Questionable Content XIX: Give Jeph Just A *Little* Credit, Here

[Mechalich]

"Do they become charming at some point" is perhaps a red flag thing to write about a character

Yes, especially if all interactions between said character and the main cast are voluntary. Claire may have some, minor, professional obligation towards Liz, but that's it, and no one else needs to bother to talk to her at all. There's no story related circumstance obligating these people to interact, which is the same problem in the previous arc with there being no story related circumstance obligating Hanners to help Ayo. The current story is treating Liz as if she's some bizarre child Claire and Marten have suddenly acquired guardianship over, which is problematic on so many levels, not the least of which is that they haven't, you know, done anything of the kind.

[Beelzebub1111]

Bubbles you're not supposed to say that part out loud.

I feel like Jeph keeps her here because of the sunk cost fallacy. Like "I have all the elements of a charming gremlin, why aren't the working? Maybe I need to give it more time?"

like, part of the charm of annoying gremlins is that nobody in-universe nobody really likes them, and they get what's coming to them. They either have a few redeeming qualities and grow to become better people or they have absolutely none and tend to get hoist by their own petard, with all their problems being their own fault and the comedy and enjoyment comes when it blows up in their face. Like, it should be clear to everyone that everything bad that happens to them is their own fault. That's what makes it funny and charming. Sure, they get away with some stuff, but it always comes back to bite them in the end. When outside forces cause her circumstance beyond her control it makes it seem like you are trying to make us feel bad for her situation which takes away the funny when she's just rude to people and people are mean to her, it feels like making an excuse for bad behavior.

It's a very fine line that Jeph is trying to walk, and you just have to accept that some people will fall on one side or another. Liz teeters too far over the Minetta side of the line.

An artist I follow on tumblr has an OC that is a literal gremlin, and the lore behind them is that gremlins are supernaturally lucky and cannot be physically harmed except by their own actions or those of other gremlins. this leads them to be incredibly selfish creatures that cause ruin in their wake. But it's funny and charming because they're also really dumb projections of the worst qualities of people. Part of the charm is the complete lack of any charm whatsoever and you aren't meant to feel bad when bad things happen to them because it's only the result of their own actions.

When Liz gets hurt or has bad things happen to her it's only treated as outside forces imposing negative forces upon her either directly(""Evil"" Hannelore) or indirectly (society abandoned her, her unusual childhood left her unable to deal with social situations or the ability to call a plumber). And since she's a rude little monster these attempts to justify or explain her behavior come across as the transparent attempts at sympathy building that they are.

Sorry if I'm rambling, but I find it fascinating to explore how much of a failure Liz is at creating a gremlin archetype. I could write an essay.

[Traab]

Other type of gremlin, they are super important for some reason so cant be gotten rid of. Take House for example. Dude is an absolute dumpster fire of a human being. Just... just the worst. Even his own friends hate him from time to time. But you cant get rid of him because he is basically THE doctor in his field and putting up with his personality is the price you have to pay for getting the stephen hawking of diagnosticians on your staff. He does at least get a comeuppance every once in awhile, but even then its rare and not often a total loss.

[Beelzebub1111]

Other type of gremlin, they are super important for some reason so cant be gotten rid of. Take House for example. Dude is an absolute dumpster fire of a human being. Just... just the worst. Even his own friends hate him from time to time. But you cant get rid of him because he is basically THE doctor in his field and putting up with his personality is the price you have to pay for getting the stephen hawking of diagnosticians on your staff. He does at least get a comeuppance every once in awhile, but even then its rare and not often a total loss.

But, (In the early seasons) they don't too often make you feel bad for Dr. House when bad things happen to him. The bad things that happen to him are all his fault, the good things that happen to him are because of his actions. The Leg pain wasn't his, but the management of the pain and the problems that arise from it all arise from that are all on him.

[Mordokai]

Sorry if I'm rambling, but I find it fascinating to explore how much of a failure Liz is at creating a gremlin archetype. I could write an essay.

I would honestly read it.

