24-10-17 Pay attention now

[LegendaryKroc]

I have a terrible feeling that G and D think that they’re giving us some light relief and a break from the emotional intensity of the Zii/Sonya/DiDi plot. But instead of light relief, it feels like a slump into stupidity — and it’s not like the Zii/Sonya/DiDi plot was exactly King Lear.

Not King Lear, maybe, but that plot was tiresome in how they revisited old plot points without really developing them past that except the part where Sonya quit the band, which still ended on a bit of an abrupt, ambiguous note. Hell, some of us couldn't even figure out who to root for in those scenes because of all the past baggage that made Zii look like an egomaniac who never learns from her mistakes, DiDi look like an idiot who somehow bumbles her way into good things all the time because big boobies and Sonya look like a major hypocrite who broke up two relationships, cheering herself for the second one, then went all prima donna when it happened to her. I'm sure there were some people who were getting tired of it to be sure.

That said, I agree this isn't a better choice of initial plot for the volume. It's pure, concentrated ridiculousness and everyone reading it is dumber for it. I can think of a few better plot threads we could have picked up but evidently G and D aren't really listening to our outcries right now.

[Shinjischneider]

I have a terrible feeling that G and D think that they’re giving us some light relief

I have a terrible feeling that both think that stories like these were funny.

[sukebe senpai]

I have a terrible feeling that G and D think that they’re giving us some light relief and a break from the emotional intensity of the Zii/Sonya/DiDi plot. But instead of light relief, it feels like a slump into stupidity — and it’s not like the Zii/Sonya/DiDi plot was exactly King Lear.

Agreed. This storyline isn't funny in the slightest and it's making me wonder if the guys over at Bad Webcomics are actually on to something.

[Error of Logic]

Is he laughing or screaming in pain?

[worldshaking00]

I second @Spidrift's thoughts on Gary not exactly enjoying his receiving a double-BJ from arguing providers. He certainly looked like he was enjoying Tracy's technique at the start, and had a look of stunned terror on his face when James pushed Tracy out of the way so he could 'save her' from 'degrading' herself. That lip style-pose Gary has on his face is very similar to ones Giz has used for other characters who are about to orgasm intensely (I recall it on Amber, most of the congo-line of porn starlets who received a SGR ride from Gary, and recently Didi having her first big O from Kiley). It being similar, I'd reckon his immediate physical reaction is pleasure... possibly even enjoyment. However his brain still has blood in it, so he is worried about the 'gnashing of teeth' down there and especially that James is down there.

The "it's my birthday" excuse from James only gets me thinking that James is certifiably confused about sex & sexuality. We haven't received a catalog of his past affairs, but we have to assume he has at least had very vanilla sex with women before considering his proficiency at it with Tracy. Considering he thought Gary was coming onto him before the grapefruiting, did not understand what Gary meant, and was flattered by it, I assume he is closeted bi. He might have even experimented with having sex with a man before and has repressed the raw scary emotions he felt, similar to Yuki as a child seeing her father's tentacle-hentai porn. I hope they don't go down that road, especially if it gets too close to a childhood experience.

In any case, James seems mildly perturbed in panel 1 at being cucked/sharing Tracy's affections. He seems downright worried at something while Tracy is process. He is staring at her head/Gary's junk. He is not staring at Gary, enjoying himself. He isn't looking into Tracy's face, enjoying the expression of fulfillment she has in her technique's effects. It is like he has a quandry: 'do I want to try this (giving him a BJ) myself? or 'do I intercede to save my lover from a danger?' Unless he is completely off his rocker (which I am not going to rule out), my money's on the former. I honestly think he is turned on by the act (a BJ) and with having sex with Gary (if not other handsome men). His playfulness with Gary when Gary gave James his birthday gift certainly evoked Dillon flashbacks; he is enamored with Gary's magic mouth, or perhaps that and the combination of being tied up and blindfolded.

James seems like the sort of guy who is masculine, and the role reversal of being placed into a more submissive state has him worked up. Tracy - for all her beauty and femininity - is fairly forthright, bullish, and competitive (traditional masculine traits). Their sexual relationship is more like two rivals going at it, trying to one-up the other, veiled with how comfortable they make each other feel in their afterglow. Aside from their working in the same industry, there hasn't been a down-home non-sex-related issue shared between the two. Are they living together even? Have they even formalized their being a couple? I'm sure Tracy and James see each other as a couple, but they seem to only be anchored in the act of having sex with the other as the cement for their relationship... and not even at that since they both can't agree on what the other thinks is acceptable.

We need a Kiley-level psychoanalysis of James, but I will give my two cents on the/his issue. I think he is clinging onto some mild homophobia, or at least phallaphobia related to BJs. Maybe he got traumatized physically or saw it and decided it is grossed him out. Note that he had no problem at all with the prospect of receiving anal from Gary as long as he was able to get a BJ from him as well. I don't think he is decidedly homophobic, or else he wouldn't have been flattered by Gary's mistaken advance. I think he is curious about sex with a man, but is frightened about the aftermath on how he would be perceived (and his own feelings about himself) afterwards. This translates awkwardly into his perception that BJs are degrading to the provider. I still don't have an answer as to why he would tie in his pseudo-feminist jargon into the mix, other than it make it sound like he knows what he is talking about and lend a sense of credence to his position (even if only for his own sense of well-being).

