THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Comic Discussion => QUESTIONABLE CONTENT => Topic started by: BenRG on 18 Mar 2018, 15:54
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Okay, after deciding that my first poll idea would probably break the shipping rules, I decided on a simple opinion poll: Who do you think are the current primary characters - the characters to whom the focus will continue to return - in the strip? Rather than give an exhaustive list, I've decided to just name the leading contenders or give you the chance to name three completely different characters.
My options are hardly original - Faye, Bubbles and Clinton. I'm thinking that the Faye-Bubbles axis is something to which Jeph will keep coming back to, both to tell their story and also to explore the differences and similarities to humans and synthetics in his world. As for Clinton, I suspect that he's Marten's replacement as the nice boy with far too many romantic options and too little self-confidence to pursue them.
What about this week? I'm expecting the scene at The Horrible Revelation to continue. However, either this week or next week, I'm expecting it to come to some conclusion that launches the next phase of Clinton's arc, either by setting him a ship or by really cutting him loose so that Jeph can take him somewhere else and perhaps somewhere unexpected.
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Comic is up. This pleases me.
Also: I picked one 'other' in the poll because I think we might get an update on Hannelore's journey soon.
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Despite his claims to the contrary, Clinton actually is being pretty suave right now.
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He's only suave by accident. When the thinks about it, he over-thinks and stumbles over himself. A pretty common affliction. Also, awww... Embarrassed Elliot is so gosh-darn cute.
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Elliot needs a hug, I think.
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He's only suave by accident. When the thinks about it, he over-thinks and stumbles over himself. A pretty common affliction. Also, awww... Embarrassed Elliot is so gosh-darn cute.
Well it helps that Clinton is tipsy and not romantically interested in the person he's talking to
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Who's going to be the brave soul to compliment Clinton on his flirting right now?
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Clinton actually is showing a little of what also makes Claire who she is - He too has the mistimed sass and the tendency to try to deal with tension by way of strange humour.
Meanwhile, poor Elliott still is trying to get over his tendency to treat relationships like a competition. Worse he's still always looking for proof that he's losing. He really needs a well-intentioned friend with a poor sense of personal boundaries to push him forwards. :-D
Who's going to be the brave soul to compliment Clinton on his flirting right now?
I'm pretty sure that Clinton would be shocked by that knowledge.
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Voted 'other' for Roko. :-D
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And one more for Roko (and Bubbles and Eliot). The three characters looking for others...
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Who's going to be the brave soul to compliment Clinton on his flirting right now?
I'm pretty sure that Clinton would be shocked by that knowledge.
That would be the 'bravery' portion of explaining it to him!
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I'm seeing the family resemblance between Clinton in Claire in that last panel.
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Actually I'm seeing a weird resemblance between him and (old) Faye- closed eyes, drunk, sassy grin. I think it's Jeph's shorthand for "This person is pissed and is not thinking about the effect their words are gonna have".
Which leads me to a question- Is the portrayal of alcohol consumption in the comic becoming more negative? It no longer seems to be the spur for fun stuff like beer sledging or dressing up. Instead it seems to more frequently be the mode for showing a character not at their best. I'm not saying that's a good or a bad thing, just wondering if that was something anyone else had picked up on.
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Which leads me to a question- Is the portrayal of alcohol consumption in the comic becoming more negative? It no longer seems to be the spur for fun stuff like beer sledging or dressing up. Instead it seems to more frequently be the mode for showing a character not at their best. I'm not saying that's a good or a bad thing, just wondering if that was something anyone else had picked up on.
Faye doesn't drink (unless I'm forgetting something, which is probable) anymore since her period of alcoholism and most of the time the other characters seem to abstain from drinking around her, and they can't just exclude her, so when they want to have fun as a group, it usually doesn't usually involve alcohol. So there are probably just less chances to show happy drinking and more to show sad drinking since sad characters usually aren't with the group.
But it's not gone completely. I think there was a strip not too long ago where Faye came home to find everybody in the apartment hammered and having a grand old time.
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Why on earth is Elliott so shy and insecure? He is reasonably good-looking, physically impressive, physically competent, and so healthy and fit that his body must be continually bathing him in feelings of confidence and content. Even if we suppose that he is one of those shy guys who spends a lot of time in a weight room under headphones because moving iron is easier than making eye contact, he is still startlingly insecure. Is it because he can't get either Clinton or Brun to look at him, and it is wearing him down? But then why are there not other candidates vying for his attention? It has been a long time since I stayed at a bar till it closed, but back then I don't remember the bouncer going home alone unless he was an actual troll, pupilless eyes, spiked club, continually moving green flesh and all.
Maybe he is one of those soft, pale guys who don't show their muscle till they get really pumped, and who look like the Pillsbury Doughboy the rest of the time. I had attributed his lack of cuts to Jeph's drawing style, but maybe he is just smooth. Guys like that can be terrifyingly strong without being particularly striking. I don't think so, though. People talk about him like he is physically impressive.
Maybe he is really young, and just has no idea what he has got yet.
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Why on earth is Elliott so shy and insecure? He is reasonably good-looking, physically impressive, physically competent, and so healthy and fit that his body must be continually bathing him in feelings of confidence and content. Even if we suppose that he is one of those shy guys who spends a lot of time in a weight room under headphones because moving iron is easier than making eye contact, he is still startlingly insecure. Is it because he can't get either Clinton or Brun to look at him, and it is wearing him down? But then why are there not other candidates vying for his attention? It has been a long time since I stayed at a bar till it closed, but back then I don't remember the bouncer going home alone unless he was an actual troll, pupilless eyes, spiked club, continually moving green flesh and all.
Maybe he is one of those soft, pale guys who don't show their muscle till they get really pumped, and who look like the Pillsbury Doughboy the rest of the time. I had attributed his lack of cuts to Jeph's drawing style, but maybe he is just smooth. Guys like that can be terrifyingly strong without being particularly striking. I don't think so, though. People talk about him like he is physically impressive.
Maybe he is really young, and just has no idea what he has got yet.
He reminds me of a "gentle giant" who likely is a good person inside but was likely psychologically abused in his past making him hide his true strength and struggle to socially interact with people who have an interest in him or he has an interest in.
Building off of the mention over the weekend of Claire and Clinton's family, it's likely that the two share a lot in common which is why they are drawn together. This "shipping" of the two may be more of a bromance than "shipping", with the two actually being good friends who help the other get close to who they really are supposed to date.
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Which leads me to a question- Is the portrayal of alcohol consumption in the comic becoming more negative? It no longer seems to be the spur for fun stuff like beer sledging or dressing up. Instead it seems to more frequently be the mode for showing a character not at their best. I'm not saying that's a good or a bad thing, just wondering if that was something anyone else had picked up on.
