SFP

Zac Caslar

Q’s A’d.
Magnifique’.
Also bonus points for the cheerful cheek.

AdamBombTV

I can’t wait till we get to the Citadel of Patricks, and we get to see such Patrick’s like Cowboy Patrick, Car Salesman Patrick, Juggling Patrick, and of course, Evil Patrick who has a goatee.

Gotham

For the love of all things holy let’s be spared a Pickle Patrick
- AdamBombTV
  
  But Tiny Patrick would be a welcome addition
  - notquiteotaku
    
    Along with their friendly counterpart Fly-fishing Patrick.
    - KittyK
      
      And don’t forget Patrick Star
- Zorae42
  
  References aside, I do wonder if the existence of a non-male Patrick means there could be a non-human Patrick as well. I’m all for finding out his Fursona 😏
  - Gotham
    
    Are you… into that?
    Would you like to go out sometimes
    - Zorae42
      
      I wouldn’t say “into that”.
      
      I quite like the character designs the Furry community creates (at least the ones that aren’t overtly sexualized), but I don’t identify as one nor do I really interact with the community at all.
      
      I just think it would be neat/interesting if there was some aspect of Patrick that did identify as non-human (anthropomorphic or otherwise). Like if his joy or loyalty was a dog. Or if his sense of humor was Wiley Coyote 😛
    - Eric Meyer
      
      Suuuper Geeeenius.
    - Arkone Axon
      
      I would like to say that I am not a furry, nor have I ever been a furry… but I AM a furry lover.
      
      Years ago, when I first started going online, I found an interesting text based MMORPG (a MUD, as they were called). I was there for a few years, before finally leaving to truly unbelievable amounts of harassment by veteran players. And by “unbelievable” I mean they did everything from griefing and false accusations to using my character without permission for… rape and snuff roleplay posts; and with no motivation I could discern other than the fact that I was helping newbie players to get situated (these same “oldbie” players enjoyed harassing newbies into quitting the game, then laughing about it).
      
      After I learned that someone I thought was a friend had in fact been feigning friendship in order to abuse their metagame authority to investigate me for wrongdoing, while circulating slander about me to every new member of the Sentinels (the group given the metagame authority, of which they occupied a leadership role), I was finally done. I was then taken away from that game by friends who also quit the game in a show of protest, and we went on to play other games (such as City of Heroes). And those friends… were furries.
      
      I’ve gotten to know furries pretty well. They have some immature jerks in their circles… but they’ve also got a lot of really awesome people among their ranks.
    - Lucy Merriman
      
      First of all: holy hell, what a terrible game / group of people, wtf?
      
      Second: As far as common-interest communities go (fandoms, hobbies, etc) furries are some of the tamest*. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a furry conversation become hostile or devolve into name-calling, much less any kind of organized harassment campaign against an individual. It’s a pretty positive atmosphere, and there’s almost unilateral positive regard for creators in the furry fandom (as opposed to, say, Rick and Morty fans, some of whom seem to actively hate Dan Harmon? Or some Game of Thrones fans, or Harry Potter fans…)
      
      Another thing I like about hanging out with furries is that, while there is definitely a sexual component to furry fandom, it’s been my experience that when someone’s interest is asexual (so, more interested in the speculative fiction elements, or the design elements), people are willing to keep the conversation in those arenas when that person’s around so as not to alienate them.
      
      So, yeah! Furries are pretty neat.
      
      *pun definitely intended
    - Lisa Izo
      
      Pretty sure people who hate Dan Harmon probably do because of the last two seasons of Community, not because of Rick and Morty 🙂
    - Lucy Merriman
      
      I mean, there are definitely people who harass Dan Harmon on twitter and so on who claim to love Rick and Morty. So, regardless of why they hate him, they both hate him and watch his show.
      
      (Weirdly, they seem to hate him mostly for not making the show fast enough. Same with grrm fans.)
    - Lisa Izo
      
      Well Rick and Morty is excellent. But he ruined Community with those last two seasons according to a lot of the same people.
      
