#jon arbuckle is trying

[sayonikaxd]

he’s trying his best ok 😭

[mellowforests]

Another WIP because I fear im putting more effort into this than i intended-

[cheldobryakk]

[ifwebefriends]

@garfrenchfries Comic Fanmade MasterPost

Character Reference 1

Character Reference 2

Introduction

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5

Lyman enters the picture!

6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // (10 Bonus) // 11 // 12 // 13 // 14

Jean Arbinkle Kidnapping Arc

15 // 16 // 17 // 18 // 19 // 20 // 21

Jon’s Brother Arc

22 // 23 // 24 // 25 // 26 // 27 // 28 //

Convention/Dirk Dinkum Arc

29 // 30 // 31 // 32 // 33 // 34 // 35 // 36 // 37 // 38 // 39

On the Side Comics

1 // 2 // 3 //

[clarinettispaghetti]

Jon ‘n Lyman

[kowtownart]

Seen that one Jon meme floating around, so i thought i'd try it out with Birb! My handsome little fella :'3

[steakout-05]

jon horse jon horse <3

[astralcat]

I have just discovered something catastrophic

[outofcontextgarfield]

[gregorygerwitz]

Buck trying to crack the lasagna recipe is actually just 911 helping to advertise the new Garfield movie

They had to change it for time, but the real final scene was in that 3D animation style, and it was going to pan from Eddie and Kim to the window where Jon Arbuckle would be making sad eyes at kitten Garfield through the glass

[mellowforests]

Something something jon doodles

I wish they talked more about him as a cartoonist and hopefully maybe one day make a relatable slice-of-life spin off about his daily life about his awkward and zestiness he radiates in which we can all say “he’s so me” in unison

[cheldobryakk]

[schm00by]

Making Sense of the Last Monday (yes the Garfield horror game)

The Last Monday is a psychological horror that starts with you trying to help Garfield find his house keys. It is free to play on itch.io and if you haven’t checked it out you definitely should. 

This game is broken up into numerous sections that are not in chronological order. From my research and analysis of the game, I will be breaking down each section, each POV we play as, and finally structure each section into a somewhat cohesive timeline at the end of the sections analysis to the best of my ability and observations. I have also named each section to remember it easier

There are three characters we play as:

The Stranger

The Kid (the kid will be referred to with he/him pronouns, but ultimately they don’t have a concrete gender stated in the games)

Jon Arbuckle

Section 1: Entering the House

We start the game in an unknown POV of neither the Kid nor Jon. This POV will be deemed the Stranger. We open up with a view of the sun before looking at a saturated colored house in the middle of no where. We are requested by Garfield to help him into his house. We retrieve a garage door opener from the backyard and find the key after Garfield gets up from the porch to stop us from opening the garage door. A small easter egg is found when the garage door opens and a small CD is thrown out before Garfield closes the garage. This CD can be used during Section 2. After grabbing the key you can access the basement. We are instructed by Garfield to paint over symbols that are drawn over the basement. There is a small black cage and a notepad filled with child drawings. This will be important later. The notepad contains a code to open a vault and retrieve a black cat relic before we run up the stairs of the basement chased by an angry Jon Arbuckle. We make it upstairs and spray paint the rest of the symbols before being commanded by a voice to throw the relic into the fire. 

