I like how he didn't quite know it was Riff until the "teeny tiny pieces" that cemented it in!

The precise number of iterations is three. The second time is just a repeated gag, but it's sufficient to plant the seed of the idea of it as a running gag. Second time is "hey this happened before, I wonder if it will happen again." Third time is "hey this has happened multiple times before, it's a running gag." That's it. Why would you need more than 3 for it to be a running gag?

I'm sure that sounds absurdly reductionist, but I stand by it. If it's not a running gag by 3 times, it probably isn't significant enough for people to take much notice of it at all.

Your ability to remember specific sound effects like DOMP, and even its variant, DOMF, is amazing. Good show!

It makes me wonder if you are part robot.

I think this is the first time it really hit me that Schlock is the villain now.

Like, I've known he's the villain for a while, he's done horrible things and orchestrated nearly all of the trials and tribulations our heroes have gone through for the last few years. But I've still thought of him almost like one of the gang and felt for him, just a little. This is the first time he's been in distress and I realized that it's just as satisfying to see as whenever anything bad happened to Daedalus.

It's a great feeling, realizing how gradually the way I looked at this character changed. Man, I love Pete's writing.

How did removing a hereti-corp satellite end all space travel in the future? You know there's currently over 2000 satellites orbiting our earth? I'm sure sluggyverse has similar.

Pretty sure it would require a liiiiiittle bit more than blowing up a single satellite to trigger Kessler Syndrome :p
For one thing, the satellite would have to share its orbit with other stuff, and if the Flux Nut 1 shared it orbit, it would be pretty easy for other governments to stumble across.

RamenChef (and others) are referring to the Kessler Syndrome, where debris from a destroyed satellite proceeds to destroy more satellites, which in turn produces even more debris that destroys more satellites, then so on and so forth. It could prevent any satellites from being put into that particular orbit. Well, most likely you could put one there if you wanted to, but its life may be reduced.

The debris field would not prevent space travel. It would be more of a minor nuisance if you were putting a satellite/station into an orbital band higher than the debris field, or even going beyond Earth's gravity. The debris field may contain millions/billions of pieces, but it it is still going to be very, very, spread out.

Dang, and this. Bravo.

It makes me wonder if, years from now, when Sluggy *finally* finishes (not that I'm in any hurry), if we readers will occasionally stumble upon each other in realspace and discover a mystical bond as we geek out over Pete's work.

Ha! That might explain a few things! Actually, as keeper of the transcripts, my memory of the time lines, etc. has been strengthened. But, kind of along the lines of what Code Black was saying about reacting to what happens to Schlock, I always felt a kind of special affection for this particular "gag" - the sound effect "domp" always felt so satisfying! And so I thought I remembered the sound effect. To be honest, it took a few spelling iterations on nifty search before I finally found it (I tried "domph" first...)


Point taken!

Finally, I'd like to add my nod to what Code Black said. Although there is still a part of me that hopes Schlock will ultimately be redeemed... Not quite sure why....

Which could become quite a problem if it's a popular orbit. Like the Geosynchronous orbit, probably the most crowded orbit around Earth. 22,236 miles above sea level and right over the equator is a popular place. The first answer at this page says there are about 1350 objects in geosync orbit. But if one of them blew up into so many teeny tiny pieces...

And speaking of teeny tiny pieces, how were they able to see what happened to Flux-Nut-1 ? Unless they have another satellite with a camera trained on the Flux-Nut-1, they should have just seen an abrupt loss of signal.

I was actually a big Schlock fan for a long time. I even had Pete sketch him for me when I bought a copy of book 9 at Comic-Con a while back. I was very sad when when he made his big heel turn. While I think the hostile take over of the Hereti-Corp board was in character, I feel his turn to villainy not so much. (So much so that when he said "if we're going to take over the world we're going to do it right."I held out hope that "Take over the world" was merely a bar down the street.

Also, I'm a huge fan of the *domp* sound effect. I was a little sad when it got changed to *domf.* Doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Schlock is highly motivated by fear. He always has been. It's the reason he took over Hereticorp in the first place. It's the reason he's so desperate to kill Riff. it's the reason he's been hiding out ever since Nash shot him and Chen took control of Kusari. The orbital DFA is no different. It's a way to protect himself from anyone who might have it out for him. Whatever reason he has for trying to "take over the world," you can be certain that it's fear motivating him in that direction as well.

It sounds like there's more than one operator speaking. Satellites don't have anyone on-site, they're not manned.

Didn't the elves steal an image of the F-N-1 floating in space? something had to take that picture.

Believe me, I understand that. I question why someone who is so motivated by fear would want to take over the world in the first place. He could have been pretty reasonably safe as CEO (provided he avoided any contact with Oasis) of Hereti-Corp and changed the course of an incredibly evil organization and made slightly less evil. Conquering the world is a line of work that is bound to make you A LOT of enemies, and a lot of enemies is something Schlock has never wanted.

You could make the argument that the only way Schlock would ever feel safe is when he's in absolute control of everything, and it's a good argument. I still feel it's kind of a stretch for someone who was only ever willing to do the absolute minimum.