Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
Does Marten have goals?
stoutfiles:
I'm not doubting Marten has friends...he does. I don't see how that changes the fact that he loafs through life, timidly hitting on girls he finds attractive. Other than being a "Nice Guy", he's not much of a catch, is he? No current hobbies, no aspirations...where would dating Marten take you? To the bar and/or apartment? A coffee shop perhaps? I could start a whole topic about how girls don't like the "Nice Guy" mainly because they're just like Marten, kind of boring and living vicariously through their more interesting friends.
I'm on a phone so whoever referenced Seinfield and Friends...ALL of those characters had goals. Not one of them just walked around doing the same thing everyday. Some of them were losers, but for zany comical reasons.
Anyone who referenced Pintsize as a friend...come on now. He is a computer. Unless you think a guy with a bunch of A.I. friends and no others would be a healthy lifestyle.
Odin:
--- Quote from: Tergon on 11 May 2011, 09:07 ---But she didn't break up with him before he moved. They were a couple, admittedly having some difficulty with the upcoming separation, but Marten makes it very clear that they had not broken up. He clearly states that her becoming harder to contact happened over time, and says that just before the breakup he left her about six messages in a week because he hadn't seen her, not calling her obsessively every day. Again, I do grant that sometimes the clingy guy is worse than this; I also acknoweldge that some guys in that situation would twist the truth to make themselves look good. But that's not what's happened here. The main character of the comic, whose word we have no reason whatsoever to doubt, has laid out the story in a manner that certainly doesn't flatter himself. The parts of the story that you're arguing are things that he very specifically states, which implies that you think Marten is outright lying when he tells the story. With zero basis for that assumption, and absolutely nothing even suggesting that another version of the story might be the truth, I just don't see grounds for debate here. The story as it stands is caonical for the QC Universe.
--- End quote ---
Hint: This would be where he was dumped, the next strip was the one where she left, then the next one was where he explained that he got the bright idea to up and follow her while drunk.
--- Quote ---So... he has his three best friends, as we've established, and he likes hanging out with them. Gotcha. But how does that make the others not his friends? He does spend time with them, he does like them, he does get along well with them. There is no basis here at all for saying they're not his friends! Hell, I've got people I consider good friends, but we almost always hang out in the company of others. The friendship is no less because we don't spend hours alone having Deep & Meaningfuls.
--- End quote ---
Because regular random encounters with acquaintances does not a friendship make. I shoot the shit with coworkers every day and we spend all of our working hours around each other and we get along just as well as any non-romantic characters in this comic, but none of us would call the other a friend. A bunch of generally friendly people living in the same community does not make them all friends with each other, to put it another way.
--- Quote ---On the contrary, it's trying to re-direct the point to what I originally made, rather than having it changed on me. ;) I'm saying that Marten at the start of the comic was a depressed guy who was not pursuing a passion for music, and that part of the character growth he's shown is that he started playing again. Yeah, we haven't seen Deathmole playing in a while, but so what? That's irrelevant to the point I was making - that Marten pursuing something he loves was a positive move for him. The fact that we haven't seen him actually playing the guitar in a while isn't evidence that he's stopped at all, it's just lack of recent evidence that he's playing much. Whether or not he's doing so with Deathmole has nothing to do with why I brought his music up in the first place.
--- End quote ---
I was talking more about it having been so long since it was even tangentially referenced in the comic that he hasn't been doing it, and since it wasn't a big enough deal for anyone to notice and comment on in-comic, he couldn't have been all that passionate about it, either.
--- Quote ---Rather than do an exhaustive line-by-line quotestorm, I'll keep it simple.
Marten opened his home to Faye before he had any real shot at a romantic relationship with her, and kept living with her because they've become incredibly close friends. Faye openly tells Marten that the only reason she's strong enough to be dating Angus is because Marten helped her come to terms with her issues. Marten, for his part, is not only fully supportive of Faye's relationship, but he gets along very well with Angus and even has a sense of humour about them starting a physical relationship. There's definitely nothing at all to say he's the slightest bit bitter about it.
--- End quote ---
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1818
--- Quote ---When Dora made her move on him, it took Marten entirely by surprise - but he didn't turn her down.
--- End quote ---
This doesn't exactly go very far to any counter-point to the relationship being 100% Dora's initiative.
--- Quote ---And when Dora was having doubts about the relationship and whether Marten was just settling or not, he went to great lengths to try and make her understand that he wanted to be with her, and wanted to be an active part in the relationship. He wasn't just settling or letting her bully him into the relationship. Many, many comics were devoted to Marten trying to prove that point.
--- End quote ---
Depends on your perspective, because all of those situations other than the "are you settling for me?" thing were Marten backing down repeatedly before Dora's wrath (though that does go back to my point about the relationship being toxic--Dora didn't actually respect Marten, but since neither of them have that much self-respect to begin with it really isn't surprising).
--- Quote ---When they did break up, he showed deep depression, but he's recovered to the point where he approached Padma in a bar, was willing to face Dora again, can make jokes about the relationship, and has pretty much gotten over his depression.
--- End quote ---
Steve dragged him over to Padma and if anyone else makes jokes about his breakup with Dora they get the Death Glare. He isn't over it.
This is getting boring, though, so I'm skipping to the end.
--- Quote ---So, you read QC and debate it on the forums because you take pleasure in the misfortunes of others.
--- End quote ---
Name one good thing that has happened to anyone in the QC Universe that wasn't shortly smashed to pieces later. The comic is totally about satisfying that schadenfreude itch.
--- Quote ---You don't deny your contempt for the characters, or the storyline, or the writer, and you take every opportunity to decry all three of these things. You are here, apparently, for no other reason than to mock them.
Just... wow.
--- End quote ---
The only actual contempt I have on these forums is for the people that try to act like the story is ever meant to actually be something positive or uplifting. The most optimistic character in the series has crippling OCD issues and is completely and utterly incapable of enjoying a healthy romantic relationship, I really don't think I should have to say anything beyond that to prove that point.
jeph:
Wow Odin, going through your recent post history, you're kind of a jerk. You should cool off, maybe not post here anymore.
jeph:
To address the actual topic, Marten isn't really sure what his goals ARE. I'm pretty sure I've actually had him say something along these lines in the comic, actually.
He'd like to have some, but life can be insidious in how you go day by day and suddenly it's been a year and you're still working at your crappy job and WTF happened to all that time.
I've always been a goal-oriented person, but I know lots of people in their 20s who are in Marten's situation.
jeph:
ps I banned Odin because goddamn that dude was kind of a dick I guess!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version