Questionable Content 12: Artificial Unintelligence

[Mith]

Honestly, I think it would've been better to stick with that for a while and show Hanners and Winslow on their road trip.

Honestly, next comic would be the perfect time to just jump cut to the Hanners and Winslow road trip. It likely won't happen, but it would be great.

I also picture Gordan with them, but that's because Gordan is the best. I would definitely take Gordan on a road trip. He could perch on my head to get better visibility and be closer to my ears (I am hearing impaired). He's probably a bit heavy, but not too bad.

[Max_Killjoy]

I have a sneaking suspicion that the Hanners and Winslow trip is the subject of Jeph's next side project.

[Ibrinar]

Yeah this is cute... but... But. It's also evolving into one of those annoying couples where the creator keeps teasing the audience to the point where they might stop caring. I get it, the situation is not as simple as your standard couple in a TV show but still...

Also... I know this is secondary but... I really start to wonder how this would work in the bedroom.

Bah y'all lack resistance! In the days where I read even ****ty stuff I made my way through manga where the relationship was the focus but relationship progress was anathema because progressing means getting closer to the end making it harder to stall forever so the MC was dense as stone and nothing changed forever and ever.

Which isn't entirely an "in my days everything was 100 times harder" joke, this hasn't registered to me as slow at all so I was surprised that people are getting impatient.

[Vinyadan]

My problem with this non-relationship is that I am not invested in seeing how it goes, although I found the pre-squidbot Bubbles very interesting.

I think it's because it's being shown to us through Faye. Which is a huge mistake, because Faye isn't in love. Bubbles is in love. But this doesn't get any room to develop autonomously. We only see her fluster once in a while, but always as Faye's stooge. The main point of the scenes is "lol Faye's dumb/oblivious".

Love isn't just flustering when the person you love inadvertently touches you. The point of undeclared/unrequited love is that the lover is living her experience without the participation of the loved one. This impacts talking, thinking, doing things, when the loved one isn't there. I honestly haven't seen any of this. Because the point isn't that Bubbles loves Faye, it's that Faye doesn't get it, hur hur. There's only the strip with Clinton thinking they're banging (where input comes from Clinton), and Corsetto's guest strip (the only representation of Bubble's thoughts). And her rather unrelated talk with Marten and his relationship with Faye (which says something about Bubbles in general, but very little about her feelings). Maybe this love story should have had more focus, like, more consequent strips dealing with it, or given a confidant to Bubbles. Actually, it would have been a nice chance for character development for Pintsize.

But, right now, I am not really interested. And the ugly thing is that it's the only thing left of Bubbles as a character. If it blows, then maybe Bubbles will be allowed to develop in a different direction.

See, this is where single Marten was useful: he went out with people, made others meet, attracted new characters for which he could actually provide a place in the story... So there were a lot of development options, and it didn't feel like the story was splintered.

[Keltest]

I think the big thing here is jeph has written himself into a corner. Bubbles is unwilling to approach Faye directly and break the status quo. Faye is either not reciprocating the feelings or oblivious enough that she is not going to act on them. Anybody else who move in is now interfering where they have no business being. Theres no good way to move forward here. At this point, we need to move on to something else for a while.

[AuthorGirl]

Honestly, next comic would be the perfect time to just jump cut to the Hanners and Winslow road trip. It likely won't happen, but it would be great.

It would be great. I was kind of hoping for that to happen after GOD DAMN IT SIS WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE (#3650) for two reasons:

One, the Hanners arc would have continued instead of being a quick sketch of Tilly failing to respect boundaries.

Two, that would just have been a perfect moment for a jump cut.

I also picture Gordan with them, but that's because Gordan is the best. I would definitely take Gordan on a road trip. He could perch on my head to get better visibility and be closer to my ears (I am hearing impaired). He's probably a bit heavy, but not too bad.

Sorry, who?

[Traab]

The problem right now is one I've mentioned before:

There's nothing new to learn about these characters.

Everyone in the strip is happy and in a settled relationship. Everyone has worked through most of their issues. There's no story left to tell, no drama to raise. QC has been fun in the past because there's a number of stories on a slow burn, rotating through a large cast of characters to keep things fresh.

That can't happen anymore unless Jeph takes a hatchet to the happy endings the cast have received. The other option is to introduce a whole raft of new characters.

