Roadmap
Posted on July 3, 2013 by David M Willis

232 thoughts on “Roadmap”

  1. AHR

    This comic. It speaks to me.

    1. thecanvashat

      Can you hear the voices singing?

      1. misharrow

        singing the song of hardcore fans?

        1. Zuche

          It is the music of a season that will not be aired again!

    2. AHR

      Oh hey first comment for the first time! Also Walky looks like Faz. Only not happy.

      1. thecanvashat

        He even has a little chart!

        1. GoldStarz

          Obviously in the Dumbingverse Faz is a disease that alters the appearance of one eyes and gives them the inexplicable ability to find/make/use charts even when none are necessary.

        2. Regalli

          There’s a little bit of the Faz inside us all.

        3. Tenn

          *sphincter clench*

        4. Creativerealms

          More like a little of Amber’s father in all of us. That’s where Faz desise comes from.

        5. Chronos

          Faz disease is distantly related to Liefeld Syndrome, what with the closed eyes. Instead of a need to make charts, sufferers of LS have a sexual arousal of pouches.

        6. Jimi

          Pleeeeaaaase, Willis, let this be canon and make a storyline about it.

        7. Raye J

          Like Tedd’s Dad!

      2. dranorter

        Walky’s expression in panel two is one of delicate enjoyment.

        1. Valdrax

          Faz’s face is also perpetually one of delicate enjoyment.

      3. HK-A6A7

        I need bleach… A lot of bleach.

      4. Reynard-Miri

        Oh god, you noticed it too?

      5. DarkoNeko

        ..yes. yes he does. His many of schematics too.

    3. MichaelHaneline

      Right… well when webcomics start talking to you, I think it is time to meet my good friend Clozapine.

  2. EvergreenFir

    In before someone compares this to Doctor Who

    1. thecanvashat

      Doctor What now?

      1. Yotomoe

        Doctor When?

        1. thecanvashat

          Doctor Why?

        2. Yotomoe

          Doctor How?

        3. Aizat

          Doctor Where?

        4. Aras Pabedinskas

          Professor Que?

        5. zerotkatama

          El Profesor ¿POR QUÉ?

        6. Makkabee

          Doctor to what purpose?

        7. Jelli

          And two hard boiled eggs!

        8. StClair

          Inspector Spacetime!

        9. hmrc4evr

          Professor Paradox!

        10. Chronos

          Professor Plum!

        11. Josh

          Professor Oak?

        12. Jenny Creed

          With the candlestick?

        13. Chronos

          That’s how he catches them all: with a candlestick.

        14. N0083rP00F

          In the Library.

        15. Kazasdrakon

          I present to you Doctor Where:

        16. CapnPanda

          Don’t you mean Doctor Wear?

        17. xKiv

          Cor! Doctor Off?

        18. extremist343

          Doctor Which?
          Or witch doctor?

      2. LiveWire

        “If you like…”

    2. Ancestral Hamster

      “Third base!”

    3. Cyth

      I find this more applicable to Sailor Moon. That first season can be god-awful in spots.

      1. Totz the Plaid

        Also, Doctor Who didn’t get bad until its 22nd season… And then again in its 31st (series 5/season 6 of the revival [I count the four specials that ended Tennant’s run as a mini-season]).

        I mean, sure, there was some weak stuff in many of other seasons, but even during Colin Baker’s time, there was some legitimately great stuff!

        (Hell, Smith has a handful of great episodes too, but Moffat’s writing and show-running is mostly a huge steaming pile of shit.)

        1. slicedtoad

          hmm I disagree with almost everything you said.

        2. Josh

          I too disagree with almost everything you said.

      2. Neospector

        Of course that’s implying Sailor Moon ever really “got better”.
        To be honest, I’d compare it more to Code Lyoko (which I love to bits, don’t get me wrong); the first season was a bit repetitive, they even reused the dialog constantly whenever Aelita contacted Jeremie when a tower was activated. It was only a select few episodes of Season 1 I saw, and I mainly jumped in right at Season 2 (or, more specifically, the last episode of Season 1 where Aelita was brought to Earth).

        1. hmrc4evr

          I have to.agree: CL was `monster off the week`at its worse. After Aelita arrives on Earth (Spoilers!) the show really picks up.

          Haven’t had a chance to see much of Evolution to see what’s changed. While I enjoyed the dub for the most part for seasons 2-4 the new live action is really making the ADR work tough cause what I’ve heard is just bad. Right now subbed looks the way to go.

        2. begbert2

          It’s not that sailor moon got better (though it did, at least from the standpoint of repetition and filler), it’s that you’re best off watching it piecemeal with selected episodes from each of the first few seasons. Trying to slog through it all in order is an exercise best left to the professionals.

        3. vlademir1

          Sailor Moon was really good for what it was at the time it was made. By modern viewing standards it’s not really an enjoyable narrative outside the main arc content though… it is a sentai series after all.

