I thought his no-death policy was just for the main cast? Which Ryan is not part of. Tho I may be mistaken
Emperor Daniel
Yeah, if I recall he even used Tony as an example of someone who wouldn’t fall under the no-death policy.
RIP Tony (again).
Leorale
There are security cameras around, right? Even if this is open-and-shut Self Defense, something has to stop Amber before she kills him, unless Willis really, really wants to explore writing about the legal system.
Reltzik
If there are security cameras pointed anywhere, then they’d be pointed at the main entrance.
And since Willis is doing a realistic reboot one comic universe, why not another?
Ryan is not likely to die in any case. Her own father only got stomped into the hospital and that was a lot more personal. My question is what does witnessing the coming violence do to Dorothy? Talk about potential trauma.
Leorale
But, that’s out-of-universe thinking. I don’t want to break the in-universe suspense!
Anyway I would like Amber to hold him at knifepoint or something. Satisfying, with lots of chance for impressive one-liners, and a spiffy mirror to Amber’s formative Sal-trauma.
Justin Time
I feel like that policy might only extend to important characters… and not violent 1-note scum like Ryan.
Think about it. Dorothy dies, the grieving period lasts for in-universe months if not longer, and real life years.
Ryan dies, story arc over, characters deal with the natural fallout + ‘I killed someone and I was already emotionally unstable before.’
Kris
Realistically I feel that anyone one of the cast actually killing someone would be a drastic tone shift even for DoA which has handled dark stuff in the past. So I seriously doubt Ryan will die here. I mean the last thing I want to read here for the next two years is a court drama about Amber’s right to kill a man in self defense. This is Dumbing of Age not Law and Order.
butting
It’d tie the story up in the legal consequences for as long as a main-cast-member’s death would, too.
Hopefully what we’re gonna see is (a) Ryan hospitalised and charged, and (b) Amber hospitalised and helped.
butting
(@Kris: wait, what I said is… what you already said. i is a dumm, and will try not to post when half-asleep)
Yeah, turning DoA into Law and Order would be… DUMB DUMB
Benjamin Geiger
… “It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps.”
merbrat
Shiny!
Cephalo the Pod
The idea behind “NO DEATHS” is that characters who knew the deceased directly would be grieving for pretty much the rest of the comic. It would derail their story arcs entirely.
Amber killing Ryan only really scars her, but I think it would be enough that it’s something to avoid.
Temperaryobsessor
It could also effect Dorothy, Joyce, Sal, and Sarah, Robin, and Leslie because they could be asking themselves if they should have done something different to prevent Ambers tragedy. If only I’d not went to that party, went to the police right away, not warned people about him on social media, actually screened my employees…
Gespenst
I mean that could’ve happened with Toedad. I feel like Ryan dying is super possible.
motorfirebox
Also silent on the topic of kneecaps. Similar to the Bible in that respect.
Pablo360
Willis also reserves the right to come up with a better idea.
So that’s what Amber was afraid of…That’s the face of someone entering a berserker rage – an uncontrollable genetic-based combat state (not to be confused with anger management issues).
Scar boy’s toast.
Many people thinking a berserker rage is like being angry (and they envision someone like hulk). It’s not true. Berserking was something people were bred for to be elite warriors in old germanic and norse tribes, and most people can’t go into one. It’s a temporary shutdown of sapience and forebrain thought, and the subconscious (which thinks at about 10x the speed of the normal brain) short circuits to direct control of everything. Any muscle-memory combat skills remain, but any non-muscle-memory combat skill goes away (if you have to think about it, it doesn’t happen!); conscious thought doesn’t control the body anymore. (It’s like if “you” stepped away from the steering wheel and let someone else take over. You can have thoughts, but they don’t affect the body until the rage ends, which is generally when all threats are neutralized.) In a berserker rage, you can’t feel pain, adrenaline is as full blast (the same chemical that lets little old ladies lift up a car in an emergency), and you’re effectively immune to shock (shock kills people who’ve been shot more often than the bullets do). A Beserker reacts 10x as fast as a normal human while in rage, retains muscle-memory combat, has no capability for remorse, regret, or hesitation, and gets primal animal instincts topping it off (biting and clawing while in a rage is common). Also explains the super-hero bit. True beserkers are rare, but early on most generally learn they need to separate threat situations from the instincts, so they can have mentality of “I got this” and “This isn’t really a threat” to prevent themselves from going into the rage. By significantly raising the “I got this” bar, they avoid the rage being triggered except for the most serious threats.
