I'm not clear how being good at her hobby makes her a good (or a bad) person. It's just a thing she does, with little moral content. Actually, it turns out the real world is full of professional chefs who are also horrible people. Not that DiDi is like them, and okay, it lets her be nice to people in her way, but... Really? That's evidence of ... anything much?LegendaryKroc wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2017 2:14 amAs I recall, she was the only cook in the house for a long time, not that it was ever that prominent except that it was just another thing she was pretty good at. Pretty sure that wasn't shallow, but never mind.
Stop moving the damn goalposts. We're talking about character development, I point out that Sonya has had lots -- which makes her more interesting than most of the other characters (in my opin... oh screw it, if you aren't taking that as read by now I give up), so you say "Aha! But it's not moral development! She's a bad person!"I'm well-aware of what Character Development constitutes, now that you mention it. And I'm aware of all those changes you keep bringing up, but let me ask you a question: What about developing her morality? How's that worked out?
Well, you know what? I don't care. If I wanted "moral" characters, I wouldn't be reading Ma3. None of the cast are morally impeccable, and although most of them aren't monsters, and can be quite nice if you catch them at the right moment, very few of them actually think about what's morally right or wrong. (Peggy, maybe, if she isn't too exhausted, Ruby if she can get her head clear enough.)
What? These are Ma3 characters. If you think that they should be undergoing "moral" improvement, and can't enjoy the sight of people misbehaving in new and interesting ways, why the hell are you still reading this of all comics?Just because change is not intrinsically good does not mean I have to enjoy changes that are negative or regressive, or irrelevant to morality.
No, sorry, don't bother answering that. I'm not really interested. Especially as the answer would probably involve thirty lines of tangentially irrelevant DC comics references.
DiDi evidently likes to think of herself as a "good person", and is too deeply stupid to realise that she isn't. That's why I keep harping on about her being shallow. She's never shown any signs of understanding what she does wrong. (Even Sonya does better than that, even if she does glory in it sometimes.) Sure, when even she can't avoid seeing the consequences of her actions, she gets all weepy or apologetic about them for a panel or two -- but then she goes right back to being DiDi.Let me put it to you like this: Yes, DiDi has been very, very bad to those around her at times. Yes, a lot of the things you've said about her are true. But one thing I've noticed throughout this comic has been that sometimes, when she does or is tempted to do something heinous, she realises she was in the wrong and apologises.
And by the way, I think that you may be misreading the shoulder angels and devils in this comic. So far as I can see, they don't represent actual, objective "good" and "evil". They're simply visual representations of a character's subconscious processes. The angels are what the character thinks is "good", and the devils are what they think might be "wrong". So Zii, who has an especially scrambled and under-used sense of right and wrong and tries to avoid the whole subject, has an angel and devil who are forever getting confused, and who gave up altogether during the Yvan date -- while DiDi, who likes to think of herself as a "good person", has a gigantic shoulder angel which conspicuously failed to stop her from traumatising half the male population of Montreal. Frankly, it's not a symbol of goodness so much as of self-righteous hypocrisy.
Oh, she had difficulty breaking up with her original boyfriend because she wanted to do it the right way. And she liked the idea of solving Peggy's problems, the first time they met. And she tried to let Gary down gently when dumping him. (Uniquely bloody awful sense of timing, but you can't have everything.) And she helped Yuki with Matt. (Rough on Matt, but she presumably reckoned he could handle it.) And she seems to try to be considerate of Peggy's problems. She has her own peculiar sense of what's the right thing to do, when she remembers.We've almost never seen Sonya do anything purely out of kindness and devotion, and the one time I can think of involved her obsessive love for Zii (that business with the concert the performed at).
We are both reading the same comic, aren't we? Menage a 3? The one that's absolutely chock-full of arbitrary random stuff happening to make characters do new and unexpected things?In short, Sonya won't get better without strong motivation, and unless the future conspires to make it so, pardon me if I'm sceptical she can do it.