ssss | SSSS Read-Along: Chapters 0-10 [Finished]

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SSSS Read-Along: Chapters 0-10 [Finished]

One of the best ways to survive a SSSS chapter break is to re-read the comic!

How it works: Every few days, a separate subthread will be posted to this entry for each chapter. Read the chapter, post your thoughts! Let's survive this chapter break together.

Read-along schedule:

April 09: Prologue - Thread
April 11: Chapter 01 - Thread
April 13: Chapter 02 - Thread
April 15: Chapter 03 - Thread
April 17: Chapter 04 - Thread
April 19: Chapter 05 - Thread
April 21: Chapter 06 - Thread
April 23: Chapter 07 - Thread
April 25: Chapter 08 - Thread
April 27: Chapter 09 - Thread
April 29: Chapter 10 - Thread

For discussion unrelated to the re-read, head over to the Discussion Post.
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Pages 1-68

Thoughts?

I haven't even started re-reading yet but YES MY PROLOGUE SWEETIES COME INTO MY ARMS

I mean I love our main cast, but I got way too attached to these guys. (Aksel~!)

Yeahhh even though I knew going in that we wouldn't see the prologue people after the prologue was over, I still ended up clinging to them, oops.

I'm going to be reading along using book + web version until I run out of book.

One thing I really noticed was that the first page has SO much visual impact in the web version but on the page it's kind of... blah? The sideways layout just doesn't work for me like this.

Come to think of it I feel that way about a lot of sideways pages. And sometimes the full-page spreads.

The prologue gives me so many aRTD vibes. Partly because the art style is a bit closer to aRTD than the rest of SSSS is, I think. But also just in general. ...Especially the Norway segment. (Unfortunately, something tells me that Year 0 in Hokanniemi wouldn't go down quite as well as it does in Dalsnes.) Aaaand now I want to read aRTD again, oops.

Also I really love how much of an adorable failboat Aksel is, like so.

Gunnar's hair is so nice. Dude, those must be the springiest curls.

Also Berit's kitty loving on her. That cat has so much love.

Which reminds me, Magnus is so dour and fluffy. The absolute best. This is how you know Michael and Signe are great people.

You can tell so much about people by their cats. :') Oi love Magnus. BIG FAT GRUMPYCAT hmmm kind of like his owner....

Aw I missed saku and aino bein cute. it's amazing how saku can actually say he loves his wife, considering how emotionally constipated his descendants are :9

Though...every time I read the signe/Michael sequence I wince at the television part. I get that it's an accurate pundit situation but gosh...the way the refuge/patient zero thing is handled has always made me a little paranoid, haha. It's pretty clear that minna doesn't think refuges are the scum of the earth like a frankly worrying amount of people do nowadays, but my heart hurts thinking about how "outsiders" were treated as the illness went on in the Scandinavian countries. Sorry, that's a little sad, isn't it? But I can't help but worry for people that are already dead for 90 years in canon.

Re: the Danish segment, yeahhh the TV stuff kind of - well - it reminds me of why I never watch the news, needless to say.

Even though it's kind of a cozy apocalypse compared to some of the others I've read, we get such snips of horrible things happening - just enough to be kind of anxiety-inducing. Like you said, it's... sad.

Er, anyway.
As for Aino and Saku - those two are adorable, you're right. It's kind of funny - in some ways they're a lot like their descendants, but in other ways they're so NOT. I haven't seen them explored much in fanwork and now that I think of that, it's kind of a missed opportunity.... [/puts on the to-do list perhaps]

(Also, I didn't know you were on DW! :O )

I guess it messes me up most because the illness came from 'illegal' refugees, whose nationalities are never discovered, and the illness causes death and horrific mutation to anyone who gets it - and we see the preventative measures Reynir's ancestor takes...not a big stretch to see people who were already bigots get really. really bad. Anyway.

I know! I love their dynamic. They're awful sweet and they seem to like each other a whole heck of a lot. Favorite prologue couple right there <3

(haha i made a DW wayyyy back for the homestuck shipping olympics and never participated? But I found it again, heyo.)

Yeah, I agree, especially seeing how the map in Gøran's newspaper (on page 4) places the highest density of the outbreak at that point in northern Morocco and western Turkey - all those scary brown people. I can't help hoping that we will be learning more about the origin of the Rash at some point and the Patients Zero will be exonerated in retrospect, but the awfulness is not at all far-fetched anyway, especially looking at the awfulness that is currently going on without any terrible pandemics. /bitter refugee worker irl

Agreeing about the Hotakainens as well. It really feels like they could be our current Hotakainen kids in ideal circumstances, if they weren't a bunch of young people who have no idea how to best handle one another (not that I'm blaming them, really, they got royally screwed over by life way too young), but it's sad to consider what might have been. At least Onni is learning, though. And I do love Aino and Saku an awful lot as well; the way they care for each is other is so sweet and genuine. ♥

Whoa, I never noticed that bit with the newspaper. Good eye.

