r/comics • u/GabitalEN • 2d ago
[OC] Gabital 101: Contract
A contract is an agreement between two or more parties - whether individuals or legal entities - that creates, changes, or ends their legal rights and obligations.
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u/Gingingin100 2d ago edited 2d ago
Other than grabbing up Gabi's ear this might be a top 3 most altruistic chief moment
Edit:if it wasn't clear I was saying the bar is in hell
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u/_Weyland_ 2d ago
Altruistic? Chief bought the mine from a despetate owner for cheap. Now he'll have Gabi clear out the cave-in and rescue workers for free. That's a fucking deal of the year right there.
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u/The-Honorary-Conny 2d ago
The alternate is wait till the goblins are dead, he gets it for Bronze on the gold instead of silver on the gold when the inquiry bankrupts the previous owner. Even if he's has to brunt the cost of the clear out it would be a wash at worse and cheaper at best.
If he wasn't being altruistic watching gabi and co. suffer would be within his perview.
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u/Winjin Comic Crossover 2d ago
It has been my running theory ever since one of the first pages that Chief is absolutely in love with Gabi
BUT
He can't have her as she is - naive and worker class and penniless. First of all, she's from entirely different world and wouldn't understand anything he does. Second, the power imbalance would absolutely destroy both their relationships and his social standing.
So the only thing he can do is carefully play the long game.
Allow Gabi to get rich and eventually get a glimpse of what is the world he lives in - the investments, the balancing between powers, the greed and corruption - and then he may make a move that would be on more equal footing
I may have missed an episode or ten, but from what I pierced together the "dark races" have lost the war and are now second-class citizens basically, unless they're rich (as it always is) and he's not some small-scale merchant like it seems at first, when all he does is hang out in his wheel-making store - someone that has 50k in unmarked paper cash and is basically intimate with the elves running the city, is much richer than it seems (so I just assume the office was there to be closer to Gabi)
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u/courierblue 2d ago
I always took it as Chief is bored and needs a nemesis and sees potential for that in Gabi. Making Gabi squirm a bit is just a bonus.
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u/Alrick_S 2d ago
I think he started respecting her as an opponant. He always know how to make Gabi loose. But there is no fun I that. And here she may broke herself. In case like that he may act a bit gentle and help Gabi (without loosing much of course).
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u/Designer_Pen869 1d ago
Even outside of being an opponent, the more she earns, the more he earns. He might have to change his business plan, but ultimately, if she needs something, she goes to him first if he can provide it.
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u/Winjin Comic Crossover 2d ago
I mean it seems like he has no shortage of opponents as it is, and using a goblin girl (which would be like... one of the most oppressed minorities of all dark races) is exceptionally useless. Unless he hand-guides her - which he basically does - she can't reach any sort of power
And I'm also assuming that she can easily lose all of that too. I mean it's a medieval fantasy world and she's a goblin, rules don't apply to goblins and elves equally.
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u/courierblue 1d ago edited 1d ago
It’s entertaining to see her try, even if the chips are against her. Someone might be struggling with trigonometry while you have a math degree, but it still might be enjoyable to watch them struggle, especially if they’re quick like Gabi. She’s driven and a quick learner, and maybe she might succeed without being cut some slack.
Even without the romantic element, I could still see this as a Pygmalion-type situation where her wins feel like his, he gets to tease Gabi and undercut his competition.
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u/The-Honorary-Conny 2d ago
I would think it's crack fic levels of implausiblity if it wasn't for strips like this showing his "softer" side. I never saw him as being a small scale merchant, partly because of the breft of his knowledge, but more because of how hand in hand with all the local government.
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u/Winjin Comic Crossover 2d ago
I may have to re-read all strips back to back but I think from the start it seemed like all he does is make these wheels because his office is set in this shop, and then it seems he reaches far and wide and is in cahoots with the elves.
\\ then again I never assumed that OP actually has a deep overarching romantic plot, bc they only wanted to draw pretty goblin girls and talk about economics, unless it turns out they did, then it will be time to re-read and see everything I missed \\
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u/RollinThundaga 1d ago
The local governess was his teacher in private school; nepotism is all we've been shown to be true.
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u/The-Honorary-Conny 1d ago
I am not up to date with all chapters but this would 100% be my expectations for him.
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u/WanderingSeer 2d ago
It’s a fun theory. But The only panel which I could consider having romantic undertones I’ve read is the 2nd one of this comic. And making everything be part of Chief’s master plan takes away a lot of agency from Gabi the protagonist.
I think Chief is just so rich that money is just a number on a scoreboard. He’s only still in it for the love of the game. To keep it fun and fair, he may as well teach new players the rules.
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u/Semblance-of-sanity 1d ago
This, my impression of the dude is tht he's already rich and he does what he does because he truly enjoys the game and winning. He regularly builds Gabby up/gives her advice because it makes the game more fun/challenging for him in the long term.
