Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT 2101-2105 (January 16-20, 2012) - A New Hope

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AnAverageWriter:

--- Quote from: Milesb on 16 Jan 2012, 06:37 ---To be honest I actually think Marten should stand up to Faye. I don't know if anyone here agrees, but I think Faye is actually quite detrimental to Marten's personal development.
There's an example of it in today's comic. As the conversation between Faye and Marten here shows, as long as Marten plays to the back foot Faye just does her usual berating, but in panel 4 when Marten throws some sarcasm in there, gives her some cheek back - she proceeds to shut him down.

--- End quote ---

I agree with you here, and it just emphasizes Marten's doormattishness. And we see it happen, over and over again. Every single time that Marten stands up for himself, he is immediately squished and left miserable, hanging his head like a dog.

NotAwesomeAnymore:
I'd be interested to see Marten in a relationship with someone as passive as him, or join a monastery, or something. Sometimes people have a lot of misfortune as a result of their "flaws", but then move on to another group and all of a sudden they're really happy and functional and then you go, "Oh shit, I was advising them to do the opposite of that for years..." It turns out their flaws were minimal, but they were incompatible with their situation or some of the people around them.

Example: I had a "no ambition" problem last year. (I chose this because of Marten and his lack of goals.) My older sister was really passionate about going to an American university, so she went out of her way to research a million programs, write the SATs and, like, 11 essays for a bunch of schools - this process is completely different from the South African one. She got in and was really happy so the plan was for me to do the same. I consider myself pretty academically excited, but I friggin' hated it. I didn't want to research universities, or look at applications, or study for the SATs or even talk about it - it didn't matter what my family tried to make me more excited, I was a total bum about it. When I decided to go to a South African school instead, my attitude completely changed and I had the whole thing sorted out in about a day. I'm still not sure why - maybe I'm patriotic, maybe I'm more homebound, maybe I like certainty - but it just fit.

tl;dr There's a balance between a person's personal issues and their external environment, and sometimes it's really hard to tell the difference, and sometimes the answer is surprising!  

EDIT: This isn't to say that Marten's current environment (i.e. his friends, etc.) need to change themselves, but that it would be interesting to see him in another environment.

El_Flesh:
Ya, he's quite the marshmallow when chix get pissed at him.

I think he did entirely right in blowing PandaBear off  - she asked for it.
I think he should have never allowed Faye to move in, or else moved out when it was clear she wasn't going to be with him after all.

Unless he's still got her on the back burner in his mind...

Carl-E:
OK, here's a thought for all the "Marten did the right thing" folks. 

If it's right, why the bitter acrimony?  Why the self loathing?  Why does he feel like he was being an asshole (his  words, not Faye's)? 

He should have seen Padma one last time, to talk.  To say goodbye to a person who'd opened up to him.  To ask what had happened that she decided to step back.  I think her call to "hang out" was at least partly her wanting to talk, to explain, to seek some kind of resolution for/with this guy she'd inadvertantly hurt by her own bad choices.  To understand a potential friend a little better. 

It didn't need to be a roll in the hay, and maybe he wouldn't be feeling so much self loathing right now that he goes and gets Faye to metaphorically whack him upside the head (it really was self inflicted, if you think about it). 

To carry the metaphor someone started, he didn't need to try kicking the football again, OR to ignore it.  The football was never the issue.  he needed to have a heart-to-heart with Lucy.  It may not have worked out, but maybe he'd find out what the hell she was thinking, and not hate himself so much for his actions!

NotAwesomeAnymore:
+1

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