[Mechalich]

Other type of gremlin, they are super important for some reason so cant be gotten rid of. Take House for example. Dude is an absolute dumpster fire of a human being. Just... just the worst. Even his own friends hate him from time to time. But you cant get rid of him because he is basically THE doctor in his field and putting up with his personality is the price you have to pay for getting the stephen hawking of diagnosticians on your staff. He does at least get a comeuppance every once in awhile, but even then its rare and not often a total loss.

House MD is Insufferable Genius, which is a very common trope. The thing about House, and similar insufferable geniuses in medical shows, detective shows, and any show in which 'hacking' plays a prominent role, is that they have skills that are essential to meeting the objectives plots in such stories demand, and if those objective are not met Bad Stuff happens and said bad stuff is always something worse than a few hurt feelings, most often patient death, murderers getting away with it, or in some cases the universe itself coming to an end.

Questionable Content, beyond being a sitcom-y series in which everything is frozen in character stasis such that bad stuff will basically never happen, the comic is 20 years old and basically none of the negative major events that have happened in the real world have occurred in-comic, has also specifically introduced Liz in such away that makes it absolutely clear she's not important to anything, because the world literally forget about her existence for two whole years and nothing happened.

But, (In the early seasons) they don't too often make you feel bad for Dr. House when bad things happen to him. The bad things that happen to him are all his fault, the good things that happen to him are because of his actions. The Leg pain wasn't his, but the management of the pain and the problems that arise from it all arise from that are all on him.

Yeah. The Insufferable Genius is not generally intended to be a sympathetic character, at least when introduced - it is common to have them reveal a tragic backstory later on - and I don't think Liz, who was initially introduced trying to sabotage Claire becoming the Librarian for entirely selfish reasons, was intended to be sympathetic. However, there was the huge problem that Liz went to Cubetown as a child and therefore what happened to her probably qualifies as criminal neglect and consequently acquired a lot of sympathy that a properly adult (and a character drawn like a proper adult as opposed to a twelve year old) would not have received.

In-comic, Claire seems to have realized this. Liz does need help. However, she does not need Claire and Marten's help. Insofar as she needs help becoming a functional adult, she already has parents for that.

[Wraith]

There is some further controversy over on Reddit where they pay much more attention to things like Jeph's BlueSky account. Apparently he's pretty much just trolling the naysayers again, posting things like:

"[a character does something bad] some rando: I can't believe you would condone this behavior. you are a bad person

like hmm a character who I have previously established is kind of a huge ***hole, exhibiting ***hole behavior? sounds like I think everything they do is fine, and good"

Shortly followed by:

"also lol at ANYONE liking Liz unconditionally. she's awful (and I love her)"

On the one hand, he's right. Guy needs to be able to write unpleasant characters as unpleasant without being immediately being labelled as Pro-Unpleasant, otherwise every writer who ever used the concept of 'antagonist' would get cancelled and fired into the sun out of a big cannon.

On the other hand, writing an unpleasant character also needs to establish why they're unpleasant and demonstrate that having consequences, otherwise it's just "a character who does things that some people may dislike but have no repercussions".

You can't just say "btw this character is an ***hole" in the footnotes and leave it at that, especially if other characters don't treat them as an **hole and instead join in on their sexual harassment or adopt them and take them home within 24 hours. They're not an ***hole if they act like an ***hole but no one REACTS to them as if they're an ***hole, that just makes them a Mary Sue or some similar kind of immune-to-common-sense plot device.

Bad Thing happens. No one reacts, or objects, to the Bad Thing more than just eye-rolling or mild irritation. That's not the literal definition of condoning the Bad Thing, but it very much looks like everyone else in your world doesn't think its Bad Thing-enough to do anything about. What else do we call that? Tolerance for ***holes? Dismissal or justification of ***hole behaviour? Call me 'some rando' if you like, but if that isn't Pro-***hole then it certainly sounds Pro-***hole-adjacent.

....***HOLE!

[Beelzebub1111]

Oh, I don't believe for a second that he's condoning the behavior in any way. I think he's not writing her well enough to justify the "and I love her" addendum. She can be a terrible little gremlin that oggles fat boobies and is just an irreverent garbage monster as well as have it work, but you have to commit to it. But then you'd just have Pintsize in any given comic before Claire asserted her dominance.

