27-06-14 Take you to the gym

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Giz
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27-06-14 Take you to the gym

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TheEighth
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by TheEighth »

.....oh brother.
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Spidrift
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by Spidrift »

Okay, so Ruby's super-power isn't teleportation or super-speed, it's invisibility. She remained close enough to hear what Amber said, despite vanishing from sight. Useful.

Anyhow, funny as today's strip is, I'm beginning to wish that the plot could move along a bit. These two could at least have had this conversation on the way home. Being stuck in that club watching Dillon being an idiot is generating diminishing returns. The strip also makes Dillon look even more of an inconsiderate, egomaniac jerk, I'm afraid. Aside from the whole "totally disconnected from reality" thing, nobody with an ounce of sensitivity would have used that "old cat lady" line at Ruby, who is not only the cat owner in this conversation, but is the character with the actual, significant problems with human relationships.

Oh well, at least Ruby seems to have got Dillon's number even more correctly than ever. Panel 2 has to be a deeply sarcastic comment from someone who's trying to hint to Dillon that he's a selfish jackass.
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Spidrift
"Brevior vita est quam pro futumentibus negotium agendo."
-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
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Bambikles
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by Bambikles »

lolwhut ? 8-}
Spidrift wrote:nobody with an ounce of sensitivity would have used that "old cat lady" line at Ruby, who is not only the cat owner in this conversation, but is the character with the actual, significant problems with human relationships.
Errrr... I thinik you may overreact a bit here. Ruby is not some litlle fragile flower who can be hurt by backoff comment. If there is something I like with her, it's clearly that she's someone who is tough and can brush off most hardships. Why would she assiociate herself with an ol' crazy cat lady when she's not afraid (yet ?) to end up alone ? Given she makes a point of not being interested in romance.

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Spidrift
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by Spidrift »

Okay, maybe too much sensitivity. Though Ruby is the cat owner there. If she was still being written "confused" rather than "deadpan", she might have come back with "What's wrong with liking cats?".

(Which might have been a good line, actually. Ruby's trying to be nice, in a possibly-snarky way, but Dillon probably ought really to be snapped out of this state.)

It did strike me a while back, though, that the appearance of Minew put Ruby dangerously close to being a junior crazy cat lady. I guess that I like her best when she's being tough, not when she's getting a cute pet to "humanise" her.
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Spidrift
"Brevior vita est quam pro futumentibus negotium agendo."
-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
Avatar misappropriated from the wonderful XKCD.

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Eisu
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by Eisu »

How is owning a cat makes you "dangerously close" to being a junior crazy cat lady?!? Owning a cat just means you're owning a cat, it doesn't mean you're gonna turn into an old crone who doesn't have a companion in life and resorts to getting a lot of cats to fill that companion hole!

You know what makes you a crazy cat lady? By being ALONE and CRAZY and owning A LOT of cats! Just cos Ruby owns ONE cat now, an adorable one too and makes her NOT a robot cos she shows she can be emotional over other living beings (which is A GOOD THING cos this gives her more facets as a character) does NOT make her a Crazy Cat Lady in training.

Edit: (I'm saying all this cos I have a lot of lady friends who has cats for pets (not just 1 but sometimes 2 or 3... also, I have a cat too and am also feeding strays who comes to my backyard) and what you're mentioning there is very close to insulting them)

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UnsightlyWalrus
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by UnsightlyWalrus »

No girl wants to hear a man say that she makes him feel gayer. Well, at least not in this century.

Just like no man wants to hear a girl say that being around him she feels more lesbian.

:))

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Crystafent82
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by Crystafent82 »

Gay means among other things lighthearted and carefree.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/defin ... nglish/gay :ymparty:
And Dillon certainly is that too.
You can never be too old to have fun.

If you can't tell by now, English is not my first language.
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Spidrift
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by Spidrift »

Eisu wrote:(I'm saying all this cos I have a lot of lady friends who has cats for pets (not just 1 but sometimes 2 or 3... also, I have a cat too and am also feeding strays who comes to my backyard) and what you're mentioning there is very close to insulting them)
I apologise to any cat owners who feel that I insulted them.