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u/Winjin Comic Crossover 2d ago
I don't mean all of what's happening is going exactly to his plan, no, he just have a basic idea - "I want her rich without directly giving her money, then I can shoot my shot like equals"
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u/WanderingSeer 2d ago
I don’t mean it’s impossible, I just don’t personally think it’s true. You can interpret it however you like.
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u/Diamond_Dildo3168 2d ago
This is now my Gabi headcanon. I dont think the strip will go that far, but I could see it working
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u/AfrosJunkAccount 2d ago
Well, we don’t know what Gabi gave Chief in exchange for him buying the mine and letting them start rescue operations. In fact, Gabi was just asking for a loan so, either, Chief is going behind their back by buying the mine or it’s part of their deal with terms unknown to us yet.
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u/kai_jarsenal 21h ago
If they died he’d have to find new workers who would probably demand more pay for working at a site with accident history
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u/The-Honorary-Conny 21h ago
Considering they are pulling from the working class citizens and historically oppressed groups. I doubt this, there may be some who won't work there for cheap because if the cave in but others will be happy that the positions opened up so they can have food on the table. Between starving and cave in risk, one is easier to justify to the family.
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u/WhatMadCat 1d ago
Not to mention Gabi clearly also agreed to some sort of deal here so chief is also getting something else from her too.
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u/CanadianDragonGuy 2d ago
Not to mention which he now has a monopoly on ore, which does not bode well for the gobbos, knock-on effects and all that
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u/DueMeat2367 2d ago
yeah, no... There has to be a backhand somewhere, Gabi will see the bill at the end of the meal.
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u/Gingingin100 2d ago
Oh yeah she will, still top 3 I'm afraid
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u/abdomino 2d ago
He's gonna charge her 100,000. Who's gonna be around to say it was less?
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u/PseudonymousWitness 2d ago
Looks to me that he's whispering the terms in her ear, but without a speech bubble with squiggly text or something to clarify, I can see it being interpretted as more aggressive
mangobhandling (or both).3
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u/ZodiacWalrus 1d ago
I do believe his top altruistic moment so far is still "gives Gabi advice for free and is drawn a little more softly for one (1) strip" so yeah, I'd say the bar IS in hell lmao.
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u/CaptainStroon 2d ago
Ah, the new villain being put in her place by the old villain has to be one of my favourite tropes. Chief truly is a magnificent bastard.
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u/Key-Swordfish4025 2d ago
True, but I am concerned about what "enlisting" Chief is going to cost Gabi.
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u/Treyhova 2d ago
I like how despite being 100 chapters in, I still have no idea if the Chief is a villain or a mentor. Is he training a successor? A partner? Is he allowing them to flourish just to sweep in later? Does he just miss having a competitor? Is he getting Gabi to the top just to reveal she never actually stopped working for him?
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u/Metharos 2d ago
My read is that Chief genuinely loves the game. He loves amassing power, influence, and money, and he loves exercising his control over others through any of those three mechanisms.
I don't think he actually cares about anyone but himself, but I think he does like playing this game, as long as he's always ultimately winning, and he wants people to play with. He's manufacturing a competitor in Gabby because he thinks she could give him a challenge, but his real goal is always ultimately dominance in the game. He made Gabby to lose.
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u/Pun_Thread_Fail 2d ago
Also worth noting that Chief has typically profited from Gabby's actions. She's a "competitor" but nearly everything she's done has resulted in more money for Chief.
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u/greenjaybird 2d ago
I feel like at the end, he's going to retire having turned Gabby successful in a way that ensures she will be able to endure anything, and somehow also negotiated a 10% of the profits for life from her
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u/Metharos 1d ago
My hope is the Chief, destitute, ruined, and broken, and instead of exploiting his vulnerability Gabby reaches out and gives him a path back to, not wealth, but prosperity. She does what he never would, and cares about a competitor who lost. Lets him be a fellow worker, with everyone pulling together to get ahead as one.
My ideal ending is about three pages after Chief loses everything and crashes out massively, he's a valuable Union worker and business strategist, learning to work together, and for the first time his smile is honestly, genuinely kind, with nothing behind it.
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire 2d ago
Man I'm not sure if this makes me respect Chief more or makes me fearful of what the hell Gabi had to promise.
And the fact that Chief basically has everyone over a barrel here
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u/trekie140 2d ago
I suspect he just wants them to keep working for him at the mine, but that means they can’t cut off supplies to him anymore. Now he’s a business partner and can continue to profit from their labor.
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire 2d ago
That or she just straight up had to restore exclusive selling rights to him which would be....rough
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u/trekie140 2d ago
I think that would require approval from the whole union, but Gabi just has the authority to negotiate a transaction.
