As Sluggy Freelance enters into its final years, I suspect that the clues to the "Grand Unified Theory of Sluggy" will become more and more numerous. Every sign points to the climax of the strip having something to do with the big ol' tangle in the fate web. Figure out what the tangle is, you'll figure out what the climax of the strip will be about, and that's quite probably going to be the cornerstone of your unified theory.
This thread is going to focus on what we know about the fate web and the tangle, but for obvious reasons, any speculations on a "Grand Unified Sluggy" theory would be welcome.
If this works out, we could end up with material for a sticky-thread on a par with the ones on Oasis and Bun-Bun. If it doesn't, we'll have enjoyed ourselves anyways.
I don't have much time, so for now I'll just try to get all the data points together.
WHAT WE KNOW:
1) If Hereti-Corp and the K'z'k cult meet, bad things will happen:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/200901162) The web doesn't determine things so much as it guides them:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/200901303) Oasis operates outside of the web:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/200904174) If Torg kills Oasis for good, the web will survive intact:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/200908075) In the DoR, the day the web broke was the day that 4U city rose:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/200909226) The dinosaurs operate outside of the web because they existed before it:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/201001087) Under ideal conditions, the fate web guides all things with souls and keeps K'z'k from "cutting in" before he's supposed to:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/201305078) Father Time used the fate web to imprision K'z'k:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/201305089) Magic circumvents the web, making it the only thing that can free K'z'k:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/2013071710) Time travel and dimensional portals screw with the fate web:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/2013100711) Artificial life inside of the fate-web could result in a dangerous tangle:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/2013092512) The fate web is fairly flexible, capable of reorganizing itself to keep things running smoothly:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/2014020313) Chaz came from the Never, and the Never appears to be outside of the web:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/2014051214) Gogol and Uncle Time put all of the potentials and all of the ordained in one spot in the hopes of stopping K'z'k, but they knew that this could result in a huge tangle:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/2014051315) Timeless space protects the web:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/2014051416) Gogol and Uncle Time also made sure that Bun-Bun was there with the potentials and the ordained, which is the origin of "Sluggy Freelance" :
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/2014051917) The tangle threatens the existence of K'z'k - and thus of reality itself:
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20140711I'm pretty sure that covers everything that we know about the fate web and the tangle, seeing as these are only the significant comics that I found when I put "fate web" into Sluggy Search. Anyone care for speculations about how it all fits together?
(I'm mostly going to be playing devil's advocate, responding to every post just to keep the thread alive in this all but dead section of the forum.)