THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Comic Discussion => QUESTIONABLE CONTENT => Topic started by: jwhouk on 13 Jan 2013, 17:42
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The WCDT talked extensively about which QC character had "the best family history." There's a lot of room for discussion for this - some argue Faye's upbringing was probably best of the lot, dad's suicide nonwithstanding.
So, what say you all?
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Given the title of this thread, I'll just say that any family that doesn't have an Urkel probably has a decent family history. :roll:
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I had the unhappy thought that Faye and her father might have been unhealthlly close since I did my first archive binge. But when I went back to look at how the relationship was portrayed, it didn't look sinister. I think it's in 503 (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=503), where she's walking hand in hand with dad, sis is sticking her tongue out at both of them and mom is looking disapproving. Tonight, as I looked again, mom was disapproving of sis, not Faye and her dad.
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Emotionally speaking, Station should be considered a family member for Hannelore.
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Marten
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He with the gay nightclub owning dad and the dominatrix mother?
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Pintsize.
Anybody who's father is a giant robot arm with lasers and pneumatic can be considered to have a pretty awesome family life. (Also he gave him a laser. Laserz.)
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He with the gay nightclub owning dad and the dominatrix mother?
The best.
... well, except for the divorce, I guess ...
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His mother is overbearing but she was compassionate enough to make him a Worry Hat.
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His mother is overbearing but she was compassionate enough to make him a Worry Hat.
Veronica, "in her own weird way" (to paraphrase her) -- gives a shit but isn't quite sure how to go about it. The read I get, from the way Jeph writes her, is that she's trying to do what she has heard is traditional mom stuff. That she can't quite acknowledge her son as an adult (not that M. doesn't justify that at times) makes her not a domme, but a mom. (Trust me on this, you younger forumites.)
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We could merge this over into the "How would the QC cast members do" thread... but I've got the cooler title.
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Merging would confuse both conversations, as they stand; let's keep them separate - one for parents and one for children.
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He with the gay nightclub owning dad and the dominatrix mother?
The best.
... well, except for the divorce, I guess ...
I wouldn't say that having divorced parents is inherently worse than having married parents. The comic makes it clear that they stayed friends and still have respect for each other, and Marten gets along with both of them to this day. So yeah, I guess Marten's a cromulent answer.
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Pintsize.
Anybody who's father is a giant robot arm with lasers and pneumatic can be considered to have a pretty awesome family life. (Also he gave him a laser. Laserz.)
Wait - is any of that canon? Where's it coming from? Also, the laser wasn't from his parent, it was an accidental inclusion in a new military grade chassis, which resulted in a visit from Agent Turing and ... space owls... before being removed.
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Marten has talked about "bitter recriminations" and, though they ended up as friends, the divorce itself seems to have been a contentious one.
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Knowing a couple (with children) that split when one party came out as gay, I am familiar with such bitter recriminations.
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Let us review, roughly in order of appearance:
- Faye - Typical half-way decent childhood; only major issue may have been dad with a "secret" drinking problem; all out the door after witnessing dad commit suicide.
- Marten - Not as typical; dad was a closeted gay man and mom was a burlesque dominatrix of some repute; divorce proceedings were not, at least by Marten's reports, all that friendly.
- Steve - We know his dad was divorced several times. We don't know anything about his mom. Probably not a lot of happy times with "meet your new mommy" every few months.
- Dora (and Sven) - Parents were early 70's leftovers from the hippie movement. Drug use and day trips meant a lot of self-parenting, and very little supervision.
- Raven - Parents are both "rocket scientists". Considering NASA culture, they probably were the reverse of Dora - never really there, always working late hours on some new project.
- Hannelore - We already know about her parents. Mom is Ruthless Corporate Raider with a tinge of James Bond villian; Dad is The Absent-Minded Professor who, instead of inventing Flubber, creates the world's first AI.
- Penelope - Mom and Dad are apparently very strict Christians (possibly old-school Catholic or Lutheran). She might be the youngest or have some expectations heaped on her - which she railed against.
- Angus - Parents were wealthy enough to send him to prep school, so there's the assumption they might have been like the parents in Risky Business.
- Marigold - Dad's very hard working, building his shoe store out of nothing, but just incredibly crazy over little things - like steampunk.
- Claire - Oh, my, to only guess what kind of parents Clinton and Claire had...
- Emily - Looks like parents are typical salariman and good Japanese (?) wife, but might have similar issues to Raven's.
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He with the gay nightclub owning dad and the dominatrix mother?
