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/20090116

2) The web doesn't determine things so much as it guides them: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20090130

3) Oasis operates outside of the web: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20090417

4) If Torg kills Oasis for good, the web will survive intact: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20090807

5) In the DoR, the day the web broke was the day that 4U city rose: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20090922

6) The dinosaurs operate outside of the web because they existed before it: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20100108

7) 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/20130507

8) Father Time used the fate web to imprision K'z'k: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20130508

9) Magic circumvents the web, making it the only thing that can free K'z'k: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20130717

10) Time travel and dimensional portals screw with the fate web: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20131007

11) Artificial life inside of the fate-web could result in a dangerous tangle: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20130925

12) The fate web is fairly flexible, capable of reorganizing itself to keep things running smoothly: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20140203

13) Chaz came from the Never, and the Never appears to be outside of the web: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20140512

14) 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/20140513

15) Timeless space protects the web: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20140514

16) 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/20140519

17) The tangle threatens the existence of K'z'k - and thus of reality itself: http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20140711

I'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.)

Are there any live sections of the forum?

Not really any more =(

Usually there are some comments for today's posted comic.
But this part only show signs of life whenever the comic turns plot-heavy...

Yeah, there isn't any real spec to be done right now... So this place (SRC) seems kinda zombie like. We just need Pete to maybe almost kill off someone to jumpstart it ;)

Well something moved. Gwynn doesn't "Hate" Torg any more. What's Bun Bun's latest scam gonna be? A protection racket on organic veal farmers?

(copied from the spec game)

I just realised this...
...so what separates Sluggy Prime from the dimension of Rain is that the R&D wars never happened.
And this is due to one event: the attack in which Hereti-Corp obliterated Crushestro Weapons in a single strike.

Why did this strike not happen (or succeed) in DoR?



hC seems to be quite incompetent most of the time, making up for their incompetence with superior tech (DFA gun, Kusari/Harbinger, nanites).
But someone managed to mastermind a very competent strike against their arch rival.

I spec that this strike was planned and successfully executed primarily due to a certain hC agent
who does not appear in DoR.

And that the agent knew about the devestation that would follow if the R&D wars could not be cut short. She is employed by some other organisation than hC, who can travel dimensions and/or time.

Scratch my last idea.
With todays links I just remembered that Chrushestro was not fluxed in that strike.
So the blitzkrieg / firequacker attack probably did happen in the dimension of rain as well.

What broke the R&D wars was the fact that the NoFun mutants were killed along with the squid-on-a-stick in an underground explosion.

And this happened because Riff+Torg knew the R&D wars was comming, and were trying to prevent them.