You created the drama tag?
on November 30, 2021 at 1:01 amChapter: Same Planet, Different Dementia
Characters: Amber O'Malley, Conquest, David Walkerton, Dina Sarazu, Galasso, Honey Bun, Joyce Brown, Leslie Bean, Pamela, Rachel Jackson, Sal Walters
Location: Shortpacked!
THE ORIGIN sorta OF THE DRAMA TAG! (Pamela made it.) (Because she was dying.) (And wanted to stop that.)
Anyway, here comes Rachel! I guess this is where she’s been! And look at how the coloring starts to change as she arrives. Yes, dangit, I hadta start coloring these things for real now.
It was 2013. Every heroine is an archer. It’s law.
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Commentary: Is THAT why Katniss
ok
So would Pamela or Galasso be able to see/remove the Drama Tag?
Pamela for sure, she seems too competent not to have a fail-safe, but Galasso is a maybe.
He could see and interact with the main universe drama tag. At least, after it was removed.
https://www.shortpacked.com/comic/burn
Then G-man is also a yes
I guess everyone in 2013 really liked Inu Yasha.
I like the boxing glove arrows for Rachel, gotta say. Sure, it’s to keep the universe’s comedic rules satisfied, but the wackiness feels a bit like a call to her daughter, too. (And while UC was always her kid, there’s a neat bit of symmetry now that we know Rachel lost several years of watching HER daughter, specifically, grow up.)
Plus, it’s just one hell of a reveal panel. This won’t be the last time we pull out the Extra-Long Strips for this storyline, but it’s a good one.
Yes it was such a good reveal, I loved this one so much. I gave a small hoot when I saw Rachel.
She’s back! She’s pissed! She’s heralding this storyline’s transition firmly into the realm of messy emotions and ethics AND superheroic action! (As evidenced by the complete lack of punchline here, for the first time since we arrived in this Wacky Hijinks universe.)
And boy oh boy, is she glorious.
Archery is just cool
I’d think solid colors would be easier than multiple layers of digital paint, but apparently I’d be wrong!
It’s about backgrounds. So long as it’s more impressionistic, I can fudge toy shelves or even a parking lot WAY more easily.
Makes sense, though even after the switch to solid colors Shortpacked! had pretty sparse backgrounds for a decent while, so you still had an out.
And evidently you noticed this at the time, because the next one has a lot of solid colors with silhouetted skylines or circle fragments.
The way that Pamela refers to Ethan’s sexuality as a “stupid, painful truth” (emphasis mine) in Panel 3 is very telling. Really, given the nature of her plan, is it any wonder she looks on other people’s identities with such blatant condescension? The truly twisted thing about Pamela’s actions is that for once in all of human history, someone talking about how their marriage and family will be somehow “destroyed” by LGBT people coming out, living fulfilling lives, and having fulfilling relationships is technically right, because Pamela has literally altered the fabric of reality to make that bigoted position into fact. The change in status quo that would allow Ethan to come out would, in fact, kill her, by allowing her illness to resume its progress if nothing else. She is heteronormativity embodied. She’s halted all social progress and development to stave off terminal illness, because she represents an ideology that should have died long ago.
And so in a twisted way it’s kind of fitting that, in this world with homophobia baked into its very fabric, a comic whose first openly queer character was brainwashed into killing its first same-sex couple would still be going on eight years after it should have ended.
I always interpreted Pamela’s statements in this comic as rationalization. She didn’t intend to lock Ethan in the closet; but her solution to her own mortality had wide-ranging consequences (imagine that), and she is as vulnerable to cognitive dissonance as anyone, and evidently values her life over the freedom or growth of anyone around her.
(This definitely still makes her a bad person, but in a selfish-with-godlike-metaphysical-powers way more than a targeted-bigotry way.)
Yeah, my assumption is this is post-hoc justification as Pamela recognizes she’s screwed up but convinces herself it’s not that bad. We know full well that, much like Amber, Ethan’s doing MUCH better in the main Shortpacked universe. As the first strip of this storyline established with Roz, Ethan’s currently successful enough with his comedy he can contemplate leaving the toy store. He has a boyfriend he’d be able to move in with when he does. And while Amber left east, when he eventually moves out he’ll be able to see her again much more frequently, while still being connected to Robin and Leslie. The changes the cast went through made them much, much happier in the end than staying stagnant at a toy store forever.
But Leslie’s not quite able to think that way at the moment, because right now she’s terrified of how things are changing – Amber and Mike just left. Ethan’s probably getting ready to as well. (In hindsight, we know that’s correct.) Robin started dating Joe and things are getting serious (and SHE doesn’t know that Robin, faced with the prospect of never seeing Leslie again, chose her over Joe and their entire world.) Leslie’s afraid of these changes, because ultimately as she sees it everyone she loves is leaving and she’s stuck here, even if those changes are good for them. But of course, that’s not entirely the case. Reading on rerun, we know the best days of Leslie’s life are still to come. Even without that knowledge, if the universe won’t change then it can never change for the better, either. If she were in a better headspace, she’d probably recognize it.
Yeah the “Pamela is heteronormativity embodied” read doesn’t really track. If she was I meant to stand in for that, I think Leslie and the story overall would be much less sympathetic.
It’s very clearly more of a fear of change in general and mortality/loss in specific.
I really don’t think that tracks with how Pamela is portrayed in the rest of the arc. The story has a good deal of sympathy for her.
If you want an allegory, she’s representing fear of change generally. Her desire to extend the status quo is understandable, but ultimately harmful and futile
this was meant to be a reply to RassilonTDavros (great username by the way)
Hm so what’s this? Walkyverse’s Pamela’s drama tag failed to stop her death? Maybe because the effect of that universe’s tag didn’t spill into the reality beyond Shortpacked’s walls. That kind of explains why Galasso knew of the tag and mysteriously disposed of it. It was a reminder of an unacceptable, painful failure. Someone as egocentric as he is may believe it’s his fault.
Does HA has a cool-but-kind-of-cheeky logo in this universe? Or is this just the rage in Rachel’s voice?
If memory serves, Rachel’s leaping pose is a reference to the Transformers comics. I don’t remember any details beyond that (and in fact I may be misremembering), but… perhaps the source material used a similar font for whatever was being said while someone was performing the same leap?
Why do her arrows have boxing gloves??
That makes them funny, so they’ll be effective despite the drama tag’s influence. (Just like Ultra Car’s pies.)
I’m kinda imagining Rachel’s voice sounding somewhat like Christian Bale’s Batman in the last panel. Which is pretty silly, but whatever.
I kinda imagine her as BTAS Poison Ivy, idk