[KoshVoice] Yes [/KoshVoice]
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My parents both became significantly better at parenting once they had got divorced, because they were no longer constantly consumed by their fighting and marital problems. What constitutes an improvement to parenting depends on what the situation was before the change - in Faye's dad's case, he couldn't possibly have been a better parent after his suicide because he was no longer there to parent her. In Marten's parents' case, they might well have been more available and supportive after the divorce, we don't know.
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If we look exclusively at family history and not at the current state of the family, the question does change slightly.
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Speaking emotionally rather than genetically, weren't Hannelore's parents Dr. Case and Station?
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I think Station was more an older brother than a dad.
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...and Dr. Case was in well beyond her depths. Then again, I guess most parents are when they begin!
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"Stop sucking your thumb or you'll get the laser again!"
Practically anyone would be out of their depth dealing with child Hannelore.
I've never had an older brother. Are they as good to grow up with as Station?
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In general: Nah. Older brothers tend to avoid you. And not only out of embarrassment.
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As the older sibling I'd say yeah that's a fair cop. I like to describe my brother as my best friend,biggest rival, and bitterest enemy for most of our years growing up together. With space he's just my best friend, thankfully.
For full disclosure's sake I should point out we were raised by a somewhat emotionally-stunted family who were into isolation, so that affects things a bit.
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Well, Claire's parents divorced because her dad was cheating on her mum, and she's still bitter about it, so not so good there. Clinton is supportive of her transitioning though and possibly her parents are too (the fact that the worst she's said regarding her parents was about the cheating makes me think that they are).
I'm going to go with Angus or Tai, but that's kind of cheating - we don't really know anything about either of their parents. (Except that Angus's were rich. I don't think you can assume anything based on that - rich people are equally likely to be good or bad parents. I don't remember anything about Tai's parents). Both Angus and Tai seem to be fairly together (psychologically speaking) and when it came to it they both seem to be pretty mature as far as relationships go. That could indicate that they had a good example growing up.
Or it could be complete crap, but I couldn't really pick any of the characters that we do know about their upbringing. I don't think any of them had a particularly good upbringing (Faye did prior to her father blowing his head off, but... major trauma caused by her father... yeah).
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Clinton is supportive of her transitioning though and possibly her parents are too (the fact that the worst she's said regarding her parents was about the cheating makes me think that they are).
My spontaneous reaction would be that they probably don't know due to lack of contact (Claire probably didn't mention anything about them being non-supportive because so far the only ones who know seem to be Marten and Clinton). But that's just wild mass-guessing on my part.
It goes without saying that if this ever gets confirmed as canon, I will claim having deduced it with nothing but logic and my bare hands.
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Yea.. I'm voting Marten up here. He's friendly with both his parents, and they're friendly with each other even after the divorce. Even though their methods may have been a bit.. odd, he's a fairly normal and level guy.. and he definitely doesn't seem to have too much bias when it comes to meeting people. Even through the "rough" divorce and admissions on both sides, both seem to still love him and truly care, and he doesn't appear to have any horror stories abound from either side.
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Tai has taken a grown-up track on pursuing Dora, but prior to that things were pretty tangled. Hard drugs at work is a symptom of something or other.
Marigold acts much like someone who didn't have a female role model growing up.
Raven seems to have fewer hangups than any of the women in the strip.
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Marigold acts much like someone who didn't have a female role model growing up.
Her tightly wound father could well be a single parent. It would explain quite a bit!
DAMMIT!!
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Raven seems to have fewer hangups than any of the women in the strip.
I think she's easily the most well-adjusted person we've seen in the QCverse.
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Raven seems to have fewer hangups than any of the women in the strip.
I think she's easily the most well-adjusted person we've seen in the QCverse.
It's a startling assessment when you first think about it, but oddly enough, it makes a lot of sense.
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Hard drugs at work is a symptom of something or other.
Tai does "hard drugs" at work? When?
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At the start of the "New interns at Smif" storyarc, she admitted to watching Adventure Time (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2203). Just to name an example.
And about the parents thing... I'd love to know more about Emily's parents. From the brief encoutner we've had with them I got a weird vibe. Something about them both coming "home" (to the beach house?) at the same time and being kind of "bland" during lunch... something was off and so is Emily.
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And this (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1279). Here there be dragons!
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Certainly both those strips are evidence of drug use at work, but are pot and LSD considered "hard drugs"? I don't know much about drugs, but that term suggest things like cocaine and heroin to me. I know that both cannabis and LSD can mess you up seriously though, so I agree there is likely to be an interesting backstory on why Tai uses them (could be to do with her group of friends rather than her family though).
