THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Comic Discussion => QUESTIONABLE CONTENT => Topic started by: BenRG on 17 Jun 2018, 13:41
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So, as we've finally come to a watershed in Faye and Bubbles' relationship, I think that the time is appropriate to ask what forumites thought of the entire arc from the first meeting to the realisation that the Bed is Dead.
IMO, it's some of Jeph's best writing. He caught the development of both women's personalities as a result of their interaction. From early on it was clear that this was something special; Faye was pushing too hard and Bubbles was really letting her get away with too much. However, it wasn't until Faye went into Bubbles' room when the latter was hiding away from a world she was sure hated her that we realised just how close the two of them were getting.
It wasn't a perfect story. I'm still not ready to forgive the deus ex machina that was Spookybot, a plot device that was neither really needed nor (IMO at least) properly used. Nonetheless, I give the overall effort a better-than-good score.
What do you think?
As for this week's strips, I'm half-expecting a series of semi-random vignettes before Jeph settles on where he wants to go next.
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12/10, good characters
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I gave it an 8, and would have given it a solid 10 were it not for Spooky-bot and the drama-that-wasn't. It felt like going very close to an interesting place- stolen memories, hard revelations and the effort to reclaim one's self and then... weird monster and nerf guns. Spooky-bot as a character is really interesting, but she was introduced... clumsily.
That did feel like a deus ex machina. But that is my sole complaint with this arc. The relationship otherwise felt perfect on every beat. Great writing, and it was fun being along for the ride!
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I have super-mixed feelings. The character development was really superb, and the story amazing. My problem was with the story-telling. I just didn't feel that the climax of the story, the famous "I will never leave you" page didn't meet the standards I had come to expect.
Then again, I liked the Tilly arc, so what do I know?
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Comic's up.
Hello, Dina. I'll bet Dina knows!
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And for those who don't know her name is pronounced deena.
(mistake repaired)
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I strongly recommend the book "The Dynamics of Dinosaurs and other Extinct Giants". It considers many aspects of Dino biophysics, including sex.
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Author(s)?
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As for this week's strips, I'm half-expecting a series of semi-random vignettes before Jeph settles on where he wants to go next.
One down.
How many more to go?
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Author(s)?
No, just extinct megafauna. You'll have to go to the literature section to see the mechanics of authorial courtship.
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Ah Dina, of course.
Hello Dina.
Jolly nice to meet you.
*Hells bells, who is this person and why is she staring at my knees!?!?*
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Dina's from Dumbing of age (http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/pun/) (I think this is her first speaking appearance in the strip), and It's Walky! (http://www.itswalky.com/comic/this-is-his-new-assistant/) (She'd been in a few strips before this one, but it's the first time she's named).
Yes, I really do have better things to do...
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Quick, to Amazon's e-book section, where the foremost authorities on dinosaur mating can be found!
Also, hi Dina.
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Is she still trying to find the Drama tag?
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New headcanon: QC happens years after DoA and Dina changes her name to Emily
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Author(s)?
https://cup.columbia.edu/book/dynamics-of-dinosaurs-and-other-extinct-giants/9780231066679
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Interested in more Dina.
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12/10, good characters
I don't get your rating system.
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Author(s)?
https://cup.columbia.edu/book/dynamics-of-dinosaurs-and-other-extinct-giants/9780231066679
Ah, yes, R. McNeill Alexander. I have his book on chordates somewhere around here - lots of biophysics in it. Thanks!
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Dina's not even using a door this time. Clever girl.
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This is one of the things that I love about Emily. She's got so much brain power that she can do whatever it is she's doing whilst letting the rest of her brain wander off along these paths where she puzzles about strange things and she can become really concerned about them. Of course, given that Coffee of Doom has played host to a time machine before, it isn't beyond the bounds of possibility that the title of today's strip is actually baldly telling us where this arc is going!
I seem to remember reading at some point that they found a female T-Rex skeleton with some cosmetic damage to the vertebrae around the pelvis that suggested that the male did mount and could get... er... enthusiastic. Of course, like much else in Palaeontology, a lot of it is basically down to interpretation. When you've only got a couple of dozen examples at most (and most of them highly incomplete), things like that border on guesswork
Hello, Dina. I'll bet Dina knows!
Actually, I think that Dina would be the first to acknowledge where there was insufficient evidence and any theory automatically drifts into being a hypothesis.
I want to put in an early vote for Joyce Brown and Dorothy Keener both being Claire's friends amongst post-grad students at Smif.
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....aaaaaaaaand THERE'S the non sequitur arc change we've been waiting for! You tease, Jeph!
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QC asking the important questions again :parrot:
Personally I'm up for some semi-random vignettes. And I say that as someone who really liked the Faye/Bubbles arc. :-)
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Dina's not even using a door this time. Clever girl.
Wonder if she's passing through from a universe that isn't overrun with Soggies.
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12/10, good characters
I don't get your rating system.
They're good characters, Brent.
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8/10. Because there were some swerves... I'd have shipped 'em earlier.
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9/10 because I felt some of the writing near the end felt rushed. I agree that Spookybot was a deus ex machina, but nonetheless they're one of my favorite characters just because we know so little about them and I think they're super interesting!
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Dina's from Dumbing of age (http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/pun/) (I think this is her first speaking appearance in the strip), and It's Walky! (http://www.itswalky.com/comic/this-is-his-new-assistant/) (She'd been in a few strips before this one, but it's the first time she's named).
Yes, I really do have better things to do...
I have even less of a life and happily help out...Here's the very first DoA appearance (http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/lobby/) (she has her back to us, but that's her in her traditional DoA dinosaur hat)
Here's her first true appearance in It's Walky! (http://www.itswalky.com/comic/no-mercy/)
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Looking back at Faye and Bubs (ALL the way back to #3003, which is .... three years ago), something had to happen.
For some reason I think Emily might become more than comic relief and the occasional weirdness. If only to make a counterpart to Spookybot happen. Which I have to admit is kind of Deus ex Machina. I feel somewhat cheated. But who knows, maybe someone like Emily accidentally created Spookybot, but is somehow oblivious, was made to forget or just don't care.
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The only thing better than one quirky Asian, are TWO quirky Asians. Now kiss.
