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I can’t speak for all writers everywhere, but a lot of what I do seems to boil down to getting my characters and situations from Point A to Point B in what I hope is an entertaining and not too overly contrived manner. This week’s comic is risky in that respect. There’s a lot of things going wrong in a just so fashion. Too much for suspension of disbelief? Well, all I can say is I put a lot of effort into laying the groundwork for this SNAFU (or SNACU, seeing how Chuck-specific it is).
Now I recall back when Chuck was explaining hydrolock, one commenter took exception to the mechanics involved (pardon the pun) and claimed it would be perfectly fine and even beneficial. When this has occurred before I’ve sometimes linked to the research and testimonials supporting what I’ve written, but in this case I didn’t bother, because I had a secret. Whether it would have worked or not didn’t matter. What mattered is that Chuck believed it enough to set a tractor at full throttle and leave it running, a situation just itching for an accidental nudge that would send it careening out of control.
“Ol’ Bessie”‘s flaming wreck, heavy machinery with tricky controls, loose pipe bombs, a bunch of sleep-deprived, angry, beer-addled rednecks, and of course Chuck’s general greed and lack of thinking things through… it’s my own little perfect storm, which I felt would be much more fun and creative than some early drafts where the driver would just somehow get shot and just happen to have some dynamite or something in the back. Now true, Chuck instead shows up with his Bag O’ Tricks that happens to include home-made explosives, but I rolled with the idea that Chuck seems like the type of guy who might have such a thing ready to throw together. It didn’t seem too far-fetched or out of character. Maybe in the end it’s no less of an Ass Pull, but yea, I did walk in the Valley of the Foreshadowing, all the way back as far as the first meeting with Uncle Chuck being under circumstances where he botched an important deal the crew entrusted him with. If Frank had had anyone else he could have sent to take care of the tractor problem, I’m sure he would have gone with them instead. But I suppose he figured even Chuck can’t screw up all the time, right?
I’m sure Chuck would consider himself a victim of circumstance, and in a way, that’s exactly what he is. But even if he didn’t see it coming, I sure did… and I hope (even if only in hindsight) you folks did, too.