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And now act three...

Tropical Storm Martenclaire meets Northern Hurricane Faye for disastrous results
- 32 (26.2%)
The Svenectomy begins
- 16 (13.1%)
Tai razzes Marten and Claire till they're both as red as Claire's hair
- 16 (13.1%)
Steve Eating Cereal: The Legend Continues
- 8 (6.6%)
Clinton finally finds out that big sister has a boyfriend
- 41 (33.6%)
5 straight days of yelling bird cloaca jokes
- 9 (7.4%)

Total Members Voted: 110


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Author Topic: WCDT: 2816-2820 (20-24 October 2014) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread  (Read 111045 times)

Gladstone

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I'm wondering if we haven't been misinterpreting this whole arc. Faye, Pintsize and Hannelore were all to remind Marten that he is still the keeper of a pack of cute but neurotic girls and a borderline-runaway AI. He's got other things than his new girlfriend that requires juggling in his life!

Maybe to remind us, as well.  "Hey, readers, I know a lot of you probably want the next 500 strips to be all Claire + Marten smooches, but there are other people in the comic too!  Don't forget about them!"
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anahata

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Yeah, it was nice to see Hanners in the spotlight again, especially after someone commented recently that she'd been sidelined.
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WHAT IF IT'S A CERVICAL ARTERY DISSECTION*

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Aimless

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Marten's not anyone's keeper, those ladies can keep themselves and he's just Pintsize's fall-guy
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ItsNotATumor

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So I'm a bit late with this post, but I find myself strongly disliking Faye after this talk with Angus. Regardless of whether or not she wants to continue a relationship with him, I think her behavior is self centered and rude.

When someone you care about gets their dream job, you congratulate them and celebrate with them. Even if she realizes that the relationship won't work, she can't have the basic decency to let him be happy about his once in a lifetime opportunity. I feel like she's dumped him on the side of the road after realizing he's of no use to her. Such a lack of empathy is gross.
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BenRG

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So I'm a bit late with this post, but I find myself strongly disliking Faye after this talk with Angus. Regardless of whether or not she wants to continue a relationship with him, I think her behavior is self centered and rude.

When someone you care about gets their dream job, you congratulate them and celebrate with them. Even if she realizes that the relationship won't work, she can't have the basic decency to let him be happy about his once in a lifetime opportunity. I feel like she's dumped him on the side of the road after realizing he's of no use to her. Such a lack of empathy is gross.

I think that you missed Faye's own obvious distress. She wasn't happy for him because she thinks she is losing him. I'd challenge you to be able to offer more than a façade of happiness at the thought of your significant other moving away and you not having the strength to follow him/her. In short, she isn't dumping him; they're going their separate ways.
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ItsNotATumor

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I think that you missed Faye's own obvious distress. She wasn't happy for him because she thinks she is losing him. I'd challenge you to be able to offer more than a façade of happiness at the thought of your significant other moving away and you not having the strength to follow him/her. In short, she isn't dumping him; they're going their separate ways.

Yes, I understand the cause of her distress. My point is that he got his dream job, and that the decent thing to do is to be happy with him. He ran home to greet her and tell the news. She's derailing the immediate situation to be all about her.

When I said "dumping him by the side of the road", I meant that figuratively. As soon as she realizes that she won't be with him, she provides absolutely zero support or empathy for him. Another (bad?) analogy would be two backpackers on a trip sharing the road. They've been sharing food, water, and a tent for days. One backpacker sees the summit, and is going to climb it. While he's saying "Look at that amazing peak! I can't wait to scale it with you!", the other one takes all the food he can muster, the spare water, the bedroll, and walks away silently in the other direction.

Faye wrecked his moment, made it all about her, and couldn't be bothered to even go through the motions of playing at being nice to him and let him enjoy his day. Self centered and rude.
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Sullivan

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Well... remember, Faye has some Really Bad Stuff in her past, resulting in abandonment issues. And now here is Angus, with whom she thought she something stable, removing himself from her everyday reach. It hit her, HARD. You're walking out on me too, just like my father did.

