String Theory (webcomic)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Schtein refusing to help the prison skinheads and telling them to fuck off even while he's in a chokehold. As long as you ignore what happens right after that, when it turns into Nightmare Fuel.
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: "Admit it, you totally wanted to make out, like...bunches!"
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: This.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Schtein, by all means, is the definition of a Jerkass. However, an excellent character design, the fact that he spends the start of Act I and most of Act II pretty beaten up and ill, and background information such as this [dead link], this, and this make it impossible to not want to just give him a hug.
    • There's also Elizabeth Langstrom, Professor Langstrom's sister. Despite being a jerk, you can't really blame her - she's justifiably angry over the pointless death of her brother.
  • Tear Jerker: Schtein's daughter hanging up on him when he tries to call her and her mother from prison to ask for help. Actually, if the author's hints and the provided backstory are anything to go by, Schtein's relationship with Alice is just one huge Tear Jerker. One of the many things that puts Schtein firmly in Jerkass Woobie territory.
    • The shower scene. Even though Schtein manages to avoid getting raped by agreeing to help MacManus, it's probably the most terrifyingly vulnerable we've seen him so far.
  • The Woobie: Schtein, so very much.
    • Alice definitely qualifies. Her parents separated and divorced before she was born and she's apparently never seen or spoken to her father. The first time her father did call her, she hung up; later she found out that he had supposedly been killed over whatever trouble he had been in when they spoke. The second time she's seen in the comic, she's in tears due to (unnecessary) guilt. Poor kid.