So if Amazi-girl is impressive, Beserker Amber will be literally ten times more capable, but also heartless, brutal, and she will really hate herself in the morning.
He may or may not survive this, but at minimum, especially losing his weapon, he will be hospitalized. His main hope for survival is if she renders him unconscious (or barely mobile, writhing on the ground in pain) quickly.
Meamoi
FYI, that face makes everything about Amber that I’ve seen move from the earlier times move from “pushing the envelope of reality” to falling squarely in the world of completely possible. Her face is smiling not because she’s happy but because it takes fewer muscles to smile than frown. She’s crying because it’s less muscle work to let those ducts be open.
It’s almost a zen kind of a state; a point of absolute release.
In old nordic/germanic times, stories tell of beserkers who would come back from war, and -something- would trigger their rage (say finding someone beating a loved one) and then the beserker wipes out the whole village and is later found alive despite being peppered full of arrows – because if the beserker doesn’t reach a “all threats neutralized” state, the rage continues, so if someone tries to calm them down, or restrain them, or stop them from killing (or shoot them with an arrow which doesn’t work as well due to the immunity from shock), the rage continues until the beserker is dead from blood loss or … all threats are neutralized – which is potentially the whole village if they try to stop the beserker.
Fidalgo
Meamoi, I’m going yo say something nice to you: You command a wealth of helpful knowledge pertaining to terrible and horrific things.
(hehehe. Seriously, where did you learn all that stuff?)
Meamoi
As far as my knowledge of actual genetic berserkers… I’m one. My first rage was triggered when some bullies about twice my age (they were highschoolers, I was elementary school) decided my younger sister was a valid target for bullying. I didn’t know what a beserker was before that. All of them were hospitalized, while I only had a few scratches (teeth were used and flesh was lost). When they were all down, there was no one even remotely approaching. I found out my Dad had similar history (served him will in the military, but apparently I was an early bloomer). So then that night I learned was a beserker was, was sat down and taught the history and the stories, read up on the old norse stuff, and then promptly enrolled in martial arts and required to learn meditation.
Despite the “super power” way it’s occasionally portrayed in fiction, it’s anything but. It’s nightmarish knowing environmental situations can rob you of your free will. Since then, with the martial arts and the meditation, I’ve only raged once since, and I remembered the feeling from the first time so I was able to get myself to a place without people before it fully came on. Second time, noone got hurt, but I did end up breaking 4 half-inch-think steel beams in half before I came out of it. Kept one of them as a reminder. :/ Normally 25 pushups winds me, for comparison.
Jinxed44
Hey do you have actual experience with that?
I think I’ve hit something like it a few times but I didn’t hurt the people trying to hold me, just kept moving forward, and I stopped short of violence when the people threatening me acted in a submissive/non-threatening manner. Smile was there and threats/violence calculations too. It felt like cotton filled up my brain and my eyes were focused but unfocused? Like I didn’t really remember the persons face afterwards which people say you never forget?
Meamoi
Yea, I do. (See my response to Fidalgo for the stories). What you’re describing doesn’t sound like a rage, but it does sound kind of like the moments leading up to it. I don’t remember people’s faces from it either. That’s an interesting point, actually. Facial recognition is more a conscious mind thing – ways of cataloging people. Faces actually aren’t nearly as distinct as we act like they are, we’re just wired that way.
It could be you have berserker linage too, if so, I’d suggest taking martial arts and meditation. That said, it is a genetic thing, so there’s the chance you could have some of the traits of a berserker, but not all of them necessary to make a true berserker. But if the risk is there, best to keep it from happening (or at the very least, get the ability to control its release.) And if you don’t have the full thing, at least you got some more self-confidence and a higher level of inner peace, which isn’t a bad thing. 🙂
JasonAW3
In my experience, this is not entirely true.
There is a good deal of apparent time compression versus actual time, and the mind, in some cases, becomes both detached, more observant of one’s surroundings, and a good deal of muscle memory comes into play. Pain is not shut off, but is often ignored or dulled For the moment, when there is time to assess the situation in greater detail.
This state can be maintained during an extended crisis situation, with practice. Many call this “living in the moment”.