Section 2: Chores

The second section we play either as the Kid or John. We are in a bright colorful house. The Entity/Garfield often uses saturated colors and hallucinations to manipulate the Kid, unlike with Jon whom because he is an adult, uses bleak colors. Again, this is up to you, either POV works for this section. We are told to put a lasagna in the oven and a 2-hour timer starts and, in that time, told to pick up some toys. This is also when you can put the CD found in Section 1 into the TV however nothing happens (at least not yet, when putting the CD in you get a secret message in morse code that I'll explain in a section below). (Very disappointing considering there is only one ending to this game as of now) When we are told to pick up the toys, if you notice, every single one of these toys are found in the Kid’s bedroom (explained in Section 3.1). This section I believe is kind of a sick way of making the Kid reliving his capture at the hands of John. Or it could be Garfield taunting Jon of what he did, kidnapping an innocent kid and making him cleanup the child’s toys as a mockery of him. After picking up all the toys and the relic, we see quick glitches of fire that spread throughout the house. Confirming that this takes place after the events of Section 3.1 (explained below) We know John burns down the Kid’s house after kidnapping him. Again this could either be the Kid reliving his capture in a sick way or John being forced to relive his actions he made whilst possessed. After picking up the toys we go to the backyard to dig up things Odie dug into the backyard. We find a ball, a bone, a newspaper clipping about a family murder and a child being missing (this will be important later), and finally a dog corpse. The corpse possibly being the dog you kill during Section 3.1. The house is burst into flames because the lasagna burned, and the section ends. It's important to note that this entire section…didn’t exactly happen. As I’ve stated this is more of a recollection of events that have already happened. To understand this section, you must understand sections 3 and 3.1 as this entire section occurs sometime after those events and is more so a dreamscape like retelling of those events. This does not have an official place on the timeline as I am considering this more so of a dream that The Kid or Jon had. I will place it on the timeline below, but this isn’t a very crucial section to understanding this game, other than the newspaper that is dug up.

Section 3: The House

I want to note that the events of the game don’t play in chronological order, and I will put a short summary of the timeline below. We play as John in this section, who after coming to from the Entity’s possession (Garfield) winds up at the very house the rest of the events of this game will play out. We know we play as John due to the reflection of the bathroom mirror when he cuts out his tongue. Here we pick up gasoline (which will be used to burn down the Kid’s house in Section 3.1), the gun (which the Kid will use and I’ll explain further down this analysis), and a roll of tape (which will be used when kidnapping the kid), and the wire cutters (which are used to uh remove Jon’s tongue and cut the powerline of the Kid’s house). We also find a bloody shovel and can infer that the Entity made John kill the family living in this house while possessed.

Section 3.1: The Kidnapping

In the beginning of this section we play as John, cutting the powerline, killing the dog, and the people in the house. The POV then switches to the Kid and we hide in the closet. Again, all the toys in the Kid’s bedroom are also found in Section 2 when we have to pick them all up. Jon kidnaps the Kid and the scene ends. 

Section 3.2: The Symbols

We are now in the POV of the Kid, locked in a cage by John, but not for malicious reasons. John is keeping the Kid in the cage because he is compromised by the Entity, his actions could be puppeteered by it at any given moment, thus keeping him in a cage.  I know we are the Kid because of his cries to ‘go home’ right after the house burning sequence, and also because John leaves cartoons in front of his cage to watch. We ask him questions and ask to go home only for John to not answer (unable to due to his tongue being gone). The Kid consumes the food and drinks the soda provided which was shown to be drugged. We walk through a bright door and pass through numerous symbols. These are the symbols that later on in the game are explained that they’re the only thing repelling the Entity. The Kid attempts to communicate with Jon once more only for him to cry when the Kid speaks. Probably from his guilt, Jon’s guilt for what he’s done is recurring.

