Woot! Tomorrow's strip should let me finally claim the points for my long term spec... and I'll finally be able to set some new long term spec.
Hmm... something is bothering me about yesterday's time line. If we assume DoN Riff arrived after the advent of the REA 5 (and I think
that is a given)... then at the earliest he arrived in DoR 23 years after The Betrayal... except... if we go back 23 years before bROKEN in DoN we sail right off of the edge of the map (
Along Came a Bunny was only 14 years ago). It would also mean DoR Riff and Torg both knew Zoe at least 10 years earlier in DoR than in DoN. But here's the fun bit. We know for sure that this doesn't work. DoR Riff is already starting to show the signs of age about 8 years before DoN Riff arrives in DoR (at the reinvention of popcorn in Dimension of Caribs (this may not be the best name but I'm gonna run with it)). They cannot be similar ages after the REA 5s appear because DoR Riff is already old and wrinkly by then.
So ether DoR is time shifted compared DoN to account for the difference in ages (something which is unprecedented in the sluggyverse) or DoN Riff traveled through both dimensions AND time when his Mark 19 blew up.
Seeing as time shifts between dimensions is unheard of in the sluggyverse let's start with the assumption that "pyrokinetics + explosion + activating a dfa that is on fire = dimension hop + time travel." With this setup we can assume that as DoR Riff was still relatively young looking at the advent of Dimensional Windows, which takes place simultaneously with The Annihilation Event, then the events of bROKEN likely occurred at or before this moment. This put's The Betrayal in DoR happening around the time of The Holiday Wars in DoN... after Dangerous Days Ahead. This fits with the idea of DoR Riff and DoR Schlock working for Hereti-Corp at the time of The Betrayal. It also means that the explosion of the Mark 19 propelled DoN Riff 15 years into the future.
Ok... so how about time shifting. If we assume bROKEN and the Rise of REA 5's roughly coincide... then DoR is timeshifted by about 15 years. Meaning every one in DoR is 15 years older than their DoN counterparts. This works more or less elegantly as well. It puts the R&D wars in DoR happening at the
equivalent time as it is set to happen in DoN... even if in a direct comparison DoR's R&D wars happened around the time of Along Came a Bunny. It also puts DoR Riff's betrayal at roughly the same
equivalent time as the destruction of the Mark 19 in DoN.
But there is a problem with both of these... Why wouldn't DoN Riff notice how much younger (yes, younger) every one looked? Think about what we know of MN 3.0 and the DoR timeline. MN 3.0 reboot you to the day you were bio-chipped. We have every reason to think Izzy was present for the rise of 4u City and was bio-chipped right at the start... almost exactly 20 years before the advent of MN 3.0. We can safely assume the same for Torg. That would mean Torg would look 5 years younger than Riff would be expecting... even if he was actually 15 years older. And remember that with either theory the physical age of everyone in relation to events in DoR and DoN Riff (as he is shown in DoR) is the same. It is their age relative to the events of DoN that would be different between theories.
I think I can feel my brain cells dying. It's like a tiny cataclysm in my mind trying to figure this thing out. (fighting... urge... to quote... obi-wan...)
But... what if bROKEN was occurring simultaneously with The Betrayal. This would be some what evocative of Occam's Razor from a writers perspective. It makes the rise of 4U city and the R&D wars line up well enough with events in DoN. 2 years after The Betrayal 4U city rises above the remains of Dr Steve's lab in DoR. 2 years after bROKEN Schlock is relocating Hereti-Corp to Dr Steve's lab in DoN. And the R&D wars are already on the horizon in DoN. But... of course time travel is still needed to account for the discrepancies in DoN Riff's arival to DoR. Only instead of 15 years of time travel we need the full 23 years worth.
Guess what... noticeable age difference still applies... only 5 years in the opposite direction. Unless MN 3.0 doesn't slow aging like MN 2.0 and every one had their last reboot about 5 years before Riff's last reboo... *head explodes*
Thursday shotgun:
Frog is revealed to be lying/wrong about shooting schlock
DoR Riff hits DoN Riff with his cane out of frustration
DoR Riff explains that DoR is beyond hope and cannot be saved... not even with time travel.
EDIT 12:10am 5/20/2011 (comic hasn't gone live yet):
dunno why I said thursday... meant friday shotgun... just now caught that