28-03-19 Tried to avoid facing something

[Mordhaus]

and we went with the whimper ending instead of the bang. oh well.

[christopheftw]

This strip is fairly adorable. I am glad things are shaping up this way.

I’m not sure how anyone could ever have thought of Yuki as a romantic lead or costar in general, let alone a happy ending for Gary. Slightly manic pixie dream girl Zii is way better suited, if the writers wanted to go that way, than Highly Dangerously MANIC pixie dream girl Yuki. As written, she’s lucky to have paired off at all, much less complementarily.

My vote for final strip. The roomies are out celebrating, come back to the apartment to find the door slightly ajar, and walk in on Lita and two alley cats getting it on on Gary’s drawing table.

[Zellgato]

Most folks like Yuki because of how sweet and actually romantic they were shown, building bonds and making emotional connections over a rather long period of time originally.
Despite her (always) phalicphobic maniac moments, she was in fact, originally a fairly normal driven person.
She became more insane and sorta became a joke character as time went.
but originally she was pretty well rounded and paired well with Gary's early development and both of their original life goals had some overlapping.

That was, of course, years ago. but folks reading back then weekly, it lasted for a very long real world time and was something worth shipping. (Kiley too for that matter).

[worldshaking00]

Haha, Lita. Good one!

None of this. I think the next comic will focus on Sonya and her new spy boo doing all sorts of insane, dramatic things.

Dear God, I hope not. Unless Bianca is an even better 007 James Bond, Sonya's days would be numbered. And while Sonya irks me from time-to-time, for the most part her character has grown on me. I'd hate for her to be relegated to be just another Bond/Bianca girl... or wind up painted in gold and suffocate.

I expect one or two new comics. Depending on how Peggy requests her sexual adventurousness and Gary acquiesces, a swinging comic coupling book for the first. Or maybe Kiley, fresh with her diploma, enters the world of couples therapy... Kiley's alternative medicine's version of couples therapy (no insult meant to those who use/practice it btw). As much as it pains me, the second would be a wrestling book. The creative team have laid a lot of ground work and introduced somewhat interesting characters - with ties back to the original Ma3 characters (Zii writing the Tempest's theme, Didi/Roxie, lesbian exploration with Maura & Lynn, to name a few). It would give some artistic challenge, drawing action scenes, and allow for flamboyant writing considering the nature of the sport. Not for everyone, though, which is why I am betting on two. Plus, the Kickstarter postcards that were shown on FB are heavily influenced by the wrestling arc's characters; unless Giz is wanting to give us a final good-bye fan service of those gorgeous ladies (hubba hubba)... odds are we'll see them again. Just my two cents.

BTW, did Gary ever directly say he wanted just a monogamous relationship. I mean, it was stated that he was looking for a serious female partner. I don't recall him saying he would never entertain the idea of being kinky or swinging. I think he would be happiest knowing that his female significant other cared for him and he did likewise, that the pair lived and loved together. Obviously he wouldn't want to entertain the idea of bedding other people who bring baggage or drama to the door. But if everyone is responsible and can respect boundaries, that seems to be right up Gary's alley. Wouldn't want all of Matt's tutelage to go to waste.

[Spidrift]

Most folks like Yuki because of how sweet and actually romantic they were shown, building bonds and making emotional connections over a rather long period of time originally.
Despite her (always) phalicphobic maniac moments, she was in fact, originally a fairly normal driven person.

I would invite you to look at her very first appearance, in which she physically hurled herself at Zii and sought to beat the crap out of Gary while spouting a load of very silly straw lesbian feminism to justify her brutality. “Sweet” was certainly not the word I’d have chosen.

She was always written as mad as a fish. There were hints that she was somewhat curable — hell, she’s been cured enough that Matt and Adrien aren’t dead yet — and if the writers had chosen, sure, they could have taken that through to a full cure. They didn’t choose to have her cured, though, but they haven’t made her any worse.

Or maybe Kiley, fresh with her diploma, enters the world of couples therapy...

Oh gods no.

Much as I love this comic, G&D are only really good about writing about stuff they know. They Do Not Do The Research. (And they improvise a lot, which is often fine, but when they need controlled plotting, the result is a disaster — see DC for one painful example.) Cut them loose on a subject as fiddly to get right as psychotherapy, and the result would be an unholy mess.

BTW, did Gary ever directly say he wanted just a monogamous relationship. I mean, it was stated that he was looking for a serious female partner. I don't recall him saying he would never entertain the idea of being kinky or swinging.

Peggy was wondering about that very same topic just two strips ago. If she isn’t sure of the answer but thinks she should talk it through with him, I think it’s a big To Be Determined.

