Sinfest

[Eiden]

[Ronald]

Geez, this strip doesn't even imply that the Fembots intended to kill anyone, let alone that they actually did so. It's even less "incriminating" than I remembered it being. Where are people getting this stuff, anyway?

[bitflipper]

The human mind is a deep, dark, fascinating, and often thoroughly delusional place. It helps to bring a friend along.
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I am only a somewhat arbitrary sequence of raised and lowered voltages to which your mind insists upon assigning meaning

[Leohan]

Well... Imply? Yeah, the long claws do imply that at least one of them intended to, at least, harm one of the scientists.

On the other hand, we have empiric evidence of the fact that the attempt failed, so no, they killed no one.
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[Ronald]

[Leohan]

Long claws, sharpened fingers, gives the same, really.

And yeah, there is quite a lot of room indeed, but I don't think is't accurate that never was a killing intent implied. It's really the first place my mind goes to, even if later I can see alternatives.
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[Ronald]

[Leohan]

Ok... I say let's analize it.

Something that I think we can both agree on is that harm was meant to be delivered, and the position in panel 19 suggests that the right hand would deliver such harm, since that is typically the position one takes when attacking with your hands: Getting the max amount of room between the attacking hand and the target, so that the hand can gain more speed as it reaches the body to be harmed.

Now let's check out that attacking hand: It doesn't feature a fist. It's wide open. To top it, panel 18 clearly shows that the Fembots can have (or perhaps have by default) very sharp fingers. If she didn't intend to punch the guy, what other kind of harm could have been delivered with the right hand?

I think that the options would be an open palm strike or using the sharp fingers to slash or pierce. I'll concede that the first option is not rebutted anywhere in the comic, but figure this: If it was the intention to deliver a non life threatening strike, what would be the meaning of being shown the sharp fingers in panel 18? Clearly Tat wants to put things at stake.

So if we go with the slashing or piercing... Yeah, there still can be superficial damage there, just like with swords. But I think I can be forgiven for automatically assuming a killing intent. Most sword slashes from 'fierce' people won't be so controlled as to think "I want to harm... But not to kill."


If you disagree at any point with this line of thought, tell me so we can discuss it further. Cheers!
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[mouse]

well, humans typically have fingernails. and long fingernails are frequently considered sexy, so i am not surprised that fembots would be equipped with them. but fingernails tend to be a bit on the flimsy side, so it's hard to, say, stab someone with them.

so i'm figuring she was prepared to scratch, maybe even claw, but that would be unlikely to result in fatalities.

and i know you are going to leap up and say oh, but robots! made of indestructible metal! but if you are making a robot that is supposed to be soft and squeezable and pleasurable to touch and be touched by, and that is also supposed to be like a human female, wouldn't you make it of something a bit softer? plastic of some sort, i would think.
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aka: neverscared!

[Leohan]

Excellent point, really.

Yes, one could suppose that they are only long fingernails, sure. However, why are they so emphasized? Let's say that this one doesn't count, after all there's only two panels that feature the fingers like that and they are not THAT sharp. But take a look at the following one, panel 13:



Don't you think that there's a HUGE difference between the shapes of those fingers and the regular ones that Sweaterbot features? And to top, panels 7 and 11? I see no fingernails. I'll stand by my statement: I think that those are just sharp, metallic fingers, which, if this argument continues, I will proceed to call claws for convenience because I'm tired of saying "sharpened fingers".

I do have to ask, though, wth the designers were thinking when they added that.
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[bitflipper]

[mouse]

gives 'stand by your man' yet another meaning, i guess.

i see panel 13 as more emphasizing the flexing of the fingers, because yeah, she is preparing to do some clawing. but i think the only reason fingernails don't show up in the other panels is because they aren't important to the image there. i mean, he doesn't even draw all four fingers....you can hardly expect that he would then put in details like fingernails.
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aka: neverscared!

[Leohan]

Yeah... I guess that it could be considered a detail, but in any case, it's obvious that the details' there to show that some serious clawing was going to happen. At this point it turns into an "Are those claws or just your regular fingernails?" discussion.

...Miss M, is there a number of instances in Sinfest of fingernails being drawn? Because if there was ever a panel requiring that detail, it's panel 11 above
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[Miss Magenta]

[Leohan]

I wouldn't count the RZ comics because, well, radical change of style. But yeah, I guess that while there have been fingernails before Tat is not all that consistent in his stylistic choices. One could argue that it doesn't always apply.

Thanks either way, Miss M!
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