24-02-18 One of those myself

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worldshaking00
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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by worldshaking00 »

Panel 1 sets up the location for the conversation. It also shows us that Lynn understands French well enough to be polite and (assumingly) function in day-to-day life affairs. Honestly, being multilingual is a good skill to have in her line(s) of work (wrestling and acting). Some folks might have a challenging time understanding Didi's franglish, but this helps illustrate Lynn's linguistic skills.

It would also be a little odd to not have the panel since there was no transition from Lynn's car. I suppose the creative team could have just placed an editorial "Meanwhile... at a local cafe..." blurb-box on top of current panel 2 and make that a new panel 1 and draw out the conversation to the same punchline at panel 4. However, I think we get a better and quicker set-up as it was delivered to us. Nothing has changed overall: Didi is still jumping to conclusions and is oblivious to Lynn's advances, Didi 'knows' she wants more orgasms and also 'knows' that a relationship isn't just sex, and Lynn is giving great advice (if only in an attempt to lure Didi into her lover & work circle.)
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Spidrift
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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by Spidrift »

I’m sure that Lynn is supposed to be smart and competent, but honestly — ordering coffee, and saying “thanks, charge it to my room”? That’s basic restaurant French. Anyone who regularly travels to a Francophone area should be able to manage that.

And if this scene was supposed to be set in a random coffee shop or whatever, we could just have cups with a coffee chain logo or something. The strip could be written a thousand ways to similar effect — but G&D chose one that makes it clear that they’re back at Lynn’s hotel. (Curiously, she’s not staying with the girlfriend she visited after her first appearance...) That may all be arbitrary randomness, but there’s a chance it’ll be plot-relevant. We’ll see, probably within a week from now.
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brasca
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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by brasca »

Sometimes I wonder if DiDi is really that dim because yet again someone who's more clever than her is off her guard with just one innocent question.

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Spidrift
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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by Spidrift »

If DiDi actually systematically exploited the way that people are thrown by her stupidity, I could believe that it was a cunning pose. As it is, though... Nah.
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SAGG
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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by SAGG »

DiDi's stupidity vs. Sonya's: Which is worse? 😁

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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by Spidrift »

Sonya is just ordinary-dim and a bit inflexible. There are serious hints that she’s got a decent brain when she bothers to use it — some of her cunning plans work, and the way she broke Yuki away from Zii was quick-witted and sneaky. She’s a fairly believable human being.

DiDi’s dimness comes from a whole other planet. Even when she accomplishes stuff, it’s by forcing the universe to conform to her assumptions. She’s essence of dumb blonde, and really a broken person.
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Khazuki
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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by Khazuki »

I just realized that Didi isn't just being an idiot here, she's forgetting something Lynn said just a couple strips ago (http://www.ma3comic.com/strips-ma3/seri ... ur-partner) about how she "couldn't go without sex for months". And Didi's idiocy doesn't usually take this form.

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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by Spidrift »

True, good point. This is DiDi being written even dumber than usual, for the sake of a punchline.
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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by Error of Logic »

Well, let's be fair; she did have a big shock recently, what with hearing Nielsen - her one-stop orgasm-shop - doesn't enjoy sex anymore. People who are rattled tend to have a little trouble thinking.

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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by samtheman »

And with this strip I'm now completely sick and tired of Didi. How much more of the final volume are they going to squander on her dumb and shallow character?

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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by True_Avery »

I'm gonna be honest - I've been mostly a lurker all these years, and I don't go out of my way to shovel dirt onto anything since in the end I am just a reader...

But I am so tired of Didi by this point. We're at the end of this series, and we've seen Gary go from stereotypical virgin anime pervert dork to a pretty respectable, sex machine love magnet with self confidence and a blossoming sense of self. Zii from a cheating, sex driven rocker with only brief moments of levity inbetween continued terrible decisions to a much more well rounded character with goals, aspirations, downs and lows, and a lot of self reflection. Sonya and Yuki have mostly gotten over their fascinations with Zii and Gary, had their fling and are sort of just friends now, and are both moved quite a bit from not-a-lesbian and tentacle dick kick jokes. Sandra got so interesting she got her own webcomic, as did Dilly - and to augment the cast they lifted characters from another series and plopped them in with their own minor arcs, ambitions, etc even if the wrestling storyline has pretty much devoured all other stories going on.

From my perspective, most of the original cast is actually just... done.