Section 4: The Tower

Our POV starts right where we left off from Section 3.s, our POV still the Kid’s and we are watching TV. What is interesting to note is that Garfield only appears when John isn’t around and even refers to John as “his master” even though we know who is really in control. This is where the timeline gets wonky as these sections do not take place in chronological order. I am just explaining each section on a surface level and will sort each section into a somewhat cohesive timeline based on my observations that i am 75% sure is right at the end of my section analysis. In Section 4, John is no longer being controlled by the Entity, it’s presence now moved onto the Kid. This was possibly the reason why the Entity made John kidnap the Kid instead of killing him, a child being much more easier to influence incase John managed to break free. Anyways back to the analysis of this section. Garfield breaks us out of the cage and apologizes on his ‘master’s’ behalf. He instructs us to run up the stairs and grants us something called ‘firepower’ this fire power I believe is the gun John stole in Section 3. Another thing important to note is that, unlike with John, whenever the Entity possess or influences the child, it makes what the Kid is doing seem harmless and fun, the world saturated in color and illusion. Unlike in John’s case with everything bleak. Again fueling the idea that the Kid is much easier to influence and control. We are told to get to through the maze and to the tower and to shoot lasagnas that come after us. When we do make it to the tower, we are snapped back to reality and are in a gas station. We shoot the last stray lasagna before the illusion fully dispels and we see a man dead and the realization that all those lasagnas we shot were all people.  We hear a honk of a horn, who is later confirmed in a later section to be John. Basically, Garfield made the Kid massacre a shit ton of people and disguised it as a game and rides back to John’s house in his car. We wake up in a bed to see Garfield in front of the TV again referring to John as the ‘master’ even though we know he is feigning innocent. We get into John’s garage and read a book with the symbols we in Section 3.2.

Section 5: The Temple

In this POV we are entirely John. We are at a temple and place a familiar cat relic into a box with the symbols shown in Section 3.2, which I will refer to as just the symbols, drawn one the box. The box is sealed and a small ritual is performed that implies John was broken free of the Entity’s control. This section takes place sometime after John was first possessed and perhaps found a way to break free of the mind control. We are never explicitly shown when John was first possessed, but this is possibly the earliest account and this sequence happens before any other section occurs.

Section 5.1: Change of Heart

Sometime after the events of Section 5, John had a change of heart and decided to go back for the Relic with the promise of shared power with the Entity. This is the domino effect of everything that happens in the game. He steals the Relic and drives off before the Entity takes control of his body once more. He comes to after the Entity forces him to murder another family before the flashback ends with John arriving at the house in Section 3.

Section 6: Methods

We are back where 4 left off, back in the Kid’s POV. When we try to leave the garage we are immediately confronted by an angry Garfield who demands to know what is in the garage. The garage has the symbols drawn on the walls, thus is the reason why Garfield is unable to enter. We pass out and then when we leave the garage and enter the house Garfield is no where to be seen. A note from John is on the counter, explaining what is happening. In his note, it explains the Entity who once controlled him is now controlling us and the only way to stop it is at the end of the month when the stars align, until then we must wear the headphones to keep us from listening to the Entity. John warns us to not listen to its lies or illusions and that he is sorry. Obviously he is sorry for killing the Kid’s family and being the one to start this mess in the first place. This is also where we get the confirmation of the symbols being used to protect us from the Entity, with a note on the wall explaining each symbol’s meaning. When wandering in the basement, a note states that if we are overcome by the Entity we will be put into a cage, the same one seen in Section 1. Again this more proof we are in fact the Kid, with John using words like time-out to explain to us the usage of the cage. We go to the bedroom where John sleeps on a futon allowing us the bed. The Kid falls asleep.

Section 7: The Cage

We are back in the Kid’s POV with only ten more days to go until the end of the month. Ten more days until they can defeat the entity. We have the headphones John gave us on listening to music as the we sit down in front of the TV to draw in our notepad. The same notepad that was in the cage of Section 1. We draw about not listening to The Entity, fully trusting John. This happy moment does not last as Garfield/The Entity chastizes us for our mistrust in it, stating that they werent there for the horrible stuff that happened to the kid but John was. They weren’t there when John was at the Kid’s house, or at the gas station, and was the one that freed the Kid from the cage in Section 4. It claims it is our friend and pulls the Kid into another hallucination, beckoning him to come play outside. We are met with another illusion, back at the tower from Section 4, only now we are climbing up it. We fight off bats before the ‘monster’ gets us. We are flashed back to reality to see a scratched up John dragging us back to to the house as we somehow during our hallucination made it outside. The Kid is shown lying down in the cage before waking up and John interrogating us about what we saw before we were possessed, using a notepad. At the end of the interrogation, John advises the Kid to use the blindfold next time we see the Entity or “the Kitty” as the Kid has been calling it. 

