11-07-17 You will not outshine me

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Cortez
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by Cortez »

Chantaru wrote:The only reason he didn't cancel on her is because he didn't have her phone number.
Except he does have her number, it's in his call log since she called him.

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Spidrift
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by Spidrift »

edisnooM wrote:Also is emphatically stating that you're going to get naked and jump in the shower a normal thing? Surely the state of dress is usually implicit? Or was that just there so that Maura could yell about getting naked?
It's just there to set up the joke, I reckon. (If Maura wasn't present, I'd assume it was rather blatant flirting.) I guess one could imagine that the cinema was a bit warm and the night was humid, leaving Peggy thinking hard about that shower.

Hmm. Canadian winter has to happen sometime. I do want to see DiDi in a longcoat.
Chantaru wrote:Why should Gary try to flirt back? He is clearly not interested in her.
Closing out on a date because you're not interested is fine, but is no excuse for rudeness. Doing it by flirting with another woman in front of the date's face is the height of passive-aggressive rudeness. Maura hasn't done anything to offend Gary that badly.
brasca wrote:If Maura knew how Peggy got those rock hard abs she'd owe Tess $50.
I'm sure that it'll come out somehow.
Yes, Gary should be more tactful and smooth, but considering his passivity has lead to him getting laid on a regular basis I don't see why he'd want to change what works so well for him.
Mmm. Power of positive reinforcement. This comic will surely end with Gary just as lousy an excuse for a social animal as he started, just with added well-used genitals and tongue. One reason Yuki works so well as a long-term love interest for him is that she's too flaky to notice. One just has to hope they don't breed.
Varanus wrote:Given how favorably she reacted to Teddy's compliment Peggy seems as oblivious to Maura being upset as Gary is (and for her part Maura doesn't seem to be feeling awkward so much as believing Peggy is trying to compete with her and feeling competitive in return).
Peggy is taking her cues from Gary, but she is at least trying to include Maura in the conversation. She's slightly better than Gary, and giving Gary the opportunity to recover from his jerkassitude. Which he isn't taking, of course.
Regardless, I feel like people are overreacting here, this scene isn't any more extreme than dozens of other instances where Gary and other characters have demonstrated rather oblivious social skills.
I don't think that we see this degree of sheer social incompetence from most of the cast. (I mean, Zii or Matt would have their arms linked to Peggy and Maura at this point, admittedly because they were thinking "threesome"...) Yuki is as bad in a different way, but she has the small excuse of being crazy rather than just stupid. And even on that basis, this is pretty bad, even by Gary's standards.

Emotionally, the guy is still a latent shut-in. He always retreats to what he knows and tries to avoid the difficult world. Here, he knows Peggy better than Maura, so he turns to her, basic politeness be damned.
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worldshaking00
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by worldshaking00 »

Peggy's statement about getting naked is a trifle odd, which is leading me to think that she is subconsciously laying claim to Gary in front of Maura. Who else here takes a shower with (some of) their clothes on? Why feel the need to state an obvious step in the process of showering then? It seems like her language is a little sexually charged. Mind you she's not adding heavy emphasis to those words, which is why I say she is doing it unintentionally.

That being said, Gary is being extremely obtuse. There are no other attractive females on a date other than your date, Gary. Maybe getting a slap across the face from Maura will drive that point home. At this rate however, Maura will just shag him senseless and he won't learn that lesson.

And jealous Maura is just ugly. It makes me wonder if she also suffers from 'bad winner/bad loser' syndrome too. Time will tell.
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KittyHat
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by KittyHat »

Really, there aren't any standout clueless people here, in spite of all of the angry buzz about Gary. I mean, let's do a quick count:

Maura is clueless in that she thinks Peggy is competing with her, and she is also apparently completely and totally unaware of Gary's body language, making her in her own way just as oblivious to him as he is to her. In fact, none of this is about him for her, I suspect; it's about her.

