Endtown 11-18-16

FUCK

HOLLYFAGS ON SUICIDE WATCH

I want off this ride.

Holy shit, what if Holly is dead?

Holy shit, what if WE'RE dead?!

the real holly died back at endtown

...

He better not still be in the ditto's illusion

he's still on Marx's ship

I hate it when I'm right.

>Tradition

Well this was predicted... in just about every recent thread, come to think of it. Also strongly hinted at by the misplaced focus on Kirbee in the previous page.

The clone seems self-aware, though... think this is the consciousness Wally was talking to before? The waitress who mentioned "Management"? Some sub-community of dittos?

... I wonder if this means Aaron's given up on Christmas in Endtown? Doesn't seem like there's going to be any time left for that...

His infection probably killed any chance of this. He is like 2 weeks behind schedule.

Did we just get two in one day? Is it christmas already?

This is just Fridays update, really early.

Might be a silver lining, it felt like he was rushing the conclusion after overextending the flashback anyway.

What just happened is so in line with predictions that I can't help but wonder if he didn't just read what people were saying and say "Sure, why not?"

In before the ditto-clone sticks around as a new character.

I doubt that.
Why would Kirbee reaction be sadness in the last update? That means she and Chicago are real at least. Plus Wally can sense dittos, so I doubt this is an illusion. The real question is, did Aaron really kill off Holly. The butthurt would be epic if he did.

>Chicago

/r/equesting Chic dressed as the entire city of Chicago.

>Chicago

>New clone isn't just a decoy, it's an attempt to "trade" Wally an ideal version of Holly for the broken real thing
>The clone has all of Holly's memories, unusual for a ditto duplicate
>Wally rescues Holly anyway, possibly over her own protestations, because leaving her would be wrong, even if it turns out the computer's being nice to her and giving her a simulation of her baby and husband to live in (because it starves people to death, and Wally won't let Holly live a lie)
>The clone is on course to develop severe identity issues anyway, but they'll be exacerbated by the presence of the real Holly
>Conflict and coming to terms with her idealised self eventually heals Holly and helps her clone find its own identity (that or one of them kills/sacrifices herself and leaves us with a single Holly, real or cloned)

The computer doesn't kill people immediately, it stores them in simulation cocoons and uses them as batteries. The real Holly is likely still alive.

>Wally rescues Holly anyway,

as wacky as your theory is, the first two lines are more likely to happen than this...

What is this? Fallout 4?

If Aaron just has Wally turn his back on Holly and walk away, I think a lot of readers might jump ship...

I see a lot of people suggesting that this development, or that she is a clone, is new.

What if she's been a Ditto construction as far back as the Milk Trial arc? Before? What if she actually died in custody and was replaced by Marx himself?

Had to dig up the panel that made me think that was the case:

>blocks computer's illusions
>Holly solidly passes through it

I know there could be an excuse that Wally let her in because he wanted to believe so badly but I think this twist makes a lot of sense too.

Her being obsessed with Clive being a person makes more sense if she was like an AI herself.

He guessed wrong. She's going to be upset with him.

I mean... I'm not a Hollyfag. If anything I love Kirbee more. But I also appreciated that Wally and Holly were the best couple, even despite recent outbreaks.

If Aaron is letting Holly get written off... I'mma be super sad, guys.

Why isn't this ever the OP image in the first place?

Why'd Wally never sense her as being dittos, then, if he can sense them? I think he just made a hole in the bubble because it's a solid thing and he didn't want (the being he perceived as) Holly to smash her face in.

I like Holly, I hope she'll be okay.

I hope whatever makes the story more interesting happens

I just want to see Wally struggling trying to fug Kirbee due to his size.

>Christmas in Endtown is going to be in a fictional Endtown with Holly and Cat!Lynn
>Everyone's happy. and giddy
>Wally ruins it for everyone to break the illusion
>Because Wally can't leave another woman he cares about behind
Calling it now.

Don't forget Junior, who will finally get a name...

>InB4 Holly with a stroller full of goldfish bowl

>We'll know when Holly's healed because she'll be capable of forgiving him for ripping her out of the comfy illusion

It's an ancient meme

At this point I just want an explanation. Why would there be a decoy Holly? Why couldn't they find the real one? If she is a decoy, how could she survive in the "Bad Dittos go fuck yourselves" bubble?

I knew there was something more to how obsessed the computer was with the idea of Holly's husband. Is she cooperating with the machine?

And holly shito temple, what a dramatic development this would be if Holly really chose the safr fantasy world over Wally's post apocalyptic wanderlust.

I would worry that it would be Aaron's Rickenbacker Falls moment... killing off a character for whatever reason only to find that a whole slew of people were big fans and not as interested in his stuff without that character. Would be especially troubling since the size of his tiny readership is directly connected to his cash flow and therefore his health.

