Say what you will about Ethan, but the circumstances of his death can really cause a severe Mood Whiplash in the flow of the comic, especially since the genre is slice-of-life comedy.
The blog post about the death of the creator's dog.
Lilah's miscarriage. Despite its meme status and generally being considered a cheap attempt at drama, it's still a woman having a miscarriage.
Post-reboot, one of The Campaign mini-arcs is Best Served Cold. The party's Barbarian swore vengeance on one particular Evil Sorcerer Lich who killed his father. They managed to destroy the Lich, only to find out that the Barbarian's father was turned into the Lich's Soul Jar, thus he will have to destroy his own father. After a particularly heartwrenching fight, he managed to prevail, and the father's last words was how proud he was of his son.
One of Analog and D-Pad's costumed "foes" is Elijah, a street tagger with Super-Speed who vandalizes video game stores with graffiti marking them as "Poison Traffickers." Despite his initial glee at the potential of having a supervillain arch-nemesis, Ethan's enthusiasm for fighting Elijah dies pretty quickly when he does some research into the latter's motivations...
Ethan: Eight months ago, Derek Silva walked into North Jefferson Junior High, and murdered nine of his classmates, screaming "Fortnite Law, last one alive wins"....well, one of those nine, Zion Carter? "Is survived by his older brother and Guardian...Elijah Carter." Lucas: Okay, but...he's still breaking the law, Ethan. Ethan: He lost hislittle brother... Lucas: And so what, you think he's right? Ethan: I think he's grieving. And... I GET it. When my sister died...I blamed everything. I blamed myself, you, Scott...I blamed Captain Prime for not patrolling that part of the city that night, and even the weather for not raining and forcing her to take a cab instead of walking home! Lucas: So he's taking this out on video game stores that had nothing - Ethan: He's been tagging gun stores, too. We weren't looking before, but once I knew...he needs something to blame. He's angry, Lucas. I don't think he'll listen to reason - I wouldn't have - so this probably only leads to a fight. Knowing what he's going through...my heart's just NOT in it.
The breakup between Ethan and Emily post-reboot. In the end, having to juggle his secret identity with the differences in their interests - he likes games like Fallout, she likes J-rpgs; he's secretly a superhero and she hates them - can't be reconciled, and it ends with Emily storming out the door after Ethan tries to reveal the secret he's been keeping (that he's a superhero), only for her to accuse him of lying. The next comic really drives it home:
Ethan: I feel...relieved that she didn't believe me...I know she doesn't like a big part of who I am...I'm ecstatic if I never have to look at another J-rpg again for as long as I live...
(Ethan starts to cry, with Lucas putting a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder)
Ethan: ...So why does this hurt like this?
Post-reboot Zeke is a homicidal robot with a burning hatred of humans, but when we look behind all the rage, we see he has a rather justifiable reason for that.
—You say you want me to 'convince' you (that I'm harmless)... What you mean is you want me to beg for my own life. And I will... I'll beg. I'll plead. I'll make whatever promises you want to hear, if that's what it takes. Because once again, it seems if I want to live, I have no choice. I was made to hurt people. I was made to hurt you, specifically. You and your dim bulb of a sidekick. Why? Because you annoyed the wrong nutjob. I exist because a human wanted to kill a different human. Not my choice. The first words I ever heard in this world were "Hello" and "There is an explosive device in your head", in that order. Not my choice. The only other human I've conversed with at length said he wanted to free me... then shut down all my auxiliary systems and put me in storage. To be occasionally played with, like one of his similarly awesome video games. Not my choice. But my 'hatred of humans'? Ohh, that is my choice. One of the few I've been allowed to make for myself. I've earned it...
Nyrah: A goodbye and. And... an absolution. He wrote that he understood. That when I didn't return, he knew something must have happened. That was my brother. Dying of starvation, cold, alone... And he wanted to make sure if I ever made it back here, that I knew he did not blame me.
the death of the creator's dog.