to speak, but should never be allowed to plan anything ever.

Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski posted at October 2, 2007 1:48 PM

It depends. It seems obvious to me (on second reading, after your critique) that the reason Ravyn keeps up the con to Tanner's face is because the mark is still conscious (barely) and Ravyn's been given no indicator from the con runner, Tanner, that the con's up. Part of it, yes: that the duel was arranged to take Karla out, but not that the duel was fixed. Ravyn's still not aware (whether he ought to be is beyond the scope of the present rebuttal, but he isn't) that he's done anything but stick to the plan, and he continues to stick to it. Tanner has to explain to Ravyn that it's All Gone Horribly Wrong, and that's what happens in this strip. If Tanner confesses the con to Karla in the next strip, instead of sticking to it, then he's a dick. But Ravyn isn't aware he's done anything worse (than what he originally agreed to) until the end of this strip, and Tanner's legitimately superior concern until the end of this strip is to make clear to Ravyn that the con's gone wrong, for reasons which Ravyn wasn't aware of and which Karla could reasonably, or at least possibly, have clarified for him. I think you can't truly draw your conclusion before you see the next strip.

Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski posted at October 2, 2007 1:53 PM

It depends. It seems obvious to me (on second reading, after your critique) that the reason Ravyn keeps up the con to Tanner's face is because the mark is still conscious (barely) and Ravyn's been given no indicator from the con runner, Tanner, that the con's up. Part of it's up, yes: that the duel was arranged to take Karla out, but not that the duel was fixed. Ravyn's still not aware (whether he ought to be is beyond the scope of the present rebuttal, but he isn't) that he's done anything but stick to the plan, and he continues to stick to it. Tanner has to explain to Ravyn that it's All Gone Horribly Wrong, and that's what happens in this strip. If Tanner confesses the con to Karla in the next strip, instead of sticking to it, then he's a dick. But Ravyn isn't aware he's done anything worse (than what he originally agreed to) until the end of this strip, and Tanner's legitimately superior concern until the end of this strip is to make clear to Ravyn that the con's gone wrong, for reasons which Ravyn wasn't aware of and which Karla could reasonably, or at least possibly, have clarified for him. I think you can't truly draw your conclusion before you see the next strip.

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at October 2, 2007 2:57 PM

I think Rayvyn's dickness is obvious and intentional (his body language in the rest of the strip is smug and pleased, not worried or concerned that he might have screwed up). And I really don't see him as upholding the con, because Karla's incapable of processing basic information, much less recognizing what they're saying. We know she had at least six tumblers of absinthe and bloody mary mix, which is to say probably at least a full bottle of absinthe plus a bit.

And yes, I think these two strips were an intentional Dick Move on the part of the creators. Rayvyn is a dick, and we the readers are supposed to react to him that way.

Which brings us to the question of whether or not Tanner is a dick. As opposed to just... well, not thinking through the consequences of his actions.

Well, knowing the pride that Karla takes in Buffy and knowing that by cheating he could "distract" her from interfering with... well, whatever this is, but at the core keeping her from making sure Tanner doesn't make an ass of himself as he has at all the previous parties is at best asinine. Especially if he knew Karla was a lightweight -- he knows she's at least six drinks down to Rayvyn in the previous strip -- I don't know what he thought they were drinking, but speaking as a staggeringly light-weighted drinker myself, six drinks of anything alcoholic in relatively short order would have me incoherent. Six drinks of the sort that are generally employed in drinking games -- full beers, shots of hard liquor or the like -- done in less than an hour would likely hospitalize me.

I assume Karla doesn't have some of the issues I do, but there's no real way to expect that she wouldn't be hammered into the floor by this. Not if he knows her tolerance. And didn't tell the guy feeding her alcohol.

Dickish? Or just the subsection of "asshole" that "guy who doesn't think his plans through" falls under? I'm not sure, but Tanner doesn't get the benefit of the doubt from me either way. This was a crappy thing to do to a friend.

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at October 2, 2007 3:00 PM

Oh, and:

But Ravyn isn't aware he's done anything worse (than what he originally agreed to) until the end of this strip[...]

At which time, Rayvyn looks absolutely delighted. I don't think we need to hold judgment until the next strip to make a decision about Rayvyn.

