Meanwhile, in Wilburland, brain teaser time! Can you tell if this is an edit or not before you click through?
Those fish look alarmed. For good reason!
Shortly afterwards (with those famous short term memories), they'll forget: little boards wiped clean and the future bright before them
Then: they'll drown in despair upon accidentally seeing Wilbur again. Soon: they'll lose sight of him, for a single, blessed moment, but they'll know something isn't quite right. Then: He'll be looking down over them again, massive and imposing and inescapable, just like the first time...
Wilbur's new fish are trapped in the Bad Place now. We don't know what dreadful thing they must have done in a past life to deserve such a punishment, (the likes of which they only whisper about within the Nine Circles), but we can assume it was very bad. These two will never get used to their torment; never know a true moment of rest, or peace, or happiness. God have mercy on both their souls
Fish (and reptiles too) actually have pretty solidly developed intelligences and memories. Gold Fish in particular can live a decently long time and can be actively trained.
Basically those fish know they are fucked and will spend every moment of their probably way too short lives knowing it.
Yall are gonna feel real bad when Wilbur takes good care of the fish and learns to love and empathize with something.
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Yeah, gonna feel bad about all the demons shivering under their piles of blankets.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I failed to post Friday's Wilbur! comic, so here's that with Josh Fruhlinger's commentary, in case you had any doubts about where the fish stand on the issue of Wilbur:
Ha ha, check out how those two fish are looking at each other! Those are definitely “Are you thinking what I’m thinking, about a murder-suicide pact?” facial expressions.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Yall are gonna feel real bad when Wilbur takes good care of the fish and learns to love and empathize with something.
At the very least they'll keep him home.
You can't exactly take your fish out to the fish park so they can socialize with other fish while you hit on their owners as a completely clueless new fish guy.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Yall are gonna feel real bad when Wilbur takes good care of the fish and learns to love and empathize with something.
At the very least they'll keep him home.
You can't exactly take your fish out to the fish park so they can socialize with other fish while you hit on their owners as a completely clueless new fish guy.
He's not going to take them to the fish park, but he's going to find some way to inconvenience some hapless woman here. I imagine him buying fish food at the petstore and trying to chat up some lady there about why his fish have bene so lethargic lately. "... you have to clean the tank? Wow, I had no idea this fish thing was going to be so complicated! Can you come to my condo and show me?"
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
I want to be clear my post was a joke. Nothing I have seen in the comic would indicate that would happen. Wilber actually changing for the better, long term, would be so out of character I would be wondering if they were starting a pod person arc.
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
Yall are gonna feel real bad when Wilbur takes good care of the fish and learns to love and empathize with something.
At the very least they'll keep him home.
You can't exactly take your fish out to the fish park so they can socialize with other fish while you hit on their owners as a completely clueless new fish guy.
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Sunday's Wilbur! comic is a recap as Sunday comics always are on Mary Worth, but I had to post this one panel since it's another one to add to the "Wilbur is a serial killer" file:
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Mary mixes up another batch of ‘Meddlin’ Muffins’ as she cooks up the next plot development in Wilbur’s relationship with Estelle. She sets the oven for 550 degrees and the timer for seven hours. ‘I do believe they will be badly burnt,’ she breathes with a smile.
It’s Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. Things will have to move pretty fast, especially for a comic strip, but there’s still enough time for Wilbur to get swept up when an unnamed federal agency storms Pets R Us for blatantly violating the trademark of a failing-but-still-extant toy chain. If he’s disappeared somewhere deep in a black-site detention center at an undisclosed location by Thursday, we will all truly have plenty to be thankful for.
Absolutely dying for this plot to end with the revelation that yes, fish were too great a responsibility for Wilbur. He needed to sprinkle flakes in water once a day and occasionally clean a glass box, and wound up just shouting at them that his girlfriend left him, do you understand, no it’s always about you and your problems, god even these fish don’t like me. ‘A diamond in the rough,’ Mary chuckles as Wilbur dangles fish #2 over the toilet.
Wilbur’s quest for existential and romantic fulfillment takes a merry turn as he lugs the aquarium down to the ocean in hopes of attracting a mermaid.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
I fuckin called the myopic goldfish
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
Sunday's Wilbur! comic is a recap as Sunday comics always are on Mary Worth, but I had to post this one panel since it's another one to add to the "Wilbur is a serial killer" file:
Jesus he looks like the bad guy from Black Widow I expect him to start growling about "pheromones" or "making use of trash."
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
half is "be the most annoying shit you can" and the other half is "here is a list of advantageous conditions to have over your opponent in a battle, try to have most of these or else don't fight"
God creating people so a number of them can suffer for eternity in some cold horrible place seems like a shitty move
Who is God to decide who gets heaven or hell anyway? God has no mandate to be judging people.
Well, that's the thing. The idea is he gave mankind free will to choose how they would act themselves. He doesn't make those choices. He already knows the outcome but he still gives you the option knowing some will choose the wrong option.
I am slowly losing my faith in all that, though. I feel as if the way people choose is not so much free will but the way society molds them. How is that free will?
this was always the biggest cop out bullshit to me, and the big part of the Christian mythos that just fell apart under scrutiny
God is a benevolent omnipotent being, but has also chosen to never intervene and help anybody, even innocent people. You could have saved those babies from that plague, instead you let them suffer and die.
Why the fuck would anyone worship you? How could you judge anyone's morality or actions? You haven't done shit since the beginning. Get fucked, I'll choose hell over your hypocrisy.
