I mean, it’s not an assault, though? He wanted to get her off the stage. Not to, I dunno, do anything to her. Not saying he is right, because he was total jerk, but calling it an assault is big overstatement. Let’s not use big words without basis, that are ultimately empty. She literally assaulted him, though. She hit him in anger, that could even damage his body, like lost teeth etc.
…yes, it is? Grabbing someone is literally assault (or battery, depending on jurisdiction).
Did he want to drag her off the stage, or did he not want to do anything to her? Those can’t both be true, you need to pick one.
Not that it is at all relevant, as whether something is assault has nothing to do with whether you want to “do anything” to whoever you’re assaulting.
Crystalgate
As explained in the settings page, it’s Wisconsin who has jurisdiction over Lavael.
Some guy in the Midwest
While winters here in Wisconsin are no joke, OUR food desserts make people unhealthily overweight. Our winter produce prices are no good, and low income people have to resort to processed stuff — I can only imagine the cost of bloomrabi or firebeets in January/February.
It absolutely is assault. Even a single finger poke in the chest is legally assault. Grab a cop by the arm like that and see what you get charged with.
Yanking someone off of an elevated position can absolutely cause major physical harm. Falls are dangerous! And the assertion that “he just wanted to get her off the stage” is not supported by the events shown. It’s possible that was the case, but it’s just as possible it wasn’t!
(And he 100% committed both assault and battery in the modern legal sense.)
Oh, but he can throw her around? If he doesn’t like the performance, throw peanuts, not punches. (“But those don’t exist on Lavarel!” #48) Scarlet didn’t start it. And she didn’t gather any donations to travel to Millik, either. Mercy before justice? Justice doesn’t have a case against Scarlet.
Honestly, they both at fault here. You could make a case here for disturbing the peace and assault, but on the other hand he would also be slapped with incitement to violence, assault and battery. And considering first time offences and the partial ridiculousness of the situation, most cops I know would probably do the same here and just give them warnings or try and scare the crap out of them.
What nonsense. Considering that he is an adult man, and she a teenage girl, her only choice is to go in hard and fast. Otherwise, she will lose. Every Single Time.
The use of “beat up” implies she went quite a bit farther than just defending herself. And for the umpteenth time, modern cultural norms applied by a subset of North Americans or Europeans don’t necessarily apply to this fantasy comic.
A lot of people seem to apply modern rules to Lavael. Let’s go back say a hundred years in time and consider something called corporal punishment. If a child back then did something that by the community is agreed to be bad, an adult, even one who is not a legal guardian of the child, could administer corporal punishment to said child. You steal apples from your neighbor, said neighbor can give you a good spanking. It would not have been considered assault. What we have here though is something milder, Scarlet made ridiculous claims and also insulted an adult and said adult then tried to remove her. It is unlikely that Lavael’s court would consider the actions of said adult assault and as such, Scarlet can not legally defend herself.
Well said. Even if this “was” Earth, in the more relevant cultural setting you’d be absolutely right. It’d be like getting upset about a depiction of child labor or lack of women’s suffrage in the 1800s. Sure, we don’t want that now, but it’s nonsensical to apply today’s standards to those people, especially in a fictional work set in such a context.
It should be noted that there was no age one legally became an adult. And punishing others’ kids wasn’t a protected right. It was more like: they could do that, it was considered useful, so nobody made a fuss. This, of course, hinges on the adult being physically capable of catching and punishing the kid. At the age when a kid could give a sound beating to an adult, nobody would be considering him or her a kid anymore.
Novil, a couple notes on English slang. I don’t feel like “sucker” is strong enough for “Mistkerl” in the German version. Not only is it normally used for non-human things in my North American experience (for example, after a wasp attack, “that sucker stung me!”), it doesn’t really carry an inherently negative tone, it’s mostly just slang for “that thing”. For example, it can also be used neutrally or positively (for example “look at this moth, that sucker is huge!”. I feel like a closer approximation to Mistkerl would be “b@st@rd”, “@sshole”, or even “sh*thead” (not sure what bad words this system will let me post), and it would fit Scarlet’s outraged tone better. If you don’t want to curse in English (though I think you have before), even “jerk” would be more fitting.
