Arc #55: The Trial in Heaven

[rickgriffin]

I was just thinking if I am right about Peanut and Grape being Dragon and Pete's bloodline/generational Avatars thing are we going to end up seeing Peanut and Grape fighting Demons and stuff? Part of me is like that is really cool, but then another part of me just keeps thinking there is no way Rick could keep the comedy going at that point. You really can't make stuff like that funny unless you go the whole black comedy route, or go so over the top and bizarre that it would never feel like any kind of threat at all.

I don't have any plans to turn Housepets into a shonen manga

[_Stu_]

Well cosmic nerds or not, an "housepets" sense remains after all, for the avatar thing. In a large sense of course.

I like this comic even for normal humor arcs, but a main plot on the background is more than welcome for me.

I don't have any plans to turn Housepets into a shonen manga

Fair enough, HP have his own personality and needs no changes.

[IceKitsune]

I don't have any plans to turn Housepets into a shonen manga

Ok then the Goals of this game are much different then.

Edit: But now I'm not exactly sure how much of my theory did you debunk all of it or just the demon fighting parts? (making the goals for this game different)

[Dissension]

If he told you that, it wouldn't leave much room for exposition through the comic, now would it?

[IceKitsune]

If he told you that, it wouldn't leave much room for exposition through the comic, now would it?

True, (and truthfully I didn't really expect him to tell me but I had to give it a shot) so until otherwise I'm running with my generational avatar theory since it makes a whole ton of sense.

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

It's just that Pete is saying "the temple" and "our temple"

I don't remember him saying "our temple" before

Pete says this during his talk about PP and mana in the second panel. Also during Dog Days of Summer

no, he says "our temporal headquarters" and our is being used in a plural sense, meaning each player has their own, I believe.
as for followers, the duel may not involve followers at all, just one-on-one, avatar versus avatar.

I think maybe Pete wanted Grape originally because the duel was to be a competition for Peanut's affections, but Tarot messed that up so the rules have changed and Pete is looking for a new avatar.This explains why Pete wondered why Dragon was still using Tarot even though he couldn't get Grape.

[IceKitsune]

I think maybe Pete wanted Grape originally because the duel was to be a competition for Peanut's affections, but Tarot messed that up so the rules have changed and Pete is looking for a new avatar.This explains why Pete wondered why Dragon was still using Tarot even though he couldn't get Grape.

Except that I already asked if Dragon had anything to do with Pete not getting Grape and IIRC Rick said that Dragon and Tarot coming over and telling Grape and Peanut about Pete had nothing to do with it.

[rickgriffin]

This explains why Pete wondered why Dragon was still using Tarot even though he couldn't get Grape.

He never wondered that.

Except that I already asked if Dragon had anything to do with Pete not getting Grape and IIRC Rick said that Dragon and Tarot coming over and telling Grape and Peanut about Pete had nothing to do with it.

I don't recall this ever happening either

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

This explains why Pete wondered why Dragon was still using Tarot even though he couldn't get Grape.

He never wondered that.

my mistake. he wondered why she was still with Peanut. but my reasoning still stands. If the original goal of the duel was to get Peanut and that changed when he couldn't get Grape, it would still be odd for Tarot to still be with Peanut.

[GameCobra]

I think maybe Pete wanted Grape originally because the duel was to be a competition for Peanut's affections, but Tarot messed that up so the rules have changed and Pete is looking for a new avatar.This explains why Pete wondered why Dragon was still using Tarot even though he couldn't get Grape.

That would be a very nice twist. If dueling between them is fighting for affections, then it's possible that Pete chose Joel right off the bat to mold him into some sort of human-thinking pet for the next duel.

Also, and i'm saying this logically, but it's also possible he saw how badly he was losing his duel against Tarot because of the whole dog/cat taboo and decided to try something different and chose Joel to experiment some things for the future. He was just lucky that Joel didn't want to be at the time the unredeemable type.

[IceKitsune]

I don't recall this ever happening either

Then is there also a reason he wanted Grape at first, and Dragon felt the need to interfere with that choice?

That you need to ask this makes me feel ashamed.

Actually there's a completely different reason why he ended up not getting Grape. No more spoilers now.

I was just asking just to make sure really, I was 90% sure there was a reason. Now I'm wondering if Tarot/Dragons warning Grape and Peanut didn't push Grape away from Pete then what in the world could have?

Right here I asked you that question and you said there was a different reason not them warning Grape and Peanut.