Plus, she said she'd previously thought she could handle the weekend-only relationship, and was just hit with the realization that she couldn't. So she wasn't prepared for the moment.

Yes, a Perfect Person would have been more supportive, but this is not a perfect person. Faye has a good heart at heart and I'm sure she will end up being all celebratory and congratulatory and supportive soon, but I think her initial response was completely justified by her backstory.

Also: echoes of this will stay with her for a while. It will be a long time before she risks another relationship. And that's the optimistic prediction... Nor should we "expect better of her" unless the shrink she's seeing suddenly becomes a miracle worker.
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ReindeerFlotilla

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Emotions are not bed rolls, or a ball, or other stuff. They are not electricity, to be tuned by dial or turned off by switch.

The are the root of all choice. This can be hard to accept. In general, humanity colors emotion as weakness. Finding out that we aren't quite the rational animals we think we are can be disturbing. 

It's fairly well documented, scientifically. Brain damage to the amygdala tends to result in loss of affect. People with such damage show little emotion, and report feeling little. Such people also tend to have a marked difficulty making decisions between options. This strongly suggests that what we feel about a thing is more important than what we think about it. It goes to explain why facts don't persuade people.

For what ever reason, Faye didn't feel what she would need to feel to "be supportive" in that moment. Moreover, she did not feel anything that would have driven her to fake it, for Angus's sake.

She was faced with the choice of making a sacrifice, or walking away. Despite our cultural fetish for sacrifice, it isn't always the right choice.

Faye chose poorly, in that she didn't tell Angus what she was thinking. But she chose correctly, as far as the timing. Trying to fake it would have only increased her disquiet. It would rapidly have become resentment.

By creating a bad situation, immediately, she prevented a worse situation later.

As unfair as that may be, Angus helped to create the crisis. First by ignoring the signs that the crisis was coming. While Faye helped him do that, his own actions show he wasn't really buying her assurances. But he let that slide. But more importantly, he forced the issue at the time of crisis.

To use your metaphor, he didn't just say, "that looks like a fun mountain to climb." He brushed off any worries about whether the proper supplies were on hand, whether he or Faye were in shape to handle the mountain, and Faye's fear of heights. He also quickly implied that being afraid was a moral failure on Faye's part, and--at the critical moment--offered only the choice "commit to climb, now, or walk away."

There's a reason that strip is titled "You Idiots." Angus AND Faye handled it poorly. But there's no certainty, had they performed better, the results would have been different.

BenRG

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So... Prediction for tomorrow?

I think I'm starting to get the rhythm of this arc. Jeph is actually skipping over a lot of exposition (he's said that he wants to have less dialogue per panel) and discussion and just letting us draw conclusions from the characters' body languages and fairly simple one-liners. I expect this to continue to the conclusion of the FAngus Break-Up arc.

My belief is that Friday's strip will be Faye arriving at Apartment 22, 14 Elm Grove Lane and gaining entrance. I suspect panel 3 will be her standing in front of Angus and just saying "I'm sorry." and Angus replying "I'm sorry too." Panel 4 might be the bus pulling out of Northampton with Faye standing at the kerb, waving farewell. Alternately, it will just be them hugging. In any case, I suspect that Monday will be the start of a new arc and I don't think we'll be seeing Angus again except possibly in flashback.
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Natswash

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So... Prediction for tomorrow?

I think I'm starting to get the rhythm of this arc. Jeph is actually skipping over a lot of exposition (he's said that he wants to have less dialogue per panel) and discussion and just letting us draw conclusions from the characters' body languages and fairly simple one-liners. I expect this to continue to the conclusion of the FAngus Break-Up arc.

