![[0064] Some People Just Want To See The World Burn](/comics/2009-06-01-[0064]-some-people-just-want-to-see-the-world-burn.png "[0064] Some People Just Want To See The World Burn")
The current story arc started with this strip: Addicted.
This excerpt from the Cast page should explain Larisa’s strange behavior:
Larisa Korolev is […] a prime example of the chaotic neutral alignment of various roleplaying game systems and likes to set inanimate objects on fire.
- Principal: You need to understand that blah blah blah blah blah prevention blah blah blah blah blah
- Principal: Blah blah social responsibility blah blah blah blah blah blah Mexican drug cartels blah blah blah blah… uhm, what the…
- Principal: ……
- Principal: I know you’re going through a difficult phase, but setting the school on fire won’t solve your drug problem.
- Larisa: Darn! Such a pretty bonfire. Ruined.
|
Larisa FTW.
Larisa is so happily broken. Insulin “addiction” or no, minor pyromania is fun.
Also, the distinctly lighter reactions of the Principal are balancing out the sheer stupidity of his behaviour, so it’s all good and I have fewer problems with this arc than before. 😀
[checks the cast page] Um…..no, I still don’t get it. Why bother making a fire right in the principal’s office? It doesn’t provide a sufficient distraction, or amnesia to the previous problem.
the lighter is the one he used to light his cig with. I think she was trying to make a point.
She’s burning the teacher’s report, which is presumably intended to eliminate the paper trail.
She’s also setting off the fire alarm, which “by the rules” should interrupt this little chat session.
I myself am Chaotic Good, I like making paladins falter and lose all their holy abilities 😀
Sometimes one just needs to de-stress.
@Zidane: I’m pretty sure that making a paladin fall (at least in 3.5) would be considered an Evil act.
Hi there, long time reader this is my first post however. Liking the strip so far.
Also to add into the D&D conversation while I would agree that it would be a Evil act to make a paladin fall from Zidane’s description of it the motives were more along the lines of a Chaotic Neutral(entertainment) than a specifically Evil character.
Personally, I think she’s suffering from a temporary mental breakdown triggered by direct exposure to non-cognitive bureaucratization dementia. But then, what do I know. I’m only a teacher.
There’s also the amusing reference, in the first panel, to the old phrase: “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
Bad water
So very precocious.
Also, ‘setting things on fire’ is the best tag, ever.
A visual explanation of alignments.
http://www.rhjunior.com/GH/00058.html
…..I didn’t think you meant LITERALLY!!
shini: reminds of the “not being on fire” fan site on facebook 😀
this strip made me lol quite nicely. that’s about as high a praise as i can heap on anything. love the expressions and the idea of “i’m probably in about as much trouble as i possibly can be already, so…”
i’m interested to see how this resolves … Larisa’s parents raining fire on the school once she gets home and says what’s happened (or is escorted back by the principal even), her collapsing from hypoglycaemia and the doctors raining fire when they take her to hospital, Larisa herself (or her + other kids (+ woo?)) resolving it in some chaotic manner, or secret option D?
And, let’s face it, if she’s ever challenged, she can just say that after a several-hour lecture, she really needed more insulin, but it had been taken from her, and she was desperate.
However the interpretation, I find this a rather interesting plot twist, veering off from a potentially long and possibly numbing series of strips that just pound the subject into the ground.
Oh God! I wish she was my little sister now! I’d cuddle her all day! SO FRICKIN’ ADORABLE!
@The Riot: Careful or she’ll set fire to the clothes on your back.
I’m reminded of a Sunday “Shoe” from long ago. A customer said he’d sue Flo when the coffee she served stained his shirt. She promptly hit him with a pan, explaining to Cosmo that she’d rather be sued for something more worthwhile.
I not she very responsibly put it in the mental trash basket, which is better than I did at her age.
I think her actions are being over-thought. Sometimes a fire is just a fire 😉
Also, this is a kid I’d happily bring up as my own XD
Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three rights make a left? 🙂 I guess if you’re going to go out, do it in a blaze of glory? Or maybe just a blaze? …except when the sprinklers engage…
NOW we’re getting somewhere! Burn! BURN!!! BURN TO ASH AND BONE~! ]:->
Setting things on fire-a great solution to any problem.
Hmmmm…
You seem to really like that Chaotic Neutral alighnment…
Isn’t that like, half your charecters?
I mean, the principle is lawful evil, and Sandra is neutral good (I think)… but there isn’t much in the way of anything else.
Oh, and shadow is lawful good pretty much.
You’ll win at ARSON!!! <— quote from powerthirst
arson ftw
@Tahrey: Not being on fire fansite on Facebook, huh? Checking now…
This just became the way I resolve ALL my awkward moments.
…and there are a lot of them.
Setting things on fire can’t possibly lead to good things. Certainly isn’t going to convince the principal that she’s less drug-crazed.
@Tom:
Reminds me of a useless related lawsuit story behind why throw away coffee cups say, “Caution! Hot!” Seems a woman went to some fast food joint, ordered coffee, and then got burnt after sipping from the hot beverage. She sued for the pain and damage the drink did, caused by her own actions. I don’t remember if she actually won or not. Still…I sometimes think that every idiotic lawsuit that loses should come at the cost of a counter-lawsuit. One for the waste of time it caused.
Funny, this reminds me of a rather droning conversation I had with one of my quasi-superior coworkers.
