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Bootleg videos of robot fighting (Faye)

Blind reaction videos to the latest indie music (Marten)

"You Thought You Knew Libraries?" (10-part serial hosted by Claire)

"If it Exists, Clean it!" (Hannelore responds to 'help me' pleas from those with intractable messes)

Professional-Level 'How to Play' For JRPGs (Clinton)

"Making Work Easy" (How-to for slackers by Tai)

Victory Trolling Videos (Marigold)

"Demons and Angels" (Ethical debates between Momo and either May or Pintsize)

Political rants, various (PT410X)

"Girls, Let Them Hear You Roar!" (Self help/agitation videos by Dora)

[TinPenguin]

Now for one of my pet peeves. Teenagers should have adult friends. Nobody learns how to be a grownup by interacting with other children. William Golding wrote a novel about what happens when adolescents have only each other for company. It wasn't pretty.

Lord of the Frogs, in this particular case.

Good callback to Sam and Marigold's first meeting.

Also an occasion in which Momo brought home a friend who was about a decade older than her. Just sayin'.

[Zebediah]

My reaction on seeing this? That Sam and Marigold are roughly the same age, emotionally.

Momo is more mature than both of them.

[War Sparrow]

I think it would be peculiar if it wasn't Marigold.

Every Navy has at least one.
I always thought that the CH-113 Labrador was the scary one with its tendency to stop flying if you pissed it off?

Well, the Griffon is the CF all purpose workhorse, from what I gather. I don't know if we even use the CH-113 Labrador anymore-the Air Force has it listed as historical.

On that note, the Canadian Navy has paper boat models you can print out and build, if any of you like that sort of thing.
http://www.navy-marine.forces.gc.ca/en/navy-life/youth-paper-models.page

[pwhodges]

I had hoped that her relationship with Dale would help Marigold to grow up a bit; it seems my hope was futile.

[BenRG]

Dale isn't that mature himself. Besides, Marigold's child-like qualities seem to be what attract him, so there is no pressure for her to change.

[WareWolf]

I think it would be peculiar if it wasn't Marigold.

Bingo.

Honi soit qui mal y pense, yo.

[swapna]

I'm not sure about this. On the one hand, Sam seems to have matured a lot in the last few.. months, I guess. Her standing up for herself is something most people even Marigolds age won't do.

And, I agree that kids should have older friends - I didn't notice so much, but my brother told me one time how much of a difference it was to hang out with friends my age than with friends of his own age (he's about 5 years younger). People mature a lot in the few years after they get out of high school/college/university.

But - Marigold isn't mature. She's admiring Sam for doing things she doesn't have the guts to, and can't even ask if she can help. It's a reoccurring theme with her that she needs others to know what she wants and help her, and others grow in taking care of her (Hanners, for example). She doesn't grow herself, though. It annoys me to no end that Sam has to be the one that sees Marigolds sad face and figure out what she wants, because that's how Marigold treats all of her friends. She looks sad and hopes that people give her what she wants without having to ask for it.

[chaospersonified]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Sam's going to be helping Marigold grow up, instead of the other way around. Age =/= maturity, and Sam's pretty grown-up, from what we've just very recently seen. I wouldn'tbe shocked if this arc was mostly about Marigold shedding some of her more immature tendencies. Lord knows she's got room for personal growth.

[USS Martenclaire]

It makes sense, thinking about it. Marigold has a boyfriend and one close friend in the form of Hanners, who is far from typical herself. (This probably sounds weird but Momo and Marigold's relationship seems more sisterly or familial). As far as everyone else goes, she's an acquaintance rather than a friend as such. The trip to the cabin where everyone else went swimming and she played on a vintage console springs to mind. Perhaps Sam will end up being a true friend for her, rather than another acquaintance.

(The above may be completely incorrect - please don't eat me.)

[St.Clair]

Edit: Almost forgot what I originally wanted to say. The perspective in panel one is pretty cool.

As @Lioness already implied, it's a direct Legend of Zelda riff. Since... Wind Waker, I think... Link tends to assume that pose when getting something from a treasure chest.

I totally heard the "GET!" tune, and I'm not even that much of a Zelda fan (IMO) - just a geek in general.

[Kugai]

I think, like a few of you, that Marigold is vicariously recapturing her lost youth here with Sam, lord knows she probably had none when she was Sams age.  And I also think that Sam will be a good teen friend fit for Maribear as they're both as geeky in their own ways as each other.

[CaptainFish]

I can kinda see the argument for change when it gets in the way of Marigold treating Momo well, or her having friends around. However, at the point Marigold is now, assuming her career is fulfilling, I don't really see an issue with her having the interests she has. She's capable of being herself and having a nice life, and that's cool? She's already come a long way from when she was introduced.

[Is it cold in here?]