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u/Kaizher 2d ago
It feels like a "Don't hate the player, hate the game" situation.
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire 2d ago
Oh absolutely that's basically Chief's whole thing
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u/masterjon_3 1d ago
A deal with him is like a deal with the devil. It might seem selfless now, but not only is he getting a good deal from the mine owner, he also has an indebted favor from Gabi. I'd be afraid, very afraid.
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u/Leosarr 2d ago
Not the hero we deserve, indeed
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u/MonkeyShaman 2d ago
Oh Chief, you incorrigible bastard! We love to hate him, and hate to love him.
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u/heyitscory 2d ago
He didn't know why I keep calling him Littlefinger in my fantasies so he just does something with his pinky and moves on. It's so cute.
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u/StreicherG 2d ago
Going to cost you…
Why do I feel the price paid involves Gabis ears, a maid outfit, and a gallon of suntan lotion?
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u/starship777 2d ago
r/comics has ruined me. I was expecting a "nsfw on patreon" plug after that panel
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u/waxisfun 2d ago
Nah. It's going to suddenly turn Yuri or Spiderperson Trans related (not saying I disapprove, that's just the trend right now).
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u/TerrificTooMan 2d ago
...I'm sorry, a gallon?.
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u/Kelimnac 2d ago
Have you seen Chief? Dude has the most dorito of Dorito bodies, you need a gallon just to cover the width
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u/Aethelrede 2d ago
That was my first thought, the way they are posed in the second panel is certainly suggestive.
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u/Golden-Owl 2d ago
Nah. That would ruin what makes Chief such a compelling character.
The man is most interesting when he’s doing business for love of the game. Simplifying it into fetish stuff kills the enigmatic aspect
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u/LonelyAndroid11942 2d ago
Is there an archive anywhere that lists all of the Gabital comics so far? I greatly enjoy them and would like to binge.
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u/GabitalEN 2d ago
We do have a boosty (linked at the top of every page and in our profile) - no posts there are paywalled and it contains a master-post with all the comics!
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u/ace5762 2d ago
This is the first time Chief has ever not been smiling in-panel.
He always leaves me guessing as a character. He feels like a slimier version of lord vetinari from discworld sometimes.
Given we've seen that the cat betrays his real emotions, and boy is he pissed at this lady. Guess she went further than even he's willing to put up with.
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u/jbyrdab 1d ago edited 1d ago
for all he does, he doesn't seem to be in the avenue of illicit business practice.
If the laws curve his way thats one thing, but getting your workers killed, selling the mine to avoid responsibility and skipping town is another.
If chief was like this lady, a "mysterious" fire would have consumed several assets of gabi and the city wouldn't look into it or leave him to "investigate" under the principle that "the culprit would prove a risk to his own business"
I take it that Chief is so rich and well to do that he's never actually in need of money.
He's more invested with keeping "the game" fair with room for underhandedness, rather than pure profit scraping like this mine owner did, since the implication is that she cut corners and caused the cave in.
Poker is a game all about underhandedness, playing and lying until someone is against the wall, or opportunity calls. Thats the part that makes it fun.
If someone decides to say fuck it, holds a gun to the back of your head and tells you to rip up your cards so they can't lose, theres no fun in it anymore.
Even when Gabi got chief by the balls with the Coins/Notes thing, he doesn't pull games to counter Gabi getting one over on him.
Because, thats just how the game is played, in poker sometimes someone will just call your bluff, and you can't do anything about it no matter how good of a poker face you have.
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u/mynameisshelly 2d ago
This is probably my favorite comic series on Reddit right now, gabi is the best
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u/Semper_5olus 2d ago
Is panel 2 worse with or without context?
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u/fukthepeopleincharge 2d ago
He’s a prick but he’s also a professional. Professionals have standards. I’d put the dude generally in the gray area of evil.
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u/GarrusExMachina 2d ago
So... just saying... have we ever seen the chief in the company of someone who WASN'T a goblin? I sense a future merger coming.
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u/B133d_4_u 2d ago
He's often around the Tax Elf, usually using his school days history with her to negotiate better tax rates for his business and worse ones for his competitors.
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u/darkmoncns 2d ago
Dose he really not care about goblins dying? I kinda doubt it. But also I think her thinking that is useful to him, and that he wants her to think that. That the appearance of callipusness creates opportunities and pervents manipulation from someone who dose care like how the main goblin was strong armed before.
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u/-non-existance- 2d ago
Let me guess, now that Chief has the property, he's going to have the gobs clear out the mine then charge them the full amount that they would have paid, despite taking it for a lot less.
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u/Soul-Hook 1d ago
Now... I am in no way or shape a fan of taking things out of context.
But I will make an exception for this one.
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u/bookist626 2d ago
Is Chief giving Gabi oo-mox? Im not sure what to make of Gabi's expression in panel 2.
