Dangerously Chloe 24-10-16 Dumb Dumb Dumb

[lordoffiling]

How so? I don't see how intention can ever have zero relevance.

Imagine there's a wasp on your head. You're unaware. You're sitting next to my friend, who is hyper allergic and could die if it stung her. So, desperate, trying to save my friend, I belt you over the head with a brick to kill the wasp.

For a short while, you're not going to care what my intentions were. All you're going to be able to think about is how much it hurts. After it quits hurting so bad you'll be able to think about it and realize I was acting in desperation and concern for my friend, but until then your attention will be full on the pain in your head.

Emotions work like that too. Teddy hurt her. He didn't mean to, but at the moment Alchemy can't see that. All she can think about is how hurt she is. Rational thought will come later when she calms down.

[vampire hunter D]

I'm glad Teddy still has some self-esteem.

He seems to have even more as a girl

[Varanus]

Should be obvious, but whatever.

Fact is that the intention is irrelevant when the result is nad. The role to hell is paved with good intentions and all that.

It doesn't matter what Teddy intended, what matters that he was being incentive to Alchemy's feelings and only thinking of his and Chloe's problems. Forgetting that Alchemy is a person with feelings too.

It's why Teddy realizes he fucked up.

But again, how does that make intention irrelevant? It still mitigates things at the very least. Or do you not mean irrelevant to mean meaningless? Intentions have value, its why we have sayings like "its the thought that counts," why manslaughter is legally different from murder, etc.

Insensitive is just not a word I would ever use to describe Teddy. At worst he was being unintentionally insensitive, and for a good reason. Alchemy not taking this into account is what bothers me a lot more than what Teddy did.

And as another user noted, Alchemy is being selfish herself by only thinking about her own hurt feelings and not Teddy's or Chloe's.

Imagine there's a wasp on your head. You're unaware. You're sitting next to my friend, who is hyper allergic and could die if it stung her. So, desperate, trying to save my friend, I belt you over the head with a brick to kill the wasp.

For a short while, you're not going to care what my intentions were. All you're going to be able to think about is how much it hurts. After it quits hurting so bad you'll be able to think about it and realize I was acting in desperation and concern for my friend, but until then your attention will be full on the pain in your head.

Emotions work like that too. Teddy hurt her. He didn't mean to, but at the moment Alchemy can't see that. All she can think about is how hurt she is. Rational thought will come later when she calms down.

Which isn't really the same as intention being irrelevant, which was my main point. After all the fact that in your scenario the friend is trying to help and in effect does help means I will be judging the situation very differently than I would otherwise. Yes there would be brief anger/confusion, but when it comes to physical pain that is hard to avoid. And even if I am angry I'm not going to run off and refuse to talk to the offender.

So I still don't see how Teddy briefly pleading for her to find a way to transform into a boy to help someone she already agreed to help is at all hurtful, let alone as devastating as Alchemy has taken it. Its like I'm missing a bunch of scenes involving this issue with her that never were shown.

[Don Alexander]

Finally, selfcest.

[Cortez]

But again, how does that make intention irrelevant?

Because it's doesn't change the result. You can say Teddy could have worded things better, but that still makes him the one at fault.

If the result is you coming off as a jerk, the intention doesn't matter. Because the result is all people are going to see.

Insensitive is just not a word I would ever use to describe Teddy.

And yet it's the perfect way to describe him right now.

And as another user noted, Alchemy is being selfish herself by only thinking about her own hurt feelings and not Teddy's or Chloe's.

Whomever said that is wrong, though i haven't seen any post like that. You are also being hypocritical since Teddy was obviously not thinking of Alchemy's feelings. Or is being selfish ok as long as it's Teddy or Chloe?

So I still don't see how Teddy briefly pleading for her to find a way to transform into a boy to help someone she already agreed to help is at all hurtful, let alone as devastating as Alchemy has taken it. .

Surely you are joking right? Teddy made light of her gender identity. It's easy to see what Teddy did wrong.

[Varanus]

Whomever said that is wrong, though i haven't seen any post like that. You are also being hypocritical since Teddy was obviously not thinking of Alchemy's feelings. Or is being selfish ok as long as it's Teddy or Chloe?

Of course not, but if one person is thinking of someone else's health and safety over feelings while the other is thinking most of their own feelings then who is more in the wrong/selfish?

