Endtown by Aaron Neathery for March 16, 2018

I sense a coup in the force.

“We understand you quite well, and by the way, we’re running the show now.

…better than you’d like…

The rats have their own agenda and Jacob is not a part of it…

“Our boss?” “I think he’s talking about the rabbit”“We understand you quite well..”

I think ol’ Jacob may have just about exhausted his entertainment value…

A leader can only lead as long as his followers follow…

I STILL can’t tell if mayor bunny is a good guy or bad guy…

I don’t think that’s a rat in the 3rd panel

“We know what we’re doing.”

Too bad no one else does…

“No notable resistance.” Except for a pig who has her own reasons for silencing him.

The Rats recognize authority figures. A short stubby rabbit does not impress them like a long lean curvaceous cougar. Remember the Rats only acted on the orders of Flask and the Council. There is no Flask and no Council. The Rats may feeling a bit of self determination. They are Endtown protectors. What lengths would they go to defend the place? We know they will kill.

I’m willing to bet that the person Jacob is talking to has a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire….

Uh, oh. And there’s no one around with a handy dimensionometer to confuse the rats, now. And…oh crap. Are the rats behind the plot to depose the rabbit?!

Do the rats have a higher sense of ethics/duty than we thought?

Am I alone in thinking that the person talking to Jacob is not a rat? Seems too intelligent and well-spoken to be one. And both the fox and the bunny are looking more like roadkill as things progress.

A boss they have. A rabbit he is not. ;-)

Rat with Glasses: “Yes we understand you perfectly. You don’t want us disturbing you on every little thing, and you don’t want us making decisions without consulting you first. You’re just like our last CEO at Exxon.”

I still wonder where Mallard is in all this. He was pretty much the original boss.

Third panel could be Mallard. If you squint very hard and look at it sideways, those might be teeth in a duck’s beak. Maybe.

Just who works for who in the Endtown government scheme of things?

I “heard” that last statement said with a bit of an ominous overtone.

I’m being obtuse because I am still trying to work it out. But there seems to be a range of authority inversions happening in Endtown. For example, IIRC the last time the rats tried crowd control by brute force, they got their heads handed to them and ended up retreating to the security station upstairs needing to change their pants. This is different than last time, but these are confident and determined rats. How did they regroup so well? It never seemed clear where idea of the Council came from and what their role vis-a-vis Mallard was. I might be wrong, but I felt Mallard could over rule them if he had to. As for Aaron, what Endtown character ever came ahead against him? So I wouldn’t count Mallard as down and out because of that. Withdrawn, yes. But still potent? Probably. It just seems that a lot of the old authority of Endtown is missing in action and the replacements are not working out (jackrabbit, police) or maybe too well (rats).

Getting the feeling the ratpack will have to be replaced sooner rather than later at this rate.