Wall Banger/Web Comics: Difference between revisions

 

 

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* The ''Consequences'' arc from [[The Wotch]] has been brutally criticized for its ineptitude. It's supposed to be about Anne dealing with the consequences of her past mistakes casting transformational magic. But all of these mistakes are dealt with swiftly (one in literally two panels), and there are no hard feelings...

** The toughest case was supposed to be Ming. She was originally Mr. Sakura, a 40-year-old teacher; Anne had transformed him into a teenage animesque girl in a fit of pique, rewriting Ming's memory in the process. When Ming realizes who she used to be, thanks to the inconsistencies in "her past" being pointed out, she and Anne feel it's her duty to be switched back -- but ''no one else'' wants her to. Finally, she meets her inner original self; he tells her that he was a failure in life, and so she needs to seize the second chance she's been given. She happily does, only taking the time to write a note in her original handwriting so that people stop searching for her old self... Going from realization to acceptance takes only a couple of hours. Even a few fans of the comic found this moment [[Squick|squickful]] -- it borders on [[Mind Rape]] Is Love (platonic division).

** How she died was stupid enough. She was attacked by a purse snatcher. After fighting for about one panel, the purse snatcher pulled out a ''gun'' and shot her dead, all for a purse. Yes, this could happen in [[Real Life]], but fiction is supposed to make more sense than that. And we only knew her for four strips before she was killed, and then not very well.

** Ryan's mother finds out about her son turning into a girl. How does she react? She says she always wanted a girl and tells him to get a boyfriend (more or less).

* The whole Melna/Stonewater pseudo-[[Rape Is Love]] sequence in ''[[Dominic Deegan|Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire]]''. The characters had reasons for acting as they did, but there are still some things that should not happen. The matter remains a touchy spot for the fandom.

** Brian was the first character with any personality in [[Dominic Deegan]] for YEARS. The [[Keenspot]] forum adored him. Then it turned out that he was {{spoiler|Rilian in a [[Mobile Suit Human|person suit]].}} The fact that {{spoiler|Brian is the real personality and Rilian's current self is the [[Jerkass Facade]], which means Rilian has a real and interesting personality,}} could reduce the Wall damage a bit -- unless you take it as an appeasement, especially as it will color every subsequent interaction between that character and the protagonists (assuming Mookie brings it up again).

** Szark's [[Heel Face Turn]] being accompanied by a [[Depraved Bisexual|Bi]] [[Pet Homosexual|Gay]] [[Suddenly Sexuality|Turn]] may not be as [[Egregious]] as some of the comic's other offences, but it ''did'' come first.

*** To hell with the conclusion,the whole arc was full of wallbangers!

*** Maltak was terrible for, among other reasons, the sheer length of it--it was over a year long--and how little happened during that time.

*** Well, the "how" is easy enough: This is a setting where teleportation magic is fairly commonplace. The "why," however, remains uncertain.

**** Possibly because they realize the connection between thriving Maltak and weakened Callan. They all hate the Callanians (they probably hate everyone else too, this being the Deeganverse, arbitrary racism is really prevalent, but they also fear Callan for its large mage population) and don't want them powerful again.

** Readers who weren't immediately turned away by the focus on Bun-Bun and who managed to get past the [[Expospeak]] often enjoyed the storyline. The new characters were interesting once they got some [[Character Development]]; and if you understood the cosmology, then it was cool. But the initial period of throw-your-laptop-at-the-wall frustration still locks it solidly into this category.

** The ridiculously named voodoo priestess in a following storyline was an eyeroller. Her revealing that you become a zombie by signing contracts with lots and lots of fine print (this during a drawn-out flashback, while back in real time one of the main characters' fates was hanging in the balance) was a huge wallbanger.

* From [[PvP]]: Francis and Marcy's ''relationship'' from the time she joined the magazine up until the [[Relationship Upgrade]]. Marcy frequently has only minimal emotional investment in the relationship, every so often pondering ending things until Francis does something big to impress her again. She's positively eager to find excuses to compete with Francis and show that she's better than him at everything. She's tried at least once to spark his jealousy, and yet she gets jealous if he even glances sideways at another woman. Sure, Francis is generally the biggest [[Jerkass]] of the cast, but he carries their relationship almost entirely on his own. It's not even that Marcy herself is a bad character; it's just that their relationship is often unpleasantly one-sided.

