Eddsworld: Life After The End

It had been a long day for the Red Army. Nothing was going on. The Blue Army hadn’t made any moves, Tord’s other friends hadn’t done anything that warranted looking into, nor had they gone to any of the Red Army-run shops. They were in desperate need of something to do, lest they be caught entirely unprepared. “Gentlemen,” Tord said, walking into the room, “I have a brand new training exercise for us.” “What is it?” Yuu asked curiously, looking up from his laptop. “We’re all going to hide and Patryck is going to try and find us,” he replied. “I was looking through this cookbook to figure out how to cook latkes,” Patryck said, holding up the cookbook. “You can learn later,” Tord said, setting the book next to him, “If we don’t train, we might be unprepared for the next attack.” “Maybe you’re being a little paranoid,” Yanov suggested, earning a subtle glare from his Norwegian friend. “I am not being paranoid,” he replied in a state of paranoia, “I’m being proactive.” “What about matzo ball soup?” Patryck asked, “I could learn how to make it just like my mama! I could make a big batch! Isn’t that being proactive?” “Later,” Tord said, “For now, the hide and seek exercise.” And so, they all chose hiding places. Patryck sighed and went looking for his friends, tucking his mama’s cookbook under his arm. He found Yanov easily, seeing as he was in the flamethrower assembly room. Tord was in his own bedroom, browsing his 90 tb harddrive, causing Patryck to quickly nope out of the room. Tord could keep his hiding place. He was able to find Yuu under a table, but Paul was nowhere to be found. He dashed back to Tord’s room and turned off his computer. “Tord, I can’t find Paul!” he exclaimed. “I’ll be out in a minute,” Tord replied, pushing him out of the room, “Make sure the others don’t panic until I get there!” When Tord arrived, the room was in a panic. He sighed and punched the wall with his robotic arm. “It has come to my attention that Paul is now MIA,” he announced. “So Paul is Mia,” Yanov said, nodding in understanding, “Good for her.” “What?” Tord asked, “No! MIA! Missing in action!” “Oh!” Yanov said, “That’s not good.” “No,” Tord said, “So we must prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.” Meanwhile… Paul snored under his bed, sound asleep. That is, until everyone burst in. He sleepily peeked out from under his bed. “What’s going on?” he asked, “Is the game over?” Tord blinked. “Well, that solves that,” he said, turning to leave, “Time to go back to my anime.” The rest just stared. “I’m going to go cook something,” Patryck said, “Who wants latkes?”

     Yuu lead the way for Yanov, Patryck and Paul as he left the base, gun cocked and loaded, head held high, ammo and wasp bombs in his backpack and a first aid kit tucked under his arm. These four were on a mission. “What are we doing again?” Yanov asked, tilting his head slightly as he spoke. “We’re off to get a box,” Yuu replied, marching to the plane with dread in his heart at the thought of Paul and Patryck flying, “He said it was just a basic supply run, but he’s keeping it too hush-hush for that.” Yanov nodded quietly as he climbed in and took a seat. Patryck took the wheel and Paul sat beside him. Yuu took the seat next to Yanov and away they went, soaring across the sky in search of this box.

    Patryck set the plane to autopilot and kicked his feet up on the control panel. “I love flying,” he said quietly. Paul just stared at him blankly. “You don’t even do anything,” he replied, “All you do is put it on autopilot and sit back.” “And all you do is talk on the radio and push buttons,” Patryck sighed, “Namely mine.”

   Yanov pulled out his joycon and played some Pokemon while Yuu watched and cheered him on. It went on like this for some hours until Patryck landed the plane and they all got out.

    Yanov stared at the place, looking up from his Switch. It was a wide open military base. “Where are we?” he asked quietly. “It’s a military base,” Paul replied blankly, “Probably one of our enemies.” “That all makes sense!” Yuu exclaimed, “Tord ordered something and one of our rivals took it for themselves! Where are we?” “Bosnia,” Patryck said, “That place Tord is banned from.” And with that, they walked in.

