A Note on "Cerebus Syndrome" and GPF

I should note that in this paper I will be considering a comic which is not technically an example of Cerebus Syndrome [G]: General Protection Fault [G]. As author Jeffrey Darlington said himself in this forum thread and elsewhere, General Protection Fault is not an example of Cerebus Syndrome because he planned the serious elements from the start, "before a single GIF was transferred from server to browser."

Why am I still considering it then? While he may have planned the future events that would transform the comic from the very beginning, from the perspective of the reader the tone seemed to change so drastically during the comic's fourth year that it might as well have been Cerebus Syndrome. It certainly would have been hard for a reader to tell that it wasn't.

It is true that there were little hints of what was going to happen. However, they were just that: little hints. The cryptic ramblings of some kind of cosmic jester won't make a reader think that in a strip where a villain literally tries to drop safes on people there is going to be serious going-ons.

The point is that while GPF is not technically a Cerebus Syndrome strip, it fits well enough for the criticisms contained herein to apply to it as well.

Onward to

Why do Cerebus Syndromes happen?