It is true that the ‘bezerker state’ you described does exist and can be trained for, but as I said, there are those who are completely conscious of what they are doing when in this sort of detached state of mind, and these are usually much more dangerous to their opponents, as they are constantly analyzing the situation, looking for openings and best attack and defense moves, and silently executing them before the opponent has a chance to react.
Two such opponents facing off against each other, is usually almost like a silent dance, with only the sound of the air and clothing moving, giving indication of the force behind each blow.
Whether or not this qualifies as a bezerker rage is debatable, but having been in such a state when drawn into fights, where anger was a major motivating force, I can only speak from my personal experience. I never started fights, but always ended them as quickly and efficiently as possible. Whether I won or lost the fight depends on one’s perspective. By giving into my emotions and fighting, one could say I lost before I began. But fighting in self-defense or defense of others, is an acceptable response.
Meamoi
JasonAW3, I recognized the state you’re talking about (in my response to Fidalgo, I mention my own personal experience with Beserker Rage, and follow-up training in martial arts to prevent that state.) What you’re describing is more of an adrenaline rush with combat training. I’ve had those before too, after the martial arts training, and they are -very- different than the berserker rage. In both, adrenaline is pumping, but the mental state is both is very different.
For example, even if your relfexs are faster, in a berserker rage, time doesn’t compress so much as just becomes a collection snapshots. The conscious brain is where time is recorded, so since it stops controlling, you only develop memories when the subconscious spares some resources for the conscious. It like falling asleep for 2 seconds, waking up for 1, sleeping for 2, waking up for one, and your body is doing stuff the entire time, but it’s snapping fast enough to where you’re still “there”.
And is beserker rage, there is no “facing off against an opponent”. For one, if there’s facing off, that’s time of not attacking which beserker rage doesn’t allow. Secondly, there are no such things as opponenets in a berserker rage, only targets… no, target isn’t even a good word… prey. There is only prey. Flight vs flight also is removed as a choice – there is only fight.
And as mentioned… anger.. really isn’t a thing in a beserker rage (the name is really misleading). Anger can trigger it, but once the rage starts, the anger goes away.
joe archer
Sounds like you had a berzerker state exerience, too, Jason.
I disagree about the forebrain shutting down, though – it retreats to an advisory role, but it does give expert advice on holds, throws, jump kicks etc.
I felt very analytical when entering that stage, at times out of red rage.
What did get shut off was the value system. Act first, ask questions about morality later.
Meamoi
A red rage…. but the forebrain playing an advisory role… not quite my experience, but it does sound similar -enough- to where you’re making me wonder how many things could be categorized as similar to a berserker rage but are different things…
Halpful
Here’s another one for you, what I think of as my “Irish temper” – either a split second, or several seconds of blackout rage, then stunned shock afterwards. The first time, I don’t remember enough to be sure how long it was; Mean Girl spat on me, and then people were pulling me off as I’d gone for her throat. The other two times, it was a single punch and then I got myself back under control. Besides an odd blank spot in a rugby game, I think that was it; somehow I got it suppressed, probably in an unhealthy way, long before I discovered meditation.
She doesn’t have to kill him to destroy him. Breaking his neck with a club-arm blow at the top of the shoulders would leave him a para- or quadriplegic. One would be mostly-helpless until therapy, the other would be completely helpless. That would more completely destroy “Ryan” than actually killing him.
Five. He uses his dick as a weapon, too.
I don’t think Willis belongs to the “disability as penance” line of thought, though.
Pearl
not having a dick is NOT A DISABILITY
El Chupacabre
I mean if you used to have a dick, and it got stabbed off, I feel like that could be pretty debilitating. This isn’t surgery. But I think CJ was probably referencing Opus’s earlier comment about para/quadraplegia
Pearl
Your interpretation of CJ’s post is probably correct, but mine is definitely more hilarious.
CJ
With that male avatar, your interpretation is not as impossible as it might have been with a female avatar.
Oysteinthenoisy
Right. And one can rape without a pens. The lawyer on my family says it’s usually called gross sexual imposition.
I wouldn’t kill him Death is too good for people like him. Manual castration as a start. And then continue with things that will cause lasting pain and suffering. Including taking the knife and introducing it to his rectal opening. But I’m someone who doesn’t take kindly to people like this. I’m a firm believer that once convicted, the offender should be tied in a chair, locked in the room with the family/friends of the victim and let nature take its course for an hour or two. If anything is left alive, THAT goes to jail.