        4. N0083rP00F

          Don’t forget thet they re-dubed the first season with the voice actors from season 2 onwards and a rewritten dialog to boot.

          I agree the first season was overall lame by today’s standards but it was the Starlost of its time but with better voice actors.

      3. Roborat

        I first watched Sailor Moon on YTV with my then 6 year old daughter. Problem was, they showed the episodes all out of order, they weren’t even the same season, they would skip all over the place, so I had no idea what was going on most of the time. When she was 18, I bought her the complete DVD box set for Christmas, and she made the family watch everything in one big marathon over the christmas break. Finally saw them in order, and it finally made sense (well, as much sense as it was possible to make). Of course I had forgotten how funny some of the attack names were by then, so I completely broke up when “Star Gentle Uterus” was first unleashed.

      4. Raye J

        I no longer count the animated first season of Sailor Moon. The Live Action is SO much better, and when it’s not, at least it’s hilarious. If only they’d done more than one season

    4. Jelli

      Feh, Doctor Whatever.

      1. Jelli

        Well, this went in the wrong place

        1. Mr. Random

          Are you saying it wasn’t put in the right space at the right time? Sounds like you should call someone to fix that for you.

  3. Tandel

    Walky, yer lookin’ a little Faz-ish in panel two…. If you were smiling, I might just have to shoot you.

    1. TaZZerath

      Yeah I thought this… channeling his inner Faz… if he even exists in the Dumbiverse…

      1. Yotomoe

        Everyone has an inner Faz. As you can see by this chart…

        1. timemonkey

          Some people even have Faz in their rectum. Though that does require some assistance.

      2. Tandel

        I’m also quite certain the resemblance was deliberate.

        And it’s going to be a terrible, terrible day when we meet Dumbiverse Faz… Terribly hilarious/painful.

        1. Jereko

          I have two words for you:

          Math teacher.

    2. ArkhamTexan

      Him still sticking around when he’s not wanted and when he’s severely pissed off the person he’s around with isn’t helping either. Maybe he IS also doubling as this universe’s Faz…

    3. Tandel

      Dear God help me.

      http://imgur.com/r1nFKyt

      1. timemonkey

        Would that also mean he’s sexed Danny?

      2. Yotomoe

        This is the best and the Worst at the same time.

        1. Tandel

          It just… has so many layers doesn’t it?

        2. TaZZerath

          Unlike Faz, who has one layer only, within his manhood

        3. Notebooked

          Faz has multiple layers, who lay with him whenever he wishes.

          This graph indicates the amount of gentle lovers he has.

      3. Valdrax

        Oh geez, I’m laughing so hard I can’t see through the tears.

    4. Alex

      More like Arnold, really.

  4. Icalasari

    Jeez, he’s practically a fandom all by himself

  5. thecanvashat

    Her textbooks rejected evolution in favor of Dexter & Monkey Master.

  6. Wonder Wig

    Someone get Walky over to the Star Wars fanbase to decide the best movie order for new viewers.
    (4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 6)

    1. Doctor_Who

      4, 5, 6. Then maybe, if you are drunk enough, the Holiday Special.

      1. Aizat

        Wait, what is this Holiday Special you speak off?

        1. NerdHerder

          Do not look for it. In the darkest hours of the night, when you least expect it, it will find you. I weep for that night.

        2. Ryune

          Stir whip stir whip whip whip stir WAAAAH!

        3. NerdHerder

          Words cannot describe the unspeakable horror of watching Chewbacca’s father, Itchy, watching some weird kind of pseudo-porn in his own living room.

        4. Aizat

          Try me, I’ve seen worse. Much, much worse.

        5. NerdHerder

          There’s a fifteen minute stretch which features Wookiees going around their Wookiee house speaking Wookiee. With no subtitles. It is the sound of madness.

        6. John

          Bea Arthur serenading a giant rat in a Tatooine cantina!

          I watched the Holiday Special on TV as a small child. (The one and only time it was aired.) None of my other friends when I was growing up had seen it, and after that one single broadcast, George Lucas buried it deep. In those days before Google, I had trouble proving that it actually existed and I wasn’t imagining my vague memories of it. Sometimes I wondered myself.

          Then a few years ago I found it on YouTube and watched it as an adult.

          It is completely fucking batshit. It’s no wonder that I sometimes thought that my small child’s memories of it might have been a weird dream.

        7. Mr. Random

          I have been warned by multiple internet sources to NEVER under ANY circumstance to WATCH THAT SPECIAL…. I kinda wanna now.

        8. Chronos

          Mr. Random:

          What you mostly see is just what one of Chewbacca’s kids is watching throughout the special. It includes a mediocre animation bit, a shoed-in musical performance, an instructional video, a bizarre cooking show, an *almost* bearable spot with Bea Arthur at the Tatooine cantina you see in IV, and at one point we see Chewie’s dad or step-dad watch what is apparently, for him, porn (said porn does not involve Wookies, oddly enough). It’s just a *very* bad variety show in the guise of a Star Wars movie.