"Sisterly" is an insightful description of Momo and Marigold's relationship.

[Undrneath]

And Momo often feels more like the older sister.

[War Sparrow]

Maybe that's why Marigold got an Anthropc in the first place. If she is an only child with no (mentioned) mother, she may have desired some form of female companionship, and maybe wanted to be mothered a bit? Perhaps that's why she has those more juvenile tendencies, such as poor hygiene and a lack of self confidence and self awareness. Perhaps she got Momo to help with those issues, but is subconsciously afraid Momo will leave if she doesn't feel needed.

Or they are cartoon characters, but then the forum wouldn't be fun.

[SomeCanadianWeirdo]

Comic!  So, is Jeph psychic, or has he been reading the forums?

[CaptainFish]

Eh, it seems like a pretty obvious reaction someone was going to have.

[Tova]

What on earth. 

[Penquin47]

Exploding butts.

[Fen]

Whenever a strip features Sam I thank the Gods that I didn't grow up in the US. I had friends Marigold's age when I was 14, and as far as we can see Sam is mature enough to get along with people Marigold's age just fine.
You're not a creep Marbear, go befriend your new geek friend.

[Is it cold in here?]

Poor Marigold.

If only she could get help in these situations from a friend with a social protocol database.

I wonder if Momo can multitask well enough that calling her at work would be an acceptable thing to do.

[Platypodes]

Whenever a strip features Sam I thank the Gods that I didn't grow up in the US. I had friends Marigold's age when I was 14, and as far as we can see Sam is mature enough to get along with people Marigold's age just fine.
You're not a creep Marbear, go befriend your new geek friend.

I had adult friends when I was Sam's age.  I was blessed with parents who could tell the difference between creeps and cool people who could share the interests that the other teenage girls didn't usually get.

Then in my late 20's, I went on a vacation with a bunch of friends and friends-of-friends, and I had a great friendly connection with a teenage girl who came along, who wanted to do fun stuff while everybody else was just vegging out drinking beer and being boring, and one of the women totally wigged out at me because OMFG that girl and I went for a walk alone together, and it was at night...  Yes, I'm in the US, and yes, the US is a bit insane on this subject.

[TRVA123]

I'm glad that this panel went where it did.

It isn't that I think children should only associate with other children, but I do think that adults who associate with children should be aware of the differences there and be careful to observe social boundaries. Marigold was not being aware...

However, I was kind of hoping that Marigold would go with Sam to her house and meet Veronica. That would be interesting.

[MrNumbers]

If it would please the members of the court, might I draw their attention to the penny dropping?

[haikupoet]

Dear Marigold: If anyone thought anything about you hanging out with Sam, they'd probably assume you were the nanny. Chilldafuq out.

[Kugai]

Overthinking things again I see Marigold.

[DSL]

Dear Marigold: If anyone thought anything about you hanging out with Sam, they'd probably assume you were the nanny. Chilldafuq out.

Unfortunately, the ease of manufacture and the durability of a false accusation -- not necessarily one made by an involved party -- make it impractical to allow dafuq to chill completely.

[St.Clair]

Dear Marigold: If anyone thought anything about you hanging out with Sam, they'd probably assume you were the nanny. Chilldafuq out.

Contrariwise, most people who've been following this set of strips should be aware that if anyone's qualified to be the nanny in this pair, it's Sam.
(But probably neither of them are, really.  They're both adolescents, in a sense... Mar's a bit of an arrested case. :p )

[J]

marigold, Butts Disease is a serious matter, and you shouldn't be making up stories about it.

[BenRG]

The question to ask is whether Jeph always planned this or if it was in response to the Twitter/Tumblr furore that I've been tangentially aware has been going down. Still, sudden bursts of self-awareness are not out-of-character for Marigold.

Of course, this opens the door for a running joke where, whenever Sam meets Dale, she asks him whether his butt has healed up yet (because she's the sort of girl who would do so).

[anahata]

Poor Marigold.

Indeed. She's learning, but she's not quite there yet.

[neurocase]

Hopefully this leads into a mini-arc where Marigold learns that it's actually okay to hang out with teenagers, to quell the chattering, panicked Americans who seem completely baffled by the idea that you can hang with people outside your age bracket and have it not be creepy/a huge deal.

[Shteevie]

Font Change.

[BenRG]

FWIW (and I've noticed that David M Willis's Dumbing of Age seems to have this problem too), I get the impression that some people genuinely can't get their heads around the idea of two characters in fiction being close friends or even just moderately close associates without it being either immediately motivated by sexual attraction or an inevitable precursor to a sexual encounter. I actually find the fans who express this attitude infinitely more creepy than the characters about whom they're speculating. There is such thing as 'friendship', you know! Shipping can be strange!

