04-06-13 Agreeing to do this - end of vol 5

[zaprzapb]

If that happens I'll ragequit the comic...until the quest strips are done.

[SuperMarioFan]

I'm sorry but no. This is a few strips early. The orgy taking place was just cut at the climax. Why did Giz do this? I can't think of a worse time to start a new volume.

Agreed. I hope the next few strips explain what we just saw. This was just insane.

[Fluffy]

I'd be more impressed seeing her staying away from the booze when she stresses out. Now that would be unusual (and a bonus to the character).

Oddly, despite the title of the strip and the stresses she's suffered in the story, we haven't seen her touch a drop in Sandra on the Rocks. She may have been a little lubricated when she came back from the date with Pierre, but no more than sociably so.

A little?

I think you underestimate how much Sandra had to drink. Last I check, slurred/drawn out speech, hiccups and drunk bubbles in an illustrated strip aren't signs of being a little lubricated, but good and sloshed.

[Spidrift]

Okay, I'd forgotten how much she was hiccoughing there. Yes, she'd definitely tied a few on.

She was still relatively functional and upright, though. Compared to the deranged benders with accompanying depravities that we saw from her in Ma3, this looks like relatively casual drinking. No Paddington Bears suffered, for a start, so far as we know.

[Fluffy]

I don't know, she was rather upright and functional any other time we saw her drinking in ma3,
as well (no different than how she was in this particular strip we're discussing, anyway) - we only learn just how bad off she was the following morning (usually suffering from blackouts).

So, we cant really say if this SodR strip was an improvement from her past drinking binges, as we weren't given a chance to see what she may or may not have recalled from the night before (given that Tatianna had her up and working 45 minutes after she turned in).

[Spidrift]

All true. Still, on its own terms, that just looked like someone who'd been out on a date and had a few drinks along the way. She wasn't shown swigging vodka from her handbag as a reflex response to stress, or doing anything sexually weird while under the influence - the classic Sandra jokes.

[Fluffy]

Yes - but it's been established that Sandra tends to drink (quite heavily) before/during any date she has due to her nervousness (she's worried about how the date will turn out, so she drinks to relax. But, she likes her booze a little too much, so doesn't have any self control). There's no reason that this would change in this case - especially now that she's a budding model; the pressure to impress her date has increased tenfold.

[weckar]

So, what, is Gary jumping to SotR? I sure hope not....

[Error of Logic]

Fluffy, Spidrift, you might want to consider that seasoned drinkers can grow better capable of functioning while under the influence, so Sandra might be a very high-functioning drunk. Practice makes perfect, as they say.

Or your liver gives out and you die.

[Fluffy]

I'm going by how she's been portrayed in the last several strips that included her out on dates/drinking - every time, she has not handled her alcohol well at all and always wakes up with blackouts.

There's also a couple of strips where she admits to Didi that not only are her dates few and far between, but she always seems to do something during these dates that scares the guys away. (which she acknowledges herself is probably due to her drinking).

So, I don't see any reason why the writers would change this.

[Spidrift]

So, what, is Gary jumping to SotR? I sure hope not....

Nah, this doesn't really fit with the current SotR continuity. I think it's just a way of taking Gary out of the main Ma3 plot for a few days, while demonstrating that the universe doesn't actually hate him (it just wishes that he'd grow up).

Fluffy, Spidrift, you might want to consider that seasoned drinkers can grow better capable of functioning while under the influence, so Sandra might be a very high-functioning drunk. Practice makes perfect, as they say.

Or your liver gives out and you die.

Or both.

But the point here would be that in Ma3, Sandra functioned as a comedy drunk. She drank as a reaction to stress, and then did wacky comedy things. In SotR, despite the comic title alluding to alcohol, we haven't seen any of that. She's either not drinking very often, or if she is, she's so high-functional that it doesn't really notice.

Which may change, of course. She's currently coming under increasing stress there, after all.

I'm going by how she's been portrayed in the last several strips that included her out on dates/drinking - every time, she has not handled her alcohol well at all and always wakes up with blackouts.

All perfectly true in Ma3 - but, curiously, not as seen in SotR. The one time we've seen her squiffy, after the date with Pierre, she came back after what seemed to have been a long, fairly boozy, but basically sane night out with a guy, with no evidence I could see that she'd done anything deranged or suffered any blackouts.

As I said, she may well revert to her old pattern some time. But just now, Sandra the comedy drunk seems to be on hold.

[Fluffy]

Or she may very well *still* be in that pattern (not once in the Ma3 universe have we seen Sandra as a rational drunk, and the SotR, we never got a chance to see the aftermath of her sociable drinking . But, if they're staying in character, there would be no reason that Sandra's pattern would change any time soon; at least not without some story behind it to reflect how she came to this change of behavior.

According to Sandra's own words, she needs to control her drinking because she tends to scare the boys away on her dates, and she doesn't have any recollection as to what she did to do that (thanks to her drinking, which she hints at starting before the date even takes place).

Given that she started off as Senna's assistant (which is stressful enough, having to meet the constant demands of a diva), then suddenly found herself as a model (adding to the stress tenfold), I really find it unlikely that Sandra's control over her alcohol intake would have improved at all.

[Error of Logic]

Well, she would have needed to restrain herself from drinking too much when she was still slaving for Senna. Senna's a nightmare to work for; if Sandra had gotten drunk and screwed up, she would have been fired for sure - far, far from home.

Maybe this newfound tendency to control the alcohol intake has become more strongly ingrained?

[Fluffy]

In that case, we're taking about working for Senna (while she's on the clock); during those times, I could see her staying sober to do her job.

But, we have seen her on a night off with Senna - and she's clearly drinking (she has a martini in her hand). But, again, we don't see the aftermath of this, as it goes straight to the next story.

[Spidrift]

I'm not saying that any change is likely; logically, realistically, it isn't. I'm saying that, on the very tenuous evidence available, she appears to have changed anyway. Despite all the stress she's suffered as a PA or as a trainee model, we haven't seen her lunge for the bottle in her handbag once. Her drinking seems to be off-duty, essentially social, and without disastrous consequences. The Sandra of SotR appears to be a different character to the Sandra of Ma3.

It'll be interesting to see how she acts now she's apparently back in Ma3 for a stint.