My belief is that Friday's strip will be Faye arriving at Apartment 22, 14 Elm Grove Lane and gaining entrance. I suspect panel 3 will be her standing in front of Angus and just saying "I'm sorry." and Angus replying "I'm sorry too." Panel 4 might be the bus pulling out of Northampton with Faye standing at the kerb, waving farewell. Alternately, it will just be them hugging. In any case, I suspect that Monday will be the start of a new arc and I don't think we'll be seeing Angus again except possibly in flashback.
You sir, are a master of sad. Well done, and please don't be right (although I think you are doing well on the rythm of Jeph's plan as I could see you being completely right if not word for word).
I rather liked Angus as a character, he is every man, but witty enough to make nerdy folk associate easier. He was also not as passive and kind of played a foil to Marten in that degree. At the same time he was caring when the situation called. He played a good character and I'll be sad to see him leave.
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pwhodges

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Perhaps Dale is due to take over as the secondary male character in the strip.  What about Steve? you say.  Well, look at the recent cast poster.
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BenRG

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Perhaps Dale is due to take over as the secondary male character in the strip.  What about Steve? you say.  Well, look at the recent cast poster.

Actually, I think it might be Sven who will be the secondary male character but in what context I'm not sure.

I think it's possible that the main cast will be caught in the middle of the Svenectomy. He'll actually be trying to build bridges with Faye by helping her out as a good friend (and only as a friend) in the aftermath of Angus's departure for The Big Apple and, of course, he has the existing relationship axis with Hannelore. Maybe he'll appeal to them to try to help him reconcile with Dora. This would drag in Marten (and, by extension, Claire), who would be wary of his two very emotionally-vulnerable friends being caught between the Bianchi kids' long-running and often-violently bitter sibling rivalry.

It's interesting that Will and Penny are in the poster but Steve and Cossette are not. Back on the bus? I have to say that I've only seen Steve and Cossette recently in the context of Steve being Marten's best male friend, so he's arguably moving out of even the secondary character category to the same 'supporting bit-player' categorisation as Veronica and Clinton. Are we going to see more of Penny? Is she going to be put into a difficult position between her boss and her boyfriend's best friend?

That poster is, in retrospect, very interesting in the body language between Angus and Faye. Angus is clearly holding forth on some subject and Faye just looks... nonplussed and confused. I think that Jeph was planning a break-up even then and it is reflected in the clear lack of connection between the two in that image.

Damn... I love Kremlinology!
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Thrillho

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Actually, I think it might be Sven who will be the secondary male character but in what context I'm not sure.

Oh Christ no.
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Zebediah

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In honor of this week's poll, I am naming the nor'easter that is currently wrecking my neighborhood "Northern Hurricane Faye".
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Neko_Ali

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So I'm a bit late with this post, but I find myself strongly disliking Faye after this talk with Angus. Regardless of whether or not she wants to continue a relationship with him, I think her behavior is self centered and rude.

When someone you care about gets their dream job, you congratulate them and celebrate with them. Even if she realizes that the relationship won't work, she can't have the basic decency to let him be happy about his once in a lifetime opportunity. I feel like she's dumped him on the side of the road after realizing he's of no use to her. Such a lack of empathy is gross.

This is exactly the social pressure I was talking about earlier, why Faye kept her feelings of fear from Angus about him getting this job. She's been terrified of losing him and not being supportive enough. He's been terrified of losing her. But because of this attitude, that no matter what they are feeling inside they needed to put on a happy face for the sake of their partner that killed the conversation they needed to have before Angus left for his job. Instead of communicating like couples should do, they went to other people who couldn't give them any real answers and let this fester between them until there was no longer a way to avoid it, ultimately hurting both worse than if they had time to prepare for it long ago. Not that there would have been a happy resolution but we wouldn't have had the whole "I got the job, aren't you  happy for me! No, and now we are breaking up." situation.
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Lubricus

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Perhaps Dale is due to take over as the secondary male character in the strip.  What about Steve? you say.  Well, look at the recent cast poster.

Actually, I think it might be Sven who will be the secondary male character but in what context I'm not sure.

