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Topics - pokepal148

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NWR Forums Discord / This forum is a James Jones' "free zone."
« on: October 06, 2023, 06:51:46 PM »
Finally. With his tyranny.

2
What made completing the pokedex a few years back so much fun was how it was a fun excuse to play through a bunch of older games. So I decided to do it again. I want to do a playthrough of the pokemon series, generally playing through one game to represent each region while also trying to get multiple games for each system from the GBA onwards. This also means I don't have to play the pokemon games that don't have running shoes which is nice. Those gameboy games have kind of not aged the greatest. I'll also be doing those weird Gamecube games because why not. There are a few regions that have more than one game representing them, namely Kanto and Unova, and a handful of games that I have never actually played to completion.

The games I'll be playing are as follows:

Pokemon Firered (GBA)
Pokemon Heartgold (DS)
Pokemon Emerald (GBA)
Pokemon Colosseum* (GCN)
Pokemon Platinum (DS)
Pokemon White (DS)
Pokemon Y (3DS)
Pokemon Ultra Sun (3DS)
Pokemon White 2* (DS)
Pokemon Sword (Switch)
Pokemon Legends Arceus (Switch)
Pokemon Scarlet (Switch)
Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness* (GCN)
Pokemon Let's Go Eevee* (Switch)

Games marked with an asterisk are games I haven't actually played to completion before.
 
I'll also be ranking the games when I finish and sharing what teams I used to finish them. I've found I have a hard time ranking the pokemon games relative to eachother so maybe this will help.

---

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen are an interesting beast. These 2003 remakes of the original Red and Blue offer the first standalone revisit of the Kanto region for a new generation of players nearly a decade after the originals came out. There is also the Let's Go games which are a 2018 reimagining of sorts of yellow but I wanted to start with something more traditional for this game.

These games are faithful to the original Red and Blue to a degree we won't see again for pokemon remakes for a long time. It is to the point where the game actively prevents you from evolving certain pokemon like Chansey and Golbat even if you meet the criteria to do so until the postgame. To be clear, Blissey and Crobat exist in the game. The games just refuse to let you have them until it arbitrarily decides you can.

Espeon and Umbreon are a special kind of hell to get in this game because you kind of just can't. You actually have to trade Eevee to Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald if you want Espeon and Umbreon. This is because FireRed and LeafGreen cartridges don't have any kind of internal clock system, probably because that would have made the cartridge more expensive to produce, and Eevee evolves into Espeon and Umbreon by getting friendship. If you do it during the day you get an Espeon while at night you get an Umbreon. Eevee isn't even available in Ruby and Sapphire and it wasn't added in Emerald either so you can only get eevee in FireRed and LeafGreen but you can only evolve it into Espeon and Umbreon by trading it to the games you can't get Eevee in. However you can't even trade between FRLG and Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald unless the FireRed or LeafGreen player has finished the postgame for that game. But also, just to rub salt into the wound, in order to access the postgame, you have to have caught at least 60 pokemon in the Kanto pokedex.

Getting back to the core game. They added alot of trainers that weren't in the original games so if you're like me and you like to fight every trainer the routes can become a bit of a slog but this does help alleviate some of the concerns with the game's level curve. However those concerns are still there and while the new VS Seeker item can help

I just don't find the new Sevii Islands that interesting. They feel like they lack identity and they blatantly only exist to give players access to some Gen 2 pokemon that weren't already available in Ruby and Sapphire. I honestly didn't even feel like fully exploring them. They look so similar to the already samey version of Kanto in this game and I'm honestly just sick of looking at this game with how samey the environments look.

The game just feels bland. A big part of it is that Pokemon has gotten better at creating interesting and varied locations for you to explore since Red and Blue but especially coming off of Ruby and Sapphire which offers a lot of variety in its locations it feels like more could have been done to bring this version of Kanto to life.

Anyways, since nobody asked what my team was, here it is:


Charizard is generally regarded as the worst of the 3 fully evolved starters. It certainly has the worst time at the beginning of the game. However my Charizard, which I nicknamed Blaze, made itself useful with a high special attack and speed stat and access to Flamethrower. This combination gave Charizard enough power to put a dent in almost anything in the game. This combined with the utility that comes with learning Fly, is legitimately all Charizard needed to justify a spot on my team.

Sadly Charizard's only non-fire special move is Dragon Claw. It comes in at victory road and gives Charizard an edge against Lance's Dragonair and Dragonite. It's worth the wait though. Between that and Flamethrower Charizard is capable of hitting anything in the game for at least neutral damage, which allows me to slap some HMs on instead of additional coverage which resulted in an ending moveset of Flamethrower, Dragon Claw, Cut, and Fly.


Spooner the Alakazam is a Psychic type in Kanto. Psychic was infamously overpowered in the original Red and Blue. Later games took measures to bring it down with things like the introduction of Dark and Steel types and changes to the ways types were balanced against eachother.

However alot of what made psychic so powerful for an ingame playthrough in the original Pokemon games was just the kinds of pokemon you face. Poison is by far one of the most common types of pokemon in Kanto and Alakazam can make mincemeat out of them. Meanwhile the only steel types are Magnemite and Magneton, Dark types don't exist until the postgame. Alakazam's main issue is its limited moveset but when you're a psychic type that hardly matters.

As a nice bonus, Abra comes with Teleport which is a nice fast travel option for the earlygame before you get Fly. I gave it Psychic, Shockwave, Flash, and Recover. It did well against Koga and most of Team Rocket's fodder and was generally just helpful to have throughout the game. All things considered, Alakazam is by far the best pokemon in the game for an ingame playthrough. It isn't even a contest. Alakazam was the MVP for this playthrough.


Spike the Nidoking suffered from not having moves that take advantage of it's poison and ground types. For those who don't know, using a move of the same type as the Pokemon using it gives that move a Same Type Attack Bonus or STAB. The Sludge Bomb TM which gives him his best poison move is postgame only and Earthquake isn't obtained until the last gym.

But what makes up for it is how early you can get Nidoking. Just grab one of the like 7 moon stones you can pick up in Mt. Moon, slap it on a Nidorino, and you have a fully evolved powerhouse before the secoond gym. They even have a tutor for Mega Punch outside of the cave so you can give it a decently powerful move to get you by until you get other options down the line.

It ended up with a moveset of Earthquake, Sludgebomb, Rock Slide, and Megahorn when I finished the game and did the postgame which is a powerful moveset, but I would have really liked Sludge Bomb to be a bit earlier in the game. There are only like 40 different kinds of poison types in Kanto. Let's maybe give them a move.


Kicks the Hitmonlee just hits hard. Alot of people argue that fighting types in this game aren't very good because they don't have good matchups against alot of major fights in FRLG. Its only real standout fight is against more than half of Lorelei's team and a small handful of other mons throughout the game that you probably have other options to deal with. I don't disagree with that assesment but Hitmonlee's high attack stat and decent speed more than compensates for it's shortcomings. I'm really happy I used it.

Hitmonlee's main issue is its lack of coverage moves. It only gets 3 notable TM and tutor moves in the form of Rock Slide, Earthquake, and Rock Tomb. Eagle eyed viewers may note that I already used the first 2 moves on that list on Nidoking which just leaves Rock Tomb. I did give it Bulk Up which is a decent move for it to build up its stats a bit with. This resulted in a final moveset of Bulk Up, Brick Break, Strength, and Rock Tomb.