Also, while “headwinds” is definitely the closest translation to “Gegenwind” and can be used in the context of facing opposition, I think a native speaker would be more likely to use “pushback” in this context. Headwinds usually applies more in a general sense, for example “the company will face headwinds in this new economic environment” whereas “the politician faced pushback over their new proposals” implies direct opposition from other people.
Love the comic and thanks for your careful and steady work in presenting it to us!
Personally I’d go with ‘jerk’ for ‘mistkerl’ and ‘opposition’ for ‘gegenwind’ here. I don’t think it’s bad, maybe a bit unusual phrasing. But Laravel is a different world after all.
Also: None of the people except scarlet in the market scene was tagged. The officer is…
The situation was not entirely clear. The verdict depends on legal norms, customs and judgment.
Here the case did not reach the court, it remained in the administrative procedure.
The man may be guilty because he roughly grabbed her arm and started pulling her, which could be dangerous if she fell.
However, he is also careless: he is standing on a pedestal, so he could fall if they start pushing each other.
Her blow, on the other hand, would, in my opinion, be punishable as “exceeding necessary defense” in the judiciary of my country.
But Scarlet must be aware, as the police officer says, that such reactions are to be expected. She must think about a strategy for convincing people of her prophetic mission.
We saw six-year-old Scarlet doing push-ups (SFOS#015) and practicing shooting a gun. We did not see, but it is logical to assume that she also practiced bare-handed fighting. A 13-year-old girl can throw a prety strong punch, but she is not a superhero.
All I can hope is the police will give a harsh warning to the Mistkerl merchant that one can strongly disagree with what someone says but it’s not allowable to grab children because you don’t like what they say – though I doubt it will happen. I’m curious to see what Tibor will say to her and what her new friends think. From what Novil has written, I think Vreni will last as a friend. Scarlet needs one.
The man and Scarlet will both continue to exist and occasionally see each other. Especially as he’s at the market and she may need food from there. So either they’ll manage to show each other respect after all this or she has to move. And she’s probably the talk of the town for a while…
I’m sure the produce stand guy phrased it as her going crazy and clocking him for telling her to shut up, and made no mention of his initial assault and battery.
At (almost) any time in history (and nowadays universally) is understood that responses *must* be proportional, unless it s clear a stronger attack is coming and you want to prevent it. The guy only wanted to expel Scarlet, which is in itself a minor aggression, Scarlet escalated. No doubt about it. The police officer is very clear. Scarlet lost control of herself, it’s something that was hinted before in some scenes, but this time is a total lost with very poor justification (the guy in fact is pretty inoffensive and mostly stupid and rude).
She did give him a warning. Which he chose to ignore. People have been killed without a warning (if assault is already in progress, you don’t need to warn first) in similar situations and courts have on occasions considered that justified.
Are you really telling me that grabbing her arm deserves such a blow? Then, when the shop I go to buy milk briks raises the price from €1 to €1.05 the sensible thing is burning everything to the ground with flamethrowers. I warned them and now they learned the lesson.
27 thoughts on “Machine Girl 014”
David D.
“Expect some headwinds” is a lot different than getting assaulted. It says nothing good that she expects to be punished for being assaulted.
Kitsune
I mean, it’s not an assault, though? He wanted to get her off the stage. Not to, I dunno, do anything to her. Not saying he is right, because he was total jerk, but calling it an assault is big overstatement. Let’s not use big words without basis, that are ultimately empty. She literally assaulted him, though. She hit him in anger, that could even damage his body, like lost teeth etc.
FM-96
…yes, it is? Grabbing someone is literally assault (or battery, depending on jurisdiction).
Did he want to drag her off the stage, or did he not want to do anything to her? Those can’t both be true, you need to pick one.
