Smithnikov said:
I was actually intrigued by the series at first. I liked the tone. I liked the writing. I liked the general concept of trying to rekindle things that once made a depressive happy with their life. Something I can relate to with a vengeance.
Then they went Captain N.
I Have A Very Bad Feeling About This.
I hung on after the Halo fanfiction, the moment of that raccoon dumping Erin's medication down the toilet being a strikingly dark little moment that made me say "Hey, we're still on course after all."
Then Final Fantasy happened.
Then on the way out, not only did Final Fantasy happened, but the writers forgot who the story was even about...
I get what you're saying but I don't think you really understand what Grey and Cory set out to accomplish here.
Yes, it's about a depressive shut-in who seems to be hallucinating as well in some way. But it's also supposed to have some comedy. To have fun with the immersed-in-another-world concept. If that is simply something that doesn't appeal to you in any way, then again, yes. I understand why you want them to get back to her real life. But that's just simply not G&C's vision for the series and never has been.
The thing is, I feel like EDA's themes of escapism and isolation actually work better with the alternate realities she keeps traveling to and from. If this was not a thing that happened at all and we were constantly stuck at her apartment for the entire series, I don't think the dark moments would carry as much emotional impact as they do now. This way, we are seeing Erin's mind. What she wishes to be, or at least, where she wishes to escape to. We become a part of these absolutely mad visions and become invested in them just as she is.
So when the hammer finally drops and the series begins to wrap up in it's inevitably depressing way, we'll care a lot more as an audience about those adventures and this isolation going away just as Erin would feel. It's easy to get caught up in these other worlds in a way as we read this comic. And as we get lost in them, we naturally lose sight of how Erin is secretly suffering deeply as she isolates herself like this. It's too easy to ignore the negative effects just as it would be in real life.
And that is why I agree very much with this entire direction that G&C have taken for EDA. I know somewhat what it's like to lose yourself in your own world and to run away from your problems. I know how amazing it can feel. But you'll always be running. And sooner or later, time catches up with you. And time doesn't like to be ignored. The bill always comes due.