Section 8: Means To An End

Once again, we are in the Kid’s POV. One more day until the stars a line. One more day until they can defeat the Entity. The music is noticeably gone, meaning we are not wearing the headphones John told us to wear. The scene plays out similar to Section 7, only this time when the Kid goes to draw it is clear he have lost trust in Jon and is possibly too far into the Entity’s influence, with drawings showing mockery of Jon’s warnings and a desire to go outside. On the last page of the notepad there is a code for a vault. The same vault from Section 1. The Entity commands the Kid to go down into the basement, which for the past two sections have been locked due to Jon being down there. However this time, Jon is sleeping in the bedroom and the basement is unlocked. The Kid creeps down the stairs to open the safe, which reveals the relic and we are thrusted back into another hallucination. This hallucination ends with the Kid snapping back to reality, shot by Jon to prevent him from escaping the basement with the relic and going on another possessed induced massacre, thus killing the child, just one day before they could defeat the Entity and be freed. 

Section 8.1: Devourer of Stars

We are in Jon’s POV after he killed the Kid. Draping his body in a blanket and putting the child in the garage, the Entity begins to speak to Jon. It tells him that Jon’s killing of the child has unleashed the Entity. It begins monologuing on the uselessness of Jon’s futile efforts to defeat it, stating in this chilling line: “You want to defeat me when the stars align? Then I shall take the stars from you.” The Entity then states that Jon shall see the child soon enough. It is revealed that Jon and the Kid are stuck in a time loop, created by the Entity, to repeat this timeline again and again until, in it’s words: “gets what it wants and until Jon breaks.” What it desires never being said explicitly, and to be honest I’m not very sure what it wants either. So the ugly truth has come to light, that this isn’t even the first time these events played out. The Kid is destined to be taken, corrupted, and killed over and over again with Jon’s efforts never being enough to save the both of them. 

Section 9: The Last Monday, Again.

We are back in a POV similar to the start of the game. The saturated house in view, no other house in sight. Only this time, the sun is gone. We are given the same task by Garfield to help him find his key. Only this time, when going to retrieve the garage door opener, it is nowhere to be found. When returning to Garfield he states: “I love playing with my food, don’t you?” 

The End Credits

When the credits roll, a morse code is to be heard which reads, “I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know what you know. You’ve been here before, hundreds of times. You’ve returned to me everyday and everyday I must stop you. I’ve tried killing you. I’ve tried keeping you alive. Please forgive me. Sometimes I want to give up, but I fear that if the voice is free (the Entity/Garfield), we will be tortured more than this. Please please forgive me.” (credit: Mak Angeleezy on YT). This is likely Jon to the Kid or in this case, us, since we the player are the Kid. Section 9 is the start to the next time loop or in other words the second timeline 

Conclusion

The Last Monday is a psychological horror with Lovecraftian elements. We flip flop between different POVs and different parts of the timeline. We have been through these events hundreds of times over, due to a time loop instilled by the Entity to repeat the last Monday over and over again right when our characters are just shy of victory. There is no happy ending for anyone, and despite this, Jon pursues freedom in each loop. To save us and himself from this forever hell. Something very notable and something to commemorate, even though it is his fault for its beginning. Hopefully someday for my own sanity the creator will make another ending to the game because my god, The Kid is going through it. 

Timelines

So…technically there are two timelines or two time loops if you will that this game marks. Each section is set to how I think the events of this game went chronologically.