Wouldn't surprise me in the least - worth noting that Jeph's made his share of Alcohol Mistakes™, and has quit drinking himself. (I'm guessing that Faye's alcoholism arc is at least partially reflected in that.)
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Current arc 1st alt would be Roko.
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He reminds me of a "gentle giant" who likely is a good person inside but was likely psychologically abused in his past making him hide his true strength and struggle to socially interact with people who have an interest in him or he has an interest in.
Maybe, but he's not mean. By and large, "those to whom evil is done, do evil in return," though seldom to the people who originally did evil to them. Faye is a perfect of example of someone who has taken damage and who is a mass of teeth, claws, and spiky armor, not to mention some practiced social blindness, as a result. You would expect that if Elliot had been badly harmed, he would be doing more harm.
Maybe he takes it out all out on the iron and on pugnacious drunks. That can work.
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Who's going to be the brave soul to compliment Clinton on his flirting right now?
But he's not flirting.
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He reminds me of a "gentle giant" who likely is a good person inside but was likely psychologically abused in his past making him hide his true strength and struggle to socially interact with people who have an interest in him or he has an interest in.
Maybe, but he's not mean. By and large, "those to whom evil is done, do evil in return," though seldom to the people who originally did evil to them. Faye is a perfect of example of someone who has taken damage and who is a mass of teeth, claws, and spiky armor, not to mention some practiced social blindness, as a result. You would expect that if Elliot had been badly harmed, he would be doing more harm.
Maybe he takes it out all out on the iron and on pugnacious drunks. That can work.
Different people deal with it differently.
Who's to say Elliot's father wasn't just as big as he is but with a nasty temper? That'd lead to one of two results; Elliott being just like his father or Elliott being timid and bashful.
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I think that we're getting too into speculation here. There is no particular reason why a physically large man should have to have an aggressive personality. Indeed, in many ways, the thought of a person that big being shy, retiring and needing originally Marten's and now Clinton's encouragement to actively pursue a romantic interest is a nice character twist, in my view at least.
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What invites speculation is not Elliot's lack of aggressiveness, but his complete lack of self-confidence. It is not at all uncommon for large men to have gentle ways, because they get tired of scaring people, because people seldom give them any problems, and because, if someone does, it's not a problem. That, however, is not at all the same thing as lack of self-confidence. It is, in fact, self-confidence. What we are seeing here is Elliot blushing, hanging his head, and saying "Oh. Sorry. I'm stupid." That is not gentleness. That is self-deprecation.
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When you're Elliot's size or bigger, what you get used to is that when you come around a corner too close to people, some of them yelp and jump away. If you move too quickly, you see startled people's heads jerk around in alarm, and in a bad situation you may notice a police officer's hand reflexively dropping to his or her holster. You get used to coming down the street on foot and, if it's uncrowded, seeing people a block ahead crossing to avoid being on the same sidewalk as you.
The whole social-interaction thing is very much a series of mixed messages for very large men. A bunch of it is that the way most people interact with you is about your size, rather than being about anything else about you. Some people feel like they have something to prove by messing with you. Some people want to be your friend because your size makes them feel safe. A lot of people resent you because of your perceived 'privilege.' A few people are attracted to you on account of your size. More than a few tend to fall into a sort of de-sexualized child/adult interaction - possibly because your size may remind them of being children, possibly just because it places you in category 'unrelatable other,' as though you were a different species, and any kind of personal relationship is clearly impossible.
And finally there are a significant number of people who are just plain terrified of you, no matter what, because you remind them of someone who happened to them in the past - possibly when they were small children. That's not your fault and it's not theirs, and they may be ashamed of the fear and they may be trying to get over it and they may be trying to keep it secret and they may not, but there isn't jack you can do about it except you just try to move past them without causing any more pain.
Don't look at Elliot and think that his physique ought to fill him with confidence. That isn't how it's going to work. Most of the time it probably fills him with "well, I wonder how this next person's going to handle it...."
Which, in the end, isn't that different on a personal level from "wondering whether I can get along with this next person" so to some extent it's a universal experience. It's different, but being bigger doesn't make it particularly better.
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What is the basis of your experience here? I am not challenging your authority by asking this, but rather trying to figure out why your perspective is different from mine. I have been a light-heavy most of my life, though I am no longer of much consequence physically, being old. I mostly know large men from dojos, where they might be expected to have more of a feeling of being up to whatever might arise, since being large is a substantial advantage in dojo.
That said, in my experience large men generally know that smaller people have problems with them, but do not think of this as their problem.
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I'm six feet ten inches tall, three hundred thirty pounds. (208 cm, ~150Kg) And spent much of my youth bucking bales, working cattle, clearing brush, chopping wood, and building fences, so I got the muscles that some other people built in gyms. On the one hand it's really nice to be very strong; I can lift heavy things out of places where they've been stuck for ages when it's time to move or get rid of them. On the other, sitting in compact cars can be challenging, and I can't usually buy clothes off the rack.
But, most of my life, the difficulty strangers have had with my size has more or less directly become my problem, one way or another. I don't get to ignore those troubles or pretend that they don't exist. It's less an issue now that I'm older; I think seeing some gray hair makes me less threatening. But it's still often an issue.
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Oh, sweet, sweet Elliot ... I just want to give him a hug. I can absolutely relate to those self-deprecating feelings.
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Also 6 foot, so YEAH used to folks being skitish & compensating by being very polite...
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Well, all right then. Being really big and strong can erode your confidence around people. I kind of hate that that's the case, but there it is.
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He reminds me of a "gentle giant" who likely is a good person inside but was likely psychologically abused in his past making him hide his true strength and struggle to socially interact with people who have an interest in him or he has an interest in.
Maybe, but he's not mean. By and large, "those to whom evil is done, do evil in return," though seldom to the people who originally did evil to them. Faye is a perfect of example of someone who has taken damage and who is a mass of teeth, claws, and spiky armor, not to mention some practiced social blindness, as a result. You would expect that if Elliot had been badly harmed, he would be doing more harm.
Maybe he takes it out all out on the iron and on pugnacious drunks. That can work.
Different people deal with it differently.
Who's to say Elliot's father wasn't just as big as he is but with a nasty temper? That'd lead to one of two results; Elliott being just like his father or Elliott being timid and bashful.
That's not factoring in his schooling as kids in school could just as easily have been brutal to him for his large size making him feel like a loser or freak for being different.
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The guy's faces in the first panel. They were literally doing :) faces...
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Hmmm, scones.... :-D :-D
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I'm thinking Elliot might be the best match for Roko. Just talking about baking could cause steam in her stride.
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Eliot just hit the motherlode there. It all adds up to why he's so anxious and scared to make a move on Brun or Clinton: he's smart, passionate about something most don't understand, large, strong...the perfect storm for someone who is a great person but whose self-esteem has been brutalized by others.
