Paranatural

>DROPPIN'. THOSE. EAVES!

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Something, something, SU.

>she gets that pretty-ass spirit world
>can't even see it because she's blind as fuck

Probably the most tragic thing Zack will ever write.

I wodner, does her spirit specifically give her enhanced senses, or do trance modes just move at the same rate for every person?

Either way, that's moderately clever.

She can see while in it.

Like the second or third thing she did after being introduced was enter her spirit world bullet time place to see what her love arrow hit and was surprised to see it hit a sentient train.

It's possible that her spirit just told her instead.

They move at the same rate for everyone. Zack said so in the comments once

This sure is a valuable use of panel time.

>It's possible that her spirit just told her instead.
Seems the most likely based on how she phrased it.

>"dude gay baiting"
>blind woman was a spy all along

Well then... Zarei's kind of a dumbshit, isn't she?

Oh look the black character also happens to be hyper competent. Again.

Also by black I mean gay.

Why wouldn't the investigator sent to the super weird and, probably, super important town be highly competent? Think they're going to send some novice?

She has been a textbook Mary Sue since she was first introduced. Why are you surprised now?

Same reason I kept being surprised every time Cody displayed a new homo superpower.

And in this particular case, because Zarei's got a bad case of plot-retardation.

>all these backgrounds
Hope you guys weren't expecting a Friday update, I think Zack really pushed himself on that one. He should probably just stick to gradients for like the next for or five strips.

I know she's a Mary Sue, but I'm still surprised he honestly thought this was good writing.

>black character also happens to be hyper competent
>again
What other black characters are you talking about user?

Ya know between this poorly timed conversion that has devolved into two different spirit conversions and the overly long Spender and Isabel one I've almost forgotten there's a body snatcher on the loose that's suppose to be the focal point of this chapter. Or that PJ probably followed Max to school. At least 55 pages of Namekball is over.

What is this Steven universe shit.

>SU invented rose vines

We still need to catch up with
>Max
>Isaac
>Spender and Isabel
>Ed

This conversation is probably going to last 2-3 more pages at least.

I'm not going to lie, read all together the dodge ball arc was actually pretty fun. But even then the last act kind of dragged on.

That being said, Zack has fucking awful pacing for a bi weekly- maybe- update schedule.

>Well then... Zarei's kind of a dumbshit, isn't she?
Isn't that a recurring theme for anyone with a spirit that isn't a child?

user, don't you know the pattern yet?

Introduced agent seems hyper competent, then they turn out to be a dumbass that's playing their own game and doing badly at it.

SU also didn't invent the fat pussy trope, doesn't mean a bunch of idiots aren't going to use it for inspiration.

The dodgeball arc reads nicely in retrospect, but it was so painful to sit through Zac's inconsistent updates through it for 30 weeks.

To be fair. She's in a town of literal idiots. This is the first person she's had to deal with (besides maybe Isabel's Grandpa) with actual brains and enough cunning to outsmart her.

After all she agreed to this meeting thinking she could bullshit Day and not even expecting her to dig enough dirt to connect her to Spender and then want to look into her. Day knocked her off balance to get her to freak out and drop clues. She's been playing her this whole time.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the other agents didn't intentionally take out the Ghost Train in order to trap Zarei, Spender, and any possible experiments and secret spirits/spectrals they were harboring during the investigation.

This was pretty clever. Didn't think a commune could be used to listen to another's.

Shame Cred Forums would rather talk about "oh no, gay/black characters exist!" and wants the plot rushed and cut down to the most bare elements of a story

Well, it was demonstrated that normal people can see and hear everything that spectrals do/say while in spirit mode, it's just way too sped up to be deciphered on it's own. It's pretty clever then to focus in a spirit world in order to slow down the sound and hear it outside the spirit world (I think it's been shown that spectrals could still hear noises from within their spirit worlds before, right?)

Zarei is very rattled though. She can either redeem this by figuring that Day would listen in and feed her false info (doubtful without a huge asspull), or by successfully using subterfuge to move what she's hiding before Day can find it. She's not going to give up these secrets this easily, not before Day convinces her that she's not a threat.

>Cred Forums would rather talk about "oh no, gay/black characters exist!"
More like "oh no, the protagonists are not gay!", amirite guys?

>wants the plot rushed and cut down to the most bare elements of a story
Because that's what people expected from PNAT started gaining popularity on Cred Forums (especially on chapters 2 & 3)...the comic was no frills no-nonsense action-packed fun with a mythology not so overwhelming on the story.

Day is really shaping up to be potentially one of the most hated people in-universe. How long will that smile remain when will everyone treats her as enemy number one?

The signs were there as soon as Issac started dishing his backstory. Everyone was going to have a past to delve into, secrets they're hiding, all of which was going to be wrapped up in some spirit illuminati and spectral FBI stuff going on.

The early chapters were there to establish the rules in easy bites, like intro arc(s) in anime.

I do think Zack should have either planned the chapters better (cutting them up and naming them with the major theme of that section) or just left the chapter division until the chapter was completed (some comics do this right? Or am I just imagining it?).

Also recent scene transitions have been pretty jarring, especially to end mid-conversation then pick up 10 pages later.

>"oh no, gay/black characters exist!"
>implying forcing diversity for the sake of diversity is good
>being this self-righteously indignant about a perfectly valid complaint

I honestly think Zach has gotten worse as a writer, and has strayed too far from his strong suite (humour) in favour of a denser plot.

>implying diversity is 'forced'

You sound like a plebs on Voltron threads, complaining about superior brown Allura the paladins aren't all pasty generic whites.

