Housepets!

Buckle up Marion, it's going to be a long night.

I love how Marion is so not impressed or even cares at this point. He's so fed up with everything. I feel like he should just bite Falstaff's face and put an end to this entire conversation.

You gotta own the conversations, like Fals

Marion stands her ground,
twenty feet in the air;
refusing to be pushed around
by this weird little pair.
Trucks being lovable
at these strange events.
Falstaff’s playing hardball;
his ego never relents.
He’s hard to argue with
as he never makes sense;
to a small teenager
he’s going to seem quite dense.

Those two are always a riot when they show up. This will definitely lead to him being taken to Zach at some point I'm sure.

IceKitsune wrote:Those two are always a riot when they show up. This will definitely lead to him being taken to Zach at some point I'm sure.

If they don't get him arrested at Mrs McGillicuddy's place.

Technically, squirrels, like most rodents, are also omnivores. They can and will eat meat.

Though I wonder if Truck meant something else there in the second panel. What reason that Raccoons and Squirrels don't normally talk to each other is Marion supposed to know?

So, there's species discrimination among the forest animals. Not something I'd thought about before, but it's believable. Marion used the second person plural instead of a first person plural when he said "you forest animals" excluding himself from the category, though the raccoons didn't seem to pick up anything unusual about that. I should hope this is the first time Marion has said his line from the second panel. The third panel has the same joke as the alt text for And Knowing Is Half The Battle: "You weren't going to get away with it Mr. Owen "Clever" Lombard IF that is your real name". In my opinion, the weirdest part about this strip is there is a reasonable possibility that Marion could've tasted squirrel before without being a cannibal.
Edit: I mixed up first and third person.

I want Marion to snap at them so badly. I want him to let loose and say something like:
Marion: "If you don't get that finger out of my face I will shove it down your throat and see once and for all if raccoons really do eat anything."
He looks like he is not about to put up with Truck and Falstaff and their weirdness. At that point I wouldn't be surprised if he scared them off. I can imagine those two screaming into forest, shouting about a rabid squirrel in the treehouse.

Is there some kind of prejudice against squirrels I didn't know about before now?

Champion Wallace wrote:In my opinion, the weirdest part about this strip is there is a reasonable possibility that Marion could've tasted squirrel before without being a cannibal.

Literal interpretation of "you are what you eat."

Nobody wrote:Is there some kind of prejudice against squirrels I didn't know about before now?

Probably nothing more than the fact that they're really just barely above mice in the food chain.

Xane wrote:"You just need a little frosting and a cherry on top."

Don't give the raccoons ideas, now. Think we want to keep Marion alive for a bit.

I’m definitely curious about what Truck meant when he said “Just not usually with... you know...” Maybe there’s some unwritten social hierarchy in the forest where you don’t interact with certain animals. Squirrels could be considered off-limits for interaction either because larger carnivores and omnivores are taught to treat them as snacks. Or it could be that... this is sort of hard to explain, but you know how in a lot of fantasy novels and games there’s always that one group/nation/race that’s treated as the one that’s generally harmless and friendly, but kiiiinda crazy/eccentric so it’s best to steer clear of them? Maybe squirrels are like that in the Housepets! universe.

Anyways, it’s great to see the mood shift back toward comedy and Marion keeping a cool head at the same time. He’s quite good at playing the straight man; maybe Truck & Falstaff can become a comedy trio for a bit with Marion serving as their foil?

It's probably considered impolite to tell a prey species what they are to their face; a prey species. Frankly, Zach should consider himself lucky for that, at least.

Ash Greytree wrote: Anyways, it’s great to see the mood shift back toward comedy and Marion keeping a cool head at the same time. He’s quite good at playing the straight man; maybe Truck & Falstaff can become a comedy trio for a bit with Marion serving as their foil?

That does add a interesting dynamic to the story. A lot how King resisted the usual shenanigans of the other pets and reacted differently when certain things happened. The Outsider looking in will be fun to see play out. Especially the "you forest animals" thing. Subtle but worth noting like Wallace said. King was the outsider with the pets and Marion is going to play that role but with the ferals. In a strange way, Thomas plays it with the Zoo animals but we don't see that.

I'm still going to stick with "It's like he can see into my very soul, and he's not impressed!"

Looks like Truck got all his weight back (yay!), but it looks like it was done by not letting Felstaff eat.

Falstaff: He's on to us! RUN!!!