There is a way to make the comment funny. but it would involve Bubbles be more retaliatory than to rather seem legitimately hurt by the comment. Do you want to do the heartfelt thing and have Bubs walk away from the situation and talk about her feelings or do you want Liz to be piledrived? Because neither happened.

Do we take her seriously or not? Is her trauma a legitimate excuse for her behavior and poor socialization a part of her environment, or is her circumstances and ostracization a result of her own behavior? Do we need to care WHY she's an ***hole? Maybe jeph could explain why HE loves her and what he's seeing, and then convey that in the comic somehow because it isn't there.

[Ionathus]

I feel like Jeph keeps her here because of the sunk cost fallacy. Like "I have all the elements of a charming gremlin, why aren't the working? Maybe I need to give it more time?"

I agree with your assessment about what's not working with Liz, but I also think it's entirely possible Jeph thinks it is working. He obviously thinks her characterization is successful, given all of the "Liz is terrible AND I LOVE HER" captions on comics where she does socially inexcusable things. At the risk of putting words in his mouth, all of his Word Of God statements about her read to me like "you guys just don't appreciate how successful she is as a character" - which is extremely classic Author's Pet mentality in my book.

An artist I follow on tumblr has an OC that is a literal gremlin, and the lore behind them is that gremlins are supernaturally lucky and cannot be physically harmed except by their own actions or those of other gremlins. this leads them to be incredibly selfish creatures that cause ruin in their wake. But it's funny and charming because they're also really dumb projections of the worst qualities of people. Part of the charm is the complete lack of any charm whatsoever and you aren't meant to feel bad when bad things happen to them because it's only the result of their own actions.

Can you link this artist? Or DM me their blog? It sounds like a fun character!

I could write an essay.

I, too, would read this essay.

Other type of gremlin, they are super important for some reason so cant be gotten rid of. Take House for example. Dude is an absolute dumpster fire of a human being. Just... just the worst. Even his own friends hate him from time to time. But you cant get rid of him because he is basically THE doctor in his field and putting up with his personality is the price you have to pay for getting the stephen hawking of diagnosticians on your staff. He does at least get a comeuppance every once in awhile, but even then its rare and not often a total loss.

House MD is Insufferable Genius, which is a very common trope. The thing about House, and similar insufferable geniuses in medical shows, detective shows, and any show in which 'hacking' plays a prominent role, is that they have skills that are essential to meeting the objectives plots in such stories demand, and if those objective are not met Bad Stuff happens and said bad stuff is always something worse than a few hurt feelings, most often patient death, murderers getting away with it, or in some cases the universe itself coming to an end...

You said it better than I could - I agree completely. House is a giant awful jerk but at the end of the day, he saves people's lives constantly. That makes him worth keeping (and, as a bonus, balancing that tradeoff makes him compelling as a character for a lot of audience members).

Liz does need help. However, she does not need Claire and Marten's help.

Excellent point. I don't know why Jeph thinks Marten and Claire having an "adoptive parents/mentors" arc is interesting or well-advised, but it isn't and hasn't been from the start. Liz is just a jerk, just a garden-variety jerk, and I have no idea what endears them to her and makes them see her as worth rehabilitating. And even if she were, they're not remotely equipped for it in temperament or skillset.

Unless "allow the jerk to insult friends and loved ones, then mildly snark at them" is a hot new rehabilitation strategy I haven't heard of.

[Beelzebub1111]

I agree with your assessment about what's not working with Liz, but I also think it's entirely possible Jeph thinks it is working. He obviously thinks her characterization is successful, given all of the "Liz is terrible AND I LOVE HER" captions on comics where she does socially inexcusable things. At the risk of putting words in his mouth, all of his Word Of God statements about her read to me like "you guys just don't appreciate how successful she is as a character" - which is extremely classic Author's Pet mentality in my book.

I'm not going to get too deep into psychoanalyzing Jeph as to how much he realizes what's working or not. He could honestly believe that or it could be denial. I feel like if I could understand WHY he loves her, or give a reason for that it would go a long way to writing her better.

Can you link this artist? Or DM me their blog? It sounds like a fun character!

I'll send a DM since it's occasionally NSFW. nothing too explicit, just a butt here or there.

I, too, would read this essay.