THIS^^^^

I actually just re-read the entire comic

The reason I loved the comic so much in the beginning was the huge amount of punnery, wordplay and double meanings

It was the best thing ever, I was impressed he could keep on dishing out this level of wit

But now? It's almost entirely gone. Save for one good page every now and then, its just silly-face humor, there aren't anymore good witticisims anymore

And since I'm ranting about it
Does anyone enjoy the artstyle the comic started outwith compared to the current one?
It was less refined, sure, but, I dunno. Just feels less tumblr-y I guess. Not that tumblr style is necessarily bad, just not very unique

Anyways, feels bad man.

>it's valid to complain about diversity just because I used the word "forced" before it

We knew that since her introduction.

Dimitri i guess.

>everyone can listen in on each other's spirit conversations by going spirit themselves

>this would, far from being some sly stunt, just end up being common knowledge among the spirit community

>and yet Zarei, an expert on spirits and incredibly paranoid about Agent Day, doesn't seem to realise how easy this would be

Zack, I know you think you're being clever but this is just incredibly stupid writing.

All you've done is make Zarei, a supposedly intelligent character look like an even bigger idiot than you have previously done, while trying to make your supposedly super clever blind girl seem smart by pulling a stunt that most spectrals would know about anyway.

You know what? Fuck it, this is even worse than hamfistedly spelling out that one of your characters is a homo since this impacts the plot. Anyone who is impressed by this is a dumbass.

>implying it isn't forced
Oh please.
Patchworm just up and said "I know you're gay, but..."
It was so sickeningly obvious that Zack wrote that in because he's essentially a tumblrite now. Just another cis white male who discovered social justice and decided it was time to inject his ideology into his webcomic. Maybe you don't mind it because you're infatuated with social justice ideologies, but to everyone else who's disillusioned with that, it really changes the atmosphere of the comic. It feels shilly instead of fun. It feels sanctimonious and priggish instead of light-hearted and adventerous.

this

honestly didn't care about the muslim doctor being a GASP minority until now. She was well developed as a character and moderately fun in the comic, but making her gay just made her into a walking tumblr meme. you know, the homoqueer transexual non-binary agnostic muslim woman in a three-way relationship sort of shit. Obviously that's a hyperbole, but you get my point.

>valid

>Patchworm just up and said "I know you're gay, but..."
In rainbow letters at that

I'm sure she knew but she's panicking and made a shitty excuse and a very bad attempt at sneaking a commune.

A character being intelligent doesn't mean they always, always cool under pressure and never make mistakes.

Making a few mistakes and acting like a complete dork isn't the same thing.

kek yeah

it looks like he edited the comic to tone down the rainbow-ness though

He also tweeted that these were just his 'placeholder gays' until the 'real' ones would show up.

If you think any character is exempt from having 'dorky' moments then you're a terrible writer. Sorry.

For fuck sake they're not. But that's just to convenient to use evrytime you don't know how to force drama and complication into your story.

Anons. You know how Zack plans to make a print edition of the comic, right?

I have a bad feeling this is going not to end well.

>PNAT book will end up in a library somewhere
>Some kid ends up borrowing it, innocently thinks its just like Danny Phantom
>Back at home, a parent ends up peeking what (s)he's borrowed
>Parent sees strong hijab-wearing Zarei do a spirit (re:witchcraft) thing
>Parent happens to be some zealous nutjob of the local Muslim community
>Parent enraged, riles up other similar-thinking peers to menacingly threaten Zack & Hiveworks
>Protest blows up in the news
>Zack loses his mind

Why the heck didn't I think of this sooner.

not entirely sure what that's even supposed to mean but

confirms my suspicions about Zack

You know this is a comedy, right?

So? Is that an excuse to take all of the tension out of the plot?
Also comedy/action/aventure. We're not talking about 4komas or strips here.

Spender i guess. His girlfriend is fawning all over him, so i guess he'll twist the character to suit her taste.

>moving the goalposts

Waste of trips desu

Glad you're not writing the comic then. You'd make everything as miserable and 'serious' as you. Cardboard one-mood characters too.

Thing is even if Day brought the shitty excuse she would still be able to hear the fast talk, even if it was just a fast whisper and promptly respond by going spirit herself. She's blind for fuck sake, her hearing would be above average.

This seems ridiculously stupid for a character who just elaborated on how she can't underestimate Day.

And to what purpose is Zarei even having this conversation? She doesn't seem to be learning anything of value from her spirit, she just seems to be having a conversation about how she's got to keep her secrets from Day just as an excuse to blurt out her secrets right in front of Day.

k zack

I think by now I'm just hoping that Zack goes back to his older art style in the next chapter.

He can add as many fat crippled lesbians as he wants to please Tumblr, but I just want it go back to the way the art was before.

>that strawman

He didn't say that you idiot. There's a difference between making a comic completely serious and making sure your attempts at humour doesn't get in the way of when you want the comic to be serious.

Even Zack understood this, remember when he took the doge talk out of one strip because he wanted the scene to be taken more seriously?

>And to what purpose is Zarei even having this conversation? She doesn't seem to be learning anything of value from her spirit, she just seems to be having a conversation about how she's got to keep her secrets from Day just as an excuse to blurt out her secrets right in front of Day.
B-But it's funny! And goofy! R-right?

No I'm not. user seems to be under the impression that this comic is 24/7 grimdark serious business and getting hissy about the characters having a comedy moment. They need to reread the comic.

>Thing is even if Day brought the shitty excuse she would still be able to hear the fast talk, even if it was just a fast whisper and promptly respond by going spirit herself. She's blind for fuck sake, her hearing would be above average.

>This seems ridiculously stupid for a character who just elaborated on how she can't underestimate Day.

Reason I said it was a very bad decision made in a panic. Humans do that.

>Strawman
Ok, so you're just throwing whatever meme words you can think of now.

