Lovely People aka 'the bunny comic'

[viola]

Ok, I'm a bit buffled by all of this. Plus a bit of a slowpoke.
What happened? Did Mina said smth wrong?

Minna made a new mini comic which is linked in the first post of this thread. After the comic she details her reasons for making the comic and discusses her recent conversion to Christianity. The comments under the SSSS comic have been shut down and removed for the time being, and she has directed people here. You can read her post on the most recent page of the comic. She has also indicated that she is no longer going to make the City of Hunger video game.

[moredhel]

Guess I was wrong.

We all are wrong  from time to time but in this case we can not be sure now. People can change their minds. People can be in an extremist mood and say or write things that are inappropriate.
I would recommend just to keep calm and patient. We will see then if it was an singular event than I would ignore it. If the future tone and content in Minnas publications is like the bunny comic, I will no longer consume it.

But at this point I think there is hope.

[blabo]

The comments under the SSSS comic have been shut down and removed for the time being, and she has directed people here.

I jump in to report that the thread under page 409 is actually still open and the conversation is ongoing. It became sort of a flame war between Christians who acritically profess themselves happy and proud of Minna's new comic (in a rather smug "and if you're not Christian why should you feel attacked in the first place" kind of way), and atheists trying to logically prove the non-existence of God as if this was the point in question.

[thorny]

As much as I dislike Disqus, its format makes it easier to browse its contents and interject comments where you want too.

Mileage varies.

Discus does make it easy to interject comments next to the particular post you want to reply to, even many hours later when the thread has long since moved on,. However, for me, that function makes it very difficult for me to browse contents, because I never know whether additional posts have appeared in sections of the thread I thought I'd already read.

Minna made a new mini comic which is linked in the first post of this thread. After the comic she details her reasons for making the comic and discusses her recent conversion to Christianity. The comments under the SSSS comic have been shut down and removed for the time being, and she has directed people here. You can read her post on the most recent page of the comic. She has also indicated that she is no longer going to make the City of Hunger video game.

Current page has comments shut down; but page 409 of the comic is still or again open for comments and is up to over 1500 as of my making this post. I don't know whether some of them have been removed.

This thread may well be easier to deal with. The problem many are having is not that she's converted to Christianity; but I won't go into everything all over again in this post.

[moredhel]

It became sort of a flame war between Christians who acritically profess themselves happy and proud of Minna's new comic (in a rather smug "and if you're not Christian why should you feel attacked in the first place" kind of way), and atheists trying to logically prove the non-existence of God as if this was the point in question.

That is exactly the sort of discussion in which everybody gets hurt. This is so sad.

[orangewolf]

I have been reading this comic for a long time, and haven't ever really engaged with the community (or even really paid attention to her comments on each comic) so I was kind of taken aback by this in a huge way. I went into her short comic just assuming it'd be an interesting story, and I was definitely not prepared for the emotional whiplash.

I'm a former Christian and live in the US, so I can't help but view her "author's notes" at the bottom through the lens of someone very familiar with the evangelical "persecution" culture. This comic reminds me of the chick tracts (wikipedia article) I was cajoled (read: forced) into handing out as a teenager and of the world view pushed by LaHaye and Jenkins' Left Behind series with the pastiche of cute bunnies to make it palatable or endearing.

I think the thing that bothers me the most is that she went out of her went to create a clearly fantasy world but used the actual Bible. That alone says everything that this comic is trying to say. There is no subtlety in the message. It's not "social credit is bad" or "cancel culture run amok will ruin our lives" it's literally just "everyone hates Christians even though they are right and follow the one true god and are the only way to avoid hell".

Just... the part with the tweets talking about "the kind of people" that read the Bible and "what type of thinking" it can lead to... I just can't handle it. It's too on the nose about how modern day evangelicals in 1st-world countries with religious freedom think about how they are "unjustly" treated by "the mainstream".

The way she talks about how she "was" when she was atheist is also very telling. She says that she was obsessed with being superior others, and I can't tell that anything has changed from notes. Instead of feeling like she is better than others because she is smarter, she now feels better than others because she has moral superiority. I don't know anything about the author or her past, but this is how it all comes across to me from reading the comic and the notes that followed.

[mate888]

lol

[Ragnarok]

Ok, I'm a bit buffled by all of this. Plus a bit of a slowpoke.
What happened? Did Mina said smth wrong?