Doubtful. If she does, she’s going to jail and will probably have to leave the comic. She’s one of the central characters along with Billie, Sal, Joyce, Becky, Sarah, and Dorothy, so I find that unlikely.
It would be extremely easy to make a case for self-defense in this situation, considering he stalked them across campus with a knife, clearly attacked them, and she was in fear for her life.
fillerusername
Plus there’s her obvious mental health issues to take into account. (Though I know that’s not easy to prove in court). I don’t think this will end with her killing him though.
BBCC
That court process takes months and she’s probably be waiting for trial in a cell.
SUGauthor
There are security cameras aren’t there? If there’s footage of Ryan coming at her with a knife, I really doubt she’d need a trial.
Reltzik
His Daddy’s a pastor, he seems to come from a background of wealth and privilege, it’s a red state, and lots of Retweetlicans support him.
554 thoughts on “Unfinished”
Ana Chronistic
(not) nice knowin’ ya, Ry
time to die
Kris
I mean….he actually might die.
Reltzik
Willis has a no-death policy, but hasn’t said anything about lifelong comas.
CoffeeBurps
I thought his no-death policy was just for the main cast? Which Ryan is not part of. Tho I may be mistaken
Emperor Daniel
Yeah, if I recall he even used Tony as an example of someone who wouldn’t fall under the no-death policy.
RIP Tony (again).
Leorale
There are security cameras around, right? Even if this is open-and-shut Self Defense, something has to stop Amber before she kills him, unless Willis really, really wants to explore writing about the legal system.
Reltzik
If there are security cameras pointed anywhere, then they’d be pointed at the main entrance.
And since Willis is doing a realistic reboot one comic universe, why not another?
Leorale
LAWSOME.
MatthewTheLucky
Tomorrow: Mike kicks Ryan in the balls.
Clif
Ryan is not likely to die in any case. Her own father only got stomped into the hospital and that was a lot more personal. My question is what does witnessing the coming violence do to Dorothy? Talk about potential trauma.
Leorale
But, that’s out-of-universe thinking. I don’t want to break the in-universe suspense!
Anyway I would like Amber to hold him at knifepoint or something. Satisfying, with lots of chance for impressive one-liners, and a spiffy mirror to Amber’s formative Sal-trauma.
Justin Time
I feel like that policy might only extend to important characters… and not violent 1-note scum like Ryan.
Think about it. Dorothy dies, the grieving period lasts for in-universe months if not longer, and real life years.
Ryan dies, story arc over, characters deal with the natural fallout + ‘I killed someone and I was already emotionally unstable before.’
Kris
Realistically I feel that anyone one of the cast actually killing someone would be a drastic tone shift even for DoA which has handled dark stuff in the past. So I seriously doubt Ryan will die here. I mean the last thing I want to read here for the next two years is a court drama about Amber’s right to kill a man in self defense. This is Dumbing of Age not Law and Order.
butting
It’d tie the story up in the legal consequences for as long as a main-cast-member’s death would, too.
Hopefully what we’re gonna see is (a) Ryan hospitalised and charged, and (b) Amber hospitalised and helped.
butting
(@Kris: wait, what I said is… what you already said. i is a dumm, and will try not to post when half-asleep)
Ana Chronistic
Lawsome and Dumbder!
…
yeah I guess not
motorfirebox
Yeah, turning DoA into Law and Order would be… DUMB DUMB
Benjamin Geiger
… “It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps.”
merbrat
Shiny!
Cephalo the Pod
The idea behind “NO DEATHS” is that characters who knew the deceased directly would be grieving for pretty much the rest of the comic. It would derail their story arcs entirely.
Amber killing Ryan only really scars her, but I think it would be enough that it’s something to avoid.
Temperaryobsessor
It could also effect Dorothy, Joyce, Sal, and Sarah, Robin, and Leslie because they could be asking themselves if they should have done something different to prevent Ambers tragedy. If only I’d not went to that party, went to the police right away, not warned people about him on social media, actually screened my employees…
Gespenst
I mean that could’ve happened with Toedad. I feel like Ryan dying is super possible.
motorfirebox
Also silent on the topic of kneecaps. Similar to the Bible in that respect.
Pablo360
Willis also reserves the right to come up with a better idea.
Shawn L.
No death, but the last time Amber responded to a knife threat… parts of the offender’s anatomy were punctured.