    The four snuck around, avoiding any guards they saw, making sure not to be seen. However, despite their best efforts, Yanov took too long to duck behind a box and was seen. The guards rushed them immediately and the four fled the gunfire. Unfortunately, they were split up, each going down their own paths.

    Yanov bolted down the path he was on, eager to make to to the box, which he could clearly see from where he was. He drew his gun and aimed at the knees of his pursuers. He typically didn’t shoot at anything other than zombies, but kneecaps weren’t a moral qualm of his. Being something of a crackshot, he hit his mark nearly every time, ducking behind the box to avoid returned gunfire. He peeked out before picking it up and running for it, only to be tripped, sending the box and his Switch across the floor. The box stopped first. The Switch only stopped when another soldier – Blue Leader herself – walked over, stepping on it and crushing it with her foot. Wordlessly, she picked the box up and carried it off. Yanov stared in shock before running back to the plane. His Switch was just destroyed! AND she stole the box! This meant war!

    Yuu dashed into a room and hid. The guards eventually got off his tail, but stayed in the room he was in, so he decided a stealthy explosion would work. With a sly grin, he pulled the silencer off his pistol, pulled a grenade out of his ammunition pouch and used an extra shoelace he had to tie the silencer to the grenade. He quietly yawned off the lack of sleep he’d been suffering from for a few days, pulled the pin and threw it into the room, quickly ducking back behind the barricade.

   Patryck lead the guards all over their base, bringing the total of guards still following him to just one. At that point, he grabbed a handful of glitter from his pocket and threw it in his face, yelling “SMOKESCREEN!” before he ran back to the plane.

The first time the rivalry is mentioned is in Behind The Scenes, when Tord is talking about how he and Tom used to have little arguments where Tom would call him Commie and he would call him Jehovah’s Witness. Cue Tom throwing an insult from offscreen when Tord says everything’s definitely fine between them now.

Jump ahead to Ruined, when the group pairs off to explore. Edd chooses to go with Tom and Tom does his little “In your face, Tord! In your face!”

Jump ahead again to 25ft Under the Seat. “Goodbye!” “Good luck!” “Good riddance.” and cue Tom getting hit by Tord’s car as he drives off.

Before we jump ahead again, let’s take a look back. Outside of those instances, they two actually seem to get along. They don’t fight any more than any other pair in the group.

Now, I know you might be wondering, “Absinthe, I thought this was about subtle storytelling!” I’m getting to that, hang on a second.

Okay, it’s been a second. Let’s look at a couple things. First, Hammer and Fail 2 (Rooftop Rumble). That phone call that Tom’s making with the whole “WHY DID YOU LEAVE? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!” I 100% think he’s talking to/leaving a message for Tord there. Proof that there isn’t as much hatred between the two as some of you seem to portray, assuming I’m correct. Now let’s look at Zombeh Attack 2 and 3. In 2, Tord goes to Edd for help. In 3, we see that Edd has two pictures in his room. One of him and all of his friends and one of just Tord.

We also know that Tord lived alone with Edd for a while and Tom was kicked out for being a drunk jerk.

On the flipside, you can easily tell that Tom and Edd are close. They care a lot about each other and spend a lot of time together. This is best illustrated in the comics, although there are a few subtle moments in the animations that show this off.

Absinthe, what are you even going on about?” you may ask. Well, I’ll tell you. Subtle storytelling.

This entire little friendly rivalry was going on in the background. The show was entirely comedy up until The End, so it never focussed on. My mind likes to go as far as to be all like, “It’s also because it’s Eddsworld. Edd is the main character, so it zones in on what he’s paying attention to, which isn’t really the rivalry between two of his friends.”

And that brings me to another point. Edd. I think the rivalry started because of Edd.

In the Eddsworld Christmas Special (2005), in the world where Edd doesn’t exist, the two of them get along, no hint of a rivalry in sight.

So what on Earth am I trying to say here? Tom and Tord are rivals over Edd’s friendship. BUT WAIT! There’s more~

They’re friends too, as much as they’re rivals. Maybe even moreso. Why would you call your rival, in tears, begging to know why he left if you weren’t someone who thought highly of him?

But then, what about 25ft Under the Seat?

