This chapter’s a little shorter than average, and it’s coming to a head quickly. All we have left is this set-up…
↓ Transcript
Girii: -- then I can make you tell me what's so important --
Jacob: It's life, Girii! I'm trying to save lives! That's the whole reason I joined the Genocide Project! The only thing I was ever good at was killing. Then they told me I could use that one skill to save lives. To save the world. That's all I ever wanted. But Joey's not like me. He joined because he likes to kill. He's a psychopath who's been off the leash too often. So I'm going to put him down, and bring a little justice to this world. And if he kills me, well...there'll be justice in that, too.
(off panel): Good luck, Jacob Doe.
Jacob: It's life, Girii! I'm trying to save lives! That's the whole reason I joined the Genocide Project! The only thing I was ever good at was killing. Then they told me I could use that one skill to save lives. To save the world. That's all I ever wanted. But Joey's not like me. He joined because he likes to kill. He's a psychopath who's been off the leash too often. So I'm going to put him down, and bring a little justice to this world. And if he kills me, well...there'll be justice in that, too.
(off panel): Good luck, Jacob Doe.
Yay! Dahnai has realized that our favorite cold-blooded killer is actually a nice cold-blooded killer! Comparatively speaking, that is….
Observe that predators are often very nice to each others…while preys, ungulates, etc…are mostly nasty and ruthless…your purring cat and panting dog are in real life swift killers!
I doubt Jacob is goimg to be pleased to see Danhai. Well, not overtly, anyway.
This is going to be good.
Anyway, I thought of another reason to keep Joey around – he’s really scary. And it probably benefits the Genocide project to be as terrifying as possible to everyone. The best way to enforce the law!
It never benefits any police force* to be seen as capricious and/or brutal. The Genocide Project would much rather be seen as “Our last line of defense against some extinction-level event” instead of “Those freaks who murder just because they like it (and might turn on US next!)”.
*- in any non-totalitarian state. For Socialist Utopias and dictatorships, the rules are different: the whole purpose of the ‘public safety’ agencies is to terrify (and, as Stalin said, that works better if there’s no distinction made between guilt and innocence) and the sheep have been disarmed.
I just finished reading the archives. It’s very good, I look forward to more.
Well the next page is going to be interesting… or not.
@DaveP.
As far as I can tell, the world of the Genocide Men IS a tolalitarian state, or at least trying to be.
At least, I get that impression from the GUS on the timeline.
So, as you said, brutally enforced fear is perfect for them. Even the name – why not the “International Human Protection Agency” or something? Because Genocide is terrifying. And makes a better webcomic title.