Why on earth would Veronica go whoop-ass on Dora?!
...we certainly saw Marten doing everything he could to make Dora feel like she was his first choice,
...That's not so much hurting Marten as it is "being the other half of a relationship between two flawed people that ended with both people getting hurt." There's a huge difference.
Veronica's son is the one with his life stalled out on the shoulder.
...Dora's insecurities were over the top,
...Marten, on the other hand, never seemed actively invested in their relationship.
...he let Dora take charge of things
...He's drifting along, not committing to anything... not even the things he seemed to enjoy--seriously close to slacker territory.
...Dora, who is already hurting pretty terribly,
Wait, hold up, STOP. Ok, realistically, many (most?) of us react to these characters and their behaviors mostly because of how (similar?) people have treated us or loved ones in OUR pasts. I'll even concede that I may be about to snap at this post because my life is also "stalled, close to slacker territory, drifting" etc.
But that being said...
I saw all of the hurting on ONE side, her stupid angry attacks, accusations, control issues, while even you, doing your best to make this failure BOTH of their faults, if not actually HIS!?!?... all you can come up with is a mild case of Marten depression.
I think you're judging Marten COMPLETELY unfairly, while elevating "poor, suffering Dora", to fucking MARTYR status.
Yes, when a relationship fails, both usually suffer, obviously. But this time, it WAS Dora hurting Marten. Yep, there IS a huge difference. Whether she's hurting herself also, is a separate issue!
I hope Ms Vance AT LEAST strings Dora up by rusty chains over a fiery pit. And stands there with a whip, in full dom accoutrements. In the Hell part of the triptych.
Dora might even like it. (Check out her back tattoo!)
I don't think Veronica is going to do anything to Dora, nor should she. But to suggest the relationship was scuttled by anything other than Dora's issues is a trifle short-sighted, to say the least. Marten's stalled life had not a damned thing to do with it. Read the comic. Dora says repeatedly she's not expecting it to last. I suppose you could say she chose to have a relationship with Marten because she was sure it would fail, the same way I think Faye decided to have sex with Sven because she was sure that would go nowhere. But, unlike Sven, Marten did nothing on his end to screw things up, and everything to try to save it, including, as the comic Delator dug up shows, being scrupulously honest, which quite frankly puts the lie on any claim that he's in denial about carrying a torch for Faye.
Certainly Dora's a martyr, but the DIY variety. I suspect we're going to see (if Dora actually gets into therapy and IF Jeph follows it) that Dora would've found a way and an excuse to terminate a relationship with Mr. Perfection. As far as 'investment' goes, I feel fairly confident that if Marten had been more invested, Dora would've simply ended things sooner because she felt unworthy of the investment (although I would like to know what the fuck more invested you want than
this 'Tis times like these when the non-invested bails). That's her tragedy, and the tragedy of her and Marten's relationship failing.
I feel very sorry for Dora. I still find her a basically nice person, and I don't think she deserves whatever brought her to the point where she feels like something that makes her happy simply
must end. But whatever fault there is lies with whoever or whatever got her to that point. It may be chemical damage, it may be the way her brain is wired, it may be her family (my favorite at the moment), or it may be something entirely other. Whatever it is, though, it happened a long time before Marten happened. He just got 'lucky' enough to get swept up in it, and no amount of his drifting, not drifting, or anything else about him would've mattered save perhaps to have lengthened or shortened the time they had together.
Edit: So I'm agreeing with Tomart—a little. Wouldn't want the world to end, after all.