Seems like a lot of you already came to the realization that Statler and Waldorf’s tails were cut off on purpose, but give Ike a break, not many would look at an amputated limb and automatically assume it was voluntarily cut off. Why wasn’t Ike asked to cut off his tail? Well, there are many potential reasons for that, perhaps.
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even if ike cut off his tail, wouldn’t it grow back next time he shifted? or does a buggane’s shapeshifting not cover injuries/limb loss?
I mean, probably not. Jim’s dad has amputated wings and I’d assume he’s had to shift human a couple times since then.
Jim’dls dad uses a medallion, which casts an illusion. Ike actually, physically shapeshifts, and it’s noted to involve actually shedding and regrowing body osrts. Very different things.
I don’t know the answer to the question about buganne shape-shifting, but remember that the medallions don’t actually shape-shift people, it’s more like… physical illusions, right?
I don’t think so, it was loosing and regrowing “pelts, teeth and hooves” when he changes, if he was also dropping and regrowing limbs they would have probably been led with that.
No doubt as the saying goes, ‘it’s complicated’.
I bet his mom made a huge stink about it. So the elders backed off.
His mom was in London when he moved to Liverpool to get away from her. Unless she had Orville Hyde quietly say a few words on her behalf, I doubt she said anything.
Controversial opinion, but I don’t think getting to keep all your body parts is supposed to count as “privilege”….
When people talk about privileges in real life, it’s normally such extravagant things as “being called by your name” or “not being injured by police”, so I kinda see where they’re coming from.
Most things are relative, and these two know what standard of treatment they saw…
An awful lot of privilege is passive, and can often be held by a majority of people. I, for example, received regular meals as a child, and slept in a bed each night. This is an example of privilege I had(/have, by compounding effects) over impoverished and/or homeless children. My experience should be normal (as should Ike’s), but interacting with people who don’t have that privilege brings its existence into sharp focus.
Should be universal*, not just normal.
Thank you for pointing that out!
‘Normal’ is its own trap, because ‘normal’ people are usually privileged over those who have difficulty with squeezing under that perception umbrella. (Or are actively shoved out from under it.)
Probably not. But when there’s the possibility to harm or kill someone unintentionally with just part of your body/biology, it’s a legitimate fear I think some people would have. Imagine children/cubs running around and inadvertently stepping on manticore quills. Statler and Waldorf, being quadruped, can’t exactly put protective wraps on their tails themselves.
Besides, Ike is an unusual case, being only HALF-manticore. That’s not exactly supposed to happen. He just happens to look mostly manticore. If I’m not mistaken, he has hooves.
I think that on top of having shape shifting they’re starting to see him as a poser. He can get a job, they have to busk or get hand outs. He gets to keep his tail, they were forced to remove a part of them that makes them manticores. So far we don’t really know that much of actual manticore culture, just how others treat manticores.
Not like he could cut it off really, with how his shapeshifting powers seem to work
Maybe. Depends on how the shape shifting works. Is it pure magic? Or is it more biological? I have it my own Semi-Charmed that water horses are amphibians and use their magically altered ability to regenerate limbs to also change their cell structure and appearance, instead of the pure magic shape shifting of the dragons. (Who are alive and well and probably running your favorite pizza joint)
So can buggane lose and regrow a limb? Only Kory knows.
Back in “Kill Them With Kindness”, Ike’s mother got snobby asking if he was still shedding entire body parts when he shapeshifts, implying that Ike’s shapeshifting is facilitated by eliminating mass and then regrowing it in a new shape. A full-blooded buggane is supposed to be able to reabsorb that mass in order to more easily facilitate the shapeshifting, but the principal is, fundamentally, regrowing limbs after naturally amputating them.
So, logically, Ike would be able to regrow his tail if it were forcibly removed. There may be other factors we aren’t aware of, but it’s a fair assumption.
I’ve forgotten exactly how Ike’s shapeshifting works, but I wonder if sufficient practice in shapeshifting would let him take a new form identical to his manticore form but without the venomous spikes.
They made involuntary sacrifices,
they removed the fear,
that Ike is spared.
I can see these old schemers both honestly resenting Ike’s “privilege” and leveraging it to guilt trip him. We’ll see.
Starting to really love these manticores, especially Statler. Those charismatic expressive faces and lively wit. Though you can feel that they’re not the nicest persons on earth to communicate with. Strongly resembles some people in real life.
It could be that Ike’s shapeshifting makes him not a monster and therefore they’d be biased towards simply letting him wrap it instead of shedding it. Or I’m under the impression that Statler and Waldorf dealt with a completely different batch of elders because it was long ago. There was a time when not all people were seen as people, at least not according to our modern sensibilities about human rights.
Well I think Mr. Finn was there, Ravi said Opinicus gryphons live about 200 years. One of the reasons he and Mary had a kind of second clutch.
Arguably that is still the case (not all people are seen as REAL people) in quite a few societies…Including some that posture proudly as if it were otherwise.
That is verging on the heavily political, mind, but then art should be relateable to real life.
Ah, that humbling realization of “holy shit, and I thought *I* had it bad!”
Ah. The age-old human trait of tearing ourselves apart from the inside, and helping those who are trying to do it from the outside.
I mean the sheer wrath of his Mum is probably a reason.
But he knows he too has venom. He knows that pure manticore venom is lethal, he himself stated that he has been researching, albeit with very poor sources, manticores.
Even with all the lies and bs, he must have come across that the venom is in the tail. So just assuming them missing was mayhaps some accident is kinda super optimistic really…
He should be able to make an educated guess on what’s it that’s missing and then follow up that with a guess on why.
Of course reasonable to ask, but to… Ahem… Assume! OoO!
Would just figure him being a clever boy.
Nemean strength is lethal, and so is Bandersnatch fire, presumably. Lots of creatures in the Avalon are quite dangerous, and they get to live here despite being dangerous. It’s really not too weird for Ike to think that the manticores would also be allowed to live here without needing to be mutilated, considering they’re not specifically more dangerous than all the other residents here. And as far as I’m aware, not a single mythical besides the manticores have had this ultimatum put on them, so there’s simply no precedent for him to assume that it was intentional and demanded of them.
We only assume that Madam U’s blindness wasn’t intentional. Look around the panel “sounds like Dr. Suess threw up on them” where that one jerk is implying that there’s a distinction between a blind gorgon and one that isn’t.
The privilege of being less capable, and thus being less of an inherent threat purely by accident. -;)
I keep meaning to make this comment but keep forgetting, so I guess I’ll make it here even though it’s less relevant than it would have been a couple pages back.
It’s interesting that Ike, while he’s got a face more like Waldorf has tail anatomy more like Statler. Quills rather than a tail club.
I think you may have misinterpreted the speakers in that scene. Statler, the human-faced manticore) had a tail club; Waldorf, the lion-faced manticore, had quills like Ike.