Excuses, excuses...

So. I have been saying for about a week now that I would write another post based on some "intellectual-type" thoughts I've been having. I know that my one Reader (JAGryniewicz) has been expecting it, as well as MKSpencer (who is out of the "internet-game" for Lent). Just to crush your anticipation: this is not that post. I have been mulling over the ideas that I want to write about (my thought-processes are a complete topic for another time) and have come to the conclusion that I probably need three posts to sum it up. Or at least to divide it into manageable chunks so I don't get overwhelmed and think, "Eh, I'll do it later." So part one was supposed to be written this morning. /This/ post is explaining why it wasn't.

So I sat down at my computer this morning shortly after waking up and figured, "Hey, why not check up on Websnark, just to get the intellectual gears greased." I then spent the rest of the morning on Websnark, reading the thriving debate on the nature of literary criticism. All in all, a stellar read, if slightly anti-climatic due to its nature as a comments section.The other reason that I was camping out Websnark was so see if Eric Burns would post on the latest Achewood. Now, if he did another post on the current plotline, that would make three posts (between him and Weds) on this storyline alone! But hey, LJBH, Chris Onstad is doing a great job! He deserves three snarks and a "tasty, tasty biscuit"! By this point, however, I realized that Eric was busy with his crusade against jargonized academia in the comments section and likely wouldn't snark the latest Achewood. I also realized that I only wanted him to snark it to confirm the excitement that I was already feeling regarding this latest twist. Y'know, the whole "misery loves company" thing, except it's "webcomic geek-outage loves company". So I figured that I would just write down what I thought anyways. I've already tried to hook Ms. Ghilly-gan on the wonders of Chris Onstad's world, but I doubt she's read it. So this will have to serve as an example of the lambasted "writing for the sake of hearing yourself talk". On to the show.When I first was linked to Achewood, I read one or two strips and grew bored. At some point later, probably via Websnark, I decided to give it the benefit of a trawl. The feeling that followed can only be described as love. Chris Onstad's world is so quirky and often funny, yet the tragedy and pointlessness of life is directly in the forefront. The strip started out somewhat unfocused, relying mainly on non-sequitors for humor. As soon as the first major plot-arcs started hitting, however, two main characters emerged. Roast Beef Kazanzakis, the kind of cat who speaks in mainly small fonts. He owns a million T-shirts with slogans like "Who sucks? (Me, I do)" but would never wear them in public. His best friend, Ray Smuckles, is the cat who wears a golden medallion that belonged to the Inca god of fun. Ray is the cat who sold his soul to gain amazing piano skills, then used them only to get rich enough that he'd never have to work again. Now that he can just sit back and drink his days away, he no longer "tickles the ivories". Roast Beef is the kind of cat who had to die and go to Heaven before he found love. He's the kind of cat who went to Hell to save Ray from his own mistakes. He has consistently been the guy who's got his best friend's back, no matter how much stupid trouble Ray gets himself in.

So when the latest plot-arc, "The Great Outdoor Fight" started, we all went nuts. Roast Beef was no longer only going to watch! He was going to enter the fight, so that he could advise Ray on how to win, from the inside. Beef would be there to pull Ray's guts out of the fire again, and help him to win the competition. Ray would win, sure, but we know him. His victory would be nothing more than another conquest in a series of meaningless conquests. He has never had to fight for anything he wanted. Ray has always had so much that anything he has given has been from his excess. We all knew that Beef was there to support and coach Ray, not to win the fight for himself. We all knew that Beef and Ray would have to face off at some point. We all knew that Beef deserved to win that fight more than Ray, ancestry or no. We knew the lesson that Ray would have to learn about friendship, and were genuinely excited to see his character develop.Weds puts it the best in her initial snark on the plot:

"So, Beef is taking Ray to destiny. Beef is telling Ray how to do this thing. But there will come a time on the third day when all this has to come apart, and Ray does not learn well. Ray forgets the lessons that his shadow hands him. The son of Rodney Leonard Stubbs is a coward who would desert a dying man. God only knows if that coward can fight his best friend."
We all knew what it would come down to. In Eric's masterpiece on the plot he took a different spin:

"That's what it will all come down to. Only I'm beginning to think that the cowardly act would be to abandon Beef on the battlefield -- to abandon a friend that Ray was once willing to give a lung to. Whose blood will be on the Son of Rodney's hands at the end of the Great Outdoor Fight?"
He took a different spin on it than Weds, but it was the same concept. We all knew the lesson in friendship that Ray would have to learn or fail at come the Third Day. Then, today we learn that Beef has been KO'ed while Ray was in his drunken nap. Beef is out of the fight!

Chris Onstad has quickly turned our expectations on their head and left us guessing. We no longer know exactly what lesson Ray must learn at the end of this, nor even is Beef is alive or in Heaven (for the third time... or is it fourth?). That makes it all the more exciting to see. Like Jeph Jaques' latest arc, this story will probably prove to be a definitive moment in the entire plot. And, also like Jeph, Chris Onstad is a man who knows how to craft an exciting plot and keep us all coming back for more. Sometimes in the world of webcomics criticism, we can start to think that we know the mind of the author better than they do. This is exactly the kind of hubris that Eric has been ranting about in his latest post, and some of those authors take it upon themselves to turn our expectations on their heads

.All I can say is: I'm geeked.