Marten tells the story as if they started dating again and then she mysteriously dumped him after getting frustrated after a week and a half of him calling every day. Now, granted, that kind of thing can happen, but be honest and recall what scenario happens far more often when a guy moves across country in pursuit of a girl that broke up with him before he moved.
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.
All of those relationships are based off of comics where Marten happens to run into them anyway while they are doing something else (usually an "Oh, hey, Marten! What's up?" occurs). He isn't actually going and hanging out with these other people unless he is already hanging out with one of the Big 3 first.
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.
That's kind of dancing around the point and ignoring it. There is no current evidence that he is still pursuing that passion at all (and plenty of evidence that he has dropped it altogether, not even a throwaway "Yeah, this angst is really helping me out during practice" lines or anything).
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.
Several quick responses to lines cut from my wall o' text
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.
When Dora made her move on him, it took Marten entirely by surprise - but he didn't turn her down. 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. 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.
Hannelore fixated on Marten more than anyone, and he's still the one she seeks out more than most of the others. Their brother-sister relationship is one of my favourite parts of QC, and he's been there for her a lot to help coax her out of her shell. Faye has definitely been a big part of it as well, but I still maintain that Marten's been the main part of that. Certainly he spends more time with Hannelore than Dora does.
As for Marigold... well, there's the obvious fact that Marten was the one who introduced her into the comic (with a bit of AnthroPC Shenanigans thrown in there as well). He's present at Marigold's first night out drinking when he teaches her about beer, he's present at the Anime convention when the girls dress him as a character to cheer Marigold up, even the night when she finds out about Faye and Angus is at his apartment. Marten's clearly a big part of her social life, and without him there to introduce her to the gang, it's doubtful she'd have one at all.
He is a huge part of all of their lives, and his actions have changed them all. Sometimes, yes, it's been passive on his part, but how does that change how important he is to them? He's been a part of all their adventures, he's played a role the entire time, and he's changed their lives.
And if you can't see any of that, if you dislike Marten so much, if you dislike the storyline so much, if you think the writing is so terrible... then why, in the name of all things holy, do you even read QC in the first place?
Schadenfreude.
So, you read QC and debate it on the forums because you take pleasure in the misfortunes of others. 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.