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.

Timing is everything…

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Clint

“Timing is everything” is a phrase you usually hear applied to comedy, but it’s equally applicable to tragedy. Maybe even more so.

Consider the ending of Romeo & Juliet, if Romeo arrives 10 minutes later or Juliet awakens 10 minutes earlier. For that matter, there’s that message the Friar sends to Romeo telling him that Juliet is going to fake her death… the messenger gets delayed and those crucial words that could have changed everything are never read.

My most recent poll asks the question, “Do you think Muriel would have left peacefully if Zeke had been handed over?” Not one person so far has given an assured Yes, but at least a handful voted that it was a possibility as long as things weren’t allowed to escalate the way they did. Unfortunately, people in possession of the information that could have changed the situation just didn’t know that it mattered, or didn’t get to convey it in time.

There’s a TV Trope that sort of covers these situations, called Poor Communication Kills. I say ‘sort of’ because the way the trope is defined heavily weighs on the side of inexplicable and out of character lack of communication employed by a writer in order for a plot to proceed. That’s (hopefully) not what I’ve put together in our last arc… I set the locations, timing, and various egos (or lack thereof) up in such a way that a feasible tragedy could occur. Yes, it’s possible that communication could have set it right, but that’s the truth of most tragedies, including ones that take place in real life. Shakespeare knew that well, as did the Greeks (though those dramatists were helped out by their cultural audience being preconditioned to the idea of unavoidable fates). The trick, then, is to arrange the elements so that the characters have palatable reasons to not speak, or speak but not be listened to. Information that could defuse the issue arrives too late, or never at all… but for dramatic reasons it’s usually the former, so that the survivors know along with the audience that things have taken a terrible turn. And for my money, it’s even worse(better?) for us in the modern era where we feel fate is something that isn’t predestined and wonder on those small things that could have led to a happy ending instead. But so long as the characters’ actions feel right, and the timing is right (if also oh-so-wrong), then the tale should feel solid, no matter its conclusion.