Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
Faye and Sven
soapbox-paiga:
--- Quote from: Doug S. Machina on 11 Feb 2008, 16:36 ---
--- Quote from: tomart on 11 Feb 2008, 11:52 ---
--- Quote from: soapbox-paiga on 11 Feb 2008, 10:33 --- regardless of personal opinions on the pairing, regardless of whether or not it would work, regardless of how complimentary they are, how many problems they'd have... Faye and Sven are interesting. ... I am a cruel mistress. :evil:
--- End quote ---
Yeah, I guess I'd have to admit they're more interesting than Marten/Dora. In the sense of the ancient Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times..."
In RL (RealLife.jk), the Marten/Dora relationship is close to ideal, it's what we yearn for; while Sven/Faye is made of landmines and boobytraps (pun Unintended.) So tension, conflict, trauma, heartbreak, serious injury and hard punches are more interesting to cruel mistresses, and most everyone else. But not when they happen to you.
--- End quote ---
Another saying is "Happiness writes white." "And they all lived happily ever after" is what you put at the end of a story. Marten and Dora (as a couple) make less interesting stories because they're happy together. They had two strips of "There's other women in your heart?" conflict before they realised there was nothing to it. Faye has a world of hurt to resolve; Sven might help, or might make it worse. There's the drama. Besides that they shark off each other in an interesting fashion. Hannelore has mountains to climb too. That's why today's strip [1075, for posterity] works so well. (Well, that, and the "OMG, she's cuter than ever!!!" angle.)
Apparently, if you want to find your main characters, you look for the one with the biggest problems. The guy with the crappy job, chaotic robot buddy, non-starting love life and strange girl moving into his home was that one. Now, not so much. Time to look at someone else. As readers, we want them to unhappy. That way, they will keep struggling and so entertain us. Fortunately, we're not going to meet them, or they'd be pissed at us.
--- End quote ---
I don't want them unhappy, per say... I just want a narrative. QC is in its heart of hearts a story-- and what's good for a story isn't always so great for reality (see: Stranger than Fiction). All you can hope for is that you hit a happy ending. Some day. Eventually.
I honestly do like Faye/Sven, though, on a personal level. I don't really predict their lives being utterly destroyed by becoming attracted to each other-- granted, I predict their lives becoming a whole lot more complex, but that's really not necessarily bad. Life's really about learning things-- even if Sven and Faye bumped headboards and realized an hour later what a completely awful idea it was, at least they did *something* with their situation. Right now I'm a lot more concerned with them being static than I am with them being pissed at me. I don't enjoy seeing them unhappy-- but, dudes, Faye doesn't seem like the most frickin' ecstatic person in the world anyway. From a pragmatic standpoint, I don't think sleeping with *anyone* is gonna solve her problems right now (or ever) but at least she'd be doing something about it. The exercise and therapy sessions are a good start-- time to put these lessons into practice, if'n ya please.
No, I don't like it when bad things happen to me, but at least I can say that I've learned from most of them. Even if it was, y'know, to throw small children out windows for fun and profit. (*cue: The More You Know!*)
raoullefere:
Folks, I'm tellin' ya, there be an iceberg bearin' down on the good ship Mardoranic. Just ye heave to and keep ye weather eye clapped on 'er.
Did any real sailors ever actually speak that way?
In the first Amber series, Corwin comments that , in effect, if his life is a novel, he'd like to strangle the writer. God knows none of the readers (unless they are completely insane—at one point Corwin is blinded) want to be Corwin, but it's very entertaining reading about him.
The same applies to couples. We can, apparently, either have happy couples of interesting people: not both. Soap Operas, of course, learned this long ago. QC's not a soap, (or a soup, despite my fervent wish to type it so), but the principle is the same. Marten and Dora aren't nearly old enough to become Tom and Alice.
Maybe Jeph can overcome this rule, but I doubt it.
soapbox-paiga:
--- Quote from: raoullefere on 11 Feb 2008, 22:02 ---Folks, I'm tellin' ya, there be an iceberg bearin' down on the good ship Mardoranic. Just ye heave to and keep ye weather eye clapped on 'er.
Did any real sailors ever actually speak that way?
In the first Amber series, Corwin comments that , in effect, if his life is a novel, he'd like to strangle the writer. God knows none of the readers (unless they are completely insane—at one point Corwin is blinded) want to be Corwin, but it's very entertaining reading about him.
The same applies to couples. We can, apparently, either have happy couples of interesting people: not both. Soap Operas, of course, learned this long ago. QC's not a soap, (or a soup, despite my fervent wish to type it so), but the principle is the same. Marten and Dora aren't nearly old enough to become Tom and Alice.
Maybe Jeph can overcome this rule, but I doubt it.
--- End quote ---
What's a weather eye? Is it contagious? Can you buy it at Bed, Bath and Beyond?
There's ways to both have a couple and have them not be completely useless... The problem is, there has to be problems. It's not a question of interestingness exactly so much as it is just realism-- no couple can be 100% happy 100% of the time, and if they are, they're creepy. Martin and Dora have a lot of weirdness they seem to have overcome way to quickly (in my opinion); Martin's done a 180 on what girl he's got the hots for, and Dora has broken the golden rule of BFF-ship (at least in the girl-verse; I dunno about all you man-whores out there). These are serious issues and if they're really ready to move past them as quickly as they are then, dude... That kind of makes me concerned for them.
Jackie Blue:
OK seriously I like QC and all but you did not just compare Jeph to fucking Zelazny.
Seriously read this and then get back to me on that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Today_We_Choose_Faces
(NB: This is a drunk post.)
raoullefere:
Actually, I used Zelazny's work as an archetype. Make of that what you will.
However, if I did compare them, I doubt Zelazny would notice. He's likely too busy being dead and/or creating enough energy to power a small city with his gyrations over Dawn of Amber. Save your energy for hunting Betancourt down and giving him an atomic wedgie.
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