PS: I'm also a quirky Asian, so I'M ALLOWED! BWAHAHAHA!
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From what I've researched on the internet about Dina, it seems that either she likes girls or everyone THINKS she likes girls. So it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility. Though I don't think Emily swings that way.
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We don't really know which way Emily swings. Her meeting with Clinton for what should have been dates is a clue, but that's about it. We're talking about Emily here.
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That's totally true. I shouldn't assume anything about Emily's sexuality.
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Oops. Dina definitely likes girls. Haha! I don't read DoA so I'm not at all familiar with the characters.
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I want to put in an early vote for Joyce Brown and Dorothy Keener both being Claire's friends amongst post-grad students at Smif.
I wonder what Pintsize thinks of Mike Warner...
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I went with 9/10 in the poll, mostly for the same reasons as have been stated before here: The Spookybot resolution just felt forced and not really fitting the tone of the rest of the story. Here's this more or less omnipotent robot and look, they fix everything in just a few pages. No. The rest is of the high standard that we have come to appreciate and expect and be disappointed when he fails to live up to (*cough*Tilly*cough*). Also, as others have noted, Spookybot is an interesting character. They just weren't used in a good way through this storyline.
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I agree that Spookybot seemed like a cheap shortcut, but Faye getting fired bothered me more from a consistency standpoint. Dora bought beer (and pizza) for all the employees on the clock and encouraged Faye's attitude with customers. I get that it had to happen for (obvious and major) plot reasons, but it didn't seem to 'fit', imo.
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I agree that Spookybot seemed like a cheap shortcut, but Faye getting fired bothered me more from a consistency standpoint. Dora bought beer (and pizza) for all the employees on the clock and encouraged Faye's attitude with customers. I get that it had to happen for (obvious and major) plot reasons, but it didn't seem to 'fit', imo.
A beer on the clock for special occasions and a terse register manner isn't the same as showing up to work smashed and angry.
Love today's comic. I greatly appreciated the emotional payoff to Faybles but was in dire need of a light aside to the rest of the cast.
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I wish I could remember the line of reasoning Zoe used about Arrogant Architeuthis. She found an argument that it was a logical necessity for such a being to exist in the QC universe.
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So, as we've finally come to a watershed in Faye and Bubbles' relationship, I think that the time is appropriate to ask what forumites thought of the entire arc from the first meeting to the realisation that the Bed is Dead.
IMO, it's some of Jeph's best writing. He caught the development of both women's personalities as a result of their interaction. From early on it was clear that this was something special; Faye was pushing too hard and Bubbles was really letting her get away with too much. However, it wasn't until Faye went into Bubbles' room when the latter was hiding away from a world she was sure hated her that we realised just how close the two of them were getting.
It wasn't a perfect story. I'm still not ready to forgive the deus ex machina that was Spookybot, a plot device that was neither really needed nor (IMO at least) properly used. Nonetheless, I give the overall effort a better-than-good score.
What do you think?
As for this week's strips, I'm half-expecting a series of semi-random vignettes before Jeph settles on where he wants to go next.
Well, I think it's pretty obvious how strongly I felt about it, but to recap: It's been decades since a piece of fiction has hit me this hard. It is embarrassingly difficult to overstate how much it affected me. It helped me reconnect with how much I love my wife, and why I fell in love with her in the first place. I wrote a piece of fan fiction, for heaven's sake.
I loved the Spookybot story. I can see why you thought it was a deus ex machina because there has never been a more literal deus ex machina, but I thought it was justified within the universe Jeph has wrought, so it was shocking to me in a "Wow, this is big!" sense more than a "Boy, this is out of left field!" sense.
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Emily's fixation on dinosaur sex reminded me of my own fascination with spiders. Thankfully I have the benefit of copious research that tells me exactly how spiders get it on. Twelve hours later I was hiking and what do I see but a pair of filmy dome spiders copulating! Of course I shot video. It's a poor substitute for dinosaur sex, I know, but here it is for your edification.
https://www.facebook.com/1130258139/posts/10215181490787183/
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I wonder what Pintsize thinks of Mike Warner...
I'm marginally interested as well.
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The Spookybot arc was not handled as well as the Vespa Avenger storyline (which I think Jeph did properly, though it was a completely goofy character idea). But, I do think it was a necessary evil to advancing the plot, so to speak.
Ideally, he could have maybe added a few touches, like having them say, "some call me 'Gary', but we haven't used that name in a long time."
Otherwise, a great arc.
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I wonder what Pintsize thinks of Mike Warner...
I'm marginally interested as well.
ISWYDT.
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There is some evidence that like some modern birds, dinosaurs did mating dances.
Dinosaurs might have danced for mates (http://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/quirks-quarks-for-feb-6-2016-1.3435815/dinosaurs-might-have-danced-for-mates-1.3435875)
So picture this, T-Rexes doing the flamingo mating dance:
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Ideally, he could have maybe added a few touches, like having them say, "some call me 'Gary', but we haven't used that name in a long time."
Tim.
Spookybot feels a bit overreaching, or too quick to arrive, and too quick to vanish again.
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Gary: https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2070
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I wonder what Pintsize thinks of Mike Warner...
I'm marginally interested as well.
ISWYDT.
I don't, actually. What is it that I did, apart from express an interest?
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Your avatar.
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Gary: https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2070
Crap. Totally forgot about that one. I fully agree.
Funny thing is, I started reading QC like two months before that strip was published.
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Your avatar.
Oh, that. I couldn't really tell you why he's my profile pic. Something along the lines of "lots of people use comic character pics. I think I'll use the most obnoxious one I can think of, just for shits and giggles." And then within a week of that, somebody mentions him in the WCDT.
It's a funny old world sometimes.
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OK, a thought about Spookybot (I still prefer "Grey Eminence" from both their skin tone and the French Eminence Grise (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89minence_grise)").
What if they were not introduced as a way to resolve Bubbles' situation, but rather Bubbles' situation was used as an opportunity to introduce the Grey Eminence? Jeph may have a storyline idea that requires them.
That being said, we've seen how the advancements of Jeph's plotlines tend to unfold. We may not be seeing them again until the 2020's, if ever.
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Abstaining from the poll since relationships aren't something I'm qualified to judge. I will agree though that this was really good writing.
