[PA Comic] Monday, July 22, 2013 - Sand, Part Four

Geth

Sand, Part Four
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/07/22

Freehugs

Whaaaaat?! Sand Part 4 just blew my mind.

Henroid

If I ever had a ship, I would correct people who refer to her as "it" as well.

I may or may not also name her Jenny, in reverence to the best film ever made.

Megaton Hope

I guess settings and genres plan to collide a bit? There would seem to be a contrast with the Sand we've seen so far.

I must say, I'm not such a big fan of Muppet Noses. Is this just how faces are now, a physically and chromatically distinct appendage of the face?

JamieOD

Yeah, the noses drawn in recent comics remind me of Mr. Potato Head. They look like you can just pull them off and swap them around.

TychoCelchuuu

Spoilers for the plot that Tycho revealed, like, years ago:

The ship AI crashed or something on the planet and has weird ideas about the Bible that made her turn the dude invincible. Thus, SAND.

Golden Yak

Ooh, sci-fi elements.

I always figured he was a magic cowboy. Like in Six Gun Tarot.

Henroid

Are you guys parodying the nose nonsense?

Cambiata

Now this is definitely taking a turn for the Vash the Sampede.

Rhesus Positive

This turn reminds me of when I first read A Study in Scarlet. I turn the page, and it's gone from Victorian London to Utah.

I had to check with another edition to make sure my eReader wasn't on the fritz.

Comradebot

Something smells fishy about some of these comments, but I'm not sure if anyone nose what's really going on.

Henroid

Cambiata wrote: »

Now this is definitely taking a turn for the Vash the Sampede.

So someone is gonna start crying all the time?

Dark Raven X

Yeah this suddenly got real Trigun. :P

Megaton Hope

Cambiata wrote: »

Now this is definitely taking a turn for the Vash the Sampede.

There is a certain similarity in the apparent backstory. Though, Vash is by no means indestructible, just really fast, very long-lived and able to generate fairly nonsensical amounts of energy. And unpleasantly altruistic.

As for the nose thing, well...not being a forum regular, it's news to me that it's been talked about as much as it apparently has. I kind of figured it was a lack of constructive feedback that was the culprit. I must say, though, it's as plain on the nose on your face that it's a poor stylistic choice.

Tube

I'm sure you're enough of a forum regular to know that we've heard enough about the noses and it's time to find something else to talk about.

Grislo

There's a touch here of that old joke about aircraft becoming so advanced that they can be flown by only one pilot, and a dog. The pilot being there to feed the dog, and the dog being there to bite the pilot if he tries to touch the controls.

Megaton Hope

Tube wrote: »

I'm sure you're enough of a forum regular to know that we've heard enough about the noses and it's time to find something else to talk about.

Sure, whatevs.

So this ship, here. Is it a she for politeness' sake, or is it capable of reproduction, like Moya from Farscape?

Dark Raven X

Megaton Hope wrote: »

Tube wrote: »

I'm sure you're enough of a forum regular to know that we've heard enough about the noses and it's time to find something else to talk about.

Sure, whatevs.

So this ship, here. Is it a she for politeness' sake, or is it capable of reproduction, like Moya from Farscape?

Depending how close it hews to Trigun, there'll be a female lookin' biological avatar of the ship that creates all the stuff they need to survive. ;D

MrLeville

Sorry, English isn't my first language but why is it "not it, her", instead of "not it, she" in the last panel? It would seem replacing "it" by "her" in the previous sentence "And it just runs the show" would make an incorrect sentence. Is there a joke I'm missing? Is it a commonly accepted rule? Is it a mistake?

Madmodia

MrLeville wrote: »

Sorry, English isn't my first language but why is it "not it, her", instead of "not it, she" in the last panel? It would seem replacing "it" by "her" in the previous sentence "And it just runs the show" would make an incorrect sentence. Is there a joke I'm missing? Is it a commonly accepted rule? Is it a mistake?

I had exactly the same question when I first read it. Just looks like a mistake to me. Could be I'm missing a joke as well, I suppose

Megaton Hope

I think that I'd look at it this way. "The ship is not an it, the ship is a her." It would be strange to say "the ship is a she," because in that sentence, the pronoun is in the objective case, as the object of the verb to be. Either way should be correct as to grammatical construction and meaning.

No joke in that panel that I know of, it's dramatic foreshadowing. Panels 2 and 3 would be the funny ones. They've done some in-depth research to manage their PR. :P

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Slaign

I don't know. I get where you're coming from, but I've heard people say "The ship is a she," plenty of times before. That doesn't make it correct, but I've definitely heard it. Also, I'd have extrapolated the sentence out to "The correct word is not 'it,' the correct word is 'her.'" In which case, the previous poster would be correct that it ought to say "she."