          If you *still* have the urge to see it, watch the Rifftrax version or some internet review showing clips of it.

        9. Jeff K!

          John: I had the same experience with a comic book: Game Boy issue 1.
          I bought it under bizarre circumstances, it disappeared into the depths of my closet within a week, and didn’t see it again for ten years. During that period, I was absolutely certain I’d dreamed the whole thing – until I found a copy at a comic shop, where I bought it. Two days later, the first copy of the issue materialized itself. Very, very strange.

        10. Wonder Wig

          The holiday special is just… just horrible. Maybe the cartoon parts are okay.

        11. Totz the Plaid

          The cartoon is the worst part! It’s constantly off-model and the writing is crap.

          I legitimately enjoy the shit-awful ’70s cheese of the special because that’s fun to me. It’s not “ironic” enjoyment (because that phrase doesn’t make any sense…), but I legitimately think it falls into “so bad it’s good” territory.

          Yes, I know xkcd disagrees with me, but that’s all a matter of opinion.

          Everyone can probably agree that the RiffTrax for it is pure gold, though.

        12. captainswift

          “So bad it’s good” IS ironic enjoyment.

        13. Somebody

          Um no…the Christmas special fails and the CGI Star Wars series isn’t really that bad. Even if you don’t like it, you can’t say it’s worse than the holiday special. In this case an opinion can be wrong.

        14. Totz the Plaid

          What? I’m talking about the animated portion of the Star Wars Holiday Special. The bit that introduces Boba Fett as basically a moustache-twirling villain and has Luke’s IQ drop about 80 points so he’s dumb enough to not catch onto the guy’s obvious villainy from the start…

      2. StClair

        It is not possible to be drunk enough for the Holiday Special.

        1. Bill M.

          Tell that to Carrie Fischer… or was she on other stuff at the time?

        2. Hoboturtle

          Considering that she was a manic depressive at the time, she was probably on some other stuff.

    2. Torgo

      Or 4,5,2,3,6, but should he really? That’s already been figured out, so there would really be no point.

    3. Gold

      4, 5, forget the rest.

      1. timemonkey

        The first half of six is awesome! The second half varies depending on your tolerance for Ewoks. I see no problems with them.

        1. Wonder Wig

          I have zero problems with Ewoks. They actually scared me a little as a kid since they were so eager to eat Luke and the gang, with their tiny teeth, beady eyes, and claws… tiny teeth.

        2. Drunken Nordmann

          From what I’ve found on the internet, they were more creepy in these Ewok movies:
          http://s1.directupload.net/images/130630/3g8cvov7.gif

        3. Chronos

          6, 4, 5, 1, 3, 2.

          My reasons, roughly in order:

          The story in original trio’s better done overall, space battles and/or multiple simultaneous fights are weighted more favorably, I disliked the seemingly-forced love scenes in 2, Jar Jar Binks didn’t substantially bother me, and the Fetts have never done anything for me.

        4. Cybersnark

          Hey now! The Ewok movies were awesome.

          The Ewoks had more character development and complexity than most human characters in the main trilogy.

        5. hmrc4evr

          It was like being nibbled to death by cats??

        6. Kelly

          >Ewoks

          Space ‘possums. Ugly *and* useless!

        7. Roz Not DeSanto

          LIAR!!!!!! Ewoks are ADORABLE!!!!.

      2. Andy

        But then the Empire wins!

        Actually, I’m pretty okay with that.

    4. John

      4,5,6 but fast-forward through the Ewok attack on the shield generator, then read Darths & Droids for the rest.

      Then watch the Holiday Special just for the WTF factor.

      1. George

        Really, just follow Darths and Droids.

  7. AJBulldis

    Man, if home schooling was anything like watching cartoons then my parents made a huge mistake sending me to that collection of psychological torture boxes.

  8. Yotomoe

    Is…He reffering to Dorothy in that last panel? Or some other dork-scicle he dated?

    1. Luzahn

      Most likely Dorothy. Before her, he was invested in the single life, so presumably he hadn’t seen anyone else.

      Besides, he uses “her” to describe Dorothy in the last line. Joyce and Ethan wouldn’t know any girlfriends before hey.

    2. Plasma Mongoose

      How many dorks has Walky dated??

      1. Aizat

        5?

        1. timemonkey

          How many female dorks?

        2. Aizat

          Still 5?

        3. timemonkey

          But until Dorothy Walky insisted girls sucked and he was gonna marry a dude.

        4. Aizat

          Where did you think Walky get the opinion that girls sucked to begin with?

        5. Plasma Mongoose

          Bathroom walls. 😛

        6. Li

          Pop culture.

          I was twelve when I decided that I would be the “best girlfriend ever”, because I wouldn’t be a fun-ruining nagging harpy, like every other girlfriend in the world.

          I assure you that this deeply informed opinion did not come from my vast personal preteen history of dating other girls. Instead it came from the almost universal representation of “girlfriend” as perpetuated by media, both that aimed at the very young and at adults. Even girls who are not yet girlfriends were still often fun-ruining moms-in-training.

