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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    I was checking here for an explanation about the most recent strips and realized that Misfile didn't have its own thread for years here (also its own forums seem to be defunct).
    So I collected all precursor threads I could find - so you can see how people assessed the comic before.

    2012 Thread
    2011 Thread
    2010 Thread
    2007/08 Thread
    2007 Thread

    In my opinion, nothing has changed since 2010/12: The artwork is solid but without lots of improvement since the first ~100 strips I guess. The plot trundles along like back then. Nothing ever gets resolved and nothing major has changed, although the characters have grown up a bit. Up to two years seem to have passed in-comic. Symptomatic: Ash just got a new haircut and within ~10-15 comics, she looks exactly the same as before that episode.

    I've been reading Misfile for eight or nine years now, but just checking the updates, so I probably forgot lots from the old arcs. I won't stop reading it since the story genuinely interests me... As I write this I was shortly contemplating to do an archive dive and try and identify the last "arcs", but the comic is so massive that it's too much work.

    Okay:
    First some basic points I'd like to know: Are there still people who read Misfile, and how do you feel about the comic? Are there favorite moments?

    Second question, more in detail: In the most recent strips (from here on onward), Ash contemplates about his "new" relationship with Doctor Dad. Are those allusions that he confessed to him about being a boy? If so, when did THAT happen? Or is it just his regular emotional turmoil...?

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    5a Violista's Avatar

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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    I used to read it way back when, but I stopped because it started feeling like it wasn't going anywhere and I had other things to do. I really enjoyed the car races, they were really fun. Whenever there was a car race scene, I loved it. So intense! Also, Kate and Missi are my favorite characters and I always enjoyed it when they showed up.

    Looking at the linked strip and the ones around it, this is the impression I've got:
    Ash is, once again, thinking "Hey, it's so weird being suddenly a girl but everybody remembers me always being a girl" except this time, the thought process goes a step farther. "I'm not the same person as the girl they remember. The girl they remember no longer exists; I wonder if they miss her." As far as I can tell, there was no confession that Ash used to be a boy, it's just the same-usual.

    That's the impression I get of this latest scene. So, basically the same thing that was happening the last time I read it.

    Every so often I come to the comic and think "Hey, I should catch up and read all the chapters that I've missed" but then I decide against it.
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  3. - Top - End - #3
    Titan in the Playground
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    I used to read it back in college. I didn't even know it was still going. Is the other webcomic the person does still going too? Something college dorm life. I dropped it because it was getting boring and angsty for no real reason. I'm not surprised to hear that hasn't changed.

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    Ash father is a doctor, so when Ash says "goes doctor dad" I think he means that he speaks like a doctor (checking his breats). But that is only my guess, I don't think the comic is 100% clear on it, it's just what seems most reasonable to me.

    About the comic
    good things:
    I like the writing of some of the story arcs.
    The comic updates a lot.
    There has been some development in the romantic / bad->good department, thinking about the main characters relationship that has been firmly established and Kate who even got a baby, though I think the second thing happened within the first 4 years of the comic and the other within the first 8 years.
    not so good:
    The plot goes extremely slow, you'd think ~5 pages a week would be fast, but many pages take place on the same day / evening, and so far the period of Ash' life hasn't changed (in high school, though I think it might be the final year), hence it doesn't seem like anything changes.
    There are an extreme amount of comics that goes around in circles, the comic has been going for 12 years and has produced some ~3000 strips by now. I remember getting into it in 2008, reading through 1000 comics from 2004, that was exhausting, sticking with the comic for 4-6 years after that before I finally stopped re-reading the same plot in new shoes again and again.

    What bothers me mostly isn't that the comic doesn't develop from the perspective of Ash & co. because as I see it there's not a whole lot they can do, what bothers me is that rumisiel isn't doing anything as far as I can tell.. at least the comic should change its environment once Ash graduates, but it's kind of bothersome that rumisiel doesn't try to solve his error. His brother also seem to have disappeared, I think last time I read it he met another angel, and more I don't remember.

  5. - Top - End - #5
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    Draconi Redfir's Avatar

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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    another former reader here. not sure why i stopped, just kinda did.

    Geeze, two years have passed in-comic and the misfile the comic is named for hasn't been fixed yet? that's some next level procrastonation there. what exactly is preventing it again? from what i can recall it's just a few pages of paper stuck under a shelf somewhere.

    Not sure if i'd even be able to pick it up again now that i think about it. back when i did read it was was a huge anime fan, and if i recall correctly the comic takes a lot of artistic insperation from traditional manga. the anime phase of my life has since passed now, very few anime still entertain me theise days.
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  6. - Top - End - #6
    Pixie in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    I don't think Ash has confessed his / her situation to anyone, other than Rumisiel and Emily.