Gary: Has realized his sexual prowess, has ambition and self agency, could settle down with a number of girls by now but is having fun with his life freely. His arc is... actually done. His goals from the start are all... completed. He won the hero's journey

Zii: Zii with this final realization that she just isn't into a sex-only relationship with Didi has beaten her very last character hurdle in my book; she has some more story to do, but that realization was the culmination of her lust for didi, her ignoring of other relationships for her, her realization she needs more than sex after a lot of time denying intimacy, realized she is toxic and is trying to fix herself, and is well on her way to joining Gary on the feel good express. If Gary's story is over, Zii's is like 90% there - she has a long way to go to functionally being a good person, and has problems with honesty, but I don't think that'll get resolved by the end; her arc was just getting to this point.

Sonya and Yuki: I think the reason we don't see a lot of these two anymore is... their arcs actually finished the day the two sorta broke up, stuck with being bang friends, and realized Zii was a bad part of their history they could move past. Even both moving past Gary being an obsession, tentacles has not been brought up in forever, Sonya is still in joke denial but is on her way to being normal. Both don't have much else to do, which is why they're in this band storyline as backups to Zii's last 10% of development. They had their arcs and beat their journeys.

Sandra: Sandra is headed straight into her own gay car accident that'll prolly blow up her love life, which will probably be resolved in some comedy way at the end of her comic - Hell, she developed so well that she is the only side comic still standing; I'd argue Sandra outclassed every other MA3 character to such a degree that not having her in the main story anymore is... a really good idea because she's absolutely rocking it elsewhere. Her development is probably going to dip over the crest into some kind of confrontation between Pierre, her safe choice, and Cammi, her lust choice and if she ends up with one of them or neither. Her arc is just primarily her trying to get over her crippling ability to just lie constantly, but her journey is probably at the 80% mark and dipping into the last hurdle.

There are a ton of side characters, but you get my point...

Then we get to Didi.

I don't get Didi after a decade. What in the world is her arc - She was so hot that it made her a ditz? She wanted to have a sex partner who could give her an orgasm? Then her arc becomes... getting over an orgasm addiction? What the heck is Didi's dream. What are her aspirations in life anymore than having a partner love her 100% unconditionally and give her infinite orgasm? Is her arc to discover that... other people have feelings too? After a decade of story, that is where we are at? She has gotten NO smarter than the first panel she showed up in; infact she astonishingly has gotten dumber and more self centered over time. She is the most toxic person in their social circle, and I'm including Zii who currently has a band of people she has screwed over. We're at the end of the story, and the arc we seem to be resolving is trying to get Didi to understand that there is more to love and life than orgasms, which puts her at like -40% development compared to the rest of the cast. This wrestling storyline, all these wrestler characters, these major plots, and the entire ending of the story is entirely focused around Didi; she has half a dozen cast members exclusively nowadays just to either chase her or fulfill this last volume wrestling dream we've just been made aware of.

I will adamantly sit here and say anyone who can say none of the other characters have developed in any way are simply out of their minds - I find the hate Gary has gotten over the past arcs to the most embarrassing "omg guys don't like butt stuff what a beta male" absolute BS outside a bodybuilder alpha male nonsense subreddit. It made me hate most of the members here to the point of dropping this forum as a regular spot.

But one thing I will sit here and say after a decade is that after years of just seeing Didi as background story to the cast, this last hurrah focus on her has absolutely made me hate her character and seeing how vastly little she has grown where all the others have flourished leaves me with no other option but to see her as a terminally selfish and impossibly dumb gag character who's selfish blonde routine honestly wasnt funny to me the day she was introduced to the plot as a giant pair of headlights for people to run into. I held out for years hoping she'd take the Gary route and stop being such a dumpster fire, but this panel just clinches it - I'm so tired of her. I'm tempted to say the last couple books would just have been better if her character had been StickDillyBun'd and disappeared into her own comic. Hell, I think if she had mysteriously fallen into Sandra on the Rocks she could have become a pretty compelling character in that more socially active cast.

But as it stands, no. I wash my hands of this. I am completely fed up with Didi, her entire side cast that should of been its own Didi On the Ropes webcomic, this wrestling storyline, and her punishingly slow, agonizing journey to discovering the very, smallest, tiniest basics of human decency and empathy while the rest of the cast has graduated into being saints in comparison. I would argue her character infact is now 100% over now that Zii has realized she doesn't want her anymore, because Zii's entire decade long story was about trying to get Didi and failing then rebounding. Didi was a side character in Zii's story.

I love menagea3 and have been following it since like the 20th page - it is the webcomic I turn on first everytime I wake up to see updates. I love Sandra on the Rocks, I loved eerie cuties. This entire comic ring has been apart of my life for a third of my life and to this day I still love it and it will hold a special place in my heart. But, in half a decades time when I stumble back to reread the whole series... I will be pressing Next Page on every single Didi arc I come across.