          I would be EXTREMELY surprised if Walky’s identical view of women had been shaped by anything remotely like experience.

        7. Yotomoe

          7.
          Don’t ask.

        8. Mr. Random

          I ask.

  9. Doctor_Who

    I actually had to do this for Doctor Who a few months ago.

    I’ve seriously been watching that show for 20 years, and all of the sudden my mom decides she wants to see what it’s all about, just because now she has some coworker who keeps talking about it.

    So I showed her a few episodes, and she wants more, so I end up going through the entire list of available episodes dating back to 1963 and listing which ones are good and/or important.

    1. EvergreenFir

      Nailed it!

      1. thecanvashat

        Very impressive!

      2. Doctor_Who

        I should really read these comments before I post my own, huh?

        But first to devise an optimal reading order! Obviously the ones with funny gravitars go first, followed by those that contain the words “femur”, “penis”, or “faaaaace”. I chose to consider any posted by that “David Willis” guy non-canon.

        1. EvergreenFir

          Posts containing firemen, then math teachers, and so on in that order

        2. Yotomoe

          Then followed by the large women, Then the petite women, Then the large Women again.

        3. EvergreenFir

          it warms my heart to see that reply… like those chalky and unpleasant hearts dumped into a quasar.

    2. Blue

      Also guilty. I have done this for the revival, and once I have actually seen everything I may devise a whole-TV roadmap.
      …don’t even get me started on the expanded universe.

      1. Mr. Random

        You people are crazy. Then again I’m a binge-r. I see a series, and instead of doing the logical thing and asking someone for the best/important episodes, I watch them all. ALL of them. I have watched over twenty three series this way. All of: Friends, Scrubs, Spongebob, Adventure Time, Doctor Who, HIMYM, Firefly, and so on. I attempted the Simpsons but my resolve failed me at Season 10.

        Just remember. I’m still calling you crazy.

        (nutjobs.)

  10. Plasma Mongoose

    Cartoons are serious business.

    1. Aizat

      Yes, any form of animation is serious business.

    2. Yotomoe

      If you think they’re not then you don’t deserve the luxury of watching them.

  11. Aizat

    Of course the first season blows, they’re trying to get a feel of the show’s direction. That and it was animated by a Korean studio.

    1. Yotomoe

      All the other studios were animated by a korean studio, dingus. They just had more of a production budget after season 1.

      1. Yotomoe

        seasons*

      2. Aizat

        Wait, I thought TMS did season 3.

        1. Yotomoe

          TMS recieved animation Credit on the 3rd season onward but the main animation was still done in Korea. They simply outsourced all over the place once they had the budget to do so.

  12. Brian Lynch

    I made my girlfriend a Discworld reading order chart for our first anniversary. Now she’s my fiancee. So there you go.

    1. Aras Pabedinskas

      I started reading Discworld last summer. Although I’m super-obsessive about order, I had to read TCoM, even though I skipped to Mort and then started in order. I’m am currently holding at Masquerade because I chose to stop during the school year, but it always takes a lot of effort for me to get back into anything after a long break.

    2. John

      One of my friends noticed one of his coworkers was reading a Robert Jordan doorstop, and handed her a Discworld book, saying, “Try these. They’re better.”

      They’ve been married ten years now.

      1. Kelly

        Hold it! Now don’t get my wrong, I love, love, love Disc World, and pterry in general. But Disc World better than WoT? That just isn’t going to fly!

        Now, I ain’t gonna say WoT is better than DW either, mind you. If you can say either way, it is only after long and very careful deliberation.

        But the truth is they are very, very different things. To my way of thinking you can’t even put them in the same genre. WoT is Fantasy (subtype: Epic High); much of early DW is just Parody (happens to be of Fantasy). Other early DW is Fantasy, for a brief time. The bulk, mid and late DW, is something else entirely, possibly some variant of Sci-Fi (Late DW might be a kind of extreme variant of Alternate History?)

        Anyway, whatever you call them, they are very different, and I don’t see that you can compare them in a better/worse fashion.

        1. Valdrax

          Well, comedy and drama are kind of apples and oranges, but within their own categories, Discworld is a far better comedy series than WoT is a dramatic series.

          Discworld novels are tightly plotted and clever. I’ve always thought the WoT books were written as some kind of fantasy Zeno’s Paradox — Jordan had written the end long ago and wrote each book to take you halfway to the end. And then half of that. And then half of that.

          Discworld is better than WoT not because comedy is better than drama but because it succeeds as a series better at what it’s trying to do than WoT does.

        2. Andy

          I would argue that’s because Discworld isn’t setting up to tell one massive story about the saving of the world. It’s a series of stories that involve the same characters over and over again, each of which can be read as a standalone.

          Wheel of Time, on the other hand, really is a massive story incorporating thousands (literally) of characters, and many of those become recurring characters. As the main story progresses, so do the individual character arcs. And those individual arcs are used to show the ancillary developments that other series might not ever bother to mention. This feeds into and helps explain the main story, but it also pads the books out tremendously.