Peggy is clueless about the entire subtext going on. All she knows is she wants to get a shower and go to sleep. However, she's also apparently clueless about social conventions surrounding how one announces one's intent to take a shower (as others have noted, no one says "I'm going to get naked and take a shower"). Alternatively, perhaps she is, at least subconsciously, sexually interested after all (and Maura isn't entirely wrong after all), so "get naked" slipped its way into her speech.

Gary is just being Garybot, as always. I've been quite critical of Gary in the past, commenting that he has no will of his own and referring to him as Garybot, just like I'm doing now. It's actually amusing to me, though, to see people being especially angry about this particular scene. It's like, now you're mad at Gary? :p

This is just Gary being Gary. And honestly, he's not being any more clueless than Peggy and Maura are; all three of them are completely missing huge chunks of what's going on in this installment. I guess you could accuse him of unintentional rudeness for his body language, sure, but let's not all get too excited about leaping to the defense of Maura, who is apparently so self-absorbed that she hasn't even noticed Gary's behavior at all, probably because Gary himself as an actual person is entirely beside the point for her.

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Cortez
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by Cortez »

I think she has noticed Gary's behavior, ignoring her for Peggy, which is why she's upset at the moment. That and she's overly competitive.

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Spidrift
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by Spidrift »

Oh, all three of these characters are being comedy-clueless, to be sure. Ma3 comedy does often run largely on the various characters kicking the idiot ball between them; it's a mildly irritating device when even characters who've shown a bit of sense, like Amber or Peggy, suddenly have their IQs drop through the floor for the sake of a quick gag. And yes, none of these three are covering themselves in intellectual glory here.

But Gary isn't just being a bit clueless, like Peggy, or deliberately aiming for an unwise target through idiocy, like Maura; he's being thoughtlessly just plain rude. Which probably bugs people because we tend to think that, while stupid people maybe got dropped on their heads in childhood or something and might deserve sympathy, rude people should bloody well try harder.

Plus, there's a sense of exasperation; Gary started this series as a sad, socially incompetent geek, but he's had a lot of social experience over the last eight volumes or so, and his miserable failure to improve reliably is just annoying. People don't always learn, and stories that are all about learning processes can be dull, but a lot of us know from experience that, yes, it is possible to learn not to be an idiot geek.

(Though we have seen Gary do better once or twice. Sadly, the Ma3 idiot ball has now bounced back and hit him in the face.)
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Spidrift
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-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
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rakedan
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by rakedan »

Can't wait to see Gary giving swirly while being pegged.
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BlairFan
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by BlairFan »

I hope the shower is big enough for all three of them!
;))

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edisnooM
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by edisnooM »

Personally I'm sort of doubting this will lead to all three of them together at the end. For one I'm not sure Maura would want to "share" Gary with anyone. But also despite whatever hit to IQ points Peggy has taken on this outing I think even she would clue in enough to not want to get that much in the way of Gary's date, especially since she knows he is looking for something more serious.

If the Swirly is deployed and achieves it's usual (loud) success however, I kind of wonder if a distraught Didi might disturb Peggy's peaceful slumber.

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AnUnconcernedCitizen
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by AnUnconcernedCitizen »

I'm hopeful that Gary's going to step in here and be the adult by stopping this from continuing to its logical conclusion. I'm veering toward Didi interrupting and making Maura go home empty-handed "For the sake of Zii's love" though.

If it does lead to sex and Didi finds out, she probably won't be happy.

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edisnooM
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by edisnooM »

It kind of looked like DIdi had moved on from caring about Gary + Zii when she and Peggy were talking at breakfast though, or at least wasn't as concerned with her "getting in the way" as she originally put it.

Also Gary turning down sex? That is the kind of earth shattering plot development that would shake the comic to it's core.

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AnUnconcernedCitizen
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by AnUnconcernedCitizen »

This is true, but we're also talking about Didi, queen of missing the point. I wouldn't be surprised if she took Peggy's comments as meaning that "Zii should understand that Gary was trying to comfort her (Didi) as a friend, not a lover." Which would let Didi assuage her guilt while also allowing her to keep her assumption that Zii is in love with Gary and needs to help them along. It just seems strange for Didi to drop her misconception so quickly going by what we know of her. I guess we'll see though, I could be totally wrong there and it is a stretch to guess that Didi would actively stop anyone from getting laid.