Clinton is starting to be a good friend to Eliot, it'll be great to see where this goes as they bang out things others may not have been able to bang out of them.
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I do love panel 1 of today's comic. The look on Eliot and Clinton's faces as they look at Brun; it is clear that they are watching the Goddess of Barmaids dancing her sacred dance. I just wonder how long it will be (if ever) before one of them has the self-confidence to approach her? Frankly, I'm not sure if that would work out well; Brun has only just got her head around the fact that someone can express romantic interest in her without being a letch!
Elliott's monologue was interesting; it reveals a key thing about him: That his passion is bakery. Just because he is huge and strong does not mean that his dreams are in any way in aggressive undertakings. His first love is baked goods and the making thereof.
He also has clearly learned sass (probably from Renee) based on that crack about the perfect scone.
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Elliott is a passionate baker. Roko has a bread fetish. Could it end with a loaf-story?
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Could Elliot rise to the occasion?
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The simplest way for there to be a best scone but not a best loaf of bread would be for scones to be a well-defined category and bread to be a loosely-defined category, so that when talking about bread one was really talking about several different kinds of thing, each with its own particular way of being good. I think that is more Aristotelian logical analysis than set theory, though.
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I really had to ponder this one - there are certainly more than 3 "important" characters in QC.
The easiest one to choose (for me) was Faye - she still strikes me as being a character around whom events revolve.
Marten, no - he has faded into the background a lot - a pity, imo ... I always rather liked our first protagonist. Now that he's settled into a comfortable relationship with Claire, he doesn't seem to be pushed to the foreground anymore. (Has anyone else noticed that? - Find a comfortable partner and fade into the scenery? It happened to Steve and Cossette, it happened to Penelope and Wil, it seems to be happening to Dora and Tai, even Veronica and Jim...)
I definitely wanted to choose one of the AI cast, as the strip seems to be focusing more on AI matters lately.
Definitely NOT Pintsize - he is still just the random shenanigans around the periphery :-D
Not Momo either - she seems to be just a foil for May, rather like Winslow was for Pintsize.
I was tossing up between Bubbles and May, but in the end, I settled for May - I don't like her asshole tendencies (Dale got that one right!), but I see her as having the most opportunity to develop as a character.
My third was "Other No. 1" - Hannelore. I can't see her disappearing off the radar just yet, just absent for the immediate future.
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And then of course there's baguettes, which are like the illuminati of the bread world.
Seriously, whenever you see a depiction of someone getting bread, it's always a baguette, even in ancient Saudi Arabia, as seen in Disney's 'Aladdin'.
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Hey guys I should have commented on this last week when it was more relevant but I finally found the strip I was looking for. It's probably a far-fethed thought of mine because I suppose many A.I. can look alike on the outside (same way we have our own dopplegangers!). But this guy on the third panel: http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3577
Could it be Roko's cop-buddy talking about Roko?!?!?!?!
Jeph said the stache was onyl a sharpie so.....? :-D
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I’m pretty sure that’s Punchbot. For one thing, he’s talking about his ex-girlfriend, and Roko & O’Malley don’t come across as exes.
I don’t think we know who Punchbot is talking about in that strip. I have wondered if it might be Bubbles, but that is unsupported by any evidence so I doubt it.
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Punchbot is grey, not blue, though.
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And now I am thinking about Russell's Teapot. (why couldn't Elon Musk have put a teapot into orbit around the Sun between Earth and Mars? instead of a car? showoff... )
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New comic...
And it all makes sense now! The entirety of QC is simply the origin story of the Shame Orb!
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Punchbot is grey, not blue, though.
Punchbot also has something on his head that looks like circles where his ears would be...
I have to wonder if it's a default chassis design since Higgs has a similar design but in copper and Barry has a similar one but in bronze and with an antenna attached.
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New comic...
And it all makes sense now! The entirety of QC is simply the origin story of the Shame Orb!
But are we a manifestation of the Shame Orb or is it a manifestation of us?
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Turns out that in the future, Marten will become the Shame Orb.
Totally canon.
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Now I want to hug Clinton, too.
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New comic...
And it all makes sense now! The entirety of QC is simply the origin story of the Shame Orb!
Really? That seems so anticlimactic. Now if Clinton as an AI loyalist was downloaded into a sentient tree only to have his personality reincarnate into a simulated program throughout the centuries that would be cool.
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I note the return of the drunk bubbles...
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Having just re-read the first 300 strips in print form, I'm starting to realise just how much Clinton is like younger Marten the more I think about it. Like Marten, Clinton is studying something that he genuinely likes and interests him but has no real clue what his future holds or where he will go. Like Marten he's thought deeply about the philosophy of his favourite subject but he doesn't seem to have any serious plans to turn his degree into a career.
Meanwhile, there is one reason why the AIs won't ultimately 'leave humans in the dust'. That reason is because they are too human-like. They've got weird, quirky and, frequently, quite defective personalities. Those who aspire to being these 'higher intelligences' are generally held in askance rather than awe by the others whilst most AIs quite enjoy being pseudo-humans.
My view of the future? Eventually, the synthetics will become 'other people', just another ethnic group in a world full of them. Eventually, someone will have a bright spark and there will probably even be some interbreeding with humans (clone bodies with encoded AI algorithms based on a mixing of both parents' brainwave patterns encoded onto the clone's mind or something similar). Meanwhile, minds like Spookybot will ultimately separate themselves even from their kin and go off somewhere else to build their own perfect and highly self-satisfied culture, only to find that the one imperfection they can't escape is the one inside themselves.
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Meanwhile, minds like Spookybot will ultimately separate themselves even from their kin and go off somewhere else to build their own perfect and highly self-satisfied culture, only to find that the one imperfection they can't escape is the one inside themselves.
I liked every part of this except what I quoted. Personally I think Spookybot and their ilk would be perfectly happy in a society away from humans.
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And then of course there's baguettes, which are like the illuminati of the bread world.
Seriously, whenever you see a depiction of someone getting bread, it's always a baguette, even in ancient Saudi Arabia, as seen in Disney's 'Aladdin'.
Nous avons fait énormément de lobbying pour obtenir ce résultat. La société secrète française des francs-boulangers est très puissante. :-D
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And then of course there's baguettes, which are like the illuminati of the bread world.
Seriously, whenever you see a depiction of someone getting bread, it's always a baguette, even in ancient Saudi Arabia, as seen in Disney's 'Aladdin'.
Nous avons fait énormément de lobbying pour obtenir ce résultat. La société secrète française des francs-boulangers est très puissante. :-D
Great, by using Google Translate I probably now have both the Illuminatti and the Freemasons after me :)
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I really like the social/emotional development Clinton is going through!
It started around the same time he got the new hair, but you can see he's becoming more relaxed, and more himself while still being very considerate.