          I will agree, though, that the pacing is a bit odd. Winter’s Heart, for instance, seemed unnecessary as a separate book. I’m also trying to wrap my head around the fact that the series as a whole takes place in a 2-year span, but one year only takes 3 books and the second takes 11.

          In the end, it comes down to what you’re looking for. Wheel of Time is my favorite series ever, and I can come back to it again and again and again. Discworld, on the other hand, is definitely very good, but I don’t see myself re-reading the books. I also tend to only grab it when I want something much lighter.

        3. John

          It’s pretty easy to compare them. Wheel of Time is boring and tedious, and, while it took Pratchett a few books to find his groove with Discworld (s’a reason I recommend people start with Mort or Guards, Guards and go back for CoM/LF later), it’s never boring and tedious.

          (I read the first two WoT books because my mom – who tends to select books for me by weight because I devour them so fast – gave them to me for Christmas. I never had any urge to pick up #3. I stuck with friggin’ Sword of Truth (Mom buys me books by weight, yes) for longer, because, while it started out bad and quickly headed for offensively bad (which was the point I gave up on it), it wasn’t boring.)

        4. Baroncognito

          I tend to start people on Small Gods.

  13. Benabik

    Is the second thing on his chart the second half on an episode?

    1. V Missirian

      it looks like it 🙂

    2. Bill M.

      Yeah. The first half of “So Long and Thanks For All The Bananas” is pointless drivel.

  14. NerdHerder

    Wait, did Walky skip Season 2, Episode 3 on his map? Man, “Joust Desserts” was the episode that got me hooked on the show. This only goes to show there’s no accounting for taste.

    1. Yotomoe

      Walky is a fool if “Lemonade Standoff” isn’t on that list.

    2. Aizat

      “Joust Desserts”? It was OK, I mean it’s not bad like “Rage Monkey” but it’s not as good as the entirety of the Ape Wars arc.

      1. NerdHerder

        But the Ape Wars arc is too involved for a new viewer. “Joust Desserts” is a microcosm of the show. The script is tight, but not so flashy as to attract attention to itself, and the action is always driven by the plot. Each of the major characters has a chance to shine. It’s a remarkably solid half-hour of television. Really, you should watch it again. It ages well. “Rage Monkey”, though… we can agree on that one.

        1. Yotomoe

          Especially because the Height of Ape Wars is when they bring back a lot of the one-shot characters during the finale. If you’re a new viewer this moment is a lot less epic.

        2. Totz the Plaid

          lkhbyuigbkubgygb

          Great, several more episodes to keep track of!

          I swear I’m working on the summaries, things have just been busy for me these past couple weeks!

        3. NerdHerder

          I totally agree. I mean, “Cape Ape” is a monumental episode in terms of mythology payoff, but you have to have been paying attention. Joyce can’t watch that one until MUCH later.

        4. Totz the Plaid

          …okay, are you just messing with me now? I’m tempted to ignore that title out of spite.

        5. Totz the Plaid

          *has too much of an obsession with getting this done and adds it to the list anyway*

        6. Wonder Wig

          I’m scared to look through the comments in case of spoilers. It feels like a minefield!

        7. hmrc4evr

          I still can’t find a decent copy of ‘Truk vs. Monkey’. It aired that one time and that was it.

        8. Regalli

          Yeah, I think they pulled that one from running because of the Electric Soldier Porygon seizure incident a week or two later. There’s a bit of flashing just before the start of the last fight scene that made the higher-ups nervous. I think there’s a version of it on Youtube, but it’s in crappy video quality. Obviously they’re not releasing it on DVD without a shitton of disclaimers any time soon.

        9. Regalli

          I thought we all agreed to pretend Rage Monkey never happened?

        10. Mr. Random

          Pretty sure that was Vender Defender.

        11. Regalli

          No, see, that one ACTUALLY never happened. It didn’t make it to air until years later when fans found the deleted episode and started riffing it, MST3k-style. Any memories we had of it actually airing that happened to match up eerily were just a shared delusion.

          … What? I can have my fantasies. (Besides, the writing was so nonsensical it may as well have been a dream. I mean, really, when freakin’ DEXTER’S the straight man in an episode, you KNOW something’s wrong.)

        12. Mr. Random

          I always thought VD was an odd one. But I’m glad I guess that next to no one caught the original. Still, these things mutate and I’m sure you can find a modern version of it floating around somewhere.

  15. Estron

    Add me to the list of people who thought “Faz.”

    1. Drunken Nordmann

      He gives people that warm and Fazzy feeling.

  16. timemonkey

    Walky man, NEVER do this unless you’re asked for advice. You can make someone hate a show before they even get a chance to judge it themselves from sheer obnoxiousness.

    1. Yotomoe

      Basically why I never gave Kingdom Hearts, MLP, or Homestuck a chance.

