Tonight on a very special episode of ComicArtistPro Secrets:
Luring in
Liam Gray with the subject of talking about the Snyder cut or something,
Ro Kabir and
Frog put their differences aside to talk Liam away from metaphorically walking towards the open gasoline pit with torch in hand while soaked in gas himself that is continuing to purity test
Ya Boi Zack over hiring
Miss Sashi. While it's not as if Liam is a kingmaker in CG, it's not as if Zack's identifying with modern CG is more solid than the vaguest concessions tortuously extracted by Frog either. The unstated fear of Zack being pushed into a disavowal of Comicsgate is well-founded (though Frog has succeeded on getting Zack more active on livestreams lately). Much like the plot from
Gladiator, while spectating the chaos in the Liamstream was awesome for Caesar at first, and sure Warcampaign liked to show up there and call for "peasant uprising", things got out of hand quickly and threatened to consume everything in the vicinity if Caesar kept fiddling around.
Ro begins this foray into mediation by asking if Dan Fraga is a wigger (with a hard R) for two minutes and then declaring that saying Zack isn't CG is like saying Jesus isn't Christian. That out of his system, he follows by gently relating to Liam that he can't be embittered by the easy success of the Wittens and Belle Dauphines of the world and that, like Voltaire's
Candide, he must be satisfied with the respectable success of his personal endeavors instead of comparing himself to others and demanding fairness from the world which is an exercise in futility.
Liam surprisingly holds firm to his stance that Comicsgate was founded in reaction to people that insulted and attacked the Comicsgate customers and movement and that since Sashi is anti-CG, Comicsgate shouldn't support giving someone like Sashi their money any more than they would to Gail Simone or Mark Waid, which logically includes
Jawbreakers.
Ro, with Frog's support, argued that Sashi is in fact
not anti-CG but merely has "personal differences" with Frog and Warcampaign because of the targeted mockery for months made at the expense of her unattractive face and body with the so-called "#GobbleGate" campaign in reference to her neck. (I would point out that Sashi posts exclusively with the Vikki and Doug TenNapel crew and calls Comicsgate a movement that hates women, but since Liam doesn't challenge them on this we'll go with it). That argument accepted, the leader of Warcampaign followed an appeal for moderation in regards to cases like Sashi, channeling the wisdom of the ancients by citing the adage that even the Buddha when questioned by a pupil on attaining absolute purity, answered by eating a piece of meat. Finally, Ro closes with the statement that while he is happy for Liam's success with
Xenotype and considers him a friend, he can't support Liam's mission to "purify Comicsgate by burning it to the ground" and building utopia upon the ashes.
Frog notes that while uneasy, what bothered Liam wasn't put to ease by Ro's florid metaphors. Some in the chat went so far as to say Ro failed and that Sketch should he put on to argue with Liam instead. As Ro worked to gaslight Liam into remembering how everyone came together to support
Xenotype, Frog cut him off
to point out that other than WC, nobody actually supported Xenotype during its entire campaign and that he "senses" an undercurrent of rage in Liam's rage-fueled borderline bloodsport show. Frog says that looking back he would have done things differently and as an example maybe not had Sketch Therapy on as a guest three times as often as Liam during Liam's campaign, but things worked out and despite mistakes being made in the past, that's no reason why we can't learn from them or for Liam to turn into an angry purity testing machine who puts CG/himself to the flame because he can. Liam has passed his trial of fire with blazing orange splendour and earned his place at the table as a CG Lord, or in this case access to Frog's green room and maybe even a mod wrench on CAPS too, as Sketch's howls of anguish rang through the chat. Liam, emotionally exhausted by all this, retired for the evening.
Good job Frog.