If it bothers me enough I will end up making my first video essay ever about this topic. I wanted it to be about particularly interesting encounter design in old D&D modules but lord help me I've got a bee in my bonnet over this.

Excellent point. I don't know why Jeph thinks Marten and Claire having an "adoptive parents/mentors" arc is interesting or well-advised, but it isn't and hasn't been from the start. Liz is just a jerk, just a garden-variety jerk, and I have no idea what endears them to her and makes them see her as worth rehabilitating. And even if she were, they're not remotely equipped for it in temperament or skillet.

Unless "allow the jerk to insult friends and loved ones, then mildly snark at them" is a hot new rehabilitation strategy I haven't heard of.

Being generous Liz is supposed to be representative of the victims of broken systems that leave people to the wayside and the folly of being a "gifted student" with expectations and pressures.

But you bring up another point of thing that separates Liz from other Gremlin characters. Marten, Claire, Bubbles, and basically everyone can just leave at any point. They are in no way attached to or imposed upon by Liz. They are willingly associating with her for some reason. Usually with this archetype they are either stuck with the Gremlin or the Gremlin imposes upon them at every opportunity and won't leave them alone. From the outset Liz wanted to be left alone, and her entire introduction was a ploy to have people not notice her existence. Martin and Claire are under no obligations to take care of her but do anyway for no discernible reason other than Liz is in the cast now.

[Traab]

I think he just really enjoys making a pita jerk again. I mean, keep in mind that marten and crew tend to be pretty easy going, but they are clearly not pleased with her behavior. Im thinking she will push too far or be a gremlin too often and they will snap and it will be the drama of the week or two.

[Cikomyr2]

I just find silly that they know explicity well that Liz is a maladjusted individual who never learned to behave and interact with peers due to a sheltered/fast-tracked education.

And they they just drop her with people in a social situation and.. expect her to act adjusted?

She'll take years of adjusting pain before she's be properly self sufficient. Years of experience most people have to go through that she didnt.

[Ionathus]

I'll send a DM since it's occasionally NSFW. nothing too explicit, just a butt here or there.

"Just a butt here or there" is the title of my memoir

Being generous Liz is supposed to be representative of the victims of broken systems that leave people to the wayside and the folly of being a "gifted student" with expectations and pressures.

I can get that. It makes sense as a plot arc and could even be interesting, especially with the "wacky shenanigans" angle of Cubetown and how they could just completely overlook someone struggling.

I just wish it wasn't happening in this comic, because nothing else in the comic feels set up to tell that story. If this is a story Jeph wants to explore, I'd much rather read it with a clean slate, starting over with new characters who are maybe equipped even a little bit to mentor and support Liz in changing up her lifestyle, and a narrative structure that forces both Liz and Liz's Rehabilitators to interact, as you said.

Marten is so chill as to be a nonentity, and Claire has had her character so dramatically rewritten multiple times in the past few years that it's impossible for me to predict or even care about her behavior.₁ I don't see what anyone sees in them as potential surrogate parent-figures, and I don't see why everybody in the cast isn't saying "what the hell are you doing, this person is an ***hole and you're in no position to change them even if you could; you're at best 5 years older" instead of what they are saying, which is "ha ha your new adoptive daughter is a loser/jerk/whatever (but your choice to adopt her is valid and we won't question it beyond light snark)".

1. I don't buy the "girlboss" attitude she has right now, I have no idea where it came from, and I have no idea why all the other characters and the narrative itself are treating this like an obvious thing. She was a timid pun-obsessed dork afraid of failure and mediocrity for years, and then it feels like out of the blue she just...decided to become a "Head Cheerleader: Problem Solver" to quote Dumbing of Age. Instead of investing energy into showing that transition (say, Claire takes an assistant librarian job at Cubetown, struggles for awhile, her manager quits/vanishes under pressure and then she has to rise to the occasion), it's like the comic just crammed her into the role it needed to make Cubetown a viable story option.

