Quote Originally Posted by Mechalich View Post

Step Three: Claire is 'teh bestest' and will more or less immediately succeed at any challenge placed in front of her regardless of how unreasonable that might be. While this serves as useful wish-fulfillment that apparently appeals to someone in Jeph's audience, cutting through problems via the sword of personal awesomeness is also antithetical to drama. As such, nothing dramatic can be anchored to the Claire half of the plot. This is absolutely a self-inflicted wound, but the pattern is fairly clear by now.
Where the heck is this coming from? When has Claire previously been depicted as “more or less immediately” defeating all problems that come her way? She spent out-of-comic years plodding away at an academic degree that nearly destroyed her with anxiety and stress, only to then spend an extended arc trying and failing to find work (while her hilariously unqualified boyfriend continued to coast through a job she would’ve loved to have as a jumping-off point for her career).

As fast as I’m aware, the Cubetown job falling in her lap is the only outright lucky break she’s gotten, and even that is still threatening to break her brain due to nonsense poisoning.