He made that tweet in response to comments about these two girls.

Anons. You know how Zack plans to make a print edition of the comic, right?

I have a bad feeling this is going not to end well.

>PNAT book will end up in a library somewhere
>Some kid ends up borrowing it, innocently thinks it's just like Danny Phantom
>Back at home, a parent ends up peeking what (s)he's borrowed
>Parent sees strong hijab-wearing Zarei do a spirit (re:witchcraft) thing
>Parent happens to be some zealous nutjob of the local Muslim community
>Parent enraged, riles up other similar-thinking peers to menacingly threaten Zack & Hiveworks
>Protest blows up in the news
>Zack loses his mind

It's gonna be like Harry Potter all over again...but worse.

You're right that fundamentalist Muslims (and Christians) throw shitfests at things like this, but you overestimate their influence.

They may talk about it within their echo chambers, maybe even organise a few book burnings, but I'd be surprised if Zack looses any sleep over it.

>No I'm not. user seems to be under the impression that this comic is 24/7 grimdark serious business and getting hissy about the characters having a comedy moment. They need to reread the comic.
That's not what i said at all. Sometimes you get light-hearted moments. Sometime you get funny moments. Sometime you get serious moments. Juggling with them isn't easy, but that's what make a comic good. And this scene seems incredibly bad mesured, and thus suffer from it.
It's like Zack remembered half-way that he had to make the plot move, and threw a half-serious/half-gag into these pages, while spilling spaghetti all over his desk.

>Reason I said it was a very bad decision made in a panic. Humans do that.
Indeed. But explaining to the audience that Zarei is a skilled and smart expert and spending her screentime on goofy shit before we had the fucking proof of her so-called smartness isn't a good way to shape the character.
Telling the readers that a character is smart and not showing it is like writing half a page of stuff about a dnd character to only nod during all the campaign.
Show, don't tell.

Here it seems forced as fuck and cheapen the plot once more.

Did people really comment about them on twitter, Something like "omg i'm so happy you're introducing cute lesbians into your comic you have no idea how much this count for me they're lesbians right right right?"
For fuck sake.

Also now that i think about it it's weird how the blonde is so radiant when the rest of the scene is in a completely different atmosphere. Like the author wanted people to notcide her at all cost. But why would he do that?

Oh. Right.

>This character that has the power to eavesdropping is actually doing her job!

Wow, you know, it's almost like the character was introduced for this very exact reason is doing the thing she was sent out to do!

Im not too entirely happy about the gay thibg also or how the comic is pacing itself, but choose your battles, bro.

>user seems to be under the impression that this comic is 24/7 grimdark serious business and getting hissy about the characters having a comedy moment
uh no, the other user obviously doesn't think that. Zack isn't a perfect being, he makes mistakes too (woah, meta). you can admit to yourself that you're wrong sometimes, or at the very least consider that what the other user is saying is a valid interpretation of the comic

wew

I wonder how long it'll be until he thinks that Max's unabahsed cis white male look is problematic, and makes him go around in dresses.

end my life pham

Rather than her being competent, it seems more like everyone else is suddenly dumb.

>resorting to calling a strawman a "meme word" while insisting on maintaining the strawman

Jesus Christ user.

>Reason I said it was a very bad decision made in a panic. Humans do that.

Panic causes humans to do risky things, often stupid and likely to fail. But this is nonsensical. You got to think about how second nature it would be for experienced Spectrals to know that they can eaves drop on each other when in spirit mode. A paranoid person is going to do something rash and stupid, and their paranoia would still make them very conscious about the things they say that could be overheard.

All I read here are opinions on how the comic should be written in a different way. There's no 'right' way, so it's best to stop thinking that or else you'll turn into the Ava's Demon 'fandom'.

Paranatural is and always has been a comedy with drama moments, not the other way around. The transition between them has been just fine because Zarei isn't a mary sue, made a fool of herself trying to intimidate Day and went into a panic afterwards.

So.. sorry this comic isn't to your liking?

True, but all of chapter 4 and the pre-Hitball section of chapter 5 was spent establishing that Zarei is a stone cold motherfucker who doesn't freak out when her childhood friend comes home injured after a routine mission, or a child almost applies a potion that turns flesh into air.

I'd be perfectly fine with any of this if you replaced Zarei with Spender (including finding out Spender's gay), because being neck deep in mystery bullshit while being a a bit of a spaz is what he does best. With Zarei, it just fucks with what we already know about her for no other reason than a cheap laugh.

That tweet was months old, user. He was talking about that lesbian couple in the saloon scene

>Zarei talks about sensitive information with her spirit in front of Day for literally no reason other than to tell her spirit that she has sensitive information
>the spirit even already knows this why the fuck does Zarei need to tell him about this
>being this defensive about Zarei being this fucking retarded
Faggot

for me, spender being gay would ruin his personality

it would make it seem like Spender isn't acting sort-of-flamboyant and silly because deep down he's just a silly spaz, it would make it seem like he's acting flamboyant because he's gay

just seems like a small detail that makes all the difference

>Completely ignore or forget everything said about good characters having dorky moments where they're not thinking straight.
>Throw in an anime reaction image, "lol faggot" and 'defence force' accusation for good measure.

Well memed, good man.

To be fair you pretty much ignored every post with more than twenty words since the start of this argument.

No, they were just wrong in what they said.

Do anime girls trigger you, retard?

Well, that's convenient.

>completely unnecessary and forced exposition is now considered "dorky"
>saying "o-oh no, if the BOSS found out about my work I'd sure be screwed wow, sure hope that doesn't happen that would be really bad huh" is dorky
>>pic related
>the character acting dorky makes retarded forced exposition ok
Am I being baited?

