Editing 556: Alternative Energy Revolution

[[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are looking at modern "{{w|windmills}}" (known as {{w|wind turbines}}) harnessing wind energy into electrical energy. They comment that there's something creepy about the windmills. They allude to the book ''{{w|The War of the Worlds}}'' by {{w|H. G. Wells}} (the Jeff Wayne musical version of {{w|Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds|The War of the Worlds}} has paintings of the Martian tripods somewhat like these turbines) and also to {{w|John Christopher|John Christopher's}} ''{{w|The Tripods|Tripods}}'' trilogy, a young adult series of books that is also about aliens who ride in walking tripods. Suddenly the windmills' pylons split into three legs, becoming the tripods suggested.

They exclaim that {{w|Al Gore}} has doomed us all. Gore is a former Vice President of the United States of America, known for his environmental activism and promotion of green energy sources, relevant because wind turbines like the ones here are one of the alternative energy sources he supports. In the final frame, the seventeenth-century literary figure {{w|Don Quixote}} arrives. [[Randall Munroe|Randall]]'s depiction seems to be inspired by {{w|Don Quixote (Picasso)|the drawing}} by {{w|Pablo Picasso}}. In the original story, Don Quixote is a wandering knight of questionable sanity who fights a windmill, which he believes to be a giant. Hence, he is the appropriate person to deal with this threat. Wind turbines also appear in later comics. In [[1119: Undoing]], Randall still seems to dislike them. In [[1378: Turbine]], the turbine is alive as it is in this comic, though its talking may simply be anthropomorphism.

The title is a joke on the phrase "Alternative Energy Revolution," which normally refers to replacing of harmful power sources with eco-friendly options. However, in this case, the Alternative Energy sources are literally rising up in a revolution against humanity, while their rotor blades are revolving. The title text is also a reference to {{w|The War of the Worlds}}: "But there are no bacteria in Mars... when I watched them they were irrevocably doomed... By the toll of a billion deaths man has bought his birthright of the earth, and it is his against all comers." Of course, this time we are only saved because we — in spite of having evolved — still produce insane members of our species: some of them occasionally being crazy in a practical way (as Don Quixote's special powers lie in defeating windmills).

* There is a [https://youtu.be/kRuqPKcxMZY fan-made animated version] of this comic on YouTube.