D-Rock wrote:It's probably considered impolite to tell a prey species what they are to their face; a prey species. Frankly, Zach should consider himself lucky for that, at least.

Reading this made me go back and check, but they are openly called prey when Zach is being introduced to them.

Champion Wallace wrote:Marion used the second person plural instead of a third person plural when he said "you forest animals" excluding himself from the category, though the raccoons didn't seem to pick up anything unusual about that.

It's the coon comedy couple, they aren't the sharpest sticks in the forest.

"I'll say hello. Jest ain't usual fer the cook to be intterduced to the main ingredients." Sarcophagus MacArbe.

You know, seeing the raccoons made me realize something- that one strip where Falstaff's calling them pro-con looters because it's their 'non-enclosure,' it's a joke: raccoons' nomenclature is proc(y)on lo(o)ter...

And then I had to smack my forehead for not figuring that out earlier.

Nobody wrote:Is there some kind of prejudice against squirrels I didn't know about before now?

That's what I'm wondering too.

I wonder if we are about to go in a different direction than we all thought. It feels like he's burning a bridge with the raccoons. If he gets chased out of the treehouse, where does he go? Is there a path none of us have predicted?

Find it intriguing that they don't talk to squirrels myself, but that was because I initially thought the comic's wild animals were going to be like that until the temple arc. Now it's revealed they are indeed not all buddy-buddy in the first place. Unless it was more recent and I will totally blame all the squirrel rumors/puns/nuts that go around all the time.

As an aside, I love Falstaffs garbage-eating grin in the third panel. He really thinks that he's got the little squirrel over the rhetorical barrel there.

fenrirblack wrote:I love how Marion is so not impressed or even cares at this point. He's so fed up with everything. I feel like he should just bite Falstaff's face and put an end to this entire conversation.

I wonder about that. He might just be grumpy because he was woken up in the middle of the night. He's been pretty optimistic throughout the morning and day despite his changes, and I feel he's not completely void of hope yet. I don't think he's at the stage of begrudgingly accepting his situation.

I like this sassy squirrel. What a weird dialogue, though... Yeah, Marion is talking to you two, he can't? Right, raccoons are omnivorous that can eat squirrels, but this won't be the time. Also if a chubby Truck is always cute. Ah, so you were really looking for the ingredients to make a cake. Falstaff, squirrels taste like other meat, in few words... How can you be that serious?

Bluster and boneheaded - nice to see Falstaff hasn't changed at'tall.

I'll have more of this "done with everything here's my sass turned to 11" Marion.

I had forgotten how intellectually challenged that Falstaff and Truck are and was wondering why the two of them were trying to act like they had braincells to rub together when I realized they were ALWAYS this dumb. I guess I am glad that besides believing in the "Opener of Ways" stuff (and honestly if I was in her position I would have also believed it), Custom Ink seems to be maybe have a bit more smartness to her. Here is hoping that Tiny Tum also takes after his mother.

Amazee Dayzee wrote:I had forgotten how intellectually challenged that Falstaff and Truck are and was wondering why the two of them were trying to act like they had braincells to rub together when I realized they were ALWAYS this dumb. I guess I am glad that besides believing in the "Opener of Ways" stuff (and honestly if I was in her position I would have also believed it), Custom Ink seems to be maybe have a bit more smartness to her. Here is hoping that Tiny Tum also takes after his mother.

These two are the living embodiment of the Dunning–Kruger effect, where people overestimate their intelligence and/or abilities precisely because they don't have the intelligence to recognize that they aren't as smart as they think they are. Falstaff in particular, I think.

I think to a small degree we see this in some of the ferals in the comic, at least when it comes to their interactions with human society. For some it's just inexperience, like the wolves, but these two it seems terminal.

dr_eirik wrote:

Amazee Dayzee wrote:I had forgotten how intellectually challenged that Falstaff and Truck are and was wondering why the two of them were trying to act like they had braincells to rub together when I realized they were ALWAYS this dumb. I guess I am glad that besides believing in the "Opener of Ways" stuff (and honestly if I was in her position I would have also believed it), Custom Ink seems to be maybe have a bit more smartness to her. Here is hoping that Tiny Tum also takes after his mother.

These two are the living embodiment of the Dunning–Kruger effect, where people overestimate their intelligence and/or abilities precisely because they don't have the intelligence to recognize that they aren't as smart as they think they are. Falstaff in particular, I think.

