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God Himself Could Not Sink This Ship: Thoughts on Marten, Claire, and the Future

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ASB84:
There's a lot of ground between "drama-filled relationship implosion" and "sickeningly sweet and cutesy". For those of us who aren't loving every moment of Marten and Claire, we're not (all) asking for drama, just more of a balance between cute moments, funny moments, character development, and so on. To represent our point of view with a false dichotomy like that is just silly. There doesn't have to be constant angst, but when every moment comes down to "Look how cute they are! Squee squee squee!', for some of us that alternates between boring and irritating. Or irritatingly boring.


--- Quote from: TRVA123 on 04 May 2015, 16:06 ---I think it is more like the Erkel effect. A new character comes, everyone is excited because this new character is quirky and awesome. So they give the character a bigger and bigger part. Soon the character is dating another character. Then the story is ONLY ABOUT THAT, screw any other plot lines. or, even better, we will work the new character couple INTO these other plotlines! even if there is no reason for them to be there! After all, everyone loves this character, how could anyone ever get sick of them. No such thing as too much of a good thing AMIRITE?!!?!?!

I don't dislike Marten and Claire, nor do I wish bad things would happen to their relationship. But at this point, only show them if they directly affect the plot of the comic, and if you mention their relationship, do it in a way that furthers their plotline.

To me, it feels like their plot has stagnated. and I have no interest in 500 more strips of the same goddam thing. Steve and an adventure with his kiebler elves would be more interesting.

--- End quote ---


--- Quote from: Jab on 04 May 2015, 00:07 ---I'm really not feeling it with them. Claire seems to just be "The one who makes terrible puns", and their dates/interactions consist entirely of overly-obvious attempts at being cutesy. The "Head-Scritching" and the "You're girlfriend's a dork" ">__< I KNOW!" being the most-apparent examples. It just feels too over-the-top and "OH MY GOD THIS IS SO CUTE YOU GUYS SHOULD ALL LOVE THIS!" to me. It's cloying.

Marten & Dora had an interesting dynamic- she was bossy, controlling and relentlessly-paranoid while he was weak, frequently-spineless and had no ability to deal with anger or stress. Obviously Marten/Faye was such an interesting dynamic that it basically ran the strip for 500+ strips, and continued/s to be important. Even Marten & Padma was interesting because of his issues in dealing with it. I'm not feeling anything with them. Maybe if they start acting so cute that it annoys everyone (reminds me of that great Seinfeld episode where he & his girlfriend irritate everyone by calling the other "Shmoopie!"). But otherwise, there's too little there.

--- End quote ---

I think you've both nailed it in those posts. At times, I think there's been a bit too much shilling of them as a couple. In addition to the examples you mentioned, Jab, there's also the reaction of seemingly everyone else in the strip when they got together. The punchline of someone finding out and having an over the top joyful and excited reaction to seeing they were a couple was a bit on the nose. At times, it felt just a few steps away from one of the other characters turning to address us and shattering the fourth wall by saying "Wow, isn't this great? Aren't they just the cutest couple ever? This is amazing!"

Compare that to Marten and Dora. Ultimately, that relationship wasn't going to last, and you could certainly argue that Marten and Claire are a better match. But I think the relationship between Marten and Dora was portrayed a lot better, taking into account the reactions of the other characters, the balance between punchlines, cute moments, and more dramatic fare, and their involvement in other characters' arcs. I also think there was a better build to the relationship happening in the first place.

Look, I get that it must be tiresome for people who are loving "Claireten" (which would appear to be the majority) to hear anything negative from people who aren't enjoying it so much. We all bristle when we hear someone criticise a band we like, a TV show we enjoy, our all-time favourite movie, the sport/team/player we follow...I get it. But I think we're (still) being unfairly portrayed as joyless misanthropes who want nothing but angst, when most of us who feel that way about the relationship are just a little tired of cutesy stuff, especially when it seems to be the whole point of the story, and when there's nothing to cut through the treacle. For a community that happily (and rightfully) goes to great lengths to be inclusive and progressive, I have to admit that it's a bit disheartening for us to be shouted down in such a sneering manner. Again, I'm sure it gets a bit tiresome to hear the negativity, but I think a lot of those posts are actually trying to clear up misconceptions and explain a point of view. It's not about ramming the point down your throat, it's more about "Hold up, you're not quite getting where we're coming from here; that's not what we're saying, this is what we're saying."

Is it cold in here?:
Well put! But there will be plenty of complications later, no doubt, rather than endless continuation of the squeefest.

TRVA123:
That might be true, but something that may or may not happen down the road isn't really keeping me engaged in the comic now.

I like this comic, I've been reading it for years. I really don't want to wake up one day and realize that the comic has become boring for me.

Aziraphale:
I don't think QC has jumped the shark yet, but it's easy to see how it could go that way.

mustang6172:
I suppose Veronica's sudden relocation could be seen as an act of shark jumping.

Not much of a shark though.  Maybe it was more like a manta ray.

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