[GameCobra]

I still believe it's Zach's fault. Curse you buttons of altering destiny! =P

[Dissension]

I've not seen anything in the comic to support the theory that the 'duel' is over Peanut. Pete assumed Spirit Dragon used Tarot's relationship with Peanut exclusively to keep Pete from recruiting Grape as an avatar. When it became evident that Spirit Dragon had feelings for Peanut, Pete and Great Kitsune both mocked her.

[PhoenixAsper]

Did this seriously just happen like this?

I think, Pete, I now understand you a little more. Unless you're flat out LYING. Defense mechanisms can do TERRIBLE things to people. I should know.

Since King hardly has it the worst of anyone in the world (not by a LONG shot)

As the writer of this thing, you obviously know things I don't. No, currently, he doesn't. I, however, can only comment on what I see and know. And most of the time, what I see of King's life is a disaster waiting to happen when his little secret comes out. That secret could be his Sword of Damocles. I happen to think that, in realistic emotional expectations, when Fox finds out, a hard rain will fall, and on Bailey, too. At the moment, I cannot see a clear way around that.

I'm interested in THIS because it MIGHT relate/tie in to that, and might get this thing a step closer to answering my secondary concern: what does King want to be?

[GameCobra]

I've not seen anything in the comic to support the theory that the 'duel' is over Peanut. Pete assumed Spirit Dragon used Tarot's relationship with Peanut exclusively to keep Pete from recruiting Grape as an avatar. When it became evident that Spirit Dragon had feelings for Peanut, Pete and Great Kitsune both mocked her.

I still believe the duel is over and done with, but if the duel isn't over, I just think it would be a nice twist if this was the case that RandomGeek just mentioned. It seems like Pete isn't the sort of guy to find affection corny after this comic, so it actually could possibly make sense.

Now that i think about it though, he did behave in a trustworthy manner towards Grape, so it's not to say he's a bad player, but just gets very competitive and deep into the game.

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

I've not seen anything in the comic to support the theory that the 'duel' is over Peanut. Pete assumed Spirit Dragon used Tarot's relationship with Peanut exclusively to keep Pete from recruiting Grape as an avatar. When it became evident that Spirit Dragon had feelings for Peanut, Pete and Great Kitsune both mocked her.

I think maybe Pete wanted Grape originally because...

If the original goal of the duel was to get Peanut...

These are just my theories, mind you. I'm not saying that's definitely what I think is going on, just that I think it's a possibility.
Your explanation is equally as viable and probably more likely, but you never know.

[Karl]

I must say that I like this strip. We've seen Pete mostly as a jerk who seek to torment King at any occasion. But here there's something more. Something that we've never seen before. Like that he actually cared for those who were under his wings during the game. It's showed by how people "praised him" for his miracles, and how he cried after loss of his human knight avatar, which suggest that he was emotionally attached to her.

Perhaps there's more about him than we think.

[Dissension]

Of course there is! The characters in this universe are not one-dimensional, ya know.

[GameCobra]

Of course there is! The characters in this universe are not one-dimensional, ya know.

The whole universe cowers at the power of Daisy.

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

Of course there is! The characters in this universe are not one-dimensional, ya know.

and the celestial beings may even be 4 dimensional.

[Sleet]

Or possibly 10- or 26-.

[rickgriffin]

Right here I asked you that question and you said there was a different reason not them warning Grape and Peanut.

You said "Dragon and Tarot coming over and telling Grape and Peanut about Pete" which didn't happen as such. If you're talking about Tarot's cryptic warning that had--you know what, just wait for the rest of this arc

[IceKitsune]

Right here I asked you that question and you said there was a different reason not them warning Grape and Peanut.

You said "Dragon and Tarot coming over and telling Grape and Peanut about Pete" which didn't happen as such. If you're talking about Tarot's cryptic warning that had--you know what, just wait for the rest of this arc

Ok then finally getting some answers to that warning, which combined with the fact that we now know that powering up a Avatar takes Generations makes my theory even more likely. Well except maybe that part about it being the reason Pete didn't get Grape of course.

[Psykeout]

I believe I have adequately proved my point.

[KJOokami]

Swagger is for boys; class is for men.

Somehow, Pete manages to radiate both simultaneously. Does this mean that he's just a child at heart, or that he suffers from some form of mental psychosis involving a split between his current self and his "youth"? And now that I'm thinking about it, what sort of "immortals" are Pete and the others? Are they immortal in that they simply never die, or were they also never born and just existed from the "beginning" of time?

[Liam]

You say hurtful things

B-but I didn't want to make the furret sad. ;_;

[Sinder]

swag

you keep using that word

i do not think it means what you think it means

[copper]

swag

you keep using that word

i do not think it means what you think it means

*glomps you* Thank you for that reference....


