Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT Strips 3021 to 3025 (10 to 14 August 2015)

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Penquin47:

--- Quote from: ASB84 on 13 Aug 2015, 04:14 ---But, I'm a little bothered by Sven's portrayal as the "villain" here. He admits to be a shitty brother. He's not entirely wrong there. He's not entirely right, either. He's been a bit of a lousy person at times, but a lot of the "shitty brother" stuff really seems like it's more on Dora than Sven. Consider the main points of contention...

[Lots of incredibly well-thought-out and reasoned support for statements].

So yeah…I don’t know. I’m not saying that Dora’s completely in the wrong, or that Sven’s actions shouldn’t have any effect on their relationship, but…I don’t think he’s the villain Dora – and the narrative, to some extent – is making him out to be.

--- End quote ---

We don't have their childhood on screen, but honestly, aside from Dora having shitty people using her to get to Sven, it sounds pretty much like their problems were perfectly normal "we're siblings and we're not always going to get along" stuff.  Sven teased Dora and stole her toys, Dora resented how easily stuff came to Sven when she had to bust her ass off to get less, hooray, siblings.  We don't hear of anything Dora did to get back at Sven, but then, we've mostly heard Dora's perspective on it.  The thing is: Sven is not a shitty brother now.  Maybe he was in high school.  Maybe he knew that the girls were just being "friends" with Dora to get with him and didn't care.  Maybe he knew that Dora was struggling with the comparisons and didn't even try to fix it by helping her out somehow.  I'd be very interested to see what Sven's perspective on their childhood is.

Sven can be a shitty human being, but if losing Dora is what gave him the kick in the ass to realize that and try to change it?  That tells me he cared a lot about his sister, which is supported by him respecting her laying down the law about staying away from her employees/friends and doing his best to be helpful in her relationship issues with Marten.  I don't know that I buy that he's in love with Faye, and I certainly don't buy that this most recent bout of sincerity and self-reflection was caused by her failure to throw herself into his arms when he declared his love.

94ssd:
I mean I understand Sven isn't exactly a role model. But cutting him off for weeks probably, and forcing him to apologize before you'll talk to him again is out of proportion if you ask me. I mean, why? Because he has a lot of casual sex? Because he never learned how to have a healthy relationship? He never committed a crime, he never intentionally hurt anyone, but he has to either self-flaggelate or lose his only sibling?

I've never really disliked Sven. Nor have I ever thought he was a 'shitty human being' at any point in the comic except maybe the ex in the bar thing a long time ago. And I feel sorry for him now.You don't just cut off your family because they were kind of a prick, especially when they're trying to change. This has much more to do with Dora's anger and jealously than it does Sven's supposedly horrible behavior.

BenRG:
@94ssd,
The problem, for Dora, is that Sven became symbolic of every way in which her life has gone wrong. He had it easy (or at least she perceived it that way) in every way that she had it hard. It's a very, very easy and human flaw to feel bitter towards people in those circumstances.

Because of this, Dora has always had a short fuse where Sven has been concerned. The few times that he did bad things associated with her 'on screen' were just further gasoline thrown on a pre-existing fire. There's no surprise that she finally just wanted him (and the mental and emotional stress that the simple fact of his existence causes her) out of her life.

Ironically, though, it is at least as much her issues as his.

FWIW, I think it is to Sven's credit that he's mature enough to recognise that, when making and keeping the peace with his little sister, pride doesn't come into it and nor does who is 'right'. What matters is making peace. If that requires apologising (effectively for existing), then so be it. We can see how effective it was in today's strip!

CaptainFish:
I agree with ASB84's assessment of Sven, I usually go back to Marten's reaction to his break up with Faye as how I look at his character (and most characters in the strip when they do something 'wrong').

I have this sinking feeling it's going to be revealed that Dora talked to Sven about Faye's relationship troubles before he dropped the bomb. I really hope not, but the narrative does seem to be trying to hammer home that he deserves this. I'm sure there's a dozen reasons that wouldn't make sense, but I feel better just putting it out there.

One thing I really appreciated about Tai's original wooing of Dora is her assessment of how awesome Dora is for having her own business and running it how she likes it while making it successful. I'm hoping that sort of support will shore up her self-esteem, and stop her from making comparisons with her brother's career, which not even he is proud of.

Neko_Ali:
I think that Sven is probably over reacting when he says 'everything is my fault'. Sort of an over correction from his 'don't have to do anything and I still have an awesome life' days. He's growing, which is good. But blaming himself for Dora's issues is not really a help either. Hopefully Dora will counter with 'No no.. I've been a jerk too.' and the two of them actually talk and reconnect some. Dora's made a lot of work on her feelings of insecurity and blame shifting. Still more to do of course, there always is. But she's not flying off the handle at the suggestion she might be wrong as often, and is actually taking Tai's advice to heart.

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