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I'm surprised that no one else noticed this or didn't comment on it, but this isn't THAT non-sequitur a comic. Saturday over at Willis's daily replay of the Walkyverse with new commentary He made this comment. (http://www.itswalky.com/comic/its-a-little-confusing/)
I think early Robin was just Emily from Questionable Content. I mean, well, honestly the reverse, because of passage of time, but that implies a causality. I’m preeeeeeeetty sure Jeph has never read It’s Walky!.
I'll note another thing, Robin's character made her original first appearance a few strips earlier, she replaced Dina in the squad (and comic) after her death.
I was expecting an Emily comic Monday in response to this.. and got it three-fold. The title, 'Build a Time Machine', Emily, AND Dina. Well played Jeph, Well played!
Oh yeah, this from @damnyouwillis after the comic posted..
https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/1008521065201430530
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Probably the living land animal closest in size to the T-Rex is the African elephant. And for elephants, mating is a somewhat delicate process for two reasons: elephant bodies don’t fit together very well (which is why elephant penises are so freaking long), and if they get too enthusiastic the male might break the female’s pelvis, really spoiling the mood.
These facts are courtesy of the Discovery Channel, home of the world’s largest collection of animal porn.
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These facts are courtesy of the Discovery Channel, home of the world’s largest collection of animal porn.
*cues Bloodhound Gang on jukebox*
*immediately starts apologizing*
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I agree that Spookybot seemed like a cheap shortcut, but Faye getting fired bothered me more from a consistency standpoint. Dora bought beer (and pizza) for all the employees on the clock and encouraged Faye's attitude with customers. I get that it had to happen for (obvious and major) plot reasons, but it didn't seem to 'fit', imo.
But there's a difference between buying a couple of beers and some pizza to have with your friends/employees and then there's an employee (and your assistant manager) consistently coming into work drunk, bringing alcohol into work with the intention of drinking on the job because she's going through a bad break up. The former is supervised and during a quiet time in the day, the latter is screaming "accident-and-lawsuit-waiting-to-happen". Bear in mind that Faye was not only endangering herself, but potentially any customer and Dora's livelihood. Most coffee places do have machines that can crush coffee beans or roast them or produce extremely hot steam.
Yeah, the members of staff at Coffee of Doom might have had a swig at work on occasion, but Faye came in shitfaced and about to continue her drinking session from the night before. Dora was protecting herself, her employees and any customers from drunken Faye.
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There is some evidence that like some modern birds, dinosaurs did mating dances.
Dinosaurs might have danced for mates (http://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/quirks-quarks-for-feb-6-2016-1.3435815/dinosaurs-might-have-danced-for-mates-1.3435875)
So picture this, T-Rexes doing the flamingo mating dance:
I would like to present this counter argument:
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I agree that Spookybot seemed like a cheap shortcut, but Faye getting fired bothered me more from a consistency standpoint. Dora bought beer (and pizza) for all the employees on the clock and encouraged Faye's attitude with customers. I get that it had to happen for (obvious and major) plot reasons, but it didn't seem to 'fit', imo.
But there's a difference between buying a couple of beers and some pizza to have with your friends/employees and then there's an employee (and your assistant manager) consistently coming into work drunk, bringing alcohol into work with the intention of drinking on the job because she's going through a bad break up. The former is supervised and during a quiet time in the day, the latter is screaming "accident-and-lawsuit-waiting-to-happen". Bear in mind that Faye was not only endangering herself, but potentially any customer and Dora's livelihood. Most coffee places do have machines that can crush coffee beans or roast them or produce extremely hot steam.
Yeah, the members of staff at Coffee of Doom might have had a swig at work on occasion, but Faye came in shitfaced and about to continue her drinking session from the night before. Dora was protecting herself, her employees and any customers from drunken Faye.
I agree that Dora needed to fire her, and that Faye was at that point a risk to herself and others. But as I recall, it happened at most twice. Admittedly there could have been other occasions that happened off screen, but I feel describing it as consistent is slightly unfair on Faye. She f*cked up and there needed to be consequences, but it never got to the point of being habitual at work.
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Actually, yes it did. She was showing up drunk at work all the time and drinking her way through work at the end. Dora confronted her, Faye said she would stop then immediately started sneaking behind Dora's back about it.
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I think when Faye was sneaking hard liquor into work, steps needed to be taken. *shrug*
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Comic’s up.
Yeah, really should have seen that coming.
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Marigold, you are one strange little cupcake. :laugh:
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..... :-o
:psyduck:
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The wonderful thing about a wide and varied cast of well defined characters is the ability to riff off their quirks like this.
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Dale already knows exactly what’s in Marigold’s head. Haha!
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Dig it. (http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/digit/)
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Actually, yes it did. She was showing up drunk at work all the time and drinking her way through work at the end. Dora confronted her, Faye said she would stop then immediately started sneaking behind Dora's back about it.
I can't see that, I afraid. The two occasions I found post-Angus break up were 2866, where Faye isn't drunk but talks with Dora about drinking at work. Dora shuts that down. Then we don't have any more Coffee of Doom until 2876, which may even be the next day, when Faye comes in smashed tries to drink behind Dora's back and gets fired.
Faye was ornery and made the phrase "customer service" go and huddle in a corner weeping, but alcohol abuse didn't affect her work until the end as far as I can tell.
Dora still made the right call, no argument there.
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There is some evidence that like some modern birds, dinosaurs did mating dances.
Dinosaurs might have danced for mates (http://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/quirks-quarks-for-feb-6-2016-1.3435815/dinosaurs-might-have-danced-for-mates-1.3435875)
So picture this, T-Rexes doing the flamingo mating dance:
I like to think they could be this graceful.
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Locomotively, Spinosaurs were kind of like a mix of crocodilian, pangolin, and gorilla.
So, how do pangolins and crocs bone down?
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Poor Marigold! I'm beginning to wonder if she's the driving force behind her and Dale's active sex life. They say it's always the quiet and repressed ones that end up being uncontrollable engines of passion and lust!
Meanwhile, Jeph needs to be recorded on the Internet as the Father of Dromaeosaurid Hentai!
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Nah, it’s both of them, or Marigold would be dealing with lots of “sorry honey, not tonight.”