It's not (just) owning a cat that makes someone a crazy cat lady; it's owning a cat as a substitute for any human interactions. That, for me, was the slight problem with giving Ruby a cat at that point in the story, when she was still having difficulties forming human relationships; it made her look like she was so damaged that she couldn't deal with people, but at the same time so weak that she needed something cute and cuddly that didn't talk back. I really loved her line about being a self-actualizing ugly stepsister (and really hated Dillon for just ignoring it); it made her into a strong character with a "screw you, I know what I'm doing, I can handle this on my own" attitude. Going all gooey-eyed over a kitten says that she's not threatening and self-assured, she's a big softie really.

If Minew had come along a bit later in the story, once Ruby had shown that she had her own way of dealing with things (such as her recent snarking at Dillon), then it would have been better - another aspect to her character, at most a bit of company when she was alone at home. I know plenty of cat owners, and they generally operate just fine in human society too; Ruby could have been more like them (and still could, fortunately). Minew also suggested to me that the writers weren't confident in their ability to make Ruby sympathetic and likeable in her own right; fluffy pets in fiction are a quick-and-easy way to humanise their owners. But I already liked Ruby (I got her as a person - she was never a "robot") - and if she hadn't already been likeable, adding a kitten wouldn't have changed that for me, it would just have made her ... a crazy unlikeable lady with a cat.

Fortunately, though, Minew is being underplayed enough that the writers seem to be avoiding the worst temptations to cuteness - and Ruby is emerging as a deadpan snarker. So I'm still hopeful.
UnsightlyWalrus wrote:No girl wants to hear a man say that she makes him feel gayer. Well, at least not in this century.
But I suspect that Dillon is old-fashioned that way.
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-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
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brasca
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by brasca »

So does this mean Dillon is over Gary? Perhaps he's just momentarily forgotten and it's a good thing too since Amber doesn't need him interfering.

Then again he could just be lost in his histrionics seeing as how he's confused whatever padding Ruby is using as fat.

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Spidrift
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by Spidrift »

Dillon is being theatrical. I would say "just" being theatrical, but, well, that's what Dillon does, isn't it? In a more serious story, I'd think that Dillon was a frighteningly hollow character with no personality beyond the histrionics.

Though bouncing off after Gary immediately wouldn't have struck me as very likely. Dillon is all about the romantic drama, and that would look too cheap.
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"Brevior vita est quam pro futumentibus negotium agendo."
-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
Avatar misappropriated from the wonderful XKCD.

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Fluffy
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by Fluffy »

Eisu wrote:How is owning a cat makes you "dangerously close" to being a junior crazy cat lady?!? Owning a cat just means you're owning a cat, it doesn't mean you're gonna turn into an old crone who doesn't have a companion in life and resorts to getting a lot of cats to fill that companion hole!

You know what makes you a crazy cat lady? By being ALONE and CRAZY and owning A LOT of cats! Just cos Ruby owns ONE cat now, an adorable one too and makes her NOT a robot cos she shows she can be emotional over other living beings (which is A GOOD THING cos this gives her more facets as a character) does NOT make her a Crazy Cat Lady in training.

Edit: (I'm saying all this cos I have a lot of lady friends who has cats for pets (not just 1 but sometimes 2 or 3... also, I have a cat too and am also feeding strays who comes to my backyard) and what you're mentioning there is very close to insulting them)
Couldn't have said it better myself- thank you!
Spidrift wrote:
Eisu wrote:(I'm saying all this cos I have a lot of lady friends who has cats for pets (not just 1 but sometimes 2 or 3... also, I have a cat too and am also feeding strays who comes to my backyard) and what you're mentioning there is very close to insulting them)
I apologise to any cat owners who feel that I insulted them.