What if there was a fight or something? Tord announced he was leaving, he and Tom got in a fight. Tord left on unhappy terms with his friends, I mean Edd was clearly upset (”I can’t believe Tord is leaving...”) and Tom was clearly upset and heck, even Tord was clearly upset.

Now we flash forward to the fauxnale.

Cartoons are one of the few instances where I can actually discern what someone means. They’re exaggerated enough that I can read body language and every good cartoon in history has the voice actors overact enough to convey what the characters are feeling so the audience can understand. I’m autistic and don’t pick up on these things in real life, but I can easily figure them out in cartoons. It’s part of the reason I prefer them to live action things. Back to the topic at hand, though.

What we see in The End isn’t just Tom being upset because Tord’s back - he’s upset about the entire situation. Even before Tord bullies him out of the house, he clearly feels betrayed. It’s been years with, presumably, little to no contact from him and then he just shows back up. Oh sure, he told Edd, but he never told anyone else and the only time Edd brought it up was through a mouthful of cereal and nobody could understand what he said. Brilliant. Of course, in moments of emotion people are rarely rational, so it’s only natural that Tom would be a little cold and hostile to his old friend. When Edd joins in the picking on Tom, he snaps. If Edd wants to throw him under the bus for Tord, then fine! He can have him. He’ll go be somewhere else, as much as leaving his friends hurts him. In Part 2, we see a little of the friendship side. Oh sure, he’s ticked off about the situation and he’s ticked off that Tord’s on a wanted poster with a price on his head, but when Tord says he’s there for his hat, most of the problem seems to leave Tom’s mind. He’s ready for this to all be fine, but then the robot thing happens, yadda yadda yadda, BUT WAIT! Tom’s crying as he delivers the line, “I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND!” Oh, he definitely is hurting - and not just because he got blown up. As much as he was Tord’s rival, he wanted to be his friend.

On the other side, we have Tord in The End. The technical beginning for this side is when he tells Edd he’s coming back. Sure, the episode makes it seem like he’s only coming back for the hat and robot, but why would he tell Edd before breaking into the house (and almost Tom’s room) if he just planned on leaving? He even announces that he’s moving back in towards the end of Part 1. Now, Tord’s behaviour towards Tom is more than a little uncalled for, considering he quite literally bullies him out of the house with the help of the friends he shares with him. Everything about Part 2 felt very forced on Tord’s part, honestly. Like he didn’t actually want to do it. After he blows up, he looks down at the remains of the house and his old friends in a way that definitely looks sad. He stays for a while before leaving, almost like he didn’t want to leave because that’s the last he’ll see of them. Throughout the second half of it, he seems stressed and annoyed

Going along with my brain’s idea, this could be the first time the rivalry is ever focused on much because it’s something that Edd can’t ignore anymore. Much like the lengths Tord took to get away, the entire situation is blown to ridiculous proportions.

I’m not sure how to end this other than, I hope you guys liked my most likely inaccurate overspeculation.

TIMESTAMP: 10:30 AM

Xx_redleader_xX Paul I need you to deliver a box of weapons to the armoury in the lab. The lab boys accidentally created something that might try to kill us all if it escapes.

-lemondemon It’s my smoke break. Can’t it wait?

Xx_redleader_xX No. Go do it. I’ll give you an extra smoke break after.

-lemondemon Alright.

TIMESTAMP: 11:15 AM

Xx_redleader_xX Paul. Paul why did you give the weapons to my tentacle monster?

-lemondemon I tripped and it picked them all up.

Xx_redleader_xX Great. Great now I have a knife wielding tentacle monster. A KNIFE WIELDING TENTACLE MONSTER. How is that even useful? Go ahead. Explain to me how that is even remotely useful.

-lemondemon You can throw your enemies in there with it?

Xx_redleader_xX … For that idea alone I’m letting you keep your smoke breaks.

TIMESTAMP: 4:03 PM

Xx_redleader_xX I just thought of another use for Naifu Waifu.

-lemondemon What use is that?

Xx_redleader_xX Throw in people who disappoint me. You have to get at least one knife away from her before I’ll let you out.

-lemondemon When will you try this out?