Endtown by Aaron Neathery for October 09, 2015

Oops!

Considering how far away she was, I don’t quite buy that was true. That said, think Kirbee is trying to diffuse, or rather redirect, a conflict. Why do I have a feeling Kirbs is often a willing scapegoat?

Kirbee…..“I took Clive…..and ate him…..”

Chic: “No, don’t touch Kirbee. I, I took Clive.”Wally: “No, really, it was me.”Irving: “… ,.,., ,,,, ….”Clive: “Leave Irving alone. I took Clive.”

Recycle your BRAINS!

Either Holly is going to find some emotional footing soon or I fear she will be swept ‘round the bend forever. This torment (bordering on torture) is very difficult to watch. Having lived through Holly’s (apparent) demise in real time, I can honestly say that this has become even more painful. The first time around it came out of the blue, and lasted only a few days. This slow, drawn out erosion of her mind and soul is an excruciating spectacle that has me longing for an end, almost any end at this point. I sense an imminent “her or me” moment between W&H re Kirby and the potential for an unavoidable “lose/lose” situation. Kirby seems to embody many of the attributes that made Holly so attractive a character way back when. It would be a shame to lose a good and caring soul from a world where they seem to be in such dismally short supply.

Uh, oh. Kirbee-from the culture of infantophages (if that wasn’t a word, it should be), has taken Clive-Holly’s substitute infant. And Holly has already gone into hysteria, AND never liked Kirbee in the first place.

When one is a post-apocalyptic world one canNOT afford to lose their sanity. Holly is at the point where she endangers everyone. She has to get it together or they have to outcast her.

Hmmm so it was Kirbee, damn, I feel like that’s the one person Holly’s not going to hold back against or learn a lesson from if she goes too far. Whelp, wonder if Wally is going to have to step in and hurt their relationship further. This is just a downward spiral that never ends.

Anyone else see the double edged sword that is giving up Clive? Sure you lose you the TS tail but Clive has an idea of there destination and knowledge about them and their ditto defense. He might not want to share but they probably have ways to force the point. Rock and a hard place position that could bite them now or later.

How much of this is the doing of “I”?Is he turning Holly into another Jim?

Well I hope Kirbee can take a sock to the jaw….

Cause Flask sure as hell couldn’t without landing flat on her arse.

Basic rule: If Kirbee looks like the sane one next to you, you probably need to reevaluate your life choices.

Calm down everyone.We just have to put our brains together and talk this out.

Two days ago, we see Holly putting Clive down, and Kirbee Putting Chick down and starting to walk around to the back of Holly…

Wally looks like he’s really trying to stay in control of himself.

I just realized the symbolism of Kirbee keeping Holly’s apron. She’s taking Holly’s place.Holly’s calling Wally a monster indicates she’s been resenting him for some time already. I think she really didn’t want to leave Endtown, but she didn’t want Wally leaving her either, so she went with him. But her attachment to him may not be as romantic as it seemed. Just as Clive has apparently become a surrogate for her lost baby, Wally could be a surrogate for her lost boyfriend or husband from before the End, seen in her flashback. Presumably that person was the baby’s father. Holly wants her family back, but the stand-ins aren’t working out. And Kirbee is a reminder that it’s not real.

Called it! Now what happens?

Nice job Aaron!

Holly should pick on someone her own size.

I remember when Holly was the voice of reason. Then she was asked to look after a topsider who became a koala. I wonder, sometimes… What if that koala had not figured out how to make that cake?

And where is chic? He’s way to familiar with “family” arguments…

I miss the old Holly. :(

Aaron, PLEASE bring our beloved Holly back SOON!!!!I don’t mind adding Chick, Kirbee, & Irving…but I miss Holly and Wally beings soooooo right for each other.Let Holly cry it out, and come back from an emotional overload.Make Holly lovable again. Let Wally “get through” to her.

I honestly doubt that the “old” Holly exists anymore. My understanding is that when people go through something traumatic it changes them for the remainder of their lives. Their condition may improve and they may heal but they will be different, for better and worse, than they were.Aaron may be unrealistic (bordering on fantasy at times) with his treatment of science and technology but his treatment of the human condition tends to be realistic, which is one reason why so many of us have gotten so into this story. I am hoping that Holly gets better and that her relationship with Wally survives this trauma, but I don’t believe she’ll ever return to the way we remember her being.

im curious about what the topsiders are planning and clive may be how they find out

still bothers me the topsiders sarah and jim killed asked them if their transporter was equiped for conversion and they talked as if the topsiders had some way to wipe out all the mutants

Holly looks just so wild and over the edge. There’ll be no easy going back. It’s forward from here on, so strap yourselves in for a wild ride. Good one, Mister Neathery.

This story hasn’t been as good as it used to be. I suspect Aaron is as depressed as I am at times.I’ve thought of taking a couple of weeks off watching, then catch up one day. So as not to become depressed at reading such a depressing story.It is his story after all, and he can do as he pleases. On the topic of Clive, Kirbee may be covering Chic’s actins. He has seem lots of domestic abuse, and I know kids, especially little boys will do what the can to stop the violence.Seeing Wally and Holly fight ,and blaming it on Clive, he may have run off with “Him” and hid it “him”, thinking if they lost Clive mom and dad would not have anything to fight About.And women will often take the fall for children.Kirbee may think Holly might wring the young parrot’s neck, being so out of her mind.I know I can’t miss any time, If what I can see in my head happens- it would take several weeks.

I love reading Endtown. I love the characters, I love what Aaron’s doing, and how he’s keeping everyone guessing with where he’s going with the story. I love seeing the next new strip as the story continues to unfold.But, reading all the whining, pissing and moaning in the comments? The second guessing and complaining that “things used to be better before”? Yes, this sucks.

I’m sort of with Three Steps on this. The thing that makes a story interesting is conflict and conflict is created by doing mean things to characters: pitting them against each other, giving them huge obstacles. Things like this keep the readers guessing. If the characters are well written enough that the readers care about them, they will feel the need to hang in and see how it resolves.That isn’t to say that things get so bad that you lose interest. That is why I stopped reading “Prequel Adventure”. Aaron hasn’t gotten anywhere near that level of meaningless character torture yet.

I’m with DarwinK and TSOJ on this; Aaron has repeatedly show talent with emotional brinksmanship and plot twists that both surprise and make sense. I love Aaron’s patron-letters which explain a lot of the deep planning in this continuing arc. In sum, not one tortured moment in this dilemma is gratuitous. I will say this in favor of the “moaning, whining commenters”, they are the best testimony to Aaron’s creation of quality characters we care about. Aaron’s touched a nerve…no, a number of nerves with these heroic, tortured characters that we love so much.So take the whining and moaning as the high praise that it is.