Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

noble

2022-05-19 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
noble
This explanation is incomplete or may contain errors. It was generated by AI and has not yet been reviewed by a human editor.

Explanation

This comic is a fantasy parody set in what appears to be a medieval or Tolkien-esque scenario. A group of characters confronts someone, telling them "Maybe you do not belong in this place of darkness."

The person responds that they are genetically superior — they were born to two dark-sorcery parents, they've been doing dark deeds for ages, and they "came along with the furniture." They also mention that their gear is made of gold and masterwork metals, and sarcastically ask if the heroes would really refuse to use such fine equipment.

One of the heroes then asks: "Could you rephrase that? It sounds like I'm righting a wrong by taking your hereditary possessions because of your blood?" The dark figure confirms: "Indeed. You are being a hero. Of noble blood."

The joke plays on the concept of "noble blood" in two ways. In fantasy settings, heroes often claim moral authority by virtue of their noble lineage, and villains are vanquished because they are evil. But when you strip away the narrative framing, the heroes are essentially just robbing someone of their inherited wealth and ancestral home because of who their parents were — which in real-world terms sounds less like heroism and more like persecution based on bloodline. The comic highlights the uncomfortable parallels between fantasy "heroism" and real-world hereditary class warfare.

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