Side note: what does James do at their work? I seem to have it in my head he is in advertising or marketing. If that is the case, then image - and selling it - would make some sense as to James' outlook.

Tracy is still hiding her cam-girl side job from James. She is afraid that he won't approve of her extra activity, and/or how sexual (or sharing her sexuality with others for money) it is. I can understand her feelings in this matter. If my theory above is correct, then both of them are hiding from the other.

Someone posted the funny connection that James is a white knight (sort of) and Tracy is a (sort of slutty) cam-girl, paraphrased. I can't help but find humor at the imagery of James falling on his sword (well, Gary's sword really). If my theory holds I suspect once Tracy explains her cam-girl job and James accepts a much more open-minded sexuality, that the two of them will get along like a house on fire. I really and truly think James would love being televised and acting as her sub, or spanking her too. Deep down, James seems like he would enjoy sex of many flavors a lot, but has deep-rooted and ill-conceived notions about what is socially acceptable. It is just funny and a little sad that Gary (of all people) is the tool to open him up.

rfor the long post

[someone]

At this point I’d be fully prepared to believe James is full-blown gay, and he will be out of the closet before this arc is over.

It's a spooky ghost story for Halloween.


You see, once upon a time, there used to be a character in Ma3 who really, really craved cock. His name was Dillon and he was the most flamboyantly gay man you could design. Eventually, he was cast out in exile to a different webcomic, known by the letters "SDB". But he didn't like it there, so he disappeared from that webcomic entirely, and after a while "SDB" died. And Dillon died with it! Now Dillon's angry ghost, hungry for spotlight and gay sex, has come back to haunt Ma3 and he is possessing James, turning him into a ravenous power bottom.

[Spidrift]

Not King Lear, maybe, but that plot was tiresome in how they revisited old plot points without really developing them past that except the part where Sonya quit the band, which still ended on a bit of an abrupt, ambiguous note. Hell, some of us couldn't even figure out who to root for in those scenes because of all the past baggage that made Zii look like an egomaniac who never learns from her mistakes, DiDi look like an idiot who somehow bumbles her way into good things all the time because big boobies and Sonya look like a major hypocrite who broke up two relationships, cheering herself for the second one, then went all prima donna when it happened to her.

So who needs to root for anybody? I mean, once in a while I'll have a punch-the-air moment on behalf of a character, preferably when it's been earned (I mean, the ending of Casablanca, or Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, and a Stuka, or even Ruby saving Dillon from unwanted advances - that's characters worth rooting for), but sometimes it's about the journey. The Zii/Sonya/DiDi story was about three characters who keep making really bad choices, and who were eventually buried by the barn full of chickens coming home to roost. It had its faults, gods know; the characters still had to have the usual Ma3 modal IQ of ~80, and it needed a coincidence or two. But it was still a story about characters doing things for recognisable motives beyond sheer stupidity, and we can all wonder what's going to happen next. It gave me reasons to carry on reading the comic.

Then this story happened.

I can think of a few better plot threads we could have picked up but evidently G and D aren't really listening to our outcries right now.

And thank the gods for that. We're entitled to complain about the comic if we don't like it - and hell, I think we're entitled right now - but we have no freaking right at all to tell G&D what to write. That's not how it works.

I have a terrible feeling that G and D think that they’re giving us some light relief

I have a terrible feeling that both think that stories like these were funny.

Probably. But the stylistic whiplash is such that I do suspect that the lead writer on this story is not the same person as the lead writer on the immediately preceding story.

Is he laughing or screaming in pain?

I imagine he feels that he's on the brink of doing either of those things in the next five seconds.

Note that he had no problem at all with the prospect of receiving anal from Gary as long as he was able to get a BJ from him as well.

Nonsense.

[worldshaking00]

OK, I recant: not "no problem" but replace that with 'caved in without much effort if receiving a Gary-BJ was on the table." One would expect that the anal experience would be more traumatic than the reward for receiving the BJ. YMMV, but stereotypical homophobic reaction would be probably more strong to the anal than the BJ... although argument could be made for a 'hell no' to either. At least, that is what Gary & Tracy were banking on.

That is why one of the reasons why I think James has some sort of pre-Tracy (young adult even?) trauma around ejaculate-in-the-face as opposed to butt sex. He didn't seem to complain much about receiving Tracy's enema in prep for Gary's round of anal destruction. And unless it was trauma from watching his dad's stash of porn vids and deciding that getting goo in the face was revolting, it makes more sense that he experimented homosexually earlier on in his life. Maybe he gave and/or received anal (and liked it) and his partner orgasmed on him and he got spooked. Or maybe he thinks his masculine image would be compromised by acting gay, and thus built up some elaborate (if cooky) quasi-feminist agenda around his anti-BJ stance. Then Gary came along and combined with Tracy's peer pressure, got really turned on by his taboo hidden fantasies.