Really hope he's not trying to have his cake and eat it too by trying to frame this event as Holly's healing (having written himself into another corner). I think a lot of people would probably reject that, especially if it comes with some kind of Marxy garbage like her soul being split neurotronically and the real version getting the "sick" half with Flask-esque soul-cancer. I know I'd prefer to see the real Holly recovering via character development...

Maybe real Holly send out the decoy to kick Wally out. And for all we know Wally was momentarily tricked into letting Decolly thru the bubble.

Maybe Holly saw that flying kiss.

>If she is a decoy, how could she survive in the "Bad Dittos go fuck yourselves" bubble?
It was more of a solid barrier than anything, I think. Looks like Wally opened a Holly-shaped hole because he wanted her to come to him.

What is she's controlling the machine, and every time it starts to think it's Lyn, it's because it's been ordered to think like that by its captain?

Turning Holly into the villain of her own arc while simultaneously having her still being the person who has to be rescued (from herself, now) would kind of fit the concept of mad people being their own worst enemies...

He hadn't sensed the bullshit of his ditto imprisonment until horrorLynn was nearly eating a fake Chic, fake Kirbee, and himself. It's likely a very advanced ditto illusion would bypass his notice. Given we still don't know everything about dittos it could be possible she's been a decoy for a long time.

Whether this was a longterm issue or whether this was a quick shell game swap we'll probably discover in the next strip so right now it's just wild speculation.

It isn't about healing.

There is precedent that Holly and Wally have incompatible points of view about the post-apocalyptic world. Wally has wanderlust and Holly thinks the world is ruined.

Holly lost Endtown and is now offered a safe fantasy world of her own. I could see why that would tempt her more than going back to Endtown, wandering the wastelands, or taking a risk by relying on another hidden town.

>>He hadn't sensed the bullshit of his ditto imprisonment until horrorLynn was nearly eating a fake Chic, fake Kirbee, and himself. It's likely a very advanced ditto illusion would bypass his notice. Given we still don't know everything about dittos it could be possible she's been a decoy for a long time.

To be fair, that was when he was entirely surrounded by dittos (as he mentioned when he first went through the "portal"), as was the situation in the illusion when he was collecting the fake Holly. It's reasonable to suspect that being surrounded by that much ditto mass jams his senses somewhat. When he's not surrounded by so many dittos I would expect him to detect a ditto Holly the way he apparently just did.

Sorry, by "frame this event as healing" I was referring to either making a mentally-healthy clone of her and treating that as a healed Holly or framing a potential and completely hypothetical soul-healing-kiss 2.0 as the end point of her current arc and her "healing", with the plot seeing the healthy part of Holly's soul shoved into a ditto shell and her real body left with the bad part to succumb to mind-cancer or starvation while the computer feeds off of it. To be fair, I doubt Aaron would go that route, but after the Flask stuff that kind of plot twist is always there as a possibility. I wasn't talking about a comfortable lie being made to seem like a healing thing, sorry for not being clear.

As for the points of view thing, I'd hope they could learn to see things from each other's.

>Holly lost Endtown and is now offered a safe fantasy world of her own. I could see why that would tempt her more than going back to Endtown, wandering the wastelands, or taking a risk by relying on another hidden town.

I actually hope this and "Wally Ruins Christmas" are the way the plot goes. Feels much more interesting. I'd hope he wouldn't leave her there to be drained to death, and as mentioned her forgiveness would make a good marker for the return of her sanity.

>This is Aaron's way out of the frequent accusations of "Holly's treatment is Marx's fault"
>Holly didn't die in custody, though, she's been Marx's sidekick in other dimensions the whole time because he knew exposing her to that treatment would ruin her, but he still needed a Holly at the milk trial for the Long Game
>Also because he finds the idea of a mousegirl sidekick really funny and cute
>Holly comes back with her mind completely fixed... by Marx

I want to get off Lyn's Wild Ride.

fucking brutal

Clive scanned her and decided she was an anthro with a recently healed arm, and we know the plasti-brain transports are really good at detecting dittos, so if she was replaced it happened after that.

>>fake!Holly sad that he realized the illusion
Oh shit, Holly's already dead and her personality is part of the ship now. Calling it.

I want off this ride

I don't think it works that way. It's explicitly stated to be using people as batteries (unless all that admittedly dubious stuff about being powered by emotions was a line of bullshit it was feeding Wally). Apart from that, the only "other personality" we've seen it exhibit so far was Lyn's, and he's been dead for years.

Your thoughts are irrelevant. Only the events unfolding in the comic can prove/disprove it.

Drawfags, your path is clear.