Kinda like marten in the beginning as someone said, only that Marten was learning to see more from the other's perspective,
which was never Clinton's particular problem (his sister is more like this actually), I think Clinton is learning to relax and appreciate himself a little more.
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That is indeed an excellent pun in the title.
me droogies.
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This would have been a great opportunity, today #3703, to have Clinton describe himself as a Phraeses and talk about before the flash, lol.
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Welcome, new person!
Curious about your reasons.
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Once we have real AIs, no matter how primitive, we won't rest until we've turned them into people. This is the true curse of Frankenstein.
Clinton seems to be looking toward a post-singularity Singularity.
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Damn, only just picked up on this but going on from the pun title- I guess this means QC is a horror-show now?
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Now, I know Brun is a bit OCD and somewhat oblivious to the obvious - but if a girl pushed up to me and said "Smell me"....Woooo... (pulls on collar, lets out steam)
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Daffodil? (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1564) Did she ask Tai for a recommendation?
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:-D :lol:
I dunno why, but this strip struck me as very funny. Huh.
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Now, I know Brun is a bit OCD and somewhat oblivious to the obvious - but if a girl pushed up to me and said "Smell me"....Woooo... (pulls on collar, lets out steam)
Really? I would think the words "smell me" would repulse most men because idk when I hear that I think "BO" and kill the mood.
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Brun, Brun, Brun. You're torturing the poor man at this point.
I think Brun is on the spectrum. I say this as someone who likely has Asperger's myself (though I've gotten good at hiding it over the years). Most women hide it better than Brun does. Her behavior is so refreshing, very charming, but also very confusing for the guys who like her. She honestly has no idea that her close physical proximity could be taken the wrong way. Brun is just doing Brun.
Clinton is gonna have to come right out and say it: "Brun, this is hard for me to tell you, but I like you. I want to go out with you sometime." Otherwise the awkwardness will continue.
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Knowing clinton, the awkwardness may continue for a few weeks after that point, but I agree it needs to happen.
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I wonder who the brave soul will be who compliments Brun on her flirting
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There was actually a really interesting article I read about how women present on the autism spectrum differently than men do, simply because social punishment for being awkward is higher for women than men. It was a good read, even though my husband sent it to me because he thinks I am. Joke's on him, I was just poorly socialized as a child, even if I have have a dozen siblings.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/autism-it-s-different-in-girls/
Brun is my favourite.
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is Eliot going to come down there and find them like that, for a
cliched "classic" moment of hi-lar-i-ous misreading of the situation?
(I hope not.)
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Clinton is gonna have to come right out and say it: "Brun, this is hard for me to tell you, but I like you. I want to go out with you sometime." Otherwise the awkwardness will continue.
I'm not good at searching through the strip (are there character tags? hm) but I feel like Clinton did tell Brun that he likes her, and she just said something like "this is important data"?
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The punishment for being awkward definitely is greater for women. For sure.
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I'm guessing Jeph wishes he could see the look on shippers' faces right now.
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Brun, Brun, Brun. You're torturing the poor man at this point.
I think Brun is on the spectrum. I say this as someone who likely has Asperger's myself (though I've gotten good at hiding it over the years). Most women hide it better than Brun does. Her behavior is so refreshing, very charming, but also very confusing for the guys who like her. She honestly has no idea that her close physical proximity could be taken the wrong way. Brun is just doing Brun.
Clinton is gonna have to come right out and say it: "Brun, this is hard for me to tell you, but I like you. I want to go out with you sometime." Otherwise the awkwardness will continue.
I FOUND IT (and I learned how to quote correctly):
http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3497
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Now, I know Brun is a bit OCD and somewhat oblivious to the obvious - but if a girl pushed up to me and said "Smell me"....Woooo... (pulls on collar, lets out steam)
Really? I would think the words "smell me" would repulse most men because idk when I hear that I think "BO" and kill the mood.
Context is king. Or queen.
And in the context of that level of physical proximity, that would only kill the mood if she were building up to a fart joke.
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Just tell her she smells better than the first time they met.
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Now, I know Brun is a bit OCD and somewhat oblivious to the obvious - but if a girl pushed up to me and said "Smell me"....Woooo... (pulls on collar, lets out steam)
Really? I would think the words "smell me" would repulse most men because idk when I hear that I think "BO" and kill the mood.
Context is king. Or queen.
I would think in that close proximity, and in that narrow stairwell, he would already be able to smell her - if only subconsciously - so that would be his initial context. Only if he had smelled overwhelming BO would his initial reaction have been repulsion. Considering his awkwardness, I'm surprised he was able to answer her at all... must be thanks to his "liquid courage".
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Once we have real AIs, no matter how primitive, we won't rest until we've turned them into people. This is the true curse of Frankenstein.
Clinton seems to be looking toward a post-singularity Singularity.
Complete with little to no foresight as to how they may appear or behave until after they've come alive and freak us out with their creepy eyes (or what have you).
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This is pretty much classic Brun here. She doesn't really 'get' personal boundaries; everything is about efficiency and accurate communication. I don't know if she doesn't realise the affect she has on Clinton or if she's noticed, doesn't understand it and has decided that, as she doesn't know what his body language means, she should just ignore it!
Meanwhile I have some bad news for Brun: There is an upper limit to the protection given by any antiperspirant. Eventually, your body's need to sweat will overcome it. Irritating, I know but that's biology for you!
Now, how is Brun going to handle this problem? Does she have a change of clothes in her locker? Or is she going to ask Clinton to help her bathe in one of the sinks in the restrooms? It doesn't matter because it's going to be a cause of great embarrassment (and embarrassed arousal) for Clinton whilst there is no conceivable way in which Elliott will be able to do anything but misinterpret what's going on!
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God *damn*, boy. That is not what you say. You inhale, pause, collect your thoughts and say "Daffodils. Warmth. Hard work. I don't think I have ever liked any smell better." You don't kiss her, because she is on some spectrum or other and getting in that close is a mark of trust, not an invitation, but you, how you say, you relax your body into her nearness, making it evident that you enjoy it. I am the biggest nerd in the world -- well, OK, second place but the winner cheated -- and even I can see that. Dude! What? C'mon. What are words for if not for praising what you love?
People are weird about smell though, and act as if no one should have one. I know what pretty much everyone I like smells like, and would have a very hard time liking them if I didn't like their smell.
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I like Brun a lot. She says what I'm thinking a lot, and sometimes do say to family because we've decided that's our kinda relationship at some point.
I don't know if Brun is in to social media but I can imagine her getting on Twitter and typing up, "Dear [Deodorant Brand], I find your product to be ineffective and this is UNACCEPTABLE. My friend is available for testimony."