If this turns out to be Zarei just pretending to be retarded, and just acting flustered to make agent day just THINK that Zarei's important assets are in her lab, and that's she's going to go secure after she's done talking with Day, in which Day is succesfully thrown off of Zarei's tail? then that would actually be good writing.

Lets just say I don't exactly have high hopes for good writing to happen in paranatural anymore.

Oh my, it appears the easily triggered fanboys of the old threads have returned.

Okay, lets try this again.

Commune takes something mere seconds of real time. She thought that pretending to pick something up would give her a chance to talk with her spirit without Day even noticing and would have probably worked if Day wasn't expecting it or had keen ears for the sped up whispering.

Another idea is that while Zarei is a good scientist and spirit tamer, she's not a spy or has good people skills. Hence her trying to be intimidating and just coming off as a dork.

>Anybody who thinks i'm a meme spouting child is just triggered
Keep telling yourself that.

My god ... Cold Nachos?
Not even once dude, not even once.

what don't you understand about the words "forced exposition?"

did you even register with you that this is why I don't like the writing in the most recent pages? saying that Zarei thought she could get away with talking to her spirit in front of Day or being socially clueless doesn't change the fact that its unnecessary forced exposition.

God damn why am I wasting my time on this fanboy, time to kill myself

Zack learned from Hussie himself how to be a pandering hack.

What do you faggots expect?

>forcing monoculture into US comics = Perfectly fine
>bringing up that they only eradicated 99% of the Americans and that the containment war vs the Africans they waged against the Southern States failed spectacularily = Worse than Hilary Clinton

just venting my bitter frustration tbf

paranatural was one of the few comics that really connected deep with me, until now..

>you overestimate their influence
Yes, the presence of these groups are really negligible and I might be worrying too much about this aspect...I'm just more concerned on how sensitive ol' Zack will handle the unfortunate outcme himself. Didn't Zack already blocked some folks on Twitter because they joked around about his wrist injury a while ago? (I knew about it from an old thread.) If that can make Zack go all touchy...

Dude, Cody was just good at playing hitball, he was the Knight that protected the final boss because he's Jeff's best friend. Him being gay had nothing to do with it. Cody was also shown to be impossibly naive and borderline stupid (to the point of Zack making fun of him). I think you're just biased to see as pandering any time a gay character does something relatively competent.

wait, Cody's gay too now?

did Zack just tweet that he was or did I miss that in the comics

>they only eradicated 99% of the Americans
>the containment war vs the Africans
Wat

[ twitter.com/paranaturalzack/status/591482100332670977 ]

>wait, Cody's gay too now?

>now

Sure Zack is the type to pander but A) he isn't loading the comic with strong black women now, it's hardly different, and B) just about any non white/male/straight/cis character added to anything causes Cred Forums to shit it's pants about diversity existing outside of reality.

try mob psycho 100 my friend

>when bigots get triggered

When bigots get triggered.

Also, lovely "arguments" already demolished a million times

And?
Really, what has changed?
Oh no, there are MINORITIES now. Comic's ruined, folks. All it's been is ghosts sitting in a room shouting "Gay is okay! Black lives matter!"
There's honestly no issue here other than Cred Forums and Cred Forums's fear of tumblr sneaking into their house.
I've no doubt these characters were made to be diverse or even "diverse" but Zarei and Day still have characters. They aren't Fat Black and Gay Muslim, and if that's all you can see in them you're blind or you're reaching for reasons to complain. There's no subliminal SJW messages in this comic that are gonna brainwash you. The WORST sjw implication it gives off is that people can be these minorities or even a combination of them without it mattering; and if you've got an issue with that or disagree, then it's back to being a matter of "waah, minorities EXIST"

...

>what i expected a bad comic
>what i got a bad comic

The first volumes of Bleach were slightly better, mind you.

The first volumes of Bleach had slightly more backgrounds and actual drawn scenario, that's about it.

I actually made my own "what I read-expected-got " entry too, but the file's probably too big to post here.

>Agent Day's whole thing is love and romance
>gets her information by flirtation and making the target flustered
DEEPEST LORE
>Gay as hell
>get flustered
>spill the beans with your spaghetti because you're telling your spirit "I'm not flustered in being CAREFUL okay? I mean sure she's cute but LISTEN"
>Get serious and have a quick discussion about how important your success is, still under the assumption that this doofy agent isn't aware you're having a conversation
What's out of line here?

>Cody I just want you to know that as my gay friend you have far too much composure

Not the person you're replying to, but I've also gotten "pandering" vibes from the comic in recent months. This is coming from somebody who loves all the "sjw tumblr shit" folks here love to complain about. I think the recent developments bother me not because of the presence of POC or gays but rather because there has been so much put on hold plotwise that this romantic sideplot (regardless of it was two women, two men, one woman and one man, whatever) feels like more wasted time. Romance in any form is one of the basest forms of fanservice, secondary to pantyshots. Like I don't care that Zarei is totes awkward adorbs around a cute girl I just want actual time to pass in the comic.

Pretty sure Zack explicitly said her spirit describes things to her.

>wants the plot rushed and cut down to the most bare elements of a story
>thinking "i am gay" is a good story element
>discussing sexual orientation at all in a webcomic full of kids.
>after Zack himself originally said he wouldn't put any kind of romance in it

>suddenly
have you READ the comic? almost everyone has had a turn holding the idiot ball. right now it's Zarei's.

>implying diversity is 'forced'
But in this case it is. Just look at this ridiculous reveal. What does that achieve to the story?

don't get me wrong, if it was a trait that had some actual thought and that we could get from her behavior alone, even if in a stereotypical way, it would even be okay.

But going full 'you're gay'? that's just in plain sight that Zack just woke up one day and decided it.