Not that it is at all relevant, as whether something is assault has nothing to do with whether you want to “do anything” to whoever you’re assaulting.
Crystalgate
As explained in the settings page, it’s Wisconsin who has jurisdiction over Lavael.
Some guy in the Midwest
While winters here in Wisconsin are no joke, OUR food desserts make people unhealthily overweight. Our winter produce prices are no good, and low income people have to resort to processed stuff — I can only imagine the cost of bloomrabi or firebeets in January/February.
Chuck
It absolutely is assault. Even a single finger poke in the chest is legally assault. Grab a cop by the arm like that and see what you get charged with.
Somdudewillson
Yanking someone off of an elevated position can absolutely cause major physical harm. Falls are dangerous! And the assertion that “he just wanted to get her off the stage” is not supported by the events shown. It’s possible that was the case, but it’s just as possible it wasn’t!
(And he 100% committed both assault and battery in the modern legal sense.)
Somdudewillson
(This was a reply to Kitsune but the site bugged out I guess.)
Vicious Sand
Oh, but he can throw her around? If he doesn’t like the performance, throw peanuts, not punches. (“But those don’t exist on Lavarel!” #48) Scarlet didn’t start it. And she didn’t gather any donations to travel to Millik, either. Mercy before justice? Justice doesn’t have a case against Scarlet.
Thanatos
Honestly, they both at fault here. You could make a case here for disturbing the peace and assault, but on the other hand he would also be slapped with incitement to violence, assault and battery. And considering first time offences and the partial ridiculousness of the situation, most cops I know would probably do the same here and just give them warnings or try and scare the crap out of them.
Eternal
Wait, what did she do wrong here? He grabbed her so it should be considered self-defense under most laws
Owen Smith
She escalated so responded with inappropriate level of force. It depends on your jurisdiction what is legal as self defence.
Markus
What nonsense. Considering that he is an adult man, and she a teenage girl, her only choice is to go in hard and fast. Otherwise, she will lose. Every Single Time.
ME
The use of “beat up” implies she went quite a bit farther than just defending herself. And for the umpteenth time, modern cultural norms applied by a subset of North Americans or Europeans don’t necessarily apply to this fantasy comic.
Crystalgate
A lot of people seem to apply modern rules to Lavael. Let’s go back say a hundred years in time and consider something called corporal punishment. If a child back then did something that by the community is agreed to be bad, an adult, even one who is not a legal guardian of the child, could administer corporal punishment to said child. You steal apples from your neighbor, said neighbor can give you a good spanking. It would not have been considered assault. What we have here though is something milder, Scarlet made ridiculous claims and also insulted an adult and said adult then tried to remove her. It is unlikely that Lavael’s court would consider the actions of said adult assault and as such, Scarlet can not legally defend herself.
ME
Well said. Even if this “was” Earth, in the more relevant cultural setting you’d be absolutely right. It’d be like getting upset about a depiction of child labor or lack of women’s suffrage in the 1800s. Sure, we don’t want that now, but it’s nonsensical to apply today’s standards to those people, especially in a fictional work set in such a context.
Tadrix
It should be noted that there was no age one legally became an adult. And punishing others’ kids wasn’t a protected right. It was more like: they could do that, it was considered useful, so nobody made a fuss. This, of course, hinges on the adult being physically capable of catching and punishing the kid. At the age when a kid could give a sound beating to an adult, nobody would be considering him or her a kid anymore.
ME
Novil, a couple notes on English slang. I don’t feel like “sucker” is strong enough for “Mistkerl” in the German version. Not only is it normally used for non-human things in my North American experience (for example, after a wasp attack, “that sucker stung me!”), it doesn’t really carry an inherently negative tone, it’s mostly just slang for “that thing”. For example, it can also be used neutrally or positively (for example “look at this moth, that sucker is huge!”. I feel like a closer approximation to Mistkerl would be “b@st@rd”, “@sshole”, or even “sh*thead” (not sure what bad words this system will let me post), and it would fit Scarlet’s outraged tone better. If you don’t want to curse in English (though I think you have before), even “jerk” would be more fitting.