Snorlax comes into the Kanto games ready to blast through the rest of the game with its high attack stat and Chunky was no exception. While it is slow, its special defense gives you an answer to Sabrina's psychic attacks and spending way too much time in the Game Corner gave it Shadow Ball, which allows it to hit psychic and ghost types for Super Effective damage. I ended up with a moveset of Return, Brick Break, Shadow Ball, and Rock Smash.


Shelly the Lapras came in pretty late. However it's monsterous stats along with the fact that it learns a wide variety of moves makes it the best water type available in the game. Water itself is an incredibly useful type but I also just rarely use the water starter because of how many other great water types are available. A moveset of Surf, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt (another Game Corner TM) and Psychic gives Lapras incredible coverage and versatility. It's just a matter of getting it caught up in terms of levels.

---

Overall, If I was asked to put this game on a tier list I'd put it in D. It is definitely one of the weakest games in the series imo, only really beating out the games it is meant to be a remake of and maybe X and Y.

Also, I am already sick of the game corner. I have 3 more games of that stupid place before it is excised from the series forever.

3
NWR Forums Discord / New official NWR Funhaus rule.
« on: December 18, 2022, 06:49:08 PM »
You may no longer link to the following sites:

The NWR Discord, Nintemple, Negative World, Pietriots, Reddit, Miiverse.

You may also no longer link to the following sections of the NWR forums or their child boards:

Talkback, Podcast Discussion, NWR Feedback, Announcements, General Gaming, Nintendo Gaming, and General Chat.

We thank you for your understanding.

4
NWR Forums Discord / Delete this please.
« on: December 08, 2022, 11:30:50 PM »
It was a stupid joke anyways.

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The UK's current prime minister has been outlasted by a cat and a head of lettuce. Surely our time has come!


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NWR Forums Discord / Pokepal148 is a 450 million dollar brand.
« on: October 18, 2022, 06:45:59 PM »
I expect a six figure salary for my continuing to post on this forum.


7
Backlaugust: The Official Negative World Nintendo World Report Month for Decimating Backlogs!™ is back again for more action! So start looking through your backlog and get started!

Here are the "rules":

Games can be on any system, not just Nintendo systems. I know we're a Nintendo fan site, but most everyone here is a multi-console owner. So play a game on any system you want.

Let us know what you're playing. Mostly just so we can cheer each other on.

Play games you already own. A lot of people tend to buy a game then not play it, or play it for a significant amount of time and then put it down. This is what we're aiming for. Games that launch in August or July of this year don't count.

Try to pick up games you aren't actively playing right now. Games you're currently playing can be allowed, but in the spirit of Backlaugust, let's try to make them games you aren't playing at the moment. Make it a game you haven't touched in a month or more if possible.

When is a game done? That's up to you! Mark a game off your backlog when you've seen the ending or end credits, or once you've seen enough of the game in a game without a "proper ending" (like an arcade-type game). You don't have to do or get everything unless you want to.

Finished games will be posted later in this post. Because everyone likes to see their accomplishments recognized. Just post when you're done and I'll try (and inevitably fail) to update daily.

I'd normally put how many games we cleared last year but there's a little game called Xenoblade 3 that's probably going to cause all sorts of havoc to our heroic attempts to quell the Backlog horde. I don't think we have any chance of beating any records here but we'll just see what happens from here I guess.

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I picked up about a dozen or so games so far. I might go back for another pass, I haven't decided yet.

Either way my haul is as follows.

  • To the Moon - It's supposed to be a really good game I've heard great things about.

  • Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet - The game is something of a spiritual successor to Freedom Wars in terms of gameplay and while the gameplay in Freedom Wars isn't the reason to play the game Freedom Wars is still one of the better Monster Hunter clones out there.
  • Minit - The game's description gave me half minute hero vibes and that was enough for me at that price.

  • OneShot - It just looks weird
  • Thimbleweed Park is a game I already had on Switch but it is a point and click. Point and click games should be played with Keyboard and Mouse.

  • Flower is a neat tech demo-y thing that I want to be able to play in bed sometime but the Vita version lacks the graphical quality that game deserves.

  • The Frog Fractions DLC gives you a hat and is totally not supposed to be a second campaign for the game.

  • Super Squidlit and Squidlit are a pair of charming Game Boy style platformers. I already played Squidlit on Switch but the game is like an hour long and was only 55 cents on Steam.

  • Whispers of a Machine and Kathy Rain: Director's Cutare a pair of interesting looking point and click games with cool spritework based on the trailer.

  • NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits was supposed to be a really good Wiiware game that managed to escape to Steam.

What did everyone else get?

9
NWR Forums Discord / If Obi-Wan Kenobi is so great...
« on: May 31, 2022, 09:32:17 PM »
Why isn't there an Obi-Two Kenobi?

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NWR Forums Discord / E3 2022 predictions thread.
« on: March 31, 2022, 10:26:43 PM »
I figured now is as good a time as any to open the door for some predictions so what does everyone have for us this year? I'm thinking this year Phil Spencer will burst onto the stage in a space suit.

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Nintendo Gaming / What do you use your Switch USB Ports for?
« on: February 26, 2022, 10:37:35 PM »
The back one on mine is used for the ethernet adapter but the front two are a different story. One port is being used for a USB C cable so I can use my Pro Controller or 8Bitdo Pro 2 as a wired controller to try and make Smash Ultimate's input delay less obnoxious. and the other one is currently being occupied by a Logitech Unifying Reciever so I can use a wireless keyboard on the Switch. I could also sync a mouse to it but the only game that supports keyboard and mouse is Hypnospace Outlaw. Having a keyboard is still nice for the eshop though.

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General Gaming / Games you just don't know how to talk about.
« on: February 26, 2022, 03:56:10 AM »
Am I the only one who's gotten into these weird games that are difficult to describe? In large part because you feel like you can't talk about them without spoiling what makes them special? From weird meta narratives to just plain weird let's recommend eachother stuff like that here.

Doki Doki Literature Club is not remotely for the faint of heart. Those content warnings that generally surround the game are very well earned. However it is a memorable and well crafted experience unlike any other that is well worth checking out if you think you have the stomach for it.

Moon or Moon Remix RPG is a PS1 era satire of RPGs where your character is sucked into an RPG world and has to try to gather the love of the inhabitants of moon world and undo the damage done by the so called "hero" who is generally something of a nuisance to the people of the world in order to return home. The game is a sort of spiritual predecessor to the Chibi Robo series.

---

Daniel Mullins is a developer who revels in this sort of thing. He seems to enjoy putting these subversive meta narratives In his games and he is really good at it. His games are only on PC but they are well worth checking out.

The Hex is a sort of murder mystery type thing. There are these six game characters in a bar and you are told that one of them is planning a murder so you basically go through each of the characters, play the games they were from (which generally satirize existing game genres like Platformers and 2D fighting game) and by doing so you learn more about who these characters are and what brought them to where they are today.

Pony Island came out before The Hex and while it is nowhere near as ambitious it is an equally worthwhile and memorable experience. You play as someone who is trapped playing a game called Pony Island and the whole thing is you trying to escape from the game. Also, Pony Island fucking goes places and I am honestly shocked that I managed to describe it without mentioning the elephant in the room that's revealed very early on.