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Speaking as a previously quiet, repressed person who is now an unmitigated filth wizard, fayelovesbubbles would be correct in my experience; I think there'd be too much disparity of desire if she was the sole driving force of their sex life, especially given the comparative genital limitations.
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Well I don’t know what that was, but I probably saw it on slipshine.
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I will concede that Marigold may be more horny as is often the case with the woman being more horny. But Dale has a high sex drive too, maybe just not quite as high.
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I've not experienced the woman generally being more horny.
But if your sex is in any way phalocentric then... A penis needs recovery time in the way a vagina doesn't as often.
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I've not experienced the woman generally being more horny.
But if your sex is in any way phalocentric then... A penis needs recovery time in the way a vagina doesn't as often.
That is why as a man who wants to be of any use to a woman it is our duty to learn to use foreplay and afterplay to bridge the gap while we recover.
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Or a penis-haver that wants to be of use to a vagina-haver, yes. I agree wholeheartedly.
'Tis why I threw 'phalocentric' in there. I try not to use it without an excuse no matter how fun it is to use.
... Phalocentric.
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Or a penis-haver that wants to be of use to a vagina-haver, yes. I agree wholeheartedly.
'Tis why I threw 'phalocentric' in there. I try not to use it without an excuse no matter how fun it is to use.
... Phalocentric.
I appreciate the distinction, Thrillho.
I tend to go even broader and say that, regardless of the shape of one's genitals, allosexual people learning a variety of ways to please a sexual partner (and to be pleased in return) leads to a fuller, more satisfying sex life.
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I use a mind trick to reduce excitement in genitals I may or may not still have when it's an inappropriate moment like in class or at work. I think of dinosaurs running at me, since nobody (except for some bots) made any rule 34 of it (pterodactyls and dragons aren't dinosaurs). Not sure if I should find another way now I've seen this comic.
Edit: 200th post, that took me a good 10 years apparently
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Well done Jeph for portraying dinosaurs with feathers.
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By the way, would it be weird and pedantic for me to mention that it's actually "senpai"?
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I've been sitting here for ten minutes trying to figure out what illustrations Jeph modeled for his theropod "bone zone" in this comic. I'm guessing Dromaeosauridae, and by the size I'm guessing they're not Velociraptor or something similar (which are pretty small). I've seen similar feather colors on Deinonychus illustrations, but I guess Utahraptor and Dakotaraptor are just as likely.
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There are plenty of instances in which the woman is more interested in sex than the man.
I have encountered (not in a dating sense, but just encountered) a lot of women who seem not to care much for sex, though.
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By the way, would it be weird and pedantic for me to mention that it's actually "senpai"?
Jeph often knows things his characters don't. God help us the week of the 'poisonous/venomous snake' argument.
There are plenty of instances in which the woman is more interested in sex than the man.
I have encountered (not in a dating sense, but just encountered) a lot of women who seem not to care much for sex, though.
This is a discussion for a different thread. Anyone object to a split?
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Ah crap, sorry. I didn't mean to derail things.
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Jeph, what is it with you and cloacas???? Hahahaha. I'm glad we humans don't have cloacas--Jeph would never get anything done.
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Jeph, what is it with you and cloacas???? Hahahaha. I'm glad we humans don't have cloacas--Jeph would never get anything done.
Go back and re-read every single Yelling Bird comic.
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Hence my question! So much cloaca talk, Jeph!
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I use a mind trick to reduce excitement in genitals I may or may not still have when it's an inappropriate moment like in class or at work. I think of dinosaurs running at me, since nobody (except for some bots) made any rule 34 of it (pterodactyls and dragons aren't dinosaurs). Not sure if I should find another way now I've seen this comic.
Edit: 200th post, that took me a good 10 years apparently
Yeah, maybe baseball or something.
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There are plenty of instances in which the woman is more interested in sex than the man.
I have encountered (not in a dating sense, but just encountered) a lot of women who seem not to care much for sex, though.
Asexuality is a thing.
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True, but these were women who had given the impression that they were not asexual. One was my former crush (who was heterosexual). Obviously I was not her type, being a girl and all, but in general she seemed to not be that interested, even though she did have a boyfriend for awhile. Another was my ex best friend, who told me she was bisexual. She didn't seem sexual at all, and never dated anyone in the entire time I was hanging out with her, rarely brought up the subject of sex, and seemed very weird about the whole thing. These are just two examples.
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allosexual
I've only learned this term literally this week but damn if it doesn't make me think of early QC and the dearly departed Sara. :mrgreen:
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Comic.
Wow. I totally thought he was going to “fart.” Then start laughing uncontrollably.
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Every now and then I think Pintsize has depth.
Then he vomits up a bird and I go 'Nope!' :-D :evil: :lol:
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Welp, that was DEFINITELY not what I was expecting him to "let out"...
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Your profile pic seems apropos.
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A pigeon and not a dickcissel?
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He is in North Hampton.
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If someone ships Yelling Bird and Tortura, would that be a cloaca and dagger story?
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If someone ships Yelling Bird and Tortura, would that be a cloaca and dagger story?
(https://media1.tenor.com/images/68117675f5c22e115a364587cfe537cb/tenor.gif?itemid=11581748)
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What does an AI need with a clipboard?
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By the way, would it be weird and pedantic for me to mention that it's actually "senpai"?
Yeah, but what the Hell, this IS the Internet after all. Its spelling may be romanized senpai but it comes out sounding like sempai. You start with tongue and lips poised to make an N sound but in the process of shifting things around to make the P the N turns to M. It may have something to do with regional accents, too.
If someone ships Yelling Bird and Tortura, would that be a cloaca and dagger story?
[[[GROAN]]]
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So! It's looking like Bubbles's words had an effect on Pintsize after all! It's probably an indication of his unwillingness to appear vulnerable that this is something he can only discuss at his therapy group rather than with Marten. It's also interesting how Jeph is finding ways to create unusual connections for various characters, like Melon being in Pintsize and May's group.
By the way, today's strip has Melon looking cuter and, frankly, more innocently beautiful than I've ever seen her before. I have no doubt that she now has a pet that is going to drive her landlord nuts!
Finally, I'm thinking about May's expression in panel 4. Is it Melon she's angry with, or the pigeon for giving her a surprise that she's not going to forget any time soon?
