03-10-17 Switching it up

[samtheman]

Of course Gary won't say no because he's Gary. Maybe Gary can blindfold James and peg him with a strap-on instead.

[uzivatel]

If they do manage to blindfold James, Tracy could do both the blowing and the pegging (Peggy may have just the tool).

[Vitocap]

I misread the final punchline as "enemy." Aha.
Either way, not to knock or overanalyse a pun, but I wouldn't consider Gary his own worst enemy or enema.

You do realize the enema joke is an "Archie" reference, right?

"I'm my own worst enemy" is one of Betty's catchphrases. Usually said after she does something nice for someone and it ends up helping Veronica get closer to Archie.

Giz knows the Archie series quite well; she has even authored some stories for them -- and, in fact, a lot of critics think her recent art style in Ma3 is extremely Archie-like. Ymmv, of course.

Gary is a lot like Betty, too nice and helpful for his own good.

[worldshaking00]

Huh. Some of us would consider decent chocolate cake a very acceptable semi-win if good sex wasn't an option. And Gary seems to get more sex than chocolate cake, from what we've seen.

Cake is more of the Zonk! prize {RIP Monty Hall } if Gary is hoping to get indelicate with Tracy (and James at the same time, sadly). However I concede - scrumptious chocolate cake sounds delicious.

Wacky high-jinks.

Of course. Comedy > character development, 99 times out of 100. Even in the final volume. Although I will state that 'wacky hijinks' doesn't necessarily preclude Gary learning (or reinforcing) something about himself. They say all comedy is rooted in tragedy.

[Fairy Glade's Fairy]

I don't think so. I think the target audience is anyone who can read or look at pictures and make sense of it... and ideally not be closed-minded enough to revolt at the sexual subject matter.

I think... you may have a different opinion, 'course, but..... I think the target audience is Giz. I think she's putting all her fantasies and personal fetishes in this comic; and so it turns into something like 'the comic that tops her own list of favorite comics evar'
... and I also think Giz is a girl, never mind cais, so I believe I'm not wrong in saying the target audience is female.

IMO there's no way a straight guy can self-identify with any male in Ma3... for starters 99,9% of hetero men would kill rather than be sodomized, while in Ma3 every single male is ok to be the butt of sodomy/pegging/both... hell the very 1st strip showed two attractive handsome guys fucking each other: that set the tone for everything that was to come! no guy wants to identify with someone like Gary who takes it in the ass all the time (poor boy, at the start all the hints were that he would eventually get all chicks in the comic as his own harem, like in a manga, but it was all red herrings)
even the woman-on-woman action is written with a girly twist; trust me I've seen lotsa lez porn for boys in my life, and it's nothing like this comic!

DiDi, who is ms. fanservice, is I guess the only concession to the male taste... but no man can make her come and in the end it looks like only girls can, so again that's no good for the straight guy ego (and Gary bombed real hard with her, yet another thing to make male readers not want to identify with the poor sod)

[Spidrift]

You appear to forget that Giz is only 50% of the writing team here. You may also underestimate the range of tastes and tolerances in the straight male world.

[rogermart]

As a straight man myself (and i'm talking 0 on the Kinsey Scale) i can vouch for what Spidrift just said...

[TheFoolishOne]

wait, does Tracy think she Isn't going to be a part of the Ménage a troi ?

[brasca]

Indeed you are Gary and we would also accept "with friends like these who needs enemas" as a witty quip.

I don't know why he's complaining. At least he's not on the receiving end and there will be cake.

[OllieOrOlly]

I misread the final punchline as "enemy." Aha.
Either way, not to knock or overanalyse a pun, but I wouldn't consider Gary his own worst enemy or enema.

You do realize the enema joke is an "Archie" reference, right?

"I'm my own worst enemy" is one of Betty's catchphrases. Usually said after she does something nice for someone and it ends up helping Veronica get closer to Archie.

Giz knows the Archie series quite well; she has even authored some stories for them -- and, in fact, a lot of critics think her recent art style in Ma3 is extremely Archie-like. Ymmv, of course.

Gary is a lot like Betty, too nice and helpful for his own good.

Huh, interesting.
No, I didn't know it was an Archie reference, though I do know Giz has worked on Archie material (and in certain ways, Ma3 could be seen as "Archie for adults") . A reference to a running gag it may be, yet I'm pretty sure "I'm my own worst enemy" is a concept that significantly predates Archie.
Nevertheless, as I said before, that is some interesting trivia.

Either way, not to knock or overanalyse a pun, but I wouldn't consider Gary his own worst enemy or enema; the former is correct just in regards to his malignant passivity leaving him incapable of adequately protesting even the most uncomfortable shenanigans...

But that's the point. Various other people have done various unkind things to Gary over time, but nobody is out to get him; nobody is persecuting him. He has no actual enemies. Except himself, because whenever some random person unthinkingly or accidentally does something bad to him, he ensures that it happens. If you keep walking out into traffic, the drivers who fail to brake in time aren't your enemy; you are.

Not that his life is actually bad, by and large.

Yeah, I can see that viewpoint, but personally I think of an enemy as someone that deliberately sets out to "get" someone else, and Gary never plans his own difficulties (you could go into a further semantic argument that it is his subconscious "plotting" his various mishaps), so - to borrow your comparison - he isn't walking into traffic with the knowledge that there are less than careful drivers on the road.
I understand that an enemy (self or otherwise) doesn't have to be an active Machiavellian, however, my *preferred* definition caused me to joke around with the pun.

And I do concur that, overall, Gary's life has become quite exceptional - even with his "door mat"-esque personality, the positives do seem to outweigh the brief moments of anxiety he gets when roped into unwanted endeavours.

Double post merged. The DAMNed

[Spidrift]

However, "I'm my own worst enemy" assumes a different definition of "enemy". Very few people hate themselves so much that they deliberately plot to cause themselves trouble; however, plenty of people are fuckups who manage to screw their own lives up with minimal assistance from the rest of the world. Which is why the phrase exists.

[Vitocap]

I don't know why he's complaining. At least he's not on the receiving end and there will be cake.

The cake is a lie.

[Fairy Glade's Fairy]

LOL

[suranae]

There's a cake at the end of portal. They show a robot arm extinguishing the lit candle.

Granted the protagonist if they weren't the player would be dead a quarter way in to the testing.

[Fairy Glade's Fairy]

You appear to forget that Giz is only 50% of the writing team here. You may also underestimate the range of tastes and tolerances in the straight male world.

...if I follow you, you mean you're a straight male & you've taste and tolerance for sodomy and pegging in your butt?
I'm cool with that; respect to you and everything..... but still it's a fact that the great vast majority of str8 men out there don't wanna anything phallic to come near their buttholes, fact which's been confirmed by every sexology study evar since the Kinsey report.
also, most women are the same: as Zii explained once, only a few like anal sex (cause it mostly hurts and you walk funny the next day, literal)

but, anyhoo, point is that 'males (hetero or not) taking it in the ass (and loving it)' is a big fantasy fetish among girls, realistic or not; it's not all that popular among hetero guys. IYR the member roster of yaoi club in SDB, it was very representative of composition of real world fandom.