I haven't played his third game, The Inscription yet but based on those previous two I suspect it will be a hoot.

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Mighty No. 9 confirmed releasing this year on 3DS. I can't wait!

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NWR Forums Discord / Come here to pad your post count! 1644 posts or bust!
« on: February 15, 2022, 05:59:05 PM »
Padding, Padding, Padding Padding Padding!

15
I've been addicted to this game for a good while now. It is really fun.

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NWR Mafia Games / Pikmin Mafia Dead Thread.
« on: February 04, 2022, 08:09:27 PM »
You may be noticing that this thread is locked. That is because the dead thread can be found in a special discord server here.

This will allow us to discuss the game more openly without spoiling the game for living players. You can join the server at anytime but as long as you are still alive in the game, you will not be able to view or post in the special channel for dead Pikmin Mafia players.

This is still kind of a WIP but I hope to use this server for future dead chats in the coming games.

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Khushrenada claims to play a mean Mafia game but his recent showing in Wah's discord server has left a lot to be desired. This challenge will allow you to prove once and for all that you are a better Mafia player than Khushrenada. Here's how it works:

Step 1: Join Wah's discord server by clicking here.

Step 2: Sign up for the next Mafia game on that server. There happen to be open sign ups as we speak.

Step 3: Once the game starts, don't get fucking voted out on the day 1 thread by a community that generally doesn't bother with day 1 votes at all these days so all you really have to do is not make an ass of yourselves.

Here's a list of players who succeeded in this challenge during the last game on Wah's server:
MASB
pokepal148

Here's a list of players who failed this challenge:
Khushrenada

Can you do better? Take the challenge to find out.

18
It seems like at least once a month another company gets a bunch of allegations of sexual misconduct towards female workers or general sexist culture? The logical question is who will be next? My money is on Take 2 personally. They've checked every other checkbox for evil corporate gaming scumbags. They might as well go for the Blackout on the bingo board.

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NWR Forums Discord / What is a "Thoroughly Unhelpful Response"?
« on: November 27, 2021, 05:31:49 PM »
Inquiring minds would like to know.

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NWR Mafia Games / Joja Mart Grand Reopening (The Dead/RP Thread)
« on: November 17, 2021, 12:57:11 AM »

At Joja Mart, we pride ourselves in our wonderful selection of food for the whole family. These are just some of the wonderful items you can find on our shelves.



With such a wide selection of goods, who would wanna shop at Khushrenada's? Nobody! That's who!

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NWR Forums Discord / We must not lose the War on Christmas!
« on: November 03, 2021, 12:20:25 PM »
Look at this horrific scene! This is what happens when we give up Christmas.


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NFTs are the future man!

23
Rules:
When I was 18... 18 years old, I saw for the first time in my life... I saw an image of clarity. I saw a comic strip... a three panel comic strip that, though simple as it seemed, changed me... changed my being, changed who I am... Made me who I am...
Enlightened me...
The strip, Garfield, the comic strip was new... no more than maybe a month and a half since inception, since... since coming into existence... and there it was before me in print, I saw it... a comic strip... What was it called?
Garfield.
The story here is of a man, a plain man. He is Jon, but he is more than that... I will get to this later, but first let us say that he's Jon, a plain man.
And then there is a cat... Garfield.
This is the nature of the world, here. When I see the world, the politics, the future, the... the satellites in space, and... the people who put them there...
You can look at everything as a man and a cat... two beings, in harmony and at war...
So, this strip I saw; this man, Jon, and the cat, Garfield, you see...
Yes... hmm...
It is about everything. This... little comic is, oh, lo and behold... not so little anymore.
So yes, when I was 18, I saw this comic... and it hit me all at once, its power. I clipped it, and every day, I looked at it, and I said "Okay... let me look at this here. What is this doing to me? Why is this so powerful?"
Jon Arbuckle, he sits here, legs crossed... comfortable in his home, and he reads his newspaper... The news of the world, perhaps... and then he extends his fingers lightly, delicately... he taps his fingers on an end table, and he feels for something...
What is it? It is something he needs, but it is not there.
And then he looks up, slightly cockeyed, and he thinks... His newspaper's in his lap now, and he thinks this...
Now where could my pipe be?
This... I always come to this, because I was a young man... I'm older now, and I still don't have the secrets, the answers, so this question still rings true, Jon looks up and he thinks...
Now where could my pipe be?
And then it happens... You see it, you see... it's almost like divine intervention, suddenly it is there, and it overpowers you...
A cat is smoking a pipe.
It is the man's pipe, it's Jon's pipe, but the cat... this cat, Garfield, is smoking the pipe... and from afar, and someplace near, but not clear... near but not clear... The man calls out... Jon calls out, he is shocked. "Garfield!" he shouts.
Garfield. The cat's name.
But, let's take a step back... let us examine this from all sides, all perspectives... and when I first came across this comic strip, I was at my father's house... a newspaper had arrived, and I picked it up for him, and brought it inside.
I organized its sections for him and then, yes, the comic strip section fell out from somewhere in the middle, and landed on the kitchen floor... I picked up the paper pages and saw, up somewhere near the top of this strip... just like Jon, I was wearing an aquamarine shirt.
So I thought, "Ah, interesting. I'll have to see this later." I snipped out the little comic, and held on to it... and five days later, I reexamined it... and it gripped me, I needed to find out more about this. The information I had was minimal, but enough...
An orange cat named Garfield...
Okay, that seemed to be the lynchpin of this whole operation, yes. Another clue... a signature in the bottom right corner, a man's name...
Jim Davis.
Yes, I'm on to it for sure.
So... one: Garfield, orange cat, and two: Jim Davis, the creator of this cat...
And that curiously plain man.
I did not know, at the time, that his name was Jon. This strip, you see, had no mention of this man's name, and I'd never seen it before.
But I had these clues; Jim Davis, Garfield.
And then I saw more, I spotted the tiny copyright mark in the upper left corner. Copyright 1978 to... what is this? Copyright belongs to a... PAWS Incorporated...
I use the local library and mail services to track down the information I was looking for...
Jim Davis, a cartoonist, had created a comic strip about a cat, Garfield... and a man, Jon Arbuckle. Well, from that point on, I made sure I read the Garfield comic strips, though as I read each one, as each day passed... the strips seemed to resonate with me less and less...
I sent letters to PAWS Incorporated, long letters, pages upon pages... asking if Mister Jim Davis could somehow publish just the one comic, over and over again... "It would be meditative," I wrote, "the strength of that."
Could you imagine?
But... no response... The strips lost their power, and eventually I stopped reading, but... I did not want my perceptions diluted, so I vowed to read the pipe strip over and over again... That is what I call it, "The Pipe Strip."
The Pipe Strip.
Everything about it is perfect. I can only describe it as a miracle creation, something came together... the elements aligned... It is like the comets, the cosmic orchestra that is up there over your head... The immense, enormous void is working all for one thing, to tell you one thing...
Gas and rock, and purity, and nothing.
I will say this... When I see the pipe strip... and I mean every single time I look at the lines, the colors, the shapes that make up the three panel comic...
I see perfection.
Do I find perfection in many things?
Some things, I would say... Some things are perfect... and this is one of them. I can look at the little tuft of hair on Jon Arbuckle's head... it is the perfect shade... The purple pipe in Garfield's mouth... How could a mere mortal even MAKE this?
I have a theory, about Jim Davis...
After copious research and, yes, of course, now we have the internet, and this information is all readily available, but...
Jim Davis, he used his life experiences to influence his comic...
Like I mentioned before, none of them seem to have the weight of the pipe strip... But you have to wonder about the man who is able to even, just once, create the perfect form, a literally flawless execution of art, brilliance! Just as in a ward... I think there is a spiritual element at work...
I've seen my share of bad times and... when you have something... Well, it's just... emotions, and neurons in your brain, but... something tells you that it's the truth...
Truth's radiant light.
Garfield, the cat? Neurons in my brain, it's... it's harmony, you see? It... Jon and Garfield, it's truly harmony, like a... continuous, looping, everlasting harmony... The lavender chair, the brown end table, the salmon-colored wall, the fore's green carpeting, Garfield is hunched, perched... perhaps with the pipe stuck firmly between his jowls... His tail curls around. It's more than shapes too, because... I...
Okay, stay with me... I've done this experiment several times.
You take the strip. You trace only the basic elements. You can do anything, you can simplify the shapes down to just... blobs, just outlines, but it still makes sense...
You can replace the blobs with magazine cutouts of other things, replace Jon Arbuckle with a... car parked in a driveway sideways, cut that out of a magazine, stick it in... Replace him there in the second panel with a... a food processor... Okay, and then we put a picture of the planet in the third panel over Garfield...
It still works.
These are universal proportions. I don't know... how best to explain why it works, I've studied the pipe strip, and analyzed Jon and Garfield's proportions against several universal mathematical constants.
E, Pi, the Golden Ratio, the Feigenbaum Constants, and so on... and it's surprising... scary even, how things align. You can take just... tiny pieces of the pipe strip, for instance, take Jon's elbow from the second panel... and take that, and project it back over Jon's entire shape in the second panel, and you'll see a near perfect Fibonacci sequence emerge...
It's eerie to me... and it makes you wonder if you're in the presence of a deity, if there is some larger hand at work...
There's no doubt in my mind that Jim Davis is a smart man...
Jim Davis is capable of anything to me... He is remarkable, but this is so far beyond that, I think we might see that... this work of art is revered and respected in years to come.
Jim Davis is possibly a new master of the craft, a... a genius of the eye; they very well may say the same things about Jim Davis in five hundred years that we say about the great philosophical and artistic masters from centuries ago... Jim Davis is a modern day Socrates, or... Da Vinci... mixing both striking visual beauty with classical, daring, unheard-of intellect...
Look, he combines these things to make profoundly simple expressions...
This strip is his masterpiece... The Pipe Strip is his masterpiece... and it is a masterpiece and a marvel...
I often look at Garfield's... particular pose, in this strip. He is poised, and statuesque... and his cat stare is reminiscent of the fiery gazes often found in religious iconography... But still, his eyes are playful, lying somewhere between the solemn father's expression in... Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son," and the coy smirk of Da Vinci's "Saint John The Baptist".
His ears stick up, signifying a peaked readiness... It's as if he could, at any moment, pounce; he is, after all, a close relative and descendant of the mighty jungle cats of Africa that could leap... after prey. You could see the power drawn into Garfield's hind quarters, powerful haunches indeed.

