Strong Female Protagonist II

[Vinyadan]

So, what are biscotti in America?

[Traab]

So, what are biscotti in America?

Terrible..

[Vinyadan]

Uh, I looked it up. So it means cantucci in America? If you eat them with tea like Brad is doing, they are bound to taste horribly even if they are good, since they are meant to be taken with the sweet, dense, strong dessert wine variety known as vin santo.

[137beth]

New comic is up.

Allison is still more articulate and clear than I am after a long day:P
I'm always sad when a marginalized community fractures itself further, but it's a common thing. I like the way it is being paralleled in the comic.

[Traab]

I think I get what she is saying. There are a lot of people here that arent boiling kettles of rage, who want to help others, sort of like brad himself, so she was hoping they would want to help others through her network, organization, whatever. Is it a paying job? If so its possible that could help even more. I mean the running theme of a lot of the bitter types is how tough it is to live a life looking like they do, so I would also assume getting a decent job isnt exactly easy either. So in a way she would be helping them while they help others.

[thorgrim29]

I think she might be showing a bit of magical thinking here. Oh those people are here to get help, so their problems are over, next issue!. Girl really doesn't deal well with complex and long term solutions or complexity in general.

[Ronnoc]

Allison is chronically short sighted but I don't think this is an example.

Allison's right in that there are people here who want to do more, the conversation moderators or Amanda for example. Couple that with the fact that Valkerie is going to need things like counselors far mor than it needs "Heroes" and that one of the best ways to get into a better mental state is to help other people.

In this particular instance I'd have to say that Allison has a clearer view of things than Brad who I suspect is letting his own experience as a child soldier color his expectations of what sort of help Allison is looking for.

[thorgrim29]

Yeah... her thing would help the people whose major problem is finding a place where they are accepted and feel useful but don't have a ton of issues beyond that (Amanda for example looks like a candidate). But many more of them are not nearly well adjusted enough to help themselves let alone anyone else, and Brad knows Allison enough to realize she would pressure them to help. Pressure them with kindness and support sure, but Allison at her worst is a bully and that would be a recipe for disaster with a lot of the people at the... thing (conference??) no matter how good her intentions are.

[Lethologica]

Alison had a cool idea because of an individual interaction that worked out; Brad is correctly pointing out that it wouldn't work at an organizational level, because Brad's organization doesn't interact in that way with the people they serve. Even if some people who go to the doctor would benefit from volunteering with Doctors Without Borders, and might be really helpful to DWB, and might even like to volunteer with DWB in theory, they don't go to the doctor to be recruited for DWB, and it's inappropriate to disrupt the patient experience in that way. I chalk this up to inexperience more than any kind of inherent character flaw.

[Maryring]

I really enjoyed the last comic. It's a wonderful moment of levity after all the heavy stuff with Brad, and it doesn't feel like a waste of time like Max. Too bad it won't seem to last, but it was a nice touch to have the red-faced iron woman reappear in a more relaxed setting.

[Kantaki]

I really enjoyed the last comic. It's a wonderful moment of levity after all the heavy stuff with Brad, and it doesn't feel like a waste of time like Max. Too bad it won't seem to last, but it was a nice touch to have the red-faced iron woman reappear in a more relaxed setting.

A shame the peace won't last, judging by the last panel.
Would have been nice to see those characters in a less... serious atmosphere. Well, maybe some of them will show up again.
Whatever is happening, I hope Alison’s inevitable interference doesn't make it worse

[Maryring]

Don't interfere Al. Don't say your piece of mind! Don't try to save anyone!

...

She's gonna go in and make a bad situation worse, ain't she?

[Vinyadan]

In my ignorance, I am somewhat terrified by the concept of absence of men making a place safe for women.

I guess safe doesn't mean what it normally means?

[Maryring]

That's what happens when you forge your groups based upon specific traits. Everyone who happens to have the trait's opposite becomes a dangerous other to be feared and shunned.

I agree. It's a terrifying notion with horrible implications. But these are the struggles of our time and the discussion in the comic is depressingly realistic.

[Kantaki]

Don't interfere Al. Don't say your piece of mind! Don't try to save anyone!

...