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Yeah, but what the Hell, this IS the Internet after all. Its spelling may be romanized senpai but it comes out sounding like sempai. You start with tongue and lips poised to make an N sound but in the process of shifting things around to make the P the N turns to M. It may have something to do with regional accents, too.
To be honest, I wasn't sure if it was a typo or part of the joke.
Though I always hear it as Senpai. I don't hear the "m" sound when I hear it spoken in the original Japanese.
(full disclosure, took three and a half years of Japanese language classes in high school, where pronunciation was hammered into us relentlessly to the point that pronouncing the characters properly, and one haiku we had to memorize, is about the only thing I remember twenty years later).
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What does an AI need with a clipboard?
AIs in the QC universe do seem to use a lot of human behaviours, possibly simply due to exposure. I'm guessing that Yellowbot feels that having a clip-board to carry his agenda and notes lend him authority.
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Another QC secret discovered: That's where Yelling Bird was hidden all along!
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Reading the sub text.
GO JEPH!!! :) (heh!)
(Although, to be fair, it's not like this place is the DoA comments pages, where Melon and the Pigeon doubtless WOULD be shipped!)
:)
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I thought that the bird would have been a holdover from the birdseed incident.
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Yes, definitely. This isn’t the first time Pintsize has had a pigeon in his mouth.
...and there are so many, many things wrong with that sentence.
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If someone ships Yelling Bird and Tortura, would that be a cloaca and dagger story?
(https://media1.tenor.com/images/68117675f5c22e115a364587cfe537cb/tenor.gif?itemid=11581748)
Wow, that's some old Steam Powered Giraffe there.... *raises my kazookaphone to you*
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I thought that the bird would have been a holdover from the birdseed incident.
Yes. I thought Pintsize might’ve transgressed again and was given the option of more psychoanalysis from Bubbles or a mouth full of birdseed and he chose the latter.
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Yeah, but what the Hell, this IS the Internet after all. Its spelling may be romanized senpai but it comes out sounding like sempai. You start with tongue and lips poised to make an N sound but in the process of shifting things around to make the P the N turns to M. It may have something to do with regional accents, too.
To be honest, I wasn't sure if it was a typo or part of the joke.
Though I always hear it as Senpai. I don't hear the "m" sound when I hear it spoken in the original Japanese.
(full disclosure, took three and a half years of Japanese language classes in high school, where pronunciation was hammered into us relentlessly to the point that pronouncing the characters properly, and one haiku we had to memorize, is about the only thing I remember twenty years later).
What you get in HS classes is often more than a little removed from how the language is actually spoken "in the wild." Even more so if the country has distinct regions and mass communications are a relatively new thing. There's nothing like taking classes in the local language from an instructor who teaches a very refined, formal version, then going out and speaking to locals who crack up at how archaic you sound.
And then there's Yanny and Laurel.
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God help us the week of the 'poisonous/venomous snake' argument.
If the snake bites you and you die, the snake is venomous.
If you bite the snake and you die, the snake is poisonous.
If the snake bites you and it dies, its suffered a tired and memetic death thanks to the old Chuck Norris meme.
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For a very brief second I thought Yelling Bird had returned. Then I was disappointed when I realized it was just a winged rat.
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What you get in HS classes is often more than a little removed from how the language is actually spoken "in the wild." Even more so if the country has distinct regions and mass communications are a relatively new thing. There's nothing like taking classes in the local language from an instructor who teaches a very refined, formal version, then going out and speaking to locals who crack up at how archaic you sound.
According to my teacher, during his first trip to Japan a few of the locals he spoke to assumed he was gay. His very formal school-taught way of speaking sounded "feminine" to them.
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What you get in HS classes is often more than a little removed from how the language is actually spoken "in the wild." Even more so if the country has distinct regions and mass communications are a relatively new thing. There's nothing like taking classes in the local language from an instructor who teaches a very refined, formal version, then going out and speaking to locals who crack up at how archaic you sound.
According to my teacher, during his first trip to Japan a few of the locals he spoke to assumed he was gay. His very formal school-taught way of speaking sounded "feminine" to them.
My friend who emigrated to Iceland said he had the same experience. Of course, while he was there, he did discover that he was gay...
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Icelandic guys ARE pretty hot.
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But the bird is not my son.
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Of this shit, May has had sufficient.
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I feel you, May. I'm quickly getting fed up with Melon's antics too.
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Will Tony get an entry on the cast page?
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I suppose Pintsize can only open up so much at a time when it comes to emotions.
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I love May's expression of eternal boredom and annoyance today.
"They're all so stupid and I have to deal with them. Could someone please kill me? Or preferably them?"
:-D
TM
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It's a look that everyone who works in the service industry gets after a while.
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You're wasting your time, Pintsize! Melon's reality is her own and she's pretty soon going to be telling everyone on her LAN that your son, Tony, is her room-mate. In reality, she'll have a pet that brings her joy just by its presence and the pigeon will get free food and roost - It's a relationship from which they will both benefit!
Now, what is May's problem? Does Melon's randomness irritate her? Does she resent that Melon is in the same type of chassis but it is in better condition and has a few optional mods? Or is she jealous of the fact that Melon is arguably quite crazy and yet happy, the latter being something that May struggles to achieve?
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At least its name is 't "Lerooooooy Jenkinnnnnnnnnsssssssss"!
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Pintsize learned to speak pidgin
(https://i.imgur.com/CK1pcZu.png)
Might help May in her coquest of the Pidgeon Army.
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At least its name is 't "Lerooooooy Jenkinnnnnnnnnsssssssss"!
No, any Gunnerkrigg Court (http://www.gunnerkrigg.com) fan will confirm that his name is 'City Face'.
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Have you considered that Melon might actually be incredibly annoying? We think she’s cute and funny or whatever, but imagine dealing with her in real life. It would be grating after awhile.
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I try not to think of dealing with just about any of the cast in real life.
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We think she’s cute and funny or whatever
I kinda don't think that, precisely for that reason. I think she's "quirky and somewhat off" in a way that seems forced and isn't that funny, more annoying.
Granted, I had somewhat similar thoughts towards Raven (to a small extent) and Emily, so I guess I'm just strongly biased against that kind of behaviour in the comic's characters.