The third panel.
And I'm just saying this now, this is just coming to me now... The third panel of the pipe strip is essentially a microcosm for the entire strip itself... All the power dynamics, the struggle for superiority, right?
WHO has the pipe? WHERE is the pipe? All of that is drawn, built, layered into Garfield's iconic pose here. You can see it in the curl of his tail... Garfield's ear whiskers stick up, on end, the smoke billows, upward... drawing the eye upward... increasing the scope...
I'm just... amazed... really, that after 33 years of reading, and analyzing the same comic strip, I'm able to find new dimensions. It's a testament to the work...
For six years, I delved into tobacco research, because... can a cat smoke? This is a metaphysical question... Yes, can any cat smoke? Do we know? Can just Garfield smoke?
The research says no. Nicotine poisoning can kill animals, especially household pets. All it takes is the nicotine found in as little as a single cigarette.
[ *Okamoto M, Kita T, Okuda H, Tanaka T, Nakashima T (Jul 1994). "Effects of aging on acute toxicity of nicotine in rats". Pharmacol Toxicol. 75 (1): 1-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0773.1994.tb00316.x. PMID 7971729 ]
Surely, Jon's pipe hold a substantial amount of tobacco, and it is true that pets living in the homes of smokers are nearly 25% more likely to develop some form of cancer... most likely due to secondhand smoke... but these are facts of smoking, its tolls on our world.
But after visiting two tobacco processing plants in Virginia... and the Phillip Morris cigarette manufacturing facility, I came no closer to cracking the meaning. I was looking for any insight. A detective of a homicide case has to look at every angle, so I'm always taking apart the pipe strip. I focused on every minutiae, every detail of this strip.
Jon Arbuckle's clothing... I have replicas. I'm an expert in textiles... so, you see, this smoking thing was a hang-up for me... but it was the statement here... until...
This is key, this is the breakthrough.
The pipe is not a pipe, really.
Obviously there is symbolism at work here... I saw that from the beginning, and I looked at the literal aspects of the strip to gain insight into the metaphors at play... I worked at a newspaper printing press for eighteen months, in the late 1980's... I was learning the literal to inform the gestural... the subliteral, the in-between...
Jon reading this newspaper means so much more than just... Jon reading the newspaper... but how could you ever hope to decipher the puzzle without knowing everything there is to know about newspapers?!
Okay... for example... Jon holds his newspaper up with his left hand, thumb gripping the interior. I learned that this particular grip here was the newspaper grip of nineteenth century aristocrats... and this aristocrat grip was a point of contention that influenced the decision to move forward with prohibition... in the United States, in the early twentieth century!
So Jon's hand position is much more than that, it... it is a comment on class war... and the resulting reactionary culture... but I didn't know about the aristocratic newspaper grip until I came across some microfiche archives at the printing press.
It's about information. You have to take it apart.
...and the breakthrough on the smoking cat came late... just eight years ago, actually. "Smoking cat" is an industry term. It's what the smoking industry calls a tattletale teenager who tells on his friends after they've all tried smoking for the first time... and it is actually a foreign translation, bastardization of the term "smoking rat"... But the phrase was confused when secret documents went back and forth between China and America...
These documents are still secret, and the only reason I know about the term is because I know a man, my friend. Let's call him "Timothy," yeah... yes, it's a fake name, for his protection. Timothy worked for Phillip Morris for sixteen years, and he had seen the documents... and when he told me, it was an Aha moment... and he said, "But how? How could this cartoonist, Jim Davis, know about this... obscure term from the mid-70's, used exclusively by a few cigarette companies!?"
This is still a mystery to me... but I connect the dots by noting Jim Davis' childhood experiences on a farm. He must have seen something...
What could it be?
Timothy went on to tell me there was one particular smoking cat, a boy, from... yes, Indiana, a boy named Ernie Barguckle, who became a thorn in the side of the tobacco companies for a couple of years... He did more than tattle to his parents; he and his family took legal action, and they eventually received a huge settlement payout...
But that name is too similar... Ernie Barguckle...
Jon Arbuckle.
Jim Davis must have used this.
There's more here. Ernie Barguckle spent nearly half of that settlement money on experimental medical procedures to cure his... impotence. He was impotent.
So... he was a smoking cat with a... a metaphorical pipe, that did not work... Are you starting to see the layers here? This is exciting stuff, you start to get a whole picture here, and it informs the work! It's... it's just remarkable.
Jim Davis took these raw ideas, these... pieces, and he transformed them into smart social commentary that is... all so ravishingly beautiful.
I have cried.
I've cried, I've cried... I've cried, cried over this piece. It just... gets in my soul.
I try to explain this to people, I have... the newspaper articles about Ernie Barguckle... People have fought me on this, they don't see it, or they're close-minded, "How could a comic strip about a cat smoking a pipe mean any more than that?"
But it is more... and when I feel spiritual, or start to think existentially, I still see this comic.
Here's something from 1981 that I wrote in thinking about the implications of this strip; this is just an excerpt here... there's more before and after, but this part is the essence to me... If a comic about a cat smoking a pipe can be the only thing in the universe... then maybe this is the strongest evidence for that.
fumbles with tattered sheet from 1981
"Many of you say, 'Oh, but I am not blind. I have never been blind,'... But when you truly see, you will understand just how truly blind you once were to even think it right to say you were not blind.
What does a blind man see?
Blackness. Darkness. Blankness. Blank darkness. Dark blankness.
The absence of things, quite literally NO thing. No things. Nothings.
So, you see nothing, and I bring you into the light. A cat has your pipe! You've been blind, do you understand this!?
The cat has your pipe.
You can't fully immerse yourself, you don't have the light. You don't have the radiance, the radical light, the radically radiant light of truth and truth's belonging love, and nature of light, and loving truthful radiance.
So don't be bold, and make bold statements. I know of you.
The cat has your pipe.
The. Cat. Has. Your. Pipe.
Remember that."
puts paper back in pocket
That writing, well... It's kind of rough... Kind of an... early eighties feel... and I see that, but I'm still... I'm still proud of it.
Sometimes I imagine that it is the editorial column in the newspaper Jon Arbuckle is reading. It's an exercise in recursion, it's like a vortex opens up... It's like you hold two mirrors up to each other, one is reality and the other is a cartoon strip.
Let's see here... Oh yes, I must bring this up, because I think, surely, Jim Davis is again speaking on multiple levels by including the details set before us in the comic.
Notice the glimpse of Jon Arbuckle's foot in the first panel. The size of the shoe would indicate that maybe the man just has small feet... but a deeper investigation takes us to the footbinding rituals of certain Asian cultures. Inflicted usually on women for the desire of men, this practice was incredibly painful and crippling...