[geoduck]

But you bring up another point of thing that separates Liz from other Gremlin characters. Marten, Claire, Bubbles, and basically everyone can just leave at any point. They are in no way attached to or imposed upon by Liz. They are willingly associating with her for some reason. Usually with this archetype they are either stuck with the Gremlin or the Gremlin imposes upon them at every opportunity and won't leave them alone. From the outset Liz wanted to be left alone, and her entire introduction was a ploy to have people not notice her existence. Martin and Claire are under no obligations to take care of her but do anyway for no discernible reason other than Liz is in the cast now.

Liz did impose herself on Martin, stalking him around Cubetown and getting him to come down to her garbage pile.

[Beelzebub1111]

I mean. Beyond that first meeting. Marten wemt along with it and agreed to go. Marten could leave at any time and she's not like, forcing herself into their lives. They just bring her places. Leaving Liz feeling remarkably passive for someone who we are told is annoying.

[Scarlet Manuka]

But you bring up another point of thing that separates Liz from other Gremlin characters. Marten, Claire, Bubbles, and basically everyone can just leave at any point. They are in no way attached to or imposed upon by Liz. They are willingly associating with her for some reason. Usually with this archetype they are either stuck with the Gremlin or the Gremlin imposes upon them at every opportunity and won't leave them alone. From the outset Liz wanted to be left alone, and her entire introduction was a ploy to have people not notice her existence. Martin and Claire are under no obligations to take care of her but do anyway for no discernible reason other than Liz is in the cast now.

Common humanity, perhaps? In the same way that you would not (I hope) leave someone who was clearly feeling depressed and suicidal to their own devices, so too I can see Marten and Claire not be willing to abandon Liz to the same situation that has clearly damaged her over the last two years, and which - as you note - Liz was actively trying to sustain.

[Durazno]

Ah, she's finally pushed someone too far. This had to happen sooner or later.

If I were Marten, I'd be humiliated at this point. I've had friend introductions go poorly, but never "sexually harassed one friend and made light of another's psychological issues" poorly. Honestly, I would have been hammering the eject button after the first incident.

[Mechalich]

If I were Marten, I'd be humiliated at this point. I've had friend introductions go poorly, but never "sexually harassed one friend and made light of another's psychological issues" poorly. Honestly, I would have been hammering the eject button after the first incident.

The first incident, in which Liz harassed the Evan, notably occurred while Liz was genuinely smashed and could have been charitably interpreted as her being a mean and/or massively uninhibited drunk. However, ever since she has more or less perpetually occupied that state, despite having nominally sobered up in the meantime. It's just bad characterization overall.

[Keltest]

The first incident, in which Liz harassed the Evan, notably occurred while Liz was genuinely smashed and could have been charitably interpreted as her being a mean and/or massively uninhibited drunk. However, ever since she has more or less perpetually occupied that state, despite having nominally sobered up in the meantime. It's just bad characterization overall.

Bad characterization would imply it was inconsistent or implausible. She's just a bad person and a bad character.

[Beelzebub1111]

I think we pulled from a 25 to 100 real quick here. Yes she needed to be told off, but I feel like the should be a step of boundry breaking in between "You don't understand the nuances of my situation with vice, take it or leave it" and "Vacate the premesis immediately or I will violence on you."

There should have been some buildup of moods to this is all I'm saying. The framing makes it seem more like Fae has a temper problem than Liz has a boundaries problem.

[Keltest]

I think we pulled from a 25 to 100 real quick here. Yes she needed to be told off, but I feel like the should be a step of boundry breaking in between "You don't understand the nuances of my situation with vice, take it or leave it" and "Vacate the premesis immediately or I will violence on you."

There should have been some buildup of moods to this is all I'm saying. The framing makes it seem more like Fae has a temper problem than Liz has a boundaries problem.

Faye does have a temper problem though. It was a joke like two pages ago that offending against Faye would have reduced Liz to a smear.

[BRC]

If we assume that Faye's chill reaction to Liz offending Bubbles earlier was just her trying to de-escalate, I think this makes sense.


Consider this from Faye's perspective

Martin and Claire return from Canada having adopted some sort of strange science gremlin. You're hanging out around your shop when the Gremlin offends your girlfriend.

You don't like that the Gremlin has offended your girlfriend, but right now you're trying to have a good time with one of your best friends in the world, who is likely going to move away soon. You don't want one of your last interactions with him to be a fight about the science gremlin. You know Bubbles, you know she'll get over it. You'll keep things light and fun by backing up the Gremlin for now.

