"Here we go again ! (SLUGGY SPOILERS)" Topic

MAJOR SPOILER

The current Sluggy storyline has involved Sluggy's biggest mystery, the apparently immortal Oasis.

This week came nail bitingly close to a resolution, but I'm afraid that the scene has been set for yet another few months of plot.

And as always we got little or no real info, aside from Oasis being even more dangerous and unhinged than thought possible.

I can't imagine that Riff and Zoe are dead and I fear they might get stuck in their own "oceans unmoving" side story for the coming months.

I hate to wait …

I fear they might get stuck in their own "oceans unmoving" side story for the coming months.

I stopped reading Sluggy during that story, and never went back.

Torg's optimism is clearly founded on past experience.

The question for the readers, for today anyway, is whether the strip follows Torg while he rescues and reassembles life on Earth, or follows a presumably living Riff and Zoe and potentially squanders the dramatic scene just finished. There are unanswered and unresolved issues along both paths.

And for the record, I rather liked "Oceans Unmoving".

As a separate story, it was fine. It was just that by the time it had finished, I'd forgotten/given up caring what Riff, Zoe and … the other one? were doing in the meantime. I didn't feel like a huge archive binge.

I liked Ocean's Unmoving, but I found the "real world" story lines terribly lacking after that.

OU was the last jump-step before Sluggy completed it's suborbital arc over the marine predator.

Wyatt

The strip does tend to suffer from the weight of its own history. Even Pete's little editorial links that refer back to salient points barely scratch the surface. This most recent arc really calls for going back to the "Game Called Due to Naked Chick" story and every Oasis bit since. Which is a lot, scattered widely.

When it comes to "story mysteries" I believe there are two ways of handling it. Either it is not meant to be known (for certain) or you dangle the hook for a while until you reach the best moment for the reveal.

Never let the hook dangle too long or pull it out of the water too soon because sooner or later the fish gets tried of the repeated teasing and swims away.

I can't help thinking that with all the editorial links to wade through, we learned preciously little other than that the fate of most Sluggy characters is fairly unsure at this moment (Bun-Bun, Aylee, Riff, Zoe …)

PS I thought that UO was excellent and made a good change of Sluggy. I wish Pete would put Sluggy to rest for a while and try something else for a few years.