Or, James is being possessed by Dillon's spooky ghost, as someone posted above

[TheFoolishOne]

I disagree with Spindrift in that (not bragging here) I have had a double BJ and have had the same expression on my face as Gary has in the last panel, Giz has drawn a wonderful facial expression

[Vitocap]

You see, once upon a time, there used to be a character in Ma3 who really, really craved cock. His name was Dillon and he was the most flamboyantly gay man you could design. Eventually, he was cast out in exile to a different webcomic, known by the letters "SDB". But he didn't like it there, so he disappeared from that webcomic entirely, and after a while "SDB" died. And Dillon died with it! Now Dillon's angry ghost, hungry for spotlight and gay sex, has come back to haunt Ma3 and he is possessing James, turning him into a ravenous power bottom.

Wonderful.
Well done, sir.

[LegendaryKroc]

So who needs to root for anybody?

Not necessarily you, it seems, but some people do and I happen to be one of them. I can root for the bad guys if need be, but if there's no one worth rooting for, generally-speaking, you've lost me. I mainly stuck around because I'd been waiting forever for them to get back to the plot point of DiDi and Zii's would-be feelings of attraction for each other and if, though that's a very big if, a plausible and healthy relationship could come out of it. It makes an excellent plot point that I really hope they pick up on next.

I mean, once in a while I'll have a punch-the-air moment on behalf of a character, preferably when it's been earned (I mean, the ending of Casablanca, or Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, and a Stuka, or even Ruby saving Dillon from unwanted advances - that's characters worth rooting for), but sometimes it's about the journey. The Zii/Sonya/DiDi story was about three characters who keep making really bad choices, and who were eventually buried by the barn full of chickens coming home to roost. It had its faults, gods know; the characters still had to have the usual Ma3 modal IQ of ~80, and it needed a coincidence or two. But it was still a story about characters doing things for recognisable motives beyond sheer stupidity, and we can all wonder what's going to happen next. It gave me reasons to carry on reading the comic.

Then this story happened.

And we're all suffering for it.

And thank the gods for that. We're entitled to complain about the comic if we don't like it - and hell, I think we're entitled right now - but we have no freaking right at all to tell G&D what to write. That's not how it works.

Not 100% sure what I was getting at, but demanding they change the plot wasn't it at all. More in the ballpark of, I dunno, making suggestions that can be taken or left.

Complaining, on the other hand... Coming here for that seems like a useless exercise if we're just screaming into a dead phone. I don't really need to complain about the anger and frustration these comics are causing me lately to deal with it, I have a stress ball for that. I come here to offer relevant feedback and toss my 2 C into the debate ring when appropriate.

[Opus the Poet]

Here, for both of us:

Ah yes I remember that episode well, except that's a photoshop from two other episodes. Picard has no reflection or shadow on the table while Riker does. But it does express the emotions of the current strip well.

Anyways, I know the "no female nipples" thing is done and dusted, but surely the advertisers wouldn't be okay with a guy - even if no private parts are directly shown - quite explicitly getting a blowjob and then two simultaneous blowjobs?

We really, really have been over all of this before. The amount of sexual weirdness in the comic sometimes seems to have gone up since the nipple censorship began; this isn't much raunchier than the masked bisexual foursome, complete with Gary and Matt working on Peggy simultaneously, after all. I do wonder if the writers are taking the piss out of the advertisers for operating such stupid, simplistic rules. But it's not news.

Sorry, didn't mean to dredge up old news. I wasn't paying attention
in the forums around the main discussion's time, so I was just unclear on the "rules" set by the advertisers.

They don't care if the strip depicts vore as long as there are no nipples or genitals depicted. One strip I read has one of those snake women (can't remember the name for the creature ATM) with breasts but no nipples who regularly feeds on volunteers she finds on the internet with the promise of mind blowing sex first. No nipples no bits but people getting eaten alive = good to go.

Double post merged. The DAMNed

[BlairFan]

They should take turns felating Gary, otherwise it's rude.

[Error of Logic]

They don't care if the strip depicts vore as long as there are no nipples or genitals depicted. One strip I read has one of those snake women (can't remember the name for the creature ATM) with breasts but no nipples who regularly feeds on volunteers she finds on the internet with the promise of mind blowing sex first. No nipples no bits but people getting eaten alive = good to go.

You mean Naga from "Does Not Play Well With Others"?
There used to be strips where she did have nipples, but she retracted them when one of the other characters told her that moral guardians had complained, iirc. After that, she mostly wore shirts.

[UnsightlyWalrus]

I wonder... do you think James is actually more gay than he's bi? Maybe he hadn't realized it before.

It's a spooky ghost story for Halloween.


You see, once upon a time, there used to be a character in Ma3 who really, really craved cock. His name was Dillon and he was the most flamboyantly gay man you could design. Eventually, he was cast out in exile to a different webcomic, known by the letters "SDB". But he didn't like it there, so he disappeared from that webcomic entirely, and after a while "SDB" died. And Dillon died with it! Now Dillon's angry ghost, hungry for spotlight and gay sex, has come back to haunt Ma3 and he is possessing James, turning him into a ravenous power bottom.

He does look exactly like Dillon on panel 2........