The Old Hack

Then you are working from the wrong presumption. It is not a matter of what happened after Magus' misdeeds. He does not get to gain credit from unintended consequences. If I light someone's home on fire and they subsequently obtain insurance money that more than recompensates them for their losses, I am still an arsonist. Magus is responsible for Ellen's existence in the worst possible way -- she was intended solely as a fire-and-forget weapon that was supposed to transform Elliot once and could henceforth be ignored. Moreover, if his plan had failed and Ellen had gone out of control and managed to kill herself, that would have been on Magus, too. The trauma from her creation that she has yet to recover fully from is on him, too. Elliot's public discommodation and forced gender change, with all the possible negative social consequences, these are on Magus, too. And what if there had been no convenient home for Ellen, no handy financial support for her family? No. Magus does not get to take credit for positive consequences that he had no hand in. Nor does he get to evade responsibility for his actions merely because the risks and dangers he selfishly exposed others to did not come true. If I race through a school district at 100 mph, I am still guilty of reckless endangerment of school children even if no-one gets hurt. Going by your logic, the school shooter in Parkland may have killed seventeen people but it should be to his credit that many of the students he did not manage to kill went on to achieve national fame and start a movement that could potentially change gun law. I do not buy that one, either. The greatest moment Magus had was in my opinion when he refused to commit murder on Pandora's say so. If you wish to look for his redeeming traits, look there. I am not giving him an easy out simply because his victims as a whole were not too badly hurt.

Very well. I suppose I should let your opinion rule in all matters of good and evil henceforth. The opinions and the lives of the victims of the perpetrator matter not at all. By conveniently reducing the victims (in this case, Elliot, Ashley and Ellen) to faceless organisms like 'an oppressive government' they are robbed of any relevance and Magus can treat them as he sees fit, hiding behind that catchall excuse of all perpetrators of dubious deeds, 'the end justifies the means.' It is truly wondrous how much forgiveness and lenience that is displayed by those who did not personally suffer loss or injury in such affairs.

Yes. Necessary evils remain evil. Some are potentially more forgivable than others but the greater part of that must needs be resolved by those who are wronged. Speaking only for myself, I am very, very tired of those who display an astounding capacity for forgiving wrongs not done to them personally.

It is a little late to think of that after accidentally casting Armageddon, yes. Certain things benefit from safety mechanisms, especially those whose accidental employment may result in a bodycount.

Alliterations are absolutely absent. Asserting abnegation.

That is just lazy. Be polite. Call him by his full name, Agiltanius Aristophanes Aloysius Antoninus Abraxas-Abalamahalamatandra.

All too much sense. It does strange things to the human mind to spend your time in complete isolation. Escape from that, no matter how strange the company, fills an essential need. It is difficult to see how he could have reacted otherwise.

Obviously Magus' real name is Agiltanius Aristophanes Aloysius Antoninus Abraxas-Abalamahalamatandra.

Yeah. I also know that when they collided, the Stone Age cultures inexplicably didn't do as well as the metal users. In fact, it was around this time or maybe a few centuries before that that my ancestors arrived to Denmark. And they saw that the poor primitive locals hadn't gotten around to upgrading their stuff from stone yet so they decided to show them the blessings of bronze. It was a huge increase in the Danish standard of living. Well, at least it was for everyone who accepted the new rule and found themselves a job in the changing economy, possibly as thrall or concubine. But at long last people could upgrade to proper bronze smartphones and computers. If you think you are frustrated today, try getting coverage for a stone smartphone.

All of these and you are around, too.

Hoo boy, you are due some interesting times. Careful when you reach 70, the Year of Four Emperors was no picnic!

Philistine.

1807 reputation. Goldarnit. I need to mobilise. Nothing personal, Scotty, but in five more reputation it seems like I have to declare war on you. And then I get to have the forums burned down around my ears, or something. Whatever passes for a big whitewashed hut around here, anyway.

He could potentially disrupt the trail even more. He could use the method above while leaving a live body, not a dead one. Then have medical authorities pick up the 'amnesiac'. That way he isn't even leaving a trail of corpses behind. Vary the two methods a bit so there is no clear pattern and he will be exceptionally hard to trace over time.

The Moderator: I would much rather insert unnecessary spoiler space than fail to do so and let people be spoiled.

I personally suspect Magus himself will be the problem. He promised he would end Pandora. I do not think Tedd will take kindly to that, especially not after this mess. But we'll see.

Ah! Thanks.

Has Dan stated this? We know that the thing about Diane bearing a strong resemblance to Susan being a plot point dating fairly far back, at the very least. All the way back to here, in fact, which is before we ever meet Mr. Raven the first time. I also remember Dan as having stated that Mr. Raven had a lot of backstory when we commented on him.

Wasn't mine, actually. I should have added, "With thanks to the Rocky Horror Picture Show." I apologise for not doing so.

We must speak good of the dead. He's dead. Good.

You could try staring at the walls of the same tomb for a couple thousands of years. From what you said, that didn't at all get old.

Fully agreed. It is that variety I would really, really like to see some of now. :/

Personally I am SO tired of extreme transformations with no real story. I realise that some people like that kind of thing and more power to them, but a huge part of why I read this comic is story and character and I would like to go back to these two.

Or that dreadful company that advertises it, Ad Hominem.

And yet you still had public crocodile feeding ceremonies. Tsk.