12-08-14 I like someone else

[Spidrift]

Which isn't to say that people shouldn't be negative about Dillon but they could at least try to be a bit imaginative and entertaining in how they go about it.

You wouldn't believe how tempting I find that sentence...

But anyway - Minew shifted from under the bedclothes, around knee level, to the top of Dillon's head, while both Dillon and Ruby shifted position completely while in physical contact with each other. But nobody seems to have noticed these changes before now. Am I an unusually light sleeper, or is that weird?

[FlashD81]

<reads the thread>

My view of this could be partly a view of the past and the result of his current situation.

To clarify, panels one and two are a look at Dillon early in high school with him suppressing his true sexual nature. While panel three when he can't breath, is a result of Ruby hanging on Dillon in panel four. Ruby "looking for love" while she was sleeping in panel four possibly intensified that part of the dream. She is practically drooling all over him, or just plain drooling, and I bet if you mention it to her in the morning she will deny everything.

This look into the past might have been a part of Dillon's life that he repressed or forgot about. Ray might have reacted badly if/when Dillon admitted that he likes him. How this leads to his current attitude and situation is beyond me at the moment. If this leads to some growth for Dillon then I'm all for it.

Ruby really does need some affection at least on the subconscious level. This is why Dillon is here for because I don't think her sister is in the state of mind to offer more than moral support.

*edit* added more clarity to the um... clarity portion of the post.

[crimzontearz]

Which isn't to say that people shouldn't be negative about Dillon but they could at least try to be a bit imaginative and entertaining in how they go about it.

You wouldn't believe how tempting I find that sentence...

But anyway - Minew shifted from under the bedclothes, around knee level, to the top of Dillon's head, while both Dillon and Ruby shifted position completely while in physical contact with each other. But nobody seems to have noticed these changes before now. Am I an unusually light sleeper, or is that weird?

I sleep with two puggles and a basset hound and I nearly never wake up from them moving.

[leftturnonly]

Though it's most likely an epiphany for Dillon, about Dillon; I'm wondering if this dream along with all the times he teased and pressured Ruby about dating men, is causing Dillon to believe Ruby is the same as him when he was younger?

[Spidrift]

To clarify, panels one and two are a look at Dillon early in high school with him suppressing his true sexual nature. While panel three is a result of Ruby "looking for love" while she was sleeping.

I think that you mean panel four.

She is practically drooling all over him and I bet if you mention it to her in the morning she will deny everything.

It's hard to tell in the blue line version, but I think she is drooling, no "practically" about it. She's not a dignified sleeper. She's going to have to wind her fastidiousness back several notches on the day she first actually shares a bed with someone she likes.

Ray might have reacted badly if/when Dillon admitted that he likes him.

"Likes" meaning "fancies" here, of course. Anyway, the nice, comedy version of this plot has Ray severely weirded out for several days. (He doesn't appear to have been an especially bad guy, but he took it as read that Dillon was interested in girls. With the best will in the world, there's a bit of a paradigm shift required.) The mid-level hard plot has him more or less never speaking to Dillon again. The harsh version of the story, unlikely in this context, has him beating Dillon up.

Frankly, in this context, though, Ray is less important than the nameless girl in the background. If she really was interested in Dillon, she probably got confused and annoyed when he failed to react to her hints, and may have taken him coming out as a personal insult. (In other comics, this kind of thing has been known to drive other female characters to supervillainy.) Even if she was cool about it in the end, Dillon may actually have noticed that he'd hurt her. It may well have got messy one way or another. So if Dillon now thinks that Ruby is developing the wrong sort of emotions towards him (instead of turning into a nice, safe, compliant fag hag), he may actually get worried.

How this leads to his current attitude and situation is beyond me at the moment.

There's lots of possible paths from there to here, but most likely it came down to a simple sense of relief and release when Dillon was finally able to admit to the truth in public. The current Dillon is probably more or less how Dillon always wanted to be at heart, but he was doubtless scared of the consequences and generally confused about his feelings for a few years. He may also have over-reacted when he discovered that being out as gay was allowed, at least in the big city, and spent the last few years celebrating the fact, loudly.