      And yeah, making people wait a year and a half or two years between new seasons is sort of sadistic 🙂 Especially since so much of the show seems to be improvisational in the dialogue. I saw him and his partner write up about 20 different show ideas, on the fly, with the artist quickly drawing sketches. I’m pretty sure that Pickle Rick was just made on the fly as well 🙂
      
      It was kinda awesome to watch him do that.
    - Gotham
      
      Well, he’s just like Rick: someone whose alleged intelligence doesn’t quite make up for how hard he thinks it gives him the legitimacy to be an asshole. It’s not merely just Community.
    - Lisa Izo
      
      Good (and judging from some stuff I’ve read about him, accurate) observation 🙂 Doesn’t make me stop loving Rick and Morty though… or pretending that Community ended after season 4 in my mind.
    - Gotham
      
      While I have to acknowledge Rick and Morty was clearly made for people like me in mind, I kind of have to hate that it titillates the same part of my personality I despise that, if left unchecked, goes on to rant on Facebook about being the bestest proudest cleverest cringiest asshole genius whom nobody gets–woe is me
      Y’know, the kind of entitled moron who will riot over McDonald’s shortage of szechuan sauce.
    - Lisa Izo
      
      People rant online about all sorts of stuff nowadays. It’s part of using the internet. Speshul snowflake oh woe is me types abound.
      
      Just gotta deal with it – it’s what makes the internet the internet…
      
      Now imagine if we had access to ‘interdimensional internet’ like Rick and Morty have for interdimensional reality TV 🙂
    - Gotham
      
      No, that type of people exists because we let them. “Dealing with it” is the last thing to do.
      
      Also my comment was not about them it was about me.
    - Lisa Izo
      
      “No, that type of people exists because we let them.”
      
      Pity about that darned free speech.
      
      ” “Dealing with it” is the last thing to do.”
      
      Makes me wonder what you think the first thing to do is.
      
      “Also my comment was not about them it was about me.”
      
      You don’t like the limited edition Mulan sauce?
    - Gotham
      
      Free speech means the government can’t give you shit for what you say (that isn’t hateful)
      It doesn’t mean that I can’t. Especially when it is hateful.
      
      The first thing to do is not caving to the whining dummies like McDonald’s did and let them feel entitled to get their sauce like manbabies?
    - Gotham
      
      If they will be supposed to be “aspects of his personality” (and they most likely will, considering the runner of the city seems to be in conflict with others the way a mind is conflicted with itself) then I hope this one here is not “the feminine side of Patrick”. It’s wonky to attribute characteristics that belong clearly to a specific gender to start with, then it inevitably ends up being problematic no matter the ones you choose to attribute…
      I hope it only goes the way of “I live in Patrick’s mind, I am Patrick and I also happen to be a woman. Why are you still asking questions?”
      
      Also my proposal is not as of yet rescinded
    - Giacomo Bandini
      
      Do not get too hopeful. If this Patrick woman is not an incarnation of a repressed, hidden sexuality, and i don’t think they want to go in this direction, then the only explanation is that.she is archietipe of some aspects of her personality
    - Zorae42
      
      Hah, I am flattered but I’ll have to turn you down; I’m already taken.
  - Alex Harencar
    
    Welp. One thing is for certain. This is the internet.
    - Kid Chaos
      
      Land of the sublime, home of the ridiculous. 😎
Zac Caslar

So imagine the cultural-psychological recursion involved there, how in your own mind belief in even the satirical images of the stereotypical separate personalities manifesting might lead a similar psychic explorer into the same kinds of encounters.

It is hard as hell to not think at least partially in the language of tropes, nevermind do so while also sincerely identifying yourself without them.
- Arianwen
  
  One Red Dwarf episode has the characters crash into a moon populated by fragments of Rimmer’s psyche, and Rimmer being an unsympathetic Napoleon-worshipping twit with more Freudian excuses than brain cells, it gets interesting. They pass through a graveyard filled with Self Respect (Age 24), Generosity (Age 9), Self Confidence (Age 22), Honour (Age 12), and a very small headstone for Charm (stillborn).
  
  And then they arise from the dead as incredibly flamboyant musketeers. Sci-fi is pretty good at psychoanalysis.
  - Arkone Axon
    
    I remember that episode! I just wish they’d kept up with the morale boosting. Especially since that particular Rimmer turns into a superhero within a few days of an Ace Rimmer (what a guy!) selecting him to assume the mantle. Sometimes all it takes is someone to believe in you.
    
