Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT: 2455-2459 (27-31 May, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread

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Zebediah:
Since when does someone have to be the villain in a breakup? Sometimes relationships just don't work out, they end, and life goes on. Look, for example, at how Jeph handled it when Dora and Marten broke up. So no, that isn't a deal-breaker. Jeph could quite easily have them give it a go, have it not work out, have them split up, and yet still keep them both in the strip as well-liked and positive characters.

I still don't think Marten+Claire is going to happen, but I have other reasons for thinking that.

bhtooefr:
There's plenty of other ways to end a relationship, though, rather than an acrimonious break-up or a move.

And, Jeph's a good enough writer that he could figure out a way for Marten to break up with Claire without him looking like a douchebag. (Well, the forums might think he's a douchebag, but...) Or, a way to make Claire break up with Marten, without her being the villain.

As I've suggested earlier, one way to do things would be, play Marten's passivity against Claire's passion. I think it could create a healthy dynamic for both of them, but it could just as easily create a bad dynamic. And, QC isn't MA3 with its hamfisted writing, QC characters actually do sit down and talk with each other once in a while - Claire could have a reasoned discussion with Marten about how their relationship isn't working because she feels like she's being held back by Marten, without being angry at all.

katsmeat:

--- Quote from: quix0te on 28 May 2013, 11:12 ---I don't see Marten connecting with Claire because thats a narrative tar baby.  Claire can't break up acrimoniously with Marten because that would be painting a transgender as a villain.

--- End quote ---

Jeph is already in that minority of authors who have used a trans-character and taken the trouble to developed them beyond a crass  1-D caricature. If an author has clearly developed a trans-character as an actual human being, then I think readers won't mind if the author gets them to act within the full range of human possibilities; this naturally includes the possibility of being a villain.  After all, always portraying people from a minority group positively is, in a way, is almost as dehumanising as always portraying them negatively.

Not that Jeph would make her a villain, IMO, simply because that would be OOC for Claire. In a relationship, I can easily see her doing something exceptionally stupid, mainly out of inexperience, but never anything villainous. Not that breakups actually need villains to happen.

BTW,  I think trans-person (or transwoman/transman) is  a better. Using 'transgender' as a noun seems to me like referring to a Jewish person as "a Jew".

Loki:

--- Quote from: Zebediah on 28 May 2013, 11:34 ---Since when does someone have to be the villain in a breakup? Sometimes relationships just don't work out, they end, and life goes on. Look, for example, at how Jeph handled it when Dora and Marten broke up.

--- End quote ---
...and even then, a nuclear war broke out on the forums. A lot of people were on the side of "if Dora had worked on her issues in the first place, this wouldn't have happened. Dora sucks." vs. "if Marten wasn't such a pushover all the time, this wouldn't have happened. Marten sucks."

Redball:
I too have considered the word "Jew" as pejorative. I came to realize that sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't, and I don't think Jews have a problem with the word in their own usage. This link sheds a little light on the usage as well as the suggestion that referring to, say, "the Jew" or "the transgender" is limiting and more likely to be offensive.

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