      1. Aizat

        Yeah, it’s better to experience the show or game or anything by yourself then hear it from a fan. Fan hype never really lived up to expectations like how I got suckered in to watch Gundam SEED and Gurren Lagann. BTW, SEED was meh at best while Gurren Lagann was good but a tad overrated for me.

        1. Aras Pabedinskas

          I watched Seed because it was Gundam. In Canada we got Wing and I even saw Endless Waltz on TV but we never saw the 0079 or G-Gundam series here. I mostly think Seed is poor now, but I got to say, if Seed hadn’t come along, I would not still be a fan of Gundam. I watched Gurren Lagann at the point before the movies came out, can’t remember what informed me of the show though, and I thought it was awesome then, and I still think it’s darn good, but not as awesome as I first held it.

        2. andiemus

          Well, of course. It’s main premise is profoundly ridiculous, how could it not get a bit less awesome when it’s not going to surprise you as much?

      2. Valdrax

        Ouch, all of those things are pretty awesome, but I can imagine exactly how meeting their fans first could give a bad impression. If you can get past the fans, do give them a second chance. That’s what I had to do for Bronies, and I only encountered the fandom for the other two after the fact.

        (Though I kind of like Homestuck’s fans okay once you get past the crazy shippers that ruin EVERY show.)

        1. George

          I know some really cool people who are also Homestucks, but hang around them long enough when they’re talking about that fandom and you will begin to question whether they’re still speaking English. That’s pretty much why I avoid it. I’m incoherent enough as it is!

        2. Regalli

          There are some really weird concepts, yeah. Plus, a low character count will put you around 75 or so, not taking into account most of the alternate versions of various characters that also exist and which also have to be kept straight. Or attempting to keep track of various universes and it just gets COMPLICATED.

      3. Regalli

        The thing about Kingdom Hearts is that if you weren’t into it from near the start and aren’t willing to buy no less than three systems so you can play or know the plot of every single game by now, barring MAYBE one… don’t try to get into it.

        Seriously, don’t. That plot is so confusing by now that I still don’t entirely get it, and I can mostly follow it. And by now the Disney worlds are… well, the writing for them is getting better, but they’ve basically become irrelevant compared to the convoluted thing that is the main story. (I think at least three of the games in between were created for the express purpose of mending plot holes, and some of those plot holes were created by one of the games meant to patch them.)

        1. Regalli

          I mean, it’s still a lot of fun, and I even like characters the fandom does largely bashes (*Pats Xion*), but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s kind of become a confusing mess.

        2. Mr. Random

          They’re came/coming out with 1.5/2.5 for the PS3. All the games, on two discs. Final Cuts too. Basically, the only two you’d need would be a PS3, and a 3DS (for 3D (DDD (Dream Drop Distance))).

        3. Regalli

          2.5’s gonna have Coded and Birth By Sleep? Great, just when I was starting to cave on the “I will never want a PSP” thing. (Coded I had, but then I lost my copy of the game soon after I got it and before I could actually play it. Figured having a rough idea of what occurred was enough for it.)

        4. Kim

          Regalli, did you choose that avatar? And if that’s the case; where is it from? 🙂 If its something random then nevermind.

        5. Aras Pabedinskas

          It’s Amethyst the Princess of Gemworld. Or Jewelworld, I’m not too sure. She’s a DC Comics character that recently got a set of shorts on DC Nation depicting her story. Her Avatar is the version of the character from those shorts.

        6. Regalli

          Yep. Gemworld. The shorts are adorable and awesome, I highly recommend them. (And they’re one long continuous story, so you pretty much have to watch them in order.)

        7. Kim

          Thanks! 😀 Started watching. Looks awesome

        8. Kim

          Thanks! 😀

    2. Jenny Creed

      What exactly does Walky do that tells you anything about the show? Or wait, let me rephrase that in the form of a pop quiz:

      Q: Finish this sentence: Walky obviously loves this show, that must mean. . .

      A: Walky loves this TV show. We can’t tell a single thing about the show, only about Walky. You shouldn’t let other peoples’ feelings about a thing decide how you feel about it before you know anything about it.

      1. ArkhamTexan

        http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HypeAversion

        It’s a legit thing (it’s on TVTropes, after all).

        1. Jenny Creed

          Yeah, and you should ignore it as hard as you can.

      2. Li

        It’s not that Walky likes it, it’s that he won’t shut up about it. And, as Joyce points out, he’s making watching a TV show into work. He is literally micromanaging her viewing experience, deciding FOR her which episodes she will like and which ones will bore her. Therefore he is also prejudging her for any differences of opinion they might have after she’s seen it all for herself.

        As well-intentioned as his rigid list might be, it’s also denying her the pleasure of experiencing the show on her own terms, while simultaneously denying her the right to decide she doesn’t like it until she’s watched a certain number of episodes, which is annoying.

