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What is Tai's fundamental character?

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IanClark:
I know... I'm just SO CREATIVE WITH THIS TOPIC TITLE. Anyway, some people think this argument is sucking the life out of the forum, others want to resolve it. So now this whole conversation can go in this topic, meaning those who don't want to don't have to look at it and those who do want to can focus on it.

I think Tai takes a lot of shit she doesn't deserve, but I think I understand it. Tai seems very much not afraid to make herself the punchline of a joke. The fact that she hits on Dora all the time and has occasionally pushed this further (see: Hanners) makes it seem like she'd actually act on it, or worse, that she's actively trying now. However, the more I look at it, the more it seems evident that she's engaging in self-parody or possibly character humour. It's something we've all done, pretending to be hyperbolically flawed in some aspect for laughs. Hell, Stephen Colbert does it for a living. Sometimes you end up keeping the bit going for too long and people start to think you're serious. So the question is, is she serious?

First of all, Tai's been shown to have an extremely active and successful sex life, yet when she hits on Dora she comes across as extremely desperate and obvious. If this is, in fact, the way she goes about pursuing women she's interested in, one has to wonder how she's ever successfully pursued anyone.

Second, and related, is the fact that we've actually been given a brief glimpse into her real sex life. I decided to go archive diving and found that I couldn't find a single instance of her being manipulative, deceptive or sneaky for her own personal sexual gain. Now, in fairness, I did find one example of her doing it for sexual reasons at another person's request (here) but even so, her objective was to avoid hurting someone's feelings and not for further sexual exploits of her own.

Finally, it should be noted that when actually presented with a serious situation, Tai's been fairly consistently on Marten's side. For instance here, when she thinks for a split second that Marten's considering leaving Dora, instead of reacting with glee or trying to push him further, she immediately tells him to reconsider and actually seems mildly panicked.

I think Tai's self-absorbed and maybe a little bit less interested in helping out other people than she should be, but I think that there's absolutely no reason to call her manipulative, predatory or a rapist.

AnAverageWriter:
Yeah, this topic opened a can of worms in the other thread...

I'm going to wait and see what this current "arc" accomplishes before I say anything more beyond what I've said.

Tai is at the moment, presented with a situation in which we can see what her "fundamental character" contains. That is, she is alone in the bedroom of a fragile, somewhat lonely, socially-awkward girl. A girl who very well may be attracted to her.

How Tai allows things to proceed, at this point, will tell us a lot about her character- certainly more than just the snippets we've seen.

Carl-E:
So far, so god - the "not hurting feelings" thing is coming to the fore. 

Border Reiver:
Which is why I'm looking at the WCT as more of a train wreck than the situation in the comic strip at the moment.  Let's see how Jeph writes this one out.

Dr. ROFLPWN:
Tai's fundamental character is that of a stone-cold pimp, a woman with hips of marble and a bust of steel. A woman who slaps people that are talking. Believe in her that believes in you; HERS IS THE DRILL THAT SHALL PIERCE THE MARIGOLD HEAVENS!


--- Quote from: Border Reiver on 04 Nov 2010, 04:53 ---Which is why I'm looking at the WCT as more of a train wreck than the situation in the comic strip at the moment.  Let's see how Jeph writes this one out.

--- End quote ---

The Weekly Comic Dick Talk Discussion Thread is much, much more trainwrecky than the strip. I look at my earlier posts and I want to take them back, because I've actually warmed a lot to this idea of Tai and Mari and the forbidden tongue tango. It's nice to see Tai be sweet and not-drunk and suave, rather than...weird, as she's sometimes been. Marigold seems to be bringing out the best in the young redhead of the tan-ish skin.

...out of curiousity, do we know Tai's ethnicity? Or is that just kinda indeterminate?

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