To Save Her
is the third and final webcomic in Jennifer Diane Reitz's "Tryslmaistan trilogy", being a spin-off of Unicorn Jelly and Pastel Defender Heliotrope. Much like the other two, it features a lot of creative worldbuilding, but also a heavy dose of Mind Screw.
It starts as a Unicorn Jelly Elseworld, helped by the fact that alternate universes are a thing in JDR's multiverse. It is about an alternate Kay-Wai from a "happy" alternate universe (splay) of Tryslmaistan where the universe-destroying Stormfall, and thus the events of Unicorn Jelly, never happened. This Kay-Wai intends to save a certain historical figure responsible for the salvation of the "main" (Stormfall) Tryslmaistan, the one we've seen in the previous comics, a being who, as Kay-Wai believes, was persuaded to commit an unnecessary suicide. To this end, she goes on through non-Stormfall splays to recruit alternate versions of other Unicorn Jelly characters for this task...
This webcomic provides examples of:
- Alien Geometries: It just wouldn't be a JDR comic without these. Besides Tryslmaistan itself, there's the Krawlni universe, with its... weird dimensions.
- Bittersweet Ending: Kaye has turned into an insane maniac, the entire team except for Kaye and Pho is dead or stranded, and the two of them can't go home again, being stranded in a... pocket universe or something (it's not made clear) arranged by Ascended Chou. On the other hand, at least they're together, have succeeded at their original mission of saving Chou, and almost every other version of Kaye and her team (except the ones we were following) goes home in peace. There's also the implication that Kaye can return after rehabilitation, and we know from Pastel Defender Heliotrope that everything eventually turns out okay for the multiverse at large.
- Continuity Nod:
- CURSOR is seen in the far future in the Museum of Antiquities, before it gets involved in the events of Pastel Defender Heliotrope. In fact, it seems that CURSOR was created by Chou to let Kaye interface with the CHOU 3000 machine, thus making OoO's actions in Heliotrope a form of atonement for just leaving it there.
- The floating Nakimono Island is the same one (well, an alternate version thereof) seen in Heliotrope as a historical monument. The difference is that since Myrmil/Myrmidon never fell in this splay, the island was not sucked into Pastel.
- Expendable Alternate Universe: Inverted! It turns out that the original Tryslmaistan of Unicorn Jelly is seen as this by residents of the non-Stormfall splays visited throughout the story. In fact, travel to Stormfall splays is strictly forbidden.
- Played straight by Wailan who actually cares about the alternates of his friends, unlike the rest of the crew, to the point that he's the only one who mourns the crew's first Vola when she dies. Even her replacement counterpart doesn't care!
- Future Me Scares Me: Kaye's team has that reaction after accidentally seeing a scene with their future selves. And they're right to fear the implications.
- Humans Are Bastards: Kaye has shades of believing this. She truly believes this, to the point of attempting to erase all of humanity entirely from the timeline.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum: The Movers. And they're based on only a tiny part of the actual Krawlni Movers, only capable of moving among different splays of the same universe, not across different universes.
- May–December Romance: Kaye and Pho immediately feel an attraction. In Replacement Vola's original crew, she was the one coupled with Pho. Considering that the central plot is all about alternate universes, it can be assumed most (if not all) possible pairings exist somewhere in the multiverse.
- Pardon My Klingon: Every splay has its own version of profanity; some is very close to Earth's, some is unintelligible. Replacement Vola has what appears to be the closest to Earth cursing, depending on whether "frikkin" is a true equivalent to fuck or merely a variant as in our universe.
- Precision F-Strike: After three complete webcomics of Pardon My Klingon, we finally get one line of uncensored Earth profanity:Ascended Chou: Paybacks really are a bitch.
- Pun: At one point, Kaye mentions "Phees, Phis, Phos, and Phums."
- Ret-Gone: Kaye's ultimate plan is to rewrite all of history to erase all of humanity from all of the splays.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Kaye's motivation, the titular promise "to save her". Only it turns out that Kaye's real motivation — at least, for the specific Kaye we're following — is to prevent humans from ever coming to Tryslmaistan, thus leaving the Jellese as the only sapient lifeform, which also counts as Set Right What Once Went Wrong in her eyes.
- That Man Is Dead: Virtue's reaction to his alternate self, Texto.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: So the actions of Kaye's team led to the creation of OoO, AKA Ascended Chou, and thus, indirectly, to CURSOR merging with Fuschia, both the creation and near-destruction of Ktlikitkaktl, and the fact that Pastel was reshaped to power the Omnipitors instead of being allowed to collide with Mundis. Pretty impressive that most of these effects were for the better, considering none of them were planned.
