About this Strip

Now that we're at the end of Rift Wars, let's cover one comment I got from a couple of fans when this arc ended. Namely, "what was the point of all this?" There are a few ways to answer this. For one, I got to mess around with my comic in ways I can't normally due to the constraints of keeping the world "believable". Here I could just screw around and reinvent the rules as I saw fit.

Also, we got to spend time with characters and character combinations we can't normally. Darkmoon and Princess haven't really teamed up in a long time... Not since all the way back in Game One when Princess thought she'd been turned. Richter hasn't had an extended adventure with the heroes before (discounting the few comics he was in during Game Two). And Samus really came out of her shell (drumriff) during this adventure, becoming a more fully realized person.

Additionally, we had the death of a major villain here. No, not the necromancer but Evil Darkmoon. We haven't seen any repercussions yet from that event (the universe is still going) but I'm sure this isn't the last we've seen of the Mirror Universe.

Finally, there are plot-points coming up (even in Game IV) where what happens here will influence future events. It's important to take the long view sometimes so that, even though this story seems inconsequential at first blush I tend to do everything for a reason.

As it is, that ends Rift Wars. This also ends the whole Game 3 story arc (CVRPG III + Rift Wars). The next story is going to be a bit different from the previous games, but before we get right into it let's all enjoy a nice quiet moment with our heroes before the next adventure starts.

We would also mention that now is a good time to go read a couple of arcs from the Bonus Archives. "Darkmoon's Quest" is a side series that take place sometime between Rift Wars and Game 4, while "CVRPG for the Holidays" and the "Cast Comics" are... well, just fun. But at this point you've read all the other side arcs so you may as well read these, too.