I'm wondering if tomorrow will be Sam going home to find Marten and Claire in the lounge. It isn't beyond the borders of possibility that Veronica has moved in with Jim and that they have invited Marten and Claire over for a 'family dinner'. Sam will, like any teenager, probably be seriously annoyed by being told that, no, she can't take a rain check. Instead, she must go upstairs, wash her face and hands and put on nice clothing before sitting down with their house-guests for a civilised family meal.

A boring story arc? Not at all. Anyone who has read Oscar Wilde or Noel Coward will know that these 'comedy of manners' scenarios where you have the characters confined together whilst constrained in a very formal and regulated social environment can be one of the funniest you can imagine.


[EDIT]
I just noticed how scrambled the point of this post was and spent a while making it clearer

[badbum61]

Is it just me, or is Marigold Faye's twin in the last panel?

[Undrneath]

Marigold has always looked like Faye, the main difference being her (acne, beauty marks, I don't know what the blemishes are) and now she is being drawn without in that angle.

[Jakk Frost]

I'm glad that this panel went where it did.

It isn't that I think children should only associate with other children, but I do think that adults who associate with children should be aware of the differences there and be careful to observe social boundaries. Marigold was not being aware...

However, I was kind of hoping that Marigold would go with Sam to her house and meet Veronica. That would be interesting.

The problem is, "social boundaries" have gone way out of control, not to mention the insane over-protection of kids.  Sure they need protection, but I swear the next big movie that will cause massive outrage will be a sequel to an old John Travolta movie, but this one will be titled "The Boy NOT in the Plastic Bubble".  Parents will have eye-popping aneurysms and Hollywood will burn!

On another tangent today's comic makes me think of;  That awkward moment you're forced to realize you're actually considered a grown-up.

Me, I'm 16 years old... and I have been 16 years old for the last 26 years.

[War Sparrow]

Hopefully this leads into a mini-arc where Marigold learns that it's actually okay to hang out with teenagers, to quell the chattering, panicked Americans who seem completely baffled by the idea that you can hang with people outside your age bracket and have it not be creepy/a huge deal.

 
I don't think "taking a child's companions into consideration" equates into panic, or a plastic bubble. Nor did anyone on the forum say Marigold was a pervert for having a teenage friend. There was one comment that did more than raise an eyebrow, and the poster did say it hit a sore spot, so let's maybe cut them some slack.

I said it would be peculiar if it wasn't Marigold, because Marigold is at least in her late 20's, and Sam is 14. And I stand by that statement, because I am in my late 20's, and I will sometimes say and do things that are inappropriate to do around a child.  Pretty sure that's what the "social boundaries" comment was referring to, as well.

[Thrillho]

Speaking as someone who works with teenagers... you have to be supremely careful about someone that much older than a teenager hanging out with them.

Basically, a minority makes it more difficult for everyone else. There is a difference between hanging around with your brother and his friends because they like you and you're quite mature and being 14 and hanging out one-on-one with a 27 year old.

There's a reason why there are stringent criminal record checks before such things are allowed to happen on any premises.

[Jakk Frost]

Basically, a minority makes it more difficult for everyone else. There is a difference between hanging around with your brother and his friends because they like you and you're quite mature and being 14 and hanging out one-on-one with a 27 year old.

There shouldn't be a difference, that's the thing.  But American society has made it too hard to reconcile "protecting children" with "innocent until proven guilty".  You can't have both, it's one or the other.

In this day and age, Mr. Miyagi would have been investigated for having "Daniel-san" working up a sweat in his back yard with no shirt on, had his name dragged through the mud in the newspapers, been registered as a sex offender, and deported back to Japan.

[swapna]

Well, she did it again. The 'following Sam who explicitly invited her home'-part wasn't the creepy part.
The creepy part was the manipulative way she got Sam to invite her. May be a pet peeve of mine, but I know a few people like that and they don't ask for anything but look pathetic and sad until you offer it. And then they don't say thank you, because you offered. They, however, almost never offer help themselves. (As observed the first time we meet Marigold. Marten thought he was getting a favour from Momo's friend, Marigold wants to be paid. Dora sees the state she lives in and asks her friend for help, without asking Marigold for payment/anything) And it continues until now. Yes, in-comic only a year or so has passed, but all the others grew a lot in that time.

[themacnut]

Basically, a minority makes it more difficult for everyone else. There is a difference between hanging around with your brother and his friends because they like you and you're quite mature and being 14 and hanging out one-on-one with a 27 year old.

There shouldn't be a difference, that's the thing.  But American society has made it too hard to reconcile "protecting children" with "innocent until proven guilty".  You can't have both, it's one or the other.

In this day and age, Mr. Miyagi would have been investigated for having "Daniel-san" working up a sweat in his back yard with no shirt on, had his name dragged through the mud in the newspapers, been registered as a sex offender, and deported back to Japan.