        I think that as a veteran fan, it’s embarrassing to rewarch episodes you don’t like when you’re trying to share your show with a friend, and you worry they won’t get to the “good” part because they’ll be so turned off by what you didn’t like, but remember that when you tell someone, “You have to watch at least the first eleven episodes before it gets good,” you’re setting them up for disappointment. First, you’re telling them they have to slog through hours of crap before they get to anything good — and that sounds like fun to NO ONE — but second, you’re also setting a high bar for that eleventh episode, and if it doesn’t live up to your hype, your friend might rightly feel frustrated.

        (Btw, it’s difficult for anything to live up to its hype when someone else is sitting next to you going, “Watch this next part! Oh god this part is so good!” It RUINS your immersion. And even if your friend is not literally doing that, you can feel their expectations all the same.)

        Literally the only good way to expose a friend to a show is to say, “Have you watched XYZ? I think you’d like it, it’s like [thing you know they already like] meets [other thing you know they like]. I can lend you the DVDs or get you some links, let me know if you like it :D”

        And then

        back

        off.

        Allow then to watch or not watch, to like or dislike!

        If you’re watching with someone, try to keep your commentary to a minimum.

        End of line.

  17. aeverett55

    I almost made one of these for Star Trek Deep Space Nine once. (The first season is pretty terrible.)

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      For many shows, you will finda that the first season sucks.

      1. Totz the Plaid

        …or for many of the others, the first season becomes weak in retrospect.

      2. Yotomoe

        Even my favorite show, Ed Edd n Eddy.
        (I still love every episode though)

        1. Mr. Random

          Early episodes good, later episodes…. There is no gif explosive enough to show my joy.

        2. Aras Pabedinskas

          Actually, Heroes was the inverse. I don’t think anyone agrees that anything past season one is particularly good, partly do to the writer strike it faced right after.

        3. Mr. Random

          I watched it entirely, and I dunno. I tend to focus more on concepts, and they really had a lot of good ones. Thing is, by the end a lot of the characters were starting to grate. Hiro especially.

    2. timemonkey

      DS9 has to be watched in order or it doesn’t make sense. You have to take the bad with the good.

      1. Cybersnark

        Though there are some episodes that can be safely skipped, most of them in S1.

        1. timemonkey

          S1 has some absolute gold though.

  18. Rust

    Walky looks like Faz.

    The implications of that terrify and confuse me.

  19. TaZZerath

    Try doing a chart to track all the continuities with Transformers.

    It will break you 🙂

  20. Kernanator

    I don’t even know what to say. Obsessive fandom at its best? Worst?

  21. ridtom

    I do the same thing as Walky, but with Stephen King Novels.

  22. Fernando

    Seinfeld really deserves its own order chart too. I tried watching the first season with my fiancee and you can imagine how that went.

  23. Uniqueantique

    I map too. Tried reading all of Diskworld in order of publication. Then mapped them by characterization. All the ‘guard’ books”, ‘wizard books,” “witches” etc.
    Stephen King, all of his need mapping sorta. Just about each and every one of them contain a small,medium or large tie in to his Dark Tower series.
    I just grab each one as it comes out and devour it. Put it away, and a year later read it again. Every time I do a re-read I pick up something, I didn’t realize was there the first time around.
    And I agree, Walky let Joyce alone. Just let her watch and enjoy.

    1. Darkflame

      Theres very good Discworld reading order charts over at the L-space website.

      1. xKiv

        Meanwhile, my best reading order was “whatever just came out”.

  24. RickZarber

    This is how I was introduced to Teen Titans a few years ago. It succeeded in getting me into the show, but my OCD was going CRAZY with watching episodes out of order…

  25. begbert2

    That just ain’t right. If the show isn’t good enough to watch in order, from the start, it’s not good enough to watch. Period.

    1. David

      ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

    2. Crimson Doom

      Becayse, y’know, the writers can’t make mistakes in the early season that might turn off potential viewers.

    3. Crumplepunch

      I have this problem introducing people to Avatar.

      Not that the first series is weak, but two and three are where the series really hits its stride. I usually introduce people with The Chase from series two, which has a nice cross-section of character development without any heavy spoilers.

      1. Darkflame

        The 3rd epp of s1 almost pit me of watching (at least I think its #4), I have had enough cartoons tell me girls can fight – no need to do a whole show around it. It was like baby talk compared to the more subtle rest of the show.
        (Oddly, female empowerment is a running theme of 3rd/4th episodes – not kidding, TNG and SG1 for example )

    4. Mitsukara

      I’m going to guess you’re not a big Star Trek fan, then…

  26. Notebooked

    …I sort of know this feel. There’s this weird English show, mix of slapstick and sitcom, that I used to love with a raving vengeance. I talked about it with one of my friends one day and he got interested, so every week I’d come over and we’d watch an episode. I made sure they were best ofs, because, there’s a lot of terrible/fall-flat stuff there too.

    1. HorrisBorris

      Let me guess…DON’T BLINK. Blink, and you’re dead!

      1. Darkflame

        Coupling would fit that description better – but they are by the same writer anyway.
        Hay, now I want a crossover!

      2. Notebooked

        Pfft.