Zack before: "what? you guys are think of romance between 12 years old? disgusting"

Zack now: "hey guys, look at those 12yo lesbians. They are totally munching carpets"

Zack did respond saying that Cody is gay, but he noticed how poorly that was shown, even if he didn't say it was his fault (it went 'over people's head'). He even said that revealing another character to be gay right now would be cheap.. and then we get two couples.

That's fair enough. The pacing is often glacial, and deciding to tell many stories at once on top of the one yet to be finished was a poor choice for Zack.
But that's what should be complained about, not abloo bloo tumblr hack.

her gaydar told her she was gay? i think that's about the only thing that is off, even if it does look like Zack is forcing diversity because of his previous behavior and history inputting gay shit for no reason.

Doesn't that piss on any plot point revolving around her not knowing something or being able to do something because she is blind? If her spirit is able to just relay everything to her? Wouldn't this be common knowledge as well?

>Your hiding under a table from a blind women

>No, I'm hiding under a table from her spirit who isn't blind.

This is part of a problem with Zack's writing, he often doesn't apply much critical thought to his own ideas. He's already admitted that ever spectral with spirit basically has the Flash's superpower without any explanation as to why they can't abuse the fuck out of this.

I can see her or her spirit having gaydar, but assuming it isn't a hidden fact about Zarei, I'd imagine Day found out everything about her targets before the mission. Isn't Zarei her idol (at least allegedly)? She'd probably know anyway.

I hate that fat cunt more and more with her every appearance. She annoys the living hell out of me the way she acts.

And this is pretty stupid. So you can eavesdrop on other spectrals by simply going into your own spirit world and slowing down time? How is an experienced spectral like Dr Female Education Is Haram isn't aware that?

Bleach up to and including Rukia's rescue is awesome. It goes to shit fast after that.

>Dr Female Education Is Haram
>not Dr Witchcraft Is Haram

i'd imagine this is a power unique to her, and precisely why she was sent to investigate the town.

So we're gonna get a few more pages of this, and then it's back to chasing Hijack, the baddy that nobody gives a shit about anymore?

I think her actually attaining a doctor's degree while not rejecting her culture in which female education is punishable by death at it's worst and seen as a monkey riding a bicycle at it's best is more contradictory than her using innate powers that are also punishable by death in her culture.

No one gave a shit about Hijack to begin with. He's a random bad guy who should have been dealt with in the space of a few pages but his storyline is stretched like he's a major villain.

>"chapter 4, which will probably be the longest chapter of paranatural"

you have two pages to wrap this shit up zackary

I remember reading this page thinking "Thank goodness the first EXHAUSTING ordeal is over, we're gonna have some breathers and let all this new load of information (Suzy's blackmail plan, Johnny's nerd-hunting plan, Max & Isaac's Johnny-evading plan etc) sink in and everything will run smoothly until the next challenge comes..."

And then later on Max comes and screws up his investigation plan against the Consortium within Isaac's ears (!), the agents are stuck in Mayview and I get frustratedly mad again. Good times.

I don't know what Zack plans for him, but I sure hope he isn't just a small time villain. Not after Dodgeball, or the everything else in this long ass, badly paced chapter.

>morbidly obese spy

>her culture in which female education is punishable by death at it's worst and seen as a monkey riding a bicycle
? [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Iran#Women_in_education ]

>her using innate powers that are also punishable by death in her culture.
1. first off, it's...
>punishable by death in her religion

2. I don't remember reading something like her practices having the same convictions + punishment as say, apostasy as far I know. (Maybe there is somewhere, but I don't know where to find it ATM.) The closest thing we have is it = shirk = being an unforgivable sin in her faith.

There's no romance for the kids. When people saw the two girls and started shipping them immediately and got all "I LOVE THESE LESBIANS" Zack pointed out that they were not a couple, just cute friends. Cody's gay but he's not going to end up with anyone because he's 12, same as the rest of the middle school cast. We might get 1 or 2 relationships by the end of the series, but they will be adults. Zack hasn't changed his stance on this or indicated that it's going to change.

Less that it was poorly shown, and more that there was no way to convince even the most thick headed fans until he blatantly said it. It was something that frustrated him, especially with his friends writing gay characters with fanbases who keep insisting there's nothing gay going on (Cucumber Quest fans especially). That's likely the reason He had Patchworm blatantly point out that Zarei is gay in case you didn't catch it, and people are losing their shit over it like it means something more than "I like a different flavor of ice cream" in a comic about ghost busting.

Day investigated enough about Zarei that even Zarei was surprised how much Day could dig up. Pretty sure she could also find out Zarei was gay and purposefully flirt or twist Zarei's words into a flirt to fluster her.

So.. to sum up on those last pages, i think we can all agree that:
1. it is kind of forced how Zarei is exposing her plans, considering that entire line with her spirit doesn't really need to happen
2. a gay muslim is very, very weird. The way how this is revealed in a needless conversation is even worst, but i can see how this 'helps' the plot.
3. there is nothing wrong or out of character in how Day is trying to flirt here, but its questionable how she even knows Zarei is into that stuff.
4. Zarei is completely changed compared to how she was when first introduced

Did you guys noticed how Zarei is the one 'sounding red' now?

>Zack hasn't changed his stance on this or indicated that it's going to change.

I hate to tell you this, but apparently down the grapevine...

Zarei doesn't looks like the kind to tell others about her sexuality. It might be explainable, but it's just so unlikely that Day would know that.

Zarei and Day have never met, and I'm pretty sure no one had the chance to tell Zarei "btw, she can see through her spirit talking to her" considering the only one to talk to her about last night was Isabel, albeit unwillingly. And pretty sure blind spectrals are not that common when spectrals themselves aren't very common, so it is within the realm of possibility that Zarei doesn't know.