You're both wrong - the secondary male character will always be Pintsize!  :wink:
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MooskiNet

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You sir, are a master of sad. Well done, and please don't be right (although I think you are doing well on the rythm of Jeph's plan as I could see you being completely right if not word for word).

This brings up an interesting thought for me - I wonder if Jeph sometimes finds such detailed predictions (right down to scene and dialogue) annoying because they sorta limit his options, especially when the prediction is the most logical way to go?

Yeah, you can say his options aren't limited in any way by what amounts to fanfic, but if it were me, I'd be like 'aw dammit, now I can't use that.'
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BenRG

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This brings up an interesting thought for me - I wonder if Jeph sometimes finds such detailed predictions (right down to scene and dialogue) annoying because they sorta limit his options, especially when the prediction is the most logical way to go?

Yeah, you can say his options aren't limited in any way by what amounts to fanfic, but if it were me, I'd be like 'aw dammit, now I can't use that.'

Which is why I always say this: "You can use whichever of my ideas you like and you don't even have to credit me. I'm not that original; I certainly wouldn't have had the idea if you hadn't laid the foundations (and, in some cases, built the walls and installed the roof joists too)."

Besides, I get the impression that Jeph is quite a number of strips ahead of his posting schedule. If I'm right and my prediction actually comes true, I would be rather too busy having myself tested further for telepathy rather than demanding credit or acknowledgement from Jeph.
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bhtooefr

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Jeph actually is known to be unable to maintain a buffer for very long, and often does strips the day they're posted.
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valkygrrl

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You sir, are a master of sad. Well done, and please don't be right (although I think you are doing well on the rythm of Jeph's plan as I could see you being completely right if not word for word).

This brings up an interesting thought for me - I wonder if Jeph sometimes finds such detailed predictions (right down to scene and dialogue) annoying because they sorta limit his options, especially when the prediction is the most logical way to go?

Yeah, you can say his options aren't limited in any way by what amounts to fanfic, but if it were me, I'd be like 'aw dammit, now I can't use that.'

Limits his options eh?

Prediction: the next two hundred strips are Marigold and Dale boinking
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MooskiNet

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Limits his options eh?

Prediction: the next two hundred strips are Marigold and Dale boinking

Okay, that shit was funny.
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DSL

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Jeph actually is known to be unable to maintain a buffer for very long, and often does strips the day they're posted.

Executing the strips, yes. But he has remarked recently he's blocking and scripting ahead.
A mod will eventually say with authority that Jeph doesn't actually visit the forums very often, so the concern is moot.
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Aziraphale

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Yeah, it was nice to see Hanners in the spotlight again, especially after someone commented recently that she'd been sidelined.

That might've been me. And a one-off appearance, with a throwaway gag isn't "the spotlight." Remember when she would feature over a handful of strips, actually having sustained conversations with people? That'd be closer to the spotlight (or would at least suggest that she's part of the main cast). This is filler.
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BenRG

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I'd still like to see Sven ask Hannelore, Faye and Penny to use their connection with Dora to help him try to mend fences with her. They argue like cats but I strongly believe that Sven and Dora would both prefer to have at least a functional relationship.
« Last Edit: 23 Oct 2014, 08:04 by BenRG »
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pwhodges

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A mod will eventually say with authority that Jeph doesn't actually visit the forums very often, so the concern is moot.

Actually, he last logged in just three days ago, and posted only three weeks ago.  So, we can't assume he's not watching!
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I'd still like to see Sven ask Hannelore, Faye and Penny to use their connection with Dora to help him try to mend fences with her. They argue like cats but I strongly believe that Sven and Dora would both prefer to have at least a functional relationship.

Does Sven even know hes been cut off yet? Although it is kind of hard for Dora to  you know, tell him that since she said she will never speak to him again... good planing right there.
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Rghfrgl

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Maybe to remind us, as well.  "Hey, readers, I know a lot of you probably want the next 500 strips to be all Claire + Marten smooches, but there are other people in the comic too!  Don't forget about them!"

