Christ, he's
flirting! Kick 'em inna fork!
Several comments on Dora and Faye's overreacting. Is it breaking down on gender lines? Is it cuz I'm a guy that I say, give Sven a fucking break and stop being all Holier Than Thou? I hated Sven's casual disregard of womens' feelings as much as anyone, but I don't feel he's in the wrong here.
Remember that Faye did NOT want commitment! So as crummy as you think the drunken Gina Riversmith slip was, STOP beating Sven up about it and putting Faye on a pedestal! If Faye was so hurt by Sven's slippage, THAT'S ON HER! Or is this a Female-Entitlement issue, that you can declare a fuck-buddy relationship, but really mean YOU OWN HIM? I call Double-Standard!
Again, Dora's reaction is not about Faye. This is about Sven's lifetime of behavior, either douchy or non-thinking (the Faye thing is just a part of that), have it as you will, catching up to him.
Michi-love, other peoples, you got that backwards. Her "friends" were fucking around with her brother. He didn't go after them, they went after him. Some guys are really bad at saying no to unattached sexing, and he's one of them.
You write as though Sven simply picked up some of Dora's friends at school. They went after him in the Bianchi house,
sleeping over with Dora and posing as her friend just so they could get to Sven's room. Even the dimmest bulb would have to figure that out after a while, and whatever else he may be, I've seen no evidence that Sven is stupid. What I
have seen plenty of evidence for is that he tries really hard not to take any responsibility for any damage, any hurt he causes.
Sven put his dick before his sister's self-esteem and feelings, which tells me he
is a dick, or was. I don't really think he actually sets out to be such, but I also don't think Sven spends much time, if any, worrying about what happens to other people, and the damage he causes is the same. That means that Dora, who
does care about what happens to other people (probably as a result of being shit on by her brother), winds up having to run interference to save her friendships or just to save girls she likes from being screwed over, literally. Having to be Sven's 'keeper,' taking responsibility because he won't, is enough to make anyone edgy, to say the least—hence the blow-up a few comics before the one I linked to. Want any more proof? His thought is never "I might hurt someone," is it? It's "Dora's going to kill me." Christ, Sven lets his sister be his conscience. After all, why should he have do that job?
And, no, Sven doesn't deserve a break about the subject until he actually shows he's changed, and moping in a bar doesn't exactly scream change to me—it could just as easily mean "poor me, I feel bad, and I don't know why." And Dora's nicer than she should be: right now, she could (and possibly should) be whacking him on the back of the head. Yes, you could say "Sven doesn't know what Marigold's situation is, yadda yadda," but the truth is, until he shows her otherwise, that as far as Dora knows,
he doesn't care. So she has to play grown man (and I use the term very loosely)'s conscience again.