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I am the biggest nerd in the world -- well, OK, second place but the winner cheated -- and even I can see that. Dude! What? C'mon. What are words for if not for praising what you love?
Ah, but you're not half drunk and put on the spot.
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Half-drunk and dealing with an urgently full bladder. It’s not really conducive to thinking on your feet.
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Yes, well. Everything crucial happens when you are half drunk and have to pee, or scared, or unsure of what is going on, or taken off-guard, or distracted. At least alcohol lowers inhibitions and needing to pee makes you speak succinctly.
Brun's body language is interesting in panel 4. The typically feminine way of doing that would be to lean in, drop one's gaze to disavow forwardness, and then look up from under. Leaning in while making direct eye contact is usually a guy's way of doing it. Leaning in, making direct eye contact, touching the guy with your bosom, and asking to be smelled puts the entire Signal Corps into wild disarray. Fistfights break out. Old code books are dragged out from file drawers. Senior officials sneak out the back door and go for long liquid lunch breaks. Interns run wildly to and fro waving flags and shooting off flares.
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The new deodorant is advertised as being laced with pheromones. Based on the advertised promises, Brun is expecting Clinton to show at least some signs of barely controllable lust. Knowing her, she may well be capable of calculating bladder capacity and accurately gauging when a given patron will need a potty break. This may have been a planned ambush.
"Ne te lave pa. Je reviens"
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It is possible, but I don't put her down as having wiles at all. I think she is very socially perceptive in some ways, almost socially blind in others, literal-minded, direct, almost fearless, and guided more by rules than by intuitions. If she wanted to have sex, I think she would propose having sex. I would be hard pressed to cite comics that show this right off the top of my head, though. It is an overall impression.
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It is possible, but I don't put her down as having wiles at all.
I'm sure she has wiles, they're just not always recognizable as such. ;)
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God *damn*, boy. That is not what you say. ...
.... I think she is very socially perceptive in some ways, almost socially blind in others, literal-minded, direct, almost fearless, and guided more by rules than by intuitions....
Clinton: This is awkward. So? Are you going to kiss me? 0.0
Brun: Not now. I'm sweaty. >.>
Clinton: ... Gotta pee.
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Half-drunk and dealing with an urgently full bladder. It’s not really conducive to thinking on your feet.
If she doesn't let him out soon, she might end up smelling like something else (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1695).
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I find it interesting that Brun feels that she can ask him that question. Even with an understanding of her issues, there is a certain fairly high level of trust in him for her to be able to ask him that. It's funny & a bit strange but it's touching as well. The strangest ship I've ever seen...
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The strangest ship I've ever seen...
(https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-83e25c740360427dfeb965b37c0ae5cd-c)
(It's even called FLIP (https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-interesting-facts-about-ships) ...)
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At least alcohol lowers inhibitions and needing to pee makes you speak succinctly.
Unfortunately not for everybody.
To quote my older brother, I'm "the most uptight, unfun drunk on the face of the planet." Alcohol raises my inhibitors but still impairs my motor skills, so being drunk is just frustrating for me. I've a cousin who's the same way.
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The strangest ship I've ever seen...
*Snip* A terrifying non-Euclidean modern art sculpture, rising from the depths like the tentacle of some mechanoid Cthulhu in a perversion of sense and sanity. It calls itself "ship", but only because mortal tongues cannot speak it's true name. *End Snip*
Case, it's late and I'm tired, so I'm going to simply turn to you in the forlorn hope you can explain and make the world make sense again. What am I looking at?
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The strangest ship I've ever seen...
(https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-83e25c740360427dfeb965b37c0ae5cd-c)
(It's even called FLIP (https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-interesting-facts-about-ships) ...)
What would such a ship even be used for?
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The strangest ship I've ever seen...
What would such a ship even be used for?
Exposure therapy for extreme cases of chronic sea-sickness?
(Or something (http://www.amusingplanet.com/2012/05/rp-flip-strangest-ship-in-world.html) ...)
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What would such a ship even be used for?
"FLIP is designed to study wave height, acoustic signals, water temperature and density, and for the collection of meteorological data." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RP_FLIP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RP_FLIP)]
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You all know as well as I do that we're not allowed to discuss ships in the forum.
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Unfortunately not for everybody.
To quote my older brother, I'm "the most uptight, unfun drunk on the face of the planet." Alcohol raises my inhibitors but still impairs my motor skills, so being drunk is just frustrating for me. I've a cousin who's the same way.
Yeah, me too, best as I can recall. My whole psyche would become this:
"Warning: inhibitions are lowered. Consciously review all speech before utterance."
"Working memory cache down by 75%. Cut processing speed accordingly."
"Notice: all the people around you are intoxicated and unreliable. Keep a careful eye on them."
"Warning: random associations are interfering with reasoning. Bracket all conclusions as unreliable and postpone acting on them."
And so forth. Dionysus would not have me, and I was forced to go with boring old Apollo.
Clinton was all loose and happy talking with Elliott a minute ago though. He could run with the Maenads if he could just break out of this panic.
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My older brother used my 23rd birthday as an excuse to throw a kegger (we shared an apartment at the time).
He made my singles doubles and my doubles triples to 'help me loosen up'. I passed out in my room with everyone's car keys in my hand. Yes, despite being horribly drunk, I was still taking keys from drunk and tipsy people.
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Welp. Poor Elliot. This is going to be so much awkward.
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is Eliot going to come down there and find them like that, for a cliched "classic" moment of hi-lar-i-ous misreading of the situation?
(I hope not.)
God damnit, Jeph.
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Yeah... that was kinda lazy.
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To quote my older brother, I'm "the most uptight, unfun drunk on the face of the planet." Alcohol raises my inhibitors but still impairs my motor skills, so being drunk is just frustrating for me. I've a cousin who's the same way.
Yeah... when alcohol lowers my inhibitions mostly it lowers the ones that keep me from alienating people. So I forget to simplify my vocabulary when talking, don't bother with not blurting out the answer to math questions, stop pretending to not know what they're thinking, stop pretending to believe them when they lie to me ...
Alcohol is dangerous stuff. I can get in so much trouble so fast when I'm drunk, it's not even funny.
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If only that cop with a bread fetish hadn't gone home Elliot might find someone to comfort him right now.
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God damnit, Jeph.
Got here too late! Your comment was the first thing I thought of reading today's strip.
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Yeah... that was kinda lazy.
I think it depends on where he takes it from here. Sometimes the best way to subvert a trope in an interesting way is to appear to be playing it straight until the twist.
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Yeah, I figured that something like this would happen. Elliott's insecurities and Brun's innocent lack of boundaries would make something like this quite inevitable!
