Fighting crippled women (25 May 2012)

[retrophrenologist]

And Rikk brings the smacktalk! I'm still thinking that he's trying to lure Bellhop/Solson into changing sides- and maybe succeeding...

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

I say "Good luck, Rikk" because Bellhop/Solson there has some seriously different morality and thinking, to be quite okay with two people his mother cares about getting killed just so "they can all be together."

[brasca]

And Rikk brings the smacktalk! I'm still thinking that he's trying to lure Bellhop/Solson into changing sides- and maybe succeeding...

Looks like the opposite to me. At first it appeared like he was switching sides and perhaps that's what he wanted Rikk to believe too, but I think the purpose in goading Wheaties to fight Di and doing nothing while this is going down is he wants Rikk dead in an accident that was "beyond his control." Rumy would never willingly leave if Rikk and Ally are still alive so his intent is to kill them off. Makes me wonder if he was really using the Hand all along.

Wonder where Jesse is right now. Maybe he was teleported to the island, but for that to happen they'd have to know where it is.

I'm probably alone on this, but I actually want Animal to rough Rikk up. He's too damn smug.

[Alice Macher]

I'm probably alone on this, but I actually want Animal to rough Rikk up. He's too damn smug.

Maybe that's what Rikk wants, too. Healing blood, remember?

[brasca]

I'm probably alone on this, but I actually want Animal to rough Rikk up. He's too damn smug.

Maybe that's what Rikk wants, too. Healing blood, remember?

If so he's never going to get any if he keeps dodging his attacks.

I'm still mulling over what Soulson has been thinking. It looks like he's setting up Rikk's demise, but I wonder how he plans on killing Ally. We didn't see Feddyg die. Suppose Soulson pulled him out of there and some holding dimension where he couldn't do any harm until needed. In one alternate history we see his reign of terror and think it was the result of AEGIS thinking they could work with him, but maybe he was rescued at the last minute by Soulson as one more card to play. If he was using the Hand of Justice to get his mother he was never really invested with their mission which is why he'd let Ult die and hasn't done much to aid the remaining cuckoos. Guth seemed to believe Soulson was an unwitting participant until it was too late, but maybe he got what he wanted in the end. We see Rumy broken, but maybe she didn't kill herself and with Rikk dead and Ally going into hiding she was too broken to resist going back to Soulson's home.

[sun tzu]

I'm probably alone on this, but I actually want Animal to rough Rikk up. He's too damn smug.

I'll count that as incident #238 of someone accusing Rikk of arrogance and me disagreeing.

[Twitcher]

I want Rikk to get socked for using the word "cripple", but, in fairness, if he must be socked, then so must Di, for using the word "moron." (fifties-era encyclopedia entries will make your brain BSOD.)

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

I want Rikk to get socked for using the word "cripple", but, in fairness, if he must be socked, then so must Di, for using the word "moron." (fifties-era encyclopedia entries will make your brain BSOD.)

Why? Di was crippled when Animal was fighting her. A broken ankle qualifies for "temporarily crippled."

[Twitcher]

It's not exactly the word, but the patrician context in which it's used... Rikk playing knight to poor (quite competent, these days, and far from defenseless, as we've seen) disabled Di. Is that irony?

[sun tzu]

It's not exactly the word, but the patrician context in which it's used... Rikk playing knight to poor (quite competent, these days, and far from defenseless, as we've seen) disabled Di. Is that irony?

No, it's playing mind-games with Animal, talking quickly to make him angry and lose his head.

[TCampbell]

It's not exactly the word, but the patrician context in which it's used... Rikk playing knight to poor (quite competent, these days, and far from defenseless, as we've seen) disabled Di. Is that irony?

While competent and ordinarily capable, Di had an unsecured broken leg at the point where Animal attacked her. There is no universe in which that constitutes a fair fight, and Di herself said as much in her second fight with Animal, which didn't exactly go Animal's way. She used the word "one-legged," but could've just as easily used the word "crippled." I realize offensiveness is not something you can tell someone is true or false, but for me, it's all right to use that word when it refers to an injury that took place that same day. Calling Di "disabled" in those circumstances would just sound weird and vaguely tasteless to me-- she's not in the same category as someone who's had to cope with an immobile leg for years.