Also, while “headwinds” is definitely the closest translation to “Gegenwind” and can be used in the context of facing opposition, I think a native speaker would be more likely to use “pushback” in this context. Headwinds usually applies more in a general sense, for example “the company will face headwinds in this new economic environment” whereas “the politician faced pushback over their new proposals” implies direct opposition from other people.
Love the comic and thanks for your careful and steady work in presenting it to us!
'phoon
Personally I’d go with ‘jerk’ for ‘mistkerl’ and ‘opposition’ for ‘gegenwind’ here. I don’t think it’s bad, maybe a bit unusual phrasing. But Laravel is a different world after all.
Also: None of the people except scarlet in the market scene was tagged. The officer is…
Hegel-Marx
The situation was not entirely clear. The verdict depends on legal norms, customs and judgment.
Here the case did not reach the court, it remained in the administrative procedure.
The man may be guilty because he roughly grabbed her arm and started pulling her, which could be dangerous if she fell.
However, he is also careless: he is standing on a pedestal, so he could fall if they start pushing each other.
Her blow, on the other hand, would, in my opinion, be punishable as “exceeding necessary defense” in the judiciary of my country.
But Scarlet must be aware, as the police officer says, that such reactions are to be expected. She must think about a strategy for convincing people of her prophetic mission.
We saw six-year-old Scarlet doing push-ups (SFOS#015) and practicing shooting a gun. We did not see, but it is logical to assume that she also practiced bare-handed fighting. A 13-year-old girl can throw a prety strong punch, but she is not a superhero.
Jude
All I can hope is the police will give a harsh warning to the Mistkerl merchant that one can strongly disagree with what someone says but it’s not allowable to grab children because you don’t like what they say – though I doubt it will happen. I’m curious to see what Tibor will say to her and what her new friends think. From what Novil has written, I think Vreni will last as a friend. Scarlet needs one.
ToBeFree
The man and Scarlet will both continue to exist and occasionally see each other. Especially as he’s at the market and she may need food from there. So either they’ll manage to show each other respect after all this or she has to move. And she’s probably the talk of the town for a while…
doclbn
Being the talk of the town might prove helpful in the end…
The_Pink_Spartan
I’m sure the produce stand guy phrased it as her going crazy and clocking him for telling her to shut up, and made no mention of his initial assault and battery.
Poyntre
At (almost) any time in history (and nowadays universally) is understood that responses *must* be proportional, unless it s clear a stronger attack is coming and you want to prevent it. The guy only wanted to expel Scarlet, which is in itself a minor aggression, Scarlet escalated. No doubt about it. The police officer is very clear. Scarlet lost control of herself, it’s something that was hinted before in some scenes, but this time is a total lost with very poor justification (the guy in fact is pretty inoffensive and mostly stupid and rude).
Tadrix
She did give him a warning. Which he chose to ignore. People have been killed without a warning (if assault is already in progress, you don’t need to warn first) in similar situations and courts have on occasions considered that justified.
Poyntre
Are you really telling me that grabbing her arm deserves such a blow? Then, when the shop I go to buy milk briks raises the price from €1 to €1.05 the sensible thing is burning everything to the ground with flamethrowers. I warned them and now they learned the lesson.
Characters
Ariana Carolus Athamas Baako Bolin Clara Graybold Cyril Darius Leyh Elwin Flammt Evelina Ferrus Gale Nenawa Gavin Carolus Iona Jehona Shardyk Julius Mirkning Kala Silverspring Kenan Orege King Protos Lauro Levon Goldwood Leyton Wayt Ludis Graybold Luitpold Marik Marton Princess Elodie Raymond Reto Mirkning Reva Rodar Rosetta Greenleaf Scarlet Carolus Severin Silvana Mirkning Tibor Frey Vidal Viola Vreni Xaver Yerim Zach Ilkin