Time Loop 1

Section 1: Entering the House (this marks the end of this time loop and thrusts us to the beginning of the second time loop aka the loop we play)

Time Loop 2 

Section 5: The Temple (Jon rejects the artifact which holds significance to the Entity)

Section 5.1: Change of Heart (Jon comes back to the artifact with the promise of shared power before being controlled and taken to the house)

Section 3: The House (Jon arrives at the house and collects supplies needed to kidnap the Kid)

Section 3.1: The Kidnapping (Jon kills the Kid’s parents and kidnaps him)

Section 2: Chores (a dream or daydream the Kid or Jon might’ve had about the kidnapping)

Section 3.2: The Symbols (Jon keeps the Kid locked up and performs a ritual on him in an attempt to protect him from the Entity)

Section 4: The Tower (Garfield/The Entity frees the Kid and sends him on a possessed, hallucinatory bender that causes him to kill a ton of people before Jon picks him up and takes him back to the house)

Section 6: Methods (After reading a book left for the Kid by Jon, he is told the only they’ll beat the Entity is at the end of the month when the stars align and is instructed a list of ways to keep the Entity at bay from his mind during their time waiting)

Section 7: The Cage (10 more days until the end of the month and the Entity manipulates the Kid into not trusting Jon before being thrust into another hallucination which causes him to escape the house. He is then  being dragged back inside by a battered Jon and kept in a cage until he is himself again)

Section 8: Means To An End (1 more day to go before the end of the month. The Kid is too far gone in the Entity’s manipulation and as instructed by the Entity, goes down to the basement to unlock the relic from the safe. The Kid is thrusted back into another hallucination before being shot by Jon when he attempts to leave the basement with the relic)

Section 8.1: Devourer of Stars (The Entity reveals Jon’s plans for defeating it were futile, revealing the existence of the time loop the Kid and Jon have been in for god knows how long)

Section 9: The Last Monday, Again (marks the end of this time loop and would be the catapult for the next time loop’s beginning)

Idk what’s with my fascination with characters who get mind controlled but yeah, I think about this game every day

[loveydoveylex]

I had a dream last night that I kissed jon arbuckle. and this is like okay well whatever I already had a lil crush on jon arbuckle, who cares, but you don't understand. it felt SO real. I'm still trying to collect myself oh my god it is 8 in the evening and I'm STILL thinking about it what the FUCK I need an ice cold shower or something

[comicaurora]

there's a tl;dr at the end if you're a coward who's too scared to read my glorious essay

wassup my name is destruktow i got in an argument with tumblr user flishthedragon (over discord) on the topic of aurora being an isekai (we were watching anime (they made me watch serial experiment lain (it was decent but i am too stupid for it)) and i brought up isekai) and i am convinced you bastards in the notes of when they posted my ramblings have no clue what an isekai is because an isekai is not defined by said isekai guy previously existing in the "real" world (despite that making up the majority of isekai stories) and let me tell you that i Have Not read past like the big robot thing (despite tumblr user flishthedragon being very adamant that i do so) so i have no clue if this still holds up to canon but as of right now we have no confirmation as to where jeffrey (canon name kendal i think but i call him jeffrey due to him looking like a jeffrey) originated from outside of "yeah jeffrey is like. this dude's empty body becoming sentient" which is bullshit so even by the bad definition everyone in the notes was pushing it's still not confirmed to not be an isekai and

*i pause to take a breath. as i breathe, you glance at my shirt. it has an image of popular comic strip character Garfield along with his adopted sibling/punching bag Odie and sugar daddy Jon Arbuckle. you appreciate said shirt*

also is space jam an isekai? it's absolutely an isekai dude lmao i love space jam that movie's great

okay back on topic so isekai originates from ancient japanese literature such as the story of Urashima Tarō, fisherman guy who saved a turtle and got to go to fishland for a week (my apologies to the urashima tarō fans out there my only exposure to this man is that they put him in battle cats and that was pretty cool, he's a decent black/angel tank that manages to not be outclassed by ramen and nono) and holy shit look at that you don't have to die to be isekai (no one was saying this but at least two of you were thinking it don't lie) and while reincarnation stories are not inherently isekai they can be viewed as isekai stories in certain contexts and those stay in the same world that's crazy

