I think the real joke of this page has something to do with The Hero’s Journey, inside baseball for Lucas and Joseph Campbell fans. Because it occurred to me as I was writing this script that Sheldon has a Luke Skywalker complex: bored of life on the farm, he seeks adventure elsewhere. And there’s The Warthog, playing the Obi Wan. But Chloe wants the Princess Leia role only so she can sport a laser blaster and ONLY if she gets a light saber, too. Though she might rethink the outfit, something a bit more Action Girl.
None of which was intended or thought out, just archetypes at play as I have developed this series over the years. The real inspiration all those years ago was Krazy Kat, the simple repetitive logic of that classic strip’s plot: Ignatz hits Kat with a brick out of hatred, but the Kat interprets it as an act of love, and outrages Officer Pup, who throws the mouse in jail. In this case, Sheldon would leave the farm, and no matter how far he would go in his adventures, he would inevitably wind up back home. There’s probably something psychological about that, too.
very Tao . . . and for me, being a former monastic, I see ontological overtones. But really, should we not have seen the nuances of philosophical introspection and existential exploration early on when Gustek was teaching Chloe the Kantian categorical imperative? Not to mention that at some level Sheldon reminds me of Heidegger’s Dasein oppressed by the mentality and expectations of The Herd. Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, too, but really, I’m not sure if Chloe is (or during the search, was) more of a Zarathustra character.
But Warthog is pure Tao with a touch of Zen. I can also see a bit of Kat in Warthog, particularly in his reflection on his early adventures in which his cluelessness allowed him to imagine cruelties as camaraderie.
I am going to miss this adventure when its done.
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