Emily's parents just seemed kind of dull and ordinary to me though. My dad and his partner almost always go everywhere together (she doesn't drive, for a start) so they usually come home together. My mum and stepdad are certainly what I'd describe as bland at meals, particularly when visitors are there.
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No to cannabis, maybe to LSD.
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Mr. and Mrs. Azuma reminded me of stories I've heard about Japanese-born people in the US, frightened of doing the wrong thing, but facing an incomprehensible situation where they couldn't identify a standard response.
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Honestly I think Veronica is one of the most involved parents we've seen, and Martindad is no slouch either. They both clearly care about their son, so even if his upbringing was... odd to say the least, we do know he's loved and both parents are involved with his life, that's a lot no matter how nontraditional/weird/creepy at times the upbringing
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Mr. and Mrs. Azuma reminded me of stories I've heard about Japanese-born people in the US, frightened of doing the wrong thing, but facing an incomprehensible situation where they couldn't identify a standard response.
Nail on the head there. I just didn't know if I should use the word "maladjusted" or not. It's a bit harsh for what little we know.
But that is exactly why I look forward to maybe getting to know more about them.
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I think this is a really difficult question. I would tend to vote for either Marten or Dora, but I feel like Marten's parents, as unusual as they might have been, were more caring about him than Dora's parents about her.
And about Tai:
I doubt that "hard drugs" is the right term for Tai's usage. Pot wouldn't qualify as a hard drug, and while LSD would, it doesn't make you addicted at all. It just messes with your subconsciousness. I would even see using LSD as prove for her not having a hard childhood. Using LSD when having bad, maybe even suppressed memories would fuck somebody up severely.
If somebody would abuse drugs to cope with a bad life it would probably rather be some kind of opiate, Heroin, Morphine, something like that. Or Methamphetamine (Meth), Cocaine or Crack. But not LSD.
Also keep in mind that I know all this from books, wikipedia and a few internet forums with people who are abusing drugs, so it could as well be wrong, but I'm rather sure about this.
I wouldn't dare using something that addictive or damaging ones subconsciousness.
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LSD doesn't damage your subconscious, at most it just brings it to the forefront. Which is why, given my rather traumatic late childhood, I am not a fan of it personally. My few experiences with hallucinogens were frighteningly awful. However, I do know several people who use it to great efficacy in both broadening their perspectives and in making them psychologically healthier. As with all things, the manner and amount in which it is used makes a difference. I have a pretty heavy history with drug use both for recreation and self-medication. LSD makes great recreation (if you are healthy) and works as a short-cut to an (inferior) enlightenment experience, but there are far better ones for dulling pain. I have never known anyone to use it as such, plenty of other drugs are preferable for that purpose. Booze and opiates being chief among them.
Personally I would nevr classify LSD as a hard drug. It is not addictive in anyway most of its effects are relatively benign. The way the US DEA classifies drugs is completely ridiculous.
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I didn't wrote about it damaging your subconscious. I talked about it messing with it. Bringing up bad memories and such. And that can permanently damage a person, even if you don't suffer from a substance-induced psychosis afterwards.
I would never take LSD, as I'm afraid of it. And I'm sure that would have some really bad influence on the trip.
And I think nobody ever stated that LSD would be addictive. The effect of LSD is much smaller after a trip, so it wouldn't work to take another one.
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I could be wrong describing LSD as a hard drug.
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Others have asked the same question: Is acid considered a hard or soft drug? - Yahoo! Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060927223101AAPbybm)
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I trust Yahoo! Answers about as far as I can throw them.
I don't know how to classify LSD, though. Certainly in experimentally large doses (like those used by psy-ops in the late 50's) it can be quite damaging. I took some recreationally in the late 80's, and still have occasional visual effects when tired or stressed. It is non-addictive and non-toxic, and the only deaths are from poor decisions and/or psychotic/paranoid behaviours while tripping.
However, the DEA consideers it schedule 1 because; the Drug Enforcement Administration holds that LSD meets the following three criteria: it is deemed to have a high potential for abuse; it has no legitimate medical use in treatment; and there is a lack of accepted safety for its use under medical supervision.
So not hard, per se (non addictive and non toxic), but not legal, either.
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Trust? Don't. But this is more of a semantic question – a question of what the "classes" mean. And Yahoo! Answers is in effect another forum, where this question has been raised before.
Like you, I don't think the DEA schedule 1 says much. It is not a classification along the lines people tend to think of as "hard" vs "soft".
The UK Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 seems to have it as a class A drug, though, and my impression is that that is more a "hardness" thing.
