As many people guessed, this spread was a dumping ground for the plotlines I never did, plus a little bit of my own reasoning. I had all kinds of ideas over the years for the tone I wanted to hit with OP. While it did go off the rails from its original 2000s sitcom-era antics, I'm actually amazed at how consistent things stayed. From the jump there was Eve's humiliation, the chaos of life, and her private struggle to connect with people. Most of these abandoned stories were bits of myth-building, over-the-top pastiches, or just mundane little indulgences. Actually, when I put it that way, they all would've fit perfectly! But their presence might've tipped the scale.
It's also possible these choices were instinctive, and made Right by virtue their own doing. The reason some stories were Wrong for OP is that they were never made.
18 thoughts on “#963 + 964 – objectively horrible idea”
bryanew710
I always found it odd that never in the original strip (nor this one) do you see the car as the road meanders in the background.
PersonalGenius
I thought the panels were to approximate the car’s location down the road.
eagleeye712
Ok, could someone PLEASE explain to me Will’s joke in the last panel? I have never gotten it and it is bothering me immensely.
Mel
Fourth wall break explaining why Meredith didn't do that plotline?
Bee
I believe the joke is that Will is saying it’s a good thing Meredith didn’t actually do this as a storyline because it would’ve been too dark. But I may be wrong!
Sebastian Larsson
My take is that it isn't a joke – it's just him telling the truth. He's acknowledging that it is too dark to joke about, hence hinting that he's telling the truth
Whachamacallit
I don't know for sure, but I think it's a fourth wall break? Like he's saying "Yeah that story line woud've been way too dark for this comic"
cwbuecheler
I think it's a meta joke – Meredith couldn't do a story revolving around Will's familial estrangement because it wouldn't have been funny; it would've been way too dark.
edit to add: if you look at a lot of the other responses, they also act as commentary on the possibility of the comic exploring those story lines.
eagleeye712
Oooooooh that makes so much sense! Thank you! Also – now looking at all the responses to the stories here, this page makes infinitely more sense as being a super meta page. It's an interesting choice to make, this late in the comic, to devote an entire page basically to failed/unused storylines.
Rezmason
When Eve says "Huh?", I always thought it implied she took what Will just said personally. But to what extent? Does she consider herself to be estranged from her family? Or just distant from them?
Suz
I "it would've been way too dark" was actually Meredith speaking through Will to us, the audience – "that plot-line would have been too dark for Octopus Pie." Eve says "Huh?" because she can't see path the fourth wall.
Mel
I think this was the most fitting way to get closure on Hanna and Will's backstory. Of *course* it would be an embarrassing thing no-one wants to dwell on but also drives their entire dynamic. I can almost hear him holding his breath during that entire run-on sentence. Perfect.
cwbuecheler
I like the return of Eve's chameleon eye when she's caught off guard by something potentially embarrassing. At least she didn't go full transparent this time!
Rimwolf
I think she's reacting in puzzlement to Will's use of the subjunctive — *what* "would have been too dark"? As cwbuecheler points out above, many of the responses to the revelations can be read as meta comments on their merits as a possible OP story. Will's follow-up reads as such, but unlike the other dialog, doesn't really make sense within the conversation. (So the "huh?" is itself a meta comment…)
Bleh
The molly story would have been so funny to see though
George W Harris
No idea what a "Jew gaze" band is, and Google is no help.
Nicholas
It’s like “shoegaze”, but with Jews.
Jaybird
A pun on Shoegaze, a genre of music.