I'm interested to see where Jeph takes Marten and Dora. Not necessarily as a couple, but as individuals. I think Dora's "oh shit!" moment is in reference to the realization that she's started down the same path again, going on a date and slowly sliding into a relationship while she needs to focus on herself.
That's pretty much what I've been thinking. I was actually surprised by today's instalment, as I was expecting her to actually start dating Jim and then sabotage that relationship before really realizing that she wasn't ready—but this is much more efficient (assuming she follows through with the realization).
I like Dora. I think she and Marten are good together—but, at this point in their character development, they aren't good
for each other, and that's because they're both screwed up. While I’ll admit that the obvious problems in the relationship have been Dora’s, there’s one crystallizing moment that revealed, for me, just how screwed up Marten is, too: in strip 1797, Marten jumps from zero to “oh yeah, because if I even BLINK at another girl it’s the end of the fuckin’ world, but you completely BREACHING MY TRUST isn’t ‘that big of a deal.’” Now, even in the vague area of ‘trust issues’ that’s one hell of a friggin’ leap of logic, and it really struck me as odd… and that’s when I realized that that’s what Marten has gone back to every time he and Dora fought.
Whenever they fight, he brings up that one incident with the girl in the library and he redirects the fight to that issue. He uses it as his default weapon in every single fight, which means that there’s something about that incident that is just festering inside of him—and that, right there, is the death of any given relationship. If there is something you can’t get over but aren’t strong enough to deal with, your relationship is already dead; it’s just waiting for the toe-tag.
Marten isn’t just passive, he’s passive-aggressive. He doesn’t know how to deal with things so he lets them fester until they either go away or explode—either way, he doesn’t have to take responsibility for it. Even with Dora, he was fine having the same old fight again and again until
she called it quits. Marten’s fear of actually taking responsibility for himself and his life is his defining characteristic—and here’s the thing that’s led to most of the more bitter entries in this discussion: that’s what most of us are like, too. That’s why we
want him to be right. That’s why we
want him to come out on top without having to change and take control of his life. But it isn’t healthy—for him or for us.
The quest at the heart of this comic is Marten growing up and learning to deal with the crap that life throws at him. He’s a path-of-least-resistance guy who’s not doing anything of value with his life, which is why he’s stagnating. He’s trapped in that mid-20’s “I’ve got nothing but potential, and I don’t want to lose
this opportunity by taking advantage of
that one” mindset. Hell, I don’t want to extend an already overly-long post by getting into it here, but that’s probably the biggest challenge for anyone of Jeph’s (and my) generation.
Dora and Marten are both good people who happen to have problems. Her problems are more overt, but his are serious, too. Most of all, though, so far
they’ve managed not to bicker back and forth with a lot of painful recriminations, so surely we can manage that, too, don’t you think?
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Topic: WCDT: Independence Day Week (4 - 8 July, 1961-1965) (Read 153759 times)