Astronomer wrote:
I am also wondering how on earth That-Riff and Izzy are going to get back together given that That-Riff's aged so much and Izzy keeps getting rebooted. What's the limit to the nanites' ability to restructure an elderly person?
DoR Riff
doesn't use Medical Nanites 3.0 (the ones with the reboot function). He uses Medial Nanites 2.0... which slow aging (it is unknown if MN 3.0 do as well... but
it is insinuated they do not). Not to mention aging counts as catastrophic damage... at least according to Rammer... so to revert back to younger DoR Riff would need a snapshot from when he was younger... a snapshot he has no way of getting... hence why he hasn't de-aged himself. DoR Riff was likely 30+ at The Betrayal... add another 60 years since then and he is nearing his hundreds... and that's not even counting how much time he may have spent time traveling before returning to DoR. Physically he is likely about 70 years old... up to 75 if MN 2.0 only slow aging at a 6:1 ratio (I doubt it's much less... wouldn't have kept schlock from dying or becoming bed ridden from old age otherwise).
The flip side is that DoR Riff could wait till Izzy gets... er... ripe... and switch her to MN 2.0... and they can be happy old people.
Personally, if I was Riff, I'd reboot her one last time (or not if she didn't like the idea) and switch her to MN 2.0 while she was still "young." I'm sure in a world with resurrection medicine sildenafil citrate (BAH! spam filters, look it up) is decidedly low-tech. And even MN 2.0 can repair minor damage... so broken hips and what not are only a temp7orary annoyance. I see no other reasons they couldn't be happy together despite the physical age difference.
...I'm gonna go scrub my brain with Clorox now...
Astronomer wrote:
And what is seeing an old version of himself going to do to "our" Riff? Let alone the knowledge that the other Riff loves Izzy? I've not followed the strip from the first, but IS there an Izzy in "our" universe? What is the knowledge of this other universe going to do to Riff in general? I can see it either strengthening him or breaking him. I hope it isn't the latter.
The current running theory (that I've heard) is that the
female Minion Master... as in the "real" Minion Master's sister... is the Dimension of Nifty Izzy.
As for the rest... I really dunno... but something tells me the bad-ass Riff of Dangerous Days is gonna make a cameo real soon.
You really should go back and read from the beginning just for the enjoyment of it. I really don't feel that Sluggy ever had a "figuring it out" period. Even most of the earliest strips are very entertaining. I will warn you that most stuff before Fire and Rain, and especially That Which Redeems, is more light hearted and cutesy. Sluggy got hit hard with a case of Cerberus Syndrome after That Which Redeems... not that I think that's a bad thing. It's worth dumping an hour a day into. You can be through the whole thing in a couple weeks at that rate.
Physicist wrote:
OK, I've been out of the Spec game since Riff and Zoe got DFAed to DOR, so I may be rehasing old thoughts here.
And I don't think I believe this, though it's certainly plausible:
1) Where is DoR Bun bun? AND DoR Santa? For that matter, DoR Schlock certainly know about DoR Aylee; where is she? DoR Gwynn?
2) How does the modified Timeless Space of DoR fit into things?
3) Will the repair job inovled the third DoR deus ex ovum?
The only evidence we have that anything magical exists in DoR is the
Rammer's acknowledgement of the Fate Spiders and the
his later acknowledgement of K'Z'K. But for the two dimensions to be so similar (the two most similar dimensions seen yet in the sluggyverse) almost everything and every one that exist in one should have existed in the other... up until the annihilation event any way. It also follows that with only a few differences history would have played out very similar.
So far we know that DoR Riff continued working for Hc right up untill the betrayal. We know that Schlock was running Hc openly. We know Torg knew of this and was ok with it (or at least wasn't going to end his friendship with Riff over it)... which likely means the events surrounding Dangerous Days never happened.
Also it is stated that
DoR Schlock saved DoR from K'z'K. Not Berk... Schlock. This could be Rammer aggrandizing his father... but it fits better if it's true. Gwynn and Alyee might have gotten time blasted (properly in Alyee's case) if Schlock was running the show instead of (the idiot) Berk... removing them from the picture early... something Riff would have been very ok with if he felt about them the same at that time in DoR as he did at that time in DoN (Gwynn was playing with the book of E-Ville and Alyee was still eating people). Torg also wouldn't have been mad at Riff since Riff didn't do it. Torg would, however, be mad at Schlock... which might explain how easy it is for him to believe Schlock could be His Masterness.
And it's possible bun-bun never made it out of timeless space the second time... so he would be there still... stuck in the now (really) timeless void. That would also make the third Dues Ex Ovum unavailable. Even if not the holidays were likely DFAed inot another dimension at the same time as every one else... but being magical beings they might not have survived the process. Timless space might also work as a net for such beings... causing them to be stuck there. In which case the Dues Ex Ovum is likely in timeless space... or another dimension.
But if it isn't... i wonder if it's powerful enough to fix the entire dimension... including the fate web... now that would be impressive. That said... Pete might be hesitant to use the Dues Ex Ovum's again. After all we are talking about a literal
Dues Ex Machina(tvtropes.com) device. Used once or twice, especially if it's tongue-in-cheek like the
Dues Ex Ovum, you can get away with it. But much more than this is really pushing the
Willing Suspension of Disbelief(tvtropes.com) of your readers. Pete is a rather skilled writer though so he might be able to get away with it again.
Physicist wrote:
Mainly pointing out that there are a LOT of plot threads Pete hasn't even begun to fight with. Not to mention DoR K'z'k cult, and that if/when Riff gets back home he and Torg have to deal with Schlock, Straw, Oasis, and the K'z'k cult. (With knowledge of timeless space and a lot more going on.)
I dare say there is a LOT of Sluggy goodness yet to unravel here. Go
![:riff:](images/smilies/lilriff.gif.pagespeed.ce.dP-19-nElP.gif)
I think by the time DoN Schlock and DoN Hereti Corp are dealt with those other plot threads you mentioned are gonna get pulled in. This has already been hinted at heavily. But there is likely another year or two left before this mega-arc is finaly over... after that... who knows.
Gonna be a fun ride no matter what.
/2 dollars and 66 cent