So you already dislike this Gremlin, but hey, Martin seems fond of her. You've been working on emotional regulation, let's keep things pleasant.

Then the Gremlin assumes she can use your apartment for a party, and when you try to establish a very important boundary, like "This is an active danger to my mental and physical health" boundary, she blows it off as Not Her Problem.

You're already mad at her for how she behaved with Bubbles. You were keeping cool for Martin's sake, but now she's gone from "Thoughtlessly offending" to "Rejecting your explicit requests about what happens in your home, in which she is a guest".


Yeah, I can see there being an explosion.

[Beelzebub1111]

Then the Gremlin assumes she can use your apartment for a party, and when you try to establish a very important boundary, like "This is an active danger to my mental and physical health" boundary, she blows it off as Not Her Problem.

You're already mad at her for how she behaved with Bubbles. You were keeping cool for Martin's sake, but now she's gone from "Thoughtlessly offending" to "Rejecting your explicit requests about what happens in your home, in which she is a guest".


Yeah, I can see there being an explosion.

I understand where you are coming from but I think there needed to be a middle stage here. between "No that ain't happening." and "Get the F OUT OF MY SIGHT!" something like "Drop it. Now." and then she should press again which invokes the reaction. It's a minor complaint, but I think it would frame what jeph wants to get across better than what the page currently looks like. Considering Fae's underreaction to Bubbles's discomfort it makes Fae seem more self centered on her needs and that the only people's pain points that matter are her own, and that she expects people to intuit what they are and how deep they run.

[BRC]

I think we need to give some space for the limitations of the comic format. It would be hard to add an additional exchange to this particular comic.

Also, I think we already had that middle stage. The correct answer to somebody saying "You can't use my apartment for a party" is "okay", not "Why not?". There are a thousand reasons somebody might not want to let a stranger throw a party in their home, and all of them are valid.

Like, asking why isn't unreasonable, but there's a difference between asking why so you can know why, and asking why so you can try to shoot down their reason.

[Beelzebub1111]

I think we need to give some space for the limitations of the comic format. It would be hard to add an additional exchange to this particular comic.

The first two panels could be combined, or the "last straw" responce could have been the last pannel and the "Get the F out" could be the first panels of the next page and hang there to give it weight. There's lots of ways to make it work and why would we need to go about "fitting it in in limited space". It's not like Jeph has an editor to answer to to say "hey trim this down", he can pace it however he wants.

I don't feel like we have earned the blowout based on what we have seen so far in this page. At least with faye's mood building up. We can get there, but I don't feel like it was earned quite yet.

[Ionathus]

I think we pulled from a 25 to 100 real quick here. Yes she needed to be told off, but I feel like the should be a step of boundry breaking in between "You don't understand the nuances of my situation with vice, take it or leave it" and "Vacate the premesis immediately or I will violence on you."

There should have been some buildup of moods to this is all I'm saying. The framing makes it seem more like Fae has a temper problem than Liz has a boundaries problem.

Would've made a lot more sense if Faye showed any annoyance with Liz before this point. The fact that she was "taking her side" on her sexual harrassment of Bubbles earlier makes it particularly jarring. Maybe it's intended to show Faye's hypocrisy (i.e. she doesn't defend Bubbles's boundaries but overreacts to defend her own), but if that's the case it wasn't executed well. If you want that, give her a moment of realization here where "ha ha the gremlin and I are sexualizing my girlfriend" becomes "wait a second, now I hate this person." Make that distinction clear. But the current comic strip just, like...begins with Faye kind of annoyed at Liz already, when last we saw she was "taking her side."

The two Fayes don't have much continuity for me.

If we assume that Faye's chill reaction to Liz offending Bubbles earlier was just her trying to de-escalate, I think this makes sense.
<snip>
Yeah, I can see there being an explosion.

I would love for this to be the case as it would make the whole scene feel way more unified, but I just feel like that's an unrealistically charitable read. If it were intended from the start, there would be better ways to demonstrate that -- maybe a more conflicted face from Faye? Or dialogue choices that indicate she's uneasy but trying to put a chill face on the situation? Instead Faye's reactions earlier were enthusiastic and playful -- she was almost gleeful in endorsing her girlfriend's objectification.