** Cole's almighty flipout after Francis and Marcy did the deed definitely qualifies. Okay, so they were only eighteen AFTER it happened, but he is still most certainly neither of their fathers and it's not his place to tell them what's right or wrong about what they did. And you'd think, given his attitude, that he'd be inclined to praise Rob's foresight in having condoms at all rather than include him in the flipout.

*** Mild [[Author Saving Throw]] at the end, with Robbie having enough of Cole's bitching and throwing the lot of them out.

**** Well since it seems their parents weren't there, Cole would have been the one responsible for them, so getting angry at teens having sex on his watch isn't exactly uncalled for.

***** Cole ''might'' have been justified, but Brent and Jade piled on right along side him.

*** But since they're at Robbie's mansion, shouldn't it be "on Robbie's watch."

** [http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20081027 This strip,] which marked the end of a period of melodrama, pounds the [[Reset Button]] so hard that [http://webcomics.morganwick.com/2008/10/the-angst-o-meter-day-5/ it may qualify as a Wall Banger in itself].

** The comic dumped the entirety of Ethan and Lucas' relationship problems on their partners. Lucas and Kate had an open relationship, and it was just as much Lucas's fault as Kate's that she decided to make use of the "open" part. Instead, Kate is the one getting chewed out and forced to "apologize" and be "forgiven" even as other characters pointed this logic out to him. Then there's Lilah, who, on top of following an increasingly bizarre series of [[Character Derailment|character derailments]] ("My boyfriend cheated on me? Well gee, why don't I run off to Italy with the last boyfriend who I broke up with because he cheated on me?"), ended up taking the entire blame for being too hard on Ethan...even though many of her complaints about his [[Anti-Sue]] nature made ''sense'' to the readers. In the end, the only thing Ethan got knocked for was not communicating. Oh, and right after all this relationship turmoil...they got married. Hello, [[Fridge Logic]]!

*** Lucas asks some religious strawmen why the Gods of Video Gaming can't be real and the strawmen are ''utterly confounded''. It's a valid point but to think that the clergy don't have an argument for it is preposterous.

***** There are few people in the world who would not want to beat the hell out of Ethan after interacting with him for more than ten seconds.

*** [[Secret Test of Character|The way Lucas and Kate met]] implies that [[Unfortunate Implications|women are only worth as much as their appearance]]. Tim's backpedaling after being rightfully called out on it didn't help.

* ''[[Chugworth Academy]]'' had just returned from a long hiatus and had only sporadic updates. Then the artist, David Cheung, drew a comic showing Jade Raymond (noted attractive producer of [[Assassin's Creed]]) as a [[Brainless Beauty]] giving head and being in the middle of bukkake with nerds. Then the artist whined on his deviantART journal about how dA was so unfair for deleting the picture when the deletion was enforcing the rules he agreed to to join the site. [http://teh-dave.deviantart.com/journal/15581987/ He said] he was parodying gamers' [[Hello, Nurse!|attitude]] towards Miss Raymond, but he was clearly a little wide of the mark. More than a few feminist bloggers and, as it came out, Raymond's co-workers, did not take kindly to the implication that Raymond was implied to be so stupid as to be incapable of saying the word "creative" and noted that the comic said more about the artist's misogyny. [[Sarcasm Mode|In a completely unrelated development]], Chugworth has lost most of its readers since that incident.

''In summary, a moralfag is 99% of [[Deviant ART]] users. OH SHIT!' }}

** Just as bad: One comic consists of two panels of one of the characters declaring to the readers that there will not be nudity in the comic. Two wall bangers in one:

* The ending of ''[[Bob and George]]'' if you don't believe it falls under [[Rule of Funny]]. After a large build-up to {{spoiler|a battle with Bob}}, the entirety of the arc turned out to be {{spoiler|a five dollar bet between the Author and Helmut to see if George would be willing to kill Bob this time}}. But that wasn't nearly as strange as {{spoiler|revealing the entire comic was just a way for Bob and George's mother to toughen George up and make sure Bob would know George was willing to kill him if necessary.}}

** Bob even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this with a perfect line:

'''George''': At least the [[Trademark Favorite Food|ice cream]] was good... }}

* ''[[Better Days]]'': Fisk [[Ass Pull|asspulling]] a grenade. Which he then set off inside a building. After murdering several [[Designated Villain|people]]. All with no consequences.