Hope you like wearing gloves,Ryan.
Jay Carr
Well, considering the next comic…I guess the policy is no longer in effect.
boop
I don’t know why he swallowed the fly
Delicious Taffy
Perhaps he’ll die?
KingMonster
On his tombstone: “Here lies Ryan. Karma is a bongo. Especially, when you piss her off.”
Leorale
Oh man, Taffy, that is the world’s best possible way that you could have made your comment experience into a gravatar.
Mr. Bulbmin
Unlikely. However, it is likely he’ll be stabbed with his own knife, because irony is the holy grail.
Needfuldoer
Amber has experience in stabbing.
Armchair Daemon Slayer
And he’s pretty sure it’s someone else’s fault but his.
Meamoi
So that’s what Amber was afraid of…That’s the face of someone entering a berserker rage – an uncontrollable genetic-based combat state (not to be confused with anger management issues).
Scar boy’s toast.
Many people thinking a berserker rage is like being angry (and they envision someone like hulk). It’s not true. Berserking was something people were bred for to be elite warriors in old germanic and norse tribes, and most people can’t go into one. It’s a temporary shutdown of sapience and forebrain thought, and the subconscious (which thinks at about 10x the speed of the normal brain) short circuits to direct control of everything. Any muscle-memory combat skills remain, but any non-muscle-memory combat skill goes away (if you have to think about it, it doesn’t happen!); conscious thought doesn’t control the body anymore. (It’s like if “you” stepped away from the steering wheel and let someone else take over. You can have thoughts, but they don’t affect the body until the rage ends, which is generally when all threats are neutralized.) In a berserker rage, you can’t feel pain, adrenaline is as full blast (the same chemical that lets little old ladies lift up a car in an emergency), and you’re effectively immune to shock (shock kills people who’ve been shot more often than the bullets do). A Beserker reacts 10x as fast as a normal human while in rage, retains muscle-memory combat, has no capability for remorse, regret, or hesitation, and gets primal animal instincts topping it off (biting and clawing while in a rage is common). Also explains the super-hero bit. True beserkers are rare, but early on most generally learn they need to separate threat situations from the instincts, so they can have mentality of “I got this” and “This isn’t really a threat” to prevent themselves from going into the rage. By significantly raising the “I got this” bar, they avoid the rage being triggered except for the most serious threats.
So if Amazi-girl is impressive, Beserker Amber will be literally ten times more capable, but also heartless, brutal, and she will really hate herself in the morning.
He may or may not survive this, but at minimum, especially losing his weapon, he will be hospitalized. His main hope for survival is if she renders him unconscious (or barely mobile, writhing on the ground in pain) quickly.
Meamoi
FYI, that face makes everything about Amber that I’ve seen move from the earlier times move from “pushing the envelope of reality” to falling squarely in the world of completely possible. Her face is smiling not because she’s happy but because it takes fewer muscles to smile than frown. She’s crying because it’s less muscle work to let those ducts be open.
It’s almost a zen kind of a state; a point of absolute release.
In old nordic/germanic times, stories tell of beserkers who would come back from war, and -something- would trigger their rage (say finding someone beating a loved one) and then the beserker wipes out the whole village and is later found alive despite being peppered full of arrows – because if the beserker doesn’t reach a “all threats neutralized” state, the rage continues, so if someone tries to calm them down, or restrain them, or stop them from killing (or shoot them with an arrow which doesn’t work as well due to the immunity from shock), the rage continues until the beserker is dead from blood loss or … all threats are neutralized – which is potentially the whole village if they try to stop the beserker.
Fidalgo
Meamoi, I’m going yo say something nice to you: You command a wealth of helpful knowledge pertaining to terrible and horrific things.
(hehehe. Seriously, where did you learn all that stuff?)
Meamoi
As far as my knowledge of actual genetic berserkers… I’m one. My first rage was triggered when some bullies about twice my age (they were highschoolers, I was elementary school) decided my younger sister was a valid target for bullying. I didn’t know what a beserker was before that. All of them were hospitalized, while I only had a few scratches (teeth were used and flesh was lost). When they were all down, there was no one even remotely approaching. I found out my Dad had similar history (served him will in the military, but apparently I was an early bloomer). So then that night I learned was a beserker was, was sat down and taught the history and the stories, read up on the old norse stuff, and then promptly enrolled in martial arts and required to learn meditation.