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We think she’s cute and funny or whatever
I kinda don't think that, precisely for that reason. I think she's "quirky and somewhat off" in a way that seems forced and isn't that funny, more annoying.
Granted, I had somewhat similar thoughts towards Raven (to a small extent) and Emily, so I guess I'm just strongly biased against that kind of behaviour in the comic's characters.
From that list, I think writing-wise I prefer Emily simply because the other characters seem to notice her strangeness in quite a human way.
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Emily and Raven were both examples of a kind of quirky genius trope - almost the "Genius Ditz" of TVtropes, but not quite. Maybe Cloudcoocoolanders.
Melon, so far, is just out there. No sign of anything behind the comic relief.
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Except for an eerie sympathy with pigeons, I guess.
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Melon, mostly, is a character I go 'Huh. Interesting' at, but I don't actually find funny.
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I try not to think of dealing with just about any of the cast in real life.
Marigold, I would be totally into if she were a real person. She's exactly my type.
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Pintsize's last line makes me wonder if he had a secret son somewhere.
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Emily and Raven worked because for all the craziness and cloudcuckoolander tendencies that they presented, there were and are signs that there is far, far more to them than we thought.
Melon is...well... Melon.
The truth is that Melon is a punchline. At this stage, its her only purpose.
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I think Melon should encounter a long-haired herding dog next. That way instead of a Melon/pigeon story, it will be a Melon/collie one.
(ducks and hides) :-D
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I try not to think of dealing with just about any of the cast in real life.
Marigold, I would be totally into if she were a real person. She's exactly my type.
Given your avatar, that sounds terrifying and ominous.
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Icelandic guys ARE pretty hot.
Given his African American origins, he tends to stand out in Iceland.
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Melon is happy without any provocation, and that annoys the ever lovin' shyte out of people like May, meat or bot.
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Crushing on QC characters is generally frowned upon here, is it not?
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Melon.
Those pants. Or culottes, or whatever the hell they are.
WTF.
Melon.
No.
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Ah, May. :D
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That is a remarkably well-behaved pigeon.
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So, I guess it's no coincidence that as Pintsize expresses some form of vulnerability, we see him in a scene with May. Whereas Pintsize may or may not perform transgressive acts as a defense mechanism to cover an unconscious fear of vulnerability, we've already seen that May's caustic exterior also serves as a defense mechanism. For a moment, the second panel, there is the fleeting possibility that May could open up in response. But she's not going to drop her defenses that easily. Especially not in front of Pintsize. On the other hand, she's hardly going to exploit Pintsize's moment of vulnerability, either.
Melon is, of course, the exact opposite. She expresses unalloyed joy, she says what she pleases, wears what makes her happy, and acts how she feels with no thought to how she might be perceived by others. As OldGoat points out, this doesn't make May comfortable. Her reaction to Melon in today's and, in particular, yesterday's comic is quite telling.
No, Melon is not just a punchline here. Both Melon and Pintsize are there to serve the focus of the recent series of comics. That is, May.
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Gasp! The impossible continues...potential character development for pintsize.
I think a definite sign of change for him will be if he changes bodies to a "mature" one. It was a signifcant step towards full personhood for the others. Can anyone even imagine what he would choose, how he would behave?
It would be a momentous occasion. I mean, Pintsize was what set this comic apart from so many others.
Just some boring young adults with issues...and then there was a robot.
And now that robot may grow up! Sniff
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I don't think Pintsize would work (as a fictional character) if he were not in a "cute li'l robot guy" body. As he is, he is essentially a cartoon character, and follows different dramatic conventions than a more realistically portrayed one. Most of his pranks and comments aren't any worse than May's (in fact, he's considerably cleaner), but things like the Dora/fleshlight incident would pass beyond the funny (to the audience) and into the repulsive. He can get away with a lot more in his funny little chassis.
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Growth and change come with losses and grief. This has come up in a previous discussion about Pintsize, in which Zoe posted something I considered profound. Dragons live forever, but not so little boys (https://forums.questionablecontent.net/index.php/topic,30519.msg1308301.html#msg1308301)
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I read "THAT IS NOT MY SON!" with the melody for Billy Jean in my mind. And now I cannot unsee.
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I read "THAT IS NOT MY SON!" with the melody for Billy Jean in my mind. And now I cannot unsee.
THE BIRD IS NOT MY SON
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So, have we considered the possibility that Pintsize truly wasn’t aware that A.J. was in there?
Like, was A.J.’s egg laid by the pigeon that wouldn’t leave pintsize alone after the birdseed incident, incubated by the waste heat of his processors, fed by the remaining seeds that couldn’t be removed by upending pintsize over a bin?
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So, have we considered the possibility that Pintsize truly wasn’t aware that A.J. was in there?
Like, was A.J.’s egg laid by the pigeon that wouldn’t leave pintsize alone after the birdseed incident, incubated by the waste heat of his processors, fed by the remaining seeds that couldn’t be removed by upending pintsize over a bin?
It's gotta be Mr_Rose's explanation or Spookybot's the father and Pintsize is the Virgin Mary.
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Out of all of the characters, the last one I'd ever expect a character arc from is Pintsize. I kind of hope Jeph continues down this path because I want to see where this goes. Does this potentially mean that Pintsize's Twitter account will stop posting shock images? (No idea if it still does, but it was last time I checked a long time ago)
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May, you're not fooling me: You don't have any 'sick burns' for Pintsize and that probably says more about your inner nice girl than I think that you're willing to admit. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we're about to go into a twin character development arc for Pintsize and May with Melon being the catalyst for both. You see, I do think that they're genuinely interested in finding out what is Melon's 'deal' and they're going to be learning lessons along the way.
So, have we considered the possibility that Pintsize truly wasn’t aware that A.J. was in there?
Like, was A.J.’s egg laid by the pigeon that wouldn’t leave pintsize alone after the birdseed incident, incubated by the waste heat of his processors, fed by the remaining seeds that couldn’t be removed by upending pintsize over a bin?
This is the scenario that I think is the case; maybe including the chick eating all the various weird foods Pintsize has stuffed down his mouth and Marten hasn't known to clean out. In which case, AJ really is Pintsize's kid in a strange kind of way.
Just a P.S.: Melon's effortless joy in existence would be a bit wearing in person, wouldn't it? That said, you can't help but envy her in a lot of ways; life is an experience for her that most of us would only dream of having!