Sigh

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OllieOrOlly
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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by OllieOrOlly »

Spidrift wrote:
Sat Feb 24, 2018 2:00 pm
OllieOrOlly wrote:
Sat Feb 24, 2018 12:51 pm
I could be wrong - and won't be back to check until Monday, anyway - yet Lynn isn't in an open relationship, right?
Unknown. She has one or more friends-with-benefits arrangements running; one of them may actually be defined as an open relationship. The borderline between the two categories could be quite fuzzy, after all.
True, though even by the nebulous definitions of "open relationship," we haven't seen anything that concrete to prove Lynn has a committed open relationship or merely multiple friends with benefits. Just in the context of the scene, it seems as though Lynn is trying to get to DiDi by planting the idea that seeking sex outside of an "emotionally monogamous" pair isn't adultery, thus making it seem less skeevy.
It feels likely that Lynn will *help* by not only offering her services, but also neglecting to mention that one should probably discuss with their partner whether an open relationship is acceptable to them. DiDi has been someone that follows assumptions to folly, thereby could be convinced to hook up with Lynn and assume Zii would be okay with it after the fact.
Spidrift wrote:
Sun Feb 25, 2018 8:04 am
DiDi’s dimness comes from a whole other planet. Even when she accomplishes stuff, it’s by forcing the universe to conform to her assumptions. She’s essence of dumb blonde, and really a broken person.
I concur, though to borrow your pedantic shtick ;) : "broken person" suggests that some terrible thing happened to ruin an originally okay person, DiDi, however, is more of an aberration of nature, rather than a traumatised victim; she wasn't always as repulsive as she has become, though she did seem to have an underlining apathy towards anyone besides herself, which felt more callous than neutral.

Quote attribution fixed. Double post merged. The DAMNed

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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by Osaru Sensei »

True_Avery wrote:
Mon Feb 26, 2018 2:11 am
Sonya: Sonya is headed straight into her own gay car accident that'll prolly blow up her love life, which will probably be resolved in some comedy way at the end of her comic - Hell, she developed so well that she is the only side comic still standing; I'd argue Sandra outclassed every other MA3 character to such a degree that not having her in the main story anymore is... a really good idea because she's absolutely rocking it elsewhere. Her development is probably going to dip over the crest into some kind of confrontation between Pierre, her safe choice, and Cammi, her lust choice and if she ends up with one of them or neither. Her arc is just primarily her trying to get over her crippling ability to just lie constantly, but her journey is probably at the 80% mark and dipping into the last hurdle.
Please do elaborate.
Spidrift wrote:
Thu Jul 14, 2016 5:16 pm
She is indeed a wonderful artist who could doubtless turn her hand to anything, but from what I've seen, I don't get the feeling that she's very interested in depicting some of those bits in all their wrinkly Lovecraftian glory.
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Spidrift
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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by Spidrift »

I suspect that TA simply committed a typo there, and the first two words should be “Sandra”.

By the way, while I wouldn’t put it anything like as strongly as TA, I can’t disagree much with her reading of the comic. Most of the cast have developed into moderately rounded characters — if not three-dimensional, then a creditable two-and-a-half-dimensional, given the medium — and have undergone a bit of development. I do think it’s a bit much to say that Gary has undergone a “hero’s journey”; the hero is supposed to be a bit more proactive. For many years, he was the yawning void of characterlessness at the heart of the comic, unearned gift for oral sex notwithstanding, and all that’s really happened with him is that he’s finally snapped under the strain and expressed the occasional opinion. He’s still a bit of a nullity, but whatever — I can’t be bothered to begrudge him his happy ending. And most of the others have evolved somewhat logically.

DiDi, though, was introduced as a plot device (a pair of plot devices, fnah fnah), and the writers are still struggling to make her anything more. As someone rather brilliantly pointed out a few days ago, all the plot decisions that kept her anorgasmia joke running closed off her nicer original character features, so she’s no longer even the sweet-natured ditz of her early appearances. The wrestling thing will, I’m sure, eventually give her a way to use her weird physical strength a good use, and thus give her the semblance of a happy ending, but I doubt that many readers will cheer it.
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Re: 24-02-18 One of those myself

Post by worldshaking00 »

"Cheat Day", kayfabe, little if any communication skills, decent advice with ulterior motives, selfishness, and general ditz cluelessness: what can possibly go wrong - or indeed right - when Didi is involved?
"Be excellent to each other." - Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
"Like my old grand daddy used to say, 'The less a man makes declarative statements, the less apt he is to look foolish in retrospect.'" - Chester Rush, Four Rooms
Chivalry isn't dead, it just followed wherever being lady-like went.

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