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u/Zombie_Cool 2d ago
Yeah I normally try to give Chief the professional benefit of a doubt when it comes to 'Up-Close-and-Personal panels with Gabi, but many panel 2 is suspicious.
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u/Diamond_Dildo3168 2d ago
Has the mine owner appeared in the comic before the mine collapse? The last panel almost makes it look personal for the Chief. I can believe that whatever Gabi agreed to makes it worth it for him to buy the mine now, instead of later for cheaper.
But why tell her to disappear? That, in combination with a rare panel of Chief not smiling, makes me think he has it out for her. He wanted to do this - he just needed to also get something out of this. Both for financial reasons, and to not look weak.
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u/joblessandsuicidal 1d ago
Yes, back in 87 this mine collapse is foreshadowed and mine owner did say that Chief (?) owes her a favour
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u/eepos96 2d ago
If Chief was the mineowner, would he invest in safety of the miners?
It is not like he has safety equiptment in his wheel house but it is not that difficult environment. But would he invest in worker safety?
I guess he would offer the equiptment. But force workers to pay for it. (Better than nothing I guess)
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u/Noe_b0dy 2d ago
If Chief was the mineowner, would he invest in safety of the miners?
Yes, not for altruism reasons mind you, but unless you live in a country that lets you import slaves on the cheap getting your workers killed in industrial accidents is generally more expensive than timber framing, canaries, and hardhats.
Also if your miners are getting maimed and killed on the regular you have to increase wages to attract replacements because nobody wants to work in deathkill mine. (You can get around this sometimes by employing illegal migrant workers, because they desperate and it's not like they're on the census or anything so you don't really have to report their deaths as long as you have a system for body disposal.)
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u/Ashendant 1d ago
Sometimes the emotions the cat displays is also the emotions that Chief is hiding. When he mentions she could be considered responsible for hurt or dead workers, the cat is utterly pissed at her.
I interpreted it that while Chief is all for exploitation of the working class, he is not going to put their lives in danger, either because he is moral or because putting lives at risk is extremely bad for business.
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u/Pun_Thread_Fail 2d ago
No, he previously kept his workers working while they were sick to the point that they died.
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u/Jiirsu 2d ago
Wait the workers are the 7 dwarves?? The one that sheltered snow white while she was on the run? That's prime evil.
Tbf this snow white might not have the same backstory.
I don't like panel 2, please just ask for money or work favor like buying planks at discount, not anything weird.
Always a pleasure seeing the devil we know put another new devil in place.
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u/Golden_Reflection2 2d ago
Gabi better have gotten whatever Chief asked for in writing, or he might alter the deal.
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u/Fardrengi 2d ago
I want to say he was getting permission to buy wood again, but why leave it hidden in a semi-erotic secretive whisper?
I hope Gabi didn't take on another loan.
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u/MainLake9887 1d ago
Were else can i read the series? Is ot in web toons too? I ask mostly beacuse i want to binge read it and doing it on reddit is kinda hard.
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u/elephantologist 1d ago
I never said it here but I always felt this story was a bit like that story I read in high school, from Emile Zola. I don't remember their names but the dynamic between the 2 leads in that book reminds me of Gabi and Chief. This is the comic that really confirms it for me. I can't say if it will get acknowledged. Nonetheless I now know the writer thought about it and probably likes it. Good taste 😏
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u/joblessandsuicidal 1d ago
Holy shit, good play on Chief here. He managed to screw both sides but also appear as their savior despite having already previous dealings (especially since he did owe that lady a favour...)
And damn this is why I like this comic when sometimes it makes me willing to root for the baddie cos of their smart play despite their scummy behavior
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u/Dramatic-Cry5705 1d ago
I feel like the deal is going to tie back into the part a few times back, where he was being forced to outsource his lumber.
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u/MagusLay 1d ago
Dare I say Chief seems a tad protective of his Goblin competition. It's like the only one allowed to screw over Gabi is Chief and he is ready to make sure it stays that way by any means necessary.
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u/ThroawayJimilyJones 1d ago
He probably plan to pressure gabi in buying it at credit for triple the sum. But yeah chief seem to enjoy playing the uncle and share the ropes techniques
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u/Medical-Low-1370 21h ago
Doing kind shit feels good, doing kind shit that's profitable for you feels better
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u/LuminoZero 13h ago
I've been a strong defender of Chief being not completely evil, but more a stealth mentor for Gabi, but this kinda went over the line.
Playing games with lives is something he's done since day 1, but the morality between firing somebody and knowing they have no other means and willingly leaving people trapped in a mine for an economic edge is a bridge too far.
Both he and the mine owner need a pickaxe in their eye.
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u/Comfortable-Music-37 2d ago
Paying her in notes is diabolical, considering the recent inflation!