    (It’s why I favor positive reinforcement when teaching – as do the vast majority of teachers, instructors, trainers, and coaches. I have nothing but scorn for “Professor Snapes” who’d rather belittle their students than teach them)
David Brown

and Patrick Warburt… uh nevermind.
Kid Chaos

This reminds me of that “Teen Titans” episode, “Nevermore”, where the Cyborg and Beast Boy met different aspects of Raven’s personality. Check it. 😎

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWgG8z6KiSo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&noapp=1&v=VwWFY6RdE5I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rX0Ka5luX8
- Snow Cat
  
  That’s exactly what I was thinking of too!
Herwood

Ugg! NO!!! I liked that episode, but Rick and Morty is on the opposite side of the intelligent entertainment spectrum. Just the thought of SFP copying it would… would… I don’t know, make me pass out!
- Incendax
  
  Patrick’s telepathic break was clearly caused by Evil Morty.
- damocles6
  
  lol, Rick and Morty hardly invented the idea of multiple variations on a person congregating in one place.
- Arkone Axon
  
  I dunno… some of Rick’s lectures to other people might come in handy with some of the characters in this comic. Like in “ABCs of Beth,” where Rick wholeheartedly agreed that he was a terrible father, while at the same time stating, “the rotten apple didn’t fall far from the evil tree. Look at some of these things you asked me to make you when you were a kid…” (the sentient switchblade was a double-punchline. First he whipped it out, then it offhandedly confirmed that yes Rick was telling the truth: “Hello Beth. You’ve really grown! Let’s go stab some people!”)
  
  Personally, my main problem with Rick and Morty is that Rick’s “genius” is largely dependent on everyone else being stupid and incompetent. It’s the intellectual equivalent of going up against a 1980s cartoon villain; if their government can be toppled by someone making a random and easily reversed edit in the banking software, then you haven’t really achieved a major victory by toppling a regime one Y2K style bug away from collapse.
  - Cartheon
    
    That’s part of the humor of Rick & Morty, and sadly is also what speaks the strongest to the toxic segment of the fanbase. The point is that everyone is so complacent, incompetent, stupid, or lazy that an above average intelligence person could kick over the ant hill of society. How many times have you gone to the DMV, grocery store, county courthouse, or called a support line and thought “The people here would drown on their own spit if they looked up at the sky?” Rick & Morty’s humor makes fun of the isolationism, complacency, and lack of consideration that a bureaucratic society fosters. The toxic fans, though, don’t read it as “Look at what our society does to us! Isn’t this absurd and humorous? Let’s laugh at ourselves!” that it’s supposed to be and instead see it as “I am so smart for not being fooled by the lie that these sheeple are blind to. Let me laugh at them.”
    - Arkone Axon
      
      Eh, I prefer Scott Adams’ take. “People are stupid. ALL people are stupid. Just… not all the time. We drift into and out of stupidity throughout the day without even noticing the difference.”
      
      Rick is supposedly a genius… but he’s also an idiot. The therapist utterly demolishes him with a short, simple lecture – without even trying to do so (she just wanted him to start performing maintenance and repair work on his relationships and the rest of his life). And that’s at the end of a really long day where he comes incredibly close to dying… and where at one point he was mocking a rat for trying to impress its friends instead of impressing him. Repeating with emphasis: he was ridiculing the intelligence of a RAT. He left the sewers after killing vermin and making fun of said vermin to make himself feel better.
      
      To be honest, I keep hearing things about the “toxic fanbase” for shows and games and such… with the exception of games like League of Legends, I haven’t really seen it. It usually comes across to me more as if “toxic fans” means “someone whose headcanon differs from my own.”
      
      It occurs to me that pretty much every character in the show has had an epic rant to deliver with the exception of Summer (thus far. Unless you count her weary sigh and mutter of “I don’t get paid enough for this” as she fixes yet another of Rick’s screwups). What makes Rick’s rants especially compelling is that they come from someone who isn’t even pretending to be a decent person, whose “internal autobiography” depicts himself as a straw nihilist anti-hero (and with a lot of recreation drug use to help him ignore the innate contradictions and blatant falsehoods in his ideology). He doesn’t rant just because he thinks he’s smarter than you. He rants when he looks at you and sees the person he hates more than anyone or anything else in the multiverse… himself. “Wubba lubba dub dub!”
    - Zorae42
      
      Oh man, there are some really toxic fanbases out there. Like the Voltron fanbase that goes after people for shipping the main characters together because it’s “pedophilia”. And then proceeds to send said shippers death threats and notify the FBI about them. It’s pretty gross.
      
