The current story arc started with this strip: Bribe Money.
A strip for all the Final Fantasy VII fans out there…
- Sandra: Oh, my old toy piano.
- Cloud: Hmm…
- Sandra: I’ve heard this melody somewhere before…
- Sandra: Look, Cloud, there’s a note from my mom!
- Note (Julie North): Have fun with your new piano, my little angel! I wish I could have come along, but my stupid boss wouldn’t let me go *sigh*. Just be careful when you’re driving with grandpa on his tractor! And give Polly a hug from me!
Viva la Revolution,
Julie
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Cloud as Schroeder :D! I haven’t played FF but this is still a very sweet comic, I love how you captured Sandra’s expression in the last panel.
I play (and teach) piano so the notes played in my head as I read the comic. It was a pretty cool moment. Final Fantasy always makes me feel a lot more nostalgic than a video game should.
Absolutely adorable!!! Wonderful job capturing Sandra’s expression; I know just what she feels like. Finding something like that from long ago makes you so happy but it makes you wanna bawl too…
Julie must have been an amazing mother and friend! Such a memory like Sandra’s first memory from her should be cherished forever 🙂
Hehe, I’m glad you threw that in.
What song is this, for the non-piano players here? Perhaps a Youtube link, even?
I remember that moment in FF7… that was kinda cool. That game will always be my favorite. That storyline was so incredibly moving….
This in particular is an awesome comic.
BarGamer: It’s the first four bars from the main theme of Final Fantasy VII.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9580eAGHkg
Does Sandra learn her final limit break now? 😀
My gamer geek levels really must be lower than I thought, because I was way too busy thinking of Schroeder to get the FFVII joke
I think I missed the FF joke, but the peanuts joke was a good one!
@Blitz and anyone else who doesn’t get the reference – During the Nibelheim flashback scene in Kalm in Final Fantasy VII, if you go into Tifa’s room and play her piano, Cloud will play that tune.
Later on, you can replay it in the present for Tifa’s level 4 Limit break, and a note from Zangan, Tifa’s Martial Art’s Teacher, to Tifa.
Aww… that last panel made me all choked up. Lucky day for Sandra I bet.
Am I right that Julie is dead rather than divorced or otherwise broken off?
I was thinking Schroeder too,but I should have know it was game related.Cute comic for today.
Great comic. Tried to post yesterday the moment it came out, but the internet died of me 😉
How sad is it that I could tell the music was the overworld theme from FF7 just by looking, not even playing the notes in my head?
How did she know the note was from her mum?
Well, whatever. Peanuts joke 😀
How wonderful, a note from mom and a peanuts reference… the day is now complete
I’m surprised that people like this strip so much, since I thought the not many would get the reference. I thought that it would turn out to be one of the most unpopular ones and I was only writing it for myself.
@ Tom Flapwell: As a regular reader you should remember “An Overdue Visit”
@ DCloud91: That’s not the overworld theme, the title of this piece is “On that Day, 5 Years Ago” and it’s played during the Nibelheim flashback.
@ Jake’m: I guess she immediately recognized the handwriting on it… Otherwise you have to give pointers as this one now and then, so that new readers will understand at least partially what’s going on. That’s also why it’s “Look, Cloud, there is…” and not “Look, there is…”
Thank you so much, I adore sheetmusic, and FFVII. It’s been years since I’ve seen that theme written out. I’ve now been singing it all morning.
That´s so nice, especialy because her mom died, do you remember?
Another wonderful installment. Wonders if Woo, Shadow, and/or Sid would have shown up to do the Snoopy dance if the Peanuts theme were played. 🙂
(Seemingly a follow up on Rocket’s post)
Narrator: “Next week on ‘One Woo a day’, Woo gets a dog house to live in. And, a twenty foot sword to defend it with.”
I utterly love this stip, and the whole comic in general. I’m glad I was introduced to it! Cloud and Woo are too adorable not to love, and the FF VII references are utterly sweet. It was one of the first games I ever played, and still love it to this day.
The note from Sandra’s mom in the piano instead of a Limit Break… xD Priceless.
Julie was French?
I dunno what Cloud was really playing (Some piece of the FF7 soundtrack?), but in my head he was playing “Linus and Lucy”
@ Jeremy:
Ditto. (Since I never learned to read music sheets…though, a particular Mario RPG did take a stab at trying.)
viva la revolución! thats better, hello from honduras
Awesome. I play this piece all the time on the piano. Although the original is in E, haha.
Also, I love your comic. Simply incredible.
