Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
What is Marigold's fundamental character?
Is it cold in here?:
Faye said she needed a nickname, and I didn't like any of the ones Faye proposed.
zmeiat_joro:
--- Quote from: jwhouk on 17 Oct 2010, 14:40 ---You can say "Aspergers".
Or were you thinking more Borderline Personality?
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Em, wat? No. Not even close.
'Till later, I'll probably elaborate?
ZoeB:
--- Quote from: nichidani on 10 Jun 2010, 08:56 ---And being a girl with glasses and pulled back hair and social anxiety, that's always bothered me. While a lot of us withdrawn nerd girls would like to be a little more outgoing and pretty, we don't all want to become a cookie cutter image of conventional 'beauty'. At least, not most of the time.
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Though some of us have even less social experience. Being invited to a party in 8th grade? No. (or any time from 1st to 12th for that matter).
I'm not sure I would pass this test. But I would try to. I don't want to be so socially stunted. But there's a lot of fear too.
The physical resemblance is uncanny - Marigold at 52, if she didn't have friends like that to help.
ZoeB:
--- Quote from: TheMorrigan on 18 Oct 2010, 21:37 ---Following my whole "I am Marigold" line of thinking, it's not so much that Marigold is self-unaware all the time, she's possibly TOO self-aware in social situations. It may not make sense at first glance, but it's a working theory for me. The little filter in your head that says, "Hey, don't do that, you'll make an ass out of yourself" is faulty for her. It either overreacts and keeps Marigold silent and introverted a lot, or (when she's vulnerable or excited) not active enough.
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+1 Insightful
I wonder how stereotypical people like us are? The fit's not perfect, but very close. Some alcohol would probably be good at loosening the filters, but the filters won't allow that to happen. If it did, it might be very healing - or very damaging. It's a self-image issue, I know I'm scared to find out what I'd be like with the filter down.
I think it all springs from a low self-image.
Using a comic strip as an aid to introspection and cognitive therapy? Ewww, narcissism... but the resemblance really is scary. That probably means the artist knows someone like that, or Marigold is a composite.
Elysiana:
--- Quote from: Coco on 20 Oct 2010, 15:18 ---Jumping in way late but I skimmed the majority of the thread, so hopefully I'm not overly repetitive. I have to say that I also like Marigold. I was just like her in high school, and I still am to an extent when it comes to social situations. I never know what to say, or what to do with my hands or where to stand. I also have a habit of jumping to the conclusion that I'm not really well-liked but invited out of habit or pity, which makes me un-inclined to accept invitations. Of course the first time I'm not invited is proof that they never liked me at all. See how this all circles around to create a person in complete isolation? The difference between myself and Marigold is that I recognize it, I had some great people in my life to help me handle it, and I've learned how to go through the motions of pretending to be a normal person.
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I'm right there with you; like you, I've been able to overcome it a bit. In my case, I am self-deprecating because it hurts less for me to say it about myself than to worry that someone else will beat me to it. It's part of why I've had trouble with relationships in the past - I'd rather assume something is going to go wrong and head it off at the pass than have someone dump me, because it sucks to be dumped. No, I know it doesn't make sense, but to my downward-spiraling mind it does. Low self-esteem is a bitch.
--- Quote from: TAG on 09 Jun 2010, 09:24 ---And no, despite most of my friends being major geeks/nerds/whathaveyou (incl. myself), despite a number of them being pretty big gamers (incl. myself), not one of them has reached the level of social ineptitude somehow attained by Marigold
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Really?? Come on now, if they're not low-functioning then you really can't call them MAJOR nerds. Good grief, MOST of the nerds I know are those of the low-functioning kind, and several are much worse than Marigold. I think in that case a lot of it stems from the fact that they are heavily involved in role-playing - whether tabletop, computer game, or LARP - and have no real concept of how the real world is. These are the guys who never shower, never brush their teeth, wear food-stained clothes, are not just obese but wear the weight badly, and yet they STILL put down women who don't weigh 100 pounds and have DD boobs. It's the girls who feel the need to loudly announce how TOTALLY WEIRD they are, and everything they do is done solely to prove that. It's like there's an entire social group that's trying to be as different as possible by conflicting with social norms on purpose, and they don't care if it rubs other people the wrong way - or they're completely oblivious to it.
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I would venture to say that Marigold's attitude easily stems from the fact that almost all her social interaction used to be online. People are usually not themselves online - especially in gaming. The internet gives you a great place to become anonymous and act however you want with no real thought of consequences. You're completely separated from everyone by a computer screen and you don't have to care whether or not what you say hurts them. I turn off trade chat in WoW occasionally because of all the people being assholes for no reason whatsoever - they're just hurtful on purpose and it sickens me. I've also found that when I'm around that kind of attitude for a long time, I start to pick up on it and I get snide with people. When you're around it all the time, you begin to feel like that's the norm, that people just treat each other however they want. I guarantee that a lot of them would never dream of saying those things to someone in person.
Also, Marigold obviously has a lot of learning to do as far as how things really work. She often inadvertently says things that we know are rude, and she's always shocked and embarrassed to find out that that's the case - she's not trying to be a bitch, she just has no idea that people don't talk to each other that way. She was surprised to find out that the girls in her guild who were taking pics of themselves weren't really as hot as they made themselves out to be, and that she could do a few things to touch up her own photos and make herself look better. It felt like that was the first time anyone really pointed out that the playing field was more even than she thought. I'm sure that Angus telling her she was pretty was probably the first time she got a real compliment, considering the way it made her blush. I'm not at all surprised that she crushed on Angus after hearing that. She'd do anything to look good to him, and really all she can think about is *acceptance*. She's like that little dog Chester from Looney Tunes.
I think she's got a lot of growing to do, and a lot to learn, but she'll get there. The more she interacts with people outside of a computer screen, the better.
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