      Or how a whole bunch of the Rick and Morty fans who didn’t realize that Rick was a toxic character that you weren’t supposed to want to be like, sent a whole bunch of really nasty messages to the female writers in the newest season because it had to be their fault that Rick got said lecture from the therapist and was actually suffering consequences for his toxic behavior. It got so bad Dan Harmon had to come out and tell them to fuck off because that’s not how TV writing works (they all work together and they only give one person the credit since someone needs to get their name on it; they might be the one who came up with the overarching idea for the episode, but not every little detail that went into it).
    - Arkone Axon
      
      Wow. Just… wow. And the female writers in the newest season… were they all hired en mass just for season 3, as opposed to having all been there from the start but only just now provoked the wrath of these idiots because “Our hero is never ever wrong?” Just… wow. (And I LOVED that scene with the therapist. And then of course in the car ride afterwards you can see Rick and Beth immediately working to ignore the lesson and go on being terrible people)
      
      Perhaps I’ve just been fortunate. Or just not hung around with that sort. There’s an artist named Jay Naylor who does a couple of webcomics as well as a number of furry erotic works. And he’s got an entire hatedom devoted to him, that grab whatever his latest work is, post them on their forum, then create long threads talking about how awful and sucky it is. And they do this with EVERYTHING he posts. And I joined the forum, looked around… and then left after about a week, after asking the obvious, “if you don’t like his work, why don’t you just… not look at it, and then focus on artists you do like?”
      
      (And the only reason I hung around that long was that I was introduced to that forum by a friend. Who was later banned from said forum for disagreeing with a moderator about a point of law, and being able to provide factual sources to prove that he was right :p )
    - Zac Caslar
      
      So it’s the science-fantasy version of Dilbert?
- Hiram
  
  patRick: They’re just metaphors, Allison! It’s okay to punch them! They’re metaphors!
David Gillon

Just don’t think of Staypuft Marshmallow Patrick.
- palmvos
  
  too late. fan art go!
Lisa Izo

You forgot Flyfishing Patrick, known by his love for flyfishing and trademark flyfishing hat.
Illiterate Intellectual

Starfish Patrick…
Dwight Williams

Would the “evil requires a goatee” thing not be dependent on Patrick having watched Star Trek (to use the first example that comes to my mind)?

Gotham

“Do you have a life?”
Don’t be rude, Alison.

The joke about deconstructed metaphors is delightful. Charmingly cheeky and terrifyingly smart, that’s Patrick alright.

Olivier Faure

Oh, I didn’t get that! “You can only deconstruct them so much”

Ahah, cheeky indeed.
Herwood

It confused me a little though. Does Al’s super strength make her very good at deconstructing metaphors? Or is her character and soul so strong that she even has super strength in a mind-setting?
- Zorae42
  
  Or maybe because he knows she has super strength, his mind expects her to have it and thus grants it to her while in there.
  - Patrick_GETS_me
    
    They’re in Patrick’s mind, right? So she probably has as much strength as Patrick believes she has.
    
    I see the metaphor like this: Patrick is not sure which he believes is stronger, “good” (I.E. working together, obeying laws, not trying to take over the world) or “evil” (I.E., trying to gain as much power for himself as possible, regardless of the impact on others). When he met Allison, she showed him that they could be stronger working together in a “good” way, so in his brain-world, she tips the scales an beats the robots, which are a metaphor for Patrick’s “evil” side.
- Dave Van Domelen
  
  She’s been spending the last several years of her life dedicated to deconstructing metaphors.
Glotos

If you can’t deconstruct a metaphor down to nothing, YOU’RE NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH.
- ClockworkDawn
  
  O B L I T E R A T E
  T H E
  M E T A P H O R
  - Eric Schissel
    
    (… simile. You’re on candid camera.)

