Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT: 2821-2825 (27 - 31 October 2014) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
MooskiNet:
--- Quote from: Gladstone on 30 Oct 2014, 15:26 ---
--- Quote from: ReindeerFlotilla on 30 Oct 2014, 14:56 ---I mean, we've seen her in two strips since her last smile. In the first, she had something serious to say and didn't get a serious reply, on screen.
In the second, she's concerned about how her boss is going to react, and how her new thing is going to go over socially. At the end of both, she's reacting with some flavor of surprise.
[...]
Keep in mind, we've seen a few seconds of at least several minutes. We don't know what we've missed.
--- End quote ---
And at home, she was bewildered/taken aback for several strips, then concerned about Marten's thoughts re: her status. Once they get off work and have the most immediate concerns behind them, hopefully Claire will have some opportunity to relax and smile and crack an awful awesome pun.
--- End quote ---
It's funny - intellectually, I know there's nothing about anything I've read/seen previously that matters a hill of beans to the progression of the story - Jeph's going to draw the next comic, and then that will be canon, so worrying about it isn't just useless, it's silly.
I am really intrigued at how this particular webcomic romance is hitting all my buttons as opposed to any of the others I've read before (or even currently - DumbingOfAge has about five simmering in the slow cooker). Whether by design or by accident, Jeph's managed to make me care what happens to these two, and I can't put my finger on exactly why.
Not that I'm complaining.
Pilchard123:
--- Quote from: Rimwolf on 30 Oct 2014, 15:34 ---That's a possibility. But the angle of his gaze and the expression on his face could more easily be read as looking at Angus and thinking "so THAT's my competition?" or even looking at Emily and trying to figure her out.
--- End quote ---
That's what I thought - looking at the commotion that will inevitably be caused by the bug chase.
ReindeerFlotilla:
--- Quote from: MooskiNet on 30 Oct 2014, 15:57 ---
It's funny - intellectually, I know there's nothing about anything I've read/seen previously that matters a hill of beans to the progression of the story - Jeph's going to draw the next comic, and then that will be canon, so worrying about it isn't just useless, it's silly.
I am really intrigued at how this particular webcomic romance is hitting all my buttons as opposed to any of the others I've read before (or even currently - DumbingOfAge has about five simmering in the slow cooker). Whether by design or by accident, Jeph's managed to make me care what happens to these two, and I can't put my finger on exactly why.
Not that I'm complaining.
--- End quote ---
I think it is an investment effect. I cared about Marten and Dora. I can't be arsed about Faye and Angus. I have nothing against Angus. I just didn't have anything for him.
I suppose that's why I didn't give much thought or care about Padma or Delilah. They existed specifically to be Marten's interests. Angus has a bit more background, but even that pretty much sums to being interested in Faye.
Claire isn't quite her own character, in retrospect. It's clear she had a thing for Marten for a while. But she didn't engage as a one trick pony. Because she basically acted to hide how she felt, and we weren't given a look inside her head, she came across as a more complex character.
Also, shipping aside, I don't think I expected the size and brass content of Jeph's ones was sufficient to go there. I pretty much joined this forum because I was so impressed by the effort.
Aside from the character development, there's also the presentation.
I could have gotten behind Padma, and actually cared about the way Marten blew that, because she's drawn cute, and has a pretty unique character trait--she's not afraid of Faye. I tend to poo poo Faye's violence, but mostly because it is nonconsentual. Padma was go from the beginning, and it was just a game (you were supposed to block!).
Except for her first appearance, Claire is almost over the top with the cute. It's over 9000. Her quirk is anxiety that seems ever present but almost never stops her.
None of this is objective, mind you. It's my experience. Other people have a completely different read on her, and that's okay. I just figured this might be relevant to your experience.
Is it cold in here?:
--- Quote from: ReindeerFlotilla on 30 Oct 2014, 14:56 ---She was a man four years ago, regardless of how she identified.
--- End quote ---
Her life was indeed shaped by being misgendered, which I believe was your primary point.
Thinking of younger Claire as a "man", though, interferes with careful thinking about trans* people.
ReindeerFlotilla:
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 30 Oct 2014, 18:37 ---
--- Quote from: ReindeerFlotilla on 30 Oct 2014, 14:56 ---She was a man four years ago, regardless of how she identified.
--- End quote ---
Her life was indeed shaped by being misgendered, which I believe was your primary point.
Thinking of younger Claire as a "man", though, interferes with careful thinking about trans* people.
--- End quote ---
That's a bit pedantic, to the point. I'm all for respecting people's identity, but there's an infinite field of "this term means that to me."
Normally, I don't care to correct this kind of thing, but you're talking about "careful thinking" and that's not a half step from thought policing. You're trying to tell me what I mean. That's a thing I'm going to have to claim exclusive province over. Feel free to tell me what you understood, but not what I mean.
What I said was statement about how Claire was previously viewed by the outside world. Unless she's always been presenting as female, which her statements seem to indicate was not the case, there was a time when the world would have assigned her the value of "young man" and treated her accordingly, with respect to unconscious bias. As a guess, it wouldn't have the best of all possible bias sets, since she'd have been short and scrawny, like her brother. But she still would have been the unwitting benefactor of gobs of white, male privilege.
She is, for the practical purpose of this subject, now a woman. Whatever the circumstances, they are such that she can be confident most people in Northampton don't know her as anything else. Which strongly suggest that she's no longer getting those gobs of male privilege.
We don't know exactly when she made the decision to change. She hasn't said. So we don't know how long she may have lived in line with her identify before she began to transition, nor do we know any details of how that went down. It's actually not a subject I care to know about, unless it bears on the story. We do know that she must have spent a good chunk of her life being assigned the role of boy, young man, and possibly man, based on what she told us.
If there's an objection to be made on the basis of technical inaccuracy or potential hate speech, I'm always open to hear it. Please refrain from telling me what I mean, or presuming to characterize my intent.
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