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High Drama.

9 (10.3%)

High Comedy.

10 (11.5%)

High Tai.

14 (16.1%)

High Jinks.

11 (12.6%)

Back to High School.

1 (1.1%)

Pintsize High on a Hill.

0 (0%)

Highlander (THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!)

19 (21.8%)

High on Waffles and Space Ham.

4 (4.6%)

Highly doubtful.

8 (9.2%)

Hi! My name is...

11 (12.6%)

Total Members Voted: 82

[Method of Madness]

Yeah she kind of helped break up Marten and Dora

You're giving Tai way too much credit here.

[Sidhekin]

Yeah she kind of helped break up Marten and Dora

You're giving Tai way too much credit here.

The good doctor wasn't referring to Tai, but to "Dora's terrifying jealousy/control problem".

... credit where credit's due?

[Method of Madness]

Oh. Right. Just reread the post and...yeah. Weird to call it "she", though.

[Shjade]

Plus contentment is bad for script ideas.

The first part is a prediction, but this sounds close to telling Jeph what he should do.

It really isn't. It's just kind of an accepted part of writing - it generally needs conflict. Without conflict there's nothing to resolve; with nothing to resolve you're just writing about people living their day to day lives in which everything goes as planned.

That said, it's not as if there's anything wrong with things actually turning out well now and then. It's not as if everything needs to be in chaos all the time. Dora and Marten, aside from the occasional spat, lasted quite a while, for instance. Cycles, peaks and valleys, blah blah blah.

[NotAwesomeAnymore]

What a terrible friday cliffhanger! I have no idea what Dora read into that smirk, or how upset she is. 

[WAYF]

Hmmm. :/
I feel like Jeph accidentally wrote himself into a corner. His characters have all grown so much since their introductions that the only way he could believably bring Dora's insecurities to the surface without bringing his characters out of character was to introduce a new character.
It's late at night where I am, so my powers of analysis are failing me, and maybe we'll see a lot more of Allie in the future, but all I can see in this update is a brand new character dropping in unannounced to say "Hi! Conflict! Bye!"
(This all says a mixture of good and bad things.)

[DSL]

I'll bet you the smirk was the outward expression of an internal dialogue along the lines of, "Ha, you're dating *her*?"

Mmm... I wonder what Dora has in mind. The Thousand Cuts? Quartering by four buffalo?

A single coffee bean, lovingly pounded into Allie's forehead.

[Strangederby]

This Fridays comic reminded me of all the times I feel like people have a secret type of comunication going on.  I'll be in a situation and people will be able to "read" stuff about it while I'm left completly clueless and wondering if I've somehow missed whole chunks of conversation.

[Neko_Ali]

I am not sure why everyone immediately jumps to Dora's insecurities as to why she's so angry at the new girl. It's possible that she's doing the 'my girlfriend has an ex and now she must die!' thing, but that wasn't really how she was like with Marten. To me at least it looks more like 'Someone's giving my girlfriend shit, and now she must die!'

[GarandMarine]

I'd disagree Neko, that smirk seemed to be pretty clearly intended for Dora, not for Tai.

[Blackjoker]

I am not sure why everyone immediately jumps to Dora's insecurities as to why she's so angry at the new girl. It's possible that she's doing the 'my girlfriend has an ex and now she must die!' thing, but that wasn't really how she was like with Marten. To me at least it looks more like 'Someone's giving my girlfriend shit, and now she must die!'

It seems more like Dora's insecurities flared up...and I'm seeing a bit of a no win here for Dora. If she reacts with Tai like she did with Marten she's probably going to end up freaking Tai out and causing problems for herself, though it might also show some character growth if she realizes the problem and actively confronts it (maybe even genuinely apologizing for her earlier fuckups). If she doesn't, instead trying to keep herself from going nuts she is still going to probably feel stressed and as Tai has previously been used to noncommital relationships might try something (even innocently) and end up badly hurting Dora. Either way this has the potential to be fairly interesting.

[Welu]

For whatever reason, I read the smirk as a comment about Dora's age. I think because it clearly looks directed at Dora and the only thing this person meeting Dora for the first time knows about her is she's Tai's girlfriend. The only thing you can really tell to look at is that she's older than Tai. It never occurred to me that Allie might be an ex till looking in this thread and I don't the comic reads as her anything more than someone friendly with Tai. Also Dora was totally happy meeting Allie till the smirk, so it doesn't read to me that she assumes Allie is Tai's ex either.

