Happy Thanksgiving, Americans! To everyone else, try eating a lot tomorrow. It’s fun!
There was a lot of speculation on Monday as to who is responsible for the fake power crystal. I think this is the fastest solution to a mystery I’ve ever presented! How do you guys feel about this? Does this redeem Jerry in your eyes? Just a little?
SuperFogeys artist Marc Lapierre has a new Etsy shop! If you’re a fan and you need your Marc fix, look no further than right here. It’s a great way to support a great artist.
Nope. š
Jerry’s still a few nuts short of a sundae. š
In other words, he still a little insane with all of this.
At least you feel bad about saying that.
No.
He has simply gone from a maniac willing to accept any consequences to achieve his goal, to a maniac thinking he can avoid any consequences to his method of attaining his goal.
He is irredeemable because he is unwilling and unable to admit he has done anything wrong.
Welcome, Professor!
Does that mean that if Jerry could admit to wrongs then he would be redeemable?
Redemption isn’t for everyone. But I personally believe it’s possible for anyone. Hitler, Satan, anyone. No matter how horrible an action, if you honestly understand and are willing to admit that an action you’ve taken is wrong, there’s hope. Even if it takes unto the end of time and beyond to make up for your mistake.
But you have to be willing to acknowledge that you’ve made one.
True. But I think there is a giant difference between acknowledging you’ve done wrong – and actually repenting of it. Someone who cpnfesses wrong, but isn’t sorry enough to stop and do the opposite, may be a step closer to redemption, but remains unredeemed. We could get into a Biblical conversation at this point, but to make it short and sweet, a murderer proven guilty but claiming to be innocent gets the same punishment as a murderer who admits his guilt. But it’s true that admitting a wrong and actually being sorry for it are steps on the path toward repentance.In the end, however, the crime cannot be undone and a punishment remains, but that’s where I think major philosophical or religious disagreement begins as to whether someone can be just forgiven or if someone else must need to take the punishment instead in order to redeem the guilty party.
These are good points. Acknowledging guilt really is only the first step. There’s so much more to do after that.
He pretty much summed it up in he second panel. You can’t trust this guy even when he’s hiding the power crystal.
Which brings up a good question… when someone says something like that, is it even possible to ever trust them again?
Well, he is still a hero, he fights evil, but an antagonist of the main cast and with some priorities arranged in a different way than the normal definition of good guy. I think that his line in the second panel is solid gold. Also I see where this is going…. Pilatus head is going to be squashed and nobody will be able to destroy it anymore… and at some point someone will use it to do evil… maybe the threat that the Money Man warn us before….
I think you’re the first person (that I can recall) who has out-and-out referred to Jerry as a hero. You’ve qualified, but you did use that word, “hero.”
Anyone agree with Champy-kun here?
I take issue with calling him a hero. Prior to the events at Valhalla, he could have been called a hero. However, his deceitfulness and willingness to commit horrible deeds against his so-called friends for his own personal gain make it very hard for me to see Jerry in anything other than a villainous light. Until he realizes how awful his actions have been and begins to repent for them, he will remain a villain in my book.
I think he’s spiritually/mentally confused or blinded. I think he’s a fallen hero, becoming mentally screwed up over the years. On his own efforts, he may be permanently lost. Only something or, more correctly, Someone bigger than himself and all of this – if you know Who I mean – can reverse the damage that he has done to himself and bring him back (or truly for the first time) to a right mind. He may have been a hero at one point, but if we were to define a hero as, “not perfect, but serving others,” then we can clearly see that Jerry is self-serving, the opposite of heroic. This is a point I try to subtly make in my SuperMilo comics. It’s a comedy, but the you-know-what will eventually hit the fan one day for our self-serving hero Milo. But that’s an entirely different subject. I actually really liked the Jerry character at one point, but lost my love and respect for the fictional character at his big reveal, but slowly gained it again as he started acting less maniacal. I started believing – because I wanted to – that there was some sort of missplaced good in his actions. That somehow he would ultimately have some sort of good intentions – like trying to force our hero Captain Spectacular into again becoming the great man that Jerry thought he once was by forcing him to battle this mysterious “Third Man,” even citing the sparing of Tom’s life. But, in the end, although Jerry knows right from wrong to some degree, his intentions are self-serving and he does good deeds like sparing Tom or deceiving Zurida with a fake power crystal for the wrong reasons, deceiving himself into thinking he is the hero or good guy he sees himself as, when even while doing these good deeds he does them according to his selfish intentions. It was difficult to wrap my mind around this when I first heard it, but it is said by some that doing the right thing is still somewhat wrong when done for the wrong reasons. Still, I won’t discourage people from doing what’s right. But let’s not deceive ourselves. The presence of good works does not redeem us from our constant evil works. We must repent of the bad deeds if the good deeds are to mean anything whatsoever (Isaiah 64:6 is a good way to sum this up). Until then, our good deeds are selfish if done to prove our own goodness or to get what we want. After Jerry’s true intentions were made known, and because of how he is acting this chapter now that everything burried in his heart has surfaced and come to light, I cannot call him a hero nor can I like him all that well. I see him as a fallen hero at best, deceived by his own heart and having lost his way into the blackness.
That’s why jerry is my favorite character, he can’t really be lumped in with the good guys or the bad guys. He’s a desperate, sad old man who suffers from extreme ambition and a deficit of attention. From what we’ve seen so far he’ll avoid killing or even hurting people when he can (Tom for example) but he will ultimately follow what he thinks is the best course of action to achieve his goals even if it’s NOT the best course of action in the world of black and white. He’s a very grey character. In many ways he’s probably the most realistic in how multi-dimensional he is.
I like what you said about the world being “black and white” but Jerry being a “grey” character. I personally believe the world is black and white. It’s human beings that introduce the grey into the equation, but that’s a mistake of perception, not reality.
I wouldn’t say Jerry is the most realistic character — I actually think that Captain Spectacular is a bit more realistic if only because he’s less capable and so flawed in more ‘normal’ ways. I think Kayjay pretty much well sums Jerry up though.
The only point lacking is that while Jerry isn’t a hero, he so desperately wants to be — and that desire is probably the only thing holding him back from being a true villain. So far.
Or, perhaps, is the desire to be a true hero actually deceiving him into not realizing what or who he has truly become? Until his eyes see himself for the monster or villain that he truly is, as others have stated above in so many words, there is no hope that he will repent and change. His desire to see himself as something better and more good than he truly is, that is what is keeping him from seeing the problems and evils that he has been nurturing in his life for so long. Brock showed us how Jerry deceives himself in an earlier strip in which Jerry gave his own view of himself: he has never done any wrong in the first place. This is put into sharp contrast next to Tangerine’s viewpoint, that the mercy shown to him despite his wrongdoings have ultimately lead him to repentance because he now has discovered his own guilt. This is found here: http://superfogeys.com/2012/10/24/452-book-of-mormon-story/
I’d actually say you’re both right. Jerry does have a line he won’t cross and that line is best defined by his treatment of Herman and Jerry, but how accurate his own view of himself really is is ripe for debate.
The question is, given Jerry’s statement in panel two, is he really unable to destroy the crystal or is this just another tactic to get Spy Gal’s temporary attention?
Now that is a fantastic question.
Wouldn’t Dr. Rocket know the crystal Zurida had was fake? He used it to destroy worlds and power the Las Vegas Robot, he had to know something was wrong with the crystal when he worked on the Guthrie for Zurida.
It’s possible he would know, depending on whether or not he handled it. He certainly had opportunity. The question is: would he care if he did know? Possibly not.