Ruby really does need some affection at least on the subconscious level. This is why Dillon is here for because I don't think her sister is in the state of mind to offer more than moral support.

I'd have thought that the trouble is that Dillon has bollixed up any chance of Ruby accepting sincere affection from him. She'll see him as too shallow and manipulative to trust that far. As she doesn't trust Amber at all, and she doesn't trust her parents not to prefer Amber... She's just going to have to work this one through for herself. With some help from Minew, of course.

Though it's most likely an epiphany for Dillon, about Dillon; I'm wondering if this dream along with all the times he teased and pressured Ruby about dating men, is causing Dillon to believe Ruby is the same as him when he was younger?

While Dillon is capable of almost anything (except tact), he's seen her badly-hidden reactions to various men, including Jerzy. I doubt that he'd be quite stupid enough to write those observations off entirely. Plus, if he raised the idea, Ruby would probably get irritated enough to tell him how wrong he was (probably letting slip some embarrassing admissions about her feelings about men in the process).

[DrAngryEd]

I have to admit I didn't saw that coming...maybe on this arc Dillon will dig deeper looking for the roots of his hunk-chaser issues.
Am I the only one who finds this Ray guy similar on Matt's looks?

[Razmos]

I can kinda see the resemblance to Matt, yeah. As well as to Gary, Jerzy, and the Richie guy from the whole crickets debacle.

It would be nice to see potentially why Dillon has turned out as he has. The whining from Crimsontearz up there frankly I find a bit annoying. It's one thing disliking a character, but your opinion of them can always change.

Saying "oh, any character growth or backstory would just be tacked on to try and make us like them more". well DUH. What do you expect them to do with the character? If you hate them so much you wouldn't want them to stay as a plain two-dimensional character.

I personally have high hopes for where a plot like this could lead. even if the flashbacks don't redeem his character, the redemption could come later, since he is clearly having these flashbacks in the same way we are.

[dmra]

Which isn't to say that people shouldn't be negative about Dillon but they could at least try to be a bit imaginative and entertaining in how they go about it.

You wouldn't believe how tempting I find that sentence...

Trust me, I would. You don't strike me at the kind of person who can resist a challenge.

Looking back at my comment I realise now that it might read as if I was classifying you as one of the "Dillon sux" crowd. In fact you just gave me a convenient opening quote to hang my message on. While I suspect you do feel that way about him (most of the time anyway) you are at least willing (albeit sometimes with a heavy side dish of snark) to engage with people who see it differently.

[crimzontearz]

I can kinda see the resemblance to Matt, yeah. As well as to Gary, Jerzy, and the Richie guy from the whole crickets debacle.

It would be nice to see potentially why Dillon has turned out as he has. The whining from Crimsontearz up there frankly I find a bit annoying. It's one thing disliking a character, but your opinion of them can always change.

Saying "oh, any character growth or backstory would just be tacked on to try and make us like them more". well DUH. What do you expect them to do with the character? If you hate them so much you wouldn't want them to stay as a plain two-dimensional character.

I personally have high hopes for where a plot like this could lead. even if the flashbacks don't redeem his character, the redemption could come later, since he is clearly having these flashbacks in the same way we are.

lovely, disliking a character is whining now.

Sure, the opinions on a character can change....through character growth FORWARD character growth, not retroactive pity parties that explain to us how he got where he is. Case in point, TIM from ME2/3. His back story comic is not growth, it just explains how he became the **** we want to shoot in the head.

[FlashD81]

To clarify, panels one and two are a look at Dillon early in high school with him suppressing his true sexual nature. While panel three is a result of Ruby "looking for love" while she was sleeping.

I think that you mean panel four.

Son of a... thanks for pointing it out. I'm going to fix my post now.