I've been steadily coming to the opinion that the current incarnation of QC needs to end, just so we can get a fresh start.

I agree with all of this, it sucks because at this point I dont think its possible for jeph to really add more drama to the settled cast without it feeling forced. Like turning the comic into an actual soap opera where we learn marten has been replaced by pintsize in a marten anthro body and his mind was downloaded into winslows old body. Other than that, yeah, the show is mostly over. I mean, I suppose marten and claire could talk marriage as a way to move their story along and also introduce conflict over all sorts of potential issues. That might work. *EDIT* Oh and Authorgirl, thats the spider bot

[Keltest]

Oh yeah, there are like, other people in this comic.

[Vinyadan]

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3409 quietly reading.

[AuthorGirl]

Well, we didn't get a jump cut to Hanners and Winslow, but we did get Claire, so . . . things are looking up

[dps]

Faye is either not reciprocating the feelings or oblivious enough that she is not going to act on them.

Or both, likely. IMO.

[Beelzebub1111]

Welcome to Faye is Oblivious and Bubbles is flustered part five million. Are you sick of this joke yet? because the author sure isn't!

My reaction in spades.

[Mith]

Welcome to Faye is Oblivious and Bubbles is flustered part five million. Are you sick of this joke yet? because the author sure isn't!

My reaction in spades.

Indeed. If only we got to see Bubbles get Faye even a little bit flustered, this might be slightly more amusing. At this point, I am hoping Jeph actually planning on resolving this arc. And then after this, perhaps we still get some interactions with Bubbles that is more than just flustered.

I like Bubbles. I just want to see her character move past this arc in a hopefully happy way.

[eee]

Bubble abuse, one of the great problems of our time.

[Vinyadan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYV-qYeWPkk

[tomandtish]

I also picture Gordan with them, but that's because Gordan is the best. I would definitely take Gordan on a road trip. He could perch on my head to get better visibility and be closer to my ears (I am hearing impaired). He's probably a bit heavy, but not too bad.

Sorry, who?

Gordon is the spider-like AI that put Pintsize and Marten together.

[AuthorGirl]

Gordon is the spider-like AI that put Pintsize and Marten together.

Awww. So cuddly.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Delayed Onset Epiphany Disorder.

Let's hope this doesn't take another 6 months.

[Cikomyr]

This is trolling at this point.

I move we slam Jeff with an infraction.

[Mith]

What I wish happened there is a call back to Faye's reaction to Bubbles calling her beautiful, and her reacting to the words instead of just brushing it off.

[eee]

And Faye goes down for the third time in De Nile...

This is trolling at this point.

I move we slam Jeff with an infraction.

I would be in favor.

[Morquard]

If this now moves somewhere, then ok. If it's another "Naw she dismisses it and keeps being oblivious, because now that she has seen the signs and thought about it, she's totally going to miss the next signs again. That's how it works, am I right?" it's gonna get boring real quick (well kinda is at that point already, lets say annoying)

[mythmonster2]

You know, I totally forgot Dale was even working at Coffee of Doom. I can't even remember ever seeing him there as an employee.

[Yana]

Frankly, I'm kinda amazed that Jeph remembers that he has other characters that he can use aside from throwing disposables at us.

[eee]

That's very... anime. Wow.

Dale's got his glasses turned off.

But even with Dale and Emily in agreement, I suspect we're going to get somebody new. Or old, back again.

Shouldn't Penelope be the one handling staffing duties, though?

[masterjoda99]

Assuming Jeph remembers Penelope exists.

[eee]

You know, I totally forgot Dale was even working at Coffee of Doom. I can't even remember ever seeing him there as an employee.

When Faye was training him on coffee roasting, he made the mistake of putting on a motorcycle / space helmet that was down in the basement and scaring her. Faye insisted he wear the helmet the rest of the day, even though there was an earwig the size of his thumb inside.

[Comrade]

That's very... anime. Wow.

The comic has gotten way, way more anime-ised the past couple of years.

Also, I didn't actually recognise Emily. Had to check the post-script before I realised who it was.

[Gnoman]

That's funny. I recognized Emily immediately, but it took a while to recognize Dora.

[Morquard]

That's funny. I recognized Emily immediately, but it took a while to recognize Dora.

Same here.