I suggest the compromise of alternating 250 strips of Claire and Marten smooches and 250 strips of Hannelore reacting to it.
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valkygrrl

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Maybe to remind us, as well.  "Hey, readers, I know a lot of you probably want the next 500 strips to be all Claire + Marten smooches, but there are other people in the comic too!  Don't forget about them!"

I suggest the compromise of alternating 250 strips of Claire and Marten smooches and 250 strips of Hannelore reacting to it.

Counter proposal: 250 strips of Claire and Marten smooches, 249 strips of dressing montages as they prepare for their dates, 1 strip of turkeys talking about butts.
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ReindeerFlotilla

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I hesitate to predict, but more sad pandas seems the wrong beat for the last strip of the week. Al least a definitive sad panda seems wrong. I have no idea what Jeph might do, but Angus and Faye making nice, but over, then waving farewell seems like complete closure. If figure that's not what Jeph is going to give us.

osaka

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Maybe to remind us, as well.  "Hey, readers, I know a lot of you probably want the next 500 strips to be all Claire + Marten smooches, but there are other people in the comic too!  Don't forget about them!"

I suggest the compromise of alternating 250 strips of Claire and Marten smooches and 250 strips of Hannelore reacting to it.

Considering the ave
Counter proposal: 250 strips of Claire and Marten smooches, 249 strips of dressing montages as they prepare for their dates, 1 strip of turkeys talking about butts.

Considering the average QC Turkeys, and how some people are predicting Faye's actions can go, I'd say that the strip will probably feature turkeys talking about Sven's butt.
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eschaton

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Actually, I think it might be Sven who will be the secondary male character but in what context I'm not sure.

Oh Christ no.

Depends upon how you do it.  There's nothing like taking a unlikable character and then eventually turning them around somewhat through redemption.  Look what it did for Jaime Lannister in ASOIAF. 
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Gladstone

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249 strips of dressing montages as they prepare for their dates

And they still both show up in their TEH shirts. Every damn time.

...and now I want to see that happen.  Just once.
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kerky

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WHAT IF IT'S A CERVICAL ARTERY DISSECTION*

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AYAD?
If yes, ouch, and I wish you a much quieter upcoming shift.
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249 strips of dressing montages as they prepare for their dates

And they still both show up in their TEH shirts. Every damn time.

...and now I want to see that happen.  Just once.

NO!

ALL Hannelore. Infinite Hannelore.

We will all become Hannelore. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will adapt to service us.

Boomslang

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So regarding the whole Blame Angus vs. Blame Faye thing, I really don't have any strong opinions on the matter. But I thought it would be interesting to go back and re-read the strips where all of this was forming:

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2450 through http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2452

I think this is the primary series of strips, not even all that long, that establishes what just happened as a very real possibility. Faye is pretty clear that while she does want him to be happy, she's otherwise 100% negative about him moving- and it's Angus that suggests putting this off until he knows for sure or not. Anyone blaming Faye for not communicating her dislike for what happened is looking at what happened here very differently than I am, and many others are. But she also sets up the fact that she doesn't want him to sacrifice this opportunity, either- if he gets the job, staying in Northhampton isn't a realistic possibility. And Faye is likewise NOT going to be okay with moving to NYC.  The only question is whether they can make a long distance relationship work. Maybe Faye deserves some blame for trying to let the conversation end on a positive note, but that's a really weak nail to be hanging the blame for the breakup solely on her.

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2663

Marten is pretty clear that trouble is on the way. At the same time, he joins Faye in saying Angus should take the opportunity even if it ruins things with Faye- and Marten is Faye's friend foremost, not Angus's, so he's not simply taking Angus's side, he genuinely agrees that Angus giving up his goals to be with Faye isn't good for either of them. If Marten screwed up, it's that he set up the false dichotomy of Faye being shitty about this OR telling the truth about being okay, and Angus leaped at the opportunity to rationalize it into her genuinely being okay, because he knows she wouldn't be shitty like that.