Larisa is my new hero.
@jup-reindeer:
Liebeck v. McDonalds? Balanced a cup of coffee between her knees and pulled the lid off towards herself, then sat in the resultant pool of 180F (~80C) liquid for 90 seconds. Original award was for like 2.6 mill but got knocked down to 640k. Other court cases have found the temperature they served the coffee at to be safe, and the frakking National Coffee Association even recommends storing brewed coffee at that temperature.
Really, if I ever spilled something that hot on my lap, in a car, I would be out of that seat with my pants off in a heartbeat, no matter how fast it was going at the time.
Not being on fire fansite on facebook –
– probably funnier if you’ve never seen someone actually on fire =/
@jup-reindeer &
@Shini
Yes, the woman took what is basically a paper cup full of coffee, stuck it between her legs, pulled off the lid, and got surprised as all hell when (a) the cup collapsed between her legs, and (2) she found out that hot coffee is… hot. Then, because she did something stupid that caused her to get injured, she very wisely sued MacDonalds for serving her coffee and not warning her that it was hot.
Personally, if I’d been that judge, I would have said, “Okay, wait. You did *what*? and then you got burned because of something *you* did to yourself? Right. Case dismissed,” and then fined her for wasting the court’s time and the taxpayers’ money.
Unfortunately, our court system is full of such nonsense, including the guy who sued MacDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s because they made him fat. (rolls eyes)
What’s that principal talking about? Fire *always* makes everything better!
Ah, dihydrogen monoxide, my old nemesis. We meet again!
@Rhea:
Ugh. I remember hearing about that lawsuit. It should have settled out of court for a membership to a health club and/or liposuction, instead.
Ranks right up there with the guy that went to a historic tourist town and sued the whole town for having 100+ year old buildings (many of which are so old, the electric wiring is…or was their most up-to-date feature. Internal plumbing? Not even an option.) that were without handicap ramps. The entire town consists of independant owners that just made enough to eek out a living. (Perhaps, the gas station is the only corporate run place, there.) Over half the shops closed down over that lawsuit and I rather doubt the suer ever returned.
mmm… fire…
Why did you talk about the mexican drug cartels? I think they were far away from there.
BTW, I’m mexican.
@jup-reindeer:
Typical modern-day stupidity… :/
back on the topic of the strip, though: I *love* the look on Larisa’s face while she watches the trashcan burn. 🙂
Exactly what I would’ve done
RE: Coffe Lawsuit:
It’s very easy to say “wow, that was a frivolous lawsuit.” But it wasn’t. McDonalds rules required the restaurants to serve coffee at 190 degrees farenheight. That’s hot enough to instantly deliver third degree burns. Which she got. On her genitals. She needed reconstructive surgury. She asked McDonalds to make up the cost of it – twenty thousand dollars. Twenty thousand. Not millions. Twenty thousand. McDonalds offered her eight hundred bucks and basically told her to go to hell. So, she sued. During the trial it was revealed that the woman wasn’t the first to be injured in this way – she was just the first to sue. Thousands had been injured by this company policy, and hundreds of complaints had been received by the company. So, the jury awarded 2.7 million, which was later reduced on appeal to $640,000.
It never was a story of “Stupid Person Sues Corporation Frivolously.” It was a story of “Stupid Corporation Has Coffee Pots Set Hot Enough To Instantly Give Someone Third Degree Burns, Had Hundreds of Complaints and Thousands of Injury Reports, Ignored It, And Eventually Got Sued.”
…I’m not sure what got me more. How he escalated from aspirin to Mexican drug cartel. (How behind the times…doesn’t he know we blame Al Queda and Columbians for that stuff now?) Or how Larissa didn’t even wait for him to do the dramatic ‘look out of the window while you stare at my back because I’m too important to look at you’ pose to light up the report.
It may not be frivolous but it was inappropriate. Coffee is supposed to be hot. It’s for hygienic purposes. Not everyone drinks theirs right away, they like it to still be warm when they drink it.
This is why people put in milk or ice if they want to cool it down faster.
The woman should not have spilled it. She should have kept the lid closed and only opened it when she was not in a moving vehicle.
@ 321:
@ 321:
you seem to be seriously mistaken. 190 degree Fahrenheit coffee isnt hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns unless somebody sat in it (and it stayed that temperature) for at least 3-5 minutes, placing anything between your legs while driving, let alone hot liquid (and EVERYONE who drinks coffee knows every place that sells it, sells it that hot.) its a safety hazard, and actually can get you a ticket in California if your caught, cause its stupid, and can get you and others hurt.
BTW, I am an EMT, I have actually been first responder in situations where people have had third degree burns, And in my personal life has involved accidentally spilling boiling water on my hand (212 degrees) And I didn’t get 3rd degree burns, only second… I drink my tea right around 190 on a daily basis.
Anyone stupid enough to spill hot coffee they know is hot on their lap while driving with it between their legs instead of using a cup holder like every car made in the last 30 years comes with stock, doesn’t deserve a dime, but does deserve to have their junk burned.
And I am one of those people… *evil grin*
This comment is a few months after the previous one, but…
I didn’t want to set the world on fire…
@ 52BlueDragons:
This would also be a good reference:
http://www.darklegacycomics.com/264.html
Unsilenced wrote:
No, he’s not. There IS such a thing as Lawful Dumb, you know?
Or there should be… ^^