I think to a small degree we see this in some of the ferals in the comic, at least when it comes to their interactions with human society. For some it's just inexperience, like the wolves, but these two it seems terminal.

I wonder if the hierarchy that is hinted is based on your level of intelligence. Your size or position on the food chain determines intelligence which determines your social status in the wild or is at least a factor. When you think about it the smartest ferals are Miles (the wolves) and Gale (the cougars) and the farther you go down that list the dumber they seem. You have the raccoons like Truck and Falstaff and Custom Ink, who may seem smarter than those two but still is not too smart is she is such a devout believer in Opener nonsense. Not to mention Cory who is a train wreck. Then you have the squirrels at the bottom who from what we've seen only seem interested in collecting nuts. Sure they are smarter than real world squirrels but it seems that the difference overall is minimal. If Marion even shows a little more personally or intelligence than that of the average squirrel then that proves right there he is not a normal squirrel.

Jessica and Zachery seem pretty sharp, although you could argue that Zach is a domestic bunny. I'm not sure how smart Custom Ink is but she's pretty good at social cues, very kind and solicitous, and does read and write.

NHWestoN wrote:Jessica and Zachery seem pretty sharp, although you could argue that Zach is a domestic bunny. I'm not sure how smart Custom Ink is but she's pretty good at social cues, very kind and solicitous, and does read and write.

Yeah, Jessica in particular is a possible outlier, unless Falstaff and Truck are the outliers. We've also never interacted with a squirrel before in HP, they've only been mentioned once or twice and slammed into Peanuts window for no reason we ever knew. We've seen plenty of wild mice that seem to be on the ball so size is not a definitive factor. And the ferrets can't be that much bigger than Marion is now, and (for the most part) are pretty smart.

And I will learn how to spell squirrel without a spell-check before this arc is over!!

dr_eirik wrote:

NHWestoN wrote:Jessica and Zachery seem pretty sharp, although you could argue that Zach is a domestic bunny. I'm not sure how smart Custom Ink is but she's pretty good at social cues, very kind and solicitous, and does read and write.

Yeah, Jessica in particular is a possible outlier, unless Falstaff and Truck are the outliers. We've also never interacted with a squirrel before in HP, they've only been mentioned once or twice and slammed into Peanuts window for no reason we ever knew. We've seen plenty of wild mice that seem to be on the ball so size is not a definitive factor. And the ferrets can't be that much bigger than Marion is now, and (for the most part) are pretty smart.

And I will learn how to spell squirrel without a spell-check before this arc is over!!

(Pointless sidebar: Oh, yeah, dr_eirik! I loathe the spell-check.)

dr_eirik wrote:

NHWestoN wrote:Jessica and Zachery seem pretty sharp, although you could argue that Zach is a domestic bunny. I'm not sure how smart Custom Ink is but she's pretty good at social cues, very kind and solicitous, and does read and write.

Yeah, Jessica in particular is a possible outlier, unless Falstaff and Truck are the outliers. We've also never interacted with a squirrel before in HP, they've only been mentioned once or twice and slammed into Peanuts window for no reason we ever knew. We've seen plenty of wild mice that seem to be on the ball so size is not a definitive factor. And the ferrets can't be that much bigger than Marion is now, and (for the most part) are pretty smart.

And I will learn how to spell squirrel without a spell-check before this arc is over!!

Domesticated pets like the Miltons or Zach are in a different category due to the fact they have been exposed to society. Jess is an outlier because her problem is not an intelligence one but one of ignorance. She does seem smart but due to the fact that she lived in the wild limited her knowledge. I don’t remember any “wild” mice. The only mice we’ve seen are pretty much domestic like Spo or Squeak or even the army back at the beginning.

It does boil down to exposure which is why Miles and Gale seemed to be more intelligent. They had access to books and supplies because they were alpha predators and did not fear humans unlike the smaller animals who mainly consist of prey species.

How can we be sure that the mice army back at the beginning were not wild? Where else would they come from? It would make more sense if they were from the forest then they came in and began to get exposed to humans by infesting their houses.

The fact they they were exposed to humans and the fact they new enough about revolutionary armies demonstrates that they had to have been living within the confounds of the human dwellings for a long period of time. They are a weird case that exists in between wild and domestic.

Squirrels bite off one another's tails to assert dominance. :3

Dissension wrote:Squirrels bite off one another's tails to assert dominance. :3

is that where you got all of those?

Dissension wrote:Squirrels bite off one another's tails to assert dominance. :3

The same behavior is also found among humans...