She's gonna go in and make a bad situation worse, ain't she?

Of course she will. I'm actually surprised she didn't already.
And the beautiful part is that all she has to do is to get involved at all.

[Traab]

I dont think there is anything anyone can say or do that wouldnt make the situation worse. Honestly, I just think the biggest problem here is too many groups, too many restrictions. Instead of banding together for support, they are breaking themselves up into tinier and tinier portions which will do nothing but make them feel even more alone because in the end there can be only one "you" and noone else can be allowed into "your" group. This is like breaking up a cancer support group into portions based on how you feel about your situation. Those who are depressed go here, those who are angry go there, etc etc etc. And then yelling at someone for trying to join the depressed group because sometimes they also feel angry. Its stupid because, in the end, you all have cancer and need support. And that doesnt mean you have to surround yourself with people who are in a precisely identical situation as you with no deviations or else they could never understand.

A part of me is wondering if this is some "subtle" way the author is trying to point out how out of control specialized groups, safe spaces trigger warnings, all of it, has gotten over the last few years.

[The Glyphstone]

The author has yet to demonstrate 'subtlety' as one of their writing credits, so I doubt it. SFP is a great read, but it is not subtle in the issues it pushes, any more than its main character is.

[Traab]

Hence the air quotes I wrote around it. I was basically asking if this was meant to be a political statement of how they feel about the whole safe space trigger warning mess or if they were just showing how it can be taken to a ludicrous extreme.

[Lethologica]

The latter is much more likely, considering little about the comic to date indicates that the author considers trigger warnings and safe spaces a mess as a whole. That seems much more like an imposition by readers eager to call the whole thing off.

Things can be complicated and contentious and fraught with emotion and potential pitfalls, without being contemptible or terrifying/horrifying/whatever scare word you want to use.

[Traab]

On a semi related note, is anyone else having trouble with their comments vanishing from the board of the comic? I get the message that they have to approve it or whatever, but then it just kinda goes away.

[Lethologica]

When that happens to me, I assume the mods either didn't get to the comment or didn't approve it. I haven't had a comment that was successfully posted disappear, though. Not to my knowledge, anyway.

[Traab]

I dont think I have ever had a comment actually appear. I have more or less given up on writing there at this point.

[Maryring]

Eh. You're not missing out on much. Those comment fields aren't exactly breeding grounds for solid and intellectual discourse.

That said, I made a comment myself there once. The comment then disappeared, but it reappeared about a day or two later. No idea why or how, but it might be that your comment is back now.

And I'll be honest. I'm unsure exactly what the comic is trying to tell here. I have a feeling that it should be anviliciously apparent, but the comic jumps so much around on social issues that the question of what exactly it's trying to convey becomes difficult to answer. This is in some ways a rehash of Tina (gas in a robot girl) from earlier, but with the position ostensibly reversed.

[Vinyadan]

And I'll be honest. I'm unsure exactly what the comic is trying to tell here.

"There's a time to talk. There's a time to listen. And there's a time to spray people with a water hose."

[Maryring]

"There's a time to talk. There's a time to listen. And there's a time to spray people with a water hose."

Wait. I'm confused. I thought that there's always a time to spray people with a water hose.

[Vinyadan]

Is she going to turn to the dark side? She looks like she's going to turn to the dark side.

Did she say anything about sand?

[thorgrim29]

Ok no real link to the latest comics but I just thought of Moonshadow's start of darkness: I don't like men, they're coarse and get everywhere.

[Morquard]

Wow, seems like the situation sort of resolved itself without Alison putting her foot in her mouth...

Is it normal for the guy to shout "THEY SAID YES!"? I'd have assumed he'd be "She said yes" or if it has to be They, then someone else would say that, meaning the couple.

Or is this another situation where we have a gender-ambiguous pairing? Though it doesn't look like it tbh.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Or is this another situation where we have a gender-ambiguous pairing? Though it doesn't look like it tbh.

I interpreted the line as the girl being various people inhabiting that body. Perhaps a symbiote situation. Could even be a body-cloner that forms independent versions of herself with a telepathic link.

[Yuki Akuma]

I just took "they" as a gender neutral third person singular pronoun.