The author's note at the end of the bunny comic, and, hell, the themes pushed by the comic, are very closely reminiscent of a particularly toxic breed of evangelical Christianity that is basically akin to an abusive cult. Minna then poured gasoline on the fire by posting a 'it's okay if you don't like this, I didn't know any better before I was saved so I have pity for you poor worthless sinners' in response to a large portion of the commentariat going 'hold the duck up this sounds like a cult, are you okay'.

[MissMew]

So, like a few people on here, I mostly just read SSSS and occasionally lurked in the comments.

And then I read Lovely People and it triggered a really bad anxiety attack.
I grew up in an extremely abusive evangelical christian environment and that wording Minna uses about how were all such horrible sinners and only the grace of god can save us but we don't deserve love or anything good... yeah. There's some really bad memories in there.

I feel conflicted now. Like I should have a thicker skin and not let the author's private beliefs bother me when they don't have anything to do with the comic that I like. But on the other hand I just, feel like I can't trust the author anymore. I feel like I can't actually trust that she's not going to take a hard turn into crazy town and I'm going to pop in to see a new page and just be triggered again.

I'm probably not making a lot of sense. I'm mostly just writing this in an attempt to get it out of my head.

[yung_chrysanthemum]

I'm disappointed that CoH won't be finished, I was really looking forward to it. Was looking forward to the interesting parallels between that world and the SSSS one (and: what happened to CoH Tuuri????)

I also wasn't aware that she intended to end SSSS after this arc -- it's vaguely implied by her comment on the latest page, but there's ambiguity.

Did she announce all this on a stream? Or can I just not read 

Other people have already expressed my unease with the comic more articulately than I ever could. I didn't necessarily have any issue with the comic itself (though in retrospect the "Bible 2.0" interview is problematic), but the afterword was very jarring. I tend to just mentally disengage when I see content like that (but of course I wanted to come here and see the discussion...), because I guess I just subconsciously view it as toxic / unhealthy. I already know I need work, you don't need to tell ME to repent

But on the other hand I just, feel like I can't trust the author anymore. I feel like I can't actually trust that she's not going to take a hard turn into crazy town and I'm going to pop in to see a new page and just be triggered again.

I'm probably not making a lot of sense. I'm mostly just writing this in an attempt to get it out of my head.

I can definitely empathize with this. I think a lot of us have the same fear/concern.

[Vulpes]

MissMew, welcome to the forum - you're not the only one who feels the way you describe. If you haven't already read this entire thread, I think you may find your feelings echoed in many of the posts. And it's a great deal less heated than the p409 comments. Yes, it is possible (and perhaps desirable - there's a whole other debate) to enjoy an author's work despite their personal views or behaviour, but I understand the loss of trust as well. I do hope that she keeps her word and completes the current story arc without any alarming detours.

[mate888]

reading through this and realizing shrek is probably censored in this universe
truly a horrible dystopia

also, does CoH being cancelled have anything to do with this comic? i thought it was just canned because minna isnt interested in vidya anymore

[Lallicat]

So, like a few people on here, I mostly just read SSSS and occasionally lurked in the comments.

And then I read Lovely People and it triggered a really bad anxiety attack.

Oh no, I hope you're okay now!

[PyroDesu]

also, does CoH being cancelled have anything to do with this comic? i thought it was just canned because minna isnt interested in vidya anymore

Not explicitly, but:

Among other statements in today's stream, Minna confirmed that she is abandoning work on the City of Hunger game.
Reasons given included her decision to give up playing video games herself, using her time for 'something more productive', and no longer having a goal of making money from sale of the completed game.

Most probable cause for all reasons given: the same thing that caused her to make Lovely People as it is, her turning to a seemingly highly-toxic and self-destructive faith. One that would encourage her to stop "sinful" hobbies like playing (and making) videogames, and treating her wanting to be able to support herself with it as avarice.

[Maglor]

Heh. Ok. That's kinda rude. I guess she either in this neophite rush, or just trolls us. And as far as I can tell, that's not how Christianity works.
But I still can't understand all the hype. Minna is not a crusader, she can't (and won't) ram into your place, yelling "DEUS VULT". Her oppinion is absolutely harmless for you, even if you disagree with this.
One can't simply mix her art and her believes. Plus:
There's that wery interesting indangered specie, a magical unicorn she used to make this comic. It's called freedom of speech. Don't you have anything else to do but being offended?