Alright, I’m back! I’m back…don’t really know what happened, but I’m back. Just feeling a little bit more undead than before…but I don’t really know what happened…no…

Whatever it was that happened, I didn’t want it to happen again, so I held back on depicting Mopey’s face in the context of this strip. Her expression would probably have not been quite as bad as it would have been in the last one, but still…better not risk anything. I might only feel a little bit more undead than before, but I’ve actually not got too much wiggling room left in that regard, since the base level is already pretty elevated…

And Mopey is still in a heightened state of emotional turmoil today, at least during the first half of the strip…so much so that she almost clobbers Latho! Which would really be taking things a step too far. It’s not the same as literally kicking a puppy, but clobbering a plush animal gets very close…and, as you probably know, kicking a puppy is the archetypal act of irredeemable evil, something an audience just can’t forgive a character for. Mass-murder, torture, nuclear strikes…are all things a character can recover from, especially if they’re beautiful or handsome. But puppies are just cute, unlike the average victim of a nuclear strike (especially afterwards), so that’s were audiences have to draw the line. And Latho has a pretty similar thing to a puppy going, in terms of proportions and softness, and might even beat it in terms of cheery coloring…

Fortunately, Mopey ultimately resigns herself to that realization, and the situation in general. Latho is safe, and on top of that we get an exclusive look at what the inside of Mopey’s soul looks like! As the more cynical members of the audience might have suspected, it’s color scheme trends toward the sober – it’s mostly pitch-black, although a very keen eye might discern certain parts of it that are only very, very dark grey. >_>

More on Thursday.