Futch wrote:As a writer, seeing another writer express herself so freely and without hesitation is wonderful for me.

Oh man, I hesitated so much. I was simultaneously excited and scared beyond belief to get to this part. But the story wouldn't have made sense without it, and the whole point would have been gone. The story would have been pointless and without a resolution without the waking up twist.

Without... reservation? Regret? Whatever! Props :)

A friend told me about the twist months ago, but I decided to read the comic anyway. And I was hit just as hard when I got to the twist as I would've been if I hadn't known. Maybe even worse, because I knew WHAT would happen but not WHEN. I don't think it's a cop-out or whatever at all; it's how the story goes. It's not over yet, either, obviously.

Although, even if it had ended there, it wouldn't have made the story meaningless. Reality is an uncertain thing, and something that "isn't real" can still have a profound effect on a person's life.

TJ wrote:Reality is an uncertain thing, and something that "isn't real" can still have a profound effect on a person's life.

I agree so much, and I love seeing that idea expressed in fiction. One of my favorite books has a "real world" and a "fantasy world", but the fantasy world isn't treated like it's worth any less and eventually it means just as much to the protagonist. Makes me really happy Yu+Me seems to be going in that direction, too.

You wouldn't be referring to the Thomas Covenant series, would you?

...now that I think about it, holy crap. I can see a lot of parallels between that series and YU+ME, though Fiona's waaaay more of a Hile Troy than a Thomas Covenant (though hopefully not quite as tragic...)

Everest wrote:You wouldn't be referring to the Thomas Covenant series, would you?

No, I'm referring to Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe. It's about a young boy who intially goes to a fantasy world called Vision in order to fix his falling-apart real life, but gradually gets more and more absorbed in the world itself, and doing things to help Vision, not just because of what he can get from it. Vision's a bit symbolic of the issues Wataru, the boy, is going through, but it's kind of supposed to be that way and it's definitely its own place, too... It's a great book for anybody who likes the "adventure in another world" plot (especially a creative, thought-out take on it) and I am not doing it justice at all with this simple message board description.

...probably sound like I'm gushing a little much, huh.

But I'm curious about this Thomas Covenant series now...

Well, you might like it if a more harsh, adult version of Brave Story sounds good to you. From your description, the two sound astonishingly similar. Brief summary:

A successful author was diagnosed with leprosy, and as a result his wife left him, taking his son with her; he's also ostracized by the town in which he lives and becomes a bitter recluse. One day he's hit by a car, and when he wakes up he finds himself in a fantasy world (which has more than a little symbolism for his personal issues) that's not only capable of healing his leprosy, but is full of people who treat him like some kind of legendary hero. Believing that it's nothing more than a dream, and one that's dangerous to his sanity at that, he acts like a complete bastard (to put it lightly) for a while, until he comes to eventually care about the fantasy world, regardless of whether it's real or not.

It's a great story, but Stephen Donaldson, the author, likes his brutal realism, so it's sometimes hard for people to get past the first book in the series, Lord Foul's Bane, which has some pretty harsh stuff in the beginning to make the reader understand who the character is.

I have no problem with harsher and more realistic whatsoever, and that sounds really interesting. I love characters that aren't sympathetic whatsoever at first. I'll have to look for it when I'm in the library next. Unfortunately, given that it's approaching the end of the term, I probably won't have time for that for a while.

If you would like to have a book post, please make one or PM one another. It's okay to go off topic for a bit, but please try to refrain/do the two other things I already suggested. <3

I kid of liked the twist. Not when I first got to it, though. I was ready for them to begin a life and adventure together, in the "real" world. It was such a good love story, I was crying like I hadn't in years. Would've been just as interesting, I think.

But the twist reminded me a little of one of my favorite authors when I was a teenager, Clifford Simak. He was a veteran of the early SciFi pulps, and had a tendency to take a perfectly ordinary person out of their real world, and throw them into some fantastic and bizarre adventure. No waking from dreams (or going into comas) that I recall, but a lot of slipping sideways into alternate realities.

And that's what Fi has done...

To be honest, I probably wouldn't have read it if it wasn't for the plot twist.

I got into Yu+Me after I read a quick summary about how everything got turned upside down in the dream world. If I had only started it from the beginning and didn't know something like that was going to happen I probably would have given up on it. The beginning is sweet, but way to cliche for my tastes. Evil stepmother, Mean teacher, No friends, Won't be accepted for who she is... etc.

But now that there's this level of how does this relate to her real life, and what does all of this mean. Is this dream how she's discovering her sexuality for the first time? Has her father been there for her in her real life. Recently, we found out that Elizabeth really cares about her which warms my heart. Is the dream world really a world, or just in Fiona's head? Who is Lia? We're not even sure we'll get a happy ending, and the mystery of it all just draws me in so much more.

Not to mention, even though I knew it was coming, I still bawled like a baby when it got to the part where Fiona learned it was all a dream and Lia wasn't real. Now that says something when a piece of work can stir your emotions like that.

When we hit the twist I was apprehensive, to say the least. Mostly i was worried that she would start doing only picture comics, but that fear was put to rest quickly enough.

The more I thought about it however the more I liked it, for its originality and execution. I think a happy ending at the Prom would have been too simple and perhaps forgettable in the long run, and actually made me go back and re-read the archives.

The evolution of the story, as well as the characters made me rethink the entire comic, and allowed for further character development, something I love in a story.

While its twist is surprising and at for some worrying, I think it transformed this comic from something cute and passable, to something more intriguing.

My reaction to the twist was pretty much the opposite of everyone here. I had started reading YU+ME when it was still at part one, but I stopped reading it soon after discovering it because it was just another highschool-romance comic. The writing was okay at that point, the art was okay, although there were quite a few anatomy errors and I didn't much like the pacing; I found it unlikely that Fiona, an outcast for pretty much all of her highschool life, managed to make two friends within such a short space of time, and I felt as if their friendship wasn't properly developed. The story's focus really is on Fiona; there doesn't seem to be any character development until nearer the end of part 1, so I was REALLY surprised when it turned out Fiona like Lia in that way, because it really didn't seem as if she would.

HOWEVER. Some time later, I came across YU+ME again (I forget where - either an article or a webcomic posting). Seeing how much the art had improved (I'm a sucker for good art in webcomics), I skimmed through part 1 again and came to the twist. And I was really excited about it! I was hooked from that point on, and the coming chapters only increased my enthusiasm. The writing is natural, interesting, well thought out and funny, the art is absolutely fantastic, each style is unique and the pacing is much, MUCH better. I found this part much more interesting, exciting and better crafted than I ever found the first part. I would love to see the first part revised a little, to give Lia, Jake and even Don some more personality, although I can only imagine how huge a task that would be.

Anyway, I love the comic, and the twist was awesome. I can't wait to see how this thing wraps up!

I'll be honest.Initially,I didn't like Yu+Me,mainly because I generally don't like the high school romance genre like bblowup.I started reading it because I wanted to broaden the genres of comics I read and I was incredibly bored.Then the twist.I absolutely loved it.The style changes and diversity fascinated me and the plot,art,environment,setting and change in genre morphed into one of the most refreshing and spellbinding webcomics I've read.Of course,that's just my opinion

I started reading Yu+Me not long ago (a couple months, I think), so I read through the whole of the archives in a couple big sittings.

I really did grow to care about the characters, as intended, and the twist hit me like a sledgehammer. If it were a twist being pulled at the end of a story, it would be cheap. Having it happen halfway through, and exploring the implications after... That's interesting and inventive.