Housepets!

Yeah, it's hard not to see most religious leaders as a joke these days, a dark joke but a joke nonethless...

Sorry I just love Cerberus there and yeah...

yikes, bringing religion into the mix is a bit risky. Especially when it can and will create heated arguments (here). I just leave it at that and say Cerebrus is right for saying "he is funny", because there are more to religion than that.

“Religion,” Cerb might say, “is just the interpretation
by imperfect beings of the words of the gods;
taking advantage of the chance to make rules
out of the words of omnipotent clods.
We’re none of us perfect; we just play it for TV.
And you can argue your heart out if you like.
We can’t help you decide if you can’t decide
but, when you work it all out, it’s then we’ll srtike.
The world being better is simpler but is it better?
The heart of the world is working towards the solution.
Just making it better by magic could easily be done
but who are we to judge the worlds absolution?”

Actually, the Hebrew scriptures are fully of folks having extended conversations, negotiations, and debates with divine forces. This strip has something of a Job flavor to it, although Cerberus is less dramatic and more concise in her response.

Why on earth did she ever date Pete? Pity, I guess. (Apologies for the sidebar.)

There's a reason why the collective noun for rabbi is "an argument."

Jakkal wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 7:23 am yikes, bringing religion into the mix is a bit risky. Especially when it can and will create heated arguments (here). I just leave it at that and say Cerebrus is right for saying "he is funny", because there are more to religion than that.

sorry...

CryosR wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 9:25 am

Jakkal wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 7:23 am yikes, bringing religion into the mix is a bit risky. Especially when it can and will create heated arguments (here). I just leave it at that and say Cerebrus is right for saying "he is funny", because there are more to religion than that.

sorry...

Don't worry, you didn't bring it. It's in the strip.

Bro. That Marion's speech is so deep. I agree with him so much. It's ultimately the world that must change, so everyone could be happy. It doesn't matter as long as nobody has ill will.

well dang now I'm hyped for this arc again!

Now I'm intrigued as well. I'm curious how this shakes out, and kind of hope that there's a nuanced, multifaceted solution.

'Cause, like, I see where Marion is coming from, but also city of hundreds of thousands of formerly human animals that have no say in this

(EDIT TO ADD: well, assuming Kitsune doesn't step in to fix that in the first place. I'm kinda assuming Lois saying "undo the coin" meant for undoing it overall rather than just turning the folks present back human)

I know this arc has been going on for a while, but honestly, I think THIS bit here is probably the most interesting part. This is what the build-up has all been about.
King got his choice in the end, Marion gets to make his. But where King knew what he wanted by the time he got to his choice, Marion wants so many things that he doesn't know what he wants in any crystal clear way, but at the heart of it, he wants to be able to make his choice for his own reasons, not because the world demands he do it some particular way. That's relatable. Marion hasn't yet crystalized the direction he wants life to take and the choice is now thrust upon him - rather like how we are expected to declare our major (or heck, go to college at all) right after high school, and I don't think the parallel here is unintentional. Marion doesn't know what he wants out of life, but life wants him to decide right now.
I'm less interested in the choice Marion makes and more interested in the process by which he comes to that conclusion, because unlike King, he hasn't yet taken any time to actually process that.

And I'm hoping the "tie breaker" moment is more just an illusion of assumption and not a case where it's either "we all vote to be human" or "we all vote to stay animal." Because it seems like a false dichotomy that Heaven wouldn't actually force on them. They all have to want Keen's wish for him to get that, but there's no reason voting no to that means they're all voting for Todd's wish.

So it looks like in the HP! universe it ISN'T taboo to argue with Heaven like some feel it is in real life. Still a fictional Heaven might be a lot more understanding than the Heaven I believe in as a Catholic so I won't try to argue with it.

So, Marion's choice will decide what boon will be done. After the transforming, Marion wanted to be back as human, of course, but after a long time of being a female squirrel and living a not bad life, she's liking it this way. As a male human, she wasn't living a good moment because of how world goes, with also the pressure of school exams. Eh, you've done a right and deep speech, Marion, but you're wishing the impossible like many of us... And neither Heaven can fix that... Great reply for that, Cerberus. The ECP wishes to solve some animals' problems, and now you should care a bit for it, being such. Vote for it.

We don't know if as a human he was living a life that was a bit more difficult and problematic which is where Marion is coming from. When we first saw him, he was already transformed. The only glimpse we got of his human form was on his driver's license which showed that he was tan.

Looks like Marion needs some time to think about it.

But Something Nobody said that I just thought maybe interesting. What would be a middle ground for this?

If there is one then I don't see it myself. Then again I'm blind. LOL

The key may lie in "I just want the world to be better..."

That could be but making the world better might mean getting rid of the ECP which would go against Keene's wants. We would have to see how he reacts to that.

Marion, Lois, and all of the other transformed characters in this arc have become such a part of the comic as a whole, that I would miss them if they returned to their human form. Even Steward. Even Thomas. Maybe Thomas.

And Daisy!

Oh ... right ... Daisy wasn't in this arc. Sorry.

GameCobra wrote: ↑Mon Jan 23, 2023 12:42 pm But Something Nobody said that I just thought maybe interesting. What would be a middle ground for this?

(It's not necessarily "middle ground" but more "everyone uses their boons in their own direction")

Those who want to return human do, those who don't don't (alternatively, minor shapeshifting powers?), ECP doesn't immediately snap-of-the-fingers perfectly succeed, but gains enough traction, homegrown support (as opposed to Heaven-enforced support), and plain ol' luck to slowly develop into a full-fledged movement.

I'd forgotten just how chatty squirrels can be ....

Cerberus really has a nice touch with handling small, delicate mammals, doesn't she?

We found that out by the way she helped that drowned puppy ascend into the afterlife.

Dang it! People even in this universe can be such ********!

Amazee Dayzee wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 8:36 pm We found that out by the way she helped that drowned puppy ascend into the afterlife.

Dang it! People even in this universe can be such ********!

"Critters is funny people." I think I got that line from one of the 1940s Warner Brothers Cartoons they used to show on early 1950s TV before the found all those old Three Stooges films.

Pretty sure once those films were found that they still ended up playing the old Warner Brothers cartoons. Cartoon Network used to show them a lot when I was growing up.