*edit* for those not wanting to scroll back up:

To clarify, panels one and two are a look at Dillon early in high school with him suppressing his true sexual nature. While panel three when he can't breath, is a result of Ruby hanging on Dillon in panel four. Ruby "looking for love" while she was sleeping in panel four possibly intensified that part of the dream. She is practically drooling all over him, or just plain drooling, and I bet if you mention it to her in the morning she will deny everything.

[SilentChaos87]

So totally "D'awwww"d at Ruby in that last panel.

[Spidrift]

Which isn't to say that people shouldn't be negative about Dillon but they could at least try to be a bit imaginative and entertaining in how they go about it.

You wouldn't believe how tempting I find that sentence...

Trust me, I would. You don't strike me at the kind of person who can resist a challenge.

I can resist anything except tempta...

Damn, that's not actually true. I can resist temptation moderately well. (At least up to 65% cocoa solids or so. Beyond that, all bets are off.) You're actually getting the nice, restrained me here.

Looking back at my comment I realise now that it might read as if I was classifying you as one of the "Dillon sux" crowd. In fact you just gave me a convenient opening quote to hang my message on. While I suspect you do feel that way about him (most of the time anyway) you are at least willing (albeit sometimes with a heavy side dish of snark) to engage with people who see it differently.

I do try to treat him as a fictional phenomenon, not a person who justifies hatred (or serious love). He just keeps illustrating character traits I find irritating.

This time round, for the record, while playing the game of treating cartoon characters as if they were real people, I can feel a fair amount of sympathy for Teenage-Dillon. He may be in a stock situation, but it's a stock situation that sucks. Of course, he's not the only one; it also sucks to be an adolescent nerd, or I gather a teen goth, or I imagine a heterosexual teenage sports star who doesn't like fart gags. But the gay kids probably have it worst. However, the situation only gets Teenage-Dillon sympathy. It doesn't get him a lifetime licence to act like a jerk.

On the other hand, I don't think that's actually what the writers are suggesting. I don't see this scene as an explanation of why Dillon is like he is today. We can talk about reaction or over-compensation, but really, he's like he is because he's Dillon. The sadness of this scene is that Dillon is feeling unable to be himself; today, he no longer has that problem. What the scene looks to me like it's going to do is explain some of Dillon's upcoming interactions with Ruby - for worse or, hopefully, for better.

So totally "D'awwww"d at Ruby in that last panel.

Talking of characters who've been softened as the strip gas gone on... Ruby started out mostly looking somewhat formal, which is after all how she wants to look. Recently, the writers have been busting a gut to get her into the shower, or into a tank top and shades, or like this in a nightshirt. I'm not complaining; she looks great, and it's one way of pushing her sympathetic side. But, well, maybe it's my latent submissive tendencies surfacing, but I hope that she doesn't ever entirely lose her dignity or her formal side. It's how she wants to be, and it suits her really.

[Optimus Kate]

His back story comic is not growth, it just explains how he became the **** we want to shoot in the head.

Okay, dude, really?

I've always found your weird violent fantasies about the characters pretty absurd, but "shoot in the head"?

Is that REALLY necessary? I know Dillon is a fictional character but do you think you can tone down the violent mental imagery just a little bit? You sound like a total psychopath sometimes.

[Abraxas]

Maybe kicked in the nuts or a mild ass kicking...but bullets really should be reserved for truly deplorable behavior.

Dillion isn't a supervillian... he is just a Narcisstic Jerk who is too dense to see it -granted Author apply is in play due to pretty much most if not all the characters warm up to Dillion-

anyway

and so begins the Explain Dillion's backstory... most likely a calculated move to in an attempt to regain Dillion sympathy points... I hope this isn't just "explains How we got here in an attempt that the revelations will have you reevaluate the character".

[Geeno]

Regarding Minew. I have noticed over the years the kittens like to sleep arched over the top of your head. They wait until you're asleep to do it, because you keep pushing them off otherwise, but every time we've had a kitten in the house, either my wife or I wakes up with it by our head. Adult cats not so much.