[Carl-E]

Could be the age thing, but I think it's more likely that the smirk's abut Tai having A girlfriend - after having been known around campus for her polyamory, the notion of her settling down may have inspired a "yeah, right!" reaction. 

[Loki]

^That was my interpretation as well.

Of course, in this context, "girlfriend" need not imply "one and only".

[ElvisRevenge]

Could be the age thing, but I think it's more likely that the smirk's abut Tai having A girlfriend - after having been known around campus for her polyamory, the notion of her settling down may have inspired a "yeah, right!" reaction.

Ooh, I like this interpretation. It means we get a deeper look into Tai, which I think he character needs at this point.

[rschill]

In a situation where monogamy is the norm, you need a discussion before you assume polyandry is OK.  If polyandry is the norm, you need a discussion before you assume your relationship is monogamous.  Neither can be considered the norm here and the discussion has yet to take place, although it looks like it's about to. 

There's eight more strips before Thanksgiving. 


I've been thinking "Tai, you had better not hurt Dora!  " 

I don't know what I think I'd do...  Maybe I'd learn to draw like Jeph and draw myself into a comic giving Tai a piece of my mind and so bad she hangs her head in shame for weeks? 

[Method of Madness]

Of the two of them, do you really think Tai's the more likely one to hurt the other?

[Kugai]

Next week could prove interesting.

If we don't get a week of Pintsize strips.

[Method of Madness]

If we do, it'll be VERY interesting!

[GarandMarine]

In a situation where monogamy is the norm, you need a discussion before you assume polyandry is OK.  If polyandry is the norm, you need a discussion before you assume your relationship is monogamous.  Neither can be considered the norm here and the discussion has yet to take place, although it looks like it's about to. 

There's eight more strips before Thanksgiving. 


I've been thinking "Tai, you had better not hurt Dora!  " 

I don't know what I think I'd do...  Maybe I'd learn to draw like Jeph and draw myself into a comic giving Tai a piece of my mind and so bad she hangs her head in shame for weeks?

Oh my. I hadn't thought of it like that. I dunno if Tai would do that though*, she was so goofy head over heels for Dora, and has bitched to Marten-friend a few times to my memory about her prior life style.

*that being sleeping around

[rschill]

In a situation where monogamy is the norm, you need a discussion before you assume polyandry is OK.  If polyandry is the norm, you need a discussion before you assume your relationship is monogamous.  Neither can be considered the norm here and the discussion has yet to take place, although it looks like it's about to. 

There's eight more strips before Thanksgiving. 


I've been thinking "Tai, you had better not hurt Dora!  " 

I don't know what I think I'd do...  Maybe I'd learn to draw like Jeph and draw myself into a comic giving Tai a piece of my mind and so bad she hangs her head in shame for weeks?

Oh my. I hadn't thought of it like that. I dunno if Tai would do that though*, she was so goofy head over heels for Dora, and has bitched to Marten-friend a few times to my memory about her prior life style.

*that being sleeping around

Or asking about sleeping around, or something...   I'm open to the possibility that I'm reliving something from 13 years ago and projecting it onto the storyline. 

[Is it cold in here?]

I'll bet you the smirk was the outward expression of an internal dialogue along the lines of, "Ha, you're dating *her*?"

Mmm... I wonder what Dora has in mind. The Thousand Cuts? Quartering by four buffalo?

Mieville the Murderous?

Never get your own hands dirty if you live with an assassin who can never betray you to the authorities.

[sitnspin]

Tai has already mentioned to Marten that polyamory isn't her first choice. Remember she wanted be exclusive with Bailey, but B didn't want it. Tai went along with the polyamory, but what she really wanted was a serious relationship.

[Kugai]

Which is what she'll get with Dora.

If Dora doesn't wind up going to prison for murder.

[RightInTheSquishyParts]

"Would you be sad if she died" is my new favorite QCism. 

[Perfectly Reasonable]

I read the smirk as directed at Dora, as in "So, robbing the cradle with the village lez bicycle, hey?". Tai doesn't seem to feel anything is wrong.

