Deadered
on August 21, 2021 at 12:01 amOriginally, it was probably a major reveal that oh, huh, I guess it wasn’t Head Alien II in her noggin this whole time! I mean, it’d be the obvious Head Alien to be in her head. But if you’ve been paying attention to the tags in these reruns, sorry.
Assuming Direct Control
This hurts you.
The OG, eh?
Must be a real “Revenge of the Nerd” going on.
idk why it’s weird to me that “deadered” should be two syllables
To get more syllables, you’d have to be deaderer.
I hadn’t, so it’s still a surprise.
I mean, they’re basically identical characters, really. I don’t think losing that twist is really that tragic. It’s not as though, say, an attempt to resurrect Joyce brought back Anti-Joyce instead.
This is basically like saying “you thought it was Head Alien in Dorothy’s head, BUT IT WAS I, HEAD ALIEN!”
There are some distinctions, mostly subtle ones. HAII doesn’t toy with his targets quite as much, planning for the big dramatic ending aside. (For comparison, while they both have body counts, HAII – whether it was just the godly power and universe hopping or their personalities to start with – has a much more significant one than HA proper. There are definitely universes where he killed the cast as little kids, whereas HA’s always waited until their abductee powers can kick in.)
That, and it’s the big finale of Joyce and Walky’s storylines, so we have to bring back the classic version rather than the newer, technically-more-powerful but less personal version.
Actually, my favorite part of the upcoming bit is how well it showcases the differences between the two.
HA seems a lot less evil (or maybe just a lot less successful at his evil plans) than HAII.
I hadn’t been, and I’m glad because that was a big surprise for me. Over the years I’ve learned so much of this story from osmosis that there haven’t been many surprises in this closing lap. But pretty much everything related to Dorothy has been a delightful surprise.
The shading on Dorothy’s hair in Panel 2 is giving me early color Shortpacked! vibes.