>2. a gay follower of a strict monotheism in a world where people take advantage of other powerful supernatural beings is very, very weird
FTFY.

>Cody's gay but he's not going to end up with anyone because he's 12
the thing is, then why even reveal it if you're not going to use it? why put a gay kids couple in one scene?

also as said Zack did retract on the whole 'no romance' thing. Perhaps he has new plans, we can only hope he gets better at doing it.

First, probably because most spectrals are aware they should do all their talking in as private a place as possible (pretty sure there are other spirits who can overhear conversations out there without spectrals, but who knows), and Zarei feels forced to do it under the table even though Day is there.

Secondly, most conversations take like less than 5 seconds it seems, so the chances of slipping in and hearing things without your own spirit talking over them or missing what they're saying is probably difficult. Even Day missed all the beginning stuff. Luckily for her it was Zarei arguing about how not flustered she was.

Still either it's more "Zack conveniently leaving out clues to what Zarei is working on until 200 more pages dripfeeds us another clue" or Zarei is being purposefully vague in case this happens to not royally screw herself.

We literally don't know how common spirit eavesdropping is. If it's common, Zarei likely expects it. If it's not, it makes sense that she thinks she can get away with it.

>Oh look the black character

racist much?

>people are losing their shit over it like it means something more than "I like a different flavor of ice cream" in a comic about ghost busting
discussing sexuality is different than a flavor of ice cream. It changes a lot on how we view a character, as it should.

Actually, the wrong way to go about it is to mention sexuality and not use it at all when in reality we know the struggle. Even a characteristic as small as the color of the skin should change a character. It changes his household, it changes his circle of friends, his culture, taste, everything. This shouldn't be different for any trait: is a male character considered good looking? then that also impacts his confidence, girls will be around him more often, etc. Is he a 12 years old gay character? so he is most likely struggling with his sexuality, is afraid of what other people think, have a small group of friends and tries not to stand out.

Of course that's not a rule but even if an exception, it should be shown as such. Because showing those things is what makes a character interesting. I don't think anyone is against 'gay in comics' around here. People are against the superficial way they are shown.

I've seen that fan before, and I'm pretty sure Zack has done his best to wash his hands of them as neatly as possible. He freaked when they wrote some fanfics and made some art of the kids, and I remember him telling them to chill when they kept messaging him everytime Max and Issac were in the same scene.

Also they were his "favorite fan" in their own words who kept saying they knew shit that was going to happen because they were totes friends with Zack.

So maybe they know or read something where Zack said that, but I'm not really going to trust their word given how batshit they've been.

god is not the same as the other supernatural beings. There is nothing wrong in accepting both. Nowhere in her religion it is said that those beings don't exist, i believe.

No wait, we have a original source...not so grapevine-y anymore.

Pretty sure the gay kid's couple was just a play on a card player having his woman sit on his lap while playing cards, only making them both girls to not only provide the twist on the convention, but also to avoid "boy and girl getting uncomfortably close" for the people who will immediately think of children and sex.

Is his mission complete yet?

Romance, not specifically with kids though.

It depends on the intention of the story, if the story is supposed to highlight the struggle of being a minority group, then having a more realistic take on sexualities and home life and that is good. But comics can also be diverse for the sake of normalizing minorities. Not every story with a gay character has to have them go through THE STRUGGLE and have to deal with coming out, fearing their parents, friends, classmates, coworkers, etc.

It can be tiring to read only that. A comic that has gay characters and doesn't have characters make a big deal over it is something that makes people feel like there will be a time when there isn't a struggle to fit in, and that there's a form of entertainment that doesn't have to talk about how much it sucks to be gay surrounded by people who hate you.

Paranatural is most likely the latter, taking the approach of a world without racism, sexism, bigotry (about the worst we got was Johnny calling Cody a pansy in the first clue in that Cody was gay, which is nothing), whatever because it's not the focus of the story. I get why people say "why are they there" but a lot of people see themselves in comics, and it's nice themselves back at being 12 and coming to terms with being gay in an environment that's scary, and see Cody being accepted and be happy for him. Pretty sure most of you guys could easily identify with Max, it's probably the reason you stuck with the comic.

Anyways, it may not be realistic that everyone is nice to the gay characters and everything, but this is also a comic where ghosts help humans fight other ghosts for a pajama wearing group of ghostbusters, and cold nachos are a thing. Realism isn't the intended end goal here.

Did those guys with sunglasses in the back seem suspicious to anyone else?

>Waaah! Why is Day a hyper competent mary sue?!

>Waaah! Why isn't Zarei a hyper competent mary sue?!

Exactly.

No. Clearly Zack thinks all of Cred Forums is Cred Forums.

>He freaked when they wrote some fanfics and made some art of the kids
I thought he kinda embraced it? I remember when people linked him to some Johnny x Isaac fanart in the Disqus comments, he was pretty cool with it.

>I remember him telling them to chill when they kept messaging him everytime Max and Issac were in the same scene.
You mean like the infamous Ch 5 Pages 24-25, where everybody lost their heads over what was pretty much typical kid quarelling?

>Also they were his "favorite fan" in their own words who kept saying they knew shit that was going to happen because they were totes friends with Zack.
Strong obsession there, I'll say.

He takes a lot in stride, but I remember this fan asking him a lot of questions for their fanfics/fanart that made him uncomfortable. I don't think shipping itself makes him upset, but rather the overboard and obsessive shipping. Plus this fan wanted Issax or whatever they called it to be canon and constantly messaged about it. I remember them freaking out that Zack hated them when he told them to chill once, then after that I guess it was a "misunderstanding" and they went back to being obsessive.