[worldshaking00]

Yeah. Kiley as a couples therapist was a joke. I did not like the way she handled her 'therapy', especially injecting her own hangups into the mix as a way to justify to herself helping out both her and her 'patient'. I am sure she can be demonized in other ways too. I brought it up not because I think it was wise for the creative team to go that route... but more as a way for them to just have a comic with weird sexy tropes and cliches be serialized. It would be frightening or horrific, and unethical to say the least. Kinky Twilight Zone. That being said, there are still some aspects of Kiley that I like. If she were to clean herself up, she has some potential.

As far as Peggy not knowing the answer, yeah. I know. It was a question directed to the readership. Gary's talked with Zii, Dillon, Peggy, Amber, and maybe a few others about what it is he is looking for out of a romance. I was hoping that something hinting at some sort of more precise outcome was mentioned or inferred coming from his own mouth. Gary is Gary, and as such he doesn't assert what he wants most of the time. He only recently has learned to say 'no'. Heck, he might even still be struggling for exactly what it is he wants, although at his core he has always been wanting female companionship. We know he has gotten a little confused on his sexuality, but we also know he has his limits (especially after having them tested).

It's a lot of strips to mine through, so I am hesitant to go digging and since others have much more encyclopedic memories than I do...

[EvilSnack]

Panel 4 ends with an MA3 character clearing up a misunderstanding at the first opportunity.

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH GIZ AND DAVE?

[Spidrift]

As far as Peggy not knowing the answer, yeah. I know. It was a question directed to the readership. Gary's talked with Zii, Dillon, Peggy, Amber, and maybe a few others about what it is he is looking for out of a romance. I was hoping that something hinting at some sort of more precise outcome was mentioned or inferred coming from his own mouth.

Honestly, the precise parameters and limits of Gary’s tastes, desires, and sexuality are still entirely up to G&D to determine. He’s a fairly well-defined character, certainly by Ma3 standards, but I don’t think we know him in enough detail to guess exactly how that conversation will go. He’s an Ma3 character and a laid-back kind of guy, so I doubt that he’d be too unhappy with the occasional threesome or foursome or weirdness to avoid boredom, but I wouldn’t be stunned if those two settled down to focus on clear-eyed monogamy either.

And that’s fine. The whole point of a conversation to clear things up is that the people having it don’t know the answer before it starts. So why should outsiders?

[Error of Logic]

If this had been the very last Ma3-strip... I think I'd actuslly have been perfectly satisfied with it.

[samtheman]

I'm still waiting and hoping to see if we get a bookend of Gary and Peggy in bed together talking about inviting a third person for a threesome with that third person's reaction in the very last panel of the entire comic.

[sukebe senpai]

If this had been the very last Ma3-strip... I think I'd actuslly have been perfectly satisfied with it.

This. And you know what? I find Peggy's words and actions right here in this strip very sweet.

[samtheman]

I'm still waiting for that "curve ball" and if there isn't one then I'm with Mordhaus in that the comic has gone out with an anticlimactic whimper.

[Zellgato]

I'm kind of half guessing scene change and we'll find out their talk via a different person's POV during their wrap up.
Likely something involving Zii and DD's situation which doesn't really feel wrapped up persay.

Alternative curve ball would be involving the magic comics somehow.
and this all spinning off to a future comic involving all of them and a normalized magic modern world sorta thing.

[raoullefere]

I think everyone here is going a tad overboard with their upset about Matt and Yuki becoming a couple. We saw enough of the beginnings of it, I think, to see what could happen, and now it has: in the wake of Sonya's and Kiley's respective departures from their lives, Matt and Yuki gotten together.

For the moment.

Neither of those two are stable enough to last very long, or at least I don't find them so. Matt will cheat, or Yuki will freak out, or Sondra will return from what has turned out to be yet another fling, or even all three at once. So what we're seeing is yet another phase of a pair of instabilities that has, for the moment, become mutually stable. Sort of.

We've seen some of the same interactions between Matt and Kiley and between Yuki and Sonya (remember that Yuki began interacting with Matt in the name of 'therapy'). All there has really been is rinse and repeat. Maybe we'll get the whole story before the comic folds, but if we don't, while YMMV, I'm not sure there's really much we've missed except for a few repeated character gags.

[Spidrift]

INeither of those two are stable enough to last very long, or at least I don't find them so.

You may well be right, but...

Matt will cheat,

They clearly have an open kind of relationship.

or Yuki will freak out,

She already does, frequently, and Matt loves her for it.

or Sondra will return from what has turned out to be yet another fling,

A fling so dramatic that it’s caused two completely different characters to merge into one?

(Personally, I rather like the idea that ten years down the line, when the Zii-DiDi thing has disintegrated in emotional chaos, and Sonya has finished with Bianca, spent five years freelance, and is now doing field analysis work for Interpol, and Gary and Peggy have drifted amicably apart, Matt and Yuki will still be together, deeply in love and spending more on frniture repairs than on food. But that’s me.)