I do believe Pete has become a favorite character for quite a few people now.

[angelusbr]

swag

you keep using that word

i do not think it means what you think it means

*glomps you* Thank you for that reference....


I do believe Pete has become a favorite character for quite a few people now.

Sonic archie comics, right? XD

I don't have any plans to turn Housepets into a shonen manga

I'm sad...

[_Stu_]

I'm sad...

It's right the way it is imo... after all this years, i would be more sad to see such a sudden jump.

[Nightfirex]

Well it been a while since the I posted it was several arcs ago but this arc was the one that hit closest to home mostly cause I am a gamer and run a D&D game and I just finish my thesis paper for my religious studies to finish my degree and this comic is about both topics. I was wanting to post the longer explanation here since I didn't want to post a long text in the comment box. So I want to apologize if this post is too long for everyone to read, and that my English is less then perfect but I will do my best to do what I can and skip if you wish *laughs*. First I wanted to say to Rick, this is amazing job on the explanation on how you explain the religion of this world. It really close how I explain religion in the D&D game that I run. My world is heavily religion-based and the 'gods' are a bit more active. Not like walking on earth and touching people but they are a bit more active on hearing the prayers and praises of their followers and they have avatars and the like. So here my take on the whole thing again this is all opinion, and I can completely wrong.

So after hearing Pete explanation of the game and what it mostly entails through his eyes i can see more clearly on the actions that Pete took and I believe I have Pete really figured out also the roles of everyone else in the higher realm. So again forgive me if I am completely wrong but here what I perceive on the matter. So we begin with the world, a premade world (like forgotten realms) that they can take part and play their game. a world of different species where where they can play the game of fate and chance. First i like the way he explain how they use their power using a temple as a foci point and they have followers that help charge their mana. Also they bring the rule of self limitation. That they are willing to limited their own personal power and only allow to do certain 'miracles' in the world. If we take the the idea of Nature Law (universal law) and how a divine beings are bound by those laws (as explained by several philosophers like Thomas Aquinas and John Locke), we can see a better picture of how the higher being role in the world in accordance to the game.

Now as it was mention these higher being do have followers that help them gather 'mana' to perform their miracles but the more in-depth of the players comes from the granted power, where the mortal have an active role. Now the Joan of arc reference, was actually an enlightening analogy cause we see the benefits and penalties of having that role. We also see the interaction of the higher being to mortals. One of the most important things that Pete get really excited over is the power granted to the mortal. He mentions the time and effort for the shared power to build up and blossom in that avatar. Then he mention that certain 'classes' gain it faster then others. This raises the first question, one that I will post later. Second we see the emotion that Pete shows that sometimes the power granted to a mortal can emotionally disruptive. One of the things we see that the higher being do have a very close attachment to their avatars. It is like how a player in D&D really become attached to one of their character, they work with it from level one go through the sessions gaining what experience they can.. run from tough battle and experience the world through their eyes. The mortal though feels they were chosen for some greater role but sometime the task is tough and sometimes dauntless this can attribute to that disruptive state as well. Sometimes followers or other mortals becoming jealous of the one and desiring the need to be the one to be that character can lead to the lost of an avatar. A good example of the mimetic trend explained by rene girard. This theory can be easily applied in the sense that Pete said that they don't do anything that life doesn't do already do to them and human nature is one that we know very well. The more we ask about the human connection to the 'game' we can tell that Joel "humanity" had a bit more impact to the game then what we normally see understanding that avatars have certain 'classes' and that could easily be assumed that the human avatar has a class that allow more granted power then a dog or cat which cannot. Thus with little mana to work with this can be why Pete went out of his way to find a human avatar. Joel/King was still born as a human and he would access to that "class" despite that he a dog now a interesting loophole to the rules that Pete can use.

This leads to the next part, death or loss of an avatar,like in D&D usually a player plays their avatar till either that player retires or dies. So the lost of that character can be emotionally distraught to the player if they were closely attach to it and it make it harder to become attached to a new character and we can see that a little bit here. Pete lost can be a good explanation of his detachment to mortals, if what he explain is true in his case the lost of a good avatar that you have work on and believe in so much is taken from you because of fate and chance can change a person outlook on how to play and win the game. So now I believe we can start to see Pete motives or personality. yes he is a bit of jerk but I think that attitude or the way he playing the game now was a result of what may have happen in a previous game. What it reminds me of a player of mine in my D&D game. In my custom world monsters are a bit tougher because of the god having involvement in the realm, so the player make an avatar he really like but sometimes life is harsh. So when the group and his character get caught in bad situation and they don't survive, he blames the group for his loss, then he showed his new character, that I can tell he use some loopholes for some of the abilities he had on the character and I notice how he detach himself form the party. All account of what happen to him, and I think that what may have happen to Pete which lead to another thing that attribute to Pete's motive. fate and chance.