Now comes my opinion/interpretation- When it comes to foreshadowing the events, even telegraphing them, what happened recently is a possibility Jeph made very clear existed from very early on, not just the vague outline, but the actual event as it transpired. He's being amazingly internally consistent with the comic despite it being so long in between significant events in the arc. And I think based on that, the idea they simply need to 'talk it out' might be a tad off base- they have talked, but what it comes down to is they're not willing to sacrifice one person's happiness, and they don't want to sever the relationship, but it's impossible to have the cake and eat it too. Ever since the possibility came up, they've essentially just been delaying the inevitable- waiting until he got the part, and honestly, even the idea of a long distance relationship, was just pushing the final confrontation out. There is no such thing as a permanent long distance relationship- unless one of them changed their mind, it couldn't possibly work. And how long could they remain stable, when they're both hoping the other changes their mind? That just seems so toxic to anything.

Fundamentally, I just don't think there IS a good end for this, no matter what they did after Angus came back, having gotten the part. Faye and Angus aren't in a functional relationship any more, and they might just have to leave it where it is, two folks walking away from each other in silence. What's there to talk about? How they never intended for this to happen? That they don't blame each other? Those wouldn't be entirely true.
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ReindeerFlotilla

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Pretty much. Errors were made by both.  But, had neither made any mistakes, the results wouldn't have been different, because those errors didn't actually change anything about the core conflict.

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http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2450 through http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2452

I think this is the primary series of strips, not even all that long, that establishes what just happened as a very real possibility. Faye is pretty clear that while she does want him to be happy, she's otherwise 100% negative about him moving- and it's Angus that suggests putting this off until he knows for sure or not. Anyone blaming Faye for not communicating her dislike for what happened is looking at what happened here very differently than I am, and many others are. But she also sets up the fact that she doesn't want him to sacrifice this opportunity, either- if he gets the job, staying in Northhampton isn't a realistic possibility. And Faye is likewise NOT going to be okay with moving to NYC.  The only question is whether they can make a long distance relationship work. Maybe Faye deserves some blame for trying to let the conversation end on a positive note, but that's a really weak nail to be hanging the blame for the breakup solely on her.

He did say something about tabling it later, but that is ignoring that he did bring it up two more times, the more and more likely it seemed that he would get the part, only to be shot down before he could even get started.

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2674
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2740

I agree with the assessment that they both made mistakes, just trying to say that saying that it was his actions alone that lead to tabling the conversation until the end is a bit off.
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NemoX

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Just rewinding the discussion a bit, I KNEW that running purple dildo seemed familiar!

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ItsNotATumor

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I agree with the assessment that they both made mistakes, just trying to say that saying that it was his actions alone that lead to tabling the conversation until the end is a bit off.

+1 agree here. He brings it up repeatedly, she shoos him away with don't be silly, knock 'em dead, it's your dream, etc. When he asks about her being ok, she responds with a hostile "For christ's sake", a blame shifting redirection tactic. He's the one checking on *her* state, and her response is as if he's having emotional issues.

Then, when he does get the part, it's just a complete wall. The decent thing to do would be, as his friend, make a celebration for him, let him be happy, and then sadly talk the next day that she can't come with him. "I'm sad that this won't work, but I'm so so happy that you got your dream job! We had a great time." But just turning away in silence? Dumping a bucket of ice water on his happy day? That's just plain mean.

I don't think she's trying to hurt his feelings here. I think she's just so self centered that it doesn't occur to her to even consider his feelings :/
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MooskiNet

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I don't think she's trying to hurt his feelings here. I think she's just so self centered that it doesn't occur to her to even consider his feelings :/

I disagree - I think she has always considered his feelings in the sense that she didn't want to let him in on how shallow her own feelings for him were.  If he had not gotten the part, they may have gone on for some time, hanging out, talking, banging and whatnot, with him being deeply in love with her and her not so much with him.

