Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
OH BOY ANOTHER ATTEMPT AT A DRAMATIC PLOT ARC
BenRG:
People miss this a lot but Marten is not employed as a Librarian. As far as I can tell, he's an administrator (functionally the deputy manager) who reports to Tai. Everything else is just a "while you're here, why don't you...?" extra chore.
Storel:
--- Quote from: BenRG on 05 Sep 2022, 02:59 ---
--- Quote from: traroth on 05 Sep 2022, 02:43 ---
--- Quote from: sitnspin on 28 Aug 2022, 23:51 ---And, two, she doesn't want Martins job, she wants to be a librarian, he's just a shelf stocker.
--- End quote ---
Please enlight me, what's the difference?
--- End quote ---
I was quite surprised when I learned this. An actual college-qualified Librarian is also trained in doing things like research based on documents in the library, working out how to index items and the care of antique books.
--- End quote ---
My mother worked for many years as a medical librarian at some major hospitals/medical centers. Their libraries consist of medical textbooks, reference books, medical journals (of which there are hundreds), and probably lots more that I don't recall/never knew. Back issues of the journals have to be sent to a bookbinder to be bound into hardback volumes, and books with damaged covers sometimes have to be rebound as well. Doctors request database searches on various medical topics, often for patients with unusual/rare diagnoses, and the librarian has to perform those searches which then come up with references to books, and articles from medical journals, that the library may not have on hand and will have to request through interlibrary loan from various sources. (Mom took several courses on searching databases in Library School, and these databases are not Google-searchable; many of them have been around since long before the Internet existed, much less Google.)
And of course, the head librarian is also a department manager and has to do managerial stuff like managing a good-sized staff, doing performance reviews, hiring and firing, and making out annual budget requests.
traroth:
--- Quote from: Mr_Rose on 05 Sep 2022, 04:46 ---
--- Quote from: traroth on 05 Sep 2022, 04:29 ---That just means that Marten is not really qualified for his job. But I think that was a given from the start.
--- End quote ---
Nah, he’s qualified to be a shelf-stacker … but that’s about it. Does he even do the issues and returns?
--- End quote ---
I don't think "shelf-stacker" is really a job.
St.Clair:
--- Quote from: traroth on 06 Sep 2022, 01:23 ---
--- Quote from: Mr_Rose on 05 Sep 2022, 04:46 ---
--- Quote from: traroth on 05 Sep 2022, 04:29 ---That just means that Marten is not really qualified for his job. But I think that was a given from the start.
--- End quote ---
Nah, he’s qualified to be a shelf-stacker … but that’s about it. Does he even do the issues and returns?
--- End quote ---
I don't think "shelf-stacker" is really a job.
--- End quote ---
It is in retail.
immortalfrieza:
--- Quote from: DreDotJs on 01 Sep 2022, 05:34 ---My guess is that Claire and Marten will move, and we'll have an arc or two focusing on them getting settled and into hijinks with the other AIs before another one pops up in about 3-4 arcs from now.
I'm kinda hoping that by the time Martin and Claire visit:
- The AI repair shop will at least be profitable, if not thriving
- The VTubers have to do at least one con (bonus points if members of the gang not in the know go to the Con to see them and hilarity ensues)
- Basilisk and Beeps will have gotten at least one case off the ground successfully (maybe they'll need to enlist Cubetown for fundraising?)
- Yay gets to spend more time with Aurelia (too gd wholesome for that to have been a one-off moment)
- Clinton and Elliott are thinking move-in (so Claire will need to be the big sister again, as much as they bicker it's too gd wholesome when they're supportive of each other)
That's my hope, anyway
--- End quote ---
Honestly I could see this being the best idea. Marten has gotten more time in this current arc just up to now than he has in years. There was a time when Marten leaving or really doing anything with his life would've pretty much ripped the whole comic asunder because of how central he was to everybody, but that time has long since passed. It's gotten to the point that the last and only "arc" for a long time he has had was about Marten giving up on his hopes and dreams completely and thinking of getting some job that's barely even related to it (and that Marten has never shown any aptitude or training for) that he also hasn't mentioned since. Clarie's involvement in the comic has been pretty minimal too, with her rare moments around either being about becoming a librarian or occasionally butting into her brother Clinton's relationships. Neither of them even really show up to be part of an occasional joke anymore.
Now, Jeph has been known to take characters out of focus for long periods of time before, but it's obvious he's lost any interest in Marten in particular and his interest in Marten had been waning for a long time before that. I'm not surprised by this though. Deathmole was the only attempt to give Marten something to try to do with his life other than his romantic relationships. Deathmole hasn't even been referred to in over a decade and once Marten got together with Claire and thus got an actually healthy relationship that well dried up. Thus, having Marten and Clarie move away, get up to things in Cubetown for a bit and then disappear from the comic completely except for when they decide to drop by North Hampton for a visit every so often wouldn't really be any different from how things are now. Like how Hanners basically dropped out of the comic after her confrontation with her mother for a long time before coming back except for them it's on a drop in/drop out basis.
--- Quote ---- Winslow and Momo get to do... literally anything
--- End quote ---
On that note, as much as the A.I.s have shifted to be the focus more and more over the years I'd say only Bubbles has been allowed to have any arc or life except maybe Roko with the nonprofit. In fact, Bubbles and Roko have had much more involved arcs than any other A.I. character in the comic so far. Momo and Winslow have in general done very little that isn't involving their human companions... pretty much their entire existence. Pintsize has always been a gag character and continues to be even after getting a humanlike body. The A.I.s in general need some driving motivation in their lives beyond being one off gags and hanging out with their humans.
As for the human characters in general... it seems like Jeph has been moving them into healthy relationships in recent years and then they become less and less focused after it happens. My guess is now that they don't have relationship drama to deal with anymore the humans lack anything interesting to do with them. I think the comic has been shifting over to the A.I.s because Jeph is unable or unwilling to come up with some long term driving motivation for the humans outside of their romantic relationships while the A.I.s have much more room for development. Ironically because Jeph as been focusing on the human characters over the A.I.s (which he has admitted before) so much while the A.I.s have been one off gags most of the time and thus never got that much development before.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version