    I don't know what pronoun to use for Ash. I suppose the rule is to respect a person's own choice... but Ash has not come out as transgender.

    I don't know whether the comic is male to female wish fulfillment, or a female to male story, or just about coming to terms with puberty in general. There are hints that Ash will eventually accept the change and become fully female, the recent dream being one. But after so many pages and years of updates, and hints of angelic wars, I'm hoping for something more heroic.

    Now I'll go back and read the previous threads and see what they thought.

  7. - Top - End - #7
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    Draconi Redfir's Avatar

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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tutorix View Post
    but Ash has not come out as transgender.
    Why would he? Not exactly like he had a choice in the matter, from what little we're aware of he was perfectly happy as a guy before everything screwed up.
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  8. - Top - End - #8
    Pixie in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    Quote Originally Posted by Draconi Redfir View Post
    Why would he? Not exactly like he had a choice in the matter, from what little we're aware of he was perfectly happy as a guy before everything screwed up.
    Right. Ash could tell people he is really a guy and get on the hormones and whatever else female-to-male transgenders do. Not his preferred solution, but better than nothing, right?

    Which is what Rumisiel is offering, nothing.

    I don't see this happening, though. Ash does not want to rock the boat for some reason.

  9. - Top - End - #9
    Pixie in the Playground
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    I discovered Misfile a year or two back and I read the archive to that point a couple of times. I think 10 years of pages (2005-2015) represented 1 year of webcomic time.

    The last thing I remember reading was that something that was four separate creatures that were really one (cherubim, I think) had turned up and were lurking about while Ash was planning some sort of drive into or out of a dangerous gravel pit.

    It had a real feel of the whole "When are we getting to the fireworks factory?" from The Simpsons as from what I remember, there was more and more talk about the gravel pit but never getting there. Well, at least at the point when I eventually stopped reading it. I wasn't a conscious decision to stop, I just found myself going back less and less often until I realized I hadn't looked in a while and didn't feel the need to anymore. I think the last think I remember was Ash asking Rumisiel to be on hand to save him as an agent of absolute last resort if his car went off the road in the pit or something like that.

    I guess despite updating 5 times a week and even some Saturdays, it really was starting to drag too much at the point I stopped looking at it.

  10. - Top - End - #10
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tutorix View Post
    Right. Ash could tell people he is really a guy and get on the hormones and whatever else female-to-male transgenders do. Not his preferred solution, but better than nothing, right?

    Which is what Rumisiel is offering, nothing.

    I don't see this happening, though. Ash does not want to rock the boat for some reason.
    This was addressed very early on, actually - consider what would happen if Ash goes that route, and then somebody discovers and fixes the misfile...

  11. - Top - End - #11
    Pixie in the Playground
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    I don't think this is what's happening here but I did once see something else where at the start, it did seem that the main character was magically turned into a girl and apart from his best friend who was there at the time, everyone else's memories and all the physical evidence made it look like he'd always been a girl; only he and his best friend knew the truth.

    Turns out in the end she'd always been a girl and the magic had been to make her and her best friend think she'd really been a boy until their memories and their physical reality had been altered. Well, it would definitely be a lot easier to alter the memories of two people than to have to alter the memories of every single person who'd met the main character and all the physical evidence, that's for sure.

  12. - Top - End - #12
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    Man, this comic.
    This comic drags more than one of Ash's cars.

    I haven't read it in a while, because of the issues everyone says; it feel's like nothing is happening. I get that this is more of a character story than a plot one -and yeah, I found Ash and Emily decent as characters- but it felt like there was lots and lits of set-up for pay offs that just weren't happening. It was annoying.

    I find myself torn on it genrewise, too. I like the characters stuff, and everything to do with the trans themes; it's a subject that fascinates me, for numerous reasons. The car races feel like they come from an entirely different series, but that isn't, necessarilly, a bad thing. It helps the idea that Ash isn't defined by his gender.

    (I don't like the car races, but that's a seperate issue. I like what they mean.)

    ...but this looming angel war? That bothers ne. The comic doesn't feel like it's built for that kind of swap in genre, from slice of life to epic shonen. As a comparision, El Goonish Shive has struggled to merge those two for years, and I'd say EGS is a far better comic than Misfile is.

    So... I dunno. I find myself conflicted on the topic of Misfile. Maybe I should give it another read sometime.
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  13. - Top - End - #13
    Pixie in the Playground
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    Well, to be fair, the story has periodically (if unevenly) cutting back to the angels from the beginning but it's an equally fair point to ask how well the two major storylines (with Ash's by far the most major in terms of 'screentime') mesh.

