This one’s important. This story, this page.

Ryan, we’ve seen, can only go H.A.M. He’s got raw power, horribly acquired and uncomfortably used, and we’re all lucky he “only” killed a robot.

Elementeen, meanwhile, applies raw, some might say elemental (WINK~!), forces to things, but in such a way that nobody dies, not even robots.

If Ryan’s going to have this power, he can’t just go like he’s been going. And El’s maybe the guy to show him how to go another way.

Insofar as R+M is growing a plot, that’s basically it. Better living through friendship.

In terms of…I dunno, the meta level?…and I hate myself for typing that, but whatever, the meta level it is…in terms of that, this story is also saying there’s another way to go for this series.

The biggest feedback I get on this comic, when I get feedback at all, is that nobody knows what the hell is happening in the story. Which I think is half down to people not reading that closely, and half down to my failings as a plotter.

This shouldn’t be John From Cincinnati, as much as I liked that show.

(Or maybe I should just run with it, saying this is obtuse and meaningful and you just don’t get it.)

(Or not.)

So, a big part of this story is me sitting the narrative down and going “hey, you’re kind of a mess, but we can do something positive about it”. I mean, spoilers for the back half of the story, but that’s where we’re going with this: get better (at doing what you do, being what you are).