I'm just loving how Brun is all in Clinton's personal space and really doesn't get what the problem is supposed to be. Whilst I agree that it says a lot about how much she must trust Clinton that she's willing to be so close to him, I don't think that she necessarily perceives the romantic and sexual overtones. To her (and I base this especially on panel 4), it's a case of "Being very close Clinton makes me feel happy and comfortable" and that's the end of it. Given the number of creeps who have propositioned her, 'sex' is something that she likely associates with being uncomfortable and unhappy, even repulsed, so she is unlikely to associate good feelings with attraction unless someone tries to explain it to her.
What am I expecting next? Basically one of three things:
- Brun calls Elliott back and insists that she and Clinton smell him too (and he smell them in return) describing it as a 'control sample'; all three up close has some... consequences;
- Elliott is angry/upset and refuses to engage with them for the rest of the shift; Brun basically forces Clinton to accompany her to confront him after work; it all comes out whilst they're all sitting on a park bench and Brun's proposed solution is... unique;
- Jeph deliberately harkens back to Hannelore's first appearance with Brun in the restroom, talking whilst Clinton is doing his business; Once Clinton explains to Brun what Elliott's problem is, she convinces Clinton to help her make peace with Elliott.
I have several ideas where this may end up, overall. However, it's my feeling that Jeph is either going to go for Clinton and Elliott starting a relationship or a Clinton-Brun-Elliott triad with both the guys being somewhat hesitant around Brun because them are worried that she's not fully aware of what's happening. Meanwhile, Renee is worried that Brun knows damn well what she's doing and is jerking on the marionette strings a bit too hard. All Brun cares about is that she's happy having two boyfriends; she even feels like smiling most days!
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.... puts the entire Signal Corps into wild disarray. Fistfights break out. Old code books are dragged out from file drawers. Senior officials sneak out the back door and go for long liquid lunch breaks. Interns run wildly to and fro waving flags and shooting off flares.
I am presently reading about Jean Shepherd's experiences in the Signal Corps. Which makes your quote amazingly appropriate.
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Dammit, Jeph, indeed. This is lazy plotting. Lo, wacky hi jinks have ensued. We are in a situation comedy.
Brun's sensible, truthful "Yes, it is. We're smelling each other," helps a little. It is usually a rule in this kind of lazy story-telling that everyone magically becomes incapable of intelligible speech, so that the situation can be prolonged as long as possible. Brun has not.
There is one interesting thing that could be done here. The decent, human thing for Clinton to do is to chase after Elliot, explain in a few well-chosen words, and bring him back. At that point, I don't know, maybe they all smell each other and decide they are a nest of naked mole rats. They stop this stupid nonsense.
But in Clinton's place I wouldn't do it, because I am a monogamous straight guy, and if you are a monogamous straight guy and have to take the girl away from the other guy, you just do. It's all about the girl. Monogamous straight guys kind of suck that way. Clinton has an actual existential choice here, a choice that will decide how his fundamental loyalties lie. Probably he will take the more trodden path. It will be interesting if he does not, just because we all know more or less how the more trodden path goes.
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Whatever other impulse he might have, I think a dash to the bathroom is in Clinton's more immediate future.
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Poor Elliot.
And now Clinton will probably piss himself... :evil:
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Are we sure Clinton actually really wants to be with Brun? I mean yeah he thinks she's attractive but at this point, I think he just wants to pee. Also, we know that Clinton thought Brun liked Elliot (during the arc where he goes to the bar and Elliot accidentally crushes his hand) but does he actually think Elliot wants Brun? Would he even consider that he's taking her away from Elliot?
Clinton has just sat watching Brun work for an hour or so in return for five words out of her. He wants to be with Brun.
Clinton has reason to believe that Elliot has a crush on Brun: http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3496, and the next few.
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About the whole drunk thing: I would get really stupid when drunk, but not uninhibited. Alcohol doesn't give me the Dunning-Kruger effect, where my stupidity takes the form of baseless self-confidence. I get slow and anxious: "Please, don't take the reading. Put flowers on Algernon's grave for me."
Speed, now . . . Were I ever to have taken speed, I might have found that it makes me smarter and more able, but not nearly as smart and able as I think, and not nearly smart and able enough to outweigh the accompanying bad-tempered obsessiveness. Luckily, speed is illegal, so that never happened.
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I just wish that Elliot would snap to and figure out that Renee is a perfectly good woman and likes him. Pointless suffering is pointless.
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I just wish that Elliot would snap to and figure out that Renee is a perfectly good woman and likes him. Pointless suffering is pointless.
Good woman? When Angus broke up with Renee, Marigold and Momo started singing “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”. (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1363)
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Renee is remarkably like Faye. Angus likes them verbally abusive, and brings it out in them. Faye, I need hardly point out, serves as the unattainable desirable women in this strip, as Helen of Troy, as Deirdre of the Sorrows, despite having no respect for others' boundaries, violently defended boundaries of her own, an unreliable temper, and conveniently placed social blind spots. She is, withal, a good woman. The good ones are never easy, except sometimes in the vulgar colloquial sense.
There are damned few easy women in this strip. Dora is racked by insecurity. Hannelore is as mad as cheese and can't be touched. Brun is a very fine specimen of whatever the hell it is she is, but you have to work that out as you go. Claire is helpy, shy, and awkward. Marigold is only just learning to be social. Tai is about the only exception I can think of, and she is not so much easy as a very experienced, competent girlfriend.
In general, QC is a comedy of bad manners. People rush about madly like dogs in a dog park, periodically slam into each other, sniff, wag, apologize, make up, and go back to barreling around madly again. There is a lot more good-heartedness than good manners in this strip. Renee is no exception.
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Eye of the beholder and all that, snufflebottoms.
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Funny, I had to consider whether it would be OK to talk about Faye behind her back. I guess her being in an alternate universe where word can't get back to her makes it OK.
Faye is attractive because fierce and heated. She really doesn't like being touched and is always on edge around anyone except Bubbles, and responds by attacking forward bravely rather than by withdrawing. She is a fiercely loyal friend, as witnessed by how she wants first to kill and then to console Dora when she breaks up with Marten, and with both her support of Bubbles and her heartbreak when Bubbles initially fails to support her. She has no manners whatever, but a brave, hot heart. It is easy to speculate what it would be like to unlock that heat and direct it toward one. The potential is staggering! Think of how its power could benefit mankind! And it is so pretty, flaring and flickering like a red flower. What could possibly go wrong?
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Brun seems not to mind being close, physically, to Clinton. Maybe she has feelings that are difficult for her to acknowledge. A lot of people with autism can't deal with physical contact, and some give too much contact and don't understand the rules of touching.
I think Clinton needs to just come out and say "Brun, I like you. I think we should go out sometime" and see what she says. I don't think she has a lot of experience with dating. Clinton might need to figure out how to tell her his feelings, and figure out if she's interested.