Fate and chance I believe played the biggest part here in all this. Fate and chance respresented by the die was something that was random (this was mention in a earlier comic.). Did you know that casting lot was a form of divination in the biblical era (also known as Cleromancy)? a great example was the story of Jonah when they wanted to know who was responsible for the bad storm and the lots fell on Jonah in the book of Jonah or when the new disciple had to be pick after the betrayal of Judas and the lots fell on Matthias in the book of Acts. These examples shows something that we see here where mortal use die as way to see the will of God or "fate". The 'players' of the game cast lots to determine the chance and fate of their avatar. Which we go back to that line that Pete use that they (the higher beings) don't do anything that life doesn't already do to them and comes to the idea of poor rolls. Now not many are D&D player but for those that are there is that one player and people know that player the one who rolls poorly all the time. The one who no matter how good their character is or how good of chance he/she may have, when he/she has to roll he/she just end up with the bad roll. From what we have gathered from the little we know about Pete, if we look past initial preconceptions of him being a complete jerk we can see that he may that person that fate and chance has gone poorly on him and he lost probably a lot thus he felt that he had to justify his action that fate is against him.

Lastly the duel, one of things Pete mention was the goals or he rather said 'goals' and their failing of it and now they have to duel to determine the one in charge of the gaming group. There can be many reason for this and that can't be explain just yet. So it was establish that Pete original intent was to get grape, but dragon prevent on getting her for his avatar for the duel, leaving Pete in a bad situation for if we follow the idea that power takes time to build in a avatar over generation, his power in essence took a major cut if grape was part of the avatar line, leaving dragon with a more powerful avatar. Now seeing this we can look at the motivation of his actions... desperation. We look at him turning to a human who by giving him little choice was hoping for him to surrender control to him so he can easily use him and put him the 'class' that allow him to gain that granted power at a accelerate rate, thus giving him a chance to win. But again fate wasn't in his favor and Joel/King didn't want to be a part of the game. So Pete running out of options and thinking he can still manipulate this human to gain full control went to heaven to see he can take a chance to regain Joel as his avatar. So desperation lead him to challenge fate, his fear of lost and morality cause him to mimic the actions of a darker side. So in a sense the defense for Pete was that his bad luck and motive out of desperation cause him to come to this point. Is Pete guilty? yes he is. should he be punish? yes he should. but the complexity of his situation shouldn't put him with the worse punishment possible, but rather an alternate punishment to open his eyes of who he really hurting, and what he really lost by falling away from his goal and find a willing mortal to help him in game. Though seeing how this pan out we can verify the complexity of Pete or I can be blowing a lot of hot air and Pete is just a jerk and wanted to have his way and he lost.

But this all leads to some interesting questions. The times that it was mention of the temple it was always singular.. does that mean there is only one temple that is shared? If this the case that mean it explain Pete frustration when the temple was moved, putting limit on his "mana" but also dragon as well . the next question arises the condition of the duel was to use dog and cats, and seeing from he picture of previous games humans were followers and avatars before...is the conditions of the rules was a mean to not to have their human followers involved? or to balance the duel ground using dogs and cats? do they have human followers in this game or is it all animals and if the temple was moved why haven't' their followers searched for it yet or are they searching now? Lastly we now know there is a goal....usually Pete said that they would join together with mortals and fight arch-demon and all that as he put it but only him and dragon had a falling out of the idea and we know there are 4 other players to the game counting dragon that would make 3 that we don't' know so the big question is... if they are having their duel, what is the goal? if it a arch-demon for instance that mean that evil is either left unchecked or being held back by the other 3 for the time being but the assumption like any pen and paper RPG is that most goals or encounters are scaled to the power of the 'group' meaning all 5 of them have to be there to have the best chance of winning the goal so how are the other 3 fairing do they have a chance now that the temple has been moved? All these question will probably be answer but sadly Pete is in the wrong here, but now I understand his situation, if it as complex as i believe it is. if he a jerk well he should be punish for being a jerk. But if he the victim of fate and lost a low level being that he became really attach to, but could do nothing but watch his avatar slip away from him then these actions are the result of high being who doesn't want to be hurt again. He wish to go against what he believe the GM/fate has put on him and that to lose. It doesn't excuse him from punishment, but it could explain if this is that cause that Pete isn't a total jerk but he need to see what he doing wrong and that perhaps would change and get on the right path again.

