tree
Original: tree on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: A man with glasses and a woman in a red jacket walk through a forest.
Man: "I think we should agree that after we die, we'll be buried under trees, next to each other."
Panel 2: Close-up of two trees' roots intertwined.
Man (continuing): "So close our roots and leaves touch."
Panel 3: The couple is shown as small silhouettes walking through the dark forest.
Man (continuing): "So that even after we are gone, our marriage is embodied in two living beings whose proximity has stunted one another's growth by each drawing the light from the other."
Panel 4: The two walk on through the forest.
Man: "I'm gonna die before you so my tree gets bigger than yours."
Woman: "No! Please God let me go first!"
Votey: A man's face, looking serious and resolute.
Voice (from an off-panel speech bubble): "I will cut you down, Frank. I will kill you in whatever form you take."
Man: "I think we should agree that after we die, we'll be buried under trees, next to each other."
Panel 2: Close-up of two trees' roots intertwined.
Man (continuing): "So close our roots and leaves touch."
Panel 3: The couple is shown as small silhouettes walking through the dark forest.
Man (continuing): "So that even after we are gone, our marriage is embodied in two living beings whose proximity has stunted one another's growth by each drawing the light from the other."
Panel 4: The two walk on through the forest.
Man: "I'm gonna die before you so my tree gets bigger than yours."
Woman: "No! Please God let me go first!"
Votey: A man's face, looking serious and resolute.
Voice (from an off-panel speech bubble): "I will cut you down, Frank. I will kill you in whatever form you take."
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic. A bespectacled man and a woman in a red jacket walk through a dark forest. The man proposes that after they die, they be buried under trees next to each other so their roots and leaves touch. As the panels zoom in on intertwined tree roots and then out to the tiny silhouetted couple, he romantically explains that this way their marriage will live on in two trees whose closeness stunts each other's growth, each stealing light from the other. In the final panel his romantic framing collapses into competition: he says "I'm gonna die before you so my tree gets bigger than yours," and she cries "No! Please God let me go first!" Votey: a stern-faced man (the trees' future neighbor or rival) declares from off-panel, "I will cut you down, Frank. I will kill you in whatever form you take"—the buried-as-trees feud apparently continuing into the afterlife.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.