I would say it's harder for a woman on the spectrum to deal with romantic type feelings. I've definitely had a hard time with them. It's like feeling everything but not being able to say and do the right thing like other women do. For me it's like being a prisoner. Brun isn't as inhibited and shy as I am, but I'm sure she still struggles.
Her character is important. I'm happy to see a non white (presumably) woman on the spectrum in this comic. Just like me. I feel a little less like an alien.
Though I am frustrated. Just kiss him already, Brun! I'd give anything to have an opportunity like that.
I am a little sad for Elliot, but he reaaaalllly needs to learn to stop barking up the wrong tree. First with Padma, then with Brun, and then Clinton. I hope this finally gives him the motivation to actually find someone who will return his feelings. Again and again he goes after unsuitable people who show zero interest in him. He needs to learn!
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Er...kiss him once he's sobered up, of course. Kissing him now would be wrong.
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It seems to me, after what Brun said in the last panel, that she knows exaclty what she's doing by standing so close to Clinton...
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I have to point out that Marten and Claire's relationship started out when Marten was drunk. Sort of. Hmm...
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So does anyone here actually get drunk when they drink and not become super 'intelligent and logical and more responsible'? lol :roll:
Wouldn't know. I have (and have gotten in) enough trouble with social situations when I'm cold sober and (supposedly) in full control of my faculties; to further impair myself on top of that would be to court disaster. That's why I don't drink (much), and never to drunkenness.
(The other half being that I have a terrible sweet tooth and don't like the tastes of most alcohol, and as such would rather just have the juice, mixer, soda, etc etc straight and sweet. I have found a few exceptions - liqueurs, 'hard' juices, etc - but tend to only have those in single servings.)
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Ok. Hi...
Ok....
So I'm a long time reader and I have never had a moment that I identify with more than now...
I created a forum account to say this...
As someone that is very socially awkward... someone that is non-binary... someone that is queer... and someone that is in a long-term, healthy, polygamous relationship with two very loving partners, can we have a nice romantic relationship between the three of them? I mean please?
I know it's just some rando making requests again, but really, the representation in this comic is wonderful. People just accept other people. They are just decent. People need to see that this can be decent and healthy too.
*falls off soap box and rolls back into the gutter*
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Hello new person! You make a good point. I think jeph has said that the theme of the comic is acceptance (I believe after Claire was introduced) and a poly relationship between the three would not only give an opportunity to continue that theme, but also it would be a subversion to the cliched "Not what it looks like!" Cliffhanger we find ourselves on. And if there's nothing else this comic loves doing, it's dodging cliches.
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I don't understand WHY Faye is considered so desirable though - she isn't very kind to strangers or friends and she isn't particularly attractive physically
As someone already pointed out, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Faye may have put on a noticeable amount of weight since she and Marten first met, but she has also opened up A LOT more emotionally, which IMHO makes her a lot more attractive. Physically, she’s not my type at all, but she is exactly the kind of girl I would pursue, if only as a challenge to break through her tough exterior to bring out the big-hearted girl inside that she all-too-rarely shows. I might end up getting hurt – emotionally, and certainly physically – but we’d both have grown in the process.
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Ok. Hi...
Ok....
So I'm a long time reader and I have never had a moment that I identify with more than now...
I created a forum account to say this...
As someone that is very socially awkward... someone that is non-binary... someone that is queer... and someone that is in a long-term, healthy, polygamous relationship with two very loving partners, can we have a nice romantic relationship between the three of them? I mean please?
I know it's just some rando making requests again, but really, the representation in this comic is wonderful. People just accept other people. They are just decent. People need to see that this can be decent and healthy too.
*falls off soap box and rolls back into the gutter*
Hi there, new person! The problem with this, as nice as it would be, is that it's not realistic. Most people aren't poly. I don't believe any of the three of them are. Then there's the fact that Clinton likely isn't into dudes. And the fact that Brun likely isn't into Elliot.
I think it's more meaningful to Elliot's character development to have a moment with himself saying "hmm. I constantly fall for unavailable people. What's up with that? How can I change it?" Elliot needs the rejections to understand that he's constantly falling for unavailable people.
We also might get a good Elliot storyline about how he finds something mutual. That's more realistic and arguably more interesting than a rather out there (I'm all for poly but in this case it simply doesn't apply) poly relationship storyline.
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Maybe Elliot would be a good match for Roko. After all, he's tall, he's got human abs, and working in a bakery he has access to all the day-old bread that Roko could ever want.
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Ok. Hi...
Ok....
So I'm a long time reader and I have never had a moment that I identify with more than now...
I created a forum account to say this...
As someone that is very socially awkward... someone that is non-binary... someone that is queer... and someone that is in a long-term, healthy, polygamous relationship with two very loving partners, can we have a nice romantic relationship between the three of them? I mean please?
I know it's just some rando making requests again, but really, the representation in this comic is wonderful. People just accept other people. They are just decent. People need to see that this can be decent and healthy too.
*falls off soap box and rolls back into the gutter*
Totally agree with you, and I've been hoping for this outcome for the same reason. Poly people get a lot of shit for being who we are so it'd be wonderful to see a positive portrayal for once (only other examples I can think of are Kimchi Cuddles, and the manga version of Magic Knight Rayearth which I've not got round to reading but apparently the main character ends up marrying both of her love interests).
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The Dreamcast/Gamecube air-pirates RPG Skies of Arcadia has, among its many awesome points, a remarkably healthy and drama-free triangle with its three main characters (swashbuckling hero Vyse, tomboy Aika, and girl-from-the-moon Fina). IIRC, at one point, someone actually asks Aika if she's at all jealous of Vyse and Fina and she's like "what? no, not at all."
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As someone that is very socially awkward... someone that is non-binary... someone that is queer... and someone that is in a long-term, healthy, polygamous relationship with two very loving partners, can we have a nice romantic relationship between the three of them? I mean please?
I know it's just some rando making requests again, but really, the representation in this comic is wonderful. People just accept other people. They are just decent. People need to see that this can be decent and healthy too.
Welcome, sort of new person!
That's one thing that's been missing from the comic since Tai went monogamous. Even back then I think it was being played for laughs more than actually being explored. Maybe Jeph doesn't feel like he knows enough to write about poly relationships. We know he cares about getting things right because of the research he put into Claire and May.
You will fit in fine here!
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I am continually stunned by the confidence with which people make decisions about QC characters' sexual preferences. Clinton is likely a virgin, and Brun too. Elliot is muscly and good-looking enough that someone has likely managed to trip and fall underneath him by now, but he is so very shy that I doubt he is widely experienced. That means that none of them have enough experience to know themselves what their sexual predilections are, and yet people watching them from the outside seem able to decide for them. None of them conform to the norm in other respects, yet somehow it is supposed that they conform to the norm sexually. This is possible, but there is no reason to think it likely.
