Geeno wrote:I really don't recall any characterization of Amber and Ruby's parents.
Waiting on more industrious sorts to find out for me.
(1) Wealthy doctors (according to Zii). (2) Amber is uncomfortable about telling them about her porn work (not exactly amazing), hasn't done so yet, but apparently feels she ought to keep in touch with them a bit. (3) Evidently don't know about Amber's porn work, suggesting a lack of gossipy friends who'd hear things from acquaintances... (4) Don't listen when Ruby tells them that Amber never reads e-mail (i.e. typical bloody oblivious parents).
It doesn't add up to much, beyond "well off, educated, probably a bit socially conservative, clearly rather oblivious, haven't actually alienated their daughters". Religion not mentioned, but as I said before, Ruby doesn't show any signs of religious indoctrination that I can see. Her prudishness and naivety are couched in purely personal terms.
wi1dfire wrote:But, honestly, I think we're supposing a lot from a little.
Well, yes. Frankly, the Pixietrix crew aren't perfect on character consistency at the best of times, so extrapolating from what little we've got is really rather chancy. But we do it anyway.
wi1dfire wrote:When in the comic has she really interacted with anyone she'd consider a peer, besides Minew? Angel is the only other person I can think of, even interacting with Andy seemed to me to be a bit out of her comfort zone.
Actually, there were a few moments with Andy which suggested a perfectly functional human being.
She accepted his gift with good grace and a bit of charm, and
in the next strip she was chatting to him and smiling. Things went downhill after that because of all the comedy misunderstandings, of course, but Ruby really doesn't come across as a total shut-in.
wi1dfire wrote:As an aside, a student welfare officer that sought ought potentially lonely students is mind-boggling to me.
This was a casual conversation a few years ago, in truth, but the context was her complaining about changes to the system which meant that she and her peers would get less one-on-one contact with students in an informal tutorial context, which was where she could watch out for serious problems. Her example was a conversation where she'd said casually to a student "Can you get one of your friends to <assist with some minor work-related issue>", and he'd said "Oh, I don't have any friends". I think that anyone would wince at that; she also regarded it as part of her job to address the issue in some way.
wi1dfire wrote:I have also read stories where students interacted with an academic advisor/guidance councilor type person at the college level, and I never met one of those either.
This was someone from an old-style UK collegiate university, as I recall, which may help. Tutors in those used to have a job description of being
in loco parentis. The idea of one of the dons taking the place of your parents had become a joke even in my student days, but colleges could still be small enough that a bit of worrying about individuals was still possible. Rising student suicide rates are bad for recruitment and hence for fee income, don'cha'know.
And to change the subject entirely - the thing that amuses me about this whole thread is that I don't think we've even mentioned the frame which gives the strip its title, which is quite hot and as explicit as this comic gets, and which is presumably designed to establish where Amber is at the end of the volume. (I'm sure that everybody here knows anyway, but having her just vanish off without any further explanation would look weird in the print version.) In many comics, it'd have attracted a lot of attention, but of course we've seen much more in Ma3, so "Amber gets a guy and is having a really good time", technically resolving her major problem from the start of the strip, isn't seen as worth even mentioning on these boards.