* Ralph E Hayes's inserting pages of unrelated [[Fourth Wall]] breaking political and theological ranting into ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'', the only one of his comics which ''hadn't'' (until then) demonstrated any [[Anvilicious]] politics or real-world religion. It was eventually moved to its own spot when Hayes got his own website combining all of his series, thankfully, but... yikes. No other webcomic has ever featured such a blatant and out-of-place [[Author Filibuster]].

* In ''[[Goblin Hollow]]'', Ben says that Beltane's Wiccan faith of being invalid because "that grab-bag of gods you 'worship' are some of the bloodiest in history" and they practiced human sacrifice. Because lording religious superiority over others is totally okay, regardless of whether yours has an equally bloody history which includes attempts to annihilate the religion you're claiming moral superiority over and its practitioners. Christianity ''does'' have an explanation for why the Christian God no longer requires (new) sacrifices of blood -- it's related to the Eucharist and the event it symbolizes -- but between this part not always being clearly explained (if it's even explicable) and Christians getting bloodthirsty in His name on their own, that isn't gonna be much comfort to any Wiccans reading.

*** Hey, if it's a wicked lie and it's hurt a bereaved teen that badly, then why mince words? That said, Hayes has a general aversion to using wishy-washy language like "believe". Judging from his comics and his statements elsewhere, [[The Fundamentalist|every topic from Climate Change to religion to gun rights has a simple obvious Truth, and anyone who doesn't agree with it is either stupid (usually willfully so) or evil]].

*** For those unfamiliar with Fundamentalist Christian lingo (at least in the USA), Ben's statement is much stronger than it sounds. He's not just saying that the radio preacher was a liar, he was implying that the belief suicides go to Hell was an actual Deceit of Satan. Since many real denominations and non-denominations believe that suicides automatically go to hell, we have officially entered slippery ground.

** The way Ash and Missi's relationship turned out. They start going out. Missi keeps pushing to take it a step further, and Ash is reluctant. When s/he finally does give in and makes out with her, s/he freaks out and runs to Emily. There are a number of good, dramatic ways this could have gone, from Ash feeling uncomfortable getting into a physical relationship in his female body to Ash still holding a torch for Emily. The reason Ash uses for wanting to break up with Missi? ''Missi is being the "male" of the relationship by being more assertive.'' [[Unfortunate Implications|That just sounded... sexist.]]

*** That's the point. [http://www.misfile.com/index.php?page=928 Ash was hoping for a manly scoring opportunity.] Instead s/he gets the same weirdness hir life has become. S/he ''knows'' it's a screwed up reason to break it off -- but s/he's doing it anyway. S/he's telling ''hirself'' [[What the Hell, Hero?]].

** Ash's dad. Dear sweet fairy Moses, Ash's dad. An OB/GYN who [http://www.misfile.com/index.php?page=87 greets patients in public by referencing distinguishing marks on their genitals] is breaking HIPAA law, and possibly other laws.

** The author makes occasional references to transmen and clearly intends Ash's condition to be a fantastic equivalent, perhaps so the audience can learn important lessons about tolerance. The problem is, the author doesn't ''know'' how transpeople think. Despite occasional nods toward Ash being disgusted by hir new body, s/he has no problem wearing feminine clothing; for transpeople, it's about as comfortable as straight guys trying to pass as women. And the whole thing reeks of standard transformation-fetish tropes. Eyeballing one's new sexy female form in the mirror? Check! The obligatory post-transformation [[Man, I Feel Like a Woman|boob grope]]? Check? Gradual acceptance that living as a woman is better (and sexy! so sexy!)? Check! There's nothing wrong with writing a transformation-fetish comic, and this one is far better-done than some. But there's no excuse for leveraging someone else's real tragedy to squeeze extra drama into reasonably well-done [[Fetish Fuel]].

* The "Tarvek has a deadly disease" arc of ''[[Girl Genius]]'', mainly because it suffered ''severe'' [[Arc Fatigue]]. The procedure to cure him was delayed for increasingly [[Diabolus Ex Machina|contrived]] reasons. {{spoiler|They need Gil to help cure Tarvek? Oh wait, first they have to deal with an insane scientist and his battle mech; then Von Pinn shows up, prompting Agatha to go into a homicidal rage because Von Pinn had killed her parental figures that one time. Anyway, once that's settled, Gil joins the group, and they go to cure Tarvek. Oh wait, the disease is much worse then we originally thought, and the only way to cure it is incredibly risky. They decide to do it anyway. Oh ''wait'', the machinery the group has is insufficient, and so they have to go to one of the more lethal areas of the Castle to get better equipment. Oh WAIT, it turns out Tarvek's disease is contagious! Now Agatha's been infected, meaning ''she'' has to go through the risky procedure too. Oh ''WAIT'', now the Castle has chosen this exact moment to go completely insane. Agatha is forced to "kill" it so they can move on. Oh '''WAIT''', it turns out the Castle was the lid on a [[Sealed Evil in a Can]].}} GAAAAAAAH!