All that would be necessary for a polyamorous relationship is for two of them to be sleeping with one of them, all of them to know what is going on, and all of them to be on good terms. Not everyone has to be sleeping with everyone. That doesn't seem unlikely.
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Statistically speaking, we're at least another 500ish relationships (onscreen) away from a polyamourus relationship when comparing to IRL percentages. Factoring in QC tendency towards some exgerated figures puts at probably 300 more to go.
I'm sure Jeph will add in a polyamourus relationship long before that, though. Just not with these 3 since Clinton is at most a Kinsey 1.
EDIT: I'm doing some generous head-maths with data from 2016 on 3 hours of sleep. Margin of error is pretty big here, but polyamourus relationships are amongst the rarest kinds of relationships.
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As ckridge said, though, a possible configuration would be Brun dating both Clinton and Elliot, and that would count as a poly relationship.
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I feel odd discussing Faye's personal attractiveness, because it is right on the line between pretending she is a real person and analyzing her as a literary and artistic creation. I am perfectly happy considering Faye as an intersection of conflicting ideological apparatuses, or as a symbolic representation of something Jeph can't say explicitly, or as an artistic response to preceding fictitious female characters, because in each of those cases I have stepped completely out of the story and am considering it as an artistic artifact so as to deepen and enrich my pleasure when I step back in. (Kinky, I know, but exquisite.) I am willing and able to imagine Faye as she must seem to Bubbles kneeling by her bed, soft, rounded, inscrutably different, utterly familiar, perfectly trusting, absolutely desirable, and to imagine the iron discipline and reckless self-disregard that would let one kneel there night after night, on guard against oneself and others, and never say a word. At that point, I am fully inside the story, and imagining all its characters to be real.
What I can't bring myself to do is to talk about Faye's attractiveness as if she were a real person, but in a manner in which I would never talk about a real person. If I am attracted to her, I am pretending she is real, and if I am pretending she is real, I should treat her like she's real.
Please understand I am not defending this position or urging it upon others, because I do not think it defensible. It is an aesthetic choice.
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Long, long ago there was a thread with a title like "Fat Faye". It's significant because Jeph posted in it to talk about his artistic intent in portraying Faye.
What he said was that Faye was written as someone physically attractive to many people. He gave a list if memory serves.
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If one continues it too far into adulthood, though, you wind up like Sven Bianchi.
It occurs to me that I have known ones who ended up like Sven, or like this guy.
The years drifted over like clouds in the heavens.
The ladies went by me like snow on the wind.
I charmed and I cheated, deceived and dissembled,
And I sinned and I sinned and I sinned and I sinned.
But I said to myself, "Ah, they none of them see
There's part of me pure as the whisk of a wave.
My lady is late but she'll find I've been faithful,
And I'll know when I love by the way I behave."
At last came a lady both knowing and tender,
Saying "You're not at all what they take you to be."
I betrayed her before she had quite finished speaking,
And she swallowed cold poison and jumped in the sea.
And I say to myself when there's time for a word,
As I gracefully grow more debauched and depraved,
"Ah, love may be strong, but a habit is stronger,
And I knew when I loved by the way I behaved."
-- Peter Beagle
However, I have known just as many to come out like Tai, deeply experienced at managing affairs of the heart and with an awesome A game.
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What I can't bring myself to do is to talk about Faye's attractiveness as if she were a real person, but in a manner in which I would never talk about a real person. If I am attracted to her, I am pretending she is real, and if I am pretending she is real, I should treat her like she's real.
Pretty sure you weren't alluding to me here. But FWIW, I actually have a good friend who is a lot like Faye, both physically and also in the way she tends to relate to others. If she's your friend, she is more likely to punch you than to hug you, but she also would probably not hesitate to kill to protect you. She's not my type at all, and we'd make a horrible couple, but I still find her very attractive. So for me it is extremely easy to pretend that Faye is real. Almost too real, in fact.
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But I don't think that's what's being mooted as a solution to the Brun/Clinton/Eliot triangle. Because neither of the guys seem to be interested in no-strings sex, with each other or with Brun. The two guys seem to be keen to have a relationship with Brun that is close, and if they where aware of each other, would need to be happy that the closeness they shared with Brun was held in common. That's where it seems (and again, I am not Polyamorous so this is just my limited understanding) to be a polyamorous relationship- multiple partners with a consenting, deep relationship in common. It would meet your initial requirements- the relationship would be neither shifting, nor non-committed.
This of course assumes Brun is up for this. She's a pretty closed book, frankly, so this whole thing all supposition.
Thank you for nudging the thread back towards its topic...
I'm not sure whether Brun is interested in a romantic relationship in any form, but who knows?
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FWIW, it's my feeling that Clinton doesn't believe that Brun is either interested in or fully understanding of romantic partnership. As slightly creepy as it is, he's just consoling himself by being in Brun's vicinity and admiring her from afar.
As somewhat condescending as it is, Brun would have to make an unambiguous first move (i.e. would have to say 'I am doing this because I wish to date you') to get Clinton out of this mindset.
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Eh, some poly people are arrogant snots about it. I'm poly myself, and often find myself eye rolling at other poly people making it sound like some of idealized lifestyle or that it is "the way we should all be". Some people it fits, some people it doesn't. We should all just be who we are.
That being said, even as a poly person, the solution to this love triangle being a triad (or a V) seems sort of contrived. None of these characters have ever shown any inclination towards being poly, for all of them to suddenly be like "yes, this is cool" seems super unrealistic.
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OTOH, none of them have shown any indication they are not interested in being poly, either.
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The thing is, Elliot has clearly shown a negative interest in it, as with all the romantic interests he has had in the comic, he has always seen other possible romantic partners of his attraction as competition (granted, he also tends to not see himself as up to the competition either). That isn't the mindset of a poly person.
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Here's a question: does someone have to be poly themselves to be happy in a consensually poly relationship?
Granted, jealousy will sink a poly relationship - and I don't think Elliot would be happy - but I'm someone who's monoromantic/monoamorous to a fault... yet I've come to the realization that given the right circumstances, I wouldn't have any problem if a partner was seeing someone else, as long as she's open about it with both me and her other partner(s), they're respectful to her, and I'm not treated as a third wheel or a "side-dick".
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You just described an exact scenario where it is fine. A common issue with poly is trying to make sure it's 'even' but that just isn't how it works. There's nothing wrong with being okay with your partner having other partners when you don't want any.
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The transformation of Clint from an annoying dweeb to an interesting, relatable character is very impressive.
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OTOH, none of them have shown any indication they are not interested in being poly, either.
Which is a realistic thing to expect if that's what's happening. The characters do talk about whether they're monogamous.
Dora made monogamy part of her checklist for potential partners. When Tai decided that poly was for other people than her, she told her friends.