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Just a P.S.: Melon's effortless joy in existence would be a bit wearing in person, wouldn't it? That said, you can't help but envy her in a lot of ways; life is an experience for her that most of us would only dream of having!
Maybe she is just a Manic Pixie Dream AI?
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The man who fitted my parents' kitchen is called Anthony Jones. If I ever meet him again I'll have to tell him there's a fictional pigeon with the same name as him :')
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Just a P.S.: Melon's effortless joy in existence would be a bit wearing in person, wouldn't it? That said, you can't help but envy her in a lot of ways; life is an experience for her that most of us would only dream of having!
Maybe she is just a Manic Pixie Dream AI?
Hi, could you fix your quote please? I didn’t say that, BenRG did.
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Emily and Raven were both examples of a kind of quirky genius trope - almost the "Genius Ditz" of TVtropes, but not quite. Maybe Cloudcoocoolanders.
Melon, so far, is just out there. No sign of anything behind the comic relief.
I think that's why I mind Melon less than I did Emily. She's just simple comic relief (that's comic relief that doesn't WORK for me, but it's comic relief). Emily, and to extent Raven, just don't seem... genuine to me. They have a formula - say something silly, say something crazy, and occasionally say something "profound" and "smart". It doesn't ring true to me.
It's the reason why this might be my least favourite installment of QC (or at least, in my top 10): https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2999
It's like either a reply to a negative reaction, or a preemptive defense. It feels like Emily is talking about a reader that might read her as a character a certain way. To me, the character IS random, and that's her defining trait. And this comic is the essence of why it doesn't work for me. I don't think she's anything *but* randomly quirky, while occasionally acting like there's something more.
And it's not the worst character I've seen, even in this comic. But it's boring and one-note, while pretending it really isn't one-note. Clearly, Jeph wants her to be a weird person that's a complete character, but I just don't feel it quite works.
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Here's what I keep wondering: does Melon's constellation of traits correlate with any real disorder? The one I keep coming back to is the strip where she said "Numbers are just abstract concepts" as a justification for not being able to differentiate between apartments. That totally works as a joke, but not in real life, correct? It implies a degree of awareness and willfulness that is distinct from dysfunction. In other words, she would have to understand the real in order to display such a deep understanding of the difference between the abstract and the real. That one scene, insofar as I am justified in taking the joke as indicative of anything at all, leads me to think her behavior is at least partially performative.
Also, wouldn't the closest trope to her be Manic Pixie Dream Girl?
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Also, wouldn't the closest trope to her be Manic Pixie Dream Girl?
To me she's more like The Fool (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheFool)
To be honest, Melon is pretty low on my 'Favorite QC Character'-list (as are Emily and Raven).
EDIT:
I correct myself. Idiot Houdini (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotHoudini) is the more fitting trope.
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I try not to think of dealing with just about any of the cast in real life.
Marigold, I would be totally into if she were a real person. She's exactly my type.
Given your avatar, that sounds terrifying and ominous.
There is absolutely no significance to my avatar.
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Also, wouldn't the closest trope to her be Manic Pixie Dream Girl?
To me she's more like The Fool (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheFool)
To be honest, Melon is pretty low on my 'Favorite QC Character'-list (as are Emily and Raven).
EDIT:
I correct myself. Idiot Houdini (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotHoudini) is the more fitting trope.
Hmmm. I hadn't seen the Idiot Houdini. I'm not sure that I agree, though. This aspect seems integral to the trope: "... anyone acting the way he does would almost certainly have died ten episodes before the series began." For a human, that would be true. But in this universe, there are free public charging stations, so it's not like Melon is going to "starve". Of course she will require maintenance at some point, and then there's the concern of her being arrested or assaulted for trespassing, so I can see your point. She still feels more like a Manic Pixie Dream Girl to me, though.
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Here's what I keep wondering: does Melon's constellation of traits correlate with any real disorder? The one I keep coming back to is the strip where she said "Numbers are just abstract concepts" as a justification for not being able to differentiate between apartments. That totally works as a joke, but not in real life, correct? It implies a degree of awareness and willfulness that is distinct from dysfunction. In other words, she would have to understand the real in order to display such a deep understanding of the difference between the abstract and the real. That one scene, insofar as I am justified in taking the joke as indicative of anything at all, leads me to think her behavior is at least partially performative.
Also, wouldn't the closest trope to her be Manic Pixie Dream Girl?
I don’t think you can correlate Melon’s mind with any human cognitive disorder. I think what happened to her is AI-specific: when her neural net was being trained on real-world inputs, something went drastically wrong. Her resulting mental map of the world therefore doesn’t correlate very well with objective reality. She’s sane enough to survive pretty decently - I mean, she holds down a job (however bizarre it may be) and she seems to have a stable relationship with Arthur. But her mental world is simply different from ours.
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I didn't know Pintsize had a son!!! :-o
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I don’t think you can correlate Melon’s mind with any human cognitive disorder. I think what happened to her is AI-specific: when her neural net was being trained on real-world inputs, something went drastically wrong. Her resulting mental map of the world therefore doesn’t correlate very well with objective reality. She’s sane enough to survive pretty decently - I mean, she holds down a job (however bizarre it may be) and she seems to have a stable relationship with Arthur. But her mental world is simply different from ours.
I think you nailed it. The QC universe seems to rely largely on the conceit that human and AI minds reflect similar emergent systems, and that the similarities reveal traits of complex systems that are independent of the informational substrate. Melon is an exception to that rule. She's... something else.
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I try not to think of dealing with just about any of the cast in real life.
Marigold, I would be totally into if she were a real person. She's exactly my type.
Given your avatar, that sounds terrifying and ominous.
Nah, Marigold totally isn't Mike's type.
She's not a mom.
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I read "THAT IS NOT MY SON!" with the melody for Billy Jean in my mind. And now I cannot unsee.
THE BIRD IS NOT MY SON
Good to know that I am not the only one who thought like this.
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I read "THAT IS NOT MY SON!" with the melody for Billy Jean in my mind. And now I cannot unsee.
THE BIRD IS NOT MY SON
Good to know that I am not the only one who thought like this.
I'm getting old enough to have a song for half the stuff people say.