Weatherheight

I have the oddest feeling that it’s only a matter of time before a hookah smoking caterpillar and a smile without a cat will turn up…

Maybe I’ll finally get to watch a slithy tove gyre and gimble in the wabe…

Martin Váňa

I wonder – is this Arc inspired by that one episode of Little Witch Academia?

Zorae42

I hope it’s more like that than the Teen Titans episode. Both were great! But I liked the existence of individual representations for such minor personality traits more than being limited to representations for major emotions (although it made a lot of sense for her given the connection between her powers and her emotions).

Abel Undercity

So we’re in touch with Patrick’s feminine side? Neat.

Randolph Carter

Yes, a delightfully classic Jungian ‘anima’.
https://infogalactic.com/info/Anima_and_animus
- Ophidiophile
  
  Wouldn’t Patrick’s anima be part of his “dark side”? Maybe we’ll get to see a part of himself he keeps repressed.
  - Weatherheight
    
    The anima isn’t necessarily “dark” – it’s simply the unacknowledged portion of a man’s psyche. Also often rejected and also often largely consisting of culturally “feminine” qualities, but not necessarily “dark”.
    
    That said, the unrecognized portion of the psyche is often… strident… about wishing to be acknowledged and expressed. So “dark” usually gets applied… after the anima gets all interfering and troublesome.
    
    The animus also does something similar, but it’s usually more sophisticated than the “blunt force” usually associated with the anima (remembering the source psyche is important here).
    
    That said, yeah, very much looking forward to seeing what Patrick is avoiding acknowledging.
    - Ophidiophile
      
      By dark side, I was referring to the psychological dark side, the attributes of one’s personality that are hidden or not shown to other people (and, sometimes, not even ourselves), as in, not exposed. A man’s anima (and a woman’s animus) would be part of that (unless it has been integrated). It can be things you don’t want others to find out, such as one’s impulse to kill the neighbor’s constantly barking dog, but can also include things that you have given up on, such as becoming an astronaut or a professional baseball player. It’s all the things we hide behind our masks.
      
      “I’m not the only Patrick” implies so many different possibilities, especially since Patrick can read other peoples’ minds. He can see the things that other people hide from everyone else. They could resonate with him, or they could repulse him. He would understand women to a degree no other man could. To function, though, he would have to distance himself from a lot of that, and not allow himself to be influenced by those insights. That could mean splitting off and compartmentalizing those parts of himself. He could be suffering a breakdown as those parts refuse to stay repressed any longer.

David Brown

Knew it! Smartly done!

Walter

More drones, or rather metaphors. Better scamper.

MedinaSidonia

“They’re metaphors, not robots, you can only deconstruct them so much.”

BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

zophah

So this is going the route of multiple personas and representations in personality?

Loranna

So . . . I can’t believe I’m thinking this, but, Female Patrick absolutely rocks the grey bodysuit look. I now wonder whether this is because Patrick is so adept at making even neutral metaphors seem fresh and appealing, or if this aspect of Patrick is his fashion sense. ^_^

Loranna

palmvos

if she comments on the arrangement of furniture or color later- then she has the fashion sense.
I hope someone talks about that mouse hole. without the use of pellets, please.
- Weatherheight
  
  “I hope someone talks about that mouse hole.”
  I really, really hope no one does.
  I have heard that mice really, really hate that….
Weatherheight

Oh, baby, it’s both!

::bats his long silky eyelashes::

Gotham

I see the drones as heading back to the Tower to alert whoever holds it to the presence of Alison (and tangentially, that this girl!Patrick managed to escape submission) I wager this is where we find whatever accounts for a conceptual dream version of Patrick Prime, or whichever of the many versions of him there are managed to take control and is causing so much ruckus outside.

Is she going to want to flee the way Alison came from, or beat the drone to a race toward the Tower?
How much is she going to reveal how everything works here?
Will she brand Alison with the same kind of classy yet sober ornamental epaulets?

Flesh Forge

If Fem Patrick is in control of this scenario (“That should be enough”) then what was the point?

Randolph Carter

If Patrick or Fem Patrick was in control of their inner mind, they wouldn’t be cutting themselves and banging their heads against walls.
JeffH

I saw this as this avatar of Patrick recognizing that _Alison_ had defeated her opponents, and was pointing it out. Different than Patrick being in control, I think.
Weatherheight

One can imagine this as a very very literal interpretation of the phrase “dropping one’s guard”. The Patrick we see before us in these panels is in favor of such vulnerability, while other avatars of Patrick are less so – the Patrick before us is corralled by that guard and needed Alison to “drop” them in order to both continue and to speak with Alison.