It's not (just) owning a cat that makes someone a crazy cat lady; it's owning a cat as a substitute for any human interactions. That, for me, was the slight problem with giving Ruby a cat at that point in the story, when she was still having difficulties forming human relationships; it made her look like she was so damaged that she couldn't deal with people, but at the same time so weak that she needed something cute and cuddly that didn't talk back.
I know plenty of cat owners, and they generally operate just fine in human society too; Ruby could have been more like them (and still could, fortunately)
You make it sound like Ruby was a complete shut in, incapable or uninterested in human interaction when she was never the sort (she's been to school/college, she leaves the apartment, she goes shopping, she talks to people outside of Dillon and Amber, etc). Ruby's only hang up is sex; not human interactions. :/
I really loved her line about being a self-actualizing ugly stepsister (and really hated Dillon for just ignoring it); it made her into a strong character with a "screw you, I know what I'm doing, I can handle this on my own" attitude. Going all gooey-eyed over a kitten says that she's not threatening and self-assured, she's a big softie really.
So, being a cat lover means someone can't be seen as self assured/independent/confident?

In my own opinion, the harder you try to justify your opinion on this matter really just make it seem like you're digging yourself into a deeper hole.
Please, don't come to me expecting me to fix your problems.

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Alexei P
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by Alexei P »

Well now :| Surely we can handle a normal discussion about a fictional character and her fictional cat in a funny strip ( ;) ) without feeling offended, especially on behalf of other people? :(

I agree with Spidrift's point - the "crazy cat lady" comment to Ruby's face shows yet again that Dillon completely lacks empathy - if the girl you're talking to might resemble that remark, however superficially, it has the potential to sting. And the same point is carried across in the next 2 panels as well, confirming the larger point of the strip, which is that Dillon is woefully unfit for the serious romantic relationship he thinks he wants.
Last edited by Alexei P on Fri Jun 27, 2014 1:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Spidrift
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by Spidrift »

Fluffy wrote:You make it sound like Ruby was a complete shut in, incapable or uninterested in human interaction when she was never the sort (she's been to school/college, she leaves the apartment, she goes shopping, she talks to people outside of Dillon and Amber, etc). Ruby's only hang up is sex; not human interactions.
That was how she was written, sure. Though actually, we've seen painfully little evidence of her having much social interaction outside of her family and (now) Dillon; she's never mentioned any friends from college, or any kind of social life from her school days apart from that one disastrous party, and just for an example, it took Dillon to point out how daft that short skirt was - when any friend could and should have done so. (Heck, her own parents should have done so, but never mind that.) She may not be a fully-fledged shut-in, but the signs are that she's had a real shortage of social interactions before now.

But in any case, even if she was previously accustomed to social interaction, she went all gooey at the sight of a kitten. Not just "That's sweet, maybe I should get a cat"; totally distracted. This is a 21-year-old graduate, please note. It was exaggerated for comedy purposes, of course, but even so, it made her look, not just sensitive, but almost pathetic.

To me, anyway.
Fluffy wrote:So, being a cat lover means someone can't be seen as self assured/independent/confident?
No, being physically incapable of concentrating in the presence of a cute kitten stops her from seeming any of those things.

To me, anyway. Maybe the world is actually full of self-assured BBAs who collapse into pink puddles in the presence of kittens. The graduate cat-lovers I know are a little bit more composed than that, though. Of course, Ruby probably hasn't had the disemboweled songbird on her bed yet...
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"Brevior vita est quam pro futumentibus negotium agendo."
-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
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Fluffy
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Re: 27-06-14 Take you to the gym

Post by Fluffy »

Let's just remind ourselves that this comic is centered around Dillon and his dramatic escapades. Ruby's life is a side plot that will only be delved into when the plot calls for it.

As for people turning into 'pink gooey messes' over cats/kittens - it happens far more often than you think. I know of countless people (myself included) who act like that when coming across a random cat or spotting one at a pet store. Because, damnit! Cats are adorable creatures. And we're all happy, well educated, normal people.
Last edited by Fluffy on Fri Jun 27, 2014 3:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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