And yes, Gary turning down sex would be quite the development, even if only once. Which is why I so want it to happen *sigh*.

Quote removed. The DAMNed

KittyHat
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by KittyHat »

Spidrift wrote:But Gary isn't just being a bit clueless, like Peggy, or deliberately aiming for an unwise target through idiocy, like Maura; he's being thoughtlessly just plain rude.
Yeah, except ... that isn't happening.

In the first panel, Peggy says something relevant, and Gary answers because he'd be a jackass not to. He also looks her way when he does because he'd be a jackass not to. Maura then says something ludicrous, and from what I can see, she doesn't even really say it to Gary, she says it to Peggy, probably because she's focused on Peggy too ... and not Gary.

Gary doesn't respond to Maura's ludicrous comment, and really, what could he say? "I feel like I am one! A superhero, I mean! Not a movie!" What do you even say to that? I think the most polite thing you can possibly do is just ignore it and pretend that something that insanely moronic didn't just get said, because about the only reasonable other response would be to say, "Er, uh ... okay. Sure." Okay, Peggy was able to make a save for her, but not everyone could have responded to such a weird statement so smoothly.

And so, as noted, Peggy then says she's envious of Maura's abs. Okay, if there's any part where you can say Gary went wrong, it's here, where asks Peggy why and reminds her that her own abs are "rock hard." But that is true, and he knows it's true, so in any other situation, it would not be strange for him to respond like this. He's being a bit clueless here vis-a-vis the date and Maura's jealous behavior, sure, but it's not nearly as bad as people are making it out to be. It's like ... one whole slip. And it's not as if Maura's been engaging in reasonable conversation, and he's been ignoring her in favor of Peggy. Up to this point, the only thing Maura has said is just utterly derpy! And while Peggy was able to do something with it, I couldn't really blame anyone for not having anything to say in response to "I feel like I am one! A superhero, I mean! Not a movie!" Yeah, just ... can't see how anyone seriously has to take blame for pretending that wasn't said.

Maura then says something that, while obviously overly competitive, is at least not completely stupid or virtually impossible to respond to. Gary turns and focuses on her.

Peggy speaks again. Gary looks back at her because that's what human beings do in the real world when people speak.

And then, of course, both Gary and Peggy look when Maura loudly announces her plans with Gary.

What's the big deal here? Gary's being a bit clueless, sure, but if you're all caught up on that, I'd like to introduce you to a comic you may not have heard of called Menage a 3 ...

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Spidrift
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by Spidrift »

AnUnconcernedCitizen wrote:I'm hopeful that Gary's going to step in here and be the adult...
Ouch me aching sides.
KittyHat wrote:Yeah, except ... that isn't happening.
In both this and the previous strip at the movie, Gary pays Peggy compliments that tip well over the line from politeness to flirtation. And his body language is persistently directed towards Peggy and away from Maura. Once or twice might be explained by conversation, as you say, but this is a pattern. And Maura is supposed to be his date. The effect adds up to sheer rudeness in my book.

It's just Gary being typically clueless, sure, but failure to break that habit of cluelessness is in itself rude.
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Spidrift
"Brevior vita est quam pro futumentibus negotium agendo."
-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
Avatar misappropriated from the wonderful XKCD.

Badman!
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Re: 11-07-17 You will not outshine me

Post by Badman! »

Closing out on a date because you're not interested is fine, but is no excuse for rudeness. Doing it by flirting with another woman in front of the date's face is the height of passive-aggressive rudeness. Maura hasn't done anything to offend Gary that badly.
Meh, I don't think he's flirting, or at least that he realize he's flirting at all.

Like him, I used to be quite obnoxious back in time and lacking in social grace, Gary's just hanging more easily with someone who seem to really enjoy the movie and with whom he has more intimacy, that's a thing that Maura has yet to proove to him. Sure, he's rude, but I don't think he do this with any bad intent.

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