Instead, he did get the job, and she's now having to make him understand that what they have isn't enough to make her pull chocks and follow him. 
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osaka

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I don't think she's trying to hurt his feelings here. I think she's just so self centered that it doesn't occur to her to even consider his feelings :/

Considering Faye's characterization, I'm willing to say that she's trumped by her own feelings, asides from the sudden, crushing realization that she really didn't love Angus as much as she thought she did about 3 days ago - or that she wasn't as healed as she thought she was 3 days ago. It's not a good feeling, and given her past, it can be made much worse.

In fact, the realization that you don't care is sometimes more crushing than the consequences of the actions that you don't care about. Faye isn't sad that she's bound to end her relationship with Angus, or that she won't see Angus - she's sad because she has JUST realized that she's been faking her relationship for a while.
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ItsNotATumor

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I think she has always considered his feelings in the sense that she didn't want to let him in on how shallow her own feelings for him were.  If he had not gotten the part, they may have gone on for some time, hanging out, talking, banging and whatnot, with him being deeply in love with her and her not so much with him.

I completely agree with this statement.

Quote
Instead, he did get the job, and she's now having to make him understand that what they have isn't enough to make her pull chocks and follow him.

Also agree. And her way of making him understand is just about the rudest possible way of doing so.
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INAT - Your definition of 'rude' is probably the weirdest one I've ever heard.
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ItsNotATumor

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Considering Faye's characterization, I'm willing to say that she's trumped by her own feelings, asides from the sudden, crushing realization that she really didn't love Angus as much as she thought she did about 3 days ago - or that she wasn't as healed as she thought she was 3 days ago. It's not a good feeling, and given her past, it can be made much worse.

In fact, the realization that you don't care is sometimes more crushing than the consequences of the actions that you don't care about. Faye isn't sad that she's bound to end her relationship with Angus, or that she won't see Angus - she's sad because she has JUST realized that she's been faking her relationship for a while.

That's a very thought provoking and interesting point of view! Thanks for sharing that, made me think.
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Aziraphale

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In fact, the realization that you don't care is sometimes more crushing than the consequences of the actions that you don't care about. Faye isn't sad that she's bound to end her relationship with Angus, or that she won't see Angus - she's sad because she has JUST realized that she's been faking her relationship for a while.

Good point. She may well have decided "fake it 'til you make it" was worth a shot, and then realized that... well, she just wasn't making it. I think that she probably does/did love Angus, but it may have been lopsided on some level. I mean, most relationships have a certain ebb and flow where it comes to passion, but at the end of the day, there should be some kind of balance there (not sure if that's making sense).
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ReindeerFlotilla

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ARRGH! We get it. Can Team Faye and Team Angus take a time out?

Please? That stuff was sooo last week.

osaka

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That's a very thought provoking and interesting point of view! Thanks for sharing that, made me think.

It's a point of view that you can only acquire from experience. You never know how much it hurts to realize in a split second that you don't care about something until your whole family is crying the death of a loved one and you're just standing there, wondering whether or not there was a race to attend that evening.

Warning - while you were typing ReindeerFlotilla made this seem like a twilight saga argument

Please define. I wasn't siding with anybody, just sharing my own experience of when my grandmother died.
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Boomslang

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If people are 'faking it', then I would only agree insomuch as they're trying to retain the relationship they had before all of this even though they know it's changed irrevocably.

If, on the other hand, someone is saying Faye was faking it period, as in did not love Angus in a real way, or at all, I completely disagree, and vice versa for Angus. The idea that this wasn't a real relationship because they couldn't figure out how to make it work is ignoring the sheer difficulty of making it work in this instance. Neither of them are willing to give up their autonomy and completely subsume themselves in the others life, and that's basically what would have to happen. If you consider that's fair to ask of one of them, I think there's so much of a gulf between us regarding relationships there is no conversation to be had.
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ReindeerFlotilla

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Warning - while you were typing ReindeerFlotilla made this seem like a twilight saga argument

That was the joke. (:

I'm just a dude on the internet, asking, "Why so Ƨerious?"
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