New goal:
Learn to play FF music.
wow, thanks for writing such an amazing comic. i played FFVII but have never beaten it, and i have read calvin and hobbes, and pretty much understand the majority of the jokes you tell. this comic totaly makes my day when i read it. keep up the good work!
Haha! At first I thought this was a Peanuts reference, but then I read the music. Didn’t look like Linus and Lucy to me, so then I read the sheet music. and INSTANT flash back occurred. I can play this song along with many others from final fantasy fairly well. (As well as linus and lucy from peanuts, lol). I remember the oddest things. like, Vincent’s locker number is 36 10 59 97, the huge materia in the rocket is circle circle square x, etc.
In case anyone was wondering, this is how you get Tifa’s final limit.
Man, I love this game.
I wanna Cry ;_;
I’m currently reading through the archives, and I just wanted to say that this comic is my favorite so far. I really like it when comics put little gems in for the reader to discover, like the music here (or the math equation in an earlier strip). I was going to take out my keyboard and play the tune to figure it out but I got it just from humming the melody out loud. Very nostalgic, and an appropriate theme on so many levels.
Now I must resume reading through the archives until I am up to date. ^_^
How cute. A note form her mother. Sucks she couldn’t be there with her, but living her a note is the next best thing. *hugs Sandra*
Aww, what a touching moment. This is the beauty of putting something away for a while then finding it again. I’ve gotten to experience it a few times when spring cleaning and it’s almost always a small treat.
I had to read the title of the comic to get the FFVII reference. I played drums so although I know how to read music, I can’t hear it in my head. Only the rhythm. Ironically I’ve been playing the game again and just picked up Vincent. Best ‘secret’ character ever, IMHO. =^_^=
@ Tom Flapwell:
julie is dead. check the archive
Nice one although I am totally FF ignorant, however I am a little upset with the comments. No frothing at the mouth, no rabid abuse, no petty squabbling. It almost seems like the readers are getting civilized.
Back when I watched Peanuts actively, everytime I saw Schroder, Schrodinger came to mind. Now seeing it in a comic, I think of XKCD. So seeing this, I can only think of one thing: “Until you read it, there’s no possible way of knowing what’s going to happen. Shit.”
I love how he plays the FFVII Overworld theme.
*wipes eyes* made me cry….i thought o’ me own mother….
http://notessimo.net/?id=65912 feel the awe inspring music that cloud hath played into the comic
@ globalvillian:
ya i know…the sounds of serenity can be very unsettling when used to the general din and chaos that is the comments page.
wolf in bears clothing (its the last thing they’d suspect)
haha i know exactly what that is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbt7kNW4Do0
By Thor… this is like Round 3 of the FFVII fandom.
I remember it the first time it happened… all the hoardes of playstation monkeys and their special favourite game that wasn’t really anything new but they all loved it anyway. And of course all the roleplaying communities I was a part of FILLED with sephiroth-clones, a fair number of cloud-clones, and oodles of annoying fangirlies.
I eventually got around to playing the PC version in the end and concluded it wasn’t bad, but wasn’t particularly amazing either. Not as good as the Phantasy Star games, for sure… but I didn’t feel inclined to hate it any more either.
Then just as the fandom was finally dying down after several years… Advent Children happened. That one in particular I did hate, and continue to hate… I mean, as usual with things I hate, I want it to be an informed opinion so I actually subject myself to such things first… but in that case I really wish I hadn’t.
There is a certain amount of leeway one is willing to give a fantasy universe for taking a dump on physics… and then Advent Children opened up its heavily laden bowels and buried the mangled notion of physics under several tons of steaming filth.
And all that really served to remind me was that what I’d originally disliked about FFVII wasn’t the game itself…
… but its fandom.
Bloody FFVII fans
Of course many years later I realised that I kinda hate fandoms in general… even ones I’ve tried to like. The last time I went to the Summer of Sonic convention, within an hour or so I just wanted to go home and get away from all the cosplayers and stinky, sweaty, obsessive nutcases. >_<;;
So … yeah … I recognised the FFVII music, but the memories aren't exactly flowers, sugar and rainbows.
Another thumbs up for the Peanuts homage!
after i read the notes, i heard the song in my head. this level of nostalgia hurts
how dare you make me play on my keyboard an ff vii song without noticing, someone heard and thought i was a fan. it embarrassed both of us.
I can never look at a piano that size without thinking of beagles. Which is amusing, since I am pretty sure the beagle in question wasn’t the one who played it.