Aha! Mister Davis is, here, presenting us with a man, or rather... "man", who engages in footbinding, a body modification for women, on top of "being without his pipe"... or impotent. This is a man facing extreme inner turmoil, the panels tell that story... subconsciously.
Notice the background wall shading of the first panel points inward toward Jon in the second panel... and the sharp tapered end of the purple pipe in the third frame also points at John in the second panel, inward; the eye is drawn to the center panel. You can connect these points and draw a triangle across the panels, and this triangle will align with the reoriented points of Jon's collar! This, this is majestic artwork!
...and to uncover this hidden order is... bliss like I've never known.
Comforting, in an empty world.
I can't help but read the thought bubble, over and over again.
Now where could my pipe be?
Now where could my pipe be?
It is a profound question.
Why am I here? What is my purpose? It is reflection and self-examination here. It is facing the dust, the misery of a cold, careless universe. You can feel the weight of it.
But where could my pipe be?
One imagines the author, Jim Davis, teetering on the edge of insanity... his rationality, his lucidity, hovering over the void... and he seeks the truth.
You can see it in the line quality of the drawings; the thoughtful, controlled outlines mixed with the... occasional, chaotic scribbles at work in the shadows and Garfield's dark stripes.
It's almost as if Garfield is chaos himself.
Yes, he is the embodiment of chaos, disorder, hatred, fear... Thievery, death, destruction, desolation!
These are the things Garfield represents; HE stole the pipe, HE sits with his back to Jon, Garfield... Garfield, this chaos cat, Garfield has turned his back on everything, everyone!
One recalls the great existential forces in literature... Camus' Meursalt, Kafka's Gregor Samsa, or Sartre's Antoine Roquentin... Garfield the Cat sees the hopelessness of life, which...ah, yes...
This is why Jim Davis has chosen smoking. It represents a recklessness, a... a disregard for what some would define as the beauty of life. Garfield may die from the nicotine, he may not... He defies life; he sits defiant, saying nothing, but looking as if he could say... "Then let me die... it does not matter."
It does not matter.
...and we are faced with this; Could Jon behave the same? Is Jon the glimmer of hope?
He seems to be unsure. Again, his question... "Now where could my pipe be?" indicates that he is wrestling with his own existence. The center panel centers the issue, and again, this hearkens to many of the great religious works of art.
I'm talking about the Pipe Strip in relation to religion. It's... it's interesting to assign the roles of God... and anti-God, or, as many know him to be, the devil... or on a much larger scale, simply the forces of... good and evil. Garfield, the thief-cat, evil and malicious... He is the devil, placed to the right... and note, the two forms of Jon; the Jon on the left, still innocent, still draped in the... delight, of the lack of knowledge. He is... the humans in the Garden of Eden. He feels for his pipe... but he has yet to eat from the tree... and Garfield, the sinister serpent... and notice, notice how Jim Davis has framed this... The center Jon is locked in a struggle, between his innocence, and his knowledge of the truth... knowledge of the existence of evil.
It is stunning. The great struggle, the struggle that transcends time... and Jim Davis floats over all this, as creator... the God, of sorts, in his own right.
... and he presents this cautionary message to us all; it is as if he is speaking from high and... he is saying, unto our awaiting ears...
Where will you be, when the cat reveals himself? [-Jim 7:27:78]
I can tell you where you'll be. You will have a choice; you can face endless suffering, and eternal misery... You can be forced and beaten down with barbarians, who claw at each other just for a view of salvation. They'll tear your eyeballs out, and rip your gizzards from end to end. They worship this cat, this... this false idol! This evil, horrible cat, do not be seduced by the cat and the pipe!
Garfield... thy name is a mark of the demons of hell. Something like this, and to those listening, it is a stark reminder to follow the path of the first panel Jon; be humble, be grateful, honor the law, and honor thyself. Be true, and be good, and no harm will come to you... Pray for salvation, and it will be granted unto you. Be like Jon Arbuckle, as he lowers his head. Be like Jon Arbuckle as he lowers his paper, as he turns his head. Bow with Jon Arbuckle, and praise unto the creator, Jim Davis... and banish demon Garfield from your life.
So, what is all this? What am I saying? Aha... hmm... What does all this mean? Why is this one comic strip so important to me... and why do I feel the need to share this?
Obligation. I have an obligation to you all. This is a redemption, this is a belief in redemption, a sacrifice of all the obvious trappings of this false modern life.
Look at the simplicity in this strip, in the pipe strip. Look at the simple clothes Jon wears, look at his simple, basic furniture... No adornments on the wall, even the very pipe his cat Garfield stole; it is a plain, modest pipe... and I have adapted this way of life, it speaks to me.
In our times... well... you don't need me to point out the hyperbole of our times; you have children being born eight or nine at a time, you have more money being spent on a single Hollywood movie than some nations can spend... feeding their starving people. Torture, distrust... Look around you, it's overwhelming.
What can you contribute?
...and every day, I look in the mirror, and I hold this comic up to the mirror, and I look into the mirror, and at this little comic strip.
Be humble.
Be thankful.
It is a reminder, be respectful.
You are a statue. You are fragile... and when you break, when you shatter... Where will those pieces go?
Ask... ask, ask, ask this question. Will you ask?
Humankind is only as great as you, YOU, the individual, it begins and ends with you! You must treat this expedition, this search, this... life, with a reverence and intensity found only in the smallest sticks. The littlest leaf, the tiniest stone! The most miniscule grain of sand... on a beach of billions!
This is the secret.
Do you want the pipe?
Do you want to know where the pipe has gone?
You ask yourself, you ask... you ask... you ask...
Now where could my pipe be?
When I was a young man... remember, now, I first saw this comic when I was eighteen years old... Ages ago... but I was youthful, vibrant. For weeks, I didn't hide that a comic strip was having such a profound effect on me.
I was much like Jon Arbuckle. In this middle panel, he says, "Now where could my pipe be?"... you could look into his eyes, his half-lowered eyes, and think to yourself... "Now, surely, Jon... Surely, you cannot be this naive... This is nothing new for you..."
And if you've read more of the Garfield comic strips by Jim Davis, you understand what I am saying now; Garfield the cat does things like this all the time. He will take things from Jon; food, items, anything... This is his very nature.
So you see this, and you want to say, "Jon Arbuckle, come now. You are lying to yourself. You are lying to yourself, and to all of us, if you pretend to have not... any idea of where your pipe has gone. Perhaps you think you've left it somewhere else, but... hmph, you're not so forgetful. You are lying to yourself, ah... yes...
You are lying to yourself, Jon Arbuckle. You know that Garfield has the pipe... somewhere, deep down, you know this. You don't even need to think the question."