omniscient reader is also an isekai btw (if you finish it it's actually not but if you don't read like 500 chapters you can't prove me wrong and if you do i get someone to talk to about omniscient reader)

so obviously jeffrey exists (was summoned (technically)) for the purposes of getting vaush (that's not his name but it sounds like vaush and i used to be a vaush fan so we're going with it)'s soul back (has a goal given to him by a god) and he gets a companion (whether she is hot or not may depend on your taste and/or sexuality. me personally she is not hot) and he has big fucked up powers (real) BUT he keeps the memories of the previous host! wow! but screw you that's also an isekai thing i'm reading trash of the count's family and it does that (you suck stop typing stop trying to disprove me it won't work) and his existence prior, as i have mentioned, is disputable (he may or may not have existed. retaining your memories from previous life is not necessary) and his journey is fucking identical to various other isekai franchises you learn how shit works alongside him that's how isekai works you doubters in the notes

tl;dr: you can't prove it's not an isekai (author please do not confirm/deny it becomes much less funny if you do so) and it's infinitely easier to think of it as a typical isekai with all the isekai tropes so gg ez i win

[my-gf-is-kazuichi-soda]

Some people in the MLAATR fandom act like Sheldon is irredeemably creepy or gross or manipulative, and then uses examples of behavior that happens with all of the characters because it's an exaggerated children's cartoon.

Exhibit A:

To me, this is the same logic as saying "Jon Arbuckle is an animal abuser" because he lets Garfield drink coffee and sometimes puts him on a diet of a single lettuce leaf (I read the Jon Arbuckle hateblog for a laugh sometimes). Yes, obviously irl this would make someone an animal abuser, but in the silly world of Garfield these are just signifiers that the human reader, who might drink coffee or be on a diet that they hate, is supposed to relate to Garfield. Neither of these actually foods hurt him in the comic. Garfield eats entire trays of lasagna for crying out loud! Jim Davis even describes Garfield as being more like "a person in a cat suit" than a real cat. If we put the actions back in the context of the comic strip, Jon Arbuckle is just a pet owner who sometimes acts as a parent to a child, other times acts as Garfield's friend or roommate, and is kind of a dork but generally a good guy. Garfield and Odie's family.

Likewise, the world of MLAATR operates on cartoon/sitcom logic. Very often the characters will resort to lying, trickery, disguises, being aggressively friendly, etc. as ways to keep the plot and jokes rolling. I'm pretty sure every character has done this at some point, because of the humor potential. These are not meant to be looked at as abusive behaviors. You can usually judge how harsh the actions were based on other characters' reactions and how quick they are to forgive at the end rather than applying real-world relationship logic.

This is not to say that the writing is infallible or unable to be criticized because "it's just a kid's cartoon!" (I hate that argument, it's usually meant to silence people and that's not what I'm trying to do). Yes, cartoons can screw up in their messages, and you might be able to argue that maybe this writing style makes all of the characters bad role models for children. But if this is how you judge Sheldon, it's only fair to hold all the other characters in the same standards, including Jenny herself.

It bothers me that Sheldon gets the bad rep in the fandom because as an autistic person, especially when I was an autistic child, I related to both Jenny and Sheldon and their struggles in communicating/socializing in a world that glorifies popularity and being "normal" and hurts the weirdos to get them to conform. So it hurts on a personal level to see Sheldon get hated to such a high degree, and to hear people say Sheldon and Jenny would be an inherently unhealthy relationship, just because Sheldon can have some boundary issues and lack of social skills. I know people aren't saying this to villainize autistic traits, but that's how it can feel to me.

I could also get into how the show hinted that Jenny was at least a little curious about a relationship with Sheldon and that she might have gone for it if not for her fatal flaw in trying to seek popularity, but I'll save that for another post. This isn't meant to shame those who dont like the Jenny and Sheldon ship, but to give an alternative perspective to the whole "Sheldon is creepy!" thing I keep seeing in the fandom.