I think I'd call it a mistake, but I honestly didn't notice until it was pointed out. Plus, there's the ever present point that writers don't always have to be grammatically accurate when writing dialogue, because people aren't always grammatically accurate when speaking. The point is clear enough.

Gyral

I thought calling ships "her or she" rather than "it" was like Day 1 Captain School. I think this guy is some schlub they pulled off the street and slapped a captain hat on.

Commander Zoom

Per the spoilers:

I'm not entirely sure they even reached, let alone crashed on, the planet. Could be that everything we've seen before this installment is the simulation being fed into the dreaming minds of the passengers in cryosleep - including the "captain."

azuravian

Henroid wrote: »

If I ever had a ship, I would correct people who refer to her as "it" as well.

I may or may not also name her Jenny, in reverence to the best film ever made.

I'm racking my brain over here and I'm pretty sure The Shawshank Redemption didn't have a character named Jenny.

Kagera

Oh it's space not the Wild West. Which I missed the obvious reference to with the two moons in the last comic and they robotic voice reciting bible verses in the first.

I'm kinda less interested now but still want more.

Megaton Hope

Gyral wrote: »

I thought calling ships "her or she" rather than "it" was like Day 1 Captain School. I think this guy is some schlub they pulled off the street and slapped a captain hat on.

That does seem to be roughly his role on the ship. He's certainly not flying it. Her. Them.

Probably got the job for his jawline.

Hevach

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

Spoilers for the plot that Tycho revealed, like, years ago:

The ship AI crashed or something on the planet and has weird ideas about the Bible that made her turn the dude invincible. Thus, SAND.

I played that RPG on the PS1.

The second disk was one long cutscene interspersed with boss battles.

Skull2185

I need more of Sand. A lot more... all the time. I demand that Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays be Sand days.

DividedByZer0

Am I the only one who thought maybe they crossed their jpgs and accidentally posted a different comic they've been working on? I'm going to keep an open mind but outer space is not where I was hoping this comic would go. Should get interesting.

RatherDashing

Given the expression on her face in the last panel, I don't think she's just correcting in the "ships are referred to respectfully as 'she'" sense. I would guess she's not entirely comfortable with the nature of the AI that pilots the ship.

Considering that, when will they learn not to make these AI's 'she's"? If I find out she's got a female-sounding name that's actually a forced acronym, I'm not going anywhere near that ship (GlaDOS, and VIKI from I, Robot come to mind). I suppose there are male offenders as well (HAL, Otto from Wall-E)--maybe just don't assign a gender to your computer. It never ends well. And I'd really hate to have to spend all day calculating Pi because somebody decided the Overlord needed a friendly name.

Naphtali

Hevach wrote: »

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

Spoilers for the plot that Tycho revealed, like, years ago:

The ship AI crashed or something on the planet and has weird ideas about the Bible that made her turn the dude invincible. Thus, SAND.

I played that RPG on the PS1.

The second disk was one long cutscene interspersed with boss battles.

it was still awesome

I'm liking sand so far, its hitting all my nostalgia buttons.

Rhesus Positive

Megaton Hope wrote: »

Gyral wrote: »

I thought calling ships "her or she" rather than "it" was like Day 1 Captain School. I think this guy is some schlub they pulled off the street and slapped a captain hat on.

That does seem to be roughly his role on the ship. He's certainly not flying it. Her. Them.

Probably got the job for his jawline.

Find a guy who sounds like Chuck Yeager, give him a hat.

GoofTroop

Skull2185 wrote: »

I need more of Sand. A lot more... all the time. I demand that Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays be Sand days.

go to the beach

Neuroskeptic

The ship = a tennis ball, inside a slipper, covered in purple glitter.

I like it.

Delzhand

Tycho's link to the definition of "scripturient" goes to the Merriam Webster page, where I see this:

To view the definition of scripturient, activate your Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary FREE TRIAL now!

Free 14 day trial to an online dictionary? Ha ha, nope.

scripturient
a. having violent desire to write. scripturiency, n.

punto

I figured these guys are aliens, and one of them got captured by the humans, so they're planning some sort of mission.

Wyborn

I adore the dialogue in this strip

If there was some way I could tell Tycho, directly, how much I love panel 3, I would

The art is gorgeous, but for me the conversation is what sells this installment

The_Reflection

im a little disappointed with this, cause i like my westerns just straight up west, but i'll give it some more time before I decided to abandon it or keep with it, cause up until now I loved it.

KalTorak

I would have gone with "she" rather than "her" in the last panel, but no biggie. Fantastic art all through this series so far, and good solid dialogue once again.

I feel like we've barely scratched the surface of this setting, but I'd already watch a movie or play a game based around it.