I really hope that we'll be learning more about the origin of the Rash eventually, because right now there are too many questions. Why did it appear to start in that area in particular (it might have started elsewhere, who knows), why does it seem to have a supernatural element to it... Admittedly an answer to the latter is more likely, probably.

Thanks! I may have gone through the prologue looking for details a while ago, because origin stories! *flails* I agree about the supernatural element being more likely to get an explanation as well, although I hope that allows at least some conjecture as to its origin. There's still so much unexplained, and the fact that Stine the crazy pundit lady's paranoia was quite justified... uuhhhh. Government cover-up. Yup. And not just to prevent a mass panic, it feels like there is something more sinister there.

Also the reason I think something shady is going on with the Nordic Council to this date. They know more than they let on, and sending out an underfounded expedition of supposed imbeciles who are more likely to die than not is an excellent deterrent to keep people in their safe zones and not asking questions or wanting to go explore again for a while after the dust has settled.

http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=13

I see what you did there, Minna. Nice Pandemic reference. (Yeah I know lots of people have pointed it out before but shhhh)

I wonder how the apocalypse went down in Madagascar and Japan. Based on what we know about the illness and its effects, I don't know if Madagascar could pull through - it's warm and close to the mainland. But maybe Japan would weather it a little easier?

Mm, it always seemed to me that if Iceland held up okay due to insularity, logically other islands could as well. :|a

Hokkaido could hold up, I'd think, I was under the impression it gets a pretty solid winter. Sakhalin and other decently-sized/supplied more northerly Okhotsk Sea islands too.

I wonder how Australia would fare. They're isolated and out of the trajectory of the disease's spread (although didn't we see that the Rash made it out to the midwestern US? so who knows), but the beasts that would crop up there would be a damn nightmare.

I was gonna be like "well, I dunno, Iceland is pretty isolated" but then I remembered another island location. Bornholm got through pretty well. I yeah, I guess you're right. Islands in general would probably be pretty okay!

I've heard the same re: northern Japan. Since cold winters are pretty good at holding grosslings back, that would be great for them.

The disease definitely made it to the USA http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=47 Which makes me wonder how things went down over there. And how long it took for things like the internet to collapse. Looks like it's still up by Day 40, otherwise there wouldn't be a way for Iceland to get hold of that photo, but ????

As for Australia, I dunno... they're isolated, but they're also freaking huge, so it'd be harder to shut themselves off than it would be for someplace smaller, wouldn't it? Their beasts might not actually be THAT scary though, I mean most of the horror stories you hear about Australia are reptiles/fish/spiders/etc, none of which can catch the illness. So, as far as mammals go, the scariest beasts would probably be... dingoes, kangaroos, and... what else? Like, platypuses are poisonous, but they're also tiny....

Ohhhhhhhhhh. I forgot about that. It only infects mammals?

Well. Still. Enormous mutant wombat murder ass.

Yeah! I keep forgetting it myself, but it's on one of the infopages
http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=102

I guess the reason it doesn't stick in my brain is because "Reptiles/fish/birds/etc are totally immune, but all mammals are susceptible to the illness... except cats? That sounds fake, but okay."

Murder wombats. That would actually be terrifying.

Re: Prologue

elleth - 2016-04-09 16:55 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Prologue

aguacatillo - 2016-04-11 03:17 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Prologue

(Anonymous) - 2016-04-09 17:00 (UTC) - Expand

"Very funny!"
"I thought so too."
Compare: 12, 17

And that is when I knew these two sasshats were meant for each other. Perfect. Though p23 sealed that more, of course. (...Omg I never noticed Magnus's eyes peeking at her through the kennel, cuuuute.)

Another panel parallel that I liked: 16, 21. Not so demanding now, are you, Michael.... (Though "What's wrong now?" "EVERYTHING!" is definitely something I've felt, ahaha...)

If I start gushing about these two, I'll probably never stop. So. Yeah. (WHY haven't I written a million fics about them... oh yes, it's because effort/laziness/what is plot)

"What's wrong now?" "EVERYTHING!" is one of my all time favorite moments from any webcomic ever

It so perfectly encompasses that kind of situation. <3 And even better that it's those two.

I keep staring at the map on page 24, trying to find Hokanniemi, even though I know it isn't on there.

/SQUINTS

...And I forgot how much I like Tuuli. "Possibly a crazy person" is... a good descriptor xD

Clearly this means that Hannu's little village is far too small to show up on the map. Clearly.

;)

Oh man, I forgot that the part where the expedition is confirmed is part of the prologue. And the budget cutting.

"We definitely don't need a night scout AND a day scout"* ...Thanks, Taru. Thanks. That explains so much. (And the other stuff too, but eesh.)

"Our crew is going to be just a bunch of weirdos, isn't it?"* Yyyyep, Siv called it. The best weirdos, of course.

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