There's also the argument from free will which is the bigger paradox for me - i.e. if a god knows everything then they know what choices we'll make, if our choices are predestined then we can't act freely so therefore we do not have free will
But it all works better if you stop saying god knows the future. I don't think the Bible was super clear on his omni knowledge.
Omniscience is omniscience. You can't be a little bit all-knowing, kind of infallible. The whole thing is predicated on emphasizing god is perfect and can do no wrong.
There are multiple stories in the Bible where someone argues with God and changes His mind, which does not seem like behavior consistent with a perfect all knowing being
In the Book of Job, God asks Satan his opinion about the state of the earth, and on his recommendation decides to basically run a moral experiment; an omniscient being would have no need for advice or experiments. At the climax of the book, Job breaks down and says that what God had done to him is fucked up and wrong. God's response is to rage at him for multiple chapters, delivering a whole monologue about how Job is nothing compared to Him, and he has no place complaining about His choices. And then... God just sort of quietly concedes the argument and gives Job back more than He took from him in the first place. The results of the experiment seem sort of inconclusive; not only did God need to run an experiment, it doesn't seem like He was able to reach a definitive conclusion from it.
I'm Christian but my understanding is that God as a completely omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent being is a Christian invention and that for instance Judaism does not necessarily hold any of those things to be true (any Jewish folks in here by all means feel free to correct or clarify that)
I'm not Christian, but I was raised southern baptist, and I don't think this is much of a hurdle for people who ascribe to an omnipotent, omniscient god. I mean, any parent can tell you that they ask questions to their children that they already know the answers to, or will "change their minds" because of a child's input, even if they were already going to do that thing. A question is not always for the asker, it's just as often for the person answering, what they will answer, how they answer. You can basically frame any situation in the bible in that lens and fit that worldview around it.
Yall are gonna feel real bad when Wilbur takes good care of the fish and learns to love and empathize with something.
At the very least they'll keep him home.
You can't exactly take your fish out to the fish park so they can socialize with other fish while you hit on their owners as a completely clueless new fish guy.
He's not going to take them to the fish park, but he's going to find some way to inconvenience some hapless woman here. I imagine him buying fish food at the petstore and trying to chat up some lady there about why his fish have bene so lethargic lately. "... you have to clean the tank? Wow, I had no idea this fish thing was going to be so complicated! Can you come to my condo and show me?"
A fair point.
Maybe someone could get Wilbur a pet lava lamp and a bong to keep him home?
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Indie Winterdie KräheRudi Hurzlmeier (German, b. 1952)Registered Userregular
I'm just saying, Old Testament God is where it's at
you may not get any of the love and grace stuff but you also don't get overcomplicted theological quandries
"those guys suck, I don't, toe the line and things will work out dandy, don't and I'll smite ya"
Posts
Shortly afterwards (with those famous short term memories), they'll forget: little boards wiped clean and the future bright before them
Then: they'll drown in despair upon accidentally seeing Wilbur again. Soon: they'll lose sight of him, for a single, blessed moment, but they'll know something isn't quite right. Then: He'll be looking down over them again, massive and imposing and inescapable, just like the first time...
Wilbur's new fish are trapped in the Bad Place now. We don't know what dreadful thing they must have done in a past life to deserve such a punishment, (the likes of which they only whisper about within the Nine Circles), but we can assume it was very bad. These two will never get used to their torment; never know a true moment of rest, or peace, or happiness. God have mercy on both their souls
SMBC
Basically those fish know they are fucked and will spend every moment of their probably way too short lives knowing it.
At the very least they'll keep him home.
You can't exactly take your fish out to the fish park so they can socialize with other fish while you hit on their owners as a completely clueless new fish guy.
He's not going to take them to the fish park, but he's going to find some way to inconvenience some hapless woman here. I imagine him buying fish food at the petstore and trying to chat up some lady there about why his fish have bene so lethargic lately. "... you have to clean the tank? Wow, I had no idea this fish thing was going to be so complicated! Can you come to my condo and show me?"
Steam // Secret Satan
Darths & Droids
Poe!
Dumbing of Age
Anyone getting a 4 heavenly beasts vibe?
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
You're not alone:
SMBC
Art of War literally be like "hey don't fight unless you're very confident you'll win. and sometimes not even then."
Jesus he looks like the bad guy from Black Widow I expect him to start growling about "pheromones" or "making use of trash."
Fuck yeah, in this particular instance I am all in favor of these satanic weirdos getting punched very hard in the face neck and chest.
Oh! Grandma is alive, donald is the shrunken head!
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
I've found a huge chunk of Art of War can be loosely summarized as "Be inconvenient".
I'm not Christian, but I was raised southern baptist, and I don't think this is much of a hurdle for people who ascribe to an omnipotent, omniscient god. I mean, any parent can tell you that they ask questions to their children that they already know the answers to, or will "change their minds" because of a child's input, even if they were already going to do that thing. A question is not always for the asker, it's just as often for the person answering, what they will answer, how they answer. You can basically frame any situation in the bible in that lens and fit that worldview around it.
A fair point.
Maybe someone could get Wilbur a pet lava lamp and a bong to keep him home?
you may not get any of the love and grace stuff but you also don't get overcomplicted theological quandries
"those guys suck, I don't, toe the line and things will work out dandy, don't and I'll smite ya"
it's not nice, but it doesn't have to be
Gunnerkrigg Court
Penny Arcade
Never Satisfied
Steam // Secret Satan
Awkward Zombie