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At the time of Bubbles's weaponized monologue, I said that it was so devastating to Pintsize that he would never be the same. Since then, we've enjoyed the continuing tension of Pintsize going through successive performative layers. One moment we think we was genuinely affected, the next we're all "Oh snap, he's Andy Kaufman!" At this point, though, I believe it's safe to say that my original assertion was correct. Even if he were to land on "Ha ha, I'm just an asshole." again, the very fact that he's spent this much time dwelling on the subject reveals something about his underlying state of mind. I think Bubbles has wrought a permanent change in him. What do you think?
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I have to say this arc seems to be a celebration of an ornithological miracle, bringing forth a mass awareness of a certain avian variety.
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At the time of Bubbles's weaponized monologue, I said that it was so devastating to Pintsize that he would never be the same. Since then, we've enjoyed the continuing tension of Pintsize going through successive performative layers. One moment we think we was genuinely affected, the next we're all "Oh snap, he's Andy Kaufman!" At this point, though, I believe it's safe to say that my original assertion was correct. Even if he were to land on "Ha ha, I'm just an asshole." again, the very fact that he's spent this much time dwelling on the subject reveals something about his underlying state of mind. I think Bubbles has wrought a permanent change in him. What do you think?
The main this is that he's a known uncontrollably, possibly pathological liar. He's lied so often, so commonly and about everything that even if he is telling the truth 100% nobody at this point will believe him, and he's probably going to undercut his sincerity with another lie or outrageous act. See, the pigeon. He's the bot who cried wolf. He reminds me of Deacon from Fallout 4. Someone who lies so much and tells you he's does so that you can never trust him if he says he's telling the truth for once. His lies are so frequent that nobody can believe he's ever truthful. Even if this is something that's tearing him up inside (and it wasn't just the pigeon) and tried to be serious about it, nobody can believe him at this point. Doubly so when he caps off his 'serious talk moment' with a joke.
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I try not to think of dealing with just about any of the cast in real life.
Marigold, I would be totally into if she were a real person. She's exactly my type.
Given your avatar, that sounds terrifying and ominous.
There is absolutely no significance to my avatar.
You keep saying that, and yet you chose it...
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There is indeed a "Bird College".
(what, would Google lie?)
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I don't think Pintsize would work (as a fictional character) if he were not in a "cute li'l robot guy" body. As he is, he is essentially a cartoon character, and follows different dramatic conventions than a more realistically portrayed one. Most of his pranks and comments aren't any worse than May's (in fact, he's considerably cleaner), but things like the Dora/fleshlight incident would pass beyond the funny (to the audience) and into the repulsive. He can get away with a lot more in his funny little chassis.
Agreed. And I'd say some of the things he's done over the years are honestly worse than things May has done (bar trying to steal a fighter jet, which she served time for). He gets away with a lot because most of the cast don't treat him as though he were a person. Like you say, he looks and acts like a cartoon character and he's treated as such, while Winslow and Momo have outgrown that stage. Pintsize is getting to a point where he may be able to get to that stage himself, but first he has to start acknowledging and taking responsibility for the way his actions affect others.
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I try not to think of dealing with just about any of the cast in real life.
Marigold, I would be totally into if she were a real person. She's exactly my type.
Given your avatar, that sounds terrifying and ominous.
There is absolutely no significance to my avatar.
You keep saying that, and yet you chose it...
Cheep.
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Agreed. And I'd say some of the things he's done over the years are honestly worse than things May has done (bar trying to steal a fighter jet, which she served time for).
Picking nit - she didn't try to steal a fighter jet; she DID steal a lot of money, with the expressed intent to purchase a fighter jet with it.
As you were; carry on.
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There is absolutely no significance to my avatar.
You keep saying that, and yet you chose it...
Okay, since it is apparently mandatory that a user's forum avatar be a direct representation of their personality, I hereby discard Mike from DoA and replace him with bookish nerd pony Twilight Sparkle. Satisfied?
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I think Carl-E was suggesting that there was probably some kind of significance to it (e.g. he's a favourite character of yours), not that the character must reflect directly on your personality.
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I think Carl-E was suggesting that there was probably some kind of significance to it (e.g. he's a favourite character of yours), not that the character must reflect directly on your personality.
No - like I said, I set out to pick the most obnoxious character I could think of, and Pintsize would be too obvious a choice.
I'm keeping Twilight tho' - she's also my type, if I were a talking pony.
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I dunno, Mike's about as obnoxious as you can get without being Pintsize.
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I'm pretty sure that Yelling Bird is more obnoxious than Pintsize.
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And Mike is more obnoxious than both. Unless he’s drunk, of course.
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I'm pretty sure that Yelling Bird is more obnoxious than Pintsize.
I've had Yelling Bird as my Facebook profile pic before.
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I think Carl-E was suggesting that there was probably some kind of significance to it (e.g. he's a favourite character of yours), not that the character must reflect directly on your personality.
No - like I said, I set out to pick the most obnoxious character I could think of, and Pintsize would be too obvious a choice.
So, by "no," you mean yes, there was some kind of significance.
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I think Carl-E was suggesting that there was probably some kind of significance to it (e.g. he's a favourite character of yours), not that the character must reflect directly on your personality.
No - like I said, I set out to pick the most obnoxious character I could think of, and Pintsize would be too obvious a choice.
So, by "no," you mean yes, there was some kind of significance.
Not really, but it doesn't matter.
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I honestly have no idea what you were objecting to, but okay, no biggie. Let's move on.
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Seems May is as green as Melon in the last panel. So is her enthusiasm contagious?
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Seems May is as green as Melon in the last panel. So is her enthusiasm contagious?
It seems like Mr J. forgot to switch palettes after coloring Melon. That is melon's skin tone on may, and she's usually bluer, as can be seen in the other panels.
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By the way, would it be weird and pedantic for me to mention that it's actually "senpai"?
Yes, it would ;) "Senpai" is the standard romanisation of the Japanese characters, but "sempai" is phonetically more accurate. Another example is "tempura" - this would be written "tenpura" by a "literal" romanisation.
https://nihongoshark.com/is-it-senpai-or-sempai/ (https://nihongoshark.com/is-it-senpai-or-sempai/)
(Late reply because I've been away without Internet)