Yeah, that's another thing. A woman is more likely to be cut some slack about that kind of thing. A man though? Forget it, especially if he's hanging out with an unrelated teenage girl! He must be up to no good, and since everyone knows pedophiles are males  . Yeah, that's why it is generally quite unwise for a grown man in the US to hang around children he's not related to, unless it's part of his job and even then he'd better take precautions against false accusations and conclusion-jumping, either of which could ruin him.

Marigold is quite right to be concerned, a rare bit of actual self-awareness from her. And she should count her lucky stars she's not a dude.

[Y]

The creepy part was the manipulative way she got Sam to invite her. May be a pet peeve of mine, but I know a few people like that and they don't ask for anything but look pathetic and sad until you offer it.

I wouldn't know, perhaps she is used to be left out the fun activities. At least she's actively socializing now. Perhaps I'm just an enabler, I do give people several chances as (almost) always see the good in people.

As for hanging out with younger people, or doing 'kids' stuff. I remember thinking back when I was a teen that I should act my age, no longer watching cartoons and stuff, but then I thought screw that, I should do what I like doing and not live a certain way to appear grown up. What's next, no more gaming? After all as a kid you can't wait to grow up, as grown-up however you'd wish to be a kid again. Also I found out in high school/college that the girls actually like the kids channel, though this may be some kind of maternal instinct.

But I remember having the uneasy realization Marigold was having, when I was trying out WoW for a couple months when it first came out. I was doing some quests with someone, which turned out to be a 9yo girl(or so she claimed). And that was just virtually following someone, which felt a bit creepy, though the dilemma was that if I didn't know that fact, it wouldn't have been a problem. So I suppose it society which makes us think it's either creepy or letting you're realize you're playing a 'kids' game, which by extension might turn it into virtual babysitting, which might feel too much like it being a job. But once you get over that it becomes less of deal, after all I shouldn't discriminate based on age, right?

[neurocase]

Hopefully this leads into a mini-arc where Marigold learns that it's actually okay to hang out with teenagers, to quell the chattering, panicked Americans who seem completely baffled by the idea that you can hang with people outside your age bracket and have it not be creepy/a huge deal.

 
I don't think "taking a child's companions into consideration" equates into panic, or a plastic bubble. Nor did anyone on the forum say Marigold was a pervert for having a teenage friend. There was one comment that did more than raise an eyebrow, and the poster did say it hit a sore spot, so let's maybe cut them some slack.

I said it would be peculiar if it wasn't Marigold, because Marigold is at least in her late 20's, and Sam is 14. And I stand by that statement, because I am in my late 20's, and I will sometimes say and do things that are inappropriate to do around a child.  Pretty sure that's what the "social boundaries" comment was referring to, as well.

Actually, my statement wasn't really referring to the forum itself; moreso the reactions on Twitter and tumblr, which had far more panicky, knee-jerk outcries. I might have made that a little more clear.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

So what is Sam going to take away from this?

[War Sparrow]

Hopefully this leads into a mini-arc where Marigold learns that it's actually okay to hang out with teenagers, to quell the chattering, panicked Americans who seem completely baffled by the idea that you can hang with people outside your age bracket and have it not be creepy/a huge deal.

 
I don't think "taking a child's companions into consideration" equates into panic, or a plastic bubble. Nor did anyone on the forum say Marigold was a pervert for having a teenage friend. There was one comment that did more than raise an eyebrow, and the poster did say it hit a sore spot, so let's maybe cut them some slack.

I said it would be peculiar if it wasn't Marigold, because Marigold is at least in her late 20's, and Sam is 14. And I stand by that statement, because I am in my late 20's, and I will sometimes say and do things that are inappropriate to do around a child.  Pretty sure that's what the "social boundaries" comment was referring to, as well.

Actually, my statement wasn't really referring to the forum itself; moreso the reactions on Twitter and tumblr, which had far more panicky, knee-jerk outcries. I might have made that a little more clear.

Oh. In that case, I apologize. I haven't seen anything on those platforms, so I wasn't aware there was anything more than vague discomfort.
I don't know if it's strictly an American thing, though..but then, I've never met an American parent.

Sam will take away the fact that butts disease is a real issue with some people, and because she is being raised right, she will inquire about Dale's health the next time she visits Momo.

I actually think this arc will show some Marigold improvement. She considered how not to hurt Sam's feelings while extricating herself from a situation she was uncomfortable with, and apologized to Dale for saying something impolite about him.

[CaptainFish]

So what is Sam going to take away from this?

Butts can explode.

[improvnerd]

That's certainly the theme of Friday's comic.

[Penquin47]

What a waste of perfectly good brownie batter.

[neurocase]

Just...just....ew.