Surely you are joking right? Teddy made light of her gender identity. It's easy to see what Teddy did wrong.

Are we really going to bring real world gender identity issues into a story with a race of beings that can literally change their body shape depending on how they are currently feeling or how others are perceiving them?

On that note Alchemy has always made light of gender, largely saying it doesn't matter/doesn't apply to her, so having her take things so seriously now comes off as odd.

Lastly, how is pleading with her like Teddy did "making light of"? And if it is then how is it so serious that running away is justified? I have never been so upset with anyone over anything to the point that I would run away rather than talk about it. That's the biggest disconnect here for me. If someone hurts you then the best thing to do is at least try to resolve it, not run away. That doesn't help anyone. If you are so upset that you are afraid you'll say something you regret and need to cool down then at least express that, especially if you know the offender is not the sort of person who would want to hurt you the way you think you've been hurt.

Again, this would come off a lot better if we had seen Alchemy make it clear to Teddy how her body works, that she was sensitive to suggestions to try to get it to work another way, etc. Otherwise it just comes out of left field.

[Don Alexander]

On that note Alchemy has always made light of gender, largely saying it doesn't matter/doesn't apply to her, so having her take things so seriously now comes off as odd.

Indeed so.

I've never seen Alchemy identifying as the human concept of genderfluid. As she herself states, gender and its binarity does not even really apply to her. Being a metaphysical embodiment of mortality and all. Also, she does have a certain amount of control over it.

[tanonev]

Let's also not forget that we got to this scene after Alchemy made a move on Teddy due to her physical attraction to a body that Teddy doesn't identify with, so it's not like she isn't guilty of the same insensitivity to gender identity. And while two wrongs don't make a right, it is interesting that no one called her out on that earlier.

[Cortez]

Except not all, since Teddy hasn't said to Alchemy that he has issues with the new body and recent panels have shown he has started to enjoy the new body.

Also, he was all but happy to return her advances.

Of course not, but if one person is thinking of someone else's health and safety over feelings while the other is thinking most of their own feelings then who is more in the wrong/selfish?

The one that made the other one cry, this shouldn't be that hard for you to understand. Yet here we are.

Are we really going to bring real world gender identity issues into a story with a race of beings that can literally change their body shape depending on how they are currently feeling or how others are perceiving them?

I see now that the problem is that you haven't been paying attention to the story, because it's made crystal clear that is indeed the issue.

You also seem to forget that Alchemy said she's mostly identifying female now, so clearly it does matter to her.

So try again.

[Varanus]

I see now that the problem is that you haven't been paying attention to the story, because it's made crystal clear that is indeed the issue.

You also seem to forget that Alchemy said she's mostly identifying female now, so clearly it does matter to her.

So try again.

Honestly Don Alexander, JoybuzzerX, Brasca, Maechris and other users are probably making better points on these issues than me, it may be best to address them instead.

[TwoWayStar]

Honestly it makes sense why she would run away. She has been very quick to flip with her emotions, so going from "I'm excited about this" to "I'M TOO UPSET FOR ANY OF THIS" makes sense to her character honestly.

It also makes sense why Teddy would say what he did. He's had a LOT of willing and unwilling experiences with shapeshifting. So here's a person who CAN shapeshift, without the fear of going 'Full Incubus' as it were, and can most likely survive the whole mauled to death dealie. So for him it's like, "but you CAN do it, unlike the rest of us, and you REALLY WANT TO so just you know, do it!!! This succubus needs a guy!!!". The perfect solution is Alchemy. But he forgot to account for emotions ;D And the fact that he's in a comic universe.

It can't be that easy guys!

[Cortez]

Plus you know, there's also the fact that Alchemy isn't comfortable being "Al". After all, we only saw "Al" once and Kimmy hurried to change back.

Which further proves it does matter to her, otherwise we've would have gotten "Al" more often than just once.

[christopheftw]

Strange hill to die on Cortez. Virtually no one in this thread agrees with you, including me. Alchemy is not a sympathetic character here.

[Spidrift]

Alchemy is (suddenly) being written as a temperamental teenager. It's dressed up with the references to gender fluidity and such, but that's the way it reads to me.

[wiseguy]

she is Ted's age, or she said so in one of the past strips