Strip with the most emotional impact for you?

[mattie_p]

I know this has been discussed before, but apparently not recently. What strip has had the most emotional impact for you?

For me, it would have to be Strip 496: Responsible. I can't even think of it without tearing up, much less read it through without bawling.

The first time I read it, I was blindsided by the fact that there was another Greenhilt I had not yet heard of (or didn't recall). The connection that Roy had, abandoning his mother and his archon, to go spend time with Eric, was amazing.

It is probable that this had extra impact on me because I am a father myself, and the thought of losing one of my own children would be devastating.

So which one does it for you?

[veti]

Strange, 496 regularly gets mentioned in this context - but it left me completely cold. I think because this was the first we'd heard of Eric, I was just thinking: "Huh?"

I think my most shocking would be the still-raw-and-recent 877.

Previously, I would have nominated 642 - the point where V had a real chance to choose sanity, and rejected it.

[Gift Jeraff]

#807 holds a special place in my heart because it was uploaded a few hours after I learned my cat was dying.

[BirdHarvester]

#639 still fills me with a feeling of dread every time I read it. V's whole arc has had a lot of emotionally impactful strips, but that one really tops them all for me.

[jumpoffduck]

From Start of Darkness:

Spoiler

Show

Redcloak: Goodbye, brother.
Right-Eye: Goodbye... Redcloak.

[Vinsfeld]

#830

Tsukiko just wanted to be loved.


Although, there's also the one that Durkon dies. I almost cried on this one.

[Alan_Pehnereas]

For me, it was actually #400. I'm kinda a hopeless romantic songwriter type, and this one just gives me such great hope . But I also really like #417. It's so sweet. <3

[CRtwenty]

#830

Tsukiko just wanted to be loved.


Although, there's also the one that Durkon dies. I almost cried on this one.

I'll second Tsukiko's death scene. I really didn't like her, but I didn't expect her to get taken out like that. I felt pretty bad for her afterwards.

[Zerter]

I'll third Tsukiko. An unhappy, messed up life probably followed by a even more messed up afterlife. The way she died also extremely painful.

[Mike Havran]

Durkon's death is pretty much above everything else for me.

[RMS Oceanic]

Different strips, different emotions

393: Ohcrapohcrapohcrap OH THANK GOD
400: Awwww
443: Wait, what?!
496: Bittersweet tear or two
639: Um, wow, that's a lot of...are those eggs? Um...
662: You know, I never realised how scary an undead abomination who could slam flaming meteors into my face and bind my soul to him forever more could be.
695: Girard you silly goose!
841: Um, wow, that's a lot of...are those kids? Um...
877: I think shall suffice.
896: I think shall suffice.

[DaggerPen]

#496 actually never really gutpunched me like so many other people - my initial confusion over what had happened and my initial thought that I'd totally missed the context (I started reading after the strip came out, so I was just archive binging when I came across it) took the edge off for me, so while once I puzzled it out I did get a bit of the old waterworks feeling, it never really socked me in the stomach.

Familicide definitely evoked a very strong feeling of horror in me, as did Tarquin's casual "Kill them both", but the one that really got me was probably Mr. Stiffly! MR. STIFFLY! O-CHUL!.

Oh! Though the revelation that Familicide killed the Draketooths may tie that one, because I freaked the **** out when I read it. I even dragged a friend into reading it just to have someone else to freak out with about it.

[CRtwenty]

443: "The First Step is a Doozy" was pretty shocking to me as well. I didn't expect one of the main cast to die suddenly like that.

[urbanwolf]

Although I can agree with Roy's brother, and Tsukiko death as being emotionaly charged moments.

The most powerful strips to me tend to be Elen centric.
Leaving Azure city without Haley or You would of made an awesome girlfriend being the biggest, but the little ones can hit too. Like he mother crying over a lost "nail".

The absolute biggest impact though would have to be when V's husband attacked her in 641 and the look of terror in her kids face, and the ghosts taunting her.

[Finn Solomon]

"My family's screwed up, and that's never gonna change." Poor Elan, echoing a lot of RL people.

"O, buddy Roy." I like the song a lot, and it genuinely was moving. Until Belkar and Xykon ruined it.

"I'm in love with you and I thought I was kissing you!" Oh, how many times I've wished I could do what Haley managed to do.

"I get ta go home." Damnit, Beardy McBeerstein. I'm not supposed to care this much about you.

"It appears...not everyone agrees with your...analysis." Biggest hell yeah moment of the comic. I punched the air.

V and the family tree. Aside from being a good name for a band, this was the one strip out of nearly nine hundred that made me close my laptop and go 'Wow' for like a day.

[pikeamus]

"More than anything."

Damnit, should not have read that strip while at work. Now having to hide my glassy eyes from the person sitting opposite.

[TerrickTerran]

830...poor Tsukiko....almost made me stop reading the strip because I liked her so much.

[Kish]

The Familicide strip.

I'm not going to look it up, because I try to avoid looking at it unless I absolutely have to.

[Tarqiup Inua]

Miko's death tragical, you could say. I liked her as a character.

[Szarrukin]

"Only the honor of the paladin is unbreakable... even by death itself"

[coineineagh]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0610.html
Belkar's psychological journey in 606, and his re-emergence as a sexy, shoeless god of war in 611 were related to this. It changed him from a dark comedy foil into the unlikely hero that he still is right now. It's an unexpectedly uplifting story that people can change for the better sometimes.

[CRtwenty]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0610.html
Belkar's psychological journey in 606, and his re-emergence as a sexy, shoeless god of war in 611 were related to this. It changed him from a dark comedy foil into the unlikely hero that he still is right now. It's an unexpectedly uplifting story that people can change for the better sometimes.

Yeah, Belkar quickly became one of my favorite characters after that. He'd been irritating up until then, but afterwards he's been great. Plus seeing him interacting with trippy dream Shojo was a hoot.

[F.Harr]

Roy getting smushed. I'd only recently started reading the strip and was on a strict "as many episodes as a could per day" diet of OotS. THAT came as a shocker.

[Jay R]

Then who did this?
And why?

[Draz74]

You know what? Other than 496, the one that really comes to mind for me is one with an unusual emotion (for this story) attached to it: peace and friendship.

[Cirrylius]

#639 still fills me with a feeling of dread every time I read it. V's whole arc has had a lot of emotionally impactful strips, but that one really tops them all for me.

It probably makes me a terrible person, but that moment of crowning horror when the dragon realizes the consequences of her actions makes me savagely grin.

"Oh, NOW you're sorry. NOW you're showing genuine regret. NOW you want to stop, because NOW you realize that the sequence of events so far WASN'T the worst possible outcome.

...tough."

[Kish]

It probably makes me a terrible person, but that moment of crowning horror when the dragon realizes the consequences of her actions

I wish I believed that this phrasing indicated you think Vaarsuvius is female.

[Cirrylius]

Sorry.

Although I do see V as female.

[Ebon_Drake]

"Only the honor of the paladin is unbreakable... even by death itself"

This.

#500 always gets me for hitting uncomfortably close to home.

[Sylian]

You guys have already mentioned a lot of the most emotionally impactful strips from this comic, and I agree with many of them. I believe that there is one more recent one that is really emotional, and that's #880.