Don't know when I really noticed all of this. It was late chapter 3, early chapter 4 when most of it happened. I remember seeing updates on twitter and they'd be tweeting him to check his asks on tumblr or approve of their latest work.

Was probably Zack's first super fan which made it hard to deal with.

>about the worst we got was Johnny calling Cody a pansy in the first clue in that Cody was gay

I always thought that remark was Johnny reacting to Cody trying to help Max and play the peace maker between them, because "making peace is for sissies, real boys fight."

Yeah, but Muslims believe that their God is supposed to be the Almighty and Magnificent, unmatched by anyone and unequal to any of his Creations, and they should rely only on Him as the sole "Provider" WITH NO INTERMEDIATES OR ALLIES, something like that.

You got the 'influence' bit the wrong way round, they'd have little real-world effect but Zack would probably lose any sleep he had left

Considering her spirit, it really wouldn't surprise me if she actually does have a functional gaydar.

>comics can also be diverse for the sake of normalizing minorities
but why? it just sounds like stating the obvious, or actually treating it in a 'i like ice cream' form; treading on the entire issue. Even if you don't plan on addressing all the struggle directly, why put there if you're not going to use it? it's not just some sort of realism, it can actually be an interesting point. Think of Him in powerpuff girls; he is gay as hell and that is what made him such an interesting character.

There is a good webcomic called "Go get a roomie". entirely focused on LGBT characters that almost never talks about any kind of struggle they have (i believe only 2-3 strips EVER), and still shows a lot of their lifestyle and mannerisms to be entertaining for years now. So to put it simply, it's not necessarily wrong to state a character's sexuality, but it is useless to do just that. As you say: "for the sake of normalizing it".

Plus asking Max not to fall in love with her and looking worried.

>and they should rely only on Him as the sole "Provider" WITH NO INTERMEDIATES OR ALLIES
like, a parent or something?

The dakimura seemed to be when he lost his shit.

It was shown in previous pages that they're Zarei's colleagues, who are spying on their meeting.

All spirit worlds are pretty.

I know Zack said it wouldn't happen but I'm real disappointed that when two trances happen close together the worlds don't overlap.

This is a good page.

Like farmers pray to Him directly so He could rain their crops and make them grow well until they bear fruit, and voila, He'll give them rain and He'll make the harvest good. No need for some fancy burning of offerings no need for elaborate ceremonies or whatever. No dedicated god of rain, goddess of livestock or whatzits, just Him.

(As my memory of Religious Studies from years ago serves me right among other things...I'm pretty much a layman, with no additional experience studying stuff like this. Maybe you should see someone more qualified + verified just to be sure.

...I can't believe this is the second time I'm writing about religion on a freaking webcomic thread.)

spirits are literally tools/animals. It's like saying that if you're muslim, you can't use animals to do a job, or use a broom to wipe the floor. Using God as the 'sole provider' is hardly something that should be taken in general. As i said, you couldn't count on your parents to feed you if that was true.

Personally I've always found polytheism more interesting, since you then end up with those weird-ass stories about what they all got up to with each other (e.g. getting tied to rocks to have their livers eaten for eternity, getting hung in the sky to turn into constellations etc.)

here damn double posts, happens to me sometimes.

>Zack pointed out that they were not a couple, just cute friends.

'placeholder gays' doesn't mean 'cute friends'. Are you talking about different lesbians.

No, the fan remains retarded and twisting Zack's words. We already knew Spender is not single.

>I remember them freaking out that Zack hated them when he told them to chill once, then after that I guess it was a "misunderstanding" and they went back to being obsessive.

What were his exact words?

And what's with blanking out the twitter usernames, screencap guy.

twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=from:paranaturalzack chill&src=typd

I forgot words. Sorry I had to delete them...

>As i said, you couldn't count on your parents to feed you if that was true.
Ah, so that's how it's meant. I should've asked for clarification, sorry.

I just realised I don't even know what I'm writing about. There was this comic I remembered that would've explained better:
One guy prayed to God so that he would have a house that would provide a comfortable shelter. Then he did his effort by gathering enough building materials like cement, bricks and wood; and with some expertise that he learned, he built them until he had a strong house. He was greatful that dream had came true.

Another guy prayed the same thing...and did absolute nothing, just lying lazying on the bench. He eventually got upset that his own prayer didn't came true.

I hope that example might help.

(Good grief, I'll think I better stop now before I somehow write any weird off-topic bullshit in the middle of the night...you anons better get someone who really knows his stuff well, you dig?)

>"My regressive, bronze age religion of ignorance is totally cool guys!"
>"H-here, I'll give you this totally unbiased and accurate article from Wikipedia!"
Also
>Iranian "education"
lol

Whoops, I mean:
>you anons better find someone who really knows his stuff very well and everyone else approves of the stuff he knows about, you dig?

I don't wanna delete posts again, it's too bothersome.

Because you said "her culture" and I took it to mean that.

Culture =/= religion. Yeah, culture may be influenced by religion (no need to look further than proverbs in Christian origin in the English language)...but there should be like some line we should draw at to differentiate or something.

>"H-here, I'll give you this totally unbiased and accurate article from Wikipedia!"
I too am not trusting too much on Wikipedia. But I don't know where else to find about the topic you're asking, so I direct you there as some of starting point. Also, it's Cred Forums. I'd probably write some sort of comprehensive thesis but I don't know if it'll make it past the character limit / bump limit (time taken before thread gets archived).

Can we go back to talking about this pitch dripping of a comic now?

But I heard here on 4ch he made peace with the artist or something.

lmao what the fuck i went to click on the tweet and he's blocked me???

i've never tweeted at him???

But that was what we were talking about. Zack is a hack — he wrote a ridiculous character: a muslim woman who has attained higher education and is practicing witchcraft and yet didn't think it prudent to throw islam into the bin.