** Earlier in the Castle Heterodyne story, Zola demands the prisoners chase Agatha into a dangerous section of the castle. When they refuse, she shoots one of them. This can only work if the entire group of hardened killers decide they're more scared of one girl with a gun than of the castle. Since Zola doesn't die there and then, apparently they are.

*** She introduced herself as the Heterodyne heir in Castle Heterodyne; if they believed her, then they might have subconsciously organized themselves as her subordinates, just as the Mad Social Scientist explained to Agatha later. Shooting that one guy might have been needed to cement her status, as she ''is'' dealing with a bunch of sociopaths and possible Sparks and has yet to give the reader any explicit indication of having the Spark herself.

* ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'''s storyline featuring Lindesfarne's wedding devolved into a trainwreck. It's the wedding of Lindesfarne and Fenton. They've been dating since high school - and outside [[Comic Book Time]], stories about them as a couple have been written for most of the strip's 15 years on the web. So naturally, the anticipation for their nuptials was quite high. Then the storyline took a strange turn - it completely ignored Lindesfarne and Fenton! Yes, that's right. A storyline featuring the nuptials of two main characters that people have been anticipating for years is ''instead'' focusing on a storyline about Fenton's mother, revealed to be a vampire bat, and the prejudice she receives. Okay, let's count the problems.

## Fenton's mother was ''introduced'' in this storyline. We're sidetracking a major storyline for two main characters to talk about a supporting character we ''just met''.

* ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' had a comic strip about the Game Boy Advance SP, with a boy having purchased it and then realizing that the headphone jack costs extra. The punchline actually compared the extra price to ''child molestation.'' As if that wasn't galling enough, please bear in mind that the peripheral they are complaining about was ''just a headphone jack.'' Not only was it completely unnecessary to play ''any'' of the GBA games, but it only cost $4.99 brand new. Paying an extra five bucks for something you don't need is like being molested?! Readers [[Dude, Not Funny|reacted accordingly to this,]] and thankfully Gabe and Tycho soon got the message and pulled the comic from their archives.

** In the same vein, several people took offense to a strip about a character in [[World of Warcraft]] that refused to save a slave who was raped by dickwolves. The whole thing would have passed fairly quickly, had Gabe and Tycho not responded in a manner that was considered less than sensitive. Or sold a Dickwolves shirt. To say the matter blew up in their faces would be an understatement. The entire thing escalated to the point where both supporters and critics were sending real world death threats to the creators and people who had spoken out against the strip (such as activist Courtney Stanton, who kept a detailed record of them). In the end, the Dickwolves shirts were removed from the store, the creators apologized, but the strip remains in the archives.

** The limiters placed on the older Saiyans of Universe 18 (Goku and Vegeta) are based on age. The French novel implied that Vegeta is a little stronger than Goku without including his [[Super Mode|Super Saiyan]] [[Up to Eleven|3]] form. How could Vegeta be stronger than (or on par with) Goku (with the limiters considered) if Goku started off stronger than Vegeta and [[Plot Hole|HE'S AT LEAST TEN YEARS YOUNGER THAN HIM?]]

* Goddamn ''Liz'' from [[Cool Cat Studio]]. All the way through the comic's final chapter she acts like a manipulative, self-absorbed asshole. Your lovers see in you what they want to see after you deliberately project an image of a mysterious sexy woman so you can emotionally protect yourself? Dump them without a second thought because they don't know the 'real you'. You know the woman you're dating has a husband in Iraq? Fuck it, not your problem. Your friend's boyfriend has a temporary [[Freak-Out]] when he sees his newly born child has a 'condition'? Tell him you plan to use your friend's desperation to get into a relationship with her because she's [[Replacement Goldfish|close enough]] to the person you really want. The woman you love is having a rough patch with her de facto partner? Sleep with her! But when the story finally comes to a close, does Liz ''ever'' get any sort of come-uppance for the way she's been acting? Oh sure, just a great tearful send-off where she lovingly parts with her friends and finally starts coming emotionally close to a lover. Just what she deserves, right? '''''*WHAM*'''''

 

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