[Method of Madness]

Tai was looking away and missed the smirk.

[Platypodes]

Yes, Tai was busy gazing adoringly at her newly-official girlfriend and didn't see the smirk.  She was probably so excited at calling Dora "my girlfriend" for the first time that she wouldn't have noticed a nuclear bomb.

Is that like, reverse shipping?

...so that would be "breaking"?

I would think it'd be called "iceberging," right? Or some variation?

Sinking!

[GarandMarine]

Sinking's probably right.

[Platypodes]

graunch

I learned a word today! Although if it's a portmanteau of grind and crunch, shouldn't it just be grunch? Where's the a from?

The word crunch is descended from the earlier word craunch.

[maxh]

graunch

I learned a word today! Although if it's a portmanteau of grind and crunch, shouldn't it just be grunch? Where's the a from?

The word crunch is descended from the earlier word craunch.

ODE says it was cranch.

[FunkyTuba]

was Allie not the initially-naked TA in Tai's room that Marten(?) ran into in that one strip and started lighting up a bong?

[pwhodges]

OED says it was cranch.

Follow the link - cranch has the variant form craunch.  Probably derived from scranch (which also has the form scraunch).

Heh!  My spell-checker doesn't want me to write any of those.

[cesium133]

was Allie not the initially-naked TA in Tai's room that Marten(?) ran into in that one strip and started lighting up a bong?

I went back and found the comic where she introduces herself, and apparently her name is Annette.

[Method of Madness]

She's also not a TA, she's a professor.

[cesium133]

She says she "teaches physics." That doesn't necessarily exclude her being a TA.

[celticgeek]

She also says that she isn't a student.

[Method of Madness]

Plus if she was a TA, she'd say she was a TA.

[Mr_Rose]

And I imagine she'd say she was a professor if she actually held that position. I figure lecturer, senior lecturer maybe, but could be a masters grad working on a teaching unit for a doctoral conversion I guess…

[Method of Madness]

Professor is a formal title but in the States it's generally used as "teaches college or higher level class" as well. (Not sure where you're from, but I'd never heard the term "lecturer" or "tutor" how people use them here until I joined the forum)

[FunkyTuba]

Thanks you caesium for doing my archive crawl for me.

[mustang6172]

If Allie were a regular at CoD, Dora would put a trace amount of arsenic in her coffee every day until it finally kills her.  Time may not be on her side here.

[LookingIn]

If Allie were a regular at CoD, Dora would put a trace amount of arsenic in her coffee every day until it finally kills her.  Time may not be on her side here.

...As opposed to Faye, who would have killed her long ago and nobody would have found her body.

[Midwesterner]

If Allie were a regular at CoD, Dora would put a trace amount of arsenic in her coffee every day until it finally kills her.  Time may not be on her side here.

...As opposed to Faye, who would have killed her long ago and nobody would have found her body.

Isn't that the Allosaurus' job?

(Also I'm in the camp that thinks the smirk was disbelief at Tai being in a monogamous relationship. I would love to see several strips of Tai and Dora figuring out the scope of what they have together; they're my favorite thread in the comic.)

[ZoeB]

OED says it was cranch.

Scanners live in vain?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanners_Live_in_Vain

[Skewbrow]

Thanks for the link, Zoe. Sounds like a story I want to read

[RightInTheSquishyParts]

OED says it was cranch.

Scanners live in vain?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanners_Live_in_Vain

You mean there is at LEAST ONE OTHER PERSON who knows of these works?   

Fantastic.

[Sidhekin]

In a situation where monogamy is the norm, you need a discussion before you assume polyandry is OK.

I think the word you're looking for is "polyamoury" (the u being optional, I guess).

Hmm¹.  I don't think I'm reading a single comic in which polyandry occurs.  (Girl Genius has been teasing us with the concept, but teasing's all it's been.)  Not that I have any opening for a new comic right now ...

Hmm².  Would you call Tai's past polyamourous relationship polygyny, or would that be unnecessary stretching of the word?

[KOK]

OED says it was cranch.

Scanners live in vain?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanners_Live_in_Vain

You mean there is at LEAST ONE OTHER PERSON who knows of these works?   

Fantastic.

More than one.

[Is it cold in here?]

The classics are not entirely forgotten.