Despite the “super power” way it’s occasionally portrayed in fiction, it’s anything but. It’s nightmarish knowing environmental situations can rob you of your free will. Since then, with the martial arts and the meditation, I’ve only raged once since, and I remembered the feeling from the first time so I was able to get myself to a place without people before it fully came on. Second time, noone got hurt, but I did end up breaking 4 half-inch-think steel beams in half before I came out of it. Kept one of them as a reminder. :/ Normally 25 pushups winds me, for comparison.
Jinxed44
Hey do you have actual experience with that?
I think I’ve hit something like it a few times but I didn’t hurt the people trying to hold me, just kept moving forward, and I stopped short of violence when the people threatening me acted in a submissive/non-threatening manner. Smile was there and threats/violence calculations too. It felt like cotton filled up my brain and my eyes were focused but unfocused? Like I didn’t really remember the persons face afterwards which people say you never forget?
Meamoi
Yea, I do. (See my response to Fidalgo for the stories). What you’re describing doesn’t sound like a rage, but it does sound kind of like the moments leading up to it. I don’t remember people’s faces from it either. That’s an interesting point, actually. Facial recognition is more a conscious mind thing – ways of cataloging people. Faces actually aren’t nearly as distinct as we act like they are, we’re just wired that way.
It could be you have berserker linage too, if so, I’d suggest taking martial arts and meditation. That said, it is a genetic thing, so there’s the chance you could have some of the traits of a berserker, but not all of them necessary to make a true berserker. But if the risk is there, best to keep it from happening (or at the very least, get the ability to control its release.) And if you don’t have the full thing, at least you got some more self-confidence and a higher level of inner peace, which isn’t a bad thing. 🙂
JasonAW3
In my experience, this is not entirely true.
There is a good deal of apparent time compression versus actual time, and the mind, in some cases, becomes both detached, more observant of one’s surroundings, and a good deal of muscle memory comes into play. Pain is not shut off, but is often ignored or dulled For the moment, when there is time to assess the situation in greater detail.
This state can be maintained during an extended crisis situation, with practice. Many call this “living in the moment”.
It is true that the ‘bezerker state’ you described does exist and can be trained for, but as I said, there are those who are completely conscious of what they are doing when in this sort of detached state of mind, and these are usually much more dangerous to their opponents, as they are constantly analyzing the situation, looking for openings and best attack and defense moves, and silently executing them before the opponent has a chance to react.
Two such opponents facing off against each other, is usually almost like a silent dance, with only the sound of the air and clothing moving, giving indication of the force behind each blow.
Whether or not this qualifies as a bezerker rage is debatable, but having been in such a state when drawn into fights, where anger was a major motivating force, I can only speak from my personal experience. I never started fights, but always ended them as quickly and efficiently as possible. Whether I won or lost the fight depends on one’s perspective. By giving into my emotions and fighting, one could say I lost before I began. But fighting in self-defense or defense of others, is an acceptable response.
Meamoi
JasonAW3, I recognized the state you’re talking about (in my response to Fidalgo, I mention my own personal experience with Beserker Rage, and follow-up training in martial arts to prevent that state.) What you’re describing is more of an adrenaline rush with combat training. I’ve had those before too, after the martial arts training, and they are -very- different than the berserker rage. In both, adrenaline is pumping, but the mental state is both is very different.
For example, even if your relfexs are faster, in a berserker rage, time doesn’t compress so much as just becomes a collection snapshots. The conscious brain is where time is recorded, so since it stops controlling, you only develop memories when the subconscious spares some resources for the conscious. It like falling asleep for 2 seconds, waking up for 1, sleeping for 2, waking up for one, and your body is doing stuff the entire time, but it’s snapping fast enough to where you’re still “there”.
And is beserker rage, there is no “facing off against an opponent”. For one, if there’s facing off, that’s time of not attacking which beserker rage doesn’t allow. Secondly, there are no such things as opponenets in a berserker rage, only targets… no, target isn’t even a good word… prey. There is only prey. Flight vs flight also is removed as a choice – there is only fight.
And as mentioned… anger.. really isn’t a thing in a beserker rage (the name is really misleading). Anger can trigger it, but once the rage starts, the anger goes away.
joe archer
Sounds like you had a berzerker state exerience, too, Jason.
