It’s Iimi! I am Ovulating-Chestfeeding-Person-Who-Currently-Identifies-as-Cisgender-Female—Whose-Pronouns are-She/Her! Hear Me Roar!

When Lilavati brings up the question of transgenderism to the “Socratic Club,” their discussion becomes more complicated with the appearance of two teachers and a hostile student. Will Iimi and her friends be able to thread the needle by explaining their views without getting attacked?

Preliminary Notes:

The story of the rapist who declared he was transgender after being tried for rape and was (briefly) moved to a women’s prison came out after this comic was finished. This person doesn’t mean all people who claim to be transgendered are sexual predators. But it shows another reason why women might feel unsafe with the demands to allow whoever claims to be female access to women only areas.

 

Post Comic Notes: In the past few issues, I’ve been experimenting with some different fonts to see if they looked more readable. Beginning in this issue, I began reverting some “failed experiments” back to the fonts I used to use. 

The “third gender” Lilavati refers to is complex. “Hijra” is the basic term used, but there are debates over whether the term is offensive. Not knowing enough about the situation in South Asia, I’ve opted against using the term in the comic. From my reading, it seems their situation is more complex than the transgender issues in America. It’s practically it’s own culture if I understand it correctly… and as an outsider, I recognize I might not. 

Lilavati doesn’t have much knowledge about this group outside of the fact that they exist. 

It’s Iimi! Blasphemous!

With Kismetta’s process of conversion becoming general knowledge, people have been coming to her, hoping to bring her about to their cause. They mostly give up, disappointed, when she proclaims she’s becoming Catholic. But one person isn’t put off, because he believes that the Catholic Church is “Great and Abominable Church” of the “Great Apostasy.” He hopes to persuade the entire group to join him. The problem is, when it comes to their claims about God, Iimi can see they are… Blasphemous!

Post-Comic Notes

The picture on the cover is The First Vision, by Gary Kapp, and is shared under the Creative Commons permissions (see HERE and HERE). It was chosen because I was looking for art that was clearly Mormon and distributable under Creative Commons… there are fewer of these than you might think.

 

There are many other issues that divide Mormonism and Catholicism. I may cover some of them later. However, the difference in beliefs about the nature of God are the greatest. Because they claim that God the Father is a man-made God, I don’t think the issue title is unjust. That doesn’t mean we can reject religious dialogue with them or treat members in an unchristian manner. Note how Iimi shut down Krysta’s mocking immediately. But saying, “we must reject this,” is not uncharitable.

It’s Iimi! Ancient Geek Warfare

People fight viciously over various fandoms. (What’s the best way to start a fight among Tolkien fans? Say “The Eagles should have flown Frodo to Mordor.”) Because these things are about fiction, it might seem like we could just dismiss it as unimportant. But the thing to remember is, we can sin against charity in fighting over fiction just as much as we can fighting over real life. That’s the danger of… Ancient Geek Warfare

Preliminary Notes:

This is a comic about Catholic moral obligations in avoiding rash judgment Iimi herself had no interest in is not taking sides in the lore fights, and is simply asking, “is that really true?” in the face of blanket accusations about the motives. Making a universal claim can be contradicted by showing even one example of something that goes against it. 

If you want to see my personal opinions about Rings of Power, see the post-comic notes. 

Post-Comic notes: One of the tricky parts in doing this comic was avoiding bogging it down with debates about different fandoms. That’s both irrelevant to a Catholic themed comic and going to be boring to people who don’t care about that particular fandom. For example, I don’t care about Doctor Who or Game of Thrones. I wouldn’t care to read a comic debating it. So, I mentioned a few of the most famous ones and tried to make the arguments apply to real life moral obligations.

 

The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture is a reference to the manga series Genshiken.

If you’re really curious about my thoughts on the parts of Rings of Power I could force myself to watch (it’s irrelevant to the Catholic moral discussion), I’d say this:

I don’t think the creators get it. Even if you set aside questions about whether the racial makeup of the cast fit in with the lore (something I stopped thinking about almost immediately), the characters were either entirely uninteresting or entirely unlikeable. Also, it had the problems with bad story, and boring pacing It probably could have completely dropped the Harfoot plot, and completely revamped or removed the character of Galadriel.

The problem is, they tried to create an original story in Tolkien’s universe without the talent of Tolkien. None of us have that, of course. But this didn’t feel like Middle Earth. So, we got something I thought was boring where the only thing of note is the background (which was impressive).

I think the problem in general is: many people no longer trust Hollywood to tell a story without an agenda. Regardless of whether that fear is justified or not, if they see a race, sexuality, or gender swap, these people suspect something is being pushed.

And, as Iimi pointed out, that can be rash judgment too.

It’s Iimi! Schwerpunkt!

When Ms. Machen brings up the topics of dictatorship and political factions, the questions seem targeted only in one direction and against one person. Can Iimi explain why her views are different than she is accused of? Or will she fall prey to being the focal point of the…  Schwerpunkt!

 

 

Preliminary Notes: Schwerpunkt is a German military term that doesn’t carry across fully in an English translation. Roughly it means center of gravity, crucial, focal point, or point of main effort. In the context I’ve seen, it seems to give a sense of “everybody, attack this point until it collapses!” As the regular reader of the comic knows, the Schwerpunkt target of the comic is Iimi.

 

I suppose I could have just used the English phrase but, just as things sound more profound in Latin, they sound more menacing in German…

Post Comic Notes:

 

The trick in writing Otios and Machen is to accurately represent the modern anti-Christian attitudes that seem prevalent in secular society without making them seem one-dimensional. They truly believe what they accuse us of, but have only a superficial understanding at best, and often miss the point. 

 

The Cover art was originally conceived of with Ms. Machen giving a Nazi salute. I decided to change it to her pointing because I wanted to avoid giving people the impression of “her side are the real fascists.” Remember, Iimi’s point is, unless everyone starts following the Christian concept of justice and the golden rule, either faction is fully capable of becoming tyrannical through self-interest. They won’t think they are, of course. But trying to limit your rivals by doing what you refuse to accept for yourself is a short road to that destination.