Ptorq

Poor Patrick. It was bad enough when we found out he was cutting himself so he’d know which body was his, now we find out he may be equally uncertain about which MIND is his.

I think Patrick may be my favorite character in the strip. The ones I’d actually want to hang out with are the amiably bland/blandly amiable Bat Boy (can’t remember his name) and Super Nerd Pintsize, but Patrick is the most interesting.

Hiram

Alison –
” Wait, I have a plan! ”

* Rips out the metaphor’s insides, jumps inside with Pat and wears it like a suit. *
” Now it’s symbolism! “

JohnTomato

That’s some major left shoulder wiggle in panel #4.

Why wall walk when you can fly?

JeffH

I thought the same thing, but then thought. Alison probably knows her powers best. Or thinks it looks bad-ass (which it does).
- JohnTomato
  
  She may know her powers that doesn’t mean she knows how to use what where and when. She’s grown into a hero by being un-killable but very nice. The anti-Batman if you will.
  
  Al is now in a scenario where mental vulnerability is paramount. We’ll see what happens.
  - Arkone Axon
    
    Technically, she grew into a hero by being recruited by the military to punch giant robots while her likeness was sold to corporations for merchandising. We’ve seen that people are actually kinda divided in regards to Alison (mostly it depends on whether they, or someone they loved, was saved by her smashing stuff, or hurt by her smashing stuff).
    - R Lex Eaton
      
      I wonder… is it too late to declare Allison’s Mega Girl as the poster child for why Grant Morisson hates the militarization of superheroes?
    - Dwight Williams
      
      If Morrison signs off on that, I’m good with it.
    - R Lex Eaton
      
      Ain’t it a shame when symbolic ideals are corrupted for the sake of authority and profit?
  - Weatherheight
    
    I’ve always thought of her as Super-mensch without the indomitable will and unshakable confidence that leads Super-mensch to believe he can solve any problem, even those that cannot be solved by physical force (which trope has been undercut greatly in the last forty years or so…).
David Gillon

Leverage, she’s torquing its head off.

dbdr

Alright, this is pretty neat.

It also makes sense, because patric seems to experience other people’s thoughts as though he is them, so he probably is some sort of weird gestalt person inside his head even more than most of us are.

RaijinK

Everyone’s mentioning things this could be inspired by, and I’m surprised no one’s mentioned X-Men’s Legion yet. Trapped in the mindscape of a powerful psychic that’s become a tempest of chaos from warring diverse personalities derived from the psyches he’s absorbed.

Weatherheight

There may very well be *exactly* that analogy going on, given Patrick’s tendency to kipnap and absorb others’ life experiences against their wills.

Also may be relevant as, As I understand it, Legion eventually began integrating those personalities

Tsapki

-succumbs to the petty need to feel clever-

“There are many Patrick’s here. I am Patrick 63.”

Eric Schissel

“I am not a number…!”
Eric Schissel

(wait, is Patrick’s last name McGoohan? Interesting.)

bryan rasmussen

I normally hate the multiple personas inside the mind trope but in Patrick’s case I think it’s good, Patrick isn’t intelligent or possessed of any particular personality the way we think of people having these qualities, Patrick absorbs them from others via his power. His vocabulary, analytical capabilities and thought patterns have been imprinted on by reading they strongest minds around him. This is really a hyper version of how each of us develops a personality and mental skills, we mimic others and apply what we perceive of them to our own nascent minds. In Patrick’s case as he learns skills from others he often picks up part of their personality as well, and thus multiple Patrick’s exist within his mind.

bryan rasmussen

I also think this crisis in infinite Patricks was maybe precipitated by Allison asking if he could read his own mind.

Roman Snow

“What was it a metaphor for? A robot?”

Urthman

Linguists refer to that as a “dead metaphor.”

S.I. Rosenbaum

ohhhhh, that’s right, Patrick doesn’t identify as a person.

*A* person.

Just like Soylent Green, Patrick is people.

Arkone Axon

I wonder how he tastes?