I disagree about the forebrain shutting down, though – it retreats to an advisory role, but it does give expert advice on holds, throws, jump kicks etc.
I felt very analytical when entering that stage, at times out of red rage.
What did get shut off was the value system. Act first, ask questions about morality later.
Meamoi
A red rage…. but the forebrain playing an advisory role… not quite my experience, but it does sound similar -enough- to where you’re making me wonder how many things could be categorized as similar to a berserker rage but are different things…
Halpful
Here’s another one for you, what I think of as my “Irish temper” – either a split second, or several seconds of blackout rage, then stunned shock afterwards. The first time, I don’t remember enough to be sure how long it was; Mean Girl spat on me, and then people were pulling me off as I’d gone for her throat. The other two times, it was a single punch and then I got myself back under control. Besides an odd blank spot in a rugby game, I think that was it; somehow I got it suppressed, probably in an unhealthy way, long before I discovered meditation.
Najaru
he got caught monologuing
Doctor_Who
Rookie mistake.
Sambo
This is my favorite comment!
BP
“I mean, this guy has me right where he wants me, and he WON’T SHUT UP!”
TheAnonymousGuy
It’ll be perfect if sal shows up to give her comfert
Opus the Poet
She doesn’t have to kill him to destroy him. Breaking his neck with a club-arm blow at the top of the shoulders would leave him a para- or quadriplegic. One would be mostly-helpless until therapy, the other would be completely helpless. That would more completely destroy “Ryan” than actually killing him.
Ana Chronistic
“I took away his weapon. Both of them.”
KingMonster
Technically, he has four weapons that need taking away…
CJ
Five. He uses his dick as a weapon, too.
I don’t think Willis belongs to the “disability as penance” line of thought, though.
Pearl
not having a dick is NOT A DISABILITY
El Chupacabre
I mean if you used to have a dick, and it got stabbed off, I feel like that could be pretty debilitating. This isn’t surgery. But I think CJ was probably referencing Opus’s earlier comment about para/quadraplegia
Pearl
Your interpretation of CJ’s post is probably correct, but mine is definitely more hilarious.
CJ
With that male avatar, your interpretation is not as impossible as it might have been with a female avatar.
Oysteinthenoisy
Right. And one can rape without a pens. The lawyer on my family says it’s usually called gross sexual imposition.
Tan
Bye-bye, Ry-Ry. As you die before my eye, I’ll let out no sigh nor cry. You were a shitty guy. No lie.
Time for pie.
Goblin Scribe
Here’s my lullaby to close your eyes…
It was always you that I despised…
Delicious Taffy
“I don’t feel enough for you to cry…”
Sensei Le Roof
Ay-yi-yi…
Eyebrow
No reply.
How could I?
You so fly.
bargamer
Yes. Be as an avenging angel so terrible, even Satan himself would seek atonement, lest he face you on the battlefield of Armageddon!
Commander Clash
I wouldn’t kill him Death is too good for people like him. Manual castration as a start. And then continue with things that will cause lasting pain and suffering. Including taking the knife and introducing it to his rectal opening. But I’m someone who doesn’t take kindly to people like this. I’m a firm believer that once convicted, the offender should be tied in a chair, locked in the room with the family/friends of the victim and let nature take its course for an hour or two. If anything is left alive, THAT goes to jail.
Amber
It’s true, I’m not
Max
No, you are clearly Becky.
Reltzik
Gravs need a bit of coaxing before they’ll cooperate.
AnvilPro
I don’t think “Ryan” planned things out that well. And is Amber about to kill someone?
BBCC
Doubtful. If she does, she’s going to jail and will probably have to leave the comic. She’s one of the central characters along with Billie, Sal, Joyce, Becky, Sarah, and Dorothy, so I find that unlikely.
Dalrint
It would be extremely easy to make a case for self-defense in this situation, considering he stalked them across campus with a knife, clearly attacked them, and she was in fear for her life.
fillerusername
Plus there’s her obvious mental health issues to take into account. (Though I know that’s not easy to prove in court). I don’t think this will end with her killing him though.
BBCC
That court process takes months and she’s probably be waiting for trial in a cell.
SUGauthor
There are security cameras aren’t there? If there’s footage of Ryan coming at her with a knife, I really doubt she’d need a trial.
Reltzik
His Daddy’s a pastor, he seems to come from a background of wealth and privilege, it’s a red state, and lots of Retweetlicans support him.