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Wall Banger/Web Comics: Difference between revisions
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** After Penny and Aggie cause Karen's plans to come crashing down, Aggie insists that they have to help her because of the possibility of "death or juvie". Aggie's way of doing this? Lecturing Karen about how she's never known loss and completely missed the message that she and Penny were attempting to teach (it got lost in the rivalry/competition that led them to make over Karen in the first place). Forumgoers insisted that Aggie had to have a plan, that there was no way in hell she would be stupid enough to use a self-righteous rant as a method of talking someone who hated her guts down. Then came the next update, in which Aggie was still trying to lecture Karen even though Karen had her pinned down, was screaming at her, and was ready to beat the shit out of her. It turns out Aggie is that stupid.
*** It's premature to celebrate their victory when all they did was ruin a party; they haven't addressed the rest of the things she did (hello, lesbian rape? Eating disorders?). But Aggie's all set to forgive her anyway; since everyone pooped their pants at her party, that means forgiveness time.
*** On top of that, while Aggie was perfectly willing to forgive or understand Karen, she completely blew off Marshal for a single argument that she knew Karen had manipulated in the first place. This is portrayed as a perfectly rational reaction for Aggie, because apparently [[Protagonist
* 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:
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* 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.
** We also have the storyline where Penny [http://www.rhjunior.com/GH/00348.html gives an epic] [[Shut UP, Hannibal]] to a slicked-back Jerry Falwell-type preacher who'd all but called her out as an out-of-control delinquent. What should've been a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for Penny becomes a [[Dethroning Moment of Suck (Darth Wiki)|Dethroning Moment of Suck]] for Lily: she demands that Penny apologize on the spot for "making a scene" in church (to the church's regular reverend, not the asshat.) When Penny says (in so many words) "F* ck that", [http://www.rhjunior.com/GH/00349.html she gets a slap] ("for swearing") and a grounding (for making a scene). Apparently, RH Junior saw making a scene in church as horrific. He perhaps did not expect the readership to respond to Lily's actions with "What the hell?"
** [http://www.rhjunior.com/GH/00352.html The subsequent explanation] for Penny's anger was that her best friend killed herself while dealing with depression, and a radio preacher basically said it was her own damn fault and that she was bound for hell for it. <s> Hayes</s> [http://www.rhjunior.com/GH/00354.html Ben had a ham-fisted rebuttal]: instead of saying "Some people believe that. Neither I nor my church do," he said "You were told a wicked lie."
** The woman is a sobbing, hysterical mess who believes her friend is undergoing nightmarish torture for the rest of eternity. An authority figure deciding *not* to suggest that that might just be the case is the farthest thing from a wall banger.
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*** The supernatural stuff was taking a back seat to the genderbending [[Shojo]] stuff. This was an attempt to return to it. It didn't work well.
** 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 seems to think of "male" and "female" as a dichotomy--you can be all male or all female, but you can't be in-between or be "male" in some ways and "female" in other ways. "Female," incidentally, involves being submissive and obedient to a degree that most people would find stifling. Take this as purely Ash's philosophy, and it explains the situation quite well. Take this as what the writer believes, and it makes things worse.
** 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]].
*** ... When was the last time you read the comic? Ash only ever wears feminine clothing when he's forced/guilted into it (Three times so far and he bitched through all of them) and absolutely hates anything that makes him realise he's becoming a different person, to the point where we get a [[Wall Banger (Darth Wiki)|Wall Banger]] in the form of Ash telling his old rival to piss off and then having a breakdown because he didn't challenge the guy to a race or throw a punch. Also, despite the fact that we're shown his life is better, it's clear Ash doesn't consider it that way.
* 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!
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** John Campbell often aborts arcs on a whim. If he gets tired of a storyline, he will stop writing it. This is exemplified in his "notebook phase" after his art show, where he adapted sequential art into a notebook format. He views ''[[Pictures for Sad Children]]'' as very author-centric, and if he is fed up with something, he will stop. In a way, this prevents [[Arc Fatigue]], but he does it even if the reader base is ''on board'' with the idea, which can upset some people. The real wall banger is why Campbell either fails to recognize that, or is intentionally rejecting his reader base, both of which can seriously alienate it.
* [[The Foxfire Chronicles]] started out as a interesting, if cliche, take on the whole people-turned-animals story. Establishing itself as a near-future sci-fi, the author took a bizarre turn by introducing more and more fantasy elements until he just turned the entire series into a full out fantasy, stopped using most of the established heroes and villains because the male lead was the new magical Jesus Christ on a different world.
* ''[[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.
* [[Dragon Ball Multiverse]] had an alternate universe Bojack murder Universe 16 Pan in their fight. Later on, Universe 16 Bra was to fight against Zangya who was Bojack's girlfriend. Universe 16 Vegetto takes her aside and tells her that if she kills or even hurts Zangya in their fight, he'd pull her from the tournament as she needs to control her anger after nearly killing him when they fought Broly. Their fight starts and Bra IMMEDIATELY flips her lid, goes Super Saiyan and murders Zangya in one punch. After Zangya is announced dead, Bra tells Vegetto she did her best and he ''agrees''. Apparently to Vegetto, murdering your opponent in one hit is adequately controlling your anger if you didn't want to kill them. One more reason Bra is the author's personal [[Jerk Sue]].
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[[Category:Wall Banger (Darth Wiki)]]
[[Category:Webcomics]]
[[Category:Wall Bangers]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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