INSIGHT ALERT! INSIGHT ALERT! Do not read if you're not willing to listen to reason!
It struck me as I was on my way to work last night what, exactly, was the problem with everyone going bat-guano insane over the breakup arc.
We, as readers, are falling for the Author Avatar fallacy. Yes, I know, "Author Avatar" is a TV Trope (and no, I won't link to it here so as to drive you crazy for the rest of the day), but in this case, I think it's the heart of our strong reactions to this whole storyline.
Most readers know at least a bit about Jeph - lives in NoHo, married with a dog, that sort of thing. After all these years and all the strips, we know that sometimes Jeph has put bits and pieces of himself into the protagonist of the story (namely, Marten).
Jeph's a music geek; Marten's a music geek. Jeph has a thing for guitars; so does Marty. Jeph has distinct opinions about things (as he outlines in his posts under the comic) that Marten expresses in the panels of the comic.
Our finite human brains, as we are prone to do, automatically make assumptions based on this information. We tend to think that if Marten likes waffles, it's because Jeph likes waffles. It's the same reason why so many people bet the favorite when they put money down on sports - team A has won in the past, ergo team A will continue to win in the near future.
And that's where we get to our current story arc. See, Marten and Dora is, whether you like it or not, the longest running "pair-up" in the strip. Unfortunately, that doesn't match up with our Author Avatar fallacy - Jeph's married, ergo Marten and Dora are a OTP that should lead to marriage. Or, at least, to not breaking up.
There's a problem with this, though: just from the way that Jeph has told the story (perhaps not intentionally putting himself in Marten's shoes, but just as a good author writes dialogue for his characters), he has pretty much made it difficult for him to do anything but keep Marten and Dora together.
I'm probably dredging things up from one of the other 30+ pages on this thread, but consider this: Dora's been a cast member for over 1700 strips; her first date with Marty was before even "The Talk"; she and Marten have been together as a couple for nearly 1200 strips. We've speculated how much time that is within the comic (probably about two years, from what Jeph and other sources have suggested); we are probably at the point where things either get real serious or end badly.
The problem is that Dora, just because of who she is, is key to the entire strip. You all realize that we knew where Faye worked before Faye moved in with Marten? COD has been the focal point of the strip for nearly the entire run of the strip (strip NINE, fer cryin' out loud!). Now, 1,790 strips later, we're essentially suggesting with the breakup that we're no longer going to see the focal point of the strip because of TEH DRAMA?
That is bad storytelling. And I honestly do not believe (at least, not until this arc is finished) that Jeph would tell a story that badly. If he does... well, I don't think I'll go into that. I mean, this isn't going to be L. Ron Hubbard-level bad storytelling as much as perhaps Douglas Adams.
I will say this again: I firmly believe that the next words out of Marten's mouth will define him as a character for the rest of the strip. If he rolls over and plays dead, then he deserves all the fecal matter that gets dumped on him in life, and Jeph might as well rename the strip "Everybody Hates Marten." If he stands up for himself, and refuses to take Dora's warped worldview for the truth - well, then.
I know, I'm getting into TL,DR territory. Bottom line is this, though: anything less than a "NO" out of Marten's mouth isn't going to cut it.
(grabs the Nine Iron of Doom for the eventual responses - especially if I'm wrong)
Poll
15 (5%)
Author
Topic: WCDT 15-19 November 2010 (1796-1800) (Read 445535 times)