  27. icelizarrd

    “I’ve chosen a series of ‘best of’ episodes, or ‘bestisodes’, if you will…”

  28. Darkflame

    Wait, the second episodes is on there?
    2nd episodes are normally bad. Not as bad as 3rd episodes – 3rd episodes suck – but 2’s aren’t much better.

    Seriously, I’ve done stats on this stuff using imdb data!

  29. TARDIS with a Hat

    I… made one of those for NuWho. Labeling each episode according to how funny, dramatic, scary, visually pretty and good as a first watch it is.

  30. Arkadi

    OMG, Walky is ME O_o

  31. Bob

    Jeeze. I know this situation all too well. When a friend who isn’t known for showing a large interest in cartoons decided to tell me they were considering watching Adventure Time, I felt I had to jump in with expertise to nudge them in without them feeling like it’s just a “lol so wacky” show.

  32. Morgauxo

    We haven’t seen Faz yet have we? Maybe in this universe Faz exists as a part of Walky. Maybe those characters are merged like something out of Sliders but Walky’s character is very dominant only leting out his Faz side on rare occasions like this one.

  33. Pester

    The Dexter and Monkey Master show somehow relates to the old Its Walky comic, right? I read some of that, but the art sucked and the jokes were bad. So what I’m saying is that I could use a chart like that for Its Walky.

    1. John

      The Head Alien, fan-named “Dexter” because of events midway through the series, was the primary antagonist of It’s Walky!. Monkey Master was one of his minions. Much of the rest of the Dumbicast (Walky, Joyce, Sal, Mike, Jason, Dina, among others) were the protagonists, alien abductees granted superpowers and drafted to fight the Aliens. Apparently in the Dumbiverse, Willis wrote the story as “Head Alien”, an indie comic book series (presumably with different protagonists), and it was later polished up for mass TV consumption as the “Dexter and Monkey Master” cartoon series, much like The Tick or TMNT.

      It’s difficult to do a chart like that for It’s Walky!, because it’s a single continuous plot-heavy story arc that doesn’t even have a real beginning – it starts out as another plot thread mixed up in Roomies!, which is kind of like Dumbing of Age but badly done and with occasional Aliens – and its progression from bad art and unfunny jokes and drama that misses the mark to the ending, which is quite good, is a gradual process. And even the ending is heavy on the callbacks to not just earlier in IW!, but back into Roomies!, and even to crossovers with other webcomics. The IW! website is half-broken and has extra material chucked in kind of at random, too.

      My recommendation is to join us at Bring Back Roomies! for the full re-run in chronological order. That gives you the bad stuff in a measured dose (current strips are pretty decent, being chronologically set during Roomies!, but written and published after IW! ended, though kind of restricted by having been intended for newspaper publication… though that, uh, that’ll… heh heh heh…), and at least you can laugh at Young Willis with us.

  34. nothri

    Walky, you poor brainwashed mindslave…

  35. Henshu

    I did this for introducing people to Adventure Time. It worked with my dad.

    1. Roborat

      I have watched a few episodes of Adventure Time, wanted to see what all the talk was about. It’s thought it wasn’t too bad, but nothing to rave about. Then my kids informed me you have to be high to truly appreciate it. Explains why it is so popular with the college set, I guess. I have no idea what drug to be on to get homestuck, however.

      1. Kintrex

        Adventure Time gets much better in the second season, and in my opinion, improves with each season. The first season is important for introducing many characters, but the animation and writing is lacking in many places.

        I got into Homestuck because I liked Problem Sleuth, which I liked because I’m a fan of text adventure games. I’m sure Homestuck was way easier to get into back before it developed a terminal case of tumblr fans.

        1. Regalli

          I got into it after watching other fans, but the hype turned me off for quite a while. I’d say it’s easier to follow if you’ve read Problem Sleuth first, too. Makes it easier to get into the pacing in the first couple acts and the weird puzzle shit helps you get acclimated to all the weird time travel and plot shit in Homestuck.

      2. Henshu

        Well, everyone I know that enjoys it does so sober, so I don’t know what’s wrong with your kids.

  36. nothri

    This reminds me of introducing Doctor Who to new people….sigh.

  37. Mitsukara

    This is how I feel about Star Trek shows (and to a lesser extent, Stargate SG-1, which was fantastic, but got better over time and had a lot of very skippable episodes). Much better to locate a “Best-of” guide to those, especially TNG. Though I’ve yet to actually find any “best” (…good) content in Voyager… maybe I need someone else to point me at one of those sometime.

    I have seen the reverse though. The biggest example would be “Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda”- for the love of decency, PLEASE start with season 1 in that show (and please also give it a try! It was awesome!).

    …And then consider stopping about halfway through season 2 (or right after “Ouroboros”, probably). Such a great show at the beginning, and then it all goes to crud when the lead showrunner was fired… and then they made three more seasons after that, each somehow even worse than the last… *sigh*

  38. batman

    ohmygod with the chart and eyes he is totally faz

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