And if I'm not much mistaken, the Dutch have it in the "Opiumwet, lijst I", which in the Netherlands is popularly known as the "harddrugs" list.
Note: No drug is placed in a more "severe" class by any of these three legislations. Ah, but how well do those "severities" map to what people consider "hardness"? You'd have to ask people.
On or off Yahoo!
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Also, IIRC, LSD is being experimented with for treatment of alcoholism, depression, and schizophrenia.
(Then again, marijuana is schedule 1 for the same claimed reason, and it has a crapton of recognized legitimate medical uses.)
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I think "Hard" and "Soft aren't really accurate terms to use...there's addiction potential, or lack thereof, and there's lethality. Those are the variables most folks look at when comparing recreational drugs.
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Both Angus and Tai seem to be fairly together (psychologically speaking) and when it came to it they both seem to be pretty mature as far as relationships go. That could indicate that they had a good example growing up.
Tai has admitted that she can handle "casual polyamory" (i.e., casual sex, no strings) all right, but things always get messed up when she starts getting serious about anyone. Doesn't sound too mature to me.
Tai has taken a grown-up track on pursuing Dora, but prior to that things were pretty tangled. Hard drugs at work is a symptom of something or other.
I agree with others that weed and LSD aren't necessarily "hard" drugs... but doing recreational drugs at work is definitely not a good sign. With pot you can still get some work done, as long as it doesn't require much concentration or focus, but you can't get anything useful done while tripping on LSD. Tai could have been fired for either of those incidents.
However, personal immaturity doesn't tell us much about what her parents were like... except possibly that one or both of them may have been pretty immature, too.
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Not necessarily. Just that she doesn't make good decisions - that can happen no matter what your parents were like...
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Tai's relationship problem was that she was a one-on-one type of gal caught in a poly world; every time she tried to pair off with a fellow student drama (related to one or more others losing a regular partner) happened and the fledgling relationship fell out of the nest and got eaten by the cat. While that does speak to a level of immaturity, it's not necessarily Tai's…
Her solution was "look outside the dorm" and there Dora was. Seems to be holding okay so far, but then we haven't seen the two of them much lately.
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Steve gives us odd precedent when it comes to wondering how off-screen relationships are. Steve and Cosette (I think I spelled that right) seem to be doing well, and we rarely see them. Steve and Meena on the other hand...
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Exactly. Same with Wil & Penne. Haven't seen them lately, and happiness seems to be the norm.
No drama = no funnies.
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True. On the other hand people as different as Wil and Pennelope can generate some humor even while being happy.
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Exactly. Same with Wil & Penne. ...
I'm not going to be one of those "It's MARTEN" people. I'm just going to thank you for the oddly appropriate mental image of her as a large hollow noodle.
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Exactly. Same with Wil & Penne. ...
I'm not going to be one of those "It's MARTEN" people. I'm just going to thank you for the oddly appropriate mental image of her as a large hollow noodle.
She does have a rather SAUCY demeanor...
:emotrex:
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Also they probably served penne at the restaurant she used to deliver for.
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Also they probably served penne at the restaurant she used to deliver for.
Who said she stopped?
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Give me penne all'arrabbiata or it shall be death by tray for you!
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I'll see your tray and raise you a steel chair.
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Wait, aren't clubs trump?
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Wait, aren't clubs trump?
Spades trump clubs and go right through the heart if used correctly. They also are useful for the cleanup afterwards. :wink:
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I was going to try to add a diamond joke, but it's hard.
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Especially when you use a Diamond Cutter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZfRl9zZAo0) :-D
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Very nice.
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Thank you, and have a nice day.
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To quote Rage Against the Machine: "They'll use a pair of clubs to beat the spades."
I am pretty sure Zack wasn't referring to cards, though.
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When it comes to family matters, Tai does seem to be having supportive parents (see #2258 Verstiphobia). I suppose it was her friends (or rather, bullies) at school (#2263 Every One Has A Story) and later, the polyamory scene at university that got her into the recreational drug use. hmm I just read those comics again, and they seem perfectly normal. Why am I trying to prove Tai has a problem?!
If it's a fight between Marten and Dora, one could argue that a lot of the sibling rivalry could have stemmed from Doras parents (then again, Sven does have it pretty easy). I'm afraid to say that, in the absence of any contrary evidence, it's Marten, because he does seem to have a pretty awesome family (especially considering Veronicas reception speech). My mom was a closeted lesbian as well, and, while the immediate time after the break up was pretty horrible, I love my parents above all and I'd never consider them bad parents because of their break-up.