Warbot_008: Kristin

[Geminex]

I liked this thread better before I acc- COMBOBREAKER!

[Molotovich]

Nice one. I was liking this thread before the combo breaker!

[Pip Boy]

I hope you know they're dedicating a whole new wing of hell to those related to the making of this webcomic.

Originally Posted by Molotovich

Nice one. I was liking this thread before the combo breaker!

Stop it.

[Grognor]

Is everything Brian says the subject of at least two more thread pages of imitating him? Seriously, when he made the small joke "Achievement Unlocked: Perplexed a German" people talked about it for the rest of the thread.

I'd love to talk more about Warbot, but I've already given my thoughts toward the newest strip, so my post will go toward Nana's Everyday Life instead.

I will summarize my experience of it in two words: I empathized. I can tell you that without the attitude "Never give up. Ever. No matter how bleak, black, crapsack and horrid the world goddamn seems, keep trying to fix it for yourself and then for everyone," there wouldn't be any poor people left. I'm talking the really poor, you know, the seventy-five per cent of the world living under $200 a year, or those with no money at all, like I was for too long. The character type "Nana" is the most common human being on earth, but you never hear about them because they're depressing. No one tells the story of the man who was born into poverty, lived until 21, and then died of hunger because people only want to hear about the man who was born into poverty and then became a football player and lived happily ever after. What kind of perspective does your life even have if you skip the downtrodden, the majority of the earth, because it doesn't suit your taste? We need characters like Nana.

Originally Posted by Elie Weisel

I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead. and anyone who does not remember betrays them again.

Originally Posted by Elie Weisel, from the same speech

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

[Dracorion]

Originally Posted by Grognor

"Never give up. Ever. No matter how bleak, black, crapsack and horrid the world goddamn seems, keep trying to fix it for yourself and then for everyone,"

See what I bolded? It's what Nana didn't try to do. She never once tried to change her situation. It was always someone else that picked her up from the street and changed her situation for her.

EDIT: And y'know what? I'm going to spare humanity of the rest of my opinion on Nana.

[Amake]

But what can she fix without any extremities or any courage to speak? Nana is literally powerless. The only thing she can make better is herself, which we see every second of her life. Every day that she manages to hold on to her idealism and innocence is a heroic accomplishment.

[Archbio]

Is everything Brian says the subject of at least two more thread pages of imitating him?

Imitating? Rather 'playing off of.'

The only thing she can make better is herself, which we see every second of her life. Every day that she manages to hold on to her idealism and innocence is a heroic accomplishment.

That's more 'keeping it the same' than 'making better.'

[Amake]

But what more could she do?
(I've already said that.)

Edit after reading more of the thread:
What Grognor said (if I correctly deciphered his multiple negations) is that Nana represents the 75% of Earth's population who can't change their situation even though they fight their hardest. It doesn't matter one jot what she tries to do, because she's powerless to change her situation by herself. To quote Spider Jerusalem, "You're not supposed to say that in America, are you? The land of can-do, the American dream of grab all you can and screw the other guy."

Nana reminds us that not everyone can win at life. I imagine a lot of people don't want to know that. But I think it's all the more important just for that reason.

Edit re. the below:
Just because she has the ability to form words you think that she could speak up if she really wanted to? I think the comic makes it pretty clear that no, she can't do that.

[Lost in Time]

She could have spoke up, like she wanted to those few times but felt it was innapropriate and out of character. Maybe she would have stayed with those foster parents.

[Karilyn]

Originally Posted by Lost in Time

She could have spoke up, like she wanted to those few times but felt it was innapropriate and out of character. Maybe she would have stayed with those foster parents.

In case you didn't notice...

Her foster parents were murdered by the scientist "father" who had created Nana. Go to the scene after her father picks her up, and you see the foster parents talking under a light post.

*Click*
The foster parents look at the sound.
*BANG*

So yeah, he shot them.

Originally Posted by NonCon

That's what you got from it? Did we see the same ending? The way I recall it, the cat died, she buried it, and she died alone on its grave.

Look at the next to the last comic

She didn't die alone.

"Nana did her best to the end... right?" she says and rolls over on her back. "Still... I kinda wanted to see mama and papa again, just one more time would be nice" and then you see shadows near the edge of the panel. She closes her eyes as the shadows come into view, clearly the shadows of her dead adoptive parents.

I took that to imply that after she died, she was going on to live in the after life with her parents who actually loved her.

So yeah, I see it as a happy ending.