Webcomic / The End (2010)

aka: The End

The End is a Science Fiction webcomic which begins with Endi, a member of the birdlike spacefaring Fiah race, facing his first assignment in the prestigious role of Navigator, on a Fiah sub-ship on a mission of the highest importance. His assignment, to participate under the review of a superior Monitor in the legendary Exodus project, evacuating a self sustaining population of an intelligent race from a doomed planet. The species to be saved: Humanity.

Unfortunately, things start going wrong from the outset. Rather than landing in a densely populated city as intended, Endi's ship, the Axca, lands in the middle of nowhere. Under the supervision of Ethma, his Monitor, he relocates the ship to a suitably populated area, which just so happens to place their ship right outside of a Sci Fi Fan Convention. The situation continues to disintegrate as the ship's cloaking device proves non-operational, and several humans wander into the ship uninvited. In a desperate attempt to salvage the mission, Endi flies the ship off-planet, but finds that he's not alone in his troubles when a mysterious disaster wipes out the rest of the Exodus fleet. As the only remaining members of the Exodus, Endi and Ethma are forced to look after their party of human stowaways who may never be able to return home.

Not to be confused with the 1978 Black Comedy film directed by and starring Burt Reynolds, nor The End, a dimension in Minecraft. Also not to be confused with a similarly titled webcomic, The Ends., or with either of the two freeware games.

The End provides examples of:

• Accidental Proposal: While not proved yet, there are hints that Max's attempted handshake of the Ith spy Jey was this.
  Max: Well, clearly I missed something. What's so damn funny, Sam?
  Sam: It will feel more rewarding if you figure it out on your own.
• All Part of the Show: What the convention-goers make of the Axca, parked right outside a major Sci Fi/Fantasy convention.

• Bad Liar: Endi. Not only does he have no idea what sorts of deceptions a human would regard as plausible, he can't moderate his body language in his human guise, and easily falls into a panic.
• Bigger on the Inside: The Axca, to an outstanding degree. From the outside, it appears to be about the size of a shortbus, but according to Ethma it would take days to cover the entire interior on foot. The engine alone is the size of a football field.
  Ran: It is finite, but it’s still really large. They need to be big enough that, in the event of stasis failure, they’d be able to house and support up to two thousand rescued aliens. So, a giant football field sized engine room, a large medical facility, two levels of storage facilities, about seven levels of basic barrack like quarters, divided up into smaller rooms, a control deck, a gunner’s deck, a life-support facility and the shell unit. So they’re very, very big.

• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Jack and Henri could have a showdown in the finals of the national eyebrow championships.
• Cosplay Otaku Girl: Blaire. As a 29 year old insurance brokerage secretary, she feels she's getting a bit old for it.
• Empty Shell: Ith criminals are subjected to Mind Rape that makes them both psychopathic and completely subservient. These 'Fades' are used as slave labor, though most who object to the mind rape don't mind so much about using organic robots.

• Fallen Hero: The founders of the Ith empire, full stop. They rose up and defeated a Galatic Conqueror when the Fiah invoked Touched by Vorlons to help them defend against the invasion on the Ith homeworld. Then, while said Fiah were distracted healing the galaxy from the fallout, the 'heroes' abused their superpowers to consolidate power on their own world and laid the foundations for the empire.
• Fan Convention: Omegacon, Canada's largest fan convention and prime alien landing site.
• Fungus Humongous: Ith's home planet is covered in giant fungus, and they've made an entire culture dedicated to fungal cuisine.
• Hive Mind: The Ith are ruled by one. Members of the hive are explicitly stated to suffer total Loss of Identity.
• Human Aliens: The Fiah only look (mostly) like this due to the high tech "shells" they use as disguises, but the Ith are practically indistinguishable from humans. See also Rubber-Forehead Aliens.
• Humanoid Aliens: Every alien we've seen so far, from the towering Fiah to Gorth's mini workers.
• I Am Not Spock: Invoked in Victor's case, as he could never find any real acting role that didn't involve at least partly reprising his most famous role (a starship captain).
• Invisibility Cloak: The Axca is supposed to be using one when it lands on Earth. Things don't go according to plan.
• Humans Are Special: In a depressing way; they're all black caste (muggles who are masters of manipulation, violence, and thoughtcrime detection). Humans Are Bastards, and the Ith dictatorship is slobbering over the opportunity to overstaff their Secret Police.
• Human Subspecies: Inverted; The Ith claim that humans are an Ith subspecies, and that Earth is a long-lost colony. Their evidence is that the Ith have wide genetic diversity in terms of psychic powers while humans are a Planet of Hats black caste race, implying some nutty governor staffed his entire colony on Earth with black caste and it ended really badly.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Henri.
• Meaningful Name: The Ith conventionally put last names first when writing full names. If you write Lon and Noh's first names first instead, their full names become Lon Ehr and Noh Ehr (the latter potentially also a reference to the Snipe Hunt she expected the search for Earth to be).
• The Men in Black: The agents themselves don't make an appearance until chapter eleven, but an interlude after the fifth chapter features a series of files the agency has created on the humans who disappeared from Omegacon.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Fiah did save the galaxy from a Galactic Conqueror, but only by haphazardly uplifting the Ith, ignoring the power they gave to their 'heroes' until it was too late, which ensured the rise of the Ith fascist dictatorship.
• One-Gender Race: Endi and Ethma may disguise themselves as male and female respectively, but the Fiah are actually one of these. They reproduce by laying eggs parthenogenically.
• Parents as People: Cassandra's parents, Heather and Bart.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: The current human forms of Ethma and Endi could be considered this, as they are basically humans with white skin, grey lips, black hair, and glowy-blue spots on their face. (Of course, they are supposed to look exactly like humans, but...). The Ith, however, seem to vary between this and Human Aliens.
• Rule 34: In a slightly unusual example, the comic's artist has started a Tumblr where she posts porn of her own comic.
• The Spartan Way: The Ith Black Caste (secret police) go through years of lethal training from a psychopathic Overseer. In a good batch, only one in five makes it out alive.
• Otherkin: Jack's internet girlfriend Raine claims to be one when they meet for the first time at Omegacon. It's likely that she's simply lying to push him away after having that vision.
• People Jars: The Fiah stasis chambers.
• Powered Armor: Fiah Guardian armor. Extremely powerful, it's apparently capable of contending with armed spacecraft.
• Psychic Powers: The Fiah can communicate telepathically and dump large amounts of information and sensory input into other's minds all at once (humans, on the other hand, aren't adapted to deal with this.) The Ith have an assortment of psychic powers depending on their caste.
• Scary Dogmatic Aliens: The Ith. Unfortunate, since they're also the species humans are most likely to be mistaken for.
• Shout-Out: There's a "meanwhile, back on Earth" sideplot featuring a couple of characters named Samira and Max. (Word of God is that this was unintentional, but the author has acknowledged the coincidence by referring to the duo as "Sam & Max" in other places.)
  Ran: Accidental, and then when we noticed we laughed about it hysterically and decided to leave it as is, and then kind of forgot it until you mentioned it just now.
• Telepathic Spacemen: The Fiah. Some Ith also seem to have this ability.
• Translator Microbes: Projection translators. They translate incoming speech into universal psychic impulses, allowing the human characters to understand non-telepathic aliens, but they don't have a module for English, meaning that almost no aliens will be able to understand them.

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