UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)

9 thoughts on “558 – Cotton Clad Calamity”

  1. Raznaak

    Yup, he’s a bastard XD

  2. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Are those pajamas available in XXXL in the gift shop?

  3. Otaku

    It’s been a while, so let me ask: Did we get a reason for him to WANT Susie dead? Not to backseat, but if we didn’t, I’m worried were about to move into “Stupid Evil” territory. Now, stupid happens, don’t get me wrong. It’s not bad storytelling for that to be the case here.

    You’ve just done a good job NOT having that be a driving factor, so the “Kill off the stars of my successful reality TV show.” seems shortsighted, otherwise. Oh, I guess I could be mistaken about the in-story reality TV show’s success. Like, if the company behind them is losing money, or they think a change in management at the ranch would make the whole thing more popular/profitable, then I can see the above scenario happening as well.

    I REALLY think I’m just forgetting something important, but that I don’t have time to deep dive to remind me of, hence the comment. >_<

    1. Deoxy

      It certainly has been stretched out over quite a while, but there have definitely been hints from quite near the beginning that whoever is running the reality TV show definitely wants her dead.

      But I certainly don’t recall any reason why.

      1. Clint

        Yeah it’s fair to not remember since it’s been a hot minute (many, many minutes) but if you feel like a refresher the most relevant bits would be the beginning of Episode 8 and the end of Episode 15. We haven’t explicitly spelled out exactly what The Exec means by his “side hustle” or who was on the other end of that phone call, though.

        I’m hoping that when the whole thing is eventually available it will make sense, or at least enough sense to have hung this narrative on.

        1. Otaku

          Thanks for the replies, Deoxy and Clint. Yeah, I’d totally forgotten about those things. Good to know!

  4. Evervigilant

    Seems about time for the two people who aren’t there to make a surprise entrance as the ace Susie didn’t even know she had.

  5. Scarsdale

    There’s still 3-5 people on her side that might be planning something. This guy is a megalomaniac with a god complex, so letting him think he’s the sharpest tool in the shed sets him up for a fall. Everything depends on those cameras, and I suspect their little stop over by the charging coffins had something to do with her actual plan, not the one the a-hole thinks it is.

  6. lyra

    Really enjoyed the opening of Zombie Ranch. I like the combination of the western setting with the zombie concept, it gives the story a really distinctive atmosphere. I’m a freelance illustrator and animator, and I’d be interested in seeing how some of these scenes could translate into motion, especially as a short animated teaser or character scene.

    If you’re ever interested in something like that, you can reach me here:

    IG: eve_verse_
    Email: [contact.lilaclines@gmail.com](mailto:contact.lilaclines@gmail.com)
    Discord: Lyralilac_

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558 – Cotton Clad Calamity
Posted on August 26, 2026 by Dawn

What would you call this? Armchair assassination? Merk-from-home?

Well, Suzie ain't dead (or undead) quite yet, so we'll just have to see if his gloating is justifiable.

In the claws of catharsis…

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Clint

When I was studying Theater in my college years (shut up, it’s totally a thing), one of the texts that was part of the curriculum was Aristotle’s Poetics, widely regarded as one of the first known formal studies of drama and dramatic structure. Interestingly enough, when I went to look it up for purposes of this blog I discovered that there’s some controversy I never knew about regarding the exact concept I wanted to reference, that of catharsis. Did Aristotle actually write about it? What did he truly mean by it?

Well dammit this was not supposed to be a blog about that, so I’m going with the way I learned it; in layman’s terms, catharsis is the power of tragic fiction to put the audience through a wringer, leaving them feeling emotionally and even physically drained at the end but somehow richer for the experience.

Or in terms of this article, I can just define catharsis as:

A couple weeks ago I may have had to stretch to fit Subnautica into the scope of this blog, but Logan needs no such finagling. This movie is unapologetically, unequivocally an apocalyptic Western in the guise of a superhero film. Shane (which has its own entry in my archives) is blatantly referenced and quoted, but the ashen grit of Unforgiven is here as well, as the aged warrior faces his mortality and the thought that he might well be the best there is at what he does — but if that happens to be killing folks, what kind of legacy does he leave behind?

Logan differs from these films in literally offering its title character a legacy opportunity in the form of a young girl named Laura, who (I suppose spoilers) has a crucial difference from the young boy in Shane or the Schofield Kid… she’s already a killer, and quite a competent one. The only thing that remains to be molded, perhaps, is what sort of killer she’s going to be. Throw in a dangerously senile (but occasionally still all-too-lucid) father/grandfather figure in the form of a Professor X suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and the ensuing journey across a dystopian near future America takes on meaning at once epic and personal, in the best mold of the Greek tragedies Aristotle might have experienced.

But it’s undeniably got that Western feel, which makes the taciturn silence of Laura for much of the film not feel out of place.  Actress Dafne Keen has a magnetism to her that eludes many adult actors, able to tell stories with her eyes alone, and Logan is a movie that can sustain those moments of quietude punctuated by howling, bloody action.

Logan, above all else, is catharsis. It is not, I think, relentlessly dark, but any hopeful message at the end is up to intepretation. The poster above should serve as all the warning needed — not only is this the sunset for our hero, but he has turned away from it — as if rejecting even the notion that he should be allowed the traditional ride into its embrace.

It’s not a movie where you applaud when the credits roll — but if your experience is anything like mine, you’ll still feel like you got your money’s worth.