Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT strips 4021-4025 (10th to 14th June 2019)
Gus_Smedstad:
--- Quote from: chason on 11 Jun 2019, 07:00 ---Nah I think that May is one of the MORE mature characters. She is just prickly sometimes. However, she does understand how the real world works, something that the comfortable income with very little effort that other cast members seem to have lack.
--- End quote ---
I can’t remotely agree with this. May comes across as a sociopathic child most of the time, a creature of pure Id that can’t imagine anyone else’s point of view mattering. Which is why her appearing contrite in her recent conversation with Momo was a first. I haven’t seen any evidence that she knows how the “real world works” beyond what has happened to her directly.
I don’t know where the “comfortable income” thing is coming from either. Marten basically has no money. Bubbles and Faye have frequently talked about how their shop is barely solvent. Dora talks about money problems all the time too, even if she does own Coffee of Doom. Most characters live with roommates because they can’t afford their own apartments. The main difference between May and the other barely making it characters is that May complains about it.
You might think Faye / Bubbles / Dora are relatively wealthy because they own businesses, but that’s not necessarily true. Some of the worst years my own life financially were when I was the co-owner of a small programming consultancy. I didn’t really get my life together financially until I got a regular salaried job.
The main exceptions financially are Hannelore and Sven. Hannelore was apparently slumming for her mental health. Basically getting away from her parents who are both hard to be around for different reasons. Sven’s so undeveloped we really don’t know much about him beyond what the other characters think about him.
What you said about Winslow and Momo is true enough. Winslow being a sweet child has been pretty much his thing the entire time, even when he was an old-style iPod. Momo used to be pretty adult, but that got dumped when she changed bodies, and now she’s pretty much a teenager the entire time.
If we’re going to talk emotionally mature... Bubbles is probably it. And maybe some of the older tertiary characters we don’t see that often, like Jim the owner of the Secret Bakery. Before the crisis between Dora and Marten I might have said Dora, but her behavior during the breakup pretty much blew that up for me.
EDIT: ... and Roko, come to think of it. I like Roko, and while she gets ticked (see today’s strip) now and then, she comes across as adult. Certainly more than Marten, Faye, or Dora.
Elder Sign:
--- Quote from: Castlerook on 10 Jun 2019, 17:16 ---
--- Quote from: David F on 10 Jun 2019, 17:12 ---May is a lot like a beaten dog. She started out snarly and bitey at everything and everyone, but she had friends now, knows it (for all she won't readily admit it), and is much more snarl than bite these days.
--- End quote ---
May is like a dog, one that's been beaten and abused. When a dog has been kicked enough times, you can't be surprised when it bites.
--- End quote ---
With apologies to "The Boss" ...
End up like a dog that's been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just a-covering up, now
Born as an A.I.
I was born as an A.I.
OldGoat:
Personal revelation time for those who haven't figured it out already - I spent my career working in the criminal justice system. I feel like I've met May more than a couple times. I didn't meet very many really evil people. I did meet plenty who were lazy, selfish, and stupid, but by far most had just never been shown how to be decent people. (They'd usually been told, but the people telling them fell flat when it came to modeling the behavior - and that's vital.)
Is May observant and insightful? Absolutely! She spots details of others' behavior, is able to instantly discern motives, and also knows instinctively where your goat is tied should she decide she wants to get it. But it all dissolves into nothing if she's the subject of her own observations.
She's a female version of what Jack Kerouac describes as a "jailkid," institutionalized early in life and having a set of social skills that look to most of us like a sociopathic personality disorder. Those skills start with a hard shell and a mind-set that says the best defense is a brutal offense. "Hit them back before they hit you the first time" is an acceptable tactic. She's learned opportunism as a moral philosophy, even if she doesn't always put it into practice. There's a sensitive, caring person with a strong sense of justice in there somewhere, but it's going to take a while to let her out.
May will always have a thick layer of callous, but most of The Jerk is a character she's playing to avoid being hurt more. But she's working toward pausing instead of reacting and asking herself, "What would Dale do?" Because he never tells her how to act, but he always shows her.
Gus_Smedstad:
I do wonder how much May thinks about Dale. It’d make sense if Dale is more-or-less her role model, since she was introduced to the strip as a virtual character through Dale, and most of her meaningful interactions were largely through Dale, at least until recently.
Of course, I may be reading entirely too much into that. It’s a comic strip, after all, and “what does May think” is really “how does Jeph imagine May thinks” if you step back.
brasca:
Nice variation of Bender’s catch phrase, Rokko.
Looks like she just found someone to take her mind off her own problems.
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