  14. - Top - End - #14
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    Quote Originally Posted by 2Comic2Furious View Post
    Turns out in the end she'd always been a girl and the magic had been to make her and her best friend think she'd really been a boy until their memories and their physical reality had been altered. Well, it would definitely be a lot easier to alter the memories of two people than to have to alter the memories of every single person who'd met the main character and all the physical evidence, that's for sure.
    Yes. That's been my thought for the last few years.

    But if that is ever revealed, it's likely to be the end of the comic.

    The angel war... yes, it has been mentioned in pages, but it was so much mysterybabble that I didn't care at all. I have not the slightest idea what drives the angels. Rumisiel aside, he's a protagonist and like Emily and Ash a ball for the angels to toss around.

    Anyway, thanks for the many replies, even if they came from people who don't follow that comic anymore. I can wholeheartedly understand that stance.

  15. - Top - End - #15
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Flumph

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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    I started reading it probably about 5 years ago or so, liked parts of it, and felt that if he did a small release of manga chapters instead of page - a - weekday, things would go a lot more smoothly from an updating point of view. I drifted off it because it was moving too slowly for me to really care, with not enough interesting things to stick around for. And since the updates are not self contained strips (like Order of the Stick for a high quality example, or Questionable Content for a more low quality example) it stretched the example.

    And by self contained, I mean that it sets up and executes either jokes or more serious moments that tie the page together, as well as the overall story.

  16. - Top - End - #16
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    A cultural landmark of illegal street racing... Yeah, not feeling all that sympathetic about the probable land development here...
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  17. - Top - End - #17
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    Quote Originally Posted by Felius View Post
    A cultural landmark of illegal street racing... Yeah, not feeling all that sympathetic about the probable land development here...
    Oh I can understand that Ash may have different priorities than - for example - me. I'm caring and worrying about silly adult things, while Ash's caring and worrying about silly teen things that matter to her. She's (in her peer group) the QUEEN of the hill that gets to be developed. As such she gets my full sympathy.
    Also, her racing hill is one of the few connection points to her lost manhood. Yes I agree, she needs to grow up. (And be... an adult woman? If that perspective works just fine for me and you it's because we're uncaring readers, not her.)

    -------
    What I never got is that Rumisiel has been sitting in Ash's house for more than one year, and Mr. Upton (Daddy) has never said ANYthing about it. Rumisiel appears one day, plays boyfriend to his daughter, lives in his house for free, eats from his fridge, nobody knows anything about his background except for that "uh he's from Kanada"...?

    And Daddy never called it (or at least, I don't remember it. Was there was a "hey you guy we need to talk stuff" once? How did it play out? If there ever was talk about this, nothing has changed, so it might as well never have happened. The sitcom goes on and on and on...)
    Raise of hands please: if some weirdo of unknown origins crashes in your house and (supposedly) bangs your underage daughter, how long would anyone stay passive? A day, a week, a month, a year? When there's no laughter, no flirting, no affection at all? Bah, that isn't lax parenting anymore, that borders on criminal negligence.
    As he's intelligent, I have already thought that maybe he figured out the obvious. Like Missi: That the weirdo is NOT banging his daughter but instead acting as "the beard" of his homosexual child? Wellllll.... in that case, there is an unbidden lazy dirtbag lodging in his house for simply no sane reason at all.

    I also thought about the argument that Rumisiel is warping Daddy's mind/perception, so that Daddy thinks everything is on the up and up... But that yedi master trick makes even less sense. If angels routinely warp people's minds (outside of their File Storage Archive Heaven), then the entire story makes even less sense...
    Unless Rumisiel is actually the devil who actually first warped Ash's mind, so that she thinks she was a boy once and Rumi is there to help her, then he warped Daddy's mind so everything is okay to him, and then Rumi was free to room with Ash... who is constantly tormenting and belittling him... Wait...

  18. - Top - End - #18
    Pixie in the Playground
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    Quote Originally Posted by Onyavar View Post
    Yes. That's been my thought for the last few years.

    But if that is ever revealed, it's likely to be the end of the comic.

    The angel war... yes, it has been mentioned in pages, but it was so much mysterybabble that I didn't care at all. I have not the slightest idea what drives the angels. Rumisiel aside, he's a protagonist and like Emily and Ash a ball for the angels to toss around.

    Anyway, thanks for the many replies, even if they came from people who don't follow that comic anymore. I can wholeheartedly understand that stance.
    Well, I'm thinking of going back and catching up on the year plus worth of pages I haven't read but for a webcomic that updates so often (5/week plus bonus pages some Saturdays, I think), it strangely seems to drag at the same time. Like I've said before and elsewhere, the whole race out of the gravel pit had such a "When do we get to the fireworks factory?" feel to it which is what made me check out before they got there.

    I'm assuming since September 2015 that they did at some point get there before now, right?

