Time Rolls Forward...

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Boxilar
Posts: 541
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2012 7:58 pm

Time Rolls Forward...

Post by Boxilar »

Not to get to maudlin, but my cat of 17 years died a year ago today. He was my friend, and I could always count on him to make me feel better after a rough day. It's only recently that I've stopped having that jolt of anticipation as I put the key in the lock and the almost instant tiny let down as I remember that he's not here anymore. I still miss him.

The reason I bring this up is not for a pity party. I'll hoist one this evening in his honor, but today has been a pretty good day off.

I did get me to thinking about Wapsi, though.

Paul has addressed the fact that the immortals in the cast constantly lose people who aren't immortal that they love. Jin reached a point where she wanted to live a normal human lifespan, to grow old and die with someone she loves because the accumulated loss was too much for her to bear.

Phix fell to pieces when she mistakenly killed Monica, and likely would have been wracked with guilt and regret for ages if M hadn't resurrected.

So immortals do care about those with brief lifespans that they encounter.

They learn to love them, and it hurts to let them go.

Time in Wapsi Square is slightly amorphous, like any webcomic, or any comic in general for that matter. But it does seem to hold steady and correspond to real world time.

A single story line might take weeks or months of real world time to resolve, and take minutes, hours or at most a few days of comic time to resolve. It's the nature of the medium. But generally after a story line is resolved, Paul drops subtle (or not so subtle) hints, like Monica's hair length, change in weather or other things to let us know the story has caught back up to roughly the real world.

Time passes.

Paul has regularly dealt with real world concerns in Wapsi Square. Atsali's current struggle with her new maturity is an example. There are plenty of other examples through out the comic, and while I love the fantasy element, what compels me is how human the people in it are, even the ones who aren't, strictly speaking, homo sapiens.

Which brings me to my point, I guess.

At the current pace, unless Paul decides to fast forward a bit, or accelerate the story line, the point where Monica starts losing friends and family to old age is off in the future at some point.

Except for Dietzil.

If M got him as a puppy just before the start of the strip, he's probably a decade old at this point. If she's had him longer, he could be closer to thirteen or fourteen. Granted, he's an exceptional dog, with human level intelligence and oppose-able thumbs he can apparently deploy at will. But barring some revelation that he's far more than he seems, Dietzil is a dog, and dogs unfortunately have far to short a lifespan compared to the humans that love them, much less an immortal Jaguar Girl.

I'm not wishing death on Dietzil by any means, and it wouldn't hurt my feelings if he turned out to be another immortal guardian Monica picked up in her journey.

But if he isn't, Monica may experience the first loss of a mortal friend fairly soon.
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Catawampus
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Joined: Fri Jul 12, 2013 10:47 pm

Re: Time Rolls Forward...

Post by Catawampus »

It had occurred to me a number of times that Dietzel must be getting on in years. Which has led me to wonder how that was going to be dealt with. Or even if it will be dealt with; there are plenty of comics that take place "in the real world" yet which have critters living long past any reasonable lifespan. . .yet with nobody in the comic ever seeming to think it odd that the family's pet hamster or whatever has lived for fifty years.

There's really four ways it can go:

1) Dietzel finally dies, which could lead to some sort of a story arc about immortals living with mortals and possibly give a chance for Tsillah and Monica to do some sort of communing with the dead thing.

2) Dietzel ends up getting some way of not dying. Magic amulet, immortality ray, being made into a golem (much to the dismay of many a squirrel), phoenix blood transplant, whatever.

3) Dietzel isn't actually a dog, so dog lifespans aren't relevant.

4) Dietzel just keeps on keeping on with no reason ever given.
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TazManiac
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Joined: Fri Nov 29, 2013 6:53 pm

Re: Time Rolls Forward...

Post by TazManiac »

Damn dude, (where is my ten foot pole...).

It's bad enough we haven't seen the pup in the strip in a long time, and I understand there are only so many panels to go around and everything and lots of story to tell but Dietzle needs a reappearing and not some Exit Stage Left off-camera, jeeeeez. (Paul? I'm glancing at you buddy...)

And Boxilar, sorry for your loss, I'm not the only one who's been there too...

Dietzle? If they start talking about going to 'The Farm', just say No!
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Boxilar
Posts: 541
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2012 7:58 pm

Re: Time Rolls Forward...

Post by Boxilar »

Thanks Taz. I 'preciate it.

I don't want to predict what, if anything, will happen to Dietzel. Paul's stories have not been easy to predict and while I'll admit I like to speculate about what's coming next. I just have faith that that He will deal with it well if it happens.

It was on my mind.
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GuySmiley
Posts: 146
Joined: Fri Apr 05, 2013 10:44 pm
Location: Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Re: Time Rolls Forward...

Post by GuySmiley »

Dietzel isn't exactly a typical dog to start with so it's hard to say what direction Paul will go, if any, on pet life spans. :?

For reference, the average life expectancy of a Betta Fish (Oscar) is only 2-4 years.
"I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf mutes."
-The Laughing Man; GITS:SAC (originally from Holden Caulfield; Catcher in the Rye)
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