Second, one of the webcomics I follow is Sluggy Freelance, which has been running for years. I’ve been reading it for 5 years, and there’s a whole lot of backstory, so it’s taken on a depth just from sheer history that not a lot of comics have.
At any rate, the current story would take paragraphs and paragraphs to explain, but the main character, Torg, is just a regular guy but right now he’s on this quest or something. He’s spent the last several months in an alternate universe that was taken over by demons from the Dimension of Pain, and in that universe Torg met the alternate version of Zoe. In his regular universe Zoe and Torg are friends, and have tried to date but it’s never worked out. Torg still has feelings for Zoe, though.
And, yes, you guessed it, because alternate-universe-Torg has gone missing, our Torg steps in for him, and Zoe and our-Torg fall in love.
Which is all just backstory (and recent backstory, too! I told you it was complicated (yes, it’s very much like a geek soap opera))… and it all leads up to two of the saddest moments in the history of the comic.
(Pete Abrams is the creator of the comic)Why, Pete? Why did you have to kill off alternate-Zoe? I was unbelievably saddened when she died. Maybe it’s just the stupid holiday season that’s got me so emotional (I friggin’ hate the holidays) but… dammit.
And then, in the past week, came the moment when our Torg rescues alternate-Torg from the Demon-King’s freezer (see, Torg is trying to get the Ziploc-baggie of Goodness stored in the fridge, and the Demon-King’s fridge has the freezer-side on the right, not on the left like Torg expected… oh, go read it, it’ll make more sense that way)
…and it hit me. Our Torg has his own Zoe to go back to (although any geek worth his caffeinated beverage knows the pain of having a relationship and then having to go back to “being friends” and that is precisely what our Torg will have to do, with the added pain from having our Zoe not know what went on between our Torg and alternate Zoe (I just can’t see Torg telling Zoe what his relationship with alternate Zoe was, but I’ve been wrong before (Why?! Why did you kill her, Abrams?!)
…but alternate Torg has lost his Zoe forever.
Dimension of Pain, indeed.