I'm hoping Day's spirit is malevolent, like Isaac's- somebody blind bluffing and having to rely on an evil spirit for information on everything around them, trading favors for slight edges with it seems like a really cool character concept

I dunno man, I take it as a compliment when dudes like me. Makes me feel attractive

Gr8 b8

>smiting those who have it coming
>malevolent

It's really not that hard to deduce how it will work based on their knowledge of how spirits operate when they inhabit tools.

Which Zack has actually done a really bad job of establishing. We've had Isaac's spirit complain about having to use Isaac's nose to smell, which suggest that spirits leeching off of Spectrals have to rely on the senses of their hosts. But if that was the case then Day's spirit would be as blind as she is.

More pertinently though this doesn't just concern Zarei, it concerns all of them. Including Day herself. I mean look at the image I posted. Are we to assume then that she actually does know about Spender's shadow spirit then? After all if she can have her spirit inform her of what she couldn't see then her question would count as her playing dumb.

That's a pretty serious problem actually, since I imagine Day's knowledge of Spender's shadow spirit is going to be critical to the plot. It's bad enough wondering why the other Spectrals don't realise that her spirit can see for her, let along wondering whether Zack's realised he's potentially left a huge plot hole if he truly intends Day to not know about Spender's spirit yet.

It's possible the spirit only gets to see the real world through its own senses when communion is active.

I think he sent it over tumblr or DM'd on twitter. It wasn't public, I just remember their fan blog blowing up over making Zack upset and turning it into a "I CAN'T BELIEVE I HURT PARANATURAL ;-;" drama shit.

So basically it's not a believable character.

Mighty storm god looks a lot like party god from Regular Show

Only got into this comic recently so I have to ask, are all the threads usually a giant flame war about one thing or another or is that a more recent development?

>alt right views are entirely pol and not largely considered the default for Cred Forums
you sound like reddit
go back to tumblr you degenerate

A few thoughts on the matter:

1. Regular Spectrals and Mediums handle spirits differently. Issac being a medium means that his spirit is entirely tied to his senses, not allowing him to see, smell, etc. for himself.

2. We know tools can't hear or see anything if the spectral isn't holding them. That's why spender took Max's bat from him to talk to him, and why he doesn't trust Issac. There is no off mode for spirits listening in if you are a medium. Day is a tool using Spectral, unless she is yet another adult who is a medium and a tool-user, which kill me now if she is. The spirit can only see for her if she is physically touching the tool, giving it spirit energy. Yet she can go into spirit trance from a distance as long as she can communicate with her tool (Like Isabel when Eightfold fell out of the train). In this case she's still relying on her senses to listen in, but can call upon the spirit to look for her, not sure what they'd see though. Dunno if tool spirits are visible when trances happen.

3. If the spirit only has access to Day's senses AND their own senses when Day is touching the tool, then in this case, since her tool is on her lap, the spirit has all of those senses at its disposal.

But when Spender's shadow spirit appeared she was behind him and he knocked her over, and when he went to go give her a hand to stand up, she did not have her tool in her hands. This leads me to think two things: that Day's spirit would not have access to their own senses after Day was separated from the tool and Day would only have her senses to go off (sight being impossibly bad and unable to see the shadow monster at night), and the only thing that Day's spirit could see was the moments leading up to Day being knocked over, in which the hole appeared and tentacles started to come out of Spender.

(Cont.)

(Cont.)
This leaves one line of questions unanswered that might (hopefully) be answered in this next scene. What is the range of movement that the spirit has on being able to see? Can it wander the room and get a different perspective? Does it see from the point of view of the tool? Or does it use Day's eyes but cannot convey that information directly, instead having to inform her of what it saw?

>degenerate
I wonder who could be behind this post.

Been like this since partly through chapter 4 atleast. Mostly started as pacing issues. Now everything's an issue.

It's only 'recent' if you've been in these threads since the beginning, but yeah the arguments have largely been about the artist/writer's political/social views.
Basically Cred Forums as usual.

A stone cold motherfucking (doctor) who keeps her cool regardless of how extreme the physical ailment in front of her is.

I'm such a spaz! I can't believe I accidentally talked about all my secrets in front of someone I want to hide them from for no reason! Lol

Because she's obviously in such a cool and collected state of mind as she's flailing her arms and panicking.

Zarei sure went to clinically stupid suddenly. Two pages ago she could have been mistaken for the smartest character in the comic. She approaching rock-level now.

Oh no! Now Day knows Zarei is gay!

Mina is finished!

Can't have heard that, only Patchworm said it.

Hey, you're right. How could Agent Day know Dr. Zarei is gay if she can't hear Patchworm blatantly state it.

Zack is a Hack.

It will never happen. I fucking wish but it won't ever happen. All of the artists he likes are on that super soft, pastel shitty style and that's where he's going to go.

Man looking back on the early pages it looks so much like something a young man would make. This new chapter is totally different in tone because of that.

Yeah you missed that. You're either not attentive or fucking retarded. I hate people like you who can't use simple fucking context clues.

You missed the golden period when everyone loved the comic. I'd suggest leaving these threads honestly. It's going to be all bitching from here on out.

Not disagreeing with you.

But I also hate that Zack cares enough about even the stupidest fan 'getting it' that he makes character outings as clunky as Zarei's just to be sure no one can misunderstand it.

Yeah that really sucks too.

It basically happened 3 years ago when the comic turned into an extended action scene that takes place over a period of 5 minutes.

>3 years ago
Baffling that you're actually true.

Man nothing will ever do an extended telling of a scene that happens in a short period of time as well as Hunter X Hunter does.

They're making an connection between two contemporary works, take it easy.