>fake ditto Holly decoy
>Wally knew all along
>cut his losses to save Kirbee, Chic, and Irving

All I can tell you is next week's updates are not going to make you smile

>Wally never rescued Holly from Unity
>rescued Molly instead
>Molly nine kinds of crazy

Oh Aaron!

KC?

Do you get plot a week in advance or something?

This is Endtown.
Why would people expect anything happy to happen?
Also I said months ago, it would be a hell of a twist if Aaron killed off Holly or Wally.......or even bother of them. Aaron has said that the comic has no true protagonist, and he writes for them until he feels like their story is truly over. If he thinks that Wally and Holly story is done, I could see him possibly killing them off.

Reminder that Aaron himself thinks the comic is too depressing.

Aaron asks us to consider the fact that he's shown us three suicide attempts by Holly, and alluded to several more. But remember when all of this is done; this is ALWAYS how it was going to end.

Hi Aaron!

I believe him when he says she was damaged from day one, I don't think she was supposed to be this damaged. That seemed to suddenly get worse after Aaron himself got ill halfway through Unity.

Also... sorry, but "writes them until he feels their story is truly over" kinda conflicts with the implied pre-planning of "it was always gonna end this way". I think he has a main game plan, mostly involving the background story and Marx, but he's said himself his writing is very flexible and I suspect it's become even moreso since his illness wiped out his buffer... Kirbee, for instance, wasn't even going to be a main character.

>Why would people expect anything happy to happen?

'cos we'd like Aaron to surprise us for once, lately.

You need to think of things in terms of narrative blocks; all that's important is that all of the proper parts are in the right place at the end. Doesn't matter how you get there...

The problem with that is I think the ends he has planned relate to the setting as a whole, not the characters, which seem more freeform.

Nope!

There's also the feeling that he cut quite a bit out of this arc, such as Pep Cola Stadium and Kirbee's flashback (and name).

...

As I understand it, if we see the Pep Cola story, it'll be a Walt memory when we're back in Endtown.

I hope so. It really seemed like it would have fit into Holly and Doc's story but for the fact that it would have overextended the arc - feels like Aaron saw that that was going to happen and cut it out because the plot was already dragging like a jet covered in christmas trees.

>Allie
>Flask
>Holly

>Aaron doesn't think broken people can ever get better without magical help from Marx's kissy-lips

>Aaron also knows the blowback is going to be so bad he's likely to lose fans on Sup Forums unless KC can be sent in to prime them first by spoiling the plot

Aaron has not and does not endorse any of my trolling... much.

...

>KC is worried that Aaron's gonna get a backlash

...

That or he's deliberately misleading in order to give Aaron a chance at an actual surprise.

>All I can tell you is next week's updates are not going to make you smile
>next week's updates

InB4 Aaron gives us a bait-and switch where it looks like Wally is abandoning her all week, then he turns around the Monday after, says fuck it, and goes in, dittos blazing.

>gocomics readers

what do you expect?

>then he turns around the Monday after, says fuck it, and goes in, dittos blazing.

user...

>complains that he's made his own comic too dark
>does what KC's implying he's going to do

Man's got an addiction.

>Kirbee fags get btfo
>very next page Hollyfags get equally btfo
Aaron's just fucking with us isn't he?

Oh, I dunno...

>equally btfo

Holly's gone, so no... if anythings hollyfags got obliterated

Kc, you seem to know the story ahead of most of us, tell us... are Kirbee and wally Fuggin at the end?

>narrative blocks

That just sounds like another way of saying "I tried arguing with him when I found out about it, but Aaron is stubborn as hell"

Somebody get the man a chisel.

>How does it feel to get utterly BTFO

I dunno. You tell us.

...

i will take that as a yes

I doubt he'll kill Wally off. Too much narrative backed up behind his mysterious "duty" and his burgeoning ditto powers.

Killing Holly would be... questionable, but with the writing quality lately and the way I get the impression he's tired of her (or at least the crazy version of her), I could see it happening.

Wally will always get cucked by cream gravy as far as Kirbee is concerned.

OTP

>He got them out of there to save them
>Gives them his dittos, tells the dittos to get them back to Endtown come hell or high water
>"I believe in you, Kirbee!"
>Last thing we see in this arc is Wally walking back into the ship, dittoless, intending to steal enough dittos to fight the computer for Holly or die trying
>Christmas Time!

user...

Top kek user. That's perfect.

So did Aaron give you the go-ahead on plot spoilers, or are there going to be Words later?

Dammit, intended for

I'm presenting nothing he hasn't already set up.

So you don't actually know, you just really really strongly suspect.

Go back and read the arc CAREFULLY and without preconceived notions (i.e. shipping) and you'll see it. It was always there.