PTC 20-06-19 The right buttons

[Spidrift]

So maybe somebody needs to find a different plot point for this purpose than “offer nude modelling”. Or a different character motivation than “wants a guy more than sense or sanity”.

Hell, when Zadie first appeared, her motivation seemed to be “wants to start a working life”. That isn’t 100% new round here — we got it with Ruby, a bit — but it looked more interesting and new than “sees hot guy, instantly wants to hand him her knickers”.

There was a period when SDB’s treatment of Ruby seemed bitterly disappointing, because her idea of pursuing a career and making a decent living was being played as stupid and cold. Her story recovered a bit in the end, when she found that she could actually balance her work and emotional lives; I can only hope that Zadie will similarly eventually turn out to be something more than a boy-crazed idiot. But she’s off to a bad start.

(And to be fair, “sees hot guy, instantly gets horny” didn’t have to be dull, even without Zadie going full Sonya. It could have been a one-strip gag followed by an occasional minor joke about her little weakness. But Pixietrix suffer from a tragic tendency to overplay jokes, making their characters look like total morons. For example, Yuki and the blindfold might have been a passable one-strip gag, but instead we got a whole week of cringe-making stupidity.)

[Cresset]

Interesting that Felix is taking it in stride. He's either really mature or more desperate for the job than he lets on. Or a bit of a doormat.

[JoybuzzerX]

On a whim, I went back to the first pages of Ma3 to see what it was like when we were introduced to our new main characters for the first time. Definitely rough around the edges; Zii was shown as overly-insistent and not upfront about her current living condition, but did help Gary score Didi as another roommate and was otherwise nice and nerdy; Didi was nothing but cheerful and helpful; and Gary was nebbish, but sympathetic and put-upon.

In contrast to the cast we're starting with with PTC, it's really just been idiocy and bad decision making from the get go and it's making it really hard to like anybody.

Feels like they're trying to get all the love they see for Ramona on the forums as the way in for the comics. Though, I never thought Ramona was that great of a character.

[Spidrift]

Ramona came across as a likeable person, and it was kind of fun seeing Angel politely slapped down, but she was a bit of a schizophrenic character; quiet, nervous, but with a solid core in her first appearances, then all of a sudden Ruby’s good friend with an extrovert willingness to talk about sex when that was what the plot needed. You could explain that okay by saying that the relationship with Jung helped her out of her shell, but it was a bit of a handbrake turn.

But if Giz wanted to exploit Ramona’s personal popularity, then she should have known better than to have her act like all the rest of the cast — i.e. a hormone-addled fuckwit.

[jish55]

Ramona came across as a likeable person, and it was kind of fun seeing Angel politely slapped down, but she was a bit of a schizophrenic character; quiet, nervous, but with a solid core in her first appearances, then all of a sudden Ruby’s good friend with an extrovert willingness to talk about sex when that was what the plot needed. You could explain that okay by saying that the relationship with Jung helped her out of her shell, but it was a bit of a handbrake turn.

But if Giz wanted to exploit Ramona’s personal popularity, then she should have known better than to have her act like all the rest of the cast — i.e. a hormone-addled fuckwit.

I agree, the thing I really enjoyed about Ramona is how she always had a level head, and didn't seem to follow the same path every other character in this series did. I was honestly hoping for her to be the voice of reason, the one to actually talk sense into the others with Jung by her side. Now, we could be overreacting, and as people said in earlier pages, she could just be enjoying the flattery, which if that's all, then great, but if she ends up dumping/cheating on Jung, that's just not cool, since he hasn't done anything to deserve that.

[Spidrift]

I doubt that she’ll go that far, and I really wasn’t much worried by her enjoying a bit of flattery and even allowing herself a quick leer at a good-looking guy. (Ruby got her into the Yaoi Club by playing on similar susceptibilities, remember.) It’s stuff like these latest strips, though, where she hires Felix on reflex and then starts prompting him to talk about his sex life, that makes her look like a frikking moron. The childish squabbles with Aaron aren’t exactly her taking the high road either.

[Sage]

Considering the first time we met Aaron he was cross-dressing, it's weird he's so homophobic. Given this universe I could totally see a closeted thing happening. Either that, or he gets unceremoniously dumped out of the comic.

[LegendaryKroc]

RE: Aaron - Could this man PLEASE grow a few new character traits? Preferably sympathetic ones?

RE: Everything else - Could this comic PLEASE stop making all its cast out to be different flavours of idiots and/or assholes? I stuck around for the end of the LAST comic you did that I didn't care for, but that was a one-off only. I see all the same mistakes being made, and this time I'm not interested in sticking around for something I don't like. If you can't get your act together with this comic within the next few strips, I'm leaving this site and forum for good.

[SailorDh]

I still see Jung kicking Felix's ass after Felix kicks Aaron's ass.

[Cresset]

Making ultimatums for the next few strips is fruitless since the author probably already has the script written for at least the rest of the chapter. I'd suggest coming back in a month or two so you'll have a better idea

Considering the first time we met Aaron he was cross-dressing, it's weird he's so homophobic. Given this universe I could totally see a closeted thing happening. Either that, or he gets unceremoniously dumped out of the comic.

That wasn't for fun, Jung paid him.

[Error of Logic]

Well, Aaron remains immature ... but so does Zadie, in her own way.

[Ophelianime]

It’s fine. He’s clearly beginning in a place of deeeeep homophobia and general immaturity. That’s not a bad thing unless it stays that way; we were all young and stupid/sheltered/brainwashed at some point. Exploring how he got where he is and how he’ll change as the story progresses is what makes stuff like this interesting.

Thank you for this; you are absolutely right.
I'm ashamed to say it, but at one point in my life, I was pretty homophobic. I just grew up with a lot of negative misconceptions being reinforced and it took me stepping out of my comfort zone, growing up, and developing an open mind to really get out of that stage and it was by no means a quick or easy process. I made blunders, said insensitive things, and got reprimanded for them. And I'm pretty sure that's what's going to happen to Aaron; because the learning process is a messy one.

[Ophelianime]

On a separate note, I'd just like to comment on how much I'm digging Felix's character! He's handsome, he's got an affable personality, and he's got that goth aesthetic going on which I love! And he's apparently heteroflexible! I have to admit, ever since I learned the terms, heteroflexible and homoflexible I've wanted to see them represented somehow. At one point in MA3 I thought that Gary might turn out to be heteroflexible, but it turned out that he just had an aesthetic appreciation for handsome men. So I'm curious as to how Felix's journey throughout this comic is going to go! I hope he turns into more than just an occasionally used side character.
On another note, I think that people might be being a little hard on this strip. To me it feels like a faithful continuation of MA3 from a different angle. Especially when you consider that it's supposed to be a sitcom strip. And the thing about sitcoms is that development happens sssllllooooowwwlllyyy. Take a look at the Big Bang Theory, how immature those characters started out and how long it took them to become more adult-ish.