  19. - Top - End - #19
    Pixie in the Playground
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    Well, I just caught up with the year plus worth of pages since I stopped reading in late 2015. There was a character who'd turned up at that time who was quite different to the others, being potentially both sinister and whose motives were quite mysterious - also in some way related to the mysterious goings on in Heaven. This did shake things up for a bit and actually did make me more interested in the celestial angle for once.

    However, they just as abruptly disappeared as they appeared and the plot seems to be back to the status quo of the more routine. A one-off job in order to pay for a car part. Sorting about a more practical wardrobe. Other stuff I'm already having a lot of trouble remembering. Currently trying to convince developers to move their project to another site away from one of their favored racing spots.

    Take away the mystical element (which as it is, is pushed somewhat in the background already), you really could call this a slice-of-life comic in a way. I guess it's alright ... but it could have been so much better you know? Tighter and more focused for starters? The nominally overarching plot (what I think is a power struggle in Heaven, or at least over it) is moving forward but it still seems quite incremental at best.

    Also, one thing I've noticed for a while, especially between Ash and Emily, is there are times that are all too frequent that no-one talks like that, let alone teenagers.

  20. - Top - End - #20
    Pixie in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    I found out about it and binged through it like...5 years ago? Somewhere around there. Anyway, spent days just like, moving from page to page, eventually got to the most recent page at the time, and I was just kind of...done with it. Didn't feel hooked to come back and keep checking for the new stuff. I'd seen the cycles play out. New character shows up. What are these feelings I have. Driving scene. New character fades into background. Reset.
    Same old same old.
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  21. - Top - End - #21
    Pixie in the Playground
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    Well, this is where I was when I paused reading again.

    http://www.misfile.com/?date=2017-05-19

    Since then, there was a Kickstarter for an art book. I posed a question for the video they hosted for Chris Hazelton to answer questions which was about the sequel he mentioned. I think what's going to happen is he's going to conclude Ash's story in the (relatively?) near future and the sequel is with new characters and a scenario with the potential for some of the cast from Misfile to drop in but they'll in effect be supporting characters, I guess. The primary focus won't be them is my current interpretation of things.

    One general observation that generally occurred to me is that I don't recall any of the (mortal) characters in the know have stepped back and reflected on the big picture beyond their day-to-day problems, which is that God and the afterlife are *real* in the setting of this universe. You'd think it would have crossed someone's mind and especially the implications for them in the long run given they're not going to live forever. What happens next would rate a mention or thought at least, you would think.

  22. - Top - End - #22
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    Quote Originally Posted by 2Comic2Furious View Post
    I posed a question for the video they hosted for Chris Hazelton to answer questions which was about the sequel he mentioned. I think what's going to happen is he's going to conclude Ash's story in the (relatively?) near future and the sequel is with new characters and a scenario with the potential for some of the cast from Misfile to drop in but they'll in effect be supporting characters, I guess. The primary focus won't be them is my current interpretation of things.

    One general observation that generally occurred to me is that I don't recall any of the (mortal) characters in the know have stepped back and reflected on the big picture beyond their day-to-day problems, which is that God and the afterlife are *real* in the setting of this universe. You'd think it would have crossed someone's mind and especially the implications for them in the long run given they're not going to live forever. What happens next would rate a mention or thought at least, you would think.
    On the first topic: Ending the current storyline? How, and why now? So far, everything on God, the Angels and Heaven is an unsolved mystery. Nothing makes sense there - why is heaven locked down, why are which Angels currently where (especially Muriel who camps in the wilderness for no apparent reason). Of course, they could suddenly jump into mystery-solving action and find a solution in probably less than two years.

    Or, my pet theory is true: By playing with their files, Rumisiel only changed their memories, not reality itself. They come to accept their lifes, and finito.

    The other topic had me also stunned, several times so far. Of course, they have teenager-esque revelations about their lifes, but they never questioned the big topic of cosmology. To me it seems that they just accepted whatever tiny slices of cosmology Rumisiel and Vashiel explained to them and never tried to piece together the big picture. Which again, has left me rather frustrated with this comic. I stopped reading a few months ago, I assume I can return next year or whenever.

  23. - Top - End - #23
    Pixie in the Playground
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    Default Re: Misfile VI - Same old same old.

    The ending of Misfile is relative here, he didn't put a timeframe on it, it could be years off. Basically, all he's confirmed is that it's ending "someday".

    I couldn't comment on anything beyond May the 19th, 2017. I'll probably catch up next year or later.

    "Or, my pet theory is true: By playing with their files, Rumisiel only changed their memories, not reality itself. They come to accept their lifes, and finito."

    I've seen a Japanese anime based on a manga do this before Misfile even started. It certainly would be less work. However, I believe this has been specifically ruled out.

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