Comment from: Alexis Christoforides posted at October 2, 2007 4:12 PM

I don't know. Even If I look at the very worst case scenario, that Tanner's been helping Rayvyn cheat just because, it's still the kind of thing that everyone would laugh about two days later. I mean, it's a party!

And if he's really trying to delay her so that...something happens, well then you can blame him for poor planning if you want to.

Things also worth noting:

- Tanner's been playing Strip Settlers of Catan before this, and seemed quite drunk. You know how wild that can get.

- Karla went from 'watching Tanner in case something happens' to 'Tanner's going to do something stupid at this party' (those were her extract words). Which may very well be the case, but she went from looking after a friend to policing him.

Comment from: Benor posted at October 2, 2007 6:01 PM

Something else to note, that I hadn't looked at when I first posted: the script that's usually posted with Home on the Strange has this note about the first panel.

"Tanner enters, panicked and scared, as Rayvyn – who was looking after Karla – reacts."

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at October 2, 2007 7:24 PM

Actually, no, I don't know how wild Strip Settlers of Catan can get. Do enlighten me.

Also, maybe I need clarification on this, but I think the whole "cheating in a drinking game" think heavily qualifies as a cock move, particularly since it was done to put someone out of commission. Regardless of how far it went, that's supremely cocktastic. I don't see how her getting this bombed makes it any more cocklike than if she was only as drunk as Tanner planned.

I'm not saying this will end well, by the way... but I could see this as some sort of setup by Tanner and Izzy to make Karla and Tom embarass themselves instead of him. Which is still a cockalicious move, mind you, just in a different way.

And by the way, if you're wondering why I switched to a different slang word, well, upon being "gifted" with the name Richard, you can guess which slang word I typically avoid. Because everyone talks about when someone's a Dick, but I get to live the life.

Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at October 3, 2007 8:01 AM

It seems to me that if your peers include a woman who impersonates her husband in order to have cybersex with a socially inept recluse, and your girlfriend spent most of the start of your relationship a) refusing to acknowledge that she was your girlfriend, and b) punishing you for not acting like her boyfriend, but c) punishing you if you actually tried to describe it as such, AND your DM continually tries to seduce your best friend's wife... well, hell, this is chump change. In the grand scheme of things his friends are much bigger dicks than Tanner will ever hope to be. :)

Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski posted at October 3, 2007 8:41 AM

Chris Wright: Perhaps that's why I instinctively jumped to Tanner's defense. After all, he's the only one of the crowd to earn the loyalty of the animal kingdom. On the other hand, maybe this is his graduation story.

Comment from: Roni posted at October 3, 2007 10:01 AM

Thanks! I think we may need to put this on the main page as not to mislead anyone, but pay no attention to the scripts. The stage directions, so to speak, are just to give me a better idea of where Ferrett's coming from when he pictures the scene. They're not written in stone and are often changed or discarded. For instance, this particular strip went through about three re-writes via email. Ferrett tries to trim them out of posting the strip, but sometimes misses a bit.

Comment from: boojum42 posted at October 3, 2007 1:30 PM

32_footsteps: I agree that cheating is already a cock move. (And that it is hard to make a case for it being _accidental_: everyone knows cheating is bad, and gamers should be particularly sensitive to this.)

But cheating in such a way as to give your friend alcohol poisoning (potentially) and make her very ill (certainly) is much, much worse than ordinary cheating. Here I guess Tanner _isn't_ doing it on purpose-- but his neglect is fairly staggering.

--
While this doesn't excuse Tanner or Rayvyn at all, it's _also_ bad that Karla doesn't respect her own health enough to quit the drinking game. _She_ knows she's a lightweight and she shouldn't endanger herself either. But she's competitive like that.

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at October 3, 2007 5:57 PM

Boojum - I do specifically cite cheating at a drinking game as a cock move, for its potential to damage someone.

Granted, I'm a real stickler to rules and fair play even without that factor, but even if you're good enough (and can judge your friends' alcohol tolerance enough) to prevent anything more serious than a nasty hangover for the other party, it's just as nasty of a cock move.

It's just that this scenario is a cock move with potentially devestating aftereffects (whether or not that potential is realized, well, we'll have to wait and see).

Websnark

Besides, the box comes with Ravage.