[Ratros]

It's been awhile since I posted, so I just have to remind everyone that I liked Pete before it was cool. Also it seems that Nightfire beat me to posting theories, but I'm still going to go ahead and post my ideas to see how many I got correct. Warning: Possible spoilers...

Pete and Dragon were working together against the other two mysterious higher beings (I will now refer to all higher beings in my own way as the Divine cause I can). I doubt anyone remembers the last time I posted (I barely do) but I vaguely recall posting something about neither Pete nor Dragon being the antagonist for this story. Neither really fit the role, so I'm not that shocked that there are more players in this game.

Pete and Dragon's goal is to put the animals of the Housepets world on equal ground with humans. The reason they had a falling out probably has something to do with the methods that each wanted to use and I think that Pete is a bit of a godmoder (no pun intended) that will do anything to win. Of course the second part is the biggest of my speculations.

Pete was mistreating King to prove a point. He wanted to show King how some pets are mistreated. The reason he wants King to be his avatar is because of Joel's past experiences with mistreated pets.

The relatives will come back into the story, and the treasure that they are searching for will be of no monetary value...take that as you will, but I'm not going to post my full theory on this one.

The current worshipers that give Pete and Dragon their mana are the forest animals.

Pete is not malevolent, but does indeed have a lot of swagger.

After the trial is over, Pete will be trapped in a giant clear tube, yet he will still be able to summon various housepets with the help of an effeminate robot to battle the other divine who are an evil sorcerer and witch. The housepets will be given color coded powers via magical crystals and the ability to summon giant robots that Joey created in his secret laboratory (thankfully he was able to keep Bino from destroying these). Unfortunately the housepets will be pushed to their limits, but then a group of females led by Tarot will show up, magically transform, and punish the two evil divine in the name of the moon. Then there will be a big party, but Pete can't come cause he's still in a tube.

...I think I got carried away with one of those...still I can't wait to see what the other two players turn out to be.

[Rook]

... All I have to say is I'm really happy that this arc is explaining the purpose of the avatars and the rules of the omniscent game of D&D! Cosmic D&D must be incredibly fun, but also super confusing. They must keep that trillion page rule-book on hand every time they play

[IceKitsune]

Ok cool so they do have two and that means that I was right Tarot is not from BG and most likely from out side the US, due to the original map being labeled as just Babylon. (because they could be in like Nevada or something I guess).

[Sleet]

Gotta prepare for the Zerg rush, Pete!

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

... I want cookies and milk, Dragon. and nappies(by the way, mention of nappies is even more insulting in England).

[RootsofOrigin]

Ok cool so they do have two and that means that I was right Tarot is not from BG and most likely from out side the US, due to the original map being labeled as just Babylon. (because they could be in like Nevada or something I guess).

How does this explain Tarot?

Because as far as we know Dragons Temple was never moved so Tarot has to be from where ever the two temples where originally since everything we’ve seen says you have to be inside the temple to release Dragon or Pete.

But how can you assume that Tarot was in the temple?
And where does it say that you have to be in the temple in order to release Dragon or Pete?

[IceKitsune]

Because as far as we know Dragons Temple was never moved so Tarot has to be from where ever the two temples where originally since everything we’ve seen says you have to be inside the temple to release Dragon or Pete.

But how can you assume that Tarot was in the temple?
And where does it say that you have to be in the temple in order to release Dragon or Pete?

I’m not saying she is in the temple right at this moment in the strip. Pete needed Grape to go to the temple to release him which has so far been the only way we have seen how they get out, so we can assume that Tarot would need to do that as well then accept being Dragons avatar.

[RootsofOrigin]

I’m not saying she is in the temple right at this moment in the strip. Pete needed Grape to go to the temple to release him which has so far been the only way we have seen how they get out, so we can assume that Tarot would need to do that as well then accept being Dragons avatar.

I’m under the assumption that Pete needed Grape to show up because Spirit Dragon cursed/sealed him in his temple.

[IceKitsune]

I’m not saying she is in the temple right at this moment in the strip. Pete needed Grape to go to the temple to release him which has so far been the only way we have seen how they get out, so we can assume that Tarot would need to do that as well then accept being Dragons avatar.

I’m under the assumption that Pete needed Grape to show up because Spirit Dragon cursed/sealed him in his temple.

How does Curse of the Mysterious Temple sound like he is locked in there? To me it sounds like it will make people afraid of it if anything.