Parable - 12 - HD (Patreon)

It's tempting to have Susan tie people up in more suggestive ways while having no clue she's doing it, but it's ALSO super tempting to have them tied up in super easy to draw ways forever and ever.

Commentary

Part of me really wanted to have the bandit say "puppy sanctuary" instead of "puppy orphanage" in the last panel, as the latter makes me wonder about tragic puppy backstories, whereas the former could just be some place with a bunch of adorable puppies.

The whole point was to reference a trope of stereotypical evil, however, so I'm stuck wondering about those tragic backstories, and whether any of those puppies will grow up to be Bat Dog.

Meanwhile, In The Game Being Parodied...

The equivalent in-game moral choice would be a bit difficult to quickly portray in 3-4 panel comics while being approximately as complicated from a moral perspective.

You slaughter a whole bandit camp's worth of bandits without mercy. In that camp are two villagers, trapped in a cage! You find the key for the cage, at which point, a lone bandit appears! One you missed, and are, for some reason, not immediately hostile to!

This bandit has a proposition for you. Give him the key so he can sell the villagers into slavery, and he'll give you gold! The villagers, meanwhile, have a counter proposition in that they'd very much like to be freed, thanks.

Even if you side with the villagers, the bandit does not become hostile, and you are not expected to attack him. He effectively just goes "oh, darn!", and nothing else happens.

I have several questions:

1 - Why did this bandit think it was safe to approach me after what I did to all his allies?

2 - Why would I do something like that for a trivial amount of gold in a game that lets you get filthy rich in various ways? Fable 2 has a rent system that lets you buy property and accumulate gold every 5 minutes while playing, and a smaller amount when not playing (you better believe I'll have more to say about THAT later).

3 - If I'm really evil and want his gold, why would I bargain with him at all? I just took out all his friends, and his much more intimidating boss. He's just one more bandit, and he must have the gold on him. Why wouldn't I just take it?

4 - Wouldn't a truly evil character do as I suggested in question 3, then sell the villagers into slavery themselves? Granted, if I personally ever did that, my game would implode on account of my own hatred of slavers, but it TECHNICALLY makes sense as an "evil option".

There's so much to question and unpack about the situation that is it any wonder I went with the puppy orphanage scenario instead? Susan would be stuck wading through that nonsense for weeks.