And that was me when I saw this strip. One week passed, and each morning I'd open my drawer and slam it shut again. I would go to look at the comic... but I'd pause, and think... "Oh no, I don't need this comic, I don't n... I don't NEED to look at it..."
But there I was, lying to myself.
I DID need to see it, and so I did, it's... cathartic. You give in, and that is the transition, from the second panel of life, to the third panel of life! It is a simple story structure, the passage from the second act to the third, the twilight of things. Jon gives into his suspicions; he knows the truth, he's ALWAYS known the truth, he yells out, "GARFIELD! GARFIELD! GARFIELD!"
It is like... pressure from a steam valve, being released; the buildup is unbearable, and then... PSSHHWW, it's gone.
So it is like this... when I speak about the truth... the truth, the light, the radiance, this... this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. This is the essence of this brilliant work of art, the practical mixing, meeting, agreeing with the spiritual, it is all HERE.
...but spirituality is not an easy thing to confront. You might find yourself able to wrap your mind around a simple math problem, or a basic newspaper article, or... but intellect... is much less subjective.
What is spirituality... and how have I found spiritual peace and serenity in Garfield?
A long time ago, after I encountered the Pipe Strip... I spent some time, as I mentioned before, soul-searching. When something impacts you, or alters your very perception so greatly, there is a long period of confusion, recovery time...
It's as if you don't know who you are, and that can be a... a very scary prospect, especially if you thought you had a good grasp on that sort of thing.
Imagine if Jim Davis did not know who he was. Would he be capable of shaping the cultural landscape as he's done?
No. No, of course he wouldn't.
...and how about his characters? Jon... what if Jim Davis suddenly woke up, and didn't know who Jon was? What if he couldn't make the informed decisions to accurately depict Garfield's personality, because of... he could no longer specify, or demarcate the boundaries of Garfield's behavior?
What kind of comic would THAT be? You see?
So draw the parallel. I saw this comic and, yes, I was disoriented... and if I didn't reconcile this issue with myself, what kind of person would I be?
Undoubtedly dire circumstances, but remember; this was not a math problem, this was not an article, this was not something I could just... figure out... and as skeptical as I was, I realized that faith and spirituality were avenues that... required exploring.
At first I tried... long nights, reading Garfield by candlelight, or... aromatic meditation settings, while thinking of Garfield, but... nothing snapped. Nothing clicked, I still felt lost... but I kept it up, I hired a shaman, and a young... personal Yogi Sikh Guru; Avram Dahb Singh Sahib. I pushed and pushed, determined to find myself.
And then, a miracle happened.
Upon retrieving my morning paper, to clip the Garfield comic... I noticed a young girl, selling lemonade two houses down. She sat, occupied at her stand. She had no customers in sight.
So, I approached, and saw that she was coloring. I looked at her drawing...
Three rectangular boxes.
A man, in a blue shirt. An orange cat.
I knew what this was. Even in her crude scribbles, I knew EXACTLY what this was.
She was drawing a Garfield comic.
I looked at her words, and I saw that, in her strip, Jon asked Garfield to retrieve a newspaper. Heh, funny... since I'd done just that with myself... Garfield is sarcastic, but agrees to. He returns and calls Jon... "Sahib".
Jon exclaims that the paper's all chewed up, but then Garfield says, and I quote, "Sahib asks fish, paper is wet. Sahib asks cat, paper is holey." I remember the words, and ran back to my house, and thought, "How odd that Sahib shows up in the strip, and my spiritual advisor's name is Avram Dahb Singh Sahib!"
Coincidence surely, but, nonetheless, I spent the next sixteen hours poring through my clipped Garfield comics, looking for the strip this young girl had been coloring... I couldn't find it... and I eventually fell asleep, right on my kitchen table.
Next morning, I retrieved my paper again, and I clipped the Garfield comic. The date was July 12th, 1983.
There it was.
The Sahib Strip, in all its glory.
The girl had been drawing the next day's strip!
So, I ran right out of my house, I ran back to where she was... but she was gone, and in place of the lemonade stand was a "For Sale" sign.
They'd moved out.
I rushed back to my house to call Avram, but... I was informed that he'd moved away as well. I reeled, for several hours, and then it all connected for me.
It was meant to be. It w... it was meant to be this way! Jim Davis... Jon, Garfield... It was always meant to be this way for me.... They move to the forefront, and everything else fades away, EVERYTHING else; the girl, the lemonade stand, Avram Dahb Singh Sahib, it all existed to show me the way, and when I'd found the way...
Everything else melted away.
It was a beautiful miracle... and if July 27th, 1978, the day I first saw the pipe strip... was the first day of my life, then that day, July 12th, 1983, was the second day of my life.
I've never looked back. Garfield has transformed me... and I am a man, born anew, because of Garfield.
When I was in my mid-thirties, I was interviewed for a documentary... It was a documentary on the subject of cat behavior. Now, I've had cats my whole life; I have three cats now, and at the time of this documentary interview, I had four cats. I sat down for the interview and was joined by a veterinarian who specialized in felines: Doctor Caroline Wellmitz was her name, I believe... and the doctor discussed colorblindness in animals, and how it affects their behavior.
She specifically brought up the fact that cats are red-green colorblind; they can see colors, but they can't tell the difference between red and green ...and look at the color choice in this strip here.
Garfield sits on a green floor, behind a pinkish red wall.
I heard this, and I immediately pulled a copy of the comic from my wallet to show to the doctor... I moved so fast, I'm sure I nearly scared her, I... pointed at the paper and said, "Like this! Like this! Look, at this here! This cat, Garfield, he's colorblind, he must be! That must be the answer here... like this."
As over-excited as I was, I managed to take in her response; she said "Yes, a cat in this room would have a hard time differentiating the wall from the floor. Add to that a cat's known spatial confusion, and you have the makings of a Cat Rage room." Now, she informed me that this isn't exactly common knowledge among cat owners... but a seasoned cat owner, or someone particularly perceptive will have picked up on it.
So what's incredible here is not only is Garfield's behavior symbolic of the devil, and all the evil constructs in the world, but... but, but... but also, it is rooted in science and scientific fact.
Look at that. You cannot spell fact without "cat".
Hah, just a little joke there... just some wordplay, but getting back on track...
...and you can't spell track without "cat."
Okay... I digress. I gotcha, I gotcha, enough... kidding around.
It is established here that Garfield is in a rage; an ultimate rage of fury and hatred, caused by colorblindness. We know the "what", we know the "why"... but let us examine the "how", the how of his rage is particularly interesting here.
We've looked at his posture and called it "powerful", "in control", "statuesque", "etc., etc." Composed rage... It's peculiar, and I've talked to a number of psychologists and psychiatrists, and even a couple of anger management therapists about this concept...
