Here I come, what’s-yer-name
on December 7, 2021 at 1:01 amChapter: Same Planet, Different Dementia
Location: Shortpacked!
In that middle panel, Pamela tells Galasso the words Galasso would repeat in the Regular Universe to Conquest as the final words he heard from Conquest’s mother. And off she runs, coughing, because the Drama Tag’s not going to be protecting her from her illness much longer.
Leslie’s “I die for me” thesis statement is noteable, but I’ll let her expand on it herself in a bit.
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so Galasso didn’t even know Conquest was his daughter in this universe?
I mean, he knew it in the main universe, technically, but didn’t seem clear on what the word ‘daughter’ meant. He is later included with some non-binary individuals as a sort of logical opposite – he doesn’t seem to have a concept of gender in others.
Well of course not. Either you’re his minion, or you’re someone he hasn’t conquered yet. Galasso does not concern himself with other petty details.
It seems like in almost every universe he appears in, Galasso doesn’t understand the concept of genders at all.
But in the main universe IIRC, he only “knows” Conquest is his daughter because he recalled Pamela saying she was his daughter.
I like Ultra Car not actually knowing Head Alien’s name, despite him being the mortal nemesis of half the people she knows. It seems to fit her attitude really well.
Have they ever actually met before?
I don’t think that really matters, he’s a notable public figure who tried to kill her parents and their friends, I feel like she’d be aware of who he is.
After everything in Dumbing of Age about how “I would die for you” can actually be a really emotionally manipulative and shitty thing to tell someone, Leslie’s “I die for me” line is all the more epic.
Also love Head Alien II’s powers warping the panel edges.
For reference, re: Main Universe Pamela.
God, as time moved on and with it the author and their audience’s understanding of sex gender, Galasso became an increasingly tricky needle to thread, because suddenly the gaps in his knowledge coupled with his Ra’s al Ghul shtick threaten to careen into some absolutely goddamn wild territory. I’m not sure it always worked–I know I wanted it to at the time, desperate as I was to see myself in literally any fictional character.
But this strip absolutely works, because it perfectly captures how frustrating and bizarre that finger trap is. Galasso becomes almost Ice King-esque, trapped in a tragedy that only the people around him are capable of recognizing, provoking a sadness and anger in others by merely existing as a weird comedy doofus. It implausibly allows Shortpacked! to play both sides.
In any case. I’m glad the Dumbing of Age Patreon bonuses renegotiated the terms of Galasso and Conquest’s relationship. The idea that she needs to kill him to take his place evokes the whole Ethan-kidnaps-Galasso arc, which is a fun space to play in without surrounding oneself with an array of identity-shaped rakes to step on.
Yeah, while I find the diversity closet strip’s punchline amusing (all that effort for something Galasso himself does not understand in the slightest), I definitely prefer a Galasso who may or may not get the concept of gender, but finds it irrelevant to how he treats his minions and heir regardless. Lets him be a fun supervillain without the Ra’s al Ghul baggage.
One thing I love about getting Pamela’s last words here (well, about meeting Pamela generally, but this line is what brings it all back to mind) is that it allows us to explain Galasso’s baffling lack of knowledge about anything to do with sexuality. Everyone seems to be baffled by how that can work when he has a daughter. Until we learn that Pamela was herself a mad scientist, and a good one, we had no reason to suspect the possibility that Galasso hasn’t ever had sex and that Pamela, well, found some way to cook Conquest up using Galasso’s DNA.
I’m not saying that’s definitely what happened, but it’s at least an explanation.
I think the big problem with Walkyverse!Galasso is that there’s no satisfying way to collapse the waveform. If Conquest is a test tube baby, you lose the inherent humor of Galasso having done a sex. If Galasso has never done a sex, you open up a weird space where it could reflect on folks whose relationship with intercourse is complicated. If Galasso has done a sex, it opens up a weird space with sexual trauma and memory. And if Galasso has never done a sex, Conquest’s existence isn’t funny. Your only option is to keep this situation in an awkward and bad eternal limbo.
Can’t Conquest just be a clone of Pamela?
The real question is where Conquest got the blue eyes from, since neither Galasso nor Pamela have them. Other than that she does appear to basically have gotten her looks entirely from Pamela, though.
I got blue eyes and neither of my parents have them, my grandpa did. In Conquest’s case that might be a small tweak Pamela introduced, maybe she always wished she had blue eyes.
Ruth’s eyes were beady, until Willis decided she has green eyes
“hey death is death, I’m not picky”
How large is this storage room
So long as the tag exists and HAII occupies it: Big enough.
After that … things might be troublesome.
The door to the storage room is so small that Ultra Car can’t fit through, except when she can.