If Faye has been trying to put a brave face on and alcohol was the straw that broke the camel's back, there were better ways to show THAT, too. Give THAT interaction two strips to breathe, so that the first one can have Faye draw a boundary and Liz doesn't respect it, Faye snarks back harder (but still playing nice) and maybe so does Liz, and one of those two snarks could be the first punchline. And then the second strip can be Liz continuing to ignore Faye's boundaries until she says "you know what, I'm done trying to play nice." And then the followup strip can maybe have a mini-rant where she realizes she shouldn't have tried to downplay Bubbles's discomfort in the first place, and wanting to enjoy time with Marty isn't a good enough reason to put up with his garbage adoptive niece.

But in order for that to work, basically every comic in the scene would need to change significantly. We'd need more nervous placating/joking from Faye, more confusion (and active reproach of Liz's behavior) from Marty, and more of a buildup with Liz forcing the alcohol issue until Faye breaks.

That's not the comic we got, though. I don't see the through-line you see unfortunately, and if the comic tries to claim that connection after the fact I'm going to be calling BS.

[Wraith]

I'm with Beelzebub on this one. Faye's reaction is the right one, but it's written as a very sudden escalation - Faye has gone from laughing along with Liz and joining in her rude comments, to refusing activities in 'her place' (one which she shares with Marten, Claire, Bubbles and Pintsize, so it's not 'hers' to control so definitively) to screaming "f--- off" in like, 4 lines of dialogue.

(The alternative reading of this is that she thought that Liz was seriously expecting to get drunk in her workshop, full of tools and equipment and spare body parts, which is just... what? Why?)

Whoever said it makes Faye look self-centred, I think is on to something. Faye is fine with someone perving on her girlfriend and making them uncomfortable, but as soon as even the most minor criticism is made of her? Instant explosion. It almost feels like yesterday's throwaway comic in Cubetown was hastily thrown up to cover a different comic that should have sown more of the Union Robotics conversation, for some reason.

In fact, using a quick cut-away to Cubetown to stall for time while he quickly realises how badly the sexual harassment joke went down and scrambling to ret-con Faye's reaction into something more volatile/protective kind of makes sense.

Consider this from Faye's perspective

I'm not saying you're wrong, but it'd be weird for Faye to be that subtle. The first time she met Claire and Emily, in-tow behind Marten, she immediately called them names and made fun of them just for being there; even faster, in the case of someone like Clinton.

I know we joke about QC no longer having any actual characters, just the same voice coming out of a dozen slightly different faces, but the idea of Faye tolerating anything for someone else' benefit - let alone in her own shop, let alone while worried about the future of Marten moving away - feels like too big of a leap from what we know about her.

[georgie_leech]

I dunno, I guess I don't find it all that hard to believe that anyone, let alone Faye, would react hostile-y to the insinuation that the thing that nearly cost you your friends and did cost you your job and your father is no big deal. I mean, I've seen people blow up over far less, and I envy y'all for your apparent freedom from having your sore spots hit like that.

[geoduck]

Put me in the camp that says Faye did not "overreact".

And new strip. At least Jeph

Spoiler

Show

explained where Claire disappeared to during all of this.

[Wraith]

I wish Jeph would stop flipping the perspective of the room he's depicting.

Characters enter Union Robotics from the door on camera-right. Having Liz run out of the room camera-left makes it looks like Liz had to run TOWARDS Faye and pass by her, instead of running AWAY from the scary angry person, just to... what, show off the empty grey concrete wall in the background?

Well, no; it's so that he can just plonk speech bubbles in the air, left to right, without thinking about it rather than start with Claire (camera right), Marten answer (camera left) then Faye snark (camera right again).

In other words, I'd like him to plan his comic out more than 3 days at a time, so that he knows where Marten needs to stand in order to be immediately beside Claire when she returns. Or just have Marten make to follow Claire in today's panel 1, so that he ends up camera-right but stops in front of Claire. Have him say a performative "Liz, wait-..." if you like, so we can pretend that Marten gives a **** about anything, perhaps.