Could we see the same kind of behavior in a human? Is Garfield representative of something more specific than just chaos and rage? Deciphering this is going to take some perseverance. for sure.
The psychologists pointed to a phenomenon in humans, and, yes, I believe one of the anger management counselors brought it up as well. The idea that people, oftentimes, will bottle their rage... Garfield the cat, here... well, he could be bottling his anger, inside, shoving it deep into his cat gut, to ignore and deal with at a later time.
Eh, well... No, that's not exactly right. Garfield has already acted out, he's already stolen the pipe... he's SMOKING the pipe, he's already dealt with his anger. He's already lashed out, so, psychologically, what is going on here? What is this cat doing, and how does it impact his owner, Jon Arbuckle... psychologically?
Well, Garfield is angry. He is acting on his anger... but is this passive anger, or aggressive anger?
Passive. It is passive because if Garfield has a problem with Jon specifically... he's choosing a passive way of dealing with that problem. He has not confronted Jon, and said, "Jon, I have a problem with the way you've decorated this room; as a cat, I am colorblind, and this room sends me into a rage... You've created a rage room for me here, and I don't like it; I want you to change it."
Instead of that confrontational approach, though, Garfield has chosen to steal Jon's pipe... and that, in turn, angers Jon... but Jon decides to be aggressively angry, and yell at Garfield, so... now, instead of a calm conversation between two respectful parties, you have two... heated, angry individuals, each with a problem and no direct line to solving it.
The layered emotions here tell a story with tight, focused brevity that would make Hemingway weep. This is an entire drama, in just three panels, people.
...but let's not be remiss, and miss the humor of the situation, the... absurdity of it all... for certainly, there is a reason that the visual shorthand for drama includes both the crying mask AND a laughing mask. Comedy and tragedy complement each other, and meld together to create drama, tension, the height of humanity, the peak of art, that reflects back to us our own condition...
...and here... in its basest form, we can laugh at this comic... yes, COMIC, in which a cat smokes a pipe... Hah... when was the last time you've SEEN such a thing in your life?
Never, I presume... I certainly never have...
The Greek muse, Thalia's presence is strong in this work of art, here. Comedy, it is COMEDY... and if you look at the structure again, you'll see this perfect form of thirds works magically for the transmission of, yes, YES, a JOKE.
The joke.... is as old as time... even cavemen told jokes, and the joke here is that Jon has lost his pipe... or he thinks he has... but lo and behold, it is the cat, Garfield, who has the pipe.
Surprise, surprise, the cat is smoking!
Again, the transition, from set-up to punchline takes place between the second and third panels... but make no mistake, the comic is more than just a comic... Yes, it IS funny, of course it is... it is operating at the height of sophisticated humor, on par with any of Shakespeare's piercing wit.
On the one hand, Garfield the comic, with Jon the man, humor as art... the other hand, Garfield comic, with Jon the man, stirring... no, RIVETING drama... as with everything, it is tension, and release. TENSION... and RELEASE...
A cycle.
I keep returning to this idea, because it is so omnipresent. Yes, you could... and yes, I have done this, on more than one occasion... you could print this comic strip on a giant piece of paper. The dimensions would be something like... thirty-four inches by eleven inches.
Now, tape the ends together, with the comic facing inward. Stick your head in the middle of this Garfield comic loop and READ, start at the first panel; Jon is reading the newspaper... he feels for something on the end table.
Second panel; he sets the newspaper down, something is not right...
"Where could my pipe be?" he thinks.
...and then, the payoff; the third panel, Garfield has Jon's pipe, and is smoking it.
But, aha! The paper is in a loop, around your head... so that you can see that, once again, Jon is in his seat, reading the paper... and so on, and so on, you can literally read the comic strip for an eternity!
I spent many a relaxing Sunday afternoon reading this strip, over and over... reminded of the Portuguese death carvings, which always begin and end with the same scrawled image.
[fig. 6b - Portuguese Death Carving c. 1330]
So, this idea of repetition, of the beginning being the end, and the end being the beginning... It's not new, it is an ageless tradition among the best storytellers humanity has ever offered... and I'm not wrong to include cartoonist Jim Davis in that exalted set for this particular strip alone
I'm not foolish enough to deny that great art is subjective... divisive, even, and that some people see this Garfield comic and shrug with no real reaction... but I will say that I believe everyone in the world should see it; at the very least, see it!
You should all see it. Read it. Spend some time with it. Spend an hour reading it... what's an hour? Yes, you could watch some television program, you could play some fast-paced video games or computer games, yes, you could do all those things...
But it's just an hour... and if you give this strip a chance, if you look into Jon Arbuckle's eyes... if you look into Jon Arbuckle's SOUL...
You might find that you'll really be looking into your own soul.
It is self discovery, that is what I'm talking about here... YOU have the opportunity, the possibility... it could change you. Don't be afraid.
You know, just last week, I was eating lunch near the Municipal Court... like I do every Thursday, and... there was a plumbing banner... a plumbing van, parked out in front, uh... and a man, a plumber, would step out from the court, and retrieve something from this every so often.
A few times, this happened... I thought nothing of it; just a plumber, doing some work at the Municipal Court... but then he came out, and looked through his van, and it was clear...
He couldn't find something.
I noticed, and thought, "Well, that's sort of similar to the Garfield comic, in a way. Someone looks for something, can't find it,"... but, yes, that probably happens billions of times a day around the world...
...but then, this plumber... put his hands on his hips... then, he scratched his head, and he said aloud...
"Now, where could my pipe wrench be?"
Well, at this, I leaped off the bench, sandwich still in hand, and I rushed over, I shouted, "What was that you said!?"
He looked at me and said, "What? I can't find my pipe wrench, " and I said, "No! No, no, say it... like how you just said it..."
He scratched his head, and repeated, "Now where could my pipe wrench be?"
I slapped him on the back and said, "Garfield!"
He looked so confused, so I said it again... then, I said "Your orange cat took it!"
Heh... ah, then I laughed and laughed... and he smiled, and went back into the courtroom.
I walked away, knowing that the plumber and I, two complete strangers, bonded over this Garfield comic... You see, life imitates art, becomes a common ground.
I have a feeling that if I see this plumber again, we'll be sharing stories like two old friends... because we've been united by art. We have a common love for Jim Davis and his characters, his writings... The humor, the drama, the... that rascal Garfield, the cat...
Oh, and by the way, if you're wondering what I was having for lunch that day, it was a ham sandwich with an apple and potato chips... in a bag, I had a soda as well.
I think it's important to view the Pipe Strip in philosophical terms... We've touched briefly on the notion of existentialism; that theme is very prevalent in this strip. Garfield is, in fact, a modern existential anti-hero... but if Garfield embodies the bewilderment in a meaningless life, what is Jon? What are the telltale signs that inform Jon's philosophical standpoint? His approach, what style of thinking he represents?
Jon is depicted as being grounded in the material world... a world of things; he is surrounded by objects, and he touches these objects, he interacts with them. The newspaper, the end table, the chair... his clothes, all these physical things make up Jon's world. In some sense, even his cat Garfield is an object to him, a thing...
The first ideology that comes to mind when thinking of objects in the tangible world... is pragmatism... Is Jon Arbuckle a pragmatist? His beliefs stem from a useful, coherent view of his environment... a sort of cause-and-effect understanding of his world helps him.
A: Deduce that his pipe is missing... and B: Catches his cat, Garfield, using the pipe.
This kind of empirical and logical thinking lends credence to the idea that Jon is, indeed, a pragmatist... Although, it is hard to entirely ignore the rest of the Garfield comic canon.
While Garfield is consistently anarchic, and embraces the chaos and absurdity of life... Jon Arbuckle exhibits an erratic, unpredictable mix of philosophical behaviors. At times, he is borderline; delusional, an idealist, an almost slap-happy version of Don Quixote. Other moments, he is rigid, nearly to the point of being obsessive... somewhat like a structuralist, and certainly has streaks of sarcasm and negativity that might classify him as a skeptic.
...But isn't there some universal truth in this approach? How can any one man, how can Jon Arbuckle be just one thing? How can any of us be just one thing? We're... an amalgamation of ideas, of emotions... conducts and functions, thoughts and feelings... Jon Arbuckle may very well inhabit tenets of nearly every major philosophical tract known to man.
We all might.
Characters are reduced, to make them recognizable, definable; a story needs a good guy, a story needs a bad guy... but rarely is one person defined in such black and white terms. Even Garfield, with all his bad behavior, Machiavellian motivation and general ne'er-do-well attitude, can be kind and thoughtful.
You just have to find that rare strip.
Speaking philosophically about the entire Garfield franchise, it's an incredibly accurate depiction of life. Its bold lines and bright colors are merely a facade, a... a red herring, a lie. This cartoon is not a cartoon at all, it is not a... caricature. It is not caricature despite adopting caricature as its visual style and tone.
...but I don't really like to speak in broad sweeping generalizations about Garfield.
The comic has been running for over thirty years, and to try and boil that all down is just, well... it's impossible. I think the only way that any historian worth his salt will agree with me is to look at individual moments... isolated instances, single comic strips.
Can I discuss this one strip in the context of the entire run of Garfield? Yes, I do that just as a film historian might analyze one movie in relation to the history of all movies, or a war enthusiast might look at a single battle's impact on an entire war.
The Pipe Strip is just an instance in the lives of Jon and Garfield.
Perhaps Jon is not a pragmatist at all... let's look at this again. Maybe Jon is exhibiting the traits of a rationalist thinker; his question, "Now where could my pipe be?" is a clue that his thought process stems from the early rationalist questions posed by René Descartes. The well-known quote, "I think, therefore I am," attributed to Descartes, is applicable.
Another close look at the strip, and we see that Jim Davis chose to draw Jon thinking his question.
"Now where could my pipe be?"
Jon does not speak this question aloud, so Jim Davis is also exploring the mind/body duality... Jon's question operates on the level of a literal question... but it also examines the nature of reality. Jim Davis' epistemological approach tells us something about the human condition; Jon's thoughts remain the focal point of this strip.
The comic is, quite literally, centered around his thought.
"Now where could my pipe be?"
This is his reality, this is where cognition, and the power and function of the mind take over. As Plato believed, the body is just a shell for Jon Arbuckle; yes, he can use his physical body to read his paper or cross his legs, but these inputs of touch, sight, hearing, et cetera, these senses are the triggers of the mind, as we see here, the mind... is something greater. It is the originator of ideas, and ideas are forever. Immortal.
Immortality through thought, a... a major theme in literature and philosophy...
...and isn't that what Mister Jim Davis himself has achieved?
Will he live forever?
The universe will continue to spread, and spread outward, and... entropy will turn a chaotic infinity into a homogenous, controlled system. This will take billions of years, and in that time, humans will push technology to heights we can't imagine. We'll explore and inhabit space, and occupy more and more of the universe, just as time allowed our ancestors to... multiply in numbers, and populate more and more of the Earth.
...and as the specific people come and go, their physical bodies will be born, and grow, and die... but their thoughts will remain... and Jim Davis' comics, his glorious Garfield comics... are recorded ideas of his, that will still be here.
Even when the Earth is no longer inhabitable, and humanity has long since moved away to bigger planets, they'll carry with them a record, a record we all keep; mark my words... and look at what we've started, what is... What is the internet? What is the online world, if not a record? Never-ending feed of ideas, immortal ideas... forever placed in the ether of dualism.
What is an idea? Where does it live? How does it manifest itself? Can it live forever? Will it live forever, outside of these physical husks of ours, our bodies?
...and Jon Arbuckle, and Garfield, started merely as thoughts... but they've become so much more. That old cliché rings true, they've taken on a life of their own... and life may not be what we think. Life brings to mind a beating heart, breathing lungs, blinking eyes...
...but the real life is in our imaginations... and who better embodies the definition of imagination if not a simple man... a cartoonist, who puts his ideas to paper so that they may live on, so that our children, and our children's children, and their children's children's children can access the wealth of ideas that have accumulated thus far...
They will plug themselves into an information grid, and they will have access... They will read every Garfield comic, 80,000 years from now, a child will see a simple Jon Arbuckle, reading a newspaper. He will feel around for something, but that something is not there... He will lift his head and think...
"Now where could my pipe be?"
...and Garfield will be smoking the pipe, and Jon will yell "GARFIELD!"
...and what then? 80,000 years from now?
The child reading this comic will smile... and that smile will transcend space and time and the physical limitations of this existence, whatever they may be, however many dimensions exist...
There will always be Garfield... and there will always be its creator...
Jim Davis.
"It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection."
-Oscar Wilde

24
NWR Forums Discord / James Jones says I have the authority to shitpost
« on: October 20, 2021, 02:54:34 PM »
Now I have to make serious, high effort posts to spite him. This is the worst.

25
NWR Forums Discord / OMG Megabyte is online.
« on: October 19, 2021, 03:22:59 PM »

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